The Washington bee., 1899-06-17
THE SACRED BEETLE
THE CURIOUS PERFORMANCES THAT
LED TO HIS DELEGATION.

It Was Reversnced BY the Egyptians Dur
ing Life and Preserved After Death-Ths
Great sagacitv Displayed BY It for the
Preservation of Its Young.
As far as I can make cut, pair or
beetles. male and female, seem usually
to share a hole in common, and to roll
balls of food to it either alone or in
concert: / cannot say l have ever seen
much cooperation except between
such partners. Once a ball is secured
and safely landed-fOr here, as else
where. there's many a slip 'twixt the
cup and the lip-the happy couple pro-
ceed to eat it up, and apparently do not
emerge again from their burrow till
the supply is exhausted. Patient ma
turalistS say that one ball has been
known to last a scarab as long as
fortnight. but this / do not yOuch for
of personal knowledge. When more
food is wanted the couple emerge once
more on the open sand and begin to
collect fresh dung and refuse. which
they roll into a new food ball and then
dry and harden.
Till very lately it was universally be-
lieved that the female scarab laid an
egg il some of the balls. and that the
young grubs hatehed within such food
stocks and began at once to devOur
them This belief has recently been
contradicted with great emphasis by
good French observer, who opened
many balls and found no eggs: but
cannot accept his conclusion. 1 opened
a number of balls myself near Venice
this year. and saw in several one or
two eggs, while in one case (unearthed
from hole) / discovered half-grOwn
larva. / venture. therefore, in this
matter TO believe my own eyes as
against those of even the most cele-
brated and authoritative entomOlO-
gists. In Egypt it has been univers
ally believed from all antiquity-and 1
think quite rightly-that after the
scarab has laid an egg i'm the ball the
parents unite in rolling it to a place
of safety. above the level of the an
nual inundation due to the rise of the
Nile. At any rate, scarabs abound in
Egypt.
AT very early date. il would seem,
the curious action Of these beetles at
tracted the attention of the ancient
y
was one of the most marked features
of their mOnstrOus religion. Hence
grew a strange and widespread super
stition. A race which deified the
hawk, the cat. the ibis and the jackal
was not likely to overlook the marvel
lous proceedings of the piOus and
dutiful scarab. So the very early
Egyptians, we may. conjecture. began
by thinking there must be something
divine in the nature of an insect which
worked so ceaselessly on behalf of its
young. and rolled such big round balls
behind it up such relatively large hill
locks. Watching a little closer, as
time went on, the Egyptian discOv-
cred. no doubt, that sacred beetles did
not proceed directly from sacred bee
ties. like lambs from ewes, but grew,
as it were out of the dirt and cOrrup-
ton of the mysterious pellets.
modern observer would. of course,
at once suspect that the scarab laid an
egg inside the ball. and would prompt
ly proceed to- pull one open and look
for it, But that cold scientific method
was not likely to commend itself to
the mystic and deeply religious Egyp-
tian mind. The priests by the Nile
jumped rather to the conclusion that
the scarab collected dirt in order to
make a future scarab out of clay, and
that from this dirt the young beetle
grew. self-existent, self-develOped self
created Considering the absence of
scientific knowledge and comparative
groups of scientific facts at the time
such a conclusion was by no means
unnatural Once started on so strange
a set of ideas. the Egyptians proceed
ed 70 evolve worship of the scarab
which grew ever and developed, as
they thought the scarab itself did,
practically out OF nothing. The i'm
mortality of the soul and the resurrec-
tio1 of the body were the central ideas
of Egyptian religion: the thinkers of
Thebes and Memphis instantly per-
ceived a fanciful anolOgy between the
scarab rising from it's bed of dirt and
the mummy revivipg when the expect.
ed day of resurrection should at last
arrive. AS a consequence of this an
alogy the scarab was made sacred. IL
was reverenced during it's life and
often preserved after It's death, like
the mummied eats and hawks and sa-
cred Apis bulls which formed such spe-
cial objects Of yeHeratiOn to the devOut
of Egypt.-Grant Allen.