and to ascertain to what extent other species partook of the honours paid to that insect. I do not intend to detain the reader by any examination of this intricate question, which I leave to naturalists more capable than myself to settle; and shall only observe that the one so frequently represented in the sculptures appears to be the beetle still common in every part of Egypt. And if Horapollo mentions a beetle "with two horns" (the Copris Isidis), consecrated to the Moon, his statement is not confirmed by the sculptures, where it is never introduced. Had this beetle been represented, its peculiar form would be readily perceived; and if it appears singular that they did not choose it in preference to a more ordinary species, we should bear in mind that the Egyptians were not wont to select their sacred emblems and animals for their rarity or unusual appearance, but rather for their utility; and no insect could have a prior claim on this account to the common beetle.

Horapollo says, "There are three species of beetles. One has the form of a cat, and is radiated, which from supposed analogy they have dedicated to the Sun (the statue of the Deity of Heliopolis§ having the form of a cat); and, from its having thirty fingers, corresponding to the thirty days of a solar month. The second species has two horns, and the character of a bull, which is con

* I refer for some curious information on this head to Mr. Pettigrew's History of Mummies, p. 223, 224, 225.; and I believe Mr. Hope is preparing a detailed account of the subject.

The Scarabæus sacer (Lin.), or Ateuchus sacer (Oliv.), which is black, like that of the monuments. The green Ateuchus Egyptiorum is not the one there represented.

Horapollo, i. 10. § Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 296.

secrated to the Moon; whence the Egyptians say that the bull in the heavens is the elevation of this Goddess. The third has one horn, and a peculiar form; and is supposed, like the Ibis, to refer to Mercury.”

The mode of representing the Scarabæi on the monuments is frequently very arbitrary, and some are figured with or without the scutellum. But I do not believe they denoted a different genus; and the characteristic of another kind of beetle appears rather to be introduced to show that they were all comprehended under one general denomination, and was intended rather to combine than to distinguish separate genera. That it was not with a view to indicate a distinct division of this class of insects, is shown by their sometimes introducing two scutella, one on either clypeus, no example of which occurs in nature *; and it seems that the Scarabæus, Buprestis, Ateuchus, and Copris were all used by the Egyptians as synonymous emblems of the same Deities. This is further confirmed by the fact of S. Passalacqua having found a species of Buprestis embalmed in a tomb at Thebes. But the Scarabæus, or Ateuchus sacer, is the beetle most commonly represented, and the type of the whole class.

Fabulous insects did not hold a less conspicuous place on the Egyptian monuments than fanciful animals and birds; and beetles with the heads of hawks, rams, cows †, and even men, are represented

* An instance of this occurs in the large Scarabæus of the British Museum.

† Mr. Hertz has a small Scarabæus in stone with the head of a cow.

in the sculptures. This change of form did not make them less fit emblems of the Gods: the Scarabæus of the Sun appears with the head of a ram as well as of a hawk; and a Scarabæus with the head and legs of a man, was equally emblematic of the God Pthah.*

Of other insects I shall only observe, that flies are said to have been preserved in the same tombs; but doubtless without any idea of sanctity being attached to so odious and troublesome an insect. Indeed they still continue to be one of the plagues of Egypt; and the character of a tormentor, applied to the Evil Being, seems to have been aptly designated by the title Beelzebub †, or "the lord of flies."

The ant is also one of the plagues of the country, as in most hot climates. Horapollo ‡ says it represented in hieroglyphics "knowledge;" but the consideration of its wisdom did not prevent the Egyptians from being fully sensible of the inconvenience it caused them, "having the art of discovering whatever is most carefully concealed;" and the origanum plant was used in order to drive away this industrious and tiresome insect.

Few insects of ancient Egypt have come down to us either in the paintings of the monuments, or preserved by accident; the former being confined to the butterfly, beetle, wasp, dragonfly, locust, and housefly; and the latter, to those which have been found in the bodies or heads of mummies. §

* Vide suprà, p. 128.; and Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 250. 256. The zebub, or dthebab, of the Arabs, is the noted fly of the desert, which causes a disease to camels called by the same name.

Horapollo, i. 52. and ii. 34.

Mr. Pettigrew has enumerated all that have been ascertained by

VEGETABILIA.

I have stated that the Persea was sacred to Athor, as the sycomore to Netpe.† I have also observed that Plutarch supposes the peach to have been sacred to Harpocrates; though there is reason to believe that his opinion is erroneous§, and that he has confounded it with the tree of Athor.

Athenæus, on the authority of Hellanicus, mentions some acanthus (acacia) trees, which blossomed all the year, at a place called Tindium, where certain celebrated assemblies were held and this town had a large temple, surrounded with black and white acanthus trees, on which chaplets made of their flowers, and pomegranate blossoms entwined with vine leaves, were placed. But this seems rather to indicate a local respect for the acanthus of Tindium, than any adoration generally paid to those trees by the Egyptians.

Mr. Hope, to whom those in one of the heads brought by me from Thebes were submitted for examination:

8. Copris sabæus? “found by Passalacqua; so named on the testimony of Latreille."

9. Midas, Fab.

10. Pithecius, Fab.

11. A species of cantharis in Passalacqua's Collection, No. 442. (Vide Pettigrew, p. 55., whose work is replete with valuable information on the subject of mummies.)

* Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 391. + Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 313.

§ Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 392. 406.

Vide Athen. xv. p. 679, 680.

Plut. s. 68.

The acanthus was the sont, or Mimosa Nilotica, of modern Egypt. Egypt. Its flowers were frequently used for chaplets; and its pod, which represented a letter in hieroglyphics, was sometimes placed among the offerings on the altars of the Gods. There is no evidence of its having been sacred. The tamarisk was a holy tree, from having been FLY

Sacred Tamarisk of Osiris.

No. 465.
The hieroglyphics refer to the bird" Ben (Benno) Osiris."

chosen to overshadow the sepulchre of Osiris, in commemoration of the fable of the chest containing his body having lodged in the branches of one of those trees, on the coast of Byblus, where, driven ashore by the waves of the sea, it was discovered by Isis. The tree is represented in the sacred chamber dedicated to that God at Philæ, and in a small sepulchre at How (Diospolis parva).

*It probably included other of the Mimosa or Acacia genus which grew in Egypt. Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 79, 80.

+ Plut. de Is. s. 15, and 21.