zodiacs in place of the crab. It may be found on the outside, or square planisphere, of the zodiac of the Temple of Denderah. Some archæologists think it preceded the crab, as the emblem of the division of the zodiac called by us, Cancer. Its emblem, as shown on the Hindu zodiac, looks more like a beetle or other insect than it does like a crab.[16]

The religious feeling for it, most probably existed among the early Ethiopians, before the migration of the ancient race who were the originators of the Egyptians, into the land on the banks of the Nile. The cult is shown in more modern times by the veneration of the Hottentot for the same insect, and from the worship of the Holy Cricket by the natives of Madagascar. The Egyptians held the scarabæus especially sacred to Amen-Ra, i.e., the mystery of the sun-god. It was their symbol of the creative and fertilizing power, of the re-birth, resurrection and immortality of the soul, and was, through this, connected with their astronomical and funeral rites and knowledge. It was, as the living insect, the first living creature seen coming to life from the fertilizing mud of the Nile, under the influence of the hot rays of the sun, after the subsidence of the inundating waters of that river. The royal cartouches of their kings is in an oval taken from the form of its under side. And this oval form has existed from the most remote times that we have any knowledge of the cartouch.

It is often found portrayed, as if a passenger in a boat, with extended wings; holding in its claws the globe of the sun, or elevated in the firmament, as the type of the creating power of the sun-god Ra, in the meridian. Other deities are sometimes shown praying to it.[17]

Ptah the Creative Power, and also Khepera, a kosmogonic deity of the highest type, had the scarab assigned to them as an emblem. It was one of the forms symbolic of the Demiurge or Maker of our universe. It was also the emblem of Ptah Tore, of Memphis, another symbolic form of the creative power. It was assigned as an emblem of Ptah-Sokari-Osiris, the pigmy deity of Memphis, being placed on his head, and this deity was sometimes represented under the form of a scarab. It was also an emblem of Ra, the sun deity; also, an emblem of the world or universe; and was, as I have said, connected with astronomy and with funeral rites, and the second birth or re-birth, of the soul.

Another use of the scarabæus by the Egyptians was as an amulet and talisman, both for the living and the dead; and for that reason, images, symbols or words; supposed to be agreeable to the deity, or to the evil spirit sought to be conciliated; were incised, or engraved in intaglio, upon the under side. It was also used as a signet to impress on wax, clay or other material, so as to fasten up doors, boxes, etc., containing valuable things, so they could not be opened without breaking the impression. The engraving on the under surface of the scarab was also impressed on wax, etc., to verify the execution of, or to keep secret, written documents; and in some instances, the papyrus or linen, was written upon, then rolled up, and a string used to fasten it; an impression of the signet, made on wax or other material, was then placed on it and the string, so that it could not be opened without breaking the impression.

In very ancient paintings especially those in the tombs of the kings of Thebes, the scarabæus plays a most remarkable part, as an emblem of the creating first source of life, which passes from it to the embryo, through the intermediary of a celestial generator, who is intended to represent the Makrokosm or great Ideal Man, as the demiurgos. We find the idea of the Makrokosm or great Ideal Man, permeating those writings termed, the Books of Hermes Trismegistos, which have reached our day, and which, with some more recent matter, contain much very old, Egyptian philosophy.[18] Statements as to the Ideal Prototype and the Primordial Man, are apparently, set forth in many of the Ancient Egyptian writings.

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