DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0109
minieii to siar. 91
like devotion to the matter in hand, one sees how subtle a
lesson the old Egyptian moralists had presented to them
for contemplatation, and with how fine a combination of
wisdom and poetry they regarded this little black scarab
not only as an emblem of the creative and preserving
power, but perhaps also of the immortality of the soul.
As a type, no insect has ever had so much greatness thrust
upon him. Ho became a hieroglyph, and stood for a word
signifying both to be and to transform. His portrait was
multiplied a million-fold; sculptured over the portals of
temples; fitted to the shoulders of a god; engraved on
gems; molded in pottery; painted on sarcophagi and the walls
of tombs; worn by the living and buried with the dead.
Every traveler on the Nile brings away a handful of the
smaller scarabs, genuine or otherwise. Some may not partic-
ularly care to possess them; yet none can help buying them,
if only because other people do so, or to get rid of a trouble-
some dealer, or to give to friends at home. I doubt, how-
ever, if even the most enthusiastic scarab-fanciers really
feel in all its force the symbolism attaching to these little
gems, or appreciate the exquisite naturalness of their exe-
cution, till they have seen the living beetle at its work.
In Nubia, where the strip of cultivable land is generally
but a few feet in breadth, the scarab's task is compara-
tively light and the breed multiplies freely. But in
Egypt he has often a wide plain to traverse with his burden,
and is therefore scarce in projjortion to the difficulty with
which he maintains the struggle for existence. The scarab
race in Egypt would seem indeed to have diminished very
considerably since the days of the Pharaohs, and the time
is not perliaps far distant when the naturalist will look in
vain for specimens on this side of the first cataract. As
far as my own experience goes, I can only say that I saw
scores of these beetles during the Nubian part of the
journey; but that to the best of my recollection this was
the only occasion upon which I observed one in Egypt.
The Nile makes four or five more great bonds between
Gebel Abnfayda and Sii'it; passing Manafalut by the way,
which town lies some distance back from the shore. All
things taken into consideration—the fitful wind that came
and went continually; the tremendous zigzags of the river;
the dead calm which befell us when only eight miles
from Siut; and the long day of tracking that followed,
like devotion to the matter in hand, one sees how subtle a
lesson the old Egyptian moralists had presented to them
for contemplatation, and with how fine a combination of
wisdom and poetry they regarded this little black scarab
not only as an emblem of the creative and preserving
power, but perhaps also of the immortality of the soul.
As a type, no insect has ever had so much greatness thrust
upon him. Ho became a hieroglyph, and stood for a word
signifying both to be and to transform. His portrait was
multiplied a million-fold; sculptured over the portals of
temples; fitted to the shoulders of a god; engraved on
gems; molded in pottery; painted on sarcophagi and the walls
of tombs; worn by the living and buried with the dead.
Every traveler on the Nile brings away a handful of the
smaller scarabs, genuine or otherwise. Some may not partic-
ularly care to possess them; yet none can help buying them,
if only because other people do so, or to get rid of a trouble-
some dealer, or to give to friends at home. I doubt, how-
ever, if even the most enthusiastic scarab-fanciers really
feel in all its force the symbolism attaching to these little
gems, or appreciate the exquisite naturalness of their exe-
cution, till they have seen the living beetle at its work.
In Nubia, where the strip of cultivable land is generally
but a few feet in breadth, the scarab's task is compara-
tively light and the breed multiplies freely. But in
Egypt he has often a wide plain to traverse with his burden,
and is therefore scarce in projjortion to the difficulty with
which he maintains the struggle for existence. The scarab
race in Egypt would seem indeed to have diminished very
considerably since the days of the Pharaohs, and the time
is not perliaps far distant when the naturalist will look in
vain for specimens on this side of the first cataract. As
far as my own experience goes, I can only say that I saw
scores of these beetles during the Nubian part of the
journey; but that to the best of my recollection this was
the only occasion upon which I observed one in Egypt.
The Nile makes four or five more great bonds between
Gebel Abnfayda and Sii'it; passing Manafalut by the way,
which town lies some distance back from the shore. All
things taken into consideration—the fitful wind that came
and went continually; the tremendous zigzags of the river;
the dead calm which befell us when only eight miles
from Siut; and the long day of tracking that followed,