THE OF THE SCARABS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 47, 25 February 1901, Page 8

THE OF THE SCARABS.

What is o Scarab? The rnK-stton has been asked me very frequently of late. I had written a little book on my Kgyptian wanderings which contained Hlustratlona of some royal scarabs?, and I had spoken o£ them as ii" they wore things known to every on*. I have since received many enquiries on the subject, and have be&n told that hundreds of people never saw :i scarab, and have no idea what the word means. Every one says that there is no work on the subjee to be obtained, and I am asked to tell what 1 can about these mysterious creations of old-world learning, literature, religion, or superstition. The word scarab is but an abbreviation of the Greek word for beetle, and lh': despised domestic creature, "the poor beetle which we tread upon." as our great pool has it. is a near connection-of the species venerated in old Kgypt. ' rh" old K-'yi>' tlan word for the Insect is "kheper." which strangely is found In our own tongue, and in Gorman, in the form of "chafer." DurinK the past century, evrr since the wars of Bonaparte drew European attention to Egypt, travellers have from time to time brought home from the Nile these quaint little objects. Seaf-abs generally have the back carved in the form of a beetle, with the flat face bearing curious inscriptions in hieroglyphics. The discovery, by means of the Rosetta Stone, of the key to this lost script Is generally known. 1 will only repeat here that this discovery arose through the signs which speil out the name of an Egyptian King (Ptolemy) being always surrounded by a "cartouche" or oval enclosure. Once this key was ascertained (by comparing the letter-, one by one with the same name in Greek text beneath), the meanings of seven letters were explained, and the rest became a comparatively easy matter, for Cleopatra's name in hieroglyphics was soon discerned on another similar Inscription, and save six more letters also enclosed within an oval line. Then it was suggested that as the Copts were the undoubted descendants of the ancient Egyptian people, their written language mi«ht help to discover the lost tongue. This was a shrewd suggestion, and by its help most of (he other alphabhetic signs were soon elucidated. Now many of these Queer little carved searrabs, it was remarked, had such "cartouches" enclosing parts of the inscriptions, and this drew attention to them, when lo! if was found—ay the knowledge of the old language, lost for £000 year;;, ■was recovered gradually—that there were actually scarabs with nearly every ancient king's name upon them. That these v/ere contemporary records of their reign was proved by their being frequently found interred with their own royal bodies (mummies) in their tombs. Scarabs with royal names we're also found rolled up with the mummies of other distinguished persons who had lived or died daring the reigns of these monarchs. Only people of high rank were honoured with such important burials. Common folk were not of much account in those days, and their bodies, if embalmed at all, were huddled together in pits without separate burial. These little proofs of history have, therefore, become valuable documents for antiquarians. There were lists of kings in the pages of Manetho and other Greek historians (only some of which have come down to us) whoso names have not yet been identified by monumental evidences, but may> bo discovered any day, or may be proved to be different titles for rulers whose insignia are found on scarabs, For many early kings' names have been made known to .us only by their scarabs, and search is being made year by year for royal tombs or monuments bearing records of their reigns. Scarabs have been found thus of not only the kings who We know reigned from the time of the building of the Pyramids, but of other kings whoso position is not yet determined. They are in regular succession for about a thousand years, and then there is a gap of nearly five hundred. About 3000 years B.C. Egypt passed througn troublous times. For several hundred years much of the old state was in the hands of invaders, apparently illiterate foreigners. These seem to have been Asiatics, known as Hyksos, or shepherds. But during (hose dark ages of Egyptian history the royal lines seem to have been preserved in remote districts till the time came for the . expulsion of the foreigners. It is possible that some of those kings who are known to us only by their scarabs may have lived in those troublous times, and now that the old land is being- scientifically explored the full records of their reigns may bo flJsoovnred.—John Ward, F.S.A., in the "Sunday at Home."