There appears to have been two divisions of that eternal heaven, one called Aar and Aanru, the place in which agricultural labors were performed, and the other Hotep, the place of repose. Both are mentioned in the Book of the Dead.
Indeed some chapters of the Book of the Dead were only inscribed on the linen winding sheet of the mummy, and the texts of the CLIVth chapter were only recovered recently, upon the unrolling of the mummy of Tehuti-mes, or Thotmes, IIIrd (1600 B.C.,) of the XVIIIth Dynasty, the great warrior king of Egypt, found a few years past at Dayr-el-Baharee; inscribed upon his linen winding sheet. As the winding sheet was the only proper place for this text, and as it is unique, it likely would not ever have been known, if this Pharaoh's mummy had not been discovered unmutilated.
The small scarabs were usually placed upon the eyes or the breast, sometimes over the stomach. They were strung into a net to cover the corpse and were sewed on the wrappings. As many as three thousand have been found in one tomb.
Egyptian scarabs were found by Mr. Layard, in his explorations on the banks of the Khabour in Mesopotamia, at Arban; and he gives plates of the same.[57] Three are of the reigns of the Egyptian kings Thotmes IIIrd, and one of Amenophis IIIrd. They are mostly of steachist, and of the XVIIIth Dynasty. He found one of hard stone, an agate, engraved with an Assyrian emblem.[58] He also found at Nimrûd; cubes of bronze upon which were scarabs with outstretched wings, inlaid in gold,[59] and bronze bowls with conventional forms of the scarab, rather Phœnician than Egyptian, in the centre of the inside.[60]
After the Christian era the influence of cult of the scarab was still felt. St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, calls Jesus: "The good Scarabæus, who rolled up before him the hitherto unshapen mud of our bodies."[61] St. Epiphanius has been quoted as saying of Christ: "He is the scarabæus of God," and indeed it appears likely that what may be called, Christian forms of the scarab, yet exist. One has been described as representing the crucifixion of Jesus; it is white and the engraving is in green, on the back are two palm branches; many others have been found apparently engraved with the Latin cross.[62]
FOOTNOTES:
[55] Cat. of the Museum of Boulak, p. 34.
[56] Pettigrew, Hist. of Mummies, p. 220.
[57] Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, etc., by Austen H. Layard, M.P. New York, 1853, p. 280 et seq.