“To the Egyptians the beetle (scarabæus) was sacred, being an emblem of inmost life and mysterious self-generation. They believed that he proceeded out of matter which he rolled into globules and buried in manure.”—(Grimm, “Teut. Mythol.,” vol. ii. p. 692.)
“The Thebaic beetle, the first animal that is seen alive after the Nile retires from the land.” Bruce thinks that the scarabæus was the symbol of “the land which had been overflowed and from which the water had soon retired, and has nothing to do with the resurrection or immortality, neither of which were at that time in contemplation.”—(“Nile,” Bruce, Dublin, 1790, vol. i. p. 129.)
Sir Samuel Baker says: “It appears shortly after the commencement of the wet season, its labors continuing until the cessation of the rains, at which time it disappears. Was it not worshipped by the ancients as the harbinger of the high Nile?”—(“The Albert Nyanza,” pp. 240, 241.)
“On sait que l’escarbot ou fouille-merde, qui nait dedans et qui s’en nourrit, était pour les Égyptiens l’image du monde, du soleil, d’Isis, d’Osiris.”—(“Bib. Scat.,” pp. 1 and 2, quoting Pliny, lib. xxx. cap. 11; lib. ii. cap. 30; Kircher, Prodrom. Egypt. cap. ult.)
The beetle was not killed by the peasantry of Ireland, according to Lady Wilde. See her book, page 175.
Scholars will understand that the remarks submitted upon the veneration attaching to all these animals have been introduced merely as aids to memory in the consideration of this matter, and not as completely covering all that could be advanced on the subject.
L.
THE PERSISTENCE OF FILTH REMEDIES
Another feature deserving of attention is the persistence with which the same remedies have been perpetuated through the centuries; from Hippocrates, perhaps, certainly from Pliny to Sextus Placitus, then to “Saxon Leechdoms,” and thence to the authorities prepared immediately after the discovery of printing, there is a transmittal of the same prescriptions for the same diseases.