The scarab was another such typical animal, rolling the pellet containing an egg to a safe place where it buries it. Though very common as an amulet for the living and the dead, yet it is not often seen in symbolical or decorative use otherwise. With what idea the amulet was used we do not know for certain. The scarab itself is often figured as holding the disc of the sun between its claws: and it is at least possible that the symbolic idea of the scarab as the maker or creator arose from the burial of its ball being an emblem of the setting of the sun, from which new life will arise in due course. It occurs with the wings extended and the disc between the claws as a centre figure in the space of a ceiling pattern (Neferhotep, XVIIIth dynasty), and on the border of the covering of a shrine under Ramessu X., and is occasionally met with later in decoration.
207.—R.C. cxxx.
208.—P. [78].
209.—L.D. III. 100.
The lion as a noble and royal animal frequently figures in the XVIIIth dynasty. The Egyptians, with their marvellous instinct for taming every animal they could find, actually trained lions or leopards to live as domesticated animals, with the same sort of allowed wildness as modern hunting dogs. The lion accompanied the king in battle; but in camp it lay down as peaceably as an ox. It was frequently carved on the sides of the thrones of the XVIIIth-XXth dynasties, and also seated in pairs, facing or backing, on the temple walls, a usage reminding us of the lion gate of Mykenae of the same age.
210.—L.D. III. 114