Part 4 (1/2)

V.

WHERE USUALLY FOUND AND THE MODE OF WEARING SCARABS BY THE EGYPTIANS. BOOK OF THE DEAD. EGYPTIAN SCARABS FOUND IN MESOPOTAMIA. THE SCARAB IN CHRISTIANITY.

The small sized scarabs were usually incised with hieroglyphics and perforated longitudinally; they are generally found on the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of mummies next the skin or suspended from the neck, by a wire of gold or other metal, or a string going through them, or worn like a ring stone on the forefinger of the left hand; and sometimes, grasped inside of the closed left hand. The inscriptions on them usually run from right to left. One method of wearing them by the living, a very ancient one, was by stringing them on a cord or a wire, so that they could be worn as a bracelet on the wrist, a necklace around the throat, or as a pendant to a necklace. The engraved base serving not only as an amulet but also as the private signet of the owner. Soldiers wore them suspended around the neck, as a talisman when going into battle and also to instil courage in them during the fray. But the most usual mode of mounting them by the living, was as a stone for a finger ring on a swivel, or a wire, pa.s.sing through the longitudinal perforation and then curved into a ring shape; this was usually worn on the forefinger of the left hand, as that finger was thought by the Egyptians, to contain a nerve leading directly to the heart; the engraved part was turned next to the flesh. M. Mariette says, that the mummies of the XIth Dynasty nearly always have a scarab on the little finger of the left hand.[55]

Sometimes they were made of baked clay or cut in steat.i.te, with the head of a hawk, cow, ram, dog, cat, lion, or even of a man, and such have been found buried with the mummies. Those found on the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of mummies embalmed most carefully and expensively, and in immediate contact with the flesh, have sometimes bodies of stone with extended wings, as if flying; these wings sometimes having been made of metal, frequently of gold, and at other times of cut stone.[56] Those found made of stone with extended wings, also had the latter often made of lead or silver; when of blue pottery, the wings were generally made of the same material.

On the lids of the outer cases of many coffins, especially of the finest; the position over the breast of the mummy was occupied by a large winged scarabaeus, moulded apparently, of pasteboard or of successive layers of gummed linen, and then beautifully painted in colors. This was to act as the protector Khepra, of the _ka_ or immaterial vitality of the _sahu_ or mummy. The Egyptians had a complicated psychology which we will refer to more fully hereafter.

Those within the coverings were most probably put inside of the mummy wrappings to act as talisman, like the writing upon the linen wrappings, and the bandelettes inscribed with texts from the Book of the Dead, or, the _Shait an Sensen_, i.e., Book of the Breathings of Life, and as also were enclosed, copies of entire chapters and parts, of the Book of the Dead, written upon papyrus or linen; or inscribed on the large stone scarabs, which were put in the body of the corpse, to take the place of the heart, the last having been deposited with the lungs, in the jar of Tuamautef, one of the four Canopic jars. The idea being to drive away evil spirits, supposed to be injurious to the pa.s.sage of the soul of the dead, upon its journey through the under-world to the new birth and power of transformation, in the eternal heaven of the Egyptians.

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 a.s.syrian emblem.[58] He also found at Nimrud; cubes of bronze upon which were scarabs with outstretched wings, inlaid in gold,[59]

and bronze bowls with conventional forms of the scarab, rather Phnician 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 Scarabaeus, 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 scarabaeus of G.o.d,” 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._

[58] _Ibid._, p. 595.

[59] _Ibid._, p. 196.

[60] _Ibid._, p. 186.

[61] Works, Paris, 1686, Vol. I., col. 1528, No. 113. Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity, etc., by Samuel Sharpe. London, 1863, p. 3.

[62] An Essay of Scarabs, by W.J. Loftie, B.A., F.S.A., pp. 58, 59.

VI.

THE POSITION OF THE SCARAB IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND THE BOOK OF THE DEAD. EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHY. ADVANCED INTELLECTUALITY OF EGYPT SIX THOUSAND YEARS AGO. DEITIES OF LIBRARIES AND LEARNING. ANCIENT LIBRARIANS AND BOOKS. THE DIVISION OF LEARNED MEN INTO DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF STUDY. THE STATEMENTS OF GREEK WRITERS ON EGYPTIAN THOUGHT NOT TO BE DEPENDED UPON. QUOTATIONS FROM THE BOOK OF THE DEAD ON THE SYMBOLISM OF THE SCARABaeUS DEITY. THE SYMBOLISM OF THE GREAT SPHINX. FURTHER QUOTATIONS FROM THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, ON THE SYMBOLISM OF THE SCARAB DEITY.

As I have already said: the larger scarabs are usually found in the body of the mummy in place of the heart, which was always taken out of the corpse and placed in one of the visceral vases, that of Tuamautef.

The scarab was a symbol of the re-birth, resurrection and the eternal life of the soul, p.r.o.nounced pure at the psychostasia; and we know from the Book of the Dead, that at the moment of resurrection, in a.n.a.logy to the beginning of terrestrial life, it was the heart that was a.s.serted to be given to the dead so as to receive the first vitality of the second birth, it was through the heart that the mummy would revive, thence the inscribed scarab was placed in the mummy in the place formerly occupied by its heart when in terrestrial life.

Sometimes the representation of a human heart was engraved on the scarabaeus. The small scarabs are not often found inside of the mummy.