gin at 4235 B.C.

[45] _Decouvertes en Chaldee_ par M. Ernest de Sarzec, etc. _Ouvrage
accompagne de planches_, etc. Paris, 1884, _et seq._ See also, Article
in Harper's Magazine, January, 1894, and Qabbalah, etc., by Isaac
Myer. Philadelphia, 1888, p. 237 _et seq._

[46] See the instances given by M. Menant in his _Les Pierres Gravees
de la Haute-Asie. Recherches sur la Glyptique Orientale_, etc. Paris,
1886, p. 197 _et seq._

[47] _Ibid._, p. 200.

[48] Hand-book of Archaeology. London, 1867, pp. 253, 289. Recently Dr.
Fritz Hommel, in his, _Der babylonische Ursprung der aegyptischen
Kultur_, Muenchen, 1892, has endeavored to prove the contrary.

IV.

THE OLDEST SCARABS. CLASSIFICATION AND VALUE OF THE SCARAB TO
THE SCHOLAR OF TO-DAY. LARGE INSCRIBED HISTORICAL SCARABS.

The oldest scarabs, as to which one can feel any certainty of their
being genuine, are those I have mentioned bearing the name of Neb-Ka
incised on the under surface. This pharaoh was of the IIIrd Dynasty
and was living according to Brugsch-Bey, (3933-3900 B.C.)[49] That
would make 5,826 years past according to Brugsch. Auguste Mariette
would make it much more ancient.

These scarabs were made of pottery and glazed a pale green. It has
been stated by some archaeologists that the oldest scarabs were not
engraved, the under part being made to represent the legs of the
beetle folded under its body, but this is only a supposition, as the
age can only be determined with any certainty, by the inscriptions
incised on the under part and those not so inscribed, may be of
different periods, some of very late times.

The forms usually met with in the tombs are, first; those with the
lower part as a flat level surface for the purpose of having an
inscription incised upon it; those having the engraving incised upon
such a surface; and those with the legs inserted under them in
imitation of nature. Sometimes the head and thorax are replaced by a
human face, and occasionally the body or the elytra have the form of
the Egyptian royal cap.

They often hold between the fore-legs representations of the sun.

The smaller scarabs have as subjects engraved upon them,
representations of the Egyptian deities, the names of the reigning
pharaohs, of queens, animals, religious symbols, sacred, civil and
funeral emblems, names of priests, nobles, officers of state and
private individuals, ornaments, plants, and sometimes dates and
numbers written i