That gives the essence of the whole thing. The intrinsic value of a scarab is, perhaps, sixpence; the archæological value is whatever one likes to put upon them. And so cleverly are the forgeries made that people are just as happy with the imitations as they would be with the real articles, provided, of course, that they remain in blissful ignorance of the truth. * * * * * One day, a big hand was laid upon my shoulder, and a broad American voice chuckled in my ear, “Hello, Doc, fancy meeting you here.” He was an old friend, and the meeting was a pleasant one. In answer to the question how he had come there, so far from his beloved New York, he answered: “Wal, I just sort of blew in, wanted a change, and Wall Street not being what I call a business proposition at this moment, I thought I’d come. And now I’ll just go up the Pyramid.” Later on he came back with a chastened mien. “Well, how did you get on?” “Why, it was fine. The view ain’t exactly like the Rocky Mountains scenery, but it was fine all the same. And I bought some sca-rabs.” “You didn’t! Let me see them.” As he fumbled about for three miserable little specimens, he explained how it came about. “You know that place, half-way up, where the stones jut out? Wal, when we got there, them durned A-rabs stopped and said, ‘Say, mister, this is the place where they buy sca-rabs.’ I looked down, and saw that it was a two hundred feet clean drop to the bottom, and I said that I thought it was, so I bought them.” “How much did you pay for them?” “Two dollars.” “Let me see them.” Then he produced his scarabs. “They are forgeries,” was my remark. “That may be,” said my friend complacently, “but it was a clean drop to the bottom from that durned stone, and I guess I am not hankering after eternal glory just now.” Among the scarabs was one with the name of Khaf-Ra, the builder of the Second Pyramid (Plate VIII, No. 30) upon it. The workmanship is quite modern, and up to the present no contemporary scarabs have been found bearing Khaf-Ra’s name. However, as he had only paid 8_s._ for them, he had not been very badly done. A very large number of scarabs have been found which are made of composition material, or cut out of a piece of stone and left uncoloured. These fetch very small prices, although they may be the genuine articles, therefore the up-river men have taken to re-glazing them. They obtain pieces of old glaze from the ushebti figures and pieces of old glass and melt these down. But the re-glazed scarabs can usually be detected, even although the colour may be correct, by the irregularity of the glazing, and the fact that between the legs of the beetle the dirt can usually be seen under the glaze. Sometimes the makers grind up these poor and broken scarabs and remould them. Then they re-glaze them, and swear to you by Allah that they are indeed old.