The greater number of scarabs were probably simply strung on a thread of string, by which they were secured to the garment or girdle of the person to whom they belonged. Sometimes they were worn on the finger, attached by a piece of string (fig. 53), or they were simply mounted as swivels to metal rings, in which they revolved (fig. 54), or they were enclosed in a metal frame or _funda_ in order to protect their edges from injury, and then mounted as swivels to metal rings (fig. 55). Such mountings often give us a clue to the date of these objects, and will be found described in detail in the section on signet-rings. [Illustration: Fig. 54. 1:1. Fig. 55. 2:1.] [Sidenote: Current ideas regarding scarabs.] The beetle upon which these little seals are modelled, and from which they take their name, is the _Scarabaeus sacer_ of entomologists, an insect which is remarkable not only for the structure and situation of its hind legs, which give it a singular appearance when walking, but also for its habit of rolling up balls of excrementitious matter in which the female encloses her eggs. The balls of dung the insect rolls about the sand until they become coated with a thick layer of dust, and grow to a size often as large as the insect itself. The Egyptians, who were always keen observers of nature, early noticed this remarkable habit, and selected the scarabaeus as the symbol of their god Khepera, “he who turns” or “rolls;” for the conception was that Khepera caused the sun to move across the sky, as the beetle causes its ball to roll along the sand. There was also another reason for the Egyptian linking the insect and the god together: as the young beetle came forth from the ball of clay it was believed that a female beetle did not exist, that it was consequently the “only-begotten,” because it was a “creature self-produced and not conceived by a female.” Hence we find that for this reason it is said to have been taken as the emblem of Khepera, the “Father of the Gods,” who created all things out of clay. Consequently we find that several archaeologists attach a sacred meaning to the myriads of scarabs that have been found in Egypt; they regard them simply as emblems of the god Khepera. It is, however, as a “charm” or “amulet” having magical qualities that the scarab is usually spoken of at the present day, and that a few of them had a magical signification is proved beyond a doubt by the inscriptions that are found engraved upon some of them. There is also a mention of a scarab being employed for the purposes of magic in a magical receipt book[109] of the period intervening between the end of the Twelfth and the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty; but it must here be remarked that in this case the scarab is called a _khetem_ or “seal,” which clearly shows that the Egyptians regarded these objects primarily as seals, to whatever other uses they may have put them.