Four diverse species of the scarabaeus or Ateuchus Sacer have been identified in the hieroglyphical inscriptions, viz., 1. Ateuchus Semipunctatus; 2. Ateuchus Laticollis; 3. Ateuchus Morbillosus; 4. Ateuchus Puncticollis. Professor Flinders Petrie recognizes other varieties of beetles. Misses Brodrick and Norton, in their useful and concise “Dictionary of Egyptian Archaeology,” observe: “The Scarabaeus is remarkable for the peculiar position and shape of its hind legs which are placed very far apart and at the extreme end of the body. This is to enable the insect to roll the ball of refuse containing its eggs into some place of safety. At first these balls are soft and shapeless, but as they are pushed along by the scarab’s hind legs they become firm and round, and increase in size until they are sometimes an inch and a half in diameter. This insect is looked upon by the Arabs as an emblem of fertility.” The Egyptians saw in the number of its toes (thirty) the days of the month; and the time it took to deposit its ball was compared to a lunar month. The passage of the ball was compared to the sun and its operation on the earth. Being regarded as of the male sex only, the scarabaeus symbolized, according to Horapollo, the self-begotten, the self-created. The god Khepera is the father of all the gods, the self-created one identified with the god NEB-ER-TCHER. A hieratic papyrus in the British Museum is thus translated by Dr. Wallis Budge: “I developed myself from the primeval matter which I made. My name is Osiris, the germ of primeval matter. I have worked my will to its full extent in this earth, I have spread abroad and filled it.... I uttered my name as a word of power from my own mouth and I straightway developed myself by evolutions. I evolved myself under the form of the evolutions of the god Khepera and I developed myself out of the primeval matter which has evolved multitudes of evolutions from the beginning of time. Nothing existed in this earth (before me). I made all things. There was none other who worked with me at that time. I made all evolutions by means of that soul which I raised up there from inertness out of the watery matter.” [Illustration: Large Scarab William Howat Collection ] [Illustration: Rare Scarab of Rameses II, a Famous Pharaoh of the Bible Mrs. C. G. King’s Collection ] [Illustration: Rare Antique Scarab of Black Jasper Talismanic Charm—Mercury, Guardian of Sailors Mrs. C. G. King’s Collection ] Large numbers of funereal scarabs have been discovered in different substances, the best being formed from a hard green basalt or a serpentine. These were suspended on a gold wire from the neck of the mummy, or attached to a heart on which were the symbols for life, immovability, preservation.