days, however, the native has brought skill and thought to
bear upon the matter, and he sets about his work in a syste-
matic
way.

He has seen what the old faïence scarabs are made of, and he can now make a paste very much like that of which they are made. From the old broken ushabtiu

figures, scarabs and beads, he chips off the thin layer of Process of green or blue covering for his use. A large number of modern manufac.

genuine moulds for scarabs have been found, and from ture of

these and others which he makes like them, he turns out scarabs.

large numbers of scarabs ready for glazing. For glaze he uses the pieces which he has collected from broken genuine scarabs, etc., and he spreads this over the paste with a blow-pipe. When he wishes to make steatite scarabs he obtains the steatite from the mountains where the ancient Egyptians found it. There is a large amount of artistic skill in many natives, and with a little practice they are able to cut very good scarabs. The discoloration of the genuine scarab is easily imitated by keeping them in wet sand, earth and ashes, and if he wants to glaze them he makes use of the same method as in glazing his paste forgeries. For inscriptions he usually follows slavishly those inscribed on genuine scarabs, of which he keeps a good supply. In this matter, however, he is greatly helped by the act of an English traveller, who wrote out for one of these imitators a list of all the most important kings of Egypt! which he now imitates with great success. He sells hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of his scarabs yearly, and many of them bring a high price. One has only to see the excellent way in which some of the natives can make a fine and correct reproduction in stone from a sculpture in a tomb or temple, to understand how well the native can imitate such things. Colours and other materials and tools can now be easily obtained in Egypt, and through the support of numerous purchasers who have bought readily for some years past, the production of forgeries of antiquities in general, and of scarabs in particular, has become

I And this, notwithstanding the statement, “Generally speaking, forgeriesexcept of one or two obvious kinds—are very rare, and there is nothing like the amount of doubt in the matter which is often supposed to exist." Petrie, Hislorical Scarabs, p. 6.

a very profitable business. At more than one place in Egypt
scarabs, bronze figures, etc., etc., have been so well imitated
that experts were deceived and purchased them. Genuine
ushabtiu figures and bronze statues of gods are cast in moulds
found among the ruins of ancient Egyptian towns, wooden
Ptah-Seker-Ausár figures and boats are made from the
planks of old coffins, and as it is evident that the substance
itself is genuine, the unwary collector is thrown off his guard.
In certain dealers' houses at Thebes and elsewhere, the visitor
will always find a large assortment of forgeries, even on the
tables set apart for genuine antiquities, and he will be able to
compare and judge for himself.
The reverence shown by the Egyptians to the scarab, as
an emblem of the Creator, was not shared by neighbouring
nations. Thus Physiologus, after describing how scarabs roll
up their eggs in balls of dung, and how they push them
backwards, and how the young having come to life feed upon
the dung in which they are hatched, goes on to say that we
may learn of a certainty that scarabs are heretics who are
polluted by the filth of heresies; that these balls, which are
formed of filth and nastiness, and which they roll backwards
and not forwards, are the evil thoughts of their heresies,
which are formed of wickedness and sin, and which they roll
against mankind, until they become children of error, and by
being participators in the filth of their heresies they become
other beings and like unto them. See Land, Anecdota

ܐܘܨܪ ܐܪ̈ܪܐ in

ܕܕܙܒ ,

.Heb) ܫܕܪ ܥܠܝܗܘܢ ܚܠܘܛܐ ܘܐܟܠ ܐܢܘܢ

Syriaca, tom. IV. p. 77, cap. 56. Bar-Hebraeus, commenting

on Psalm lxxviii. 45, and referring to the words

(., og nb wyzny, he sent among them the gad-fly, LXX., 'EĘ27Téστειλεν εις αυτούς κυνόμυιαν), “he sent against them crowds of insects and they devoured them," includes the scarab (

bizi plur. , . ) noxious creatures like dog-flies, scorpions, ants, etc.

armong (ܚܺܟ̈ܫܘܫܝܳܬܐ .plurܕܚܰܟܐܘܫܬ݁ܳܐ ܕ݁ܚܰܟ݁ܺܫܽܘܫܶܐ .plur ܚܠܘܛܐ ܨܪܨܘܪܐ ܘܡܫ̈ܘܛܐ ܘܫܪ̈ܨܐ ܘܥܩܪ̈ܒܐ ܘܚܸܒ̈ܫܽܘܫܝܬܐ ܘܫܘܫ̈ܡܢܐ ܘܨܪܨܘܪ̈ܝܬܐ ܘܕܒ̈ܒܐ ܘܫܪܟܐ ܕܒ̈ܒܝܢ ܟܠܒܵܐ ܀

ܝܘܢܝܐ

The
Buckle of
Isis.

AMULETS. 1. The Buckle or Tieß. This amulet, called by the Egyptians 1 : 8 bet, is one of the commonest objects found among collections of Egyptian amulets. It was most commonly made of red jasper, carnelian, red porphyry, red glass or faïence, and sycamore wood; sometimes it was made entirely of gold, and sometimes, when it was made of substances other than gold, it was set in gold, or covered over with gold leaf. Buckles are usually uninscribed, but frequently when two or more are found together the 156th chapter of the Book of the Dead is engraved on them. The buckle was placed on the neck of the mummy, which it was supposed to protect; the red material of which it was made represented the blood of Isis. The formula which is inscribed on buckles reads :

See Birch, The Amulet of the Tie, Aeg. Zeit., 1871, p. 13: and Maspero,
Mémoire sur Quelques Pafyrus du Louvre, p. 8.
B. M.

S