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a very profitable business. At more than one place in Egypt Modern scarabs, bronze figures, etc., etc., have been so well imitated ture of that experts were deceived and purchased them. Genuine antiquiushabtiu figures and bronze statues of gods are cast in moulds found among the ruins of ancient Egyptian towns, wooden Ptah-Seker-Ausȧr 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.

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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 Physiolo up their eggs in balls of dung, and how they push them scarabæus. 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

1 The ignorance of the habits and manner of life of the scarabæus which is displayed by certain Syrian writers upon natural history is marvellous; here is a specimen: "The scarabæus receiveth conception through its mouth, and when it cometh to bring forth, it giveth birth to its young through its ears. It hath the habit of stealing, and wherever it findeth small things and things of gold and silver it taketh and hideth them in its hole. And if pulse be found in the house it taketh [it] and mixeth [it] up with [other] things, chick-peas with beans, and beans with lentils, rice with millet and wheat, and everything which it findeth it mixeth up together in the place where it hideth itself. It thus doeth the work of the cooks who mix such things together to make to stumble those who buy pulse at the shops. And if any man taketh note of it and smiteth it, it taketh its vengeance upon [his] clothing. If having collected pieces of money and taken them forth to the race-course or to play with them, they be taken away from it, it wandereth about and turneth hither and thither, and if it findeth them not it straightway killeth itself." Ahrens, Das Buch der Naturgegenstände, text, p. 41, translation, p. 62.

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Syriaca, tom. IV. p. 77, cap. 56. Bar-Hebraeus, commenting on Psalm lxxviii. 45, and referring to the words arefalu amla izz (Heb., DJ? ny, he sent among them the gad-fly, LXX., 'E§aπéστειλεν εἰς αὐτοὺς κυνόμυιαν), “he sent against them crowds of insects and they devoured them," includes the scarab (oran, plur. Þaä; Å‚aâa, plur. a) among noxious creatures like dog-flies, scorpions, ants, etc...al

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I. The Buckle or Tie & This amulet, called by the Egyptians et, 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:

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

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II. The Ṭeṭ ↑ This object, which represents a mason's The tet of

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table and not a Nilometer, as a religious emblem symbolizes Osiris the lord of Teṭṭu, great god of the underworld. The meaning of the word tet is "firmness, stability, preservation," etc. The tet had on it sometimes the plumes, disk and horns, and was painted on mummies and tombs. The amulet itself was placed on the neck of the mummy which it was supposed to protect. Tets are made of faïence, gold, wood gilded, carnelian, lapis-lazuli, and many other substances, although the rubric of the 155th chapter, of which is the vignette, states that they are to be made of gold. This chapter is entitled :

Osiris.

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O resting of heart, place thou thyself upon place thy.

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Papyrus of Ani, pl. 33; the text given by Naville, Das Todtenbuch,

Bl. clxxx., differs from this.

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