that he may go out of the under-world to the higher
regions of light, and have power to "go forth as a living soul, to
take all the forms which may please him." Chabas says as to this: "We
know that such was the principal beatitude of the elect in the
Egyptian heaven; it allowed the faculty of transformation into all the
universe under the form wished for." The god Khepra with folding wings
symbolized these metamorphoses.

It figures continually in the sepulchral paintings on the walls of the
hypogea of Thebes, and it announces the second birth of the soul to
the future eternal life. Some figures have the scarab over the head,
sometimes in place of the head. In the Great Temple at Edfu a scarab
has been found portrayed with two heads, one of a ram, the symbol of
Amen, or Ammon; the hidden or mysterious highest deity of the
priesthood especially of Thebes; the other of a hawk, the symbol of
Horus, holding in its claws a symbol of the universe.[75] It may
symbolize by this form, the rising sun and the coming of the Spring
sun of the vernal equinox in the zodiacal sign of the ram, but more
likely has a much deeper religious meaning.[76] Represented with the
head and legs of a man the scarab was an emblem of Ptah.

FOOTNOTES:

[63] Unless it be the XIIth. Myer.

[64] _La Galerie de l'Egypte Ancienne_, etc., by Aug. Ed.
Mariette-Bey. Paris, 1878, pp. 46, 47.

[65] _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient_, by G. Maspero.
Paris, 1886, p. 68 _et seq._

[66] Brugsch-Bey in, Egypt Under the Pharaohs. London, 1891, pp. 25,
26. As to the knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians; Comp. Egyptian
Science from the Monuments and Ancient Books, treated as a general
introduction to the History of Science, by N.E. Johnson, B.A., etc.
London, (1891?) Ten Years Digging in Egypt, 1881-1891, by W.M.
Flinders Petrie, etc. London, 1892, pub. by The Religious Tract
Society.

[67] Comp. _La Morale Egyptienne_, etc., by E. Amelineau. Paris, 1892.
Introd. pp. LXXXII. _et seq._, XX. _et seq. Ritual Funeraire de
Pamonth_, by M. Eugene Revillout. Paris, 1889.

[68] _Le Papyrus de Neb-Qed (exemplaire hieroglyphique du Livre des
Morts,) reproduit_, etc., _par_ Theodule Deveria _avec la traduction
du texte par_ Paul Pierret _conservateur-adjoint du Musee Egyptien du
Louvre_. Paris, 1872, pl. III., col. 13, 14, p. 3.

[69] Comp. as to the Sphinx, Egypt Under the Pharaohs, by Heinrich
Brugsch-Bey. London, 1891, pp. 37, 38, and especially p. 199 _et