The works of Edgar Allan Poe; newly collected and edited, with a memoir, critical introductions, and notes, by Edmund Clarence Stedman and George Edward Woodberry; the illustrations by Albert Edward Sterner.

TALES OF PSEUDO-SCIENCE

merely to be one of that family of which the Scarabaus
is the insignium. I speak figuratively."
"But what has this to do with your being alive?"
"Why, it is the general custom in Egypt to deprive
a corpse, before embalmment, of its bowels and brains;
the race of Scarabaei alone did not coincide with the
custom. Had I not been a Scarabaeus, therefore, I
should have been without bowels and brains; and
without either it is inconvenient to live."
"I perceive that," said Mr. Buckingham, "and I
presume that all the entire mummies that come to
hand are of the race of Scarabai."
"Beyond doubt."
"I thought," said Mr. Gliddon, very meekly, "that
the Scarabaeus was one of the Egyptian gods."
"One of the Egyptian what?" exclaimed the
Mummy, starting to its feet.
"Gods! " repeated the traveller.
"Mr. Gliddon, I really am astonished to hear you
talk in this style," said the Count, resuming his chair.
"No nation upon the face of the earth has ever
acknowledged more than one god. The Scarabaeus,
the Ibis, etc., were with us (as similar creatures have
been with others) the symbols, or media, through
which we offered worship to the Creator too august to
be more directly approached."
There was here a pause. At length the colloquy
was renewed by Doctor Ponnonner.
"It is not improbable, then, from what you have
explained," said he, "that among the catacombs near
the Nile, there may exist other mummies of the
Scarabaeus tribe, in a condition of vitality."
"There can be no question of it," replied the
Count; "all the Scarabaei embalmed accidentally
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