Thus the people often call scarab. In the desert it is especially beautiful and noticeable. Scarab rolls its balls on golden sand leaving a chain of its tracks and queer lines of its eternal load on the barchans. No minute of leisure – as if it is always in hurry late trying not to be late. From sunset to dawn scarab labours furrowing the boundless sea of sands…

Though, the desert is not the only home for this eternal wanderer. In Turkmenistan scarab can be found almost everywhere, though it is most noticeable amongst the sand on. I happened to watch this nomad in the hills of Badkhyz – in spring the hills are covered with meadow grass.

By the way, no less than 1,326 species of this insect inhabit Badkhyz. 15 species are inscribed on the Red Data Book of Turkmenistan. Beetles are one of the most interesting and colourful representatives of this vast kingdom. There is so much mystery in these amazing creatures of the nature that they seem to us extraterrestrial beings. Their appearance is a match for the dwellers of some fantastical worlds. But these creatures are our neighbours. Over 2 million (!) of insect species (this is more than other animal and plant species taken together) are known to science. And each amazes in its own way.

Of all insects the scarab earned the highest honours. The image of a nomad diligently carrying his load was a favourite among the painters and poets. In ancient Egypt the pictures of the scarab were found everywhere: in the tombs, pyramids and written texts – their hieroglyphic images adorned the shields, precise stones and jewelry.

In antiquity the people attributed the miraculous power to the scarab and worshipped them. Pliny wrote that many of the Romans carried the beetles on them attributing the magic qualities to them. Klauzen wrote that the ancient Egyptians linked the scarab to Khepri, the god of the rising sun, the creator and forefather of the Egyptian gods. The figurines of the scarab carved from precious stones or made from burnt clay are the glazed amulets usually presented to friends or used as a stamp. The scarab conveys the idea of resurrection.

… The scarab amazes the people from ancient times. Why does it move back to front? That the beetle symbolized the world, the sun and a warrior is not occasional: the world – because it was working from sunrise to sunset, the sun – because it has the sunray-shaped prongs on its head and his six legs has thirty joints – as many as the days in each month, a warrior – because the people thought the scarab to be born by the sun. The ancient Egyptians believed that Khepri renewed the sun every day before rolling it above the horizon, then carried it through the other world after sunset, only to renew it, again, the next day.

In the past the people had no idea why the beetle rolled balls. Unable to explain it the people symbolically identified the beetle’s movements with the motion of the sun and the moon. The Romans pictured the scarab on the rings and shields as a talisman. Till nowadays the people in the East and Egypt wear such rings or send them home from a journey for luck. If anyone met the ‘sacred’ scarab on a road he passed it by, no matter whether it was a solitary wanderer or a big unmounted troop.

Today the ‘sacred’ scarab is not as popular as it used to. Nobody carves its images. It is rolling bolls in the silence and peace unnoticed and dusted with sand. Though, scarab is not forgotten forever. To some extent the ancient cult of the beetle has survived till our times, and it is a talisman in the Zodiac of Scorpio. And the scarab – a ‘digger’ of the desert is held in respect!