On Eticaujlk Vahit'm*. a 9 



nainted with tad charaaers. The bodies were only in- 

 ciofed in wooden cafes, which were more ov lefs ornamented. 

 Many are of opinion, that an expreffion of the bifhop of Hippo 

 tfves reafon to afTert that the people in Egypt continued to 

 prepare mummies even till the fifth century ; but it muft be 

 obferved that the Egyptians then had adopted the Chnftian 

 religion \ that they no longer ufcd hieroglyphical infcnp- 

 ttons, which in the time of Apuleius were faid to be unin- 

 telligible and forgotten; and that it was not mummies which 

 were prepared then, but gabbara, as St. Auguftme fays in 

 his Orations, that is, dead bodies dried after the manner 

 of mummies. If Bochart and Menage be not miftaken, 

 the name mummla is derived from mm, which fignifies 

 wax: and one might therefore believe that the drefs ot 

 embalmed bodies was thus named becaufe wax was cm- 

 ploved for palming it; and thence it would follow, that 

 the fra<nnent in queftion may be claffed among the oldeft. 



Mummies, fince the earlieft periods of the Egyptian cere- 

 monies, were expofed to a variety of fixations ; for on cer- 

 tain occafions they were taken up from the mbtcrranean 

 repofitories in which they were depolitcd, and placed in the 

 highways, or at the doors of the houfes. On other occafions 

 they were carried into the halls where entertainments were 

 celebrated, and they were alio given as pledges of fidelity 

 in various tran factions. 



After the fall of Egyptian grandeur, the mummies were 

 left buried and ncgleaed in dark vaults, amidft a damp foil, 

 from which they were 'drawn forth only at a late period, 

 by European curiofity, in order to ornament collections, or 

 by the avarice of the Mahometans, who hoped to make them 

 an article of gain. 



Many have remarked, and in particular Maillet during 

 bis confulihip at Cairo, that the Arabs, when they find mum- 

 mies of good appearance, ufually cut them to pieces, in order 

 M examine whether any thing of value is concealed in their 



clothing. 



