EMBALMING. 



571 



Brute ani- 

 mals em- 

 balmed in 







Rmbalming. This substance Abdollatiph characterises as being black 

 *"" ~V~* like pitch, and emitting an agreeable odour when heat- 

 ed. 



The Egyptians did not confine their art exclusively to 

 the preservation of the bodies of mankind. Beasts, birds, 

 fishes, and grovelling reptiles, were all embalmed with 

 equal care as their fellow creatures ; and apparently 

 the same means have been employed. Birds in parti- 

 cular seem to have been objects particularly favoured ; 

 and as they have either been less sought after by the 

 predatory Arabs, or as their various repositories have 

 been more recently discovered, they have reached our 

 present a?ra in greater numbers and perfection than 

 mummies of the human species. The latter were in- 

 closed in coflins made of sycamore, but the animals are 

 usually preserved in pots of earthen ware. 



Besides these, the ordinary modes of embalment, it 

 appears that immersion in honey was also practised, 

 although the accounts of it are much more obscure. 

 If we may credit a Roman poet, the body of Alexan- 

 der the Great, which was entombed in Alexandria, had 

 been enbalmed in honey. 



7?c ft ftt -T'mattiios manet ubi bcWser orlis, 

 Conditur llybl&o perfusus Hectare ducat. STATIUS. 



Whatever may l>e the truth, the operation had am- 

 ply succeeded here for several centuries subsequent 

 to the decease of that prince: his body was inspected 

 by several of the Roman emperors, who beheld it en- 

 tire, and Caracal la remarked a frown on the counte- 

 nance. Abdollatiph, the Arabian traveller, expresses 

 himself thus : " A person worthy of credit told me, 

 that, during a search for treasure near the pyramids, 

 an oblong close vessel was found. This being opened, 

 appeared full of honey, whereof the party present ate, 

 but >ome of them soon observing hairs sticking to their 

 fingers, on farther examination, discovered that a young 

 child, with a certain jewel or ornament on its body, 

 was inclosed." 



In respect to the period when this art fell into disuse 

 amongtlieKgyptians,littleevi(lencecan be produced. We 

 have seen that it w;is known in the most ancient times, 

 that it was pro.-v'cuted during the most flourishing era 

 of their history ; but whether it was gradually abandon- 

 ed as unnecessary, or lost in the convulsions of the king- 

 dom, as other arts became extinct, we have no other evi- 

 dence but that of conjecture. Count Caylusconsiders that 

 embalming has been discontinued in F.gvpt since its con- 

 quest by the Romans, aboutthe timeof Diodorus Siculus ; 

 while Blumenbach, a more recent author, supposes, in 

 partial conformity with him, that it has not been prac- 

 tised within a thousand years on those mummies brought 

 to Europe. There is a passage in the works of St Au- 

 gustine, who lived in the earlier part of the fifth century, 

 which,if literally received, would lead us to infer that em- 

 balming was still known in Egypt. Treating of the resur- 

 ri etion he says, A'o/o mihi jinn appoints quint stiles oppo- 

 nere : nan ma ml /n>'-y urn corpua scpultt nutrtui : ii'im si 

 maiiercl resurgere crft'.crem, Egyplii ergo soli creiluiil re. 

 svrrcctionem, qiiia tli, *rant cadat'C:a nt'.ituo- 



nitn. Murem, mini, /iti/ioit siccarr cr>rix)r,i ,1 ijiin^i 

 tenea rer/r/ere : palibaras < a vacant. Whether this author 

 *peaks from personal knowledge of the fact, or merely 

 from hearsay, cannot now be ascertained. 



Embalming '1 hi- customs of the Jews, a cotcmporary people, co- 

 practiwil by incided, in some degree, with those of the Egyptians ; 

 the Je^. for we read at an e:irly period of their history, that " Jo- 

 seph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm 

 liis lather ; and the physicians embalmed Israel : and 



forty days were fulfilled for him, for so are fulfilled the Embalming, 

 days of those who are embalmed." Of himself it is > *^"Y"^^ 

 said, " So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years 

 old ; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a cof- 

 fin in Egypt." The practice of the Jews, however, is 

 not so well defined as that of the more polished and ci- 

 viliztd Egyptians ; for in one of the most specific pas- 

 sages we read, that when Asa died '' they buried him 

 in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself 

 in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which 

 was filled with sweet odours, and divers kinds of spices 

 prepared by the apothecary's art ; and tftey made a very 

 great burning for him." Whether this was chiefly for 

 preservation, or merely the burning of incense in honour 

 of the deceased, does not appear ; but in another pas- 

 sage of sacred writ, Jeremiah prophesies of one of the 

 kings, " thou shall die in peace, and with the burnings 

 of thy fathers, the former kings who were before thee, 

 so shall they burn odours for thee." At a later period 

 of Jewish history, the custom may be more distinctly 

 recognized at the death of our Saviour ; because Jo- 

 seph of Arimathea having obtained leave to remove his 

 body, Nicodemus brought an hundred pounds of myrrh 

 and aloes, " then took they the body of Jesus, and 

 wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the man- 

 ner of the Jews is to bury." 



There is another ancient nation among which em- Embalming 

 balment was extensively practised, the Gaunchesof the practised by 



Canary islands. The history of this people is involved V e . "?~ 

 * . . J l . f , , ches in the 



in great obscurity, and their existence is best proved by canary 



the remains of their dead, for their posterity is almost if m e s. 

 not entirely extinct. The mode of performing embalment 

 is not explicitly illustrated, but apparently tiie brain 

 and intestines were completely removed, after which it 

 is said the body was washed with an infusion of pine 

 bark. Next, it was anointed with butter or warm 

 grease, which had been boiled along with such penetra- 

 trating and odoriferous herbs as were peculiar to the 

 country, and then it was exposed to the sun. Being 

 well dried, the same operations were repeated, and also 

 subsequent drying until the body was completely im- 

 pregnated with the aromatic unguent. When reduced 

 to very inconsiderable weight, the process was deemed 

 complete, and the deceased was wrapped in an en- 

 velope, consisting of three successive layers of banda- 

 ges of tanned buck skin or goat skin about three inches 

 broad. Bodies thus embalmed were carried with fune- 

 ral ceremonies to caves in a mountain, and there pla- 

 ced in niches upright. Several such caverns or cata- 

 combs may be now seen in the Canary Islands, and in 

 some the mummies repose supine, sewed up in goat 

 skins, and still bearing the hair. 



\Vi; are unacquainted with the antiquity of this treat- 

 ment, but it was not less effectual than the embalming 

 of the Egyptians. In one of these mummies lately ex- 

 amined, the features of the face were still perceptible: 

 the skin of the whole body was well preserved, dry but 

 pliant, and of a deep brown colour. The hair was very 

 long, black, and in good preservation, though it could 

 easily bedetached from the head. In the jaws were thirty- 

 two teeth, so firmly fixed as to require an instrument, 

 or considerable exertion to remove them. The back 

 and belly were covered with hair also in preservation. 

 The scull was empty ; but the thorax and abdomen full 

 of grain resembling rice. 



JMiibulment seems to have been practised by the in- Embalming 

 habitants of Peru, at the date of the invasion of the practised im 

 Spaniards, and was probably known from an ancient Peru, 

 period. Acosta mentions the body of one of their sove- 



