MUMMY. 



MUMMY. 



HI 



dsiti** connected with funereal rites, nd vignettes and text* of chapter* 

 from the Ritual. A certain order attend* than drawings a scarab is 

 often painted on the head, a flying nun-headed hawk on the chart, the 

 guddcM Nu on the ttomV"'\ and at the feet, sometime* made of a 

 niece of board, the eoemiet of Egypt painted under the sandals, or the 

 bull Apia bearing on iu back a mummy. These cartonages, which 

 are found on the mummies of the kings of the llth dynasty, continue 

 till the Ptolemies. Under the Roman umpire they wore replaced by a 

 large painted sheet, on which was painted the deceased or Osiris, and 

 note sepulchral deities, or by the portrait of the deceased painted 

 upon thin boards of cedar in encaustic. These later painting* cease 

 to praenre the conventional Egyptian style, but represent the deceased 

 with Greek features and costume. Beneath these cartonages is found 

 a network of blue porcelain bugles, deities, and pectoral plates, and 

 gffntfMryt beaded work well executed, and they are externally orna- 

 mented with wreaths of artificial or real flowers, and tinsel The car- 

 tooage has often the same pedestal as the mummy -case, showing that 

 the body was set upright during the funeral ceremonies. The colours 

 employed, and the style of painting of this sepulchral ornament, is 

 Terr different in different mummies and at different periods. 



Sometimes instead of a cartonage the external linen bandages are 

 covered with extracts, more or less copious, from the Ritual of tin- 

 Dead, traced in black carbonaceous ink, a style of ornamentation which 

 prevailed both at an early and recent period, having been found on the 

 coffin of a monarch of the llth dynasty, and on mummies of the 

 Ptolemaic period. Figures of deities and other representations taken 

 from the sacred books are also traced on the bandages. Papyri were 

 often deposited with the mummies generally rolled up, and in tin- 

 inner bandages sometimes unfolded and spread over them, rarely iu 

 the hands, as in the case of a Greek mummy exhumed at Thebes, 

 which held in its hand a papyrus containing the 17th book of the 

 ' Iliad.' Theae relics were, however, often placed in wooden figures of 

 the gods Osiris and Phtah Sochtaris. These papyri are chiefly rituals 

 or other religious books of a sepulchral nature. Besides papyri, little 

 mummied figures, called ' the workmen of Hades,' made of stone, por- 

 celain, clay, or wood, were deposited in the tombs in little wooden 

 boxes, to help the deceased in his agricultural labours in the Elysium. 

 Around them is inscribed the 6th chapter of the Ritual. 



The mummies in their cartonages were deposited in coffins of 

 sarcophagi, generally of wood, either of cedar or Bycomore, made in the 

 shape of a mummy with it* pedestal. Persons of high station and 

 wealth sometimes had as many as three of these wooden coffins each 

 increasing in size so as to fit into one another like a nest of boxes. 

 Those of kings were deposited in an outer sarcophagus of hard stone 

 in shape of a chest or bin. Such outer coffins are of the greatest 

 rarity, and at the early period of the pyramids are either entirely plain 

 or only ornamented with architectural ornaments, but in the age of 

 the 18th and following dynasty are covered with inscriptions and 

 intaglio reliefs representing the passage of the sun through the hours 

 of the day or night. Some of these stone sarcophagi, especially those 

 of the later dynasties, are in the form of the mummy. The inscrip- 

 tion* of those of the 26th dynasty are often the 72nd chapter of the 

 Ritual ; the stone coffins of the Ptolemaic age have the same principal 

 deities of the Pantheon addressing the departed as Osiris, and other 

 formula. The wooden sarcophagi are of different shapes at different ages 

 that of the king Menkheres, builder of the 3rd pyramid, is of cedar, 

 unooloured and in the shape of a mummy those of the 6th ft 1 llth 

 dynasties are often rectangular chests painted inside with representa- 

 ions of wardrobes, and inscribed with copious extracts of funeral 

 ritual*. 



The coffin* of mummies from the 18th to the 26th dynasty are made 

 in shape of the human form swathed, are principally Bycomore covered 

 with a ground of white stucco, and painted with various deities and 

 hieroglyphics in tempera. Their style of art differs at each period, and 

 vignette* of the 89th and 125th chapters of the Ritual are often seen 

 amongst the paintings, at a later period the 99th chapter is sometimes 

 found. The paintings of coffins of the 21st dynasty are often of a 

 yellow colour, owing to the copious employment of varnish which has 

 iisrnmH this colour through age. This style of coffin apparently 

 continued till about the 1st century, B.C. when a new shape was intro- 

 duced, the body being laid upon a flat board over which is placed a 

 vaulted cover, having at each corner a square upright post, resembling 

 a ilioh cover. The paintings on these coffins are the Great Judgment, 

 c. 126 of the Ritual ; in the interior are figures of the heaven, and 

 Greek and Egyptian zodiacs. Those of later periods were probably of 

 the same shape, but ruder in their art ; owing to the expense few 

 lie* comparatively were placed in coffins, those in the public 

 cemeteries being found piled in tombs one above another, while others 

 are laid hi layers of reed or charcoal, and some bodies are found buried 

 ill the sand. The tombs of the Egyptians are generally hollow rock 

 chambers excavated in the hills of the Arabian chain to the west of the 

 principal cities, but sometimes, as at Sakhara, in tombs hollowed in the 

 plain*. The principal site* where mummies are found are at the boumah 

 quarter of Thebes and in the plains of Sakhara. Few mummies of 

 children have been found. The number of mummies made from the 

 commencement of the Egyptian monarchy till the cematiim of the art 

 in the 7th century ha* been calculated to have been 420,000,000. Owing 

 to the changes which have Ukcn place even in times of remote antiquity, 



when the Cliulchyto trafficked in tombs and bodies, it often happen! 

 that the mummies and coffins do not correspond, the names of th 

 occupants having been erased for the new occupants, and the Arab* 

 and otht-r ilualers have often placed mummies in the cases sent to 

 Europe which do not belong to them (Birch, ' Epochs of Mummies ' in 

 <;h.l.l.<ns 'Otia Egyptiaca,' p. 78-87; Pasaalaequa, fCatalogue,' ] 

 Several mummies exist in the different collections of Europe, and 

 reference to the principal ones described will be found in thu works 

 cited in this article. 



In unrolling mummies, the cartonage or outer covering should, 

 when necessary, be carefully divided vertically from head to f.-t in 

 order not to destroy the interesting paintings with which it U 

 covered, and the bandages unwound with care, every one 

 carefully examined to see all the peculiarities which may occur. Tho 

 body itself requires a medical autopsy. Deception has been occasionally 

 practised, many fictitious mummies made by Arabs or Lcvnntino 

 traders having been detected by Blumenbach. (' Observat. on Mumni. 

 Phil. Trans,' 1794.) In the 15th and 17th centuries, the pissasphalt 

 and other resinous substances which exuded from mummies were 

 employed as a drug called mummy, the Genoese and Venetians 

 extensively imported mummies into Europe for the shops of the 

 apothecaries, and the charlatans of the day obtained from mummies, 

 oils, extracts, and elixirs, antidotes of all poisons and nostrums against 

 all diseases. Francis I. always had this universal remedy n)jmt 

 him. 



The Egyptians applied the art of embalmment to the preservation of 

 the bodies of the sacred animals, so extensively worshipped throughout 

 Egypt from an early period of the monarchy, although they did not 

 bestow upon them so much care as on the human mummies. Tho 

 mummies of apes, cynocephali, the living emblem of the god Khons, 

 have been found in catacombs at Thebes, prepared by natron 

 resins, and adjusted in a squatting, not extended form like human 

 mummies. A dog, living emblem of Anubis, baa been found mummied 

 at full length, and some were enwrapped in cartonages. Large 

 numbers of cats, sacred to Bast, chiefly in the extensive catacombs 

 of these animals at Busiris, -have been found, gome in bandages made 

 up into the form of the animals ; others of conical shape with feet 

 close to the body, and the head modelled in linen, and others placed in 

 coffins of wood or bronze made in the form of small statues of this 

 animal, with their pedestals in shape of the hieroglyphic name of the 

 goddess to which it was sacred. It was embalmed according to IK-ro- 

 dotus (ii. 83.) with kedria. 



Wolves' mummies have been found at Lycopolis. The larger animals 

 were only partly embalmed, the principal bones being made up into a 

 kind of rude trunk of the animal, the head and skull carefully pre- 

 served, the bodies wrapped in papyrus or palm-leaves, and the eyes, 

 nostrils, and diacritical marks of the sacred bulls Mnevis of Thebes 

 and Apis of Memphis being worked in a dark or coloured cloth 

 on the outer bandages. Sometimes their mummies have been made 

 up in shape of a minotaur. The Apis was also in some instances 

 embalmed with bitumen and placed in huge coffins of stone in the 

 vicinity of the Serapeiurn. [SKIIA!'I:IUM.] Mummies of rams and 

 lambs, sacred to Ammon, &c., prepared by natron, and bandaged in tlio 

 same manner as the sacred bulls, have been found at Thebes, and also 

 the heads of a small gazelle leucoryx, treated in the same way, without 

 bitumen. Mummies of the sacred vultures of the goddess Mut, and 

 different kinds of falcons sacred to the sun, made up into the fonu of 

 a mummied deity, with the hawks' heads modelled in linen, and the 

 body covered by a neat network of thin linen strips, have also been 

 found at Thebes ; the owl, emblem of Buto, and the swallow have also 

 been discovered. But the bird most commonly embalmed was the i'4i>, 

 sacred to Thoth, extensive catacombs of it mummied existing at Sakhara 

 and some pits of the same at Thebes. Its mummy is made in the shape 

 of a heart, the head and neck beneath the left wing, and the beak the 

 length of the body. According to JSlian (Nat. An., x., c. 29), it was 

 embalmed in natron : the analysis of the materials shows them to 

 have been salt, oil, pitch, and aromatic resins. (Langguth ' De Muinm. 

 Avium.,' 4to, Vittebcrg, 1803.) The eggs of this bird, and parts of its 

 food, have been found with it; but in most instances, apparently 

 owing to heated applications, it has almost entirely perished. At 

 Sakhara the mummies are found in stone, glazed ware, or terra cotta 

 cases, or cones with convex covers, cemented with liuie, and piled in 

 the catacombs ; at Hermopolis its mummy is placed in oblong cases of 

 wood or stone; and at Thebes only in its envelopes. Some rare 

 instance* represent it bandaged as a human seated body, with an il>is 

 head. The sacred goose of Seb also occurs. Numerous mummies 

 nf the sacred crocodile of the god Sebak have been found at Ombos, 

 Kilcithyia, principally at Manfaloot, and Thebes. They are prop in <! 

 with hitumrii 1, and wrapped in palm-loaves and papyru.i, 



having coarse outer bandages of linen. The serpent tribe are embalmed 

 in packets in shape of an oblate egg, sometimes as many as six in ono 

 packet, the whole neatly and tightly packed with pink and yellow 

 bandages, or single instances deposited in bronze coses in shape of the 

 reptile on a pedestal. Lizards have been found in cases of H 

 of the reptile; two species of fish, the cyprinus and the silurus; 

 and also scarabiei, prepared by natron, and wrapped in linen bandages. 



Nations of antiquity attempted to preserve the human form after 

 death, but they can scarcely be considered mummies. The Persians 



