408 NATURAL HISTORY. 



it being some four hundred years after his death : and 

 the other, his books of sacred rites and ceremonies, 

 and the discipline of the pontiffs ; and that in the 

 coffin that had the body, there was nothing at all to 

 be seen, but a little light cinders about the sides, but 

 in the coffin that had the books, they were found as 

 fresh as if they had been but newly written, being 

 written on parchment, and covered over with watch- 

 candles of wax three or four fold. By this it seemeth 

 that the Romans in Numa s time were not so good 

 embalmers as the Egyptians were ; which was the 

 cause that the body was utterly consumed. But I 

 find in Plutarch and others, that when Augustus 

 Caesar visited the sepulchre of Alexander the Great 

 in Alexandria, he found the body to keep its dimen 

 sion ; but withal, that notwithstanding all the em 

 balming, which no doubt was the best, the body 

 was so tender, as Caesar, touching but the nose of 

 it, defaced it. Which maketh me find it very strange, 

 that the Egyptian mummies should be reported to be 

 as hard as stone-pitch ; for I find no difference but 

 one, which indeed may be very material, namely 

 that the ancient Egyptian mummies were shrouded 

 in a number of folds of linen, besmeared with gums, 

 in manner of sear-cloth, which it doth not appear was 

 practised upon the body of Alexander. 



Experiment solitary touching the abundance of nitre 

 in certain sea-shores. 



772. Near the castle of Caty, and by the wells of 

 Assan, in the land of Idumea, a great part of the 



