UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 285 



mented with stripes of painted linen, and the 

 inner case is covered with a kind of paper on 

 which figures and hieroglyphics are painted with 

 great brilliancy of colour. 



The one which he saw had but a single case, 

 which appeared to be made of sycamore-wood, 

 two inches in thickness ; the back and the front 

 being fastened together by pegs. The case is 

 made to stand upright, and is covered, inside and 

 out, with a kind of shell or coat of plaster, to a 

 considerable thickness. This coat is painted 

 outside with hieroglyphics in horizontal lines on 

 a deep orange ground ; and the whole is highly 

 varnished. The internal surface is likewise di- 

 vided into broad stripes, alternately white and 

 yellow ; and on both are inscribed hieroglyphics 

 and other characters about an inch long, pro- 

 bably consisting of prayers or invocations for the 

 dead, or perhaps of some biographical notice. 



My uncle told us that the embalmed body was 

 most carefujly secured from the air, by a cover- 

 ing of cerecloth, and by bandages that were ap- 

 plied with a neatness and precision that would 

 have done honour to the most skilful surgeon 

 of modern times. Of the many species of band- 

 ages which are employed in surgery, there is not 

 one that did not appear to have been used; and 

 they were so many times repeated, that after 

 their removal, they were found to weigh twenty- 

 eight pounds. Each limb, nay, each finger 



