286 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



and toe had a separate one ; and over all, an- 

 other of great length, which, though without stitch 

 or seam, after making a few turns round both feet, 

 ascended spirally to the head, from whence it 

 returned as far as the breast, and terminated 

 there in loose threads like a fringe. In unravel- 

 ling all these bandages, my uncle and everybody 

 were struck with the judicious selection of their 

 size and form, so as to adapt them to the dif- 

 ferent parts, and to give the whole a smooth sur- 

 face, without a wrinkle. 



They appeared to be made of a strong com- 

 pact kind of linen, and were all of a dark brown 

 colour, the result probably of some vegetable 

 solution that contained a large proportion of the 

 tannin principle. Many of them were daubed 

 with wax and some resinous or bituminous sub- 

 stance; and some little crystals were found, from 

 which a chemist who was present seemed to 

 think that lime had been used in preparing the 

 skin. 



The circumstance that most astonished my 

 uncle was that some of the sinews were still elas- 

 tic and flexible, and that the joints moved as 

 easily as in a living body. My aunt and he 

 afterwards had a long conversation on the origin 

 of the ancient Egyptians ; the principal cir- 

 cumstance that I picked up was that the cele- 

 brated Cuvier has examined the skulls of above 

 fifty mummies, and that, in his opinion, they 



