EGYPTIAN MUMMIES. 379 



of the late learned Mariette Pasha and others seem to 

 be decisive upon this point. 



Then as regards the process of embalming. When 

 a great man died it was accounted necessary that 

 the body should be thus preserved for the reasons 

 already stated, though the return to lye of the discarded 

 remnants of mortality, bearing withm themselves the 

 seeds of mortal disease and decrepitude, was like the 

 putting on again of a worn-out garment, no longer 

 fitted for its wearer's use. 



The body, however, having been placed in the hands 

 of the embalmers, who formed a regular guild in ancient 

 Egypt, was then, according to the account handed 

 down to us by Herodotus, * opened, the intestines 

 removed, and the cavities of the body filled with myrrh, 

 cassia, and other perfumes ; it was then sewn up again, 

 and steeped for seventy days in "Natron" that is to 

 say in Saltpetre or impure Nitrate of Potash and 

 it was upon this pickling process, we need hardly 

 say, that the success of the embalming mainly depended 

 for the effects of spices and perfumes would have been 

 without avail and at the expiration of the seventy 

 days (this being the limit of the period during which 

 it was lawful to steep the body) it was wrapped 

 in bandages, smeared over with certain fragrant 

 gums to exclude the air. The process was then 

 complete. 



The intense dryness of the climate and the drifting 

 sands of the desert did the rest, and the mummies 

 were then laid to rest in magnificently ornamented 

 cases, in sepulchral chambers mostly hewn in the solid 

 rock, known among the ancient Egyptians as " The 



* See Herodotus, Book II ("Euterpe"), cap. 86. 



