ANIMALS. 



195 



burden a weak mnn, who should attempt to 

 carry it away. Acosta presumes that these 

 bodies were embalmed with a bitumen, of 

 which the Indians knew the properties. Gar- 

 cil is-;o, however, is of a different opinion, as 

 he s.iw nothing bituminous about them ; but 

 he confesses that he di-l not examine them very 

 particularly; an I he regrets his not having in- 

 quired into the methods used for that purpose. 

 He adds, tiiat being a Peruvian, his country- 

 men would not have scrupled to inform him 

 of the secret, if they really had it still among 

 them. 



Garcilasso, thus being ignorant of the secret, 

 makes use of some inductions to throw light 

 upon the subject; he asserts, that the air is so 

 dry and so cold at Cusco, that flesh dries there 

 like wood, without corrupting ; and he is of 

 opinion, that they dried the body in snow be- 

 fore they applied the bitumen : he adds, that 

 in the times of the incas, they usually dried the 

 flesh which was designed for the use of the 

 army ; and that, when it had lost its humidity, 

 it .night be kept without salt, or any other 

 preparation. 



It is said, that at Spitzbergen, which lies 

 within the arctic circle, and consequently in 

 the coldest climate, bodies never corrupt, nor 

 suffer any apparent alteration, even though 

 buried for thirty years. Nothing corrupts or 

 putrefies in that climate ; the wood which has 

 been employed in building those houses where 

 the train-oil is separated, appears as fresh as 

 the day it was first cut. 



If excessive cold, therefore, be thus capable 

 of preserving bodies from corruption, it is not 

 less certain that a great degree of dryness, pro- 

 duced by heat, produces the same effect. It is 

 well known that the men and animals that are 

 buried in the sands of Arabia quickly dry up, 

 and continue in preservation for several 'ages, 

 as if they had been actually embalmed. It has 

 often happened, that whole caravans have 

 perished in crossing those deserts, either by the 

 burning winds that infest them, or by the sands 

 which are raised by the tempest, and over- 

 whelm every creature in certain ruin. The 

 bodies of those persons are preserved entire ; 

 and they are often found in this condition by 

 soiiie accidental passenger. Many authors, 

 both ancient and modern, make mention of 

 such mummies as these ; and Shaw says, that 

 he has been assured that numbers of men, as 



well as other animals, have been tfius preserv- 

 ed, for times immemorial, in the burning sands 

 of Saibah, which is a place, he supposes, situate 

 between Kasein and Kgypt. 



The corruption of dead bodies being entire- 

 ly caused by the fermentation of the humours, 

 whatever is capable of hindering or retarding 

 this fermentation, will contribute to their pre- 

 servation. Both heat and cold, though so 

 contrary in themselves, produce similar effects 

 in this particular, by drying up the humours. 

 The cold in condensing and thickening them, 

 and the heat in evaporating them before they 

 have time to act upon the solids. But it is 

 necessary that these extremes should be con- 

 stant ; for if they succeed each other so as that 

 cold shall follow heat, or dryness humidity, it 

 must then necessarily happen that corrnp ion 

 must ensue. However, in temperate climates, 

 there are natural causes capable of preserving 

 dead bodies; among which we may reckon the 

 quality of the earth in which they are buried. 

 If the earth be drying and astringent, it nil! 

 imbibe the humidity of the body ; and it n>av 

 probably be for this reason that the bodies 

 buried in the monastery of the Cordeliers, at 

 Thoulouse, do not putrefy, but dry in such a 

 manner that they may be lifted up by one arm. 



The gums, resins, and bitumens, with which 

 dead bodies are embalmed, keep off the im- 

 pressions which they would else receive from 

 thealteration of the temperature of the air; and 

 still more, if a body thus prepared be placed in 

 a dry or burning sand, the most powerful 

 means will be united for its preservation. We 

 are not to be surprised, therefore, at w hat we 

 are told by Chardin, of the country of Chorosan, 

 in Persia. The bodies which have been pre- 

 viously embalmed, and buried in the sands of 

 that country, as he assures us, are found to 

 petrefy, or, in other words, to become ex- 

 tremely hard, and are preserved for sevi ral 

 ages. It is asserted, that some of them have 

 continued for a thousand years. 



The Egyptians, as has been mentioned above, 

 swathed the body with linen bands, and en- 

 closed it in a coffin : however, it is probable 

 that, with all these precautions, they would not 

 have continued till now, if the tombs, or pits, 

 in which they were placed, had not been dug 

 in a dry chalky soil, which was not susceptible 

 of humidity; and which was besides covered 

 over with a dry sand of several feet thickness. 

 2 M 



