262 A HISTORY OF 



<ronqueii] this island, informed them that the art of embalming was 

 btill preserved there ; and that there was a tribe of priests among them 

 possessed of the secret, which they kept concealed as a sacred mys- 

 tery. As the greatest part of the nation was destroyed, the Spaniards 

 could not arrive at a complete knowledge of this art ; they only found 

 out a few of the particulars. Having taken out the bowels, they washed 

 the body several times in a lee, made of the dried bark of the pine- 

 tree, warmed during the summer by the sun, or by a stove in the win- 

 ter. They afterwards anointed it with butter, or the fat of bears, 

 which they had previously boiled with odoriferous herbs, such as sage 

 and lavender. After this unction, they suffered the body to dry, and 

 then repeated the operation as often as it was necessary, until the 

 whole substance was impregnated with the preparation. When it 

 was become very light, it was then a certain sign that it was fit and 

 properly prepared. They then rolled it up in the dried skins of goats ; 

 which, when they had a mind to save expense, they suffered to remain 

 with the hair still growing upon them. Purchas assures us, that he 

 has seen mummies of this kind in London ; and mentions the name of 

 a gentleman who had seen several of them in the island of Teneriff, 

 which were supposed to have been two thousand years old ; but with- 

 out any certain proofs of such great antiquity. This people, who 

 probably came first from the coasts of Africa, might have learned this 

 art from the Egyptians, as there was a traffic carried on from thence 

 into the most internal parts of Africa. 



Father Acosta and Garcilasso de la Vega make no doubt but thaf 

 the Peruvians understood the art of preserving their dead for a very 

 long space of time. They assert their having seen the bodies of seve 

 ral incas, that were perfectly preserved. They still preserved their 

 hair and their eye-brows ; but they had eyes made of gold, put in the 

 places of those taken out. They were clothed in their usual habits, 

 and seated in the manner of the Indians, their arms placed on their 

 breasts. Garcilasso touched one of their fingers, and found it appa- 

 rently as hard as wood ; and the whole body was not heavy enough to 

 overburden a weak man who should attempt to carry it away., Acosta 

 presumes that these bodies were embalmed with bitumen, of which 

 the Indians knew the properties. Garcilasso, however, is of a differ- 

 ent opinion, as he saw nothing bituminous about them ; but he con- 

 fesses that he did not examine them very particularly, and he regrets 

 his not having inquired into the methods used for that purpose. He 

 adds, that being a Peruvian, his countrymen 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 in- 

 ductions 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, 

 before 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 they had lost their humidity, they might be 

 kept without salt, or any other preparation. 



it is said, that at Spitsbergen, which lies within the arctic circle 

 -nd, consequently, in the coldest climate, bodies never corrupt, nor 



