118 HISTORY OF 



this manner continue in great numbers to the pre^ 

 sent day. We are told, in Genesis, that Joseph 

 seeing his father expire, gave orders to his physi- 

 cians to embalm the body, which they executed 

 in the compass of forty days, the usual time of 

 embalming. Herodotus also, the most ancient of 

 the profane historians, gives us a copious detail 

 of this art, as it was practised in his time among 

 the Egyptians. There are certain men among 

 them, says he, who practise embalming as a 

 trade, which they perform with all expedition 

 possible. In the first place they draw out the 

 brain through the nostrils, with irons adapted to 

 this purpose ; and in proportion as they evacuate 

 it in this manner, they fill up the cavity with aro- 

 matics ; they next cut open the belly, near the 

 sides, with a sharpened stone, and take out the 

 entrails, which they cleanse, and wash in palm- 

 oil : having performed this operation, they roll 

 them in aromatic powder, fill them with myrrh, 

 cassia, and other perfumes, except incense ; and 

 replace them, sewing up the body again. After 

 these precautions they salt the body with nitre, 

 and keep it in the salting place for seventy days, 

 it not being permitted to preserve it so any longer. 

 When the seventy days are accomplished, and the 

 body washed once more, they swathe it in bands 

 made of linen, which have been dipt in a gum the 

 Egyptians use instead of salt. When the friends 

 have taken back the body, they make a hollow 

 trough, something like the shape of a man, in 

 which they place the body ; and this they enclose 

 in a box, preserving the whole as a most precious 



