120 HISTORY OF 



cedar, gum, myrrh, cinnamon, and other per- 

 fumes. These aromatics preserved the body en- 

 tire for a long time, and gave it a very agreeable 

 odour. It was not in the least disfigured by this 

 preparation j after which it was returned to the 

 relations, who kept it in a coffin placed upright 

 against the wall. 



Most of the modern writers who have treated 

 on this subject have merely repeated what has 

 been said by Herodotus ; and if they add any 

 thing of their own, it is but merely from conjec- 

 ture. Dumont observes, that it is very probable 

 that aloes, bitumen, and cinnamon, make a prin- 

 cipal part of the composition which is used on 

 this occasion ; he adds, that after embalming, the 

 body is put into a coffin made of the sycamore 

 tree, which is almost incorruptible. Mr Grew re- 

 marks, that in an Egyptian mummy in the posses- 

 sion of the Royal Society, the preparation was so 

 penetrating as to enter into the very substance of 

 the bones, and rendered them so black, that they 

 seemed to have been burnt. From this he is in- 

 duced to believe, that the Egyptians had a cus- 

 tom of embalming their dead, by boiling them in 

 a kind of liquid preparation, until all the aqueous 

 parts of the body were exhaled away, and until 

 the oily or gummy matter had penetrated through- 

 out. He proposes, in consequence of this, a me- 

 thod of macerating, and afterwards of boiling the 

 dead body in oil of walnut. 



I am, for my own part, of opinion, that there 

 were several ways of preserving dead bodies from 

 putrefaction ; and that this would not be difficult, 



