ANIMALS. 129 



the shape of the eyes, the nose, and the mouth, 

 are seen under it. Some mummies have been 

 found with a long beard, and hair that reached 

 down to the mid-leg, nails of a surprising length, 

 and some gilt, or at least painted of a gold co- 

 lour. Some are found with bands upon the 

 breast, covered with hieroglyphics, in gold, sil- 

 ver, or in green ; and some with tutelary idols, 

 and other figures of jasper, within their body. A 

 piece of gold, also, has often been found under 

 their tongues, of about two pistoles value ; and, 

 for this reason, the Arabians spoil all the mum- 

 mies .they meet with, in order to get at the gold. 

 But though art,- or accident, has thus been 

 found to preserve dead bodies entire, it must by 

 no means be supposed that it is capable of pre- 

 serving the exact form and lineaments of the de- 

 ceased person. Those bodies which are found 

 dried away in the deserts, or in some particular 

 church-yards, are totally deformed, and scarcely 

 any lineaments remain of their external structure. 

 Nor are the mummies preserved by embalming 

 in a better condition. The flesh is dried away, 

 hardened, and hidden under a variety of banda- 

 ges j the bowels, as we have seen, are totally re- 

 moved ; and from hence, in the most perfect of 

 them, we see only a shapeless mass of skin dis- 

 coloured, and even the features scarcely distin- 

 guishable. The art is, therefore, an effort rather 

 of preserving the substance than the likeness of 

 the deceased ; and has, consequently, not been 

 brought to its highest pitch of perfection. It ap- 

 pears from a mummy not long since dug up in 



VOL. II. I 



