CHAP. XVI. SOME OF THE DETAILS EXAMINED. 45.5 



not only the power of preserving the body for a 

 length of time, but of imparting to it a fragrant 

 odour. It is then restored to the friends of the 

 deceased. And so perfectly are all the members 

 preserved, that even the hairs of the eyelids and 

 eyebrows remain undisturbed, and the whole ap- 

 pearance of the person is so unaltered that every 

 feature may be recognised. The Egyptians, there- 

 fore, who sometimes keep the bodies of their an- 

 cestors in magnificent apartments set apart for the 

 purpose, have an opportunity of contemplating the 

 faces* of those who died many generations before 

 them ; and the lieight and figure of their bodies 

 being distinguishable, as well as the character of 

 the countenance, they enjoy a wonderful grati- 

 fication, as if they lived in the society of those they 

 see before them." 



On the foregoing statements of the two his- 

 torians, I may be permitted some observations. 



First, with regard to what Herodotus says of 

 the wooden figures kept as patterns for mum- 

 mies, the most elaborate of which represented 

 Osiris. All the Egyptians who, from their virtues, 

 were admitted to the mansions of the blessed, 

 were permitted to assume the form and name of 

 this Deity. It was not confined to the rich alone, 

 who paid for the superior kind of embalming, or 

 to those mummies wliich were sufliiciently well 

 made to assume the form of Osiris; and Herodotus 

 should therefore have confined his remark to those 



* Diodorus is wrong in' supposing that they could see the actual 

 face of the dead body. Vide infra, p. 4v57. 



G G 4 



