CHAP. XVI. SOME OF THE DETAILS EXAMINED. 457 



tombs ; but it is also shown from the bodies at 

 Thebes that the incision was not always confined 

 to those of the first class, and that some of an in- 

 ferior kind were submitted to this simple and ef- 

 fectual process. 



Sixthly. The sum stated by Diodorus of a talent 

 of silver can only be a general estimate of the ex- 

 pense of the first kind of embalming ; since the 

 various gradations in the style of preparing them 

 prove that some mummies must have cost far more 

 than others : and the sumptuous manner in which 

 many persons performed the funerals of their 

 friends kept pace with the splendour of the tombs 

 they made or purchased for their reception. 



Seventhly. The execrations with which the pa- 

 raschisfes was pursued could only have been a re- 

 ligious form, from which he was doubtless in little 

 apprehension ; an anomaly not altogether without 

 a parallel in other civilised countries. 



Eighthly. Diodorus is in error when he sup- 

 poses the actual face of the body was seen after it 

 was restored to the family ; for even before it was 

 deposited in the case, which Herodotus says the 

 friends made for it, the features, as well as the 

 whole body, were concealed by the bandages which 

 enveloped them. The resemblance he mentions 

 was only in the mummy case, or the cartonage 

 which came next to the bandages; and, indeed, 

 whatever number of cases covered a mummy, the 

 face of each was intended as a representation of 

 the person within, as the lower part was in imitation 

 of the swathed body. 



