CHAP. XVI. THE EMBALMERS. 459 



We may however conclude that even in these in- 

 stances the undertakers were again appUed to for 

 the purpose ; and we see among people far less 

 prejudiced than the Egyptians, and far less in- 

 clined to favour monopolies in religious matters, 

 that few have arrogated to themselves the right of 

 deviating from common custom in their funeral 

 arrangements. 



The number of days, seventy or seventy-two*, 

 mentioned by the two historians, is confirmed by 

 the scripture account of Jacob's funeral ; and this 

 arbitrary period cannot fail to call to mind the fre- 

 quent occurrence of the numbers 7 and 70, which 

 are observed in so many instances both among the 

 Egyptians and Jews. But there is reason to believe 

 that it comprehended the whole period of the 

 mourning, and that the embalming process only 

 occupied a portion of it ; forty being the number 

 of days expressly stated by the Bible to have been 

 assigned to the latter, and *' three score and ten " 

 to the entire mourning. 



The custom of embalming bodies was not con- 

 fined to the Egyptians : the Jews adopted this pro- 

 cess to a certain extent, " the manner of the 

 Jews" being to buryt the body " wound in linen 

 cloths with spices." 



The embalmers, as I have already observed t, 

 were probably members of the medical profession, 



* Diodorus (i. 72.) assigns onlyabout thirty to the einbalmingprocess; 

 and from Genesis we learn that " forty days were fulfilled " for Jacob, 

 as was customary for those who were " embalmed." Gen. 1. .3. Fide 

 supra, p. 452. 454. 



t John, xix. 40. J Vol. III. p. 397. 



