468 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XVI. 



whose head it bore. Others were of common lime- 

 stone, and even of wood ; but these last were gene- 

 rally solid, or contained nothing, being merely 

 emblematic, and intended only for those whose in- 

 testines were returned into the body. They were 

 generally surmounted by the heads above men- 

 tioned, but they sometimes had human heads ; and 

 it is to these last more particularly that the name 

 of Canopi has been applied, from their resemblance 

 to certain vases made by the Romans to imitate the 

 Egyptian taste. I need scarcely add that this is a 

 misnomer, and that the application of the word 

 Canopus * to any Egyptian vase is equally inad- 

 missible. 



Such was the mode of preserving the inter- 

 nal parts of the mummies embalmed according 

 to the most expensive process. And so careful 

 were the Egyptians to show proper respect to all 

 that belonged to the human body, that even the 

 saw-dust of the floor where they cleansed it was 

 taken and tied up in small linen bags, which, to the 

 number of twenty or thirty, were deposited in vases 

 and buried near the tomb. 



In those instances where the intestines, after 

 being properly cleansed and embalmed, were re- 

 turned into the body by the aperture in the side, 

 images of the four Genii of Amenti, made of wax, 

 were put in with them, as the guardians of the 

 portions particularly subject to their influence ; and 



* The city of Canopus probably derived its nainc from KaO i 

 Nof>S ' *^''*^ golden land ; " or Xpvatov Kiffi^of, 



