47 4< THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XVI. 



their preservation. In many the skulls are filled 

 with earthy matter in lieu of bitumen ; and some 

 mummies have been prepared with wax and tan- 

 ning, a remarkable instance of which occurs in that 

 opened by Dr. Granville, — for a full account of 

 which 1 refer the reader to his work descriptive of 

 the body and its mode of preservation. I cannot, 

 however, omit to mention a wonderful proof of the 

 skill of the embalmers in this as in so many other 

 instances, who, by means of a corrosive liquid, had 

 removed the internal tegument of the skull, and 

 still contrived to preserve the thin membrane be- 

 low, though the heat of the embalming matter 

 afterwards poured into the cavity had perforated 

 the suture and scorched the scalp. 



It has been a general and a just remark that few 

 mummies of children have been discovered, — a 

 singular fact, not easily accounted for, since the 

 custom of embalming those even of the earliest 

 age was practised in Egypt.* 



Greek mummies usually differed from those of 

 the Egyptians in the manner of disposing the ban- 

 dages of the arms and legs. The former had the 

 arms placed at the sides, and bound separately ; 

 but the arms as well as the legs, and even the 

 fingers of the Egyptians, were generally enclosed 

 in one common envelop, without any separation 

 ill the bandages. In these last the arms were ex- 

 tendedalong the side, the palms inwards and resting 

 on the thighs, or brought forwards over the groin ; 



* Fide Pcttigrcw, p. 73. 



