ANIMALS. 4'3.5 



•lucovered, it moulders into dust imiiiediutely upon the admis- 

 sion of the my. When, therefore, it is preserved entire, a slight 

 covering of cloth is so disposed over it, that the shape of tlie 

 eyes, the nose, and the mouth, are seen under it. S^me mum- 

 mies have been found with a long beard, and hair that reached 

 down to the mid- leg, nails of a surprising length, and some gilt, 

 or at least painted of a gold colour. Some are found w itli bands 

 upon the breast, covered with hieroglypliics, in gold, silver, or in 

 green ; and some with tutelary idols, and other figures of jasper, 

 within their body. A piece of gold also has often bfen found 

 under their tongues, of about two pistoles value ; and, for this 

 reason the Arabians spoil all the mummies they meet with, in 

 order to get at the gold. 



But although art, or accident, has thus been found to preserve 

 dead bodies entire, it must by no means be supposed that it is 

 capable of preserving the exact form and lineaments of the de- 

 ceased person. Those bodies which are found dried away iji the 

 deserts, or in some particular church-yards, are totally deformed, 

 and scarcely any lineaments remain of their external structure. 

 Nor are the mummies preserved by embalming, in a better con- 

 dition. The fle.-ih is dried away, hardened and hidden under a 

 variety of bandages ; the bowels, as we have seen, are totally 

 removed ; and from hence, in the most perfect of thein, we see 

 only a shapeless mass of skin discoloured ; and even the fea- 

 tures scarcely distinguishable. The art is, therefore, an effort 

 rather of preserving the substance than the likeness of the de- 

 ceased ; and has, consequently, not been brought to its highest 

 pitch of perfection. It appears from a mummy not long since 

 dug up in France, that the art of embalming was more complete- 

 ly understood in the western world than even in Egypt- This 

 nmmmy, which was dug up at Auvergne, was an amazing in- 

 stance of their skill, and is one of the most curious relics in the 

 art of preservation. As some peasants, in that part of the world, 

 were digging in a field, near Rion, within about twenty-si.v paces 

 off the highway, between that and the river Artiers, they dis- 

 covered a tomb, about a foot and a half beneath the surface. It 

 was composed only of two stones ; one of which formed the 

 body of the sepulchre, and the other the cover. Tliis tomb was 

 of free-stone, seven feet and a half long, three feit and a half 



broad, and about three feet high. It was of rude workmanshin ; 



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