No. 144.] 87 



guished by the gorgeousness of their outer cases, the peculiar 

 wood (sycamore) and the remarkably delicate texture of the 

 linen ; and samples of the latter, which I possess from the collec- 

 tion of my late father at Cambridge, and who, enjoying the early 

 friendship of Belzoni, was enabled to procure a small but re- 

 cherche cabinet of Egyptian antiquities, will bear as much com- 

 parison with the finest modern French cambric, as the latter 

 does to bobbin lace. 



At this period of sepulture it is by no means rare to find above 

 30 lbs. weight of linen wrappings on mummies ; one from the 

 collection of Mr. Davidson yielded, when unravelled, nearly 300 

 yards, and weighed, when bleached, 32 lbs. A princess, from the 

 late Mr. Pettigrew's collection was swathed in 40 thicknesses, 

 producing 42 yards of the finest texture. She was a highborn 

 dame, of the royal line of Pharaoh, and it may not be mal apropos 

 here to remark upon a curious physiological fact which I believe 

 few oriental antiquarians are cognizant of, that the mummied 

 daughters of the true house of Pharaohs are to be invariably dis- 

 tinguished from plebeian priestesses and belles, by a characteris- 

 tic natural arrangement of teeth. The four incisors or cutters 

 being replaced by bicuspides in each jaw. This is a proof of their 

 hereditary consanguinity; and it is well illustrated in an elabor- 

 ately decorated mummy of a damsel now preserved in the library 

 of Trinity College, Cambridge, and whose hieroglyphics identify 

 her as the veritable smuggler of Moses. Other similar peculiar 

 organizations are not unfrequently referred to in modern patholo- 

 gical researches, as indicating descent from particular clans in 

 Scotland and Ireland. 



From the graphic accounts furnished by Herodotus, B. C. 450, 

 and four centuries after by Diodorus and Pliny, and subsequently 

 verified by careful researches and examinations of travellers, eight 

 pounds may be assumed as the average weight of serviceable linen 

 to each mummy ; this will give a result of over two and half mil- 

 lions of tons, sufficient to supply the demand of the United States 

 for fourteen years without any import from other countries, and 

 it is reasonable to conclude that at the expiration of that period 

 scientific research will have sufficiently developed resources 



