MUMMIES— VIRGINIA. 35 



respect. Dc Maillet, however, in bis tenth letter on Egypt, attributes it 

 entirely to a religions belief insisted upon by the wise men and priests, who 

 taught their disciples that after a certain number of cycles, of perhaps thirty 

 or forty thousand years, the entire universe became as it was at birth, and 

 the souls of the dead returned into the same bodies in which they had lived, 

 provided that the body remained free from corruption, and that sacrifices 

 were freely offered as oblations to the manes of the deceased. Considering 

 the great care taken to preserve the dead, and the ponderously solid nature 

 of their tombs, it is quite evident that this theory obtained many believers 

 among the people. M. Gannal believes embalmment to have been suggested 

 by the affectionate sentiments of our nature — a desire to preserve as long 

 as possible the mortal remains of loved ones ; but MM. Volney and Pariset 

 think it was intended to obviate, in hot climates especially, danger from 

 pestilence, being primarily a cheap and simple process, elegance and luxury 

 coming later; and the Count de Caylus states the idea of embalmment was 

 derived from the finding of desiccated bodies which the burning sands of 

 Egypt had hardened and preserved. Many other suppositions have arisen, 

 but it is thought the few given above are sufficient to serve as an introduc- 

 tion to embalmment in North America. 



From the statements of the older writers on North American Indians, 

 it appears that mummifying was resorted to among certain tribes of Vir- 

 ginia, the Carolinas, and Florida, especially for people of distinction, the 

 process in Virginia for the kings, according to Beverly,* being- as follows: 



" The Indians are religious in preserving the Corpses of their Kings 

 and Rulers after Death, which they order in the following manner: First, 

 they neatly flay off the Skin as entire as they can, slitting it only in the 

 Back; then they pick all the Flesh off from the Bones as clean as possible, 

 leaving the Sinews fastned to the Bones, that they may preserve the Joints 

 together: then they dry the Bones in the Sun, and put them into the Skin 

 again, which in the mean time has been kept from drying or shrinking ; 

 when the Bones are placed right in the Skin, they nicely fill up the Vacuities, 

 with a very fine white Sand. After this they sew up the Skin again, and the 

 Body looks as if the Flesh had not been removed. They take care to keep 



* Hist, of Virginia, 1722, p. 185. 



