THE STONE AGE — PAST AND PEESENT. 217 



An often quoted instance of tlie use of a stone knife for a 

 ceremonial purpose^ wliere iron would liave been much more 

 convenient, is tlie passage in Herodotus which relates that, in 

 Egypt, the mummy-embalmers made the incision in the side of 

 the corpse with a sharp Ethiopia stone.^ The account given 

 by Diodorus Siculus is fuller : — " And first, the body being laid 

 on the ground, he who is called the scribe marks on its left side 

 how far the incision is to be made. Then the so-called slitter 

 (paraschistes), having an ^thiopic stone, and cutting the flesh 

 as far as the law allows, instantly runs off, the bystanders pur- 

 suing him and pelting him with stones, cursing him, and as it 

 were, turning the horror of the deed upon him," for he who 

 hurts a citizen is held worthy of abhorrence.^ There are two 

 kinds of stone knives found in excavations and tombs in Egypt, 

 both of chipped flint, and very neatly made ; one kind is like 

 a very small cleaver, the other has more of the character of a 

 lancet, and would seem the more suitable of the two for the 

 embalmer's purpose. 



A story related by Pliny, of the way in which the balsam of 

 Judea, or "^'balm of Gilead," was extracted, comes under the 

 same category. The incisions, he says, had to be made in the 

 tree with knives of glass, stone, or bone, for it hurts it to 

 wound its vital parts with iron, and it dies forthwith.^ 



With regard to the reason of such practices as these, it has 

 been suggested that there was a practical advantage in the use 

 of the stone knife for circumcision, as less liable to cause in- 

 flammation than a knife of bronze or iron. From this point of 

 view Pliny ^s statement has been quoted, that the mutilation of 

 the priests of Cybele was done with a sherd of Samian ware 

 (Samia testa), as thus avoiding danger.* But as regards iron, 

 at least, the ordinary Jewish practice shows that there is not 

 much in this, while a dead body is not liable to inflammation, 

 and yet the ancient Egyptians used, and the modern Jews use, 

 the stone knife in operating upon it. I heard the reason 

 assigned, in the latter case, that it is undesirable to use on the 

 living subject an instrument which has been applied to such a 



> Herod., ii. 80. " Diod. Sic, i. 91. 3 pijn,^ ^ii. 54. 



^ Plin., XXXV. 46. xi. 109. 



