4 ELLIOT Smith, Distribution of Mummification. 



just enumerated. Not only so, but in addition it is abund- 

 antly clear that the coincidence is not merely accidental. 

 It is due to the fact that in most regions the people who 

 introduced the habit of megalithic building and sun- 

 worship (a combination for which it is convenient to use 

 Professor Brockwell's distinctive term "heliolithic cul- 

 ture") also brought with them the practice of mummifica- 

 tion at the same time. 



The custom of embalming the dead is in fact an 

 integral part of the "heliolithic culture," and perhaps, as 

 I shall endeavour to demonstrate, its most important 

 component. For this practice and the beliefs which 

 grew up in association with it were responsible for the 

 development of some of the chief elements of this culture- 

 complex, and incidentally of the bond of union with 

 other factors not so intimately connected, in the genetic 

 sense, with it. 



Before plunging into the discussion of the evidence 

 provided by the practice of mummification, it will be 

 useful to consider for a moment the geographical distribu- 

 tion of the other components of the "heliolithic culture." 

 I need not say much- about megalithic monuments, for I 

 have already considered their significance elsewhere (90 

 to 96) ; but I should like once more specifically to call 

 the attention of those who are obsessed by theories of 

 the independent evolution of such monuments, and who 

 scoff at Fergusson (17), to the memoirs of Lane Fox (20) 

 and Meadows Taylor (100). The latter emphasises in a 

 striking manner the remarkable identity of structure, not 

 only as concerns the variety and the general conception 

 of such monuments, but also as regards trivial and appar- 

 ently unessential details. With reference to "the opinion 

 of many," which has " been advanced as an hypothesis, 

 that the common instincts of humanity have suggested 



