Mandiester Memoirs, Vol. lix. (191 5), No. 10. 23 



operation so devoid of meaning and so technically difficult 

 as this ! The interest of their technique is that the 

 Torres Straits operators followed the method originally 

 employed in Egypt (in the case of the mummy of the 

 Pharaoh Ahmes I. [86, p. 16]), which is one requiring 

 considerable skill and dexterity, and not the simpler 

 operation through the nostrils which was devised later (78). 



The Darnley Islanders also made a circular incision 

 through the skin of each finger and toe, and having 

 scraped off the epidermis from the rest of the body, thev 

 carefully peeled off these thimbles of skin, and presented 

 them to the deceased's widow (25 ; 27). 



This practice is peculiarly interesting as an illustration 

 of the adoption of an ancient Egyptian custom in complete 

 ignorance of the purpose it was intended to serve. The 

 ancient Egyptian embalmers (and, again, those of the 

 XXIst Dynasty) made similar circular incisions around 

 fingers and toes, and also scraped off the rest of the 

 epidermis : but the aim of this strange procedure was to 

 prevent the general epidermis, as it was shed (which 

 occurred when the body was steeped for weeks in the 

 preservative brine bath), from carrying the finger- and 

 toe-nails with it (78). A thimble of skin was left on each 

 finger and toe to keep the nail in situ ; and to make it 

 doubly secure, it was tied on with string (78) or fixed 

 with a ring of gold or a silver glove (84). 



In the Torres Straits method of embalming the brine 

 bath was not used ; so the scraping off of the epidermis 

 was wholly unnecessary. In addition, after following 

 precisely the preliminary steps of this aimless proceeding, 

 by deliberately and intentionally removing the skin- 

 thimbles and nails they defeated the very objects which 

 the Egyptians had in view when they invented this 

 operation ! 



