26 ELLIOT SMITH, Distribution of Mummification. 



centuries of constant practice and experimentation to 

 reach the stage and to acquire the methods exemplified 

 in the Torres Straits mummies. In Egypt also a curious 

 combination of natural circumstances and racial customs 

 was responsible for the suggestion of the desirability and 

 the possibility artificially to preserve the corpse. How did 

 the people of the Torres Straits acquire the knowledge 

 even of the possibility of such an attainment, not to 

 mention the absence of any inherent suggestion of its 

 desirability? For in the hot, damp atmosphere of such 

 places as Darnley Island the corpse would never have 

 been preserved by natural means, so that the suggestion 

 which stimulated the Egyptians to embark upon their 

 experimentation was lacking in the case of the Papuans. 

 But even if for some mysterious reasons these people had 

 been prompted to attempt to preserve their dead, during 

 the experimental stage they would have had to combat 

 these same unfavourable conditions. Is it at all probable 

 or even possible to conceive that under such exceptionally 

 difficult, not to say discouraging, circumstances they 

 would have persisted for long periods in their gruesome 

 experiments ; or have attained a more rapid success than 

 the more cultured peoples of Egypt and Europe, operating 

 under more favourable climatic conditions, and with the 

 help of a knowledge of chemistry and physics, were able 

 to achieve? The suggestion is too preposterous to call 

 for serious consideration. 



But if for the moment we assume that the Darnley 

 Islander instinctively arrived at the conclusion that it was 

 possible to preserve the dead, that he would rather like 

 to try it, and that by some mysterious inspiration the 

 technical means of attaining this object was vouchsafed 

 him, why, when the whole ventral surface of the body 

 was temptingly inviting him to operate by the simplest 



