32 ELLIOT SMITH, Distribution of Mummification. 



zation, has been introduced from without by more cul- 

 tured races, or fashioned in the conflict between races of 

 different traditions and ideals. 



My investigations, on the contrary, have been con- 

 cerned mainly with the actual invention of the elements 

 of civilization and with the people who created practically 

 all of its ingredients — the ideas, the implements and 

 methods of the arts and crafts which give expression to it. 

 Though superficially my attitude may seem to clash with 

 theirs, in that I am attempting to explain the primary 

 origin of some of the things, with which they are dealing 

 only as ready-made customs and beliefs that were handed 

 on from people to people, there is no real antagonism 

 between us. 



It is obvious that there must be a limit to the appli- 

 cation of the borrowing-explanation ; and when we are 

 forced to consider the people who really invented things, 

 it is necessary to frame some working hypothesis in ex- 

 planation of such achievements, unless we feebly confess 

 that it is useless to attempt such enquiries. 



In previous works (82 and 85) I have explained why 

 it must be something more than a mere coincidence that 

 in Egypt, where the operation of natural forces leads to 

 the preservation of the corpse when buried in the hot dry 

 sand, it should have become a cardinal tenet in the beliefs 

 of the people to strive after the preservation of the body 

 as the essential means of continuing an existence after 

 death. When death occurred the only difference that 

 could be detected between the corpse and the living 

 body was the absence of the vital spirit from the former. 

 [For the interpretation of the Egyptians' peculiar ideas 

 concerning death, see Alan Gardiner's important article 

 (23).] It was in a condition in some sense analogous to 

 sleep ; and the corpse, therefore, was placed in its "dwel- 



