52 ELLIOT SMITH, Distribution of Mummification. 



body cavity (78 ; 81 and 86) ; and the surface of the body 

 was often greasy ; but, of course, the fatty materials in 

 the skin itself might have afforded a sufficient explanation 

 of this. Dr. Alan Gardiner, however, tells me that ancient 

 Egyptian literature contains repeated references to the 

 process of anointing the body with " oil of cedar," 10 and 

 great stress is laid upon this procedure as an essential 

 element of the technique of embalming. 11 



Thus in the time of the decadence of the New Empire 

 an Egyptian writer laments the loosening of Egypt's hold 

 on the Lebanons, because if no " oil of cedar " were obtain- 

 able it might become impossible any longer to embalm 

 the dead. 



Diodorus Siculus, writing many centuries later, says 

 the body was "anointed with oil of cedar and other 

 things for thirty days, and afterwards with myrrh, cinna- 

 mon, and other such like matters" (Fettigrew, 56, p. 62). 

 Thus there can be little doubt that it was an essential 

 part of the Ancient Egyptian technique to anoint the 

 body with oil. 



Fettigrew (56, p. 62, and also p. 242) adduces cogent 

 reasons in proof of the fact that the Egyptians (and in 

 modern times the Capuchins, at Falermo) made use of 

 heat to desiccate the body, probably in a stove. 



It is quite clear, therefore, that the Ancient Egyptians 



10 Sir William Thiselton Dyer informs me that in all probability it was 

 not cedar but juniper that was obtained by the Ancient Egyptians from 

 Syria [and used for embalming]. The material to which reference is made 

 here would probably be identical with the modern ' huile de cade,' and be 

 obtained from jimipo us excelsa. 



I retain the term "oil of cedar" to facilitate the bibliographical refer- 

 ences, as all the archaeologists and historians invariably use this expression. 



1 l Since this memoir has been printed Dr. Alan Gardiner has published 

 a most luminous and important account of "The Tomb of Amenemhet " 

 (N. de Garis Davies and Alan Gardiner, 1915), which throws a flood of light 

 upon Egyptian ideas concerning the matters discussed in this communication. 



