Manchester Memoirs, Vol. lix. (191 5), No. 10. 53 



realised the importance of desiccation as an essential 

 element in the preservation of the body. Moreover, they 

 were familiar with a number of different means of ensur- 

 ing this end : — (1) by burial in dry sand ; (2) by exposure 

 to the sun's rays ; (3) by removing all the softer and more 

 putrescible parts of the body ; (4) possibly by massaging 

 and squeezing out the juices from the body ; (5) by the 

 free use of alcohol (palm wine) and large quantities of 

 powdered wood ; and (6) by the aid of fire. 



Dr. Alan Gardiner tells me that the most ancient 

 Egyptian writings, such, for example, as the Pyramid 

 texts, afford positive evidence that the Egyptians recog- 

 nised the fact of the desiccation of the body in the process 

 of embalming, for their scribes tell us, in the most definite 

 manner, that the aim of the ceremony of offering libations 

 was magically to restore to the body (as represented by 

 the statue above ground) the fluids it had lost during 

 embalming (Blackman, 5). 



If then the Egyptians of the Pyramid Age recognised 

 the importance of restoring the fluids to reanimate the 

 mummy or its statue, it is quite clear they must have 

 appreciated the physical fact that their process of preser- 

 vation was largely a matter of desiccation. 



It is a point of some interest and importance to note 

 in this connection that the essential processes of mummi- 

 fication — (1) salting, (2) evisceration, (3) drying, and (4.; 

 smoking (or even cooking) — are identical with those 

 adopted for the preservation of meat, and (5) the use of 

 honey is analogous to the means taken to preserve fruit. 

 In fact, the term used by Herodotus for the first stage of 

 the Egyptian process of mummification is the term used 

 for salting fish. It would be instructive to enquire in what 

 measure these two needs of primitive man in North-East 

 Africa mutually influenced one another, and led to an 



