64 ELLIOT SMITH, Distribution of Mummification. 



(For more complete bibliographical references, see 

 Pettigrew, 56, p. 233.) 



The large series of identical procedures makes it 

 absolutely certain that the method of embalming practised 

 in the Canary Islands was derived from Egypt, and not 

 earlier than 900 B.C. 



Reutter states {bT>, P- x 37) that "the Carthaginians, as 

 the result of long-continued commercial intercourse with 

 Egypt, assimilated its civilization even to the extent of 

 worshipping certain of the Egyptian gods and of accept- 

 ing many of her ideas and beliefs as to a future life." 



" These reasons impelled them to practise the art of 

 embalming and to represent the features of the dead 

 upon their sarcophagi to enable the soul to refind its 

 double." 



" Their burial chambers, for the most part not built 

 up, but carved out of the rock, communicated with the 

 exterior b}' a staircase. Above them were built mastabas 

 or monuments to be utilised, as amongst the Egyptians, 

 as offering-places" (p. 138). 



" Even the inscriptions in the mortuary chambers 

 were written in hieroglyphics, and their sarcophagi con- 

 tained scarabs inscribed with invocations to the Egyptian 

 gods, Ptah, Bes and Ra, &c." 



This reference is sufficient to indicate how the later 

 (certainly not earlier than 900 B.C. and probably some 

 centuries later) Egyptian practices spread around the 

 Mediterranean. 



I do not propose (in the present communication) to 

 discuss the influence and the manner of spread of the 

 practice of mummification in Europe. Reutter gives cer- 

 tain information in reference to this subject. It will 

 suffice to say that there is no evidence to show that 

 mummification was widely adopted until comparatively 



