74 ELLIOT SMITH, Distribution of Mummification. 



In his article on Thibetan burial customs (32, p. 511), 

 Waddell informs us that preservation of the entire body 

 by embalming seems to be restricted to the sovereign 

 Grand Lamas of Lhasa and Tashilhumpo. The body is 

 embalmed by salting, and, clad in the robes of the 

 deceased and surrounded by his personal implements of 

 worship, is placed, in the attitude of a seated Buddha, 

 within a gilded copper sarcophagus in one of the rooms 

 of the palace : it is then worshipped as a divinity." 



There are many points of interest in this practice, 

 which, considered in conjunction with the methods 

 practised in Burma, Ceylon and Persia just mentioned, 

 clearly indicate not only the sources and the routes taken 

 by this knowledge of embalming in its spread from 

 Egypt, but also how the burial rites of a variety of 

 peoples can become intimately blended and intermingled 

 one with another. 



In Captain T. H. Lewins' book on " The Wild Tribes 

 of South-Eastern India" (London, 1870, p. 274) I find the 

 following statement : — " Among the Dhun and Khorn 

 clans the body is placed in a coffin made of a hollow tree 

 trunk, with holes in the bottom. This is placed on a lofty 

 platform and left to dry in the sun. The dried body is 

 afterwards rammed into an earthern vase and buried ; 

 the head is cut off and preserved. Another clan sheathe 

 their dead in pith ; the corpse is then placed on a plat- 

 form, under which a slow fire is kept up until the body is 

 dried. The corpse is then kept for six months .... it is 

 then buried. The Howlong clan hang the body up to the 

 house-beams for seven days, during which time the dead 

 man's wife has to sit underneath spinning." 



These interesting records are of considerable value in 

 establishing connexions between East Africa and regions 

 further east, which will be discussed in the following pages. 





