100 ELLIOT SMITH, Distribution of Mummification. 



some portion of their ancestors brought with them into 

 this country, I would argue from it that these ancestors 

 were once in contact with, or rather formed part of, a 

 race which had beliefs similar to those of the Persians ; 

 such beliefs are not readily adopted by strangers ; they 

 belong to a race." Frazer proceeds to contrast this 

 practice with the other Australian custom of desiccation, 

 which, he says, " corresponds to the Egyptian practice of 

 mummification " (p. 81) : but, as Hertz (33 et supra) has 

 pointed out, they were inspired by the same fundamental 

 idea, however much the present practitioners of the two 

 methods may fail to realize this in their beliefs and 

 traditions. The interesting suggestion emerges from 

 these considerations that the peculiar Persian burial cus- 

 toms may be essentially a degraded and profoundly 

 modified form of the ancient Egyptian funerary rites. 



In his " Polynesian Researches " William Ellis (15) 

 gives an interesting, though unfortunately too brief, 

 account of the Tahitian practice of embalming. Among 

 the poor and middle classes " methods of preservation 

 were too expensive " to be used, but the body was " placed 

 upon a sort of bier covered with the best native cloth " 

 while awaiting burial (.p. 399). 



" The bodies of the dead, among the chiefs, were, 

 however, in general preserved above ground : a temporary 

 house or shed was erected for them, and they were placed 

 on a kind of bier . . . sometimes the moisture of the body 

 was removed by pressing the different parts, drying it in 

 the sun, and anointing it with fragrant oils. At other 

 times, the intestines, brains, etcetera were removed : all 

 moisture was extracted from the body, which was fixed in 

 a sitting position during the day, and exposed to the sun, 

 and, when placed horizontally at night was frequently 

 turned over, that it might not remain long on the same 



