104 ELLIOT Smith, Distribution of Mummification. 



soaked in vegetable oil and resinous materials : then the 

 mummy is wrapped up with bandages, the head and hands 

 being left exposed. 



The body so prepared is put in a special place where 

 it is preserved indefinitely. 



" In Pitcairn Island 1,400 miles due west of Easter 

 Island carved stone pillars or images of a somewhat similar 

 character to those of Easter Island" are found (Enoch, 

 16, p. 274). 



"Another 1,400 miles to the north-west takes us to 

 Tahiti. The natives of Tahiti buried their chiefs in temples ; 

 their embalmed bodies, after being exposed, were interred 

 in a couching position. Mention is made of a pyramidal 

 stone structure, on which were the actual altars, which 

 stood at the farther end of one of the squares." 



" There are many close analogies between the sacri- 

 ficial practices and those of Mexico" (p. 275). 



In their extensive migrations the carriers of the 

 " heliolithic" culture took with them the custom of cir- 

 cumcision, and introduced it into most of the regions 

 where their influence spread. In some of the areas 

 affected by the "heliolithic" leaven the more primitive 

 operation of " incision " is found. This consists not of 

 removing the prepuce, but merely slitting up its dorsal 

 aspect (69, p. 432). It was the method employed in 

 Egypt in pre-dynastic times, when it was the custom to 

 hide the phallus in a leather sheath suspended from a 

 rope tied round the body. The practice of " incision " 

 and the use of the pudendal sheath persists in some parts 

 of Africa until the present day (see Journ. Roy. AntJiropol. 

 Ins tit., 191 3, p. 120). 



Rivers claims that " the practice of incision arose in 

 Oceania as a modification of circumcision " (69, p. 436) : 

 but I think the possibility of it having been introduced 



