In Egypt and the East 253 



It is said tliat tlie dead were occasionally preserved in 

 honey, which seems to have been a common practice in 

 some other countries, and Plutarch tells us the following of 

 Agesilaus, who on his way home from Egypt was ship- 

 wrecked and perished on a desert shore of Africa : — 



" It was the custom of the Spartans to bury persons of 

 ordinary rank in the place where they expired, when they 

 happened to die in a foreign country, but to carry the 

 corpses of their kings home. And as the attendants of 

 Agesilaus had fiot honey to preserve the body, they em- 

 balmed it with melted wax, and in this way conveyed it 

 to Lacedoemon." 



Whether the practice of embalming with honey was 

 learned in Egypt or in some other country is not 

 stated. 



It certainly was not the ordinary custom of the Egyptians 

 to preserve their dead in honey, though there are stories of 

 its being occasionally done^ as witness the following : — 



" Abdallatif, whom we have so often quoted, gives some 

 additional information about mummies which is well worth 

 noticing. 



"Besides the mummies that were found in wood and 

 stone coffins, he speaks of others found in vessels of 

 honey. 



" ' A man of veracity,' says the Doctor, ' assured me that 

 he and his friends, while looking for treasures near the 

 pyramids, found a vessel well sealed, which they opened 

 and discovered to contain honey. While they were tasting • 

 it, one of them remarked a hair that stuck to his finger ; 

 he pulled it and they saw a child appear, with all its limbs 

 adhering together, its body quite fresh and ornamented 

 with jewels.' " 



Turning from this rather ghastly pot of honey to that 

 most delightful of ancient historians, Herodotus, we listen 



