100 
EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 
[UPPER 
ivory, and the latter much carved and ornamented. In Cases 42, 43, 
on Shelves 1 and 4, are baskets. Shelf 2. Tools chiefly made of bronze, 
and models of similar instruments, several of them inscribed with the 
name of Thothmes III., a king of the 18th dynasty. Shelf 3. Carvings 
in bone, ivory, and wood. Cases 44, 45. On Shelf 1, baskets made 
of palm-leaves. Shelf 2. Musical instruments, including harps, flutes, 
cymbals, and sistra ; games and playthings, such as draughtsmen, dice, 
dolls, and balls. Shelves 3, 4. Linen cloths of various colours. 
III. SEPULCHKAL SECTION. 
The preparations for embalming the dead, and ceremonies 
at funerals, were looked upon as matters of great importance 
by the Egyptians, and large sums of money were spent upon 
the sepulchral rites. There were several modes of preparing 
the mummies, varying not only at different periods, but also 
with the rank and wealth of the person to be interred. The 
more costly process was as follows : — The brain having been 
extracted, and the viscera removed through an opening cut in 
the left side with a stone, the body was, in earlier times, pre- 
pared with salt and wax, in later times, steeped or boiled in 
bitumen ; then wrapped round with bands of linen, some- 
times 700 yards in length ; various amulets being placed 
in different parts, and the whole covered with a linen shroud 
and sometimes decorated with a network of porcelain bugles. 
It was then enclosed in a thin case formed of canvas, thickened 
with a coating of stucco, on which were painted figures of 
divinities and emblems of various kinds, as well as the name 
and titles of the deceased, and portions of the Ritual of the 
Dead. The whole was then enclosed in a wooden coffin, and 
sometimes deposited in a stone sarcophagus. 
Cases 46-51. Various mummies and coffins; the most remarkable 
being part of the mummy-shaped coffin of King Menkare, the 
Mvcerinus of the Greeks, builder of the Third Pyramid. This is not 
only the oldest coffin in the collection, but one of the earliest inscribed 
monuments of Egypt. Near it is part of a body, supposed to be that 
of the king, found in the same pyramid. A small Grseco-Egyptian 
mummy of a child from Thebes ; on the external wrapper is painted a 
representation of the deceased. 
The principal mummies and their coffins are placed in two rows 
in the central part of the room. The most important are the fol- 
lowing : — 
