273 
Egyptian mummies, 
characters have corroded the linen, leaving the perforated 
traces of their form. A fac-simile of this curious fragment 
will be found in Plate XVIII. fig. 3. 
Besides this outer fascia, there was another bandage 
thrown over the head, brought in front of the chest, crossed 
there, and carried behind the back, where, being crossed 
also, it was again brought in front to be once more crossed 
and returned backward, and ultimately stretched from be- 
hind, before, down to the feet, where it crossed a third 
time in the manner delineated with great precision in 
Plate XVIII. fig. 2. The shape, form, and position of the 
limbs lay thus completely concealed, the mummy presenting 
a i homogeneous outline resembling, an elongated oval, the 
superior end of which was twice the width of the inferior. 
There was, besides, laid upon the face, above the ban- 
dages, a thick mass of linen, by no means neatly folded up, 
covered by a considerable layer of a black bituminous sub- 
stance, which became soft on long exposure to moisture, but 
which, while in that situation, most effectually concealed the 
features : so that in the present instance, there appears to 
have existed no desire in the surviving relatives to preserve 
the lineaments of a cherished friend, as must have been the 
case with regard to those mummies described by more than 
one author, in which the bandages applied to the head, had 
been so skilfully managed as to retain every feature of the 
face. 
The other remaining observations with which I shall trou- 
ble the Society on the subject of these bandages, have refe- 
rence to the materials of which they are made, and the 
substance with which they seem to be impregnated^ 
