Nature and Art, July 1, 1866.] 
ON MUMMIES. 
47 
once mighty, with a view to secure the transit trade 
of the East, and enrich the coffers of a corrupt court. 
Of what race were the mummies : — the greater 
number of the Egyptian exhibiting at the earliest 
epoch certain negroid peculiarities, but intermingled 
with Semites on the northern and negroes on the 
southern border 1 The Egyptian of the sculptures 
has an upward elongation of head, receding fore- 
head, delicate features, oblique eye, straight or 
aquiline nose, full lips, and ear placed high on the 
head. His colour was red, his form long and slen- 
der, his legs thin. The hair was plaited in curls. 
Similar peculiarities are traceable in the mummies, 
in which the features are thin and delicate ; the 
hair sometimes curly, at others long ; the forehead 
good ; the teeth well preserved, but the front ones 
often worn ; the height moderate. On the whole, 
the Egyptians were a well-proportioned race, and 
distinct from the other races by which they were 
surrounded. Immediately after death the prepara- 
tion of the dead commenced. After the relations 
or some of the family had rushed into the streets 
and raised the funeral wail, the preparers of the 
dead, the tariclieutw or embalmers, were called to 
take possession of the body. So jealous was this 
fraternity of its rights, that care was taken to apply 
to the proper one of the district. They called for 
the corpse at night, and carried it to their establish- 
ment, for the costly and tedious preparation could 
not be performed in the precincts of a private 
house. Here the scribe traced with a light reed 
the place of the flank incision ; a paraschistes 
operated with a so-called Ethiopian stone ; and a 
rite of throwing stones at him for the supposed 
injury was ostensibly performed by the bystanders. 
As to the particular manner in which the preserva- 
tion of the dead was to be effected, that depended 
on the age in which the deceased had lived, or the 
expense that the family was willing to incur. 
Models of the different manners were exhibited in 
the shops or establishments, and the extant mum- 
mies exhibit great diversity of the art. Ideas 
changed during 2000 years ; new drugs were dis- 
covered; different processes invented. The earlier 
preparers seem to have relied on salt, wax, and 
wine ; those of the middle empire on naphtha and 
bitumen : but, as the art declined and the wealth 
of the country grew less, salt and cheaper substances 
were employed. In the days of Herodotus the cost 
of preserving a body, in the first or best style, 
amounted to a talent of silver, or about £244 ; but 
the middle classes did not expend above 20 mime, 
or £22, on the operation. 
It is not necessary to detail all the processes and 
the curious anatomical facts, that the scientific 
examination of mummies has revealed. It is 
sufficient to state, that these processes occupied 
nearly 70 days, and that during this period the 
family kept fast, and mourning. When the body 
was preserved from decay it was enwrapped in 
linen, no other material being allowed. But before 
the final placing of the wraps, certain amulets were 
placed about the form to protect the body, and to 
assure the soul a safe delivery from the danger of 
destruction or purgatory. A flat tin plate of 
square shape engraved with a mystical eye, was 
placed on the flank incision. This represented the 
eye of the god Shu, one of the deities of light, and 
of itself was supposed to retain the vital principle. 
A series of pretty little amulets of jasper, felspar, 
and gold, were hung round the neck, and were 
supposed to prevent the deceased from being 
turned away from the gate of heaven at the 
west, to procure him food off the table of the sun, 
and to justify him against his enemies. As the 
Egyptian considered the heart to be the seat of 
life, a scarabseus with a special chapter, consecrated 
by special ceremonies, was placed above the region 
of that organ for its protection. The enwrapping 
of the mummy was a most artistic preparation, and 
the quantity of linen employed considerable as 
much as 700 yards, and 40 lbs. in weight, have 
been found. Coarser near the body, the wrap- 
pings become finer externally, and quantities of 
old material were employed, for either the families 
preserved the linen for the purpose, or else the 
agents of the embalmers traversed the streets from 
house to house, to secure an adequate supply. 
They were laid on wet, and kept even by pledgets. 
We find that the more finished parts of bandages a 
few inches broad, and several yards long, were used 
fresh from the loom with their blue selvages and 
and fringes, the coarser portions being composed of 
old shirts or other household linen. Several men were 
employed at the same time on the bandages ; often 
they could not be finished at once. A scribe then 
wrote, on a bandage outside, the name of the 
deceased, to which he sometimes added the age at 
death, and the year of the king’s reign when it 
happened. The last bandage of all mummies of 
some periods, was often of a pink colour dyed by 
an infusion of the carthamus tinctorius, at others 
it was formed of strips covered with the text of 
rituals traced in black, but no one rule prevailed. 
Over the outer bandage there was frequently a 
network of bugles and beads of blue porcelain. 
This net was the symbol of Osiris, whose body, when 
thrown by Typhon and his associates into the Nile, 
had been recovered by the nets of fishermen. 
Sometimes, pieces of beaded work with various 
devices worked in divers colours, and even in- 
scriptions, were placed on the outer bandages. 
Many mummies had the pectoral plate or uta, an 
ornament bearing the same name as the word 
u health,” which it perhaps symbolized, with a 
scarabseus in a barge, emblem, as it would appeal', 
of Osiris adored by Isis and Nephthys. This 
searabseus often bears the chapter of the Ritual for 
the protection of the heart. These beaded decora- 
tions are principally found about the sixth century 
B.c., and do not appear at the commencement of 
the art. At a still later period they are super- 
seded by smali gilded emblems of words, amulets 
in shape of the principal deities of the dead, and 
other charms which had a mystic meaning. In 
the Greek mummies which have certain pecu- 
liarities of type, there were often substituted 
wreaths of leaves for the network, and gold 
