ON MUMMIES. 
By S. Birch, LL.D. 
No. II. 
MUMMY-CASES, two 
fashions principally pre- 
vailed at the period which 
intervened from the 20th 
to the 30th dynasties. 
Either the mummy was 
placed in a highly de- 
corated linen case, or else 
left plain and deposited 
in a painted wooden 
coffin. As the undertakers were not bound by 
any fixed rules, they added or varied their de- 
corations at will ; but certain devices appear at 
particular periods. Thus, at the precited one, 
about 1000 to 525 b.c., leather straps or braces, 
called cmkhu, terminating at the ends in scarlet 
bands, are found stamped with the names and 
emblem of the monarch in whose reign the mummy 
had been made. What particular meaning these 
straps and devices had does not appear; but at 
the Roman period, leaden seals, or even waxen 
ones, were used, probably to hinder mistake or 
prevent the abstraction of the valuable articles 
deposited with the dead. After these came the 
cartonage, or linen covering. This was made of 
several layers of linen, sometimes as many as 
forty, glued and pressed together, so as to become 
a hard compact substance ; and it was made, when 
wet, to follow the contours of the mummy. A 
face and head-dress was modelled in imitation of 
life, and a small square plinth or pedestal moulded 
at the feet ; so that the mummy, when it was stood 
upright, resembled a statue on its pedestal. The 
cartonage was made separate from the mummy, 
and left open at the back, in order to facilitate its 
adjustment. Sometimes the back had eyelet-holes 
for a cord to lace it tightly round the form ; and 
under the foot was generally a painted board of 
sycamore wood, which completed the case. On 
these cases or cartonages were laid smooth and thin 
layers of stucco, on which were painted, in tempera, 
various scenes and portions of the Ritual in pure and 
lively colours. These scenes had reference to the 
Ritual for the Dead, and, although great latitude 
occurs, were yet arranged in a certain order. The 1 
iv. 
hair is generally painted blue or black, and on its 
crown is often seen a scarabams, emblem of the 
future existence or transformation made by the 
dead in the future state. A fillet or wreath is 
disposed round the head, with flowers of the lotus 
in front ; and sometimes a mystical formula is 
traced in hieroglyphs on the fillet. The face is 
painted red, if that of a man at the earlier periods, 
and yellow if of a female ; but pink was intro- 
duced in a later age under the Ptolemies. A rich 
collar adorns the neck, and the accompanying 
pectoral plate is often adorned. A ram-headed 
hawk, emblem of Khnum or Chnebis, the Creator, 
flying with extended wings, and holding a signet 
in each claw, is generally painted on the breast. 
Beneath this is the hawk of Ra, or the Sun, wearing 
the disk and horns upon his head, and flying in the 
same ’attitude. Over the lower part of the chest 
is the judgment scene, or vignette of the 125th 
chapter of the Ritual. This scene, more or less 
complete, represents the deceased introduced by 
Thoth or Hermes into the presence of Osiris, the 
judge of the dead, seated on his throne in the hall 
of the two Truths. Before him is the Devourer, 
symbolized as a monster composed of a hippopotamus, 
lion, and crocodile; and the New- birth or Metempsy- 
chosis, indicated by cubit measures, terminating in 
human heads. In other compartments, at the sides, 
are deities and genii of the dead ; and beneath, 
another vignette represents that of the 89th chapter 
of the Ritual. It is the union of the soul and body, 
the revisit of the disembodied spirit to its mortal 
tenement. The soul, symbolized as a hawk with a 
human face, flies down, holding in its hand the 
emblem of life, which it brings back to the mummy 
laid on its sepulchral bier. From this, down the 
centre of the cartonage, is a standard of a housing 
surmounted by two plumes, emblem of the ceme- 
tery of Abydos, in which reposed the deified Osiris. 
On the staff of this stands a line of hieroglyphs, 
expressing the usual dedication to different deities 
of the dead — to Osiris, to Ra, to Ptah Socharis 
Atum, and other gods — invoking them to give the 
dead food and drink, and other substances that 
he required, to permit him to go in and out of 
H 
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