1 85 Dr. Blumenbach’s Observations 
I discovered the various/nzw dulent artifices that had been prac- 
tised in the construction of this mask : the wooden part was 
evidently a piece of the front of the sarcophagus of the mummy 
of a young person ; and in order to convert its alto-relievo into 
the basso-relievo of the usual cotton mask of a mummy, 
plaster had been applied on each side of the nose ; after which 
paper had been ingeniously pasted over the whole face, and 
lastly, this paper had been stained with the colours generally 
observed on mummies. 
The small Sloanian mummy in the Museum had probably 
been prepared nearly in the same manner. That the deception 
has in both cases been very industriously executed, appears from 
this, that, as far as I can learn, no one has observed it before, 
although both these pieces have no doubt been often seen, and 
examined by persons conversant with these matters. 
Some other suspicious circumstances in the mummies I 
examined in London were more evident. For instance, the 
coffins of sycamore wood fastened together with iron nails, in 
which the small mummies of Dr. Garthshore, Dr. Lettsom, 
and Sir W. Hamilton, were contained, had most probably 
been recently constructed of pieces of decayed sarcophagi of 
ancient mummies. The little Sloanian mummy even lay 
in a box in the form of a sarcophagus, which was made of a 
dark-brown hard wood, totally different from the sycamore, 
and manifestly of modern construction. 
How many other artificial restorations and deceptions may 
have been practised in the several mummies which have been 
brought into Europe, which have never been suspected, and 
may perhaps never be detected, may well be admitted, when 
we consider how imperfect we are as yet in our knowledge of 
