346 Colonel Straton on the Sepulchral Caverns qf Egypt. 
as vivid as if recently laid on ; in all the tincts most subject to 
fade, are, from the aridity of the climate, clearly discernible. 
The ceilings are not unusually painted in small squares, some- 
what like the painted flooring-cloth used in halls and lobbies. 
The mummy-^i^<y are generally roundish in shape, with the 
sides and ceiling rough. The mummies are enveloped in nu- 
merous folds of a sort of linen stuff, impregnated with gummy 
and resinous matter ; the most common sort have no other 
covering: a second class has a covering of cement or stucco 
upon canvas, made to adjust itself to the body, and painted 
with figures and hieroglyphics, — a human face, probably that 
of the deceased, is frequently painted on the case: A third 
class of mummies, thus doubly enveloped, are laid in a wooden 
case, sometimes thin, at other times of very considerable thick- 
ness, and more or less ornamented with paintings. The upper part 
of the case is furnished with wooden pegs, and the under with 
holes to receive them ; while some are further secured by cross 
pegs. The wood is generally in perfect preservation, and I believe 
invariably of sycamore; pieces of date-tree are found in the 
caverns, but on handling them, they crumble to , dust. The 
mummy cases are also found imrnersed in bituminous matter, so 
adhesive, that in removing them, the bottom part remained in 
the preparation 
All the mummies were laid horizontally ; though Dr Shaw, 
I think, says they were placed perpendicularly. The horizon- 
tal position is further confirmed by the pictured representations 
of mummies in the sepulchres. The male mummies had general- 
ly the hands placed over the middle ; the female across the chest. 
The entrance to the newly discovered caverns, was found 
barricadoed by a wall, and covered up with heaps of stones. 
Barriers of stones or of the rock are also found in the galleries, 
and the passage intersected with a deep cavity. 
The sepulchres in the valley of Biban el Moluk (called the 
Tombs of the Kings), at the distance of seven or eight miles 
from the western bank of the Nile, are much more extensive, 
and infinitely more magnificent. Many of them contain a sar- 
cophagus of granite, and one has a sarcophagus of alabaster. 
* A very perfect mummy from Thebes, was presented to the University Mu- 
seum of Edinburgh by Colonel Straton. — Ed. 
