66 
sents the beetle called in Egyptian “ creator,” the sacred emblem 
of the God who made all things out of clay. The insect rests upon a 
base, upon which is generally inscribed a portion of the sepulchral 
ritual more or less complete, in allusion to the mystical transfor¬ 
mation which the deceased had to undergo before he could obtain 
his heart. 
Remote as is the antiquity of these burial customs amongst the 
oldest known people, they become comparatively modern, if we are 
to accept the age of the sepulchral cave of Aurignac, in the 
Pyrenees, which is thus described by Sir Charles Lyell in his 
recent work on the Antiquity of Man :— 
“ The Aurignac cave adds no new species to the list of extinct 
quadrupeds which we have elsewhere, and by independent evidence, 
ascertained to have once flourished contemporaneously with man. 
But if the fossil memorials have been correctly interpreted—-if we 
have here before us, at the northern base of the Pyrenees, a 
sepulchral vault, with skeletons of human beings, consigned by 
friends and relatives to their last resting place—if we have also at 
the portal of the tomb the relics of funeral feasts, and within it 
indications of viands destined for the use of the departed on their 
way to the land of spirits ; while among the funeral gifts are 
weapons wherewith, in other fields, to chase the gigantic deer, the 
cave-lion, cave-bear, and woolly rhinoceros—we have at last suc¬ 
ceeded in tracing back the sacred rites of burial, and, more in¬ 
teresting still, a belief in a future state, to times long anterior to 
those of history and tradition.” 
16 to 20. Five sepulchral figures. 
Nos. 15 to 20. Deposited by Mr. Chivers, 
21. Twelve objects found between the first and second layers of 
the bandages of an Egyptian mummy ; consisting of a pectoral 
plate, hung by a cord to the neck, having the symbolical eye, 
also the plumes of Ptah, and other amulets, &c. Presented by 
Mr, Darke, 
22. A kiln-baked brick from ancient Babylonia, deposited by Mr, 
E, T, Stevens, 
Like the sun-dried bricks they were made of clay, mixed with 
grass and straw, which have, of course, disappeared in the baking ; 
traces, however, may still be distinguished of the stalks or stems in 
the clay. The back of the brick still retains a portion of the 
bitumen in which it was originally imbedded. This mode of brick¬ 
making was of the highest antiquity in Babylon. It is mentioned 
in the Book of Genesis that burnt bricks were employed soon after 
the flood, to build the foundations of the celebrated Tower of Babel, 
“ and slime,” or “ bitumen,” says Moses, “ was to them instead of 
mortar.” The mode of building here described exactly coincides 
with the manner in which the foundations of the buildings, both in 
Assyria and Babylonia, are constructed. 
