Embalming

According to Hero dot us the most elaborate and expensive proce cost £250. A body thus mummified came through the following proce es:—First, an incision was made in the side,—the operator being ceremonially chased away,—and the viscera removed (see Canopic Jars). The cavity thus made was cleansed with palm wine and filled with myrrh, ca ia, . The brain was removed through the nostrils by means of a bent instrument. The incision sewn up, the body was placed in a bath of natron for seventy days. At the end of this period it was washed, and swathed in innumerable gummed bandages. Amulets were placed now and again under the bandages, and on the breast a scarabaeus. Finally, a canvas shroud was kept in place by four or five broader bandages. Chapters from the "Book of the Dead" were sometimes written on the wrappings. In a le expensive method, costing about £90, the abdomen was injected with "cedar tree pitch," which Hero dot us states "had a corrosive and solvent action on the viscera." The contents were afterwards allowed to escape. The natron bath was common to every method, the bodies of the poorest being prepared for it by simply rinsing the abdomen with "smyrnaea."