MUMMY

(Arab, mumia; from mum, w^aj-.) The name given to the dead bodies of men or animals which are by any means preserved in a dry state from the proce of putrefaction. Mummies have usually been divided into two cla es — natural and artificial; the former arising from peculiar conditions of soil and atmosphere, which permit the drying of the animal ti ues to be effected with such rapidity that the body is preserved; the latter embracing the various means that have been employed from the earliest ages to preserve dead bodies from corruption. Of the former or natural cla of mummies some well-known instances are to be found in the vaults of several Continental churches, particularly at Strasburg, Toulouse, and Bordeaux. The art of embalming owes its origin to the extreme veneration with which the ancient Egyptians regarded the corpses of their relatives, and was practised with such succe that at the lapse of 3000 years the mummies found in the numerous catacombs of Egypt are still objects of admiration. But it was not to the dead bodies of the human species alone that the ancient Egyptians restricted their reverence; they practised embalming also on all the animals which their religion held sacred, and of these upwards of fifty different species have been found embalmed. The art of embalming was practised also to a considerable extent by the ancient Jews, Greeks, and Romans, though it never attained such celebrity or perfection among them as among the people from whom it was borrowed. It was also adopted as a national custom by the Guanches, the ancient inhabitants of the Canary Islands; a full account of which is to be found in the E ai sur les Isles Fortunees, by M. Bory de St. Vincent. The account which Hero dot us has left us of the Egyptian proce of embalming is so minute, and has besides been so amply confirmed in the most e ential particulars, not only by the subsequent writers of antiquity, but in still more recent times (see the Memoir of M. de Rouyer), that we cannot refrain from embodying it in our pages. There are, says he, persons resident in Egypt who make this art their profe ion. When a dead body is brought to them, they show the bearers three wooden models of mummies imitated in painting, the most elaborate of which are said to be of him (Osiris) whose name I do not think it right to mention on this occasion. The second which they show is simpler and le expensive; and the third is the cheapest of all. They then demand of the bearers which model they wish to be adopted; and the latter having decided upon the price, depart. The most expensive preparation is as follows: — First they extract the brain through the nostrils by means of a hooked iron instrument, — partly by pulling it out, and partly by the infusion of drugs. They then with a sharp ^Ethiopian stone make an incision in the side in order to extract all the viscera, which they wash with palm wine and purify with pulverized perfumes. Having next filled the belly with pure ground myrrh, ca ia, and all other odoriferous herbs except frankincense, they sow it up; and rubbing the whole corpse with natron, bury it for 70 days, —a longer period not being admi ible. At the expiration of the 70 days they wrap the whole corpse in bandages of fine linen, and smear it all over with gum, which the Egyptians are in the habit of using instead of glue. The friends of the deceased, on again receiving the body, have a wooden case made in the form of a human figure, in which they place it; and having shut it up, deposit it in a sepulchral building, setting it upright against the wall. For those again wlio, on account of the great expense of this mode of embalming, adopt the middle course, the bodies are thus prepared: — They fill all the intestines with cedar oil, without either cutting into the body or extracting the viscera; and, taking means to prevent the egre of the injected liquid, they salt the body for the prescribed, number of days. The cedar oil is then taken out; and such is the power with which it operates that it brings with it the bowels and all the viscera in a state of di olution. The natron also destroys the flesh of the body, leaving only the skin and the bones. The body is then returned. The third mode of embalming is that practised on the poor. In this case they inject into the body a mixture of salt and water, wrap it up in natron for 70 days, and then deliver it to the relatives. {Herod, b. 2. c. 186.) [s. 791]