LXXXVI. There are certain persons appointed by law to the exercise of this profession. The Jews embalmed their dead, but instead of emboweling, were contented with an external unction. The present way in Ægypt, according to Maillet, is to wash the body repeatedly with rose-water. Diodorus Siculus is very minute on this subject: after describing the expence and ceremony of embalming, he adds, that the relations of the deceased, till the body was buried, used neither baths, wine, delicate food, nor fine clothes. The same author describes three methods of embalming, with the first of which our author does not appear to have been acquainted. The form and appearance of the whole body was so well preserved, that the deceased might be known by their features. The Romans had the art of embalming as well as the Ægyptians; and if what is related of them be true, this art had arrived to greater perfection in Rome than in Ægypt.See Montfaucon. A modern author remarks, that the numberless mummies which still endure, after so long a course of ages, ought to ascertain to the Ægyptians the glory of having carried chemistry to a degree of perfection attained but by few. Some moderns have attempted by certain preparations to preserve dead bodies entire, but to no purpose.-T. Whoever wishes to know more on the subject of embalming, will do well to consult M. Rouelle's Memoir in the Academy of Sciences, for 1750, p. 150, and Dr. Hadley's Dissertation in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. liv. p. 3. 14. The first calls the wrapper cotton, the other determines it to be like long lawn, woven after the manner of Russia sheeting. A great deal of farther information may also be had from Larcher. The words of Herodotus are remarkable and precise; ovdovos Buσovns, linen of cotton, or cotton linen. Thus Pollux and also Arrian define, what we have now so common, Indian cotton. When a dead body is brought to them, they exhibit to the friends of the deceased, different models highly finished in wood. The most perfect of these they say resembles one whom I do not think it religious to name in such a matter; the second is of less price, and inferior in point of execution; another is still more mean; they then enquire after which model the deceased shall be represented: when the price is determined, the relations retire, and the embalmers thus proceed: In the most perfect specimens of their art, they draw the brain through the nostrils, partly with a piece of crooked iron, and partly by the infusion of drugs; they then with an Æthiopian stone make an incision in the side, through which they extract the intestines 158; these they cleanse thoroughly, washing them with palm-wine, and afterwards covering them with pounded aromatics: they then fill the body with powder of pure myrrh 159, cassia, cassia, and other perfumes, except frankincense. Having sown up the body, it is 158 Intestines. ]-Porphyry informs us what afterwards becomes of these: they are put into a chest, and one of the embalmers makes a prayer for the deceased, addressed to the sun, the purport of which is to signify that if the conduct of the deceased has during his life been at all criminal, it must have been on account of these; the embalmer then points to the chest, which is afterwards thrown into the river.-T. 159 Myrrh.]-Instead of myrrh and cassia, the Jews in embalming used myrrh and aloes.-7. covered with nitre 160 for the space of seventy days 161, which time they may not exceed; at the end of this period it is washed, closely wrapped in bandages of cotton 19, dipped in a gum 162 163 160 Nitre.]-Larcher says, this was not of the nature of our nitre, but a fixed alkaline salt. Literally, it is salted or pickled with nitre. In the less expensive mode of embalming, Rouelle observes that it was impossible to inject at the fundament, as it were by clysters, a sufficient quantity of cedar liquid ointment, to consume the whole inside, and that they must therefore have made some additional openings. Herodotus expressly says, they made no incisions in the meaner subjects (see c. 87), but stopping up the body a certain number of days, and pickling it, they afterwards let out the cedar fluid, which consumes the inside as the nitre does the outside, leaving only a skeleton in the skin. The third class, or poor, were washed internally with a liquor called syrmaie, and pickled in nitre the usual time. The intestines of the Teneriffe mummy were extracted by an incision in the right side of the abdomen, afterwards sewed up. The nitre here mentioned, is doubtless the natron which is found in such abundance in the Natra Lakes. 161 Seventy days.]" If the nitre or natrum had been suffered," says Larcher, "to remain for a longer period, it would have attacked the solid or fibrous parts, and dissolved them; if it had been a neutral salt, like our nitre, this precaution would not have been necessary." 66 162 Cotton. By the byssus cotton seems clearly to be meant, which," says Larcher, was probably consecrated by their religion to the purpose of embalming." Mr. Greaves asserts, that these bandages in which the mummies were involved were of linen; but he appears to be mistaken. There [163 For this note see next page.] which the Ægyptians use as glue: it is then returned to the relations, who enclose the body in a case of wood, made to resemble an human figure, and place it against the wall in the repository of their dead. The above is the most costly mode of embalming. LXXXVII. They who wish to be less expensive, adopt the following method: they neither draw out the intestines, nor make any incision in the dead body, but inject an unguent made from the cedar; after taking proper means to secure the injected oil within the body, it is covered with nitre for the time above specified 16: on the last There are two species of this plant, annual and perennial; it was the latter which was cultivated in Ægypt. 163 Gum.]-This was gum arabic. Pococke says it is produced from the acacia, which is very common in Ægypt, the same as the acacia, called cyale in Arabia Petræa: in Ægypt it is called fount. Ægyptia tellus Claudit odorato post funus stantia busto 164 Time above specified.]-According to Irwin, the time of mourning of the modern Ægyptians is only seven days: the Jews in the time of Moses mourned thirty days. The mourning for Jacob, we find from Genesis, chap. 50. ver. 3, was the time here prescribed for the process of embalming; but how are we to explain the preceding verses? And day they withdraw the liquor before introduced, which brings with it all the bowels and intestines; the nitre eats away the flesh, and the skin and bones only remain: the body is returned in this state, and no farther care taken concerning it. LXXXVIII. There is a third mode of embalming appropriated to the poor. A particular kind of ablution 165 is made to pass through the body, which is afterwards left in nitre for the above seventy days, and then returned. LXXXIX. The wives of men of rank, and such females as have been distinguished by their beauty or importance, are not immediately on their decease delivered to the embalmers: they are usually kept for three or four days, which is done to prevent any indecency being offered to their persons. An instance once occurred of an embalmer's gratifying his lust on the body of "And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel. "And forty days were fulfilled for him; (for so are fulfiled the days of those which are embalmed) and the Egyptians mourned for him three score and ten days,"-T. 165 Ablution.]-The particular name of this ablution is in the original surmaia, some believe it a composition of salt and water; the word occurs again in chap. cxxv. where it signifies a radish.-T. |