a. Prepared with balsamic matter.
b. Prepared with natron (salted).
(a.) Mummies without the ventral incision.
a. Salted and filled with bituminous matter less pure than that of the others, called pissasphaltus.
b. Salted and dried.
There are some exceptions to this classification, as when in a mummy prepared in a costly manner there is no ventral incision.
In the more costly kind of mummies the brain has been usually extracted through the nostrils by a skilful operation, and the head been either washed or filled with medicaments, of which remains have been found, as well as of insects, which were enclosed in the operation of embalming, and lived for some time in this strange prison." In many cases, however, the brain was not removed at all, and yet the body very carefully and per fectly preserved (History of Egyptlnn Mummies, p. 56). An incision was generally made in the flank, through which the viscera were extracted, and hav ing been prepared, were either placed in four vases, having the heads of the four genii of Amenti or Hades, sons of Osiris, or were wholly or partly replaced, in the latter case being sometimes en closed in bandages. According to Herodotus the great cavities of the body were, after being cleansed, filled with aromatics, of which remains have been found in examples examined, and the body was steeped in a solution of natron, in which it re mained for seventy days, but for no longer period. ' This,' Mr. Pettigrew observes, `would appear to be precisely the time necessary for the operation o: the alkali on the animal fibre' (Ibid., p. 61). The body was then washed, and next, according to Hero dotus, it was bandaged. Diodorus Siculus says, how ever, that it was prepared with oil of cedar and other things for thirty (var. forty) days or more, the passage being deficient in distinctness. Mr. Pettigrew sup poses that in this stage `the body must have been subjected to a very considerable degree of heat ; for the resinous and aromatic substances have penetrated even into the innermost structure of the bones, an effect which could not have been produced without the aid of a high temperature, and which was absolutely necessary for the entire preservation of the body' p. 62). M. Rouyer is of the same opinion.±
The surface of the body was in one example covered with a coating of the dust of woods and barks; nowhere less than one inch in thickness,' which ' had the smell of cinnamon or cassia' (Ibid., pp. 62, 63). At the same stage plates of gold were sometimes applied to portions of the body, or even its whole surface. Before enwrapping, the body was always placed at full length, with no variety save in the position of the arms.
In mummies prepared in an inferior manner the brain does not appear to have been extracted, and the viscera seem to have been destroyed before Withdrawal. Resinous and aromatic medicaments are supposed not to have been used. It is said by Herodotus that the intestines were filled with oil of cedar, and the body put in a solution of natron apparently for seventy days (rametiovat Ids rpoKeinevas iyibpas—compare, of the costly mode, Tapixeliourri XirpW, Koblbarres ilpipas ifi'Sonr))sovra, and the same of the cheapest). In confirmation of this statement, a mummy has been examined, of which ' the skin and bones alone remained, the flesh was entirely destroyed by the natrum' (Hist., p. 69). The cheapest mummies are separated by M. Rouyer into those salted and filled with pis.s asphaltus, and those that were only salted. In the former kind, the body is coated with this mineral pitch, which has so thoroughly penetrated it, that the two are not to be distinguished. He supposes that such mummies were submerged in liquid pitch. In Egypt they are the most common. The mum mies simply salted are generally found in caves abounding in saline matters ; and their preparation may be regarded as the rudest kind of embalming, practised either in very remote times or when the usual substances could not be obtained, or else when the decay of the Egyptian religion had brought embalming into neglect, perhaps on all these occasions, for such a simple mode of pre servation may have been the oldest, and have never fallen into complete disuse. Both these kinds of mummies have been imperfectly described.