Our knowledge of the medicaments used in the preparation of mummies is as yet very incomplete. We cannot trust the statements of the Greek writers, nor are we always sure of the exact mean ing of the terms they employ, and the chemical analysis of the substances discovered in the exami nation of mummies is anything but conclusive. The principal material in the more costly mum mies appears to have been asphalt, either alone or mixed with a vegetable liquor, or so mixed with the addition of resinous and aromatic ingredients. Mr. Pettigrew supposes resinous matters were used as a kind of varnish for the body, and that pounded aromatics were sprinkled in the cavities within. The natron, in a solution of which the mummies were placed in every method, appears to have been a fixed alkali. It might be obtained from the Natron Lakes and like places in the Libyan desert. Wax has also been discovered.* The embalming having been completed, the body was wrapped in bandages. There has been much difficulty as to the material but it seems certain that linen was invariably used. Though always long, they vary in this respect ; and we know no authenticated instance of their exceeding 7oo yards, though much greater measures are men tioned.* The width is also very various, but it is not generally more than seven or eight inches. The quantity of cloth used is best ascertained from the weight. The texture varies, in the cases of single mummies, the coarser material being always nearer to the body. The bandages are found to have been saturated with asphalt, resin, gum, or natron ; but the asphalt has only been traced in those nearer the body : probably the saturation is due to the pre paration of the mummies, and does not indicate any special preparation of the clothes. The beauty of the bandaging has been the subject of great admiration. The strips were very closely bound, and all directions were adopted that could carry out this object. Mr. Pettigrew is of opinion that they were certainly applied wet. Various amulets and personal ornaments are found upon mummies and in their wrappings ; the former were thought to be of use to the soul in its wanderings, and they were placed with the body from the belief in the relation between the two after death. With these matters, and the other particulars of Egyptian mum mies, we have little to do, as our object is to shew how far the Jewish burial-usages may have been de rived from Egypt. The body in the cases of most of the richer mummies, when bandaged, has been covered with what has been termed by the French a cartonage, formed of layers of cloth, plastered with lime on the inside. The shape is that of a body of which the arms and legs are not distinguishable. In this shape every dead person who had, if we may believe Diodorus, been judged by a particu lar court to be worthy of the honour of burial, was considered to have the form of Osiris, and was called by his name. It seems more probable, how ever, that the tribunal spoken of was that of Amenti, the hidden,' the Egyptian Hades, and that the practice of embalming was universal. The car tonage of the more costly mummies is generally beautifully painted with subjects connected with Amenti. Mummies of this class arc enclosed in one or even two wooden cases, either of sycamore, or, rarely, of cedar. The mummies of royal and very wealthy persons were placed in an outer stone case, within which there was a wooden case, and, probably, sometimes two such cases. t 2. The records of the embalming of Jacob and Joseph are very brief. In the former case we read, And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father : and the physi cians embalmed Israel. And forty days were fulfilled for him ; for so are fulfilled the days of embalming : and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days' (Gen. 1. 2, 3). Of Joseph we are only told that they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt' (ver. 26). The verb nin, here rendered in the sense of embalm _ ing, signifies, he or it spiced or seasoned.' The phrase ?ry, we have rendered the days of embalming,' following Gesenius's translation of the second word (Lex. s. v.) The word though commonly meaning an ark or chest,' is evidently in the second quotation a coffin. It should be remarked, that in Joseph's case the em balming must have been thorough, as Moses at the Exodus carried his body into Canaan. The motive of embalming in these instances was evidently that the strong desire of these patriarchs to be buried in the Land of Promise might be complied with, although, had this not been so, respect would pro bably have led to the same result. That the phy sicians were employed by Joseph to embalm his father may mean no more than the usual em balmers, who must have had medical and surgical knowledge, but it is not unlikely that the kings and high officers were embalmed by household physicians. The periods of forty days for em balming, and seventy for mourning, are not easily reconciled with the statement of Herodotus, who specifies seventy days as the time that the body remained in natron. Perhaps the periods varied in
different ages, or the forty days may not include the time of steeping in natron. Diodorus Siculus, who, having visited Egypt, is scarcely likely to have been in error in a matter necessarily well known, speaks of the anointing of the body at first with oil of cedar and other things for above thirty or forty days (10' i7bcepas rXElovs T(;Jy rpuircovra ; some MSS. reo-crapcbcovra). This period would correspond very well with the forty days mentioned in Genesis, which are literally the days of spicing,' and indi cate that the latter denoted the most essential period of embalming. Or, if the same period as the seventy days of Herodotus be meant by Dio dorus, then there would appear to have been a change. It may be worth noticing, that Herodotus, when first mentioning the steeping in natron, speaks of seventy days as the extreme time to which it might be lawfully prolonged ekapas 4i8opArrovra • 7rXdpas site gtECTL rapexeoetp). This would seem to render it possible that the seventy days in the time of Herodotus was the period of mourning, as it was not to be exceeded in what appears to have been the longest operation of embalming. The division of the seventy days mentioned in Genesis into forty and thirty, may be suggested if we com pare the thirty days' mourning for Moses and for Aaron, in which case the seventy days in this in stance might mean until the end of sevent. days. It is also to be remarked that Diodorus speaks of the time of mourning for a king being seventy-two days, apparently ending with the day of burial (i. 72). Joseph's coffin was perhaps a stone case, as his mummy was to be long kept ready for removal.
ii. It is not until long after the Exodus that we find any record of Jewish embalming, and then we have, in the O. T., but one distinct mention of the practice. This is in the case of King Asa, whose burial is thus related : And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had digged for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed [or rather coffin,' not bier 1 which he had filled [or which was filled'] with perfumes and spices compounded by the apothecaries' art ; and they made for him an exceeding great burning' (2 Chron. xvi. 14). The burning is mentioned of other kings of Judah. From this passage it seems that Asa had prepared a bed, probably a sarcophagus, filled with spices, and that spices were also burnt at his burial. In the accounts of our Saviour's burial the same or similar customs appear to be indicated, hut fuller particulars are given. We read that Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound [weight].' The body they wound in linen clothes with the sweet spices, as the manner of the Jews is to prepare for burial' ( John xix. 39, 4o). St. Mark specifies that fine clothes were used (xv. 46), and mentions that the women who came to the sepulchre on the morning of the resurrection, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him' (xvi. i). St. Luke relates that the women went to see the sepulchre. And they returned, and prepared sweet spices and ointments' (xxiii. 56). Imme diately afterwards he speaks of their bringing the sweet spices which they had prepared' (xxiv. t), on the second day after. Our Lord himself referred to the use of ointment in burial-ceremonies (7rpbs Ts Ivra˘ncireip) ' for the preparation for burial,' when He commended the piety of the woman who had anointed his head with very precious oint ment' (Matt. xxvi. 6-'3), and spoke in like manner in the similar case of Mary the sister of Lazarus ( John xii. 3-8). The customs at this time would seem to have been to anoint the body and wrap it in fine linen, with spices and ointments in the folds, and afterwards to pour more ointment upon it, and perhaps also to burn spices. In the case of our Saviour the hurried burial and the following of the Sabbath may have caused an unusual delay. Ordi narily everything was probably completed at once.
Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus speak of the use of myrrh in Egyptian embalming, but we do not find any mention of aloes. The wrapping in fine linen is rather contrary to the Egyptian prac tice than like it, when we remember that the coarser mummy-bandages are those which imme diately enfold the body, and would best correspond to the clothes used by the Jews.
The Jewish custom has therefore little in com mon with the Egyptian. It was, however, pro bably intended as a kind of embalming, although it is evident from what is mentioned in the case of Lazarus, who was regularly swathed (John xi. 44), that its effect was not preservation (ver. 39). It is probable that the sojourn in Egypt had left an im pression that led to the use of spices and ointments, and that, like many harmless or useful practices thus derived, this was not forbidden. Those who endeavour to trace the Law to the Egyptian reli gion, may be reminded of the silence of the former as to burial- rites, and the extreme importance attached to them in the latter.—R. S. P.