In both kinds of embahnent, a great portion of pitch or rosin was used, experiments tending to show that it was usually the latter. Nevertheless it was not the sim ple employment of the balsamic matter which completed the process, as the body had then to be swathed in an immoderate quantity of linen fillets or bandages, every member, even to each finger, being separately wound up. This envelope consisted of several folds, each fil let being of different breadths accordir to the part it encircled. Not less than 500 yards of filleting, accord ing to some writers, or 1000 according to others, were thus employed. After every member was separately bandaged, a general bandage, binding all the parts to gether, surrounded the body, and the whole was inclosed in an exterior case or covering, on which we now see Egyptian characters or hieroglyphics. All this filleting was deeply impregnated with the resinous or bituminous matter, and has apparently been steeped in it while li quified, and in that state applied to the skin or bones. The art of embalming is thus conjectured to have con sisted in the immersion of the body prepared with salt, or the skeleton, in melted pitch or some resinous sub stance, and in filling the scull, as also the thoracic and abdominal cavities, with some balsamic matter. From an ancient reriod, this substance has been the subject of anxious research among the bodies of the deceased. Macrisy, an Arabic author, relates, that in the year 328 of the Hegira, or 949 of the Christian era, while some Egyptians were digging at the distance of several cu bitg from the pyramids in quest of treasure, they came to a sepulchral vault with niches containing figures stand ing upright. On breaking them up, mummies were found within. Beside each was a case, including the residue of the substance that had embalmed the body, quite inodorous, hut on exposure to heat exhaling a fra grance resembling no other perfume. Abdollatiph, an Arabian physician of acute observation, who resided in Egypt in the end of the 12th century, describes the con stant prosecution of an active search for treasure in the soil and in the catacombs where the mummies were de posited, of which an ample account has already been given in an earlier part of this work. The Arabs and common people having penetrated the latter, carried away the in vestments of the bodies, or whatever was impregnated with gum, as he designs it, and sold them to apothecaries. The balsamic substance found in the scull and abdomen was carried to Cairo, and offered to sale for a trifle. " I bought three heads," he adds," for an Egyptian drachm." This substance Abdollatiph characterises as being black like pitch, and emitting an agreeable odour when heat ed.
The Egyptians did not confine their art exclusively to the preservation of the bodies of mankind. Beasts, birds, fishes, and grovelling reptiles, were all embalmed with equal care as their fellow creatures ; and apparently the same means have been employed. Birds in particular seem to have been objects particularly favoured ; and as they have either been less sought after by the preda tory Arabs, or as their various repositories have been more recently discovered, they have reached our present era in greater numbers and perfection than mummies of the human species. The latter were inclosed in coffins made of sycamore, but the animals are usually preserved in pots of earthen ware.
Besides these, the ordinary modes of embalment, it appears that immersion in honey was also practised, although the accounts of it are much more obscure. If we may credit a Roman poet, the body of Alexander the Great, which was entombed in Alexandria, had been embalmed in honey.
Duc et ad .iEmathios manes ubi belliger orbis, Conditur Hyblxo perfusus nectare ducat. STATIUS.
Whatever may be the truth, the operation had amply succeeded here for several centuries subsequent to the decease of that prince : his body was inspected by seve ral of the Roman emperors, who beheld it entire, and Caracalla remarked a frown on the countenance. Ab dollatiph, the Arabian traveller, expresses himself thus : 44 A person worthy of credit told me, that, during a search for treasure near the pyramids, an oblong close vessel was found. This being opened, appeared full of honey, whereof the party present ate, but some of them soon observing hairs sticking to their fingers, on farther exa mination, discovered that a young child, with a certain jewel or ornament on its body, was inclosed."
In respect to the period when this art fell into disuse among Egyptians, little evidence can be produced. We have seen that it was known in the most ancient times, that it was prosecuted during the most flourish ing era of their i.istory ; but whether it was gradually abandoned as unnacessary, or lost in the convulsions of the kingdom, as ot1 er arts became extinct, we have no other evidence but that of conjecture. Count Caylus considers that embaimiu,g has been discontinued in Egypt since its conquest by the Romans, about the time of Diodorus Siculus ; while Blumenbach, a more recent author, supposes, m partial conformity with him, that it has not been within a thousand years on those mummies brought to Europe. There is a passage in the works of St Augustine, who lived in the earlier part of the fifth century, which, if literally received, would lead us to infer that embalming was still known in Egypt. Treating of the resurrection he says, Nolo mini jam op ponas quod soles opponere: non manet integrum corpus sepulti mortui : nam si mancret. resurgcre crederem, Egypth ergo soli credunt resurrectionem. quid diligenter curant cadavrra nzortuorum. MOIT177, eltiln,habent siccare corpora et quasi enea reddere: gabbaras ea vocant. Whether this author speaks from personal knowledge of the fact, or merely from hearsay, cannot now be ascer tained.
The customs of the Jews, a cotemporary people, co incided, in some degree, with those of the Egyptians ; for we read at an early period of their history, that "Jo seph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father ; and the physicians embalmed Israel : and forty days were fulfilled for hint, for §o are fulfilled the days of those who are embalmed." Of himself it is said, " So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old ; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt." The practice of the Jews, however, is not so well defined as that of the more polished and civilized Egyptians ; for in one of the most specific passages we read, that when Asa died, " they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours, and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecary's art; and they made a very great burn ing for him." Whether this was chiefly for preservation, or merely the burning of incense in honour of the de ceased, does not appear ; hut in another passage of sa cred writ, Jeremiah prophesies of one of the kings, " thou shalt die in peace, and with the buntings of thy fathers, the former kings who were before thee, so shall they burn odours for thee." At a later period of Jewish history, the custom may be more distinctly recognized at the death of our Saviour ; because Joseph of Arima thea having obtained leave to remove his body, Nicode mus brought an hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes, "then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury." There is another ancient nation among which em balment was extensively practised, the Gaunches of the Canary islands. The history of this people is involved in great obscuthy, and their existence is best proved by the remains of their dead, for their posterity is almost, if not entirely extinct. The mode of performing embalment is not explicitly illustrated, but apparently the brain and intestines were completely removed, after which it is said the body was washed with an infusion of pine bark. Next, it was anointed with butter or warm grease, which had been boiled along with such penetrating and odori ferous herbs as were peculiar to the country, and then it was exposed to the sun. Being well dried, the same operations were repeated, and also subsequent drying until the body was completely impregnated with the aromatic unguent. When reduced to very inconsidera ble weight, the process was deemed complete, and the deceased was wrapped in an envelope, consisting of three successive layers of bandages of tanned buck skin or goat skin about three inches broad. Bodies thus em balmed were carried with funeral ceremonies to caves in a mountain, and there placed in niches upright. Se veral such caverns or catacombs may be now seen in the Canary Islands, and in some the mummies repose su pine, sewed up in goat skins, and still bearing the hair.