MUMMY (Arab. mumia), specifically a dead body preserved from putrefaction by embalm ing with bitumen or other asphaltic substances. The wider use of the term includes bodies pre served in a dry state by any process. The custom of thus nreserving the bodies of the dead has prevailed in several countries. Hum boldt found mummies in Mexico, and in Peru the bodies of the Incas were rudely embalmed and dried. The Guanches, or aboriginal in habitants of the Canaries, removed the entrails of the dead, dried the corpse in the air, covered it with aromatic varnish and, wrapping it in goat skins, kept it in a wooden case. These mummies, of which thousands have been found, i are light in weight, of a yellow color and have a strong aromatic odor. But it was among the ancient Egyptians that the art and practice of embalming the dead were carried to the est extent and highest perfection. From Egypt the practice spread southward along both coasts of Africa and to India, Malaysia, Polynesia, Australia and Arabia. On the Western Con tinent it reached Peru, Colombia and Mexico and also Alaska. In the last-named country it may have been sporadic for it was first in vogue there about 1720. All the dead of Egypt, including many animals, were embalmed in some manner, partly, it is supposed, from re ligious motives and partly for sanitary reasons. The notion formerly prevalent that the Egyp tians preserved the body in order to keep it in a fit state to receive the soul when it should have passed through its allotted transmigrations is inconsistent with the facts that tombs were sometimes sold to later occupants. The origin
of embalming among the Egyptians has been attributed to their first merely burying in the sand, impregnated with natron and other salts, which dried and preserved the body, which nat ural process they afterward imitated, drugs and bitumen being later improvements. Compara tively few mummies of children have been discovered in Egypt, though even those just born were embalmed. Embalming was prac tised by the Hebrews to some extent. Joseph commanded the physicians to embalm his father and in the time of Christ it was 'the manner of the Jews" to bury the body "wound in linen cloths with spices' The practice continued in Egypt from 4500 B.c. till the 7th century, and was common among the Greeks there, and even among the early Christians. It seems to have fallen gradually into disuse. See also EMBALM ING; EGyrr. Consult Meany, E. S., 'Alaskan Mummies> (Seattle 1906) ; Pettigrew, J. J., 'A History of Egyptian Mummies> (London 1834) ; Smith, G. E., 'The Migration of Early Cul ture' (Manchester, England, 1915).