The coffins of mummies from the 18th to the 26th dynasty are made in shape of the human form swathed, are principally sycomore covered with a ground of white stucco, and painted with various deities and hieroglyphics in tempera. Their style of art differs at each period, and vignettes of the 89th and 125th chapters of the Ritual are often seen amongst the paintings, at a later period the 99th chapter is sometimes found. The paintings of coffins of tho 21st dynasty are often of a yellow colour, owing to the copious employment of varnish which has assumed this colour through ago. This style of coffin apparently ceutinued till about the 1st century, n.c. when a new shape was intro duced, the body being laid upon a flat board over which is placed a vaulted cover, having at each corner a square upright post, resembling, a dish cover. The paintings on these coffins aro the Great Judgment, c. 12.5 of the Ritual ; in the interior are figures of the heaven, and Greek and Egyptian zodiacs. Those of later periods were probably of the same shape, but ruder in their art; owing to the expense few mummies comparatively wore placed in coffins, those in the public cemeteries being found piled in tombs one above another, while others are laid In layers of reed or charcoal, and some bodies are found buried in the sand. The tombs of the Egyptians are generally hollow rock chambers excavated in the hills of the Arabian chain to the west of the principal cities, but sometimes, as at Sakhara, in tombs hollowed in the plains. The principal sites where mummies are found are at the bouruah quarter of Thebes and In the plaits of Sakhara. Few mummies of children have been found. The number of mummies made from the comncncetncnL of the Egyptian monarchy till the cessation of the art in the 7th century has been calculated to have been 420,000,000. Owing to the changes which have taken place oven in times of remote antiquity, when the Cholchytm trafficked in tombs and bodies, it often happens that the mummies and coffins do not correspond, the names of the older occupants having been erased for the new occupants, and the Arabs and other dealers have often placed mummies in the cases sent to Europe which do not belong to them (Birch, Epochs of 31ummies ' in Glidden 's 'Otis Egyptiaca,' p. 78.87 ; Paandacqua, ',Catalogue, p.181.) Several mummies exist in the different collections of Europe, and reference to the principal ones described will be found in the works cited in this article.
In unrolling mummies, the cartonage or outer covering should, when necessary, be carefully divided vertically from head to foot in order not to destroy the interesting paintings with which it is covered, and the bandages unwound with care, every one being carefully examined to see all the peculiarities which may occur. The body itself requires a medical autopsy. Deception has been occasionally practised, many fictitious mummies made by Arabs or Levantine traders having been detected by Blumenbach. (` Observat. on Mumni. Phil. Trans,' 1794.) In the 15th and 17th centuries, the pissasphalt and other resinous substances which exuded from mummies were employed as a drug called mummy, the Gcnoeae and Venetians extensively imported mummies into Europe for the shops of tho apothecaries, and the charlatans of the day obtained from mummies, extracts, and elixirs, antidotes of all poisons and nostrums against all diseases. Francis I. always had this universal remedy about him.
The Egyptians applied the art of embalmment to the preservatiou of the bodies of the sacred animals, so extensively worshipped throughout Egypt from an early period of the monarchy, although they did not bestow upon them so much care as on the human mummies. The mummies of apes, cynoeephali, the living emblem of the god Khons, have been found in catacombs at Thebes, prepared by natrons and resins, and adjusted in a squatting, not extended form like human mummies. A dog, living emblem of Anubis, has been found mummied
at full length, and some were enwrapped in cartonages. Large numbers of cats, sacred to Bast, chiefly in the extensive catacombs of these animals at Busiria, -have been found, some in bandages made up into the form of tho animals ; others of conical shape with feet close to the body, and the head modelled in linen, and others placed in coffins of wood or bronze made in the form of small statues of this animal, with their pedestals in shape of the hieroglyphic name of the goddess to which it was sacred. It was embalmed according to Hero dotus (ii. 83.) with kedria.
Wolves' mummies have been found at Lycopolis. The larger animals were only partly embalmed, the principal bones being made up into a kind of rude trunk of the animal, the head and skull carefully pre serves', the bodies wrapped in papyrus or palm-leaves, and the eyes, nostrils, and diacritical marks of the sacred bulls Mnevis of Thebes and Apis of Memphis being worked in a dark or coloured cloth on the outer bandages. Sometimes their mummies have been made up in shape of a mninotaur. The Apis was also in some instances embalmed with bitumen and placed in huge coffins of stone in the vicinity of the Serapeium. [SEnAremuir.] Mummies of rams and lambs, sacred to Ammon, &c., prepared by natron, and bandaged in the same manner as the sacred bulls, have been found at Thebes, and also the heads of a small gazelle leueoryr, treated in the same way, without bitumen. Mummies of the sacred vultures of the goddess Mut, and diffbrent kinds of falcons sacred to the sun, made up into the form of a mummiecl deity, with the hawks' heads modelled in linen, and the body covered by a neat network of thin linen strips, have also been found at Thebes; the owl, emblem of Bute, and the swallow have also been discovered. But the bird most commonly embalmed was the ibis, sacred to Thoth, extensive catacombs of it mnmmied existing at Sakhara and some pits of the same at Thebes. Its mummy is made in the shape of a heart, the head and neck beneath the left wing, and the beak the length of the body. According to .lElian (Nat. An., x., c. 29), it was embalmed in natron : the analysis of the materials shows them to have been salt, oil, pitch, and aromatic resins. (Langguth 'De Mumni. Avitun.; 4to, Vitteberg, 1803.) The eggs of this bird, and parts of its food, have been found with it ; but in most instances, apparently owing to heated applications, it luum almost entirely perished. At Sakhara the mummies are found in stone, glazed ware, or terra cotta cases, or cones with convex covers, cemented with lime, and piled in the catacombs ; at Ilermopolis its mummy is placed in oblong cases of wood or stone ; and at Thebes only in its envelopes. Some rare instances represent it bandaged as a human seated body, with an ibis head. The sacred goose of Sob also occurs. Numerous mummies of the sacred crocodile of the god Sebak have been found at Ombos, Eileithyiaiprincipally at Manfaloot, and Thebes. They are prepared with bitumen, cemented, and wrapped in palm-leaves and papyrus, having coarse outer bandages of linen. The serpent tribe are embalmed in packets in shape of an oblate egg, sometimes as many as six in ono packet, the whole neatly and tightly packed with pink and yellow bandages, or single instances deposited in bronze cases in shape of the reptile on a pedestal. Lizards have been found in cases of the shape of the reptile ; two species of fish, the cyprinus and the silurus; and also scambrei, prepared by natron, and wrapped in linen bandages.