DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4023#0168
122, APPENDIX II.
the nostrils, employing, for this purpose, suitable instruments; they afterwards
evacuated the entrails, by an opening made on one side the flanks ; they warned
the body with care, afterwards they saked it with natrum. They sometimes
likewise saked the body without removing the entrails, but before that, they
injected the natrum dissblved, by the fundament, with the astistance of some
incistons, in order that it might penetrate into the capacity of the lower belly:
they made also some other incisions, in the breast: and the abdomen, that they
might inject all the internal capacity of the body ; without which it would not
have been possible to consume the vifcera.
T h e body having been saked during the time required, they wathed it with
care, in order to remove the remains of liquor and of the natrum; they then
dried it in the air; which was easy in a country such as Egypt, or they made
use of a stove : the body thus dried, made, according to Herodotus, a kind
of embalming, but which I imagine to be the cheaper!:.
They applied, upon the whole body, and upon the limbs, separately, swaths
of cloth, smeared with gum ; afterwards they swaddled with a new bandage,
equally gummed, the arms laid across the breast, and the legs joined together :
this is the second kind of embalming.
T h e third kind of embalming, which cost much more than the preceding,
and which is properly a true embalming, conslsted in filling the head, the breast,
and the belly, v/ith resinous and bituminous materials, and in covering the
whole surface of the body with them ; and in order to retain the materials, they
employed a great number of folds of linen swaths. Without doubt having ap-
plied one lay of bandages over the whole body, they smeared it afterwards with
the matter of the embalming, melted and hot, making use for that puroose of
a kind of pencil, or brush, aster which they covered the whole with new folds
of swathing, and thus succeslively gave a suitable thickness.
I t is very difficult to decide, whether the Jews-pitch together with the cc-
drta, or the Jews-pitch alone, was the inferior embalming, sor the mummy of
St. Genevieve is embalmed, as well as that of the Celestines, with the
pijjaspbaltum; but it has siner swaths of cloth, and they are in greater
number than in the others; it would require seeing abundance of mummies
to decide that point: in the mean time, since amongst the mummies that I
have seen, the greatest number are embalmed with this mixture of Jews-pitch
and cedria^ which may be called the pijjafphaltum^ it is credible that it was the
inferior kind. The body being thus prepared, the arms were laid across the
breast, the legs were fastened together, and they swaddled it with bandages oi
cloth, that might be glued together with gum, as Herodotus has said. This
third sort of embalming became a fourth kind, in consequence of the expence
they put themselves to, in giving a chest to the mummy. It is not without
reason, that I consider the chest of sycamore as a continuation os an expense
embalming; sor these chests must have been of a great price, even though with-
out many ornaments, on account os the scarcity os the wood. These chests
are made of a single piece, they are hollowed by tools; it was neceslary there-
sore
the nostrils, employing, for this purpose, suitable instruments; they afterwards
evacuated the entrails, by an opening made on one side the flanks ; they warned
the body with care, afterwards they saked it with natrum. They sometimes
likewise saked the body without removing the entrails, but before that, they
injected the natrum dissblved, by the fundament, with the astistance of some
incistons, in order that it might penetrate into the capacity of the lower belly:
they made also some other incisions, in the breast: and the abdomen, that they
might inject all the internal capacity of the body ; without which it would not
have been possible to consume the vifcera.
T h e body having been saked during the time required, they wathed it with
care, in order to remove the remains of liquor and of the natrum; they then
dried it in the air; which was easy in a country such as Egypt, or they made
use of a stove : the body thus dried, made, according to Herodotus, a kind
of embalming, but which I imagine to be the cheaper!:.
They applied, upon the whole body, and upon the limbs, separately, swaths
of cloth, smeared with gum ; afterwards they swaddled with a new bandage,
equally gummed, the arms laid across the breast, and the legs joined together :
this is the second kind of embalming.
T h e third kind of embalming, which cost much more than the preceding,
and which is properly a true embalming, conslsted in filling the head, the breast,
and the belly, v/ith resinous and bituminous materials, and in covering the
whole surface of the body with them ; and in order to retain the materials, they
employed a great number of folds of linen swaths. Without doubt having ap-
plied one lay of bandages over the whole body, they smeared it afterwards with
the matter of the embalming, melted and hot, making use for that puroose of
a kind of pencil, or brush, aster which they covered the whole with new folds
of swathing, and thus succeslively gave a suitable thickness.
I t is very difficult to decide, whether the Jews-pitch together with the cc-
drta, or the Jews-pitch alone, was the inferior embalming, sor the mummy of
St. Genevieve is embalmed, as well as that of the Celestines, with the
pijjaspbaltum; but it has siner swaths of cloth, and they are in greater
number than in the others; it would require seeing abundance of mummies
to decide that point: in the mean time, since amongst the mummies that I
have seen, the greatest number are embalmed with this mixture of Jews-pitch
and cedria^ which may be called the pijjafphaltum^ it is credible that it was the
inferior kind. The body being thus prepared, the arms were laid across the
breast, the legs were fastened together, and they swaddled it with bandages oi
cloth, that might be glued together with gum, as Herodotus has said. This
third sort of embalming became a fourth kind, in consequence of the expence
they put themselves to, in giving a chest to the mummy. It is not without
reason, that I consider the chest of sycamore as a continuation os an expense
embalming; sor these chests must have been of a great price, even though with-
out many ornaments, on account os the scarcity os the wood. These chests
are made of a single piece, they are hollowed by tools; it was neceslary there-
sore