The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1890-02-20
EGYPTIAN MUhhlES.
uow They Were acknowledgements Belief
About the Soul and Body.


About the Soul and Body.
Tho writings of Moses have thrown
nharacter OF the deepest interest
arar the transactions of the ancient
Egvntians and rendered them familiar
to e. every y inhabitant of Chrlstendom.
The inhabitants of ancient Egypt
ornaar bv their pyramids, temples,
Iarronhagi and embalming OF bodies,
70 have been solicitous to "endure Tor
aver oU In all of these they have been
eminent; in the latter they attained
an excellence which has never been
ennaled Embalmingw was held in high
oStimation. 1t was believed that the
Soml remained with the body while it
retained sufficient soundness to pre-
serve the divine essence; and to give
solemnity to the ceremony OF emoaim-
;ng the dead it was confined to the
priesthood. ,.1
n,ete with skill and judgment; the
brain WAS extracted with instruments
through the nostrils, an incision was
made, the contents OF the abdomen
we're removed, the cavity washed with
nalm wine and filled with reslnous
Instance mingled with myrrh,
cassia and the odoriferous spices.
The body was then sewn up
and covered with inter for ninety
DAYS; it was then bandaged.
The bandages were of mixed quality,
being fine outside and coarse within,
and about five inches wide; they were
saturated with gums. The body was
then swathed from head to feet, in
which 200 yards of bandage were en-
ployed; and, when completed the
most conspicuous parts were written
upon in hieroglyphics, stating the I'll
ties and dignities of the deceased.
sometimes a beetle, which implied
regeneration, and an idol, a symbol of
faith, were placed on the body. 1t
was then put into a case composed OF
plaster in which species of cotton
was incorporated, forming covering
which preserved some resemblance to
the form within; or it was placed
in case of wood, thickly COW
cred with the composition, on
which were painted hieroglyphical
figures and characters in extraordinary
richness of embellishments. This
was afterward laid in granite Sarco-
phagus, the inner and outer surfaces
of which were often covered With
hieroglyphics, and then all deposited
in temple or an appropriate ch"mber,
with the final ceremonies OF sculpture.
A people who could thus indulge the
desire for durability seem never to
have contemplated the change to
which all earthly things are liable in
the awful passage to futurity. They
never thought that their stupendous
temples would be plundered by bar
barians. They never thought that
their princes or their priests, sol
emily embalmed and religiously
placed in all the security that wealth
and art could contribute, would, while
tn Nile continued to flow, furnish
objects of curiosity to future races of
men, natives of distant cline. Yet
such is the fact; the possession of an
Egyptian mummy became the desid-
eratum of every traveller; no museum
could be perfected without one, and
such numbers were supplied that an
idea was excited that, like works of
art, mummies might be manufactured
for the European market.
The wandering tribes of Arabs tore,
mummies from their silent ab0des
rihed them of gems, and in their ig-
norance or knavery changed the recep-
tacles of the bodies. 1t was. there
fore, a rare circumstance to meet
with a mummy case that had not
been despoiled. Still their was an
anxiety to purchase, and often the
new proprietor knew no more about
the case or its contents than did the
vessel that bore the relic from its
native shore. Intimacy with the facts
has often shown the absence of the
legitimate mummy from the decorat-
ed case. The discovery of interior in
scrptlons at variance with those on
the exterior may have made an anti
quarian scratch his head; but what
a proof did it exhibit of the imposi-
TONS pra@ticed by the modern Egypt
lans. Arabs, or Philippians, on the Eu-
ropean mummy-hunters! N. Y.
Ledger.