The Saint Paul globe., 1904-01-24
GROUND MUMM|ES
MAKE GOOD PAINT
Business of PuIyerizing De.
funct Egyptians May Cease
for Lack of Supply.

NEW YORK, Jan. 2S. = Mummy =
powdered mummy-makes one of the best
and most popular colors used by artists.
Every large dealer in oil paints sells
powdered mummy, and almost every man
ufacturer of pigments has mummy de-
partment where, in a spice-laden atmos-
phere, amid surroundings picturesque and
grewsome. young men and women grind
up the dried bodies of Egyptian prin-
cesses and priests, mix the powder with
poppy oil and bottle it for the market in
little tubes of tin.
This business of making paint out of
mummies Is of long standing. but 1T is
now threatened with destruction. For
the supply of mummies Is daily growing
scarcer. while the demand for them In
creases. If, then, for the benefit of the
museums and people of the future, any
mummies at all are to be preserved, the
commerce in them must at once cease.
That Is the view which the government
of Egypt IS taking, and the governments
of France and England are supporting
her. In the London and Paris newspapers
have appeared of late a number OF articles
urging the instant prohibition all over the
world of the mummy paint industry.
These articles in the newspapers were
the first announcement that many persons
had that such a thing as the mummy
paint industry existed. Therefore the
articles occasioned great deal OF Curl
osity. and men and women. stopping In
shops devoted to artists supplies, said:
DO you sell a paint called mummy
Eyes; this is it."
"Well. And here is the name marked
on the tube. too Is this paint really
made out of mummieS?
Yes: of ground mummy and poppy
OIL"
''It is very strange. 1t is grewsome.
1t Is horrible and sad and fascinating.
lot NlfS
by all this public interest, and all this
government condemnation, moves on
ward calmly. The old masters. when they
desired to give subtle brown tint to
mummys powdered dust and painted
brown hair of that bright sort which turns
to pure gold in the sunlight. Mummies
figure in the day books and the ledgers of
every paint factory. Turn to their stock
accounts and these are the common en-
tries:
To mummies at $175... $3.50
TO 12-lb. mummy (Memphis) at $3.50. AZ
To 10-lb. mummy (Thebes) at Sc. 49,. 80
In a Philadelphia factory the other day
a mummy had just arrived, and they were
busy grinding it. with poppy oil. into Il
in small room that smelt of myrrh
and cassia. The mummy case stood in a
corner. 1t was decorated with small fig
ureS in red and green and gold and black.
ana Ine carved anu painted idce upon IL
was imposing and grave. Beside it a
young girl. bending over small table.
filled tubes with powdered mummy. There
lay at her feet a great bundle of faded
yellow linen, the wrappingS of the num-
my, which numbered hundreds of yards.
young man was grinding on stone
slab bits of mummy. The implement he
used was a rounded stone with a fat
base. The mummy's head lay beside him
and near it were a few bones. Now and
then the young man moistened the dark
powder on. the slab with a few drops of
poppy OIL
This mummy" said the manager, will
make enough to last two years. The paint
is called mummy-simply that. The de-
mand for it is enormous 1t is not used
to paint bridges with. You know.
mo one knows Just why powdered
excellence. 1t is surmised, ,sthough, that
the bitumen in which they were STEPPED
in their embaiming is what gives us this
fine brown.
II have heard of the Condemnation of
-eur business that has: grown out of the
this condemnation lean sympathize.
can't sympathize. though. with any senti-
mental condemnation of the business. For
mummieS are the fruit of4sa desire to
preserve the dead in beautiful and SEEM
ly manner. and it appears to- me that, as
the bright, brown hair of fgayewomans por-
trait, mummy is preserved, after ALL in
a more beautiful and seenfysway than if
it still continued to desiecateain in an Egyp-
tian crypt
He lifted up portione7ofs the mound of
faded linen and q slight dust arose, faint
ly odOrous of spices.
"These narrow strips of Hnen." he said.
'are the wrappingS of the mummy. There
are probably 500 yards of wrappings here.
We have had mummies swathed in as