El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-10-01
FRANK q. CARPENTERS LETTER.

no one knows, but it is supposed TO
date back to the time OF the pyramids.
We know that Joseph, when his faith
er, Jacob, died down in Egypt, had him
embalmed and the Bible says it took
40 days to properly cure him. 1t also
relates that when Joseph died, the
Egyptians embalmed him and put him
away in a coffin. Herodotus, who was
one of the best travel writers of all
time describes how embalming was
done and tells all about the making of
mummies. He says the art was carried
on by a special guild, whose members
were appointed by the government and
who had to work at fixed prices. The
bodies were mummified in three differ
ent ways. In the first and most costly
method, the brains were extracted
through the nose by means of an iron
probe, and the intestines were taken
out through an incision made in the
side. The inteStines were then cleaned
and washed in palm wine. They were
covered with aromatic gum and set
aside in jars. The cavity of the body
was now filed with spices, including
myrrh and cassia and other fragrant
substances, and it was then sewn up.
After this, the body was soaked in a
solution of natron, a kind of carbonate
of soda, being allowed to lie in it for
a couple of months or more. It was
then taken out and wrapped in fine
linen so smeared over with gum that
it stuck to the skin, when the mummy
was ready for burial.
The second process was cheaper, but
it took about the same time. In this
the brains were left in and the body
was so treated in the solution that ev-
erything except the skin and bones was
dissolved There was third process.
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and laying 1T down in salt for 20 days.
The first process cost about $1,000, the
second 800 and the third considerably
less
Other authorities relate different
methods Of naturalization. The most
of the mummies discovered, however,
have been preserved by means of
gums of one kind or another, and by
pitch and carbonate of soda. The
munmies with gums are usually green
in color and their skins look as though
they were tanned They break when
they are unrolled. The mummies
picked with pitch are black and hard,
but the features are preserved intact,
and it is said that such mummies will
last forever In those preserved by
soda, the skin is hard and rather loose
and the hair falls off when it is
touched. The pitch mummy usually
keeps its hair and teeth.
Mummies of Children.
There are mummies of children in
this Egyptian museum. There are some
also in London, but 1 know of none
anywhere else The children were en-
balmed for the same reason as the
grown-ups, the parents believing that
they could have no union with their
little ones without they met them
again after the resurrection in their
original bodies. The faces Of some of
the children are gilded, and the pic
lures upon the bandages represent the
child offering sacrifices to the gods.
Above the feet may be the funeral boat
showing the little child lying upon its
bier, and upon other parts of the cof-
fin are tiny little people who seem to
be engaged in propelling the boat. This
probably represents the ferry of the
dead to it's tombs in the mountains on
the banks of the Nile. In other cases
the caskets of the little ones are beau
tifully decorated and in some they are
plated with gold.
The Book of the Dead.
One of the most important records OF
the customs of the Pharaohs in regard
to the dead has been taken away from
Egypt This is a papyrus manuscript
which is now in the British museum.
1t is known as the Book of the Dead
and contains 200 chapters. 1t is writ
ten in hieroglyphics, but many of the
passages have been translated. Ac-
cording to it, every man was believed
to consist of seven different parts. of
which the actual body was only one.
The others related to the soul and its
reconsideration, and it was believed
that upon the preservation of the body
depended the bringing together of
these seven parts in the future. IT
was on this account that corpses were
mummified, and for the same reason
that they were hidden away in tombs
under the desert and in the great pyra-
mids which their owners believed
would be inaccessible to thes men of
the future.
This Book of the Dead contains also
some of the Egyptian ideals of right
living, reminding one Of the Psalm