The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-10-04
FacefOFaCe With Phar&OhS
BY Frank Ct. Carpenter

of making a mummy was lWeIVe nun
dred dollars, and money was then
worth ten times what it IS now. Inc
caskets were more expensive than any
of the cotfins we have today, and they
were incased in great o.!
stone or wood, some single ones OF
which must have cost fortunes. IN
the Gizeh Museum there is one room
called the Hall Of the Caskets. 1t COW
ers, I judge, about o~ne-fourthl OF an
acre, and it is filled with collins and
caskets. There are enough ~sarcophagl
in it TO form watering troughs for the
largest of the Chicago s~tockyards, n
many e them have been cut out OF
solid blocks Of red or gray granite,
the sides being so smooth that you can
see your face in them. Others are
covered with hieroglyphics, and all are
constructed with an art equal to the
finest stone-cutting Of today.
How Mummies Were Made.
have asked the Psychologists here
as to how the Egyptians made the
mummies which are now being dug
from the earth. Their reply was that
the desire for naturalization came
from the religion Of the ancient Egyp-
tians, who believed in the transmigra-
ton of souls. They thought that the
spirit wandered about for several
thousand years after death and then
| came back to the home 1t had upon
earth. For this reason it was desira-
BILE to keep the body intact, and
every one looked to his mummihood
as his only chance Of recreation here
after.
When the art of embalming, began
no one knows, but 1t is supposed to
date back to the time of the Pyramids
We know that Joseph, when his father,
died down in Egypt, had him empalm-
ed and the Bible says it took forty
days to properly cure him. 1t also
relates that when Joseph died the
| Egyptians embalmed him and put him
away in a coffin. H~erodotus, who
was one of the best travel writer's of
all time, describes how embalmfnS
was done and tells all about the max
ing of mummies. He says the art was
carried on by a special guild, whose
members were appointed by the gov
eminent and who had to worn at
fixed prices. The bodies were mummi-
fled in three different 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
i~ncisien made in the side. The 1nres.
tines were then cleaned and washed in
palm wine. They were covered with
aromatic gun and set aside in jars.
The cavity of the body was now filled
with, spices, iIiclukfng snyrhh 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. 1t was then taken
out and wrapped In fine linen so
smeare 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 tina
everything except the skin and bones
was dissolved. There was a third
process which consisted Of cleaning
he corps and laying it down In salt
for seventy days. The first process
cost about twelve hundred dollars. the
second one hundred dollars and the
third considerably less.
other authorities relate different
methods of mummification. The most
of the mummies discovered, however,
have been preserved by means Of
buns of one kind or another, ana
by pitch and carbonate of soda. The
mummles with gums are usually green
IN color and their skins look as though
they were tanned. They break wner,
) they are unrollsd. The mummies
picked with pitch are black and
hard, but the features are preserved
lildCl, anu II is SdlQ lnaL Such num-
mics will last forever. In those pre-
; served by soda the skin is hard and
rather loose, and the hair falls off
J when it is ouched The pitch mummy
: usually keeps its hair and teeth.
! Munnmies of Children.
There are mummies Of children in
this Egyptian Museum. There are
some also in London, but I know OF
none else. The ch5tdren
were embalmed for the same reason
, as the grown-ups, the parents believ-
: ing that they could have no union with
; their little ones without thev met
them again after the resurrection in
z their original bodies. The faces Of
: some Of these children are gilded. and
/ the pictures upon the bandages repre-
l sent the child Offering sacrifices to the
5 gods. Above the feet may be the