Observations on some Egyptian Mummies, and the Arts prac-
ticed by the Venders of them, by John Frederic Blumenbach,
M.D.F.R.S.

[[126]]

[From the Second Part of the Philosophical Transactions for the
Year 1794.]

|| ‘“AMONG the many instances
of kindness I have experi-
enced during my late abode in
London, of which the recollection
can never be obliterated from my
memory, I reckon and acknow-
ledge with gratitude, the uncom-
mon, and to me very interesting,
opportunities that were afforded
me, to open and examine several
Egyptian mummies.’

‘“A few days after my arrival, I
found in the library of my honour-
ed friend Dr. Garthshore, F.R.S.
among other Egyptian antiquities,
a small mummy, not above one
foot in length, of the usual form
of a swathed puppet, wrapped up
in cotton bandages, painted and
gilt in its front part, and inserted
in a small sarcophagus of sycamore
wood, in which it fitted exactly.’

‘“Having expressed a wish to
know the contents of this figure,
the doctor was kindly pleased to
permit the opening of it; which
accordingly took place on the 21st
of January, 1792, at his house, in
the presence of the president and
several members of the royal so-
ciety, and other men of letters.’

‘“The mummy itself measured 9½
|| inches in length, and 8 inches in
circumference at the breast, where
it was of the greatest thickness.’

‘“The mask, exhibiting human
features, was of a gypseous plaster,
which here and there shewed some
signs of having once been gilt.’

‘“Of the semicircular breast-plate
only some fragments were still ex-
tant.’

‘“The lower part of the front
covering was, as is frequently ob-
served on large mummies, in a
manner dissected in regular com-
partments; and on it were painted
the two standing figures that so
often appear on the integuments of
mummies, viz. on the right side,
Anubis with the dogs head, and on
the left, Osiris with the head of a
sparrow-hawk.’

‘“The mummy itself was opened
at the side. The outward integu-
ments were glued so fast upon each
other that it was found necessary to
use a saw: the inner ones were less
adhesive. I counted in the whole
above 20 circumvolutions of these
cotton bandages.’

‘“Within these was found, as a
kind of nucleus, a bundle, about
8 inches long, and full 2 inches in
[Seite 127] || circumference, of the integuments
of a larger mummy, strongly im-
pregnated with a resinous sub-
stance, which rendered it hard and
compact, and which appeared on
the edge to have been shaped into
this oblong form by the paring of
a knife. Pieces of this mass hav-
ing been put on a heated poker,
emitted a smell perfectly similar to
to that of fir-rosin, or the drug
called wild incense from ant-hills.’

‘“The sarcophagus consisted of
six small square boards of syca-
more, fastened together with iron
nails.’

‘“Soon after I found in the col-
lection of Dr. Lettsom, F.R.S.
another similar mummy, which,
outwardly, perfectly resembled the
above, was likewise contained in
a sarcophagus, and differed only
in the dimensions, this being 14½
inches long, and 11½ in circumfer-
ence at the breast.’

‘“The proprietor was likewise
kind enough to suffer me to open
it, which I did at his house on the
29th of January.’

‘“But much as it resembled Dr.
Garthshore’s mummy externally, it
was found very different as to its
contents, there being in it a great
number of detached bones of the
skeleton of an Ibis, which were
only here and there indued with
rosin.’

‘“This striking difference, no
doubt, rather excited than satisfied
my curiosity; and having here-
upon found in the British Museum
no less than three such diminutive
mummies, which were now to me
become enigmatical (viz. two in
the Hamiltonian collection of an-
tiquities, both contained in the
same kind of square wooden cof-
fins, clinched with iron nails and
the third in the Sloanian collec-
tion), I felt an irresistible impulse
|| to apply to the president of the
royal society, as one of the cura-
tors of the Museum, for his inter-
ference towards obtaining permis-
sion to open one of these three, in
order to have an opportunity for
some further comparison.’

‘“The result of this application
was, that at the very next meeting
of the curators leave was granted
me, in the most liberal manner, not
only to open one of these little mum-
mies, but also to choose among
the four large ones that are in that
noble repository, the one that
should appear to me the most like-
ly to afford some material inform-
ation on the subject.’

‘“I chose among the small ones
the Sloanian, as it seemed to me to
differ more than the two in the Ha-
miltonian collection, from either that
of Dr. Garthshore or Dr. Lettsom.
The four large mummies resem-
bled in the main the one deposited
in the academical museum of Got-
tingen, which I examined in the
summer of the year 1781. I se-
lected, however, the one that ap-
peared to differ most from the
others, and from ours, by the close
adhesion of the bandages, from
which I had reason to expect some
difference in the interior prepara-
tion of it.’

‘“The 18th February was ap-
pointed for the opening of these
two mummies at the Museum, in
the presence of a numerous and re-
spectable meeting.’

‘“The small mummy was exter-
nally very similar to those I had
opened before, except that it was
only 116/10 inches in length, and
82/10 inches round the breast, some-
what more compact in the hand-
ling, and, proportionably to its
size, rather heavier.’

‘“On sawing it open, a resinous
smell was immediately emitted, and
[Seite 128] || glutinous particles of rosin adhered
to the heated saw. This was ow-
ing to the cotton bandages having
been from without impregnated
with rosin, which was not the case
with the two former ones.’

‘“On opening it completely, we
found in the inside a human os
humeri, being part of the mummy
of a young person, perhaps eight
years old, who had been embalmed
with rosin; and with it were also
found some shreds of the original
integuments likewise impregnated
with rosin. The upper end (caput)
of the bone was inserted in the
head, and the lower extremity was
at the feet of the little figure.’

‘“Although when viewed ex-
ternally nothing appeared, suspi-
cious in this little mummy, I
found, however, on examining
carefully the successive integu-
ments, that the outward ones had
some traces of our common lint
paper, with which it seemed to
have been restored, and afterwards
painted over.’

‘“The large mummy I was per-
mitted to examine, appeared by its
stature to be that, of a young per-
son, not above 14 years old, but
who had not, it seemed, as yet shed
all his teeth. Its outward painted
integuments were very similar to
those of the Gottingen mummy, as
it is figured in the IVth Vol. of
the Commentationes Societatis
Scientiarum. The bandages about
the head were in a manner caked
together by means of rosin. The
skull was inclosed in a kind of cast
of the same substance, which could
with difficulty be removed from it.
It seemed also, to judge by its
weight, to be filled with rosin, which
particularly appeared in the cavity
between the palate and the lower
jaw. The rosin here having been
gradually punched out, not the least
|| appearance of a tongue was dis-
cernible; though some have assert-
ed to have found traces of it in
mummies; nor was any thing like
the little golden plate (the supposed
naulus) to be here met with. There
were no remains whatever of the
soft fleshy parts, of skin, tendons,
etc. in short, nothing was found
but mere naked bones.’

‘“The maxillae were sensibly pro-
minent, but by no means so much
as in a true Guinea face; and not
more so than is often seen on hand-
some negroes, and not seldom on
European countenances.’

‘“What appeared to me very re-
markable, and has, as far as I can
learn, never yet been noticed, is
two exterior artificial ears, made of
cotton cloth and rosin, and applied
one on each side of the head. That
on the right side was prominent;
but the other seemed to have been
shoved from its proper place; it
was compressed, and much disfi-
gured.’

‘“The cotton bandages on the
remainder of the body were loose,
not glued together, and readily
yielded to the pressure of the hand.’

‘“The great cavity of the trunk
was filled with bundled rags, and
dark brown vegetable mould, in
which, however, some pieces of rosin
were here and there discovered. But
the inside of the thoracic cavity
on both sides of the spine, and the
inner surface of the ossa ilium,
were covered with a thick coat of
rosin.’

‘“No idol, or any artificial sym-
bol whatever, was found in the in-
side of this mummy. Nor did it
contain any thing like an onion,
such as have been now and then
found about the parts of genera-
tion, or under one of the foot-soles
of mummies.’

‘“The bones of the arms lay
[Seite 129] || along the side of the body, in
the same manner as those of the
Gottingen mummy, and the one
at Leipzig, described by Kettner.
Whereas in the mummy at Gotha,
described by Hertzog, the two at
Breslau, that were examined by
Gryphius, another at Copenhagen,
that was dissected by Brunnich, and
a fifth which belonged to the royal
society, and has been described by
Dr. Hadley in the Philosophical
Transactions, the arms were found
lying across over the breast.’

‘“On some of the bones of the
arms, for instance on the left os hu-
meri, was found some glutinous
rosin, which on being touched
stained the fingers of a dusky red
greasy colour, and had a strong
empyreumatic alkaline taste. In the
remainder of the body, the dry ro-
sin was almost entirely covered or
impregnated with a saline crust,
by which the thoracic vertebrae in
particular were much corroded,
and which had entirely stripped
the intermediate corpora vertebrarum
of their periosteum.’

‘“Circumstances did not allow
me to make any experiments on this
salt; but I have since obtained
from my worthy friend John Haw-
kins, esq. F.R.S. some consider-
ble pieces of mummies which he
had bought of a druggist at Con-
stantinople, one of which was co-
vered and impregnated with a saline
incrustation, which in taste and ap-
pearance was very similar to that I
have just now mentioned. Of this
I dissolved a part in water, filtered
and evaporated the solution, and
thus obtained a true soda, or
mineral alkali (natrum), which shot
into very near and regular crystals.’

‘“For the sake of comparison,
I examined another large mummy
in the Museum, which had already
been opened in several places. This
|| was of a full grown person, and
measured 5 feet five inches in
length. Like the former, it shew-
ed not the least trace of any of the
soft parts, but consisted of nothing
but naked bones.’

‘“Except a little rosin which
stuck fast between the teeth,
this mummy, as far as its inside
could be examined, contained none
of that substance; its thoracic and
abdominal cavities being entirely
filled with a dark brown mould,
which also occupied the whole space
between the palate and the lower
jaw, where it could easily be loos-
ened and drawn out with, the fin-
gers.’

‘“The maxillae of this mummy
were still less prominent than those
of the former one.’

‘“Some weeks after, viz. the
17th March, I had an opportunity
to examine one more mummy
at the honourable Charles Gre-
ville’s, F.R.S. which had four
years before, viz. March 29, 1788,
been already opened in the presence
of several curious spectators. It
belonged to John Symmons, Esq.
of Grosvenor house, Westminster,
who with the most obliging readi-
ness allowed me unconditionally,
not only to dissect it as much more
as I should think proper, but also to
select and take away whatever
parts of it I should think worthy of
a particular investigation.’

‘“It was a mummy of a child a-
bout six years old, which as to its
preparation, (viz. without rosin,
and without the least remaining
trace of any of the soft parts), and
the painted semicircular breast-
plate, consisting of several folds
of cotton cloth glued upon each
other, was very similar to those at
the British Museum, and the one at
Gottingen, except that the cha-
racters upon that part of the cotton
[Seite 130] || integument which covered the
shanks, resembled rather more the
figures of the one delineated by
count Caylus, in his Recueil, etc.’

‘“Nothing remained of the head
but some pieces of the bones of the
face, a few teeth, and the mask,
which still adhered to the cotton
bandages.’

‘“Among the teeth I found the
incisores, which notwithstanding
the tender age of the person had
however a very short thick crown,
considerably worn away at that
edge which is usually sharp. This
therefore, is a new confirmation of
the extraordinary phenomenon
which I had already noticed in a
complete skull, and some fragments
of jaws, in my own collection, and
which had also been observed
by Middleton in the Cambridge
mummy, and by Bruckmann in the
one that is at Cassel. Storr has al-
so seen something similar in a mum-
my that is preserved at Stuttgard.’

‘“If we reflect during how ma-
ny centuries, and through what a
variety of revolutions, the Egyp-
tians have used the practice of
mummifying their dead bodies, it
will naturally occur that we are not
to expect in all mummies a similar
characteristic formation of the
teeth, any more than we are to
look for a similar characteristic na-
tional form in their productions of
art.’

‘“This peculiar structure of the
teeth was not observed in the two
mummies I examined in the Bri-
tish museum, neither does it exist
in our Gottingen mummy. A de-
tached skull of a mummy in the
museum, prepared with rosin,
and which bore great resem-
blance to the abovementioned in
its general form, and especially in
the narrowness of the poll, had un-
fortunately the crowns of the teeth
|| so much mutilated as to afford no
manner of information concerning
this circumstance.’

‘“The above observation how-
ever appears, at all events, to be
well worth attending to, as it may
hereafter prove a criterion for de-
termining the period at which any
given mummy has been prepared.’

‘“But what interested me most
in Mr. Symmons’s mummy was the
mask, to the two sides of which
pieces of the bandages, with which
the whole of the exterior integu-
ments had been fastened to the
corps, still adhered. The inner
part of this mask was sycamore
wood, its outside being shaped, by
means of a thick coat of plaster, in
bas-relief, into the form of a face,
the surface of which seemed to have
been stained with natural colours,
which time had now considerably
blended and obscured. Having,
however, with Mr. Symmons’s
leave, taken this mask, together
with some other very interesting
pieces of his mummy, with me to
Gottingen, I there steeped it in warm
water, and carefully separated all
the parts of it. By this means I
discovered the various fraudulent
artifices that had been practised in
the construction of this mask: the
wooden part was evidently a piece
of the front of the sarcophagus of
the mummy of a young person;
and in order to convert its alto-
relievo into the basso-relievo
of the usual cotton mask of a
mummy, plaster had been applied
on each side of the nose; after
which paper had been ingeniously
pasted over the whole face, and
lastly, this paper had been stain-
ed with the colours generally ob-
served on mummies.’

‘“The small Sloanian mummy in
the museum had probably been pre-
pared nearly in the same manner.
[Seite 131] || That the deception has in both
cases been very industriously exe-
cuted, appears from this, that, as
far as I can learn, no one has ob-
served it before, although both
these pieces have no doubt been of-
ten seen, and examined by persons
conversant with these matters.’

‘“Some other suspicious circum-
stances in the mummies I examin-
ed in London were more evident.
For instance, the coffins of syca-
more wood fastened together with
iron nails, in which the small
mummies of Dr. Garthshore, Dr.
Lettsom, and sir W. Hamilton,
were contained, had most probably
been recently constructed of pieces
of decayed sarcophagi of ancient
mummies. The little Sloanian
mummy even lay in a box in the
form of a sarcophagus, which was
made of a dark-brown hard wood,
totally different from the sycamore,
and manifestly of modern construc-
tion.’

‘“How many other artificial re-
storations and deceptions may have
been practised in the several mum-
mies which have been brought into
Europe, which have never been
be detected, and may perhaps never
be detected, may well be admitted,
when we consider how imperfect
we are as yet in our knowledge of
this branch of Egyptian archaeolo-
gy, which, as a specific problem,
few have hitherto treated with the
critical acumen it seems to deserve.’

‘“All the knowledge we have
concerning the manner of prepar-
ing mummies is derived from two
sources, viz. the examination of
the mummies themselves; and two
classical passages in Herodotus
and Diodorus Siculus; Strabo and
other ancient authors having men-
tioned mummies only incidentally,
and in very few words.’

|| ‘“But unfortunately these two
classical passages do not in the least
agree with the state of the mum-
mies brought into Europe, which
are in general of two sorts, viz.
the hard compact ones, wholly in-
dued with rosin, which hence can
be knocked into pieces; the
soft ones, which yield to the pres-
sure of the hand, and are prepared
with very little rosin, and often
none at all, whose loose bandages
may be wound off, and which con-
tain in their cavities scarce any
thing but a vegetable mould, and
particularly no idol whatever as far
as I have been able to learn.’

‘“The front part of the latter is
usually covered with a painted,
and, at times, guilt mask of cotton
cloth; and as they appear more
variegated than the former, and
have no rosin in them yielding
drugs for traffic, they are brought
in much greater numbers, and may
be seen in many collections in Eu-
rope in a more perfect state than
the former, though often rendered
so by restoration. The former on
the contrary, have for this very
reason remained most of them in
the hands of druggists.’

‘“Of this, viz. the former sort,
were the two in the dispensary of
Crusius at Breslau, which Gryphi-
us described in the year 1662, and
particularly the very valuable body
of a mummy which was opened by
the apothecary Hertzhog, at Gotha,
in 1715, and in which more idols,
beetles, frogs (as symbols of ferti-
lity), nilometers, etc. were found,
than was ever, to the belt of my
knowledge, known to have been
contained in any other mummy
whatever.’

‘“But Herodotus, that very in-
quisitive and credulous historian
(as one of the most learned and ju-
[Seite 132] || dicious antiquaries in England has
named him), does not so much as
mention either of these sorts of
mummies; nor does he speak of
the rosin, or painted masks, although
he expressly describes such painted
integuments on the Aethiopian
mummies.’

‘“Diodorus is equally silent as
to the rosin, and the painted co-
vering; whilst on the other hand
he advances some very strange as-
sertions, such as that the skill of the
embalmers extended so far as per-
fectly to preserve the lineaments of
the face, although the faces of
mummies of both sorts be generally
covered with cotton cloth to the
thickness of nearly a man’s hand.’

‘“These authors, although they
have both been in Egypt, had pro-
bably their intelligence merely
from hearsay; for, on the other
hand it would no doubt be too pa-
radoxical to assert, that all the mum-
mies we are now acquainted with
have been made since the days of
Diodorus, and that none of those
described by him and by Herodo-
tus should have reached our
time. Count Caylus rather con-
jectures, that no mummies were
made since the conquest of Egypt
by the Romans (about the time of
Diodorus); but in this he is mani-
festly mistaken, since we learn from
St. Augustin that so low down as
his own time (viz. in the first half of
the fifth century) mummies were
certainly made in Egypt. But that
among the mummies that now exist,
especially the hard ones, which are
entirely done over with rosin,
there cannot but be many of a much
greater antiquity, will, among
other proofs, appear particularly
from the style of workmanship of
several of the little idols contained
in them.’

|| ‘“At least it may be admitted,
without much hesitation, that the
mummies we now possess, which
differ so much in their preparation
and characteristic structure, are at
least of a period including one thou-
sand years.’

‘“But it were much to be wish-
ed that we might have certain cri-
teria, to determine with some ac-
curacy the precise age of any parti-
cular mummy that may happen to
fall into our hands. Before, how-
ever, we can expect to obtain this
object, the two following pia de-
sideria must first be accomplished,
viz.’

‘“A more accurate determina-
tion of the various, so strikingly
different, and yet as strikingly cha-
racteristic national configurations in
the monuments of the Egyptian
arts, together with a determination
of the periods in which those mo-
numents were produced, and the
causes of their remarkable dif-
ferences.’

‘“A very careful technical ex-
amination of the characteristic forms
of the several skulls of mummies
we have hitherto met with, toge-
ther with an accurate comparison
of those skulls with the monuments
abovementioned.’

‘“This, at least, I consider as
the surest method of solving the
problem; being persuaded that,
especially after what has just now
been said of the fraudulent restora-
tions, it can hardly be expected
that we should be able to draw any
just inferences from the mere style,
and the contents of the painted in-
teguments of the mummies we
may have opportunities to exa-
mine.’

‘“Still less can we infer aught
from the sculpture or paintings on
the sarcophagi, as to the contents
[Seite 133] || of the mummies sent us into Eu-
rope; Maillet having about sixty
or seventy years ago detected the
fraud of the Arabs, who he says
are in the practice of breaking in
pieces the mummies contained in
the catacombs in the more orna-
mented sarcophagi, for the sake of
the idols they expect to find in
them, of replacing them with tole-
rably preserved common painted
mummies (such as I have called
soft), and thus offering them for
sale.’

‘“The osteological properties which
I have had opportunities to, observe
in the skulls of mummies, are most
of them mentioned in the descrip-
tion of my collection of the skulls
of different nations above quot-
ed; and will, I hope, prove use-
ful to others for further compari-
sons.’

‘“As to the different national
physiognomies of the ancient Egyp-
tians, I shall here advert only to
what, in my physiological study of
the varieties in the human species,
I have deduced from my compari-
sons of these skulls with the artificial
monuments found in Egypt. For I
am wholly at a loss to conceive how
learned writers, not only of the
stamp of the author of the Recherches
sur les Egyptiens, but even pro-
fessional antiquaries, such as Win-
kelmann, and the author of the
Recherches sur l’Origine des Arts de
la Grèce could ascribe to the arti-
ficial monuments found in Egypt
one common character of national
physiognomy, and define the same
in a few lines in the most decided
and peremptory manner.’

‘“It appears to me that we must
adopt at least three principal va-
rieties in the national physiognomy
of the ancient Egyptians; which,
like all the varieties in the human
|| species, are no doubt often blend-
ed together, so as to produce vari-
ous shades, but from which the
true, if I may so call it, ideal ar-
chetype may however be distin-
guished, by unequivocal proper-
ties, to which the endless smaller
deviations in individuals may, with-
out any forced construction, be ul-
timately reduced.’

‘“These appear to me to be,
1. the Aethiopian cast; 2. the one
approaching to the Hindoo; and,
3. the mixed, partaking in a man-
ner of both the former.’

‘“The first is chiefly distinguish-
ed by the prominent maxillae, tur-
gid lips, broad flat nose, and pro-
truding eye-balls, such as Volney
finds the Copts at present; such,
according to his description, and
the best figures given by Norden,
is the countenance of the Sphinx;
such were, according to the well-
known passage in Herodotus on the
origin of the Colchians, even the
Egyptians of his time; and thus
hath Lucian likewise represented a
young Egyptian at Rome.’

‘“The second, or the Hindoo
cast, differs toto coelo from the above,
as we may convince ourselves by
the inspection of other Egyptian
monuments. It is characterized
by a long slender nose, long and
thin eyelids, which run upwards
from the top of the nose towards
the temples, ears placed high on
the head, a short and very thin bo-
dily structure, and very long shanks.
As an ideal of this form, I shall
only adduce the painted female fi-
gure upon the back of the sar-
cophagus of capt. Lethieullier’s
mummy in the British muse-
um, which has been engraved by
Vertue, and which most strikingly
agrees with the unequivocal na-
tional form of the Hindoos, which,
[Seite 134] || especially in England, is so often
to be seen upon Indian paintings.’

‘“The third sort of Egyptian
configuration is not similar to ei-
ther of the preceding ones, but
seems to partake something of both,
which must have been owing to the
modifications produced by local
circumstances in a foreign climate.
This is characterized by a peculiar
turgid habit, flabby cheeks, a short
chin, large prominent eyes, and ra-
ther a plump make in the person.
This, as may naturally be expected,
is the structure most frequently to
be met with.’

‘“I thought this little digression
the less intrusive, as it appears to
me that it may on the one hand
prove useful, not only towards il-
lustrating the history of the origin
and descent of the nations that were
transplanted into Egypt, and have
acquired the general denomination
of Egyptians, but also for the de-
termination of the different periods
of the style of the arts of the an-
cient Egyptians, concerning which
we have as yet very imperfect ideas;
whilst, on the other hand, it might
lead to much accurate information
as to matter of fact; many very
eminent authors having given the
most incongruous representations
of the Egyptian national character,
such as Winkelmann for instance,
who produced a wretched figure of
a painted mask, without any cha-
racter whatever, engraved in Be-
ger’s Thesaur. Brandenb. T. III. p. 402.
as one of the most characteristic re-
presentations of the form of the an-
cient Egyptians; and who, as well as
several others, will have this form to
be similar to that of the Chinese;
an assertion which, after having had
opportunities to compare twenty-
one living Chinese at Amsterdam,
and having since seen in London
abundance of ancient Egyptian mo-
|| numents, especially in the British
museum, and the collections of
Mr. Townley, Mr. Knight, and
the marquis of Lansdown, has ever
appeared to me incomprehensible.’

‘“Adopting, as I think it con-
formable to nature, five races of
the human species, viz. 1. the
Caucasian; 2. the Mongolian; 3.
the Malay; 4. the Aethiopian; 5.
the American; I think the Egyp-
tians will find their place between
the Caucasian and the Aethiopean,
but that they differ from none more
than from the Mongolian, to which
the Chinese belong.’

‘“Thus far concerning the bo-
dies of the Egyptians prepared into
mummies. I shall conclude with
some observations on the proba-
ble meaning and destination of the
diminutive mummies, which have
given rise to the present inquiry.’

‘“They certainly are not what
they have long, I believe, univer-
sally been taken for, namely, mum-
mies of small children and em-
bryos. Some of them are the real
mummies of Ibises, such as one of
Dr. Lettsom, and one of the two
in the Hamiltonian collection, in
the British museum, which had by
decay been so far laid open as to
allow me plainly to distinguish in it
the bill of an Ibis, and other bones
of a bird.’

‘“These sacred birds, it is well
known, were usually, after having
been swathed round with cotton
bandages, placed in earthen urns,
and deposited in the catacombs ap-
propriated to the Ibises. Some-
times, without being stuck into an
urn, they were prepared in the
form of a puppet, yet so that the
head and bill projected at the top;
one of this sort has been figured by
count Caylus. And thirdly, the
whole bird was frequently wrap-
ped up in this puppet form, and
[Seite 135] || dressed in a mask, like one of the
human species.’

‘“But as the two others, viz.
Dr. Garthshore’s and the Sloanian,
were externally perfectly similar to
the abovementioned, I am led to
conjecture (for in the total want of
information from the ancients con-
cerning these small mummies, we
must however fix upon some Con-
jecture,) that the manufacturers of
mummies, who made them for sale,
in order to save themselves the trou-
ble of preparing a bird, took a bone,
or other solid part of a decayed
mummy, or indeed any thing that
was nearest at hand, dressed it up
as the mummy of an Ibis, and
tendered it for sale.’

‘“Whoever recollects what a
despicable set the Egyptian priests
were, even in the time of Strabo,
and how the whole religious wor-
ship of the Egyptians was then al-
ready fallen into decay, will not
think this conjecture too gratuitous,
or void of probability.’

‘“Or shall we rather consider
these puppets as the memento mori
which it is well known the Egyp-
tians were wont to introduce at
table in their meals and festivals?
Herodotus says, that little wooden
images were usually carried about
for this purpose, and I do actually
recollect having seen such small
|| wooden representations, of mum-
mies in the British museum. Lu-
cian also relates, as an eye witness,
that in his time the dead bodies
themselves were introduced at ta-
ble. It is easy to conceive how,
during the long interval of near
700 years, before the transition
took place from the first simple
idea to this disgusting practice, such
little mummies may at some period
or other have formed the interme-
diate step.’

‘“The author of the Recherches
sur les Egyptiens seems unwilling to
to admit that real mummies had
ever been introduced at table: but
his scepticism appears to me to be
no better founded than the contrary
assertion of one of the most eminent
physicians of the last century, Casp.
Hoffman, who, in his once classical
work de Medicamentis Officinalibus,
in the section of the Egyptian mum-
mies, gravely relates, that in lower
Saxony no feast was ever given
without the introduction of a mum-
my. And strange as this qui pro quo
between an Egyptian corpse and a
particular kind of Brunswick strong
beer must appear, it is however a
fact, that several more modern writ-
ers upon mummies have actually
copied it out into their works with
implicit confidence.”’