XIV. Observations on some Egyptian Mummies opened in Lon-
don. By John Frederick Blumenbach, M.D.F.R.S. Ad-
dressed to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. P.R.S.

[Seite 177]

Read April 10, 1794.

Among the many instances of kindness I have experienced
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 uncommon, and to me very interest-
ing, 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
honoured friend Dr. Garthshore, F.R.S. among other Egyp-
tian 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 mem-
bers of the Royal Society, 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.

[Seite 178]

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 extant.

The lower part of the front covering was, as is frequently
observed on large mummies, in a manner dissected in regular
compartments; and on it were painted the two standing fi-
gures that so often appear on the integuments of mummies,
viz. on the right side, Anubis with the dog’s head, and on the
left, Osiris with the head of a sparrow-hawk.

The mummy itself was opened at the side. The outward
integuments were glued so fast upon each other that it was
found necessary to use a saw: the inner ones were less adhe-
sive. 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 circumference, of the
integuments of a larger mummy, strongly impregnated with a
resinous substance, which rendered it hard and compact, and
which appeared on the edge to have been shaped into this ob-
long form by the paring of a knife. Pieces of this mass having
been put on a heated poker, emitted a smell perfectly similar
to that of fir-rosin, or the drug called wild incense from ant-
hills.

The sarcophagus consisted of six small square boards of sy-
camore, fastened together with iron nails.

Soon after, I found in the collection of Dr. Lettsom, F.R.S.
another similar mummy, which, outwardly, perfectly resembled
the above, was likewise contained in a sarcophagus, and differed
[Seite 179] only in the dimensions, this being 14½ inches long, and 11½ in
circumference 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 ex-
ternally, 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 satis-
fied my curiosity; and having hereupon found in the British
Museum no less than three such diminutive mummies, which
were now to me become enigmatical, (viz. two in the Ha-
miltonian collection of antiquities, both contained in the
same kind of square wooden coffins, clinched with iron nails,
and the third in the Sloanian collection), I felt an irresistible
impulse to apply to the President of the Royal Society, as one
of the curators of the Museum, for his interference towards
obtaining permission 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 li-
beral manner, not only to open one of these little mummies,
but also to choose among the four large ones that are in that
noble repository, the one that should appear to me the most
likely to afford some material information on the subject.

I chose among the small ones the Sloanian, as it seemed
to me to differ more than the two in the Hamiltonian col-
lection, from either that of Dr. Garthshore or Dr. Lett-
som. The four large mummies resembled in the main the one
deposited in the academical museum of Gottingen, which I
[Seite 180] examined in the summer of the year 1781. I selected, how-
ever, the one that appeared to differ most from the others,
and from ours, by the very close adhesion of the bandages,
from which I had reason to expect some difference in the inte-
rior preparation of it.

The 18th February was appointed for the opening of these
two mummies at the Museum, in the presence of a numerous
and respectable meeting.

The small mummy was externally 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, somewhat more com-
pact in the handling, and, proportionably to its size, rather
heavier.

On sawing it open, a resinous smell was immediately emit-
ted, and glutinous particles of rosin adhered to the heated saw.
This was owing 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, per-
haps eight years old, who had been embalmed with rosin; and
with it were also found some shreds of the original integu-
ments likewise impregnated with rosin. The upper end (ca-
put) of the bone was inserted in the head, and the lower ex-
tremity was at the feet of the little figure.

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

[Seite 181]

The large mummy I was permitted to examine, appeared
by its stature to be that of a young person, 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 discernible; though some
have asserted 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 prominent, but by no means so
much as in a true Guinea face; and not more so than is often
seen on handsome negroes, and not seldom on European coun-
tenances.

What appeared to me very remarkable, 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 disfigured.

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

[Seite 182]

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 in-
side 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 symbol whatever, was found in the
inside of this mummy. Nor did it contain any thing like an
onion, such as have been now and then found about the parts
of generation, or under one of the foot-soles of mummies.

The bones of the arms lay 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 Brünnich, 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 humeri, 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 rosin was almost entirely covered or im-
pregnated 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 perios-
teum.

Circumstances did not allow me to make any experiments
on this salt; but I have since obtained from my worthy friend
[Seite 183] John Hawkins, Esq. F.R.S. some considerable pieces of
mummies which he had bought of a druggist at Constantin-
ople, one of which was covered and impregnated with a sa-
line incrustation, which in taste and appearance was very si-
milar 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 neat and regular crystals. (See Tab. XVI. fig. 4.)

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 5 inches in length. Like the former, it shewed 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 oc-
cupied the whole space between the palate and the lower jaw,
where it could easily be loosened and drawn out with the
fingers.

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 opportu-
nity to examine one more mummy at the Honourable Charles
Greville’s, F.R.S. which had four years before, viz. March
29, 1788, been already opened in the presence of several cu-
rious spectators. It belonged to John Symmons, Esq. of Gros-
venor house, Westminster, who with the most obliging readi-
ness allowed me unconditionally, not only to dissect it as
[Seite 184] 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 about six years old, which as to its
preparation, (viz. without rosin, and without the least remain-
ing trace of any of the soft parts), and the painted semicircu-
lar breast-plate, consisting of several folds of cotton cloth glued
upon each other, was very similar to those at the British Mu-
seum, and the one at Gottingen, except that the characters
upon that part of the cotton integument which covered the
shanks, resembled rather more the figures of the one delineated
by Count Caylus, in his Recueil, etc. Vol. V. Tab. XXVI–
XXIX.

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 notwithstand-
ing 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 phaenomenon which I had already noticed in a
complete skull, and some fragments of jaws, in my own collec-
tion,^* and which had also been observed by Middleton in
the Cambridge mummy,^† and by Brückmann in the one that
is at Cassel.^‡ Storr has also seen something similar in a
mummy that is preserved at Stuttgard.^§

[Seite 185]

If we reflect during how many centuries, and through what
a variety of revolutions, the Egyptians 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 national form in their productions of art.

This peculiar structure of the teeth was not observed in the
two mummies I examined in the British Museum, neither does
it exist in our Gottingen mummy. A detached skull of a
mummy in the Museum, prepared with rosin, and which bore
great resemblance to the abovementioned in its general form,
and especially in the narrowness of the poll, had unfortunately
the crowns of the teeth so much mutilated as to afford no
manner of information concerning this circumstance.

The above observation however appears, at all events, to be
well worth attending to, as it may hereafter prove a criterion
for determining 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 integuments had been
fastened to the corpse, 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 ob-
scured. 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
[Seite 186] I discovered the various fraudulent artifices that had been prac-
tised 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 stained with the colours generally
observed on mummies.

The small Sloanian mummy in the Museum had probably
been prepared nearly in the same manner. That the deception
has in both cases been very industriously executed, appears from
this, that, as far as I can learn, no one has observed it before,
although both these pieces have no doubt been often seen, and
examined by persons conversant with these matters.

Some other suspicious circumstances in the mummies I
examined in London were more evident. For instance, the
coffins of sycamore 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 construction.

How many other artificial restorations and deceptions may
have been practised in the several mummies which have been
brought into Europe, which have never been suspected, and
may perhaps never be detected, may well be admitted, when
we consider how imperfect we are as yet in our knowledge of
[Seite 187] this branch of Egyptian archaeology, which, as a specific pro-
blem, few have hitherto treated with the critical acumen it-
seems to deserve.

All the knowledge we have concerning the manner of pre-
paring mummies is derived from two sources, viz. (a) the exa-
mination of the mummies themselves; and (b) two classical
passages in Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus; Strabo
and other ancient authors having mentioned 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 mummies brought into Europe,
which are in general of two sorts, viz. (a) the hard compact
ones, wholly indued with rosin, which hence can be knocked
into pieces; (b) the soft ones, which yield to the pressure of
the hand, and are prepared with very little rosin, and often
none at all, whose loose bandages may be wound off, and which
contain 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, gilt 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
Europe 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 Gryphius described in the year
[Seite 188] 1662, and particularly the very valuable body of a mummy
which was opened by the apothecary Hertzog, at Gotha, in
1715, and in which more idols, beetles, frogs (as symbols of
fertility), nilometers, etc. were found, than was ever, to the
best of my knowledge, known to have been contained in any
other mummy whatever.

But Herodotus, that very inquisitive and credulous historian
(as one of the most learned and judicious antiquaries in Eng-
land 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
covering; whilst on the other hand he advances some very
strange assertions, such as that the skill of the embalmers ex-
tended so far as perfectly to preserve the lineaments of the
face, although the faces of mummies of both sorts be gene-
rally covered with cotton cloth to the thickness of nearly a
man’s hand.^*

These authors, although they have both been in Egypt, had
probably their intelligence merely from hearsay; for, on the
other hand, it would no doubt be too paradoxical to assert,
that all the mummies we are now acquainted with have been
made since the days of Diodorus, and that none of those
described by him and by Herodotus should have reached
our time. Count Caylus rather conjectures, that no mum-
mies were made since the conquest of Egypt by the Romans
(about the time of Diodorus) ; but in this he is manifestly
mistaken, since we learn from St. Augustin that so low down
[Seite 189] as his own times (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 thousand years.

But it were much to be wished that we might have certain
criteria, to determine with some accuracy the precise age of any
particular mummy that may happen to fall into our hands.
Before, however, we can expect to obtain this object, the two
following pia desideria must first be accomplished, viz.

(A) A more accurate determination of the various, so strik-
ingly different, and yet as strikingly characteristic national con-
figurations in the monuments of the Egyptian arts, together
with a determination of the periods in which those monu-
ments were produced, and the causes of their remarkable
differences.

(B) A very careful technical examination of the charac-
teristic forms of the several skulls of mummies we have hitherto
met with, together 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 restorations, it can hardly be
[Seite 190] expected that we should be able to draw any just inferences
from the mere style, and the contents of the painted integu-
ments of the mummies we may have opportunities to examine.

Still less can we infer aught from the sculpture or paintings
on the sarcophagi, as to the contents of the mummies sent us
into Europe; 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 ornamented sarcophagi, for the sake of
the idols they expect to find in them, of replacing them with
tolerably 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 men-
tioned in the description of my collection of the skulls of diffe-
rent nations above quoted; and will, I hope, prove useful to
others for further comparisons.

As to the different national physiognomies of the ancient
Egyptians, I shall here advert only to what, in my physiolo-
gical study of the varieties in the human species, I have de-
duced from my comparisons 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 profes-
sional antiquaries, such as Winkelmann,^† and the author of
the Recherches sur l’Origine des Arts de la Grèce^‡ could ascribe
to the artificial monuments found in Egypt one common cha-
[Seite 191] racter 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
varieties in the national physiognomy of the ancient Egyp-
tians; which, like all the varieties in the human species, are
no doubt often blended together, so as to produce various
shades, but from which the true, if I may so call it, ideal ar-
chetype may however be distinguished, by unequivocal pro-
perties, to which the endless smaller deviations in individuals
may, without any forced construction, be ultimately 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 manner of both the former.

The first is chiefly distinguished by the prominent maxillae,
turgid lips, broad flat nose, and protruding 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.^† (See Tab. XVI. fig. 1.)

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,^‡
[Seite 192] a short and very thin bodily structure,^* and very long shanks.
As an ideal of this form, I shall only adduce the painted female
figure upon the back of the sarcophagus of Capt. Lethieullier’s
mummy in the British Museum, which has been engraved by
Vertue, and which most strikingly agrees with the unequi-
vocal national form of the Hindoos, which, especially in Eng-
land, is so often to be seen upon Indian paintings. (See fig. 2.)

The third sort of Egyptian configuration is not similar to
either of the preceding ones, but seems to partake something
of both, which must have been owing to the modifications pro-
duced by local circumstances in a foreign climate. This is
characterized by a peculiar turgid habit, flabby cheeks, a short
chin, large prominent eyes, and rather a plump make in the
person.^† This, as may naturally be expected, is the structure
most frequently to be met with. (See fig. 3.)

I thought this little digression the less intrusive, as it appears
to me that it may on the one hand prove useful, not only to-
wards illustrating 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
ancient Egyptians, concerning which we have as yet very im-
perfect 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
[Seite 193] instance, who produced a wretched figure of a painted mask,
without any character whatever, engraved in Beger’s Thesaur.
Brandenb. T. III. p. 402, as one of the most characteristic repre-
sentations of the form of the ancient 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 oppor-
tunities to compare twenty-one living Chinese at Amsterdam,
and having since seen in London abundance of ancient Egyp-
tian monuments, especially in the British Museum, and the
collections of Mr. Townley, Mr. Knight, and the Marquis
of Landsdown, has ever appeared to me incomprehensible.

Adopting, as I think it conformable to nature, five races of
the human species, viz. 1. the Caucasian; 2. the Mongolian;
3. the Malay; 4. the Ethiopian; 5. the American; I think
the Egyptians will find their place between the Caucasian and
the Ethiopian, but that they differ from none more than from
the Mongolian, to which the Chinese belong.

Thus far concerning the bodies of the Egyptians prepared
into mummies. I shall conclude with some observations on the
probable 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, uni-
versally been taken for,^* namely, mummies of small children
and embryos. Some of them are the real mummies of Ibises,
such as the 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 distin-
guish in it the bill of an Ibis, and other bones of a bird.

[Seite 194]

These sacred birds, it is well known, were usually, after hav-
ing been swathed round with cotton bandages, placed in
earthen urns, and deposited in the catacombs appropriated to
the Ibises. Sometimes, 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
wrapped up in this puppet form, and 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 above-
mentioned, I am led to conjecture (for in the total want of
information from the ancients concerning these small mum-
mies, we must however fix upon some conjecture), that the
manufacturers of mummies, who made them for sale, in order
to save themselves the trouble 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 worship of the Egyptians was then already 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 Egyptians were wont to in-
troduce 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 mummies in the British Mu-
[Seite 195] seum. Lucian also relates, as an eye witness, that in his time
the dead bodies themselves were introduced at table. 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 intermediate step.

The author of the Recherches sur les Egyptiens seems un-
willing 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. Hoffmann, who in his
once classical work de Medicamentis Officinalibus, in the section
of the Egyptian mummies, gravely relates, that in Lower
Saxony no feast was ever given without the introduction of a
mummy.^* And strange as this qui pro quo between an Egyp-
tian corpse and a particular kind of Brunswick strong beer
must appear, it is however a fact, that several more modern
writers upon mummies have actually copied it out into their
works with implicit confidence.