ing and cleansing the intestines by frequent in- | bowels, they washed the body several times in a jections, and preserving the body for a similar term in nitre, at the end of which it is restored to the relations. Diodorus Siculus also makes mention of the manner in which these embalmings are performed. According to him there were several officers appointed for this purpose; the first of them, who was called the scribe, marked those parts of the body on the left side which were to be opened; the cutter made the incision; and one of those that were to salt it drew out all the bowels, except the heart, and the kidneys; another washed them in palm wine and odoriferous liquors: afterwards they anointed for above thirty days with cedar, gum, myrrh, cinnamon, and other perfumes. These aromatics preserved the body entire for a long time, and it gave a very agreeable odour. It was not in the least disfigured by this preparation; after which it was returned to the relations, who kept it in a coffin, placed upright against a wall. lee made of the dried bark of the pine-tree, warmed, during the summer, by the sun, or by a stove in the winter. They afterwards anointed it with butter, or the fat of bears, which they had previously boiled with odoriferous herbs, such as sage and lavender. After this unction they suffered the body to dry; and then repeated the operation as often as it was necessary, until the whole substance was impregnated with the preparation. When it was become very light, it was then a certain sign that it was fit and properly prepared. They then rolled it up in the dried skins of goats; which when they had a mind to save expense, they suffered to remain with the hair still growing upon them. Purchas assures us, that he has seen mummies of this kind in London; and mentions the name of a gentleman who had seen several of them in the island of Teneriffe, which were supposed to have been two thousand years old; but without any certain proofs of such great antiquity. This people, who probably Most of the modern writers who have treated came first from the coasts of Africa, might have on this subject, have merely repeated what has learned this art from the Egyptians, as there was been said by Herodotus; and if they add any- a traffic carried on from thence into the most inthing of their own, it is but merely from conjec-ternal parts of Africa. ture. Dumont observes that it is very probable, that aloes, bitumen, and cinnamon, make a principal part of the composition which is used on this occasion: he adds, that after embalming, the body is put into a coffin, made of the sycamore tree, which is almost incorruptible. Mr. Grew remarks, that in an Egyptian mummy in the possession of the Royal Society, the preparation was so penetrating as to enter into the very substance of the bones, and rendered them so black that they seemed to have been burned. From this he is induced to believe that the Egyptians had a custom of embalming their dead, by boiling them in a kind of liquid preparation, until all the aqueous parts of the body were exhaled away; and until the oily or gummy matter had penetrated throughout. He proposes, in consequence of this, a method of macerating, and afterwards of boiling the dead body in oil of walnut. I am, for my own part, of opinion, that there were several ways of preserving dead bodies from putrefaction; and that this would be no difficult matter, since different nations have all succeeded in the attempt. We have an example of this kind among the Guanches, the ancient inhabitants of the island of Teneriffe. Those who survived the general destruction of this people by the Spaniards, when they conquered this island, informed them, that the art of embalming was still preserved there; and that there was a tribe of priests among them possessed of the secret, which they kept concealed as a sacred mystery. As the greatest part of the nation was destroyed, the Spaniards could not arrive at a complete knowledge of this art; they only found out a few of the particulars. Having taken out the Father Acosta and Garcilasso de la Vega make no doubt but that the Peruvians understood the art of preserving their dead for a very long space of time. They assert their having seen the bodies of seyeral incas, that were perfectly preserved. They still preserved their hair and their eye-brows; but they had eyes made of gold, put in the places of those taken out. They were clothed in their usual habits, and seated in the manner of the Indians, their arms placed on their breasts. Garcilasso touched one of their fingers, and found it apparently as hard as wood; and the whole body was not heavy enough to overburden a weak man, who should attempt to carry it away. Acosta presumes that these bodies were embalmed with a bitumen of which the Indians knew the properties. Garcilasso, however, is of a different opinion, as he saw nothing bituminous about them; but he confesses that he did not examine them very particularly; and he regrets his not having inquired into the methods used for that purpose. He adds, that being a Peruvian his countrymen would not have scrupled to inform him of the secret, if they really had it still among them. Garcilasso, thus being ignorant of the secret, makes use of some inductions to throw light upon the subject; he asserts, that the air is so dry and so cold at Cusco, that flesh dries there like wood, without corrupting; and he is of opinion, that they dried the body in snow before they applied the bitumen: he adds, that in the times of the incas, they usually dried the flesh which was designed for the use of the army; and that, when it had lost its humidity, it might be kept without salt, or any other preparation. It is said, that at Spitzbergen, which lies with assures us, are found to petrify, or, in other words, to become extremely hard, and are preserved for several ages. It is asserted that some of them have continued for a thousand years. in the arctic circle, and consequently in the cold- | and buried in the sands of that country, as he est climate, bodies never corrupt nor suffer any apparent alteration, even though buried for thirty years. Nothing corrupts or putrefies in that climate; the wood which has been employed in building those houses where the train- oil is separated, appears as fresh as the day it was first cut. If excessive cold, therefore, be thus capable of preserving bodies from corruption, it is not less certain that a great degree of dryness produced by heat, produces the same effect. It is well known that the men and animals that are buried | in the sands of Arabia quickly dry up and continue in preservation for several ages, as if they had been actually embalmed. It has often happened, that whole caravans have perished in crossing those deserts, either by the burning winds that infest them, or by the sands which are raised by the tempest, and overwhelm every creature in certain ruin. The bodies of those persons are preserved entire; and they are often found in this condition by some accidental passenger. Many authors, both ancient and modern, make mention of such mummies as these; and Shaw says, that he has been assured that numbers of men, as well as other animals, have been thus preserved, for times immemorial, in the burning sands of Saibah, which is a place, he supposes, situate between Rasem and Egypt. The Egyptians, as has been mentioned above, swathed the body with linen bands, and enclosed it in a coffin: however, it is probable that with all these precautions, they would not have continued till now, if the tombs, or pits, in which they were placed, had not been dug in a dry chalky soil, which was not susceptible of humidity; and which was besides covered over with a dry sand of several feet thickness. The sepulchres of the ancient Egyptians subsist to this day. Most travellers who have been in Egypt have described those of ancient mummies, and have seen the mummies interred there. These catacombs are within two leagues of the ruins of the city, nine leagues from Grand Cairo, and about two miles from the village of Zaccara. They extend from thence to the Pyramids of Pharaoh, which are about eight miles distant. These sepulchres lie in a field, covered with a fine running sand, of a yellowish colour. The country is dry and hilly; the entrance of the tombs is choked up with sand; there are many open; but several more that are still concealed. The inhabitants of the neighbouring village have no other commerce or method of subsisting, but by seeking out mummies, and selling them to such strangers as happen to be at Grand Cairo. This commerce, some years ago, was not only a very common, but a very gainful one. A complete mummy was often sold for twenty pounds: but it must not be supposed that it was bought at such a high price from a mere passion for antiquity; there were much more powerful motives for this traffic. Mummy, at that time, made a considerable article in medicine; and a thousand imaginary virtues were ascribed to it, for the cure of most disorders, particularly of the paralytic kind. There was no shop, therefore, without mummy in it; and no physician thought he had properly treated his patient, without adding this to his prescription. duced by the general repute in which this supposed drug was at that time, several Jews, both of Italy and France, found out the art of imitating mummy so exactly, that they for a long time deceived all Europe. This they did by drying dead bodics in ovens, after having prepared them with myrrh, aloes, and bitumen. Still, however, The gums, resins, and bitumens, with which the request for mummies continued, and a varidead bodies are embalmed, keep off the impres-ety of cures were daily ascribed to them. At sions which they would else receive from the al- | length, Paræus wrote a treatise on their total interation of the temperature of the air; and still more, if a body thus prepared be placed in a dry or burning sand, the most powerful means will be united for its preservation. We are not to be surprised, therefore, at what we are told by Chardin of the country of Chorosan, in Persia. The bodies which have been previously embalmed The corruption of dead bodies being entirely caused by the fermentation of the humours, whatever is capable of hindering or retarding this fermentation will contribute to their preservation. Both heat and cold, though so contrary in themselves, produce similar effects in this particular, by drying up the humours; the cold | in condensing and thickening them, and the heat in evaporating them before they have time to act upon the solids. But it is necessary that these extremes should be constant; for if they succeed each other so as that cold shall follow heat, or dryness humidity, it must then necessarily happen that corruption must ensue. However, in temperate climates there are natural causes capable of preserving dead bodies; among which we may reckon the quality of the earth in which they are buried. If the earth be drying and astringent, it will imbibe the humidity of the body; and it may probably be for this reason that the bodies buried in the monastery of the Cordeliers, at Thoulouse, do not putrefy, but dry in such a manner that they may be lifted up by one arm. In efficacy in physic; and showed their abuse in loading the stomach, to the exclusion of more efficacious medicines. From that time, therefore, their reputation began to decline; the Jews discontinued their counterfeits, and the trade returned entire to the Egyptians, when it was no longer of value. The industry of seeking af ter mummies is now totally relaxed, their price merely arbitrary, and just what the curious are willing to give. In seeking for mummies, they first clear away the sand, which they may do for weeks together, without finding what is wanted. Upon coming to a little square opening, of about eighteen feet in depth, they descend into it by holes for the feet, placed at proper intervals, and there they are sure of finding what they seek for. These caves, or wells, as they call them, are hollowed out of a white free-stone, which is found in all this country, a few feet below the covering of sand. When one gets to the bottom of these, which are sometimes forty feet below the surface, there are several square openings on each side, into passages of ten or fifteen feet wide, and these lead to chambers of fifteen or twenty feet square. These are all hewn out of the rock; and in each of the catacombs are to be found several of these apartments, communicating with each other. They extend a great way under ground, so as to be under the city of Memphis, and in a manner to undermine its environs. In some of the chambers, the walls are adorned with figures and hieroglyphics; in others, the mummies are found in tombs round the apartment hollowed out in the rock. These tombs are upright, and cut into the shape of a man, with his arms stretched out. There are others found, and these in the greatest number, in wooden coffins, or in cloths covered with bitumen. These coffins, or wrappers, are covered all over with a variety of ornaments. There are some of them painted, and adorned with figures, such as that of Death, and the leaden seals, on which several characters are engraven. Some of these coffins are carved into the human shape; but the head alone is distinguishable: the rest of the body is all of a piece, and terminated by a pedestal, while there are some with their arms hanging down; and it is by these marks that the bodies of persons of rank are distinguished from those of the meaner order. These are generally found lying on the floor, without any profusion of ornaments; and in some chambers the mummies are found indiscriminately piled upon each other, and buried in the sand. it. Some mummies have been found with a long beard, and hair that reached down to the midleg, nails of a surprising length, and some gilt, or at least painted of a gold colour. Some are found with bands upon their breast, covered with hieroglyphics, in gold, silver, or in green; and some with tutelary idols, and other figures of jasper, within their body. A piece of gold also has often been found under their tongues, of about two pistoles value; and, for this reason the Arabians spoil all the mummies they meet with, in order to get at the gold. But although art, or accident, has thus been found to preserve dead bodies entire, it must by no means be supposed that it is capable of preserving the exact form and lineaments of the deceased person. Those bodies which are found dried away in the deserts, or in some particular churchyards, are totally deformed, and scarcely any lineaments remain of their external structure. Nor are the mummies preserved by embalming, in a better condition. The flesh is dried away, hardened and hidden under a variety of bandages; the bowels, as we have seen, are totally removed; and from hence, in the most perfect of them, we see only a shapeless mass of skin discoloured; and even the features scarcely distinguishable. The art is, therefore, an effort rather of preserving the substance than the likeness of the deceased; and has, consequently, not been brought to its highest pitch of perfection. It appears from a mummy not long since dug up in France, that the art of embalming was more completely understood in the western world than even in Egypt. This mummy, which was dug up at Auvergne, was an amazing instance of their skill, and is one of the most curious relics in the art of preservation. As some peasants, in that part of the world, were digging in a field, near Rion, within about twenty-six paces of the highway, between that and the river Artiers, they discovered a tomb, about a foot and a-half beneath the surface. It was composed only of two stones; the one of which formed the body of the sepulchre, and the other the cover. This tomb was of free-stone, seven feet and a-half long, three feet and a-half broad, and about three feet high. It was of rude workmanship; the cover Many mummies are found lying on their backs; had been polished, but was without figure or intheir heads turned to the north, and their hands scription; within this tomb was placed a leaden placed on the belly. The bands of linen, with coffin, four feet seven inches long, fourteen inches which these are swathed, are found to be more broad, and fifteen high. It was not made coffinthan a thousand yards long; and, of consequence, fashion, but oblong, like a box, equally broad at the number of circumvolutions they make about both ends, and covered with a lid that fitted on the body must have been amazing. These were like a snuffbox, without a hinge. This cover had performed by beginning at the head, and ending two holes in it, each of about two inches long, at the feet; but they contrived it so as to avoid and very narrow, filled with a substance resemcovering the face. However, when the face is bling butter; but for what purpose intended entirely uncovered, it moulders into dust imme- remains unknown. Within this coffin was a diately upon the admission of the air. When, mummy, in the highest and most perfect presertherefore, it is preserved entire, a slight covering vation. The internal sides of the coffin were of cloth is so disposed over it, that the shape of filled with an aromatic substance, mingled with the eyes, the nose, and the mouth, is seen under clay. Round the mummy was wrapped a course cloth, in form of a napkin; under this were two shirts, or shrouds, of the most exquisite texture; beneath these a bandage, which covered all parts of the body, like an infant in swaddling-clothes; still under this general bandage there was another, which went particularly round the extremities, the hands, and the legs. The head was covered with two caps; the feet and hands were without any particular bandages; and the whole body was covered with an aromatic substance an inch thick. When these were removed, and the body exposed naked to view, nothing could be more astonishing than the preservation of the whole, and the exact resemblance it bore to a body that had been dead a day or two before. It appeared well-proportioned, except that the head was rather large, and the feet small. The skin had all the pliancy and colour of a body lately dead: the visage, however, was of a brownish hue. The belly yielded to the touch; all the joints were flexible, except those of the legs and feet; the fingers stretched forth of themselves when bent inwards. The nails still continued entire; and all the marks of the joints, both in the fingers, the palms of the hands, and the soles of the feet, remained perfectly visible. The bones of the arms and legs were soft and pliant; but, on the contrary, those of the skull preserved their rigidity; the hair, which only covered the back of the head, was of a chestnut colour, and about two inches long. The pericranium at top was separated from the skull by an incision, in order to open it for the introducing proper aromatics in the place of the brain, where they were found mixed with clay. The teeth, the tongue, and the ears, were all preserved in perfect form. . The intestines were not taken out of the body, but remained pliant and entire, as in a fresh subject; and the breast was made to rise and fall like a pair of bellows. The embalming preparation had a very strong and pungent smell, which the body preserved for more than a month after it was exposed to the air. This odour was perceived wherever the mummy was laid; although it remained there but a very short time, it was even pretended that the peasants of the neighbouring villages were incommoded by it. If one touched either the mummy, or any part of the preparation, the hands smelled of it for several hours after, although washed with water, spirit of wine, or vinegar. This mummy, having remained exposed for some months to the curiosity of the public, began to suffer some mutilations. A part of the skin of the forehead was cut off; the teeth were drawn out, and some attempts were made to pull away the tongue. It was, therefore, put into a glass-case, and shortly after transmitted to the king of France's cabinet, at Paris." 2 In March 1813, the body of Charles I. was found embalmed, and in a very high state of preservation, in a leaden coffin in St. George's chapel, Windsor, when the men were cleaning out the vault for the There are many reasons to believe this to be the body of a person of the highest distinction; however, no marks remain to assure us either of the quality of the person, or the time of his decease. There are only to be seen some irregular figures on the coffin; one of which represents a kind of star. There were also some singular characters upon the bandages, which were totally defaced by those who had torn them away. However, it should seem that it had remained for several ages in this state, since the first years immediately succeeding the interment, are usually those in which the body is most liable to decay. It appears also to be a much more perfect method of embalming than that of the Egyptians; as in this the flesh continues with its natural elasticity and colour, the bowels remain entire, and the joints have almost the pliancy which they had when the person was alive. Upon the whole, it is probable that a much less tedious preparation than that used by the Egyptians would have sufficed to keep the body from putrefaction; and that an injection of petreoleum inwardly, and of a layer of asphaltum without, would have sufficed to have made a mummy; and it is remarkable that Auvergne, where this was found, affords these two substances in sufficient plenty. This art, therefore, might be brought to greater perfection than it has arrived at hitherto, were the art worth preserving. But mankind have long since grown wiser in this respect; and think it unnecessary to keep by them a deformed carcase, which, instead of aiding their magnificence, must only serve to mortify their pride. CHAP. XIV. OF ANIMALS. LEAVING man, we now descend to the lower ranks of animated nature, and prepare to examine the life, manners, and characters, of these our humble partners in the creation. But, in such a wonderful variety as is diffused around us, where shall we begin? The number of beings endued with life, as well as we, seems, at first view, infinite. Not only the forests, the waters, the air, teem with animals of various kinds; but almost every vegetable, every leaf, has millions of minute inhabitants, each of which fills up the circle of its allotted life, and some are found objects of the reception of the remains of the duchess of Brunssexton, under the old parish-church of Kilsyth, in wick.-A vault was accidentally discovered by the Scotland; on descending a flight of steps he discovered a leaden coffin, in which were embalmed, and in every respect in high preservation, the bodies of Lady Kilsyth and her infant son, who were both killed by the fall of a house on the Continent, where they were embalmed, and sent home to the family burying-place. This circumstance happened upwards of a hundred and fifty years ago. -ED. greatest curiosity. In this seeming exuberance | he finds that it has none. He, therefore, is to of animals, it is natural for ignorance to lie down look for it among the wingless insects, or the in hopeless uncertainty, and to declare what re- Aptera, as Linnæus calls them; he then is to see quires labour to particularize to be utterly in- whether the head and breast make one part of scrutable. It is otherwise, however, with the the body, or are disunited: he finds they make active and searching mind; no way intimidated one: he is then to reckon the number of feet with the immense variety, it begins the task of and eyes; and he finds that it has eight of each. numbering, grouping, and classing, all the various The insect, therefore, must be either a scorpion kinds that fall within its notice; finds every day or a spider; but he lastly examines its feelers, new relations between the several parts of the which he finds clavated, or clubbed; and, by all creation; acquires the art of considering several these marks, he at last discovers it to be a spiat a time under one point of view; and, at last, der. Of spiders, there are forty-seven sorts; and, begins to find that the variety is neither so great by reading the description of each, the inquirer nor so inscrutable as was at first imagined. As will learn the name of that which he desires to in a clear night, the number of the stars seems know. With the name of the insect, he is also infinite; yet, if we sedulously attend to each in directed to those authors that have given any its place, and regularly class them, they will soon account of it, and the page where that account be found to diminish, and come within a very is to be found; by this means he may know at scanty computation. once what has been said of that animal by others, and what there is of novelty in the result of his own researches. Method is one of the principal helps in natural history, and without it very little progress can be made in this science. It is by that alone we can hope to dissipate the glare, if I may so express it, which arises from a multiplicity of objects at once presenting themselves to the view. It is method that fixes the attention to one point, and leads it, by slow and certain degrees, to leave no part of nature unobserved. 1 All naturalists, therefore, have been very careful in adopting some method of classing or grouping the several parts of nature; and some have written books of natural history with no other view. These methodical divisions some have treated with contempt, not considering that books, in general, are written with opposite views; some to be read, and some only to be occasionally consulted. The methodists in natural history seem to be content with the latter advantage; and have sacrificed to order alone, all the delights of the subject, all the arts of heightening, awakening, or continuing curiosity. But they certainly have the same use in science that a dictionary has in language; but with this difference, that in a dictionary we proceed from the name to the definition; in a system of natural history, we proceed from the definition to find out the thing. Without the aid of system, nature must still have lain undistinguished, like furniture in a lumber-room: everything we wish for is there indeed, but we know not where to find it. If, for instance, in a morning excursion, I find a plant, or an insect, the name of which I desire to learn; or, perhaps, am curious to know whether already known; in this inquiry I can expect information only from one of these systems, which, being couched in a methodical form, quickly directs me to what I seek for. Thus we will suppose that our inquirer has met with a spider, and that he has never seen such an insect before. He is taught by the writer of a system 2 to examine whether it has wings; and From hence it will appear how useful those systems in natural history are to the inquirer; but, having given them all their merit, it would be wrong not to observe, that they have, in general, been very much abused. Their authors, in general, seem to think that they are improvers of natural history, when in reality they are but guides; they seem to boast that they are adding to our knowledge, while they are only arranging it. These authors, also, seem to think that the reading of their works and systems is the best method to attain a knowledge of nature; but setting aside the impossibility of getting through whole volumes of a dry long catalogue, the multiplicity of whose contents is too great for even the strongest memory, such works rather tell us the names than the history of the creature we desire to inquire after. In these dreary pages, every insect or plant, that has a name, makes as distinguished a figure as the most wonderful, or the most useful. The true end of studying nature is to make a just selection, to find those parts of it that most conduce to our pleasure or convenience, and to leave the rest in neglect. But these systems, employing the same degree of attention upon all, give us no opportunities of knowing which most deserves attention; and he who has made his knowledge from such systems only, has his memory crowded with a number of trifling or minute particulars, which it should be his business and his labour to forget. These books, as was said before, are useful to be consulted, but they are very unnecessary to be read; no inquirer into nature should be without one of them; and, without any doubt, Linnæus deserves the preference. One fault more, in almost all these systematic writers, and that which leads me to the subject of the present chapter, is, that seeing the necessity of methodical distribution in some parts of nature, they have introduced it into all. Find1 Mr. Buffon, in his Introduction, &c. 2 Linnæus. ing the utility of arranging plants, birds, or in |