Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/31

Rh and it has been calculated that from 500 to 800 corpses must always have been on hand in the workshops attached to the necropolis of Memphis. To prevent mistakes in delivering the mummies to their families, the bandagers were in the habit of marking the wrappings with the name and age of the deceased, sometimes adding the name and regnal year of the king in whose time he died. The ink in which these entries were written was made from nitrate of silver, like the marking-ink of the present day. The bandages were of linen only. The texture varied with the rank of the mummy, some being as fine as the finest India muslin, and some extremely coarse. The quantity used was enormous, and persons used to save their old linen for this purpose all their lives long. Each limb, finger, and toe was first separately swathed ; and finally the Avhole body was enveloped in numberless convolutions, the contours of the shrunken form being skilfully restored by means of padding. From 700 to 1250 yards of band ages, in strips of 3 to 4 inches wide, have been found on mummies. The processes of mummification varied in different parts of Egypt and at different periods. The mummies made at Memphis are black, dry, and brittle, whereas those of the best Theban epoch are yellowish, flexible, and so elastic that the flesh yields to the touch of the finger and the limbs may be bent without breaking. Champollion- Figeac attributes this exquisite softness and elasticity to the injection of costly chemical liquids into the veins, whereby the substance of the flesh was preserved. The natron process, on the contrary, destroyed the flesh, leaving only the skin and the bones. By some schools of embalmers the cavity of the skull, after the withdrawal of the brain, was washed out by an injection of refined bitumen, the effect of which was to preserve the membranous covering which has frequently been found inside the brain-pan, dried and unimpaired. Hair is constantly found on the heads of mummies, sometimes plaited, sometimes frizzled, thus showing that the fashion of wearing wigs was by no means universal. The under bandages of mummies were laid on wet, having probably been dipped in spirits. They some times come off with the solidity of a pasteboard mask ; and life-like portraits of the dead have been reproduced by simply casting plaster into these masks as into a mould. When Syrian turpentine came into use the Theban mummies ceased to maintain their supremacy, and became even blacker than those of Memphis, the corpse and its bandages forming one solid mass almost as hard as stone. In Memphite mummies, especially of the Ramesside and Saitic periods, the cavity of the chest is found filled with scarabsei and amulets in pietra dura. The Theban mummies, on the other hand, from Dynasty XI. to Dy nasty XXIII., were adorned with rings, pectoral orna ments, collars, bracelets, &c., in exquisitely -wrought gold inlaid with lapis-lazuli, carnelian, green felspar, and other precious stones. Under the Greeks and Romans the art of mummification declined. Rudely-painted wooden coffins were substituted for the granite sarcophagi and richly- decorated mummy-cases of former times. The mummies became ashen-grey, or, being boiled in bitumen, were black, heavy, and shapeless. Those of Gra?co-Roman times are frequently found wrapped in painted shrouds, and sometimes with coarsely -daubed encaustic portraits on panel laid above the faces. Dr Birch gives 700 A.D. as the date at which mummification practically ceased. It was formerly supposed that the bodies of the dead were merely desiccated under the ancient empire, and that actual embalming was not practised before 2000 B.C. Recent ex plorations among the ruined pyramids of Sakkarah have, however, brought to light the mummied corpse of King Merenra, and part of the mummy of King Pepi, his father, 21 both of Dynasty VI. Though denuded of its wrappings by ancient tomb -breakers, the mummy of Merenra is distinctly impressed in the usual manner with marks of its former bandages ; and portions of the bandages and a &quot;well -embalmed&quot; hand were recovered from the debris of that of King Pepi. It is thus shown that mummifi cation was an established rite towards the close of the ancient empire, and that the processes then in use were identical with those of later times, which compels us to ascribe a very early date (possibly 3800 or 4000 B.C.) to the beginnings of the art. The styles of sarcophagi and mummy-cases vary accord ing to periods and places as much as do the styles of mummification. At Gizeh, Sakkarah, and Meydum, in tombs of the ancient empire (Dynasties I. to VI.), the dead are found in unpainted wooden coffins with carved human faces, these coffins being enclosed in massive rect angular sarcophagi of black basalt, red granite, and lime stone. Interments of the earliest Theban period (Dynasty XI.) yield cases shaped like the mummy within, and carved out of solid tree-trunks. The masks are painted yellow, white, or black, and on the breast Isis and Nephthys are depicted as if overshadowing the mummy- case with their wings. These cases are sometimes found enclosed in large rectangular wooden coffers with flat lids. With Dynasty XVII. (Theban) there appears the mummy- case with hands carved in relief and crossed upon the breast. The ground-colour of these cases is generally white or black, painted with transverse bands of hiero- glyphed inscriptions, the mask is red or gilded, and a vulture with extended wings is depicted on the breast. From Dynasty XIX. to Dynasty XXI. the coffins are highly ornamented in gay colours, figures being more abundant than inscriptions, and yellow varnishes much in favour. The mummy is frequently found enclosed in two, three, and even four such cases, each a size larger than the last. Cases with black grounds are succeeded by cases with brown grounds, and these again by white, resembling those of Dynasties XVII. and XVIII. The masks are now painted red, with richly-decorated head-dresses imitating wigs. Under the priest -king or Amenide domination these triple and quadruple &quot;nests&quot; of mummy -cases are found enclosed in gigantic rectangular outer sarcophagi of wood, highly painted and varnished. From Dynasty XXII. to Dynasty XXVI. the inscriptions are mostly painted in green on a white ground. At Memphis, meanwhile, the granite, basalt, or limestone sarcophagus sometimes rect angular with rounded corners, sometimes mummy-shaped with sculptured hands and feet, sometimes resembling a long bath continued to hold its ground. The Saitic period (Dynasties XXVI. to XXX.) is distinguished by the minute finish and artistic beauty of its sculptured sarcophagi in basalt and granite. Last of all, in the extreme decadence of the art, come squared wooden coffins, unpainted, unvarnished, and rudely scrawled in ink with hieroglyphed legends so corrupt as to be almost illegible. According to the religious law of ancient Egypt, the rites of mummification were universal and compulsory, being performed, not only for every native in a style consistent with his rank in life, but also for all strangers and foreigners who died in the land, for all slaves and captives, and even for outcasts, criminals, and lepers. The most ancient mummified or, at all events, desic cated human remains, not being pre-historic, which are known to science are the fragments of the body of Menkara (Gr., Mycerinus), third king of Dynasty IV., and builder of the smallest of the three great pyramids of Gizeh. These fragments were found by Colonel Howard Vyse strewn on the floor of the upper chamber of that pyramid, together with the woollen wrappings and empty