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MtJNCHHAUSEN

1277

MUNICH

Egyptians. The art appears as old as 4000 B. C. at least, for the bodies of Cheops and others of the age of the 4th dynasty were mummied. One of the earliest embalmments of which we have a record is that of Jacob, and the body of Joseph was thus prepared and carried out of Egypt. The process is described by Herodotus and Diodorus. A scribe marked with a reed-pen a line on the left side beneath the ribs, down which line the district-ripper, a low-class officer, made a deep cut with a stone-knife; he was then pelted with stones and chased with curses. The salter next removed the entrails and lungs, except the heart and kidneys, while a companion took out the brain through the nose. The body was then ready for the salts and spices accessary for its preservation, the quality of which depended upon the sum to be paid. In the case of the wealthy, peculiar drugs were passed through the nostrils into the cavities of the skull; the body-cavity was washed with palm-wine, filled with myrrh, cassia and other substances, and the cut sewed. The mummy was kept in natron (niter) for 70 days, then washed, bandaged in rolls of linen held together by gums, and set upright in a wooden coffin against the walls of the house or tomb This process cost a silver talent, worth in our money about $3,725. Using cedar-oil was a cheaper method and cost a mina, worth about $1,215. The poorer classes washed the corpse in myrrh, and salted it for 70 days. When thus prepared and covered with a picture of the dead and clothed as a laborer in the world to come, the mummy was placed in a costly coffin ready for burial, but otten kept sometime unburied — often at home — and even brought at feasts and festivals to remind the guests of the shortness of life. All classes, even criminals, were embalmed; but various other methods were used. Some mummies are found merely dried in the sand, others salted by natron or soaked in bitumen, often with the skin partly gilded and the fingers cased in silver. So successful were some of these processes, that after 2,000 or 3,000 years the soles of the feet are still elastic and soft to the touch. The sacred animals were also mummied. Possibly between 4000 B. C. and 700 A. D., when the preservative process practically ceased, as many as 730,000,000 bodies were embalmed in Egypt, of which many millions are yet hidden. Important finds are made from time to time; as in 1881 when over 30 mummies of potentates, including Rameses II, were found together at Deir-el-Baharl. Mummies were used in the i5th and 16th centuries of our era for drugs and as nostrums against diseases. Arsenic, chloride of zinc and other substances are now used where bodies are to be kept only for a short time. The latest

method generally used in the United States is by passing a fluid into the arteries. See Pettigrew's History of Mummies,

Munchhausen (munk'hou-zen or mun-cha'sen), Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Baron von, was born on May n, 1720, at Bodenwerder, Hannover, of an old and noble family. He served as cavalry officer in Russian campaigns against the Turks, and died at his birthplace, Feb. 22, 1797. A collection of his marvelous stories, or stories attributed to him, was first published in English under the title of Baron Munchhausen1 s Narrative of His Marvelous Travels and Campaigns in Russia, in 1785. The stories were gathered by Rudolf Erich Raspe, a countryman of the baron's living in England. The book at once became popular and has remained so ever since. Miinchhausen's name has become proves bial for wild and impossible exploits and adventures.

Mun'cie, Ind., a fast-growing city in Delaware County, on White River, in eastern central Indiana, a region freely producing natural gas, which is largely utilized as fuel by its industries. It is situated 54 miles northeast of Indianapolis. It is served by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis, the Lake Erie and Western and the Ft. Wayne, Cincinnati and St. Louis railroads; also by the Indiana Union Traction. Muncie and Portland, Muncie and Dayton and Muncie Hartford City and Ft. Wayne electric lines. It has the second largest traction-station in the United States. Its manufactures embrace pulp and paper works; a flour-bagging factory; glass, nail and iron works and a large fruit jar manufacturing works. It has a number of schools, 33 churches, four national banks, a public library and a Masonic building. Population 24,005.

Munich (mu'ntk), capital of Bavaria, lies, chiefly on the western bank of the Isas, 272 miles west of Vienna. Munich is one of the handsomest cities of Germany and perhaps the richest in treasures of art, while itself famous for its school of painting. Among the main buildings are the Glyptothek, with its fine collection of ancient and modern sculptures; the Old Pinakothek, containing paintings by the old masters, besides thousands of engravings and drawings and a priceless collection of antique vases; the New Pinakothek, filled with modern paintings; the royal and national library; and the Bavarian national museum. Among the gates the most beautiful are the Gate of Victory, the old Isar gate and the PropylcEa. The university has 234 professors and teachers and 5,734 students. Munich is noted for stained-glass works, iron, brass and bell foundries, lithographing and engraving works and factories of optical and mathematical instruments. There also