Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 054.pdf/25

 the fluid pitch had missed, it was quite bare. The pitch, which stopped up the foramen occipitale, had on it the impression of one of the vertebræ of the neck; and externally about the foramen adhered a considerable quantity of pitch.

The outward painted covering being removed, nothing but linnen fillets were to be seen: which enclosed the whole Mummy.

These fillets were of different breadths; the greater part about an inch and a half, those about the feet much broader: they were torn longitudinally; those few that had a selvage having it on one side only; the uppermost fillets were of a degree of fineness nearly equal to what is now sold in the shops for 2s. 4d. per yard, under the name of long lawn; and were woven something after the manner of Russia-sheeting: the fillets were of a brown colour, and in some measure rotten. These outward fillets seemed to owe their colour to having been steeped in some gummy solution; as the inner ones were in pitch.

The fillets immediately under the painted covering lay in a transverse direction; under these, which were many double, they lay oblique, diagonally from the shoulders to the ilia. Under these the fillets were broader, some nearly three inches; and lay longitudinally from the neck to the feet, and also from the shoulders down the sides; on which there was a remarkable thickness of these longitudinal fillets: under these they were again transverse, and under these again oblique.

The fillets in general externally did not adhere to each other; but, though pieces of a considerable length could be taken off intire, yet (from the great age)