Mummy

This interesting specimen of archaeology was presented, in 1842, by Mr. Gliddon, the Egyptologist, to the national collection. It consists of a part of the lid of a mummy case procured at Sacara from an Arab. It is thought to he the very oldest specimen of hieroglyphic writing known.

The Egyptian King Chephren and his Queen.

The originals of black basalt are in the Museum of Boulak, Cairo.

Egyptian Mummies, Supposed to be 3,000 Years Old.

The immortality of the soul was one of the chief tenets of the Egyptian religion, and it was this tenet, accompanied as it was by a belief in the resurrection of the body, that formed the reason of that singular practice of embalming the body after death which distinguished the Egyptians among ancient nations.

The art of embalming was practiced from 2000 B. C. to 700 A. D., and it has been calculated that about four hundred million bodies have been thus prepared.

The utmost care was taken to affixs marks to each mummy by which it might be known again. Some families, indeed, kept the mummies of their ancestors in an apartment in their house, each coffin being carved and painted so as to present a likeness of the person it enclosed. The hieroglyphics and other inscriptions on the coffins, some of them elaborately painted and gilt, served to identify such mummies as were buried in the tombs. Sepulchral tablets, in shape somewhat like the small head-stones in our churchyards, and covered with inscriptions and carving, were also set up over or beside each coffin. Certain curious ceremonies were in use at Egyptian funerals. The mummy in its coffin was always carried to the tomb in a boat employed for the purpose, and called a sepulchral boat.

Mummies from the Aleutian Islands.

Presented by the Alaska Commercial Company from Kagaymil Island of the Aleutian group, and one from Prince William's Sound.

The traditions respecting the Aleutian mummies indicate that they are at least one hundred and fifty years old, antedating the discovery of the islands by the Russians. One of the bodies in a sitting posture was encased in a rude casket of raw-hide, lashed in a netting of sinews, all parts in an excellent state of preservation. Another body is without covering.

Peruvian Mummies from Arica.

The Peruvians were very careful in burying their dead. They had a mode of embalming peculiar to themselves, which consisted in exposing the body to the intense cold of the high peaks of the mountains till it became quite dry and withered. Then, if the deceased were an Inca, he was buried with great state in his family tomb. He retained his proper apparel, and his treasures were buried with him. In 1576 a Spanish soldier says Prescott, found in one such tomb a mass of gold worth a million of dollars.

Peruvian Preserved Human Heads.