§ 91. The customs of the Egyptians, with regard to their funerals, are not the least wonderful of their peculiar institutions. For when any one dies among them, the whole of his family and all his friends cover their heads with clay, and go about the city lamenting, until the body is buried; partaking neither of baths, nor of wine, nor of any abundant food, nor putting on rich clothing. The funerals are conducted upon three different scales, the most expensive, the moderate, and the humblest: the first costs a talent of silver [£250]; the second twenty minae [£60]; the third is extremely cheap. Now the persons, that undertake this office, are artists, who exercise the profession from generation to generation: and they bring to the friends of the deceased an estimate of the expenses of the funeral, and ask them in what manner they wish that it should be performed. When the agreement is made, the operations are commenced by the proper persons: and first the scribe marks out how the dissection is to be performed, upon the left side of the body; the dissector then cuts it with a sharp Ethiopian stone, and immediately betakes himself to flight, and is pursued and beaten, as if he had committed an inhuman action; the embalmers, on the contrary, are held in all honour and respect, associating with the priests, and having free access to the temples, as sacred persons: these embalmers commence their office by removing such parts as are most susceptible of decay, and, washing the rest with palm wine, and spices, apply various kinds of resins for more than thirty days, and then impregnate the whole with myrrh and cinnamon, and other substances calculated not only to preserve it, but to communicate to it an agreeable smell: and finally they return the body to the relations, so perfectly preserved in every part, that even the hairs of the eyelids and eyebrows remain undisturbed, and the whole appearance of the person is unchanged, and the features are capable of being recognised: so that the Egyptians, very commonly, keeping the bodies of their ancestors in magnificent apartments, are able to see the very faces of those, who have died several generations before them: each of whom being distinguishable, not only by his height, and the outline of his figure, but even by the character of his countenance, they enjoy a wonderful gratification, as if they lived in the society of those whom they see before them. [It is indeed related by Damascenus, Orat. 1, that they placed them on seats at their tables, as if they wished to eat and drink in their society: and Lucian, in his Essay on Grief, declares, that he has been an eye witness of the custom. Wessel. It is not however probable that such a practice should have been continued in the times of the Ptolemies: although Lucian, who had an appointment in Egypt under Marcus Aurelius, may be considered as pretty good authority, when he speaks seriously.]