Egypt -- History -- To 332 B.C. -- Fiction; German fiction -- Translations into English
[Embalming was practised in three different ways. The first cost a
talent of silver (L225.); the second 20 Minae (L60.) and the third
was very inexpensive. Herod. II. 86-88. Diod. I. 9. The brain
was first drawn out through the nose and the skull filled with
spices. The intestines were then taken out, and the body filled in
like manner with aromatic spices. When all was finished, the corpse
was left 70 days in a solution of soda, and then wrapped in bandages
of byssus spread over with gum. The microscopical examinations of
mummy-bandages made by Dr. Ure and Prof. Czermak have proved that
byssus is linen, not cotton. The manner of embalming just described
is the most expensive, and the latest chemical researches prove that
the description given of it by the Greeks was tolerably correct. L.
Penicher maintains that the bodies were first somewhat dried in
ovens, and that then resin of the cedar-tree, or asphalte, was
poured into every opening. According to Herodotus, female corpses
were embalmed by women. Herod. II. 89. The subject is treated in
great detail by Pettigrew, History of Egyptian Mummies. London.
1834. Czermak's microscopical examinations of Egyptian mummies show
how marvellously the smallest portions of the bodies were preserved,
and confirm the statements of Herodotus on many points. The
monuments also contain much information in regard to embalming, and
we now know the purpose of nearly all the amulets placed with the
dead.]
For nine days Cambyses remained in a condition, which seemed little short
of insanity. At times furious, at others dull and stupefied, he did not
even allow his relations or the high-priest to approach him. On the
morning of the tenth day he sent for the chief of the seven judges and
commanded, that as lenient a sentence as possible should be pronounced on
Gaumata. Nitetis, on her dying-bed, had begged him to spare the life of
this unhappy youth.
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