=Peruvians.=—The aborigines of the western continent were familiar with embalming. Prescott's “Conquest of Peru” tells that the royal “Incas” of Peru, were preserved by some process which did not give evidence of an external application. These bodies were then secreted under mounds of earth and in the interior of the temples. Prescott presents highly interesting pictures of these embalmed Peruvian monarchs sitting “natural as life,” in the chairs of the temples of the sun, at Cusco. They were clothed as in life, the raven black hair on their heads was still unchanged, and their hands were crossed upon their bosoms in the grim dignity of death. =Aztecs.=—The Aztecs, who were highly civilized, and were one of the most interesting and powerful tribes of early America, inhabited Mexico. The Aztecs were conquered by Cortez in 1519. Their history has been traced back to the twelfth century. The bodies of their dead, especially of those who could claim royal descent, were embalmed. It is related in Aztec legends how, after the deluge, seven persons came forth from the tomb to which their mummified bodies had been committed, and, in renewed existence, repeopled the earth. =North American Indians.=—Even our own North American Indians knew the art of embalming. Mummies remarkably well preserved have been found among the Flat Heads, Dakotas and Chinooks; and the Florida and Virginia Indians preserved the bodies of their Kings in the same way. The Kentucky caves have given up some remarkable specimens of this kind. The bodies of a woman and child were, in 1899, found in a cave in the Yosemite valley, and which, on account of its size (six feet and eight inches), some authorities believe to be a relic of the lost tribe of the stone age, possibly antedating the Christian era 3,000 years. =Early Christians.=—For a time the early Christians embalmed the bodies of their dead, using these forms with which they were familiar in Palestine. After a time, however, they gave up the practice. It has been said that they feared by the continuation of the process to cast discredit upon the power of God to call together the scattered dust of the body which had returned to its native element, and present it, like unto Christ's own glorious body, on the morning of the resurrection. No word spoken by Jesus, would indicate that he disapproved of methods, with which he as a Jew was familiar, to preserve the body from decay. During the first four centuries of the Christian era, the catacombs at Rome were used for burial. These catacombs consist of subterranean excavations, long horizontal passages with recesses on either side, arrayed in tiers for the reception of bodies, closed in by slabs bearing inscriptions and emblems of the faith.