“I have made another observation, which appears to me neither less curious nor less useful; it is, that in these mummies all the faces differ, some are remarkable for youth, others for beauty. Those who have seen whole mummies know that they have all a gilded mask, composed of several folds of silk cloth, which form a kind of very solid carton. I judged from this diversity, that the masks or cartons, crowded with hieroglyphic characters, which indicate, without doubt, the age, the actions, the manners, and the condition of the person, were also a natural representation of them, either that care had been taken to form this model during life, or that it had only been taken after death by applying these cloths to the face, after the same manner that we take the likeness of a corpse in the present day with plaster or wax. By this means, they not only preserved the bodies of a family entire, but, on entering these subterranean places where they were deposited, they could in an instant see represented all their ancestors for a thousand years, such nearly, as they were when living; nothing was more likely vividly to recall the recollection of their virtues, to perpetuate their memory and love in the hearts of their posterity. “Not satisfied to preserve, by these means, the recollection of their princes and of their relatives, the Egyptians still further deposited their marble images near to their mummy. I have certain proofs of what I advance, in one of the most curious antiquities which I have acquired in this country. It is a figure in three pieces, representing a woman. The head and the feet are of black touchstone; the body is sheathed, and made of verd antique marble, rayed with white. These three pieces united, form a figure five feet five inches in height. It is very perfect, and of exquisite beauty. The priest who sold it to me with great scruples, and at a high price, swore by the Evangelist, that the figure was found in a pyramid seven or eight hundred years ago.