In the highest class of embalming, he states, "_In the first place, with a crooked piece of iron they pull out the brain by the_ [way of the] _nostrils_!" [Book ii., sections 86--89.] So extraordinary a statement might well originally have brought suspicion upon his entire History; but, after a period of nearly 2500 years, his statement _is proved to be absolutely correct_!--for many Mummies of Egypt examined by Mr. Pettigrew (and others) have been found to have _no fracture_ or _incision_ in the skull: yet upon an after-dissection of the skull by the same eminent surgeon, it has been found that the _brain had been extracted_: thus proving to demonstration, that it could only have been removed in the manner described by Herodotus! When, therefore, the pages of an Historian are established by scrutinizing Time itself, to have been traced by the pen of Truth, and in such minutiæ,--he may well be believed when recording so important an event as the first circumnavigation of the African Continent. We may here observe (although in digression), that from the accuracy of the description of Embalming by Herodotus, and its late and absolute proof, not a doubt can now be entertained as to the truth of the unheard-of crime practised by the Egyptian Embalmers upon the female bodies; and which led, he writes, to a custom, or law, that the wives of the nobility, and the beautiful or celebrated women, should not be even prepared for embalming until the third or fourth day after decease. Here, then, is the secret why the Mummy bodies of the men of the first class are in better preservation than the bodies of the same class of the other sex. The men, instantly upon their death, were prepared and forthwith embalmed, thus checking even the first symptom of flesh decay; but with the superior or beautiful women, a delay took place of three or four days, for the express purpose of preventing the crime, which could only be done by the commencement of decomposition; and which decay, all the art of the Embalmers could never restore to that state when Death first made the fleshy-walls his chosen habitation! Another, and a conclusive proof of the truth of Herodotus in regard to this Voyage, will be given at the conclusion of this Chapter.