Show WHAT IS A MUMMY A Chapter Interesting Information About Some Egyptian Customs When a member of an Egyptian family fam-ily died all the relatives put on mourning mourn-ing and abstained from baths wine and delicacies of all kinds from 40 to60 days according to the rank of the person per-son deceased Death in one respect put an end to all distinctions that had prevailed pre-vailed in life and king and slave were subject to the same law Therecord of the life of the deceased had to be examined by a tribunal of 42 judges before he could be given burial with his ancestors If the deeds of his life proved that he was worthy of I bnrial his body was carried across the sacred lake of which each province had one and was there permitted to rest 1C the judges found him unworthy even though he belonged to the highest rank he could not be buried with his ancestors ances-tors The body was returned to his relatives rela-tives and was buried on the side of the lake opposite to the burial place of the justThe The belief of the Egyptians in a future fu-ture state of existence gave rise to the practice of embalming the dead Tey wished to carefully preserve the body so that the soul upon its return to its former abode at the end of all things might find it ready for its reception Bodies were embalmed in three different differ-ent ways The most expensive and magnificent mag-nificent method was used upon the bodies bod-ies of kings and other persons of c isv J tinguished rank the cost amounting io talent of silver or 610 A number of persons were employed in the process of embalming and they were treated with great respect They filled the cavities of the body with myrrh cinnamon spices and many kinds of sweet smelling dings After a certain time b tdO elapsed the body was swathed in lawn fillets which were glued together with a kind of thiu gum and then crusted over with costly perfumes By this mode of embalming tho shape of the body the lineaments of the face tho eyebrows and eyelashes were preserved in their natural pe tion Bodies thus embalmed are we now Egyptian mummies vt il adelphia Times |