son that the bodies of human beings and the sacred animals were so
carefully embalmed and laid away either in massive tombs or rock-hewn
caverns.

They believed, and as has been proved rightly, that the remains so
carefully prepared would endure for that time, and thought that when
the spirit returned to it it would resume its former shape in all
particulars. Thus the dead of all ranks were embalmed; the process,
however, in the case of the wealthy differing widely from that to
which the bodies of the poorer classes were submitted. There were many
kinds of embalming, varying according to the means of the family of
the deceased. The process employed for the wealthy was a long and
expensive one. First, an official called a scribe marked on the side
of the corpse where an aperture should be made; this was cut by
another person, who after doing so fled, pursued with execrations and
pelted with stones, as although necessary the operation was considered
a dishonorable one and as an injury to a sacred body.

Through this aperture the embalmers removed the whole of the internal
organs, which, after being cleansed and embalmed in spices, were
deposited in four vases, which were subsequently placed in the tomb
with the coffins. Each of these vases contained the parts sacred to a
separate deity. The body was then filled with aromatic resin and
spices, and rubbed for thirty days with a mixture of the same
ingredients. In the case of the very wealthy the whole body was then
gilded; in other cases only the face and portions of the body. The
skin of the mummy so preserved is found to be of an olive color, dry
and flexible as if tanned; the features are preserved and appear as
during life, and the teeth, hair of the head, and eyebrows are well
preserved.

In some cases, instead of the aromatic resin, the bodies were filled
with bitumen; in others saltpeter was used, the bodies being soaked in
it for a long time and finally filled with resin and bitumen. In the
second quality of mummies, those of persons of the middle class, the
incision was not made, but resin or bitumen was used and the bodies
soaked in salt for a long time. In the case of the poorer classes the
bodies were simply dipped into liquid pitch. None of these, however,
were treated in the establishment of Chigron, who operated only upon
the bodies of the wealthy.

After the preparation was complete the body passed from the hands of
the embalmers into those of another c