chres, which are
said to be prepared from crystal in the following manner. When they
have dried the body, either as the Egyptians do, or in some other
way, they plaster it all over with gypsum, and paint it, making it
as much as possible resemble real life; they then put round it a
hollow column made of crystal, which they dig up in abundance, and
is easily wrought. The body being in the middle of the column is
plainly seen, nor does it emit an unpleasant smell, nor is it in any
way offensive, and it is all visible as the body itself. The nearest
relations keep the column in their houses for a year, offering to it
the first-fruits of all, and performing sacrifices; after that time
they carry it out and place it somewhere near the city.

NOTE.--The Egyptian mummies could only be seen in front, the back
being covered by a box or coffin; the Ethiopian bodies could be seen
all round, as the column of glass was transparent.

With the foregoing examples as illustration, the matter of embalmment
may be for the present dismissed, with the advice to observers that
particular care should be taken, in case mummies are discovered, to
ascertain whether the bodies have been submitted to a regular
preservative process, or owe their protection to ingredients in the soil
of their graves or to desiccation in arid districts.

URN-BURIAL.

To close the subject of subterranean burial proper, the following
account of urn-burial in Foster[37] may be added:

Urn-burial appears to have been practiced to some extent by the
mound-builders, particularly in some of the Southern States. In the
mounds on the Wateree River, near Camden, S.C., according to Dr.
Blanding, ranges of vases, one above the other, filled with human
remains, were found. Sometimes when the mouth of the vase is small
the skull is placed with the face downward in the opening,
constituting a sort of cover. Entire cemeteries have been found in
which urn-burial alone seems to have been practiced. Such a one was
accidentally discovered not many years since in Saint Catherine's
Island, off the coast of Georgia. Professor Swallow informs me that
from a mound at New Madrid, Mo., he obtained a human skull inclosed
in an earthen jar, the lips of which were too small to admit of its
extraction. It must therefore have been molded on the head after
death.

A similar mode of burial was practiced by the Chaldeans, where t