Over the breast were representations of Horus, Apis,
and Thoth, and lower down the dead man was seen on his bier attended by
Anubis and the children of Horus, while the soul in the form of a hawk
hovered above. The Professor observed that an earlier method had been
employed for the preservation and protection of the body than is usually
found among Ptolemaic mummies.
Beneath a network of blue porcelain bugles and a row of sepulchral gods
suspended by a wire to the neck was a dusky, red-hued sheet, sewn at the
head and feet and fastened with brown strips of linen. Under this last
shroud were the bandages which swathed the actual corpse, inscribed with
passages from the Book of the Dead, the mysterious fantastic directions
for the life hereafter. The symbolism requisite for the external
decoration of the mummy had been scrupulously executed by skilful
artists, and the conscientious method of wrapping again indicated the
pristine mode of embalmment practised when the craft was at its zenith,
long before the Greek conquest of Egypt.
A considerable time was occupied in unrolling the three or four hundred
yards of linen. Meanwhile a strange fragrance of myrrh, cassia,
cinnamon, the sweet spices and aromatic unguents used in embalming,
filled the room. Gradually the yellow skin preserved by the natron began
to appear through the cross-hatchings of the bandages. Attached to a
thick gold wire round the neck and placed over the heart was a scarab of
green basalt, mounted in a gold setting; and on the henna-stained little
finger of the left hand was another of steatite.
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