xxvi. 22, 34, 37); their influence was powerful enough to cause some important modifications in the social and agrarian constitution of the people (Num. xxxvi. 1-5); and the number of the soldiers capable of assisting David in the establishment of his dynasty was 38,800, exclusive of the men of Manasseh in the east of the Jordan; whereas the armed force of Judah is stated at 6,800" (1 Chr. xii. 24, 30, 31, 37). Jacob's death-bed address and prophecy (chapter xlix.) are explained under Deut. xxxiii., which see.

Like one looking for the resurrection, Jacob gave strict orders concerning the place and manner of his burial-" And when he made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people." Joseph then gave orders to his servants the physicians to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel (ver. 2). Medicine was practised as an art in Egypt at a very early period. Egyptian skill in mixing drugs is described in the Homeric poems:

"These drugs

Bright Helen learned from Thone's imperial wife;
Who sway'd the sceptre where prolific Nile

With various simples clothes the fattened soil."-(Odyss. b. iv.)

"The Egyptians," says Wilkinson, "according to Pliny, claimed the honour of having invented the art of curing diseases. Indeed, the study of medicine and surgery appears to have commenced at a very early period in Egypt, since Athothes, the second king of the country, is stated to have written upon the subject of anatomy; and the schools of Alexandria continued to a late period to enjoy the reputation, and display the skill, they had inherited from their predecessors." Herodotus says, "All places abound in physicians; some physicians are for the eyes, others for the head, others for the teeth, others for the parts about the belly, and others for internal disorders" (b. ii). The prominence given to the healing art in that land, in the time of Jeremiah, led him to say-"O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured" (xlvi. 11).

The physicians were appointed by, and kept under control of, the government. It is clear from this passage that the embalmers constituted one grade of the medical profession. Though in several other nations this art, under various modifications, was practised to a limited. extent, embalming may be regarded as characteristically Egyptian. The process is minutely described by Herodotus (b. ii.), and by Diodorus

Siculus (b. i.) The former remarks:-" First they draw out the brains through the nostrils with an iron hook, taking part of it out in this manner, the rest by the infusion of drugs. Then with a sharp Ethiopian stone they make an incision in the side, and take out all the bowels; and having cleansed the abdomen and rinsed it with palm-wine, they next sprinkle it with pounded perfumes. Then having filled the belly with pure myrrh pounded, and cassia, and other perfumes, frankincense excepted, they sew it up; and when they have done this, they steep it in natrum, leaving it under for seventy days; for a longer time than this it is not lawful to steep it. At the expiration of the seventy days they wash the corpse, and wrap the whole body in bandages of flaxen cloth, smearing it with gum, which the Egyptians commonly use instead of glue. After this the relations, having taken the body back again, make a wooden case in the shape of a man, and having made it, they inclose the body; and thus, having fastened it up, they store it in a sepulchral chamber, setting it upright against the wall. In this manner they prepare the bodies that are embalmed in the most expensive way. Those who, avoiding great expense, desire the middle way, they prepare in the following manner. When they have charged their syringes with oil made from cedar, they fill the abdomen of the corpse without making any incision or taking out the bowels, but inject it at the fundament; and having prevented the injection from escaping, they steep the body in natrum for the prescribed number of days, and on the last day they let out from the abdomen the oil of cedar which they had before injected, and it has such power that it brings away the intestines and vitals in a state of dissolution; the natrum dissolves the flesh, and nothing of the body remains but the skin and the bones. When they have done this they return the body without any further operation. The third method of embalming is this, which is used only for the poorer sort: having thoroughly rinsed the abdomen in syrmæa, they steep it with natrum for the seventy days, and then deliver it to be carried away."

Diodorus says "The funerals of the Egyptians are conducted upon three different scales-the most expensive, the more moderate, and the humblest. The first is said to cost a talent of silver (about £250 sterling); the second twenty-two minæ (or £60); and the third is extremely cheap. The persons who embalm the bodies are artists who have learnt this secret from their ancestors. They present to the friends of the deceased who apply to them an estimate of the funeral expenses, and ask them in what manner they wish it to be performed;

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which being agreed upon, they deliver the body to the proper persons appointed to that office. First, one, who is denominated the scribe, marks upon the left side of the body, as it lies on the ground, the extent of the incision which is to be made; then another, who is called paraschistes (the dissector), cuts open as much of the flesh as the law permits with an Ethiopian (flint) stone, and immediately runs away, pursued by those who are present, throwing stones at him amidst bitter execrations, as if to cast upon him all the odium of this necessary act. For they look upon any who has offered violence to, or inflicted a wound or any other injury upon a human body, to be hateful; but the embalmers, on the contrary, are held in the greatest consideration and respect, being the associates of the priests, and permitted free access to the temples as sacred persons.

"As soon as they have met together to embalm the body thus prepared for them, one introduces his hand through the aperture into the abdomen, and takes every thing out, except the kidneys and heart. Another cleanses each of the viscera with palm-wine and aromatic substances. Lastly, after having applied oil of cedar and other things to the whole body for upwards of thirty days, they add myrrh, cinnamon, and those drugs which have not only the power of preserving the body for a length of time, but of imparting to it a fragrant odour. It is then restored to the friends of the deceased. And so perfectly are all the members preserved, that even the hairs of the eyelids and eyebrows remain undisturbed, and the whole appearance of the person is so unaltered, that every feature may be recognized. The Egyptians, therefore, who sometimes keep the bodies of their ancestors in magnificent apartments set apart for the purpose, have an opportunity of contemplating the faces of those who died many generations before them; and the height and figure of their bodies being distinguishable, as well as the character of the countenance, they enjoy a wonderful gratification, as if they lived in the society of those they see before them."

Sir G. Wilkinson shows that these accounts are, in their general features, true. With reference to some of the statements of Diodorus, he remarks:-"The sum stated by Diodorus of a talent of silver, can only be a general estimate of the expense of the first kind of embalming; since the various gradations in the style of preparing them prove that some mummies must have cost far more than others; and the sumptuous manner in which many persons performed the funerals of their friends, kept pace with the splendour of the tombs they made, or purchased for their reception. The execrations with which the

Fig. 110.

paraschistes was pursued could only have been a religious form, from which he was doubtless in little apprehension; an anomaly not alto

gether without a parallel in other civilized countries. Diodorus is in error when he supposes the actual face of the body was seen after it

Bandaging Mummies, and making the cases.-(Wilkinson.)

was restored to the family; for even before it was deposited in the case, which Herodotus says the friends made for it, the features, as well as the whole body, were concealed by the bandages which enveloped them. The resemblance he mentions was in the mummy case, or the cartonage which came next to the bandages; and, indeed, whatever number of cases covered a mummy, the face of each was intended as a representation of the person within, as the lower part was in imitation of the swathed body. With regard to the question when the custom of embalming the body ceased in Egypt, it may be observed that some are of opinion that it ceased at an early time, when Egypt became a Roman province. But this has been fully disproved by modern discoveries; and it not only appears that the early Christians embalmed their dead, but, according to St. Augustine, mummies were made in his time, at the beginning of the fifth century. The custom may not have been universal at that period; and it is more probable that it gradually fell into disuse than that it was suddenly abandoned from any accidental cause connected with change of custom, or from religious scruple."