![]() ![]() This people not only embalmed men and women, and thus kept the bodies of their beloved relatives from the empire of corruption, but they embalmed useful animals also. Instances of the perfection to which they carried this art may be seen in the numerous mummies, as they are called, which are found in different European cabinets, and which have been all brought from Egypt. In the art of embalming, the Egyptians excelled all nations in the world with them it was a common practice. Who can doubt that a human muscle, undergoing the same process of tanning as the hide of an ox, would not become equally incorruptible? I have seen a part of the muscle of a human thigh, that, having come into contact with some tanning matter, either in the coffin or in the grave, was in a state of perfect soundness, when the rest of the body had been long reduced to earth and it exhibited the appearance of a thick piece of well tanned leather. This probably is the grand principle in embalming and whatever effects this, will preserve flesh as perfectly as skin. The word is used to express the reddening of leather and probably the ideal meaning may be something analogous to our tanning, which consists in removing the moisture, and closing up the pores so as to render them impervious to wet. The original word חנט chanat, which we translate to embalm, has undoubtedly the same meaning with the Arabic hanata, which also signifies to embalm, or to preserve from putrefaction by the application of spices, c., and hence hantat, an embalmer. The physicians - רפאים ropheim, the healers, those whose business it was to heal or restore the body from sickness by the administration of proper medicines and when death took place, to heal or preserve it from dissolution by embalming, and thus give it a sort of immortality or everlasting duration.
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