hen taken out, and such is its strength, that it brings with it the
bowels and all the inside in a state of dissolution. The natron also
dissolves the flesh, so that nothing remains but the skin and bones.
This process being over, they restore the body without any further
operation.

The third kind of embalming is only adopted for the poor. In this they
merely cleanse the body, by an injection of syrmoea, and salt it
during seventy days, after which it is returned to the friends who
brought it.

The account given by Diodorus is similar, if we except the cost and
time of embalming. The most expensive way of embalming costs a talent
of silver (about 250 pounds sterling); the second, twenty-two minae
(60 pounds); 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, which being agreed upon, they deliver
the body to the proper persona 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 the dissector, cuts open as much of
the flesh as the law permits with a sharp Ethiopian 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 everyone who has
offered violence to, or inflicted b 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 e temples as sacred persons.

As soon as they have met together to embalm the body thus prepared
them, one introduces his band through the aperture into the abdomen,
and takes everything out except the kidneys and heart, another
cleanses each of the viscera with palm wine and aromatic substances;
lastly, having applied oil of cedar and other things to the whole body
for wards 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