nchari permission to embalm Nitetis'
body in the Egyptian manner, according to her last wish. The king gave
way to the most immoderate grief; he tore the flesh of his arms, rent
his clothes and strewed ashes on his head, and on his couch. All the
magnates of his court were obliged to follow his example. The troops
mounted guard with rent banners and muffled drums. The cymbals and
kettle-drums of the "Immortals" were bound round with crape. The horses
which Nitetis had used, as well as all which were then in use by the
court, were colored blue and deprived of their tails; the entire court
appeared in mourning robes of dark brown, rent to the girdle, and the
Magi were compelled to pray three days and nights unceasingly for the
soul of the dead, which was supposed to be awaiting its sentence for
eternity at the bridge Chinvat on the third night.

Neither the king, Kassandane, nor Atossa shrank from submitting to the
necessary purifications; they repeated, as if for one of their nearest
relations, thirty prayers for the dead, while, in a house outside
the city gates Nebenchari began to embalm her body in the most costly
manner, and according to the strictest rules of his art.

[Embalming was practised in three different ways. The first cost a
talent of silver (L225.); the second 20 Minae (L60.) and the third
was very inexpensive. Herod. II. 86-88. Diod. I. 9. The brain
was first drawn out through the nose and the skull filled with
spices. The intestines were then taken out, and the body filled in
like manner with aromatic spices. When all was finished, the corpse
was left 70 days in a solution of soda, and then wrapped in bandages
of byssus spread over with gum. The microscopical examinations of
mummy-bandages made by Dr. Ure and Prof. Czermak have proved that
byssus is linen, not cotton. The manner of embalming just described
is the most expensive, and the latest chemical researches prove that
the description given of it by the Greeks was tolerably correct. L.
Penicher maintains that the bodies were first somewhat dried in
ovens, and that then resin of the cedar-tree, or asphalte, was
poured into every opening. According to Herodotus, female corpses
were embalmed by women. Herod. II. 89. The subject is treated in
great detail by Pettigrew, History of Egyptian Mummies. London.
1834. Czermak's microscopical examinations of Egyptian mummies show
how marvellously the sm