also from observing the days of nativity 53, venture to predict the particular circumstances of a man's life and death: this is done by the poets of Greece*, but the Egyptians have certainly discovered more things that are wonderful than all the rest of mankind. Whenever any prodigy occurs, they commit the particulars to writing, and mark the events which follow it: if they afterwards observe any similar incident, they conclude that the result will be similar also.

LXXXIII. The art of divination 54 in Ægypt is confined to certain of their deities. There are in this country oracles of Hercules, of Apollo, of Minerva and Diana, of Mars, and of Jupiter; but the oracle of Latona at Butos is held in

133

Days of nativity.]-Many illustrious characters have in all ages and countries given way to this weakness; but that such a man as Dryden should place confidence in such prognostications, cannot fail to impress the mind with conviction of the melancholy truth, that the most exalted talents are seldom without their portion of infirmity.

Sully also was marked by this weakness; and Richelieu and Mazarin kept an astrologer in pay.-See an ingenious Essay upon the Dæmon of Socrates, by Mr. Nares.-T.

Casting the nativity, or by calculation seeking to know how long the queen should live, was made felony by act of the 23d of Elizabeth.

* Herodotus here alludes to Hesiod.

154 Art of divination.]-Of such high importance was this art anciently esteemed, that no military expedition was undertaken without the presence of one or more diviners.

greater estimation than any of the rest: the oracular communication is regulated by no fixed system, but is differently obtained in different places.

LXXXIV. The art of medicine in Ægypt is thus exercised: one physician is confined to one disease; there are of course a great number who practise this art; some attend to disorders

155 Art of medicine.-It is remarkable, with regard to medicine, that none of the sciences sooner arrived at perfection; for in the space of two thousand years, elapsed since the time of Hippocrates, there has scarcely been added a new aphorism to those of that great man, notwithstanding all the care and application of so many ingenious men as have since studied that science.-Dutens.

The Egyptians were always famed for their knowledge in medicine, and their physicians were held in great repute. We find even in later times, when their country was in a manner ruined, that a king of Persia, upon a grievous hurt received, applied to the adepts in Egypt for assistance, in preference to those of other countries.

With respect to the state of chirurgery amongst the ancients, a perusal of Homer alone will be sufficient to satisfy every candid reader, that their knowledge and skill was far from contemptible. Celsus gives an exact account and description of the operation for the stone, which implies both a knowledge of anatomy, and some degree of perfection in the art of instrument-making.

The three qualities, says Bayle, of a good physician, are probity, learning, and good fortune; and whoever peruses the oath which anciently every professor of medicine was obliged to take, must both acknowledge its merit as a composition, and admire the amiable disposition which it in culcates.-T.

of

of the eyes*, others to those of the head; some take care of the teeth, others are conversant with all diseases of the bowels; whilst many attend to the cure of maladies which are less conspicuous.

LXXXV. With respect to their funerals and ceremonies of mourning; whenever a man of any importance dies, the females of his family 156, disfiguring their heads and faces with dirt, leave the corpse in the house, and run publicly about, accompanied by their female relations, with their garments in disorder, their breasts exposed, and beating themselves severely: the men on their parts do the same, after which the body is carried to the embalmers 157.

* This, with one other passage, c. 11, of this book, are the only allusions to that most cruel disease, the ophthalmia, with which Ægypt is now so much tormented.

156 Females of his family.]—" I was awakened before daybreak by the same troop of women; their dismal cries suited very well with the lonely hour of the night. This mourning lasts for the space of seven days, during which interval the female relations of the deceased make a tour through the town morning and night, beating their breasts, throwing ashes on their heads, and displaying every artificial token of sorrow."-Irwin.

The assembling together of multitudes to the place where persons have lately expired, and bewailing them in a noisy manner, is a custom still retained in the East, and seems to be considered as an honour done to the deceased.-Harmer. This writer relates a curious circumstance corroborative of the above, from the MS. of Chardin; see vol. ii. 136.

157 Embalmers.]-The following remarks on the subject of embalming are compiled from different authors,

LXXXVI. There are certain persons appointed by law to the exercise of this profession. When

The Jews embalmed their dead, but instead of emboweling, were contented with an external unction. The present way in Ægypt, according to Maillet, is to wash the body repeatedly with rose-water.

Diodorus Siculus is very minute on this subject: after describing the expence and ceremony of embalming, he adds, that the relations of the deceased, till the body was buried, used neither baths, wine, delicate food, nor fine clothes.

The same author describes three methods of embalming, with the first of which our author does not appear to have been acquainted. The form and appearance of the whole body was so well preserved, that the deceased might be known by their features.

The Romans had the art of embalming as well as the Ægyptians; and if what is related of them be true, this art had arrived to greater perfection in Rome than in Ægypt.— See Montfaucon. A modern author remarks, that the num'berless mummies which still endure, after so long a course of ages, ought to ascertain to the Egyptians the glory of having carried chemistry, to a degree of perfection attained but by few. Some moderns have attempted by certain preparations to preserve dead bodies entire, but to no purpose.-T.

Whoever wishes to know more on the subject of embalming, will do well to consult M. Rouelle's Memoir in the Academy of Sciences, for 1750, p. 150, and Dr. Hadley's Dissertation in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. liv. p. 3. 14. The first calls the wrapper cotton, the other determines it to be like long lawn, woven after the manner of Russia sheeting. A great deal of farther information may also be had from Larcher. The words of Herodotus are remarkable and precise; ondoros fucoins, linen of cotton, or cotton linen. Thus Pollux and also Arrian define, what we have now so common, Indian cotton.

When a dead body is brought to them, they exhibit to the friends of the deceased, different models highly finished in wood. The most perfect of these they say resembles one whom I do not think it religious to name in such a matter; the second is of less price, and inferior in point of execution; another is still more mean; they then enquire after which model the deceased shall be represented: when the price is determined, the relations retire, and the embalmers thus proceed: In the most perfect specimens of their art, they draw the brain through the nostrils, partly with a piece of crooked iron, and partly by the infusion of drugs; they then with an Ethiopian stone make an incision in the side, through which they extract the intestines 158; these they cleanse thoroughly, washing them with palm-wine, and afterwards covering them with pounded aromatics: they then fill the body with powder of pure myrrh 159, casia, and other perfumes, except frankincense. Having sown up the body, it is

15 Intestines.]-Porphyry informs us what afterwards becomes of these: they are put into a chest, and one of the embalmers makes a prayer for the deceased, addressed to the sun, the purport of which is to signify that if the conduct of the deceased has during his life been at all criminal, it must have been on account of these; the embalmer then points to the chest, which is afterwards thrown into the river.-T.

150 Myrrh, &c.]—Instead of myrrh and cassia, the Jews in embalming used myrrh and aloes.-T.

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