or they may have adopted, in a modified form, some practice in use among
the aboriginal inhabitants whom they found on their arrival in Egypt; in
either case the fact that they attempted to preserve their dead by the
use of substances which would arrest decay is certain, and in a degree
their attempt has succeeded.

The existence of the non-historic inhabitants of Egypt has been revealed
to us in recent years by means of a number of successful excavations
which have been made in Upper Egypt on both sides of the Nile by several
European and native explorers, and one of the most striking results has
been the discovery of three different kinds of burials, which
undoubtedly belong to three different periods, as we may see by
examining the various objects which have been found in the early graves
at Nak[=a]dah and other non-historic sites of the same age and type. In
the oldest tombs we find the skeleton laid upon its left side, with the
limbs bent: the knees are on a level with the breast, and the hands are
placed in front of the face. Generally the head faces towards the south,
but no invariable rule seems to have been observed as to its
"orientation." Before the body was laid in the ground it was either
wrapped in gazelle skin or laid in loose grass; the substance used for
the purposes of wrapping probably depended upon the social condition of
the deceased. In burials of this class there are no traces of
mummification, or of burning, or of stripping the flesh from the bones.
In the next oldest graves the bodies are found to have been wholly or
partly stripped of their flesh; in the former case all the bones are
found cast indiscriminately is the grave, in the latter the bones of the
hands and the feet were laid together, while the rest of the skeleton is
scattered about in wild confusion. Graves of this period are found to be
oriented either north or south, and the bodies in them usually have the
head separated from the body; sometimes it is clear that the bodies have