How to See the British Museum in Four Visits by W. Blanchard Jerrold
page 88 of 221 (39%)
page 88 of 221 (39%)
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crumbling rapidly, the feet being already gone: and the bandages of
the second present pictures of Anubis embalming the deceased, and Isis mourning over the ceremony. The next four cases (72-75) are also filled with mummies and their appendages, of which the mummy and coffin of a sacred functionary with a gilded face, and a picture of the deceased adoring King Amenophis the First, in the 73rd case, and the mummy and coffin of a musician of the Roman era of Egypt in case 74 are the most remarkable. The last case of mummies (76) contains three mummies. The first is that of a priestess of Amoun, whose form is discernible through the bandages, the feet of which are visible, and the third is that of a woman named Cleopatra, of the family of Soter, Archon of Thebes, with a comb in the hair, and upon the bandages the usual sepulchral deities, including the black Anubis, and in the next case is her coffin. The visitor having completed his survey of the human mummies should return to the series of cases marked from 52 to 58, in which he will find a curious assortment of ANIMAL MUMMIES. Animal life was venerated by the Egyptians. Certain animals were sacred in certain parts of the country; but the ibis and the hawk were generally worshipped. The sacred birds were attended to by the priests. Seven cases in this room are entirely filled with the mummies of these sacred birds. Here are mummies of dog-headed baboons, worshipped at Hermopolis, and sacred to Thoth; a head of the cynocephalus from Thebes; mummies of jackals, sacred to the sepulchral Anubis; the head of a dog in bandages, and one with the bandages unrolled. Mummies of oats, the female being sacred to the goddess |
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