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Excerpt from A Guide to the First and Second Egyptian Rooms: Predynastic Antiquities, Mummies, Mummy-Cases, and Other Objects Connected With the Funeral Rites of the Ancient Egyptians Mummy is the term which is generally applied to the body of a human being or creature which has been preserved from decay by means of bitumen, spices, gums, and natron. As far as can be discovered, the word is neither a corruption of the ancient Egyptian word for a preserved body, nor of the more modern Coptic form of the hieroglyphic name. It is derived from the Arabic mumia, bitumen; and is found in Byzantine Greek and in Latin, and indeed in almost all European languages. The hieroglyphic word for making a dead body into a mummy is and means to wrap up in bandages. We obtain our knowledge of the way in which the ancient Egyptians mummified their bodies from Greek historians, and from actual examination of mummies. According to Herodotus, the art was carried on by a special guild, appointed by law. A body might be mummified in three different ways, and the price varied accordingly. In the first and most expensive method the brain was extracted through the nose by means of an iron probe, and the intestines were removed entirely from the body through an incision made in the side with a Sharp Ethiopian stone. The intestines were cleansed and washed in palm wine, and, after being covered with powdered aromatic gums, were placed in Canopic jars (see below, p. The body was then filled up with myrrh and cassia, and other fragrant and astringent substances, and was laid in natron for seventy days. In Genesis 1, 3, the number is given as forty. The patriarch Jacob was embalmed. And forty days were fulfilled for him for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed; and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days. It was then carefully washed, and wrapped up in strips of fine linen smeared with gum. The cost of mummifying a body in this fashion was a talent of