Egyptian Days

Front Cover
Houghton Mifflin, 1912 - 329 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 103 - Those who, avoiding great expense, desire the middle way, they prepare in the following manner. When they have charged their syringes with oil made from cedar, they fill the abdomen of the corpse without making any incision or taking out the bowels, but inject it at the fundament ; and having prevented the injection from escaping, they steep the body in natrum for the prescribed number of days, and on the last day they let out from the abdomen the oil of cedar which they had before injected, and...
Page 103 - ... infusion of drugs. Then with a sharp Ethiopian stone they make an incision in the side and take out all the bowels; and having cleansed the abdomen and rinsed it with palm-wine, they next sprinkle it with pounded perfumes. Then, having filled the belly with pure myrrh pounded, and cassia, and other perfumes, frankincense excepted, they sew it up again; and when they have done this they steep it in natrum, leaving it under for seventy days ; for a longer time than this it is not lawful to steep...
Page 103 - First they draw out the brains through the nostrils with an iron hook, taking part of it out in this manner, the rest by the infusion of drugs. Then with a sharp Ethiopian stone they make an incision in the side, and take out all the bowels; and having cleansed the abdomen and rinsed it with palm wine, they next sprinkle it with pounded perfumes. Then having filled the belly with pure myrrh pounded, and cassia, and other perfumes, frankincense excepted, they sew it up again; and when they have done...
Page 103 - Then having filled the belly with pure myrrh pounded, and cassia, and other perfumes, frankincense excepted, they sew it up again ; and when they have done this, they steep it in natrum, leaving it under for seventy days ; for a longer time than this it is not lawful to steep it. At the expiration of the seventy days they wash the corpse, and wrap the whole body in bandages of flaxen cloth, smearing it with gum, which the Egyptians commonly use instead of glue. After this the relations, having taken...
Page 104 - ... from escaping, they steep the body in natrum for the prescribed number of days, and on the last day they let out from the abdomen the oil of cedar which they had before injected, and it has such power that it brings away the intestines and vitals in a state of dissolution ; the natrum dissolves the flesh, and nothing of the body remains but the skin and the bones.
Page 104 - ... which they had before injected, and it has such power that it brings away the intestines and vitals in a state of dissolution ; the natrum dissolves the flesh, and nothing of the body remains but the skin and the bones. When they have done this they return the body without any further operation.
Page 56 - ... window-ledge just over the spot where condemned criminals were wont to be garroted in the brave days of old, intent on securing a picture of the old gate, the Red Mosque behind, the stream of passing traffic below, and the soaring minaret above, — but all in vain. It was a dismal failure. In no city are street scenes more difficult to photograph than in Cairo, where the upper air is so brilliant and the lower levels so shrouded in shadow.
Page 186 - I fancy this occasional contact with the African continent under our feet will become so common an occurrence that we shall soon pay little heed to it.

Bibliographic information