intended  to  give  to  the  mummy  the  protection  of  tiie  various
gods,  were  inserted,  under  his  directions,  in  their  proper
places  between  the  swathings.  When  the  swathing  of  the
body  was  ended,  the  name  of  the  deceased  was  usually
written  in  ink  on  one  of  the  outer  coverings.
In  the  second  method  of  embalming,  the  viscerae  were
removed  by  means  of  oil  of  cedar,  and  the  flesh  was  dissolved
off  the  bones  by  a  preparation  of  soda  ;  mummies  which  were
prepared  bj^this  process  consist  of  nothing  but  skin  and  bone.
The  third  method  was  used  almost  exclusively  for  the  poor  ;
the  body  was  steeped  in  a  preparation  of  soda  for  a  period  of
seventy  days,  and  then  handed  over  to  the  relatives  for  burial.
The  period  which  elapsed  between  death  and  burial  varied  in
length.  From  the  inscriptions  we  learn  that  in  one  case  the
embalming  lasted  1 6  days,  the  swathing  in  linen  35  days,
and  the  burial  70  days,  i.e.,  121  days  in  all.  In  another,
the  embalming  occupied  66  days,  the  preparations  for  burial
4  days,  and  the  burial  26  days,  in  all  96  days.  According  to
the  Bible  (Genesis  1,  3),  the  embalming  of  Jacob  occupied
40  days,  but  the  period  of  mourning  was  70  da\-s.  Certain
stelae  in  the  British  Museum'  mention  70  days,  and  we  may
assume  that  this  period  was  commonly  observed,  at  all  events,
in  Graeco-Roman  times.
