A

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BOOKS of TRAVELS, into the EAST,

FOR ILLUSTRATING THE

GREEK and ROMAN CLASSICS,

A S ALSO

JOSEPHUS and ST. JEROM E.

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MAL

N' I.

'AILLET, in his account of the manner of preparing the body for interment in Egypt, in thefe later days, after having told us, that the embalming of antiquity is no longer in ufe there, informs us, that however fomething somewhat like it is ftill practised at times in that country, particularly with regard to rich perfons. "When fuch "fort of people are dead, they wash the body feveral times with rofe-water; they after"wards perfume it with incenfe, with aloes, "and a quantity of other odoriferous fub"ftances, of which they are not at all fpar

ing; and they are careful to stop it's natu"ral apertures with perfumed cotton."

This repeated washing of the body with a very odoriferous liquid, (for the Ægyptian rofe-water is much more fragrant than our's,) seems evidently to be made use of to make the scent more rich and lafting; as is the

Lett. 10, p. 88.

adding other rich perfumes to the rofe-water, and that in confiderable quantities.

It is, in like manner, of a double anointing of the bones of Patroclus, by order of Achilles, that we are, I should imagine, to understand a paffage of the Iliad, which is thus tranflated in Pope's Homer.

for

"These ', wrapt in double cauls of fat, prepare;
"And in the golden vafe difpofe with care:
"There let them reft, with decent honour laid,
" "Till I fhall follow to the infernal fhade.
"Meantime erect the tomb with pious hands,
"A common structure on the humble fands;
"Hereafter Greece fome nobler work may raise,
"And late pofterity record our praise 2.

I cannot conceive that the fat was defigned any other purpose than to render the bones more agreeable, and as they, it is well known, afterwards were wont to perfume them, it is natural to imagine, this fat substance might be intended to convey fome fragrancy to the bones. Homer reprefents the body of Hector, in this fame 23d Iliad, as anointed with rofeoil: by one of their deities indeed; but this fhows, however, that he was not a stranger to the method of communicating fragrancy to unctuous matters, by infufing sweet-fcented herbs or flowers in them. Nor was it an operation of fuch difficulty, as to require the interpofition of a deity. The wrapping them

'The bones.

2

Και τα μεν εν χρυση φιαλη καὶ διπλακι Δημο
Θεομεν, &ς.

Il. xxiii. 243, &c.

in cauls of fat would, on the contrary, have soon rendered them nauseous and disgustful, to a very high degree; and it was foreknown, according to Homer, that the bones of Achilles were in a little time to be mingled with those of Patroclus: confequently when these lastmentioned bones would be found inveloped in a fubftance, according to this tranflation, in a ftate of great putrefaction. Nor can it be well conceived why just two cauls should be made ufe of, if they were the cauls of the animals whose other parts were burnt in the funeral pile. But if we fuppofe, that oil, or animal fat, was fo prepared as to make an odoriferous ointment; and the bones to have been twice anointed with one and the fame ointment, as the modern Ægyptians wash a dead body feveral times with rofe-water; or anointed with two different forts of ointment, as the Ægyptians perfume a dead body with incenfe, and aloes, &c, as well as with rofewater, mingling their different odours together in either cafe Homer might represent Achilles, as directing that a double coating of an unctuous nature might be given to the bones of his friend, that they might be more richly fcented, and the perfume remain the longer; and this double coating may very well be understood, in the language of poetry, to have been termed cauls, covering those bones as cauls of fat do the bowels. But it is hard to make out to what end a double portion of mere melted fat should be put into the urn,

3

fuppofing