Relying, however, on the same evidence of ocular inspection, another distinguished author, who travelled in Egypt and published his remarks about the same time, says, “As to the circumstance of cotton cloths having been exclusively used in the above process, an inspection of the mummies is sufficient evidence of the fact[476].”
[476] Ægyptiaca, by William Hamilton, Esq. F. R. S. London, 1809. p. 320.
M. Jomard, one of the authors of the great French work on Egypt, published about 1811, paid great attention to this subject. He concluded, that both linen and cotton were employed in the bandages of mummies, grounding his opinion partly on their appearance and touch, and partly on the testimony of Herodotus, whom he misinterpreted in the manner, which will hereafter be mentioned[477].
[477] Description de l’Egypte. Mémoires.—Sur les Hypogées, p. 35.
Another of these authors, M. Costaz, who contributed the memoir on the grotto of El Kab, asserts that the mummy cloth is found on examination to be cotton[478].
[478] Ibid. tom. i. p. 60.
An important paper on the same subject appeared in the Philosophical Transactions for 1825. In this Dr. A. B. Granville describes a mummy, which he opened. He dwells more particularly on the circumstances, which have reference to anatomical and surgical considerations, and expresses very strongly his admiration of the skill and neatness employed in folding the cloth, so as to present an example of every kind of bandage used by modern surgeons, and to exhibit it in the most perfect manner.
The passages which are connected with the present inquiry, will be quoted at length. Dr. Granville observes (p. 272.),
The principal rollers appear to be made of a very compact, yet elastic linen, some of them from four to five yards in length, without any stitch or seam in any part of them. There were also some large square pieces thrown around the head, thorax, and abdomen, of a less elastic texture. These pieces were found to alternate with the complete swathing of the whole body. They occurred four distinct times; while the bandaging, with rollers and other fasciæ, was repeated, at least, twenty times. The numerous bandages, by which the mummy was thus enveloped, were themselves wholly covered by a roller 3½ inches wide and 11 yards long, which after making a few turns around both feet, ascended in graceful spirals to the head, whence descending again as far as the breast, it was fixed there. The termination of this outer roller is remarkable for the loose threads hanging from it in the shape of a fringe and for certain traces of characters imprinted on it similar to those described and delineated by Jomard in the Description de l’Egypte. One or two of these characters have corroded the linen, leaving the perforated traces of their form.
Dr. Granville gives a fac-simile of these characters, and in the same Plate he represents the exact appearance of the external rolls of cloth on the mummy. He then says (p. 274.),