SECTION IV.
SEPULCHRAL ANALOGIES.
MUMMIES OF EGYPT, TENERIFFE, AND PERU, &c.
In the previous Sections of this important chapter, the customs and analogies of the living have been reviewed and compared,—those now to be investigated have relation to the dead.
In all countries the peculiar customs observed at the interment of the dead, have a distinct, and a National character:—those customs proclaim the people of a nation with as much certainty, as the Ruins of the Parthenon speak of Athens and the Athenians.
At the present day "the ashes of the dead" is a strong, and a poetic phrase, and used even by Christian writers,—whereas it is strictly heathen in its application:—"dust to dust" is essentially Christian, and the sentence belongs to, and identifies the modern European family;—while,—"ashes of the dead,"—indicating thereby, fire as the consuming quality,—points to India, Rome, and many ancient Nations as authors of the pyro-ceremony.
Pompey's decapitated body, though thrown upon the shore of Egypt, was consumed to "ashes" by the humble but honest follower of Cæsar's Master, that the sepulchral custom of ancient Italy should be accomplished upon, and by, a Son of Rome. The self-immolation of the widow upon the funeral pyre of her departed husband, points to the nation following that inhuman custom to be Hindoostan;—while the embalmed Mummies with their Sarcophagi, direct the antiquarian mind to Egypt, with as much certainty, as her "starry-pointing Pyramids," or her Sphinx-guarded Temples. Upon this accredited conclusion of the identity of nations, from the manner of disposing of their dead, will be claimed authority to establish a strong argument and analogy in support of the present subject,—and founded upon the fac-simile resemblance between the ancient Mummies of the Canary Islands, and those in Mexican America.
The general reader may not be aware that Mummies have been found in any other nation than Egypt;—they have, however, been discovered (but without the Sarcophagi) at Arico, in the Island of Teneriffe, and at Arica in Peru,—a similitude is discernible even in the local name given to the districts where the Mummy-pits are found. An analogy is at once perceptible in analyzing the ancient word Guanches (the Aborigines of Teneriffe),—it is derived from Guan,—i. e. Man,—consequently in his natural and uncontrolled state,—therefore Freemen,—this fact is sanctioned by their escape from thraldom or Slavery, when they first arrived on the Island, as will be shewn in the Second Book of this Volume. Again, in Ancient America, the places where Mummies are found are called Guacas,—i. e. the abode of Man in his decayed state. The Reader will instantly perceive that in the construction of the word, as used in both localities, there is a direct similitude. The first land also rediscovered by Columbus in the Western Hemisphere, was called by the natives—Guanahani,—the Genoese named it St. Salvador.
The word "Teneriffe," in the original language of the ancient inhabitants,—the Guanches,—signifies—White-Mountain,—(Thanar—mountain,—and Iffe—white),—from the celebrated Peak being (from its altitude) always covered with snow.
In the singular burial-cavern of the Capuchin Friars near Palermo, there are over 2000 dead bodies,—they have erroneously been called "Mummies;"—for the bodies are not in any manner embalmed, but dried by a slow fire, (or furnace-oven) and then arranged in groups around the subterranean galleries.