The word "mummy" was originally applied to a drug so called; and it was probably used by the Egyptians as one of their ingredients in embalming—or preserving—the dead. The Bard of Avon evidently so understood it,—viz., that it was a drug possessing a preserving quality. Othello's description of his "first gift" to Desdemona will explain.—
"That handkerchief did an Egyptian
To my mother give. * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
The worms were hallow'd that did breed the silk:
And it was dyed in mummy which the skilful
Conserved of maiden's hearts."
It may appear strange, at the first glance, that there should be any connexion between the Mummies of Teneriffe and those of Peru, towards establishing that the Mexican Aborigines were originally Tyrians:—but there is a connexion, and as certain, as that a chain of three links owes its utility to the connecting power of the central one. Teneriffe forms that central link between Tyrus and the Western Continent.
The natural and apparent question then is,—Were the Guanches (ancient Canarians) originally from the Tyrian family?—this we distinctly answer in the affirmative.
Mr. Pettigrew, in his valuable "History of Egyptian Mummies," has the following remark upon those discovered at Teneriffe.