On Wednesday, October 22nd, a special meeting of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society was held in the Music Hall, with a view to give the public an opportunity of hearing the results of the examination of the two mummies which had been recently unrolled in the society's museum. A large and respectable audience attended. The chair was taken by Professor Stevelly, who commenced proceedings by reading a paper which Mr. Getty had drawn up, generally descriptive of the art and practice of mummification. The document was listened to with great attention.

The Rev. Dr. Hincks then came forward, and proceeded to read a paper, in which he gave some information respecting the contents of the hieroglyphical inscriptions on the bandages and cases of the two mummies. After stating that, with regard to the female mummy, there was actual proof that it belonged to the coffin in which it was found, he read the inscription found on one of the gilt slips discovered in the case.

It was

to this effect: "An act of homage to Seb, the youngest of the gods; in order that he may give all kinds of offerings, all kinds of perfumes, everything good and pure, everything pleasant and fit to be the food of a god, to the Osiris, the mistress of a great house, Tot-mût-her, the justified; daughter of the prophet of Mouth, lord of the Pure Country, Phra-mâ-jotu, the justified, her mother being the mistress of a great house, Te-mût-sheri, the justified." On the outside of the coffin, the names of the grandfather and great grandfather, by the father's side, are added to those of the father; and the inscription was to this effect: "What is said by the Osiris, the mistress of a great house, Tot-mûther, the daughter of the prophet Mouth, lord of the Pure Country, the scribe of the Divine Table, Phrâ-mâ-jotu, son of the prophet

Ammon, in Thebes, the military chief, the acquaintance of the king, truly loving him, the scribe of the Divine Table of the gods of Upper and Lower Egypt, the owner of a signet-Aurnâwa, son of the prophet of Ammon Har-si-esi; her mother being mistress of the house Te-mût-sheri-O Athom, give unto me that sweet breath." It thus appeared that the grandfather of the mummy was a person of high rank, a courtier or personal friend of the king. Besides these and other inscriptions, on various parts of the cases, were portion of two chapters of the 66 Book of the Dead." The three small gilt figures which were found in the inner case represented three of the genii of Amenti-Amset, with the head of a man, Hapi, with that of a baboon; and Siumuto, with that of a jackall; there had been a fourth, now wanting, namely Kibhsnio, with the head of a hawk. The inscriptions of the bandages on the first mummy could not be read in connexion, though enough was left to identify the name; but the bandages of the second contained a short inscription, signifying "the clothing of the Osiris (embalmed person) Khons-iri-naa." From the fact of the bandages being in many places darned, it is supposed they belonged to the clothing worn by the deceased person during life. The father's name is Ka-nun-ati, and the mother's, Ten-khar. On the case, Osiris is in one place represented by the symbol of Stability, which by some is improperly represented as a Nilometer, as a body; with the symbol of life, or crux ausata, as head and neck, and two human arms issuing from it, by which the sun's disc is supported. Dr. Hincks then considered the age of the female mummy, relative to Scriptural events, to the series of Egyptian dynasties, and relatively to the present time, or some known past epoch. The question could not be resolved with any

certainty in the first sense, as none of the Egyptian kings mentioned in Scripture has been identified with any king mentioned by Manetho, or named on existing monuments. In the second sense it could be resolved with accuracy, for the mummy was born shortly after the termination of the twelfth dynasty. Her father's name was Phirà-mâ-jotu, or “Pharoah the speaker of the truth," which was the prænomen of Amenemhe IV., the last king, and the last sovereign but one of the twelfth dynasty, whose reign lasted nine years, three months, and twenty-seven days; commencing about thirteen years before the end of the dynasty, and ending about four years before it. It was usual for Egyptian courtiers to give the name of the reigning monarch to some one of their children, probably with his permission. The father of the mummy's father was a courtier or personal friend of the King of Egypt. He called his son, the mummy's father, after his royal patron, and this fixes his birth decisively within that monarch's reign. Her own birth was, therefore, at the earliest, a few years subsequent to the close of the dynasty; it might have been, without improbability, even forty years after it. As the mummy appears to have lived from forty to fifty years, her death may be dated from fifty to ninety years after the close of the twelfth dynasty. So far seems certain; but when we come to consider the age of the mummy in the last sense-namely, as computed from the present time, or from the birth of our Lord-we come to what is controverted. The death of Amenemhe IV. is placed at different dates by different chronologers, through a period of no less than 1400 years. There is, in fact, with respect to the reigns of the old Egyp tian kings and dynasties, very little precise information. The length of each reign is rarely known. This king, according to the Champollions and Rosellini, died about 1840 years B.C.

Their chronological system is now generally admitted to be grounded on a false assumption, yet it is adopted by Mr. Osborn in a

recent publication. Bunsen places the same event about 800 years earlier. His system is also generally admitted to rest on a bad foundation, and to be inconsistent with monumental evidence. Le Sueur, whose work has been printed by the French Government, having been crowned by their Academie, places it 400 years before Bunsen. According to him, the age of the mummy would be about 4,800 years. This last writer was probably indebted for his prize to the hardihood with which he carried back the chronology of Egypt to the year 8986 B.C., and with which he placed the birth of Adam, whom he calls the "first patriarch of the Hebrews," in the reign of the ninth predecessor of this king. His system is glaringly inconsistent with the monuments. Lepsius places the death of Amenemhe IV. about 2040 B.C. This would make the age of the mummy about 3,800 years. But Lepsius has taken no notice of evidence which appears to have a most important bearing on this part of Egyptian chronology. A correction of about 430 years ought to be applied to all his dates connected with the twelfth dynasty. This would bring down the age of the mummy to somewhere about 3,400 years. As the name of the reigning monarch is sometimes found on the bandages of a mummy, the late unrolling might have connected the king under whom the mummy died with the king under whom her father was born. Unfortunately there was no royal name within the mummy. It is possible, however, that this unrolling will not be without chronological importance. The number of dated mummies (that is, mummies which are connected by positive evidence with any king's reign), is very small. Two, which are about 300 years older than this, are at Thebes; but they have never been unrolled. Another, more ancient than the present one, was opened, and crumbled to pieces, appearing to have been only salted. Now, those dated mummies furnish us with criteria by which the age of undated ones may be, in the first instance, conjectured,

and it may be, in the course of time, fixed on sure grounds. At the foot of each of the mummy cases there is a representation of the mummy on its way to the tomb, borne by the bull Apis. These representations, however, differ; and the dif ferences are probably due to the different ages of the cases. On the dated case, the bull has nothing on his head; on the other, he has a red circle, standing for the sun's disc. On the dated case, the mummy is carried with the feet foremost; on the undated one, with the head. The colouring also differs; and the undated case has a scarabæus flying over the bull, which is wanting in the other. Care must, however, be taken not to consider differences due to a difference of age, which may have arisen from the different styles of embalming, or from the sex of the mummy. The dated mummy had her arins extended down her sides; while the other had his arms crossed on his breast. This distinction is known from other mummies not to have been caused by a change of custom, but to have indicated the sex of the mummy. No information could be given as to the age of the male mummy; it seems much less ancient than the other.

Mr. John Mulholland then, by previous request, came forward to make a statement respecting the material and texture of the linen of which the bandages were composed. After a very neat introduction, in which he vindicated the claims of the subject upon the attention of the meeting, he said that the fabric for which ancient Egypt was so famous, was really the linen of the present day, and actually made from the flaxplant, as settled by the mycroscopical investigations of Mr. Bruer, under the directions of the late Mr. Thompson, of Clitheroe. The result proved the power of the microscope to distinguish accurately between the fibres of cotton and of linen, and that the mummy cloth was, without any exception, linen. The cotton fibres are flat and twisted, while the linen and mummy cloth are all straight and cylindrical. The

production of linens in Egypt had existed from their earliest traditions, for they traced back the custom of rolling bandages round the mummies to Osiris, whose remains had been wrapped in linen after he had been murdered by Zyphon. The fabric, in the production of which they had acquired such early excellence, continued to be their favourite wear, and was almost the only kind of clothing used in Egypt until after the Christian era. The bandages that have been unrolled from this mummy include almost every variety of quality and fabric. The coarsest of them resembles some descriptions of our lighter sacking, while the finest is nearly as fine as our finest lawn, and between these there are all the intermediate stages. These qualities were used almost promiscuously as bandages; several of them also bear indisputable proofs of having been darned, so that it is probable that all the old linen of the house was collected, on the occasion of a death and embalment; and we may therefore assume that the specimens represent the different qualities and fabrics that were in use in their

domestic economy. This view is confirmed by the published account of a mummy opened in Leeds, in which, it is said, "several bandages bear evident marks of having been mended; seams also occurred in others, and in one was an arm-hole, the seams round which were sewn with great neatness-plainly proving that the linen had been made up into garments and worn, before it was torn into shreds for the purposes of the embalmers." The first thing that strikes us in examining the quality of the cloths is, that the flax from which they are made must have been of a much finer quality than that at present produced in Egypt, which is, in many cases, nearly as large in its smallest fibre as the twisted thread of which the finer patterns are composed. Now, it is believed that the fibre of the Egyp tian flax of the present day is so large and coarse and light, in consequence of its rapid and luxuriant growth under their burning sun. From the same cause, the seed is

our

very much larger in its grain than the flaxseed of European countries. This would add another to the many proofs we have of the change of temperature that, in these latitudes, has been steadily progressing, as it would seem that to have produced flax of the quality required for these fabrics the climate must have been much cooler than it is at present. We cannot tell how the fibre was separated from the stock, but it is probable that it was by the same obvious mode of fermentation in water that is in use at present. Mr. Gordon Thomson found this process in use among the inhabitants of Manilla, the principal town of Laconia, for separating the fibres of the wild pine-apple leaf, from which they manufacture their clothing. However, they must have had some process that dispensed with scutching and hackling, though possibly it was one that would be too slow, laborious, and costly for the present day. The fibre of the flax. when on the stalk, is perfectly whole and unbroken. The short fibres, which we call tow, are broken from the others by our modes of cleaning it; and with us they amount to forty or fifty per cent. of the total weight of the rough flax. If the Egyptians had made this tow, they would assuredly have used it for their coarser fabrics, as we do; but in none of these, including qualities as coarse as could well be woven, do we find any trace of tow-yarn, although, from the short small lumps which are inseparable from such, it would be easily distinguished. Our information is very imperfect as to the mode of spinning used by the Egyptians. Mr. Getty has kindly furnished some drawings copied from Rosselini, which are supposed to represent the process of spinning; but they are not intelligible, unless we suppose that the flax had been subjected to some former process, and brought into a kind of sliver or core. Whatever may have been the system they pursued, the excellence at which they arrived is marvellous. In the finer qualities, the yarn is as level and even as any that is produced at the present day; and, in the finest sample, the yarn employed is what

would now be called 150's, or about fifteen hanks to the pound. In the weaving, they do not appear to have reached the same perfection as in the spinning, for although the cloth is fine, it has evidently been woven in a rude and imperfect loom. In the first place, the web appears to have been only about six yards long, somewhat resembling scarfs. It is probable that this arose from their being ignorant of the plan of winding a long length of warp upon a beam that would unroll it as required, and that they had to stretch out the entire length of their web in a frame, as the Hindoos do at the present day in the native manufactures of their country. The quality and fineness of the cloth varies from six hundred to twenty-four hundred. In all of them are the selvages particularly good, showing the care with which the goods were wrought. Several of the coarser and stouter qualities are made from doubled yarn, both warp and weft; they were thus stronger and leveller than they could otherwise have been made. All of them have this peculiarity, that, instead of having the weft much finer than the warp, and the quantities of each about equal, they have the weft coarser, and deficient in quantity, to the extent of from a third to a half. One slip counts twenty-four threads of warp, and only thirteen of weft, another twenty-two of warp and twelve of weft, and so on. This evidently arose from the difficulty and tediousness of getting the weft in, where the shuttle had to be thrown by the hand; from this cause, and the impossibility of what is called "tight" weaving in a loom so imperfect, the weft is seen to rise on the surface of the cloth, which gives a twilled appearance to many of the pieces, although all are woven per fectly plain. At the beginning and at the end of each web there are the same thick threads, to prevent the cloth from unravelling, that are used by the workmen of the present day, and these threads are at about the same intervals; and they, and the marks of the fastenings by which the warp was attached to the loom, exactly correspond with those found on the Bandana silk handerchiefs now

imported from the East, and worked by the natives in similar looms. The great variety of fabric and quality among the patterns shows the innumerable uses to which, in their domestic economy, linen was applied, and the amount of comfort and luxury that existed; while the quality of the finer specimens satisfactorily proves that the universally conferred epithet of "fine linens of Egypt," by which all other nations marked their admiration of its texture, was well deserved. Mr. Mulholland then concluded as follows: The flax plant still waves its graceful blossoms beside the Nile, but the skill that twined it has long since departed. The tide of civilization has receded from Egppt, and has borne this branch of the world's industry to a Western Island, that was, when this linen was woven, unknown and uninhabited; and here, in the capital of that province, we have to-day questioned these relics as to the skill of a nation that preceded us in the trade by thirtyfour centuries-a period long anterior to that of classic fable; and have found that both in the principle and the details of the processes, and in the perfection of the result, they differed but little from those that now give traffic to our streets and shed comfort over our cottages.

Sir J. E. Tennent then proceeded to describe the circumstances under which he had obtained possession of the mummies. In the October of the year 1845 he visited Egypt, on his way to India, and, with the view of visiting Upper Egypt, he engaged a small steam vessel at Alexandria, to convey himself and his family from Alfet, at the junction of the Nile and the Mahmodich Canal, to Thebes. They had scarcely embarked, when an accident to the machinery disabled the vessel, and they dropped down the current to Fouah, where a steam yacht of Mehemet Ali was at anchor, in which, by the kindness of the governor, they were allowed to proceed to Cairo. Thence to Nubia, up the Nile, and back, a voyage of 1,200 miles. They were, by the liberality of the pacha, permitted to journey in one of the viceroy's

The

own steam yachts, accompanied by a guard and servants from the palace. After visiting every scene of interest on the route (of which Sir James gave a rapid description), the party arrived at the ruins of Thebes, among which are the great temples of Luxor and Karnak, the statue of Vocal Memnon, and the celebrated tombs of the kings. Here also is the statue of Rameses II., the Sesostris of the Greeks, who reigned about 1,300 years before Christ, which lies overthrown beside the ruins of the Memnoniam; it is in a sitting posture, sixty feet high, and twenty-six feet across the breadth of the shoulders. Its weight is 887 tons, and, strange to say, it is worked out of one single block of syensh, or red granite, and was brought to its present locality from Seyne, a distance of 140 miles; but by what means its carriage was effected the Egyptians have left us no memorial, and the difficulties are such as baffle all conjecture. hills and rocky mountains in the vicinity of Thebes abound in excavated tombs and sepulchres, in which are deposited the mummies of the ancient Thebans. The most renowned of all these receptacles of the dead are tombs of the kings. They were hollowed out at least 4,000 years ago, and yet the paintings which decorate them in every part-covering the walls, the roofs, and passages, are all as fresh and beautiful as though they had been finished but a day; and these and similar decorations elsewhere, represent the habits, customs, occupations, and manners of this ancient people, with such fidelity and such pictorial effect, that no other nation of antiquity is now so well known to us, in all their domestic and their public lives, as are the inhabitants of ancient Egypt, from the recent study of their inconceivably minute and numerous delineations. One of his (Sir Emerson's) first inquiries, on arriving at Thebes, was as to the practicability of procuring some mummies from these memorable tombs, in the hope that he should be able to transmit them to Belfast. But the difficulty had become extreme, as the pacha, some short time