origin of mummification among the Indians and aborigines of this
continent.

The Egyptians embalmed, according to Cassien, because during the time
of the annual inundation no interments could take place, but it is
more than likely that this hypothesis is entirely fanciful. It is said
by others they believed that so long as the body was preserved from
corruption the soul remained in it. Herodotus states that it was to
prevent bodies from becoming a prey to animal voracity. "They did not
inter them," says he, "for fear of their being eaten by worms; nor did
they burn, considering fire as a ferocious beast, devouring everything
which it touched." According to Diodorus of Sicily, embalmment
originated in filial piety and respect. De Maillet, however, in his
tenth letter on Egypt, attributes it entirely to a religious belief
insisted upon by the wise men and priests, who taught their disciples
that after a certain number of cycles, of perhaps thirty or forty
thousand years, the entire universe became as it was at birth, and the
souls of the dead returned into the same bodies in which they had
lived, provided that the body remained free from corruption, and that
sacrifices were freely offered as oblations to the manes of the
deceased. Considering the great care taken to preserve the dead, and
the ponderously solid nature of their tombs, it is quite evident that
this theory obtained many believers among the people. M. Gannal
believes embalmment to have been suggested by the affectionate
sentiments of our nature--a desire to preserve as long as possible the
mortal remains of loved ones; but MM. Volney and Pariaet think it was
intended to obviate, in hot climates especially, danger from
pestilence, being primarily a cheap and simple process, elegance and
luxury coming later; and the Count de Caylus states the idea of
embalmment was derived from the finding of desiccated bodies which the