Belfast Natural History Society
Unrolling of a Mummy
"It has been known to our readers for sometime that an Egyptian Mummy, enclosed in a magnificent case, covered with hieroglyphics, and inscriptions in the Enchorial character had been brought over to this country by Thomas Greg, Esq. of Ballymenoch, in the county of Down, and munificently presented by him to the Museum of the Belfast Natural History Society. The Council of that body being anxious to secure the superintendence of the Rev. Dr. Hincks, of Killileagh, to the unrolling of it, delayed that operation until last Tuesday ; for which day they issued notices to the members, shareholders, and one or two other gentlemen, whose presence on such an occasion was deemed desirable.
About the hour appointed, 11 o'clock, on Tuesday, 27th, about 130 gentlemen attended to witness this highly interesting event ; and the most intense curiosity was depicted on the countenances of all present, when the President had taken the chair, and the Mummy, inclosed in its case, was laid upon the table. The President then commenced the business of the meeting, by reading from the Lancet a paper descriptive of the unrolling of a Mummy, by the celebrated Dr. Granville, in the apartments of the Royal Insititution, in order that everyone present might be in possesion of the points of most prominent interest in the scene which they were now about to witness. It was then stated, that to ensure regularity the council had deputed six of their number to superintend the arrangements, and these gentlemen had agreed to entrust the manipulations entirely to Dr. Marshall, Mr Grattan, Mr Getty, and Dr. Hincks, of Killileagh. These gentlemen accordingly proceeded to the table, and removed the body from the outerpainted case or coffin. The general appearance of a mummy case is too well known to need any description ; from an explanation which at a subsequent stage of the proceedings the Rev. Dr Hincks gave of the hieroglyphics and inscriptions, it appeared that the inmate of present one had been, at a period of at least 2000 or 2500 years ago, called Kabooti, that she had been the daughter of a priest of Ammon, that her father and mother were both dead at the period of her decease, and that she died unmarried ; but there was no legible part of the inscription which gave any more precise information respecting the era at which she lived. Upon removing the outer bands of ligaments, which were fastened by knots, a large scarf of cotton cloth was the first covering removed ; this appeared to have been dyed of a buff of deep nankeen colour, and was neatly fringed, blue beads, which were now loose in the case, having been formerly a part of the ornaments of it. This enveloped the entire Mummy. The bandages then appeared, and were removed by a process which is well designated unrolling ; these were very similar to the bandages used at the present day in surgery; being strips torn from the entire length of the cloth, from five to six inches wide and about five and a half yards long - the cloth is admirably woven of surprisingly even threads and is in general in good preservation; such of the strips as were entire had a selvage at one end and terminated with a long fringe at the other. After an immense quantity of these narrow bandages had been removed, wide pieces of cloth were found, which were neatly folded diagonally across the body, and were fastened together with some glutinous substance at the head and feet. This glued part was easily loosened by being wetted with alcohol, but the removal of these few folds consumed a considerable time. At this period, a number of small dead insects of the beetle tribe were met with and the cloth had evidently been perforated by them in many places ; one living insect was found, about the size of a flea.