articles of fuel in the vast quantities of aromatics that were employed in embalming the dead. The process of embalming was first described by Herodotus, who visited Egypt about 460 years before Christ. The custom of embalming the dead among the Egyptians, so as to preserve the body for thousands of generations, arose from the doctrines of their religion, in which it was taught that the continuance of the soul in a state of blessedness was contingent upon the preservation of the body. When that perished the banished soul had to begin anew its career in connection with physical existence, and after migrating again through various forms of being for 3000 years, ultimately became reunited with the human form-to go over again the same precarious mode of being.* It was from this opinion that so much care was evinced to preserve the human body. Our purpose does not require us to state the process of embalming further than may be connected with the commerce of the East. The immense amount of aromatics of various kinds employed in embalming the millions who now repose in the catacombs of Egypt, must have been borne there by an extended and an active commerce. A small part of the materials were produced in Egypt. Some were produced in Arabia; and much was brought through Arabia and other thoroughfares from India. As early as the time of Joseph, (B. c. 1729,) we learn that Ishmaelites passed through Canaan on their way to Egypt, "bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh, going down to carry it to Egypt." Gen. xxxvii. 25. This was probably for the purpose of embalming, and was perhaps in part the production of Gilead; but more probably these merchants were, to a considerable extent, mere carriers, bearing to Egypt the productions of countries still farther east. "Here," says Dr. Vincent, "upon opening the oldest *Note of the Editor of the Pictorial Bible on Gen. iv. 2. history in the world, we find the Ishmaelites from Gilead conducting a caravan loaded with the spices of India, the balsam and myrrh of Hadramant; and in the regular course of their traffic proceeding to Egypt for a market. The date of this transaction is more than seventeen centuries before the Christian era, and notwithstanding its antiquity, it has all the genuine features of a caravan crossing the Desert at the present hour.* The articles enumerated here are, 1, "Spicery," Nechoth-rendered by the LXX. dopiara, and by Aquila Grúpa.-The Arabic is gum.-The Hebrew word denotes properly a breaking to pieces, hence aromatic powder, and is here a generic word to denote spices, or aromatic substances. The Syriac in this place is Retine-rendered by Walton resina, and probably denoting some resinous substance, obtained from a species of pine or of the terebinthtree. Frankincense is obtained from a species of the fir, and the Nechoth referred to here may have been a species of frankincense employed for the purpose of fumigation, or it may have been a resin employed in embalming. Palestine and the adjacent countries produced the terebinth-tree in perfection, and it is not improbable that this may have been a production of that country. 2. Balm-. Vulg. resinam; Sept. pntin-resin. The Hebrew word means opobalsamum -balm of Gilead, distilling from a tree in Gilead, and used in medicine. Bochart, Hieroz. tom. i, p. 628.—The tree producing this is almost peculiar to the land of Judea. A small piece of this is said by Theophrastus to be so odoriferous that it will fill a large space with its perfume. He says that in his time it was produced only in two small enclosures in some part of Syria—τὸ δὲ βάλσαμον γίνεται μὲν ἐν τῷ αὐλώνι τῷ περὶ Zupías. Bruce, however, describes it as growing in Azab, and *Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients, vol. ii. p. 262. Pictorial Bible, vol. i. p. 102. all along the coast of Babelmandel. The balsam of Gilead is about fourteen feet high, with diverging branches that bear leaves at their extremities. The fruit is a berry, of an eggshape, marked with four seams, and with two cells.—3. Myrrh -Heb. Vulg. stacten; Sept. oraxt. This is obtained from a species of balsamodendron, a native of Arabia. It forms stunted groves, which are intermingled with acacia, moringa, &c. The gum is fragrant, and is gathered from the leaves. All these productions are similar in their nature, and were all adapted to the purpose of embalming, and were no doubt conveyed to Egypt with that view. This traffic thus early commenced must have been carried on during the succeeding ages, and constituted a profitable trade with the Egyptians.-They received in return, corn, fine linen, robes, carpets, &c. The Egyptians themselves, like the Chinese, carried on no foreign commerce. They abandoned the navigation of the sea to others; but it was their policy, like the Chinese, to make it the interest of other nations to trade with them, and to bring them the productions of their climes. In subsequent periods, they had the control of no small part of the commerce of Greece and Rome by the dependence of those countries on them for corn. Herodotus, (ii. 86,) in describing the process of embalming, mentions the following materials as being employed, which may serve to illustrate the nature of the commerce that was carried on with that country. "They cleanse the intestines thoroughly, washing them with palm-wine, and afterwards covering them with pounded aromatics-Ovμμασι περιτετριμμενός: they then fill the body with powder of pure myrrh, pounded—σμύρνης ἀκηράτου τετριμμενής, and cassia-xaoins, and all other perfumes except frankincense; Tv leßavæτou. Having sown up the body, it is covered with nitre for the space of seventy days, which time they may not exceed; at the end of which period it is washed, closely wrapped in bandages of cotton, dipped in a gumτ xóuμt, which the Egyptians use instead of glue." Considering the vast population of Egypt, the commerce in aromatics for the purposes of embalming alone must have been very considerable. We have already remarked, also, that great quantities of aromatics were used by the Romans and other nations in burning the bodies of the dead. A few passages from the classic writers will show the extent to which this prevailed, and the importance of the fact in estimating the extent of the commerce with the East. Oil was used to anoint the dead. So Homer (Il. E.) says, Kaì tòte dǹ lovoav te xal ἤλειψαν λίπ ἐλαίφ. So Virgil, (Æn. vi. 219.) Corpusque lavant, frigentis, et unguunt. Myrrh and cassia were used. Thus Martial (x. 97) says, Dum myrrham et casiam flebilis uxor emit. Thus also amomia, whence the word mummy, was used. This was an herb-usually called Jerusalem, or ladies' rose. It was produced in Armenia, and must have constituted an article of Eastern commerce. It was mingled with their spices when they embalmed the dead, or when the dead were prepared for burning.-Assyrio cineres adolentur Amomo Statius, Syl. lib. ii. So Persius (sat. iii.) says, Tandem beatulus alto Compositus lecto, crassisque lutatus amomis. A passage from Tibullus will show not only the prevalence of the fact, but also the origin of the spices which were used, illustrating the position that they constituted a part of the commerce of the East: Illic quas mittit dives Panchaia merces Eoique Arabes, dives et Assyria, Et nostri memores lachrymæ fundantur, &c. Lib. iii. eleg. 2. So Ausonius, (Heroum, epitaph. 36:) Sparge mero cineres, bene olenti et unguine nardi, Hospes, et adde rosis balsama puniceis. Nard, an Oriental production, usually obtained in the Indies, was sprinkled on the flame when the dead body was burning. Cur nardo flammæ non oluere mea? Propertius, lib. iv. Unguenta, et casias, et olentem funera myrrham Thuraque de medio semicremata rogo, &c. Martial, lib. xi. epig. 55. Honey was also used to preserve the bodies of the dead. Pliny, lib. xxii. cap. 24. So Xenophon says, that when Agesipolis, King of Sparta, died, he was laid in honeyèv μélete Telεís, and was borne to the royal sepulchre. Statius (lib. iii. Syl.) says, Duc ad Emathios manes, ubi belliger urbis Conditor, Heblaeo perfusus nectare, durat. So Other quotations of a similar import may be seen in Ugolin's Thesaur. Ant. Sacra. tom. xiii. 470, seq. Great quantities of balsam, myrrh, and spices were also used, as is well known, in adorning the person, being employed in various kinds of unguents-and these constituted of course a part of the commerce of the East. Jamdudum Tyrio madefactus tempora Nardo. Tibull. lib. iii. eleg. 6. -hirsuto spirant opobalsama collo. Juvenal, sat. ii. The origin or source of some of these articles of luxury is indicated by the quotations above, and also by an expression in Sidonius Apollonar. : Indus odorifero crinem madefactus amomo. Myrrh was also used in wine, to make it more powerful. Thus Alien (His. lib. xii. c. 31) says, púpo devor proves ὅυτως ἔπινον.—That vast quantities of aromatics were used by the Romans as articles of luxury, it is not needful to |