1994/01/01 by Nicholas Daly · 4 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Cross-Cultural and Social Analysis #Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies #Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
paper · doi:10.2307/1345912
openalex publication_date 1994/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/24
The Momia, which is some five or six miles beyound, ar thowsands of imbalmed bodies, which weare buried thousands of years past in a sandie cave, at which ther seemeth to have bine citie in tim[els past. We were lett doune by ropes as into a well, with wax candles burninge in our hands, and so waulked uppon the bodies of all sorts and sised [read sizes], great and smaule, and some imbalmed in little earthen potts, which never had forme; thes ar sett at the feet of the great bodies. They gave no noysome smell at all, but ar like pitch, beinge broken; for I broke of[f] all parts of the bodies to see howe the flesh was turned to drugge, and brought home divers heads, hands, arms, and feet for a shewe. We bought allso 600 lb. for the Turkie company in peces, and brought into Ingland in the Hercules, together with a whole bodie. They ar lapped in 100 doble of cloth, which rotton [rotting?] and pillinge of[f], you may see the skinne, flesh, fingers, and nayles firme, onelie altered blacke. One little hand I brought into Ingland to shewe, and presented it my brother, who gave the same to a doctor in Oxford. (44-45)