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POMETs General HISTORY

O F

D R U G GS:

With what is further obferv'd by Monfieur Lernery^

Turnefort 3 &c.

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BOOK I.

Of ANIMALS.

Pomet,

A

Of Mummies.

M O N G S T all the Teftimo-niesof Refped, which Anti-quity paid to the Bodies oftheDeceas'd, that of a decentBurial was always in moft Efteem ; by whichlaft and pious Acknowledgment, they werewilling to honour and preierve the Memoryof thofe whofe Actions had recommendedthem in their Life-time, and perform'd aWork of Charity, tending to the Confola-tion of the Living, and the Peace and Re-pofe of the Dead. The wonderful Pyra-mids of Egypt, of which I fhall fpeak byand by ; the Obelisks engrav'd and carv'dwith fuch Pains and Induftry j the Maufo-leums ; and in fhort all the rich and pompousMonuments, found throughout the World,are certain Proofs of the Piety and Regardof the Ancients towards the Dead. But asthe. e are feveral different Nations, and dif-ferent Religions, fo there are particular Cu-

ftoms, in paying their laft Refpect to theDeceas'd. All the Elements have been Par-takers of the Spoils of the Dead, the Earthnot having been thought fufficient alone totake care of the Relicts.

Hiftory informs us that the Fire burn'd andconfum'd the Bodies of the Greeks, Romans,Gauls, Germans, and feveral other Nations ;that there were a People who hung theirdead Bodies in the Air, upon the Branchesof Trees j that the old Inhabitants of theNorth found their Graves at the Bottom of theOcean, as the Ethiopians, in the Current oftheir Rivers ; and that the People of thefrozen Scythia were bury'd in the Snow:But the moft ancient Kind of Burial wasthat of Interring the Bodies, from whencewe have Realon to believe, that Adam hirrs-felf was buried after this Manner.

It was from the Jem that the Chriftianspra&is'd the Interment of the Dead, mak-ing Pits or Graves in fubterraneous and re-tired Places, call'd Tombs, or Catacombs,and moft ufually Cemeteries, or Dormito-Vol. II. B ries,

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