among no people ancient or modern has the idea of a life beyond the grave held so prominent a place as among the ancient Egyptians .this insistent belief in a hereafter may perhaps have been and experience in the land of Egypt has led me to believe it was greatly favored and influenced b the fact that the conditions of soil and climate resulted in such a remarkable preservation of the human body as may be found under natural conditions nowhere else in the world
in going up to the daily task on some neighboring temple in nubia i was not infrequently obliged to pass through he corner of a cemetery ,where the feet of a dead man , buried in a shallow grave , were now uncovered nd extended directly across my path . they were precisely like the rough and calloused feet of the workmen in our excavations.
how old the grave was i do not know ,but any one familiar with the cemeteries of Egypt , ancient and modern , has found numerous bodies or portions of bodies indefinitely old which seemed about as well preserved as those of the living .this must have been a frequent experience of the ancient Egyptian , i like hamlet with the skull of Yorick in his hands , he must often have pondered deeply as he contemplated these silent witnesses . the surprisingly perfect state of preservation in which he found his ancestors whenever the digging of a new g