On Being Mummalized

I would like to record, for posterity, Maeve's explanation of how to "mummalize" a body. Or rather, how the Egyptians used to do it. She won't let me videotape her explaining it, so I'll try to get it written down.

First you find a body you want to mummalize. You take it and you get all the organs out. Except the heart. Egyptians believed you needed your heart in the afterlife.

(Mom's note: this is true. The heart was considered the seat of the conscience, necessary for afterlife morality)

Next you put the body in Natron. It's a kind of salt or sugar, I don't know. But it dries the body out.

(Mom's note: it's a salt. And it does dry the body out. The bodies were buried in Natron for 40 days.)

Then you wrap the body in linen, but we use toilet paper. Then the mummy is buried in its coffin, inside a pyramid. Egyptians believed that being mummalized meant you would live again after you died so they buried lots of stuff and food with the mummies.

I'm trying to get her to co-author a picture book with me on this topic. She's very well informed about it, obviously!

The author, incognito