MUMMY, a body embalmed, or dried and preserved in the manner used by the ancient Egyptians. There are two kinds of bodies denominated mummies. The first are only carcasses dried by the heat of the sun, and by that means preserved from putrefaction. Some imagine that these are the bodies of deceased people buried in the desert on purpose to keep them entire without embalming; but others think they are the carcasses of travellers who have been overwhelmed by the clouds of sand raised by the hurricanes frequent in those deserts. The second kind of mummies are bodies taken out of the catacombs near Cairo, in which the Egyptians deposited their dead after embalming. See EMBALMING.