texts a vague remembrance of what seems to have been the prevalent
custom in prehistoric times, and perhaps also during the Thinite period:
the dismemberment of the body of the deceased. This custom was so
entirely superseded by the opposite process, the mummification and the
careful preservation of the body, that the old tradition is always
mentioned with horror and disgust. The Book of the Dead is full of
objurgations against the dismemberment of the body.