10
A DISCOURSE
all the preparations of burying in holes made in the earth and sand,in which they are apter to rot, may more safely be done by exposingthe clogs discreetly to the sun, or before a soft and gentle fire, or, I .think,best of all, by soaking them in warm water.
The lachrymal, gum, and other transudations serve more for unguentsand the chirurgeon’s box, than for other medicaments, in which wefind Pliny has little faith. But that which is more remarkable, is thevirtue of the famous timber of this noble tree, being proof against allputrefaction of human and other bodies, abovd all other ingredients andcomposition of embalmersand that by a pretty contradiction, givinglife, as it were to the dead, and destroying the worms which are living,as it does where any goods are kept in chests and prefses -of the wood,excepting woollen cloth and furs, which it is observed they-corrupt.—In the mean time, touching the manner of these operations, as it concernsthe preservation of the dead, see more where we speak of Cyprefs; theeffects being ascribed to the extreme bitternefs of the resinous juices,whilst the odour is most grateful. The worthy Mr. Ray mentions thepowder and saw-dust of Cedar to be one of the greatest secrets used byour pollinctors and mountebanks, who pretend to this embalmingmystery; And indeed, that the dust and very chips are exitial to mothsand worms, daily experience shows us ; though none in mine, betterthan the dried leaves and stalks of Marum Syriacum, familiarly,plantedin our gardens. What, therefore, the late traveller, Dampier speaks ofCedar, which he has seen worm-eaten, could neither be that of Libanusor Bermudas, but haply of Barbadoes, Jamaica , or some other species.—Note, that the Cedar Is of so dry a nature, that it does not well endureto be fastened with nails, from which it usually shrinks, and therefore pinsof the same wood are better. Whatever other property this noble treeis deservedly famous for, it is said to yield an oil, which above all other,best preserves the monuments of the learned, books and writings; whenceCedro Dignus became one of the highest eulogies b .
Touching the cliuturnity of this material, it is recorded, that in the"temple of Apollo at Utica , there were found sound beams of Numidian