The Spellcaster's Source Hoodoo and Voodoo Witchcraft Blog of Talia Felix

An old-time ingredient one finds in certain medicines and remedies is Mummia , a powder made from ground up Egyptian mummies. (And oh -- wouldn't that make a first-class goofer dust? )  Mummia is a good example of the lack of distinction held in the past between scientific and magical practices -- most of the properties attributed to mummia would now be considered more on par with magic than with legitimate medicine or chemistry, but for ages it was felt to be otherwise. I today wish to discuss the history of a particularly interesting pigment known as Mummy Black. Egyptian mummies have a dark color to them when unwrapped, which color the skin takes on as a side effect of the embalming process. It was believed in ancient times, by foreigners and maybe even by uneducated Egyptians, that this black color, and much of the whole preservation, were achieved by using large amounts of mineral pitch in the mummification process. In fact the hue is merely a side effect of the...