怎樣製作木乃伊?

How do you mummify a body?

怎樣製作木乃伊？

You asked us a question. How do you mummify a body?

最近有人問過我們“怎樣製作木乃伊”的問題。

The answer depends on whom you ask.

問的人不同，答案也會不同。

The ancient Egyptians would say if you had enough wealth and status, special priests could preserve you. Forever.

古埃及人會回答，如果你有錢有地位，會有專業的祭祀給你全套服務。把你做成長久不腐的木乃伊不是什麼難事。

First, they pull out your brain and internal organs. They would take out everything. The only thing they didn't take out was your heart. It stays. Then they dry out your body with a kind of salt. Most of your organs would be preserved in jars. But your body would get wrapped up in strips of linen and layers of resin. Then it would be sealed in a coffin.

首先，他們會把你的大腦和其他內部器官摘除。把體腔挖空，只留下心臟。然後，他們會用鹽風乾你的身體。而從你身體掏出的大部分器官，會用陶罐保存。最後，他們會用布和松香塞滿你的身體，然後把你封進棺材裏。

Their technique worked pretty well. But they weren't the first to go mummy. Two thousand years earlier, the Chinchorro of Chile and Peru were in the habit of skinning, dismembering and disemboweling bodies. Then they would put them back together. They put them together with sticks, straw and plant fibers. Then they'd paint the bodies.

古埃及人制作木乃伊的機制很好用。但他們並不是第一批做木乃伊的人。埃及文明再往前追溯2000多年，生活在今天智利和祕魯區域的新克羅人，就掌握了剝皮，肢解和取出內臟的方法。最後他們會把這些用木棍、稻草和植物纖維重新組合起來。還會在屍體上作畫。

More recently, nature did the dirty work for the Inca. They made sacrifices to their gods by bringing kids high up into the Andes Mountains. The kids' bodies became mummified by the dry atmosphere and extreme cold.

再靠近近代一些時間，印加帝國流行過害人的風俗。他們會把孩子放到安迪斯山頂祭神。由於山頂極冷和極乾的環境，這些孩子的屍體也木乃伊化了。

Peat bogs, glaciers and deserts can have the same effect. The oxygen-deprived acidic, cold, hot and dry conditions of these environments desiccate bodies and stop decomposition au natural.

沼澤、冰川和沙漠也能製造同樣效果。無氧的酸性、極寒、極熱和極幹環境，都能使身體迅速脫水，停止腐爛。

So basically, take your pick. But wait. I mean, not really, though, right?

以上既是答案。但等一等，問這些問題的童鞋不是真打算把自己變成木乃伊吧？

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