Council, welcome.  I Wohegdo, will begin the presentation of my report.  The first culture that I chose to study for my report was a race called the 'ancient Egyptians'.  I found them most interesting but a small amount of background may be necessary to fully understand the people.  They were quite able scientists having discovered significant technology in architecture, astronomy, mathematics and the anatomy of their own kind.  But, the ways in which they used this knowledge, I found to be rather odd.
    Massive structures called 'pyramids' were built in relatively large numbers.  They had the base of a square with four sides that sloped up, inclining inward, to a point.  These structures were not built, as I would have expected, as libraries or houses of knowledge, but as tombs for their leaders.
    The social dichotomy is striking.  Very few are leaders, and thus rich, and many are workers and thus poor.  The manpower to create these structures is staggering, yet they are paid very little for their significant labor.  The betterment of the lower class is not a priority for the leaders.  Instead, they are left to their own devices, with very little to survive. 
    This is not the first oddity that I found in this culture.  The dead are not incinerated, as they are in our culture.  They are put through a rather morbid process called 'mummification'.  There were varying degrees of this process, much being attributed to social class or availability of money.
    A scholar named Herodotus, from another culture entirely, described the process in his book The Histories.  His description is much better than my attempt would be.  He said, "The mode of embalming, according to the most perfect process, is the following: - They take first a crooked piece of iron, and with it draw out the brain through the nostrils, thus getting rid of a portion, while the skull is cleared of the rest by rinsing with drugs; next they make a cut along the flank with a sharp Ethiopian stone, and take out the whole contents of the abdomen, which they then cleanse, washing it thoroughly with palm wine, and again frequently with an infusion of pounded aromatics.  After this they fill the cavity with the purest bruised myrrh, with cassia, and every other sort of spicery except frankincense, and sew up the opening.  Then the body is placed in natrum for seventy days, and covered entirely over.  After the expiration of that space of time, which must not be exceeded, the body is washed, wrapped round ,from head to foot, with bandages of fine linen cloth, smeared over with gum, which is used generally by the Egyptians in the place of glue, and in this state it is given back to the relations, who enclose is in a wooden case which they have had made for the purpose, shaped into the figure of a man.  Then fastening he case, they place it in a sepulchral chamber, upright against the wall.  Such is the most costly way of embalming the dead."
    This process preserved the body and , in their view, in turn preserved the soul for something that they call the 'afterlife'.  They all believed that the soul continues to exist on another spiritual plane, as we believe.  But they believed that the soul could only reach this place if the body was properly prepared.  To this end, goods were buried with the 'mummies'.  These goods consisted of their everyday articles, such as clothing, jewelry, clay jars containing oils, food and drink but also the animals with which they chose to live their life.  One such species that I observed being preserved in this way was the 'cat'.  This creature is quadrupedal, covered in hair, has sharp teeth and is somewhat similar to our xcjii.  They were evidently a wild species for some time but the Egyptians tamed the beasts and kept them in their houses and grain storerooms to keep out vermin.  But I digress.
    The mummification process was largely used on humans and great care was taken during the process.  It was obvious by the large number of cats that were killed before their time that the process was "practiced" on animals.  The animals that lived directly with the humans and were close to their heart (remember, I said that they were highly sentimental) were mummified more carefully and placed in special burial boxes, similar to the ones made for humans only shaped like cats, to be entombed with their owner.
    In addition to cats, I observed many other animal mummies, descriptions of which can be found in the manual before you.  Monkeys, gazelle, various reptiles, rams, bulls and dogs were all subjected to the process.  It seems as though all form of animal life was important to these people in one way or another and they even chose to take some of them with them into the afterlife.  This is most curious.  Let us move on to the next race of beings that I studied.

Primary Source:
Herodotus, The Histories (440 B.C.)

Secondary Sources:
Brier, Bob. Egyptian Mummies: Unraveling the Secret of an Ancient Art (New York, NY: William Marrow and Company, Inc.), 1994.

Smithsonian Institution

Australian Museum Online, "Background Information", Teachers Resources

Author's Note:
Wohegdo is my creation.  He is an alien observer sent from his planet back in time to research why humans began studying animals and Egyptian mummification of animals would have been fascinating to an alien!  The bulk of the information about the process of mummification included in this episode can be found in my primary source.  Herodotus wrote on mummification and the social class separation.  The information about the Egyptians 'practicing' the mummification process on cats can be found in my secondary sources.  The funerary goods information can be found in the book by Bob Brier.  The Smithsonian Institution and Australian Museum both have great sites about the process and some of the mummies that have been found so far.

Image Information:
Anubis Completing the Mummification Process
From the Book of the Dead - Restored
Click here for the original image