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How do you mummify a body?
怎样制作木乃伊？
You asked us a question. How do you mummify a body?
最近有人问过我们“怎样制作木乃伊”的问题。
The answer depends on whom you ask.
问的人不同，答案也会不同。
The ancient Egyptians would say if you had enough wealth and status, special priests could preserve you. Forever.
古埃及人会回答，如果你有钱有地位，会有专业的祭祀给你全套服务。把你做成长久不腐的木乃伊不是什么难事。
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，他们会把你的大脑和其他内部器官摘除。把体腔挖空，只留下心脏。然后，他们会用盐风干你的身体。而从你身体掏出的大部分器官，会用陶罐保存。最后，他们会用布和松香塞满你的身体，然后把你封进棺材里。
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机制很好用。但他们并不是第一批做木乃伊的人。埃及文明再往前追溯2000多年，生活在今天智利和秘鲁区域的新克罗人，就掌握了剥皮，肢解和取出内脏的方法。最后他们会把这些用木棍、稻草和植物纤维重新组合起来。还会在尸体上作画。
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.
再靠近近代一些时间，印加帝国流行过害人的风俗。他们会把孩子放到安迪斯山顶祭神。由于山顶极冷和极干的环境，这些孩子的尸体也木乃伊化了。
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.
沼泽、冰川和沙漠也能制造同样效果。无氧的酸性、极寒、极热和极干环境，都能使身体迅速脱水，停止腐烂。
So basically, take your pick. But wait. I mean, not really, though, right?
以上既是答案。但等一等，问这些问题的童鞋不是真打算把自己变成木乃伊吧？
译文属可可英语原创，仅供学习和交流使用，未经许可，请勿转载。
