I Want My Mummy!






Nothing but unusual mummy-related info today:

Did you know that (from Roadside America) there is a mummified toe cocktail?

Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, the ending point of many of the stampeders in the late 1800s, early 1900s, is an interesting town. It looks basically the way it did 100 years ago. However, the biggest attraction is a $5 drink served at the Downtown Hotel, with a human toe dating back to the time of Prohibition, called the Sour Toe Cocktail. Two brothers were traveling back and forth from Dawson City to smuggle rum into Alaska. One night, their toes got frostbite and fell off.

In 1973, a man bought their cabin and found a toe in a masonry jar, which is now in this popular drink. There is apparently a heavy fine if you swallow the toe while drinking the cocktail.

Did you know you can have a mummified toe (above)?


Did you know a mummy was found in the AZ desert?

About 1895, two wandering cowboys riding through the Gila Bend Desert of Central Arizona came upon the nude body of a man half-buried in the treacherous shifting sands. The body was exhumed and carried to a near-by town for possible identification. It has since remained unidentified.

The body is a man about 45 years of age, 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs at present 137 pounds. He weighed about 225 pound originally. Death came through a gunshot wound in the stomach and accompany stains are plainly visible to this day. Scientists have said that this is a perfect example of natural dehydration, claiming that the action of the hot sands and possible chemicals contained therein together with the dry air, produced this condition within 24 hours after death. This prevented any form of decomposition.

Hair, mustache, eye-lashes, teeth, and nails--in fact every detail of the entire body is perfect. "Sylvester" may be seen at the World Famous Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, Colman Ferry Dock, Seattle Washington, U.S.A.

Did you know that early Egyptians had prosthetics already?

When this mummy lived, she was able to walk like an Egyptian—thanks to a false toe.

The toe, made of wood and leather, may be the world's earliest known functional prosthetic, experts say.

The current earliest known prosthesis is an artificial leg found in Italy that dates back to 300 B.C. That's several hundred years younger than the Egyptian toe, which dates to between 1000 and 600 B.C.

A woman between 50 and 60 used the well-worn prosthetic, and the amputation site of her toe seems to have healed successfully, Jacky Finch, of the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, said in a statement.

To see if the toe really works, Finch is gathering a group of volunteers who have lost their right big toes to wear a replica of the Egyptian toe.

Finch will also test a second Egyptian prosthetic toe from the same time period. That toe, made of a sort of papier mache, is on display at the British Museum.

Replicas from both toes will be tested at the Human Performance Laboratory at the nearby University of Salford.

"If we can prove that one or both were functional," Finch said, "then we will have pushed back prosthetic medicine by as much as 700 years."


I was in an odd mood when at work I was typing a report about a mummified toe. Inspiration comes in the damndest places when one blogs.

Comments

  1. Nice necrotic toe. Must smell something disgusting! Didn't hear about the mummy in AZ. I too have had an interest in mummies, when I was a little girl I thought one day I would be a famous Egyptologist who would find new tombs. I think I just find different interpretations of the afterlife interesting. Since I don't have a concrete set of beliefs set up by some group or person, I think I just like to learn about different ideas. Drives my uber-religious family crazy but hey, that can be fun too.

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  2. um, gross. That toe in the cocktail! I'd have to be blasted out of my mind to drink that. If I did accidently swallow it, I know I wouldn't have to pay that fine because once I realized it, that toe would be back up in a second!
    ggggggggag!

    interesting post though!

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  3. Amazing "did you knows" even more amazing pics. Ewww and oooo all at once.

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  4. Ha! Mummies are Cool! LOL I might have to at least taste t he toe drink...but then I think about all the yuck associated with my profession and I'm like....hmmmm...maybe not! LOL

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  5. mummified toe in a cocktail? Why????? Doesn't remotely sound appetizing. Makes me glad I don't drink.

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  6. How could you not swallow the toe?

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  7. Packerfanchick;
    I totally agree about the stand on beliefs and the uber-religious family. We should start a club. Oh, and when I was little, I started wearing khaki's and wanted desperately to be an archaeologist. It was the romance of it, I'm sure because the reality probably sucks.

    Cindi;
    Always happy to make you go--"gross!"

    CB:
    I knew you'd appreciate it.

    I kept thinking about an Alana Bobbitt drink--might take a sip of that....

    Yeah, Pangs, how the freak does someone swallow the toe?

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  8. I don't know exactly what, but there is something sexy in this post.

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  9. A cocktail? Really....I think I will pass, I think I can use the vegetarian excuse :D

    Thanks for sharing that has to be one of the most entertaing blog posts I have read in a while.

    Cheers!

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