The dead body of a person or animal preserved according to the rites practiced in ancient Egypt. After removal of the organs to separate canopic jars, the body was treated with resin (natron) to dry it out thoroughly. It was then wrapped tightly in linen bandages, accompanied by jewelry, religious texts, and unguents of various kinds. Human mummies were then generally enclosed in cartonage, wooden, stone, or gold cases of human form, before being placed in the tomb. All stages of the procedure were accompanied by elaborate rituals, culminating in the ceremony of the 'opening of the mouth', which symbolically restored to the completed mummy the faculties of life. The practice arose from the accidental preservation of bodies by desiccation in the desert sand, giving rise to the idea that such preservation was necessary to the survival of the dead man's soul. It continued until the end of pharaonic times. The name derives from 'moumiya', or bitumen, with which the Persians mistakenly thought the bodies were coated.