One day [in late 1836, early 1837] mother took me to see the Egyptian mummies that were in the upper corridor of the temple. I was very pleased to go, for there was much talk about them, and I thought it would be so nice to go and see them, but when I saw them they frightened me very much—they had such an unearthly look to me. They were dark in color, and hard as metal, and the cloth they were wrapped in was petrified like the bodies. Brother Joseph explained much about them that I could not understand, and said they were thousands of years old.