Mummy

Mummies are creatures from Egyptian mythology and are deceased pharaohs.

Origin and Entymology
The English word mummy is derived from medieval Latin mumia, a borrowing of the medieval Arabic word mūmiya (مومياء) and from a Persian word mūm (wax), which meant an embalmed corpse, and as well as the bituminous embalming substance, and also meant "bitumen". The Medieval English term "mummy" was defined as "medical preparation of the substance of mummies", rather than the entire corpse, with Richard Hakluyt in 1599 AD complaining that "these dead bodies are the Mummy which the Phisistians and Apothecaries doe against our willes make us to swallow". These substances were defined as mummia.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a mummy as "the body of a human being or animal embalmed (according to the ancient Egyptian or some analogous method) as a preparation for burial", citing sources from 1615 AD onward. However, Chamber's Cyclopædia and the Victorian zoologist Francis Trevelyan Buckland define a mummy as follows: "A human or animal body desiccated by exposure to sun or air. Also applied to the frozen carcase of an animal imbedded in prehistoric snow".

Wasps of the genus Aleiodes are known as "mummy wasps" because they wrap their caterpillar prey as "mummies".

Myths and Legends
When a pharaoh or other royal member died, they had their organs (including rarely the heart) removed and preserved separately. Later the body would be salted and preserved. Then they were wrapped and decorated. In some stories, the mummy needed to be made properly to enjoy the afterlife.

Appearance
Mummies are often viewed as humans wrapped up with a type of gauze.

Power and Abilities
Mummies, despite their frail appearance, are said to be very strong. Sometimes, they can even place a curse on any intruder who disturbs them.

Weakness
In order to defeat a mummy, a person can do one of two things:
 * One is to recite a spell that will put the mummy to rest.
 * The other is burning them, as, unsurprisingly, they are dried out.