In the Middle Ages, rich Europeans would ground Egyptian mummies into a powder and use it as medicine. Most often the powdered human bodies would be mixed with honey to create a sweet syrup or mixed into drinks as a treatment for bruising and other ailments. Mummy medicine became such big business that there was a trade in fake mummies made from executed criminals, beggars, and camels just to keep up with demand. The belief in the healing power of dead Egyptians continued well into the 1800s.