T. L. Haines

TOMBS.

Respect for the dead, and a considerate regard for the due performance of the rites of burial, have been distinctive features in man in all ages and countries. Among the Greeks and Romans great importance was attached to the burial of the dead, as, if a corpse remained unburied, it was believed that the spirit of the departed wandered for a hundred years on the hither side of the Styx. Hence it became a religious duty to scatter earth over any unburied body which any one might chance to meet. This was considered sufficient to appease the infernal gods. The earliest tomb was the tumulus or mound of earth, heaped over the dead. It is a form naturally suggested to man in the early stages of his development. There are two classes of primitive tombs, which are evidently of the highest antiquity. The hypergÆan, or raised mounds, or tumuli, and hypogÆan, which are subterranean or excavated. The tumulus may be considered as the most simple and the most ancient form of sepulture. Its adoption was universal among all primitive nations. Such was the memorial raised by the Greeks over the bodies of their heroes. These raised mounds are to be met with in all countries. The Etruscans improved upon this form by surrounding the base with a podium, or supporting wall of masonry, as at the Cocumella at Vulci, and in the Regulini-Galassi tomb. The Lydians adopted a similar improvement in the tomb of Alyattes, near Sardis. The pyramid, which is but a further development in stone of this form of sepulture, is not peculiar to Egypt alone, it has been adopted in several other countries. Examples of subterranean tombs are to be found in Egypt, Etruria, Greece. Those of Egypt and Etruria afford instances of extraordinary labor bestowed in excavating and constructing these subterranean abodes of the dead. The great reverence paid by the Egyptians to the bodies of their ancestors, and their careful preservation of them by embalmment, necessitated a great number and vast extent of tombs. The Egyptians called their earthly dwellings inns, because men stay there but a brief while; the tombs of the departed they called everlasting mansions, because the dead dwelt in them forever.

EGYPTIAN TOMB.

EGYPTIAN TOMB.ToList

The pyramids were tombs. These monuments were the last abode of the Kings of the early dynasties. They are to be met with in Lower Egypt alone. The Theban Kings and their subjects erected no pyramids, and none of their tombs are structural. In Upper Egypt numerous excavations from the living rock in the mountains of the Thebaid received their mortal remains. Nothing can exceed the magnificence and care with which these tombs of the Kings were excavated and decorated. It appears to have been the custom with their Kings, so soon as they ascended the throne, to begin preparing their final resting place. The excavation seems to have gone on uninterruptedly, year by year, the painting and adornment being finished as it progressed, till the hand of death ended the King's reign, and simultaneously the works of his tomb. The tomb thus became an index of the length of a King's reign as well as of his magnificence. Their entrance, carefully closed, was frequently indicated by a facade cut on the side of the hill. A number of passages, sometimes intersected by deep wells and large halls, finally led, frequently by concealed entrances, to the large chamber where was the sarcophagus, generally of granite, basalt, or alabaster. The sides of the entire excavation, as well as the roof, were covered with paintings, colored sculptures, and hieroglyphic inscriptions in which the name of the deceased King was frequently repeated. We generally find represented in them the funeral ceremonies, the procession, the visit of the soul of the deceased to the principal divinities, its offerings to each of them, lastly, its presentation by the god who protected it to the supreme god of the Amenti, the under-world or Hades. The splendor of these works, and the richness and variety of their ornamentation, exceed all conception; the figures, though in great number, are sometimes of colossal size; frequently scenes of civil life are mingled with funeral representations; the labors of agriculture, domestic occupations, musicians, dances, and furniture of wonderful richness and elegance, are also figured on them; on the ceiling are generally astronomical or astrological subjects. Several tombs of the Kings of the eighteenth dynasty and subsequent dynasties have been found in the valley of Biban-el-Molouk on the western side of the plain of Thebes. One of the most splendid of these is that opened by Belzoni, and now known as that of Osirei Menepthah, of the nineteenth dynasty. A sloping passage leads to a chamber which has been called "The Hall of Beauty."

Forcing his way farther on, Belzoni found as a termination to a series of chambers a large vaulted hall which contained the sarcophagus which held the body of the monarch, now in Sir John Soane's Museum. The entire extent of this succession of chambers and passages is hollowed to a length of 320 feet into the heart of the rock, and they are profusely covered with the paintings and hieroglyphics usually found in those sepulchral chambers. The tombs of the other Kings, Remeses III. and Remeses Miamun, exhibit similar series of passages and chambers, covered with paintings and sculptures, in endless variety, some representing the deepest mysteries of the Egyptian religion; but, as Mr. Fergusson says, like all the tombs, they depend for their magnificence more on the paintings that adorn the walls than on anything which can strictly be called architecture. One of the tombs at Biban-el Molouk is 862 feet in length without reckoning the lateral chambers; the total area of excavation is 23,809, occupying an acre and a quarter of space for one chamber.

Private individuals were buried according to their rank and fortune. Their tombs, also excavated from the living rock, consisted of one or of several chambers ornamented with paintings and sculptures; the last contained the sarcophagus and the mummy. According to Sir G. Wilkinson, the tombs were the property of the priests, and a sufficient number being always kept ready, the purchase was made at the shortest notice, nothing being requisite to complete even the sculptures or inscriptions but the insertion of the deceased's name and a few statements respecting his family and profession. The numerous subjects representing agricultural scenes, the trades of the people, in short, the various occupations of the Egyptians, varying only in their details and the mode of their execution, were figured in these tombs, and were intended as a short epitome of human life, which suited equally every future occupant. The tombs at Beni Hassan are even of an earlier date than those of Thebes. Among these the tomb of a monarch or provincial governor is of the age of Osirtasen I. The walls of this tomb are covered with a series of representations, setting forth the ordinary occupations and daily avocations of the deceased, thus illustrating the manners and customs of the Egyptians of that age. These representations are a sort of epitome of life, or the career of man, previous to his admission to the mansions of the dead. They were therefore intended to show that the deceased had carefully and duly fulfilled and performed all the duties and avocations which his situation in life and the reverence due to the gods required. In the cemeteries of Gizeh and Sakkara are tombs of the time of Nephercheres, sixth King of the second dynasty, probably the most ancient in Egypt. Around the great pyramid are numerous tombs of different periods; among them are the tombs of the princes, and other members of the family or time of Khufu. One of the most interesting is that known as Campbell's tomb, of the supposed date of about 660 B.C. It contained a tomb built up in its center, covered by three stones as struts, over which was a semicircular arch of brick. Near it, also, are several tombs of private individuals, who were mostly priests of Memphis. Many of these have false entrances, and several have pits with their mouths at the top of the tomb. The walls are covered with the usual paintings representing the ordinary occupations of the deceased.

Mummies.—The origin of the process of embalming has been variously accounted for. The real origin appears to be this: it was a part of the religious belief of the Egyptians that, as a reward of a well-spent and virtuous life, their bodies after death should exist and remain undecayed forever in their tombs, for we find in the "Book of the Dead" the following inscription placed over the spirits who have found favor in the eyes of the Great God: "The bodies which they have forsaken shall sleep forever in their sepulchres, while they rejoice in the presence of God most high." This inscription evidently shows a belief in a separate eternity for soul and body; of an eternal existence of the body in the tomb, and of the soul in the presence of God. The soul was supposed to exist as long as the body existed. Hence the necessity of embalming the body as a means to insure its eternal existence. Some have considered that the want of ground for cemeteries, and also the excavations made in the mountains for the extraction of materials employed in the immense buildings of Egypt, compelled them to have recourse to the expedient of mummification. Others consider the custom arose rather from a sanitary regulation for the benefit of the living. According to Mr. Gliddon, mummification preceded, in all probability, the building of the pyramids and tombs, because vestiges of mummies have been found in the oldest of these, and, in fact, the first mummies were buried in the sand before the Egyptians possessed the necessary tools for excavating sepulchres in the rock. The earliest mode of mummification was extremely simple; the bodies were prepared with natron, or dried in ovens, and wrapped in woolen cloth. At a later period every provincial temple was provided with an establishment for the purpose of mummification. The bodies were delivered to the priests to be embalmed, and after seventy days restored to their friends, to be carried to the place of deposit. The mode of embalming depended on the rank and position of the deceased. There were three modes of embalming; the first is said to have cost a talent of silver (about $1,250); the second, 22 minÆ ($300); the third was extremely cheap. The process is thus described by Herodotus;—"In Egypt certain persons are appointed by law to exercise this art as their peculiar business, and when a dead body is brought them they produce patterns of mummies in wood, imitated in painting. In preparing the body according to the most expensive mode, they commence by extracting the brain from the nostrils by a curved hook, partly cleansing the head by these means, and partly by pouring in certain drugs; then making an incision in the side with a sharp Ethiopian stone (black flint), they draw out the intestines through the aperture. Having cleansed and washed them with palm wine, they cover them with pounded aromatics, and afterwards filling the cavity with powder of pure myrrh, cassia, and other fragrant substances, frankincense excepted, they sew it up again. This being done, they salt the body, keeping it in natron during seventy days, to which period they are strictly confined. When the seventy days are over, they wash the body, and wrap it up entirely in bands of fine linen smeared on the inner side with gum. The relatives then take away the body, and have a wooden case made in the form of a man, in which they deposit it; and when fastened up they keep it in a room in their house, placing it upright against the wall. (This style of mummy was supposed to represent the deceased in the form of Osiris.) This is the most costly mode of embalming.

"For those who choose the middle kind, on account of the expense, they prepare the body as follows:—They fill syringes with oil of cedar, and inject this into the abdomen without making any incision or removing the bowels; and, taking care that the liquid shall not escape, they keep it in salt during the specified number of days. The cedar-oil is then taken out, and such is its strength that it brings with it the bowels and all the inside in a state of dissolution. The natron also dissolves the flesh, so that nothing remains but the skin and bones. This process being over, they restore the body without any further operation.

"The third kind of embalming is only adapted for the poor. In this they merely cleanse the body by an injection of syrmÆa, and salt it during seventy days, after which it is returned to the friends who brought it."

Sir G. Wilkinson gives some further information with regard to the more expensive mode of embalming. The body, having been prepared with the proper spices and drugs, was enveloped in linen bandages sometimes 1,000 yards in length. It was then enclosed in a cartonage fitting close to the mummied body, which was richly painted and covered in front with a network of beads and bugles arranged in a tasteful form, the face being laid over with a thick gold leaf, and the eyes made of enamel. The three or four cases which successively covered the cartonage were ornamented in like manner with painting and gilding, and the whole was enclosed in a sarcophagus of wood or stone, profusely charged with painting or sculpture. These cases, as well as the cartonage, varied in style and richness, according to the expense incurred by the friends of the deceased. The bodies thus embalmed were generally of priests of various grades. Sometimes the skin itself was covered with gold leaf; sometimes the whole body, the face, or eyelids; sometimes the nails alone. In many instances the body or the cartonage was beautified in an expensive manner, and the outer cases were little ornamented; but some preferred the external show of rich cases and sarcophagi. Some mummies have been found with the face covered by a mask of cloth fitting closely to it, and overlaid with a coating of composition, so painted as to resemble the deceased, and to have the appearance of flesh. These, according to Sir G. Wilkinson, are probably of a Greek epoch. Greek mummies usually differed from those of the Egyptians in the manner of disposing the bandages of the arms and legs. No Egyptian is found with the limbs bandaged separately, as those of Greek mummies. On the breast was frequently placed a scarabÆus in immediate contact with the flesh. These scarabÆi, when of stone, had their extended wings made of lead or silver. On the cartonage and case, in a corresponding situation above, the same emblem was also placed, to indicate the protecting influence of the Deity. The subjects painted upon the cartonage were the four genii of Amenti, and various emblems belonging to deities connected with the dead. A long line of hieroglyphics extending down the front usually contained the name and quality of the deceased, and the offerings presented by him to the gods; and transverse bands frequently repeated the former, with similar donations to other deities. On the breast was placed the figure of Netpe, with expanded wings, protecting the deceased; sacred arks, boats, and other things were arranged in different compartments, and Osiris, Isis, Anubis, and other deities, were frequently introduced. In some instances Isis was represented throwing her arms round the feet of the mummy, with this appropriate legend: "I embrace thy feet." A plaited beard was attached to the chin when the mummy was that of a man; the absence of this appendage indicated the mummy of a woman.

SARCOPHAGUS, OR COFFIN. (With Noah's Ark cut in relief on the outside.)ToList

Mummy Cases and Sarcophagi.—The outer case of the mummy was either of wood—sycamore or cedar—or of stone. When of wood it had a flat or circular summit, sometimes with a stout square pillar rising at each angle. The whole was richly painted, and some of an older age frequently had a door represented near one of the corners. At one end was the figure of Isis, at the other Nepthys, and the top was painted with bands or fancy devices. In others, the lid represented the curving top of the ordinary Egyptian canopy. The stone coffins, usually called sarcophagi, were of oblong shape, having flat straight sides, like a box, with a curved or pointed lid. Sometimes the figure of the deceased was represented upon the latter in relief, like that of the Queen of Amasis in the British Museum; and some were in the form of a King's name or oval. Others were made in the shape of the mummied body, whether of basalt, granite, slate, or limestone, specimens of which are met with in the British Museum. These cases were deposited in the sepulchral chambers. Various offerings were placed near them, and sometimes the instruments of the profession of the deceased. Near them were also placed vases and small figures of the deceased, of wood or vitrified earthenware. In Sir John Soane's museum is the sarcophagus of Seti I. (Menephtha) B.C. 1322, cut out of a single block of Oriental alabaster. It is profusely covered with hieroglyphics, and scenes on it depict the passage of the sun through the hours of the night. It was found by Belzoni in his tomb in the Biban-el-molouk. The sarcophagus now in the British Museum was formerly supposed to have been the identical sarcophagus which contained the body of Alexander the Great. The hieroglyphic name, which has been read upon the monument, proves it to be that of Nectanebo I., of the thirtieth dynasty, who reigned from B.C. 381 to 363. Its material is a breccia from a quarry near Thebes, and is remarkable for its hardness. A remarkable rectangular-shaped coffin of whinstone was that of Menkare, the Mycerinus of the Greeks, and the builder of the third pyramid; this interesting relic was found by Colonel Vyse in the sepulchral chambers of the third pyramid, but was unfortunately lost at sea while on its way to England. The remains of the cedar-coffin of this monarch are in the British Museum. Many beautiful sarcophagi are in the Vatican at Rome.

The vases, generally named canopi, from their resemblance to certain vases made by the Romans to imitate the Egyptian taste, but inadmissible in its application to any Egyptian vase, were four in number, of different materials, according to the rank of the deceased, and were placed near his coffin in the tomb. Some were of common limestone, the most costly were of Oriental alabaster. These four vases form a complete series; the principal intestines of the mummy were placed in them, embalmed in spices and various substances, and rolled up in linen, each containing a separate portion. They were supposed to belong to the four genii of Amenti, whose heads and names they bore. The vase with a cover, representing the human head of Amset, held the stomach and large intestines; that with the cynocephalus head of Hapi contained the small intestines; in that belonging to the jackal-headed Tuautmutf were the lungs and heart; and for the vase of the hawk-headed Kabhsenuf were reserved the gall-bladder and liver. On the sides of the vases were several columns of hieroglyphics, which expressed the adoration of the deceased to each of the four deities whose symbols adorned the covers, and which gave the name of the deceased.

Small figures, called shabti, offered through respect for the dead, are to be found in great numbers in the tombs. They were images of Osiris, whose form the deceased was supposed to assume, and who thence was called the Osirian. They are in several shapes, sometimes in that of the deceased, standing in the dress of the period, but more generally in the shape of a mummy, the body swathed in bandages, from which the hands come out, holding a hoe, hab, and pick-ax, and the cord of a square basket, slung on the left shoulder, or nape of the neck. The head attire of the deceased is either that of the period or dignity, and in the case of monarchs accompanied by the urÆus, emblem of royalty. Some figures hold the emblem of life, ankh, and of stability, tat, or a whip, khu. They are generally of wood, or vitrified earthenware. The name and quality of the deceased are found on all those in the same tomb, and thrown on the ground round the sarcophagus. They usually bear in hieroglyphics the sixth chapter of the funeral ritual. Some are found with a blank space left for the name of the deceased, which leads one to think that the relations and friends procured these figures from dealers; the funeral formula, with a list of the customary presentations of offerings for his soul to Osiris were already on them; nothing was wanting but the name of the deceased; this being added, they were then evidently offered as testimonies of respect by the relations and friends of the deceased, perhaps at the funeral, and then collected and placed in the tomb. Sometimes these small figures were placed in painted cases divided into compartments. These cases were about two feet long and one foot high.

Manuscripts on papyrus, of various lengths, have been found on some mummies. These rolls of papyrus are found in the coffins, or under the swathings of the mummies, between the legs, on the breast, or under the arms. Some are enclosed in a cylindrical case. The papyrus of the Museum of Turin is sixty-six feet long, that at Paris is twenty-two feet long; others are of different lengths, down to two or three feet. That of Turin may be considered as complete. On all, the upper part of the page is occupied by a line of figures of the divinities which the soul visits in succession; the rest is filled with perpendicular columns of hieroglyphics, which are prayers which the soul addresses to each divinity; towards the end of the manuscript is painted the judgment scene; the great god Osiris is on his throne; at his feet is an enormous female crocodile, its mouth open; behind is the divine balance, surmounted by a cynocephalus emblem of universal justice; the good and bad actions of the soul are weighed in his presence. Horus examines the plummet, and Thoth records the sentence; standing close by is the soul of the deceased in its corporeal form, conducted by the two goddesses, Truth and Justice, before the great judge of the dead. The name of Ritual of the Dead has been given by Egyptologists to these papyri, but in reality they bear the title of "The Book of the Manifestation to Light." A copy of this, more or less complete, according to the fortune of the deceased, was deposited in the case of every mummy. The book was revised under the twenty-sixth dynasty, and then assumed its final definite form. But many parts of it are of the highest antiquity. The whole series of pilgrimages which the soul, separated from the body, was believed to accomplish in the various divisions of the lower regions, are related in this book. It contained also a collection of prayers for the use of the deceased in the other world, and of magical formulÆ intended to secure the preservation of the mummy from decay, and to prevent its possession by an evil spirit, till the ultimate return of the soul of the deceased. Many of these rituals are also found written, not in hieroglyphics, but in hieratic characters, which are an abbreviated form of hieroglyphic signs. Papyri with hieroglyphics are nearly always divided by ruled lines into narrow vertical columns of an inch or less in breadth, in which the hieroglyphic signs are arranged one under the other. Sometimes the papyri are found written in the enchorial character. Several manuscripts in Greek on papyrus have been also discovered in Egypt; they are, however, of a late date, and relate to the sale of lands; many have been discovered referring to lands and possessions about Thebes, one of which has been given in full on page 245.

Roman Tombs.—Before commencing our description of the tombs which line the way as the visitor approaches Pompeii, and seem to prepare him for that funeral silence which reigns in the long-lost city, the more remarkable for its contrast with the gay and festive style of decoration which still characterizes the remains which surround him, it is our intention, as we have done in other instances, to give some general information upon the subject which we are about to treat in detail, for the benefit of those among our readers to whom the forms of Roman burial and the expressions of Roman sorrow are unfamiliar.

Great, absurdly great among the uneducated, as is the importance attached to a due performance of the rites of burial in the present day, it is as nothing compared to the interest which was felt on this subject by the Romans; and not by them only, but by other nations of antiquity, with whose manners we have nothing to do here. The Romans indeed had a good reason for this anxiety, for they believed, in common with the Greeks, that if the body remained unentombed, the soul wandered for a hundred years on the hither side of the Styx, alone and desponding, unable to gain admission to its final resting-place, whether among the happy or the miserable. If, therefore, any person perished at sea, or otherwise under such circumstances that his body could not be found, a cenotaph, or empty tomb, was erected by his surviving friends, which served as well for his passport over the Stygian ferry as if his body had been burnt or committed to the earth with due ceremonies. Hence it became a religious duty, not rashly to be neglected, to scatter earth over any unburied body which men chanced to see, for even so slight a sepulchre as this was held sufficient to appease the scruples of the infernal gods. The reader, if there be any readers of Latin to whom these superstitions are unfamiliar, may refer to the sixth book of the Æneid, line 325, and to a remarkable ode of Horace, the 28th of the first book, which turns entirely upon this subject. Burial, therefore, was a matter of considerable importance.

When death approached, the nearest relative hung over the dying person, endeavoring to inhale his last breath, in a fond belief that the anima, the living principle, departed at that moment, and by that passage from the body. Hence the phrases, animam in primo ore tenere, spiritum excipere, and the like. It is curious to observe how an established form of expression holds its ground. Here are we, after the lapse of eighteen hundred years, still talking of receiving a dying friend's last breath, as if we really meant what we say. After death the body was washed and anointed by persons called pollinctores; then laid out on a bier, the feet to the door, to typify its approaching departure, dressed in the best attire which it had formerly owned. The bier was often decked with leaves and flowers, a simple and touching tribute of affection, which is of the heart, and speaks to it, and therefore has maintained its ground in every age and region, unaffected by the constant changes in customs merely arbitrary and conventional.

In the early ages of Rome the rites of burial and burning seem to have been alike in use. Afterwards the former seems (for the matter is not very clear) to have prevailed, until towards the close of the seventh century of the city, after the death of Sylla, who is said to have been the first of the patrician Cornelii who was burnt. Thenceforward corpses were almost universally consumed by fire until the establishment of Christianity, when the old fashion was brought up again, burning being violently opposed by the fathers of the church, probably on account of its intimate connection with Pagan associations and superstitions. Seven days, we are told, elapsed between death and the funeral; on the eighth the corpse was committed to the flames; on the ninth the ashes were deposited in the sepulchre. This probably refers only to the funerals of the great, where much splendor and extent of preparation was required, and especially those public funerals (funera indictiva) to which the whole people were bidden by voice of crier, the ceremony being often closed by theatrical and gladiatorial exhibitions, and a sumptuous banquet. But we have no intention to narrate the pomp which accompanied the princely nobles of Rome to the tomb: it is enough for our purpose to explain the usages of private life, to which the Street of Tombs owes its origin and its interest.

In the older times funerals were celebrated at night because the rites of religion were celebrated by day; and it was pollution for the ministers, or for anything connected with worship of the deities of the upper world, even to see, much more to touch, anything connected with death. From this nightly solemnization many of the words connected with this subject are derived. Those who bore the bier were called originally Vesperones, thence Vespillones, from Vespera, evening; and the very term funus is derived by grammarians, a funalibus, from the rope torches coated with wax or tallow which continued to be used long after the necessity for using them ceased. This practice, now far more than two thousand years old, is still retained in the Roman Church, with many other ceremonies borrowed from heathen rites. St. Chrysostom assures us that it is not of modern revival, and gives a beautiful reason for its being retained. "Tell me," he says, "what mean those brilliant lamps? Do we not go forth with the dead on their way rejoicing, as with men who have fought their fight?"

The corpse being placed upon a litter or bier, the former being used by the wealthy, the latter by the poor, was carried out preceded by instrumental musicians, and female singers, who chanted the dirge. These hired attendants, whose noisy sorrow was as genuine as the dumb grief of our mutes, were succeeded, if the deceased were noble, or distinguished by personal exploits, by numerous couches containing the family effigies of his ancestors, each by itself, that the length of his lineage might be the more conspicuous; by the images of such nations as he had conquered, such cities as he had taken; by the spoils which he had won; by the ensigns of the magistracies which he had filled; but if the fasces were among them these were borne reversed. Then came the slaves whom he had emancipated (and often with a view to this post-mortem magnificence, a master emancipated great numbers of them), wearing hats in token of their manumission. Behind the corpse came the nearest relations, profuse in the display of grief as far as it can be shown by weeping, howling, beating the breasts and cheeks, and tearing the hair, which was laid, as a last tribute of affection, on the breast of the deceased, to be consumed with him. To shave the head was also a sign of mourning. It is a curious inversion of the ordinary customs of life, that the sons of the deceased mourned with the head covered, the daughters with it bare.

With this attendance the body was borne to the place of burial, being usually carried through the Forum, where, if the deceased had been a person of any eminence, a funeral oration was spoken from the rostra in his honor. The place of burial was without the city, in almost every instance. By the twelve tables it was enacted that no one should be burned or buried within the city; and as this wholesome law fell into disuse, it was from time to time revived and enforced. The reasons for its establishment were twofold, religious and civil. To the former head belongs the reason, already assigned for a different observance, that the very sight of things connected with death brought pollution on things consecrated to the gods of the upper world. So far was this carried that the priest of Jupiter might not even enter any place where there was a tomb, or so much as hear the funeral pipes; nay, his wife, the Flaminica, might not wear shoes made of the hide of an ox which had died a natural death, because all things which had died spontaneously were of ill omen. Besides, it was an ill omen to any one to come upon a tomb unawares. Another reason was that the public convenience might not be interrupted by private rites, since no tombs could be removed without sacrilege when once established, unless by the state, upon sufficient cause. The civil reasons are to be sought in the unwholesome exhalations of large burying-grounds, and the danger of fire from burning funeral piles in the neighborhood of houses. It is not meant, however, that there were no tombs within the city. Some appear to have been included by the gradual extension of the walls; others were established in those intervals when the law of the twelve tables fell, as we have said, into desuetude; nor does it appear that these were destroyed, nor their contents removed. Thus both the Claudian and the Cincian clans had sepulchres in Rome, the former under the Capitol.

If the family were of sufficient consequence to have a patrimonial tomb the deceased was laid in it; if he had none such, and was wealthy, he usually constructed a tomb upon his property during life, or bought a piece of ground for the purpose. If possible the tomb was always placed near a road. Hence the usual form of inscription, Siste, Viator (Stay, Traveler), continually used in churches by those small wits who thought that nothing could be good English which was not half Latin, and forgot that in our country the traveler must have stayed already to visit the sexton before he can possibly do so in compliance with the advice of the monument. For the poor there were public burial-grounds, called puticuli, a puteis, from the trenches ready dug to receive bodies. Such was the ground at the Esquiline gate, which Augustus gave MÆcenas for his gardens. Public tombs were also granted by the state to eminent men, an honor in early times conferred on few. These grants were usually made in the Campus Martius, where no one could legally be buried without a decree of the senate in his favor. It appears from the inscriptions found in the Street of Tombs, at Pompeii, that much, if not the whole of the ground on which those tombs are built, was public property, the property of the corporation, as we should now say; and that the sites of many, perhaps of all, were either purchased or granted by the decurions, or municipal senate, in gratitude for obligations received.

Sometimes the body was burned at the place where it was to be entombed, which, when the pile and sepulchre were thus joined, was called bustum; sometimes the sepulchre was at a distance from the place of burning, which was then called ustrina. The words bustum and sepulchrum, therefore, though often loosely used as synonymous, are not in fact so, the latter being involved in, but by no means comprehending the former. The pile was ordered to be built of rough wood, unpolished by the ax. Pitch was added to quicken the flames, and cypress, the aromatic scent of which was useful to overpower the stench of the burning body. The funeral piles of great men were of immense size and splendidly adorned; and all classes appear to have indulged their vanity in this respect to the utmost of their means, so that a small and unattended pyre is mentioned as the mark of an insignificant or friendless person. The body was placed on it in the litter or bier; the nearest relation present then opened the eyes, which it had been the duty of the same person to close immediately after death, and set fire to the wood with averted face, in testimony that he performed that office not of good will, but of necessity. As the combustion proceeded, various offerings were cast into the flames. The manes were believed to love blood; animals, therefore, especially those which they had loved while alive, were killed and thrown upon the pile, as horses, dogs and doves, besides the beasts commonly used in sacrifice, as sheep and oxen. Human beings, especially prisoners of war, were sometimes put to death, though not in the later times of the republic. The most costly robes and arms of the deceased, especially trophies taken in warfare, were also devoted in his honor, and the blaze was fed by the costly oils and gums of the East. The body being reduced to ashes, these were then quenched with wine, and collected by the nearest relation; after which, if the grief were real, they were again bedewed with tears; if not, wine or unguents answered the purpose equally well. The whole ceremony is described in a few lines by Tibullus:

The ashes thus collected were then finally deposited in the urn, which was made of different materials, according to the quality of the dead; usually of clay or glass, but sometimes of marble, bronze, and even the precious metals. The ceremony thus over, the prÆfica gave the word, Ilicet (the contracted form of Ire licet, It is lawful to go), and the bystanders departed, having been thrice sprinkled with a branch of olive or laurel dipped in water, to purify them from the pollution which they had contracted, and repeating thrice the words, Vale, or Salve, words of frequent occurrence in monumental inscriptions, as in one of beautiful simplicity which we quote:

"Farewell, most happy soul of Caia Oppia. We shall follow thee in such order as may be appointed by nature. Farewell, sweetest mother."

The distinction between cenotaphs and tombs has been already explained. Cenotaphs, however, were of two sorts: those erected to persons already duly buried, which were merely honorary, and those erected to the unburied dead, which had a religious end and efficacy. This evasion of the penal laws against lying unburied was chiefly serviceable to persons shipwrecked or slain in war; but all came in for the benefit of it whose bodies could not be found or identified. When a cenotaph of the latter class was erected sacrifices were offered, the names of the deceased were thrice invoked with a loud voice, as if to summon them to their new abode, and the cenotaph was hallowed with the same privileges as if the ashes of the deceased reposed within it.

The heir, however, had not discharged his last duty when he had laid the body of his predecessor in the tomb; there were still due solemn rites, and those of an expensive character. The Romans loved to keep alive the memory of their dead, showing therein a constancy of affection which does them honor; and not only immediately after the funeral, but at stated periods from time to time, they celebrated feasts and offered sacrifices and libations to them. The month of February was especially set apart for doing honor to the manes, having obtained that distinction in virtue of being, in old times, the last month of the year. Private funeral feasts were also celebrated on the ninth day after death, and indeed at any time, except on those days which were marked as unlucky, because some great public calamity had befallen upon them. Besides these feasts, the dead were honored with sacrifices, which were offered to the manes, and with games; but the latter belong more to those splendid public funerals which we have professed not to describe. The inferiÆ consisted principally of libations, for which were used water, milk, wine, but especially blood, the smell of which was thought peculiarly palatable to the ghosts. Perfumes and flowers were also thrown upon the tomb; and the inexpediency of wasting rich wines and precious oils on a cold stone and dead body, when they might be employed in comforting the living, was a favorite subject with the bons vivans of the age. It was with the same design to crown it with garlands, and to honor it with libations, that Electra and Orestes met and recognized each other at their father's tomb. Roses were in especial request for this service, and lilies also:

Inscriptions.—Before entering upon a description of the catacombs, we will speak of the inscriptions of the ancients. Most of the tombs are really Egyptian, and no nation has left so many inscriptions as the Egyptian. All its monuments are covered with them. Its temples, palaces, tombs, isolated monuments, present an infinite number of inscriptions in hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic characters. The Egyptians rarely executed a statue, or figured representation, without inscribing by its side its name or subject. This name is invariably found by the side of each divinity, personage, or individual. In each painted scene, on each sculptured figure, an inscription, more or less extensive, explains its subject.

The characters used by the Egyptians were of three kinds—hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic. The latter has been also termed enchorial, or popular. The first was doubtless a system of representational signs, or picture writing—the earliest form of writing, in the first stage of its development; the hieratic is an abbreviated form of the hieroglyphic; the demotic, a simplified form of the hieratic, and a near approach towards the alphabetic system.

Hieroglyphics (styled by the Egyptians skhai en neter tur—writing of sacred words) are composed of signs representing objects of the physical world, as animals, plants, stars, man and his different members, and various objects. They are pure or linear, the latter being a reduction of the former. The pure were always sculptured or painted. The linear were generally used in the earlier papyri, containing funeral rituals.

They have been divided into four classes:—1, Representational or ikonographic; 2, Symbolic or tropical; 3, Enigmatic; 4, Phonetic. From the examination of hieroglyphic inscriptions of different ages, it is evident that these four classes of symbols were used promiscuously, according to the pleasure and convenience of the artist.

1. Ikonographic, representational, or imitative hieroglyphics, are those that present the images of the things expressed, as the sun's disk to signify the sun, the crescent to signify the moon. These may be styled pure hieroglyphics.

2. The symbolical, or tropical (by Bunsen termed ideographic), substituted one object for another, to which it bore an analogy, as heaven and a star expressed night; a leg in a trap, deceit; two arms stretched towards heaven expressed the word offering; a censer with some grains of incense, adoration; a bee was made to signify Lower Egypt; the fore-quarters of a lion, strength; a crocodile, darkness. The following hieroglyphics were on the triumph Hall Thothmes III., and mean, after translating:

"I went: I order that you reduce and crush all the high officers of Tsahi. I cast them together with all their possessions at thy feet."

This kind of character appears to have been particularly invented for the expression of abstract ideas, especially belonging to religion or the royal power. These are the characters generally alluded to by the ancients when they speak of hieroglyphics, and are the most difficult of interpretation.

3. Enigmatic are those in which an emblematic figure is put in lieu of the one intended to be represented, as a hawk for the sun; a seated figure with a curved beard, for a god. These three kinds were either used alone, or in company with the phonetically written word they represented. Thus: 1. The word Ra, sun, might be written in letters only, or be also followed by the ikonograph, the solar disk (which if alone would still have the same meaning—Ra, the sun). So, too, the word "moon," Aah, was followed by the crescent. In these cases the sign so following the phonetic word has been called a terminative, from its serving to determine the meaning of what preceded it. We give here a few words translated:

"In your transformation as golden sperbe you have accomplished it."

2. In the same manner, the tropical hieroglyphics might be alone or in company with the word written phonetically; and the expression "to write," skhai, might be followed or not by its tropical hieroglyphic, the "pen and inkstand," as its determinative sign. 3. The emblematic figure, a hawk-headed god, bearing the disk, signifying the "sun," might also be alone, or after the name "Ra" written phonetically, as a determinative sign; and as a general rule the determinative followed, instead of preceding the names. Determinatives are of two kinds—ideograms, and generic determinatives: the first were the pictures of the object spoken of; the second, conventional symbols of the class of notions expressed by the word.

4. Phonetic. Phonetic characters or signs were those expressive of sounds. They are either purely alphabetic or syllabic. All the other Egyptian phonetic signs have syllabic values, which are resolvable into combinations of the letters of the alphabet. This phonetic principle being admitted, the numbers of figures used to represent a sound might have been increased almost without limit, and any hieroglyphic might stand for the first letter of its name. So copious an alphabet would have been a continual source of error. The characters, therefore, thus applied, were soon fixed, and the Egyptians practically confined themselves to particular hieroglyphics in writing certain words.

Hieroglyphic writing was employed on monuments of all kinds, on temples as well as on the smallest figures, and on bricks used for building purposes. On the most ancient monuments this writing is absolutely the same as on the most recent Egyptian work. Out of Egypt there is scarcely a single example of a graphic system identically the same during a period of over two thousand years. The hieroglyphic characters were either engraved in relief, or sunk below the surface on the public monuments, and objects of hard materials suited for the glyptic art. The hieroglyphics on the monuments are either sculptured and plain, or decorated with colors. The colored are divided into two distinct classes, the monochromatic of one simple tone, and the polychromatic, or those which rendered with more or less fidelity the color of the object they were intended to depict. The hieroglyphic figures were arranged in vertical columns or horizontal lines, and grouped together as circumstances required, so as to leave no spaces unnecessarily vacant. They were written from right to left, or from left to right. The order in which the characters were to be read, was shown by the direction in which the figures are placed, as their heads are invariably turned towards the reader. A single line of hieroglyphics—the dedication of a temple or of any other monument, for example—proceeds sometimes one half from left to right, and the other half from right to left; but in this case a sign, such as the sacred tau, or an obelisk, which has no particular direction, is placed in the middle of the inscription, and it is from that sign that the two halves of the inscription take each an opposite direction.

The period when hieroglyphics—the oldest Egyptian characters—were first used, is uncertain. They are found in the Great Pyramid of the time of the fourth dynasty, and had evidently been invented long before, having already assumed a cursive style.[23] This shows them to be far older than any other known writing; and the written documents of the ancient languages of Asia, the Sanskrit and the Zend, are of a recent time compared with those of Egypt, even if the date of the Rig-Veda in the fifteenth century B.C. be proved. Manetho shows that the invention of writing was known in the reign of Athoth (the son and successor of Menes), the second King of Egypt, when he ascribes to him the writing of the anatomical books, and tradition assigned to it a still earlier origin. At all events, hieroglyphics, and the use of the papyrus, with the usual reed pen, are shown to have been common when the pyramids were built, and their style in the sculptures proves that they were then a very old invention. In hieroglyphics of the earliest periods there were fewer phonetic characters than in after ages, these periods being nearer to the original picture-writing. The number of signs also varied at different times; but they may be reckoned at from 900 to 1,000. Various new characters were added at subsequent periods, and a still greater number were introduced under the Ptolemies and CÆsars, which are not found in the early monuments; some, again, of the older times, fell into disuse.

Hieratic is an abbreviated form of the hieroglyphic; thus each hieroglyphic sign—ikonographic, symbolic, or phonetic—has its abridged hieratic form, and this abridged form has the same import as the sign itself of which it is a reduced copy. It was written from right to left, and was the character used by the priests and sacred scribes, whence its name. It was invented at least as early as the ninth dynasty (4,240 years ago), and fell into disuse when the demotic had been introduced. The hieratic writing was generally used for manuscripts, and is also found on the cases of mummies, and on isolated stones and tablets. Long inscriptions have been written on them with a brush. Inscriptions of this kind are also found on buildings, written or engraved by ancient travelers. But its most important use was in the historical papyri, and the registers of the temples. Most valuable information respecting the chronology and numeric systems of the Egyptians has been derived from them.

Demotic, or enchorial, is composed of signs derived from the hieratic, and is a simplified form of it, but from which figurative or ikonographic signs are generally excluded, and but few symbolical signs, relative to religion alone, are retained; signs nearly approaching the alphabetic are chiefly met with in this third kind of writing. It was invariably written, like the hieratic, from right to left. It is thus evident that the Egyptians, strictly speaking, had but one system of writing, composed of three kinds of signs, the second and third being regularly deduced from the first, and all three governed by the same fundamental principles. The demotic was reserved for general use among the Egyptians: decrees and other public acts, contracts, some funeral stelÆ, and private transactions, were written in demotic. The intermediate text of the Rosetta inscription is of this kind. It is not quite certain when the demotic first came into use, but it was at least as early as the reign of Psammetichus II., of the twenty-sixth dynasty (B.C. 604); and it had therefore long been employed when Herodotus visited Egypt. Soon after its invention it was adopted for all ordinary purposes.

The chief objects of interest in the study of an Egyptian inscription are its historical indications. These are found in the names of Kings or of chief officers, and in the dates they contain. The names of Kings are always enclosed in an oval called cartouche. An oval contains either the royal title or prÆnomen, or the proper name or nomen of the King.

The dates which are found with these royal legends are also of great importance in an historical point of view, and monuments which bear any numerical indications are exceedingly rare. These numerical indications are either the age of the deceased on a funeral tablet, or the number of different consecrated objects which he has offered to the gods, or the date of an event mentioned in the inscription. Dates, properly so called, are the most interesting to collect; they are expressed in hieroglyphic cyphers, single lines expressing the number of units up to nine, when an arbitrary sign represents 10, another 100, and another 10,000.

The most celebrated Egyptian inscriptions are those of the Rosetta stone. This stone, a tablet of black basalt, contains three inscriptions, one in hieroglyphics, another in demotic or enchorial, and a third in the Greek language. The inscriptions are to the same purport in each, and are a decree of the priesthood of Memphis, in honor of Ptolemy Epiphanes, about the year B.C. 196. "Ptolemy is there styled King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Son of the gods Philopatores, approved by Pthah, to whom Ra has given victory, a living image of Amun, son of Ra, Ptolemy Immortal, beloved by Pthah, God Epiphanes, most gracious. In the date of the decree we are told the names of the priests of Alexander, of the gods Soteres, of the gods Adelphi, of the gods EuergetÆ, of the gods Philopatores, of the god Epiphanes himself, of Berenice Euergetis, of Arsinoe Philadelphus, and of Arsinoe Philopator. The preamble mentions with gratitude the services of the King, or rather of his wise minister, Aristomenes, and the enactment orders that the statue of the King shall be worshipped in every temple of Egypt, and be carried out in the processions with those of the gods of the country, and lastly that the decree is to be carved at the foot of every statue of the King in sacred, in common and in Greek writing" (Sharpe). It is now in the British Museum. This stone is remarkable for having led to the discovery of the system pursued by the Egyptians in their monumental writing, and for having furnished a key to its interpretation, Dr. Young giving the first hints by establishing the phonetic value of the hieroglyphic signs, which were followed up and carried out by Champollion.

Another important and much more ancient inscription is the tablet of Abydos in the British Museum. It was discovered by Mr. Banks in a chamber of the temple of Abydos, in 1818. It is now greatly disfigured, but when perfect it represented an offering made by Remeses II., of the nineteenth dynasty, to his predecessors on the throne of Egypt. The tablet is of fine limestone, and originally contained the names of fifty-two Kings disposed in the two upper lines, twenty-six in each line, and a third or lower line with the name and prÆnomen of Remeses II. or III. repeated twenty-six times. On the upper line, beginning from the right hand, are the names of monarchs anterior to the twelfth dynasty. The names in the second line are those of monarchs of the twelfth and the eighteenth or nineteenth dynasties. The King Remeses II. probably stood on the right hand of the tablet, and on the other is the lower part of a figure of Osiris. The lateral inscription is the speech of the deceased King to "their son" Remeses II.

The tablet of Karnac, now in one of the halls of the Bibliotheque at Paris, was discovered by Burton in a chamber situated in the southeast angle of the temple-palace of Thebes, and was published by its discoverer in his "Excerpta Hieroglyphica." The chamber itself was fully described by Rosellini in his "Monumenti Storici." The Kings are in two rows, overlooked each of them by a large figure of Thothmes III., the fifth King of the eighteenth dynasty. In the row to the left of the entrance are thirty-one names, and in that to the right are thirty, all of them predecessors of Thothmes. The Theban Kings who ruled in Upper Egypt during the usurpation of the Hyksos invaders are also exhibited among the lists. Over the head of each King is his oval, containing his royal titles.

A most valuable tablet of Kings has been lately discovered by M. Mariette in a tomb near Memphis, that of a priest who lived under Remeses II., and was called Tunar-i. It contains two rows of Kings' names, each twenty-nine in number. Six have been wholly obliterated out of the upper row, and five out of the lower row. The upper row contains the names of Remeses II. and his predecessors, who seem all meant for Kings of Upper Egypt, or Kings of Memphis who ruled over Upper Egypt, while the names in the lower row seem meant for contemporaneous High Priests of Memphis, some or all of whom may have called themselves Kings of Lower Egypt. The result of the comparison of this tablet with other authorities, namely, Manetho, Eratosthenes, and the tablet of Abydos, is supposed by some to contradict the longer views of chronology held by Bunsen, Lepsius and others. Thus, reading the list of names backwards from Remeses II. to Amosis, the first of the eighteenth dynasty, this tablet, like the tablet of Abydos, immediately jumps to the Kings of Manetho's twelfth dynasty; thus arguing that the intermediate five dynasties mentioned by Manetho must have been reigning contemporaneously with the others, and add no length of time to a table of chronology. There is also a further omission in this tablet of four more dynasties. This tablet would thus seem to confirm the views of the opponents of the longer chronology of Bunsen and others, by striking out from the long chronology two periods amounting together to 1,536 years. But a complete counterpart of the tablet of Memphis has been recently found at Abydos by M. Mariette, fully confirming the chronology of Manetho, and bearing out the views of Bunsen and Lepsius. The Moniteur publishes a letter from M. Mariette, containing the following statement:—"At Abydos I have discovered a magnificent counterpart of the tablet of Sakharah. Seti I., accompanied by his son, subsequently Remeses II. (Sesostris), presents an offering to seventy-six Kings drawn up in line before him. Menes (the first King of the first dynasty on Manetho's list) is at their head. From Menes to Seti I., this formidable list passes through nearly all the dynasties. The first six are represented therein. We are next introduced to sovereigns still unknown to us, belonging to the obscure period which extends from the end of the sixth to the beginning of the eleventh. From the eleventh to the eighteenth the new table follows the beaten track, which it does not quit again during the reign of Thothmes, Amenophis, and the first Remeses. If in this new list everything is not absolutely new, we at least find in it a valuable confirmation of Manetho's list, and in the present state of science we can hardly expect more. Whatever confirms Manetho gives us confidence in our own efforts, even as whatever contradicts it weakens the results we obtain. The new tablet of Abydos is, moreover, the completest and best preserved monument we possess in this respect. Its style is splendid, and there is not a single cartouche or oval wanting. It has been found engraved on one of the walls of a small chamber in the large temple of Abydos."

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