veil, was placed a chaplet of flowers; in her hands a cake of flour and honey to appease Cerberus, and in her mouth a piece of money to pay Charon. In this state she was exposed a whole day in the vestibule of the house. At the door stood a vessel of lustral water to who might touch the body. purify those This exposure is always deemed necessary to ascertain that the person is really deceased, and died a natural death. It is sometimes continued to the third day. The time of the funeral approached. The hour appointed was before the rising of the sun, a practice which the laws wisely directed in order that a ceremony so sad might not be converted into a scene of ostentatious magnificence. The friends and relations were invited. We found the coffin surrounded by women who were making loud lamentations; some of them cut off locks of their hair, and laid them by the side of Baucis, as pledges of their affection and grief. The body was placed upon a car, in a coffin of cypress wood. The women followed the corpse; the men went before it, some with their heads shaved and all were clothed in black and inclined their eyes steadfastly upon the ground. They were preceded by a band of musicians, who played and sang melancholy airs. We repaired to a spot which belonged to Automedon, the husband, where the ashes of his ancestors were deposited. Although it is very immaterial whether our bodies be committed to the flames or returned to their original clay, when death has deprived them of animation, much altercation had recently arisen respecting their proper disposition. To so great a length was the spirit of opposition carried that some persons would have been almost willing to undergo the ceremony, that they might display the sincerity of their opinion. Automedon, being one of the innovators upon the ancient custom of interment, the fair form of his wife was laid upon a funeral pyre; and when it was consumed, the nearest relations collected the ashes and buried the urn, which contained them, in the earth. We were next summoned to the funeral repast, where the conversation turned upon the beauties, the talents, and the virtues of Baucis. On the ninth and thirtieth days after, her relations, habited in white and crowned with flowers, again assembled to pay new honours to her manes: and it was resolved that they should meet annually, on her birth day, to lament her loss, as if it were still recent. This affectionate anniversary is frequently perpetuated in a family, in a society of friends, and among the disciples of the same philosopher. The regret testified on these occasions is renewed at a general festival of the dead which is celebrated in the month Anthesterion.* I have, more than once, seen individuals approach a tomb, leave there a part of their hair, and pour around it libations of water, wine, milk and honey. The curious stranger who is attentive, not only to the origin of these rites, but, to the sentiments by which they are preserved, must admire the wisdom of the ancient legislators, who taught that sepulture and its attendant ceremonies are to be considered as things sacred. They encouraged the old opinion, that the soul, having left its habitation, the body is stopped on the banks of the Styx, tormented by the desire of reaching the place of its destination; and that it appears in dreams to the survivors, who should interest themselves in its fate, until they shall have withdrawn its mortal relics from the eye of day and the injuries of the weather. Hence that anxiety to procure it the desired repose; hence the injunction imposed upon the traveller to cover with earth a corpse which he may find on the road; and hence the profound veneration in which tombs are held, and the severity of the laws which protect them from violation. Hence also the ceremonies practised with Corresponding with our months of February and March. Meuss. Græc. Fer. in Nexus. respect to those who are swallowed up in the waves, or die in foreign countries when it is impossible to recover their bodies. Their companions, previous to their departure, thrice invoke them with a loud voice, and, by sacrifices and libations, flatter themselves that they have brought back their manes; to which they sometimes erect cenotaphs, a kind of funeral monument which is held in almost equal veneration with tombs. Among the citizens who enjoyed an easy fortune when alive, some, conformably with ancient usage, have only a small column erected over their ashes, with their names inscribed upon it: others, in contempt of the laws which condemn ostentation and all pretensions to fictitious sorrow, perpetuate the memory of their deceased relatives by elegant and magnificent structures, which are ornamented with statues, and embellished by the arts. I have known a freed man expend two talents for a monument to his wife. The premature death of Erinna, which happened shortly after the death of her friend Baucis, and while I remained at Mytilene, was severely felt by those who admired her talents and the many who revered her virtues. Among the poets who did honour at once to their own feelings and to the subject of their lays, Antipater Sidonius, deserves to be remembered. The epitaph which he composed and which was af terwards engraved upon her tomb, was in these words: ON ERINNA. Few were they notes, Erinna! short thy lay, Nor night obscure that fame which lives in heav'n: hile we, the unnumber'd bards of after-time, Sink in the solitary grave unseen, Unhonour'd reach Avernus' fabled clime, And leave no record that we once have been. Sweet are the graceful swan's melodious lays Though but a moment heard before they die; But the long clatt'ring of discordant jays The winds of April scatter through the sky.* REMOTE from the intrigues of the court, and unruffled by the din of contention, our days were joyful and serene like those which nurture the beautiful Halcyon.t Enjoying the uninterrupt * Anthology. † Simonides explains this trite metaphor: "For as Jove during the winter season gives twice seven days of warmth, men have called this clement and |