and was therefore prepared
in large measure for what I was about to see.

I found myself when I entered in a gloomy chamber hewn out of a brown
arenaceous clay. The floor was a loose mud, somewhat slippery; and on
it I noticed a number of vases, large and small, and of various forms.
They were not like the exquisite painted vases which we are accustomed
to associate with the name of Etruscan, but of the simplest and most
archaic shapes, formed out of the coarsest clay. Some of them had a
curious squat appearance, with rude figures painted on them; while
others of them were about three feet high, of dark-brown earthenware,
and were ornamented with some simple device in neutral tints or in
very low relief. They were empty now; but when found they contained
ashes and fragments of calcined bones. Just within the door there were
two stone benches, on each of which, when the tomb was opened, was
stretched a skeleton, which rapidly crumbled under the pressure of the
air into a cloud of dust. That on the left was supposed to have been a
female; and her companion on the right had doubtless been a warrior,
judging from the bronze helmet and breastplate, both much corroded,
that were left lying on the bench. He had evidently come by a violent
death, for at the back of the helmet was an ugly hole, whose ragged
side was outwards, showing that the fierce thrust of the spear had
crashed through the face, and protruded beyond the casque. The
combination of cinerary urns containing ashes, and of stone couches on
which dead bodies were extended in the same tomb, is curious, showing
that both modes of sepulture were practised at this period. The
skeletons found entire were evidently those of the master and
mistress of the household, persons of consideration; and the ashes in
the jars were probably the remains of the servants and dependants. On
the benches beside the skeletons were a bronze laver and mirror, a
simple candlestick, and a brazier used for burning perfumes. The vases
were exceedingly interesting, as the first rude attempts of the
Etruscans in an art in which afterwards they attained to such
marvellous perfection, and the only relics now remaining of the
fictile statuary for which Veil was so celebrated.

But my interest in these objects was speedily transferred to a far
more wonderful sight, which the candle of the guide disclosed to me.
On the inner wall, which divided the tomb into two chambers, and on
the right and left