me authoritative interpreter
who could read for me "this mystic handwriting on the wall." It has
been suggested that the silent scene before me represented the passage
of a soul to the world of the dead. The lean and starved-looking horse
symbolised death; and its red and yellow spots indicated corruption.
It may have been the ghost of the horse that was burned with the body
of his dead master; for we know that the tribes, from which the
Etruscans were supposed to be descended, if not the Etruscans
themselves, not only burned their dead, but offered along with them
the wives, slaves, horses, and other property of the dead upon their
funeral pyre. The horse in this remarkable fresco may therefore have
been the death-horse, which is well-known in Eastern and European
folklore. The diminutive figure which it carried on its back was the
soul of the dead person buried in this tomb; and its small size and
the fact of its being on horseback might have been suggested by the
thought of the long way it had to go, and its last appearance to the
mortal eyes that had anxiously watched it from the extreme verge of
this world as it vanished in the dim distance of the world beyond. The
groom that led the horse and his rider was the Thanatis or Fate that
had inflicted the death-blow; and the figure with the hammer was
probably intended for the Mantus--the Etruscan Dispater--who led the
way to another state of existence. The deep-red colour of the human
figures indicated not only that they belonged to the male sex, but
also that they were in a state of glorification. This is further
confirmed by the flowers, which looked like those of the lotus,
universally regarded amongst the ancients as symbols of immortality.
It is difficult to say what part the domestic animals were meant to
play in this scene of apotheosis. Painted with the same hues as those
of the steed, they were doubtless sacrificed at the death of their
master, in order that they might share his fortunes and accompany him
into the unseen world; their affection for him, and the reluctance
with which they parted from him, being indicated by the cat putting
its paw upon his shoulder as if to pull him back, and the dog barking
furiously at the heels of the horse. But all this is merely
conjectural. And yet I caught such a glimpse of the general
significance of the picture, of the spirit that prompted it, as deeply
impressed me. It seemed as if my own searching dimly with a candle i