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 inferiae 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:

Full canisters of fragrant lilies bring,
Mixed with the purple roses of the Spring;
Let me with funeral flowers his body strow,
This gift which parents to their children owe,
This unavailing gift at least I may bestow.

_Dryden, AEn, vi. 883._

_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.