at the
palaestric festivals, or as nuptial presents, or as pledges of love and
friendship; and these are marked by some appropriate inscription.

We find that they were also used in the ceremonies of the Mysteries,
for we see their forms represented on the vases themselves: Bacchus
frequently holds a cantharus, Satyrs carry a diota. A few seem to have
been expressly for sepulchral purposes. Some have supposed that these
vases were intended to hold the ashes of the dead; but this could not
have been their use, for they are only found in tombs in which the
bodies have been buried without being burnt. The piety of the
relations adorned the tomb of the deceased with those vases, together
with his armor and jewelry, which they had prized most in life, which
were associated with their habits, or recalled circumstances the
memory of which they cherished.

We could not but feel astonished at the perfect preservation of such
fragile objects, did we not know that they were found in tombs. Those
in which they are found, are placed near the walls, but outside the
town, at a slight depth, except those of Nola, where the eruptions of
Vesuvius have considerably raised the soil since the period when the
tombs were made, so that some of the tombs of Nola are about
twenty-one feet under ground.

In Greece, the graves are generally small, being designed for single
corpses, which accounts for the comparatively small size of the vases
discovered in that country. At Athens the earlier graves are sunk
deepest in the soil, and those at Corinth, especially such as contain
the early Corinthian vases, are found by boring to a depth of several
feet beneath the surface.

[Illustration: A GREEK SACRIFICE.]

The early tombs of Civita Vecchia, and Caere, or Cervetri, in Italy,
are tunneled in the earth; and those at Vulci, and in the Etruscan
territory, from which the finest and largest vases have been
extracted, are chambers hewn in the rocks. In southern Italy,
especially in Campania, the common tombs are constructed of rude
stones or tiles, and are exactly of sufficient size to contain a
corpse and five or six vases; a small one is placed near the head, and
the others between the legs of the body, or they are ranged on each
side, frequently on the left side alone.

The number and beauty of the vases vary, probably, according to the
rank and fortune of the owner of the tomb. The tombs of the first
class are larger, and have been built wi