Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/553

 Recent Greek Archccology and Folk-loi'e. 545

inconsistent remark, as of one who has still existence,
 * ' Hail, thou who passeth by."

One more curious instance of the tenacity of old tradi- tional practices. We have seen how the Dipylon folk, before 600 B.C., poured their offering to the dead down a specially constructed channel. In a Roman cemetery at Carthage, of the second century A.D., the identical practice has been found^ ; here the ashes within the cippus are placed in a pierced urn, which communicates with the outside by means of a sloping channel ; down this channel the offerings to the manes were poured. This usage had the advantage of economy, because the same tomb could be used to contain successive consignments of ashes.

How the custom of offering to the dead struck the later Hellenic intelligence we see, by occasional glimpses, in the Anthology. " In the cold shadows underground the ghost will not be comforted by ointments and garlands lavished on the tomb ; though the clay covering be drenched with wine, the dead man will not drink."-

^ Rev. Arch., 1888, vol. xii, p. 151.

2 Anth. Pal., xi, 8. Alackail, Select Epigrams from the Gk. Anth., p. 70.

Cecil Smith.