“You remember, Aunt Edith,” said Charley, "that poem you used to like to hear May and me repeat, about the martyr Marius? I could not help thinking of it yesterday, when I heard someone who came to dinner speaking to papa about the catacombs at Paris, for Marius was buried in a catacomb. Don't you know, May, it says they carried him-
Pacing slowly, pacing lowly,
With the torch-lights in their hand,
Through the dark and winding chambers
Of the ancient catacomb,
Where the children of our Savior
Have their hiding-place and tomb?
You see there must have been catacombs at Rome, for Marius was a Roman martyr; and I want to know more about them, if you will tell us all you can, Aunt Edith.”
"I had been thinking that we might talk a little this evening about the burial customs of the East, but as you would like to hear about the catacombs, Charley, we may as well begin with them," said his aunt; and she left the room, and presently returned with a large, dusty-looking book. “Some time ago,” she continued, “I could not have told you much of these interesting places, but I have lately been reading from this great volume all that I could find about them.”
“Then you will be able to tell us all about them from the very beginning?" said May. "I suppose they were made under ground, like tunnels, so that people could ‘pace’ through them?”
“I don't know that anyone could tell you their history ‘from the very beginning,’ May, for it is still a question among learned men how there came to be these ‘dens and caves’ outside the walls of Rome. Some have thought that they were merely quarries or pits, from which building-stone had been dug, which were afterward used as places of burial for the dead; others believe that the early Christians at Rome, most of whom had been Jews, desiring for their friends a rock-hewn sepulcher like that in which our Lord was laid, bought land outside the city; for all burial within the walls of Rome was forbidden; and perhaps taking advantage of excavations already existing, formed those passages or galleries, with tombs at either side, which stretch for miles under ground along the Via Appia, at a short distance from Rome, forming a subterranean city, through the mazy windings of which no traveler dare venture without a guide.”
“Ah! I see; it must be ‘pacing lowly’ through those underground passages, and the torch-lights would be necessary to show the way. I daresay people who visit the catacombs now carry torches; it would be dreadful to grope through those dark, silent places without a light," said Charley. "But, Auntie, what does catacomb mean?”
“The word is formed from two Greek words," replied his aunt, and means a hollow place, Charley. These dreary vaults seem to have been unthought of from the first age of the Church's history, until, in the sixth century they were plundered by the Goths, after which the Popes began to remove the relics of the martyrs, and a visit to the catacombs was counted a pious pilgrimage. Then came centuries during which no one thought of their existence, until at last, in the year 1578, a sepulchral chamber was discovered by some laborers who were digging for earth." "Let me see; that must have been in our Queen Elizabeth's time," said May "How surprised everyone must have been. I daresay when they had discovered one chamber they soon began to search for more. But do tell us what the tombs are like.”
“If you could walk along the galleries, May, by the torch-light, you would see that the walls on either hand are full of niches, from the floor to the roof; within these niches the dead have been placed, and then the opening has been closed by a stone slab. Some travelers say that these ‘loculi,’ as the niches are called, remind them of berths in a ship, placed in order, tier above tier; while a French writer has likened them to the ‘shelves of a vast library, where death has arranged his works.’ There are thousands of these ‘loculi;’ here you may see a tiny niche small enough to be the resting-place of an infant a day old, and there one large enough for a full-grown man. Jerome, one of the most learned of the fathers who made the Latin translation of the Bible called the Vulgate, gives an account of a visit which he paid to these catacombs when he was a boy, about the year 354 A.D., which is interesting as the earliest description we have of them. ‘When I was a boy,’ he says, ‘receiving my education at Rome, I and my schoolfellows used on Sundays to make the circuit of the sepulchers of the apostles and martyrs. Many a time did we go down into the catacombs. There are excavated deep in the earth, and contain on either hand, as you enter, the bodies of the dead buried in the wall.' After speaking of the dreadful darkness, he says, 'Only occasionally is light let in to mitigate the horror of the gloom, and then not so much through a window as through a hole. You take each step with caution, surrounded by deep night.'"
“Oh, I was thinking he was a very Lucky schoolboy," said May; "but I should not care to wander about in such darkness, even in the most interesting place in the world.”
“I can show you," continued their a aunt, turning over the leaves of the old book which lay upon the table, "a picture of the entrance to one of these underground cities of the dead.”
“Oh, how their torches blaze," said Charley. "I should like some day to go and explore for myself; one could always take lights, you know, May. But," he added, thoughtfully, "you said the tombs were walled up by slabs of stone, Aunt Edith; I wonder whether anyone has ever taken away the slab from a tomb?”
“Oh, yes; and many curious things have been found behind those time-worn slabs. It has been the custom of almost all peoples to bury with their dead what they had used in life; and so in one tomb in the catacombs tools, telling of the trade of the man who was buried there, were found; lamps of bronze, silver, and amber, of which I can show you some specimens; little jars, bells, and in the tombs of children ivory dolls with jointed limbs have been discovered.”
“I daresay little children in those long-ago times liked to take their dollies to bed with them, just as they do now," said May; "and so when the mothers laid their dead children in those little niches, they put their favorite dolls by their side, before the slab was fastened down.”
“I must not forget to tell you," continued Aunt Edith, "of one circumstance which adds much to the interest of the catacombs. It is believed that in the times of persecution the early Christians not only used them as places of refuge, digging wells that they might not perish for lack of water while hiding in their dark recesses, but that it was their custom to hold meetings for prayer and praise, and for remembering their Lord's death amid the solemn silence of these dreary vaults, surrounded by the tombs of many who had sealed their faith with their Blood.”
“But is nothing written upon the slabs," asked Charley, "so that one could know who was buried there, and how long ago?”
“The time cannot be known certainly," replied his aunt, "for generally only the day of the month is given; but sometimes the name of the one whose dust lies hidden in the rocky tomb has been painted in vermilion upon the slab, while upon some tombs there are the well known Christian emblems, a dove set free, a chariot at rest, a ship at anchor, all telling of rest and liberty, of the warfare of life being accomplished, of the voyager upon life's ocean having reached the haven where he would be, of the joyous freedom of the imprisoned spirit.”
“And there must be some palm-branches," said May, "for the poem says that when they buried Marius they carved the name of Christ upon his tomb, and a little branch of palm besides.”
“Yes, May; upon many slabs a palm-branch, the token of victory, is carved or painted; the colors of the paintings are wonderfully fresh. You would like to see these old pictures, though I am sure you would not admire some of them, for they are very roughly drawn. A favorite device is the Good Shepherd carrying a lamb upon His shoulder; then there is the raising of Lazarus, and many scenes from the Old Testament—the sacrifice of Abraham, the three young men in the fiery furnace, Moses striking the rock;—all these, and many more, may be seen.”
“As to the meaning of one very frequent symbol, a fish, there was much spoken and written, but at last it was discovered that the Greek letters which form the name are the initial letters of the words Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. I must translate for you the inscription upon one tomb, May, which is believed to be one of the earliest, for it will have an especial interest for you; it is a martyr's tomb;" and Aunt Edith read the following epitaph:—"‘In the time of Hadrian, Emperor; Marius, youthful military commander, who lived long enough, since he spent his life and blood for Christ-in peace.’”
“Oh, what a beautiful inscription!" cried May; "and to think that that was the tomb of the very Marius who was given to the lions.”
“I can read the letters quite well, Aunt Edith," said Charley, "only the 'u' is made like a ‘y’ all through, which rather puzzles me. I know many of the Roman emperors persecuted the Christians.”
“Alas! those mighty emperors, Charley, knew nothing of the faith and hope which led the friends of those whom they persecuted to the death to write upon their tombs such words as these: ‘Thou sleepest in peace;’ ‘In God thou shalt live;’ ‘He lives beyond the stars;’ ‘Buried in peace.’ They, great and learned as some of them were, could only speak of death as the last farewell, and of the tomb as the ‘eternal home,’" said Aunt Edith, sadly.
“Those meetings of the early Christians in the catacombs must have been wonderful meetings, Aunt Edith," said Charley, "for I suppose no one there was sure that his turn to die for Christ might not have come before they met again. I almost wonder they were not afraid to sing; but the poem speaks of their singing 'The Burial Psalm' when they buried Marius; so they used to sing even at the martyrs' funerals. Can you tell us whether any particular psalm was sung then?”
“I cannot tell, Charley, but I have read that when a martyr in those early times was buried—and think what a burial it often was, just the fragments of the poor body which had been given up to the fury of beasts of prey!—songs of triumph, rather than of lamentation, were sung. These were favorite anthems: ‘Turn again unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath rewarded thee,’ ‘The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,’ ‘Right dear, in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.’”
“Did the early Christians always sing at funerals?”
“I believe they did, Charley. We are told that no stranger hands touched the dead, but that friend cared for friend, and that as the body, clothed in white, lay ready for the burial, one and another came for a last look. When the funeral day arrived, all felt that for one who slept in Jesus death was but the entrance to life; and so the procession walked as in a triumph, and palm and olive-branches were carried, instead of the melancholy cypress-boughs of the Roman funeral trains. There were no hired mourners, no ‘minstrels and people making a noise,’ as at the Jewish funerals, and the body was laid to rest, facing the East, in token of the sure hope of a joyful resurrection at the coming of the Sun of Righteousness.”
“I wonder," said Charley, "whether, it was because they believed that their friends would rise from the dead that the Egyptians embalmed their bodies? I thought of that when Uncle Alfred took us to the British Museum, and we saw the mummies wrapped round and round with strips of cloth. He told us that sometimes these bandages were a thousand yards long, and that they were believed to have some hidden meaning; but then the Egyptians embalmed cats and other animals, as well as people. Do you think they did believe in the resurrection, Aunt Edith?”
“We know a great deal, and yet very little, about the Egyptians, Charley," replied his aunt; "and there are many things connected with their religious rites so mysterious that we can but guess at their meaning. Still I will tell you a little about their treatment of the dead, that you may see how different the sad uncertainty of those who indeed sat in darkness and the shadow of death was from the sure and certain hope of the Christian, now that ‘life and incorruptibility’ have been brought to light by the Gospel.”
“I know the Bible says that Moses was ‘learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,’" said May, "but I should think they could not have been a very wise people, since they actually worshipped beetles. You remember, Charley, Uncle Alfred showed you a ring with a beetle cut upon it—a scarab, I think he called it—and he said they thought long ago that wearing such rings would protect them from all dangers.”
“‘Oh, I remember;’ he said, ‘That is a scarab, the sacred beetle of Egypt; some old Egyptian wore that ring long ago as a charm:’ but while you were away looking at the birds, May, Uncle Alfred told me more about the scarab, and it is a wonderful insect. Do you know, he has often seen it making its curious nest in the soft mud upon the banks of the Nile. First it lays its eggs, then wraps them up in a ball of mud, rolling it quite round, and then the most wonderful thing happens; the beetle makes of its hind legs a sort of axis for this ball to turn upon, rolls it on and on to the desert, then digs a deep hole, buries itself, and lies there until at last a beautiful winged creature comes forth from the dark-looking chrysalis.”
“Did your uncle tell you why it is supposed that the Egyptians reverenced this beetle?”
“No, Aunt Edith; he said he might tell me a great deal more when I was older, but he did say that the scarab, with its wings spread ready for flight, had been found upon some rnummies. Don't you think the Egyptians must have had some hope of the mummy being changed one day, after lying long years, into a beautiful winged creature, as the chrysalis was?”
“Your uncle and I have had many a talk about this and other wonderful things, Charley, since he came home; and he thinks that Dr. Zincke, the writer of a very interesting book which we have been reading, may not be wrong in believing that the Egyptians saw in this little creature, rolling along the sphere of earth which contained the germs of life, a symbol of creative power. He believes, too, that the gallery, a foot or more in depth, which this beetle excavates for itself gave the first hint of the wonderful excavated galleries in which the people of Egypt buried their dead, and that the appearance of the insect in its chrysalis state gave the first idea of the mummy, swathed about with its closely folding wrappings.”
“I suppose no one will ever know whether this really was the case?" said Charley. "I should like, though, to know more of what really is known about the mummies. Uncle Alfred said many of them were four thousand years old; and he pointed to one which looked, if possible, older than the rest, and said, ‘Perhaps that was once carried round at, an Egyptian banquet, to remind the revelers that in the midst of life we are in death.’ He told me something, too, about a curious old book, the ‘Book of the Dead,’ which, he said, had been found wrapped up with the mummies; do you know about that, Aunt Edith?”
“Before we speak of this strange book, which seems to have been buried with the dead man to be his guide during his passage amid many dangers to the unseen world, I must tell what an awful ceremony was performed before burial," said his aunt. "A mummy was sometimes kept in the house for a year, while feasts in honor of the dead were held, and the tomb was being prepared. We read of Joseph that they embalmed him and put him in a coffin in Egypt; and antique coffins of stone or sycamore wood are still seen in that country. But to be laid in a coffin was an honor only given to great men; most were simply embalmed and swathed, and laid side by side in the excavated galleries. At last the day came when the case containing the mummy was placed upon a bier and taken by sledge to the sacred lake, across which it was to be carried by a boatman named Charon, that it might be placed in a tomb on the further side. It was before crossing the lake that the strangely solemn scene of the judgment of the dead before forty-two judges took place. Before this tribunal anyone might bring an accusation, and from it even a Pharaoh was not exempt.”
“And if the judges found the dead man guilty, what happened?
“The number of years during which he was not allowed to be buried was measured by the greatness of his crimes; and it was believed that the spirit passed those years in terror and darkness, wandering from the body of one animal to that of another.”
“But I suppose if he was not found guilty he was taken across the lake at once and buried, and his friends thought he was quite happy?" said May.
“They believed that he had been acquitted indeed at the bar of his fellow men, but that he must next appear in the hall of divine justice, which rewards and punishes; that in the unerring scales must be placed on the one side the figure of divine justice, in the other the soul of the mummy, while he himself stood by awaiting the dread sentence, and Osiris, Judge of the Dead, looked on.”
“How dreadful it must have been for a man at the point of death to look forward to such a scene, Aunt Edith. But you have not told us anything about the ‘Book of the Dead,’ which was buried with the mummies," said Charley.
“If we remember," replied his aunt, "that, as far as we know, there is no nation which does not believe that the soul lives on and on after it leaves the body, we shall not wonder that so many funeral rites show the anxiety of the survivors for the welfare of the departed spirit, and their wish to provide for its journey to the unseen world: so the North American Indian buries with his dead a kettle, a bow and arrows, a pair of mocassins, with a bit of deerskin for a patch in case of their wearing out; the Laplander supplies his dead friend with flint, steel, and tinder, that he may have light upon his way; the Greenlander when he buries one of his children lays a dog beside him as a guide, saying, ‘A dog will find his way anywhere’; and the Egyptian laid within the swathing folds of the mummy a book, to instruct him how best to pass unharmed through all the dangers which would beset him before he reached the abode of light.”
“Can you tell us anything more about the book?" asked May.
“It contained sentences by which the accused might answer the charges brought against him at this terrible tribunal, as well as mystic words to be used as the mummy whose soul had been found true in the balance—for that, we are told, is the Egyptian expression for a justified man—passed through darkness, beset by snares and dangers on every hand, from one hall guarded by demons to another, until he reached the gate of the sun, and was admitted into the region of pure light, which was the dwelling of the sun-god. The book also contained hymns and prayers, to be repeated as the mummy was lowered into the tomb.”
“They could not be hymns of rejoicing, like those which the friends of the martyrs sang, at those funerals under ground," said May; "that was a very dreadful sort of religion, Auntie.”
“The voice of conscience, speaking in the heart, made these proud and learned Egyptians feel, however little their knowledge of Him might be, that there was One higher than they were, Who took knowledge of all their ways, and to Whom they must surely give account. While they sought by their ‘Book of the Dead’ to furnish the soul, as it passed into the great darkness, with words to answer for itself, if by any means it might stand justified when weighed in the unswerving balance of divine justice, none of them by his wisdom could answer the question asked by Job, How shall man be just with God?' The Christian, however poor and simple, knows that God is Himself the Justifier of him who believeth in Jesus; and instead of looking in fear and dismay for a day when he must be weighed in the scale of eternal justice, he knows that he has been already weighed and found wanting, but that the judgment which he deserved has been fully borne by Another, and to every charge of guilt brought against him he can say, ‘Thou hast answered, Lord, for me.’”
“You said just now, Aunt Edith, that if we knew a little about the religion of the Egyptians we should see better how wonderful the true religion of the Bible is, and I have been thinking how much happier it was for the martyrs to die, even if they were torn to pieces by wild beasts, than for one of those poor people who did not know anything better than what their ‘Book of Death’ taught them. The martyrs knew that their names were in the Book of Life, and so it did not much matter what sort of death they died, for the pain would soon be over, and then the joy would never end.”
“Yes, Charley; and we must remember, too, that the sting of death, even death in the most terrible form, was taken away by Christ, and that as the servants of Christ suffered for Him, ‘faithful unto death,’ He Himself stood by them in their hour of trial. I think it will interest you to hear," continued Aunt Edith, "how the writer from whose book I have been telling you so much describes his visit to the wonderful city of the dead at Thebes, where the tomb of the great Sethos, the Pharaoh of Joseph's time, has been discovered. It is cut deep into the side of a mountain, and along the sides of the passage leading to it are sculptures. The tomb was prepared during the lifetime of the great king, and the last chamber is unfinished, for he had died before the sculptures—the drawings for which may be seen sketched in red—were executed. You will be surprised when I tell you that the sarcophagus of this very Sethos is now in London. It is of alabaster, covered with beautiful sculptures.”
“But what is that hard word, Auntie?" asked May; "doesn't it mean a tomb?”
“Sarcophagus was a kind of limestone, used by the Greeks for coffins, May,—so called because it was believed to have the property of consuming the body; now, any stone coffin is called a sarcophagus.”
But how wonderful that it should be here in England, after all these years! Who discovered it?”
“An Italian, Charley, named Belzoni, after the king's chamber had been hidden for more than four thousand years, entered it at last, and it has been robbed of its choicest treasure.”
“Will you tell us what sort of sculptures there are upon those tombs at Thebes?" asked Charley.
“I will read you what Mr. Zincke says," replied his aunt, taking the book from the shelf and turning over the pages. "Yes, here is the place;" and she read—"'The sculptures in these tombs may be divided under three heads. First, there are those which describe events in the life of the occupant of the tomb. Then there are scenes from common daily Egyptian life, in which he took such interest as to desire to have representations of them on his tomb. Lastly, there are scenes which illustrate what was supposed would occur in the future life of the deceased.' The writer goes on," said Aunt Edith, "to describe the tomb of Rameses the Third, one of the warlike Pharaohs, with its many chambers, upon whose walls, he says, are sculptured ‘the king's kitchen, boots, armory, musical instruments, the operations carried on upon his farms, the herds and fruits of Egypt, sacred emblems, funeral processions, a game, the trades and arts of life, such as weaving, pottery, glass-blowing.’”
“Oh, Auntie, is it possible that all those trades were known thousands of years ago?" asked May.
“Yes, and many more," replied her aunt; "for another writer tells us that ‘every process of art and manufacture known in the year 1800 B.C. is shown upon the Egyptian monuments. There may be seen the fishmonger and poulterer; the cobbler and turner; the coachmaker, making the war chariot or the domestic car; the joiner, imitating the grain of other woods; workshops for gold and silver; the ring money then used for coin; the mason; the sculptor or statuary, with plummet, square, headstone, and trowel; the linendraper, tailor, and armorer.’ The process of irrigation, too, is depicted, the wheel represented being the same as that now used at Babylon, as well as the planting and laying out of gardens; everything to do with corn, plowing, sowing, reaping, treading out the grain, storing it in granaries, grinding it at the mills.”
“Ah," said May, "I remember that the picture which you showed us of Egyptians reaping, was copied from an old tomb.”
“The winepress is there, too," continued Aunt Edith, "and the wine bottles, which were large stone jars, rather like soda-water bottles in shape. The whole process of the manufacture of the farnous fine linen of Egypt is clearly shown, as well as that of embalming and of painting mummy cases, &c.”
“I wonder whether they had tools at all like ours?”
“When next you go to the British Museum, Charley, you must be sure to visit the Egyptian Room, and there you will see some of these ancient tools, and judge for yourself how far they were like our modern it ones. But you must remember that our tools have changed very much; the Egyptian distaff, spindle, and shuttle are said to be all just the same as those once in use in England. There is a hand-plow, too, to be seen there—you would think it more like a spade—the very implement with which the foreign bondmen in the pictures are represented digging clay for bricks, while their companions are shown making the bricks, and counting them out to the Egyptian taskmaster, who is seated, with a goad in his hand, watching all the operations.”
“Ah, I daresay the poor Israelites often felt the goads of those taskmasters if they did not give the full tale of bricks!”
“You will be interested to hear, Charley, that some bricks, too, have been discovered, mixed with straw and cemented with pitch, having sometimes the maker's name upon them, sometimes the signet of the Pharaoh of the time.”
“I should like to know what was done in Pharaoh's kitchen thousands of years ago," said May.
“Then you would like, I am sure," said her aunt, "to have been present when an illustration of an Egyptian kitchen of four thousand years ago was brought to light. The chief baker is there, looking on while his subordinates work the dough with their feet. The loaves were in the shape of triangles, squares, or circles, and had hieroglyphics upon them showing that they were made of barley, wheat, or millet. Bowls, cups, knives, spoons, saucepans—all these are to be seen in the new Egyptian Room at the British Museum, so look out for them carefully when next you have an opportunity of going there.”
“You may be sure we shall!” cried both the children.
“I understand now, Aunt Edith,” added Charley, "why you said we knew so much, and yet so little, about those old Egyptians.”