CEMETERY CENCI. 



121 



surfaces not pervious to water, such as metals, glass, 

 &c. The cements mostly used in building are com- 

 posed of lime and sand. Lime is procured by burn- 

 ing substances in which it exists in combination with 

 carbonic acid, such as limestone, marbles, chalk, and 

 shells. By this process, the carbonic acid is driven 

 oft', and quicklime is obtained. The quicklime is 

 slaked by mixture with water, after which it swells 

 and cracks, becomes hot, and assumes the form of a 

 white and impalpable powder. This is a hydrate of 

 lime, and contains about three parts of lime to one of 

 water. When intended for mortar, it should be im- 

 mediately mixed with sand, and used without delay, 

 before it imbibes carbonic acid anew from the atmos- 

 phere. The lime adheres to and unites the particles 

 of the sand. Cements thus made increase in strength 

 and solidity for an indefinite period. Fresh sand, 

 wholly silicious and sharp, is the best. That taken 

 from the sea-shore is unfit for making mortar, as the 

 salt is apt to deliquesce and weaken the mortar. The 

 amount of sand is always greater than that of the 

 lime. From two to four parts of sand are used, ac- 

 cording to the quality of the lime and the labour be- 

 stowed on it. 



Water cements, called also Roman cements, harden 

 under water, and consolidate almost immediately on 

 being mixed. Common mortar dissolves or crumbles 

 away, if laid under water before it has had time to 

 harden ; but certain rocks, which have an argillace- 

 ous as well as a silicious character, communicate to 

 lime or mortar the property of hardening in a very 

 few minutes, both in and out of water. The ancient 

 Romans, in making their water cements, employed 

 a peculiar earth, obtained at the town of Puteoli. 

 This they called pulvis Puteolanus. It is the same 

 that is now called Puzzolana. It is evidently of 

 volcanic origin. The Dutch, hi their great aquatic 

 structures, have mostly employed a substance deno- 

 minated tarras, terras, or trass, found near Ander- 

 nach, in the vicinity of the Rhine. It is said to be a 

 kind of decomposed basalt, but resembles Puzzolana. 

 It is very durable in water, but inferior to the other 

 kinds in the open air. Baked clay and the common 

 greenstone afford the basis of very tolerable water 

 cements, when mixed with lime. Some of the ores 

 of manganese may be used for the same purpose. 

 Some limestones, calcined and mixed with sand and 

 water, also afford water cements, usually in conse- 

 quence o? containing some argillaceous earth. Some 

 cements, of great nardness and permanency, have 

 been obtained from mixtures, into which animal and 

 vegetable substances enter, such as oil, milk, mucil- 

 age, &c. The name of maltha or mastic is given 

 them. They are not much used. 



CEMETERY. In the article Burying- Places, 

 we have given the history of the custom of interring 

 the dead, and shall only mention, in this place, two 

 cemeteries, perhaps the most interesting which ever 

 existed. One of them is the common place of burial 

 of the ancient Egyptians, which was situated beyond 

 the lake Acherusia, or Acharejish, the name of which 

 signified the last condition of man, and which proba- 

 bly is the foundation of the Greek fables respecting 

 lake Acheron. On the borders of lake Acherusia, 

 a tribunal, composed of forty-two judges, was estab- 

 lished, to inquire into the life and character of the 

 deceased. Without this examination, a corpse could 

 not be carried to the cemetery beyond the lake. If 

 the deceased had died insolvent, the court adjudged 

 the corpse to his creditors, hi order to oblige his re- 

 lations and friends to redeem it. If his life had been 

 wicked, they refused his body the privilege of solemn 

 burial, and it was consequently carried and thrown 

 into a large ditch made for the purpose, which re- 

 ceived the appellation of Tartar, on account of the 



lamentations which tliis sentence produced among 

 the surviving friends and relations. The Greek 

 Tartarus had its origin in this Egyptian Tartar. If 

 no accuser appeared, or the accusations were found 

 groundless, the judges decreed the regular burial, 

 and the eulogium of the deceased was pronounced 

 amongst the applauses of the bystanders. In this, 

 his talents, virtues, accomplishments, every thing 

 except his rank and riches, were praised. To carry 

 the corpse to the cemetery, it was necessary to cross 

 the lake, and to pay a small sum for the passage. 

 This circumstance also was transplanted into the 

 Greek mythology. The cemetery was a large plain, 

 surrounded by trees, and intersected by canals, to 

 which was given the appellation Elisout, or Elisians, 

 meaning rest. Every one recognizes, in this descrip- 

 tion, the Greek Charon, his boat, his ferry-money, 

 and the Elysian fields. The whole ceremony of in- 

 terment seems to have consisted in depositing the 

 mummy hi the excavation made hi the rock, or un- 

 der the sand which covered the whole Elisout : then 

 it seems that the relations of the deceased threw 

 three handfuls of sand, as a sign to the workmen to 

 fill up the cavity, after uttering three loud farewells. 

 See Lectures on Hieroglyphics and Egyptian Anti- 

 quities, by the marquis Spineto, London, 1827. 



Another cemetery of great interest is that of Pere 

 Lachaise (see Lachaise), in the north-west part of 

 Paris, not far from the barriere des Amandiers. This 

 city of the dead has a superficies of more than fifty- 

 one arpents, and contains a great variety of tombs, 

 some of a touching simplicity, with the marks of un- 

 affected grief, while others remind us of the words of 

 St Augustine: " Curatio funeris, conditio sepultures, 

 pompa exeyuiarum, magis vivorum solatia quam mbsi- 

 dia mortuorum." Columns, obelisks, pyramids, fun- 

 eral vases, monuments, of all kinds, and flowers, cover 

 the cemetery, but point out a few only of those who 

 rest in this last abode of many generations. Here 

 repose Heloise and Abelard, the conqueror of Est- 

 slingen, Delille, Moliere, La Fontaine, and Foy, 

 amid a crowd of philosophers, artists, warriors, poli- 

 ticians, and individuals from the ordinary walks of 

 life. From this place you look down on the bustle 

 of the gayest city hi the world. A chapel in the 

 burying-ground affords the finest view of Paris. 



CENCI, BEATRICE, called the beautiful parricide, 

 was the cause of the extermination of the noble 

 family of Cenci. Muratori, hi his Annals (vol. 10, 

 pt. 1, 136), relates the story as follows : Francesco 

 Cenci, a noble and wealthy Roman, after his second 

 marriage, behaved towards the children of his first 

 marriage in the most shocking manner, procured the 

 assassination of two of his sons, on their return from 

 Spain, by banditti, and, what is still more horrid, se- 

 duced and debauched his youngest daughter, a maiden 

 of singular beauty. Beatrice discovered this shock- 

 ing crime to her relatives, and even sought to obtain 

 protection from pope Clement. It appears, however, 

 that this was not granted : for, when the guilty 

 father continued his fonner treatment, with aggra- 

 vated wickedness, she joined with her brother Gio- 

 como, and procured the death of the monster, by two 

 assassins, as he slept. The guilty parties were dis- 

 covered, confessed the murder on the rack, and were 

 condemned by the pope to be torn to pieces by 

 horses. In vain did the learned Farinaceus (cele- 

 brated for his Quastiones) exert himself to obtain a 

 mitigation of their punishment by a lively represen- 

 tation of tlie depravity of the deceased. According 

 to other accounts, Beatrice and her relatives appear 

 to have had little or no share in the murder of the 

 old Cenci ; but a tissue of villany and baseness gained 

 belief to the false testimony of two banditti against 

 the Cenci family. So much is certain, that, Sept. 11, 



