CHAP. XVI. EMBALMING, WHEN ABANDONED. 481 



early Christians embalmed their dead, but accord- 

 ing to " St. Augustine mummies were made in his 

 time, at the beginning of the fifth century.'* The 

 custom may not have been universal at that pe- 

 riod ; and it is more probable that it gradually fell 

 into disuse, than that it was suddenly abandoned 

 from any accidental cause connected with change 

 of custom, or from religious scruple. 



The disposition of various objects placed with 

 the dead varied in different tombs according to 

 the rank of the person, the choice of the friends 

 of the deceased, or other circumstances, as their 

 number and quality depended on the expense in- 

 curred in the funeral. For, besides the richly 

 decorated coffins, many vases, images of the dead, 

 papyri, jewels, and other ornaments were depo- 

 sited in the tomb ; and tablets of stone or wood 

 were placed near the sarcophagus, engraved or 

 painted with funeral subjects and legends relating 

 to the deceased. These last resembled in form 

 the ordinary Egyptian shield, being squared at the 

 base, and rounded at the summit*; and it is pro- 

 bable, as already observed t, that their form ori- 

 ginated in the military custom of making the 

 shield a monument in honour of a deceased sol- 

 dier. Many of the objects buried in the tomb 

 depended, as I have already observed, on the pro- 

 fession or occupation of the individual.t A priest 

 had the insignia of his office ; as the scribe his 



* Vide supra. Woodcut, No. 456. ; Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 401. 

 f Vide Vol. I. p. 299. J. Vide supra, p. 395, 



VOL. XL— Second Series. I I 



