URN 



U R N 



crulled willi fait ; but this is not always, if ever, the cafe. 

 On one of the iflands in the lake ( for there are fevcral ) Ho- 

 laku built a fortrefs, in wliich he fecured the fpoil he had 

 collected during his conquefts. The largeft of thcfe iflands 

 forms, in the dry feafon, a kind of peninfnla, and is 25 miles 

 in circumference ; only inhabited by wild aflfes, dter, and 

 many other kinds of gan-.e. In fl<irting the northern fide 

 of the lake, which is of an elliptic fliape, we meet the town 

 and diftrict of Si Bulagh (the cold llrcam). It is 12 fur- 

 fungs from Maraga, and poneffed by the Kurdifli tribe of 

 Meekree. Maraga (which fee), fuppofed to be the Ga- 

 marga of Diodorus, has a fpacious bazaar ; is enconipaffed 

 with a high wall, and is pleafantly fituated in a low valley, 

 at the extremity of a well-cultivated plain, opening to the 

 lake, from which Maraga is didant 9 or 10 miles. The 

 town has about 15,000 inliabitants, a glafs manufaftory, a 

 handfome public bath, and near it an obfervatory built on 

 the top of a mountain by Holaku, for his friend Nafer a 

 Deen, the moft famous alironomer of his time, who here 

 formed the tables known by his name. The elevated 

 country in the vicinity of lake Unimea was the feat of the 

 AfTaflins, finally extirpated by Holaku. M'Kinneir's 

 Perfia. 



URMUK, ^ fmall ifland in the Red fca, near the coaft 

 of Arabia ; 3 n i' s S.S.W. of Loheia. 



URMUND, a lown of France, in the department of the 

 Lower Metile ; 10 miles N N.E. of Maeftricht. 



URN, Urna, a k'nd of vafe, of a roundifli form, but 

 biggeft in the middle, hke the common pitchers ; now fcl- 

 dom lifted, but m the way of ornament over chimney-pieces, 

 in buffets, &c. ; or, by way of acroters, at the tops of 

 buildings, funeral monuments, &c. 



The great ufe of urns, among the ancients, was to pre- 

 ferve the afties of the dead, after they were burnt ; for 

 which rcafon they were called cineraria, and urnit clnerar'te ; 

 and were placed foraetimes under the tomb-ftone, upon 

 which the epitaph was cut, and fometimes prcferved in 

 vaults in their own houffS. 



Urns were alfo ufed, at their facrifices, to put liquid 

 things in. They were alfo of ufe in the fortes Prtncji'inie, 

 or calling of lots. At Rome, alfo, the cuftom was to ab- 

 folve or condemn the accufed, by the fuffrages, or calculi, 

 which the judges call into the judicatory urn. 



Virgil reprefents Minos, the judge of hell, (baking the 

 urn, to decide the lots of mankind — Quejiior Minos urnam 

 movet. 



The urn is ftill the attribute of rivers, which are painted 

 leaning on urns, reprefenting their fourccs by the waters 

 flowing from them. We find them reprefented, in the fame 

 manner, on antique medals, and relievos. 



Thefe veflels are frequent in many parts of this kingdom, 

 where there have been Roman ftations, and are of very 

 various kinds and manner of workmanlbip. 



Dr. I.iller, who was very fortunate in his refearchcs into 

 the ftrufture and differences of thcfe remains of antiquity, 

 obferved, that in Yorkfhirc, where there are great numbers 

 found, there were met witli three very different kinds, as to 

 their matter and tempers. 



I. A blueifh-grey fort, which had a great quantity of 

 coarfe fand wrought in among the clay. 2. A fort of the 

 fame blueifli colour, but containing a fand of a much finer 

 kind, and full of mica, and probably made of a clay na- 

 turally fandy, or a fine fmooth and lliff loam. And, 3. A 

 red fort, made of a fine pure clay, with little or no mixture 

 of fand. Thcfe are throughout of a fine red colour hke 

 bole, and many of them arc elegantly adorned with figures 



in bafib rehevo, and ufually thcfe have ou the botloui, or 

 elfe on the cover, the name of the workman, which fome 

 have miftaken for the name of the perfon whofes alhes they 

 inclofe ; but this mull be an error, fincc great numbers of 

 pots and urns arc found with the fame name. Thofe arc 

 varnifhcd all over, both infide and out, with a varnilh of a 

 bright red colour. 



The fevcral matters of thefe urns informed this ingenious 

 inquirer of the place where they were made ; which he found 

 to be in the fame county on fand-hills, now never ufed as 

 potteries ; but, as he well obferves, the difference is very 

 great between the potteries of thofe days and of ours, fince 

 we, who ufe great quantities of clay, and but little fand, 

 ereft thefe works where there is much clay, and bring the 

 fmall quantity of fand we ufe to it ; whereas the Romans, 

 on the other hand, who ufed much fand, and but httle clay, 

 naturally eltablifhed their works where there was plenty of 

 fand, and brought their clay to it. 



The Roman urns differ from the earthen-ware made at 

 this time in feveral particulars. 1. They have no lead- 

 glazing, which feems a modern invention, and is, in many 

 refpefts, a very bad one. ( See Glazing. \ 2. They are 

 compofed of a far larger quantity of fand than clay. And, 

 3. They are baked not in an open fire, as our common 

 earthen-ware, but have been inclofed in large earthen veflels, 

 to defend them from the immediate contaC\ of the flames ; 

 and hence it is, that the natural colour of the clay they are 

 made of is not altered in them. 



The red urns feem to have been the mafter-piece of the 

 workmen, and to have employed their greateft art ; the em- 

 boffed work upon them is often very beautiful, and their 

 coral-like glazing is more beautiful tlian any thing of the 

 modern times, and feems to have been done by dipping them 

 all over in fome appropriated liquor, and afterwards baking 

 them in the clofe manner before defcribed. This has cer- 

 tainly been the method they ufed, fince the fragments of 

 thefe large coffins, or cafes, are found near all the Roman 

 potteries. Hooke's Philofophical Colleftions, p. 87. 



The Romans, and moll other nations, contented them- 

 felves to make their funeral urns of potters' ware, or baked 

 earth ; but we find there have been lome people who have 

 made them of gold, on particular occafions. In the year 

 1685, as a peafant of the illnnd of Funen was ploughing a 

 piece of land, which had before lain barren, he turned up 

 no lefs than fix golden fcpulchral urns. They were all full 

 of 3 greyifh fubliance, which fome took to be a grey earth ; 

 but it was much more probably alhes. 



Thefe are all preferved at this time in the mufeum of the 

 king of Denmark at Copenhagen ; the largelt of them 

 weighs two ounces and a half, and the others about two 

 ounces and one drachm each. Wormius, and fome others, 

 give accounts, that it was an ancient cuftom among the 

 northern nations to burn their dead, and when they were 

 great perfons to coUeft their allies, and bury them in 

 golden urns ; and the finding of thcfe feems an evident proof 

 of the truth of that account. 



Thefe urns were very thin, and each had three rings of 

 gold about their necks, and fevcral circles, one within 

 another, with one common centre carved on the outfide 

 round the body of the urn. They held about five ounces 

 of liquids a-piece, or a little more than that ; one near fix 

 ounces. 



Sepulchral urns of cry Hal were alfo not uncommon ; the 

 fame mufeum has fome of thefe ; they arc of a conic figure, 

 and Inive ufually a gold wire wound round them. Urns of 

 tliii kind have been found buried in fome parts of Norway. 



Urns 



