542 PELOPONNESUS. 
CHAP, tears, deserve rather the name of bottles 1 : they 
are nine inches long, two inches in diameter, 
and contain as much fluid as would fill a phial 
of three ounces; consisting of the coarsest mate- 
rials, a heavy blue clay or marl. But we also 
collected little circular cups like small salt- 
cellars, two inches in diameter, and one inch in 
height, (which are said to be found in great 
abundance at Sicyon,) of a much more elegant 
(l) It is observed by the Author's friend, the learned Editor of 
" Memoirs relating tn European and Asiatic Turkey," in a Note of his 
valuable work, that " the supposition respecting Lachrymatories , as 
intended to receive the tears of the relatives of the deceased, is now 
rejected by the most intelligent Antiquaries." See ffafpole's Memoir.*, 
p. 323. (Note.) London, 1817. Yet this custom was well known 
among the Romans, and was more antiently in use among the 
Eastern nations, especially among the Hebrews. The ampulla, or 
urns laclirymales, were of different materials ; some of gloss, some 
of earth. (See Chandler's Life of David, Vol. I. p. 106. Land. I76G.) 
Their various forms and magnitude are represented \rv Monf/aiifon. hi 
his treatise "De urnulis sen phialis in tjtieis lachrymce condebaxlur, qutis 
passim ex sepulchris eruunt," he maintains, from antient Inscription*, 
tbat this custom existed among the Antrents. In one of those Inscrip- 
tions, the following words occur: " FUSCA MATF.R, ADLtrit.M r/r 
CEMITUM UF.LICTA, CUM LACIIRYMH ET OPOI1ALSAMO UDU1H." llde 
/Intiq. Exjiljnat. tom.V. Part. Prim. cap.'!, p. 117- Parit, 171.0. 
Sometimes the vessels found in antient sepulchres are of such dimi- 
nutive size, that they are only capable of containing a few ilrnps of 
fluid : in these instances there seems to be no other use for which they 
were fitted. Small lachrymal pfiials of gfass have been found in t!i 
tombs of the Romans in Great Britain ; and the evident allusion to this 
practice in the Sacred Scriptures, l( Put thon my (ears into thy bottlr," 
(Ps. viii. fc.) seems decisive as to the purpose for which these vessel* 
were desi'rued. 
