aring. The noise
grew louder; it approached; it sounded as if on the threshold; then as
if within the room. He looks behind him; sees and recognises the
apparition of which he has been told. It was standing and beckoning to
him with its finger, as if calling him. In answer our friend makes it
a sign with his hand to wait a while, and once more applies himself to
tablet and pencil. The ghost began to rattle its chains over his head
while he was writing. He looks behind him again, sees it making the
same signal as before, and promptly picks up the light and follows. It
goes at a slow pace, as if burdened with chains, then, after turning
into the open yard of the house, it suddenly vanishes and leaves him
by himself. At this he gathers some grass and leaves, and marks the
spot with them. The next day he goes to the magistrates and urges them
to dig up the spot in question; and they find bones tangled with
chains through which they were passed... These they put together and
bury at the public charge. The spirit being thus duly, laid, the house
was henceforward free of them."

Whatever the Roman beliefs on this point, so far as funeral rites and
ceremonies were concerned, they were carried out simply in accordance
with custom and tradition. The Romans of this date no more analysed
their motives and sentiments than we do ours in dealing with such
matters. They honoured the dead with funeral pomp and conspicuous
monument; but, at the bottom, it was often more out of respect for
themselves than because they imagined that it made any difference to
the departed. In a very early age it had been considered that the
spirit led in the underworld a feeble replica of human existence: it
required food, playthings, utensils, money, as well as consideration.
Hence food was periodically poured into the ground, playthings and
utensils were burned on the pyre or laid in the coffin, and money was
placed in that most primitive of purses, the mouth. Conservatism is
nowhere so strong as in rites and ceremonies, and therefore the Romans
continued to burn and bury articles along with the remains of the
dead, and they continued to put a coin in the mouth before the burial.
But it would be absurd to suppose that an intelligent Roman of our
date would have offered the original and ancient motives for this
conduct as rational motives still actuating himself. Enough that
convention expected certain proceedings as "due" and "proper": a true
Roman would