When the _lecyths_ were once buried with the corpse, it was considered a very serious offence to disturb them. On a lecyth that was unearthed in a grave at Cumae, there is a curse of blindness invoked on any one who might venture to steal it[105]. The custom of leaving objects of value at the tombs made them liable to depredations and many funeral inscriptions conveyed threats of punishment against those who should take or disturb whatever was thus offered to the dead[106]. Just outside the door of the house within which the body was laid out, stood an earthen vessel of lustral water, so that the visitors who went to look on the features of their friend for the last time, could purify themselves from any pollution which they might have incurred by entering a home defiled by death. Since everything appertaining to the stricken house was held to be contaminated, the purifying water had to be obtained from another house[107]. This vessel which contained the water was variously styled an _ostrakon_[108], an _ardanion_[107] or a _pegaion_[109]. This exposure of the body to the view of the friends was not merely for display but served often as a police regulation, and, at the same time, it prevented the lamentable mistake of burial where unconsciousness had simulated death. To some extent, it took the place of our coroner’s inquest, for we learn from Pollux[107] that “the laying out was for this reason, too, that the corpse might be seen not to have suffered violence.” The utility of this measure was promoted by the law which ordered the prothesis not to be for a longer or shorter time than to show whether the person was in a trance or really dead[110]. V. OUTWARD GRIEF. The outward manifestations of grief were very marked. At this point, it is necessary to notice only the lamentation and exaggerated grief which took place at the laying-out and in the procession. A consideration of the signs of mourning exhibited in the dress, should properly be made after a discussion of the other features of the burial.