The chemist Leibnitz analyzed the red deposit in these vessels, and found that it was composed of organic matter, but does not hazard the assertion that it is blood. It has been suggested by Röstell, with whom Rochette agrees, that these cups were sacramental vessels, and that 371 the sediment was the lees of wine, which would yield a similar organic residuum. The desire to express fellowship with the departed in the celebration of the Agape, or the Eucharist, which often took place beside their graves, may have led to the custom of affixing these vessels to the tombs and replenishing them with wine. We know that this yearning of the human heart led in course of time to the offering of the sacrament to the dead, and the burying it in their graves.[628] [Illustration: Fig. 110. Reputed Martyr Relic from the Catacombs.] The occurrence of the palm branch engraved or painted on the tomb was 372 also, as we have seen, declared by the Congregation of Relics to be a certain sign of a martyr’s tomb. But this was a common symbol of victory both among the pagans and Jews, and therefore was naturally adopted by the Christians in token of their being “more than conquerors” through Christ, without any reference to martyrdom. It is found, moreover, on graves posterior to the times of persecution, on those of children, and even on a tomb which a man had prepared for himself while yet alive. Muratori, who gives this example, though a devout Romanist, says the palm was by no means a sign of martyrdom.[629] Other criteria of martyrdom were also adopted, as the occurrence of the laurel and the olive crown, and the appearance of _oranti_ on the tombs; but the former are also common to paganism, and in Christian epigraphy adorn the graves of very young children, and the latter frequently occur on the sarcophagi after the age of persecution had passed.