These lamps generally bore some Christian symbol, as the sacred monogram, the Good Shepherd, the palm, fish, or dove, and not unfrequently the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul. Sometimes the lamp itself was made in the shape of a boat, the emblem of the church voyaging through a stormy sea to the shores of eternity; of the mystic fish, whose representation entered so largely into primitive art; of a dove, the symbol of the believer’s guilelessness and purity; or of a cock, the emblem of vigilance, a monition that he should watch and be 377 sober. They frequently bear inscriptions referring to the five virgins, or to the source of true spiritual illumination, the divine word, which is a lamp unto the feet and a light unto the path. On one example occurs the legend, QVASI LVCERNAE LVCENTI IN CALIGINOSO LOCO--“As a light shining in a dark place,” a sentiment peculiarly appropriate to those gloomy chambers of death, which were nevertheless illumined by the glorious hope of a blissful immortality. [Illustration: Fig. 112.--Early Christian Symbolical Lamp.] The accompanying example of a symbolical lamp in the form of a boat, furnished with chains and ring for suspension, is a characteristic type.[637] The figures in the little bark are interpreted by Roman archæologists as Peter and Paul--the pilot of the Galilean lake as the chief of the apostles holding the rudder and guiding the fortunes of 378 the church. The tablet on the mast bears the inscription--DOMINVS LEGEM DAT. VALERIO SEVERO EVTROPIO. VIVAS--“The Lord gives the word. To Valerius Severus Eutropius. May you live.” Fig. 113 exhibits a lamp from the Catacombs, on the upper part of which the ever-recurring ichthyic symbol is repeated, and on the handle the sacred monogram of the name of Our Lord. The lamp is replenished at the central opening. They sometimes burn with two or three lights. See also the terra cotta lamp with handle and medallion in Fig. 114, and the hanging lamps shown in Figs. 23 and 24. [Illustration: Fig. 113.--Symbolical Lamp from the Catacombs.] A lamp figured by Perret has the sacred monogram surrounded by the heads of the twelve apostles. On another found in the Jewish Catacomb is a representation of the seven-branched candlestick. This also occurs in Christian symbolism, and probably is emblematic, as has been suggested by Dr. McCaul, of the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit of divine illumination. The necessary use of lights in the funeral solemnities of the church in the Catacombs was probably the origin of the Romish usage of burying the dead with the accompaniment of burning tapers even amid 379 the blaze of day. It was also a heathen custom, in the adoption of which, as in so many other things, the Catholic became the pagan’s heir.[638] Jerome mentions its observance in his day at the funeral of the famous Lady Paula.[639] Several others of the later Fathers mention the same practice.