While cremation was practiced in Rome, at the time of the empire, the mourning garments were white; but when incineration was displaced by interment, the raiment of the bereaved assumed a black hue, sombre as death itself. The deceased poor of Rome (especially the women and slaves) were treated shamefully after death. Martial avers that invariably one pile had to serve for a large number. In times of pestilence, thousands were so disposed of. A cremation-ground was provided for the indigent in a wretched suburb upon the Esquiline Hill, which was inhabited by the outcasts of society, the lowest prostitutes, executioners, necromancers, and so forth. These localities were called _culinæ_ by the people, the literal translation of which is “roast-places.” The attendants were police-slaves, whose hair had been shaved off, and who wore a brand on the bare pate. These, hurrying to and fro, placed the emaciated dead poor upon one of the many funeral piles; hardly singed by the fire, they were taken from it and thrown into a universal ditch. To every ten male corpses one female body was added, which facilitated the cineration by means of the great quantity of adipose tissue which it contained. The funerals of the poor were generally held at night. The urns of the rich were of marble, bronze, and sometimes of gold or silver; those of the poor were of baked clay or glass. Glass urns, enclosed in others of lead, were discovered at Pompeii. The urns were generally deposited in a tomb at the roadside or placed in the pigeon-hole of a columbarium. These columbaria, surrounded by beautiful gardens, were situated on the Via Appia, Aurelia, Flaminia, and Lavicana. The Appian Way was a favorite resort of the fashionable Roman world; here, daily, ever-changing life was seen; here the traveller took leave from the remains of his ancestors; here, too, lovers met and unfortunates took refuge. These columbaria were subterranean chambers which served (as I have already explained) to hold the ashes of the deceased, the urns being deposited in arched recesses, hewn out in the rock for the purpose. These niches resembled pigeon-holes; hence the name, columbarium. The rare beauty of these columbaria, which may yet be seen in the Eternal City, led Nathaniel Hawthorne, our great romancer, to exclaim that he would not object to being decently pigeon-holed in a Roman tomb. [Illustration: CREMATION IN SIAM. The late queen and her little daughter on the pyre. ] Campana discovered columbaria between the Porta Latina and the Porta San Sebastiana, which are memorials of the time of Augustus. They contain not less than 400 inscriptions on marble, commemorative of the dead, and many urns of marble and terra cotta.