§432. Funeral Ceremonies.--The detailed accounts of funeral ceremonies that have come down to us relate almost exclusively to those of persons of high position, and the information gleaned from other sources (§12) is so scattered that there is great danger of confusing usages of widely different times. It is quite certain, however, that very young children were buried at all times simply and quietly (_fūnus acerbum_), that no ceremonies at all attended the burial of slaves (§420) when conducted by their masters (nothing is known of the forms used by the burial societies mentioned above), and that citizens of the lowest class were laid to rest without public parade (_fūnus plēbēium_). It is also known that burials took place by night except during the last century of the Republic and the first two centuries of the Empire, and it is natural to suppose that, even in the case of persons of high position, there was ordinarily much less of pomp and parade than on occasions that the Roman writers thought it worth while to describe. This has been found true in the matter of wedding festivities (§79). It will be convenient to take in order the proceedings at the house, the funeral procession, and the ceremonies at the place of burial. §433. At the House.--When the Roman died at home surrounded by his family, it was the duty of his oldest son to bend over the body and call him by name, as if with the hope of recalling him to life. The formal performance of the act (_conclāmātiō_) he announced immediately with the words: _conclāmātum est_. The eyes of the dead were then closed, the body was washed with warm water and anointed, the limbs were straightened, and if the deceased had held a curule office a wax impression of his features was taken. The body was then dressed in the toga (§240) with all the insignia of rank that the dead had been entitled to wear in life, and was placed upon the funeral couch (_lectus fūnebris_) in the _ātrium_ (§198), with the feet to the door, to lie in state until the time of the funeral. The couch was surrounded with flowers, and incense was burned about it. Before the door of the house were set branches of pine or cypress as a warning that the house was polluted by death. The simple offices that have been described were performed in humble life by the relatives and servants, in other cases by professional undertakers (_libitīnāriī_), who also embalmed the body and superintended all the rest of the ceremonies. Reference is made occasionally to the kissing of the dying person as he breathed his last, as if this last breath was to be caught in the mouth of the living, and in very early and very late times it was undoubtedly the custom to put a small coin between the teeth of the dead with which to pay his passage across the Styx in Charon's boat. Neither of these formalities seems to have obtained generally in classical times.