SCENES XIV. AND XV

The Romans were a people who had many singular customs. In the time of the décadence, and earlier, they had a vase called a lachrymary, in which they used to give vent to their grief when they lost a member of their family.

Some men of science maintain that they were not acquainted with glass, but others hold that fragments hâve been discovered in some ancient tumuli, which prove that they had eut glass as well as porcelain. They say that pièces of the latter hâve been brought to light which were marked with a stamp.

A servant once went into his master's room, put on a coat which belonged to the latter, and sat down at his desk. He took up a goose-quill (his master had been in the habit of using this sort of pen for forty years), and began to write. But the quill was too much split, and while he was trimming it with a penknife, he eut his finger and at the same time spilt the ink.

Although he was full of fear that he might be found out, he gave a cry which brought his master to the room. Without a woid, the latter took a pièce of rag from a drawer and bound up the eut finger like a doll. Then he asked the servant to explain himself. But the servant escaped from the room, saying that they were waiting for him to split wood.