EIGHTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AFTER DEATH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 151, 24 March 1876, Page 15

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AFTER DEATH.

++ A Corbespondent of ' Appleton's Journal ' writing of excavations at Pompeii says : — " Among the most interesting of the objects found recently are two skeletons, one of a somewhat elderly man, the other of a woman. They were found in the Via Stabia among the ashes of the last eruption, evidently overtaken in their flight and buried in the cinders. According to the usual method employed to preserve the external appearance of objects, liquid plaster was poured into the cavity, which serving as a mound, a fac-simile of the forms was obtained ; and thus perfectly preserved the statue like bodies were placed in glass cases in the Pompeii museum, while appreciating all the horrors of such a death, and the sufferings endured, as shown by the position, we cannot but imagine what would have been the astonishment of that man and woman had some prophet informed them that eighteen hundred years after their death their forms, and even as much of their garments as were not consumed in the eruption, would be placed in a museum j for inspection by a multitude of sight-seers, some from lands, the existence of which they had never dreamed of. The poor woman is lying on her face, and even the form of her hair, put up behind, is seen. One arm shields her forehead, and she is supported by the other. Her stony limbs are well formed, and traces of a garment are seen passing in folds around her. The man, although placed on his back in the exhibition, -vs-hen found was turned on his side. One arm rests on his hip ; the other is uplifted. The face is some what distorted, but massive and smoothly shaven. Even the form of the fastenings of the sandals around the ankle, and of the long button higher on the leg to hold them, is clearly seen. The limbs are partly drawn up. The skeleton of a tolerably large dog, also recently found, is in the Museum of Pompeii, his whole form preserved in plaster, in the same manner as those just mentioned. He is lying on his back, writhing in suffering, biting his hind leg. The rings in his collar are plainly seen.