It was the custom of the primitive Romans to preserve in the
halls of their houses the images of all the illustrious men
whom their families had produced. These images are supposed to
have consisted of a mask exactly representing the countenance
of each deceased individual, accompanied with habiliments of
like fashion with those worn in his time, and with the armor,
badges, and insignia of his offices and exploits; all so
disposed around the sides of the hall as to present, in the
attitude of living men, the long succession of the departed;
and thus to set before the Roman citizen, whenever he entered
or left the house, the venerable array of his ancestors revived
in this imposing similitude. Whenever, by a death in the
family, another distinguished member of it was gathered to
his fathers, a strange and awful procession was formed. The
ancestral masks, including that of the newly deceased, were
fitted upon the servants of the family, selected of the size
and appearance of those whom they were intended to represent,
and drawn up in solemn array to follow the funeral train of the
living mourners, first to the market-place, where the public
eulogium was pronounced, and then to the tomb. As he thus moved
along, with all the great fathers of his name quickening,
as it were, from their urns, to enkindle his emulation, the
virtuous Roman renewed his vows of respect to their memory,
and his resolution to imitate their fortitude, frugality, and
patriotism.--EDWARD EVERETT.
(90)
=Ancestry=--See PEDIGREE.