_Umbrella_ (Vol. i., p. 415; vol. ii., p. 25.).--Seeing that the Query
respecting this useful article of domestic economy has been
satisfactorily answered, may I be allowed to mention that umbrellas are
described by the ancients as marks of distinction. Pausanias and
Hesychius report that at Alea, a city of Arcadia, a feast called Scieria
was celebrated in honour of Bacchus, in which the statue of the rosy god
was carried in procession, crowned with vine leaves, and placed upon an
ornamental litter, in which was seated a young girl carrying an
umbrella, to indelicate the majesty of the god. On several bas-reliefs
from Persepolis, the king is represented under an umbrella, which a
female holds over his head.