_Roman Funeral Pile_ (Vol. iv., p. 381.).--The ceremony of a Roman
funeral concluded with a feast, which was usually a supper given to the
friends and relatives of the deceased; and sometimes provisions were
distributed to the people. (Vid. Adams' _Roman Hist._, 3rd edit. p.
283.) Basil Kennett, in his _Antiquities of Rome_, published 1776,
further observes (p. 361.) that--
"The feasts, celebrated to the honour of the deceased, were either
private or publick. The private feasts were termed _silicernia_,
from _silex and coena_, as if we should say _suppers made on a
stone_. These were prepared both for the _dead_ and the _living_.
The repast designed for the dead consisting commonly of beans,
lettuces, bread and eggs, or the like, was laid on the tomb for
the ghosts to come out and eat, as they fancied they would; and
what was left they burnt on the stone."
No authority is cited either by Adams or Kennett for the custom, but
your correspondent _John ap William ap John_ might perhaps refer to
"_Petri Morestelli Pompa Feralis, sive justa Funebria Veterum_," with
some probability of success in finding the subject there treated at
large.