DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.847#0425
396 castel d'asso.
I am sorry that I cannot find the copies of any
of them, but their meaning to a certain extent
I know perfectly. They expressed the name of the
deceased, and his title, his age, and I believe,
in a rare instance or two, the year in which he died,
but according to a computation now unknown; and
at the end of all this was the touching sentence,
" Rest in peace." As our eyes became more and
more accustomed to the place, we observed enor-
mous fragments of rock, which had been broken
off these sepulchres in various places, and were
lying in all directions below us, happily with their
large and long inscriptions upturned. It seemed as
if they supplicated compassion; as if the very stones
spoke to entreat protection from the civilised against
any further attacks of the barbarians. I am doing
what I can to answer the appeal, by making them
known, for nothing will protect them so effectually
as the visits of travellers, which will render their
preservation a matter of gain to the Contadini, and
indeed to the country generally. Some of the in-
scriptions consist of a few words, others occupy
two whole lines, and where the valley I have men-
tioned joins the castle glen, the inscriptions have
gone round two sides of the tomb; and the whole
scene left upon our minds the impression of a sub-
limity and poverty, rudeness and refinement, simpli-
city and art, which I never saw united anywhere else.
We said to one another, " This has been an eastern
people. Here is the oldest recorded form of human
burial for the great amongst mankind. Here is the
I am sorry that I cannot find the copies of any
of them, but their meaning to a certain extent
I know perfectly. They expressed the name of the
deceased, and his title, his age, and I believe,
in a rare instance or two, the year in which he died,
but according to a computation now unknown; and
at the end of all this was the touching sentence,
" Rest in peace." As our eyes became more and
more accustomed to the place, we observed enor-
mous fragments of rock, which had been broken
off these sepulchres in various places, and were
lying in all directions below us, happily with their
large and long inscriptions upturned. It seemed as
if they supplicated compassion; as if the very stones
spoke to entreat protection from the civilised against
any further attacks of the barbarians. I am doing
what I can to answer the appeal, by making them
known, for nothing will protect them so effectually
as the visits of travellers, which will render their
preservation a matter of gain to the Contadini, and
indeed to the country generally. Some of the in-
scriptions consist of a few words, others occupy
two whole lines, and where the valley I have men-
tioned joins the castle glen, the inscriptions have
gone round two sides of the tomb; and the whole
scene left upon our minds the impression of a sub-
limity and poverty, rudeness and refinement, simpli-
city and art, which I never saw united anywhere else.
We said to one another, " This has been an eastern
people. Here is the oldest recorded form of human
burial for the great amongst mankind. Here is the