=Etruscan Tombs.=—­There remain to us from the Etruscans only city walls and tombs.

When an Etruscan tomb is opened, one perceives a porch supported by columns and behind this chambers with couches, and bodies laid on these.  Round about are ornaments of gold, ivory, and amber; purple cloths, utensils, and especially large painted vases.  On the walls are paintings of combats, games, banquets, and fantastic scenes.

=Industry and Commerce.=—­The Etruscans knew how to turn their fertile soil to some account, but they were for the most part mariners and traders.  Like the Phoenicians they made long journeys to seek the ivory of India, amber from the Baltic, tin, the Phoenician purple, Egyptian jewels adorned with hieroglyphics, and even ostrich eggs.  All these objects are found in their tombs.  Their navies sailed to the south as far as Sicily.  The Greeks hated them and called them “savage Tyrrhenians” or “Etruscan pirates.”  At this time every mariner on occasion was a pirate, and the Etruscans were especially interested to exclude the Greeks so that they might keep for themselves the trade of the west coast of Italy.

The famous Etruscan vases, which have been taken from the tombs by the thousand to enrich our museums, were imitations of Greek vases, but manufactured by the Etruscans.  They represent scenes from Greek mythology, especially the combats about Troy; the human figures are in red on a black ground.

=Religion.=—­The Etruscans were a sombre people.  Their gods were stern, often malevolent.  The two most exalted gods were “the veiled deities,” of whom we know nothing.  Below these were the gods who hurled the lightning and these form a council of twelve gods.  Under the earth, in the abode of the dead, were gods of evil omen.  These are represented on the Etruscan vases.  The king of the lower world, Mantus, a winged genius, sits with crown on his head and torch in his hand.  Other demons armed with sword or club with serpents in their hands receive the souls of the dead; the principal of these under the name Charun (the Charon of the Greeks), an old man of hideous form, bears a heavy mallet to strike his victims.  The souls of the dead (the Manes) issue from the lower world three days in the year, wandering about the earth, terrifying the living and doing them evil.  Human victims are offered to appease their lust for blood.  The famous gladiatorial combats which the Romans adopted had their origin in bloody sacrifices in honor of the dead.

=The Augurs.=—­The Etruscans used to say that a little evil spirit named Tages issued one day from a furrow and revealed to the people assembled the secrets of divination.  The Etruscan priests who called themselves haruspices or augurs had rules for predicting the future.  They observed the entrails of victims, the thunderbolt, but especially the flight of birds (whence their name “augurs").  The augur at first with face turned to the north,