Chap. 3. ;
Sprinkler and Wine- Taster from Pompeii.
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the ancient mode of transplanting. It appears that two men were gener-ally employed in the Operation ; one to set the trees or plants, and anotherto water them; a custom to which St. Paul alludes in 1 Cor. iii, 6—8.Sometimes ‘ he that watered’ used two pots at the same time, holding oneineaeh hand. As these vessels were not wholly disused in Shakespeare ’stime, it is probable, that to them he refers in Lear :
Why, this would rnake a man, a man of salt, [tears]
To use liis eyes for garden water pots. Act 4, Scene 6.
Modifications of them were adapted to various purposes by the ancients.They were used to drop water on floors in Order to lay the dust, in bothGreek and Roman houses. Their general form was that of a pitcher orvase, and their dimensions varied with their uses. Some of the small-est had but a single hole in the bottom. They formed part of the ordin-ary culinary apparatus, and were also used in religious Services. Amongthe antiquities disinterred at Pompeii , some have been found. No. 71represents one : it is of glass, the upper part of the tube or neck is want-ing, having been broken off. Perhaps this part resembled the form indi-cated by the dotted lines which we have added.
No. 72, also of glass,has been pronounced ‘awine-taster, the air hav-ing been exhausted bysucking at the small end.’It is more likely that thewide part was inserted in-to wine jars or amphoras,and the cavity filled withthat liquid precisely as inthe sprinkling pot, andsamples then withdrawnby closing the small ori-fice with the finger as in the modern instrument, which is shewn at No.76, and as in the dropping tube, one form of which is figured at No. 77.The general form of No. 72 assimilates it to those drinking vessels of theancients, which they held at a distance in front, and directed the streamissuing from the small end of the vessel into the mouth; a mode stillpractised in some parts of the Mediterranean, and by the natives of Ceylon,Sumatra , Malabar, &c.
One of the most singulär facts connected with the religious institutionsof the ancient heathen, was the extent to which they carried the practiceof sprinkling : almost every thing was thus purified; men, animals, trees,water, houses, food, clothing, carriages, &c. In performing the ceremonyvarious implements were used to disperse the sacred liquid. A wispmade of horse hair attached to a handle was common. A branch fromcertain trees, and sometimes a small broom, were used ; in other casesperforated vessels were employed. Thus the Bramins in some ceremoniestake a vessel of water, and after presenting it to the gods, they sprinkletlie liquid with manguier leaves, on carriages, animals, &c. in others it is“ sprinkled through a cullender with a hundred holes on the head ofthe father, mother and child.” a The priests of the ancient Scandinaviansalso used a vessel “ prepared like a watering pot, with which theysprinkled thealtars, the pedestals of their gods, and also the men.” b The
* Sonnerat’s Voyages. Vol. i, 134 and Vol. ii, 97. b Snorro’s History of Scandinavia.
Ine chapter upon sacrifices is translated in Anderson’s ‘ Bee,’ vol. xvi, p. 20, Edin burgh , 1793.
No. 72.