Umbrella

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…