The guests responded in loud, perhaps often artificial laughter, to their king's jokes, goblet after goblet was emptied, and the rejoicings had reached their highest point, when suddenly the master of the ceremonies appeared, bearing a small gilded mummy; and displaying it to the gaze of the assembly, exclaimed.

"Drink, jest, and be merry, for all too soon ye shall become like unto this!" [Wilkinson gives drawings of these mummies (II.

410.) hundreds of which were placed in the tombs, and have been preserved to us.
Lucian was present at a banquet, when they were handed round.

The Greeks seem to have adopted this custom, but with their usual talent for beautifying all they touched, substituted a winged figure of death for the mummy.

Maxims similar to the following one are by no means rare.