e on the left,
Agape or Love on the right. The head of the family addresses Peace
with these words: "Irene, da calda!" and Love, "Agape, misce mi!" The
last words are easily understood: "Give me to drink," the verb
_mescere_ being still used in the same sense in Tuscany, where a
wine-shop is sometimes called a _mescita di vino_. The meaning of the
word _calda_ is not certain. There is no doubt, as Boetticher says,
that the ancients had something to correspond to our tea: but the
_calda_ seems to have been more than an infusion; apparently it was a
mixture of hot water, wine, and drugs, that is, a sort of punch, which
was drunk mostly in winter.[171] The names written in charcoal above
the principal inscriptions in this illustration are those of Pomponio
Leto and his academicians.[172]

[Illustration: The Symbolic Supper.]

Another artist distinguished himself in these catacombs, not from
skill in design and color, but from the beautiful subjects chosen by
him for the decoration of the walls and ceilings of three
cubiculi,--compositions which may be called "The Gospel Illustrated."
They have been admirably described and reproduced by photographs and
in outline by monsignore Joseph Wilpert, in his book referred to in
the note on page 354. The intuition of this learned man in detecting
paintings which have been effaced by age, dampness, and smoke is fully
appreciated by students of Christian archaeology: but on this occasion
he accomplished a real _tour de force_. When, on December 19, I
entered the cubiculum no. 54, in which the paintings are, and he began
to point out to me outlines of figures and objects, I thought he was
laboring under an optical delusion; I could see nothing beyond a
blackened and mouldy plaster surface. My eyes, however, soon became
initiated to the new experience, and able to read the lines of this
curious palimpsest. The dark spots soon grew into shape, and lovely
groups, inspired by the purest Christian symbolism, appeared on the
walls. There are thirteen pictures, representing the following-named
subjects: the annunciation, the three magi following the star (which
is shaped like the monogram [Symbol: Chi Rho]), their adoration at
Bethlehem, the baptism of our Lord, the last judgment, the healing of
the blind, the crippled, and the woman with the issue of blood, the
woman of Samaria, the Good Shepherd (twice), the Orantes (twice).

The catacombs of SS. Peter and Marcellinus have another attract