leamed under the soft light which fell from
quaint lamps of precious metals, curious in shape and wrought with
elaborate skill.

[Illustration: SECTIONS OF CATACOMBS WITH CHAMBERS.]

In the Roman Campagna there were forty-three catacombs, whose names
are recorded in inscriptions, in martyrologies, and in the Pontifical
Registers used by Anastasius, since republished, with additions, in
various forms, and repeated in substance by Baronius in his Annals,
and Panvinius in his treatise on the Cemeteries. Aringhi reckons on
the number at fifty-six, and from the account of Signor de Rossi it
appears that the number is now reckoned at about sixty. The number of
_general_ cemeteries is not so large.

[Illustration: PLAN OF CATACOMBS AT ROME. (_Estimated to be
between 800 and 900 miles in length._)]

The original entrances to the catacombs were in many instances by
subterranean roads or corridors, sometimes called streets. These
corridors, which served as entrances to and passages in the
burial-places, were originally old sand-pit roads, from which the
Pozzolana sand had been extracted; when this bed of sand is extracted,
the entrance is usually closed. The soft bed of Pozzolana sand was,
however, not generally used for interments, but the harder bed under
it, called "tufa granulare." The different horizontal layers or beds
of tufa vary very much in hardness and also in thickness.

Although these catacombs may not be the finest cemeteries, yet the use
of these would be infinitely preferable to the recent Roman practice
of throwing the bodies of all persons, whose families can not afford
to buy a piece of land in perpetuity, into a pit, in the same manner
as the ancient Romans did the bodies of their slaves.

There are three hundred and eighty pits provided in the burial ground
of S. Lorenzo, one of which was opened every night. All the bodies
brought for interment that day or night were thrown into it, after
being first stripped to the skin by the officials; and then hot lime
was thrown upon them, that they might be thoroughly decayed before the
year came round. The mouth of the pit was closed with lime grouting,
so that no effluvium could escape, and this covering was not broken
until the pit was wanted to be used again.

These corridors or passages of the sand-pits from which the Pozzolana
sand had been excavated are large enough to admit a horse and cart;
these were frequently the entrances to the catacomb