ing places, and few of the arched tombs; most
of the recesses for graves are merely parallelograms just large enough
to contain the body, or two bodies side by side, one behind the other,
the recess being excavated to a sufficient depth for that purpose, and
some of these have the slabs covering the openings left in their
places. The skeletons are allowed to remain in several of the tombs
where the slab has been removed and left open. One of the chapels has
remains of paintings of the fourth century in a very decayed state.
The other two chapels are connected by a short passage; they have
evidently been family burying places, a second added when the first
was full. The passage is made through the principal tomb of the first
chapel, the body previously interred there was probably removed to the
inner chapel when that was made. The painted chapel is in the upper
corridor, the double one in the lowest.

In descending from the garden, the two upper corridors have tombs on
the sides, and are regular catacombs; the third is an _arenarium_, or
sand-pit, without tombs, and large enough for a horse and cart to pass
along, as in the ordinary sand-pits. There must have been another
entrance to this, and it is said to have been half a mile off, which
is not improbable, judging by other sand-pits, both those now in use
and others that are closed, some of which are known to be more than a
mile long, and with the different branch galleries, the corridors
altogether often extend several miles. These galleries are large and
wide enough for a horse and cart, but not for two to pass, sidings
being made at intervals for that purpose. The passages in the
catacombs vary much both in height and in width, but are seldom more
than three feet wide. The chapels also vary in size, but none of them
would hold more than fifty people; those in the present catacomb are
small.

[Illustration: LAMPS FOUND IN THE CATACOMBS.]

That each of these chapels was the burial-place of a family, and was
considered as private property, is evident from the remains of a door
at the entrance of several of them, as in the catacomb of S.
Priscilla. In one of these, the stone corbel, with the hole for the
pivot to work in, remains in its place; the lower stone, with the
corresponding hole, has been moved, but is lying on the floor in an
adjoining chapel. Another door has been made to slide up and down like
a portcullis or a modern sash-window, as we see by the gro