, was not unknown to the Romans. Vitruvius describes their
construction in terms not inapplicable to the mechanism of a common
mill of the present day, and other ancient authors refer to them. "Set
not your hands to the mill, O women that turn the millstone! sleep
sound though the cock's crow announce the dawn, for Ceres has charged
the nymphs with the labors which employed your arms. These, dashing
from the summit of a wheel, make its axle revolve, which, by the help
of moving radii, sets in action the weight of four hollow mills. We
taste anew the life of the first men, since we have learnt to enjoy,
without fatigue, the produce of Ceres."

In the centre of the pier, at the back, is the aperture to the cistern
by which the water used in making bread was supplied. On each side are
vessels to hold the water. On the pier above is a painting, divided
horizontally into two compartments. The figures in the upper ones are
said to represent the worship of the goddess Fornax, the goddess of
the oven, which seems to have been deified solely for the advantages
which it possessed over the old method of baking on the hearth. Below,
two guardian serpents roll towards an altar crowned with a fruit very
much like a pine-apple; while above, two little birds are in chase of
large flies. These birds, thus placed in a symbolical picture, may be
considered, in perfect accordance with the spirit of ancient
mythology, as emblems of the genii of the place, employed in driving
those troublesome insects from the bread.

The oven is on the left. It is made with considerable attention to
economy of heat. The real oven is enclosed in a sort of ante-oven,
which had an aperture in the top for the smoke to escape. The hole in
the side is for the introduction of dough, which was prepared in the
adjoining room, and deposited through that hole upon the shovel with
which the man in front placed it in the oven. The bread, when baked,
was conveyed to cool in a room the other side of the oven, by a
similar aperture. Beneath the oven is an ash-pit. To the right is a
large room which is conjectured to have been a stable. The jaw-bone
above mentioned and some other fragments of a skeleton were found in
it. There is a reservoir for water at the further end, which passes
through the wall, and is common both to this room and the next, so
that it could be filled without going into the stable. The further
room is fitted up with stone basins, which seem to have be