s to let.

Some of these inscriptions, either scratched or painted, were witticisms
or exclamations from facetious passers-by. One ran thus: "Oppius the
porter is a robber, a rogue!" Sometimes there were amorous declarations:
"Augea loves Arabienus." Upon a wall in the Street of Mercury, an ivy
leaf, forming a heart, contained the gentle name of Psyche. Elsewhere a
wag, parodying the style of monumental inscriptions, had announced that
under the consulate of L. Monius Asprenas and A. Plotius, there was born
to him the foal of an ass. "A wine jar has been lost and he who brings
it back shall have such a reward from Varius; but he who will bring the
thief shall have twice as much."

Again, still other inscriptions were notifications to the public in
reference to the cleanliness of the streets, and recalling in terms
still more precise the "Commit no Nuisance" put up on the corners of
some of our streets with similar intent. On more than one wall at
Pompeii the figures of serpents, very well painted, sufficed to prevent
any impropriety, for the serpent was a sacred symbol in ancient
Rome--strange mingling of religion in the pettiest details of common
life! Only a very few years ago, the Neapolitans still followed the
example of their ancestors; they protected the outside walls of their
dwellings with symbolical paintings, rudely tracing, not serpents, but
crosses on them.

[Footnote C: These olives which, when found, were still soft and pasty,
had a rancid smell and a greasy but pungent flavor. The kernels were
less elongated and more bulging than those of the Neapolitan olives;
were very hard and still contained some shreds of their pith. In a word,
they were perfectly preserved, and although eighteen centuries old, as
they were, you would have thought they had been plucked but a few months
before.]

IV.

THE SUBURBS.

THE CUSTOM HOUSE.--THE FORTIFICATIONS AND THE GATES.--THE ROMAN
HIGHWAYS.--THE CEMETERY OF POMPEII.--FUNERALS: THE PROCESSION, THE
FUNERAL PYRE, THE DAY OF THE DEAD.--THE TOMBS AND THEIR
INSCRIPTIONS.--PERPETUAL LEASES.--BURIAL OF THE RICH, OF ANIMALS,
AND OF THE POOR.--THE VILLAS OF DIOMED AND CICERO.

"Ce qu'on trouve aux abords d'une grande cite,
Ce sont des abattoirs, des murs, des cimitieres:
C'est ainsi qu'en entrant dans la societe
On trouve ses egouts."

Alfred de Musset would have depicted the suburban quarters of Pompeii
exactly in t