as been paid to the slaking, and
greater pains have thus been employed in the preparation for the work,
take a hoe, and apply it to the slaked lime in the mortar bed just as
you hew wood. If it sticks to the hoe in bits, the lime is not yet
tempered; and when the iron is drawn out dry and clean, it will show
that the lime is weak and thirsty; but when the lime is rich and
properly slaked, it will stick to the tool like glue, proving that it is
completely tempered. Then get the scaffolding ready, and proceed to
construct the vaultings in the rooms, unless they are to be decorated
with flat coffered ceilings.

CHAPTER III

VAULTINGS AND STUCCO WORK

1. When vaulting is required, the procedure should be as follows. Set up
horizontal furring strips at intervals of not more than two feet apart,
using preferably cypress, as fir is soon spoiled by decay and by age.
Arrange these strips so as to form a curve, and make them fast to the
joists of the floor above or to the roof, if it is there, by nailing
them with many iron nails to ties fixed at intervals. These ties should
be made of a kind of wood that neither decay nor time nor dampness can
spoil, such as box, juniper, olive, oak, cypress, or any other similar
wood except common oak; for this warps, and causes cracks in work in
which it is used.

2. Having arranged the furring strips, take cord made of Spanish broom,
and tie Greek reeds, previously pounded flat, to them in the required
contour. Immediately above the vaulting spread some mortar made of lime
and sand, to check any drops that may fall from the joists or from the
roof. If a supply of Greek reed is not to be had, gather slender marsh
reeds, and make them up with silk cord into bundles all of the same
thickness and adjusted to the proper length, provided that the bundles
are not more than two feet long between any two knots. Then tie them
with cord to the beams, as above described, and drive wooden pegs into
them. Make all the other preparations as above described.

3. Having thus set the vaultings in their places and interwoven them,
apply the rendering coat to their lower surface; then lay on the sand
mortar, and afterwards polish it off with the powdered marble. After the
vaultings have been polished, set the impost mouldings directly beneath
them. These obviously ought to be made extremely slender and delicate,
for when they are large, their weight carries them down, and they cannot
support themse