ly recognized by the
impluvium, and beyond it through the tablinum are seen the pillars of
the portico. Beyond the impluvium is the place of a small altar for
the worship of the Lares. A bronze hind, through the mouth of which a
stream of water flowed, formerly stood in the centre of the basin. It
bore a figure of Hercules upon its back.

The walls of the atrium and tablinum are curiously stuccoed in large
raised panels, with deep channels between them, the panels being
painted of different colors, strongly contrasted with each other.

We find among them different shades of the same color, several reds,
for instance, as sinopis, cinnabar, and others. This sort of
decoration has caused some persons to call this the house of a
color-seller--a conjecture entirely at variance with the luxury and
elegance which reign in it. The floor was of red cement, with bits of
white marble imbedded in it.

The altar in the atrium and the little oratory in the left-hand ala
belong to the worship of the Lares _domestici_ or _familiares_, as is
indicated by the paintings found in the false doorway, but now
removed. They consisted of a serpent below and a group of four figures
above, employed in celebrating a sacrifice to these gods.

In the centre is a tripod, into which a priest, his head covered, is
pouring the contents of a patera. On each side are two young men,
dressed alike, apparently in the praetexta; at least their robes are
white, and there is a double red stripe down the front of their
tunics, and a red drapery is thrown over the shoulders of each. In one
hand each holds a patera; in the other each holds aloft a cow's horn
perforated at the small end, through which a stream is spouting into
the patera at a considerable distance. This, though an inconvenient,
seems to have been a common drinking-vessel. The method of using it
has already been described. In the background is a man playing on the
double flute.

The worship of the Lares was thus publicly represented, and their
images were exposed to view, that all persons might have an
opportunity of saluting them and invoking prosperity on the house.
Noble families had also a place of domestic worship (_adytum_ or
_penetrale_) in the most retired part of their mansions, where their
most valuable records and hereditary memorials were preserved.

The worship of these little deities (_Dii minuti_, or _patellarii_)
was universally popular, partly perhaps on account of its econom