d of a little marble staircase, surmounted by the statue of a
boy having in his right hand a vase from which the water spirted, and
under his left arm a goose. The statue is rather damaged.

Many objects were found in the peristyle, mostly of the kind usually
discovered in Pompeian houses. Among them was an amphora, having the
following epigraph in black paint:

COUM. GRAN.
OF.
ROMAE. ATERIO. FELICI.

which has been interpreted to mean that it contained Coan wine
flavored with pomegranate, and that it came from Rome, from the stores
of Aterius Felix.

The portico is surrounded by strong columns, and seems to have had a
second order resting on the first, as may be inferred from some
indications to the right of him who enters from the _fauces_. The
walls are painted red and black, with architectural designs,
candelabra, meanders, birds, winged Cupids, etc. There are also
fourteen small pictures enclosed in red lines, eight of which
represent landscapes and sea-shores, with fishermen, and the other six
fruits and eatables. On the wall on the right side is the following
_graffito_, or inscription, scratched with some sharp instrument:

IIX. ID. IVL. AXVNGIA. PCC.
ALIV. MANVPLOS. CCL.

That is: "On the 25th July, hog's lard, two hundred pounds, Garlic,
two hundred bunches." It seems, therefore, to be a domestic memorandum
of articles either bought or sold.

Around the portico are several rooms, all having marble thresholds,
and closed by doors turning on bronze hinges. On the right hand of
the peristyle, near the entrance, is a private door, or _posticum_,
leading into the Street of the Theatres, by which the master of the
house might escape his importunate clients.

The rooms at the sides of the peristyle offer nothing remarkable, but
the three chambers opposite to the tablinum are of considerable size,
and contain some good pictures. The first on the right has two figures
of Nereids traversing the sea, one on a sea-bull the other on a
hippocampus. Both the monsters are guided by a Cupid with reins and
whip, and followed by dolphins. Another painting opposite the entrance
is too much effaced to be made out. The same wall has a feature not
observed in any other Pompeian house, namely, a square aperture of
rather more than a foot reaching down to the floor, and opening upon
an enclosed place with a canal or drain for carrying off the water of
the adjoining houses. It seems also to have been a r