shops, for instance--perhaps for tethering the cows and donkeys of the
peasants who every morning brought the citizens milk or baskets of
vegetables to their own doors. Between the sidewalks was hollowed out
the street, paved with coarse blocks of lava which time has not worn
down. When Pansa went to the dwelling of Paratus his sandals trod the
same stones that now receive the impress of our boots. On rainy days
this street must have been the bed of a torrent, as the alleys and
by-ways of Naples are still; hence, one, sometimes three, thicker blocks
were placed so as to enable foot passengers to cross with dry feet.
These small fording blocks must have made it difficult for vehicles to
get by; hence, the ruts that are still found traceable on the pavement
are the marks of wagons drawn slowly by oxen, and not of those light
chariots which romance-writers launch forth so briskly in the ancient
city. Moreover, it has been ascertained that the Pompeians went afoot;
only the quality had themselves drawn about in chariots in the country.
Where could room have been found for stables and carriage-houses in
those dwellings scarcely larger than your hat? It was in the suburbs
only, in the outskirts of the city, that the dimensions of the
residences rendered anything of the kind possible. Let us, then,
obliterate these chariots from our imagination, if we wish to see the
streets of Pompeii as they really were.

After a shower, the rain water descended, little by little, into the
gutters, and from the latter, by holes still visible, into a
subterranean conduit that carried it outside of the city. One of these
conduits is still open in the Street of Stabiæ, not far from the temple
of Isis.

As to the general aspect of these ancient thoroughfares, it would seem
dull enough, were we to represent the scene to our fancy with the houses