POMPEII.
On the evening of the day on which the excursion to Vesuvius was made,
Rollo came into Mrs. Gray's room, wearing a somewhat disturbed
countenance. He told Mrs. Gray that he had got some bad news for her.
"Ah," said Mrs. Gray, "I'm sorry to hear that. What is the bad news?"
"Philippe is engaged for to-morrow," said Rollo, "and so he cannot go
with us to Pompeii."
"O, how sorry I am!" said Josie. "What shall we do?"
"How is he engaged?" asked Mrs. Gray.
"He is going with a party to Baiæ."
"Where is Baiæ?" asked Josie. "Is it any where near Pompeii?"
"No," said Rollo; "it is exactly in the opposite direction. It is on the
sea coast to the west, and Pompeii is on the sea coast to the east."
"What is there to be seen at Baiæ?" asked Mrs. Gray.
"Nothing but old ruins," said Rollo, contemptuously. "I don't see why
people should want to go so far, and take away our guide, just to see
old ruins. Besides, there are plenty of old ruins at Pompeii.
"But, Mrs. Gray," continued Rollo, "I don't think we need any guide at
all to go to Pompeii. We can go by ourselves."
"Do you think so?" said Mrs. Gray.
"Why, you see I can engage a carriage to take us there myself," said
Rollo. "I shall say 'Pompeii!' to the coachman, and point that way. And
when we get to Pompeii, we shall find uncle George there, and then we
shall get along well enough."
"True," said Mrs. Gray. "But then," she added, after thinking a moment,
"perhaps we might miss Mr. George, after all. I don't know how large a
place it is. If it is a large place, we might miss him in some of the
streets."
Here Rosie opened a guide book which lay upon the table, and turned to a
map of Pompeii which she recollected to have seen there. Her hope was to
find that there were not many streets, and thus to show that there would
not be much danger of missing Mr. George. She found, however, that the
plan of the town looked quite complicated. There was a long street,
called the Street of the Tombs, leading into it; and then within the
walls there were a great many other streets, crossing each other, and
running in all directions. So she shut the book, and did not say a word,
thinking that the sight of the plan would impede, rather than promote,
the acceptance of Rollo's proposal.
"I don't think there are a great many streets," said Rollo. "There were
none at all at Herculaneum."
"Ah, but Herculaneum is a very different thing," said Mrs. Gray.
"Herculaneum was buried up very deep with solid lava, and only a very
small portion of it has been explored, and that you go down into as you
would into a cellar or a mine. Pompeii was but just covered, and that
only with sand and ashes; and the sand and ashes have all been dug out
and carted off from a large part of the city, so as to bring the whole
out in the open day."
"Then it will be a great deal pleasanter place to visit," said Rosie.
"Yes," said Mrs. Gray; "and I don't think that there will be much danger
in our going by ourselves. If we don't find Mr. George, we can walk
about a while, and then come back in the carriage again."
"We might go by the railroad if we chose," said Rollo. "There is a
railroad that runs along the coast, and passes very near Pompeii."
"I think we had better take a carriage," said Mrs. Gray, "because a
carriage will take us and leave us wherever we wish. There will be more
changes if we go by the railroad, and we should need to speak more."
It was finally agreed that the party should go, and Rollo and Josie were
to have a carriage ready at nine o'clock the next morning. They were all
to breakfast at eight o'clock.
Now it happens there is no difficulty in getting a carriage at Naples.
The streets are full of them. They are very pretty carriages too, as
they are seen standing in pleasant weather, with the tops turned back,
showing the soft cushions on the seats that look so inviting. The
coachmen who drive these carriages are very eager to get customers. They
watch at the doors of the hotels, and every where, indeed, along the
streets, and whenever they see a lady and gentleman coming, they drive
forward to meet them, and call out to offer them the carriage; and
sometimes they go along for some distance by the side of the strangers,
trying to induce them to get in.
Some of these carriages have two horses, and contain a front and a back
seat. Others have only one horse, and only a back seat; but they all
look very nice and tidy, and the price to be paid for them is quite low.
The party all breakfasted together the next morning, and they went down
into the dining room for their breakfast, instead of taking it in Mrs.
Gray's room. They did this at the request of the boys, who said it was
more amusing to go into the public room and see the different parties
that came in for early breakfasts, and hear them talk, in various
languages, of the different excursions that they are going to make that
day.
At about a quarter before nine, Rollo and Josie went out to look for a
carriage. Rollo stopped at the office of the hotel in going out, and
inquired of the secretary how much ought to be paid for a carriage with
two horses to go to Pompeii. The secretary told him three dollars.
He and Josie then went out into the street. There was a long row of
carriages, some with two horses and some with one, standing in the
middle of the street opposite to the hotel. The coachmen of all these
carriages, as soon as they saw the boys come out, began immediately to
call out to them, and crack their whips, and make other such
demonstrations to attract their attention.
"Now," said Rollo to Josie, "we must walk along carelessly, and not
appear to look at the carriages as if we wanted one; for if we do, they
will come driving towards us in a body. We will walk along quietly till
we come to a nice carriage and a first rate pair of horses, and then
we'll go right up to the coachman and engage him."
This the boys did. They sauntered along with a careless air, concealing
the desire they had to engage a carriage, until at last they came to one
which Rollo thought would do. The instant the boys stopped before this
carriage, the coachman jumped down from his box, and began to open the
carriage door for them, and at the same time all the other coachmen in
the line began cracking their whips, and calling out to the boys again
to come and take their carriages. Rollo paid no attention to them, but
addressed the coachman of the carriage which he had selected, and said
in French, "To Pompeii."
"_Si, signore, si, signore,_" said the coachman, which Rollo knew very
well meant "Yes, sir, yes, sir." At the same time the coachman made
eager gestures for the boys to get in.
But Rollo would not get in, but waited to make his bargain about the
price.
"_Quanto?_" said he. Quanto is the Italian word for _how much_. In
saying _Quanto_, Rollo held up the fingers of his right hand, to denote
to the coachman that he was to show him by his fingers how many
piastres.
The coachman said four, speaking in Italian, and at the same time held
up four fingers.
"No," said Rollo, "three." And Rollo held up three fingers.
The coachman seemed to hesitate a moment; but when he saw that the boys
were ready to go away and apply for another carriage unless he would
take them for the regular and proper price, he said, "_Si, signore,_"
again, and once more motioned for the boys to get in. So they got in,
and the coachman drove to the hotel door.
Mrs. Gray and Rosie were all ready, and when they came to see the
carriage which the boys had chosen for them, they were very much pleased
with it.
"I don't see but that you can manage the business, Rollo," said Mrs.
Gray, "as well as any courier or valet de place that we could have."
"How could you make him understand what you wanted, without speaking
Italian?" asked Rosie.
"I did it partly by signs," said Rollo.
The road to Pompeii, for the first few miles, was the same with the one
to Vesuvius, which they had taken the day before. It led first through
the busiest part of Naples, along by the docks and the shipping, and
then through the series of towns and villages which line the shore of
the bay, at the foot of the slopes of Vesuvius. After passing in this
manner through one continued street for five or six miles, the road came
out more into the open country, where fine views were had of the
mountain on one side, and of the bay on the other. The mountain sides
were generally extremely fertile, being covered with vineyards and
groves, though here and there were to be seen the streams of lava which
had come down within a few hundred years, and which had not yet become
disintegrated and converted into soil. These streams of lava looked like
torrents of brown water suddenly turned into stone, as they came
streaming down the mountain side.
In one place, one of these streams of lava passed under a town. That is
to say, such was the appearance. The fact was, really, that the lava had
destroyed the part of the town that came in its way, and the people had
built up their houses again on the top of it. The lava was cut down a
little in making the road, so that you could see at the road side a
portion of the stream, with the houses upon it.
After riding on in this way two or three hours, the carriage stopped at
a very pleasant place, among vineyards and mulberry groves, at the
entrance of a pretty lane, which led to the gates of Pompeii.
"Now," said Rosie, "our difficulties are going to begin. I don't see how
we are going to know where to look for Mr. George."
"We will see," said Mrs. Gray.
The coachman opened the door, and all the party got out. Just then they
saw at a short distance before them, where there was a sort of gate,
several men in a species of uniform, which denoted that they were the
persons appointed by the government to take charge of the place, and to
show it to visitors. One of these men, as soon as he saw the party,
seemed to look very much pleased, and he advanced to meet them with a
smiling face. At the same time he said something to a boy who was near
by, and the boy ran off into the town. The young man in uniform, when he
came near to Mrs. Gray, said something which at first she could not
understand, but which she soon perceived was an attempt to pronounce the
words, _Il Signore Holiday_.
"Ah! he has seen Mr. George," said Mrs. Gray. "Mr. George has been here,
and has told him to watch for us."
This supposition on the part of Mrs. Gray was correct. Mr. George had
come early with the students to Pompeii, in order to be ready there to
receive Mrs. Gray and her party, and he had stationed this man at the
gate to watch for them, with directions to send the boy in for him at an
appointed place, as soon as they should arrive. The boy soon found Mr.
George, and he came immediately back to the gate. Of course the whole
party were very much pleased to see him.
"And yet," said Mrs. Gray, "Rollo has managed so well that I should not
have felt any anxiety if we had continued under his sole charge all
day."
The party now commenced their exploration of Pompeii. They found it, as
they had expected, all open to the day. A great many of the streets,
with all the houses bordering them, had been cleared, and all the sand
and gravel under which they had been buried had been carted away.
Immense heaps of this rubbish were lying outside the entrance, and the
party had passed them in the carriage on their approach to the town.
They had been lying there so long, however, that they were covered with
grass and small trees, and they looked like great railroad embankments.
Indeed, the appearance which Pompeii presents now is that of a large
open village of ruined and roofless one-storied houses. Many of the
houses were originally two stories high, it is true; but the upper
stories have been destroyed or shaken down, and in general it is the
lower story only that now remains.
The structure of the houses, in respect to plan and general arrangement,
is very different from that of the dwellings built in our towns at the
present day. The chief reasons for the difference arise from the absence
of windows and chimneys in the houses of the ancients, and of course the
leaving out of windows and chimneys in a house makes it necessary to
change every thing.
The inhabitants of Pompeii had no chimneys, because the climate there is
so mild that they seldom needed a fire; and when they did need one, it
was easier to make a small one in an open vessel, and let it stand in
the middle of the room, or wherever it was required, than to make a
chimney and a fireplace. The open pan in which the fires were made in
those days stood on legs, and could be moved about any where. The fire
was made of small twigs cut from the trees. The people would let the pan
stand in the open air until the twigs were burnt to coal, and then they
would carry the pan, with the embers still glowing, into the room which
they wished to warm, and place it wherever it was required.
The same contrivance is used at the present day in Naples, and in all
the towns of that region. In going along the streets in a cool evening
or morning, you will often see one of these brass pans before a door,
with a little fire blazing in it, and children or other persons before
it, warming their hands. Afterwards, if you watch, you will see that the
people take it into the house.
The ancient inhabitants of Pompeii depended entirely on arrangements
like these for warming their rooms. There is not a chimney to be found
in the whole town.
In respect to windows, the reason why they did not have them was because
they had no glass to put into them. They could not make glass in those
days well enough and easily enough to use it for windows. Of course they
had openings in their houses to admit the air and the light, and these
openings might perhaps be called windows. But in order to prevent the
wind and rain from coming in, it was necessary to have them placed in
sheltered situations, as, for example, under porticos and piazzas. The
custom therefore arose of having a great many porticos in the houses,
with rooms opening from them; and in order that they might not be too
much exposed, they were generally made so as to have the open side of
them inwards, towards the centre of the house, where a small, square
place was left, without a roof over it, to admit the light and air.
Of course the rain would come in through this open space, and the floor
of it was generally formed into a square marble basin, to receive the
water. This was called the _impluvium_. Sometimes there was a fountain
in the centre of the impluvium, and all around it were the porticos,
within and under which were the doors opening into the different rooms.
The guide, who conducted Mr. George and his party, led them into several
of these houses, and every one was much interested in examining the
arrangement of the rooms, and in imagining how the people looked in
going in and out, and in living in them. The bed rooms were extremely
small. The walls of some of them were beautifully painted, but the rooms
themselves were often not much bigger than a state room in a steamship.
The bedstead was a sort of berth, formed upon a marble shelf built
across from wall to wall.
In some of the houses there were more rooms than could be arranged
around one court; and in such cases there were two, and sometimes three
courts. In one case, the third court was a garden, with a beautiful
portico formed of ornamental columns all around it. Beneath this portico
the ladies of the house, in rainy weather, could walk at their ease, and
see the flowers growing in the garden, just as well as if the weather
were fair.
Under this portico, all around, was a subterranean chamber, which seemed
to be used as a sort of cellar. And yet it was very neatly finished, and
the walls of it were ornamented in such a way as to lead people to
suppose that it might have been used as a cool walk in warm weather.
This passage way was first discovered by means of the steps leading down
to it. It was almost full of earth, which earth consisted of volcanic
sand and ashes, which had flowed into it in the form of mud.
On one side of this subterranean passage way, near the entrance, there
were a number of skeletons found. These skeletons were in a standing
position against the wall, where the persons had been stopped and buried
up by the mud as it flowed in. The marks left by the bodies against the
wall remain to this day, and Rollo and all the party saw them.
One of the skeletons was that of a female, and there were a great many
rings on the fingers of the hands, and bracelets, necklaces, and other
ornaments on the other bones. From this circumstance it is supposed
that this person was the wife of the owner of the house, and that in
trying to save herself and her jewelry upon her, she had fled with the
servants to this cellar, and there had been overwhelmed.
There were very few skeletons found in the houses of Pompeii; from which
circumstance it is supposed that the inhabitants generally had time to
escape. There was, however, one remarkable case. It was that of a
sentinel in his sentry box, at the gate of the city. He would not leave
his post, as it would seem, and so perished at the station where he had
been placed. His head, with the helmet still upon it, was carried to the
museum at Naples, where it is now seen by all the world, and every one
who sees it utters some expression of praise for the courage and
fidelity which the poor fellow displayed in fulfilling his trust.
The streets of the town were narrow, but they were paved substantially
with large and solid stones, flat at the top. Along these streets there
were a great many very curious shops, such as barbers' shops, painters'
shops, wine shops, and the like. The wine shops were furnished with deep
jars set in a sort of stone counter. The jars were open-mouthed, and the
men who kept the shops were accustomed apparently to dip the wine out
of them, in selling to their customers.
After passing through a number of these streets, the party came at
length to a great public square called the _Forum_. This square was
surrounded with the ruins of temples, and other great public edifices.
The columns and porticos which bordered the square are all now more or
less in ruins; but there are still so many of them standing as to show
exactly what the forms of the buildings must have been when they were
complete, and how the square must have appeared.
In another part of the town were the remains of two theatres, and
outside the walls an immense amphitheatre, where were exhibited the
combats of wild beasts, and those of the gladiators. There are a great
many ruins of amphitheatres like this scattered over Italy. They are of
an oval form, and the seats extend all around. The place where the
combats took place was a level spot in the centre, called the _arena_.
In viewing these various ruins, Mr. George and the two students seemed
most interested in the theatres, and temples, and other great public
edifices, while Mrs. Gray and the children seemed to think a great deal
more of the houses and the shops. There was one baker's shop with the
oven entire, and three stone hand mills, in which the baker used to
grind his corn. There were a great many curious utensils and implements
found in this shop, when it was first excavated; but Mr. George said
that they had all been removed.
"I wish they had let them stay here," said Rollo.
"It would be a great deal more interesting to us to see them here," said
Mr. George, "but they would not have been safe. The government has
therefore built an immense museum at Naples, and every thing that is
movable has been carried there. So we come here first to see the town
and the remains of the shops and the houses, and then afterwards we go
to the museum at Naples to see the things that were found in them."
* * * * *
After rambling about in Pompeii for several hours, the party went out by
another gate, where they found the carriage waiting for them, and so
returned home.