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trary to the common opinion, that it was furnished with a chimney,' and that the smoke was not permitted to find its way through an aperture in the roof. Thus much might be inferred from a passage in the Wasps, when the old dicast, in love with the courts of law, is endeavouring to escape from the restraint imposed on him by his son, by climbing out through the chimney. It is clear that he has got into some aperture, where he is hidden from sight, for hearing a noise in the wall, his son Bdelycleon, cries out, "What is that?" upon which the old man replies, "I am only the smoke." It is plain, that he would not, like a Hindu Yoghi, be balancing himself in the air, otherwise the young man must have beheld him sailing up towards the roof. But the matter is set entirely at rest by the Scholiast, who observes, that the xazvodón was a narrow channel like a pipe through which the smoke ascended from the kitchen. This explanation has been confirmed by the discoveries of Colonel Leake, who on the rocky slopes of the hill of the Museion and Pnyx, found the remains of a house partly excavated in the rock, in which the chimney still remained.

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The same convenience, also, existed in the Roman kitchens, though they would appear to have been unskilfully constructed in both countries, since the cooks complain of the smoke being borne hither and thither by the wind, and interfering with their operations. However, this may have arisen from the numerous small furnaces which, as in France, were ranged along the wall for the purpose of cooking several dishes at once. The chimneys having been perpendicular, as in our old farm-houses, were

1 Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 91. Vesp. 139, 147.

2 Topog. of Athens, p. 361.
3 Cf. Perrault, sur Vitruv. vi.

9. Mazois, Pal. de Scaur. p. 178. On the interior of a Roman house, see Pet. Bellori, Frag. Vet. Rom, p. 31.

furnished with stoppers to keep out the rain in bad weather.1

That the kitchens were sometimes not sufficiently airy and comfortable may be inferred from the practice of a philosophical cook in Damoxenos, who used to take his station immediately outside the door, and from thence give his orders to the inferior operatives. Great care was nevertheless taken that it should be well lighted, and that the door should be so situated as to be as little exposed as possible to whirling gusts of wind." From a passage in the Scholiast on the Wasps, and the existence of drains in the excavations on the hill of the Museion, it is clear that the Athenian houses were furnished with sinks, though in the Italian kitchens there seem merely to have been little channels running along the walls to carry off the water. The floor, too, was constructed in both countries with a view at once to dryness and elegance, being formed of several layers of various materials all porous though binding, so that it allowed whatever water was spilt to sink through instantaneously. The upper layer, about six inches thick, consisted of a cement composed of lime, sand, and pounded charcoal or ashes, the surface of which, being polished with pumice-stone, presented to the eye the appearance of a fine black marble. The roof in early times was no doubt of wood, though afterwards it came to be vaulted or run up in the form of a cupola. The walls were sometimes decorated with rude paintings."

The street-door of a Grecian house, usually, when single, opened outwards, but when there were fold

1 Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 148. 2 Athen. iii. 60 ix. 22.

3 Leake, Topog. of Ath. p. 361. Yet we find them sometimes throwing the water out of the window, crying, Stand out of the way. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn.

592.

4 Vitruv. viii. 4.

5 Mazois, Palais de Scaurus, p. 177.

Representing, for example, a sacrifice to Fornax. Mazois, p. 177.

ing doors they opened inwards as with us.1 In the former case it was customary when any one happened to be going forth, to knock, or call, or ring a bell, in order to warn passengers to make way." These doors were constructed of various materials,3 according to the taste and circumstances of the owner, sometimes of oak, or fir, or maple, or elm; and afterwards as luxury advanced they were made of cedar, cyprus, or even of citron wood, inlaid as in the East, with plates of brass or gold.* Mention is likewise made of doors entirely composed of the precious metals; of iron also, and bronze and ivory.

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The jambs were generally of wood; but likewise sometimes of brass or marble. The doors were fastened at first by long bars passing into the wall on both sides; and by degrees smaller bolts, hasps, latches, and locks and keys succeeded. For example the outer door of the Thalamos in Homer was secured by a silver hasp, and a leathern thong passed round the handle and tied, perhaps, in a curious knot. Doors were not usually suspended on hinges, but turned, as they still do in the East, upon pivots inserted above into the lintel and below into the threshhold. In many houses there were in addition small half-doors of open wood-work, which alone were commonly closed by day, in order to

1 Cf. Antich. di Ercol. t. i. tav. 34. pp. 175. 181. Sagittar. de Januis Veterum. p. 23.

2 Plut. Poplic. § 20.

3 Sagitt. de Jan. Vet. p. 152, seq. Plin. xvi. 40. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 4. 2. iii. 14. 1. Martial. xiv. 89, ii. 43. Lucian. 1. ix. Tertull. de Pall. c. 5. Plin. xiii. 15.

Ovid. Metamorph. iv. 487. Aristoph. Acharn. 1072. 5 Sagitt. de Jan. Vet. p. 29, sqq. 6 Sagitt. de Jan. p. 67.

7 Odyss. a. 441. Schol. et Eustath. ad loc.-8. 862. p. 186. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 155.

8 Sagitt. de Jan. Vet. p. 41.

9 Antich. di Ercol. t. i. tav. 3. p. 11. It should perhaps be remarked, that when houses were built on a solid basement the door was sometimes approached by a movable pair of steps. Id. ibid. tav. 8. p. 39. tav. 43. p. 228.

keep the children from running out, or dogs or pigs from entering. The doors usually consisted of a frame-work, with four or six sunken panels, as with us; but at Sparta, so long as the laws of Lycurgus prevailed, they were made of simple planks fashioned with the hatchet. In the great Dorian capital the custom was for persons desirous of entering a house to shout aloud at the door, which, at Athens, was always furnished with an elegant knocker.* Doorhandles, too, of costly materials and curious workmanship, bespoke even in that trifling matter the taste of the Greeks.

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3

The materials commonly used in the erection of a house were stones and bricks. In the manufacture of the latter the ancients exhibited more skill and care than we; they had bricks of a very large size, and half bricks for filling up spaces, which prevented the necessity of shortening them with the trowel. Of these some were simply dried in the sun, used chiefly in building the dwellings of the poor. At Utica in Africa there were public inspectors of brick-kilns, to prevent any from being used which had not been made five years. In several cities on the Mediterranean bricks were manufactured of a porous earth, which when baked and painted, as it may be conjectured, on the outside, were so light that they would swim in water. To

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1 Plut. Lycurg. § 13. Agesil. $ 19.

2 Plut. Inst. Lac. § 30. Cf. Theocrit. Eidyll. xxix. 39.

3 Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 133. 4 Sometimes in form of a crow. Poll. i. 77.

5 See Donaldson's Collection of Doorways. pl. 8.

6 Winkelm. Hist. de l'Art. ii. 544. Cf. Xen. Memor. iii. 17. Cyropæd. vi. 3. 25. Plin. xxxv. 14. Polyb. x. 22. Plat. de Repub. t. vi. p. 15.

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diminish the weight of bricks, straw was introduced into them in Syria and Egypt, which was altogether consumed in the baking. In roofing such of their houses as were not terraced they employed slates, tiles, and reed-thatch.1 Possibly, also, the wealthy may have tiled their houses with those elegant thin flakes of marble, with which the roofs of temples were occasionally covered.

1 Poll. x. 170. Luc. Contemplant. § 6. Nub. 174.

Schol. Aristoph.

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