projecting, like gargoyles, from the edge of the opening above.  Sometimes the basin contained a fountain.  There is of course an outlet pipe for the surplus water, but some of that overflow often ran into a covered cistern, over which you would find a small circular well-mouth, ornamented with sculptured reliefs.  The opening in the ceiling may be formed simply by the space between the four cross-beams, or it may be supported by a pillar—­of marble or of brick cased with marble—­at each corner, or it may rest upon a greater number of such pillars.  It is this opening which lets in the light and air to the hall, and it should always be remembered that the Italian house had more occasion to seek coolness and freshness than warmth.  On a day of glaring sunshine and heat it was always possible to spread under the opening an awning or curtain of purple or other colour, of which the reflected hues meanwhile lent a richness to the space below.  If we take one of the finer houses, we shall see, in glancing at the ceiling which covers the rest of the hall, that it is divided into sunken panels or coffers, which are adorned with reliefs in stucco and are painted, or else are decorated with copper, gold or ivory.  The height may be whatever the owner wishes, but perhaps 25 feet would be a modest average estimate.  The floor in such a house will generally consist of slabs of marble or of marble tiles arranged in patterns.  In houses of less show it may be made of the same materials as those described for the entrance passage.  To right and left are various chambers, shut off by lofty doors or by portieres or both.  To these light is admitted their doors and the gratings over them, from the high window-slits already mentioned in the outer wall, or sometimes, when there is no upper storey, from sky-lights.  And here let it be observed that the notion that the Romans of this date used very little glass is altogether erroneous, as the discoveries at Pompeii and elsewhere sufficiently prove.

[Illustration:  FIG. 31.—­Interior of Roman House. (Looking from Reception-hall to Peristyle.)]

The walls of the hall are in the better instances either coated with panels of tinted marble, or parcelled out in bright bands or oblongs of paint, or decorated with pictures of mythological, architectural, and other subjects worked in bright colours upon darkened stucco.  To our own taste these colours—­red, yellow, bluish-green, and others—­as seen at Pompeii, are often excessively crude and badly harmonised.  But while it is true that the ancients appear to have been actually somewhat deficient in colour-sense, it must be borne in mind that many of the Pompeian houses were decorated by journeymen rather than by artists, and, above all, full allowance must be made for the comparatively subdued light in which most of the paintings would be seen.  The hall might also contain statuary placed against the walls or against the supporting pillars, where these existed.