196 THE HOMERIC PALACE. 



^Ihe top of the building. Whether the fire lay in the 



"^centre of the hall, or beneath a chimney in a side- 



* wall, is not easy to ascertain ; yet the more ancient 



and simpler usage renders it likely that the hearth 



was placed mid-way, in the floor. 



This principal apartment was sustained by two 

 rows of wooden columns, with niches in which 

 spears were fixed ; and having settles hollowed out 

 in them towards the fire ; so that those who were 

 seated might warm themselves, and at the same 

 time recline against the pillars : a twofold con- 

 venience, that a single colonnade could not afford, 

 in such a spacious room. Pavement there was 

 none, — not even a layer of gravel, clay, or sand ; 

 and the ground itself was so little planed and hard- 

 ened, or consolidated with entire surface, that 

 Telemachus with no difficulty, and without incon- 

 venience to any, dug in it a hole for a contest at bow 

 and arrow. However, not far in the area, near the 

 fore-door, there was a level space, perhaps paved 

 with stone, fitted for exercise and sport on fiestive 

 occasions. 



Adjoining the front door on either side, under the 

 extended roof of the house, were vestibules, in 

 which the guests passed the night, so that each might 

 depart at his pleasure without molesting any of the 

 domestics ; and upon these, were open porticos, in 

 which the inhabitants, in the day-time, partook of 

 the winter sunshine ; or at night, of the summer 

 breeze. 



Behind the hall were bed-rooms and more retired 

 cells ; in which the father and mother of the family, 

 and the more select female attendants reposed : the 

 more precious stores were kept there in safety ; and 

 baths were heated by fire, apphed from the outside ; 

 and above them other chambers and receptacles, in 

 which servant-girls, widows, and wives, whose hus- 

 bands were absent, slept securely in company with the 

 more respectable maidens ; whilst all the men servants 

 seem to have passed the night in sheds beyond the 

 out-wall of the mansion. 



