Besides these, the block contains three houses which have been distinguished by names, the House of Isis and Osiris, the House of Narcissus, and the House of the Female Dancers. Of these the latter is remarkable for the beauty of the paintings which adorn its Tuscan atrium.
Among them are four very elegant figures of female dancers, from which the name given to the house is taken. Another represents a figure reposing on the border of a clear lake, surrounded by villas and palaces, on the bosom of which a flock of ducks and wild-fowl are swimming. The house of Narcissus is distinguished by the elegance of its peristyle; the inter-columniations are filled up by a dwarf wall, which is hollowed at the top, probably to receive earth for the cultivation of select flowers. Our materials do not admit of a fuller description of the houses in this quarter.
Passing onwards from the House of Sallust, the next island to the south, separated from it by a narrow lane, affords nothing remarkable, except the shop of a baker, to the details of which, in conjunction with the art of dyeing, we purpose to devote a separate chapter. It is terminated in a sharp point by the fountain before mentioned. The disposition of the streets and houses everywhere is most unsymmetrical, but here it is remarkably so, even for Pompeii. Just by the house with the double vestibule the main street divides into two, inclined to each other at a very acute angle, which form, together with a third cross street of more importance, called the Strada delle Terme, or Street of the Baths, another small triangular island.
The house of the apex was an apothecary's shop. A great many drugs, glasses, and vials of the most singular forms, were found here; in some of the latter fluids were yet remaining. In particular one large glass vase is to be mentioned, capable of holding two gallons, in which was a gallon and a half of a reddish liquid, said to be balsam. On being opened, the contents began to evaporate very fast, and it was, therefore, closed hermetically. About an inch in depth of the contents has been thus lost, leaving on the sides of the vessel a sediment, reaching up to the level to which it was formerly filled. The right-hand street leads to buildings entirely in ruins, the left-hand one, which is a continuation of the Via Consularis, or Domitiana, conducts us towards the Forum.
Immediately to the eastward of the district just described is the House of Pansa, which occupies a whole block. The block between it and the city walls, on the north, offers nothing remarkable. Beyond, still to the east, is a block separated from it by a narrow street, called the Via della Fullonica, and bounded on the other side by the Street of Mercury, which runs in a straight line from the walls nearly to the Forum. This block contains, besides several private houses of great beauty, the Fullonica, or establishment for the fulling and dyeing of woolen cloths. This, together with the bake-house above mentioned, will be described further on.
