ENTERING THE CATACOMBS.
He produced the candles, and each of us produced a franc. Another carriage-load had joined us, so that our party consisted of seven or eight persons. The harvest for the guide was a very good one, and certainly allowed him no occasion to complain. When we had lighted our candles he told us to follow him, and we descended another flight of steps, and then struck off through a narrow gallery about six or seven feet high—narrow in some places, and in others enlarged to a width of ten or twenty feet.
As we went along, the guide explained to us the character of the place, its mode of construction, and the uses to which it had been put. He explained that the catacombs were originally quarries; that we were then in the second gallery from the surface, and that there were three similar galleries below us. He could take us through all of them if we wished to go, but the journey would be rather monotonous, as the objects to be seen in all were very much alike. This mode of working in galleries one above the other is not peculiar to the Roman catacombs, though it is more noticeable there than in any other locality. Imagine a hotel, half a mile square and five stories high, placed under ground, and you can form a very good idea of the arrangement of this catacomb.
FOLLOWING THE GUIDE.
All along the galleries there are little niches, called loculi, cut in the sides one above the other, just large enough to contain a single body. From nearly all these loculi the skeletons have been removed, but there is now and then a skeleton or so visible, and adding interest to the place. It is said that millions of bodies were buried in these catacombs during the time they were used for cemeteries. Those that have not been explored are still full of skeletons, and would furnish relics enough to equip several thousand new churches. Here and there the guide pointed out small rooms or chambers in the tufa, where some of the Christians lived. There are inscriptions of a religious character scratched upon the walls of many of them, some being legible, while others are only partly so. Beneath many of the loculi there are inscriptions showing who are resting there, and at the entrance to one of the chambers, in which a dozen skeletons are leading a very quiet life, there is an elaborate door-plate set in mosaic.
The places where some of those who have since been canonized dwelt in their lifetime and were buried after death, were pointed out. Some of them were quite interesting, and several were ornamented with considerable care. Sometimes there were mosaics and marble monuments of considerable size; and at one spot a life-sized statue cut from the tufa rock, and evincing considerable skill on the part of its designer, was shown to us.
We followed our guide in single file. Some of our party were rather inattentive to his directions. Among them was a pair of lovers, who seemed much more interested in saying sweet things to each other than in looking at the curiosities of the place. Several times they lagged behind, and the rest of us were obliged to halt and wait for them to come up. Their dilatoriness caused the rest of the party at times to become separated, and as they showed a disposition to wander off in the side-galleries and corridors, we were apprehensive of losing some of them. Sure enough, when we reached our journey’s end one of our number was missing.
A PAIR OF LOST LOVERS.
Our guide left us and went back, and he was gone ten or fifteen minutes before he found the missing individual. When he brought him forward and we were united, the latter said that he thought we turned a certain corner while he was examining the grave and bones of an early Christian. He followed and could hear our voices, but was surprised to find that, in following us, he seemed to get no nearer. He thought a minute or two, and then concluded that he was lost. He said his hair began to stand on end, and he was considerably relieved when he heard the voice of our guide shouting to him, and answered. The guide had some difficulty in finding him, as he had turned into a side-gallery and thence into another gallery; and had he gone a little farther, it might have taken some time to trace him out. I am entirely convinced that the next time he visits a catacomb he will take good care to keep within hearing distance, and seeing distance too, of the guide.
The guide told us that it was not unusual for people to be lost there, and he said that whenever they took a large party inside the catacombs they always counted them carefully both on entering and departing. “People,” he said, “will stop and look at things while the rest of the party is moving on; and if we have a large number, they are quite likely to get lost. The galleries run in all directions, and in some places there are holes from a gallery to the one above or below. Unless a person is careful, and is aware of their locality, he may fall down one of these holes, and be severely injured, or perhaps killed.” After he had told us of the danger of getting lost, he said,—