At the nearby crossroads, however, is something more important. Set against the side of a building is a little niche let into the wall in lieu of an altar. Upon this pious neighbors can deposit small articles of food for the “Gods of the Street Crossings” (_Lares Compitales_), and above is a low relief of two youthful deities, male and female. Early as it now is, an old woman has already stolen up to deposit a small crust--for the little neighborhood Lares are good and trusty friends; they will never be forgotten. Opposite this shrine, however, a group of laughing, chattering girls is mustering around a gushing fountain. Romans are justly proud of their excellent water supply. Every house of any pretentions has its separate faucets, perhaps in great number; but the poor tenement dwellers must depend upon the street fountains. Pure, clear water is shooting from a metal pipe into a broad separate stone basin. The stream is issuing from the sculptured head of a Medusa executed with admirable detail and vigor, although this is only one of thousands of similar fountains all over the city. At the next corner the water is spouting from an eagle’s beak; at another from the mouth of a calf, or the head of a Mercury. The surplus water overflowing the basin trickles away in a streamlet down to the middle of the street, and although this adds to the inconvenience of pedestrians the pitch of the ground makes the flow carry away much of the rubbish (often very filthy) which is thrown out recklessly from the shops and even from the upper windows. It is thanks partly to this admirable water system that Rome is not even more scourged by epidemics, than is unhappily the case.[9] =15. Typical Street Crowds.=--So much for the inanimate objects in Mercury Street; what now of its surging humanity? A wise law of Julius Cæsar has indeed forbidden the ordinary use of wheeled vehicles in the city streets between sunrise and the “tenth hour” (4 P.M.). This is a blessed regulation considering the narrow width of even the finest avenues, but, nevertheless, the wagons that were allowed to enter by night bringing heavy building materials to the Senator Rullianus’s new mansion have now to be suffered to depart, and also the wain that had rattled up in the darkness with flour for the nearby public bakery. Also one may possibly see a Vestal Virgin or one of the superior priests exercising their special privileges and driving in a chariot.