The inscriptions in chalk and coal, the _graffiti_, and occasionally painted inscriptions, contain sometimes well-known verses from poets still extant. Some of these exhibit variations from the modern text, but being written by not very highly educated persons, they seldom or never present any various readings that it would be desirable to adopt, and indeed contain now and then prosodical errors. Other verses, some of them by no means contemptible, are either taken from pieces now lost, or are the invention of the writer himself. Many of these inscriptions are of course of an amatory character; some convey intelligence of not much importance to anybody but the writer--as, that he is troubled with a cold--or was seventeen centuries ago--or that he considers somebody who does not invite him to supper as no better than a brute and barbarian, or invokes blessings on the man that does. Some are capped by another hand with a biting sarcasm on the first writer, and many, as might be expected, are scurrilous and indecent. Some of the _graffiti_ on the interior walls and pillars of houses are memoranda of domestic transactions; as, how much lard was bought, how many tunics sent to the wash, when a child or a donkey was born, and the like. One of this kind, scratched on the wall of the peristyle of the corner house in the _Strada della Fortuna_ and _Vicolo degli Scienziati_, appears to be an account of the _dispensator_ or overseer of the tasks in spinning allotted to the female slaves of the establishment, and is interesting as furnishing us with their names, which are Vitalis, Florentina, Amarullis, Januaria, Heracla, Maria (M_a_ria, feminine of Marius, not Mar_i_a), Lalagia (reminding us of Horace's Lalage), Damalis, and Doris. The _pensum_, or weight of wool delivered to each to be spun, is spelled _pesu_, the _n_ and final _m_ being omitted, just as we find _salve lucru_, for _lucrum_, written on the threshold of the house of Siricus. In this form, _pesu_ is very close to the Italian word _peso_. We have already alluded now and then to the rude etchings and caricatures of these wall-artists, but to enter fully into the subject of the Pompeian inscriptions and _graffiti_ would almost demand a separate volume, and we must therefore resume the thread of our description. A little beyond the house of Siricus, a small street, running down at right angles from the direction of the Forum, enters the Via del Lupanare. Just at their junction, and having an entrance into both, stands the Lupanar, from which the latter street derives its name. We can not venture upon a description of this resort of Pagan immorality. It is kept locked up, but the guide will procure the key for those who may wish to see it. Next to it is the House of the Fuller, in which was found the elegant little bronze statuette of Narcissus, now in the Museum. The house contained nothing else of interest.