Opposite the entrance of the temple the colonnade presents an interesting peculiarity of construction, which is found also in other buildings at Pompeii, as the Stabian Baths. The place of the three middle columns on that side is taken by two large pillars, higher than the rest of the colonnade, each of which is backed by an attached half-column. This arrangement made the approach to the temple more imposing, and also furnished an appropriate setting for the shrine of Harpocrates against the wall. The principal altar, on which sacrifice was offered to the divinities worshipped in the temple, is that near the foot of the steps in front (_e_). The officiating priest stood on a block of stone at the side of it, with the temple at his right; on this altar were found ashes and fragments of calcined bones. The two smaller altars near by were probably consecrated to the gods whose images were placed in the exterior niches. Two rectangular pits were used as receptacles for the refuse of sacrifices. One was quite small, and no trace of it can now be found; it was near the large altar, and contained remains of burnt figs, pine kernels and cones, nuts, and dates, with fragments of two statuettes representing divinities. The wall about the other (_b_), when excavated, was built up at each end in the form of a gable, and evidently once supported a wooden roof; in this pit also were charred remains of fruits. What divinities were worshipped at the altars between the columns, it is impossible to determine. The small base standing against the corner column near the entrance (seen in Fig. 79) was probably a pedestal, not an altar. At the left of the steps leading up to the temple, and facing the large altar, is a small pillar of masonry fifteen inches square and nearly two and a half feet high. A similar pillar, which formerly stood at the right, had thin slabs of stone on three sides. One of these, that on the front of the pillar (now in the Naples Museum), was covered with hieroglyphics. It is a memorial tablet, which Hat, 'the writer of the divine word,' _hierogrammateus_, set up in honor of his parents and grandparents; it contains symbolic representations in three divisions, one above the other. In the upper division Hat, his brother and colleague Meran, their father and grandfather, are praying to Osiris, 'Lord of the Kingdom of the Dead'; below, Hat is bringing to his parents and grandparents offerings for the dead, while in the lower division Meran and two sisters unite with him in prayer to Osiris. The tablet could hardly have been designed for a temple, but still, by reason of its contents, it was considered appropriate for this place. It was doubtless intended that a similar tablet should be affixed to the pillar at the left, but perhaps none happened to be available; statuettes of divinities were probably placed on the pillars.