[Illustration: Fig. 81.--Scene from the worship of Isis--the adoration of the holy water. Wall painting from Herculaneum.] The second service was held at two o'clock in the afternoon, but we do not possess exact information in regard to it. It is, perhaps, depicted in a fresco painting from Herculaneum (Fig. 81), the subject of which is a solemn act in the worship of Isis, the adoration of the holy water. In the portico of the temple, above the steps, two priests and a priestess are standing. The priest in the middle holds in front of him, in the folds of his robe, a vessel containing the holy water, which was supposed to be from the Nile; his two associates are shaking the sistrum. There is an altar at the foot of the steps; a priest is fanning the fire into flame. On the right and the left of the altar are the worshippers, with other priests, part of whom are shaking the sistrum, while a fluteplayer sits in the foreground at the right. Another painting, the counterpart of that just described, seems to portray the celebration of a festival; the surroundings correspond fairly well with those of our temple. The doors are thrown back; a dark-visaged man, wearing a wreath, is dancing in the doorway. Behind him, within the temple, are the musicians, among whom can be distinguished a girl striking the cymbals and a woman with a tambourine. About the steps are priests and other worshippers, shaking the sistrum and offering prayer; in front stands a burning altar. An important festival of Isis occurred in November. It commenced with an impassioned lamentation over the death of Osiris and the search for his body. On the third day, November 12, the finding of the body by Isis was celebrated with great rejoicing. So, perhaps, in this painting the dance is a manifestation of the joy with which the festival ended, the whole picture being a scene from the observance of the Egyptian Easter. In such celebrations use would be made of the small brazier of bronze found in the court in front of our temple, on which incense could be burned. The ablutions, which played so important a part in Egyptian rites, were performed in the rear of the court, where stood a cylindrical leaden vessel, adorned with Egyptian figures in relief; a jet fell into it from a lead pipe connected with the city aqueduct. The small building at the southeast corner of the court, which is known as the Purgatorium, was open to the sky. It was made to look like a roofed structure by the addition of gables at the ends. On the inside, at the rear, a flight of steps leads down toward the right to a vaulted underground chamber, about five feet wide and six and a half feet long. The inner part of the chamber, divided off by a low wall, was evidently intended for a tank. In one of the corners in the front part is a low base, on which a jar could be set while it was being filled. Here the holy Nile water--more or less genuine--was kept for use in the sacred rites.