Each of the bedrooms at the rear had an alcove for a bed, the ceiling being vaulted over the alcove, flat between this and the door; a distinction between the two parts of the room was made also in the wall decoration and in the floor, of black and white mosaic. The frescoing on the walls of the sleeping rooms presents a brilliant variety of colors; the decoration of the exedra is in yellow. One of the bedrooms has a small side door (p. 261). In the large dining room at the right (_w_) the place for the table is indicated by an ornamental design in the mosaic floor; in the oecus (4) the part of the room designed for the table and couches is distinguished from the rest by a difference in the decoration both of the floor and of the wall. In the oecus, the excavation was made from which the house received its name. The peristyle had already been cleared, and the volcanic débris had been, for the most part, removed from the front part of the oecus, leaving a layer at the bottom about two feet deep. The King and Queen of Italy, with the Emperor and Empress of Germany and a small suite, stationed themselves in the corner of the peristyle opposite the opening of the oecus; when all was ready a line of workmen proceeded to draw back the loose fragments of pumice stone, exposing the floor to view. Here nothing was found except the bronze fastenings of the large doors; but a more fruitful outcome followed a similar search in a room of a small house adjoining the oecus on the south, in which several vessels of bronze were brought to light. The bath is unusually complete for a private house, comprising a long, narrow apodyterium (_v_), an open-air swimming tank in the garden (1), a tepidarium (_u_), and a caldarium (_t_). Steps led down into the swimming tank at the corner nearest the door of the apodyterium, and also on the side furthest from the house; on the same side a jet fell into it from a marble standard adorned with a lion's head. If we imagine a thick growth of shrubs and flowers about the tank, we have the setting which explains the tasteful decoration of the frigidarium in the Stabian Baths (p. 191) and in the Baths near the Forum. The pavement of the apodyterium is especially effective, being composed of small bits of black, white, dark red, green, and yellow marble and stone; near the rear wall a place for a couch is left white. The caldarium and the side of the tepidarium next to it were provided with hollow walls; a hollow floor extended under both rooms. In the left wall of the tepidarium is the bronze mouth of a water pipe; perhaps in winter a cold bath was taken here rather than in the swimming tank. In the caldarium the niche for the labrum remains; the bath basin probably stood opposite the entrance, where it could be easily heated from the kitchen. [Illustration: Fig. 148.--Transverse section of the house of the Silver Wedding, as it was before 63. Garden with colonnade Tetrastyle atrium Small atrium]