Above the broad hearth of the kitchen (_s_), which stands against the wall adjoining the garden, are the vestiges of a painting of the two Lares; near them a serpent is seen coiled around an altar, on which is a large pine cone. At the end next the caldarium is a depression in the floor, for convenience in building a fire to heat the bath rooms. In the corner is a foundation of masonry to support the vessel, of lead, in which water was kept for the bath. The colonnade at the left of the house (6 on the Plan; see Fig. 148), with its slender eight-sided columns, seems to have been thrown down by the earthquake of 63, and removed. In the place of four of the columns an open-air triclinium was made, like that in the house of Sallust. It is well preserved, and shows an interesting peculiarity of construction. When the table was not in use, a jet of water would spring from the foundation of masonry supporting the round top. The water was conveyed by a lead pipe, and at the rear of the colonnade one may still see the stopcock by which the flow was regulated. The stairway at the left of the small atrium (β) led to rooms over the front of the house. Over the rooms at the rear, a bedroom (γ), a central room (δ) taking the place of the tablinum, and a corridor (ε), was a dining room, the front of which was supported by columns (p. 275), the stairway being in the corridor; fragments of the tufa columns are lying on the floor. At the back of the house was originally only the small sleeping room (ζ) with a simple decoration in the first style, and a colonnade (η) with Doric columns opening on the garden (κ). Later the colonnade was turned into an apartment, and two rooms were built at the left, a dining room (θ) and a bedroom (ι). In the front of one of the rooms (λ) is an unusually well preserved niche for the images of the household gods, ornamented with stucco reliefs and painted in the last style. On the rear wall stands Hercules, with the lion's skin hanging from his left arm, his club on the left shoulder. In his right hand he holds a large bowl above a round altar; at the left is a hog ready to be offered as a victim. CHAPTER XXXIX _THE HOUSE OF EPIDIUS RUFUS_ The house of Epidius Rufus, built, like those previously described, in the pre-Roman time, presents a pleasing example of a Corinthian atrium. In one respect it resembles the oldest Pompeian houses, such as that of the Surgeon; in the place of the peristyle is a garden extending back from a colonnade at the rear of the tablinum. In a period when large peristyles were the fashion, a Pompeian of wealth and taste, whose building lot was ample enough to admit of an extension of his house toward the rear, contented himself with a single group of rooms arranged about one central apartment.