lambs and doves; nothing but what suggests a feeling of joyous innocence, as of the world’s golden age. The use of pictorial representations appears often to have been a matter of necessity. Many of the Christians could understand no other written language. Numerous inscriptions, by the extreme ignorance manifested--the wretched execution, grammar, and spelling--show the 229 lowly and unlettered condition of those who affixed them to the walls.[361] The relatives of the deceased would naturally desire some token by which they might recognize, in that vast and monotonous labyrinth of graves, the tomb of their departed friend. To those ignorant of letters an inscription would but ill subserve this purpose. Hence we often find some pictorial representation, either with or without an accompanying inscription, on the tomb. These were sometimes rude figures having a phonetic correspondence to the name of the deceased, and sometimes the emblems of his trade. Of the former kind are the following examples copied from the walls of the Lapidarian Gallery: [Illustration: PONTIVS · LEO · SE · BIVO · FECIT · SIBI ET PONTIA · MAZA · COZVS · VZVS. (_sic._) FECERVNT · FILIO · SVO · APOLLINARI · BENE MERENTI · “Pontius Leo made this for himself while living. He and his wife Pontia Maxima made this for their well-deserving son, Apollinaris.” Fig. 33.--Phonetic Symbol.] The friends of Leo were probably unable to read this inscription, whose atrocious latinity betrays the ignorance of the mason by whom it was executed, and therefore had engraved upon the stone the rude outline of a lion, the symbol of his proper name. Another slab bears the outline of a little pig, the pictorial translation of the somewhat singular name Porcella. It was, perhaps, a term of endearment, like the obsolete English “Pigsney.” 230 [Illustration: PORCELLA HIC DORMIT IN P · Q · VIXIT ANN · III · M · X · D · XIII · “Here sleeps Porcella in peace. She lived three years, ten months, and thirteen days.” Fig. 34.--Phonetic Symbol.] In like manner the tombs of Dracontius, Vitulus, and Onager, bear respectively a dragon, a steer, and an ass, the phonetic synonymes of these names. These figures may in some cases be a mere pictorial paronomasia, but the explanation above suggested is the more probable one. In the following example this is almost asserted: [Illustration: NABIRA IN PACE ANIMA DVLCIS QVI VIXIT ANOS XVI · M · V · ANIMA MELEIEA TITVLV FACTV [Transcriber’s Note: sailboat] APARENTES SIGNVM NABE. [_sic._] “Navira in peace; a sweet soul, who lived sixteen years and five months; a soul sweet as honey; this epitaph was made by her parents. The sign, a ship.” Fig. 35.--Phonetic Symbol.]