[10] In the single crypt of St. Lucina, one hundred feet by one hundred and eighty, De Rossi counted over seven hundred _loculi_, and estimated that nearly twice as many were destroyed, giving a total of two thousand graves in this area. The same space, with our mode of interment, would not accommodate over half the number, even though placed as close together as possible, without any room for passages. [11] Compare Bryant’s _Thanatopsis_: “All that tread The globe are but a handful to the tribes That slumber in its bosom.” [12] _Rom. Sott._, ii, 127. [13] D’Agincourt, _Histoire de l’art par les Monumens_, i, 20. [14] Literally, little sleeping chambers, from _cubo_, I lie down. The same name was also given to the cells for meditation and prayer attached to the Church of Nola. Paulin., ep. 12, _ad Sever._ [15] Book II. [16] See Fig. 130 and context, where the entire subject is discussed. [17] See in the Cemetery of St. Helena, Fig. 29. [18] As in Fig. 12, and more strikingly in Fig. 76. [19] An organized body of diggers, by whom the Catacombs were excavated. See Book III, chap. iv. [20] See Fig. 29. [21] “Dum essem Romæ puer, et liberalibus studiis erudirer, solebam cum cæteris ejusdem ætatis et propositi, diebus Dominicis sepulchra apostolorum et martyrum circuire, crebròque cryptas ingredi, quæ in terrarum profunda defossæ, ex utraque parte ingredientium per parietes corpora sepultorum, ... ‘Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent.’”--Hieron. in _Ezech._, Cap. xl. [22] Unfortunately for Protestant visitors most of the Catacombs are open for inspection only on Sunday, when the work of exploration is suspended. [23] “And now through narrow, gloomy paths we go, ’Tween walls of earth and tombs.”--_Inferno._ [24] “Com’io discerno per lo fioco lume.”--_Inferno._ [25] “Full of the dead this far extending field.” [26] _Childe Harold_, iv, 104. [27] Hymnos et psalmos decantans.--Hieron., _Vit. Pauli_. [28] From “_L’Imagination_,” by Abbé de Lille, MacFarlane’s translation. [29] _Catacombs of Rome._ London, 1852. P. 94, _et seq._ [30] _Inferno_, Canto xxxiii, vv. 21-75. CHAPTER II. 49 THE ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE CATACOMBS.