The employment of household slaves necessarily varied according to the rank and condition of their lords. In the dwellings of the wealthy and luxurious they were accustomed to fan their masters and mistresses, and to drive away the flies with branches of myrtle, instead of which, in the East, they make use of flappers of palm-leaves. Among the Roman ladies it was customary to retain a female attendant for the sole purpose of looking after the Melitensian lap-dogs[132] of their mistresses, in which they were less ambitious than that dame in Lucian, who kept a philosopher for this purpose.[133] Female cup-bearers filled the place of our saucy footmen.[134] Ladies’ maids were likewise slaves. They were initiated in all the arts of the toilette; and it is told of Julia, whose hair turned prematurely grey, that her ornatrix was sometimes surprised plucking out the white hairs by the entrance of her father.[135] The offices of these ornamenters is thus described by Manilius: Illis cura sui vultus frontisque decoræ Semper erit, tortosque in plexum ponere crineis, Aut nodis revocare, et rursus vertice denso Fingere et appositis caput emutare capillis.[136] ----- Footnote 132: Pignor. De Serv. p. 190. In illustration of the fondness of certain persons for animals, it is related, that there was an old lady in Egypt who habitually slept with a crocodile. Plut. Solert. Anim. § 23. Footnote 133: De Merced. Conduct. § 34. Footnote 134: Pignor. De Serv. p. 190. Athen. i. 20. Footnote 135: Macrob. Saturn. ii. 5. Footnote 136: Manil. v. p. 117. v. 28. ed. Scalig. -----