Strange scattered relics of this nest of mediæval man linger and come down to us even in the nineteenth century. Amongst these are the _porte del mortuccio_, or doors of the dead. All the best houses had these doors alongside of their house-doors, but they are bricked up now and quite disused, and might easily be ignored in passing through the streets. The _porta del mortuccio_ is tall, narrow, and pointed at the top; it is, indeed, just wide enough to pass a coffin through. It seems that in very early days, even so far back as the Etruscans, there was a superstition that through the door where Death had passed, Death must enter in again. By building a separate door, which was only used by the dead, the spirit of Death passed out with the corpse, the narrow door was closely locked behind it, and the safety of the living was secured, as far as the living can secure, from Death. Other charming details of the mediæval city are the house doors. They are built of travertine or _pietra serena_, and have little garlands of flowers and fruit bound with ribbons, and delicate friezes above them. Some of them have very beautiful Latin inscriptions, which show a strong religious sentiment. We quote a few of them here: _Janua coeli_ (door of heaven, over a church); _Pulchra janua ubi honesta domus_ (beautiful the door of the house which is honest); _A Deo cuncta--a domino omnia_ (all things from God); _Ora ut vivas et Deo vives_ (pray to live and thou shalt live to God); _Prius mori quam fædari_ (die rather than be disgraced); _In parvis quies_ (in small things peace); _Solicitudo mater divitiarum_ (carefulness is the mother of riches); _Ecce spes I.H.S. mea semper_ (Christ always my hope). Over one or two of the doorways in Perugia you will find almost byzantine bits of tracery with figures of unknown animals--beasts of the Apocalypse--carved in grey travertine all round them. One of the very earliest bits of mediæval building is the fragment of a door of this sort, belonging to the first palace of the _Priori_, which is now almost buried in the more modern buildings of the sixteenth century. There is another amusing procession of beasts over a gateway below S. Ercolano. These odd animal friezes were probably first designed for some sort of closed market where beasts were sold, and the old Pescheria has medallions of _lasche_ on its walls. As for the ways and manners of the people who inhabited this mediæval city, Ciatti and other writers supply us with plenty of fantastic information: