Turning now from the priests to the suppliants: these, we find, came from all parts of the Greek world, and from what ancient writers tell us their numbers appear to have been great. Where were they housed? Some, of course, dwelt in the abaton, the women probably in one part and the men in another, for a wall divided the East from the West abaton; but, as I have already pointed out, not more than 120 could find beds there at a time; perhaps the invalid was only housed there at first, and when he began to improve was drafted off to a hostel. Assuming that all the buildings which I have suggested to be hostels were such, they could not accommodate more than some four or five hundred patients. Perhaps we may assume that such was the usual number attending at ordinary times, while at the great festivals many thousands assembled. Whether this large number were lodged in tents or temporary wooden buildings, or otherwise, is uncertain. Probably multitudes of vigorous and able-bodied persons came to the festivals, and many of them may have been lodged six miles away at the town of Epidauros, or in villages or hamlets adjacent. The ten or twelve thousand who filled the Theatre or the Stadium cannot have been exclusively sick people. It seems probable that numbers of athletes and multitudes of Greeks who merely wanted a holiday and a little excitement came to the Megala Asklepieia as they came to the Isthmian or the Olympic games. Setting aside, therefore, all visitors of this class, who probably brought gains to the Sanctuary, and for whom accordingly space was provided in the Theatre, Stadium, and Hippodrome, I pass on to consider the suppliants proper. The patient on arrival probably had an interview with the priest or other official, and arranged about his accommodation with one of the Hieromnemones, or other secular person. He performs certain rites, bathes in the sacred fountain, and offers sacrifices under the direction of the Pyrophoros; the poor man gives his cake only, the rich his sheep, pig, or goat, or other offering in addition. The votive tablets frequently show the cakes (πόπανα) being presented, or the sheep, pig, or other animal. Where the ceremonial purification took place is uncertain. A deep well exists in the eastern abaton. A stone dropped struck the water in a fraction over three seconds, as I found after repeated trials. The well is therefore over 144 feet deep. Possibly the water used in the ritual was derived hence, but more probably the place of purification has yet to be found. “Only pure souls may enter here,” was inscribed over the entrance of the temple of Asklepios. Pausanias speaks of a fountain beautifully roofed and decorated, “κρήνη τῷ τε ὀρόφῳ καὶ κόσµῳ τῷ λοιπῷ θέας ἀξία.”[4] Can this have been the bath of Asklepios marked L in my plan? Traces of a large basin remain there.