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Although the concrete floor did not at first appear to have been anywhere penetrated by worms, yet by the next morning little cakes of the trodden-down earth had been lifted up by worms over the mouths of seven burrows, which passed through the softer parts of the naked concrete, or between the interstices of the tesserae.
Grasping the lantern from my hand he holds it close to the ground, when the rays reveal a complete mosaic a pavement of minute tesserae of many colours, of intricate pattern, a work of much art, of much time, and of much industry.
Four tali were used at a time and they, like the tesserae, were generally thrown from a box, fritillus. The tesserae, of which three were used at a time, were cubes, with the sides numbered from 1 to 6 in such a way that the numbers on two opposite sides taken together always made 7. A separate name was used by dicers for almost every possible throw of the tesserae and tali.
He reached into his tunic and drew forth a pair of dice. "We will play for her," he said. The Maccabee put the tesserae aside. "We will not use them," he said. "I know them to be cogged. Let us have the judgment of a coin." A bronze coin of Agrippa was produced.
Twenty centuries later, Rameses III. originated a new style at Tell el Yahûdeh. This time the question of ornamentation concerned, not a single chamber, but a whole temple. The mass of the building was of limestone and alabaster; but the pictorial subjects, instead of being sculptured according to custom, were of a kind of mosaic made with almost equal parts of stone tesserae and glazed ware.
The beauties of the tesselated floor of the governor's house are once again consigned to darkness; the trench is filled up; the sod laid smoothly down; he wipes the perspiration from his forehead with the same handkerchief he had used to mop the skeleton and tesserae clean; and we make for the eastern gate of the fortress. Dawn bursts upon us suddenly as we reach the opening.
Worm- castings were observed on the floors of several of the rooms, in one of which the tesselation was unusually perfect. The tesserae here consisted of little cubes of hard sandstone of about 1 inch, several of which were loose or projected slightly above the general level. One or occasionally two open worm-burrows were found beneath all the loose tesserae.
Even as far back as three hundred years ago these beautiful relics were being discovered in this town; for Leland in his "Itinerary," mentions the finding of some tesserae; unfortunately but few have been preserved.
The company is at the favorite games, draughts and dice, singly or together, and the rattle is merely of the tesserae, or ivory cubes, loudly shaken, and the moving of the hostes on the checkered boards. Who are the company? "Good Flavius," said a player, holding his piece in suspended movement, "thou seest yon lacerna; that one in front of us on the divan.
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