Perhaps better known by its many similar looking fortune teller machines, the Mouth of Truth is a marble slab with the face of a pagan god, though scholars are still debating exactly which one. While its original purpose is still unclear, modernity has certainly found an entertaining use for its agape mouth. A tale behind its usage in the past was that during trials, the accused would place his hand in the hole, and if he were found to be lying, a hidden axeman would chop it right off (there goes your fingers *gasps*!). The Bocca della Verità lies outside the Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin. For those of you who would have done your homework, you would know that the Bocca della Verità was not always outside of the walls of the Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin. Its former home was in the Piazza della Bocca della Verita until 1632.