last the log was quite reduced to ashes, and the fire quenched, Meleager at the same time expired, and turned to dust.

QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION.

How is Diana described?

What is said of Actæon?

Why does Diana represent the moon?

What is said of her with regard to Alpheus?

Why is she called Triformis?

How is she named in the heavens, in the earth, and in bell and why so?

Repeat the Latin distich.

Why is she named Lunæ ?

How was Luna worshipped among the Egyptians?

What is said of Endymion?

What is said of Hecate?

Way was she called Trivia?

Why is she represented as encompassed with dogs?

Why is she called Bubastæ, and why Brimo?

Why was she called Lucina and Opis?

Why was she called Chitone?

Why was she named Dictynna?

Why did the ancients esteem it unlawful to hunt after the first of August?

Give some account of the stories of Chione and Meleager.

CHAPTER XV.

PALES, FLORA, FERONIA, POMONA.

THAT old lady, whom you see surrounded by shepherds, is Pales, the goddess of shepherds and pastures. Some call her Magna Mater and Vesta. To this goddess they sacrificed milk, and wafers made of millet, that she might make the pastures fruitful. They instituted the feasts called Palilia, or Parilia, to her honour, which were observed upon the eleventh or twelfth day of the calends of May

by the shepherds in the field, on the same day in which Romulus laid the foundation of the city. These feasts were celebrated to appease this goddess, that she might drive away the wolves, and prevent the diseases incident to cattle. The solemnities observed in the Palilian feasts were many: the shepherds placed little heaps of straw in a particular order, and at a certain distance; then they danced and leaped over them; then they purified the sheep and the rest of the cattle with the fume of rosemary, laurel, sulphur, and the like; as we learn from Ovid, who gives a description of the rites.

"Alma Pales, faveas pastoria sacra canenti,
Prosequar officio si tua facta meo.

Certe ego de vitulo cinerem, stipulamque fabalem
Sæpe tuli, læva, februa tosta, manu.

Certe ego transilui positas ter in ordine flammas,
Virgoque rorales laurea misit aquas."

Great Pales help; the past'ral rites I sing,
With humble duty mentioning each thing.

Ashes of calves, and bean-straws oft I've held,
With burnt purgations in a hand well fill'd.
Thrice o'er the flames, in order rang'd, I've leapt,
And holy dew my laurel twig has dript.

Flora, so dressed and ornamented, 13 the goddess and president of flowers. The Romans gave her the honour of a goddess, but in reality she was a woman of infamous character, who, by her abominable trade, heaped up a great deal of money, and made the people of Rome her heir. She left a certain sum, the yearly interest of which was settled, that the games called Florales, or Floralia, might be celebrated annually, on her birth-day. But because this appeared impious and profane to the senate, they covered their design, and worshipped Flora under the title of "goddess of flowers ;" and pretended that they offered sacrifice to her, that the plants and trees might flourish.

Ovid follows the same fiction, and relates, that Chloris, an infamous nymph, was married to Zephyrus, from whom she received the power over all the flowers. But let us return to Flora, and her games. Her image, as we find in Plutarch, was exposed in the temple of Castor and Pollux, dressed in a close coat, and holding in her right hand the flowers of beans and peas. For while these sports were celebrated, the officers, or ædiles, scattered beans and other pulse among the people. These games were proclaimed and begun by sound of trumpet, as we find mentioned in Juvenal.Sat. 6.

Feronia, the goddess of the woods, is justly placed near Flora, the goddess of flowers. She is called Feronia, from the care she takes in * producing and propagating trees. The higher place is due to her, because fruits are more valuable than flowers, and trees than small and ignoble plants. It is said she had a grove sacred to her, under the mountain Soracte: this was set on fire, and the neighbours were resolved to remove the image Feronia thence, when on a sudden the grove became green again. Strabo reports that those who were inspired by this goddess, used to walk barefoot upon burning coals without hurt. Though many believed, that by the goddess Feronia, that kind of virtue only is meant, by which fruit and flowers were produced.

Pomona is the goddess, the guardian, the president, not of the fapples only, but of all the frait and the product of trees and plants. As you see, she follows after Flora and Feronia, in order; but in the greatness of her merit she far surpasses them; and has a priest who serves her only, called Flamen Pomonalis.

*Feronia a ferendis arboribus dicta, Pomona a pomis dicitur.