The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-08-09
Odd Roman Ways.

Why did the Romans on return from
voyage, or even from a day in the country,
always send messenger to warn their
wives? We do not know why no maid
servant was allowed to enter "A certain tenn
pie, except one, whose ears were solemnly
boxed by the Roman ladies. We give it
up. Why the l.atins ''soe much honour and
reverence the woodpecker' is simple. There
was a tribe, the Piceni, named from Picus,
the woodpecker No doubt the bird had
been u totem. or sacred tribal animal, and
SO he answered to the humming bird, which
gave its na,Se to the Mexican god, Huitzil-
opochtli He was the war god of the Az
tees, just as the woodpecker was sacred to
Mars.
We do not know why the Roman women
wore white when they were in mourning.
Perhaps blac6 was too hot in summer.
Mary Stuart mourned for her first husband,
the French king, in white The carrying
OF bride over the threshold may be sur
vival of marriage by capture. She is not
supposed to come willingly This occurs
even to Plutarch, who remembers the rape
of the Sabnes Why did they throw wood
en- images of men over a bridge in May?
This may have been Il communication of hui
man sacrifice, but why they took out their
little boys with them to dinner parties is a
complete puzzle We know that Telema-
chus as a child dined out constantly, but
then his father was abroad.
Why the Lares brownies or household
spirits We're PORTRAYED clad in dogskins"
we really do not know, though Mr.. Jevons
offers a guess. Dogs are mixed up with
myths of death all over the world, and the
| Lares seem originally to have been ances-
| trail ghosts. Nor do we know why the Au-
! gurs We're obliged to carry their lanterns
and lamps always open, nor why the mobiles
| Wore little crtscents on their shoes, nor why
| they buried two Greeks and two Galatians
| alive in the Beast market. No doubt they
had some exquisite reason" like Sir An
| drew Aguecheek for abandoning them
unto | wot not what malign and divelish
strange spirits" But why did the Culdees
call their lady friends ''souls?" This is a
question of poignant modern interest. We
know not Though Mr.. Jevons does why
| they would not suffer their wives to grind
corn or dress meat or exercise any point
of cookerie." And why would they not
marry in May, Il superstition surviving in
Scotland? Queen Mary married Boutwell,
in May, and the line from Ovid deprecatng
the practice was applied to her.
| Indeed we know not why the priestess of
herself, poor lady, 1t must have been diff
ficult to find candidates for such squalid
appointment. Why they buried improper
vestals alive we know not unless it was to
encourage the others" Nuns of light CON
| duct We're treated in the same manner.
Rites, in the case of the vestals were per-
| formed to appease their ghosts. Why the
Flamen Dialis, or priest of Jupiter, might
not do all sorts of harmless necessary things
we may partly guess from similar restric-
tons laid on the mikado and the early
| Irish kings But who can guess why he
might not even name a dog or a goat2 He
might not touch ivy or pass under vine,
and we believe he had to daub his bedposts
with mud. But it does not seem that he
/ was forbidden to wash, so he was better Off
than the priestess of Juno. Mr. Jevons eX-
| plains some of the Flamen's taboos, but
| that on the mention of dogs and goats is
the most puzzling of Plutarchs conun-
drums London Neios.