Chap. 5.] A DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS USAGES. 2S5 



written b}^ Servius Sulpicius, a man of the highest rank, in 

 which reasons are given why we should never leave the table 

 we are eating at ; for in his day it was not yct^^ the practice to 

 reckon more tables than guests at an entertainment. Where a 

 person has sneezed, it is considered highly ominous for the 

 dish or table to be brought back again, and not a taste thereof 

 to be taken, after doing so ; the same, too, where a person at 

 table eats nothing at all. 



These usages have been established by persons who enter- 

 tained a belief that the gods are ever present, in all our affairs 

 and at all hours, and who have therefore found the means of ap- 

 peasing them by our vices even. It has been remarked, too, 

 that there is never a dead silence on a sudden among the guests 

 at table, except when there is an even number present ; when 

 this happens, too^ it is a sign that the good name and repute of 

 every individual present is in peril. In former times, when 

 food fell from the hand of a guest, it was the custom to return 

 it by placing it on the table, and it was forbidden^^ to blow 

 upon it, for the purpose of cleansing it. Auguries, too, have been 

 derived from the words or thoughts of a person at the moment 

 such an accident befalls him ; and it is looked upon as one of 

 the most dreadful of presages, if this should happen to a pontiff, 

 while celebrating the feast of Dis." The proper expiation in 

 such a case is, to have the morsel replaced on table, and then 

 burnt in honour of the Lar.^^ Medicines, it is said, will prove 

 ineffectual, if they happen to have been placed on a table before 

 they are administered. It is religiously believed by many, 

 that it is ominous in a pecuniary point of view, for a person to 

 pare his nails without speaking, on the market days^^ at Rome, 

 or to begin at the forefinger*^" in doing so : it is thought, too, 



^^ It was not yet the custom to bring in several courses, each served up 

 on a separate table. 



°^ Good manners possibly, more than superstition, may have introduced 

 this practice. 



•''" Or Pluto. He alludes to the Feralia, or feasts celebrated, in the 

 month of February, in honour of the dead. 



°'^ Or household god. 



5^ The "NundinaR," held every ninth day; or rather every eifjhtli day, 

 iiocording to our mode of reckoning. 



'^" Gronovius suggests a reading which Avould make this to mean that it 

 is ''• ominous to touch money with the forefinger." It does not appear to 

 be warranted, however. 



