Chap. 3.] WHETHER WORDS ARE OF HEALING EFFICACY. 2/P 



though at the moment we are not sensible of it. Thus, for 

 instance, it is a general belief that without a certain form of 

 prayer 16 it would be useless to immolate a victim, and that, 

 with such an informality, the gods would be consulted to little 

 purpose. And then besides, there are different forms of 

 address to the deities, one form for entreating, 17 another form for 

 averting their ire, and another for commendation. 



We see too, how that our supreme magistrates use certain 

 formulae for their prayers: that not a single word may be 

 omitted or pronounced out of its place,fit is the duty of one 

 person to precede the dignitary by reacung the formula before 

 him from a written ritual, of another, to keep watch upon 

 every word, and of a third to see that 18 silence is not ominouslj* 

 foroken; while a musician, in the meantime, is performing on the 

 fiuta to prevent any other words being heard. 19 Indeed, there ^ 

 Are memorable instances recorded in our Annals, of cases where 

 either the sacrifice has been interrupted, and so blemished, 

 fty imprecations, or a mistake has been made in the utterance 

 of the prayer J the result being that the lobe of the liver or 

 the heart has disappeared in a moment, or has been doubled, 20 

 while the victim stood before the altar, f There is still in exist- 

 ence a most remarkable testimony, 21 in the formula which the 

 Decii, father and son, pronounced on the occasions when they 

 devoted themselves. 22 There is also preserved the prayer 

 uttered by the Vestal Tuccia, 23 when, upon being accused of 

 incest, she carried water in a sieve an event which took place 

 in the year of the City 609. Our own age even has seen a 

 man and a woman buried alive in the Ox Market, 24 Greeks by 

 birth, or else natives of some other 25 country with which we 



16 Beginning with an address to Janus and Vesta, imploring their inter- 

 cession with the other divinities, and concluding with an appeal to Janus. 



17 " Impetritis." 



18 " Qui favere linguis jubeat." " Favete linguis " were the words used 

 in enjoining strict silence. 



19 By him who is offering up the prayer. 



20 A trick adroitly performed by the priests, no doubt. 



21 Given by Livy, in Books viii. and x. 



!2 To death, in battle, for the good of their country. 



23 Preserved by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 1. Tertullian and Saint 

 Augustin doubt the authenticity of the story. She is said to have carried 

 water in a sieve from the river Tiber to the temple of Vesta. 



24 " Forum Boarium ; M in the Eighth Kegion of the City. 



25 Of Gaul, as Plutarch informs us, who mentions also the Greek victims. 



