PRACTICES TO OBTAIN CHILDREN 101 



sacrifice of goats and a dog, and the offering of sacred 

 cakes made by the Vestals from the first ears of the 

 last harvest, " two youths of high rank, belonging, we 

 may suppose one to each of the two collegia of Luperci, 

 . . . were brought forward ; these had their foreheads 

 smeared with the knife bloody from the slaughter of 

 the victims, and then wiped with wool dipped in milk. 

 As soon as this was done they were obliged to laugh." 

 The Luperci then " girt themselves with the skins of the 

 slaughtered goats, and feasted luxuriously ; after which 

 they ran round the base of the Palatine Hill, or at 

 least a large part of its circuit, apparently in two 

 companies one led by each of the two youths. As they 

 ran they struck at all the women who came near then* 

 or offered themselves to their blows, with strips of skirk 

 cut from the hides of the same victims " with which, 

 they were girt. The course taken up by the runners 

 has not been completely described ; but their object 

 was apparently a lustratio of the Palatine city. It is. 

 aptly compared by Mr. Fowler with the old English 

 custom of beating the bounds of the parish, "when 

 the minister," says Bourne as quoted by Brand, 

 " accompanied by his churchwardens and parishioners, . 

 [was] wont to deprecate the vengeance of God, beg a 

 blessing on the fruits of the earth and preserve the rights, 

 and properties of the parish." * The women were struck 

 according to Juvenal on the open hand, according to 

 Ovid on the back. The object was beyond doubt to 

 fertilise them. The only dispute is whether that 

 fertilisation was accomplished by purification, by 

 driving out the demon of sterility, or directly by the 

 touch of the sacred thongs. 



1 Fowler, 310 sqq Brand, i. 168* 



