Chap. 3.] WHETHEll WOEDS ARE OF HEALING EFFICACY. 279 
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^^ 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," 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, it is the duty of one 
person to precede the dignitary by reading the formula before 
him from a written ritual, of another, to keep watch upon 
every word, and of a third to see that^^ silence is not ominously 
broken ; while a musician, in the meantime, is performing on the 
flute to prevent any other words being heard. Indeed, there 
are memorable instances recorded in our Annals, of cases where 
either the sacrifice has been interrupted, and so blemished, 
by imprecations, or a mistake has been made in the utterance 
of the prayer ; the result being that the lobe of the liver or 
the heart has disappeared in a moment, or has been doubled,^ 
while the victim stood before the altar. There is still in exist- 
ence a most remarkable testimony, in the formula which the 
Decii, father and son, pronounced on the occasions when they 
devoted themselves. There is also preserved the prayer 
uttered by the Yestal Tuccia,^^ 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, Greeks by 
birth, or else natives of some other^^ country with which we 
Beginning with an address to Janus and Vesta, imploring their inter- 
cession with the other divinities, and concluding with an appeal to Janus, 
" " Impetritis." 
1^ Qui favere linguis jubeat.'* " Favete Unguis " were the words used 
in enjoining strict silence. 
By him who is offering up the prayer. 
A trick adroitly performed by the priests, no doubt. 
21 Given by Livy, in Books viii. and x. 
22 To death, in battle, for the good of their country. 
^3 Preserved by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 1. TertuUian 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. 
2^ " Forum Boarium in the Eighth Region of the City. 
25 Of Gaul, as Plutarch informs us, who mentions also the Greek victims. 
