446 
whofe body was reduced to dust, during 
the excavation. And laftly, were found 
an agrafe of bronze, and a glafs ring fo 
Jarge, that, if made ufe of for aring, it 
could only be worn on the thumb. Hifto-' 
ry informs us, that Maximin the Elder, 
célebrated for his enormous {tature, wore 
his wife’s bracelet on his thumb, in the 
manner of a ring. 
The circular iorm of the inclofure dif- 
covered near Aurillac, leads Citizen Mon- 
gez to conjecture that it was made use of 
te burn bodies, and was a ufirinum ; like 
the circular inclofure of ground on which 
the body of Auguftus was burned, and’ 
which was religioufly preferved near his 
gore ae a part of which fubfifts to this 
day ; like an inclofure of the fame form, 
difcovered, in the year 1763, near Pla- 
centia, in the rutns of the ancient Veleia, 
which appears to have been buried by the 
fall of a mountain; an inelofure which 
Winkelmann recognized for a uflrinum. 
Some of the infcriptions read on the fe- 
pulchral ftones of the Romans, indicate 
an expre{s prohibition to join a uffrinum 
to the monument.—What was the motive 
of this prohibition? This is a matter 
which has not been hitherto inveftigated. 
After having noticed the law of theTwelve. 
Tables, which forbade the burning ef any 
bodies nearer than the diftance of fixty 
feet from any building, unlefs the owner 
confented to let the funeral pile approach, 
our colleague is of opinion that this pro- 
hibition fuppofed the vicinage of fome 
building, the proprietor of which Tigoe 
roufly exacted the execution of the law. 
A fecond objeét which has given place 
to fubterranean refearches, is the finall 
buft of a woman, found in certain exca- 
vations at Aurillac; which buft is the 
femainder of an entire figure. Citizen 
Mongez reminds us that Montfaucon has 
given the defign of four fimilar figures of 
women ; _they were ail of the kind of clay 
Called pipe-clay : the workmanfhip was 
rude, and fo in ail; and th rey had all 
Been moulded. One Oe them was found 
in the year 1710, in excavations made at 
Blois, in the inclofure of the Abbey de St. 
Lomer. It was depofited in a fimall cafe, 
which contained the boney fragm ents of 
animsls half-burned.; among which was 
- found the leg-bone of a horfe, and a dog’s 
tooth: It was a cufiom among the an- 
cient Gau' '8, £0 throw into their feneral 
pile the animals which they valued moft, 
fuch as dogs and horfes. We may, there- 
“Sie, conclude, that the cave of Blois was 
, jace of Gallic fepulture 5 and, by ana- 
that the inciofure ne Aurillac ap- 
Proceeaings of Learned Societies. 
[June 1 
pertained to the fame nation, ' The buf’ 
of a woman found here, exhibits, in fact, 
the fame eharaGters aS the figures pub- 
lifhed by Montfaucon; and, moreover, 
with this: buft was found a figure of a deg 
of the fame materials, and of the fame 
workmanfhip. 
Thefe figures of women have been fo 
often difinterred in the fepulchres of the 
Gauls, the ftyle, the workmanfhip, and 
the materials, have fo ftrong a’ refem- 
blance, that we cannot refrain from fup- 
pofing that one and the fame motive caufed 
them to be depofited there. Citizen 
Mongez conceives that they might have 
repreiented the mother-goddeffes in gene- 
ral; and, in particular, fuch of thofe di- 
Vinities as the defunct, whofe afhes re- 
poled in thofe-tombs, had adopted for their 
protreétrefles.. Much has been written, in 
the two laft centuries, on’ the mother- 
goddeffes;- of whom mention is. made in 
the fepulchral infcriptions of the Romans 
—Diis Matribus .. . Matronis, &c. As 
there were fometimes joined to thefe in- 
{criptions bas reliefs, which reprefented 
three women, fometimes ftanding’ up, 
feated, holding fruits, pine-apples, and 
cornucopiz, the mother-goddefles were 
taken, at firt, for rural divinities! But 
one of thefe monuments was found in 
the city of Lyons; and, among other ti- 
tles, they are called the mothers of Gali- 
cia, the mothers of Gabia, &c. Their 
protection extended likewife over the city 
and piovines. Keifler. imagined that 
they were thofe Druid women for. whom 
the Gauls had fo great a veneration ; but 
he is contradigted by the monuments: of 
this kind wh ch have been confecrated in 
countries very remote from Gaul. Laftly, 
others have taken the mother- -godd: fies 
for the three Deitinies; but itis not fo 
very certain that the Deftinies made a part 
of the mytholegy of all the nations 
among which the divinities here alluded to 
were honoured 3 befides, thefe latter had 
their peculiar detonate Fata. And, 
latly, Banier fuggelts the moft probable 
opinion relative to thele mother goddefles 5 
he fuppofes them to be divinities common 
to feveral nations, and that their furnames 
defignated the places where worfhip was — 
paid to them. 
We may add, that the women acknow- 
ledoed them for their fpecial tntelary det- 
Hes, as we read on two in{eriptions : Ma- 
tronis Gabiabus.——Funonibus Gabiabus. 
Every woman profelted to have a genius ~ 
of her own fex, who proteéted her; by 
whom fhe fwore, and whom fhe called her 
Juno. It was alfo by her Juno that the 
infamous ~ 
