[216]. Ovid, l. c. 635 ‘Pars cadit arce Iovis. Ter denas curia vaccas Accipit, et largo sparsa cruore madet.’ Cp. Varro, L. L. 6. 15. Preller, ii. 6, understands Ovid’s ‘pars’ as meaning more than one cow.

[217]. Ovid, l. c. 633 ‘Nune gravidum pecus est, gravidae nunc semine terrae; Telluri plenae victima plena datur.’

[218]. Ovid, l. c. 637.

Ast ubi visceribus vitulos rapuere ministri,

Sectaque fumosis exta dedere focis,

Igne cremat vitulos quae natu maxima Virgo,

Luce Palis populos purget ut ille cinis.

[219]. See below, p. [83].

[220]. This appears plainly in Ovid’s account (Fasti, 4. 633 foll.), and also in that of Lydus (4. 49): περὶ τὰ σπόριμα ὑπὲρ εὐετηρίας ἱεράτευον. Both doubtless drew on Varro. Lydus adds one or two particulars, that the ἀρχιερεῖς (?) scattered flowers among the people in the theatre, and went in procession outside the city, sacrificing to Demeter at particular stations; but he may be confusing this festival with the Ambarvalia.

[221]. See Mannhardt, Myth. Forsch. 190; cp. Frazer, G. B. ii. 43.