ess civilised Italians of
his own day, has used his knowledge to express the antique feeling that
there were places which man must shrink from entering--a feeling far
older than the invention of legal _consecratio_ by the authorities of a
City-state.

Lastly, the principle of taboo, or _religio_, if we use the Latin word,
affected certain times as well as places. Just as under the _ius
divinum_ of the fully-developed State certain spots were made over to
the deities for their habitation and rendered inviolable by
_consecratio_, so certain days were also appointed as theirs which the
human inhabitants might not violate by the transaction of profane
business. But I have just pointed out that the consecration of holy
places in this legal fashion was a late development of a primitive
feeling or _religio_; exactly the same, if I am not mistaken, was the
case with regard to the holy days. These were called _nefasti_, and
belong to the life of the State; but there were others, called
_religiosi_, which I believe to have been tabooed days long before the
State arose.

When we come to examine the ancient religious calendar, it will be found
that I shall not then be called upon to deal with _dies religiosi_, for
the very good reason that they are not indicated in that calendar--there
is no mark for them as _religiosi_, and some of them are not even _dies
nefasti_, as we might naturally have expected.[67] What, then, is the
history of them? We may be able to make a fair guess at this by noting
exactly what these days were; Dr. Wissowa has put them together for us
in a very succinct passage.[68] He begins the list with the 18th of
Quinctilis (July), on which two great disasters had happened to Roman
armies, the defeats on the Cremera and the Allia; and also the 16th, the
day after the Ides, because, according to the legend, the Roman
commander had sacrificed on that day with a view to gaining the favour
of the gods in the battle. We may regard the story about the 18th as
historical; but then we are told that _all_ days following on Kalends,
Nones, and Ides were likewise made _religiosi_ (or _atri_, _vitiosi_,
which have the same meaning) as being henceforward deemed unlucky by
pronouncement of senate and pontifices;[69] thus all _dies postriduani_,
as they were called, were put out of use, or at any rate declared
unlucky, for many purposes, both public and private, _e.g._ marriages,
levies, battles, and sacred rites,[70] simply b