word for them was _carmen_, viz. the _Carmen Saliare_, which
is too obscure and fragmentary to be of use to us, and the _Carmen_ of
the Arval Brethren, which is preserved on stone and is quite
intelligible.[388] The word _carmen_, let us notice, was used by the old
Romans for any kind of metrical formula, whether hymn, prayer, or spell.
Pliny, when writing of magic and incantations, plainly includes prayer
among them;[389] and Dr. Jevons has recently pointed out that singing,
and especially singing in a low voice or muttered tones, is a
characteristic of magic not only in Greece and Rome, but in many parts
of the world at the present day.[390] The evidence of the word is thus
strongly in favour of the view that these ancient _carmina_ of Roman
worship were really spells; and the _Carmen Arvalium_ itself does not
contradict it. After an elaborate sacrificial ceremonial the priests,
using a written copy of the _carmen_ (_libellis acceptis_), danced in
triple rhythm (_tripodaverunt_) while they sang it; it consisted of six
clauses, each repeated three times. "_Enos Lases iuvate! Neve luerve
Marmar sins incurrere in pleores! Satur fu fere Mars, limen sali, sta
berber! Semunes alternei advocapit cunctos! Enos Marmar iuvato!
Triumpe!_" With the precise interpretation of these words I am not now
concerned; but they obviously contain invocations to the Lares and Mars,
which may be either petitions or commands, and which perhaps are really
on the borderland between the two; and as thrice repeated, and
accompanied with dancing and gesticulation, they seem certainly to
belong rather to the region of magic than of religion proper.

It is interesting to compare with this _carmen_ the prayers of the guild
of brethren (_Attiedii_) at Iguvium; these are the best preserved of all
old Italian prayers, and though not Roman, are the product of the same
race. In the lustratio of the _arx_ (_Ocris Fisius_) of Iguvium we find
three several deities invoked, with elaborate sacrificial ritual, at
three gates, and a long prayer addressed to each deity, thrice repeated,
as in the _Carmen Arvale_. It is to be said under the breath (_tacitus
precator totum_, vi. A. 55), which was a common practice also at Rome,
and is believed to be characteristic of the magical spell;[391] and
except in the case of the first prayer, which is addressed to the chief
deity Jupiter Grabovius, it is accompanied by some kind of dancing or
rhythmical movement (_tripodatio_