flowers. No marriage was celebrated before recourse to auspices.
The nuptial ceremony was performed in the bride's father's house, or
in the residence of the nearest relation. In the evening the bride was
conducted to her husband's house, taken thither apparently by force
from the arms of her mother or other relative, in memory of the
violence used to the Sabine women. Three boys, whose parents were
alive, attended her; two of them supported her by the arms, while the
third walked before, bearing a flambeau of pine or thorn.
Maid-servants followed with a distaff and wool, intimating that she
was to spin as matrons formerly did. Many relations and friends
attended the nuptial procession. The young men repeated jests and made
sport as she passed along. The bride bound the door-posts of her new
home with woollen fillets, and anointed them with the fat of swine or
wolves, to prevent enchantments. She was lifted over the threshold, or
lightly leaped over it, as it was thought ominous to put her foot upon
it, because the threshold was sacred to Vesta, the goddess of virgins.
Both she and her husband touched fire and water, as all things were
supposed to be produced from these two elements. With the water their
feet were bathed. The husband gave a feast, and musicians attended and
sang the nuptial song. After supper the bride was conducted to her
bed-chamber by matrons who had been only once married, and laid on her
couch, which was covered with flowers; songs were then sung by young
women before the chamber door till midnight. Next day another
entertainment was given by the husband, when presents were sent to the
bride by her friends and relations; and she began her family duties by
performing sacred rites.

Great attention was paid to funeral ceremonies. Many people believed
that the souls of the unburied were not admitted into the abodes of
the dead before they had wandered about the Styx at least a hundred
years. If one happened to discover an unburied body and did not throw
earth on it, he was compelled to expiate his crime by sacrificing a
hog to Ceres. When persons were at the point of death, their nearest
relation present endeavoured to catch the expiring breath with their
mouth, as they believed the soul or living principle went out by the
mouth. The nearest relation among the Romans closed the eyes and mouth
of the deceased, after putting money into the mouth for the ferryman
who was to take the soul of the dead ove