etween the name of the temple, and its rites and situation:
so that the etymology may be ascertained by the history of the place. The
like will appear in respect to rivers and mountains; especially to those
which were esteemed at all sacred, and which were denominated from the Sun
and fire. I therefore flatter myself that the etymologies which I shall lay
before the reader will not stand single and unsupported; but there will be
an apparent analogy throughout the whole. The allusion will not be casual
and remote, nor be obtained by undue inflexions and distortions: but,
however complicated the name may appear, it will resolve itself easily into
the original terms; and, when resolved, the truth of the etymology will be
ascertained by the concomitant history. If it be a Deity, or other
personage, the truth will appear from his office and department; or with
the attributes imputed to him. To begin, then, with antient Latium. If I
should have occasion to speak of the Goddess Feronia, and of the city
denominated from her, I should deduce the from Fer-On, ignis Dei Solis; and
suppose the place to have been addicted to the worship of the Sun, and the
rites of fire. I accordingly find, from Strabo and Pliny, that rites of
this sort were practised here: and one custom, which remained even to the
time of Augustus, consisted in a ceremony of the priests, who used to walk
barefoot over burning coals: [569][Greek: Gumnois gar posi diexiasin
anthrakian, kai spodian megalen.] _The priests, with their feet naked,
walked over a large quantity of live coals and cinders_. The town stood at
the bottom of Mount Soracte, sacred to Apollo; and the priests were styled
Hirpi. Aruns, in Virgil, in his address to Apollo, takes notice of this
custom:

[570]Summe Deum, magni custos Soractis, Apollo,
Quem primi colimus; cui pineus ardor acervo
Pascitur, et medium freti pietate per ignem
Cultores multa premimus vestigia pruna;
Da, Pater.

The temple is said to have been founded on account of a pestilential
[571]vapour, which arose from a cavern; and to which some shepherds were
conducted by ([Greek: Lukos]) a wolf. Were I to attempt the decyphering of
Ferentum, I should proceed in a manner analogous to that above. I should
suppose it to have been named _Fer-En, ignis, vel Solis fons_, from
something peculiar either in its rites or situation. I accordingly find,
that there was a sacred fountain, whose waters were styled Aquae
Ferentinae,--