It really has a double meaning: to consecrate, and to insure penalty, whereby dwellings are abandoned after the death of their owners in the supposition that they are sacred to the spirits of the departed. _Roman Lares_ The Lares of the Romans were domestic or public, the domestic Lares were the souls of the virtuous ancestors exalted to the rank of protectors. They took the form of images like dogs set behind the Entrance, or in the Lararium or shrine. There were also public Lares, whose province was the protection of streets and roads. This belief in the dead as guardian spirits accounts for a form of sacrifice in which the victims were buried under foundations, a custom modified in later times to the sacrifice of animals. It survives at the present day in burying current coins at the ceremony of laying the foundation-stone in public buildings. _Typical Legend_ Many of the legends of the Middle Ages associated with Architecture are reminiscent of the early customs of sacrifice in the oft-repeated traditions of demoniacal aid. The story generally deals with some difficult problem in design or construction for the solution of which the architect or builder enters into the usual compact with the evil one, the terms being that the latter party to the contract shall take possession of the first living being that enters into or crosses the structure. Invariably the enemy of mankind is outwitted, a dog or some other animal being the first to enter, the builder’s sense of caution being in every instance greater than his vanity. Similar in idea was the Hebrew custom of the scapegoat, which also anticipated and symbolised the Atonement. With the Greeks the cock was not sacrificed, it being sacred to the Sun and Moon, as it announced the hours. The cock was also sacred to the Goddess of Wisdom and to Æsculapius. Therefore it represented Time, Wisdom and Health, none of which should be sacrificed. _Early Spiritual Belief_ Experience due to the involuntary action of the brain in dreaming, when the ordinary laws of time and space are modified could hardly fail to impress the primitive imagination and suggest the duality of being--physical and spiritual. In some savage communities at the present day there is a belief that the soul or spirit is absent during sleep and that it would be dangerous to wake the sleeper, as, should he close his mouth, the soul would be unable to return. This belief that the soul should be free to go and come is evidenced in the aperture that has been found in Kist-vaens and other forms of tombs. _Prehistoric Treatment of Epileptics_