Though the influence of Hellenic religion failed to transform the many other _indigetes_ into gods, still it affected their cult in other ways. For one thing, it provided them now for the first time with temples or chapels. This innovation was doubtless found strange by the folk to whom the fashionable ideas from Hellas penetrated slow and late. In the case of Carmenta it must have seemed particularly strange. Carmenta was one of the several _indigetes_ whose power was manifested in the various processes of gestation;[58] and she was invoked as Porrima (Prorsa or Antevorta) or Postverta, according as the child came into the world head or foot foremost. From the mention of a _saxum Carmentæ_,[59] near which was the _porta Carmentalis_, and near which the temple in question was erected, we may venture to infer that this rock was originally the local habitation of the spirit. Why then needed she to have a temple built? This was a point which, to the popular mind, required explanation; and a popular explanation was accordingly forthcoming, which has fortunately been preserved to us by Plutarch. It starts from a folk-etymology or confusion between the name Carmenta and the word _carpenta_, meaning "coaches," and may be read at length in _R. Q._ 56. There remains one other _indiges_ who is mentioned in the _Romane Questions_—Rumina (_R. Q._ 57) the _numen_ of suckling. As the temple of Carmenta was erected near the _saxum Carmentæ_, so the _sacellum_ of Rumina was built near the _ficus Ruminalis_; and as we may conjecture that the rock was in the nature of a fetich, so we may infer that Rumina was a tree-spirit. It is easy to understand why a fig-tree was chosen as the abode of the spirit of suckling; the sap of this tree resembles milk and was known to the Romans as _lac_. The fact reported by Plutarch,[60] that milk, not wine, was offered in the cult of Rumina, is quite in accord with the principles of sympathetic magic. The worship of this spirit bears every mark of hoar antiquity, and it was worked into the legend of the foundation of Rome by the device of making the wolf suckle the twins under the _ficus Ruminalis_. VII. TREE AND FIELD CULTS.