Dr Verrall declines to assert positively the derivation of _Anthesteria_ he propounds, but a second philological argument brings certain conviction. Mr R. A. Neil suggests that the root which appears in Greek as θες may appear as _fes fer_ in Latin. This gives us the delightful equation or rather analogy ἀν-θεσ-τήρια, _in-fer-iae_. Of course _inferiae_ is usually taken as from _inferi_, _infra_ etc., but no Latin word ought to have medial _f_ except when preceded by a separable prefix. To make certainty more certain we have the Feralia, the festival of All Souls, kept from the 13th to the 31st of the month of Fe(b)ruary. The month of _purification_ is the month of rites to the dead, in a word _purgation is the placation of souls_. This is true for Latin and Greek alike and will emerge more clearly when we come to study in detail the ritual of the month of February. ANTHESTERION AND FEBRUARY. The general analogy between the months of Anthesterion and February, and the fact that both alike were unlucky and given over to the service of the dead, was clear to the ancients themselves. The scholiast on Lucian’s _Timon_[114], commenting on the word _Diasia_, says: ‘The day is unlucky ... there were among the Greeks certain days which brought with them complete idleness and cessation of business, and which were called unlucky (ἀποφράδες). On these days no one would accost any one else, and friends would positively have no dealings with each other, and even sanctuaries were not used. These times were so accounted on the analogy of the month of February, when also it was the custom to sacrifice to those below, and all that month was dedicated to the dead and accompanied by gloom, everything going on in an unusual fashion just as the Athenians celebrated the Diasia in gloom.’ Clearly to the scholiast the Diasia is but one element of a month given over to the dead.