§87. During the march were sung the _versūs Fescennīnī_, abounding in coarse jests and personalities. The crowd also shouted the ancient marriage cry, the significance of which the Romans themselves did not understand. We find it in at least five forms, all variations of the name Talassius or Talassio, who was probably a Sabine divinity, though his functions are unknown. Livy derives it from the supposed name of a senator in the time of Romulus. The bride dropped on the way one of three coins which she carried as an offering to the _Larēs compitālēs_; of the other two she gave one to the groom as an emblem of the dowry she brought him, and one to the _Larēs_ of his house. The groom meanwhile scattered nuts through the crowd. This is explained by Catullus as a token of his having become a man and having put away childish things (§103), but the nuts were rather a symbol of fruitfulness. The custom survives in the throwing of rice in modern times. §88. When the procession reached the house, the bride wound the door posts with bands of wool, probably a symbol of her own work as mistress of the household, and anointed the door with oil and fat, emblems of plenty. She was then lifted carefully over the threshold, in order to avoid the chance of so bad an omen as a slip of the foot on entering the house for the first time. Others, however, see in the custom another survival of marriage by capture. She then pronounced again the words of consent: _Ubi tū Gāius, ego Gāia_, and the doors were closed against the general crowd; only the invited guests entered with the pair. [Illustration: FIGURE 16. THE MARRIAGE COUCH] §89. The husband met the wife in the atrium and offered her fire and water in token of the life they were to live together and her part in the home. Upon the hearth was ready the wood for a fire, and this the bride kindled with the marriage torch which had been carried before her. The torch was afterwards thrown among the guests to be scrambled for as a lucky possession. A prayer was then recited by the bride and she was placed by the _prōnuba_ on the _lectus geniālis_ (Fig. 16), which always stood on the wedding night in the atrium. Here it afterwards remained as a piece of ornamental furniture only. On the next day was given in the new home the second wedding feast (_repōtia_) to the friends and relatives, and at this feast the bride made her first offering to the gods as a _mātrōna_. A series of feasts followed, given in honor of the newly wedded pair by those in whose social circles they moved.