§95. Susceptio.--The power of the _pater familiās_ was displayed immediately after the birth of the child. By invariable custom it was laid upon the ground at his feet. If he raised (_tollere_, _suscipere_) it in his arms, he acknowledged it as his own by the act (_susceptiō_) and admitted it to all the rights and privileges that membership in a Roman family implied. If he refused to do so, the child became an outcast, without family, without the protection of the spirits of the dead (§27), utterly friendless and forsaken. The disposal of the child did not ordinarily call for any act of downright murder, such as was contemplated in the case of Romulus and Remus and was afterwards forbidden by Romulus the King (§32). The child was simply "exposed" (_expōnere_), that is, taken by a slave from the house and left on the highway to live or to die. When we consider the slender chance for life that the newborn child has with even the tenderest care, the result of this exposure will not seem doubtful. §96. But there was a chance for life, and the mother, powerless to interpose in her infant's behalf, often sent with it some trinkets or trifling articles of jewelry that would serve perhaps to identify it, if it should live. Even if the child was found in time by persons disposed to save its life, its fate might be worse than death. Slavery was the least of the evils to which it was exposed. Such foundlings often fell into the hands of those whose trade was beggary and who trained children for the same profession. In the time of the Empire, at least, they cruelly maimed and deformed their victims, in order to excite more readily the compassion of those to whom they appealed for alms. Such things are still done in southern Europe. §97. Dies Lustricus.--The first eight days of the life of the acknowledged child were called _prīmordia_, and were the occasion of various religious ceremonies. During this time the child was called _pūpus_ (§55), although to weak and puny children the individual name might be given soon after birth. On the ninth day in the case of a boy, on the eighth in the case of a girl, the _praenōmen_ (§43) was given with due solemnity. A sacrifice was offered and the ceremony of purification was performed, which gave the day its name, _diēs lūstricus_, although it was also called the _diēs nōminum_ and _nōminālia_. These ceremonies seem to have been private; that is, it can not be shown that there was any taking of the child to a _templum_, as there was among the Jews, or any enrollment of the name upon an official list. In the case of the boy the registering of the name on the list of citizens may have occurred at the time of putting on the _toga virīlis_ (§127). [Illustration: FIGURE 17. CREPUNDIA]