[265] There are distinct traces of a practice of taking oaths in the open air, _i.e._ under the sky; of Dius Fidius, unquestionably a form of Jupiter, Varro says (_L.L._ v. 66), "quidam negant sub tecto per hunc deiurare oportere." Cp. Plutarch, _Quaest. Rom._ 28; _R.F._ p. 138. For the conception of a single great deity as primitive, see Lang, _The Making of Religion_, ch. xii.; Flinders Petrie, _Religion of Egypt_ (in Constable's shilling series), ch. i.; Ross, _The Original Religion of China_, p. 128 foll.; Warneck, _Die Lebenskraefte des Evangeliums_, p. 20 (of the Indian Archipelago). The last reference I owe to Professor Paterson, of Edinburgh University. [266] Serv. _Aen._ viii. 552, "more enim veteri sacrorum neque Martialis flamen neque Quirinalis omnibus caerimoniis tenebantur quibus flamen Dialis, neque diurnis sacrificiis distinebatur." It is, however, possible that under the word _caerimonia_ Servius is not here including taboos, but active duties only. [267] See my paper, "The Strange History of a Flamen Dialis," in _Classical Review_, vol. vii. p. 193. [268] Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ p. 26. [269] Cato, _R.R._ 141; Henzen, _op. cit._ p. 48. [270] Frazer, _G.B._ iii. 123, note 3; _R.F._ p. 40, for further examples. It may be worth while to point out here that the coupling of all farm animals except goats took place in spring or early summer; Varro, _R.R._ ii. 2 foll. Isidorus (_Orig._ v. 33), who embodies Varro and Verrius to some extent, derived the name Mars from _mares_, because in the month of March "cuncta animalia ad mares aguntur." [271] I prefer, with De Marchi, to take Silvanus here as a cult-title, though we do not meet with it elsewhere; see _La Religione_, _etc._, p. 130 note; but Wissowa, who has a prejudice against the view that Mars was connected with agriculture, insists on taking Marti Silvano as a case of asyndeton, _i.e._ as two deities. [272] See, _e.g._, Varro, _L.L._ v. 36, "quos agros non colebant propter silvas aut id genus, ubi pecus possit pasci, et possidebant, ab usu salvo saltus nominarunt." [273] Cato, _R.R._ 141. Mars is there invoked as able to keep off (_averruncare_) evil influences and to make the crops grow, etc.; he has become in the second century B.C. a powerful deity in the actual processes of husbandry, just as he became in the city a powerful deity of war. But as he was not localised either on the farm or in the city, I prefer to think that he was originally conceived as a Power outside the boundary in each case, but for that very reason all the more to be propitiated by the settlers within it. [274] See below, p. 235. [275] So Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 131. Cp. _R.F._ p. 39, note 4. Deubner in _Archiv_, 1905, p. 75.