[357] The whole subject of the preparation of the sacrificer for his work, and of the steps by which he becomes separated from the profane, is well treated by Hubert et Mauss, _Melanges d'histoire des religions_, p. 23 foll. The reference to Dr. Jevons is _Introduction_, ch. xx. p. 270 foll. [358] Serv. _Aen._ xii. 173; Virgil wrote "dant fruges manibus salsas, et tempora ferro Summa notant pecudum"; to which Servius adds that the symbolic movement was a (pretended) cut from head to tail of the victim. Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 352. [359] Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encycl., s.v._ "cinctus Gabinus." [360] Marquardt, p. 340. The Vestals were never, so far as we know, directly concerned in animal sacrifice. [361] See below, p. 190. For the colour of the garments, and the explanation referred to, see Samter, _Familienfeste_, p. 40 foll.; Diels, _Sibyllinische Blaetter_, p. 70; and cp. von Duhn's paper, "Rot und Tot" in _Archiv_, 1906, p. 1 foll. That red colouring was used in various ways in sacred and quasi-sacred rites there is no doubt (see above, p. 89, note 46); but whether it can be always connected with bloodshed is by no means so certain (Rohde, _Psyche_, i. 226). In the case of women it is at least hard to understand. The idea of consecration through blood, which is very rare in Roman literature, comes out curiously in the words which Livy puts into the mouth of Virginius after the slaughter of his daughter (iii. 48): "Te Appi tuumque caput sanguine hoc consecro" (_i.e._ to a deity not mentioned). The sentence to which this note refers was written before the appearance of Messrs. Hubert et Mauss' essay on sacrifice (_Melanges d'histoire des religions_, pp. 1-122). The theory there developed, that the victim is the intermediary in all cases between the sacrificer and the deity, and that the _force religieuse_ passes from one to the other in one direction or another, does not essentially differ from the words in the text; but the French savants would, I imagine, prefer to look on the insignia in a general sense as bringing the person wearing them within the region of the _sacrum_, the force of which would react on him still more strongly after the destruction of the victim (see p. 28 foll.). [362] See, _e.g._, _Roman Sculpture_ by Mrs. Strong, Plates xi. and xv. [363] For this and other insignia see Marquardt, p. 222 foll. The question is under discussion whether some of these insignia are not old Italian forms of dress (see Gruppe, _Mythologische Literatur_, 1898-1905, p. 343). For the wearing of the skin of a victim, which meets us also at the Lupercalia (_R.F._ p. 311), see Robertson Smith, _Semites_, p. 416 foll.; Jevons, _Introduction_, p. 252 foll.; Frazer, _G.B._ iii. 136 foll.