Cf. Usener’s article on Italian Myths in _Rhein. Mus._ vol. xxx—a most interesting and suggestive piece of work, which, however, needs to be read with a critical mind, and has been too uncritically used by later writers, e. g. Roscher in his article on Mars. Frazer (_G. B._ ii. 208) adopts his conclusions about Mamurius, but, with his usual care, points out some of the difficulties in a footnote. Footnote 110: Usener, p. 211. Footnote 111: Lydus, 3. 29 and 4. 36. The words are rather obscure, but the meaning is fairly obvious. See Usener’s paraphrase, p. 210. Footnote 112: See above, p. 38. Footnote 113: Cp. what he says of the Salii singing of Janus κατὰ τὸν τῶν Ἰταλικῶν μηνῶν ἀριθμόν (4. 2). Footnote 114: e. g. in Numa 13. Footnote 115: _Aen._ 7. 188. Thilo and Hagen seem to think that Servius wrote _peltas_ (shields) on the evidence of one MS, wrongly, I think. Footnote 116: _Octavius_, 24. 3. Footnote 117: What is the meaning of _vetera_ here? Footnote 118: _Golden Bough_, ii. 208. Footnote 119: Mr. Frazer is careful to point out in a note that Lydus only mentions the name Mamurius. But as we know that Mamurius was called Veturius in the Salian hymn, and as Veturius may perhaps mean _old_, it is inferred that the skin-clad man was ‘the old Mars.’ The argument is shaky; its only strength lies in the Slavonic and other parallels. Footnote 120: Lydus is thought to have made a mistake in attributing it to the 15th (Ides); if so, he may have confused other matters in this curious note. But he is certainly explicit enough here (4. 36), and refers to the usual sacrifice to Jupiter on the Ides, and to ‘public prayers for the salubrity of the coming year,’ which we may be sure would be on the Ides, and not on a day of even number. I do not feel at all sure that Lydus was wrong as to the date, the more so as the Ides of May (which month has a certain parallelism with March) is the date of another curious ceremony of this primitive type, that of the _Argei_. Footnote 121: This was first noticed by Grimm (_Teutonic Mythology_, Eng. Trans., vol. ii. 764 foll.). Since then Mannhardt (_Baumkultus_, 410 foll.) and Mr. Frazer (_G. B._ i. 257 foll. and 264 foll.) have worked it out and explained it (see especially i. 275). It is generally believed that Death, or whatever be the name applied to the human being or figure expelled in these rites, signifies the extinct spirit of vegetation of the past year. I agree with Mr. Frazer, as against Usener and Roscher (_Lex._ s. v. Mars), that it is not any abstract conception of the year, or at least was not such originally. Footnote 122: