3. After this the shepherd brought offerings to Pales, of whom there may perhaps have been in the farmyard a rude image made of wood[271]; among these were baskets of millet and cakes of the same, pails of milk, and other food of appropriate kinds. The meal which followed the shepherd himself appears to have shared with Pales[272]. Then he prays to the deity to avert all evil from himself and his flocks; whether he or they have unwittingly trespassed on sacred ground and caused the nymphs or fauni to fly from human eyes; or have disturbed the sacred fountains, and used branches of a sacred tree for secular ends. In these petitions the genuine spirit of Italian religion—the awe of the unknown, the fear of committing unwittingly some act that may bring down wrath upon you—is most vividly brought out in spite of the Greek touches and names which are introduced. He then goes on to his main object[273]: Pelle procul morbos: valeant hominesque gregesque, Et valeant vigiles, provida turba, canes. Absit iniqua fames. Herbae frondesque supersint, Quaeque lavent artus, quaeque bibantur, aquae. Ubera plena premam: referat mihi caseus aera, Dentque viam liquido vimina rara sero. Sitque salax aries, conceptaque semina coniunx Reddat, et in stabulo multa sit agna meo. Lanaque proveniat nullas laesura puellas, Mollis et ad teneras quamlibet apta manus. Quae precor eveniant: et nos faciamus ad annum Pastorum dominae grandia liba Pali. This prayer must be said four times over[274], the shepherd looking to the east and wetting his hands with the morning dew[275]. The position, the holy water, and the prayer in its substance, though now addressed to the Virgin, have all descended to the Catholic shepherd of the Campagna. 4. Then a bowl is to be brought, a wooden antique bowl apparently[276], from which milk and purple _sapa_, i. e. heated wine, may be drunk, until the drinker feels the influence of the fumes, and when he is well set he may leap over the burning heaps: Moxque per ardentes stipulae crepitantis acervos Traiicias celeri strenua membra pede[277].