It may be as well to note that the custom of tying some object in straw—wheel, pole with cross-piece, man who slips out in time, &c.—and then burning it and carrying it about the fields, is common in Europe and elsewhere (Frazer, _G. B._ ii. 246 foll.). At the same time animals are sometimes burnt in a bonfire: e.g. squirrels, cats, foxes, &c. (_G. B._ ii. 283). The explanation of Mannhardt, adopted by Mr. Frazer, is that they were corn-spirits burnt as a charm to secure sunshine and vegetation. If the foxes were ever really let loose among the fields, damage might occasionally be done, and stories might arise like that of Carseoli, or even laws forbidding a dangerous practice. Footnote 258: In _C. I. L._ 315 this mark is confused with those of the 23rd. Footnote 259: The letters _an_ also appear in a fragment of a lost note in Esq. Mommsen quotes Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 775, and Tibull. 2. 5. 81 for the idea of an _annus pastorum_ beginning on this day. I can find no explanation of it, astronomical or other. Dion. Hal. 1. 88 calls the day the beginning of spring, which it certainly was not. Footnote 260: For the form of the word see Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 315. (In Varro, _L. L._ 6. 15, it is Palilia.) Preller-Jordan, i. 416. Footnote 261: ‘Palilia tam privata quam publica sunt.’ Varro, ap Schol. in Persium, 1. 75. See on Compitalia, below, p. 279. Footnote 262: Serv. _Georg._ 3. 1: ‘Pales ... dea est pabuli. Hanc ... alii, inter quos Varro, masculino genere vocant, ut hic Pales.’ There can be no better proof of the antiquity of the deity in Italy. Footnote 263: _L. L._ 5. 53. Footnote 264: There was a _flamen Palatualis_ (Varro, _L. L._ 7. 45, and Fest. 245) and an offering _Palatuar_ (Fest. 348), connected with a _Diva Palatua_ of the Palatine, who may have been the urban and pontifical form of Pales. Footnote 265: Ovid is borne out or supplemented by Tibull. 2. 5. 87 foll.; Propert. 4. 4. 75 foll.; Probus on Virg. _Georg._ 3. 1; Dionys. 1. 88, &c. Footnote 266: It is noticeable that sheep alone are mentioned in the ritual as Ovid describes it. Footnote 267: _A. W. F._ p. 310. Cp. Frazer, _G. B._ ii. 246 foll. Footnote 268: _Chambers’ Journal_, July, 1842. For the custom in London, Brand, _Pop. Antiquities_, p. 307. Footnote 269: So I understand Ovid: but in line 742 _in mediis focis_ might rather indicate a fire in the _atrium_ of the house, and so Mannhardt takes it. In that case the fire over which they leaped (line 805) was made later on in the ceremony. Footnote 270: Cp. Hom. _Od_. 22. 481 Οἶσε θέειον, γρηύ, κακῶν ἄκος, οἶσε δέ μοι πῦρ, Ὄφρα θεειώσω μέγαρον. Footnote 271: