On each First of March the fire in the temple was allowed to
go out and was solemnly rekindled by the friction of maple
wood on apple wood, as when the fire went out by accident.
The temple was then decorated with fresh boughs of green
laurel, after the boughs put up the year before had been removed.

On May fifteenth the Vestals were the chief figures in a solemn
procession of the entire Roman hierarchy to the Sublician bridge,
from which the Vestals threw into the Tiber thirty dolls made of
rushes, fifteen representing men, fifteen women, each about two
feet high.

This offering to the river of effigies of men and women
commemorated the primitive human sacrifices by which the
river was each year placated, that it might not drown more by floods.

On June fifth the inner storeroom of the temple was opened
and its treasures inspected by the Pontifex wearing his antique
vestments. With him entered always also the Chief Vestal clad
in her austere habit with all her badges of office. They were
attended by the other Vestals, who went through traditional
pacings, haltings and prayers. The Temple of Vesta was an
enclosure from which all men were rigidly excluded. The only
exceptions to this immemorial taboo were a few of the more
important Pontiffs, and they might only enter on specified festal
days, and then must be in their full regalia. Also, in general, the
temple was closed against all women except the Vestals and
their assistants. It was open, however, from sunrise on the
morning of each seventh of June until sunset on the evening
of the fourteenth of June. During this period it was incumbent