friend and also feeling comforted at heart.


Chapter XII -Observances



BRINNARIA found that, with Almo definitely and permanently
out of the way, she did not worry about Calvaster. She also found
that she did not worry about Almo and that her glimpse of him
had rather calmed her feelings. She confessed as much to Aurelius
when she had a third audience with him before he left for the
Rhine frontier, and she thanked him for his insistence.

With her mind at peace Brinnaria settled more and more into
the routine of her life and enjoyed it more and more.

She came to feel keenly the spiritual significance of every
detail of the ritual observances in which she took part. Besides
the maintenance of the sacred fire, the Vestals had many
obligatory duties. Every sacrifice of the Roman public worship
involved the sprinkling of the sacred meal upon the head of
the victim, if a live animal was offered, or upon the fire, if
the sacrifice was bloodless. Early in each ceremony one of
the small boys assisting the priest carried around to all the
participants in the act of worship a maple-wood box
containing the holy meal; from it each worshipper ladled
a small portion into the palm of his right hand; at a specified
point in the course of the ceremonial each participant
sprinkled the meal as prescribed.