said that this hill, from which our word palace has come, received its
name from the town of Pallantium, in Arcadia, from which Evander came
to Italy.

The twenty-first of April was a festal day among the shepherds, and it
was chosen as the one on which the new city should be begun (753 B.C.).
In the morning of the day, it was customary, so they say, for the
country people to purify themselves by fire and smoke, by sprinkling
themselves with spring water, by formal washing of their hands, and by
drinking milk mixed with grape-juice. During the day they offered
sacrifices, consisting of cakes, milk, and other eatables, to Pales,
the god of the shepherds. Three times, with faces turned to the east, a
long prayer was repeated to Pales, asking blessings upon the flocks and
herds, and pardon for any offences committed against the nymphs of the
streams, the dryads of the woods, and the other deities of the Italian
Olympus. This over, bonfires of hay and straw were lighted, music was
made with cymbal and flute, and shepherds and sheep were purified by
passing through the flames. A feast followed, the simple folk lying on
benches of turf, and indulging in generous draughts of their homely
wines, such, probably, as the visitor to-day may regale himself with in
the same region. Towards evening, the flocks were fed, the stables were
cleansed and sprinkled with water with laurel brooms, and laurel boughs
were hung about them as adornments. Sulphur, incense, rosemary, and
fir-wood were burned, and the smoke made to pass through the stalls to
purify them, and even the flocks themselves were submitted to the same
cleansing fumes.

The beginning of a city in the olden time was a serious matter, and
Romulus felt the solemnity of the acts in which he was about to engage.
He sent men to Etruria, from which land the religious customs of the