stone was removed, and then the spirits came back to earth again, where
they were received and entertained by the living members of their
family. There were a number of these days in the year, three of them
scattered through the year: August 24, October 5, November 8; and two
sets of days: February 13-21 and May 9, 11, 13. The February
celebration, the so-called _Parentalia_, was calm and dignified and
represented all that was least superstitious and fearful in the
generally terrifying worship of the dead. The _Lemuria_ in May had
exactly the opposite character and belongs to the category of the
"expulsion of evil spirits," of which Mr. Frazer in his _Golden Bough_
has given so many instances.

In this connection it is interesting to notice two facts which stand
almost as corollaries to these beliefs. One fact is the religious
necessity for the continuance of the family, in order that there might
always be a living representative of the family to perform the
sacrifices to the ancestors. It was the duty of the head of the family
not only to perform these sacrifices himself as long as he lived but
also to provide a successor. The usual method was by marriage and the
rearing of a family, but, in case there was no male child in the family,
adoption was recurred to. Here it is peculiarly significant that the
sanction of the chief priest was necessary, and he never gave his
consent in case the man to be adopted was the only representative of his
family, so that his removal from that family into another would leave
his original family without a male representative. In cases of
inheritance the first lien on the income was for the maintenance of the
traditional sacrifices unless some special arrangement had been made.
These exceptional inheritances, without the deduction for sacrifices,
were naturally desired above all others and the phrase "an inheritance
without sacrifices" (_hereditas sine sacris_) became by degrees the