yous fires,
Another torch nor yours the tomb requires!
Close all the temples on these mourning days,
And dim each altar's spicy, steaming blaze;
For now around us roams a spectred brood,
Craving and keen, and snuffing mortal food:
They feast and revel, nor depart again,
Till to the month but ten days more remain."

Superstitions of this sort linger much longer in the country than in
towns, and the larger the town the more speedily do they die out; but,
judging from the statistics of late years, this superstition has still a
firm hold of the inhabitants of Glasgow, the second city of the Empire.
During the year 1874 the marriages in May were only 204, against 703 in
June; but as the removal term occurs at the end of May, that must
materially affect the relations, in this respect, between May and June,
and accounts, in part, for the great excess of marriages in June. But
if the average of the eleven months, excluding May, be taken, then
during that year there was a monthly average of 441, against 204 in
May--being rather more than double. For the ten years preceding 1874,
the average of the eleven months was 388, against 203 in May. As if to
compensate for the restraint put upon the people in May, _Juno_, the
wife of Jupiter, after whom June was named, and whose influence was
paramount during that month, took special guardianship over births and
marriages; hence June was a lucky month to be born in or get married in,
and thus June is known as the marrying month. Here, again, our registers
show that the number of marriages are in June nearly double the average
of the other months, excluding May and June. The average during the ten
years is, for the ten months, 375 per month, whilst the average for June
is 598. It may be noticed in passing that, in Glasgow, January and July
stand as high as June, owing, doubtless, to the holidays which occur
during these two months making marriage at those times more convenient
for the working classes.

There were many marriage observances of a religious or superstitious
character practised in ancient Rome which were quite common among us
within this century, especially in the country districts, but which now
are either extinct or fast dying out. When a Roman girl was betrothed,
she received from her intended a ring which she wore as evidence of her
betrothal. When betrothed she laid aside her girlish or maiden
dress,--some parts of which were offered as a sac