women before the birth of
their children.

The Camenae are frequently identified by Roman writers with the Muses.

GENII.

A comforting and assuring belief existed among the Romans, that each
individual was accompanied through life, from the hour of his birth to that
of his death, by a protecting spirit, called his genius, who prompted him
to good and noble deeds, and acted towards him as a guardian angel,
comforting him in sorrow, and guiding him throughout his earthly career.

In the course of time a second genius was believed to exist, of an evil
nature, who, as the instigator of all wrong-doing, was ever at war with the
beneficent genius; and on the issue of the conflict between these
antagonistic influences, depended the fate of the individual. The genii
were depicted as winged beings, greatly resembling our modern
representations of guardian angels.

Every state, town, or city, (as well as every man), possessed its special
genius. The sacrifices to the genii consisted of wine, cakes, and incense,
which were offered to them on birthdays.

The genius which guided a woman was called, after the queen of heaven,
Juno.

Among the Greeks, beings called Daemons were regarded as exercising similar
functions to those of the Roman genii. They were believed to be the spirits
of the righteous race which existed in the Golden Age, who watched over
mankind, carrying their prayers to the gods, and the gifts of the gods to
them.

MANES.

LEMURES (LARVAE) AND LARES.

The Manes were the spirits of the departed, and were of two kinds, viz.,
Lemures (or Larvae) and Lares. {186}

The Lemures were those Manes who haunted their former abodes on earth as
evil spirits, appearing at night under awful forms and hideous shapes,
greatly to the alarm of their friends and relatives. They were so feared
that a festival, called the Lemuralia, was celebrated in order to
propitiate them.

It appears extremely probable that the superstitions with regard to ghosts,
haunted houses, &c., which exist even at the present day, owe their origin
to this very ancient pagan source.

The Lares Familiares were a much more pleasing conception. They were the
spirits of the ancestors of each family, who exercised after death a
protecting power over the well-being and prosperity of the family to which
they had in life belonged. The place of honour beside the hearth was
occupied by the statue of the Lar of the house, who was supposed to have
been t