been recorded with singular care and obvious accuracy,[1006] we
find that the chief, the Great Sun, and all the celebrators, have
to live in huts two miles from their village, while the corn, grown
for the purpose in a particular spot, is sacramentally eaten. It
is quite impossible, without further evidence, which is not likely
ever to be forthcoming, to explain either the Greek, Roman, or
British customs in this way; we must be content with the
general principle that the holiness of human beings at particular
times is liable to carry with it the practice of renouncing your
own dwelling and living in an extemporised hut or booth. The
tents that we hear of in the Greek rites I look upon as late
developments of this primitive practice. The inscription of
Andania, which is the best Greek evidence we possess, dates
only from 91 B.C.; and by that time there would have been
every opportunity for the rude huts to become civilised tents.
The _casae_ made by the _vernae_ in Tibullus' poem were, I would
suggest, a kind of unconscious survival of the same feeling and
practice, the real religious meaning being almost entirely lost.

Lastly, I will venture to suggest that the _casae_ of the Roman
custom, made of branches at the Neptunalia and the feast of
Anna Perenna, and of _virgae_ by the slaves on the farm, are
a reminiscence of the earliest form of Italian dwelling, which
survived to historical times in the round temple of Vesta, and of
which we have examples in the hut-urns discovered in the
necropolis at Alba.[1007] The earliest form of all was probably
a round structure made of branches of trees stuck into the
ground, bent inwards at the top and tied together.[1008] Just as
bronze instruments survived from an earlier stage of culture in
some religious rites at Rome, so, I imagine, did this ancient
form of dwelling, which really belongs to an age previous to
that of permanent settlement and agricultural routine. The hut
circles of the neolithic age, such as are abundant on Dartmoor,
were probably roofed with branches supported by a central
pole.[1009]

[993] _Fasti_, iii. 525 foll. See _R.F._ p. 50 foll.

[994] Tibull. ii. 5. 89 foll. Mr. Mackail has pointed
out to me a passage in the _Pervigilium Veneris_, line
5, which seems to contain a hint of the same practice
(cp. line 43).

[995] Tibull. ii. 1. 1-24.

[996] _Classical Review_, 1908, p. 36 foll. My
conclusions were criticised by