, a name of Agni, the Vedic fire-god (ii. 800). Mannhardt
prefers, of course, a derivation from _far_ (grain), as in confarreatio,
the ancient Roman bride-cake form of marriage. Feronia Mater=Sanskrit
bharsani mata, Getreide Mutter. {149a} It is a pity that philologists so
rarely agree in their etymologies. In Greek the goddess is called
Anthephorus, Philostephanus, and even Persephone--probably the Persephone
of flowers and garlands. {149b}

Hirpi Sorani

Once a year a fete of Soranus and Feronia was held, in the precinct of
the goddess at Soracte. The ministrants were members of certain local
families called Hirpi (wolves). Pliny says, {149c} 'A few families,
styled Hirpi, at a yearly sacrifice, walk over a burnt pile of wood, yet
are not scorched. On this account they have a perpetual exemption, by
decree of the Senate, from military and all other services.' Virgil
makes Aruns say, {149d} 'Highest of gods, Apollo, guardian of Soracte,
thou of whom we are the foremost worshippers, thou for whom the burning
pile of pinewood is fed, while we, strong in faith, walk through the
midst of the fire, and press our footsteps in the glowing mass. . . .'
Strabo gives the same facts. Servius, the old commentator on Virgil,
confuses the Hirpi, not unnaturally, with the Sabine 'clan,' the Hirpini.
He says, {149e} 'Varro, always an enemy of religious belief, writes that
the Hirpini, when about to walk the fire, smear the soles of their feet
with a drug' (medicamentum). Silius Italicus (v. 175) speaks of the
ancient rite, when 'the holy bearer of the bow (Apollo) rejoices in the
kindled pyres, and the ministrant thrice gladly bears entrails to the god
through the harmless flames.' Servius gives an aetiological myth to
account for the practice. 'Wolves came and carried off the entrails from
the fire; shepherds, following them, were killed by mortal vapours from a
cave; thence ensued a pestilence, because they had followed the wolves.
An oracle bade them "play the wolf," i.e. live on plunder, whence they
were called Hirpi, wolves,' an attempt to account for a wolf clan-name.
There is also a story that, when the grave of Feronia seemed all on fire,
and the people were about carrying off the statue, it suddenly grew green
again. {150a}

Mannhardt decides that the so-called wolves leaped through the sun-god's
fire, in the interest of the health of the community. He elucidates this
by a singular French popular custom,