ometimes of stone
or brick, and sometimes of bronze. The smoke escaped above, through
openings in the roof. This would seem, according to the ideas of the
present day, a very comfortless arrangement; but it must be remembered
that the climate in those countries was mild, and there was
accordingly but little occasion for fire; and then, besides, such were
the habits of the people at this period of the world, that not only
their pursuits and avocations, but far the greater portion of their
pleasures, called them into the open air. Still, the fire-place was,
with them as with us, the type and emblem of domestic life; and
accordingly, in paying divine honors to Vesta, the goddess of Home,
they set up a _focus_, or fire-place, in her temple, instead of an
altar, and in the place of sacrifices they simply kept burning upon it
a perpetual fire.

The priestesses who had charge of the fire were selected for this
purpose when they were children. It was required that they should be
from six to ten years of age. When chosen they were consecrated to the
service of Vesta by the most solemn ceremonies, and as virgins, were
bound under awful penalties, to spotless purity of life. As the
perpetual fire in the temple of Vesta represented the fire of the
domestic hearth, so these vestal virgins represented the maidens by
whom the domestic service of a household is performed; and the life of
seclusion and celibacy which was required of them was the emblem of
the innocence and purity which the institution of the family is
expressly intended to guard. The duties of the vestals were analogous
to those of domestic maidens. They were to watch the fire, and never
to allow it to go out. They were to perform various rites and
ceremonies connected with the worship of Vesta and to keep the
interior of the temple and the shrines pure and clean, and the sacred
vessels and utensils arranged, as in a well-ordered household. In a
word, they were to be, in purity, in industry, in neatness, in order,
and in patience and vigilance, the perfect impersonation of maidenly
virtue as exhibited in its own proper field of duty at home.

The most awful penalties were visited upon the head of any vestal
virgin who was guilty of violating her vows. There is no direct
evidence what these penalties were at this early period, but in
subsequent years, at Rome, where the vestal virgins resided, the man
who was guilty of enticing one of them away from her duty was public