_At the end of a field lies the god Terminus, uprooted, and covered with ordures._
_In the centre of a furrow, the great corpse of Vertumnus is being devoured by red dogs._
_The rustic deities all depart, weeping:--Sartor, Sarrator, Vervactor, Collina, Vallona, Hostilinus--all wearing little hooded mantles, and carrying either a hoe, a pitchfork, a hurdle, or a boar-spear._)
HILARION. "Their spirits made prosperous the villa,--with its dovecots, its parks of dormice, its poultry-yards protected by nets, its warm stables fragrant with odours of cedar.
"Also they protected all the wretched population who dragged the irons upon their legs over the flinty ways of the Sabine country,--those who called the swine together by sound of horn,--those who were wont to gather the bunches at the very summits of the elms,--those who drove the asses, laden with manure, over the winding bypaths. The panting labourer, leaning over the handle of his plough, prayed them to give strength to his arms; and under the shade of the lindens, beside calabashes filled with milk, the cow-herds were wont, in turn, to sound their praises upon flutes of reed."
(_And in the centre of a chamber, upon a lofty estrade, an ivory bed is visible, surrounded by persons bearing torches of pine._)
"Those are the deities of marriage. They await the coming of the bride.
"Domiduca should lead her in,--Virgo unfasten her girdle,--Subigo place her in the bed,--and Præma open her arms, and whisper sweet words into her ear.
"But she will not come!--and they dismiss the others:--Nona and Decima who watch by sick-beds; the three Nixii who preside over child-birth; the two nurses, Educa and Potina; and Carna, guardian of the cradle, whose bouquet of hawthorne keeps evil dreams from the child.
"Afterwards, Ossipago should strengthen his knees;--Barbatus give him his first beard; Stimula inspire his first desires; Volupia grant him his first enjoyment; Fabulimus should have taught him to speak, Numera to count, Cam[oe]na to sing, Consus to reflect."
(_This chamber is empty; and there remains only the centenarian Nænia beside the bed,--muttering to herself the dirge she was wont to howl at the funerals of aged men._
_But her voice is soon drowned by sharp cries. These are uttered by_--