Yet another kind of charm must be mentioned here which was used at certain festivals, though apparently not at any of those belonging to the authorised calendar. At the Compitalia, Paganalia, and _feriae Latinae_ we are told that small images of the human figure, or masks, or simply round balls (_pilae_), were hung up on trees or doorways, and left to swing in the wind.[124] At the Compitalia the images had a special name, _maniae_, of which the meaning is lost; but inasmuch as the charms were hung up at cross-roads on that occasion, where the Lares compitales of the various properties had their shrine, it was not difficult to manufacture out of them a goddess, Mania, mother of the Lares.[125] The common word for these figures was _oscilla_, and the fact of their swinging in the wind suggested a verb _oscillare_, which survives in our own tongue with the same meaning. Until lately it used to be believed that they were substitutes for original human sacrifices: a view for which there is not a particle of evidence, though it was originated by Roman scholars.[126] Modern anthropology has found another explanation, which is by no means improbable. Dr. Frazer, in an appendix to the 2nd volume of the _Golden Bough_, has collected a number of examples of the practice of swinging _by human beings_ as a magical rite; they come from many parts of the world, including ancient Athens, and even modern Calabria. He also points out that at the _feriae Latinae_ the swingers seem to have been human beings, if we accept the evidence of Festus, _s.v._ "oscillantes"; thus we are left with the possibility that the oscilla were really imitations of men and women, though not of human sacrificial victims.
Dr. Frazer is obviously hard put to it to explain the original meaning and object of this curious custom. In the Paganalia, as described by Virgil in the second _Georgic_,[127] the object would seem to be the prosperity of the vine-crop.
coloni versibus incomptis ludunt risuque soluto, oraque corticibus sumunt horrenda cavatis, et te Bacche vocant per carmina laeta, tibique oscilla ex alta suspendunt mollia pinu. hinc omnis largo pubescit vinea fetu, etc.[128]
But here we must leave a question which is still unsolved. All we can say is that the old idea of substitutes for human sacrifice must be finally given up, and that the _oscilla_, whether or not they were substitutes for human swingers, were probably charms intended to ward off evil influences from the crops. I am not disposed to put any confidence in what Servius tells us, that this was a purification by means of air, just as fire and water were also purifying agents; this looks like the ingenious explanation of a later and a religious age.[129]