Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/135

Rh calf, and sow (suovetaurilia) together; but in all cases the festival wound up with a carousal and jollification for all concerned, and furnished to the rural population a picturesque and looked-for anniversary. Those who are curious in finding parallels and origins for their own country's old customs will trace to the Ambarvalia the "Gang-days" or walkings of the parish bounds in religious procession, which still linger in old English parishes and boroughs, and which at the Reformation were substituted for a festival celebrated in the Latin Church during three days at Whitsuntide. In this, one main object seems to have been to solicit God's blessing on the land and its crops; and intimately connected with the ceremonial which led to Rogation Days being called Gang-days, was a customary procession. Feasting, also, and revelry, were not forgotten; though in the present day the sole surviving feature is, here and there, perambulation of the boundaries—a relic, doubtless, of the very lustration of which Tibullus gives the prettiest picture extant. According to him, the whole face of nature was to keep holiday, whether animate or inanimate, in honour of Bacchus, Ceres, and their associate deities. Even women were to lay by their spindles, and with ablutions, purifications, and white raiment, place themselves in accord with so pure a festival:—