Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/316

 268 The Eiiropeaji Sky -God.

pours in torrents from him and is collected by the Roman soldiers in their bucklers, while the barbarians lie on the ground struck by lightning. The cult of Jupiter as a rain-god can be traced back to a remote antiquity. Petronius ^ says : " Formerly the women wearing stoles used to go bare-foot to the Capitol, with dishevelled hair but pure hearts, and would implore Jupiter for water. Presto ! it came down in bucketsful. Now or 7iever was the word : and they all got home like drowned rats ! " Tertullian ^ refers to the same rite : " Since summer and wmter depend on the rains and the seasons must be considered . . . you offer water-charms {aquilicici) to Jupiter, you proclaim bare-foot processions {nudipedalia) to the populace, you seek your sky on the Capitol and look for clouds from the ceiling, turning your backs upon the true God and the true Heaven." Some further details of the ceremony are known.^ " The water-charm {aqiia- eliciiini)l' says Paulus Diaconus,* "is the name given to certain means of extracting rain-water {qman aqua phivialis rcmediis qiiibiisdam elicitur), for instance, if we may believe it, to the old custom of drawing the streaming-stone {manali lapide) into the City." Varro,^ too, has a word on the subject : " We call a small-sized pitcher a water- jug {aquae manale) because by means of it water is poured into the basin. Hence the streaming-stone {inanalis lapis) of the priestly ceremonies, which is moved when rains are required, gets its name. Again, we all know that in very ancient times men spoke of the streaming-rite {jnanale sacnnn) : this explains its name." These passages make it probable that the stone, which may have been a baetyl

1 Petr. sat. 44. -Tert. a/>o/. 40.

•^The sources and literature are cited e.^. by Wissowa in Roscher Lex. ii. 2308 f. and Pauly- Wissowa ii. 310.


 * Paul. exc. Fast. p. 95 Lindemann.


 * Van. de vita populi Romani lib. I ap. Non. Marc. p. 547 Merc.