The bodies of the images were then eaten by all the family,
especially by the servants, "in order that by eating them they might
be preserved from certain distempers, to which those persons who
were negligent of worship to those deities conceived themselves to
be subject."
3. Many Manii at Aricia
WE are now able to suggest an explanation of the proverb "There are
many Manii at Aricia." Certain loaves made in the shape of men were
called by the Romans _maniae,_ and it appears that this kind of loaf
was especially made at Aricia. Now, Mania, the name of one of these
loaves, was also the name of the Mother or Grandmother of Ghosts, to
whom woollen effigies of men and women were dedicated at the
festival of the Compitalia. These effigies were hung at the doors of
all the houses in Rome; one effigy was hung up for every free person
in the house, and one effigy, of a different kind, for every slave.
The reason was that on this day the ghosts of the dead were believed
to be going about, and it was hoped that, either out of good nature
or through simple inadvertence, they would carry off the effigies at
the door instead of the living people in the house.
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