Note 347 — Chapter IV
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Footnote 347
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Festus, ed. C.O. Müller (Leipsic, 1839), p. 106, s.v. "Ignis." Plutarch describes a method of rekindling the sacred fire by means of the sun's rays reflected from a hollow mirror (Numa, 9); but he seems to be referring to a Greek rather than to the Roman custom. The rule of celibacy imposed on the Vestals, whose duty it was to relight the sacred fire as well as to preserve it when it was once made, is perhaps explained by a superstition current among French peasants that if a girl can blow up a smouldering candle into a flame she is a virgin, but that if she fails to do so, she is not. See Jules Lecoeur, Esquisses du Bocage Normand (Condé-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 27; B. Souché, Croyances, Présages et Traditions diverses (Niort, 1880), p. 12. At least it seems more likely that the rule sprang from a superstition of this sort than from a simple calculation of expediency, as I formerly suggested (Journal of Philology, xiv. (1885) p. 158). Compare The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings> ii. 234 sqq.