Note 786 — Chapter XVI · FATHER JOVE AND MOTHER VESTA

Martin Haug, Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the Parsees 3rd Ed., (London, 1884), p. 243, note 1. Strabo describes the mouth-veil worn by the Magian priests in Cappadocia (xiv. 3. 15, p. 733). At Arkon, in the island of Rügen, there was a shrine so holy that none but the priest might enter it, and even he might not breathe in it. As often as he needed to draw in or give out breath, he used to run out of the door lest he should taint the divine presence with his breath. See Saxo Grammaticus, Historia Danica, bk. xiv. p. 824, ed. P. E. Müller (p. 393 of Elton’s English translation).