Note 1769 — BOOK III. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED. INTRODUCTION.

It was a custom with the early Italian nations, especially the Sabines, in times of danger and distress, to vow to the deity the sacrifice of all the produce of the ensuing spring, that is, of the period from the first day of March till the last day of April. It is probable that in early times human sacrifices were the consequence; but at a later period the following custom was adopted instead. The children were allowed to grow up, and in the spring of their twentieth or twenty-first year were with covered faces driven across the frontier of their native country, to go whithersoever chance or the guidance of the deity might lead them. The Mamertini in Sicily were said to have had this origin.