This is the reason that the bars which close in an open hearth are still called dogs.
Whenever there was a meal in the house the master began by pouring out wine to the Lares, and also to his own ancestors, of whom he kept figures; for these natives thought much of their families, and all one family had the same name, like our surname, such as Tullius or Appius, the daughters only changing it by making it end in _a_ instead of _us_, and the men having separate names standing first, such as Marcus or Lucius, though their sisters were only numbered to distinguish them.
[Illustration: JUPITER] Each city had a guardian spirit, each stream its nymph, each wood its faun; also there were gods to whom the boundary stones of estates were dedicated.

There was a goddess of fruits called Pomona, and a god of fruits named Vertumnus.

In their names the fields and the crops were solemnly blest, and all were sacred to Saturn.

He, according to the old legends, had first taught husbandry, and when he reigned in Italy there was a golden age, when every one had his own field, lived by his own handiwork, and kept no slaves.

There was a feast in honor of this time every year called the Saturnalia, when for a few days the slaves were all allowed to act as if they were free, and have all kinds of wild sports and merriment.