For the form of the word see Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 315. (In Varro, _L. L._ 6. 15, it is Palilia.) Preller-Jordan, i. 416.
‘Palilia tam privata quam publica sunt.’ Varro, ap Schol. in Persium, 1. 75. See on Compitalia, below, p. 279.
Serv. _Georg._ 3. 1: ‘Pales ... dea est pabuli. Hanc ... alii, inter quos Varro, masculino genere vocant, ut hic Pales.’ There can be no better proof of the antiquity of the deity in Italy.
There was a _flamen Palatualis_ (Varro, _L. L._ 7. 45, and Fest. 245) and an offering _Palatuar_ (Fest. 348), connected with a _Diva Palatua_ of the Palatine, who may have been the urban and pontifical form of Pales.
Ovid is borne out or supplemented by Tibull. 2. 5. 87 foll.; Propert. 4. 4. 75 foll.; Probus on Virg. _Georg._ 3. 1; Dionys. 1. 88, &c.
It is noticeable that sheep alone are mentioned in the ritual as Ovid describes it.
_A. W. F._ p. 310. Cp. Frazer, _G. B._ ii. 246 foll.
_Chambers’ Journal_, July, 1842. For the custom in London, Brand, _Pop. Antiquities_, p. 307.
So I understand Ovid: but in line 742 _in mediis focis_ might rather indicate a fire in the _atrium_ of the house, and so Mannhardt takes it. In that case the fire over which they leaped (line 805) was made later on in the ceremony.
Cp. Hom. _Od_. 22. 481 Οἶσε θέειον, γρηύ, κακῶν ἄκος, οἶσε δέ μοι πῦρ, Ὄφρα θεειώσω μέγαρον.
Tibull. 2. 5. 28 ‘Et facta agresti lignea falce Pales.’ Tib. seems here to be transferring a rustic practice of his own day to the earliest Romans of the Palatine. But he may be simply indulging his imagination; and we cannot safely conclude that we have here a rude Italian origin of anthropomorphic ideas of the gods.
Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 743-746. esp ‘dapibus resectis.’ We can hardly escape the conclusion that the idea of the common meal shared with the gods was a genuine Italian one; it is found here, in the Terminalia (Ovid, _Fasti_, 2. 655), and in the worship of Jupiter. See on Sept. 13 and Feb. 23.
Four is unusual; three is the common number in religious rites.
‘Conversus ad ortus Die quater, et vivo perlue rore manus.’ Ovid may perhaps be using _ros_ for fresh water of any kind; see H. Peter’s note (Pt. II, p. 70). But the virtues of dew are great at this time of year (e. g. May-day). See Brand, _Pop. Ant._ 218, and Mannhardt, _A. W. F._ 312. Pepys records that his wife went out to gather May-dew; _Diary_, May 10. 1669.