Palīlia

, a festival celebrated by the Romans, in honour of the godde Pales. The ceremony consisted in burning heaps of straw, and leaping over them. No sacrifices were offered, but the purifications were made with the smoke of horses’ blood, and with the ashes of a calf that had been taken from the belly of his mother, after it had been sacrificed, and with the ashes of beans. The purification of the flocks was also made with the smoke of sulphur, of the olive, the pine, the laurel, and the rosemary. Offerings of mild cheese, boiled wine, and cakes of millet, were afterwards made to the godde . This festival was observed on the 21st of April, and it was during the celebration that Romulus first began to build his city. Some call this festival Parilia quasi a pariendo , because the sacrifices were offered to the divinity for the fecundity of the flocks. Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 14 , li. 774 ; Fasti , bk. 4 , li. 721 , . ; bk. 6 , li. 257 .— Pro pert i us , bk. 4 , poem 1, li. 19 .— Tibullus , bk. 2 , poem 5, li. 87 .