several others might be easily suggested: for instance, Nemetialibus might mean that the goddesses were referred to as worshipped in νεμητα or groves, as it was not unusual for sacred spots to have a grove of trees close by the shrine of the presiding divinity; nor was it otherwise in the case of the Mothers, as may be seen from an inscription found at Monterberg, near Xanten, reading: Matribus Quadruburg. et Genio Loci Sep. Flavius Severus Vet. Leg. X. G. P. F. V. V. Templum cum Arboribus constituit.[1] But as νεμητον which we have already met with in the Gaulish inscription found at Vaison, may be regarded as meaning not simply a grove, but a sacred grove, and connected with the Welsh word nyfed, supposed to mean 'sanctity or purity,' it would perhaps be right to render Nemetialibus by Sanctis, and to compare the Sanctis Virginibus of an inscription in a cartouche on a broken pillar at Saint-Romain-en-Gal, near Lyons.[2] These Virgins probably belonged to much the same class of divinities as the Matrae: the probable reading of the whole inscription, which is in a bad state, is said to be: Sanctis Virginibus, Sacrum Avitus (et) Campana posuerunt.
Christianity failed to put an end to the belief in these divine Mothers and Virgins: it was continued in connection with benignant fairies and the Madonna, whence a certain number of the churches known by the name of Notre-Dame, built on spots where legend asserts images of the Virgin to have been miraculously discovered. These heathen statues are usually of wood, which has turned black in the ground, whence the chapels of
