bable that inscriptions were found. It may safely be assumed that originally these boundaries were under the protection of Wóden; and various traces of his influence yet remain."[1]
Nor was this feeling peculiar to the pagan Saxons. "Terminalis" was a surname of Jupiter, because he presided over the boundaries of lands, until the worship of the god "Terminus" was introduced by Numa, who persuaded his subjects that the limits of their lands and estates were under the immediate inspection of Heaven. The temple of Terminus was on the Tarpeian Rock, and he was represented at first, with a large square stone, but afterwards with a human head, without feet or arms, to intimate that he never moved, wherever he might be placed. In his honour annual feasts, called Terminalia, were held at Rome, in the month of February, when it was usual for the peasants to assemble near the principal landmarks which separated their fields, and after they had crowned them with garlands and flowers, to make libations of milk and wine, and to sacrifice a lamb or a young pig, and to sprinkle the landmark with the blood of the victim, or sometimes with pure oil.[2]
The sacred character of landmarks is also recognised in Holy Writ—
"Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it." (Deut. xix. 14.)
- ↑ Kemble's Codex Diplom. Æv. Sax., vol. iii. pref. p. viii.
- ↑ The custom still existing, of a periodical perambulation of the boundaries of parishes, is a relic of a similar ancient practice in this country, although the libations are now reserved for the parish dinner after the fatigues of the day; and instead of sacrificing a lamb or a young pig, some luckless boy is bumped to make him remember the boundary-mark.
