or—­which was in the earliest times the same thing—­the pipers.  They too were never wanting at a sacrifice, at a marriage, or at a funeral; and by the side of the primitive public priesthood of the “leapers” there was ranged, of equal antiquity although of far inferior rank, the guild of the “pipers” (-collegium tibicinum-(2)), whose true character as strolling musicians is evinced by their ancient privilege—­maintained even in spite of the strictness of Roman police—­of wandering through the streets at their annual festival, wearing masks and full of sweet wine.  While dancing thus presents itself as an honourable function and music as one subordinate but still necessary, so that public corporations were instituted for both of them, poetry appears more as a matter incidental and, in some measure, indifferent, whether it may have come into existence on its own account or to serve as an accompaniment to the movements of the dancers.

Religious Chants

The earliest chant, in the view of the Romans, was that which the leaves sang to themselves in the green solitude of the forest.  The whispers and pipings of the “favourable spirit” (-faunus-, from -favere-) in the grove were reproduced for men, by those who had the gift of listening to him, in rhythmically measured language (-casmen-, afterwards -carmen-, from -canere-).  Of a kindred nature to these soothsaying songs of inspired men and women (-vates-) were the incantations properly so called, the formulae for conjuring away diseases and other troubles, and the evil spells by which they prevented rain and called down lightning or even enticed the seed from one field to another; only in these instances, probably from the outset, formulae of mere sounds appear side by side with formulae of words.(3) More firmly rooted in tradition and equally ancient were the religious litanies which were sung and danced by the Salii and other priesthoods; the only one of which that has come down to us, a dance-chant of the Arval Brethren in honour of Mars probably composed to be sung in alternate parts, deserves a place here.

-Enos, Lases, iuvate! 
Ne velue rue, Marmar, sins incurrere in pleores! 
Satur fu, fere Mars! limen sali! sta! berber! 
Semunis alternei advocapit conctos! 
Enos, Marmar, iuvato! 
Triumpe!-

Which may be thus interpreted: 

To the gods: 
-Nos, Lares, iuvate! 
Ne veluem (= malam luem) ruem (= ruinam), Mamers,
   sinas incurrere in plures! 
Satur esto, fere Mars!

To the individual brethren: 
In limen insili! sta! verbera (limen?)!

To all the brethren: 
Semones alterni advocate cunctos!

To the god: 
Nos, Mamers, iuvato!

To the individual brethren: 
Tripudia!-(4)

The Latin of this chant and of kindred fragments of the Salian songs, which were regarded even by the philologues of the Augustan age as the oldest documents of their mother-tongue, is related to the Latin of the Twelve Tables somewhat as the language of the Nibelungen is related to the language of Luther; and we may perhaps compare these venerable litanies, as respects both language and contents, with the Indian Vedas.