table, making of them a closecarpet or cover on it. "Take of the herbs paura and concordia, and boil the two together, repeating meanwhile the following: - I boil the cluster of concordia To keep in concord and at peace with me Laverna, that she may restore to me My child, and that she by her favoring care May guard me well from danger all my life! I boil this herb, yet 'tis not it which boils, I boil the fear, that it may keep afar Any intruder, and if such should come (to spy upon my rite), may he be struck With fear and in his terror haste away! Having said thus, put the boiled herbs in a bottle and spread the cardson the table one by one, saying: - I spread before me now the forty cards Yet 'tis not forty cards which here I spread, But forty of the gods superior To the deity Laverna, that their forms May each and all become volcanoes hot, Until Laverna comes and brings my child; And 'till 'tis done may they all cast at her Hot flames of fire, and with them glowing coals From noses, mouths, and ears (until she yields); Then may they leave Laverna at her peace, Free to embrace her children at her will! "Laverna was the Roman goddess of thieves, pickpockets, shopkeepers ordealers, plagiarists, rascals, and hypocrites. There was near Rome a temple in a grove where robbers went to divide their plunder. There was astatue of the goddess. Her image, according to some, was a head without a body; according to others, a body without a head; but the epithet of 'beautiful' applied to her by Horace indicates that she who gave disguisesto her worshippers had kept one to herself." She was worshipped in perfectsilence. This is confirmed by a passage to Horace, where an impostor, hardly daring to move his lips, repeats the following prayer or inca...
