NUMA. 141

crated and ordained by Nuina; Canuleia and Tarpeia succeeded ; Servius afterwards added two, and the num- ber of four has continued to the present time. The statutes prescribed by Numa for the vestals were these : that they should take a vow of virginity for the space of thirty years, the first ten of which they were to spend in learning their duties, the second ten in per- forming them, and the remaining ten in teaching and instructing others. Thus the whole term being com- pleted, it was lawful for them to marry, and, leaving the sacred order, to choose any condition of life that pleased them ; but this permission few, as they say, made use of; and in cases where they did so, it was observed that their change was not a happy one, but accompanied ever after with regret and melancholy ; so that the greater number, from religious fears and scruples, forbore, and continued to old age and death in the strict observance of a single life. For this condition he compensated by great privileges and prerogatives ; as that they had power to make a will in the lifetime of their father ; that they had a free ad- ministration of their own affairs without guardian or tutor, which was the privilege of women who were the mothers of three children ; when they go abroad, they have the fasces carried before them; and if in their walks they chance to meet a criminal on his way to exe- cution, it saves his life, upon oath made that the meeting was an accidental one, and not concerted or of set pur- pose. Any one who presses upon the chair on which they are carried, is put to death. If these vestals com- mit any minor fault, they are punishable by the high- priest only, who scourges the offender; sometimes with her clothes off, in a dark place, with a curtain drawn be-

tween ; but she that has broken her vow is buried alive