Like the Persians,
Hindoos, and Greeks, they were of Aryan race; secluded in their
mountains, remote from strangers, they remained like the Aryans of the
ancient period; they lived in groups with their herds scattered in the
plains; they had no villages nor cities. Fortresses erected on the
mountains defended them in time of war. They were brave martial
people, of simple and substantial manners. They later constituted the
strength of the Roman armies. A proverb ran: "Who could vanquish the
Marsians without the Marsians?"
=The Sacred Spring.=--In the midst of a pressing danger, the Sabines,
according to a legend, believing their gods to be angry, decided to
appease their displeasure by sacrificing to the god of war and of
death everything that was born during a certain spring. This sacrifice
was called a "Sacred Spring." All the children born in this year
belonged to the god. Arrived at the age of manhood, they left the
country and journeyed abroad. These exiles formed several groups, each
taking for guide one of the sacred animals of Italy, a woodpecker, a
wolf, or a bull, and followed it as a messenger of the god.
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