== 儀式と伝統 ==
公的儀式に関しては何も残っていないが<ref name=Dumezil367>Dumézil. ''Archaic Roman Religion.'' pg. 367</ref>、オイディウスの記述によると、この日、老酔女(anus ebria)<ref>Cokayne. ''Experiencing Old Age in Ancient Rome.'' pg. 145 (from google books. see References).</ref>が他の少女たちと輪になって座り、ララまたは[[ラールンダ]]というニンフと同一視される無口な女神タキタ<ref>''Brill's New Pauly.'' "Tacita."</ref><ref name=OvidII/>の名で儀式を行っている。この儀式は、ネズミが埋まっている敷居の下に、老婆が指3本でお香を3つ置くというものだった。そして、7つの黒豆を口の中で転がし、魚の頭にピッチを塗り、銅の針で突き刺し、火であぶった。グレコローマンの魔術の儀式で慣習的に行われているように、彼女は自分の行動の目的を正式に宣言した後<ref name=L922/>、「私は唾棄すべき舌に猿轡をし、親しくない口を塞いだ」(Hostiles linguas inimicaque uinximus ora)と言い、酔って去っていく<ref name=OvidII/><ref group="私注">ということは、祭祀において、タキタ女神には酒も振る舞われた、ということであろう。</ref>。老婆の儀式に黒豆が使われるのは、5月のレムリア(Lemuria)という月の別の死者の祭りに便乗した儀式と関係があるのかもしれない<ref name=Dumezil367/><ref name=OvidV>。
As concerns public rites nothing of them survives, however on this day as described by Ovid, an old drunken woman (''anus ebria'') sits in a circle with other girls performing rites in the name of the mute [[goddess]] [[Dea Tacita|Tacita]] who is identified with the nymph Lara or [[Larunda]]. The ritual consists of the old woman placing three bits of incense, with three of her fingers, beneath a threshold where a mouse is unknowingly buried. She then rolls seven black beans in her mouth, and smears the head of a fish with pitch, impaling it with a bronze needle, and roasting it in a fire. After she formally declaims the purpose of her actions, as customary in Greco-Roman magic ritual, saying, "I have gagged spiteful tongues and muzzled unfriendly mouths" (''Hostiles linguas inimicaque uinximus ora''), she departs intoxicated. The use of the black beans in the old woman's ritual may be related to rites that lend themselves to another festival of the dead in the month of May, called [[Lemuria (festival)|Lemuria]].<ref name=Dumezil367/><ref name=OvidV>Ovid. ''Fasti'', Book V.</ref> During Lemuria the dead ancestor spirits, particularly the unburied, called [[lemures]], emerge from their graves and visit the homes in which they had lived. It was then necessary to confront the unwelcome spirits and lure them out of one's house using specific actions and chants.<ref name=Dumezil367/> According to [[Ovid]], this includes the involvement of black beans to lure a spirit out of the home. "And after washing his (the householder) hands clean in spring water, he turns, and first he receives black beans and throws them away with face averted; but while he throws them, he says: 'These I cast; with these beans I redeem me and mine.' This he says nine times, without looking back: the shade is thought to gather the beans, and to follow unseen behind. Again he touches water, and clashes Temesan bronze, and asks the shade to go out of his house. When he has said nine times, 'Ghosts of my fathers, go forth!' he looks back, and thinks that he has duly performed the sacred rites."<ref name=OvidV/> Perhaps the black beans carried with them connotations of warding away or dispelling bad things in general, whether it be unwelcome spirits haunting a household as seen during Lemuria, or preventing undesired gossip towards an individual as in the old hag's [[ritual]] during Feralia. Also, in the context of sacrifices, the black beans are similar to the black animals used in sacrifice to the 'chthonic deities'.<ref name=cult/>
It is implied through Ovid's choice of words, ''"hostiles linguas"'' and ''"inimicaque ora"'', that the ritual is intended to curb gossip about a girl's reputation.<ref name=L922/> Gossip of such a nature and its consequences are the subject for the cause, which Ovid offers, of the Dea Tacita festival, which was held on the same day as the Feralia.<ref name=L922/> Ovid then tells a story to explain the origins of Dea Tacitia, starting with [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]]'s untamed lust for the [[nymph]] [[Juturna]]. Juturna, aware of Jupiter's lust for her, hid within the Hazelwood forest and dove into her sisters' waters. Jupiter then gathered all the nymphs in [[Latium]] seeking their help in capturing Juturna, saying, "Your sister is spiting herself by shunning her own advantage, an entanglement with the highest god. Look out for us both. What will be a great pleasure for me will be in your sister's great interest. Block her as she flees at the bank of the river to keep her from jumping into its waters."<ref name=OvidII/> One of the informed nymphs, [[Larunda|Lara]], would not hold her tongue and warned Juturna to flee. In addition, she approached Jupiter's wife [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]], saying, "Your husband loves the [[Naiad]] Juturna."<ref name=OvidII/> As a result, Jupiter rips out Lara's tongue in anger and summons [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]] to escort her to be a nymph in the [[Underworld]]. During this mission, Mercury becomes lustful of Lara and copulates with her, begetting twins. These twins become the [[Lares]], the guardians of intersections who watch over the city of [[Rome]].<ref name=OvidII/>