in Antiquity, a ceremony among the Romans, when, in order to procure from the gods a happy harvest, they conducted the victims thrice round the corn fields in procession, before sacrificing them.—Ambarvalia were either of a private or public nature: the private were performed by the master of a family, and the public by the priests who officiated at the solemnity, called fratres arvales. The prayer preferred on this occasion, the formula of which we have in Cato de Re Rustica, cap. cxlii., was called carmen ambarvale. At these feasts they sacrificed to Ceres a sow, a sheep, and a bull or heifer, whence they took