The Manes was a name applied generally to the soul after it has separated
from the body, and were among the infernal deities being supposed to
preside over the grave, burial places, and monuments of the dead.
They were worshipped with great great solemnity, particularly by the
Romans, and were always invoked by the Augurs before proceeding about their
sacerdotal offices.
It was believed that these spirits quitted, during the hours of night,
their melancholy dwelling-place, and "revisited the glimpses of the moon,"
to exercise their benevolence or their fury. They were allowed also to
leave their tombs three times during the course of the year while their
fetes, which were the most pompous in Rome, were proceeding in their
honour.
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