FORNĀCĀLĬA, a festival in honour of Fornax, the goddess of furnaces,
in order that the corn might be properly baked. This ancient festival
is said to have been instituted by Numa. The time for its celebration
was proclaimed every year by the curio maximus, who announced in
tablets, which were placed in the forum, the different part which
each curia had to take in the celebration of the festival. Those
persons who did not know to what curia they belonged performed the
sacred rites on the _Quirinalia_, called from this circumstance the
_Stultorum feriae_, which fell on the last day of the Fornacalia.
FORNIX, in its primary sense, is synonymous with ARCUS, but more
commonly implies an arched vault, constituting both roof and ceiling
to the apartment which it encloses.