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THE ROMAN GODS 147 their effort to attain exactness and definiteness, developed an almost endless series of such spirits of activity after the pattern of a few ancient forms of this sort, particu- larly, it seems, during the fourth century B.C. Because of this very exaggeration in their number and importance they soon lost their significance; at any rate, the worship of the Indigetes had by the time of the second Punic war fallen into disuse. How subtle these distinctions were may be seen, for example, in the fact that on the occasion of a child's first leaving the house it was consid- ered necessary to invoke Abeona, on its return, Adeona, and at the same time also Domiduca and Iterduca. II. DEIFIED FORCES OF NATURE, AND DIVINITIES CLOSELY RELATED TO SPIRITS OF ACTIVITY 191. (1) Among the Romans the only proper divinities of nature with fully individualized personality were the representatives of the forces operating in springs and rivers. As in Greece, the divinities of springs were usu- ally thought of as female beings ; they were worshiped in the groves surrounding the springs, but even in very early times were also developed into goddesses of prophecy and song, and into such as come to help difficult births. From the idea of their relation to prophecy and song the Came- nae, who dwelt in a grove outside the Porta Capena, came to be identified with the Greek Muses ; while the prophe- sying spouse of king Numa, Egeria, who was closely con- nected with the Camenae, and dwelt in the same grove, was principally invoked in the capacity of a goddess of birth. The essential characteristics of both these types were combined in Carmenta, the mother of Evan-