Lemures

Lemures, the general designation given by the Romans to all spirits of departed persons, of whom the good were honoured as Lares (q.v.), and the bad (Larvæ) were feared as capable in their night journeys of exerting a malignant influence upon mortals. The festival called Lemuria was held on the 9th, 11th, and 13th of May, and was accompanied with ceremonies of washing hands, throwing black beans over the head, &c., and the pronunciation nine times of these words: 'Begone, you spectres of the house!' which deprived the lemures of their power to harm. Ovid describes the Lemuria in the fifth book of his Faſti.