41. We can, if it is thought proper, speak briefly of the Lares also, whom the mass think to be the gods of streets and ways, because the Greeks name streets lauræ . In different parts of his writings, Nigidius speaks of them now as the guardians of houses and dwellings; now as the Curetes, who are said to have once concealed, by the clashing of cymbals, 4061 the infantile cries of Jupiter; now the five Digiti Samothracii, who, the Greeks tell us , were named Idæi Dactyli . Varro, with like hesitation, says at one time that they are the Manes, 4062 and therefore the mother of the Lares was named Mania; at another time, again, he maintains that they are gods of the air, and are termed heroes; at another, following the opinion of the ancients, he says that the Lares are ghosts, as it were a kind of tutelary demon, spirits of dead 4063 men. 4061     Æribus . Cf. Lucretius, ii. 633–636. 4062     The ms. reads manas , corrected as above by all edd. except Hild., who reads Manias. 4063     The ms. reads effunctorum ; LB. et funct. , from the correction of Stewechius; Gelenius, with most of the other edd., def.