110 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, 
sought to rival him in the affections of Prnexore, to purity his 
house from blood by the use of fire and sulphur: 
Oirs Sesion vend xeoxay cxos, dios Oe pros mde 
"Oden baisbow Heyagor. 
Odyss. lib. xxii. v. 481. 
As we certainly know, that the ordeal by fire was used in 
the times of heathenism, there is no reason to doubt that it 
originated from the same persuasion as to the purifying virtue 
of fire. The person who passed without injury, bare-footed 
and blind-fold, over nine glowing ploughshares, was said to be 
purged from the crime of which he had been accused. The 
names given, in various instances, to this species of trial, ex- 
pressed the same idea. In the language of Iceland it was de- 
nominated skirsla, from skir-a purgare. The learned Lunp 
traces the Gothic term ordel, urdel, perhaps rather fanci- 
fully, to Heb. ur ignis, as denoting judgment by fire*. In 
the Latin of the dark ages, the act was designed purgatio vul- 
garis; and the person was said, per calidum ferrum se purgare, 
or ferro candenti se purificare. It may be added, that, as the 
other mode of ordeal was by water, whether cold or hot, it ap- 
pears that the principal tests of imputed criminality bore a 
strict analogy to the two great means of purification acknow- 
ledged by the ancients,—fire and water. ' 
As a proof that the ordeal by fire was a remnant of pagan 
worship, the justly celebrated Du Cancxr refers to the testimo- . 
nony of SopHocLes. 
"Hyey F eroiwor nat pvdeus cegew egos, 
Kai wie diéerew, xock bees oguapmoréire 
Antigon. ver. 270. 
") “ We 
* Ture Glossar. voc. Ordela. 
