24 HIS TORT of the SOCIETT. 



might appear at firft view to have fome affinity. But it feems 

 immediately formed from Fr. e/aiktte, a porringer ; and this 

 again from Ital. fcudella^ ufed in the fame fenfe. This is deri- 

 ved from Lat. fcutula, which was a kind of concave vefTel, 

 a faucer. The learned Ihre, in his Glojfarium SuioGothicum, 

 views thefe French, Italian, and Latin words, as allied to 

 Gothic Jkaal. But it is furprifing, that he fhould con{ider7X'«^/ 

 itfelf as formed, per crafiii, from Lat. fcutula. The quotations he 

 has himfelf made for illuflrating this word, certainly fupplied 

 him with a far more natural etymon. But before proceeding 

 to this, it may be remarked as a fingular analogy, that, accord- 

 ing to Athen^us, liv. iv. Gr. a-xaXXiov is a fmall cup, and (rxaX<s 

 is equivalent to ffKa,<pt<>v, which fignifies a drinking-veflel. 



It is highly probable, that a cup or bowl received this name 

 from the barbarous cuftom which prevailed among feveral an- 

 cient nations, of drinking out of the fkulls of their enemies. 

 Warnefrid, in his work De Geflh Loniobard.^ {zys, ' Albin 

 flew CuNiMUND J and having carried away his head, converted 

 it into a drinking-veflel ; which kind of cup is with us called 

 fchala, but in the Latin language it has the name of patera;' 

 lib. i. cap. 27. The fame thing is aflerted of the Boii by Livy, 

 lib. xxiii. c 24. ; of the Scythians by Herodotus, lib. ix. ; of 

 their defcendants the Scordifci, by Rufus Festus in Breviario j 

 of the Gaxils by Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. j of the Celts by 

 SiLius Italicus, Ub. xiv. 



At Celtae vacui capitis circumdare gaudent, 

 Ofla, nefas 1 auro, et menfis ea pocula fervant. 



Vide Keysler. Antiq. Septentr.p. 363. 



Hence Ragnar Lodbrog, in his death-fong, confoles him- 

 felf with this refledion ; " 1 fliall foon drink beer from the hol- 

 low cups made oifkulU;' St. 25. Wormii Literal. Dan. p. 203. 



The 



