Aug. 30. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



163 



bodies of the dead. These were more or less em- 

 bahned with aromatic spices, according to the con- 

 dition of the person, and then corned with salt- 

 petre (A.iTpoj', 7iitre) for seventy days ; strictly, 

 salted. Is it possible that the early Christians, in 

 adopting this practice, may have been influenced 

 by that very obscure passage, Mark ix. 49. : 

 " Every one shall be salted with fire ?" 



Alfked Gattt. 



The custom of placing a plate of salt on the body 

 of the dead is very general in Wales. I remem- 

 ber, when a child, inquiring the reason of the 

 practice, and being told by an old woman that it 

 was to prevent the body from swelling. My 

 remark, that an?/ weight might answer the same 

 purpose, was met by the reply; "there's no weight 

 «o heavy as salt gets when it is on the dead." This 

 proves that some feeling of superstition mingles 

 witii the custom. Has not tiie use of salt in 

 baptism, amongst the Italians, &c., some allusion 

 to the banishment of the evil spirit ? Seleucus. 



The Word " Repudiate " (Vol. iv., p. 54.). — 

 That the use of the word repudiate, m the sense of 

 refuse, repel, reject, abandon, disown, cast off, is 

 bv no means modern ; and that such phrases as 

 "I repudiate tlie idea," "I repudiate the senti- 

 ment," "I repudiate the j)roposal," are strictly 

 correct, is evident from the use of the word by 

 "standard classical authors" in tlie original lan- 

 guage from which it has come down to us. Sallust, 

 for instance, in his History of Catiline's Conspiracy, 

 says that Lentulus advised him to seek assistance 

 everywhere, even amongst the dregs of the popu- 

 lace ; asking him at the same time, " Why, since 

 the senate had already adjudged him to be an 

 enemy to tlie republic, he should repudiate the 

 slaves?" i.e., refuse to enrol them in his levies. 



" Cum ab senatu hostis judicatus sit, quo consillo 

 servitia repudiet 9" — Sail. Cat. 44. 



Cicero, in his Offices, in opposition to the opinion 

 of the peripatetic school, that anger is implanted in 

 us by nature for useful ends, lays it down as a 

 princi|)le, that " on all occasions anger ought to he 

 repudiated;" that is, "cast out of the mind," and says 

 that " it is to be wished tliat persons who are at 

 the head of the state should be like the laws, which 

 inflict punishment not in anger but in justice." 



" Illn (iracundia) vcro omnibus in rebus repudianda 

 est." — Cic. de Off. I. xxv. 13. 



Cicero knew nothing of the Cliristian grace of 

 "being angry and sinning not;" he knew nothing 

 of the severity of love. In another place he tells 

 us that on one occasion Tiiemistocles declared in 

 the Atli(!nian assemljly, that he had a plan to pro- 

 pose wliicli would be of great advantage to the 

 state, but ought not to be made public. lie was 

 willing, however, to communicate it to any one 

 person whom they might select. Aristides, rightly 



named the Just, being the person selected, The- 

 mistocles disclosed his i)lan to him : which was, 

 secretly to set fire to the Lacedaemonian fleet in 

 the dockyard of Gytheum, by which means they 

 would effectually crush the power of the Lacedas- 

 monians. Aristides returned to the assembly, and 

 at once declared that Tiiemistocles' plan was 

 certainly very advantageous, but by no means 

 honourable ; whereupon the Athenians, rightly 

 considering that what was not attended with 

 honour, could not be attended even with advan- 

 tage in reality, without hearing another word, 

 " repudiated the ivhole affair ;" that is, utterly re- 

 jected the proposal. 



" Itaque Athcnienses, quod honestum non esset, id 

 ne utile quidem putaverunt ; totamque earn rem, quam 

 ne audierant quitlcm, auctore Aristide, repudiaverunt." 

 — Cic. de Off. III. xi. 12. 



In a third place, he relates that some persons 

 forged a will of one Minucius Basilus, who had 

 died in Greece ; and, in order that they might the 

 more easily obtain their end, put down Marcus 

 Crassus and Quintus Hortensius, two of the most 

 influential men in Rome at that time, as co-legatees 

 with themselves, who although they suspected the 

 will to be forged, yet did not 7-epudiate the little 

 legacy coming to them through other persons' 

 fraud, because forsooth they were not privy to the 

 actual commission of the forgery. 



" Qui cum illud falsum esse susplcarentur, sibi 

 autem nuUius essent conscii culpae, alieni facinoris 

 munusculum non repudiaverunt." — Cic. de Off. III. 

 xviii. 4. 



A little further research might easily multiply 

 instances, but I think these are quite sufficient to 

 prove that we moderns are but following the an- 

 cients in using the word repudiate without refe- 

 rence to any obligation expressed or implied. 



F. F. F. 



Repudiate, Ringlet, Outhurst (Vol. iv., p. 54.). 

 — Your correspondent H. C. K. has dealt, I fear, 

 somewhat too harshly with " repudiate." Surely 

 "repudiare" is "to reject what one is ashamed of, 

 scorns, or disdains." Two instances immediately 

 suggest themselves in C/cer. pro PZanci'o, 18 (44). 

 20 (50). In the former — 



" Respuevent aures, nemo ognosceret, lepudiarent," 



perhaps the word is a gloss upon " respuerunt." 

 The latter, however, is unexceptionable: 



" Nunqiiam enim fere nobilitas, Integra praesertim 

 atquc innoceiis, a Populo Romano supplex repudiata 

 fuit." 



Why then should "repudiate" necessarily imply 

 the notion of " obligation ?" and why should I, if 

 I "repudiate" the criticism of II. C. K., be held 

 to " talk nonsense ? " 



May I be allowed room for a couple of Queries ? 

 1. Is our modern usage of "ringlet" found before 



