2n4 S. VI. 149., Nov. 6. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



377 



"which lies over another girth" — che sta sopra 

 altra cinghia (Costa and Cardinali, and the Vocab. 

 delta Crusca) ; in fact, the " surcingle." 



In French "sangle" (Lat. cingulum) means a 

 girth, and "surfaix," which is the French for 

 " surcingle," is " sangle de cheval qui se met sur 

 les autres sangles;" "surfaix" being, literally, 

 " over the load " — /aix, Lat. fascis. In Cot- 

 grave's French and English Dictionary, in the 

 English and French part, by " Robert Sherwood, 

 Londoner," printed in 1650, the word is spelt 

 "sursengle," and the French equivalents are 

 '■'■ siirsangle" and "surfaix." Here, then, we have 

 the original of our " surcingle," although it seems 

 that the French "sursangle" has become obsolete, 

 as it does not appear in any of the dictionaries. 

 That something like it was in early use is evident 

 from an old MS. quoted by Du Cange {^Glossa- 

 rium) under the word " subcingulum." 

 " Estrief, ne siele, ne Sosgaingk, 



Ni li Trains, ne poitrans, ne gaingle, 



Ni remesent k depecier." 



Although the word "sps(jaingle" is referred by 

 Du Cange to subcingulum, the context shows that 

 it is something besides the "qaingle"; and the sos 

 or sou in "sostjaingle" and "souQalngle" may be 

 the French sus for sur, " over." As sus is derived 

 from surstim, " above," the word may thus have 

 become " sursangle," though subsequently dis- 

 carded for " surfaix." And Dr. Johnson, although 

 by no means a safe etymologist in general, may be 

 right in referring the word to sur and cingulum — 

 the Latin of gaingle and sangle — sursangle being 

 the original of " surcingle," formed precisely like 

 the Italian sopraccinghia. Yet the French sur- 

 ceint — "a very broad girdle " — is referred by Du 

 Cange to succinctorium ; and there are other old 

 French words in which he refers sur to words 

 compounded with sub. (^Gloss. Franq.) 



" Succingulum" seems to have been a belt for 

 the human, not the equine, subject. Perhaps it 

 was strictly a military belt. Plautus (Men. 1. 3. 

 17.) says : — 



" . . . ab Hippolyta subcingulum 

 Hercules baud sequfe magno unquam abstulit pericnlo." 



At all events it was clearly worn under, not 

 over, another cingulum. The cingulum, zona, or 

 balteus, fastened the Roman tunic about the waist, 

 under the toga, stola, and palla. If the term sub- 

 civgulum be in opposition to cingulum, it would 

 seem to prove that the Romans did use a girdle 

 over the toga — a point which has been strongly 

 contested. It is difficult otherwise to see the 

 meaning of sub added to cingulum. Cingulum was 

 also the name of the girth (Ovid, Rem. Amor,, 

 2.3G.), often sumptuously ornamented. 



The Romans used their girdle as a purse for 



money : hence, incinclus tunicam mercatm " the 



merchant with his tunic girt." In France and 

 Kngland the girdle had a commercial significance 



of much importance. To discard the girdle was a 

 sign of degradation, insolvency, and a renuncia- 

 tion of civic rights. Insolvent debtors and bank- 

 rupts were forced to put off their girdle ; and at 

 the death of Philip I., Duke of Burgundy, in 1404, 

 his estate being greatly encumbered, his widow 

 had to place her girdle and her keys on the duke's 

 tomb, to signify that she renounced her share in 

 the inheritance. And in England, "it was anciently 

 the custom for bankrupts and other insolvent 

 debtors to put oflF and surrender their girdle in 

 open court. The reason hereof was, that our an- 

 cestors used to carry all their necessary utensils, 

 as purse, keys, &c., tied to the girdle, — whence 

 the girdle became a symbol of the estate" The 

 Chinese carry in their girdle their chop-sticks and 

 other prandial implements, enclosed in a case. 

 Their yellow girdle is confined to royalty — to the 

 male-line of descent — and those favourites whom 

 the Celestial Emperor deigns especially to honour. 

 At the sight of it men fall down and worship, 

 until the bearer covers it with his hand. The 

 Jesuit Grimaldi was invested with it, and used it 

 on one occasion to terrify and humiliate a perse- 

 cuting Mandarin. {Hist. Gen. des Voy., v. 492.) 



Amongst the Franks, as amongst the Romans, 

 the girdle was a distinction accorded to birth and 

 merit, conferring certain privileges, and which 

 might be forfeited by misconduct. With the 

 shoulder-belt, the girdle was the investiture which 

 gave the young soldier his title to "honours." Du 

 Cange illustrates the various significances of the 

 girdle with his usual fecundity (s. v. Cingidum). 



In time the girdle became common to all classes 

 of society, and ceased to be a distinction : but it 

 then became a costly ornament, decorated with 

 jewels of price and beauty by the rich, who, how- 

 ever, suspended from it their alms-purse for the 

 benefit of the poor. According to William de 

 Nangis, the king St. Louis kept in his girdle an 

 ivory box, in which was an iron chain with five 

 branches, with which he had himself fustigated 

 by his father-confessor after confessing his sins. 

 Malefactors were dragged by their girdles before 

 the magistrate. 



In the time of our Edward III. girdles were 

 very costly objects of display — some being priced 

 at twenty marks, about 13Z., at a time when money 

 went much farther than at present.* 



In 1420, Charles VI. of France prohibited loose 

 women to wear girdles adorned with gold and 

 embroidery. They resisted the law although their 

 girdles were torn from them, and fairly tired out 



* " Their girdles are of gold and silver, some worth 20 

 Marks, their slioes and pattens are snowted and piked 

 more than a finger long, crooking upwards, which they 

 call crachows, resembling the Divil's claws, which were 

 fastened to the knees with chains of gold and silver. And 

 thus were tlicy garmented (which, as my Author saith), 

 were Lyons in the Ilall and Hares in the Field." — Apud 

 Cnmd. Rem. 253. 



