378 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'"i S. VI. 149., Nov. 6. '58. 



the authorities, I'emaining at length in possession 

 of their girdles. Hereupon all decent women dis- 

 continued the use of girdles, saying, by way of 

 consolation, Bonne renommee vaut niieux qxie cein- 

 ture doree, " Good name is better fame than girdle 

 gilt " — which became a proverb. The result ex- 

 hibited a striking trait of human nature all the 

 world over: — these very women, who had braved 

 all authority and its penalties to retain their gir- 

 dles, actually discarded them as soon as they were 

 no longer disputed. 



The Christians, In the time of Motavackkel, 

 tenth caliph of the Abassides, in the year 856, 

 were more submissive. He ordered the Christians 

 to wear a large leathern girdle, as a badge of their 

 profession. They wear it to this day, throughout 

 the East, — whence the Christians of Asia, particu- 

 larly those of Syria and Mesopotamia — almost all 

 Nestorians — have been called Chriatians of the 

 Girdle. (Chambers, Cycl.) 



When flowing garments ceased to be in vogue, 

 girdles were discontinued : but they were still re- 

 tained by magistrates and ecclesiastics; and the 

 monks of certain orders ever clung to their coarse 

 cord of a girdle. 



The girdle is essentially an oriental invention. 

 It is frequently mentioned with honour in the 

 Bible. It decorated the High Priest of the Jews 

 as well as the Saniassi of the Hindoos ; and sub- 

 sists in the Church of Rome as a characteristic 

 admonition to her priesthood. With the Catholic 

 priest it is decidedly a sub-cingulum, being worn 

 under the other vestments, round about the alb 

 or flowing white garment. An old writer, quoted 

 by Du Cange, says of the priest : — cingido pi'o 

 area se cingit, subcingulum pro pharetrd sibi appen- 

 dit; — "he girds himself with the girdle for his 

 bow; he lays about him a belt for his quiver." 

 This metaphorical application seems to refer to 

 the use of sid>cingulum as a military belt — in fact 

 for pharelra-zonium, " a quiver-belt." I would 

 therefore suggest that the sub in subcingulum may 

 refer to its position, as lower down than the cin- 

 guluin — over the Lips, in fact, as a sword-belt or 

 quiver-belt. 



When the Catholic priest robes himself before 

 Mass (as he utters a prayer on putting on each of 

 his six " paramenta "), he says, whilst putting on 

 his girdle : Prcecitige me, Domine, cingido puritatis, 

 et extingue in lumbis meis humorem libidinis ; vt ma- 

 neat in me virtus continentice et castitatis. {Missale 

 Rom.) " Gird me, O Lord, with the girdle of 

 purity, and extinguish in my loins the humour of 

 lust, that there may remain in me the virtue of 

 continence and chastity." 



By a singular contrast the girdle with which 

 " the clergy of the Church of England usually tie 

 their cassocks " is called a surcingle ! 



The mystical meanings of the girdle are curious. 

 Activity, strength, dignity, and purity geem to be 



its appropriate significances : but the Greek and 

 Roman virgins also wore a girdle, made of sheeps* 

 wool, which was untied by the husband on marriage. 

 Festus states that it was tied in the Herculean 

 Knot — (what Knot was that ?) — and that the 

 husband untied it as a happy presage of his having 

 as many children as Hercules, who at his death 

 left seventy behind him. The Jewish bride and 

 bridegroom, as a preliminary to marriage, send to 

 each other girdles of gold and silver drops, — the 

 bride sending silver, the bridegroom gold. Bux- 

 torf asked a Jew the meaning of the different 

 metals, but his answer, though significant enough, 

 is totally unfit for quotation, even in Latin. 

 (Buxtorf, Synng. Judaica, c. 28.) And the Ces- 

 tus, or girdle of Venus, was supposed by the 

 Greeks to be the perfect ravishment of love in all 

 its allurements — by the eyes, by the lips and 

 their smiles — by the mouth and its sighs — the 

 eloquence of words — and of silence, perhaps still 

 more exciting. Homer describes it (^lliad. xiv. 

 215.) — a curious and edifying Homeric study for 

 life's maturity ! 



evff' evi fJ.ev (^tAoTTjs, €v6 i/xepo;, iv fi' oaptCTv; 

 Trapf^aat?, rj t' cxAei/ze i-ooi/ TrvKa nep tftpoveoVTotv" 



" In this was every art, and every charm, 

 To win the wisest and the coldest warm : 

 Fond love, the gentle vow, the gay desire, 

 The kind deceit, the still-reviving fire. 

 Persuasive speech and more persuasive sighs. 

 Silence that spoke and eloquence of eyes." — Pope. 



Finally — although the subject is very far from 

 being exhausted — Science has attributed to Mo- 

 ther Earth five zones, belts or girdles. If the 

 opinions of some ancient philosophers — Epicurus 

 amongst them — concerning the animated func- 

 tions of earth were not altogether metaphorical, an 

 eminent modern philosopher. Dr. Virey, does not 

 hesitate to express his learned opinion that our 

 Earth is an organised, living Being, — suggesting 

 that all of us (plants and animals) are merely 

 sucking our existence out of her epidermis or 

 scarfskin — in point of fact, as parasites! (JPhilos. 

 de VHist. Nat. p. 296.) 



God be praised for the gift of Imagination, 

 which, in its endless, multitudinous vagaries, tends 

 to mitigate the stern realities of life — whilst we 

 blunder on — now and then perversely exclaiming 

 with Job — " Wherefore is light given to him that 

 is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul ? " 



ASDBEW SXEISMETZ. 



THE GEMEAIOGICAL SUGGESTION. 



(2"'> S. vi. 307.) 



I consider the suggestion of C^do Illud a most 

 valuable one, and shall be very happy to cooperate 

 in giving effect to it. 



Care should however be taken not to allow this 



