54 BISTORT of the SOCIETT. 



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

 immediately formed from Fr. efculette, a porringer ; and this 

 again from Ital. Jcudella^ 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 mould confider Jkaal 

 itfelf as formed, per crafin, from Lat. Jcutula. The quotations he 

 has himfelf made for illuftrating this word, certainly fupplied 

 him with a far more natural etymon. But before proceeding 

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

 ing to Athen^eus, liv. iv. Gr. <rxuX\tov is a fmall cup, and crxccXtg 

 is equivalent to (rxaQiov, which iignifies 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 Gejlis Longobard., fays, * Albin 

 flew Cunimund; and having carried away his head, converted 

 it into a drinking-veiTel ; 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 afferted 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 Gauls by Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. j of the Celts by 

 Silius Italic us, lib. xiv. 



At Celtas vacui capitis circumdare gaudent, 

 Ofia, nefas ! auro, et menfis ea pocula fervant. 



Vide Keysler. Antiq. Septentr. p. 363. 



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

 felf with this reflection ; " I mail foon drink beer from the hol- 

 low cups made of Jkulls," St. 25. Wormii Literat. Dan, p. 203. 



The 



