€ I C 
Sifter, married women. It is laid to be originally from 
the Hebrew, fchus chis beiitn, “acompanion of the'bride," 
or what we call brideman : among the Jews, the charac¬ 
ter and pra&ice continued only during the fews days of 
the marriage ceremony. In Italy it is an old and pre¬ 
vailing falhion, faid to be derived from the ages of chi¬ 
valry and gallantry. Mr. Baretti l'peaks of it as a very 
reproachful and indecent pradlice, leading perpetually to 
the dilhonour of the marriage bed : but this imputation 
is perhaps without fufficient ground. We learn from 
the “ Letters on France,” written by a lady, and pub- 
lilhed in 1797, by J. Gifford, efquire, that afet of females 
in that intriguing country had acquired a fimilar title and 
defignation: the paffage is as follows: “ I have been read¬ 
ing lord Orrery’s definition of the male Cicifbeo, and it 
reminds me that I have not yet noticed to you a very 
important clafs of females in France, who may not im¬ 
properly be denominated female Cicifbeos. Under the 
old fyftem, when the rank of a woman of fafhion had 
enabled her to preferve a degree of reputation and influ¬ 
ence in fpite of the gallantries of her youth and the de¬ 
cline of her charms, file adopted the equivocal charafler 
I here allude to, and, relinquifliing the adoration claimed 
by beauty, and the refpefl due to age, charitably devoted 
herfelf to’the inltruftion and advancement of feme young 
man of perfonal qualifications and uncertain fortune. 
She prefented him to the world, panegyrifed him into 
fafhion, and infured his conlequence with one fet of 
females, by hinting his fucceffes with another. By her 
exertions he was promoted in the army or diftinguifhed 
at the levee, and a career begun under luch aufpices often 
terminated in a brilliant 1 eftablifliment. In the lefs ele¬ 
vated circle, a female Cicifbeo is ufually of a certain age, 
of an a Stive difpofition, and great volubility, and her 
functions are more numerous and lefs dignified. Here 
the grand objects are not to befiege minifters, nor give a 
ton to the protege at a fafhionable ruclle, but to obtain for 
him the folid advantages of what fhe calls “ un bon parti." 
To this end fhe frequents the lioufes of wudows and 
heirefies, vaunts the docility of his temper, and the great- 
nefs of his expeditions, enlarges on the folitude of widow¬ 
hood, or the dependence and infignificance of a fpinfter ; 
and thefe prefatory encomiums ufually end in the con¬ 
certed introduction of the Platonic “ ami." 
CI'CLA,/. in botany. See Beta, 
CI'CLUT, a fortrefs of Dalmatia, fituated in an ifland 
formed by the river Narenta, taken from the Turks by 
the Venetians, in 1694.: five miles fouth-well of Narenta, 
and forty north of Ragufa. 
CICO'GNA (Pafquali), doge of Venice from 1585 to 
S595. After his death he was counted a faint, and an 
altar was eredted to his memory in the church of the Je- 
fuits at Venice, His fandtity was founded on the follow¬ 
ing fuppofed miracle : it is faid, that, being one day hear¬ 
ing mafs, the holt or conlecrated wafer quitted the hand 
of the prieft, and lighted on the hand of Cicogna ; in 
memory of which there is inferibed on one fide of his 
tomb, Feint alter Simeon, manibus Cbrijhtm excepif, “ Like 
another Simeon, he received Chrilt in his arms.” During 
the government of this prince, the Hate enjoyed a pro¬ 
found peace ; and he' ornamented the city with many 
noble edifices, particularly that itupendous and magnii 
ficent bridge called the Rialto, which was begun in 1587 
and finifhed in 1591. 
CFCOLI, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of Naples, 
and province Abruzzo Ultra: thirteen miles foutli-weft 
of Celano. 
CICO'NES, a people of Thrace near the Hebrus. 
Ulyffes at his return from Troy conquered them, and 
plundered their chief city Ifmarus. They tore to pieces 
Orpheus for his oblcene indulgences. Mela. 
To CI'CURATE, <v. a. \cicuro, Lat.] To tame ; to re¬ 
claim from wildnels; to make tame and tradtable.—Poi- 
fons may yet retain feme portion of their natures; yet 
are lo refrafted, cicurated, and fubdued, as not to make 
good their deftrudlive malignities. Brown, 
c I c 595 
CICURA'TION./. The a£l of taming or reclaiming 
from wildnels.—-This holds not only in domeflic and 
manluete birds, for then it might be the effeCt of cicuration 
or institution'; but in the wild. Ray. 
CICU'TA, f. [fignifies the internode or fpace between 
two joints of a reed ; the hollow ftem of any plant, which 
the fliepherds ufed for making their rural pipes ; fucli 
Items in our old and rural language we call keckfies .] In 
botany, a genus of the clafs pentandria, order digynia, na¬ 
tural order umbellatse, or umbelliferae. The generic cha¬ 
racters are'—Calyx : umbel univerfal roundifh ; rays very 
many equal; partial roundifli, with very many, equal, 
fetaceous rays ; involucre univerfal, none; partial many- 
leavod; leaflets briftly, fliort; perianthium proper fcarcely 
vifible. Corolla : univerfal uniform ; flofcules all fertile ; 
proper of five ovate, inflefted, nearly equal petals. Sta¬ 
mina : filaments five, capillary, longer than the corolla ; 
anthers Ample. Piftiilutu: germ inferior; ftyles two, 
filiform, longer than the corolla, permanent; ftigmas 
headed. Perianthium; none; fruit fubovate, furrow¬ 
ed, bipartile. Seeds: two, fubovate, convex, and ftriated 
on one fide ; flat on the other— Effential Character. Fruit 
fubovate, furrowed. 
Species. 1. Cicuta virofa, or long-leaved water hem¬ 
lock : umbels oppofite-leaved, petioles margined, obtufe. 
Stem round, hollow ; two, three, and even four, feet high, 
ftriated, fmooth, reddifh towards the bottom, dichoto¬ 
mous ; leaves fheatliing, a foot and half long, and near a 
foot broad ; the lower on long hollow petioles, the upper 
almoft leflile; bipinnate; fome of the pinnas Ample, 
others bifid or trifid ; the ferratures fometimes brown ; 
the end leaf cut into three to the bottom; all fmooth. 
This plan generally grows near the fides of large ftag- 
nant waters, or in fhallow flow rivers. Towards the end 
of autumn, the root for the fucceeding fummer is 
formed out of the lower part of the ftalk : this is divid¬ 
ed trailfverfely into many large unequal cells ; fo that 
it becomes fpecifically lighter than water, and in winter, 
when the rivers or pools fwell, is buoyed up. The old 
root then rots, floats all the winter, and in rivers is fre¬ 
quently carried to great diftances. In the fpring the old 
root is waflied away, and the new one, on coming near 
the foil, lends out many {lender fibres, by which it is 
again fixed, grows, and flowers. It is an inhabitant of 
the northern part of Europe, from Lapland to Germany 
and Switzerland. In Britain it is not very common ; but 
it is found at Ifieworth, in the Coin near Colnbrook and 
Uxbridge, on Hownflow-heath, in the ifle of Ely, Lov- 
ingland in Suffolk, near Norwich and Yarmouth, Hat¬ 
ton in Shropfhire, Brereton-mere in Chefhire, near North- 
wich, in Nottingham-park, in the Trent near Abbot’s 
Bromley, near Stafford, and in Scotland, and Wales; 
flowering in July and Auguft. 
This plant is one of the rankeft of our vegetable poi- 
fons. Numerous inftances are recorded of its fatality to 
the human fpecies, by Wepfar, Haller, See. and in the 
Philofophical Tranfaftions, by Dr. Watfon. Linnaeus 
(in Flor. Suec.) relates its fatal effedls on kine : and Dr. 
Withering obferves, that early in the fpring, cows often 
eat of it, and are killed by it; but that, as the fummer 
advances, and its feent becomes ftronger, they carefully 
avoid it: that goats however devour it greedily with im¬ 
punity, and that horfes and flieep eat it with fafety. 
Strong emetics are the moll approved remedy to this 
poifon. 
z. Cicuta bulbifera: branches bulbiferous. The leaves 
are divided into very minute capillary iegments. The 
flowers are white, with the finell of cumin flowers. Na¬ 
tive of Virginia and Canada, in watery'places. 
3. Cicuta maculata, or fpotted water hemlock: ferratures 
of the leaves mucronate,petioles membranaceous two-icbed 
at the end ; flem thick, fpotted with purple, three feet high 
and more ; Leaves black, fhining, triply pinnate, the lall 
pinnules fome what bluntly toothed; Flowers white; Fruit 
middle-fized, ovate-gobular, thick, gibbous, diitantiy rib¬ 
bed; feeds ovate; narrower upwards, very gibbous, end- 
