784 L U S 
LUS'TRABLE, adj. \_lvJlro, Lat. to purify.] Capable 
of purification. 
LUSTRAL, adj. [/ ujlrale , Fr. IvJJralis, Lat.] Ufed in 
purification.—From the lujiral water ufed by the ancients 
in their ceremonies to fprinkle and purify the people, the 
Rotpanifts have borrowed the holy water ufed in their 
churches. Ency. Brit. 
His better parts by 'ujlral waves refin’d, 
More pure, and nearer to aethereal mind. Garth. 
Lustral Day, dies lujiricus , that whereon the luftra¬ 
tions were performed for a child, and its name given ; 
which was ufualiy the ninth day from the birth of a boy, 
and the eighth from that of a girl: though others per¬ 
formed the ceremony on the laft day of that week wherein 
the child was born, and others on the fifth day from its 
birth. Over this feaft-day the goddefs Nundina was fup- 
pofed to prefide ; the midwives, nurfes, and domeftics, 
handed the child backwards and Rrwards, round a fire 
burning on the altars of the gods,after which they fprinkled 
it with water; hence this feaft had the name of amphidro- 
mia. The old women mixed faliva and dull with the wa¬ 
ter. The whole ended with a fumptuous entertainment. 
The parents received gifts from their friends on this oc- 
cafion. If the chiid was a male, their door was decked 
with an olive garland ; if a female, with wool, denoting the 
work about? which women were to be employed. Potter. 
LUSTRA'TION,/. [Fr. from lujiratio, Lat.] Purifica¬ 
tion by water.—What were all their lujirations, but fo 
many folemn purifyings, to render both themfelves and 
their facrifices acceptable to their gods ? South. 
By ardent pray’r, and clear lujlration , 
Purge the contagious fpots of human weaknefs. Prior. 
' Lustration, or Expiation, in antiquity, facrifices or 
ceremonies by which the ancients purified their cities, 
fields, armies, or people, defiled by any crime or impurity. 
Some of thefe luftrations were public, others private. 
There were three fpecies or manners of performing lu if ra¬ 
tion, viz. by fire and fulphur, by water, and by air; which 
laft was done by fanning and agitating the air round the 
thing to be purified. Some of thefe luftrations were ne- 
ceflary, i. e. could not be difpenfed with ; as luftrations 
of houfes in time of a plague, or upon the death of any 
perfon : others again were done out of choice, and at 
pleafure. The public luftrations at Rome were celebrated 
every fifth year; in which they led a victim thrice round 
the place to be purified, and in the mean time burnt a 
great quantity of perfumes. Their country luftrations, 
which they called amharvalia, (fee that word, vol. i.) were 
celebrated before they began to reap their corn : in thofe 
of their armies, which they called armiluftria, fome chofen 
foldiers, crowned with laurel, led the victims, which were 
a cow, a fheep, and a bull, thrice round the army ranged 
in battle-array in the field of Mars, to which deity the 
vi&ims were afterwards facrificed, after pouring out many 
imprecations upon the enemies of the Romans. The lul- 
trations of their flocks were performed in this manner: 
the (hepherd fprinkled them with pure water, and thrice 
furrounded his fheepfold with a compofition of favin, 
laurel, and brimftone, fet on fire; and afterwards facrificed 
to the goddefs Pales an offering of milk boiled, wine, a 
cake, and millet. As for private houfes, they were luf- 
trated with water, a fumigation of laurel, juniper, olive- 
tree, favin, and fuch-like ; and the victim commonly was 
a pig. Luftrations made for particular perfons were com¬ 
monly called expiations, and the victims piacula. 
All forts of perfumes, and odoriferous herbs, had place 
in luftration. The egg was much ufed among them, as 
being the fymbol of the four elements: its fliell, they fay, 
reprefents the earth; the yolk, a globe of fire; the white, 
refembles the water; and befides it has a fpirit, they fay, 
which reprefents the air. For this reafon it is, that the 
bonzes, or Indian priefts, believe to this day that the 
world came out of an egg. There is fcarcely any pot-herb, 
2 
L U S 
pulfe, tree, mineral, or metal, which they did not offer to 
their gods by way of expiation : nor did they forget milk, 
bread, wine, and honey ; what is more, they made ule of 
the very fpittle, and urine. 
The poets had feigned, that the gods purified them¬ 
felves; and they did not omit to purify their ftatues. 
When a man who had been falfely reputed dead, returned 
home, he was not to enter the houfe by the door. It was 
a fettled cuftom to offer no expiation for thofe who were 
hanged by order of juftice, or that were killed by thunder. 
Neither did they offer any for thofe who were drowned in 
the fea; it being the common opinion, that their fouls 
perifhed with their bodies. And hence it was, that per¬ 
fons in danger of thipwreck fometimes thruft their fwords 
through their bodies, that they might not die in the fea; 
where they thought their foul, which they fuppofed to be 
a flame, would be totally extinguifhed. The molt cele¬ 
brated expiatory facrifice was the hecatomb, when they 
offered a hundred beafts ; though they commonly did not 
offer fo many, but contented themfelves with killing 
twenty-five ; but, thofe being quadrupeds, their feet came 
to a hundred. 
The manner of the Macedonians purifying their army by 
luftration was this : At the time of their feltival Xanthica, 
they divided a bitch into two halves, one of which, toge¬ 
ther with the entrails, was placed upon the right hand, 
the other upon the left; between thefe the army marched 
in this order: after the arms of the Macedonian kings, 
came the firft line of the army, confiding of horfe; thefe 
were followed by the king and his children, after whom 
went the life-guards; then followed the reft of the army: 
this done, the army was divided into two parts, one of 
which being fet in array againft the other, there followed 
a fhort encounter in imitation of a fight. Potter, Archaol. 
Greet. 
Luftrations and luftratory facrifices were not only per¬ 
formed for men, but alfo for temples, altars, theatres, 
trees, fountains, rivers, theep, fields, and villages. Cities 
were alfo to be purified, from time to time : fome made 
the victim walk round their walls, and then flew him. 
The Athenians facrificed tw-o men, one for the men of 
their city, and the other for the women. The Corinthians 
facrificed the children of Medea fo: though the poets 
fay, Medea killed them herfelf. The Romans performed 
the ceremony of purifying their city every fifth year; 
whence the name of lujlrum. was given to the fpace of 
five years. 
Divers of the expiations were auftere: fome faffed; 
others abftained from all fenfual pleafures; fome, as the 
priefts of Cybele, caftrated themfelves; others, that they 
might live chafte, ate rue, or lay under the branches of a 
fhrub called agnus cajlus. They caft into the river, or at 
leaft out of the city, the animals or other things that had 
ferved for a luftration, or facrifice of atonement; and 
thought themfelves threatened with fome great misfor¬ 
tune, when by chance they trod upon them. At Mar- 
feilles they took care to feed a poor man for fome time ; 
after which, they charged him with all the fins of the 
country, and drove him away: thofe of Leucade fattened 
a number of birds to a man charged with their fins, and 
in that condition caft him headlong from a high tower; 
and, if the birds hindered his being killed, they drove him 
out of the country. Some of thefe ceremonies were abo- 
lifhed by the emperor Conftantine, and his fuccefl’ors; the 
reft fubfifted till the Gothic kings were matters of Rome, 
under whom they expired ; except that feveral of them 
were adopted by the popes, and brought into the church, 
where they make a figure to this day : witnefs the nume¬ 
rous confecrations, benedictions, exorcifms, ablutions, 
fprinklings, proceffions, feafts, &c. ftill in ufe in the Ro¬ 
man church. 
The method of luftration, or expiation, among the Jews, 
was chiefly by facrifice, whether for fins of ignorance, or 
to purify themfelves from certain pollutions. The feaft 
of expiation, called by our tranflators the day of atonement, 
was 
