sa cuisse nue: Ce fait vous ferez par ensemble les tours de la volte, comme cy dessus a esté dit: Et après avoir tournoyé par tant de cadances qu'il vous plaira, restituerez la damoiselle en sa place, ou elle sentira (quelque bonne contenance qu'elle face) son cerveau esbranlé, plain de vertigues et tornoyements de teste, et vous n'en aurez peult estre pas moins: Je vous laisse à considerer si cest chose bien seante à une jeune fille de faire de grands pas et ouvertures de jambes: et si en ceste volte l'honneur et la santé y sont pas hazardez et interessez." And again: "Si vous voulez une aultre fois dancer la volte à main droicte, vous fauldra mettre vostre main droicte sur le doz de la damoiselle, et la main gaulche soubz son busq, et en la poussant de la cuisse droicte soubz la fesse, torner le revers de la tabulature cy dessus. Et nottez qu'il y a dexterité à empoigner et serrer contre vous la damoiselle, car il faut ce faire en deux mesures ternaires, desmarchant sur la premiere mésure pour vous planter devant elle, et sur la fin de la deuxieme mésure, luy mettant l'une des mains sur la hanche, et l'aultre soubs le busq pour à la troisième mésure commencer à torner selon les pas contenus en la tabulature." Sc. 6. p. 379. PIST. Die and be damn'd; and figo for thy friendship. The practice of thrusting out the thumb be tween the first and second fingers to express the feelings of insult and contempt has prevailed very generally among the nations of Europe, and for many ages been denominated making the fig, or described at least by some equivalent expression. There is good reason for believing that it was known to the ancient Romans. Winckelman in his letter from Herculaneum has described a bronze satyr as actually making the fig with his fingers, and such a character is among the engravings in the king of Naples's magnificent publication on the antiquities of the above city. The upper part of a similar bronze in a private collection is here copied in the last figure below. It is more likely that making the fig was borrowed from this Roman custom, than from another with which it has been sometimes confounded. This is the infamis digitus of Persius; or the thrusting out the middle finger, on that account called verpus. In many private as well as public collections of Roman antiquities there are still pre served certain figures in bronze, ivory, coral, and other materials, of the following forms. These however are well known to have been used as amulets against fascination in general, but more particularly against that of the evil eye. They are sometimes accompanied with the common symbol of Priapus, but often consist of it exclusively. The connexion which this phallic figure had with the above-mentioned superstition is known to every classical reader. The introduction of the crescent or moon is not so easily explained. If these amulets were borrowed from the Egyptians, as some have supposed, the crescent may denote the influence of Isis or Venus, and the two symbols united may represent nature, or what the Hindus intend by their sacred Lingam: but every thing on this subject must be conjectural, the very essence of it being mysterious. The Italian fica seems more intimately and etymologically connected with the obscure disease known to the Romans by the name of ficus; a term, with its appendages, rather to be conceived than fully explained in this place. It has afforded matter for some of Martial's Epigrams. In one of these he thus dashes his mirth against an unlucky sinner; "Gestari junctis nisi desinis, Ædyle, capris, Qui modo ficus eras, jam caprificus eris." In another he instructs those who delight in the chase how to avoid this affliction; "Stragula succincti venator sume veredi : lib. xiv. ep. 86. And lastly, he thus expresses himself immediately to the present purpose; "Ut pueros emeret Labienus, vendidit hortos: Nil nisi ficetum nunc Labienus habet." lib. xii. ep. 32. No one who has lived among Italians will fail to perceive the force of these quotations as applied to the feelings excited by this most offensive gesticulation, which is justly held in the greatest abhorrence. Whether it be abstractedly a symbol of the ficus itself, and, in the use, connected with the very worst of its causes; whether it be the genuine remains of a custom actually known among the Romans; or whether a corruption of the infamis digitus, must be left to every one's own determination. The complicated ambiguity of the word fica must be likewise attended to; and whoever is at a loss on this occasion may consult the early Italian dictionaries. The author of these remarks, pursuing the opinions of others, had already offered another explanation, viz. the story of the Milanese revolt against the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. This he desires to withdraw, as resting on the very weak authority of Albert Crantz, a credulous, and comparatively modern, historian; neither is it pro |