A kind of pulfe,-It has a papilionaceous flower, out of whose empalement rifes the pale, which afterwards turns into a pod filled with either plain or spherical feeds: the leaves grow like fingers upon the foot-ftalks. Miller-When Protogenes would undertake any excellent piece, he used to diet himfelf with peas and lupines, that his invention might be quick and refined. Peacham.— Where ftalks of lupines grew, preferred, a bladder filled with it, fig. 4, may, by means of the fcrew A, be fastened to the valve A, fig. 1; and, to prevent wafte, as this air may ferve feveral times, a flexible tube may be fcrewed on the valve D, fig. 1. communicating with the bladder by means of the opening d, fig. 4: thus it may be employed as often as the operator thinks proper. There is a bandle K to the partition in the middle, in order that, if it be at any time neceffary to use either of the divifions alone, the other may be confined from acting. c, b, fig. 5, repre fent the two valves to be applied at the end of the inftrument C, B, fig. 1; and fig. 6. is a fection of the end C, B, thowing the valves in their proper places. The capacity of the inftrument fhould be proportioned to the quantity of air received into the lungs in inspiration, which Dr Goodwyn has afcertained to be twelve cubical inches, or fomeEach divifion of the inftrument, therefore, fhould be capable of containing that quantity. what more. * LUNGSARP, a town of Sweden, in W. Gothia. (r.) LUNG-WORT. 2. S\pulmonaria, Lat.] A plant. Miller. (2.) LUNG-WORT, in botany. See PULMONARIA. (3) LUNG-WORT, Cow's. See VERBASCUM. (4.) LUNG-WORT, GOLDEN. See HIERACIUM. (1.) * LUNISOLAR, adj. [lunifolaire, French; Jung and folaris, Latin.] Compounded of the revolution of the fun and moon, (2.) A LUNISOLAR YEAR, in chronology, is the fpace of 532 common years; found by multiplying the cycle of the fun by that of the moon. See CHRONOLOGY, Index. LUNKA, á town of Samogitia. * LUNT. n. f. [lonte, Dutch.] The match-cord with which guns are fired. LUNTZ, a town of Germany, in Austria. LUNZENAU, a town of Upper Saxony. LUPANNA, an inhabited iiland, if the Adriatic, with a good harbour, near Ragula. LUPARA, a town of Naples, in Molife. LUPERCAL, in Roman antiquity, a place under Mount Palatine, where the LUPERCALIA were performed. LUPERCALIA, feafts inftituted in ancient Rome, in honour of Pan. They were celebrated on the 15th of the kalends of March, or 15th of february, or 3d day after the ides. They are fuppofed to have been eftablished by Evander. On the morning of this feftival the LUPERCI, or priests of Pan, ran naked through the ftreets of Rome, ftriking the married women they met on the hands and belly with a thong or ftrap of goat's leather, which was held an omen promifing them fecundity and happy deliveries. See LUPERCI. This feast was abolished in the time of Auguftus, but afterwards reftored, and continued in the time. of the emperor Anaftafius.-Baronius fays it was, abolished by Pope Anaftafius, in 496. LUPERCI, the priests of the god PAN. See LUPERCALIA. They were the most ancient order of priests in Rome; they were divided into two colleges, called Fabii aud Quintilii. To these Cæfar added a 3d, called Julii. (1.) * LUPINE. ». f, [lupin, Fr, lupinus, Lat.] Th' enfuing feafon, in return, may bear The bearded product of the golden year. Dryd. (2.) LUPINE, in botany, a genus of the decanLUPINUS, dria order, belonging to the diadelphia clafs of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 32d order, Papilionacea. The calyx is bilabiated; there are 5 oblong and 5 roundish antheræ; the legumen is coriaceous. There are 7 fpecies; fix of them are hardy herba. ceous flowery annuals, and one perennial, rifing with upright ftalks from 1 to 3 or 4 feet high, or namented with digitate leaves, and terminated by long whorled fpikes of papilionaceous flowers, white, blue, yellow, and rofe-coloured. They are all eafily raised from feed; and fucceed in any Open borders, where they make a fine variety. The feeds of the white lupine have a leguminous tafte accompanied with a difagreeable bitter one, are faid to be anthelmintic, both internally taken, and applied externally. Cafpar Hoffman cautions against their external use, and tells us that they have fometimes occafioned death; and Simon Pauli fays, that he faw a boy of 8 or 10 years of age, after taking a dram of them in powder feized with exquifite pains in the abdomen, a difficulty of respiration, and almost total loss of voice; and that he was relieved by a glyfter of milk and fugar, which brought away a vast quantity of worms. But M. Geoffroy july obferves, that either these fymptoms were owing to the worms, or that the feeds, if they have any noxious quality, lofe it with their bitterness in boiling; as they were used among the Greeks as food, and recommended by Galen as very wholesome. LUPO GLAVO, a town of Ifiria. LUPOW, a town of Saxony, in Pomerania. LUPPURG, a town of Bavaria, in Neuburg. LUPULUS, in botany. See HUMULUS. (1.) LUPUS, the WOLF. See CANIS, § I. N° xi; 1-5 • (2.) LUPUS, in aftronomy. See ASTRONOMY, § 548. (3.) LUPUS MARINUS. See ANARRHICHAS. (1.) * LURCH. n. f. [This word is derived by Skinner from l'ourche, a game of draughts, much ufed, as he fays, among the Dutch; curche he derives from arca; fo that, I fuppofe, those that are loft are left in lorche, in the lurch or box; whence the ufe of the word.] (2.) LURCH, TO LEAVE IN THE. To leave in a forlorn or deferted condition; to leave without help. A ludicrous phrafe.— Will you now to peace incline, Denbam. tate to an heir, is a lure to all the birds of prey round about to feize on him. Bacon. that, when they find themselves upon a pinch, will leave their friends in the lurch. L'Efrange. It is bafe to take advantage of their fimplicity and credulity, and leave them in the lurch at laft. Arbuth not.-Flirts about, town had a design to caft us out of the fashionable world, and leave us in the lurch, by fome of their late refinements. Addifon. (1.) * To LURCH. v. a. [lurcor, Latin.] 1. To devour; to fwallow greedily.-Too far off from great cities may hinder bufinefs; or too near lurcheth all provifions, and maketh every thing dear. Bacon. 2. To defeat; to disappoint. A word now used only in burlesque. [from the game lurch.] He waxed like a fea; And in the brunt of seventeen battles fince, He lurcht all fwords o' th' garland. Shak —God never defigned the use of them to be continual; by putting fuch an emptinefs in them, as fhould fo quickly fail and lurch the expectation. South This is a fure rule, that will never deceive or lurch the fincere communicant. South. 3. To fteal privily; to filch; to pilfer. (2.)* To LURCH. v. n. [loeren, Dutch; or rather from the noun.] 1. To fhift; to play tricks. -I myself, fometimes leaving goodnefs on my left hand, and hiding mine honour in my neceffi. ty, am fain to fhuffle, to hedge, and to lurch. Shak. 2. To lie in wait: we now rather use lurk. -While the one was upon wing, the other food lurching upon the ground, and flew away with the fith. L'Etrange. (1.)* LURCHER. n. f. [from lurch.] 1. One that watches to fteal, or to betray or entrap. A Swift from his play the feudding lurcher flies; Whilft ev'ry honest tongue Stop thief refounds. Gays 2. A dog that watches for his game.-I cannot represent those worthies more naturally than under the fhadow of a pack of dogs, made up of finders, lurchers, and fetters. Tatler. 3. Lurco, Lat.] A glutton; a gormandizer. Not ufed. (2.) LURCHER, (§ 1, def. 2.) a kind of hunting dog much like a mongrel grey hound, with pricked ears, a fhagged coat, and generally of a yellowish white colour: they are very fwift runners, so that if they get between the burrows and the conies they feldom mifs; and this is their common practice in hunting: yet they use other fubtilties, as the tumbler does, fome of them bringing in their game, and thofe are the beft. A lurcher will run down a hare at ftretch. See CANIS, § I. vi. (2.) N° 26-28. (1.) LURCY, a town of France, in the dep. of the Allier; 74 miles NE. of Donjon. (2.) LURCY LEVY, a town of France, in the dep. of Allier; 9 miles NE. of Cerilly, and 9 N. NW. of Bourbon L'Archambaud. LURDANE. n. f. an idle lazy fellow. For the origin of this word, See ENGLAND, § 17; and LOORD. (1.) * LURE. i f. [leurre, French; lore, Dut.] 1. Something held out to call a hawk→→→→ My falcon now is fharp and paffing empty, And, till the stoop, she must not be full gorg'd, For then the never looks upon her lure. Shak. -This lure the caft abroad, thinking that this fame and belief would draw, at one time or other, fome birds to ftrike upon it. Bacon. A great ef This ftiffneck'd pride, nor art nor force can bend, Nor high-flown hopes to reafon's lure defcend. Denham. A falc'ner Henry is, when Emma hawks; With her of tarfels, and of lures he talks. Prior. 2. Any enticement; any thing that promises advantage. How many have with fmiles made fmall ac count Of beauty, and her lures, eafily fcorn'd? Milt. Luxury Held out his lure to her fuperior eye. Madden. (2.) A LURE, in falconry (§ 1, def. 1.), a device of leather, in the fhape of two wings, ftuck with feathers, and baited with a piece of flesh, to call back a hawk when at a confiderable distance. (3) LURE, a town of France, in the dep. of Upper Saone, and late prov. of Franche Comte, 30 miles NE. of Befançon. Lon. 6. 33. E. Lat. 47. 38. N. (1.) * To LURE. v. a. [from the noun.] To attract; to entice; to draw.- As when a flock. Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote, Against the day of battle, to a field Where armies lie encamp'd, come flying, lur'd With fcent of living carcaffes. Milton. A man spent one day in labour, that he might pafs the other at eafe, and lured on by the pleafure of this bait, when he was in vigour he would provide for as many days as he could. Temple. Should you here From this dark haunt, beneath the tangled LURGAN, a flourishing town of Ireland, in Armagh, 67 miles from Dublin; agreeably fituated in the midst of a much improved country. The inhabitants are extensively engaged in the linen manufacture. It stands on a gentle eminence, about two miles from LOUGH NEAGH, of which it commands a most beautiful and extensive profpect. It has 3 fairs. Lon. 6. 31. W. Lat. 54. 35. N. LURGAN-BAY, a town of Ireland, in the county of Leitrim, and prov. of Connaught. LURGAN GREEN, a poft town of Ireland, in Louth, 37 miles from Dublin; a mile from a feat of lord Charlemont. It has 3 fairs. LURI, a town of Corfica, 12 m. W. of Battia. *LURID. adj. [luridus, Latin.] Gloomy; difmal. Not used. Slow fettling o'er the lurid grove, Unusual darkness broods. Thomson. LURIDÆ, the 28th order in Linnæus's Fragments of a natural method. See BOTANY. LURIN, Far in land a favage nation dwelt, That never tasted grace, nor goodness felt; But like wild beasts, lurking in loathsome den, And flying fast as roebuck through the fen, All naked. F. Queen -Milbrook lurketh between two hills, a village of fome eighty houfes, and borrowing his name from a mill and little brook running there through. Carew They lay not to live by their worke, But theevifhly loiter and lurke. Tuffer. -Let us lurke privily for the innocent. Prov. i. 11. The wife, when danger or dishonour lurks, Safeft and feemlieft by her husband stays. Milton. Lurk'd in her hand. Pope * LURKER. n. S. [from lurk.] A thief that lies in wait. * LURKINGPLACE. n. f. [lurk and place.] Hiding place; fecret place.-Take knowledge of all the lurking-places where he hideth himself. 1 Sam. xxiii. 23. LURS, a town of France, in the dep. of the Lower Alps; 16 miles SW. of Digne. LURY, a town of France, in the dep. of Cher; 134 miles W. of Bourges. LUS, a town of France, in the dep. of the Upper Pyrenees; 3 miles SW. of Bareges. LUSATIA, [Sclavonic, i. e. a marshy or woody country.] a marquifate of Germany, in Upper Saxony; bounded on the E. by Silefia, W. by Mifnia, S. by Bohemia, and N. by Brandenburgh. It is divided into UPPER and LOWER LUSATIA. The healthy and mountainous tracts are generally barren; but the lower lands are tolerably fertile, producing wheat, rye, oats, barley, peafe, lentils, beans, millet, flax, hops, tobacco, wine, and manna. Of feveral of these articles, however, confiderable quantities are imported. There are alfo quarries of ftone, medicinal fprings, baftard diamonds, agates, jafpers, earths for all forts of earthen ware, alum, iron-ftone, vitriolic and copper water, cattle, fish, venifon, &c. The rivers Spree, the Black Elfter, and the Pulznitz, have their fources in Lufatia, which is alfo watered by the Neiffe and Queis. The ancient inhabitants were the Saxons, who were fucceeded by the Vandals, and thefe by the Sober-Wends, a Sclavonian people. The prefent inhabitants, the descendants of the Wends, have an odd drefs; and the language is fo inarticulate and guttural, that it hath been faid, it might be pronounced without lips, teeth, or tongue; but the towns are almost wholly peopled by Germans. Both marquifates were formerly fubject either to the kings of Bohemia, the archdukes of Auftria, or electors of Brandenburgh; but, in 1636, they were ceded to the elector of Saxony, in payment of 72 tons of gold, which he spent in affifting Ferdinand II. against the Bohemians. Christianity was first planted in Lufatia in the 7th century; but it was several centuries before Popery was fully established. In the 11th century many cloifters were erected, but at the reformation fuch numbers embraced Lutheranifm, that it became the predominant religion; which it continues to be, though there are feveral Roman Catholic churches. The HERNHUTTERS poffefs great influence here. There are confiderable manufactures of woollen and linen stuffs in the Lufatias, efpecially the Upper. In Budissen and its vicinity, prodigious quantities of stockings, fpatterdafhes, caps, and gloves are made. The linen manufactures alfo flourish here, chiefly in Upper Lufatia, where all forts of linens are made, printed, and dyed. There are alfo confiderable manufactures of hats, leather, paper, gunpowder, iron, glass, bleached wax, &c. The exportation of these commodities, particularly linens and woollens, is not so great as formerly, but is ftill confiderable, and more than overbalances their importations in wool, yarn, filk, wines, fpices, corn, and baked fruits, garden ftuffs, and hops. Difputes of many years ftanding have fubfifted between the country artificers and linen-manufacturers on the one fide, and the diet towns on the other; the latter unjustly feeking to exclude the former from any fhare in the linen trade. The natives are faid to have quick natural parts, but to be fordidly penurious. They obferve the Saxon laws much better than they did the Bohemian. Learning hath been much esteemed and encouraged in both marquifates fince the reformation. Printing is brought to great perfection in this country. 1. LUSATIA, LOWER, is moorish and boggy. It has 4 principal towns, which send deputies to the land diets; 13 country towns, two market towns, and feveral good fchools, with handsome ftipends for the ftudents. The land ftates confift of prelates, lords, and knights, and the reprefentatives of the ftate towns, Luckau, Gubben-Lub. bin, and Kalau. Two diets are yearly held at Lubben, called voluntary diets; but when the fuperior caufes the states to be fummoned, and propofitions to be laid before them, by commiffaries deputed for that purpose, fuch convention is called a great land diet. The marquifate is divided into 5 circles, each of which holds a circle affembly in its circle town. The chief officers appointed either by the superior or the ftates, are, the prefident of the upper office, the land captain, and the land judge. The principal tribunals are, the land court, and the upper office, to which lie appeals from the inferior judicatories. There are alfo officers for the feveral circles. Spiritual matters are managed by a confiftory, erected in 1668. The taxes are paid into the cheft of the circle; and configned to the general cheft, of which the upper tax-receiver is fuperintendant; who makes out an annual account, which is examined and paffed by the deputies. 2. LUSATIA, UPPER, till the middle of the 15th century, was called the Mark, i. e. the marquifate, or land of Budiszin and Gorlitz; and the Lower only Lufatia. The air of Upper Lufatia, which is hilly or mountainous, is better than that of the Lower. Both abound in wood, especially the Lower, and turf for fuel. In Upper Lufatia are fix towns which fend deputies to the land diets, 16 fmaller country towns, and 4 market towns. The schools, particularly at Gorlitz, Budiffen, and Zittau, are diftinguished for learning. The ftates confift, ift, of state lords; 2dly, of the prelates; 3dly, of the gentry and commonalty, under which are comprehended the counts, barons, nobles, and burgeffes, poffeffors of fees and fief-eftates; and, 4thly, of the representatives of the fix towns. Without the confent of thefe eftates no taxes can be impofed, nor any thing of public importance tranfacted. The diets are ordinary or extraordinary. The ordinary meet once in 3 years, and the extraordinary when fum. moned by the fovereign upon particular emergencies. As to ecclefiaftical matters, the dean of Budiffen and his confiftory exercife all kinds of epifcopal jurifdiction; and, among the Proteftants, the jurifdiction belongs either to the fuperior, the upper office, or the patrons. The revenues arifing to the fuperior, or fovereign, confift partly of the fubfidies granted by the ftates, among which are reckoned capitation and eftate money; and partly of the beer tax, excife, tolls, &c.-Upper Lufatia is divided into two great circles, viz. Budiffen and Gorlitz, which are fubdivided into leffer circles. * LUSCIOUS. adj. [from delicious, fay fome; but Skinner more probably derives it from luxurious, corruptly pronounced.] 1. Sweet, fo as to naufeate. 2. Sweet, in a great degree.-The food that to him now is as lufcious as loches, fhall fhortly be as bitter as coloquintida. Shak. Shed the lufcicus liquor on the ground. Milt. Railins keep their luscious native taste. Dryd. 3. Pleafing; delightful.—He will bait him in with the luscious proposal of fome gainful purchase. South. * LUSCIOUSLY. adv. [from luscious.] Sweet to a great degree. * LUSCIOUSNESS. n. f. [from luscious.] Immoderate sweetness.-Can there be a greater indulgence in God, than to embitter fenfualities whofe luscioufnefs intoxicates us? Decay of Piety. -Peas breed worms by reafon of the lusciousness and sweetness of the grain. Mortimer. (1.) * LUSERN. n. f. [lupus cervarius, Latin.] A lynx. (2.) LUSERN. See FELIS, N° XI-XIX. LUSH. adj. Of a dark, deep, full colour, oppofite to pale and faint; from loufche. Hanmer. How lush and lufty the grafs looks? how green? Shak. LUSIANA, a town of Maritime Auftria, in Vicenza. LUSIGNAN, a town of France, in the dep. of Vienne, and late prov. of Poitou, on the Vonne; 12 m. SW. of Poitiers, and 200 of Paris. LUSITANI, the people of LUSITANIA. LUSITANIA, in ancient geography, one of the divifions of Hifpania, extending to the N. of the Tagus, quite to the fea of Cantabria, at least to the Promontorium Celticum. But Auguftus made the Anas its boundary on the S. and the Durius on the N. thus conftituting only a part of the modern PORTUGAL. Diodorus; Stephanus. LUSITZ, a river of Upper Saxony. (1.) LUSK. adj. [lufche, French.] Idle; lazy; worthlefs. Dia. (2.) Lusk, a town of Ireland, in Dublin. * LUSKISH. adj. [from luk.] Somewhat inclinable to laziness or indolence. LUSKISHLY. adv. [from luskish.] Lazily; indolently. * LÚSKISHNESS. adv. [from luskish.] A difpofition to lazinefs. LUSO, a river of Italy, in Urbino. * LUSORIOUS. adj. [luforius, Lat.] Ufed in play; fportive.-Things more open to exception, yet unjustly condemned as unlawful; fuch as the luforius lots, dancing, and ftage-plays. Sanderfon. *LUSORY. adj. [luforius, Lat.] Ufed in play. -There might be many entertaining contrivances for the inftruction of children in geometry and geography, in fuch alluring and lufory methods, which would make a most agreeable and lafting impreffion. Watts, (1.) LUSS, a parish of Scotland, in Dunbartonfhire, 84 miles long from S. to N. and from 24 to 5 broad. The climate is temperate, and though moift, remarkably healthful, and inftances of longevity are numerous. The furface is mountainous; of 17,402 Scots acres, only 1538 are arable; 880 are under natural wood, chiefly oak. The foil is light and gravelly. There are 4 rivers running into Loch-Lomond, which lies partly in this parifh. See LOMOND, N° III. There is a great variety of wild quadrupeds, birds, fish, and reptiles in the parith; of which a particular enumeration is inferted in Sir J. Sinclair's Stat. Acc. Vol. xvii. p. 247-253. The population, in 1793, was 917; decrease 61, fince 1755: the number of horfes was 140; sheep 7500; black cattle 534; and fwine 8; valued in all at 75951. 128. 6d. The annual produce, in oats, barley, potatoes, flax, hay, &c. is valued at 66491. 8s. 11d.: the annual cutting of the oak woods, at 7600l. There are two excellent flate quarries, from which about 440,000 flates are annually exported. (2.) Luss, a river in the above parish. (3.) Luss, a village in the above parish, in which a cotton manufacture was erected in 1790. It is feated on the W. fide of Loch-Lomond, 10 miles NW. of Dunbarton. (1.) LUSSAC, a town of France, in the dep. of Gironfide, 6 miles ENE. of Libourne. (2.) LUSSAC LES CHATEAUX, a town of France, in the department of Vienne, 18 miles SE. of Poitiers. (3.) LUSSAC LES EGLISES, a town of France, in the dep. of Upper Vienne, 33 miles N. of Limoges. (1.) LUSSAN, a town of France, in the dep. of Gard, 9 miles N. of Uzes. (2.) LUSSAN, Margaret DE, a French romancewriter, born in 1682. The celebrated Huet gave her an education, which the improved greatly. Her works are numerous. The beft is Anecdotes de la cour de Philippe Augufte, 6 vols. 12mo. She died in 1758. LUSSINGE, a town of France, in the dep. of Mont Blanc, 3 miles NW. of Bonne. *LUST. n. f. [luft, Saxon; luft, Dutch.] 1. Carnal defire. This our court, infected with their manners, Shews like a riotous inn; Epicurifm and lu Make Make it more like a tavern or a brothel, Than a grac'd palace. Shak. Luft, and rank thoughts. Shak. -They are immoderately given to the luft of the flesh. Abbot. When a temptation of luft affaults thee, do not refift it by difputing with it, but fly from it, that is, think not at all of it. Taylor. 2. Any violent or irregular defire.-My luft shall be fatisfied upon them. Exodus xv. 9.—The ungodly, for his own luft, doth perfecute the poor. Pfal.-Virtue was reprefented by Hercules: he is drawn offering to ftrike a dragon; by the dragon are meant all manner of lufts. Peacham. Inconftant man, that loveth all he faw, And lufted after all that he did love. Rofcommon. 2. To defire vehemently.-Giving fometimes prodigally; not because he loved them to whom he gave, but because he lufted to give. Sidney.-The Chriftian captives in chains could no way move themselves, if they should unadvisedly luft after liberty. Knolles. 3. To lift; to like. Out of ufe. -Their eyes fwell with fatnefs; and they do even what they luft. Pfal. Ixxiii. 7. 4. To have irregular difpofitions, or defires.-The mixed multitude fell a lufting. Numb.—The spirit that dwelleth in us lufteth to envy. Jam. iv. 5. LUSTENFELDEN, a town of Austria. * LUSTFUL. adj. [luft and full.] 1. Libidinous; having irregular defires.— Turning wrathful fire to lustful heat. F. 2 -There is no man that is intemperate or luftful, but befides the guilt likewise stains and obfcures his foul, Tillotson. 2. Provoking to fenfuality; inciting to luft. Thence his luftful orgies he enlarg'd. Milt. * LUSTFULLY. adv. [from lustful.] With fenfual concupifcence. * LUSTFULNESS. n. f. [from luftful.] Libidi. noufnefs. * LUSTIHED. n.. [from lufty.] Vigour; LUSTIHOOD. S fprightlinefs; corporal ability. Not now in ufe. A goodly perfonage, Now in his freshest flower of luftybed. Reafon and refpe&t Spenfer. Shak. Make livers pale, and luftihood dejected. I'll prove it on his body; Defpight his nice fence, and his active practice, His May of youth and bloom of luftyhood. Shak. * LUSTILY. adv. [from luftily.] Stoutly; with vigour; with mettle. I determine to fight luftily for him. Hen. V. Let's tune, and to it luftily a while. Shak. -Barbaroffa took upon him that painful journey, which the old king luftily performed. Knolles. He has fought lufily for her. Southerne. * LUSTINESS. n. f. [from lufty.] Stoutnefs; fturdinefs; ftrength; vigour of body. He with good fpeed began to take his flight, Over the fields in his frank luftinefs. Spenter. Where there is fo great a prevention of the ordinary time, it is the luftiness of the child. Bacon. -Cappadocian slaves were famous for their luffinefs. Dryden. *LUSTLESS. adj. [from luft.] Not vigorous; weak. Spenser. LUSTRAL. adj. [luftrale, French; luftralis, Lat.] Ufed in purification - His better parts by luftral waves refin'd. Garth. (2.) LUSTRAL DAY, [Dies Luftricus,] in antiquity, the day on which the luftrations were performed for a child, and its name given; ufually the 9th day from the birth of a boy, and the 8th from that of a girl. Over this feftival the goddess NUNDINA was fuppofed to prefide; the midwives, nurfes, and domeftics, handed the child backwards and forwards, around a fire burning on the altars of the gods, after which they sprinkled it with water; hence this feaft had the name of amphidromia. The old women mixed faliva and duft with the water. The whole ended with a fumptuous entertainment. The parents received gifts from their friends on this occafion. If the child was a male, the door was decked with an olive garland; if a female, with wool, denoting the work about which which women were to be employed. (3.) LUSTRAL WATER was used by the ancients in their ceremonies to sprinkle and purify the people. From them the Romanifts have borrowed the holy water ufed in their churches. (1.)* LUSTRATION. n. f. [luftration, French; luftratio, Latin.] Purification by water. Job's religious care, His fons affemble, whose united prayer, Like fweet perfumes, from golden cenfors rife ; He with divine luftrations fanctifies. Sandys. That fpirits are corporeal feems a conceit dero. gative unto himself, and such he should rather labour to overthrow; yet thereby he establisheth the doctrine of luftrations, amulets, and charms. Brown. Should Io's priest command A pilgrimage to Meroe's burning fand; Through deferts they would feek the fecret fpring, And holy water for luftration bring. Dryden's Juvenal. -What were all their luftrations but so many folemn purifyings, to render both themselves and their facrifices acceptable to their gods? South.— By ardent pray'r, and clear luftration, Purge the contagious spots of human weakness. Prior. (2.) LUSTRATIONS, in antiquity were ceremonies by which the ancients purified their cities, fields, armies, or people, defiled by any crime or impurity. Some of thefe were public, others private. There were 3 methods of performing luftration, 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 could not be dispensed with; as luftrations of houses in time of a plague, or upon the death of any perfon: others were done at pleasure, |