Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/731

This page needs to be proofread.

LUSITANIA of parliament, which he first entered in 1807 and finally left in 1841, when the act disquali- fying judges of the admiralty to sit in the house of commons impelled his retirement from political life; and ill health made him withdraw from the bench in July, 1867. He was the legal adviser of Lady Byron, and gave his opinion that the offence of her husband, as stated by her, was one which should for ever preclude any reunion between them. He died without disclosing the secret. LUSITANIA, in ancient geography, the coun- try of the Lusitani, and in a wider sense the name of one of the three provinces into which the Iberian peninsula was divided by Augustus. The Eoman province occupied, like modern Portugal, the W. side of the peninsula, extending from Cape St. Vincent E. to the mouth of the Guadiana and K to the Douro. It consequently did not include the N". provinces of Portugal, Minho and Tras os Montes. Eastward in the interior it ex-' tended far beyond the boundaries of Portu- gal, embracing the N". part of the old Spanish province of Estremadura and the S. part of Leon. The country of the Lusitani, however, was much smaller than the province to which its name was given. In this sense Lusitania included mainly the region between the Tagus and the Douro, from the Atlantic on the west to the present frontier of Portugal on the east. The province was anciently rich and fertile, and possessed valuable mines of gold and sil- 'ver. Besides the Lusitanians, it contained several other tribes, of whom the most impor- tant were the Vettones, the Turduli Veteres, a branch of the Turdetani, and the Celtici, who were a remnant of the old Celtic popula- tion of the peninsula. The chief city of Lusi- tania was Olisipo, the modem Lisbon, which was always a place of importance, though the Eomans made Emerita Augusta, the modern Merida, the capital of their province. The Lusitani, according to Strabo, were the great- est nation of the peninsula, and the one most frequently and longest at war with the Ro- mans. They were a brave and turbulent race, and much addicted to brigandage, especially those who dwelt among the mountains. They revolted in 153 B. C., and carried on for 14 years a gallant struggle against the Komans, who for a time were compelled to acknowl- edge their independence. Yiriathus, who be- came their chief in 147, was finally assassina- ted by three of his own friends who had been bribed by the Romans, and the subjugation of the Lusitanians was soon afterward effected. LUSTRATION (Lat. lustratio, also lustrum}, purification by sacrifices or other ceremonies. Originally ablution in water was the only rite observed by the Greeks, but afterward sacri- fices, &c., were added. They were employed both to purify individuals, cities, fields, armies, or states, and to call down the blessing of the gods. The most celebrated lustration of Greece was that performed at Athens, in the LUTE 725 days of Solon, by Epimenides of Crete, who purified that city from the defilement incurred by the Cylonian massacre. A general lustra- tion of the whole Roman people took place every fifth year, before the censors went out of office. On that occasion the citizens assem- bled in the Campus Martius, and the sacrifices termed suovetaurilia, consisting of a sow, a sheep, and an ox, were offered up, after being carried thrice round the multitude. This cere- mony, to which the name lustrum was par- ticularly applied, is said to have been instt- tuted by Servius Tullius in 566 B. C., and was celebrated for the last time at Rome in the reign of Vespasian. The term was also ap- plied to the period which intervened between the lustra, and, as that period consisted of five years, later writers occasionally used the word lustrum to designate that space of time generally. All Roman armies were lustrate.d before they commenced military operations. The Roman shepherd at the approach of night adorned his fold with branches and foliage, sprinkled his sheep with water, and offered incense and sacrifices to Pales, the tutelary divinity of shepherds. "Whatever was used at a lustration was immediately after the cere- mony cast into a river, or some place inacces- sible to man, as it was deemed ominous for any one to tread on it. LUTE, a musical stringed instrument of the guitar species, formerly in general use, but long superseded by the harp and guitar. In shape it is not unlike the section of a pear. It is played like the guitar, and the music was written in tablature, but in so complex a man- ner that it is difficult to translate it into mod- ern notation. It is supposed to be of eastern origin, and its invention has been ascribed to the Arabs. LUTE, or Lilting (Lat. lutum : clay), a soft adhesive mixture used in chemical operations for making tight the joints of an apparatus. Its ingredients vary according to the kinds of vapors to be confined, and the temperatures to which it is to be exposed. Fire-brick clay, finely pulverized and made into a paste with water, withstands the highest degrees of heat, and makes tight joints when carefully applied and gradually dried and baked. Fibres of as- bestus are advantageously intermixed with the clay. Fat lute is very generally used where the temperature is not excessively high, and where the vapors to be confined are corrosive. It is made of pipe clay worked to a soft and ductile paste with linseed oil. It must be ap- plied to perfectly dry surfaces, and may be strengthened by binding over it slips of blad- der. Common putty may often be substituted for it. Hydraulic lime and plaster of Paris make very useful lutes for many purposes, especially when rendered impervious by wash- ing them over with oil, or a melted mixture of equal parts of wax and oil. Caustic lime thoroughly worked into the white of an egg, laid on slips of cloth and thus applied over the