the earthy particles of combustible substances after they have been burnt.

If the ashes are produced from vegetable bodies, they contain a considerable quantity of fixed salt, blended with the terreine particles: and from these ashes the fixed alkaline salts called pot-ash, pearl-ash, &c. are extracted. See Potash, &c.

The ashes of all vegetables are vitreifiable, and found to contain iron.—They are also an excellent manure for cold and wet grounds. See Agriculture, n° 20.

Several religious ceremonies depend upon the use of ashes. St Jerome relates, that the Jews in his time rolled themselves in ashes, as a sign of mourning. To repent in sackcloth and ashes, is a frequent expression in Scripture for mourning and being afflicted for our sins. There was a fort of lye and lustral water made with the ashes of an heifer sacrificed upon the great day of expiation; the ashes whereof were distributed to the people, and this water was used in purifications, as often as any touched a dead body, or was present at funerals, (Num. xix. 17.) Tamar after the injury received from her brother Amnon, covered her head with ashes, (2 Sam. xiii. 19.) The Psalmist in great sorrow says, that he had eaten ashes as if it were bread, (Psa. cii. 9.) which, however, is to be considered as an hyperbole. He sat on ashes, he threw ashes on his head; his food, his bread, was spoiled with the ashes wherewith he was covered.

The ancient Persians had a sort of punishment for some great criminals, which consisted in executing them in ashes. The criminal was thrown headlong from a tower 50 cubits high, which was filled with ashes to a particular height, (2 Mac. xiii. 5, 6.) The motion which the criminal used to disengage himself from this place, plunged him still deeper into it, and this agitation was further increased by a wheel which stirred the ashes continually about him till at last he was stifled.