(Cingulus or Zona), a belt or band of leather or other matter, tied about the reins, to keep that part more firm and tight.

It was anciently the custom for bankrupts and other insolvent debtors to put off and surrender their girdle in open court. The reason of this was, that our ancestors used to carry all their necessary utensils, as purse, keys, &c. tied to the girdle; whence the girdle became a symbol of the state. History relates that the widow of Philip I. duke of Burgundy, renounced her right of succession by putting off her girdle upon the duke's tomb.

The Romans always wore a girdle to tuck up the tunica when they had occasion to do any thing; this custom was so general, that such as went without girdles, and let their gowns hang loose, were reputed idle dilolute persons.

Maiden's or Virgin's GIRDLE. It was a custom among the Greeks and Romans for the husband to untie his bride's girdle. Homer, lib. xi. of his Odyssey, calls the girdle παράστιν γυναικός, maid's girdle. Petius relates, that it was made of sheep's wool, and that the husband untied it in bed; he adds, that it was tied in the Herculanen knot; and that the husband unloosed it, as a happy preface of his having as many children as Hercules, who at his death left seventy behind him.

The poets attribute to Venus a particular kind of girdle called cestus, to which they annexed a faculty of inspiring the passion of love.