or SALIQUE, LAW, (Lex Salica), an ancient and fundamental law of the kingdom of France, usually supposed to have been made by Pharamond, or at least by Clovis; in virtue of which males only are to inherit. Some, as Postellus, would have it to have been called *Salic*, q. d. *Gallic*, because peculiar to the Gauls. Fer. Montanus insists, it was because Pharamond was at first called *Salicus*. Others will have it to be so named, as having been made for the salic lands. These were noble fiefs which their first kings used to bestow on the salians, that is, the great lords of their sall or court, without any other tenure than military service; and for this reason, such fiefs were not to descend to women, as being by nature unfit for such a tenure.

Some, again, derive the origin of this word from the Salians, a tribe of Franks that settled in Gaul in the reign of Julian, who is said to have given them lands on condition of their personal service in war. He even passed the conditions into a law, which the new conquerors acquiesced in, and called it *salic*, from the name of their former countrymen.