a kind of torch made of several thick wicks, covered with wax, and serving to burn at nights in the streets, as also at funeral processions, illuminations, and such like occasions. Flambeaux differ from links, torches, and tapers, in being made square, sometimes of white wax and sometimes of yellow. They usually consist of four wicks or branches about an inch in thickness and three feet in length, made of a sort of coarse hempen yarn half-twisted. They are prepared with the ladle, in much the same way as torches or tapers, by pouring the melted wax on the top of the several suspended wicks, and letting it run down to the bottom; an operation which is repeated till the requisite thickness be obtained. After each wick has thus got its proper cover of wax, they are laid out to dry, then rolled on a table, and four of them joined together by means of a red-hot iron. When united, more wax is poured on, until the flambeau is brought to the size required, which is usually from a pound and a half to three pounds. The last thing is to finish their form or outside, which is done with a kind of polishing instrument of wood, by running it along all the angles formed by the union of the branches.

The flambeaux of the ancients were different from ours, having been made of woods dried in furnaces or otherwise. Various kinds of wood were used for this purpose, but that most commonly employed was pine. Pliny says, that in his time oak, elm, and hazel were also frequently used. In the seventh book of the Æneid mention is made of a flambeau of pine; and Servius remarks that flambeaux were also made of the cornel-tree.