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, and the like, fastened to the girdle; and hence the girdle became a symbol of the state; or condition of the individual. 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 tack up the tunics when they had occasion to do any thing; and this custom was so general, that such as went without girdles, and allowed their vestments to hang loose, were reputed idle and dissolute persons.

Maidsen’s or Virgin’s Girdle. It was a custom amongst the Greeks and Romans for the husband to untie his bride’s girdle. Festus 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 Herculanean knot, and that the husband unloosed it, as a happy presage of his having as many children as Hercules, who at his death left no less than seventy behind him.

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