the fixed residue of combustible substances after they have been burnt.

Ashes were used in many ancient religious ceremonies. 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. A heifer being sacrificed upon the great day of expiation, its ashes were distributed among the people, who made from them a sort of lustral water, which they sprinkled on such persons as had defiled themselves by touching a dead body or being present at a funeral (Numb. xix. 17).

The ancient Persians punished some great criminals by throwing them headlong down a tower filled with ashes to a particular height (2 Macc. xiii. 5, 6).