LUSTRUM

(Lat.) In Roman Antiquities, a space of about five years: at the end of which period the feast called Lustral i a was celebrated, in which the censor purified the people by several sacrifices and ceremonies; among others, the suovetaurilia, or sacrifice of a hog, sheep, and goat. It appears that rather more than five years usually elapsed between one lustral i a and the next; but the word lustrum is usually employed for the exact quinquennial period. The derivation of the word is uncertam. Lustrare, in Latin, signifies to purify by a solemn ceremony: and many other lustral ceremonies were in use; as, for example, the dies lustralcs, or lustral days, being the fifth, or according to some writers the eighth, day after the birth of a child, on which it was purified with certain solemnities, named, and placed under the protection of the gods of the family; the lustration oi 8heep in April, the crops in May, ., of which so many arc continued in the Roman Catholic worship of modern LYCANTHROPY. times. Sea-water was the most ordinary article used in lustrations. Varro derives the word lustrum from luere, to pay; because, according to the custom ordained by Servius TuUius, who first instituted the census (566 B.C.), the tribute imposed liy the censors was paid at the beginning of every fifth year, the last of the lustrum. (See an E ay in the Me moires de VAc. des Inscr. vol. xxxix.; and Niebuhr's History.) LUSUS NATUR-iE. (Lat. a sport of nature.) A term applied to any thing unnatural in the physical world. [s. 701]