"imblocatus," and this mode of disposing of dead bodies was designated
"_Asinorum Sepultura._" Ducange gives more than one instance, viz.,
"Sepultura asini sepeliantur"--"ejusque corpus exanime asinorum accipiat
sepulturam."

Wherefore was this mode of disposing of the dead bodies called "an ass's
sepulture?" It is not sufficient to say that the body of a human being was
buried like that of a beast, for then the term would be general and not
particular; neither can I imagine that Christian writers used the phrase
for the purpose of repudiating the accusation preferred against them by
Pagans, of worshipping an ass. (See Baronius, ad. an. 201. §21.) The dead
carcasses{9} of dogs and hounds were sometimes attached to the bodies of
criminals. (See Grinds, _Deutsche Rechte Alterthum_, pp. 685, 686.) I refer
to this to show that there must have been some special reason for the term
"_asinorum sepultura_". That reason I would wish to have explained; Ducange
does not give it, he merely tells what was the practice; and the attention
of Grimm, it is plain, from his explanation of the "unehrliches begräbnis"
(pp. 726, 727, 728.), was not directed towards it.

W.B. MACCABE.

* * * * *

+Minor Queries.+

_Ransom of an English Nobleman_.--At page 28. vol. ii. of the _Secret
History of the Court of James I._, Edinburgh, 1811 (a reprint), occurs the
following:--

"Nay, to how lowe an ebbe of honor was this our poore despicable