was novum astrum.  The villenage tenant of it was an astrarius.  “W.P.P.” may satisfy himself of these facts by referring to the printed Plautorum Abbrevietis, fo. 282.; to Fleta, Comment.  Juris.  Anglicani, ed. 1685, p. 217.; and to Ducange, Spelman, and Cowel, under the words “Astrum,” “Astrarius,” and “Astre.”  In the very locality to which “W.P.P.” refers, he will find that the word “Auster” is “Astrum” in the oldest court-rolls, and that the term is not confined to North Curry, but is very prevalent in the eastern half of Somerset.  At the present day, an auster tenement is a species of copyhold, with all the incidents to that tenure.  It is noticed in the Journal of the Archaeological Institute, in a recent critique on Dr. Evans’s Leicestershire words, and is very familar to legal practitioners of any experience in the district alluded to.

E. Smirke.

Tureen (No. 16. p. 246.).—­There is properly no such word.  It is a corruption of the French terrine, an earthen vessel in which soup is served.  It is in Bailey’s Dictionary.  I take this opportunity of suggesting whether that the word “swinging,” applied by Goldsmith to his tureen, should be rather spelt swingeing; though the former is the more usual way:  a swinging dish and a swingeing are different things, and Goldsmith meant the latter.

C. {308}

Burning the Dead.—­“T.” will find some information on this subject in Sir Thomas Browne’s Hydriotaphia, chap. i., which appears to favour his view except in the following extract: 

“The same practice extended also far west, and besides Heruleans, Getes and Thracians, was in use with most of the Celtae, Sarmatians, Germans, Gauls, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians; not to omit some use thereof among Carthaginians, and Americans.”

The Carthaginians most probably received the custom from their ancestors the Phoenicians, but where did the Americans get it?

Henry St. Chad.

Corpus Christi Hall, Maidstone, Feb. 8. 1850.

Burning the Dead.—­Your correspondent “T.” (No. 14. p. 216.) can hardly have overlooked the case of Dido, in his inquiry “whether the practice of burning the dead has ever been in vogue amongst any people, excepting the inhabitants of Europe and Asia?” According to all classical authorities, Dido was founder and queen of Carthage in Africa, and was burned at Carthage on a funeral pile.

If it be said that Dido’s corpse underwent burning in conformity with the custom of her native country Tyre, and not because it obtained in the land of her adoption, then the question arises, whether burning the dead was not one of the customs which the Tyrian colony of Dido imported into Africa, and became permanently established at Carthage.  It is very certain that the Carthaginians had human sacrifices by fire, and that they burned their children in the furnace to Saturn.