Cista, Cistella, Sitella, R. (κίστη, a chest). (1) A large wicker-work basket in which the voters deposited their voting-tablets at the comitia. It was of a cylindrical shape, and about four or five feet high. (2) A smaller basket into which the judges cast the tablets recording their sentence. (3) A wicker-work basket in which children carried about their playthings. (4) The cist which was carried in procession at the Eleusinian festival, and which might be either a wicker basket or a box of metal. It was filled with corn, rice, sesame, salt, and pomegranates. Richly ornamented chests or boxes, with bronze mirrors in them, found among Etruscan ruins, are called cistæ mysticæ. The sitella, or situla, was a different vessel; viz. a bucket of water, into which the lots (sortes) were thrown. The situla had a narrow neck, so that only one lot could come to the surface when it was shaken. It was also called Urna or Orca.
Cistella, R. A dulcimer; lit. a little box. (See Cista.)
Cistellula, R. (dimin. of Cista, q.v.). A very small cista.
Cistophorus, Egyp., Gr., and R. (κιστοφόρος, i. e. bearing a cista or cistus). A silver coin, current in Asia, and worth about four drachmæ. It was so called from bearing the impression of a cista (chest), or, more probably, of the shrub cistus. [Value four francs of French money.]
Cistula, R. Dimin. of Cista (q.v.).
Citadel (It. cittadella, a little town). A fortress within a city.
Cithara, Cither, Gr. and R. (κιθάρα). A stringed instrument of great antiquity, resembling our modern guitar. It was played with a plectrum. The name was afterwards applied to many stringed instruments of varied form, power of sound, and compass. The mediæval Rotta was called C. teutonica; the harp was called C. Anglica.
Cithara Bijuga. A guitar with a double neck.
Citole, O. E. A kind of guitar.
“A citole in hir right hand had sche.” (Chaucer.)