The term _caput jejunii_ was applied sometimes to the Wednesday, known as Ash Wednesday, and frequently in service-books to the period of the four days preceding the first Sunday in Lent. Thus, these days are designated ‘Feria IV, Feria V, Feria VI, et Sabbatum, in capite jejunii.’ The distribution of ashes on the Wednesday in the Western Church is a much modified survival and relic of the ancient penitential discipline. In the Orthodox Church of the East at the present day ‘the great and holy Tessarakoste’ contains, as in the West, six Sundays. But the Lenten offices commence at Vespers on the Sunday (known as Tyrinis, or Tyrophagus) preceding the first Sunday in Lent. In the week preceding this Sunday (corresponding to the Western Quinquagesima) the faithful give up the use of flesh meat, and confine themselves to cheese (τυρός) and other _lacticinia_. And it may be observed, in passing, that in the Greek Church there are other examples of the week being named from the Sunday which _follows_ it. Thus, ‘the week of Palms’ is the week _followed_ by Palm Sunday[121]. The Sunday (our Sexagesima) preceding _Tyrinis_ is called _Apocreos_ (_Dominica carnisprivii_). It is the last day upon which flesh may be eaten. After the Sunday ‘Tyrinis’ a more rigorous fast is prescribed; but Sundays and Saturdays (except the Saturday in Holy week) are exempted, so that there are only thirty-six days of rigid fasting; five days in each of the first six weeks, and six days in the last week[122]. The word _quadragesima_ is the source of the Italian _quaresima_, and the French _carême_ (in old French, _quaresme_); while our English word, _Lent_, is simply indicative of the season of the year when the fast occurs, being derived from the Anglo-Saxon _Lencten_, the spring-time. OTHER SPECIAL TIMES OF FASTING I. _Western Church—The three fasts called ‘Quadragesima’; Rogation Days; the Four Seasons._