In ancient times, purgations had the name Of _Februa_, various customs prove the same; The pontiffs from the _rex_ and _flamen_ crave A lock of wool; in former days they gave To wool the name of Februa. A pliant branch cut from a lofty pine, Which round the temples of the priests they twine, Is Februa called; which if the priest demand, A branch of pine is put into his hand; In short, with whatsoe’er our hearts we hold Are purified, was Februa termed of old; _Lustrations_ are from hence, from hence the name Of this our month of February came; In which the priests of Pan processions made; In which the tombs were also purified Of such as had no dirges when they died; For our religious fathers did maintain Purgations expiated every stain Of guilt and sin; from Greece the custom came, But here adopted by another name; The Grecians held that pure lustrations could Efface an impious deed, or guilt of blood Weak men; to think that water can make clean A bloody crime, or any sinful stain. _Massey’s Ovid._ Our Saxon ancestors, according to Verstegan, “called February _Sprout-kele_, by kele meaning the kele-wurt, which we now call the colewurt, the greatest _pot-wurt_ in time long past that our ancestors used, and the broth made therewith was thereof also called kele; for before we borrowed from the French the name of potage, and the name of herbe, the one in our owne language was called _kele_, and the other _wurt_; and as this kele-wurt, or potage-hearbe, was the chiefe winter-wurt for the sustenance of the husbandman, so was it the first hearbe that in this moneth began to yeeld out wholesome yong sprouts, and consequently gave thereunto the name of _Sprout-kele_.” The “kele” here mentioned, is the well-known kale of the cabbage tribe. But the Saxons likewise called this month “Solmonath,” which Dr. Frank Sayers in his “Disquisitions” says, is explained by Bede “mensis placentarum,” and rendered by Spelman in an unedited manuscript “_pan-cake_ month,” because in the course of it, cakes were offered by the pagan Saxons to the sun; and “Sol,” or “soul,” signified “food,” or “cakes.”