[1] _Festus_, p. 135., says: _Rumen_ est pars colli, qua esca devoratur (The _rumen_, or gullet, is that part of the neck, where food is swallowed). _Nonius_, p. 18.: rumen dicitum locus in ventre, quo cibus sumitur et unde redditur (rumen was applied to the locality in the belly to which food is taken in and from which it is given back).—_Isidore_, Etymolog. bk. XII. 37., Ruminatio autem dicta est a _ruma_, eminente gutturis parte, per quam dimissus cibus a certis animalibus revocatur (Now rumination is so called from the _ruma_, or gullet, the upper portion of the throat, by which food after being swallowed is brought up again by certain animals). It is true _Varro_ gives another explanation: ruminare propter _rumam_, id est prisco vocabulo mammam (to ruminate so called on account of the _ruma_, that is in old Latin the breast); and so one might equally well understand by _irrumare_ the custom of voluptuaries, one that is still practised, of employing the space between the bosoms as _vagina_. At any rate _Dr. Hacker_ of Leipzig assured the author he had on several occasions observed cases where prostitutes had chancrous swellings between the bosoms, as well as under the arm-pits,—for these also are employed with the same object.—Does _ruma_ possibly stand for _rima_ (a chink)? In any case we should compare what _Suidas_ gives under the words ῥῦμα, ῥῦμη and ῥύμματα. Synonyms are _comprimere linguam_, _buccam offendere_, etc. (to compress the tongue, to hit against the cheek). [2] The etymology of _fellare_ is still obscure. _Vossius_, Etymolog., derives it from the Æolic φηλᾶν for θηλᾶν and θηλάζειν, to suck the breasts. _Pliny_, Hist. Nat. bk. XI. 65., says of the tongue of cats: imbricatae asperitatis ac limae similis, attenuansque lambendo cutem hominis (of a ridged roughness of surface, like a file, capable of wearing through the human skin by licking). The meanings which _Suidas_ gives under φελλά, etc. would seem to point to an old stem φέλλω,—to roughen, to file. [3] _Lucian_, Works, edit. Lehmann, Vol. VIII. pp. 56-84.