FESTUCA

festuca (fes-tyoo-k<<schwa>>).Hist. A rod, staff, or stick used as a pledge (or gage) of good

faith by a party to a contract or as a token of conveyance of land. • In Roman law, a festuca was a

symbol of ownership. — Also termed fistuca; vindicta. See LIVERY OF SEISIN.

“The wed or gage, however, was capable of becoming a symbol; an object which intrinsically

was of trifling value might be given and might serve to bind a contract. Among the Franks, whom

we must regard as being for many purposes our ancestors in law, it took the shape of the festuca.

Whether this transition from the ‘real’ to the ‘formal’ can be accomplished without the

intervention of sacral ceremonies seems doubtful. There are some who regard the festuca as a

stout staff which has taken the place of a spear and is a symbol of physical power. Others see in it

a little bit of stick on which imprecatory runes have been cut. It is hard to decide such questions,

for, especially under the influence of a new religion, symbols lose their old meanings and are

mixed up. Popular etymology confounds confusion.” 2 Frederick Pollock & Frederic W. Maitland,

The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I 186 (2d ed. 1899).[Blacks Law 8th]