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.¡ª 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).
How many interpretations of the term FESTUCA are there in Chinese?