[ad. L. crotalum, or its F. adaptation crotale: see below.]
1. = CROTALUM 1.
1850. Leitch, Müller’s Anc. Art, § 388, note. A female Bacchante clattering with crotals.
2. Irish Antiq. Applied to a small globular or pear-shaped bell or rattle, the nature and use of which are obscure: see quots. Also attrib.
[1156. John of Salisbury, Polycrat., VIII. xii. Crotala quoque dicuntur sonoræ sphærulæ, quæ, quibusdam granis interpositis, pro quantitate sui et specie metalli, varios sonos edunt.]
1790. Ledwich, Antiq. Ireland, 243. The Chrotal seems not to have been a Bardic Instrument; but the Bell-Cymbal used by the Clergy, and denominated a Crotalum by the Latins.
1845. Proc. R. Irish Acad., 135. A communication … to shew that the article called a crotal … had properly but one disc, and not two, as represented in Ledwich’s Antiquities.
1872. Ellacombe, Ch. Bells Devon, vii. 186. I would, however, confine the term Crotal to those pear-shaped and globular productions, the exact use of which is, evidently, very doubtful. Ibid., 187. Those round crotal bells in figure resemble an apple, and this instrument was evidently intended to make a rattling noise when shaken.
