PORTCULLIS (from the Fr.

See also:

• PORTE, THE SUBLIME (Arab. babi-'ali, the high gate, through the French translation la sublime porte)

Porte-

See also:

• COULISSE (French for " groove," from couler, to slide)

coulisse, porte, a

See also:

• GATE

gate,

See also:

• LAT

Lat. porta, and coulisse, a groove, used adjectivally for " sliding," from couler, to slide or glide, Lat. colare; the Fr. equivalents are herse, a

See also:

• HARROW

harrow, and coulisse; Ger. Fallgatter; Ital. saraci  nesca), a strong-framed grating of oak, the lower points shod with iron, and sometimes entirely made of metal, hung so as to slide up and- down in grooves with counterbalances, and intended to protect the gateways of castles, &c . The defenders having opened the gates and lowered the ;portcullis, could send arrows and darts through the gratings . A portcullis was in existence until modern times in a gateway at York . The Romans used the portcullis in the defence of gateways . It was called cataracta from the Gr . Karappiurr7s, a waterfall (KaTappityncreat, to fall down) . Vegetius (De re milit. iv . 4) speaks of it as an old means of defence, and it has been suggested that in Psalm xxiv . 7, 9, " Lift up your heads, oh ye gates," &c., there is an allusion to a similar contrivance . Remains of a cataracta are clearly seen in the gateway of Pompeii . The Italian name saracinesca originates from the crusades .