Erron. cyst. [ad. L. cist-a, a. Gr. κίστη box, chest. See CHEST, KIST. But in sense 1, app. taken immed. from Welsh cist in cist faen stone coffin: see KISTVAEN.]
1. Preh. Archæol. A sepulchral chest or chamber excavated in rock or formed of stones or hollowed tree-trunks; esp. a stone-coffin formed of slabs placed on edge, and covered on the top by one or more horizontal slabs.
1804. Archæol. (1806), XV. 340. These oval pits, or cists … about four feet long … were neatly cut into the chalk, and were, with the skeletons, covered with the pyramid of flints and stones.
1848. Lytton, Harold, II. ii. In various cysts and crypts.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), I. ii. 80. A small chamber or cist of undressed stones.
1861. Sat. Rev., 7 Sept., 253. A cist was found, not at the base, but nearly at the top of the tumulus.
b. transf.
a. 1832. Crabbe, Posth. Tales, x. The healing spring That soon its rocky cist forsakes.
2. Gr. Antiq. A small receptacle for sacred utensils carried in procession at the celebration of mystic festivals.
1847. Craig, Dict., Cist, Cyst … was originally of wicker-work; and when afterwards made of metal, the form and texture were preserved, in imitation of the original material.
[1850. Leitch, Müller’s Anc. Art, 437. Demeter has … the unveiled cista in her left, a pig in her right hand.]
3. attrib. as cist-urn.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), I. II. v. 418. Large cist urns are invariably found inverted with the burned bones gathered into a heap below them.
