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 582 CURES CUBIC cased of producing these swellings. As the curculio is a good flier, efforts to prevent its ascending 'the trunks of trees must be of no avail. Among remedies which have been found successful on a small scale, the following de- serve mention : Sudden jars of the limbs in the morning and evening in June, when they are depositing their eggs, will cause many to fall upon sheets spread beneath the trees, from which they may be collected and destroyed ; scattering air-slacked lime in damp days on the trees once a week for six weeks, beginning soon after the fruit is discoverable ; sprinkling flour of sulphur over them about the time the fruit is setting, and once or twice afterward ; applying by means of a syringe a whitewash solution, rendered sticky by a little glue. All fallen fruit should be destroyed by heat, that the grubs may not escape into the ground, and give rise to a new generation; diseased ex- crescences should be cut out ; the admission of swine and poultry about the trees will cause many of the Iarva3 to be devoured before they can enter the ground. The gray-sided curcu- lio is pale brown, from one eighth to one fifth of an inch long ; the larvaa live in the trunks of the white oak, on which the beetles may be found about the beginning of June. Other curculionida destroy pine trees, and infest va- rious kinds of nuts in this country. In Europe there are many species which as yet are not found here. The most destructive of the family are those which attack wheat and other grains. (See WEEVIL.) CURES, in ancient geography, a town of the Sabines, 25 m. N. E. of Rome, and 3 m. from the left bank of the Tiber. In the time of Romulus, according to tradition, the people of Cures were united with the inhabitants of Rome, whence the latter were afterward desig- nated Quirites. Tatius, the colleague of Romu- lus, and Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, were both natives of Cures. The city fell into decay at a very early period, was re- vived by Sulla, and was at last destroyed by the Lombards in the 6th century. The modern village of Correse occupies its site. CURETES, priests and ministers of Cybele or Rhea. The rites and orgies with which they celebrated the worship of their deity were al- most identical with those of the Corybantes. CURFEW, the evening bell (spelled also cur- feu, carfou, and courfeu, a corruption of Fr. cout>re-feu so called from ringing of the bell at evening having formerly been the signal to ex- tinguish fire on the hearth and remain within doors. The practice was common in the mid- dle ages. Polydore Vergil states that William the Conqueror introduced it into England as a measure of police. The obligation of extin- few was abolished in England by Henry I. in 1 100, but the evening bell itself was continued. We find entries in the municipal records of "ryngyng ye curfewe," "a man to ring the curfew," "new rope for the curfew bell," arid so on, as late as the beginning of the 16th cen- tury. The evening bell and prayer bell, still tolled at stated hours in some places, had their origin in the couvre-feu. nui.E, the name of certain divisions of the people of ancient Rome. Romulus divided the whole population into three tribes, and each tribe into ten curia}. Although there were afterward 35 tribes, the number of curise re- mained always the same. At first they pos- sessed considerable political importance, but from the time when Servius Tullius instituted the centuries their influence became slight. The place where a curia met, as well as the meeting place of the senate, was also called curia. In the Roman provincial cities, the name was applied to the body which admin- istered the affairs of the town, and was respon- sible to the Roman government for the taxes. In the middle ages the name was also given to a solemn assembly of the counts and prelates of the empire. It is also applied, though rather figuratively, to the highest sphere of the papal government. CURIO, C. Scribonias. I. A Roman general and statesman, son of a celebrated orator of the same name, died in 53 B. C. He was with the consuls when the seditious tribune L. Apuleius Saturninus was murdered in 100 B. C. In 90 he was tribune of the people, and afterward served under Sulla in Greece, in the war against Archelaus, general of Mithridates, and at the capture of Athens conducted the siege of the acropolis. He was prastor in 82, and in 76 consul with Cn. Octavius. He was afterward given Macedonia as his province, and waged war three years in the north against the barbarians, being the first Roman general to advance to the Danube. For these suc- cesses he celebrated a triumph in Rome in 71. He was an opponent of Julius Csesar and a friend of Cicero, whom he seconded in his at- tack upon Catiline.' In 57 he was appointed pontifex maximus. He was ambitious of be- ing an orator, but his abilities were not great. II. A son of the preceding, died in 49 B. 0. Cicero knew him from childhood and tried to influence him for good ; but Curio, with ex- cellent natural talents, was indolent and dis- sipated. He married Fulvia, afterward the wife of Antony, and by her had a daughter as dissolute as her mother. He followed his father into the party of Pompey, though at heart inclined in favor of Caesar. He was quasstor in Asia, and was tribune for the year 50. Being greatly in debt, he abandoned the Pompeian party upon condition that Caesar should pay his debts, pretending at first to be neutral. When Caesar was called upon to lay down his power before coming to Rome, Cu- rio proposed that Pompey should do the same, and upon Pompey's refusal declared against him. He remained in the senate, and secured a vote of the majority that both the procon- suls should lay down their power. Failing in his efforts to prevent the levying of an army by