FERCŬLUM (from _fer-o_) is applied to any kind of tray or platform
used for carrying anything. Thus it is used to signify the tray or
frame on which several dishes were brought in at once at dinner; and
hence _fercula_ came to mean the number of courses at dinner, and
even the dishes themselves. The ferculum was also used for carrying
the images of the gods in the procession of the circus, the ashes
of the dead in a funeral, and the spoils in a triumph; in all which
cases it appears to have been carried on the shoulders or in the
hands of men.