Page:Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.djvu/15

Rh have the hair on end). To abhor is to have a natural antipathy, and to show it by shuddering with disgust.

Abiala. Wife of Makambi; African deities. She holds a pistol in her hand, and is greatly feared, Her aid is implored in sickness.

Abida. A god of the Kalmucks, who receives the souls of the dead at the moment of decease, and gives them permission to enter a new body, either human or not, and have another spell of life on earth. If the spirit is spotless it may, if it likes, rise and live in the air.

Abidhar&prime;ma. The book of meta-physics in the Tripit&prime;aka (q.v.).

Abigail. A lady's maid, or lady-maid. Abigail, wife of Nabal, who introduced herself to David and afterwards married him, is a well-known Scripture heroine (1 Sam. xxv. 3). Abigail was a popular middle claas Christian name in the seventeenth century. Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Scornful Lady, call the "waiting gentlewoman" Abigail, a name employed by Swift, Fielding, and others, in their novels. Probably "Abigail Hill," the original name of Mrs. Masham, waiting-woman to Queen Anne, popularised the name.

 Abim&prime;elech is no proper name, but a regal title of the Philistines, meaning Father-king.

 Able. An able seaman is a skilled seaman. Snuh a man is termed an A.B. (Able-Bodied); unskilled seamen are called "boys" without regard to age.

Able-bodied Seaman. A sailor of the first class. A crew is divided into three classes:—(1) able seamen, or skilled sailors, termed A.B. ; (2) ordinary seamen; and (3) boys, which include green-hands, or inexperienced men, without regard to age or size.

 Aboard. He fell aboard of me—met me; abused me. A ship is said to fall aboard another when, being in motion, it runs against the other.

To go aboard' is to embark, to go on the board or deck.

Aboard main tack is to draw one of the lower corners of the main-sail down to the chess-tree. Figuratively, it means "to keep to the point."

Aboll&prime;a. An ancient military garment worn by the Greeks and Romans, opposed to the toga or robe of peace. The abolla being worn by the lower orders, was affected by philosophers in the vanity of humility.

Abom&prime;inate (abominor, I Pray that the omen may be averted; used on mentioning anything unlucky). As ill-omened things are disliked, so, by a simple figure of speech, what we dislike we consider ill-omened.

Abomina&prime;tion of Desolation (The). The Roman standard is so called (Matt. xxiv. 15). As it was set up in the holy temple, it was an abomination; and as it brought destruction, it was the "abomination of desolation."

 Abon Hassan. A rich merchant transferred during sleep to the bed an palace of the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid. Next morning he was treated as the caliph, and every effort was made to make him forget is identity. Arabian Nights ("The Sleeper Awakened”). The same trick was played on Christopher Sly, in the Induction of Shakespeare’s comedy of Taming of the Shrew; and, according to Burton (Anatomy of Melancholy, ii. 2, 4), by Philippe the Good, Duke of Burgundy, on his marriage with Elcono&prime;ra.

 Abonde (Dame). The French Santa Claus, the good fairy who comes at night to bring toys to children while they sleep, especially on New Vear's Day.

Abortive Flowers are those which have stamena but no pistils.

 Abou ebn Sina, commonly called Avicenna. A great Persian physicia born at Shiraz, whose canons of medicine were those adopted by Hippocrates and Aristotle. Died 1037.

 Abou-Bekr, called Father of the Virgin, i.e, Mahomet's favourite wife. He was the first caliph, and was founder ety sect called the Sunnites. (571–634).

<section end="Abou-Bekr" /> <section begin="Abou-Jahia" />Abou Jahi&prime;a. The angel of death in Mohammedan mythology. Called Azrael by the Arabs, and Mordad by the Persians.

<section end="Abou-Jahia" /> <section begin="abouloermri" />Aboulomri (in Mohammedan mythology). A fabulous bird of the vulture sort which lives 1,000 years. Called by the Persians Kerkēs, and by the Turks Ak-Baba,—Herbelot.

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