FAIRY, n. A creature, variously fashioned and endowed, that formerly inhabited the meadows and forests. It was nocturnal in its habits, and somewhat addicted to dancing and the theft of children. The fairies are now believed by naturalist to be extinct, though a clergyman of the Church of England saw three near Colchester as lately as 1855, while passing through a park after dining with the lord of the manor. The sight greatly staggered him, and he was so affected that his account of it was incoherent. In the year 1807 a troop of fairies visited a wood near Aix and carried off the daughter of a peasant, who had been seen to enter it with a bundle of clothing. The son of a wealthy _bourgeois_ disappeared about the same time, but afterward returned. He had seen the abduction been in pursuit of the fairies. Justinian Gaux, a writer of the fourteenth century, avers that so great is the fairies' power of transformation that he saw one change itself into two opposing armies and fight a battle with great slaughter, and that the next day, after it had resumed its original shape and gone away, there were seven hundred bodies of the slain which the villagers had to bury. He does not say if any of the wounded recovered. In the time of Henry III, of England, a law was made which prescribed the death penalty for "Kyllynge, wowndynge, or mamynge" a fairy, and it was universally respected.
FAITH, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.
FAMOUS, adj. Conspicuously miserable.
Done to a turn on the iron, behold Him who to be famous aspired.
Content? Well, his grill has a plating of gold, And his twistings are greatly admired.
Hassan Brubuddy FASHION, n. A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey.
A king there was who lost an eye In some excess of passion;
And straight his courtiers all did try To follow the new fashion.
Each dropped one eyelid when before The throne he ventured, thinking 'Twould please the king. That monarch swore He'd slay them all for winking.
What should they do? They were not hot To hazard such disaster;
They dared not close an eye -- dared not See better than their master.
Seeing them lacrymose and glum, A leech consoled the weepers:
He spread small rags with liquid gum And covered half their peepers.
The court all wore the stuff, the flame Of royal anger dying.
That's how court-plaster got its name Unless I'm greatly lying.
Naramy Oof FEAST, n. A festival. A religious celebration usually signalized by gluttony and drunkenness, frequently in honor of some holy person distinguished for abstemiousness. In the Roman Catholic Church feasts are "movable" and "immovable," but the celebrants are uniformly immovable until they are full. In their earliest development these entertainments took the form of feasts for the dead; such were held by the Greeks, under the name _Nemeseia_, by the Aztecs and Peruvians, as in modern times they are popular with the Chinese; though it is believed that the ancient dead, like the modern, were light eaters.
Among the many feasts of the Romans was the _Novemdiale_, which was held, according to Livy, whenever stones fell from heaven.
FELON, n. A person of greater enterprise than discretion, who in embracing an opportunity has formed an unfortunate attachment.
FEMALE, n. One of the opposing, or unfair, ***.
The Maker, at Creation's birth, With living things had stocked the earth.
From elephants to bats and snails, They all were good, for all were males.
But when the Devil came and saw He said: "By Thine eternal law Of growth, maturity, decay, These all must quickly pass away And leave untenanted the earth Unless Thou dost establish birth" --
Then tucked his head beneath his wing To laugh -- he had no sleeve -- the thing With deviltry did so accord, That he'd suggested to the Lord.
The Master pondered this advice, Then shook and threw the fateful dice Wherewith all matters here below Are ordered, and observed the throw;
Then bent His head in awful state, Confirming the decree of Fate.
From every part of earth anew The conscious dust consenting flew, While rivers from their courses rolled To make it plastic for the mould.
Enough collected (but no more, For niggard Nature hoards her store)
He kneaded it to flexible clay, While Nick unseen threw some away.
And then the various forms He cast, Gross organs first and finer last;
No one at once evolved, but all By even touches grew and small Degrees advanced, till, shade by shade, To match all living things He'd made Females, complete in all their parts Except (His clay gave out) the hearts.
"No matter," Satan cried; "with speed I'll fetch the very hearts they need" --
So flew away and soon brought back The number needed, in a sack.
That night earth range with sounds of strife --
Ten million males each had a wife;
That night sweet Peace her pinions spread O'er Hell -- ten million devils dead!
G.J.
FIB, n. A lie that has not cut its teeth. An habitual liar's nearest approach to truth: the perigee of his eccentric orbit.
When David said: "All men are liars," Dave, Himself a liar, fibbed like any thief.
Perhaps he thought to weaken disbelief By proof that even himself was not a slave To Truth; though I suspect the aged knave Had been of all her servitors the chief Had he but known a fig's reluctant leaf Is more than e'er she wore on land or wave.
No, David served not Naked Truth when he Struck that sledge-hammer blow at all his race;
Nor did he hit the nail upon the head:
For reason shows that it could never be, And the facts contradict him to his face.
Men are not liars all, for some are dead.
Bartle Quinker FICKLENESS, n. The iterated satiety of an enterprising affection.
FIDDLE, n. An instrument to tickle human ears by friction of a horse's tail on the entrails of a cat.
To Rome said Nero: "If to smoke you turn I shall not cease to fiddle while you burn."
To Nero Rome replied: "Pray do your worst, 'Tis my excuse that you were fiddling first."
Orm Pludge FIDELITY, n. A virtue peculiar to those who are about to be betrayed.