1 # aNetHack 0.0.1 data.base $ANH-Date$ $ANH-Branch$:$ANH-Revision$
2 # Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 by the NetHack Development Team
3 # Copyright (c) 1994 by Boudewijn Wayers
4 # aNetHack may be freely redistributed. See license for details.
6 # This is the source file for the "data" file generated by `makedefs -d'.
7 # A line starting with a # is a comment and is ignored by makedefs.
8 # Any other line not starting with whitespace is a creature or an item.
10 # Each entry should be comprised of:
11 # the thing/person being described on a line by itself, in lowercase;
12 # on each succeeding line a <TAB> description.
14 # If the first character of a key field is "~", then anything which matches
15 # the rest of that key will be treated as if it did not match any of the
16 # following keys for that entry. For instance, `~orc ??m*' preceding `orc*'
17 # prevents "orc mummy" and "orc zombie" from matching.
20 For it had been long apparent to Count Landulf that nothing
21 could be done with his seventh son Thomas, except to make him
22 an Abbot or something of that kind. Born in 1226, he had from
23 childhood a mysterious objection to becoming a predatory eagle,
24 or even to taking an ordinary interest in falconry or tilting
25 or any other gentlemanly pursuits. He was a large and heavy and
26 quiet boy, and phenomenally silent, scarcely opening his mouth
27 except to say suddenly to his schoolmaster in an explosive
28 manner, "What is God?" The answer is not recorded but it is
29 probable that the asker went on worrying out answers for himself.
30 [ The Runaway Abbot, by G. K. Chesterton ]
31 # takes "suit or piece of armor" when specifying '['
35 suit or piece of armor
36 "The last spot on the school jousting team came down to another
37 boy and me. He was poor, and his only armor was a blanket his
38 mother had made him from her hair. I, on the other hand, had
39 a brand new suit of chain mail. Just before our joust, I asked
40 him what he'd do if he made the team. (I was hoping to be more
41 popular with the ladies.) He said he would be able to save the
42 town from dragons and be able to afford some water for his 20
45 Well, a sense of compassion came over me. I insisted we swap
46 armor. He was forced to accept, as it would have been an
49 On the battlefield, we charged at each other and we both connected
52 Lying there on the mud mortally wounded, I learned what true armor
54 [ When Help Collides, by J. D. Berry ]
57 A short studded or spiked club attached to a cord allowing
58 it to be drawn back to the wielder after having been thrown.
59 It should not be confused with the atlatl, which is a device
60 used to throw spears for longer distances.
63 Translucent, cryptocrystalline variety of quartz and a subvariety
64 of chalcedony. Agates are identical in chemical structure to
65 jasper, flint, chert, petrified wood, and tiger's-eye, and are
66 often found in association with opal. The colorful, banded rocks
67 are used as a semiprecious gemstone and in the manufacture of
68 grinding equipment. An agate's banding forms as silica from
69 solution is slowly deposited into cavities and veins in older
71 [ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ]
73 Said to be a doppelganger sent to inflict divine punishment
74 for alignment violations.
78 Altars are of three types:
79 1. In Temples. These are for Sacrifices [...]. The stone
80 top will have grooves for blood, and the whole will be covered
81 with _dry brown stains of a troubling kind_ from former
83 [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
85 To every man upon this earth
86 Death cometh soon or late;
87 And how can man die better
88 Than facing fearful odds
89 For the ashes of his fathers
90 And the temples of his gods?
91 [ Lays of Ancient Rome, by Thomas B. Macaulay ]
93 The Shinto sun goddess, Amaterasu Omikami is the central
94 figure of Shintoism and the ancestral deity of the imperial
95 house. One of the daughters of the primordial god Izanagi
96 and said to be his favourite offspring, she was born from
98 [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
100 "Tree sap," Wu explained, "often flows over insects and traps
101 them. The insects are then perfectly preserved within the
102 fossil. One finds all kinds of insects in amber - including
103 biting insects that have sucked blood from larger animals."
104 [ Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton ]
107 Get thee hence, nor come again,
108 Mix not memory with doubt,
109 Pass, thou deathlike type of pain,
110 Pass and cease to move about!
111 'Tis the blot upon the brain
112 That will show itself without.
114 For, Maud, so tender and true,
115 As long as my life endures
116 I feel I shall owe you a debt,
117 That I never can hope to pay;
118 And if ever I should forget
119 That I owe this debt to you
120 And for your sweet sake to yours;
121 O then, what then shall I say? -
122 If ever I should forget,
123 May God make me more wretched
124 Than ever I have been yet!
125 [ Maud, And Other Poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson ]
127 ~amulet of restful sleep
131 "The complete Amulet can keep off all the things that make
132 people unhappy -- jealousy, bad temper, pride, disagreeableness,
133 greediness, selfishness, laziness. Evil spirits, people called
134 them when the Amulet was made. Don't you think it would be nice
136 "Very," said the children, quite without enthusiasm.
137 "And it can give you strength and courage."
138 "That's better," said Cyril.
140 "I suppose it's nice to have that," said Jane, but not with much
142 "And it can give you your heart's desire."
143 "Now you're talking," said Robert.
144 [ The Story of the Amulet, by Edith Nesbit ]
146 This mysterious talisman is the object of your quest. It is
147 said to possess powers which mere mortals can scarcely
148 comprehend, let alone utilize. The gods will grant the gift of
149 immortality to the adventurer who can deliver it from the
150 depths of Moloch's Sanctum and offer it on the appropriate high
151 altar on the Astral Plane.
153 He answered and said unto them, he that soweth the good seed
154 is the Son of man; the field is the world, and the good seed
155 are the children of the kingdom; but the weeds are the
156 children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the
157 devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers
158 are the angels. As therefore the weeds are gathered and
159 burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
160 [...] So shall it be at the end of the world; the angels
161 shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,
162 and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be
163 wailing and gnashing of teeth.
164 [ The Gospel According to Matthew, 13:37-42, 49-50 ]
167 The gods look down in anger on this poor child.
171 [ Bridge of Sighs, by Robin Trower ]
173 An Egyptian god of war and a great hunter, few gods can match
174 his fury. Unlike many gods of war, he is a force for good.
175 The wrath of Anhur is slow to come, but it is inescapable
176 once earned. Anhur is a mighty figure with four arms. He
177 is often seen with a powerful lance that requires both of
178 his right arms to wield and which is tipped with a fragment
179 of the sun. He is married to Mehut, a lion-headed goddess.
181 The twin city of Ankh-Morpork, foremost of all the cities
182 bounding the Circle Sea, was as a matter of course the home
183 of a large number of gangs, thieves' guilds, syndicates and
184 similar organisations. This was one of the reasons for its
185 wealth. Most of the humbler folk on the widdershin side of
186 the river, in Morpork's mazy alleys, supplemented their
187 meagre incomes by filling some small role for one or other
188 of the competing gangs.
189 [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
191 A primordial Babylonian-Akkadian deity, Anshar is mentioned
192 in the Babylonian creation epic _Enuma Elish_ as one of a
193 pair of offspring (with Kishar) of Lahmu and Lahamu. Anshar
194 is linked with heaven while Kishar is identified with earth.
195 [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
198 This giant variety of the ordinary ant will fight just as
199 fiercely as its small, distant cousin. Various varieties
200 exist, and they are known and feared for their relentless
201 persecution of their victims.
203 Anu was the Babylonian god of the heavens, the monarch of
204 the north star. He was the oldest of the Babylonian gods,
205 the father of all gods, and the ruler of heaven and destiny.
206 Anu features strongly in the _atiku_ festival in
207 Babylon, Uruk and other cities.
208 # takes "apelike creature" when specifying 'Y'
212 The most highly evolved of all the primates, as shown by
213 all their anatomical characters and particularly the
214 development of the brain. Both arboreal and terrestrial,
215 the apes have the forelimbs much better developed than
216 the hind limbs. Tail entirely absent. Growth is slow
217 and sexual maturity reached at quite an advanced age.
218 [ A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Africa by Dorst ]
220 Aldo the gorilla had a plan. It was a good plan. It was
221 right. He knew it. He smacked his lips in anticipation as
222 he thought of it. Yes. Apes should be strong. Apes should
223 be masters. Apes should be proud. Apes should make the
224 Earth shake when they walked. Apes should _rule_ the Earth.
225 [ Battle for the Planet of the Apes, by David Gerrold ]
227 NEWTONIAN, adj. Pertaining to a philosophy of the universe
228 invented by Newton, who discovered that an apple will fall
229 to the ground, but was unable to say why. His successors
230 and disciples have advanced so far as to be able to say
232 [ The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce ]
235 Archeology is the search for fact, not truth. [...]
236 So forget any ideas you've got about lost cities, exotic travel,
237 and digging up the world. We do not follow maps to buried
238 treasure, and X never, ever, marks the spot.
239 [ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ]
241 "I cannot be having with archeological excavations, myself,"
242 I said. "The fellows who dig them only ever find tiny walls
243 and a few bits of broken pottery, and then they get all
244 excited and swear that they have just made the most
245 important discovery of the century, the ruins of a mile-high
246 gold-covered temple to Frogmore the God of Bike-Saddle
247 Fixtures or some such."
248 "I think you will find," said Mr Rune, "that they do this
249 in order to secure further government funding for their
250 diggings and so remain in employment."
251 "That is a rather cynical view," I said.
252 [ the brightonomicon, by Robert Rankin ]
253 # [title & author: same situation as with "bad luck" entry]
255 Archons are the predominant inhabitants of the heavens.
256 However unusual their appearance, they are not generally
257 evil. They are beings at peace with themselves and their
260 Arioch, the patron demon of Elric's ancestors; one of the most
261 powerful of all the Dukes of Hell, who was called Knight of
262 the Swords, Lord of the Seven Darks, Lord of the Higher Hell
263 and many more names besides.
264 [ Elric of Melnibone, by Michael Moorcock ]
266 I shot an arrow into the air,
267 It fell to earth, I knew not where;
268 For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
269 Could not follow it in its flight.
271 I breathed a song into the air,
272 It fell to earth, I knew not where;
273 For who has sight so keen and strong
274 That it can follow the flight of song?
276 Long, long afterward, in an oak
277 I found the arrow still unbroke;
278 And the song, from beginning to end,
279 I found again in the heart of a friend.
280 [ The Arrow and the Song, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]
282 Ashikaga Takauji was a daimyo of the Minamoto clan who
283 joined forces with the Go-Daigo to defeat the Hojo armies.
284 Later when Go-Daigo attempted to reduce the powers of the
285 samurai clans he rebelled against him. He defeated Go-
286 Daigo and established the emperor Komyo on the throne.
287 Go-Daigo eventually escaped and established another
288 government in the town of Yoshino. This period of dual
289 governments was known as the Nambokucho.
290 [ Samurai - The Story of a Warrior Tradition, by Cook ]
292 It is said that Asmodeus is the overlord over all of hell.
293 His appearance, unlike many other demons and devils, is
294 human apart from his horns and tail. He can freeze flesh
298 The evil demon who appears in the Apocryphal book of _Tobit_
299 and is derived from the Persian _Aeshma_. In _Tobit_ Asmodeus
300 falls in love with Sara, daughter of Raguel, and causes the
301 death of seven husbands in succession, each on his bridal night.
302 He was finally driven from Egypt through a charm made by Tobias
303 of the heart and liver of a fish burned on perfumed ashes, as
304 described by Milton in _Paradise Lost_ (IV, 167-71). Hence
305 Asmodeus often figures as the spirit of matrimonial jealousy
307 [ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
309 The consecrated ritual knife of a Wiccan initiate (one of
310 four basic tools, together with the wand, chalice and
311 pentacle). Traditionally, the athame is a double-edged,
312 black-handled, cross-hilted dagger of between six and
313 eighteen inches length.
315 Athene was the offspring of Zeus, and without a mother. She
316 sprang forth from his head completely armed. Her favourite
317 bird was the owl, and the plant sacred to her is the olive.
318 [ Bulfinch's Mythology, by Thomas Bulfinch ]
320 "For ev'ry silver ringing blow,
321 Cities and palaces shall grow!"
323 "Bite deep and wide, O Axe, the tree,
324 Tell wider prophecies to me."
326 "When rust hath gnaw'd me deep and red,
327 A nation strong shall lift his head.
329 "His crown the very Heav'ns shall smite,
330 Aeons shall build him in his might."
332 "Bite deep and wide, O Axe, the tree;
333 Bright Seer, help on thy prophecy!"
334 [ Malcolm's Katie, by Isabella Valancey Crawford ]
336 A mundane salamander, harmless.
340 "Now, this third handkerchief," Mein Herr proceeded, "has also
341 four edges, which you can trace continuously round and round:
342 all you need do is to join its four edges to the four edges of
343 the opening. The Purse is then complete, and its outer
345 "I see!" Lady Muriel eagerly interrupted. "Its outer surface
346 will be continuous with its inner surface! But it will take
347 time. I'll sew it up after tea." She laid aside the bag, and
348 resumed her cup of tea. "But why do you call it Fortunatus's
350 The dear old man beamed upon her, with a jolly smile, looking
351 more exactly like the Professor than ever. "Don't you see,
352 my child--I should say Miladi? Whatever is inside that Purse,
353 is outside it; and whatever is outside it, is inside it. So
354 you have all the wealth of the world in that leetle Purse!"
355 [ Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, by Lewis Carroll ]
357 The "lord of the flies" is a translation of the Hebrew
358 Ba'alzevuv (Beelzebub in Greek). It has been suggested that
359 it was a mistranslation of a mistransliterated word which
360 gave us this pungent and suggestive name of the Devil, a
361 devil whose name suggests that he is devoted to decay,
362 destruction, demoralization, hysteria and panic...
363 [ Notes on _Lord of the Flies_, by E. L. Epstein ]
365 ... It came to the edge of the fire and the light faded as
366 if a cloud had bent over it. Then with a rush it leaped
367 the fissure. The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed
368 about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air. Its streaming
369 mane kindled, and blazed behind it. In its right hand
370 was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it
371 held a whip of many thongs.
372 'Ai, ai!' wailed Legolas. 'A Balrog! A Balrog is come!'
373 [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
376 Extinct rhinos include a variety of forms, the most
377 spectacular being _Baluchitherium_ from the Oligocene of
378 Asia, which is the largest known land mammal. Its body, 18
379 feet high at the shoulder and carried on massive limbs,
380 allowed the 4-foot-long head to browse on the higher branches
381 of trees. Though not as enormous, the titanotheres of the
382 early Tertiary were also large perissodactyls, _Brontotherium_
383 of the Oligocene being 8 feet high at the shoulder.
384 [ Prehistoric Animals, by Barry Cox ]
386 He took another step and she cocked her right wrist in
387 viciously. She heard the spring click. Weight slapped into
389 "Here!" she shrieked hysterically, and brought her arm up in
390 a hard sweep, meaning to gut him, leaving him to blunder
391 around the room with his intestines hanging out in steaming
392 loops. Instead he roared laughter, hands on his hips,
393 flaming face cocked back, squeezing and contorting with great
395 "Oh, my dear!" he cried, and went off into another gale of
397 She looked stupidly down at her hand. It held a firm yellow
398 banana with a blue and white Chiquita sticker on it. She
399 dropped it, horrified, to the carpet, where it became a
400 sickly yellow grin, miming Flagg's own.
401 "You'll tell," he whispered. "Oh yes indeed you will."
402 And Dayna knew he was right.
403 [ The Stand, by Stephen King ]
405 In Irish folklore and that of the Western Highlands of Scotland,
406 a female fairy who announces her presence by shrieking and
407 wailing under the windows of a house when one of its occupants
408 is awaiting death. The word is a phonetic spelling of the
409 Irish _beansidhe_, a woman of the fairies.
410 [ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
413 They dressed alike -- in buckskin boots, leathern breeks and
414 deerskin shirts, with broad girdles that held axes and short
415 swords; and they were all gaunt and scarred and hard-eyed;
417 They were wild men, of a sort, yet there was still a wide
418 gulf between them and the Cimmerian. They were sons of
419 civilization, reverted to a semi-barbarism. He was a
420 barbarian of a thousand generations of barbarians. They had
421 acquired stealth and craft, but he had been born to these
422 things. He excelled them even in lithe economy of motion.
423 They were wolves, but he was a tiger.
424 [ Conan - The Warrior, by Robert E. Howard ]
426 Barbed devils lack any real special abilities, though they
427 are quite difficult to kill.
428 # takes "bat or bird" when specifying 'B'
433 A bat, flitting in the darkness outside, took the wrong turn
434 as it made its nightly rounds and came in through the window
435 which had been left healthfully open. It then proceeded to
436 circle the room in the aimless fat-headed fashion habitual
437 with bats, who are notoriously among the less intellectually
438 gifted of God's creatures. Show me a bat, says the old
439 proverb, and I will show you something that ought to be in
441 [ A Pelican at Blandings, by P. G. Wodehouse ]
443 Probably most commonly associated with trapping, the leghold
444 trap is a rather simple mechanical trap. It is made up of two
445 jaws, a spring of some sort, and a trigger in the middle. When
446 the animal steps on the trigger the trap closes around the leg,
447 holding the animal in place. Usually some kind of lure is used
448 to position the animal, or the trap is set on an animal trail.
449 Traditionally, leghold traps had tightly closing "teeth" to make
450 sure the animal stayed in place. The teeth also made sure the
451 animal could not move the leg in the trap and ruin their fur.
452 However, this resulted in many animals gnawing off legs in order
453 to escape. More modern traps have a gap called an "offset jaw"
454 and work more like a handcuff. They grip above the paw, making
455 sure the animal cannot pull out but does not destroy the leg.
456 This also allows the trapper to release unwanted catches.
457 [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
459 This giant variety of its useful normal cousin normally
460 appears in small groups, looking for raw material to produce
461 the royal jelly needed to feed their queen. On rare
462 occasions, one may stumble upon a bee-hive, in which the
463 queen bee is being well provided for, and guarded against
466 [ The Creator ] has an inordinate fondness for beetles.
467 [ attributed to biologist J.B.S. Haldane ]
469 The common name for the insects with wings shaped like
470 shields (_Coleoptera_), one of the ten sub-species into
471 which the insects are divided. They are characterized by
472 the shields (the front pair of wings) under which the back
474 [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
476 "A bell, book and candle job."
477 The Bursar sighed. "We tried that, Archchancellor."
478 The Archchancellor leaned towards him.
480 "I _said_, we tried that Archchancellor," said the Bursar loudly,
481 directing his voice at the old man's ear. "After dinner, you
482 remember? We used Humptemper's _Names of the Ants_ and rang Old
484 "Did we, indeed. Worked, did it?"
485 "_No_, Archchancellor."
487 * Old Tom was the single cracked bronze bell in the University
489 [ Eric, by Terry Pratchett ]
491 The blindfolding was performed by binding a piece of the
492 yellowish linen whereof those of the Amahagger who condescended
493 to wear anything in particular made their dresses tightly round
494 the eyes. This linen I afterwards discovered was taken from the
495 tombs, and was not, as I had first supposed, of native
496 manufacture. The bandage was then knotted at the back of the
497 head, and finally brought down again and the ends bound under
498 the chin to prevent its slipping. Ustane was, by the way, also
499 blindfolded, I do not know why, unless it was from fear that she
500 should impart the secrets of the route to us.
501 [ She, by H. Rider Haggard ]
503 On this particular day Blind Io, by dint of constant vigilance
504 the chief of the gods, sat with his chin on his hand
505 and looked at the gaming board on the red marble table in
506 front of him. Blind Io had got his name because, where his
507 eye sockets should have been, there were nothing but two
508 areas of blank skin. His eyes, of which he had an impressively
509 large number, led a semi-independent life of their
510 own. Several were currently hovering above the table.
511 [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
517 These giant amoeboid creatures look like nothing more than
518 puddles of slime, but they both live and move, feeding on
519 metal or wood as well as the occasional dungeon explorer to
520 supplement their diet.
522 But we were not on a station platform. We were on the track ahead
523 as the nightmare, plastic column of fetid black iridescence oozed
524 tightly onward through its fifteen-foot sinus, gathering unholy
525 speed and driving before it a spiral, re-thickening cloud of the
526 pallid abyss vapor. It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster
527 than any subway train -- a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic
528 bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes
529 forming and unforming as pustules of greenish light all over the
530 tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic
531 penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its
532 kind had swept so evilly free of all litter.
533 [ At the Mountains of Madness, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
535 I'd planned how to prevent the lock from sealing behind me; it
536 required a temporary sacrifice, not cleverness. I used the door
537 itself to help me cut off a portion of my body, after shunting all
538 memory from the piece to be abandoned. The piece, looking
539 inexpressibly dear and forlorn for a bit of blue jelly, would
540 force open the outer door until I returned and rejoined it.
541 [ Beholder's Eye, by Julie E. Czerneda ]
543 Bone devils attack with weapons and with a great hooked tail
544 which causes a loss of strength to those they sting.
548 Faustus: Come on Mephistopheles. What shall we do?
549 Mephistopheles: Nay, I know not. We shall be cursed with bell,
551 Faustus: How? Bell, book, and candle, candle, book, and bell,
552 Forward and backward, to curse Faustus to hell.
553 Anon you shall hear a hog grunt, a calf bleat, and an ass bray,
554 Because it is Saint Peter's holy day.
555 (Enter all the Friars to sing the dirge)
556 [ Doctor Faustus and Other Plays, by Christopher Marlowe ]
558 #: this one is commented out because two from the same source feels a
559 #: bit excessive; if uncommented, it should be first since the punchline
560 #: is about coming back while the other one is disdainful about that, so
561 #: if this one came second, its joke would be weakened
562 # "It's a boomerang," said Vimes. "You find something like this
563 # all over the world. You have to wave it carefully and suddenly
564 # your opponent gets it in the back. I've heard that there's a lad
565 # in Fourecks who can throw a boomerang with such precision that it
566 # can get the morning paper and come back with it."
567 # [ Raising Steam, by Terry Pratchett ]
569 Rincewind pulled himself up and thought about reaching for his
570 stick. And then he thought again. The man had a couple of spears
571 stuck in the ground, and people here were good at spears, because
572 if you didn't get efficient at hitting the things that moved fast
573 you had to eat the things that moved slowly. He was also holding
574 a boomerang, and it wasn't one of those toy ones that came back.
575 This was one of the big, heavy, gently curved sort that didn't
576 come back because it was sticking in something's ribcage. You
577 could laugh at the idea of wooden weapons until you saw the kind
578 of wood that grew here.
579 [ The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett ]
582 In Fantasyland these are remarkable in that they seldom or
583 never wear out and are suitable for riding or walking in
584 without the need of Socks. Boots never pinch, rub, or get
585 stones in them; nor do nails stick upwards into the feet from
586 the soles. They are customarily mid-calf length or knee-high,
587 slip on and off easily and never smell of feet. Unfortunately,
588 the formula for making this splendid footwear is a closely
589 guarded secret, possibly derived from nonhumans (see Dwarfs,
591 [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
594 On waking, he found himself on the green knoll whence he had
595 first seen the old man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes -- it
596 was a bright sunny morning. The birds were hopping and
597 twittering among the bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft,
598 and breasting the pure mountain breeze. "Surely," thought Rip,
599 "I have not slept here all night." He recalled the occurrences
600 before he fell asleep. The strange man with a keg of liquor --
601 the mountain ravine -- the wild retreat among the rocks -- the
602 woe-begone party at ninepins -- the flagon -- "Oh! that flagon!
603 that wicked flagon!" thought Rip -- "what excuse shall I make
605 [ Rip Van Winkle, a Posthumous Writing
606 of Diedrich Knickerbocker, by Washington Irving ]
608 I worked the lever well under, and stretched my back; the end
609 of the stone rose up, and I kicked the fulcrum under. Then,
610 when I was going to bear down, I remembered there was
611 something to get out from below; when I let go of the lever,
612 the stone would fall again. I sat down to think, on the root
613 of the oak tree; and, seeing it stand about the ground, I saw
614 my way. It was lucky I had brought a longer lever. It would
615 just reach to wedge under the oak root.
616 Bearing it down so far would have been easy for a heavy man,
617 but was a hard fight for me. But this time I meant to do it
618 if it killed me, because I knew it could be done. Twice I
619 got it nearly there, and twice the weight bore it up again;
620 but when I flung myself on it the third time, I heard in my
621 ears the sea-sound of Poseidon. Then I knew this time I
622 would do it; and so I did.
623 [ The King Must Die, by Mary Renault ]
627 "Stand to it, my hearts of gold," said the old bowman as he
628 passed from knot to knot. "By my hilt! we are in luck this
629 journey. Bear in mind the old saying of the Company."
630 "What is that, Aylward?" cried several, leaning on their bows
632 "'Tis the master-bowyer's rede: 'Every bow well bent. Every
633 shaft well sent. Every stave well nocked. Every string well
634 locked.' There, with that jingle in his head, a bracer on
635 his left hand, a shooting glove on his right, and a
636 farthing's-worth of wax in his girdle, what more doth a
638 "It would not be amiss," said Hordle John, "if under his
639 girdle he had four farthings'-worth of wine."
640 [ The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ]
642 Brigit (Brigid, Bride, Banfile), which means the Exalted One,
643 was the Celtic (continental European and Irish) fertility
644 goddess. She was originally celebrated on February first in
645 the festival of Imbolc, which coincided with the beginning
646 of lactation in ewes and was regarded in Scotland as the date
647 on which Brigit deposed the blue-faced hag of winter. The
648 Christian calendar adopted the same date for the Feast of St.
649 Brigit. There is no record that a Christian saint ever
650 actually existed, but in Irish mythology she became the
651 midwife to the Virgin Mary.
652 [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
655 Bring me my broadsword
656 And clear understanding.
657 Bring me my cross of gold,
659 [ "Broadsword" (refrain) by Ian Anderson ]
661 Bugbears are relatives of goblins, although they tend to be
662 larger and more hairy. They are aggressive carnivores and
663 sometimes kill just for the treasure their victims may be
666 'I read you by your bugle horn
667 And by your palfrey good,
668 I read you for a Ranger sworn
669 To keep the King's green-wood.'
670 'A Ranger, Lady, winds his horn,
671 And 'tis at peep of light;
672 His blast is heard at merry morn,
673 And mine at dead of night.'
674 [ Brignall Banks, by Sir Walter Scott ]
676 "Good," he said and, unbelievably, smiled at me, a smirk like
677 a round of rotted cheese. "What did your keeper use on you?
679 [ Melusine, by Sarah Monette ]
681 A classical Mesoamerican Aztec god, also known as Mixcoatl-
682 Camaxtli (the Cloud Serpent), Camaxtli is the god of war. He
683 is also a deity of hunting and fire who received human
684 sacrifice of captured prisoners. According to tradition, the
685 sun god Tezcatlipoca transformed himself into Mixcoatl-Camaxtli
686 to make fire by twirling the sacred fire sticks.
687 [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
689 The seat of Arthur's power in medieval romance. The name is
690 of unknown origin and refers to the castle but also includes
691 the surrounding town. ... Camelot appears, most significantly,
692 as a personal capital as opposed to a permanent or national
693 one. It is Arthur's and Arthur's alone. There are no previous
694 lords and Arthur's successor, Constantine, does not take up
695 residence there. Camelot is actually said to have been
696 demolished after Arthur and Lancelot were gone by Mark. Fazio
697 degli Uberti, the Italian poet, claims to have seen the ruins
699 [ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
701 Only once a year, on his birthday, did Charlie Bucket ever
702 get to taste a bit of chocolate. The whole family saved up
703 their money for that special occasion, and when the great
704 day arrived, Charlie was always presented with one small
705 chocolate bar to eat all by himself. And each time he
706 received it, on those marvelous birthday mornings, he would
707 place it carefully in a small wooden box that he owned, and
708 treasure it as though it were a bar of solid gold; and for
709 the next few days, he would allow himself only to look at it,
710 but never to touch it. Then at last, when he could stand it
711 no longer, he would peel back a tiny bit of the paper
712 wrapping at one corner to expose a tiny bit of chocolate, and
713 then he would take a tiny nibble - just enough to allow the
714 lovely sweet taste to spread out slowly over his tongue. The
715 next day, he would take another tiny nibble, and so on, and
716 so on. And in this way, Charlie would make his ten-cent bar
717 of birthday chocolate last him for more than a month.
718 [ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl ]
720 In World War II, Britain's air ministry spread the word that
721 a diet of these vegetables helped pilots see Nazi bombers
722 attacking at night. That was a lie intended to cover the real
723 matter of what was underpinning the Royal Air Force's successes:
724 Airborne Interception Radar, also known as AI. ... British
725 Intelligence didn't want the Germans to find out about the
726 superior new technology helping protect the nation, so they
727 created a rumor to afford a somewhat plausible-sounding
728 explanation for the sudden increase in bombers being shot down.
729 ... The disinformation was so persuasive that the English public
730 took to eating carrots to help them find their way during the
732 [ Urban Legends Reference Pages ]
734 Imagine a sealed container, so perfectly constructed that no
735 physical influence can pass either inwards or outwards across its
736 walls. Imagine that inside the container is a cat, and also a
737 device that can be triggered by some quantum event. If that event
738 takes place, then the device smashes a phial containing cyanide and
739 the cat is killed. If the event does not take place, the cat lives
740 on. In Schroedinger's original version, the quantum event was the
741 decay of a radioactive atom. ... To the outside observer, the cat
742 is indeed in a linear combination of being alive and dead, and only
743 when the container is finally opened would the cat's state vector
744 collapse into one or the other. On the other hand, to a (suitably
745 protected) observer inside the container, the cat's state-vector
746 would have collapsed much earlier, and the outside observer's
747 linear combination has no relevance.
748 [ The Emperor's New Mind, by Roger Penrose ]
749 # takes "cat or other feline" when specifying 'f'
753 Well-known quadruped domestic animal from the family of
754 predatory felines (_Felis ochreata domestica_), with a thick,
755 soft pelt; often kept as a pet. Various folklores have the
756 cat associated with magic and the gods of ancient Egypt.
758 So Ulthar went to sleep in vain anger; and when the people
759 awakened at dawn - behold! Every cat was back at his
760 accustomed hearth! Large and small, black, grey, striped,
761 yellow and white, none was missing. Very sleek and fat did
762 the cats appear, and sonorous with purring content.
763 [ The Cats of Ulthar, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
764 # this one doesn't work very well for dwarven and gnomish cavemen
767 Now it was light enough to leave. Moon-Watcher picked up
768 the shriveled corpse and dragged it after him as he bent
769 under the low overhang of the cave. Once outside, he
770 threw the body over his shoulder and stood upright - the
771 only animal in all this world able to do so.
772 Among his kind, Moon-Watcher was almost a giant. He was
773 nearly five feet high, and though badly undernourished
774 weighed over a hundred pounds. His hairy, muscular body
775 was halfway between ape and man, but his head was already
776 much nearer to man than ape. The forehead was low, and
777 there were ridges over the eye sockets, yet he unmistakably
778 held in his genes the promise of humanity.
779 [ 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke ]
782 'Twas in a land unkempt of life's red dawn;
783 Where in his sanded cave he dwelt alone;
784 Sleeping by day, or sometimes worked upon
785 His flint-head arrows and his knives of stone;
786 By night stole forth and slew the savage boar,
787 So that he loomed a hunter of loud fame,
788 And many a skin of wolf and wild-cat wore,
789 And counted many a flint-head to his name;
790 Wherefore he walked the envy of the band,
791 Hated and feared, but matchless in his skill.
792 Till lo! one night deep in that shaggy land,
793 He tracked a yearling bear and made his kill;
794 Then over-worn he rested by a stream,
795 And sank into a sleep too deep for dream.
796 [ The Dreamer, by Robert Service ]
798 Of all the monsters put together by the Greek imagination
799 the Centaurs (Kentauroi) constituted a class in themselves.
800 Despite a strong streak of sensuality, in their make-up,
801 their normal behaviour was moral, and they took a kindly
802 thought of man's welfare. The attempted outrage of Nessos on
803 Deianeira, and that of the whole tribe of Centaurs on the
804 Lapith women, are more than offset by the hospitality of
805 Pholos and by the wisdom of Cheiron, physician, prophet,
806 lyrist, and the instructor of Achilles. Further, the
807 Centaurs were peculiar in that their nature, which united the
808 body of a horse with the trunk and head of a man, involved
809 an unthinkable duplication of vital organs and important
810 members. So grotesque a combination seems almost un-Greek.
811 These strange creatures were said to live in the caves and
812 clefts of the mountains, myths associating them especially
813 with the hills of Thessaly and the range of Erymanthos.
814 [ Mythology of all races, Vol. 1, pp. 270-271 ]
816 I observed here, what I had often seen before, that certain
817 districts abound in centipedes. Here they have light
818 reddish bodies and blue legs; great myriapedes are seen
819 crawling every where. Although they do no harm, they excite
820 in man a feeling of loathing. Perhaps our appearance
821 produces a similar feeling in the elephant and other large
822 animals. Where they have been much disturbed, they
823 certainly look upon us with great distrust, as the horrid
824 biped that ruins their peace.
825 [ Travels and Researches in South Africa,
826 by Dr. David Livingstone ]
829 Cerberus, (or Kerberos in Greek), was the three-headed dog
830 that guarded the Gates of Hell. He allowed any dead to enter,
831 and likewise prevented them all from ever leaving. He was
832 bested only twice: once when Orpheus put him to sleep by
833 playing bewitching music on his lyre, and the other time when
834 Hercules confronted him and took him to the world of the
835 living (as his twelfth and last labor).
837 A small lizard perched on a brown stone. Feeling threatened by
838 the approach of human beings along the path, it metamorphosed
839 into a stingray beetle, then into a stench-puffer, then into a
841 Bink smiled. These conversions weren't real. It had assumed
842 the forms of obnoxious little monsters, but not their essence.
843 It could not sting, stink or burn. It was a chameleon, using
844 its magic to mimic creatures of genuine threat.
845 Yet as it shifted into the form of a basilisk it glared at him
846 with such ferocity that Bink's mirth abated. If its malice
847 could strike him, he would be horribly dead.
848 [ A Spell for Chameleon, by Piers Anthony ]
850 When an ancient Greek died, his soul went to the nether world:
851 the Hades. To reach the nether world, the souls had to cross
852 the river Styx, the river that separated the living from the
853 dead. The Styx could be crossed by ferry, whose shabby ferry-
854 man, advanced in age, was called Charon. The deceased's next-
855 of-kin would place a coin under his tongue, to pay the ferry-
859 Dantes rapidly cleared away the earth around the chest. Soon
860 the center lock appeared, then the handles at each end, all
861 delicately wrought in the manner of that period when art made
862 precious even the basest of metals. He took the chest by the
863 two handles and tried to lift it, but it was impossible. He
864 tried to open it; it was locked. He inserted the sharp end
865 of his pickaxe between the chest and the lid and pushed down
866 on the handle. The lid creaked, then flew open.
867 Dantes was seized with a sort of giddy fever. He cocked his
868 gun and placed it beside him. Then he closed his eyes like
869 a child, opened them and stood dumbfounded.
870 The chest was divided into three compartments. In the first
871 were shining gold coins. In the second, unpolished gold
872 ingots packed in orderly stacks. From the third compartment,
873 which was half full, Dantes picked up handfuls of diamonds,
874 pearls and rubies. As they fell through his fingers in a
875 glittering cascade, they gave forth the sound of hail beating
876 against the windowpanes.
877 [ The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas ]
879 A character in Chinese mythology noted for bringing about the
880 end of a terrible drought which threatened the survival of
881 the people. He achieved this by means of sprinkling the
882 earth with water from a bowl, using the branch of a tree to
883 do so. He became the heavenly controller of the rain, and
884 lived with other celestial beings in their paradise on Mount
886 [ The Illustrated Who's Who In Mythology, by Michael Senior ]
889 Tiamat is said to be the mother of evil dragonkind. She is
892 A pale yellow variety of crystalline quartz resembling topaz.
894 Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed,
895 sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic
896 melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled
897 thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.
898 [ The Phoenix on the Sword, by Robert E. Howard ]
902 Cloaks are the universal outer garb of everyone who is not a
903 Barbarian. It is hard to see why. They are open in front
904 and require you at most times to use one hand to hold them
905 shut. On horseback they leave the shirt-sleeved arms and
906 most of the torso exposed to wind and Weather. The OMTs
907 [ Official Management Terms ] for Cloaks well express their
908 difficulties. They are constantly _swirling and dripping_
909 and becoming _heavy with water_ in rainy Weather, _entangling
910 with trees_ or _swords_, or needing to be _pulled close
911 around her/his shivering body_. This seems to suggest they
912 are less than practical for anyone on an arduous Tour.
913 [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
915 I wandered lonely as a cloud
916 That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
917 When all at once I saw a crowd,
918 A host, of golden daffodils;
919 Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
920 Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
921 [ I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, by William Wordsworth ]
923 Darzee and his wife only cowered down in the nest without
924 answering, for from the thick grass at the foot of the bush
925 there came a low hiss -- a horrid cold sound that made
926 Rikki-tikki jump back two clear feet. Then inch by inch out of
927 the grass rose up the head and spread hood of Nag, the big
928 black cobra, and he was five feet long from tongue to tail.
929 When he had lifted one-third of himself clear of the ground,
930 he stayed balancing to and fro exactly as a dandelion-tuft
931 balances in the wind, and he looked at Rikki-tikki with the
932 wicked snake's eyes that never change their expression,
933 whatever the snake may be thinking of.
934 'Who is Nag?' said he. '_I_ am Nag. The great God Brahm put
935 his mark upon all our people, when the first cobra spread his
936 hood to keep the sun off Brahm as he slept. Look, and be
938 [ Rikki-tikki-tavi, by Rudyard Kipling ]
940 Once in a great while, when the positions of the stars are
941 just right, a seven-year-old rooster will lay an egg. Then,
942 along will come a snake, to coil around the egg, or a toad,
943 to squat upon the egg, keeping it warm and helping it to
944 hatch. When it hatches, out comes a creature called basilisk,
945 or cockatrice, the most deadly of all creatures. A single
946 glance from its yellow, piercing toad's eyes will kill both
947 man and beast. Its power of destruction is said to be so
948 great that sometimes simply to hear its hiss can prove fatal.
949 Its breath is so venomous that it causes all vegetation
952 There is, however, one creature which can withstand the
953 basilisk's deadly gaze, and this is the weasel. No one knows
954 why this is so, but although the fierce weasel can slay the
955 basilisk, it will itself be killed in the struggle. Perhaps
956 the weasel knows the basilisk's fatal weakness: if it ever
957 sees its own reflection in a mirror it will perish instantly.
958 But even a dead basilisk is dangerous, for it is said that
959 merely touching its lifeless body can cause a person to
961 [ Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)
967 The coin bears the likeness of Belwit the Flat, along with the
968 inscriptions, "One Zorkmid," and "699 GUE [ Great Underground
969 Empire ]." On the other side, the coin depicts Egreth Castle,
970 and says "In Frobs We Trust" in several languages.
971 [ Zork Zero, by Infocom ]
980 [Scene: Mr. Moon and Gilbert enter tavern and discover many
981 corpses strewn about the place; Blind Pew is sole survivor.]
982 Blind Pew: Evening. Sounded as though there has been a bit
984 Mr. Moon: Squabble? They're all dead.
985 Blind Pew: Oh. Must have been more of a tiff then.
986 [ Yellowbeard, directed by Mel Damski, screenplay
987 by Graham Chapman, Peter Cook, Bernard McKenna ]
990 The cope is a liturgical vestment which may be worn by any
991 rank of the clergy. Copes are made in all liturgical colours,
992 and are like a very long mantle or cloak, fastened at the breast
994 [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
996 He was dressed in a flowing gown with fur tippets which had
997 the signs of the zodiac embroidered over it, with various
998 cabalistic signs, such as triangles with eyes in them, queer
999 crosses, leaves of trees, bones of birds and animals, and a
1000 planetarium whose stars shone like bits of looking-glass with
1001 the sun on them. He had a pointed hat like a dunce's cap, or
1002 like the headgear worn by ladies of that time, except that
1003 the ladies were accustomed to have a bit of veil floating
1005 [ The Once and Future King, by T.H. White ]
1007 "A wizard!" Dooley exclaimed, astounded.
1008 "At your service, sirs," said the wizard. "How
1009 perceptive of you to notice. I suppose my hat rather gives me
1010 away. Something of a beacon, I don't doubt." His hat was
1011 pretty much that, tall and cone-shaped with stars and crescent
1012 moons all over it. All in all, it couldn't have been more
1014 [ The Elfin Ship, James P. Blaylock ]
1016 A mythical feathered serpent. The couatl are very rare.
1018 This carnivore is known for its voracious appetite and
1019 inflated view of its own intelligence.
1021 If you want to know what cram is, I can only say that I don't
1022 know the recipe; but it is biscuitish, keeps good indefinitely,
1023 is supposed to be sustaining, and is certainly not entertaining,
1024 being in fact very uninteresting except as a chewing
1025 exercise. It was made by the Lake-men for long journeys.
1026 [ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
1028 Gregor stared at the pastry tray, and sighed. "I suppose
1029 it would disturb the guards if I tried to shove a cream torte up
1031 "Deeply. You should have done it when we were eight and
1032 twelve, you could have gotten away with it then. The cream pie
1033 of justice flies one way," Miles snickered.
1034 [ The Vor Game, by Lois McMaster Bujold ]
1036 A big animal with the appearance of a lizard, constituting
1037 an order of the reptiles (_Loricata_ or _Crocodylia_), the
1038 crocodile is a large, dangerous predator native to tropical
1039 and subtropical climes. It spends most of its time in large
1043 How doth the little crocodile
1044 Improve his shining tail,
1045 And pour the waters of the Nile
1046 On every golden scale!
1048 How cheerfully he seems to grin
1049 How neatly spreads his claws,
1050 And welcomes little fishes in,
1051 With gently smiling jaws!
1052 [ How Doth The Little Crocodile, by Lewis Carroll ]
1056 Croesus (in Greek: Kroisos), the wealthy last king of Lydia;
1057 his empire was destroyed when he attacked Cyrus in 549, after
1058 the Oracle of Delphi (q.v.) had told him: "if you attack the
1059 Persians, you will destroy a mighty empire". Herodotus
1060 relates of his legendary conversation with Solon of Athens,
1061 who impressed upon him that being rich does not imply being
1062 happy and that no one should be considered fortunate before
1065 Warily Conan scanned his surroundings, all of his senses alert
1066 for signs of possible danger. Off in the distance, he could
1067 see the familiar shapes of the Camp of the Duali tribe.
1068 Suddenly, the hairs on his neck stand on end as he detects the
1069 aura of evil magic in the air. Without thought, he readies
1070 his weapon, and mutters under his breath:
1071 "By Crom, there will be blood spilt today."
1073 [ Conan the Avenger by Robert E. Howard, Bjorn Nyberg,
1074 and L. Sprague de Camp ]
1076 "God save thee, ancient Mariner!
1077 From the fiends, that plague thee thus! -
1078 Why look'st thou so?" - With my cross-bow
1079 I shot the Albatross.
1080 [ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge ]
1082 You look into one of these and see _vapours swirling like
1083 clouds_. These shortly clear away to show a sort of video
1084 without sound of something that is going to happen to you
1085 soon. It is seldom good news.
1086 [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
1088 Curses are longstanding ill-wishings which, in Fantasyland,
1089 often manifest as semisentient. They have to be broken or
1090 dispelled. The method varies according to the type and
1091 origin of the Curse:
1093 4. Curses on Rings and Swords. You have problems. Rings
1094 have to be returned whence they came, preferably at over a
1095 thousand degrees Fahrenheit, and the Curse means you won't
1096 want to do this. Swords usually resist all attempts to
1097 raise their Curses. Your best source is to hide the Sword
1098 or give it to someone you dislike.
1099 [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
1101 A pack of snow-white, red-eared spectral hounds which
1102 sometimes took part in the kidnappings and raids the
1103 inhabitants of the underworld sometimes make on this world
1104 (the Wild Hunt). They are associated in Wales with the sounds
1105 of migrating wild geese, and are said to be leading the souls
1106 of the damned to hell. The phantom chase is usually heard or
1107 seen in midwinter and is accompanied by a howling wind.
1108 [ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
1110 And after he had milked his cattle swiftly,
1111 he again took hold of two of my men
1112 and had them as his supper.
1113 Then I went, with a tub of red wine,
1114 to stand before the Cyclops, saying:
1115 "A drop of wine after all this human meat,
1116 so you can taste the delicious wine
1117 that is stored in our ship, Cyclops."
1118 He took the tub and emptied it.
1119 He appreciated the priceless wine that much
1120 that he promptly asked me for a second tub.
1121 "Give it", he said, "and give me your name as well".
1123 Thrice I filled the tub,
1124 and after the wine had clouded his mind,
1125 I said to him, in a tone as sweet as honey:
1126 "You have asked my name, Cyclops? Well,
1127 my name is very well known. I'll give it to you,
1128 if you give me the gift you promised me as a guest.
1129 My name is Nobody. All call me thus:
1130 my father and my mother and my friends."
1131 Ruthlessly he answered to this:
1132 "Nobody, I will eat you last of all;
1133 your host of friends will completely precede you.
1134 That will be my present to you, my friend."
1135 And after these words he fell down backwards,
1136 restrained by the all-restrainer Hupnos.
1137 His monstrous neck slid into the dust;
1138 the red wine squirted from his throat;
1139 the drunk vomited lumps of human flesh.
1140 [ The Odyssey, (chapter Epsilon), by Homer ]
1143 Is this a dagger which I see before me,
1144 The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
1145 I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
1146 Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
1147 To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
1148 A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
1149 Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
1150 I see thee yet, in form as palpable
1151 As this which now I draw.
1152 [ Macbeth, by William Shakespeare ]
1154 ... But he ruled rather by force and fear, if they might
1155 avail; and those who perceived his shadow spreading over the
1156 world called him the Dark Lord and named him the Enemy; and
1157 he gathered again under his government all the evil things of
1158 the days of Morgoth that remained on earth or beneath it,
1159 and the Orcs were at his command and multiplied like flies.
1160 Thus the Black Years began ...
1161 [ The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
1162 # includes "dart trap"
1164 Darts are missile weapons, designed to fly such that a sharp,
1165 often weighted point will strike first. They can be
1166 distinguished from javelins by fletching (i.e., feathers on
1167 the tail) and a shaft that is shorter and/or more flexible,
1168 and from arrows by the fact that they are not of the right
1169 length to use with a normal bow.
1170 [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
1172 Against my foe I hurled a murderous dart.
1173 He caught it in his hand -- I heard him laugh --
1174 I saw the thing that should have pierced his heart
1175 Turn to a golden staff.
1176 [ Gifts, by Mary Coleridge ]
1178 A terrible deity, whose very name was capable of producing the
1179 most horrible effects. He is first mentioned by the 4th-century
1180 Christian writer, Lactantius, who in doing so broke with the
1181 superstition that the very reference to Demogorgon by name
1182 brought death and disaster.
1183 [ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
1185 Demogorgon, the prince of demons, wallows in filth and can
1186 spread a quickly fatal illness to his victims while rending
1187 them. He is a mighty spellcaster, and he can drain the life
1188 of mortals with a touch of his tail.
1189 # takes "major demon" when specifying '&'
1192 It is often very hard to discover what any given Demon looks
1193 like, apart from a general impression of large size, huge
1194 fangs, staring eyes, many limbs, and an odd color; but all
1195 accounts agree that Demons are very powerful, very Magic (in
1196 a nonhuman manner), and made of some substance that can squeeze
1197 through a keyhole yet not be pierced with a Sword. This makes
1198 them difficult to deal with, even on the rare occasions when
1200 [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
1202 The hardest known mineral (with a hardness of 10 on Mohs' scale).
1203 It is an allotropic form of pure carbon that has crystallized in
1204 the cubic system, usually as octahedra or cubes, under great
1206 [ A Concise Dictionary of Physics ]
1208 The diamond, _adamas_ or _dyamas_, is a transparent stone, like
1209 crystal, but having the colour of polished iron, but it cannot
1210 be destroyed by iron, fire or any other means, unless it is
1211 placed in the hot blood of a goat; with sharp pieces of diamond
1212 other stones are engraved and polished. It is no greater than
1213 a small nut. There are six kinds, however Adamant attracts
1214 metal; it expels venom; it produces amber (and is efficacious
1215 against empty fears and for those resisting spells). It is
1216 found in India, in Greece and in Cyprus, where magicians make
1217 use of it. It gives you courage; it averts apparitions; it
1218 removes anger and quarrels; it heals the mad; it defends you
1219 from your enemies. It should be set in gold or silver and worn
1220 on the left arm. It is likewise found in Arabia.
1221 [ The Aberdeen Bestiary, translated by Colin McLaren ]
1223 The most famous and the first to be named of the imaginary
1224 "minerals" of Star Trek is dilithium. ... Because of this
1225 mineral's central role in the storyline, a whole mythology
1226 surrounds it. It is, however, a naturally occurring substance
1227 within the mythology, as there are various episodes that
1228 make reference to the mining of dilithium deposits. ...
1229 This name itself is imaginary and gives no real information on
1230 the structure or make-up of this substance other than that this
1231 version of the name implies a lithium and iron-bearing
1232 aluminosilicate of some sort. That said, the real mineral that
1233 most closely matches the descriptive elements of this name is
1234 ferroholmquistite which is a dilithium triferrodiallosilicate.
1235 If one goes on the premise that nature follows certain general
1236 norms, then one could extrapolate that dilithium might have a
1237 similar number of silicon atoms in its structure.
1238 Keeping seven (i.e. hepto) ferrous irons and balancing the
1239 oxygens would give a theoretical formula of Li2Fe7Al2Si8O27.
1240 A mineral with this composition could theoretically exist,
1241 although it is doubtful that it would possess the more fantastic
1242 properties ascribed to dilithium.
1243 [ The Mineralogy of Star Trek, by Jeffrey de Fourestier ]
1245 A wolflike wild dog, Canis dingo, of Australia, having a
1246 reddish- or yellowish-brown coat, believed to have been
1247 introduced by the aborigines.
1248 [ Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary
1249 of the English Language ]
1251 Ask not, what your magic can do to it. Ask what it can do
1254 The Roman ruler of the underworld and fortune, similar to the
1255 Greek Hades. Every hundred years, the Ludi Tarentini were
1256 celebrated in his honor. The Gauls regarded Dis Pater as
1257 their ancestor. The name is a contraction of the Latin Dives,
1258 "the wealthy", Dives Pater, "the wealthy father", or "Fater
1259 Wealth". It refers to the wealth of precious stone below the
1261 [ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
1263 The djinn are genies from the elemental plane of Air. There,
1264 among their kind, they have their own societies. They are
1265 sometimes encountered on earth and may even be summoned here
1266 to perform some service for powerful wizards. The wizards
1267 often leave them about for later service, safely tucked away
1268 in a flask or lamp. Once in a while, such a tool is found by
1269 a lucky rogue, and some djinn are known to be so grateful
1270 when released that they might grant their rescuer a wish.
1271 # takes "dog or other canine" when specifying 'd'
1278 A domestic animal, the _tame dog_ (_Canis familiaris_), of
1279 which numerous breeds exist. The male is called a dog,
1280 while the female is called a bitch. Because of its known
1281 loyalty to man and gentleness with children, it is the
1282 world's most popular domestic animal. It can easily be
1283 trained to perform various tasks.
1284 # typing "spellbook or a closed door" shouldn't yield this entry
1289 Through me you pass into the city of woe:
1290 Through me you pass into eternal pain:
1291 Through me among the people lost for aye.
1292 Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd:
1293 To rear me was the task of power divine,
1294 Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.
1295 Before me things create were none, save things
1296 Eternal, and eternal I endure.
1297 All hope abandon ye who enter here.
1298 [ The Inferno, from The Divine Comedy of Dante
1299 Alighieri, translated by H.F. Cary ]
1301 "Then we can only give thanks that this is Antarctica, where
1302 there is not one, single, solitary, living thing for it to
1303 imitate, except these animals in camp."
1305 "Us," Blair giggled. "It can imitate us. Dogs can't make four
1306 hundred miles to the sea; there's no food. There aren't any
1307 skua gulls to imitate at this season. There aren't any
1308 penguins this far inland. There's nothing that can reach the
1309 sea from this point - except us. We've got brains. We can do
1310 it. Don't you see - it's got to imitate us - it's got to be one
1311 of us - that's the only way it can fly an airplane - fly a plane
1312 for two hours, and rule - be - all Earth's inhabitants. A world
1313 for the taking - if it imitates us!
1314 [ Who Goes There?, by John W. Campbell ]
1316 Xander: Let go! I have to kill the demon bot!
1317 Xander Double (grabbing the gun): Anya, get out of the way.
1319 Xander Double: That's all right, Buffy. I have him.
1320 Xander: No, Buffy, I'm me. Help me!
1321 Anya: My gun, he's got my gun.
1322 Riley: You own a gun?
1323 Buffy: Xander, gun holding Xander, give it to me.
1324 Anya: Buffy, which one's real?
1326 Xander Double: No, _I_ am.
1327 [ Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Episode 5.03, "The Replacement" ]
1330 In the West the dragon was the natural enemy of man. Although
1331 preferring to live in bleak and desolate regions, whenever it
1332 was seen among men it left in its wake a trail of destruction
1333 and disease. Yet any attempt to slay this beast was a perilous
1334 undertaking. For the dragon's assailant had to contend
1335 not only with clouds of sulphurous fumes pouring from its fire
1336 breathing nostrils, but also with the thrashings of its tail,
1337 the most deadly part of its serpent-like body.
1338 [ Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) ]
1340 "One whom the dragons will speak with," he said, "that is a
1341 dragonlord, or at least that is the center of the matter. It's
1342 not a trick of mastering the dragons, as most people think.
1343 Dragons have no masters. The question is always the same, with
1344 a dragon: will he talk to you or will he eat you? If you can
1345 count upon his doing the former, and not doing the latter, why
1346 then you're a dragonlord."
1347 [ The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. Le Guin ]
1349 Stephen had argued, and the expert armorer had grudgingly
1350 admitted, that dragonscale shield or armor, provided it proved
1351 feasible to make at all, ought to offer some real, practical
1352 advantages over any metal breastplate or shield -- gram for
1353 gram of weight, such a defense would probably be a lot
1354 tougher and more protective than any human smiths could
1356 [ The Last Book of Swords: Shieldbreaker's Story,
1357 by Fred Saberhagen ]
1359 Many travelers have seen the drums of the great apes, and
1360 some have heard the sounds of their beating and the noise of
1361 the wild, weird revelry of these first lords of the jungle,
1362 but Tarzan, Lord Greystoke, is, doubtless, the only human
1363 being who ever joined in the fierce, mad, intoxicating revel
1365 [ Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs ]
1367 A dunce cap, also variously known as a dunce hat, dunce's
1368 cap, or dunce's hat, is a tall conical hat. In popular
1369 culture, it is typically made of paper and often marked with
1370 a D, and given to schoolchildren to wear as punishment for
1371 being stupid or lazy. While this is now a rare practice,
1372 it is frequently depicted in popular culture such as
1373 children's cartoons.
1374 [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
1376 At once as far as Angels kenn he views
1377 The dismal Situation waste and wilde,
1378 A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
1379 As one great Furnace flam'd, yet from those flames
1380 No light, but rather darkness visible
1381 Serv'd only to discover sights of woe,
1382 Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
1383 And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
1384 That comes to all; but torture without end
1385 Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed
1386 With ever-burning Sulphur unconsum'd:
1387 Such place Eternal Justice had prepar'd
1388 For those rebellious, here their Prison ordain'd
1389 In utter darkness, and their portion set
1390 As far remov'd from God and light of Heav'n
1391 As from the Center thrice to th' utmost Pole.
1392 [ Paradise Lost, by John Milton ]
1396 Dwarfs have faces like men (ugly men, with wrinkled, leathery
1397 skins), but are generally either flat-footed, duck-footed, or
1398 have feet pointing backwards. They are of the earth, earthy,
1399 living in the darkest of caverns and venturing forth only
1400 with the cloaks by which they can make themselves invisible,
1401 and others disguised as toads. Miners often come across them,
1402 and sometimes establish reasonably close relations with them.
1403 ... The miners of Cornwall were always delighted to hear a
1404 bucca busily mining away, for all dwarfs have an infallible
1405 nose for precious metals.
1406 Among other things, dwarfs are rightly valued for their skill
1407 as blacksmiths and jewellers: they made Odin his famous spear
1408 Gungnir, and Thor his hammer; for Freya they designed a
1409 magnificent necklace, and for Frey a golden boar. And in their
1410 spare time they are excellent bakers. Ironically, despite
1411 their odd feet, they are particularly fond of dancing. They
1412 can also see into the future, and consequently are excellent
1413 meteorologists. They can be free with presents to people
1414 they like, and a dwarvish gift is likely to turn to gold in
1415 the hand. But on the whole they are a snappish lot.
1416 [ The Immortals, by Derek and Julia Parker ]
1419 In after days, when because of the triumph of Morgoth Elves and
1420 Men became estranged, as he most wished, those of the Elven-race
1421 that lived still in Middle-earth waned and faded, and Men usurped
1422 the sunlight. Then the Quendi wandered in the lonely places of the
1423 great lands and the isles, and took to the moonlight and the
1424 starlight, and to the woods and the caves, becoming as shadows
1425 and memories, save those who ever and anon set sail into the West
1426 and vanished from Middle-earth. But in the dawn of years Elves
1427 and Men were allies and held themselves akin, and there were some
1428 among Men that learned the wisdom of the Eldar, and became great
1429 and valiant among the captains of the Noldor. And in the glory
1430 and beauty of the Elves, and in their fate, full share had the
1431 offspring of elf and mortal, Earendil, and Elwing, and Elrond
1433 [ The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
1436 The behaviour of eels in fresh water extends the air of
1437 mystery surrounding them. They move freely into muddy, silty
1438 bottoms of lakes, lying buried in the daylight hours in summer.
1439 [...] Eels are voracious carnivores, feeding mainly at
1440 night and consuming a wide variety of fishes and invertebrate
1441 creatures. Contrary to earlier thinking, eels seek living
1442 rather than dead creatures and are not habitual eaters of
1444 [ Freshwater Fishes of Canada, by Scott and Crossman ]
1446 But I asked why not keep it and let the hen sit on it till it
1447 hatched, and then we could see what would come out of it.
1448 "Nothing good, I'm certain of that," Mom said. "It would
1449 probably be something horrible. But just remember, if it's a
1450 crocodile or a dragon or something like that, I won't have it
1451 in my house for one minute."
1452 [ The Enormous Egg, by Oliver Butterworth ]
1454 ... Even as they stepped over the threshold a single clear
1457 A Elbereth Gilthoniel,
1458 silivren penna miriel
1459 o menel aglar elenath!
1460 Na-chaered palan-diriel
1461 o galadhremmin ennorath,
1462 Fanuilos, le linnathon
1463 nef aear, si nef aearon!
1465 Frodo halted for a moment, looking back. Elrond was in his
1466 chair and the fire was on his face like summer-light upon the
1467 trees. Near him sat the Lady Arwen. [...]
1468 He stood still enchanted, while the sweet syllables of the
1469 elvish song fell like clear jewels of blended word and melody.
1470 "It is a song to Elbereth," said Bilbo. "They will sing that,
1471 and other songs of the Blessed Realm, many times tonight.
1473 [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
1475 South-American fish (_Gymnotus electricus_), living in fresh
1476 water. Shaped like a serpent, it can grow up to 2 metres.
1477 This eel is known for its electrical organ which enables it
1478 to paralyse creatures up to the size of a horse.
1479 [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
1481 Elementals are manifestations of the basic nature of the
1482 universe. There are four known forms of elementals: air, fire,
1483 water, and earth. Some mystics have postulated the necessity
1484 for a fifth type, the spirit elemental, but none have ever
1485 been encountered, at least on this plane of existence.
1490 The Elves sat round the fire upon the grass or upon the sawn
1491 rings of old trunks. Some went to and fro bearing cups and
1492 pouring drinks; others brought food on heaped plates and
1494 "This is poor fare," they said to the hobbits; "for we are
1495 lodging in the greenwood far from our halls. If ever you are
1496 our guests at home, we will treat you better."
1497 "It seems to me good enough for a birthday-party," said Frodo.
1498 Pippin afterwards recalled little of either food or drink, for
1499 his mind was filled with the light upon the elf-faces, and the
1500 sound of voices so various and so beautiful that he felt in a
1502 Sam could never describe in words, nor picture clearly to
1503 himself, what he felt or thought that night, though it remained
1504 in his memory as one of the chief events of his life. The
1505 nearest he ever got was to say: "Well, sir, if I could grow
1506 apples like that, I would call myself a gardener. But it was
1507 the singing that went to my heart, if you know what I mean."
1508 [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
1510 The Elves next unwrapped and gave to each of the Company the
1511 clothes they had brought. For each they had provided a hood
1512 and cloak, made according to his size, of the light but warm
1513 silken stuff that the Galadrim wove. It was hard to say of
1514 what colour they were: grey with the hue of twilight under
1515 the trees they seemed to be; and yet if they were moved, or
1516 set in another light, they were green as shadowed leaves, or
1517 brown as fallow fields by night, dusk-silver as water under
1519 [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
1521 'Put off that mask of burning gold
1523 'O no, my dear, you make so bold
1524 To find if hearts be wild and wise,
1527 'I would but find what's there to find,
1529 'It was the mask engaged your mind,
1530 And after set your heart to beat,
1533 'But lest you are my enemy,
1535 'O no, my dear, let all that be;
1536 What matter, so there is but fire
1538 [ The Mask, by W.B. Yeats ]
1541 Presently we reached a place where the beach narrowed; the sea
1542 almost came up to the foot of the cliffs, leaving a passage no
1543 wider than a couple of yards. Between two projecting rocks we
1544 caught sight of the entrance to a dark tunnel.
1545 There, on a slab of granite, appeared two mysterious letters,
1546 half eaten away by time -- the two initials of the bold,
1547 adventurous traveller:
1551 'A.S.,' cried my uncle. 'Arne Saknussemm! Arne Saknussemm again!'
1553 [...] at the sight of those two letters, carved there three
1554 hundred years before, I stood in utter stupefaction. Not
1555 only was the signature of the learned alchemist legible on
1556 the rock, but I held in my hand the dagger which had traced it.
1557 Without showing the most appalling bad faith, I could no longer
1558 doubt the existence of the traveller and the reality of his
1560 [ Journey to the Centre of the Earth, by Jules Verne,
1561 translated by Robert Baldick ]
1563 The asclepieion at Epidaurus was the most celebrated healing
1564 center of the Classical world, the place where ill people went
1565 in the hope of being cured. To find out the right cure for
1566 their ailments, they spent a night in the enkoimitiria, a big
1567 sleeping hall. In their dreams, the god himself (Asclepius)
1568 would advise them what they had to do to regain their health.
1569 There are also mineral springs in the vicinity which may have
1570 been used in healing.
1571 [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
1574 These female-seeming devils named after the Furies of mythology
1575 attack hand to hand and poison their unwary victims as well.
1577 The two-headed giant, or ettin, is a vicious and unpredictable
1578 hunter that stalks by night and eats any meat it can catch.
1580 At first only its tip was visible, but then it rose, straight,
1581 proud, all that was noble and great and wondrous. The tip of
1582 the blade pointed toward the moon, as if it would cleave it
1583 in two. The blade itself gleamed like a beacon in the night.
1584 There was no light source for the sword to be reflecting
1585 from, for the moon had darted behind a cloud in fear. The
1586 sword was glowing from the intensity of its strength and
1587 power and knowledge that it was justice incarnate, and that
1588 after a slumber of uncounted years its time had again come.
1589 After the blade broke the surface, the hilt was visible, and
1590 holding the sword was a single strong, yet feminine hand,
1591 wearing several rings that bore jewels sparkling with the
1592 blue-green color of the ocean.
1593 [ Knight Life, by Peter David ]
1595 There was a time when Rincewind had quite liked the iconoscope.
1596 He believed, against all experience, that the world was
1597 fundamentally understandable, and that if he could only equip
1598 himself with the right mental toolbox he could take the back off
1599 and see how it worked. He was, of course, dead wrong. The
1600 iconoscope didn't take pictures by letting light fall onto
1601 specially treated paper, as he had surmised, but by the far
1602 simpler method of imprisoning a small demon with a good eye for
1603 colour and a speedy hand with a paintbrush. He had been very
1604 upset to find that out.
1605 [ The Light Fantastic, by Terry Pratchett ]
1606 eye of the aethiopica
1607 This is a powerful amulet of ESP. In addition to its standard
1608 powers, it regenerates the energy of anyone who carries
1609 it, allowing them to cast spells more often. It also reduces
1610 any spell damage to the person who carries it by half, and
1611 protects from magic missiles. Finally, when invoked it has
1612 the power to instantly open a portal to any other area of the
1613 dungeon, allowing its invoker to travel quickly between
1615 eyes of the overworld
1616 ... and finally there is "the Eyes of the Overworld". This
1617 obscure artifact pushes the wearer's view sense into the
1618 "overworld" -- another name for a segment of the Astral Plane.
1619 Usually, there is nothing to be seen. However, the wearer
1620 is also able to look back and see the area around herself,
1621 much like looking on a map. Why anyone would want to ...
1623 Some hats can only be worn if you're willing to be jaunty, to set
1624 them at an angle and to walk beneath them with a spring in your
1625 stride as if you're only a step away from dancing. They demand a
1627 [ Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman ]
1629 Then it appeared in Paris at just about the time that Paris
1630 was full of Carlists who had to get out of Spain. One of
1631 them must have brought it with him, but, whoever he was, it's
1632 likely he knew nothing about its real value. It had been --
1633 no doubt as a precaution during the Carlist trouble in Spain
1634 -- painted or enameled over to look like nothing more than a
1635 fairly interesting black statuette. And in that disguise,
1636 sir, it was, you might say, kicked around Paris for seventy
1637 years by private owners and dealers too stupid to see what
1638 it was under the skin.
1639 [ The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett ]
1641 'Let him be for a while,' said Cohen. 'I reckon the fish
1642 disagreed with him.'
1643 'Don't see why,' said Truckle. 'I pulled him out before it'd
1644 hardly chewed him. And he must've dried out nicely in that
1645 corridor. You know, the one where the flames shot up out of
1646 the floor unexpectedly.'
1647 'I reckon our bard wasn't expecting flames to shoot out of
1648 the floor unexpectedly,' said Cohen.
1649 Truckle shrugged theatrically. '_Well_, if you're not going
1650 to expect unexpected flames, what's the point of going
1652 [ The Last Hero, by Terry Pratchett ]
1654 Some say the world will end in fire,
1656 From what I've tasted of desire
1657 I hold with those who favor fire.
1658 But if it had to perish twice,
1659 I think I know enough of hate
1660 To say that for destruction ice
1663 [ Fire and Ice, by Robert Frost ]
1665 With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected
1666 the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark
1667 of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was
1668 already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against
1669 the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the
1670 glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow
1671 eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive
1672 motion agitated its limbs.
1674 How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how
1675 delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I
1676 had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I
1677 had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!--Great God!
1678 His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and
1679 arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and
1680 flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances
1681 only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that
1682 seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in
1683 which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight
1685 [ Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ]
1687 An emerald is as green as grass;
1688 A ruby red as blood;
1689 A sapphire shines as blue as heaven;
1690 A flint lies in the mud.
1692 A diamond is a brilliant stone,
1693 To catch the world's desire;
1694 An opal holds a fiery spark;
1695 But a flint holds fire.
1696 [ Precious Stones, by Christina Giorgina Rossetti ]
1698 Floating eyes, not surprisingly, are large, floating eyeballs
1699 which drift about the dungeon. Though not dangerous in and
1700 of themselves, their power to paralyse those who gaze at
1701 their large eye in combat is widely feared. Many are the
1702 tales of those who struck a floating eye, were paralysed by
1703 its mystic powers, and then nibbled to death by some other
1704 creature that lurked around nearby.
1706 With this thou canst do mighty deeds
1707 And change men's passions for thy needs:
1708 A man's despair with joy allay,
1709 Turn bachelors old to lovers gay.
1710 [ The Magic Flute, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ]
1711 # also takes fog/vapor cloud
1717 over harbor and city
1720 [ Fog, by Carl Sandburg ]
1721 # includes "food detection" and "detect food", which might not be the best
1723 The little girl stood on tip-toe and picked one of the nicest
1724 and biggest lunch-boxes, and then she sat down upon the ground
1725 and eagerly opened it. Inside she found, nicely wrapped in
1726 white papers, a ham sandwich, a piece of sponge-cake, a pickle,
1727 a slice of new cheese and an apple. Each thing had a separate
1728 stem, and so had to be picked off the side of the box; but
1729 Dorothy found them all to be delicious, and she ate every bit
1730 of luncheon in the box before she had finished.
1731 [ Ozma of Oz, by L. Frank Baum ]
1733 Rest! This little Fountain runs
1734 Thus for aye: -- It never stays
1735 For the look of summer suns,
1736 Nor the cold of winter days.
1737 Whose'er shall wander near,
1738 When the Syrian heat is worst,
1739 Let him hither come, nor fear
1740 Lest he may not slake his thirst:
1741 He will find this little river
1742 Running still, as bright as ever.
1743 Let him drink, and onward hie,
1744 Bearing but in thought, that I,
1745 Erotas, bade the Naiad fall,
1746 And thank the great god Pan for all!
1747 [ For a Fountain, by Bryan Waller Procter ]
1749 One hot summer's day a Fox was strolling through an orchard
1750 till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine
1751 which had been trained over a lofty branch. "Just the thing
1752 to quench my thirst," quoth he. Drawing back a few paces, he
1753 took a run and a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning
1754 round again with a One, Two, Three, he jumped up, but with
1755 no greater success. Again and again he tried after the
1756 tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up, and walked
1757 away with his nose in the air, saying: "I am sure they are
1761 Fungi, division of simple plants that lack chlorophyll, true
1762 stems, roots, and leaves. Unlike algae, fungi cannot
1763 photosynthesize, and live as parasites or saprophytes. The
1764 division comprises the slime molds and true fungi. True
1765 fungi are multicellular (with the exception of yeasts); the
1766 body of most true fungi consists of slender cottony
1767 filaments, or hyphae. All fungi are capable of asexual
1768 reproduction by cell division, budding, fragmentation, or
1769 spores. Those that reproduce sexually alternate a sexual
1770 generation (gametophyte) with a spore-producing one. The
1771 four classes of true fungi are the algaelike fungi (e.g.,
1772 black bread mold and downy mildew), sac fungi (e.g., yeasts,
1773 powdery mildews, truffles, and blue and green molds such as
1774 Penicillium), basidium fungi (e.g., mushrooms and puffballs)
1775 and imperfect fungi (e.g., species that cause athlete's foot
1776 and ringworm). Fungi help decompose organic matter (important
1777 in soil renewal); are valuable as a source of antibiotics,
1778 vitamins, and various chemicals; and for their role in
1779 fermentation, e.g., in bread and alcoholic beverage
1781 [ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]
1783 And so it came to pass that while Man ruled on Earth, the
1784 gargoyles waited, lurking, hidden from the light. Reborn
1785 every 600 years in Man's reckoning of time, the gargoyles
1786 joined battle against Man to gain dominion over the Earth.
1788 In each coming, the gargoyles were nearly destroyed by Men
1789 who flourished in greater numbers. Now it has been so many
1790 hundreds of years that it seems the ancient statues and
1791 paintings of gargoyles are just products of Man's
1792 imagination. In this year, with Man's thoughts turned toward
1793 the many ills he has brought among himself, Man has forgotten
1794 his most ancient adversary, the gargoyles.
1795 [ Excerpt from the opening narration to the movie
1796 _Gargoyles_, written by Stephen and Elinor Karpf ]
1798 1 November - All day long we have travelled, and at a good
1799 speed. The horses seem to know that they are being kindly
1800 treated, for they go willingly their full stage at best
1801 speed. We have now had so many changes and find the same
1802 thing so constantly that we are encouraged to think that the
1803 journey will be an easy one. Dr. Van Helsing is laconic, he
1804 tells the farmers that he is hurrying to Bistritz, and pays
1805 them well to make the exchange of horses. We get hot soup,
1806 or coffee, or tea, and off we go. It is a lovely country.
1807 Full of beauties of all imaginable kinds, and the people are
1808 brave, and strong, and simple, and seem full of nice
1809 qualities. They are very, very superstitious. In the first
1810 house where we stopped, when the woman who served us saw the
1811 scar on my forehead, she crossed herself and put out two
1812 fingers towards me, to keep off the evil eye. I believe they
1813 went to the trouble of putting an extra amount of garlic into
1814 our food, and I can't abide garlic. Ever since then I have
1815 taken care not to take off my hat or veil, and so have
1816 escaped their suspicions.
1817 [ Dracula, by Bram Stoker ]
1818 # gas spore -- see *spore
1822 "Place of Torment." The Valley of Hinnom, south-west of
1823 Jerusalem, where Solomon, king of Israel, built "a high place",
1824 or place of worship, for the gods Chemosh and Moloch. The
1825 valley came to be regarded as a place of abomination because
1826 some of the Israelites sacrificed their children to Moloch
1827 there. In a later period it was made a refuse dump and
1828 perpetual fires were maintained there to prevent pestilence.
1829 Thus, in the New Testament, Gehenna became synonymous with hell.
1830 [ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
1832 Despite its popularity (or perhaps because of it), the
1833 gelatinous cube is also widely known as one of the sillier
1834 role-playing monsters. It is something of a commentary on the
1835 ubiquity of treasure-laden dungeons in the Dungeons & Dragons
1836 universe, as the cube is a creature specifically adapted to a
1837 dungeon ecosystem. 10 feet to the side, it travels through
1838 standard 10-foot by 10-foot dungeon corridors, cleaning up
1839 debris and redistributing treasure by excreting indigestible
1841 [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
1844 The difference between false memories and true ones is the
1845 same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the
1846 most real, the most brilliant.
1849 Forthwith that image vile of fraud appear'd,
1850 His head and upper part expos'd on land,
1851 But laid not on the shore his bestial train.
1852 His face the semblance of a just man's wore,
1853 So kind and gracious was its outward cheer;
1854 The rest was serpent all: two shaggy claws
1855 Reach'd to the armpits, and the back and breast,
1856 And either side, were painted o'er with nodes
1857 And orbits. Colours variegated more
1858 Nor Turks nor Tartars e'er on cloth of state
1859 With interchangeable embroidery wove,
1860 Nor spread Arachne o'er her curious loom.
1861 As ofttimes a light skiff, moor'd to the shore,
1862 Stands part in water, part upon the land;
1863 Or, as where dwells the greedy German boor,
1864 The beaver settles watching for his prey;
1865 So on the rim, that fenc'd the sand with rock,
1866 Sat perch'd the fiend of evil. In the void
1867 Glancing, his tail upturn'd its venomous fork,
1868 With sting like scorpion's arm'd. Then thus my guide:
1869 "Now need our way must turn few steps apart,
1870 Far as to that ill beast, who couches there."
1871 [ The Inferno, from The Divine Comedy of Dante
1872 Alighieri, translated by H.F. Cary ]
1875 And now the souls of the dead who had gone below came swarming
1876 up from Erebus -- fresh brides, unmarried youths, old men
1877 with life's long suffering behind them, tender young girls
1878 still nursing this first anguish in their hearts, and a great
1879 throng of warriors killed in battle, their spear-wounds gaping
1880 yet and all their armour stained with blood. From this
1881 multitude of souls, as they fluttered to and fro by the
1882 trench, there came a moaning that was horrible to hear.
1883 Panic drained the blood from my cheeks.
1884 [ The Odyssey, (chapter Lambda), by Homer ]
1886 The forces of the gloom know each other, and are strangely
1887 balanced by each other. Teeth and claws fear what they cannot
1888 grasp. Blood-drinking bestiality, voracious appetites, hunger
1889 in search of prey, the armed instincts of nails and jaws which
1890 have for source and aim the belly, glare and smell out
1891 uneasily the impassive spectral forms straying beneath a
1892 shroud, erect in its vague and shuddering robe, and which seem
1893 to them to live with a dead and terrible life. These
1894 brutalities, which are only matter, entertain a confused fear
1895 of having to deal with the immense obscurity condensed into an
1896 unknown being. A black figure barring the way stops the wild
1897 beast short. That which emerges from the cemetery intimidates
1898 and disconcerts that which emerges from the cave; the
1899 ferocious fear the sinister; wolves recoil when they encounter
1901 [ Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo ]
1904 Giants have always walked the earth, though they are rare in
1905 these times. They range in size from little over nine feet
1906 to a towering twenty feet or more. The larger ones use huge
1907 boulders as weapons, hurling them over large distances. All
1908 types of giants share a love for men - roasted, boiled, or
1909 fried. Their table manners are legendary.
1910 # note: "gnomish wizard" is a monster
1915 ... And then a gnome came by, carrying a bundle, an old
1916 fellow three times as large as an imp and wearing clothes of
1917 a sort, especially a hat. And he was clearly just as frightened
1918 as the imps though he could not go so fast. Ramon Alonzo
1919 saw that there must be some great trouble that was vexing
1920 magical things; and, since gnomes speak the language of men, and
1921 will answer if spoken to gently, he raised his hat, and asked
1922 of the gnome his name. The gnome did not stop his hasty
1923 shuffle a moment as he answered 'Alaraba' and grabbed the rim
1924 of his hat but forgot to doff it.
1925 'What is the trouble, Alaraba?' said Ramon Alonzo.
1926 'White magic. Run!' said the gnome ..
1927 [ The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany ]
1929 "Muggles have garden gnomes, too, you know," Harry told Ron as
1930 they crossed the lawn.
1931 "Yeah, I've seen those things they think are gnomes," said Ron,
1932 bent double with his head in a peony bush, "like fat little
1933 Santa Clauses with fishing rods..."
1934 There was a violent scuffling noise, the peony bush shuddered,
1935 and Ron straightened up. "This is a gnome," he said grimly.
1936 "Geroff me! Gerroff me!" squealed the gnome.
1937 It was certainly nothing like Santa Claus. It was small and
1938 leathery looking, with a large, knobby, bald head exactly like
1939 a potato. Ron held it at arm's length as it kicked out at him
1940 with its horny little feet; he grasped it around the ankles
1941 and turned it upside down.
1942 [ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J. K. Rowling ]
1944 Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make
1945 no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones. They
1946 can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled
1947 dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually
1948 untidy and dirty. Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes,
1949 tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well,
1950 or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and
1951 slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and
1953 [ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
1956 Goddesses and Gods operate in ones, threesomes, or whole
1957 pantheons of nine or more (see Religion). Most of them claim
1958 to have made the world, and this is indeed a likely claim in
1959 the case of threesomes or pantheons: Fantasyland does have
1960 the air of having been made by a committee. But all Goddesses
1961 and Gods, whether they say they made the world or not, have
1962 very detailed short-term plans for it which they are determined
1963 to carry out. Consequently they tend to push people into the
1964 required actions by the use of coincidence or Prophecy, or just
1965 by narrowing down your available choices of what to do next:
1966 if a deity is pushing you, things will go miserably badly until
1967 there is only one choice left to you.
1968 [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
1971 A metal of characteristic yellow colour, the most precious
1972 metal used as a common commercial medium of exchange. Symbol,
1973 Au; at. no. 79; at. wt. 197.2. It is the most malleable
1974 and ductile of all metals, and very heavy (sp. gr., 19.3).
1975 It is quite unalterable by heat, moisture, and most
1976 corrosive agents, and therefore well suited for its use in
1978 [ Webster's New International Dictionary
1979 of the English Language, Second Edition ]
1981 The bellows he set away from the fire, and gathered all the tools
1982 wherewith he wrought into a silver chest; and with a sponge wiped
1983 he his face and his two hands withal, and his mighty neck and
1984 shaggy breast, and put upon him a tunic, and grasped a stout staff,
1985 and went forth halting; but there moved swiftly to support their
1986 lord handmaidens wrought of gold in the semblance of living maids.
1987 In them is understanding in their hearts, and in them speech and
1988 strength, and they know cunning handiwork by gift of the immortal
1990 [ The Iliad, by Homer ]
1996 "The original story harks back, so they say, to the sixteenth
1997 century. Using long-lost formulas from the Kabbala, a rabbi is
1998 said to have made an artificial man -- the so-called Golem -- to
1999 help ring the bells in the Synagogue and for all kinds of other
2001 "But he hadn't made a full man, and it was animated by some sort
2002 of vegetable half-life. What life it had, too, so the story
2003 runs, was only derived from the magic charm placed behind its
2004 teeth each day, that drew down to itself what was known as the
2005 `free sidereal strength of the universe.'
2006 "One evening, before evening prayers, the rabbi forgot to take
2007 the charm out of the Golem's mouth, and it fell into a frenzy.
2008 It raged through the dark streets, smashing everything in its
2009 path, until the rabbi caught up with it, removed the charm, and
2010 destroyed it. Then the Golem collapsed, lifeless. All that was
2011 left of it was a small clay image, which you can still see in
2012 the Old Synagogue." ...
2013 [ The Golem, by Gustav Meyrink ]
2015 "Who'd care to dig 'em," said the old, old man,
2016 "Those six feet marked in chalk?
2017 Much I talk, more I walk;
2018 Time I were buried," said the old, old man.
2019 [ Three Songs to the Same Tune, by W.B. Yeats ]
2021 Why had I been wearing Grayswandir? Would another weapon have
2022 affected a Logrus-ghost as strongly? Had it really been my
2023 father, then, who had brought me here? And had he felt I might
2024 need the extra edge his weapon could provide? I wanted to
2025 think so, to believe that he had been more than a Pattern-ghost.
2026 [ Knight of Shadows, by Roger Zelazny ]
2028 ANOINT, v.t. To grease a king or other great functionary
2029 already sufficiently slippery.
2030 [ The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce ]
2032 The gremlin is a highly intelligent and completely evil
2033 creature. It lives to torment other creatures and will go
2034 to great lengths to inflict pain or cause injury.
2037 Suddenly, Wilson thought about war, about the newspaper
2038 stories which recounted the alleged existence of creatures in
2039 the sky who plagued the Allied pilots in their duties. They
2040 called them gremlins, he remembered. Were there, actually,
2041 such beings? Did they, truly, exist up here, never falling,
2042 riding on the wind, apparently of bulk and weight, yet
2043 impervious to gravity?
2044 He was thinking that when the man appeared again.
2045 [ Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, by Richard Matheson ]
2047 These electronically based creatures are not native to this
2048 universe. They appear to come from a world whose laws of
2049 motion are radically different from ours.
2052 Tron looked to his mate and pilot. "I'm going to check on
2053 the beam connection, Yori. You two can keep a watch out for
2054 grid bugs." Tron paced forward along the slender catwalk
2055 that still seemed awfully insubstantial to Flynn, though he
2056 knew it to be amazingly sturdy. He gazed after Tron, asking
2057 himself what in the world a grid bug was, and hoping that the
2058 beam connection -- to which he'd given no thought whatsoever
2059 until this moment -- was healthy and sound."
2060 [ Tron, novel by Brian Daley, story by Steven Lisberger ]
2062 The samurai's last meal before battle. It was usually made
2063 up of cooked chestnuts, dried seaweed, and sake.
2065 Hachi was a dog that went with his master, a professor, to
2066 the Shibuya train station every morning. In the afternoon,
2067 when his master was to return from work Hachi would be there
2068 waiting. One day his master died at the office, and did not
2069 return. For over ten years Hachi returned to the station
2070 every afternoon to wait for his master. When Hachi died a
2071 statue was erected on the station platform in his honor. It
2072 is said to bring you luck if you touch his statue.
2074 A triangular stringed instrument, often Magic. Even when not
2075 Magic, a Harp is surprisingly portable and tough and can be
2076 carried everywhere on the back of the Bard or Harper in all
2077 weathers. A Harp seldom goes out of tune and never warps.
2078 Its strings break only in very rare instances, usually
2079 because the Harper is sulking or crossed in love. This is
2080 just as well as no one seems to make or sell spare strings.
2081 [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
2083 After breakfast was over, the ogre called out: "Wife, wife,
2084 bring me my golden harp." So she brought it and put it on
2085 the table before him. Then he said: "Sing!" and the golden
2086 harp sang most beautifully. And it went on singing till the
2087 ogre fell asleep, and commenced to snore like thunder.
2088 Then Jack lifted up the copper-lid very quietly and got down
2089 like a mouse and crept on hands and knees till he came to the
2090 table, when up he crawled, caught hold of the golden harp and
2091 dashed with it towards the door. But the harp called out
2092 quite loud: "Master! Master!" and the ogre woke up just in
2093 time to see Jack running off with his harp.
2094 [ Jack and the Beanstalk, from English Fairy Tales,
2097 'One of the things he can't do, he can't ride a horse,' he
2098 said. Then he stiffened as if sandbagged by a sudden
2099 recollection, gave a small yelp of terror and dashed into
2100 the gloom. When he returned, the being called Twoflower was
2101 hanging limply over his shoulder. It was small and skinny,
2102 and dressed very oddly in a pair of knee-length britches and
2103 a shirt in such a violent and vivid conflict of colours that
2104 the Weasel's fastidious eye was offended even in the half-light.
2105 [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
2111 I swear by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius, and Health,
2112 and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according
2113 to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this
2114 stipulation -- to reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear
2115 to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve
2116 his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring in the
2117 same footing as my own brothers, and to teach them this art, if
2118 they shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and
2119 that by precept, lecture, and every other mode of instruction,
2120 I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those
2121 of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath
2122 according to the law of medicine, but to none others. I will
2123 follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and
2124 judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain
2125 from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. [...]
2126 [ Hippocrates' Oath, translated by Francis Adams ]
2128 PHYSICIAN, n. One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our
2130 [ The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce ]
2132 The other three drew in their breath sharply, and the dark,
2133 powerful man who stood at the head of the sarcophagus whispered:
2134 "The Heart of Ahriman!" The other lifted a quick hand
2135 for silence. Somewhere a dog began howling dolefully, and a
2136 stealthy step padded outside the barred and bolted door. ...
2137 But none looked aside from the mummy case over which the man
2138 in the ermine-trimmed robe was now moving the great flaming
2139 jewel, while he muttered an incantation that was old when
2140 Atlantis sank. The glare of the gem dazzled their eyes, so
2141 that they could not be sure what they saw; but with a
2142 splintering crash, the carven lid of the sarcophagus burst
2143 outward as if from some irresistible pressure applied from
2144 within and the four men, bending eagerly forward, saw the
2145 occupant -- a huddled, withered, wizened shape, with dried
2146 brown limbs like dead wood showing through moldering bandages.
2147 "Bring that thing back?" muttered the small dark man who
2148 stood on the right, with a short, sardonic laugh. "It is
2149 ready to crumble at a touch. We are fools ---"
2150 [ Conan The Conqueror, by Robert E. Howard ]
2152 But suddenly they started forward in a rigid, fixed stare,
2153 and his lips parted in amazement. At the same instant Lestrade
2154 gave a yell of terror and threw himself face downward upon the
2155 ground. I sprang to my feet, my inert hand grasping my pistol,
2156 my mind paralyzed by the dreadful shape which had sprung out
2157 upon us from the shadows of the fog. A hound it was, an
2158 enormous coal-black hound, but not such a hound as mortal eyes
2159 have ever seen. Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes
2160 glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and
2161 dewlap were outlined in flickering flame. Never in the
2162 delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more
2163 savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than that
2164 dark form and savage face which broke upon us out of the wall
2166 [ The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. ]
2168 Messenger and herald of the Olympians. Being required to do
2169 a great deal of travelling and speaking in public, he became
2170 the god of eloquence, travellers, merchants, and thieves. He
2171 was one of the most energetic of the Greek gods, a
2172 Machiavellian character full of trickery and sexual vigour.
2173 Like other Greek gods, he is endowed with not-inconsiderable
2174 sexual prowess which he directs towards countryside nymphs.
2175 He is a god of boundaries, guardian of graves and patron deity
2176 of shepherds. He is usually depicted as a handsome young
2177 man wearing winged golden sandals and holding a magical
2178 herald's staff consisting of intertwined serpents, the
2179 kerykeion. He is reputedly the only being able to find his way
2180 to the underworld ferry of Charon and back again. He is said
2181 to have invented, among other things, the lyre, Pan's Pipes,
2182 numbers, the alphabet, weights and measures, and sacrificing.
2184 "Hezrou" is the common name for the type II demon. It is
2185 among the weaker of demons, but still quite formidable.
2187 Greek physician, recognized as the father of medicine. He
2188 is believed to have been born on the island of Cos, to have
2189 studied under his father, a physician, to have traveled for
2190 some time, perhaps studying in Athens, and to have then
2191 returned to practice, teach, and write at Cos. The
2192 Hippocratic or Coan school that formed around him was of
2193 enormous importance in separating medicine from superstition
2194 and philosophic speculation, placing it on a strictly
2195 scientific plane based on objective observation and critical
2196 deductive reasoning.
2197 [ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ]
2199 Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more
2200 numerous formerly than they are today; for they love peace
2201 and quiet and good tilled earth: a well-ordered and well-
2202 farmed countryside was their favourite haunt. They do not
2203 and did not understand or like machines more complicated
2204 than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a handloom, although
2205 they were skillful with tools. Even in ancient days they
2206 were, as a rule, shy of "the Big Folk", as they call us, and
2207 now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find.
2208 [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
2210 Hobgoblin. Used by the Puritans and in later times for
2211 wicked goblin spirits, as in Bunyan's "Hobgoblin nor foul
2212 friend", but its more correct use is for the friendly spirits
2213 of the brownie type. In "A midsummer night's dream" a
2214 fairy says to Shakespeare's Puck:
2215 Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
2216 You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
2218 and obviously Puck would not wish to be called a hobgoblin
2219 if that was an ill-omened word.
2220 Hobgoblins are on the whole, good-humoured and ready to be
2221 helpful, but fond of practical joking, and like most of the
2222 fairies rather nasty people to annoy. Boggarts hover on the
2223 verge of hobgoblindom. Bogles are just over the edge.
2224 One Hob mentioned by Henderson, was Hob Headless who haunted
2225 the road between Hurworth and Neasham, but could not cross
2226 the little river Kent, which flowed into the Tess. He was
2227 exorcised and laid under a large stone by the roadside for
2228 ninety-nine years and a day. If anyone was so unwary as to
2229 sit on that stone, he would be unable to quit it for ever.
2230 The ninety-nine years is nearly up, so trouble may soon be
2231 heard of on the road between Hurworth and Neasham.
2232 [ A Dictionary of Fairies, by Katharine Briggs ]
2234 "We want a word with you," said Ligur (in a tone of voice
2235 intended to imply that "word" was synonymous with "horrifically
2236 painful eternity"), and the squat demon pushed open the office
2238 The bucket teetered, then fell neatly on Ligur's head.
2239 Drop a lump of sodium in water. Watch it flame and burn and
2240 spin around crazily, flaring and sputtering. This was like
2242 The demon peeled and flared and flickered. Oily brown smoke
2243 oozed from it, and it screamed and it screamed and it screamed.
2244 Then it crumpled, folded in on itself, and what was left lay
2245 glistening on the burnt and blackened circle of carpet, looking
2246 like a handful of mashed slugs.
2247 "Hi," said Crowley to Hastur, who had been walking behind Ligur,
2248 and had unfortunately not been so much as splashed.
2249 There are some things that are unthinkable; there are some
2250 depths that not even demons would believe other demons would
2252 ". . . Holy water. You bastard," said Hastur. "You complete
2253 _bastard_. He hadn't never done nothing to _you_."
2254 "Yet," corrected Crowley.
2255 [ Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett ]
2257 A homunculus is a creature summoned by a mage to perform some
2258 particular task. They are particularly good at spying. They
2259 are smallish creatures, but very agile. They can put their
2260 victims to sleep with a venomous bite, but due to their size,
2261 the effect does not last long on humans.
2263 "Tothapis cut him off. 'Be still and hearken. You will travel
2264 aboard the sacred wingboat. Of it you may not have heard; but
2265 it will bear you thither in a night and a day and a night.
2266 With you will go a homunculus that can relay your words to me,
2267 and mine to you, across the leagues between at the speed of
2269 [ Conan the Rebel, by Poul Anderson ]
2270 # also gets 'pruning hook' aka guisarme
2272 But as for Queequeg -- why, Queequeg sat there among them --
2273 at the head of the table, too, it so chanced; as cool as an
2274 icicle. To be sure I cannot say much for his breeding. His
2275 greatest admirer could not have cordially justified his
2276 bringing his harpoon into breakfast with him, and using it
2277 there without ceremony; reaching over the table with it, to
2278 the imminent jeopardy of many heads, and grappling the
2279 beefsteaks towards him.
2280 [ Moby Dick, by Herman Melville ]
2283 Roland hath set the Olifant to his mouth,
2284 He grasps it well, and with great virtue sounds.
2285 High are those peaks, afar it rings and loud,
2286 Thirty great leagues they hear its echoes mount.
2287 So Charles heard, and all his comrades round;
2288 Then said that King: "Battle they do, our counts!"
2289 And Guenelun answered, contrarious:
2290 "That were a lie, in any other mouth."
2291 [ The Song of Roland ]
2294 The infant Zeus was fed with goat's milk by Amalthea,
2295 daughter of Melisseus, King of Crete. Zeus, in gratitude,
2296 broke off one of the goat's horns, and gave it to Amalthea,
2297 promising that the possessor should always have in abundance
2299 [ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
2301 When Amalthea's horn
2302 O'er hill and dale the rose-crowned flora pours,
2303 And scatters corn and wine, and fruits and flowers.
2304 [ Os Lusiadas, by Luis Vaz de Camoes ]
2306 Horned devils lack any real special abilities, though they
2307 are quite difficult to kill.
2310 King Richard III: A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
2311 Catesby: Withdraw, my lord; I'll help you to a horse.
2312 King Richard III: Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,
2313 And I will stand the hazard of the die:
2314 I think there be six Richmonds in the field;
2315 Five have I slain to-day instead of him.
2316 A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
2317 [ King Richard III, by William Shakespeare ]
2325 [Pestilence:] And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals,
2326 and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four
2327 beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white
2328 horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given
2329 unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
2331 [War:] And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the
2332 second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another
2333 horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon
2334 to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one
2335 another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
2337 [Famine:] And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the
2338 third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black
2339 horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his
2340 hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say,
2341 A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley
2342 for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
2344 [Death:] And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the
2345 voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and
2346 behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death,
2347 and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over
2348 the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with
2349 hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
2350 [ Revelations of John, 6:1-8 ]
2352 The first of five mythical Chinese emperors, Huan Ti is known
2353 as the yellow emperor. He rules the _moving_ heavens, as
2354 opposed to the _dark_ heavens. He is an inventor, said to
2355 have given mankind among other things, the wheel, armour, and
2356 the compass. He is the god of fortune telling and war.
2359 Huehuetotl, or Huhetotl, which means Old God, was the Aztec
2360 (classical Mesoamerican) god of fire. He is generally
2361 associated with paternalism and one of the group classed
2362 as the Xiuhtecuhtli complex. He is known to send his
2363 minions to wreak havoc upon ordinary humans.
2364 [ after the Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
2366 Humanoids are all approximately the size of a human, and may
2367 be mistaken for one at a distance. They are usually of a
2368 tribal nature, and will fiercely defend their lairs. Usually
2369 hostile, they may even band together to raid and pillage
2371 # takes "human or elf or you" when specifying '@' as a dwarf, gnome, or orc
2382 These strange creatures live mostly on the surface of the
2383 earth, gathering together in societies of various forms, but
2384 occasionally a stray will descend into the depths and commit
2385 mayhem among the dungeon residents who, naturally, often
2386 resent the intrusion of such beasts. They are capable of
2387 using weapons and magic, and it is even rumored that the
2388 Wizard of Yendor is a member of this species.
2390 What of the hunting, hunter bold?
2391 Brother, the watch was long and cold.
2392 What of the quarry ye went to kill?
2393 Brother, he crops in the jungle still.
2394 Where is the power that made your pride?
2395 Brother, it ebbs from my flank and side.
2396 Where is the haste that ye hurry by?
2397 Brother, I go to my lair to die.
2398 [ The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling ]
2400 Ice devils are large semi-insectoid creatures, who are
2401 equally at home in the fires of Hell and the cold of Limbo,
2402 and who can cause the traveller to feel the latter with just
2403 a touch of their tail.
2405 Another clever translation [of the _Asterix_ character names]
2406 is that of Idefix. An _idee fixe_ is a "fixed idea", i.e.
2407 an obsession, a dogma. The translation, Dogmatix, manages to
2408 conserve the "fixed idea" meaning and also include the syllable
2409 dog -- perfect, given that the character is a dog who has very
2410 strong views on the environment (he howls whenever he sees an
2412 [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
2413 # takes "imp or minor demon" when specifying 'i'
2416 ... imps ... little creatures of two feet high that could
2417 gambol and jump prodigiously; ...
2418 [ The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany ]
2420 An 'imp' is an off-shoot or cutting. Thus an 'ymp tree' was
2421 a grafted tree, or one grown from a cutting, not from seed.
2422 'Imp' properly means a small devil, an off-shoot of Satan,
2423 but the distinction between goblins or bogles and imps from
2424 hell is hard to make, and many in the Celtic countries as
2425 well as the English Puritans regarded all fairies as devils.
2426 The fairies of tradition often hover uneasily between the
2427 ghostly and the diabolic state.
2428 [ A Dictionary of Fairies, by Katharine Briggs ]
2431 The incubus and succubus are male and female versions of the
2432 same demon, one who lies with a human for its own purposes,
2433 usually to the detriment of the mortals who are unwise in
2434 their dealings with them.
2437 A minute invertebrate animal; one of the class _Insecta_.
2438 The true insects or hexapods have the body divided into a
2439 head, a thorax of 3 segments, each of which bears a pair of
2440 legs, and an abdomen of 7 to 11 segments, and in development
2441 usually pass through a metamorphosis. There are usually 2
2442 pairs of wings, sometimes one pair or none.
2443 [ Webster's Comprehensive International Dictionary
2444 of the English Language ]
2446 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow
2447 will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
2448 And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot
2449 be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of
2450 that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail,
2451 and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:
2452 And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy
2453 servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither
2454 thy fathers, nor thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day
2455 that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned
2456 himself, and went out from Pharaoh.
2460 "You are fettered, " said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell me why?"
2461 "I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I
2462 made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my
2463 own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its
2464 pattern strange to you?"
2465 Scrooge trembled more and more.
2466 "Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, "the weight and
2467 length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as
2468 heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You
2469 have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!"
2470 [ A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens ]
2472 Stone walls do not a prison make,
2473 Nor iron bars a cage;
2474 Minds innocent and quiet take
2475 That for an hermitage;
2476 If I have freedom in my love,
2477 And in my soul am free,
2478 Angels alone that soar above
2480 [ To Althea from Prison, by Richard Lovelace ]
2482 Ishtar (the star of heaven) is the Mesopotamian goddess of
2483 fertility and war. She is usually depicted with wings and
2484 weapon cases at her shoulders, carrying a ceremonial double-
2485 headed mace-scimitar embellished with lion heads, frequently
2486 being accompanied by a lion. She is symbolized by an eight-
2488 [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
2490 Now Issek of the Jug, whom Fafhrd chose to serve, was once
2491 of the most lowly and unsuccessful of the gods, godlets
2492 rather, in Lankhmar. He had dwelt there for about thirteen
2493 years, during which time he had traveled only two squares up
2494 the Street of the Gods and was now back again, ready for
2495 oblivion. He is not to be confused with Issek the Armless,
2496 Issek of the Burnt Legs, Flayed Issek, or any other of the
2497 numerous and colorfully mutilated divinities of that name.
2498 Indeed, his unpopularity may have been due in part to the
2499 fact that the manner of his death -- racking -- was not
2500 deemed particularly spectacular. ... However, after Fafhrd
2501 became his acolyte, things somehow began to change.
2502 [ Swords In The Mist, by Fritz Leiber ]
2504 The shopkeeper of the lighting shop in the town level of the
2505 gnomish mines is a tribute to Izchak Miller, a founding member
2506 of the NetHack development team and a personal friend of a large
2507 number of us. Izchak contributed greatly to the game, coding a
2508 large amount of the shopkeep logic (hence the nature of the tribute)
2509 as well as a good part of the alignment system, the prayer code and
2510 the rewrite of "hell" in the 3.1 release. Izchak was a professor
2511 of Philosophy, who taught at many respected institutions, including
2512 MIT and Stanford, and who also worked, for a period of time, at
2513 Xerox PARC. Izchak was the first "librarian" of the NetHack project,
2514 and was a founding member of the DevTeam, joining in 1986 while he
2515 was working at the University of Pennsylvania (hence our former
2516 mailing list address). Until the 3.1.3 release, Izchak carefully
2517 kept all of the code synchronized and arbitrated disputes between
2518 members of the development teams. Izchak Miller passed away at the
2519 age of 58, in the early morning hours of April 1, 1994 from
2520 complications due to cancer. We then dedicated NetHack 3.2 in his
2522 [ Mike Stephenson, for the NetHack DevTeam ]
2525 "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
2526 The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
2527 Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
2528 The frumious Bandersnatch!"
2530 He took his vorpal sword in hand;
2531 Long time the manxome foe he sought --
2532 So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
2533 And stood awhile in thought.
2535 And, as in uffish thought he stood,
2536 The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
2537 Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
2538 And burbled as it came!
2540 One, two! One, two! And through and through
2541 The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
2542 He left it dead, and with its head
2543 He went galumphing back.
2544 [ Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll ]
2546 Sweet in the rough weather
2547 The voice of the turtle-dove
2548 'Beautiful altogether
2550 His Hands are open spread for love
2551 And full of jacinth stones
2552 As the apple-tree among trees of the grove
2553 Is He among the sons.'
2554 [ The Beloved, by May Probyn ]
2556 In Asiatic folktale, jackal provides for the lion; he scares
2557 up game, which the lion kills and eats, and receives what is
2558 left as reward. In stories from northern India he is
2559 sometimes termed "minister to the king," i.e. to the lion.
2560 From the legend that he does not kill his own food has arisen
2561 the legend of his cowardice. Jackal's heart must never be
2562 eaten, for instance, in the belief of peoples indigenous to
2563 the regions where the jackal abounds. ... In Hausa Negro
2564 folktale Jackal plays the role of sagacious judge and is
2565 called "O Learned One of the Forest." The Bushmen say that
2566 Jackal goes around behaving the way he does "because he is
2568 [ Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore ]
2570 A large boot extending over the knee, acting as protective
2571 armour for the leg, worn by troopers in the 17th and 18th
2572 centuries and later. It is still the type of boot worn by
2573 the Household Cavalry and was adopted by fishermen and others
2574 before the advent of gum boots. Figuratively, _to be under the
2575 jack-boot_ is to be controlled by a brutal military regime.
2576 [ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
2578 Nothing grew among the ruins of the city. The streets were
2579 broken and the walls of the houses had fallen, but there were
2580 no weeds flowering in the cracks and it seemed that the city
2581 had but recently been brought down by an earthquake. Only
2582 one thing still stood intact, towering over the ruins. It
2583 was a gigantic statue of white, gray and green jade - the
2584 statue of a naked youth with a face of almost feminine beauty
2585 that turned sightless eyes toward the north.
2586 "The eyes!" Duke Avan Astran said. "They're gone!"
2587 [ The Jade Man's Eyes, by Michael Moorcock ]
2589 Large, flesh-eating animal of the cat family, of Central and
2590 South America. This feline predator (_Panthera onca_) is
2591 sometimes incorrectly called a panther.
2592 [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
2594 I do not care to share the seas
2595 With jellyfishes such as these;
2596 Particularly Portuguese.
2597 [ Lines on Meeting a Portuguese Man-o'-war while Bathing,
2598 by Michael Flanders ]
2601 Little is known about the Faceless Lord, even the correct
2602 spelling of his name. He does not have a physical form as
2603 we know it, and those who have peered into his realm claim
2604 he is a slime-like creature who swallows other creatures
2605 alive, spits acidic secretions, and causes disease in his
2606 victims which can be almost instantly fatal.
2608 The K ration was the [ Quartermaster Subsistence Research
2609 and Development Laboratory's ] answer to the demand for an
2610 individual, easy-to-carry ration that could be used in
2611 assault and combat operations. It was noted for compactness
2612 and superior packaging and was acknowledged as the ration
2613 that provided the greatest variety of nutritionally balanced
2614 components within the smallest space.
2615 [ Special Rations for the Armed Forces, 1946-53,
2616 by Franz A. Koehler ]
2618 The kabuto is the helmet worn by the samurai. It was
2619 characterized by a prominent beaked front which jutted out over
2620 the brow to protect the wearer's face; a feature that gives
2621 rise to their modern Japanese name of 'shokaku tsuki kabuto'
2622 (battering-ram helmet). Their main constructional element
2623 was an oval plate, the shokaku bo, slightly domed for the
2624 head with a narrow prolongation in front that curved forwards
2625 and downwards where it developed a pronounced central
2626 fold. Two horizontal strips encircling the head were riveted
2627 to this frontal strip: the lower one, the koshimaki (hip
2628 wrap), formed the lower edge of the helmet bowl; the other,
2629 the do maki (body wrap), was set at about the level of the
2630 temples. Filling the gaps between these strips and the shokaku
2631 bo were small plates, sometimes triangular but more commonly
2632 rectangular in shape. Because the front projected so
2633 far from the head, the triangular gap beneath was filled by
2634 a small plate, the shoshaku tei ita, whose rear edge bent
2635 downwards into a flange that rested against the forehead.
2636 [ Arms & Armour of the Samurai, by Bottomley & Hopson ]
2638 The katana is a long, single-edged samurai sword with a
2639 slightly curved blade. Its long handle is designed to allow
2640 it to be wielded with either one or two hands.
2643 I noticed that all the plants were attached to the soil by
2644 an almost imperceptible bond. Devoid of roots, they seemed
2645 not to require any nourishment from sand, soil, or pebble.
2646 All they required was a point of support -- nothing else.
2647 These plants are self-propagated, and their existence depends
2648 entirely on the water that supports and nourishes them.
2649 Most of them do not sprout leaves, but sprout blades of
2650 various whimsical shapes, and their colors are limited to
2651 pink, carmine, green, olive, fawn, and brown. I had the
2652 opportunity to observe once more -- not the dried specimens
2653 I had studied on the _Nautilus_ -- but the fresh, living
2654 specimens in their native setting.
2655 [ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne ]
2657 The ki-rin is a strange-looking flying creature. It has
2658 scales, a mane like a lion, a tail, hooves, and a horn. It
2659 is brightly colored, and can usually be found flying in the
2660 sky looking for good deeds to reward.
2663 Ector took both his sons to the church before which the
2664 anvil had been placed. There, standing before the anvil, he
2665 commanded Kay: "Put the sword back into the steel if you
2666 really think the throne is yours!" But the sword glanced
2667 off the steel. "Now it is your turn", Ector said facing
2669 The young man lifted the sword and thrust with both arms; the
2670 blade whizzed through the air with a flash and drilled the
2671 metal as if it were mere butter. Ector and Kay dropped to
2672 their knees before Arthur.
2673 "Why, father and brother, do you bow before me?", Arthur asked
2674 with wonder in his voice.
2675 "Because now I know for sure that you are the king, not only
2676 by birth but also by law", Ector said. "You are no son of
2677 mine nor are you Kay's brother. Immediately after your birth,
2678 Merlin the Wise brought you to me to be raised safely. And
2679 though it was me that named you Arthur when you were baptized,
2680 you are really the son of brave king Uther Pendragon and queen
2682 And after these words, the lord rose and went to see the arch-
2683 bishop to impart to him what had passed.
2684 [ Van Gouden Tijden Zingen de Harpen, by Vladimir Hulpach,
2685 Emanuel Frynta, and Vackav Cibula ]
2688 Possibly perceiving an expression of dubiosity on their
2689 faces, the globetrotter went on adhering to his adventures.
2691 -- And I seen a man killed in Trieste by an Italian chap.
2692 Knife in his back. Knife like that.
2694 Whilst speaking he produced a dangerous looking clasp knife,
2695 quite in keeping with his character, and held it in the
2698 -- In a knockingshop it was count of a tryon between two
2699 smugglers. Fellow hid behind a door, come up behind him.
2700 Like that. Prepare to meet your God, says he. Chuck! It
2701 went into his back up to the butt.
2702 [ Ulysses, by James Joyce ]
2705 Here lies the noble fearless knight,
2706 Whose valour rose to such a height;
2707 When Death at last had struck him down,
2708 His was the victory and renown.
2709 He reck'd the world of little prize,
2710 And was a bugbear in men's eyes;
2711 But had the fortune in his age
2712 To live a fool and die a sage.
2713 [ Don Quixote of La Mancha, by Miquel de Cervantes Saavedra ]
2716 The race of kobolds are reputed to be an artificial creation
2717 of a master wizard (demi-god?). They are about 3' tall with
2718 a vaguely dog-like face. They bear a violent dislike of the
2719 Elven race, and will go out of their way to cause trouble
2720 for Elves at any time.
2722 The Kops are a brilliant concept. To take a gaggle of inept
2723 policemen and display them over and over again in a series of
2724 riotously funny physical punishments plays equally well to the
2725 peanut gallery and the expensive box seats. People hate cops.
2726 Even people who have never had anything to do with cops hate
2727 them. Of course, we count on them to keep order and to protect
2728 us when we need protecting, and we love them on television shows
2729 in which they have nerves of steel and hearts of gold, but in
2730 the abstract, as a nation, collectively we hate them. They are
2731 too much like high school principals. We're very happy to see
2732 their pants fall down, and they look good to us with pie on
2733 their faces. The Keystone Kops turn up--and they get punished
2734 for it, as they crash into each other, fall down, and suffer
2735 indignity after indignity. Here is pure movie satisfaction.
2737 The Kops are very skillfully presented. The comic originality
2738 and timing in one of their chase scenes requires imagination
2739 to think up, talent to execute, understanding of the medium,
2740 and, of course, raw courage to perform. The Kops are madmen
2741 presented as incompetents, and they're madmen rushing around
2742 in modern machines. What's more, the machines they were operating
2743 in their routines were newly invented and not yet experienced
2744 by the average moviegoer. (In the early days of automobiles,
2745 it was reported that there were only two cars registered in all
2746 of Kansas City, and they ran into each other. There is both
2747 poetry and philosophy in this fact, but most of all, there is
2748 humor. Sennett got the humor.)
2749 [ Silent Stars, by Jeanine Basinger ]
2751 "I am not a coward!" he cried. "I'll dare Thieves' House
2752 and fetch you Krovas' head and toss it with blood a-drip at
2753 Vlana's feet. I swear that, witness me, Kos the god of
2754 dooms, by the brown bones of Nalgron my father and by his
2755 sword Graywand here at my side!"
2756 [ Swords and Deviltry, by Fritz Leiber ]
2760 Out from the water a long sinuous tentacle had crawled; it
2761 was pale-green and luminous and wet. Its fingered end had
2762 hold of Frodo's foot, and was dragging him into the water.
2763 Sam on his knees was now slashing at it with a knife. The
2764 arm let go of Frodo, and Sam pulled him away, crying out
2765 for help. Twenty other arms came rippling out. The dark
2766 water boiled, and there was a hideous stench.
2767 [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
2770 Blind Io took up the dice-box, which was a skull whose various
2771 orifices had been stoppered with rubies, and with several of
2772 his eyes on the Lady he rolled three fives. She smiled. This
2773 was the nature of the Lady's eyes: they were bright green,
2774 lacking iris or pupil, and they glowed from within.
2776 The room was silent as she scrabbled in her box of pieces and,
2777 from the very bottom, produced a couple that she set down on
2778 the board with two decisive clicks. The rest of the players,
2779 as one God, craned forward to peer at them.
2781 "A wenegade wiffard and fome fort of clerk," said Offler the
2782 Crocodile God, hindered as usual by his tusks. "Well,
2783 weally!" With one claw he pushed a pile of bone-white tokens
2784 into the centre of the table.
2786 The Lady nodded slightly. She picked up the dice-cup and held
2787 it as steady as a rock, yet all the Gods could hear the three
2788 cubes rattling about inside. And then she sent them bouncing
2791 A six. A three. A five.
2793 Something was happening to the five, however. Battered by the
2794 chance collision of several billion molecules, the die flipped
2795 onto a point, spun gently and came down a seven. Blind Io
2796 picked up the cube and counted the sides.
2798 "Come _on_," he said wearily, "Play fair."
2799 [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
2801 When he came to himself he told his mother what had passed,
2802 and showed her the lamp and the fruits he had gathered in the
2803 garden, which were in reality precious stones. He then asked
2806 "Alas! child," she said, "I have nothing in the house, but I
2807 have spun a little cotton and will go and sell it."
2809 Aladdin bade her keep her cotton, for he would sell the lamp
2810 instead. As it was very dirty she began to rub it, that it
2811 might fetch a higher price. Instantly a hideous genie
2812 appeared, and asked what she would have. She fainted away,
2813 but Aladdin, snatching the lamp, said boldly:
2814 "Fetch me something to eat!"
2815 [ Aladdin, from The Arabian Nights, by Andrew Lang ]
2817 With this the wind increased, and the mill sails began to turn
2818 about; which Don Quixote espying, said, 'Although thou movest
2819 more arms than the giant Briareus thou shalt stoop to me.'
2820 And, after saying this, and commending himself most devoutly
2821 to his Lady Dulcinea, desiring her to succor him in that trance,
2822 covering himself well with his buckler, and setting his lance
2823 on his rest, he spurred on Rozinante, and encountered with the
2824 first mill that was before him, and, striking his lance into
2825 the sail, the wind swung it about with such fury, that it broke
2826 his lance into shivers, carrying him and his horse after it,
2827 and finally tumbled him a good way off from it on the field in
2829 [ Don Quixote of La Mancha, by Miquel de Cervantes Saavedra ]
2831 Your heart is intact, your brain is not badly damaged, but the rest
2832 of your injuries are comparable to stepping on a land mine. You'd
2833 never walk again, and you'd be in great pain. You would come to
2834 wish you had not survived.
2835 [ Steel Beach, by John Varley ]
2837 While pretending to be a fancy safety lamp, it is in fact
2838 battery powered. A discreet little switch is marked "on/off"
2839 in elaborate lettering.
2840 [ Adventure 770, by Mike Arnautov ]
2843 You are on the edge of a breath-taking view. Far below you
2844 is an active volcano, from which great gouts of molten lava
2845 come surging out, cascading back down into the depths. The
2846 glowing rock fills the farthest reaches of the cavern with a
2847 blood-red glare, giving everything an eerie, macabre appearance.
2848 The air is filled with flickering sparks of ash and a heavy
2849 smell of brimstone. The walls are hot to the touch, and the
2850 thundering of the volcano drowns out all other sounds.
2851 Embedded in the jagged roof far overhead are myriad twisted
2852 formations composed of pure white alabaster, which scatter the
2853 murky light into sinister apparitions upon the walls. To one
2854 side is a deep gorge, filled with a bizarre chaos of tortured
2855 rock which seems to have been crafted by the devil himself.
2856 An immense river of fire crashes out from the depths of the
2857 volcano, burns its way through the gorge, and plummets into a
2858 bottomless pit far off to your left. To the right, an immense
2859 geyser of blistering steam erupts continuously from a barren
2860 island in the center of a sulfurous lake, which bubbles
2861 ominously. The far right wall is aflame with an incandescence
2862 of its own, which lends an additional infernal splendor to the
2863 already hellish scene. A dark, forboding passage exits to the
2865 [ Adventure, by Will Crowther and Don Woods. ]
2867 They had splendid heads, fine shoulders, strong legs, and
2868 straight tails. The spots on their bodies were jet-black and
2869 mostly the size of a two-shilling piece; they had smaller
2870 spots on their heads, legs, and tails. Their noses and eye-
2871 rims were black. Missis had a most winning expression.
2872 Pongo, though a dog born to command, had a twinkle in his
2873 eye. They walked side by side with great dignity, only
2874 putting the Dearlys on the leash to lead them over crossings.
2875 [ The Hundred and One Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith ]
2877 In the morning, as they were beginning to pack their slender
2878 goods, Elves that could speak their tongue came to them and
2879 brought them many gifts of food and clothing for their
2880 journey. The food was mostly in the form of very thin cakes,
2881 made of a meal that was baked a light brown on the outside,
2882 and inside was the colour of cream. Gimli took up one of the
2883 cakes and looked at it with a doubtful eye.
2884 'Cram,' he said under his breath, as he broke off a crisp
2885 corner and nibbled at it. His expression quickly changed,
2886 and he ate all the rest of the cake with relish.
2887 'No more, no more!' cried the Elves laughing. 'You have
2888 eaten enough already for a long day's march.'
2889 'I thought it was only a kind of cram, such as the Dalemen
2890 make for journeys in the wild,' said the Dwarf.
2891 'So it is,' they answered. 'But we call it lembas or
2892 waybread, and it is more strengthening than any foods made by
2893 Men, and it is more pleasant than cram, by all accounts.'
2894 [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
2897 The Larvae (Lemures) are Roman spirits of deceased family
2898 members. These malignant spirits dwell throughout the house
2899 and frighten the inhabitants. People tried to reconcile or
2900 avert the Larvae with strange ceremonies which took place on
2901 May 9, 11, and 13; this was called the "Feast of the Lemures".
2902 The master of the house usually performed these ceremonies,
2903 either by offering black beans to the spirits or chasing them
2904 away by making a lot of noise. Their counterparts are the
2905 Lares, friendly and beneficent house spirits.
2906 [ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
2909 ... the leucrocotta, a wild beast of extraordinary swiftness,
2910 the size of the wild ass, with the legs of a Stag, the neck,
2911 tail, and breast of a lion, the head of a badger, a cloven
2912 hoof, the mouth slit up as far as the ears, and one continuous
2913 bone instead of teeth; it is said, too, that this animal can
2914 imitate the human voice.
2915 [ Curious Creatures in Zoology, by John Ashton ]
2917 The Irish Leprechaun is the Faeries' shoemaker and is known
2918 under various names in different parts of Ireland:
2919 Cluricaune in Cork, Lurican in Kerry, Lurikeen in Kildare
2920 and Lurigadaun in Tipperary. Although he works for the
2921 Faeries, the Leprechaun is not of the same species. He is
2922 small, has dark skin and wears strange clothes. His nature
2923 has something of the manic-depressive about it: first he
2924 is quite happy, whistling merrily as he nails a sole on to a
2925 shoe; a few minutes later, he is sullen and morose, drunk
2926 on his home-made heather ale. The Leprechaun's two great
2927 loves are tobacco and whiskey, and he is a first-rate con-man,
2928 impossible to out-fox. No one, no matter how clever, has ever
2929 managed to cheat him out of his hidden pot of gold or his
2930 magic shilling. At the last minute he always thinks of some
2931 way to divert his captor's attention and vanishes in the
2932 twinkling of an eye.
2933 [ A Field Guide to the Little People
2934 by Nancy Arrowsmith & George Moorse ]
2936 But on its heels ere the sunset faded, there came a second
2937 apparition, striding with incredible strides and halting when
2938 it loomed almost upon me in the red twilight-the monstrous mummy
2939 of some ancient king still crowned with untarnished gold but
2940 turning to my gaze a visage that more than time or the worm had
2941 wasted. Broken swathings flapped about the skeleton legs, and
2942 above the crown that was set with sapphires and orange rubies, a
2943 black something swayed and nodded horribly; but, for an instant,
2944 I did not dream what it was. Then, in its middle, two oblique
2945 and scarlet eyes opened and glowed like hellish coals, and two
2946 ophidian fangs glittered in an ape-like mouth. A squat, furless,
2947 shapeless head on a neck of disproportionate extent leaned
2948 unspeakably down and whispered in the mummy's ear. Then, with
2949 one stride, the titanic lich took half the distance between us,
2950 and from out the folds of the tattered sere-cloth a gaunt arm
2951 arose, and fleshless, taloned fingers laden with glowering gems,
2952 reached out and fumbled for my throat . . .
2953 [ The Abominations of Yondo, by Clark Ashton Smith ]
2955 The chamber was of unhewn rock, round, as near as might
2956 be, eighteen or twenty feet across, and gay with rich
2957 variety of fern and moss and lichen. The fern was in
2958 its winter still, or coiling for the spring-tide; but
2959 moss was in abundant life, some feathering, and some
2960 gobleted, and some with fringe of red to it.
2961 [ Lorna Doone, by R.D. Blackmore ]
2962 # takes "light" when specifying 'y'
2966 Strange creatures formed from energy rather than matter,
2967 lights are given to self-destructive behavior when battling
2972 Lizards, snakes and the burrowing amphisbaenids make up the
2973 order Squamata, meaning the scaly ones. The elongate, slim,
2974 long-tailed bodies of lizards have become modified to enable
2975 them to live in a wide range of habitats. Lizards can be
2976 expert burrowers, runners, swimmers and climbers, and a few
2977 can manage crude, short-distance gliding on rib-supported
2978 "wings". Most are carnivores, feeding on invertebrate and
2979 small vertebrate prey, but others feed on vegetation.
2980 [ Macmillan Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia ]
2982 Loki, or Lopt, is described in Snorri's _Edda_ as being
2983 "pleasing and handsome in appearance, evil in character, and
2984 very capricious in behaviour". He is the son of the giant
2985 Farbauti and of Laufey.
2986 Loki is the Norse god of cunning, evil, thieves, and fire.
2987 He hated the other gods and wanted to ruin them and overthrow
2988 the universe. He committed many murders. As a thief, he
2989 stole Freyja's necklace, Thor's belt and gauntlets of power,
2990 and the apples of youth. Able to shapechange at will, he is
2991 said to have impersonated at various times a mare, flea, fly,
2992 falcon, seal, and an old crone. As a mare he gave birth to
2993 Odin's horse Sleipnir. He also allegedly sired the serpent
2994 Midgard, the mistress of the netherworld, Hel, and the wolf
2995 Fenrir, who will devour the sun at Ragnarok.
2997 This legendary bow grants ESP when carried and can reflect magical
2998 attacks when wielded. When invoked it provides a supply of arrows.
2999 # long worm -- see "worm"
3002 But as Snow White grew, she became more and more beautiful,
3003 and by the time she was seven years old she was as beautiful
3004 as the day and more beautiful than the queen herself. One
3005 day when the queen said to her mirror:
3007 "Mirror, Mirror, here I stand.
3008 Who is the fairest in the land?" -
3012 "You, O Queen, are the fairest here,
3013 But Snow White is a thousand times more fair."
3014 [ Snow White, by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm ]
3016 Lord Carnarvon was a personality who could have been produced
3017 nowhere but in England, a mixture of sportsman and collector,
3018 gentleman and world traveler, a realist in action and a
3019 romantic in feeling. ... In 1903 he went for the first time
3020 to Egypt in search of a mild climate and while there visited
3021 the excavation sites of several archaeological expeditions.
3022 ... In 1906 he began his own excavations.
3023 [ Gods, Graves, and Scholars, by C. W. Ceram ]
3025 Lord Sato was the family head of the Taro Clan, and a mighty
3026 daimyo. He is a loyal servant of the Emperor, and will do
3027 everything in his power to further the imperial cause.
3029 Yet first was the world in the southern region, which was
3030 named Muspell; it is light and hot; that region is glowing
3031 and burning, and impassable to such as are outlanders and
3032 have not their holdings there. He who sits there at the
3033 land's-end, to defend the land, is called Surtr; he brandishes
3034 a flaming sword, and at the end of the world he shall go forth
3035 and harry, and overcome all the gods, and burn all the
3037 [ The Prose Edda, by Snorri Sturluson ]
3038 # if a quote for good luck gets added, make this one exclusively bad luck
3041 "[...] We'll succeed and you'll get all the fortune you came
3043 Jack shook his head dismally. "You'll be better off without
3044 me," he said. "I'm nothing but bad luck. It's because I'm
3045 cursed. A farmer I met on the way to the city cursed me. He
3046 said, 'I curse you Jack. May you never know wealth. May all
3047 that you wish for be denied you.'"
3048 "What a horrid man," said Eddie. "Why did he curse you like
3050 Jack shrugged [...]. "Bad grace, I suppose. Just because I
3051 shot off his ear and made him jump into a pit full of spikes."
3052 [ the hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse,
3054 # [no relation... both cover and title page list this
3055 # book's title in all lower case; however, its sequel,
3056 # "the toyminator", refers to it using conventional
3057 # capitalization in a couple of early footnotes]
3059 Lugh, or Lug, was the sun god of the Irish Celts. One of his
3060 weapons was a rod-sling which worshippers sometimes saw in
3061 the sky as a rainbow. As a tribal god, he was particularly
3062 skilled in the use of his massive, invincible spear, which
3063 fought on its own accord. One of his epithets is _lamfhada_
3064 (of the long arm). He was a young and apparently more
3065 attractive deity than Dagda, the father of the gods. Being
3066 able to shapeshift, his name translates as lynx.
3068 These dungeon scavengers are very adept at blending into the
3069 surrounding walls and ceilings of the dungeon due to the
3070 stone-like coloring of their skin.
3075 In 1573, the Parliament of Dole published a decree, permitting
3076 the inhabitants of the Franche-Comte to pursue and kill a
3077 were-wolf or loup-garou, which infested that province,
3078 "notwithstanding the existing laws concerning the chase."
3079 The people were empowered to "assemble with javelins,
3080 halberds, pikes, arquebuses and clubs, to hunt and pursue the
3081 said were-wolf in all places where they could find it, and to
3082 take, burn, and kill it, without incurring any fine or other
3083 penalty." The hunt seems to have been successful, if we may
3084 judge from the fact that the same tribunal in the following
3085 year condemned to be burned a man named Giles Garnier, who
3086 ran on all fours in the forest and fields and devoured little
3087 children, "even on Friday." The poor lycanthrope, it appears,
3088 had as slight respect for ecclesiastical feasts as the French
3089 pig, which was not restrained by any feeling of piety from
3090 eating infants on a fast day.
3091 [ The History of Vampires, by Dudley Wright ]
3093 To dream of seeing a lynx, enemies are undermining your
3094 business and disrupting your home affairs. For a woman,
3095 this dream indicates that she has a wary woman rivaling her
3096 in the affections of her lover. If she kills the lynx, she
3097 will overcome her rival.
3098 [ 10,000 Dreams Interpreted, by Gustavus Hindman Miller ]
3102 Originally a club armed with iron, and used in war; now a staff
3103 of office pertaining to certain dignitaries, as the Speaker of
3104 the House of Commons, Lord Mayors, Mayors etc. Both sword and
3105 mace are symbols of dignity, suited to the times when men went
3106 about in armour, and sovereigns needed champions to vindicate
3108 [ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
3110 The pen is mightier than the sword.
3111 [ Richelieu, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]
3112 magic mirror of merlin
3113 [...] In Dehenbarth (that now South Wales is hight,
3114 What time King Ryence reigned, and dealed right)
3115 The great magician Merlin had devised,
3116 By his deep science, and hell-dreaded might,
3117 A looking-glass, right wondrously aguised,
3118 Whose virtues through the wide world soon were solemnized.
3120 It virtue had to show in perfect sight
3121 Whatever thing was in the world contained,
3122 Betwixt the lowest earth and heaven's height,
3123 So that it to the looker appertained;
3124 Whatever foe had wrought, or friend had fained,
3125 Therein discovered was, nor aught might pass,
3126 Nor aught in secret from the same remained;
3127 # we'll leave out the part about it being a crystal ball...
3128 # For-thy it round and hollow shaped was,
3129 # Like the world itself, and seemed a world of glass.
3130 [ The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spencer ]
3132 A highly enchanted athame said to hold the power to channel
3133 and direct magical energy.
3135 It is rumoured that these strange creatures can be harmed by
3136 domesticated canines only.
3138 Normally called Manannan, Ler's son was the patron of
3139 merchants and sailors. Manannan had a sword which never
3140 failed to slay, a boat which propelled itself wherever its
3141 owner wished, a horse which was swifter than the wind, and
3142 magic armour which no sword could pierce. He later became
3143 god of the sea, beneath which he lived in Tir na nOc, the
3146 Manes or Di Manes ("good ones") is the euphemistic description
3147 of the souls of the deceased, worshipped as divinities. The
3148 formula D.M. (= Dis Manibus; "dedicated to the Manes-gods")
3149 can often be found on tombstones. Manes also means
3150 metaphorically 'underworld' or 'realm of death'. Festivals
3151 in honor of the dead were the Parentalia and the Feralia,
3152 celebrated in February.
3153 [ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
3155 The gnats of the dungeon, these swarming monsters are rarely
3158 First insisting on recognition as supreme commander, Marduk
3159 defeated the Dragon, cut her body in two, and from it created
3160 heaven and earth, peopling the world with human beings who not
3161 unnaturally showed intense gratitude for their lives. The
3162 gods were also properly grateful, invested him with many
3163 titles, and eventually permitted themselves to be embodied in
3164 him, so that he became supreme god, plotting the whole course
3165 of known life from the paths of the planets to the daily
3166 events in the lives of men.
3167 [ The Immortals, by Derek and Julia Parker ]
3169 The marilith has a torso shaped like that of a human female,
3170 and the lower body of a great snake. It has multiple arms,
3171 and can freely attack with all of them. Since it is
3172 intelligent enough to use weapons, this means it can cause
3175 The god of war, and one of the most prominent and worshipped
3176 gods. In early Roman history he was a god of spring, growth in
3177 nature, and fertility, and the protector of cattle. Mars is
3178 also mentioned as a chthonic god (earth-god) and this could
3179 explain why he became a god of death and finally a god of war.
3180 He is the son of Jupiter and Juno.
3181 [ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
3183 He strolled down the stairs, followed by a number of assassins.
3184 When he was directly in front of Ymor he said: "I've come for
3186 "One step more and you'll leave here with fewer eyeballs than
3187 you came with," said the thiefmaster. "So sit down and have
3188 a drink, Zlorf, and let's talk about this sensibly. _I_
3189 thought we had an agreement. You don't rob -- I don't kill.
3190 Not for payment, that is," he added after a pause.
3191 Zlorf took the proffered beer.
3192 "So?" he said. "I'll kill him. Then you rob him. Is he that
3193 funny looking one over there?"
3195 Zlorf stared at Twoflower, who grinned at him. He shrugged.
3196 He seldom wasted time wondering why people wanted other people
3197 dead. It was just a living.
3198 "Who is your client, may I ask?" said Ymor.
3199 Zlorf held up a hand. "Please!" he protested. "Professional
3201 [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
3202 master key of thievery
3203 This skeleton key was fashioned in ages past and imbued with
3204 a powerful magic which allows it to open any lock. When
3205 carried, it grants its owner warning, teleport control, and
3206 reduces all physical damage by half. Finally, when invoked,
3207 it has the ability to disarm any trap.
3209 There was a flutter of wings at the window. Ymor shifted his
3210 bulk out of the chair and crossed the room, coming back with
3211 a large raven. After he'd unfastened the message capsule from
3212 its leg it flew up to join its fellows lurking among the
3213 rafters. Withel regarded it without love. Ymor's ravens were
3214 notoriously loyal to their master, to the extent that Withel's
3215 one attempt to promote himself to the rank of greatest thief
3216 in Ankh-Morpork had cost their master's right hand man his
3217 left eye. But not his life, however. Ymor never grudged a
3219 [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
3221 Any large, elephantlike mammal of the genera Mammut, Mastodon,
3222 etc., from the Oligocene and Pleistocene epochs, having
3223 conical projections on the molar teeth.
3224 [ Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary
3225 of the English Language ]
3227 A mattock is an agricultural tool similar to a mining pick.
3228 It is distinguished by the head terminating in a broader blade
3229 rather than a narrow spike, which makes it particularly suitable
3230 for breaking up moderately hard ground. ... During the Middle
3231 Ages of Europe, the mattock served as an improvised shafted
3232 weapon for the poorer classes.
3233 [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
3236 Some hae meat and canna eat,
3237 And some would eat that want it;
3238 But we hae meat, and we can eat,
3239 Sae let the Lord be thankit.
3240 [ Grace Before Meat, by Robert Burns ]
3243 Medusa, one of the three Gorgons or Graeae, is the only one
3244 of her sisters to have assumed mortal form and inhabited the
3247 When Perseus was grown up Polydectes sent him to attempt the
3248 conquest of Medusa, a terrible monster who had laid waste the
3249 country. She was once a beautiful maiden whose hair was her
3250 chief glory, but as she dared to vie in beauty with Minerva,
3251 the goddess deprived her of her charms and changed her
3252 beautiful ringlets into hissing serpents. She became a cruel
3253 monster of so frightful an aspect that no living thing could
3254 behold her without being turned into stone. All around the
3255 cavern where she dwelt might be seen the stony figures of men
3256 and animals which had chanced to catch a glimpse of her and
3257 had been petrified with the sight. Perseus, favoured by
3258 Minerva and Mercury, the former of whom lent him her shield
3259 and the latter his winged shoes, approached Medusa while she
3260 slept and taking care not to look directly at her, but guided
3261 by her image reflected in the bright shield which he bore, he
3262 cut off her head and gave it to Minerva, who fixed it in the
3263 middle of her Aegis.
3264 [ Bulfinch's Mythology, by Thomas Bulfinch ]
3266 "What is it, Umbopa, son of a fool?" I shouted in Zulu.
3267 "It is food and water, Macumazahn," and again he waved the
3269 Then I saw what he had got. It was a melon. We had hit upon
3270 a patch of wild melons, thousands of them, and dead ripe.
3271 "Melons!" I yelled to Good, who was next me; and in another
3272 second he had his false teeth fixed in one.
3273 I think we ate about six each before we had done, and, poor
3274 fruit as they were, I doubt if I ever thought anything nicer.
3275 [ King Solomon's Mines, by H. Rider Haggard ]
3277 Roman god of commerce, trade and travellers. He is commonly
3278 depicted carrying a caduceus (a staff with two snakes
3279 intertwining around it) and a purse.
3281 The ancestors of the modern day chameleon, these creatures can
3282 assume the form of anything in their surroundings. They may
3283 assume the shape of objects or dungeon features. Unlike the
3284 chameleon though, which assumes the shape of another creature
3285 and goes in hunt of food, the mimic waits patiently for its
3286 meals to come in search of it.
3288 This creature has a humanoid body, tentacles around its
3289 covered mouth, and three long fingers on each hand. Mind
3290 flayers are telepathic, and love to devour intelligent beings,
3291 especially humans. If they hit their victim with a tentacle,
3292 the mind flayer will slowly drain it of all intelligence,
3293 eventually killing its victim.
3296 Made by Dwarfs. The Rule here is that the Mine is either long
3297 deserted or at most is inhabited by a few survivors who will
3298 make confused claims to have been driven out/decimated by humans/
3299 other Dwarfs/Minions of the Dark Lord. Inhabited or not, this
3300 Mine will be very complex, with many levels of galleries,
3301 beautifully carved and engineered. What was being mined here
3302 is not always evident, but at least some of the time it will
3303 appear to have been Jewels, since it is customary to find
3304 unwanted emeralds, etc., still embedded in the rock of the
3305 walls. Metal will also be present, but only when made up into
3306 armor and weapons (_wondrous_).
3307 [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
3309 The Minotaur was a monster, half bull, half human, the
3310 offspring of Minos' wife Pasiphae and a wonderfully beautiful
3311 bull. ... When the Minotaur was born Minos did not kill him.
3312 He had Daedalus, a great architect and inventor, construct a
3313 place of confinement for him from which escape was impossible.
3314 Daedalus built the Labyrinth, famous throughout the world.
3315 Once inside, one would go endlessly along its twisting paths
3316 without ever finding the exit.
3317 [ Mythology, by Edith Hamilton ]
3319 Originating in India (Mitra), Mithra is a god of light who
3320 was translated into the attendant of the god Ahura Mazda in
3321 the light religion of Persia; from this he was adopted as
3322 the Roman deity Mithras. He is not generally regarded as a
3323 sky god but a personification of the fertilizing power of
3324 warm, light air. According to the _Avesta_, he possesses
3325 10,000 eyes and ears and rides in a chariot drawn by white
3326 horses. Mithra, according to Zarathustra, is concerned with
3327 the endless battle between light and dark forces: he
3328 represents truth. He is responsible for the keeping of oaths
3329 and contracts. He is attributed with the creation of both
3330 plants and animals. His chief adversary is Ahriman, the
3332 [ The Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends of All Nations,
3333 by Herbert Spencer Robinson and Knox Wilson ]
3335 _Mithril_! All folk desired it. It could be beaten like
3336 copper, and polished like glass; and the Dwarves could make
3337 of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel.
3338 Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty
3339 of _mithril_ did not tarnish or grow dim.
3340 [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
3342 This helm of brilliance performs all of the normal functions
3343 of a helm of brilliance, but also has the ability to protect
3344 anyone who carries it from fire. When invoked, it boosts
3345 the energy of the invoker, allowing them to cast more spells.
3347 Forged by the dwarves Eitri and Brokk, in response to Loki's
3348 challenge, Mjollnir is an indestructible war hammer. It has
3349 two magical properties: when thrown it always returned to
3350 Thor's hand; and it could be made to shrink in size until it
3351 could fit inside Thor's shirt. Its only flaw is that it has
3352 a short handle. The other gods judged Mjollnir the winner of
3353 the contest because, of all the treasures created, it alone had
3354 the power to protect them from the giants. As the legends
3355 surrounding Mjollnir grew, it began to take on the quality of
3356 "vigja", or consecration. Thor used it to consecrate births,
3357 weddings, and even to raise his goats from the dead. In the
3358 Norse mythologies Mjollnir is considered to represent Thor's
3359 governance over the entire cycle of life - fertility, birth,
3360 destruction, and resurrection.
3362 Mog is known as the Spider God. Mog resembles a four-limbed
3363 spider with a handsome, if not entirely human, face.
3366 Mold, multicellular organism of the division Fungi, typified
3367 by plant bodies composed of a network of cottony filaments.
3368 The colors of molds are due to spores borne on the filaments.
3369 Most molds are saprophytes. Some species (e.g., penicillium)
3370 are used in making cheese and antibiotics.
3371 [ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]
3373 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
3374 Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever
3375 he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that
3376 sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech;
3377 he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall
3378 stone him with stones.
3379 And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off
3380 from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto
3381 Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.
3382 And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes
3383 from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill
3385 Then I will set my face against that man, and against his
3386 family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after
3387 him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.
3388 [ Leviticus 20:1-5 ]
3393 One day, an army general invited the Buddhist monk I-Hsiu
3394 (literally, "One Rest") to his military head office for a
3395 dinner. I-Hsiu was not accustomed to wearing luxurious
3396 clothings and so he just put on an old ordinary casual
3397 robe to go to the military base. To him, "form is void".
3399 As he approached the base, two soldiers appeared before him
3400 and shouted, "Where does this beggar came from? Identify
3401 yourself! You do not have permission to be around here!"
3403 "My name is I-Hsiu Dharma Master. I am invited by your
3404 general for a supper."
3406 The two soldiers examined the monk closely and said, "You
3407 liar. How come my general invites such a shabby monk to
3408 dinner? He invites the very solemn venerable I-Hsiu to our
3409 base for a great ceremony today, not you. Now, get out!"
3411 I-Hsiu was unable to convince the soldiers that he was
3412 indeed the invited guest, so he returned to the temple
3413 and changed to a very formal solemn ceremonial robe for
3414 the dinner. And as he returned to the military base, the
3415 soldiers observed that he was such a great Buddhist monk,
3416 let him in with honour.
3418 At the dinner, I-Hsiu sat in front of the table full of
3419 food but, instead of putting the food into his mouth, he
3420 picked up the food with his chopsticks and put it into
3421 his sleeves. The general was curious, and whispered to
3422 him, "This is very embarrassing. Do you want to take
3423 some food back to the temple? I will order the cook to
3424 prepare some take out orders for you." "No" replied the
3425 monk. "When I came here, I was not allowed into the
3426 base by your soldiers until I wear this ceremonial robe.
3427 You do not invite me for a dinner. You invite my robe.
3428 Therefore, my robe is eating the food, not me."
3429 [ Dining with a General - a Zen Buddhism Koan,
3430 translation by Yiu-man Chan ]
3432 "Listen, man-cub," said the Bear, and his voice rumbled like
3433 thunder on a hot night. "I have taught thee all the Law of
3434 the Jungle for all the peoples of the jungle--except the
3435 Monkey-Folk who live in the trees. They have no law. They
3436 are outcasts. They have no speech of their own, but use the
3437 stolen words which they overhear when they listen, and peep,
3438 and wait up above in the branches. Their way is not our way.
3439 They are without leaders. They have no remembrance. They
3440 boast and chatter and pretend that they are a great people
3441 about to do great affairs in the jungle, but the falling of
3442 a nut turns their minds to laughter and all is forgotten.
3443 We of the jungle have no dealings with them. We do not drink
3444 where the monkeys drink; we do not go where the monkeys go;
3445 we do not hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they die...."
3446 [ The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling ]
3448 The morning star was a medieval weapon resembling a mace, but
3449 with a large spike on the end and smaller spikes around the
3450 circumference. It was also known as the goedendag (from the
3451 Dutch word for "good day") and the holy water sprinkler (from
3452 its resemblance to the aspergillum sometimes used in the
3453 Catholic Mass). It was used by both cavalry and infantry;
3454 the horseman's weapon typically had a shorter haft than the
3455 footman's, which might be up to six feet long. It came into
3456 use in the beginning of the 14th century.
3457 The name "morning star" is often erroneously applied to the
3458 military flail (also known as the therscol), a similar weapon,
3459 but with the head attached by a short chain.
3460 [ Dictionary of Medieval Knighthood and Chivalry,
3461 by Bradford Broughton ]
3463 ... the Mumak of Harad was indeed a beast of vast bulk, and
3464 the like of him does not walk now in Middle-Earth; his kin
3465 that live still in latter days are but memories of his girth
3466 and majesty. On he came, ... his great legs like trees,
3467 enormous sail-like ears spread out, long snout upraised like
3468 a huge serpent about to strike, his small red eyes raging.
3469 His upturned hornlike tusks ... dripped with blood.
3470 [ The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
3472 But for an account of the manner in which the body was
3473 bandaged, and a list of the unguents and other materials
3474 employed in the process, and the words of power which were
3475 spoken as each bandage was laid in its place, we must have
3476 recourse to a very interesting papyrus which has been edited
3477 and translated by M. Maspero under the title of Le Rituel de
3479 Everything that could be done to preserve the body was now
3480 done, and every member of it was, by means of the words of
3481 power which changed perishable substances into imperishable,
3482 protected to all eternity; when the final covering of purple
3483 or white linen had been fastened upon it, the body was ready
3485 [ Egyptian Magic, by E.A. Wallis Budge ]
3487 He held a white cloth -- it was a serviette he had brought
3488 with him -- over the lower part of his face, so that his
3489 mouth and jaws were completely hidden, and that was the
3490 reason for his muffled voice. But it was not that which
3491 startled Mrs. Hall. It was the fact that all his forehead
3492 above his blue glasses was covered by a white bandage, and
3493 that another covered his ears, leaving not a scrap of his
3494 face exposed excepting only his pink, peaked nose. It was
3495 bright, pink, and shiny just as it had been at first. He
3496 wore a dark-brown velvet jacket with a high, black, linen-
3497 lined collar turned up about his neck. The thick black
3498 hair, escaping as it could below and between the cross
3499 bandages, project in curious tails and horns, giving him
3500 the strangest appearance conceivable.
3501 [ The Invisible Man, by H.G. Wells ]
3504 The naga is a mystical creature with the body of a snake and
3505 the head of a man or woman. They will fiercely protect the
3506 territory they consider their own. Some nagas can be forced
3507 to serve as guardians by a spellcaster of great power.
3509 A Japanese pole-arm, fitted with a curved single-edged blade.
3510 The blades ranged in length from two to four feet, mounted on
3511 shafts about four to five feet long. The naginata were cut
3512 with a series of short grooves near to the tang, above which
3513 the back edge was thinned, but not sharpened, so that the
3514 greater part of the blade was a flattened diamond shape in
3515 section. Seen in profile, the curve is slight or non-
3516 existent near the tang, becoming more pronounced towards the
3520 "With his naginata he killed five, but with the sixth it
3521 snapped asunder in the midst and, flinging it away, he drew
3522 his sword, wielding it in the zigzag style, the interlacing,
3523 cross, reversed dragonfly, waterwheel, and eight-sides-at-
3524 once styles of fencing and cutting down eight men; but as he
3525 brought down the ninth with a mighty blow on the helmet, the
3526 blade snapped at the hilt."
3527 [ Story of Tsutsui no Jomio Meishu from Tales of Heike ]
3529 Not only do these demons do physical damage with their claws
3530 and bite, but they are capable of using magic as well.
3532 Nalzok is Moloch's cunning and unfailingly loyal battle
3533 lieutenant, to whom he trusts the command of warfare when he
3534 does not wish to exercise it himself. Nalzok is a major
3535 demon, known to command the undead. He is hungry for power,
3536 and secretly covets Moloch's position. Moloch doesn't trust
3537 him, but, trusting his own power enough, chooses to allow
3538 Nalzok his position because he is useful.
3540 1. Valley between Duesseldorf and Elberfeld in Germany,
3541 where an ancient skull of a prehistoric ancestor to modern
3542 man was found. 2. Human(oid) of the race mentioned above.
3545 Neferet the Green holds office in her hidden tower, only
3546 reachable by magical means, where she teaches her apprentices
3547 the enigmatic skills of occultism. Despite her many years, she
3548 continues to investigate new spells, especially those involving
3549 translocation. It is further rumored that when she was an
3550 apprentice herself, she accidentally turned her skin green, and
3551 has kept it that way ever since.
3553 (kinds of) small animal, like a lizard, which spends most of
3554 its time in the water.
3555 [ Oxford's Student's Dictionary of Current English ]
3557 "Fillet of a fenny snake,
3558 In the cauldron boil and bake;
3559 Eye of newt and toe of frog,
3560 Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
3561 Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
3562 Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
3563 For a charm of powerful trouble,
3564 Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."
3565 [ Macbeth, by William Shakespeare ]
3567 A Japanese broadsword.
3569 The Norns were the three Norse Fates, or the goddesses of fate.
3570 Female giants, they brought the wonderful Golden Age to an end.
3571 They cast lots over the cradle of every child that was born,
3572 and placed gifts in the cradle. Their names were Urda,
3573 Verdandi, and Skuld, representing the past, the present, and
3574 the future. Urda and Verdandi were kindly disposed, but Skuld
3575 was cruel and savage. Their tasks were to sew the web of
3576 fate, to water the sacred ash, Yggdrasil, and to keep it in
3577 good condition by placing fresh earth around it daily. In her
3578 fury, Skuld often spoiled the work of her sisters by tearing
3580 [ The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends of All Nations
3581 by Herbert Spencer Robinson and Knox Wilson ]
3583 A nunchaku is two sections of wood (or metal in modern
3584 incarnations) connected by a cord or chain. There is much
3585 controversy over its origins; some say it was originally a
3586 Chinese weapon, others say it evolved from a threshing flail;
3587 one theory purports that it was developed from a horse's bit.
3588 Chinese nunchaku tend to be rounded, whereas Japanese are
3589 octagonal, and they were originally linked by horse hair.
3590 There are many variations on the nunchaku, ranging from the
3591 three sectional staff (san-setsu-kon nunchaku), to smaller
3592 multi-section nunchaku. The nunchaku was popularized by
3593 Bruce Lee in a number of films, made in both Hollywood and
3595 [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
3598 A female creature from Roman and Greek mythology, the nymph
3599 occupied rivers, forests, ponds, etc. A nymph's beauty is
3600 beyond words: an ever-young woman with sleek figure and
3601 long, thick hair, radiant skin and perfect teeth, full lips
3602 and gentle eyes. A nymph's scent is delightful, and her
3603 long robe glows, hemmed with golden threads and embroidered
3604 with rainbow hues of unearthly magnificence. A nymph's
3605 demeanour is graceful and charming, her mind quick and witty.
3608 Theseus felt her voice pulling him down into fathoms of
3609 sleep. The song was the skeleton of his dream, and the dream
3610 was full of terror. Demon girls were after him, and a bull-
3611 man was goring him. Everywhere there was blood. There was
3612 pain. There was fear. But his head was in the nymph's lap
3613 and her musk was about him, her voice weaving the dream. He
3614 knew then that she had been sent to tell him of something
3615 dreadful that was to happen to him later. Her song was a
3616 warning. But she had brought him a new kind of joy, one that
3617 made him see everything differently. The boy, who was to
3618 become a hero, suddenly knew then what most heroes learn
3619 later -- and some too late -- that joy blots suffering and
3620 that the road to nymphs is beset by monsters.
3621 [ The Minotaur, by Bernard Evslin ]
3623 A volcanic glass, homogeneous in texture and having a low water
3624 content, with a vitreous luster and a conchoidal fracture. The
3625 color is commonly black, but may be some shade of red or brown,
3626 and cut sections sometimes appear to be green. Like other
3627 volcanic glasses, obsidian is a lava that has cooled too quickly
3628 for the contained minerals to crystallize. In chemical
3629 composition it is rich in silica and similar to granite. It is
3630 favored by primitive peoples for knives, arrowheads, spearheads,
3631 and other weapons and tools.
3632 [ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ]
3634 Also called Sigtyr (god of Victory), Val-father (father of
3635 the slain), One-Eyed, Hanga-god (god of the hanged), Farma-
3636 god (god of cargoes), Hapta-god (god of prisoners), and
3637 Othin. He is the prime god of the Norsemen: god of war and
3638 victory, wisdom and prophecy, poetry, the dead, air and wind,
3639 hospitality, and magic.
3640 As the god of war and victory, Odin is ruler of the Valkyries,
3641 warrior-maidens who lived in the halls of Valhalla in Asgard,
3642 the hall of dead heroes where he held his court.
3643 These chosen ones will defend the realm of the gods against
3644 the Frost Giants on the final day of reckoning, Ragnarok.
3645 As god of the wind, Odin rides through the air on his eight-
3646 footed horse, Sleipnir, wielding Gungner, his spear, normally
3647 accompanied by his ravens, Hugin and Munin, who he would also
3649 As a god of hospitality, he enjoys visiting the earth in
3650 disguise to see how people were behaving and to see how they
3651 would treat him, not knowing who he was.
3652 Odin is usually represented as a one-eyed wise old man with a
3653 long white beard and a wide-brimmed hat (he gave one of his
3654 eyes to Mimir, the guardian of the well of wisdom in Hel, in
3655 exchange for a draught of knowledge).
3657 Anyone who has met a gluttonous, nude, angry ogre, will not
3658 easily forget this encounter -- if he survives it at all.
3659 Both male and female ogres can easily grow as tall as three
3660 metres. Build and facial expressions would remind one of a
3661 Neanderthal. Its small, pointy, keen teeth are striking.
3662 Since ogres avoid direct sunlight, their ragged, unfurry
3663 skin is as white as a sheet. They enjoy coating their body
3664 with lard and usually wear nothing but a loin-cloth. An elf
3665 would smell its rancid stench at ten metres distance.
3666 Ogres are solitary creatures: very rarely one may encounter
3667 a female with two or three young. They are the only real
3668 carnivores among the humanoids, and its favourite meal is --
3669 not surprisingly -- human flesh. They sometimes ally with
3670 orcs or goblins, but only when they anticipate a good meaty
3672 [ het Boek van de Regels; Het Oog des Meesters ]
3674 During our watches below we overhauled our clothes, and made
3675 and mended everything for bad weather. Each of us had made
3676 for himself a suit of oil-cloth or tarpaulin, and these we
3677 got out, and gave thorough coatings of oil or tar, and hung
3678 upon the stays to dry. Our stout boots, too, we covered
3679 over with a thick mixture of melted grease and tar. Thus we
3680 took advantage of the warm sun and fine weather of the
3681 Pacific to prepare for its other face.
3682 [ Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana ]
3684 Summer passed all too quickly. On the last day of camp, Mr.
3685 Brickle called his counselors together and paid them what he
3686 owed them. Louis received one hundred dollars - the first
3687 money he had ever earned. He had no wallet and no pockets,
3688 so Mr. Brickle placed the money in a waterproof bag that had
3689 a drawstring. He hung this moneybag around Louis' neck,
3690 along with the trumpet, the slate, the chalk pencil, and the
3692 [ The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White ]
3694 But at the end of the Third Age a troll-race not before seen
3695 appeared in southern Mirkwood and in the mountain borders of
3696 Mordor. Olog-hai they were called in the Black Speech. That
3697 Sauron bred them none doubted, though from what stock was not
3698 known. Some held that they were not Trolls but giant Orcs;
3699 but the Olog-hai were in fashion of body and mind quite unlike
3700 even the largest of Orc-kind, whom they far surpassed in size
3701 and power. Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will
3702 of their master: a fell race, strong, agile, fierce and
3703 cunning, but harder than stone. Unlike the older race of the
3704 Twilight they could endure the Sun.... They spoke little,
3705 and the only tongue they knew was the Black Speech of Barad-dur.
3706 [ The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
3710 Delphi under towering Parnassus, where Apollo's oracle was,
3711 plays an important part in mythology. Castalia was its
3712 sacred spring; Cephissus its river. It was held to be the
3713 center of the world, so many pilgrims came to it, from
3714 foreign countries as well as Greece. No other shrine rivaled
3715 it. The answers to the questions asked by the anxious
3716 seekers for Truth were delivered by a priestess who went into
3717 a trance before she spoke.
3718 [ Mythology, by Edith Hamilton ]
3721 What was the fruit like? Unfortunately, no one can describe
3722 a taste. All I can say is that, compared with those fruits,
3723 the freshest grapefruit you've ever eaten was dull, and the
3724 juiciest orange was dry, and the most melting pear was hard
3725 and woody, and the sweetest wild strawberry was sour. And
3726 there were no seeds or stones, and no wasps. If you had once
3727 eaten that fruit, all the nicest things in this world would
3728 taste like medicines after it. But I can't describe it. You
3729 can't find out what it is like unless you can get to that
3730 country and taste it for yourself.
3731 [ The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis ]
3733 This Orb is a crystal ball of exceptional powers. When
3734 carried, it grants ESP, limits damage done by spells, and
3735 protects the carrier from magic missiles. When invoked it
3736 allows the carrier to become invisible.
3738 Some say that Odin himself created this ancient crystal ball,
3739 although others argue that Loki created it and forged Odin's
3740 signature on the bottom. In any case, it is a powerful
3741 artifact. Anyone who carries it is granted the gift of
3742 warning, and damage, both spell and physical, is partially
3743 absorbed by the orb itself. When invoked it has the power
3744 to teleport the invoker between levels.
3747 The Great Goblin gave a truly awful howl of rage when he
3748 looked at it, and all his soldiers gnashed their teeth,
3749 clashed their shields, and stamped. They knew the sword at
3750 once. It had killed hundreds of goblins in its time, when
3751 the fair elves of Gondolin hunted them in the hills or did
3752 battle before their walls. They had called it Orcrist,
3753 Goblin-cleaver, but the goblins called it simply Biter.
3754 They hated it and hated worse any one that carried it.
3755 [ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
3757 Orcus, Prince of the Undead, has a ram's head and a poison
3758 stinger. He is most feared, though, for his powerful magic
3759 abilities. His wand causes death to those he chooses.
3768 Orcs, bipeds with a humanoid appearance, are related to the
3769 goblins, but much bigger and more dangerous. The average orc
3770 is only moderately intelligent, has broad, muscled shoulders,
3771 a short neck, a sloping forehead and a thick, dark fur.
3772 Their lower eye-teeth are pointing forward, like a boar's.
3773 Female orcs are more lightly built and bare-chested. Not
3774 needing any clothing, they do like to dress in variegated
3775 apparels. Suspicious by nature, orcs live in tribes or
3776 hordes. They tend to live underground as well as above
3777 ground (but they dislike sunlight). Orcs can use all weapons,
3778 tools and armours that are used by men. Since they don't have
3779 the talent to fashion these themselves, they are constantly
3780 hunting for them. There is nothing a horde of orcs cannot
3782 [ het Boek van de Regels; Het Oog des Meesters ]
3785 Orion was the son of Neptune. He was a handsome giant and a
3786 mighty hunter. His father gave him the power of wading
3787 through the depths of the sea, or, as others say, of
3788 walking on its surface.
3790 He dwelt as a hunter with Diana (Artemis), with whom he
3791 was a favourite, and it is even said she was about to marry
3792 him. Her brother was highly displeased and often chid her,
3793 but to no purpose. One day, observing Orion wading through
3794 the sea with his head just above the water, Apollo pointed
3795 it out to his sister and maintained that she could not hit
3796 that black thing on the sea. The archer-goddess discharged
3797 a shaft with fatal aim. The waves rolled the dead body of
3798 Orion to the land, and bewailing her fatal error with many
3799 tears, Diana placed him among the stars, where he appears
3800 as a giant, with a girdle, sword, lion's skin, and
3801 club. Sirius, his dog, follows him, and the Pleiads fly
3803 [ Bulfinch's Mythology, by Thomas Bulfinch ]
3805 The osaku is a small tool for picking locks.
3807 Owlbears are probably the crossbreed creation of a demented
3808 wizard; given the lethal nature of this creation, it is quite
3809 likely the wizard who created them is no longer alive. As
3810 the name might already suggest, owlbears are a cross between
3811 a giant owl and a bear. They are covered with fur and
3814 A male servant or attendant; specifically, in chivalry,
3815 a lad or young man in training for knighthood, or a youth
3816 of gentle parentage attending a royal or princely personage.
3817 [ Webster's Comprehensive International Dictionary
3818 of the English Language ]
3820 _Pallium._ The Roman name for a square woollen cloak worn
3821 by men in ancient Greece, especially by philosophers and
3822 courtesans, corresponding to the Roman toga. Hence the
3823 Greeks called themselves _gens palliata,_ and the Romans
3824 called themselves _gens togata._
3825 [ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
3827 And lo! almost where the ascent began,
3828 A panther light and swift exceedingly,
3829 Which with a spotted skin was covered o'er!
3831 And never moved she from before my face,
3832 Nay, rather did impede so much my way,
3833 That many times I to return had turned.
3834 [ Dante's Inferno, as translated
3835 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]
3837 Some players, who unconsciously perceive Paper as weak or a
3838 sign of surrender, will shy away from using it entirely or
3839 drop it from their game when they are falling behind. On the
3840 other hand, Paper also connects with a player's perceptions
3841 about writing. There is a quiet power in the printed word.
3842 It has the ability to lay off thousands of employees, declare
3843 war against nations, spread scandal or confess love. Paper,
3844 in short, has power over masses. The fate of the entire world
3845 is determined by print. As such, some players perceive Paper
3846 as a subtle attack, the victory of modern culture over barbarism.
3847 Such players may use Paper to assert their superiority and dignity.
3848 [ The Official Rock Paper Scissors Strategy Guide,
3849 by Douglas and Graham Walker ]
3851 Conan cried out sharply and recoiled, thrusting his companion
3852 back. Before them rose the great shimmering white form of Satha,
3853 an ageless hate in its eyes. Conan tensed himself for one mad
3854 berserker onslaught -- to thrust the glowing faggot into that
3855 fiendish countenance and throw his life into the ripping sword-
3856 stroke. But the snake was not looking at him. It was glaring
3857 over his shoulder at the man called Pelias, who stood with his
3858 arms folded, smiling. And in the great, cold, yellow eyes
3859 slowly the hate died out in a glitter of pure fear -- the only
3860 time Conan ever saw such an expression in a reptile's eyes.
3861 With a swirling rush like the sweep of a strong wind, the great
3863 "What did he see to frighten him?" asked Conan, eyeing his
3865 "The scaled people see what escapes the mortal eye," answered
3866 Pelias cryptically. "You see my fleshy guise, he saw my naked
3868 [ Conan the Usurper, by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp ]
3871 The mine is full of holes;
3872 With the wound of pickaxes.
3873 But look at the goldsmith's store.
3874 There, there is gold everywhere.
3875 [ Divan-i Kebir Meter 2, by Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi ]
3877 Ye Piercer doth look like unto a stalactyte, and hangeth
3878 from the roofs of caves and caverns. Unto the height of a
3879 man, and thicker than a man's thigh do they grow, and in
3880 groups do they hang. If a creature doth pass beneath them,
3881 they will by its heat and noise perceive it, and fall upon
3882 it to kill and devour it, though in any other way they move
3884 [ the Bestiary of Xygag ]
3886 They live in "schools." Many times they will wait for prey
3887 to come to the shallow water of the river. Then the large
3888 group of piranhas will attack. These large groups are able
3889 to kill large animals... Their lower teeth fit perfectly
3890 into the spaces of their upper teeth, creating a tremendous
3891 vice-like bite... Piranhas are attracted to any disturbance
3893 [ http://www.animalsoftherainforest.com ]
3896 Amid the thought of the fiery destruction that impended, the
3897 idea of the coolness of the well came over my soul like balm.
3898 I rushed to its deadly brink. I threw my straining vision
3899 below. The glare from the enkindled roof illumined its inmost
3900 recesses. Yet, for a wild moment, did my spirit refuse to
3901 comprehend the meaning of what I saw. At length it forced --
3902 it wrestled its way into my soul -- it burned itself in upon my
3903 shuddering reason. Oh! for a voice to speak! -- oh! horror! --
3904 oh! any horror but this!
3905 [ The Pit and the Pendulum, by Edgar Allan Poe ]
3907 Pit fiends are among the more powerful of devils, capable of
3908 attacking twice with weapons as well as grabbing and crushing
3909 the life out of those unwary enough to enter their
3911 platinum yendorian express card
3912 This is an ancient artifact made of an unknown material. It
3913 is rectangular in shape, very thin, and inscribed with
3914 unreadable ancient runes. When carried, it grants the one
3915 who carries it ESP, and reduces all spell induced damage done to
3916 the carrier by half. It also protects from magic missile
3917 attacks. Finally, its power is such that when invoked, it
3918 can charge other objects.
3919 # playing style, rather vague topic but these quotes are too apt to pass up
3926 Or else your life's blood,
3928 [ The White Road, by Neil Gaiman ]
3930 People think I'm crazy to worry all the time;
3931 If you paid attention, you'd be worried too.
3932 You better pay attention, or this world we love so much
3933 Might just kill you.
3934 [ It's a Jungle Out There, by Randy Newman ]
3935 # [ theme song from "Monk" ]
3937 One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams,
3938 he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous
3939 verminous bug. He lay on his armour-hard back and saw, as he
3940 lifted his head up a little, his brown, arched abdomen divided
3941 up into rigid bow-like sections. From this height the blanket,
3942 just about ready to slide off completely, could hardly stay in
3943 place. His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the
3944 rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes.
3945 [ The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka,
3946 translated by Ian Johnston ]
3948 Hey! now! Come hoy now! Whither do you wander?
3949 Up, down, near or far, here, there or yonder?
3950 Sharp-ears, Wise-nose, Swish-tail and Bumpkin,
3951 White-socks my little lad, and old Fatty Lumpkin!
3954 Tom called them one by one and they climbed over the brow and
3955 stood in a line. Then Tom bowed to the hobbits.
3957 "Here are your ponies, now!" he said. "They've more sense (in some
3958 ways) than you wandering hobbits have -- more sense in their noses.
3959 For they sniff danger ahead which you walk right into; and if they
3960 run to save themselves, then they run the right way."
3961 [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
3963 Portals can be Mirrors, Pictures, Standing Stones, Stone
3964 Circles, Windows, and special gates set up for the purpose.
3965 You will travel through them both to distant parts of the
3966 continent and to and from our own world. The precise manner
3967 of their working is a Management secret.
3968 [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
3970 Poseido(o)n, lord of the seas and father of rivers and
3971 fountains, was the son of Chronos and Rhea, brother of Zeus,
3972 Hades, Hera, Hestia and Demeter. His rank of ruler of the
3973 waves he received by lot at the Council Meeting of the Gods,
3974 at which Zeus took the upper world for himself and gave
3975 dominion over the lower world to Hades.
3976 Poseidon is associated in many ways with horses and thus is
3977 the god of horses. He taught men how to ride and manage the
3978 animal he invented and is looked upon as the originator and
3979 guardian deity of horse races.
3980 His symbol is the familiar trident or three-pronged spear
3981 with which he can split rocks, cause or quell storms, and
3982 shake the earth, a power which makes him the god of
3983 earthquakes as well. Physically, he is shown as a strong and
3984 powerful ruler, every inch a king.
3985 [ The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends of All Nations,
3986 by Herbert Robinson and Knox Wilson ]
3990 POTABLE, n. Suitable for drinking. Water is said to be
3991 potable; indeed, some declare it our natural beverage,
3992 although even they find it palatable only when suffering
3993 from the recurrent disorder known as thirst, for which it
3994 is a medicine. Upon nothing has so great and diligent
3995 ingenuity been brought to bear in all ages and in all
3996 countries, except the most uncivilized, as upon the
3997 invention of substitutes for water. To hold that this
3998 general aversion to that liquid has no basis in the
3999 preservative instinct of the race is to be unscientific --
4000 and without science we are as the snakes and toads.
4001 [ The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce ]
4003 Jack Burton: What's in the flask, Egg? Magic potion?
4005 Jack: I thought so, good. What do we do? Drink it?
4007 Jack: Good, I thought so.
4009 Jack: This does what again, exactly?
4010 Egg: Huge buzz! [drinks] Oh good! See things no
4011 one else can see, do things no one else can do.
4012 [ Big Trouble in Little China, directed by
4013 John Carpenter, written by Gary Goldman &
4014 David Z. Weinstein, adaptation by W. D. Richter ]
4016 Whatever a man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every
4017 prayer reduces itself to this: Great God, grant that twice
4019 [ Fathers and Sons, by Ivan Turgenev ]
4023 [...] For the two priests were talking exactly like priests,
4024 piously, with learning and leisure, about the most aerial
4025 enigmas of theology. The little Essex priest spoke the more
4026 simply, with his round face turned to the strengthening stars;
4027 the other talked with his head bowed, as if he were not even
4028 worthy to look at them. But no more innocently clerical
4029 conversation could have been heard in any white Italian cloister
4030 or black Spanish cathedral. The first he heard was the tail of
4031 one of Father Brown's sentences, which ended: "... what they
4032 really meant in the Middle Ages by the heavens being
4033 incorruptible." The taller priest nodded his bowed head and
4034 said: "Ah, yes, these modern infidels appeal to their reason;
4035 but who can look at those millions of worlds and not feel that
4036 there may well be wonderful universes above us where reason is
4037 utterly unreasonable?"
4038 [ The Innocence of Father Brown, by G.K. Chesterton ]
4044 Whose side are you on?
4045 That would be telling. We want information ...
4048 By hook or by crook, we will.
4053 I am not a number! I am a free man!
4054 [ The Prisoner, by Patrick McGoohan ]
4056 Known under various names (Nu, Neph, Cenubis, Amen-Kneph,
4057 Khery-Bakef), Ptah is the creator god and god of craftsmen.
4058 He is usually depicted as wearing a closely fitting robe
4059 with only his hands free. His most distinctive features are
4060 the invariable skull-cap exposing only his face and ears,
4061 and the _was_ or rod of domination which he holds,
4062 consisting of a staff surmounted by the _ankh_ symbol of
4063 life. He is otherwise symbolized by his sacred animal, the
4066 A gargantuan version of the harmless rain-worm, the purple
4067 worm poses a huge threat to the ordinary adventurer. It is
4068 known to swallow whole and digest its victims within only a
4069 few minutes. These worms are always on guard, sensitive
4070 to the most minute vibrations in the earth, but may also
4071 be awakened by a remote shriek.
4073 At first glance around the corner, I thought it was another
4074 cockatrice. I had encountered the wretched creatures two or
4075 three times since leaving the open area. I quickly ducked my
4076 head back and considered what to do next. My heart had begun
4077 to thump audibly as I patted my pack to make sure I still had
4078 the dead lizards at close reach. A check of my attire showed
4079 no obvious holes or damage. I had to keep moving. One deep
4080 breath, and a count of three, two, one, and around the corner
4081 I bolted. But it was no cockatrice! I felt a sudden intense
4082 searing of the skin around my face, and flames began to leap
4083 from my pack. I tossed it to the ground, and quickly retreated
4084 back, around that corner, desperately striving to get out of
4087 A monstrous serpent in Greek mythology, and the child of Gaia,
4088 the goddess earth. It was produced from the slime and mud
4089 that was left on the earth by the great flood of Deucalion.
4090 It lived in a cave and guarded the oracle of Delphi on mount
4093 No man dared to approach the beast and the people asked Apollo
4094 for help. He came down from Mount Olympus with his silver bow
4095 and golden arrows. With using only one arrow he killed the
4096 serpent and claimed the oracle for himself. ... The old name of
4097 Delphi, Pytho, refers to the serpent.
4098 [ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
4100 The woodlands and other regions are inhabited by multitudes
4101 of four-legged creatures which cannot be simply classified.
4102 They might not have fiery breath or deadly stings, but
4103 adventurers have nevertheless met their end numerous times
4104 due to the claws, hooves, or bites of such animals.
4106 These creatures are not native to this universe; they seem
4107 to have strangely derived powers, and unknown motives.
4110 _Uncertainty Principle_ The principle that it is not possible
4111 to know with unlimited accuracy both the position and momentum
4112 of a particle. ... An explanation of the uncertainty is that
4113 in order to locate a particle exactly, an observer must be
4114 able to bounce off it a photon of radiation; this act of
4115 location itself alters the position of the particle
4116 in an unpredictable way. To locate the position accurately,
4117 photons of short wavelength would have to be used. The high
4118 momentum of such photons would cause a large effect on the
4119 position. On the other hand, using photons of lower momenta
4120 would have less effect on the particle's position, but would
4121 be less accurate because of the lower wavelength.
4122 [ A Concise Dictionary of Physics ]
4124 Quasits are small, evil creatures, related to imps. Their
4125 talons release a very toxic poison when used in an attack.
4127 Many, possibly most, Tours are organized as a Quest. This
4128 is like a large-scale treasure hunt, with clues scattered
4129 all over the continent, a few false leads, Mystical Masters
4130 as game-show hosts, and the Dark Lord and the Terrain to
4131 make the Quest interestingly difficult. [...]
4132 In order to be assured of your future custom, the Management
4133 has a further Rule: Tourists, far from being rewarded for
4134 achieving their Quest Object, must then go on to conquer
4135 the Dark Lord or set about Saving the World, or both. And
4136 why not? By then you will have had a lot of practice in
4137 that sort of thing and, besides, the Quest Object is usually
4138 designed to help you do it.
4139 [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
4141 One of the principal Aztec-Toltec gods was the great and wise
4142 Quetzalcoatl, who was called Kukumatz in Guatemala, and
4143 Kukulcan in Yucatan. His image, the plumed serpent, is found
4144 on both the oldest and the most recent Indian edifices. ...
4145 The legend tells how the Indian deity Quetzalcoatl came from
4146 the "Land of the Rising Sun". He wore a long white robe and
4147 had a beard; he taught the people crafts and customs and laid
4148 down wise laws. He created an empire in which the ears of
4149 corn were as long as men are tall, and caused bolls of colored
4150 cotton to grow on cotton plants. But for some reason or other
4151 he had to leave his empire. ... But all the legends of
4152 Quetzalcoatl unanimously agree that he promised to come again.
4153 [ Gods, Graves, and Scholars, by C. W. Ceram ]
4155 Maltar: [...] I remembered a little saying I learned my
4156 first day at the academy.
4157 Natalie: Yeah, yeah, I know. Winners never quit and quitters
4159 Maltar: What? No! Winners never quit and quitters should
4160 be cast into the Flaming Pit of Death.
4161 [ Snow Day, directed by Chris Koch,
4162 written by Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi ]
4165 The Japanese god of thunder (rai) and lightning (den). He
4166 prevented the Mongols from invading Japan in 1274. Sitting on
4167 a cloud he sent forth a shower of lightning arrows upon the
4168 invading fleet. Only three men escaped. Raiden is portrayed
4169 as a red demon with sharp claws, carrying a large drum. He is
4170 fond of eating human navels. The only protection against him
4171 is to hide under a mosquito net.
4172 [ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
4175 "Lonely men are we, Rangers of the wild, hunters -- but hunters
4176 ever of the servants of the Enemy; for they are found in many
4177 places, not in Mordor only.
4178 If Gondor, Boromir, has been a stalwart tower, we have played
4179 another part. Many evil things there are that your strong walls
4180 and bright swords do not stay. You know little of the lands
4181 beyond your bounds. Peace and freedom, do you say? The North
4182 would have known them little but for us. Fear would have
4183 destroyed them. But when dark things come from the houseless
4184 hills, or creep from sunless woods, they fly from us. What
4185 roads would any dare to tread, what safety would there be in
4186 quiet lands, or in the homes of simple men at night, if the
4187 Dunedain were asleep, or were all gone into the grave?"
4188 [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
4191 Rats are long-tailed rodents. They are aggressive,
4192 omnivorous, and adaptable, often carrying diseases.
4195 "The rat," said O'Brien, still addressing his invisible
4196 audience, "although a rodent, is carnivorous. You are aware
4197 of that. You will have heard of the things that happen in
4198 the poor quarters of this town. In some streets a woman dare
4199 not leave her baby alone in the house, even for five minutes.
4200 The rats are certain to attack it. Within quite a small time
4201 they will strip it to the bones. They also attack sick or
4202 dying people. They show astonishing intelligence in knowing
4203 when a human being is helpless."
4204 [ 1984, by George Orwell ]
4206 But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
4207 That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
4208 Nothing further then he uttered -- not a feather then he fluttered--
4209 Till I scarcely more than muttered, 'other friends have flown before--
4210 On the morrow *he* will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
4211 Then the bird said, 'Nevermore.'
4212 [ The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe ]
4217 Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
4218 Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
4219 Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
4220 One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,
4221 In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
4222 One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
4223 One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
4224 In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
4225 [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
4226 ring of invisibility
4227 "When time came for the shepherds to hold their customary
4228 assembly in order to prepare their monthly report to the king
4229 about the state of the flocks, he came too, wearing this ring.
4230 While he was sitting with the others, it chanced that he moved
4231 the collet of the ring around toward himself into the inside of
4232 his hand; having done this, he disappeared from the sight of
4233 those who were sitting beside him, and they discussed of him as
4234 of someone who had left. And he wondered and once again feeling
4235 for the ring, he turned the collet outwards and, by turning it,
4236 reappeared. Reflecting upon this, he put the ring to the test
4237 to see if it indeed had such power, and he came to this
4238 conclusion that, by turning the collet inwards, he became
4239 invisible, outwards, visible. Having perceived this, he at
4240 once managed for himself to become one of the envoys to the
4241 king; upon arrival, having seduced his wife, with her help,
4242 he laid a hand on the king, murdered him and took hold of the
4244 [ The Republic, by Plato, translated by James Adam ]
4246 Robes are the only garments, apart from Shirts, ever to have
4247 sleeves. They have three uses:
4248 1. As the official uniform of Priests, Priestesses, Monks,
4249 Nuns (see Nunnery), and Wizards. The OMT [ Official Management
4250 Term ] prescribed for the Robes of Priests and Nuns is that
4251 they _fall in severe folds_; of Priestesses that they _float_;
4252 and of Wizards that they _swirl_. You can thus see who you
4254 2. For Kings. The OMT here is _falling in stately folds_.
4255 3. As the garb of Desert Nomads. [...]
4256 [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
4258 Bilbo saw that the moment had come when he must do something.
4259 He could not get up at the brutes and he had nothing to shoot
4260 with; but looking about he saw that in this place there were
4261 many stones lying in what appeared to be a now dry little
4262 watercourse. Bilbo was a pretty fair shot with a stone, and
4263 it did not take him long to find a nice smooth egg-shaped one
4264 that fitted his hand cosily. As a boy he used to practise
4265 throwing stones at things, until rabbits and squirrels, and
4266 even birds, got out of his way as quick as lightning if they
4267 saw him stoop; and even grownup he had still spent a deal of
4268 his time at quoits, dart-throwing, shooting at the wand,
4269 bowls, ninepins and other quiet games of the aiming and
4270 throwing sort - indeed he could do lots of things, besides
4271 blowing smoke-rings, asking riddles and cooking, that I
4272 haven't time to tell you about. There is no time now. While
4273 he was picking up stones, the spider had reached Bombur, and
4274 soon he would have been dead. At that moment Bilbo threw.
4275 The stone struck the spider plunk on the head, and it dropped
4276 senseless off the tree, flop to the ground, with all its legs
4278 [ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
4280 A rock mole is a member of the rodent family. They get their
4281 name from their ability to tunnel through rock in the same
4282 fashion that a mole tunnels through earth. They are known to
4283 eat anything they come across in their diggings, although it
4284 is still unknown how they convert some of these things into
4285 something of nutritional value.
4287 A gnawing mammal (order _Rodentia_) having in each jaw two
4288 (rarely four) incisors, growing continually from persistent
4289 pulps, and no canine teeth, as a squirrel, beaver, or rat.
4290 [ Webster's Comprehensive International Dictionary
4291 of the English Language ]
4294 I understand the business, I hear it: to have an open ear, a
4295 quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cut-purse; a
4296 good nose is requisite also, to smell out work for the other
4297 senses. I see this is the time that the unjust man doth
4298 thrive. ... The prince himself is about a piece of iniquity,
4299 stealing away from his father with his clog at his heels: if
4300 I thought it were a piece of honesty to acquaint the king
4301 withal, I would not do't: I hold it the more knavery to
4302 conceal it; and therein am I constant to my profession.
4303 [ Autolycus the Rogue, from The Winter's Tale by
4304 William Shakespeare ]
4306 Roshi is a Japanese word, common in Zen Buddhism, meaning "old"
4307 (ro) and "teacher" (shi). Roshi can be used as a term of
4308 respect, as in the Rinzai school; as a simple reference to
4309 actual age, as in the Soto school; or it can mean a teacher who
4310 has transmitted knowledge to, and thus "given birth" to, a new
4312 [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
4314 The rothe (pronounced roth-AY) is a musk ox-like creature with
4315 an aversion to light. It prefers to live underground near
4318 "'Royal Jelly,'" he read aloud, "'must be a substance of
4319 tremendous nourishing power, for on this diet alone, the
4320 honey-bee larva increases in weight fifteen hundred times in
4325 "Fifteen hundred times, Mabel. And you know what that means
4326 if you put it in terms of a human being? It means," he said,
4327 lowering his voice, leaning forward, fixing her with those
4328 small pale eyes, "it means that in five days a baby weighing
4329 seven and a half pounds to start off with would increase in
4330 weight to five tons!"
4331 [ Royal Jelly, by Roald Dahl ]
4334 _Corundum._ Mineral, aluminum oxide, Al2O3. The clear
4335 varieties are used as gems and the opaque as abrasive materials.
4336 Corundum occurs in crystals of the hexagonal system and in
4337 masses. It is transparent to opaque and has a vitreous to
4338 adamantine luster. ... The chief corundum gems are the ruby
4339 (red) and the sapphire (blue).
4340 [ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ]
4342 These strange creatures live on a diet of metals. They can
4343 turn a suit of armour into so much useless rusted scrap in no
4345 # takes "rust monster or disenchanter" when specifying 'R'
4346 rust monster or disenchanter
4347 These ground-dwelling monsters are known to make short
4348 work out of degrading adventurers' combat equipment.
4351 Flashed all their sabres bare,
4352 Flashed as they turned in air,
4353 Sab'ring the gunners there,
4354 Charging an army, while
4355 All the world wondered:
4356 Plunged in the battery smoke,
4357 Right through the line they broke;
4359 Reeled from the sabre-stroke
4360 Shattered and sundered.
4361 Then they rode back, but not--
4362 Not the six hundred.
4363 [ The Charge of the Light Brigade,
4364 by Alfred, Lord Tennyson ]
4366 The horseman serves the horse,
4367 The neat-herd serves the neat,
4368 The merchant serves the purse,
4369 The eater serves his meat;
4370 'Tis the day of the chattel,
4371 Web to weave, and corn to grind,
4372 Things are in the saddle,
4374 [ Ode, by Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
4378 For hundreds of years, many people believed that salamanders
4379 were magical. In England in the Middle Ages, people thought
4380 that fire created salamanders. When they set fire to damp
4381 logs, dozens of the slimy creatures scurried out. The word
4382 salamander, in fact, comes from a Greek word meaning "fire
4384 [ Salamanders, by Cherie Winner ]
4387 By that time, Narahara had already slipped his arm from the
4388 sleeve of his outer robe, drew out his two-and-a-half-foot
4389 Fujiwara Tadahiro sword, and, brandishing it over his head,
4390 began barreling toward the foreigners. In less than a minute,
4391 he had charged upon them and cut one of them through the torso.
4392 The man fled, clutching his bulging guts, finally to fall from
4393 his horse at the foot of a pine tree about a thousand yards
4394 away. Kaeda Takeji finished him off. The other two Englishmen
4395 were severely wounded as they tried to flee. Only the woman
4396 managed to escape virtually unscathed.
4397 [ The Fox-horse, from Drunk as a Lord, by Ryotaro Shiba ]
4399 Ildefonse left the terrace and almost immediately sounds
4400 of contention came from the direction of the work-room.
4401 Ildefonse presently returned to the terrace, followed by
4402 Osherl and a second sandestin using the guise of a gaunt blue
4403 bird-like creature, some six feet in height.
4405 Ildefonse spoke in scathing tones: "Behold these two
4406 creatures! They can roam the chronoplex as easily as you
4407 or I can walk around the table; yet neither has the wit to
4408 announce his presence upon arrival. I found Osherl asleep
4409 in his fulgurite and Sarsem perched in the rafters."
4411 "No matter," said Rhialto. "He has brought Sarsem, and this
4412 was his requirement. In the main, Osherl, you have done well!"
4414 "And my indenture point?"
4416 "Much depends upon Sarsem's testimony. Sarsem, will you sit?"
4418 "In this guise, I find it more convenient to stand."
4420 "Then why not alter to human form and join us in comfort at
4423 "That is a good idea." Sarsem became a naked young epicene
4424 in an integument of lavender scales with puffs of purple hair
4425 like pom-poms growing down his back. He seated himself at
4426 the table but declined refreshment. "This human semblance,
4427 though typical, is after all, only a guise. If I were to put
4428 such things inside myself, I might well become uneasy."
4429 [ Rhialto the Marvellous, by Jack Vance ]
4431 The name _Sasquatch_ doesn't really become important in Canada
4432 until the 1930s, when it appeared in the works of J. W. Burns,
4433 a British Columbian writer who used a great deal of Indian
4434 lore in his stories. Burn's Sasquatch was a giant Indian who
4435 lived in the wilderness. He was hairy only in the sense that
4436 he had long hair on his head, and while this Sasquatch lived a
4437 wild and primitive life, he was fully human.
4438 Burns's character proved to be quite popular. There was a
4439 Sasquatch Inn near the town of Harrison, British Columbia, and
4440 Harrison even had a local celebration called "Sasquatch Days."
4441 The celebration which had been dormant for years was revived
4442 as part of British Columbia's centennial, and one of the
4443 events was to be a Sasquatch hunt. The hunt never took place,
4444 perhaps it was never supposed to, but the publicity about it
4445 did bring out a number of people who said they had encountered
4446 a Sasquatch -- not Burns's giant Indian, but the hairy apelike
4447 creature that we have all come to know.
4448 [ The Encyclopedia of Monsters, by Daniel Cohen ]
4450 A scalpel is a very sharp knife used for surgery ... Merely
4451 touching a medical scalpel with bare hands to test it will
4452 cut through the skin. ... Medical scalpel blades are gradually
4453 curved for greater precision when cutting through tissue.
4454 [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
4456 This mace was created aeons ago in some unknown cave,
4457 and has been passed down from generation to generation of
4458 cave dwellers. It is a very mighty mace indeed, and in
4459 addition will protect anyone who wields it from magic
4460 missile attacks. When invoked, it causes conflict in the
4463 Oh, how handsome, how noble was the Vizier Ali Tebelin,
4464 my father, as he stood there in the midst of the shot, his
4465 scimitar in his hand, his face black with powder! How his
4466 enemies fled before him!
4467 [ The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas ]
4469 A sub-species of the spider (_Scorpionidae_), the scorpion
4470 distinguishes itself from them by having a lower body that
4471 ends in a long, jointed tail tapering to a poisonous stinger.
4472 They have eight legs and pincers.
4473 [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
4475 Since early times, the Scorpion has represented death, darkness,
4476 and evil. Scorpius is the reputed slayer of Orion the Hunter.
4477 [...] The gods put both scorpion and hunter among the stars, but
4478 on opposite sides of the sky so they would never fight again.
4479 As Scorpius rises in the east, Orion sets in the west.
4480 [ 365 Starry Nights, by Chet Raymo ]
4483 And I was gazing on the surges prone,
4484 With many a scalding tear and many a groan,
4485 When at my feet emerg'd an old man's hand,
4486 Grasping this scroll, and this same slender wand.
4487 I knelt with pain--reached out my hand--had grasp'd
4488 Those treasures--touch'd the knuckles--they unclasp'd--
4489 I caught a finger: but the downward weight
4490 O'erpowered me--it sank. Then 'gan abate
4491 The storm, and through chill aguish gloom outburst
4492 The comfortable sun. I was athirst
4493 To search the book, and in the warming air
4494 Parted its dripping leaves with eager care.
4495 Strange matters did it treat of, and drew on
4496 My soul page after page, till well-nigh won
4497 Into forgetfulness; when, stupefied,
4498 I read these words, and read again, and tried
4499 My eyes against the heavens, and read again.
4500 [ Endymion, by John Keats ]
4503 The ancient Egyptian god of chaos (Set), the embodiment of
4504 hostility and even of outright evil. He is also a god of war,
4505 deserts, storms, and foreign lands. ... In the Book of the
4506 Dead, Seth is called "Lord of the Northern Sky" and is held
4507 responsible for storms and cloudy weather. ... Seth was
4508 portrayed as a man with the head of undeterminable origin,
4509 although some see in it the head of an aardvark. He had a
4510 curved snout, erect square-tipped ears and a long forked tail.
4511 He was sometimes entirely in animal form with the body similar
4512 to that of a greyhound. Animals sacred to this god were the
4513 dog, the jackal, the gazelle, the donkey, the crocodile, the
4514 hippopotamus, and the pig.
4515 [ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
4517 Shades are undead creatures. They differ from zombies in
4518 that a zombie is an undead animation of a corpse, while a
4519 shade is an undead creature magically created by the use
4522 Making his quarters in the Caves of the Ancestors, Shaman
4523 Karnov unceasingly tries to shield his neanderthal people
4524 from Tiamat's minions' harassments.
4526 The Chinese god of Mountains and Seas, also the name of an
4527 old book (also Shan Hai Tjing), the book of mountains and
4528 seas - which deals with the monster Kung Kung trying to
4529 seize power from Yao, the fourth emperor.
4530 [ Spectrum Atlas van de Mythologie ]
4532 As the shark moved, its dark top reflected virtually no
4533 light. The denticles on its skin muted the whoosh of its
4534 movements as the shark rose, driven by the power of the
4535 great tail sweeping from side to side, like a scythe.
4536 The fish exploded upward.
4537 Charles Bruder felt a slight vacuum tug in the motion of
4538 the sea, noted it as a passing current, the pull of a wave,
4539 the tickle of undertow. He could not have heard the faint
4540 sucking rush of water not far beneath him. He couldn't
4541 have seen or heard what was hurtling from the murk at
4542 astonishing speed, jaws unhinging, widening, for the
4543 enormous first bite. It was the classic attack
4544 that no other creature in nature could make -- a bomb from
4546 [ Close to Shore, by Michael Capuzzo ]
4548 A Japanese stabbing knife.
4550 There have been three general theories put forward to explain
4551 the phenomenon of the wandering shops or, as they are
4552 generically known, _tabernae vagantes._
4553 The first postulates that many thousands of years ago there
4554 evolved somewhere in the multiverse a race whose single talent
4555 was to buy cheap and sell dear. Soon they controlled a vast
4556 galactic empire or, as they put it, Emporium, and the more
4557 advanced members of the species found a way to equip their very
4558 shops with unique propulsion units that could break the dark
4559 walls of space itself and open up vast new markets. And long
4560 after the worlds of the Emporium perished in the heat death of
4561 their particular universe, after one last defiant fire sale,
4562 the wandering starshops still ply their trade, eating their way
4563 through the pages of spacetime like a worm through a three-
4565 The second is that they are the creation of a sympathetic Fate,
4566 charged with the role of supplying exactly the right thing
4568 The third is that they are simply a very clever way of getting
4569 around the various Sunday Closing acts.
4570 All these theories, diverse as they are, have two things in
4571 common. They explain the observed facts, and they are
4572 completely and utterly wrong.
4573 [ The Light Fantastic, by Terry Pratchett ]
4575 With a single, savage thrust of her spear, the warrior-woman
4576 impaled the fungus, silencing it. However, it was too late:
4577 the alarm had been raised[...]
4578 Suddenly, a large, dark shape rose from the abyss before them,
4579 its fetid bulk looming overhead... The monster was some kind of
4580 great dark worm, but that was about all they were sure of.
4581 [ The Adventurers, Epic IV, by Thomas A. Miller ]
4584 You know, that's what I hate most about fighting against magic:
4585 you never know what they're trying to do to you until it hits.
4586 The sorceress knew what hit her, however. Two of the shuriken
4587 got past whatever defenses she had. One caught her just below
4588 the throat, the other in the middle of her chest. It wouldn't
4589 kill her, but she wouldn't be fighting anyone for a while.
4590 [ Jhereg, by Steven Brust ]
4592 A skeleton is a magically animated undead creature. Unlike
4593 shades, only a humanoid creature can be used to create a
4594 skeleton. No one knows why this is true, but it has become
4595 an accepted fact amongst the practitioners of the black arts.
4597 "That dog belonged to a settler who tried to build his cabin
4598 on the bank of the river a few miles south of the fort,"
4599 grunted Conan. ... "We took him to the fort and dressed his
4600 wounds, but after he recovered he took to the woods and turned
4601 wild. -- What now, Slasher, are you hunting the men who
4602 killed your master?" ... "Let him come," muttered Conan.
4603 "He can smell the devils before we can see them." ...
4604 Slasher cleared the timbers with a bound and leaped into the
4605 bushes. They were violently shaken and then the dog slunk
4606 back to Balthus' side, his jaws crimson. ... "He was a man,"
4607 said Conan. "I drink to his shade, and to the shade of the
4608 dog, who knew no fear." He quaffed part of the wine, then
4609 emptied the rest upon the floor, with a curious heathen
4610 gesture, and smashed the goblet. "The heads of ten Picts
4611 shall pay for this, and seven heads for the dog, who was a
4612 better warrior than many a man."
4613 [ Conan The Warrior, by Robert E Howard ]
4615 Sleep is a death; oh, make me try
4616 By sleeping, what it is to die,
4617 And as gently lay my head
4618 On my grave, as now my bed.
4619 [ Religio Medici, by Sir Thomas Browne ]
4621 Science fiction did not invent the slime molds, but it has
4622 borrowed from them in using the idea of sheets of liquid, flowing
4623 cytoplasm engulfing and dissolving every living thing they touch.
4624 What fiction can only imagine, nature has produced, and only their
4625 small size and dependence on coolness, moisture, and darkness has
4626 kept the slime molds from ordinary observation, for they are common
4628 [ Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1977 ]
4630 And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and
4631 drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward
4632 the army to meet the Philistine.
4633 And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone,
4634 and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that
4635 the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face
4637 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with
4638 a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there
4639 was no sword in the hand of David.
4640 [ 1 Samuel 17:48-50 ]
4645 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field
4646 which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea,
4647 hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
4648 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of
4649 the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is
4650 in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of
4651 it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent
4652 said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth
4653 know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
4654 opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And
4655 when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it
4656 was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one
4657 wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also
4658 unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
4660 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou
4661 hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I
4662 did eat. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou
4663 hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above
4664 every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and
4665 dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put
4666 enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
4667 seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
4668 [ Genesis 3:1-6,13-15 ]
4670 Ah, never shall I forget the cry,
4671 or the shriek that shrieked he,
4672 As I gnashed my teeth, and from my sheath
4673 I drew my Snickersnee!
4674 --Koko, Lord high executioner of Titipu
4675 [ The Mikado, by Sir W.S. Gilbert ]
4677 Sokoban (Japanese for "warehouse keeper") is a transport puzzle
4678 in which the player pushes boxes around a maze, viewed from
4679 above, and tries to put them in designated locations. Only one
4680 box may be pushed at a time, not two, and boxes cannot be pulled.
4681 As the puzzle would be extremely difficult to create physically,
4682 it is usually implemented as a video game.
4684 Sokoban was created in 1982 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, and was
4685 published by Thinking Rabbit, a software house based in
4686 Takarazuka, Japan. Thinking Rabbit also released three sequels:
4687 Boxxle, Sokoban Perfect and Sokoban Revenge.
4688 [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
4693 The soldiers of Yendor are well-trained in the art of war,
4694 many trained by the Wizard himself. Some say the soldiers
4695 are explorers who were unfortunate enough to be captured,
4696 and put under the Wizard's spell. Those who have survived
4697 encounters with soldiers say they travel together in platoons,
4698 and are fierce fighters. Because of the load of their combat
4699 gear, however, one can usually run away from them, and doing
4700 so is considered a wise thing.
4703 - they come together with great random, and a spear is brast,
4704 and one party brake his shield and the other one goes down,
4705 horse and man, over his horse-tail and brake his neck, and
4706 then the next candidate comes randoming in, and brast his
4707 spear, and the other man brast his shield, and down he goes,
4708 horse and man, over his horse-tail, and brake his neck, and
4709 then there's another elected, and another and another and
4710 still another, till the material is all used up; and when you
4711 come to figure up results, you can't tell one fight from
4712 another, nor who whipped; and as a picture of living, raging,
4713 roaring battle, sho! why it's pale and noiseless - just
4714 ghosts scuffling in a fog. Dear me, what would this barren
4715 vocabulary get out of the mightiest spectacle? - the burning
4716 of Rome in Nero's time, for instance? Why, it would merely
4717 say 'Town burned down; no insurance; boy brast a window,
4718 fireman brake his neck!' Why, that ain't a picture!
4719 [ A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,
4722 The Book of Three lay closed on the table. Taran had never
4723 been allowed to read the volume for himself; now he was sure
4724 it held more than Dallben chose to tell him. In the sun-
4725 filled room, with Dallben still meditating and showing no
4726 sign of stopping, Taran rose and moved through the shimmering
4727 beams. From the forest came the monotonous tick of a beetle.
4728 His hands reached for the cover. Taran gasped in pain and
4729 snatched them away. They smarted as if each of his fingers
4730 had been stung by hornets. He jumped back, stumbled against
4731 the bench, and dropped to the floor, where he put his fingers
4732 woefully into his mouth.
4733 Dallben's eyes blinked open. He peered at Taran and yawned
4734 slowly. "You had better see Coll about a lotion for those
4735 hands," he advised. "Otherwise, I shouldn't be surprised if
4737 [ The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander ]
4739 Eight legged creature capable of spinning webs to trap prey.
4742 "You mean you eat flies?" gasped Wilbur.
4743 "Certainly. Flies, bugs, grasshoppers, choice beetles,
4744 moths, butterflies, tasty cockroaches, gnats, midges, daddy
4745 longlegs, centipedes, mosquitoes, crickets - anything that is
4746 careless enough to get caught in my web. I have to live,
4748 "Why, yes, of course," said Wilbur.
4749 [ Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White ]
4752 The attack by those who want to die -- this is the attack
4753 against which you cannot prepare a perfect defense.
4755 [ The Dosadi Experiment, by Frank Herbert ]
4757 A floorboard creaked. Galder had spent many hours tuning them,
4758 always a wise precaution with an ambitious assistant who walked
4760 D flat. That meant he was just to the right of the door.
4761 "Ah, Trymon," he said, without turning, and noted with some
4762 satisfaction the faint indrawing of breath behind him. "Good
4763 of you to come. Shut the door, will you?"
4764 [ The Light Fantastic, by Terry Pratchett ]
4767 So they stood, each in his place, neither moving a finger's
4768 breadth back, for one good hour, and many blows were given
4769 and received by each in that time, till here and there were
4770 sore bones and bumps, yet neither thought of crying "Enough,"
4771 or seemed likely to fall from off the bridge. Now and then
4772 they stopped to rest, and each thought that he never had seen
4773 in all his life before such a hand at quarterstaff. At last
4774 Robin gave the stranger a blow upon the ribs that made his
4775 jacket smoke like a damp straw thatch in the sun. So shrewd
4776 was the stroke that the stranger came within a hair's breadth
4777 of falling off the bridge; but he regained himself right
4778 quickly, and, by a dexterous blow, gave Robin a crack on the
4779 crown that caused the blood to flow. Then Robin grew mad
4780 with anger, and smote with all his might at the other; but
4781 the stranger warded the blow, and once again thwacked Robin,
4782 and this time so fairly that he fell heels over head into the
4783 water, as the queen pin falls in a game of bowls.
4784 [ The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle ]
4785 *staff of aesculapius
4786 This staff is considered sacred to all healers, as it truly
4787 holds the powers of life and death. When wielded, it
4788 protects its user from all life draining attacks, and
4789 additionally gives the wielder the power of regeneration.
4790 When invoked it performs healing magic.
4792 Up he went -- very quickly at first -- then more slowly -- then
4793 in a little while even more slowly than that -- and finally,
4794 after many minutes of climbing up the endless stairway, one
4795 weary foot was barely able to follow the other. Milo suddenly
4796 realized that with all his effort he was no closer to the top
4797 than when he began, and not a great deal further from the
4798 bottom. But he struggled on for a while longer, until at last,
4799 completely exhausted, he collapsed onto one of the steps.
4800 "I should have known it," he mumbled, resting his tired legs
4801 and filling his lungs with air. "This is just like the line
4802 that goes on forever, and I'll never get there."
4803 "You wouldn't like it much anyway," someone replied gently.
4804 "Infinity is a dreadfully poor place. They can never manage to
4806 [ The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster ]
4808 Dr. Ray Stantz: Hey, where do those stairs go?
4809 Dr. Peter Venkman: They go up.
4810 [ Ghostbusters, directed by Ivan Reitman,
4811 written by Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis ]
4814 Then at last he began to wonder why the lion was standing so
4815 still - for it hadn't moved one inch since he first set eyes
4816 on it. Edmund now ventured a little nearer, still keeping in
4817 the shadow of the arch as much as he could. He now saw from
4818 the way the lion was standing that it couldn't have been
4819 looking at him at all. ("But supposing it turns its head?"
4820 thought Edmund.) In fact it was staring at something else -
4821 namely a little dwarf who stood with his back to it about
4822 four feet away. "Aha!" thought Edmund. "When it springs at
4823 the dwarf then will be my chance to escape." But still the
4824 lion never moved, nor did the dwarf. And now at last Edmund
4825 remembered what the others had said about the White Witch
4826 turning people into stone. Perhaps this was only a stone
4827 lion. And as soon as he had thought of that he noticed that
4828 the lion's back and the top of its head were covered with
4829 snow. Of course it must be only a statue!
4830 [ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis ]
4832 There was the usual dim grey light of the forest-day about
4833 him when he came to his senses. The spider lay dead beside
4834 him, and his sword-blade was stained black. Somehow the
4835 killing of the giant spider, all alone and by himself in the
4836 dark without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of
4837 anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins. He felt
4838 a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of
4839 an empty stomach, as he wiped his sword on the grass and put
4840 it back into its sheath.
4841 "I will give you a name," he said to it, "and I shall call
4843 [ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
4845 There were sounds in the distance, incongruent with the
4846 sounds of even this nameless, timeless sea: thin sounds,
4847 agonized and terrible, for all that they remained remote -
4848 yet the ship followed them, as if drawn by them; they grew
4849 louder - pain and despair were there, but terror was
4851 Elric had heard such sounds echoing from his cousin Yyrkoon's
4852 sardonically named 'Pleasure Chambers' in the days before he
4853 had fled the responsibilities of ruling all that remained of
4854 the old Melnibonean Empire. These were the voices of men
4855 whose very souls were under siege; men to whom death meant
4856 not mere extinction, but a continuation of existence, forever
4857 in thrall to some cruel and supernatural master. He had
4858 heard men cry so when his salvation and his nemesis, his
4859 great black battle-blade Stormbringer, drank their souls.
4860 [ The Lands Beyond the World, by Michael Moorcock ]
4862 He walked for some time through a long narrow corridor
4863 without finding any one and was just going to call out,
4864 when suddenly in a dark corner between an old cupboard
4865 and the door he caught sight of a strange object which
4867 [ Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky ]
4869 Dorothy leaned her chin upon her hand and gazed thoughtfully
4870 at the Scarecrow. Its head was a small sack stuffed with
4871 straw, with eyes, nose, and mouth painted on it to represent
4872 a face. An old, pointed blue hat, that had belonged to some
4873 Munchkin, was perched on his head, and the rest of the figure
4874 was a blue suit of clothes, worn and faded, which had also
4875 been stuffed with straw. On the feet were some old boots with
4876 blue tops, such as every man wore in this country, and the
4877 figure was raised above the stalks of corn by means of the
4878 pole stuck up its back.
4879 [ The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum ]
4881 What you seek is a blade of light,
4882 a weapon for vengeance.
4883 [ Expedition to Castle Ravenloft,
4884 by Bruce Cordell and James Wyatt ]
4886 The Shinto chthonic and weather god and brother of the sun
4887 goddess Amaterasu, he was born from the nose of the
4888 primordial creator god Izanagi and represents the physical,
4889 material world. He has been expelled from heaven and taken
4890 up residence on earth.
4891 [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
4893 Samurai plate armor of the Yamato period (AD 300 - 710).
4895 The tengu was the most troublesome creature of Japanese
4896 legend. Part bird and part man, with red beak for a nose
4897 and flashing eyes, the tengu was notorious for stirring up
4898 feuds and prolonging enmity between families. Indeed, the
4899 belligerent tengu were supposed to have been man's first
4900 instructors in the use of arms.
4901 [ Mythical Beasts, by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) ]
4903 The Egyptian god of the moon and wisdom, Thoth is the patron
4904 deity of scribes and of knowledge, including scientific,
4905 medical and mathematical writing, and is said to have given
4906 mankind the art of hieroglyphic writing. He is important as
4907 a mediator and counsellor amongst the gods and is the scribe
4908 of the Heliopolis Ennead pantheon. According to mythology,
4909 he was born from the head of the god Seth. He may be
4910 depicted in human form with the head of an ibis, wholly as an
4911 ibis, or as a seated baboon sometimes with its torso covered
4912 in feathers. His attributes include a crown which consists
4913 of a crescent moon surmounted by a moon disc.
4914 Thoth is generally regarded as a benign deity. He is also
4915 scrupulously fair and is responsible not only for entering
4916 in the record the souls who pass to afterlife, but of
4917 adjudicating in the Hall of the Two Truths. The Pyramid
4918 Texts reveal a violent side of his nature by which he
4919 decapitates the adversaries of truth and wrenches out their
4921 [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
4923 Men say that he [Thutothmes] has opposed Thoth-Amon, who is
4924 master of all priests of Set, and dwells in Luxor, and that
4925 Thutothmes seeks hidden power [The Heart of Ahriman] to
4926 overthrow the Great One.
4927 [ Conan the Conqueror, by Robert E. Howard ]
4929 Methought I saw the footsteps of a throne
4930 Which mists and vapours from mine eyes did shroud--
4931 Nor view of who might sit thereon allowed;
4932 But all the steps and ground about were strown
4933 With sights the ruefullest that flesh and bone
4934 Ever put on; a miserable crowd,
4935 Sick, hale, old, young, who cried before that cloud,
4937 O Death! to thee we groan."
4938 Those steps I clomb; the mists before me gave
4939 Smooth way; and I beheld the face of one
4940 Sleeping alone within a mossy cave,
4941 With her face up to heaven; that seemed to have
4942 Pleasing remembrance of a thought foregone;
4943 A lovely Beauty in a summer grave!
4944 [ Sonnet, by William Wordsworth ]
4946 A worshipper of Kali, who practised _thuggee_, the strangling
4947 of human victims in the name of the religion. Robbery of the
4948 victim provided the means of livelihood. They were also
4949 called _Phansigars_ (Noose operators) from the method employed.
4950 Vigorous suppression was begun by Lord William Bentinck in
4951 1828, but the fraternity did not become completely extinct
4952 for another 50 years or so.
4953 In common parlance the word is used for any violent "tough".
4954 [ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
4956 1. A well-known tropical predator (_Felis tigris_): a
4957 feline. It has a yellowish skin with darker spots or
4958 stripes. 2. Figurative: _a paper tiger_, something that is
4959 meant to scare, but has no really scaring effect whatsoever,
4960 (after a statement by Mao Ze Dong, August 1946).
4961 [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
4963 Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
4964 In the forests of the night,
4965 What immortal hand or eye
4966 Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
4967 [ The Tyger, by William Blake ]
4971 "You know salmon, Sarge," said Nobby.
4972 "It is a fish of which I am aware, yes."
4973 "You know they sell kind of slices of it in tins..."
4974 "So I am given to understand, yes."
4975 "Weell...how come all the tins are the same size? Salmon
4976 gets thinner at both ends."
4977 "Interesting point, Nobby. I think-"
4978 [ Soul Music, by Terry Pratchett ]
4980 Less than thirty Cat tribes now survived, roaming the cargo
4981 decks on their hind legs in a desperate search for food.
4982 But the food had gone.
4983 The supplies were finished.
4984 Weak and ailing, they prayed at the supply hold's silver
4985 mountains: huge towering acres of metal rocks which, in their
4986 pagan way, the mutant Cats believed watched over them.
4987 Amid the wailing and the screeching one Cat stood up and held
4988 aloft the sacred icon. The icon which had been passed down
4989 as holy, and one day would make its use known.
4990 It was a piece of V-shaped metal with a revolving handle on
4992 He took down a silver rock from the silver mountain, while
4993 the other Cats cowered and screamed at the blasphemy.
4994 He placed the icon on the rim of the rock, and turned the
4996 And the handle turned.
4997 And the rock opened.
4998 And inside the rock was Alphabetti spaghetti in tomato sauce.
4999 [ Red Dwarf, by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor ]
5001 Gaea, mother earth, arose from the Chaos and gave birth to
5002 Uranus, heaven, who became her consort. Uranus hated all
5003 their children, because he feared they might challenge his
5004 own authority. Those children, the Titans, the Gigantes,
5005 and the Cyclops, were banished to the nether world. Their
5006 enraged mother eventually released the youngest titan,
5007 Chronos (time), and encouraged him to castrate his father and
5008 rule in his place. Later, he too was challenged by his own
5009 son, Zeus, and he and his fellow titans were ousted from
5011 [ Greek Mythology, by Richard Patrick ]
5013 Aluminum silicate mineral with either hydroxyl radicals or
5014 fluorine, Al2SiO4(F,OH)2, used as a gem. It is commonly
5015 colorless or some shade of pale yellow to wine-yellow;
5016 ... The stone is transparent with a vitreous luster. It has
5017 perfect cleavage on the basal pinacoid, but it is nevertheless
5018 hard and durable. The brilliant cut is commonly used. Topaz
5019 crystals, which are of the orthorhombic system, occur in highly
5020 acid igneous rocks, e.g., granites and rhyolites, and in
5021 metamorphic rocks, e.g., gneisses and schists.
5022 [ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ]
5024 "Gold is tried by a touchstone, men by gold."
5025 [ Chilon (c. 560 BC) ]
5028 The road from Ankh-Morpork to Chrim is high, white and
5029 winding, a thirty-league stretch of potholes and half-buried
5030 rocks that spirals around mountains and dips into cool green
5031 valleys of citrus trees, crosses liana-webbed gorges on
5032 creaking rope bridges and is generally more picturesque than
5034 Picturesque. That was a new word to Rincewind the wizard
5035 (BMgc, Unseen University [failed]). It was one of a number
5036 he had picked up since leaving the charred ruins of
5037 Ankh-Morpork. Quaint was another one. Picturesque meant --
5038 he decided after careful observation of the scenery that
5039 inspired Twoflower to use the word -- that the landscape was
5040 horribly precipitous. Quaint, when used to describe the
5041 occasional village through which they passed, meant fever-
5042 ridden and tumbledown.
5043 Twoflower was a tourist, the first ever seen on the discworld.
5044 Tourist, Rincewind had decided, meant "idiot".
5045 [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
5047 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say
5048 on the subject of towels.
5049 A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing
5050 an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great
5051 practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as
5052 you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie
5053 on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus
5054 V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it
5055 beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world
5056 of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy
5057 River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it
5058 round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze
5059 of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mind-bogglingly
5060 stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't
5061 see you - daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can
5062 wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of
5063 course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean
5065 [ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams ]
5068 Towers (_brooding_, _dark_) stand alone in Waste Areas and
5069 almost always belong to Wizards. All are several stories high,
5070 round, doorless, virtually windowless, and composed of smooth
5071 blocks of masonry that make them very hard to climb. [...]
5072 You will have to go to a Tower and then break into it at some
5073 point towards the end of your Tour.
5074 [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
5076 I knew my Erik too well to feel at all comfortable on jumping
5077 into his house. I knew what he had made of a certain palace at
5078 Mazenderan. From being the most honest building conceivable, he
5079 soon turned it into a house of the very devil, where you could
5080 not utter a word but it was overheard or repeated by an echo.
5081 With his trap-doors the monster was responsible for endless
5082 tragedies of all kinds.
5083 [ The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux ]
5084 # takes "trapper or lurker above" when specifying 't'
5086 trapper or lurker above
5087 The trapper is a creature which has evolved a chameleon-like
5088 ability to blend into the dungeon surroundings. It captures
5089 its prey by remaining very still and blending into the
5090 surrounding dungeon features, until an unsuspecting creature
5091 passes by. It wraps itself around its prey and digests it.
5093 I think that I shall never see
5094 A poem lovely as a tree.
5095 A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
5096 Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
5097 A tree that looks at God all day,
5098 And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
5099 A tree that may in Summer wear
5100 A nest of robins in her hair;
5101 Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
5102 Who intimately lives with rain.
5103 Poems are made by fools like me,
5104 But only God can make a tree.
5105 [ Trees, by Joyce Kilmer ]
5108 If you start from scratch, cooking tripe is a long-drawn-out
5109 affair. Fresh whole tripe calls for a minimum of 12 hours of
5110 cooking, some time-honored recipes demanding as much as 24.
5111 To prepare fresh tripe, trim if necessary. Wash it thoroughly,
5112 soaking overnight, and blanch, for 1/2 hour in salted water.
5113 Wash well again, drain and cut for cooking. When cooked, the
5114 texture of tripe should be like that of soft gristle. More
5115 often, alas, because the heat has not been kept low enough,
5116 it has the consistency of wet shoe leather.
5117 [ Joy of Cooking, by I Rombauer and M Becker ]
5119 The troll shambled closer. He was perhaps eight feet tall,
5120 perhaps more. His forward stoop, with arms dangling past
5121 thick claw-footed legs to the ground, made it hard to tell.
5122 The hairless green skin moved upon his body. His head was a
5123 gash of a mouth, a yard-long nose, and two eyes which drank
5124 the feeble torchlight and never gave back a gleam.
5126 Like a huge green spider, the troll's severed hand ran on its
5127 fingers. Across the mounded floor, up onto a log with one
5128 taloned forefinger to hook it over the bark, down again it
5129 scrambled, until it found the cut wrist. And there it grew
5130 fast. The troll's smashed head seethed and knit together.
5131 He clambered back on his feet and grinned at them. The
5132 waning faggot cast red light over his fangs.
5133 [ Three Hearts and Three Lions, by Poul Anderson ]
5134 *tsurugi of muramasa
5135 This most ancient of swords has been passed down through the
5136 leadership of the Samurai legions for hundreds of years. It
5137 is said to grant luck to its wielder, but its main power is
5138 terrible to behold. It has the capability to cut in half any
5139 creature it is wielded against, instantly killing them.
5142 The tsurugi, also known as the long samurai sword, is an
5143 extremely sharp, two-handed blade favored by the samurai.
5144 It is made of hardened steel, and is manufactured using a
5145 special process, causing it to never rust. The tsurugi is
5146 rumored to be so sharp that it can occasionally cut
5150 TUBAL: There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my company
5151 to Venice that swear he cannot choose but break.
5152 SHYLOCK: I am very glad of it; I'll plague him, I'll torture
5153 him; I am glad of it.
5154 TUBAL: One of them showed me a ring that he had of your
5155 daughter for a monkey.
5156 SHYLOCK: Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal. It was my
5157 turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor; I would
5158 not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.
5159 [ The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare ]
5163 Twoflower sprang off the bed. The wizard jumped back,
5164 wrenching his features into a smile.
5165 "My dear chap, right on time! We'll just have lunch, and
5166 then I'm sure you've got a wonderful programme lined up for
5170 Rincewind took a deep breath. "Look," he said desperately,
5171 "let's eat somewhere else. There's been a bit of a fight
5173 "A tavern brawl? Why didn't you wake me up?"
5174 "Well, you see, I - _what_?"
5175 "I thought I made myself clear this morning, Rincewind. I
5176 want to see genuine Morporkian life - the slave market, the
5177 Whore Pits, the Temple of Small Gods, the Beggar's Guild...
5178 and a genuine tavern brawl." A faint note of suspicion
5179 entered Twoflower's voice. "You _do_ have them, don't you?
5180 You know, people swinging on chandeliers, swordfights over
5181 the table, the sort of thing Hrun the Barbarian and the
5182 Weasel are always getting involved in. You know --
5184 [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
5186 Yet remains that one of the Aesir who is called Tyr:
5187 he is most daring, and best in stoutness of heart, and he
5188 has much authority over victory in battle; it is good for
5189 men of valor to invoke him. It is a proverb, that he is
5190 Tyr-valiant, who surpasses other men and does not waver.
5191 He is wise, so that it is also said, that he that is wisest
5192 is Tyr-prudent. This is one token of his daring: when the
5193 Aesir enticed Fenris-Wolf to take upon him the fetter Gleipnir,
5194 the wolf did not believe them, that they would loose him,
5195 until they laid Tyr's hand into his mouth as a pledge. But
5196 when the Aesir would not loose him, then he bit off the hand
5197 at the place now called 'the wolf's joint;' and Tyr is one-
5198 handed, and is not called a reconciler of men.
5199 [ The Prose Edda, by Snorri Sturluson ]
5201 Umber hulks are powerful subterranean predators whose
5202 iron-like claws allow them to burrow through solid stone in
5203 search of prey. They are tremendously strong; muscles bulge
5204 beneath their thick, scaly hides and their powerful arms and
5205 legs all end in great claws.
5208 Men have always sought the elusive unicorn, for the single
5209 twisted horn which projected from its forehead was thought to
5210 be a powerful talisman. It was said that the unicorn had
5211 simply to dip the tip of its horn in a muddy pool for the water
5212 to become pure. Men also believed that to drink from this horn
5213 was a protection against all sickness, and that if the horn was
5214 ground to a powder it would act as an antidote to all poisons.
5215 Less than 200 years ago in France, the horn of a unicorn was
5216 used in a ceremony to test the royal food for poison.
5218 Although only the size of a small horse, the unicorn is a very
5219 fierce beast, capable of killing an elephant with a single
5220 thrust from its horn. Its fleetness of foot also makes this
5221 solitary creature difficult to capture. However, it can be
5222 tamed and captured by a maiden. Made gentle by the sight of a
5223 virgin, the unicorn can be lured to lay its head in her lap, and
5224 in this docile mood, the maiden may secure it with a golden rope.
5225 [ Mythical Beasts, by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) ]
5227 Martin took a small sip of beer. "Almost ready," he said.
5228 "You hold your beer awfully well."
5229 Tlingel laughed. "A unicorn's horn is a detoxicant. Its
5230 possession is a universal remedy. I wait until I reach the
5231 warm glow stage, then I use my horn to burn off any excess and
5232 keep me right there."
5233 [ Unicorn Variations, by Roger Zelazny ]
5235 Area of map which is beyond limited perception range when
5236 underwater or engulfed by a monster.
5239 The Valkyries were the thirteen choosers of the slain, the
5240 beautiful warrior-maids of Odin who rode through the air and
5241 over the sea. They watched the progress of the battle and
5242 selected the heroes who were to fall fighting. After they
5243 were dead, the maidens rewarded the heroes by kissing them
5244 and then led their souls to Valhalla, where the warriors
5245 lived happily in an ideal existence, drinking and eating
5246 without restraint and fighting over again the battles in
5247 which they died and in which they had won their deathless
5249 [ The Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends of All Nations,
5250 by Herbert Robinson and Knox Wilson ]
5254 The Oxford English Dictionary is quite unequivocal:
5255 _vampire_ - "a preternatural being of a malignant nature (in
5256 the original and usual form of the belief, a reanimated
5257 corpse), supposed to seek nourishment, or do harm, by sucking
5258 the blood of sleeping persons. ..."
5260 Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, was the daughter of
5261 Jupiter and Dione. Others say that Venus sprang from the
5262 foam of the sea. The zephyr wafted her along the waves to
5263 the Isle of Cyprus, where she was received and attired by
5264 the Seasons, and then led to the assembly of the gods. All
5265 were charmed with her beauty, and each one demanded her
5266 for his wife. Jupiter gave her to Vulcan, in gratitude for
5267 the service he had rendered in forging thunderbolts. So
5268 the most beautiful of the goddesses became the wife of the
5269 most ill-favoured of gods.
5270 [ Bulfinch's Mythology, by Thomas Bulfinch ]
5272 Vlad Dracula the Impaler was a 15th-Century monarch of the
5273 Birgau region of the Carpathian Mountains, in what is now
5274 Romania. In Romanian history he is best known for two things.
5275 One was his skilled handling of the Ottoman Turks, which kept
5276 them from making further inroads into Christian Europe. The
5277 other was the ruthless manner in which he ran his fiefdom.
5278 He dealt with perceived challengers to his rule by impaling
5279 them upright on wooden stakes. Visiting dignitaries who
5280 failed to doff their hats had them nailed to their head.
5283 Swirling clouds of pure elemental energies, the vortices are
5284 thought to be related to the larger elementals. Though the
5285 vortices do no damage when touched, they are noted for being
5286 able to envelop unwary travellers. The hapless fool thus
5287 swallowed by a vortex will soon perish from exposure to the
5288 element the vortex is composed of.
5290 The vrock is one of the weaker forms of demon. It resembles
5291 a cross between a human being and a vulture and does physical
5292 damage by biting and by using the claws on both its arms and
5295 A wakizashi was used as a samurai's weapon when the katana
5296 was unavailable. When entering a building, a samurai would
5297 leave his katana on a rack near the entrance. However, the
5298 wakizashi would be worn at all times, and therefore, it made
5299 a sidearm for the samurai (similar to a soldier's use of a
5300 pistol). The samurai would have worn it from the time they
5301 awoke to the time they went to sleep. In earlier periods,
5302 and especially during times of civil wars, a tanto was worn
5303 in place of a wakizashi.
5304 [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
5305 # takes "wand or a wall" when specifying '/'
5309 'Saruman!' he cried, and his voice grew in power and authority.
5310 'Behold, I am not Gandalf the Grey, whom you betrayed. I am
5311 Gandalf the White, who has returned from death. You have no
5312 colour now, and I cast you from the order and from the Council.'
5313 He raised his hand, and spoke slowly in a clear cold voice.
5314 'Saruman, your staff is broken.' There was a crack, and the
5315 staff split asunder in Saruman's hand, and the head of it
5316 fell down at Gandalf's feet. 'Go!' said Gandalf. With a cry
5317 Saruman fell back and crawled away.
5318 [ The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
5320 Suddenly Aragorn leapt to his feet. "How the wind howls!"
5321 he cried. "It is howling with wolf-voices. The Wargs have
5322 come west of the Mountains!"
5323 "Need we wait until morning then?" said Gandalf. "It is as I
5324 said. The hunt is up! Even if we live to see the dawn, who
5325 now will wish to journey south by night with the wild wolves
5327 "How far is Moria?" asked Boromir.
5328 "There was a door south-west of Caradhras, some fifteen miles
5329 as the crow flies, and maybe twenty as the wolf runs,"
5330 answered Gandalf grimly.
5331 "Then let us start as soon as it is light tomorrow, if we can,"
5332 said Boromir. "The wolf that one hears is worse than the orc
5334 "True!" said Aragorn, loosening his sword in its sheath. "But
5335 where the warg howls, there also the orc prowls."
5336 [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
5339 They had come together at the ford of the Trident while the
5340 battle crashed around them, Robert with his warhammer and his
5341 great antlered helm, the Targaryen prince armored all in
5342 black. On his breastplate was the three-headed dragon of his
5343 House, wrought all in rubies that flashed like fire in the
5344 sunlight. The waters of the Trident ran red around the
5345 hooves of their destriers as they circled and clashed, again
5346 and again, until at last a crushing blow from Robert's hammer
5347 stove in the dragon and the chest behind it. When Ned had
5348 finally come on the scene, Rhaegar lay dead in the stream,
5349 while men of both armies scrambled in the swirling waters for
5350 rubies knocked free of his armor.
5351 [ A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin ]
5353 Day after day, day after day,
5354 We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
5355 As idle as a painted ship
5356 Upon a painted ocean.
5358 Water, water, everywhere,
5359 And all the boards did shrink;
5360 Water, water, everywhere
5361 Nor any drop to drink.
5362 [ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge ]
5364 [ The monkey king ] walked along the bank, around the pond.
5365 He examined the footprints of the animals that had gone into
5366 the water, and saw that none came out again! So he realized
5367 this pond must be possessed by a water demon. He said to the
5368 80,000 monkeys, "This pond is possessed by a water demon. Do
5369 not let anybody go into it."
5371 After a little while, the water demon saw that none of the
5372 monkeys went into the water to drink. So he rose out of the
5373 middle of the pond, taking the shape of a frightening monster.
5374 He had a big blue belly, a white face with bulging green eyes,
5375 and red claws and feet. He said, "Why are you just sitting
5376 around? Come into the pond and drink at once!"
5378 The monkey king said to the horrible monster, "Are you the
5379 water demon who owns this pond?" "Yes, I am," said he. "Do
5380 you eat whoever goes into the water?" asked the king. "Yes,
5381 I do," he answered, "including even birds. I eat them all.
5382 And when you are forced by your thirst to come into the pond
5383 and drink, I will enjoy eating you, the biggest monkey, most
5384 of all!" He grinned, and saliva dripped down his hairy chin.
5385 [ Buddhist Tales for Young and Old, Vol. 1 ]
5387 A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind.
5388 [ The Vor Game, by Lois McMaster Bujold ]
5390 Oh what a tangled web we weave,
5391 When first we practise to deceive!
5392 [ Marmion, by Sir Walter Scott ]
5394 There were legends both on the front and on the back of the
5395 whistle. The one read thus:
5397 FLA FUR BIS FLE The other: QUIS EST ISTE QUI VENIT
5398 'I ought to be able to make it out,' he thought;
5399 'but I suppose I am a little rusty in my Latin.
5400 When I come to think of it, I don't believe I even
5401 know the word for a whistle. The long one does seem
5402 simple enough. It ought to mean, "Who is this who is coming?"
5404 Well, the best way to find out is evidently to whistle
5407 [Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, by Montague Rhodes James
5408 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You My Lad']
5409 # werecritter -- see "lycanthrope"
5411 When he came to himself again, for a moment he could recall
5412 nothing except a sense of dread. Then suddenly he knew that
5413 he was imprisoned, caught hopelessly; he was in a barrow. A
5414 Barrow-wight had taken him, and he was probably already under
5415 the dreadful spells of the Barrow-wights about which whispered
5416 tales spoke. He dared not move, but lay as he found himself:
5417 flat on his back upon a cold stone with his hands on his
5419 [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
5420 # note: need to convert player character "gnomish wizard" into just "wizard"
5421 # in the lookup code to avoid conflict with the monster of that same name
5426 Ebenezum walked before me along the closest thing we could
5427 find to a path in these overgrown woods. Every few paces he
5428 would pause, so that I, burdened with a pack stuffed with
5429 arcane and heavy paraphernalia, could catch up with his
5430 wizardly strides. He, as usual, carried nothing, preferring,
5431 as he often said, to keep his hands free for quick conjuring
5432 and his mind free for the thoughts of a mage.
5433 [ A Dealing with Demons, by Craig Shaw Gardner ]
5435 No one knows how old this mighty wizard is, or from whence he
5436 came. It is known that, having lived a span far greater than
5437 any normal man's, he grew weary of lesser mortals; and so,
5438 spurning all human company, he forsook the dwellings of men
5439 and went to live in the depths of the Earth. He took with
5440 him a dreadful artifact, the Book of the Dead, which is said
5441 to hold great power indeed. Many have sought to find the
5442 wizard and his treasure, but none have found him and lived to
5443 tell the tale. Woe be to the incautious adventurer who
5444 disturbs this mighty sorcerer!
5448 The ancestors of the modern day domestic dog, wolves are
5449 powerful muscular animals with bushy tails. Intelligent,
5450 social animals, wolves live in family groups or packs made
5451 up of multiple family units. These packs cooperate in hunting
5454 1. Any of various, usually poisonous perennial herbs of the
5455 genus Aconitum, having tuberous roots, palmately lobed leaves,
5456 blue or white flowers with large hoodlike upper sepals, and an
5457 aggregate of follicles. 2. The dried leaves and roots of
5458 some of these plants, which yield a poisonous alkaloid that
5459 was formerly used medicinally. In both senses also called
5461 [ The American Heritage Dictionary of
5462 the English Language, Fourth Edition. ]
5464 Come, old broomstick, you are needed,
5465 Take these rags and wrap them round you!
5466 Long my orders you have heeded,
5467 By my wishes now I've bound you.
5468 Have two legs and stand,
5470 Run, and in your hand
5473 See him, toward the shore he's racing
5474 There, he's at the stream already,
5475 Back like lightning he is chasing,
5476 Pouring water fast and steady.
5477 Once again he hastens!
5478 How the water spills,
5479 How the water basins
5480 Brimming full he fills!
5481 [ The Sorcerer's Apprentice, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
5482 translation by Edwin Zeydel ]
5484 The Usenet Oracle requires an answer to this question!
5486 > How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could
5489 "Oh, heck! I'll handle *this* one!" The Oracle spun the terminal
5490 back toward himself, unlocked the ZOT-guard lock, and slid the
5491 glass guard away from the ZOT key. "Ummmm....could you turn around
5492 for a minute? ZOTs are too graphic for the uninitiated. Even *I*
5493 get a little squeamish sometimes..." The neophyte turned around,
5494 and heard the Oracle slam his finger on a computer key, followed
5495 by a loud ZZZZOTTTTT and the smell of ozone.
5496 [ Excerpted from Internet Oracularity 576.6 ]
5501 [The crysknife] is manufactured in two forms from teeth taken
5502 from dead sandworms. The two forms are "fixed" and "unfixed".
5503 An unfixed knife requires proximity to a human body's
5504 electrical field to prevent disintegration. Fixed knives
5505 are treated for storage. All are about 20 centimeters long.
5506 [ Dune, by Frank Herbert ]
5509 Immediately, though everything else remained as before, dim
5510 and dark, the shapes became terribly clear. He was able to
5511 see beneath their black wrappings. There were five tall
5512 figures: two standing on the lip of the dell, three advancing.
5513 In their white faces burned keen and merciless eyes; under
5514 their mantles were long grey robes; upon their grey hairs
5515 were helms of silver; in their haggard hands were swords of
5516 steel. Their eyes fell on him and pierced him, as they
5517 rushed towards him. Desperate, he drew his own sword, and
5518 it seemed to him that it flickered red, as if it was a
5519 firebrand. Two of the figures halted. The third was taller
5520 than the others: his hair was long and gleaming and on his
5521 helm was a crown. In one hand he held a long sword, and in
5522 the other a knife; both the knife and the hand that held it
5523 glowed with a pale light. He sprang forward and bore down
5525 [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
5527 The Wumpus, by the way, is not bothered by the hazards since
5528 he has sucker feet and is too big for a bat to lift. If you
5529 try to shoot him and miss, there's also a chance that he'll
5530 up and move himself into another cave, though by nature the
5531 Wumpus is a sedentary creature.
5532 [ wump (6) -- "Hunt the Wumpus" ]
5534 _Wumpus yobgregorii_, in the flesh...
5535 Later, all you will be able to remember are its eyes. They
5536 are rich mud-brown, and they hold your own without effort.
5537 [ Hunter, In Darkness, by Andrew Plotkin ]
5539 They sent their friend the mosquito [xan] ahead of them to
5540 find out what lay ahead. "Since you are the one who sucks
5541 the blood of men walking along paths," they told the mosquito,
5542 "go and sting the men of Xibalba." The mosquito flew
5543 down the dark road to the Underworld. Entering the house of
5544 the Lords of Death, he stung the first person that he saw...
5546 The mosquito stung this man as well, and when he yelled, the
5547 man next to him asked, "Gathered Blood, what's wrong?" So
5548 he flew along the row stinging all the seated men until he
5549 knew the names of all twelve.
5550 [ Popul Vuh, as translated by Ralph Nelson ]
5552 A distant cousin of the earth elemental, the xorn has the
5553 ability to shift the cells of its body around in such a way
5554 that it becomes porous to inert material. This gives it the
5555 ability to pass through any obstacle that might be between it
5558 The arrow of choice of the samurai, ya are made of very
5559 straight bamboo, and are tipped with hardened steel.
5561 Yeenoghu, the demon lord of gnolls, still exists although
5562 all his followers have been wiped off the face of the earth.
5563 He casts magic projectiles at those close to him, and a mere
5564 gaze into his piercing eyes may hopelessly confuse the
5565 battle-weary adventurer.
5567 The Abominable Snowman, or yeti, is one of the truly great
5568 unknown animals of the twentieth century. It is a large hairy
5569 biped that lives in the Himalayan region of Asia ... The story
5570 of the Abominable Snowman is filled with mysteries great and
5571 small, and one of the most difficult of all is how it got that
5572 awful name. The creature is neither particularly abominable,
5573 nor does it necessarily live in the snows. _Yeti_ is a Tibetan
5574 word which may apply either to a real, but unknown animal of
5575 the Himalayas, or to a mountain spirit or demon -- no one is
5576 quite sure which. And after nearly half a century in which
5577 Westerners have trampled around looking for the yeti, and
5578 asking all sorts of questions, the original native traditions
5579 concerning the creature have become even more muddled and
5581 [ The Encyclopedia of Monsters, by Daniel Cohen ]
5583 Japanese leather archery gloves. Gloves made for use while
5584 practicing had thumbs reinforced with horn. Those worn into
5585 battle had thumbs reinforced with a double layer of leather.
5587 The samurai is highly trained with a special type of bow,
5588 the yumi. Like the ya, the yumi is made of bamboo. With
5589 the yumi-ya, the bow and arrow, the samurai is an extremely
5590 accurate and deadly warrior.
5592 The zombi... is a soulless human corpse, still dead, but
5593 taken from the grave and endowed by sorcery with a
5594 mechanical semblance of life, -- it is a dead body which is
5595 made to walk and act and move as if it were alive.
5598 The zruty are wild and gigantic beings, living in the
5599 wildernesses of the Tatra mountains.