With one foot on the Crommal set and one on Mount Cromleach, The waters of the Lubar stream his giant hand could reach. Translation of the Gaelic.

=Fiona,= a series of traditionary old Irish poems on the subject of Fion M’Comnal and the heroes connected with him.

=Fionnua´la,= daughter of Lir. Being transformed into a swan, she was doomed to wander over the lakes and rivers of Ireland till the Irish became Christians, but the sound of the first mass bell in the island was to be the signal of her release.

Silent, O Moyle, be the roar of thy water [_County Tyrone_] ... While murmuring mournfully Lir’s lonely daughter Tells to the night-star her tale of woes. When shall the “Swan,” her death-note singing, Sleep with wings in darkness furled? When will heaven, its sweet “bell” ringing, Call my spirit from this stormy world? T. Moore, Irish Melodies, iv. (“The Song of Fionnuala”).

=Fips= (Mr.), a sedate, mysterious personage, living in an office in Austin Friars (London). He is employed by some unknown benefactor (either John Westlock or old Martin Chuzzlewit) to engage Tom Pinch at a weekly salary as librarian to the Temple Library.—C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

=Fir-bolg= (i.e. bowmen, from bolg, “a quiver”), a colony of Belgæ from Britain, led by Larthon to Ireland and settled in the southern parts of the island. Their chief was called “lord of Atha” (a country of Connaught), and thence Ireland was called Bolga. Somewhat later a colony of Caledonians from the western coast of Scotland settled in the northern parts of Ireland, and made Ulster their headquarters. When Crotha was “lord of Atha” he carried off Conlama (daughter of the Cael chief) by force, and a general war between the two races ensued. The Cael were reduced to the last extremity, and sent to Trathal (grandfather of Fingal) for aid. Trathal accordingly sent over Conar with an army, and on his reaching Ulster he was made “king of the Cael” by acclamation. He utterly subdued the Fir-bolg, and assumed the title of “king of Ireland;” but the Fir-bolg often rose in insurrection, and made many attempts to expel the race of Conar.—Ossian.

=Fire-Brand of France= (The) John duke of Bedford, regent of France (1389-1435).

John, duke of Bedford, styled the “Firebrand of France.”

Drayton, Polyolbion xviii. (1613.)

=Firouz Schah=, son and heir of the king of Persia. One New Year’s Day an Indian brought to the king an enchanted horse, which would convey the rider almost instantaneously anywhere he might wish to go to; and asked as the price thereof, the king’s daughter for his wife. Prince Firouz, mounting the horse to try it, was carried to Bengal, and there fell in love with the princess, who accompanied him back to Persia on the horse. When the king saw his son arrive safe and sound he dismissed the Indian discourteously; but the Indian caught up the princess, and, mounting the horse, conveyed her to Cashmere. She was rescued by the sultan of Cashmere, who cut off the Indian’s head and proposed marriage himself to the princess. To avoid this alliance, the princess pretended to be mad. The sultan sent for his physicians, but they could suggest no cure. At length came one who promised to cure the lady; it was Prince Firouz in disguise. He told the sultan that the princess had contracted enchantment from the horse and must be set on it to disenchant her. Accordingly, she was set on the horse, and while Firouz caused a thick cloud of smoke to rise, he mounted with the lady through the air, saying as he did so, “Sultan of Cashmere, when you would espouse a princess who craves your protection, first learn to obtain her consent.”—Arabian Nights (“The Enchanted Horse”).

=First Gentleman of Europe=, George IV. (1762, 1820-1830).

Louis d’Artois of France was so called also.

The “First Gentleman of Europe” had not yet quite lost his once elegant figure.—E. Yates, Celebrities xvii.

=First Grenadier of France.= Latour d’Auverge was so called by Napoleon (1743-1800.)

=First Love=, a comedy by Richard Cumberland (1796.) Frederick Mowbray’s first love, being dowerless, marries the wealthy Lord Ruby, who soon dies leaving all his fortune to his widow. In the meantime, Frederick goes abroad, and at Padua falls in with Sabina Rosny, who nurses him through a severe sickness, for which he thinks he is bound in honor to marry her. She comes with him to England, and is placed under the charge of Lady Ruby. Sabina tells Lady Ruby she cannot marry Frederick, because she is married already to Lord Sensitive, and even if it were not so, she could not marry him, for all his affections are with Lady Ruby; this she discovers in the delirium of the young man, when his whole talk was about her ladyship. In the end Lord Sensitive avows himself the husband of Sabina, and Frederick marries his first love.

=Fish.=

He eats no fish, that is “he is no papist,” “he is an honest man or one to be trusted.” In the reign of Queen Elizabeth papists were the enemies of the government, and hence one who did not eat fish, like a papist, on fast days was considered a Protestant and a friend of the government.

I do profess ... to serve him truly that will put me in trust ... and to eat no fish.—Shakespeare, King Lear, act i. sc. 4 (1605).

=Fish and the Ring=.

1. Polycrătês, being too fortunate, was advised to cast away something he most highly prized, and threw into the sea an engraved gem of great value. A few days afterwards a fish came to his table, and in it was this very gem.—Herodotus, iii. 40.

2. A certain queen, having formed an illicit attachment to a soldier, gave him a ring which had been the present of her husband. The king, being apprised thereof, got possession of the ring while the soldier was asleep, threw it into the sea, and then asked his queen to bring it him. In great alarm, she went to St. Kentigern and told him everything. The saint went to the Clyde, caught a salmon with the ring in its mouth, and gave it to the queen, who thus saved her character and her husband. This legend is told about the Glasgow arms.

3. The arms of dame Rebecca Berry, wife of Sir Thomas Elton, Stratford-le-Bow, to be seen at St. Dunstan’s Church, Stepney. The tale is that a knight, hearing the cries of a woman in labor, knew that the infant was destined to become his wife. He tried to elude his destiny, and, when the infant had grown to womanhood, threw a ring into the sea, commanding the damsel never to see his face again till she could produce the ring which he had cast away. In a few days a cod-fish was caught, and the ring was found in its mouth. The young woman producing the ring, the marriage was duly solemnized.—Romance of London.

=Fisher= (Ralph), assistant of Roland Græme, at Avenel Castle.—Sir W. Scott, The Abbot (time, Elizabeth).

Fishers (The). Grandpa and Grandma Fisher live with daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in “The Ark” at Cedar-swamp. Grandpa is a retired sea-captain with a talent for tedious stories and a temper that is occasionally frayed. Grandma’s face has, “besides large physical proportions, generosity, whole-heartedness and a world of sympathy.” Both sleep in church, but grandma wakes up first, and arouses her husband with an adroit pin. He starts and looks guilty. She “opens her eyes at regular intervals,” as though she had merely been closing them to engage in a few moments of silent prayer.—Sally Pratt McLean Green, Cape Cod Folks (1881).

=Fitz-Boo´dle= (George), a pseudonym assumed by Thackeray in Frazer’s Magazine (1811-1863).

=Fitz-Fulke= (Hebe, duchess of), a “gracious graceful, graceless grace” (canto xvi. 49), staying with Lord and Lady Amundeville (4 syl.), while Don Juan “the Russian envoy” was their guest. Don Juan fancied he saw in the night the apparition of a monk, which produced such an effect on his looks and behavior as to excite attention. When the cause of his peturbation was known, Lady Adeline sang to him a tale purporting to explain the apparition; but “her frolic grace” at night personated the ghost to carry on the joke. She was, however, discovered by Don Juan, who was resolved to penetrate the mystery. With this discovery the sixteenth and last book of Don Juan ends.—Byron, Don Juan (1824).

=Fitzurse= (Lord Wildemar), a baron in the suite of Prince John of Anjou (brother of Richard Cœur de Lion).—Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).

=Five Kings of France=, the five directors (1795).

The five kings of France sit in their curule chairs with their flesh-colored breeches and regal mantles.—Atalier du Lys, ii.

=Flaccus=, Horace the Roman poet, whose full name was Quintus Horātius Flaccus (B.C. 65-8).

=Fladdock= (General), a friend of the Norris family in America, and, like them, devoted to titles, and aristocracy.—C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

=Flam´berge= (2 syl.), the sword which Maugis took from Anthe´nor the Saracen admiral, when he attacked the castle of Oriande la Fée. The sword was made by Weyland, the Scandinavian Vulcan.—Romance of Maugis d’Aygremont et de Vivian son Frère.

=Flamborough= (Solomon), farmer. A talkative neighbor of Dr. Primrose, vicar of Wakefield. Moses Primrose marries one of his daughters.