one of the race of Hodei'rah (3 _syl_.), so they persecuted the race
even to death. Only one survived, named Thal'aba, and Abdaldar was
appointed by lot to find him out and kill him. He discovered the
stripling in an Arab's tent, and while in prayer was about to stab him
to the heart with a dagger, when the angel of death breathed on him,
and he fell dead with the dagger in his hand. Thalaba drew from the
magician's finger a ring which gave him command over the spirits.
--Southey, _Thalaba the Destroyer_, ii. iii. (1797).
ABDALLA, one of sir Brian de Bois Guilbert's slaves.--Sir W. Scott,
_Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).
_Abdal'lah_, brother and predecessor of Giaf'fer (2 _syl_.), pacha of
Aby'dos. He was murdered by the pacha.--Byron, _Bride of Abydos_.
ABDALLAH EL HADGI, Saladin's envoy.--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_
(time, Richard I.).
ABDALS or _Santons_, a class of religionists who pretend to be
inspired with the most ravishing raptures of divine love. Regarded
with great veneration by the vulgar.--_Olearius_, i. 971.
AB'DIEL, the faithful seraph who withstood Satan when he urged those
under him to revolt.
... the seraph Abdiel, faithful found;
Among the faithless faithful only he;
Among innumerable false, unmoved.
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal.
Milton, _Paradise Lost_, v. 896, etc. (1665).
ABELARD and ELOISE, unhappy lovers, whose illicit love was succeeded
by years of penitence and remorse. Abelard was the tutor of Heloise
(or Eloise), and, although vowed to the church, won and returned her
passion. They were violently separated by her uncle. Abelard entered a
monastery and Eloise became a nun. Their love survived the passage of
years, and they were buried together at _Pere la Chaise.--Eloise and
Abelard_. By Alexander Pope (1688-1744).
ABENSBERG (_Count_), the father of thirty-two children. When Heinrich
II. made his progress through Germany, and other courtiers presented
their offerings, the count brought forward his thirty-two children,
"as the most valuable offering he could make to his king and country."
ABES'SA, the impersonation of abbeys and convents in Spenser's _Faery
Queen_, i. 3. She is the paramour of Kirkrapine, who used to rob
churches and poor-boxes, and bring his plunder to Abessa, daughter of
Corceca (_Blindness of Heart_).
ABIGAIL, typical name of a maid.--See Beaumont and Fletcher, Swift,
Fielding, and many modern wr
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