Faerie Queene.

Id.

Into new woes unweeting I was cast, By this false faitour. FAKE, n. s. Among seamen. A coil of rope.

FAKIRS, or FAQUIRS, oriental monks or friars. The word is Arabic and signifies a poor or needy person. D'Herbelot regards it as synonymous with dervise and certainly in some Mahommedan countries the religious are called fakirs, in others dervises.

These oriental monks are said to outvie the severity and mortification of the ancient Anchorets. Some of them make a vow of continuing all their lifetime in one posture, and keep it effectually. Others never lie down; but continue in a standing posture for long periods of their lives, supported only by a stick, or rope under their arm-pits. Some mangle their bodies with scourges and knives. They pretend to have conquered every passion, and triumphed over the world; and accordingly scruple not, as if in a state of innocence, to appear sometimes entirely naked. The people of the east are persuaded of the virtue of the fakirs; notwithstanding which, they are accused of committing the most enormous crimes in private.

One set or sect of fakirs, who do not practise such severities, travel together, from village to village, prophesying, and telling fortunes. They make use of drums, trumpets, and other musical instruments, to rouse themselves and their auditors to an artificial ecstasy: and their votaries are said to consult them in the most indecent attitudes. They are so indulgent towards every living creature, that they suffer themselves to be over-run with vermin, or stung by insects, with out the least reluctancy or complaint: but it is more than probable, that they lull their senses by opiates in order to render themselves insensible to the excessive torments they undergo. The garment of the chief fakirs distinguishes them from the rest. Some persons of considerable rank in India have become fakirs: and D'Herbelot estimates the number at about 2,000,000.

FALAISE, a town of France, in Lower Normandy, having still, in the ruins of its castle, one of the finest towers in France; famous for

being the birth place of William the Conqueror. It has a good trade in serges, linens, and lace; with a famous fair held in Guibray, one of its suburbs, which begins 28th Thermidor (Aug. 16th) and lasts a week. It is fifteen miles south by east of Caen. Population 14,000.

FALASHA, a people of Abyssinia, of Jewish origin, described by Mr. Bruce, who was at great pains to acquaint himself with their history. According to the accounts he received, they are the descendants of those Jews who came from Palestine into Ethiopia, as attendants of Menilek, or David I., the son of the queen of Sheba by Solomon. They agree in the relations given by the Abyssinians of that princess (See ETHIOPIA); but deny that the posterity of those who came with Menilek ever embraced Christianity, as the Abyssinians say they did. They state that at the decline of the Jewish commerce, when the ports of the Red Sea fell into the hands of other nations, and no intercourse took place betwixt them and Jerusalem, the Jewish inhabitants quitted the sea coasts and retired into the province of Dembea. Here they carried the art of pottery to a great degree of perfection, multiplied exceedingly, and became very numerous and powerful, about the time the Abyssinians were converted to Christianity. As this event was accounted by them an apostasy from the true religion, they now separated themselves from the Abyssinians, and declared one Phineas, of the line of Solomon, their king. Thus they say, they have still a prince of the house of Judah for their sovereign. About A. D. 960 Judith, queen of this people, after extirpating the Abyssinian princes on Damo, assumed the sovereignty of the whole empire, which the Falasha retained for some time; but, their power being by degrees reduced, they were obliged to take up their residence among the rugged mountains of Samen; one of which they chose for their capital, and which has ever since been called the Jews' Rock. About A.D. 1600 they were almost entirely ruined by an overthrow from the Abyssinians, in which both their king and queen were slain; since which time they have been in subjection to the emperors of that country, but are still governed by their own princes.

When Mr. Bruce was in Abyssinia the Falasha were supposed to amount to about 100,000 effective men. Gideon and Judith were the names of the king and queen at that time. The language of this people is very different from the Hebrew, Samaritan, or any other which the Jews ever spoke in their own country. On being interrogated concerning it, by Mr. Bruce, they said, that it was probably one of those spoken by the nations on the Red Sea, among whom they had settled at their first coming. They arrived in Abyssinia it is said speaking Hebrew, and with the advantage of having books in that language; but had now forgot it, and were entirely ignorant of the art of writing. At the time of their leaving Judea they were in possession both of the Hebrew and Samaritan copies of the law; but when their fleet was destroyed in the time of Rehoboam, and no farther communication with Jerusalem took place, they were obliged to use translations of the Scriptures, or those copies

which were in the possession of the shepherds, who, they say, were all Jews, before the time of Solomon. On being asked, however, where the shepherds got their copy, and being told, that, notwithstanding the invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, there was still a communication with Jerusalem, by means of the Ishmaelite Arabs through Arabia, they frankly acknowledged that they could not tell; neither had they any memorials of the history either of their own or any other country; all that they believed in this case being derived from mere tradition, their histories, if any existed, having been destroyed by the famous Moorish captain, Gragné. (See ETHIOPIA). They say, that the first book of Scripture they ever received was that of Enoch; and they place that of Job immediately after it, supposing that patriarch to have lived soon after the flood. They have no copy of the Old Testament in the Falasha language, what they make use of being in that of Geez. This is sold to them by the Abyssinian Christians, who are the only scribes in that country. No difference takes place about corruptions of the text; nor do the Falasha know any thing of the Jewish Talmud, Targum, or Cabala. FALCA'DE, n. s. FALCATED, adj. FALCA'TION, n. s.

Lat. falx, falcis.

A sickle: a crooked motion or bend: hooked; bent like a reaping-hook or scythe crookedness. The locusts have antennæ, or long horns before, with a long falcation or forcipated tail behind. Browne. The enlightened part of the moon appears in the form of a sickle, or reaping-hook, which is while she is moving from the conjunction to the opposition, or from the new moon to the full; but, from full to a new again, the enlightened part appears gibbous, and the dark falcated.

Harris.

A horse is said to make falcades when he throws himself upon his haunches two or three times, as in very quick curvets; therefore a falcade is that action of the haunches and of the legs, which bend very low, when you make a stop and half a stop.

Farrier's Dictionary.

are not gregarious; and the females are larger than the males. The legs and feet are scaly ; the claws large, strong, very sharp, and much hooked. Gmelin divides this genus into four sub-genera, or less divisions; which Kerr has reduced to three, by including the G. serpentarius in the second subgenus, because it has some relation to the vultures. These three sub-genera are, 1. Gypæti, bastard eagles; 2. Aquila, Eagles; and 3. Falcones, falcons and hawks. 1. The Gypæti comprehend nine species and two varieties which have the bill-hooked only towards the point, and its base garnished with a beard of longish extended bristles This sub-genus holds a middle rank between the vultures and eagles; the head is not so naked as in the former, and the bill not so much hooked as in the latter; like eagles they prey on living animals, but like vultures they also devour dead carrion. Hence they have been hitherto ranked by some authors with the one genus, and by others with the other. 2. The Aquila comprehend forty-one species and seven varieties, which are larger in size than those of the third sub-genus, and have their legs for the most part rough. They differ from the gypæti in preying on living animals, while the latter prefer dead carcases. They can abstain long from food, though very voracious. Their gastric juice is very acrid, yet they are killed by eating bread. 3. The Falcones are less in size naked. But in other respects, the limits between than the aquila, and their legs are universally the falcons and hawks, and the eagles, are by means well ascertained. This sub-genus comprehends eighty-six species, and thirty-two varieties making in all no fewer than 136 species, and forty-one varieties, in the whole genus. Of these (as our room permits us not to enumerate the whole) we shall describe a few of the

no

most remarkable:

A short crooked sword; a scimitar.

I've seen the day, with my good biting falchion, I would have made them skip : I am old now.

Shakspeare. Old falchions are new tempered in the fires; The sounding trumpet every soul inspires. Dryden's Æneid.

What sighs and tears

Hath Eugene caused! how many widows curse His cleaving falchion.

Philips.

commonly sits on the ground or on small bushes. It makes its nest in the midst of a tuft of grass or rushes. It is a very fierce and voracious bird; and is a great destroyer of rabbits, young wild ducks, and other water fowl. It also preys on fish.

2. F. apivorus, the honey buzzard of Ray, has black cere, yellow legs half naked, the head of an ash color, and having an ash-colored stripe on the tail, which is white at the end. It had its name from the combs of bees being found in its nest. It is a native of Europe, and feeds on mice, lizards, frogs, bees, &c. It runs very swiftly.

3. F. aquila chrysaetos, the golden eagle, weighs about twelve pounds, and is about three feet long, the wings when extended measuring seven feet four inches. The sight and sense of smelling are very acute: the head and neck are clothed with narrow, sharp-pointed feathers, of a deep brown color bordered with tawny; the hind part of the head is of bright rust color. These birds are destructive to fawns, lambs, kids, and all kinds of game; particularly in the breed

ing season, when they bring a vast quantity of prey to their young. Smith, in his history of Kerry, relates, that a poor man in that country obtained a comfortable subsistence for his family, during a summer of famine, out of an eagle's nest, by robbing the eaglets of the food the old ones brought; whose attendance he protracted beyond the natural time, by clipping the wings and retarding the flight of the former. In order to extirpate these pernicious birds, there was formerly a law in the Orkney isles, which entitled every person that killed an eagle to a hen out of every house in the parish where it was killed. Eagles seem to give the preference to the carcases of dogs and cats. Those who formerly made it their business to kill these birds, fired the instant they alighted; for the eagle at that moment looks about before she begins to prey. Yet, quick as her sight may be, her sense of hearing seems still more exquisite. If hooded crows or ravens happen to be nearer the carrion, and resort to it first, and give a single croak, the eagle instantly repairs to the spot. These eagles are remarkable for their longevity, and for sustaining a long abstinence from food. Mr. Keysler relates, that an eagle died at Vienna after a confinement of 104 years. This length of days seems alluded to by the Psalmist, Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.' One of this species, which was nine years in the possession of Owen Holland Esq. of Conway, lived thirty-two years with the gentle man who made him a present of it; but what its age was, when the latter received it, from Ireland, is unknown. The same bird also furnishes us with a proof of the truth of the other remark; having once, through the neglect of servants, endured hunger for twenty-one days without any sustenance whatever. It is perhaps proper here to notice a very singular variety of the golden eagle, described by Mr. Bruce, in his travels in Abyssinia; for, whether it properly belongs to this species or not, we do not find that it has been as yet either arranged under any other, or ranked as a different genus. Mr. Bruce says, it is not only the largest of the eagle kind, but the largest bird that flies. By the natives it is vulgarly called abon duchen, or father long-beard. It is not an object of any chase, nor stands in need of any stratagem to bring it within reach. Upon the highest top of mount Lamalmon, while Mr. Bruce's servants were refreshing themselves after their toilsome ascent, and enjoying the pleasure of a most delightful climate, eating their dinner in the open air with several large dishes of boiled goat's flesh before them, this noble bird suddenly made its appearance; he did not stoop rapidly from a height, but came flying slowly along the ground, and sat down close to the meat within the ring the men had made round it. A great shout, or rather cry of distress, which they raised, made the bird stand for a minute as if to recollect himself, while the servants ran for their lances and shields. His attention was fully fixed upon the flesh. He put his foot into the pan where was a large piece in water nearly boiling; but, feeling the smart, he withdrew it, and forsook the piece which he held. There were two large pieces, a leg and a shoulder, lying upon a wooden platter; into these he

trussed his claws and carried them off; skimming slowly along the ground as he had come, till he disappeared behind a cliff. But being observed at his departure to look wistfully at the large piece, which remained in the warm water, it was concluded that he would soon return; in expectation of which Mr. Bruce loaded a rifle gun with ball, and sat down close to the platter by the meat. It was not many minutes before le came, and a prodigious shout was raised by the attendants, 'He is coming, he is coming!' enough to have discouraged a less courageous animal. Whether it was not quite so hungry as at the first visit, or suspected something from Mr. Bruce's appearance, it made a small turn, and sat down about ten yards from him, the pan with the meat being between them. In this situation Mr. Bruce fired, and shot him with the ball through the middle of his body about two inches below the wing, so that he lay down upon the grass without a single flutter. Upon laying hold of his monstrous carcase, our author was not a little surprised at seeing his hands covered and tinged with yellow dust. Upon turning him upon his belly, and examining the feathers of his back, they produced a brown dust, the color of the feathers there. This dust was not in small quantities; for, upon striking his breast, the yellow powder flew in greater quantity than from a hair dresser's powder puff. The feathers of the belly and breast, which were of gold color, did not appear to have any thing extraordinary in their formation, but the large feathers in the shoulders and wings seemed apparently to be fine tubes, which upon pressure scattered this dust upon the finer part of the feather; but this was brown, the color of the feathers of the back. Upon the side of the wing, the ribs, or hard part of the feather, seemed to be bare as if worn, or, in our author's opinion, were rather renewing themselves, having before failed in their function. What is the reason of this extraordinary provision of nature, Mr. Bruce does not attempt to determine. But, as it is an unusual one, it is probably meant, he thinks, for a defence against the climate in favor of those birds, which live in those almost inaccessible heights of a country, doomed even in its lower parts to several months of excessive rain. This bird, from wing to wing, was eight feet four inches; from the tip of his tail to the point of his beak, when dead, four feet seven inches. He was remarkably short in the less, being only four inches from the joining of the foot to where the leg joins the thigh, and from the joint of the thigh to the joining of his body six inches. The thickness of his thigh was little less than four inches; it was extremely muscular and covered with flesh. His middle claw was about two inches and a half long, not very sharp at the point, but extremely strong. From the root of the bill to the point was three inches and a quarter, and one inch and three-quarters in breadth at the root. A forked brush of strong hair, divided at the point into two, proceeded from the cavity of his lower jaw at the beginning of his throat. His eye was remarkably small in proportion to his bulk, the aperture being scarcely half an inch. The crown of his head, and the front where the bill and skull joined, were bald.

garinents; the wings for brushes; the feet for amulets; but seldom eat the flesh, unless compelled by hunger.

6. F. aquila haliætos, the balbuzard of Buffon, the osprey of Pennant and Latham, or the fishing-hawk of Catesby, weighs three pounds and a quarter; it measures from one tip of the wing to the other five feet and a half, but is hardly two feet long. The bill is black, with a blue cere; the iris of the eye is yellow, and the crown of the head brown, with a mixture of white feathers; from each eye backwards runs a brown stripe; the back, wings, and tail, are of a dark brown; the throat, neck, and belly, white; the legs and feet are rough and scaly, and of a pale blue color; the talons are black, and nearly of an equal size; the feathers of the thighs, contrary to others of the hawk kind, are short, and adhere close to them, for the more easily penetrating the water. Notwithstanding this bird is so persecuted by the bald eagle, yet it always keeps near its haunts. It is very quick-sighted, and will see a fish near the surface from a great distance, descend with prodigious rapidity, and carry the prey with an exulting scream high into the air. Sometimes the bird perishes in taking its prey; for, if it chances to fix its talons in an overgrown fish, it is drawn under water before it can disengage itself, and is drowned.

7. F. aquila leucocephalus, the bald eagle of Catesby and Latham, and the white-headed eagle of Pennant, is ash-colored, with the head and tail white; the iris of the eye is white, over which is a prominence covered with a yellow skin; the bill and cere are yellow, as well as the legs and feet; and the talons are black. Though it is only three feet long, it weighs nine pounds, is strong and full of spirit, preying on lambs, pigs, and fawns. They always make their nests near the sea or great rivers, and usually upon old pine or cypress trees, continuing to build annually on the same tree till it falls Though he is so formidable to all birds, yet he suffers them to build near his nest without molestation; particularly the fishing-hawk, herons, &c., which all build on high trees. The nests are very large and very fetid by reason of the relics of their prey. Lawson says, they breed very often, laying again under their callow young; whose warmth hatches the eggs. In Bhering's Isle they make their nests on the cliffs nearly six feet wide and one thick; and lay two eggs in the beginning of July. This species inhabits Europe, but is more common in America. It feeds also on fish. This, however, it does not procure for itself; but, sitting in a convenient spot, watches the diving of the osprey in the water after a fish, which, the moment it has seized, the bald eagle follows close after, when the osprey is glad to escape by dropping the fish from his bill; and such is the dexterity of the eagle, that it often seizes the prey before it can fall to the ground. Catesby says, the male and female are much

alike.

8. F. aquila maculatus, the spotted eagle of Latham and Catesby, and crying eagle of Penpant, has a dusky bill and yellow cere; the color of the plumage is a ferruginous brown; the coverts of the wings and scapulars are elegantly

varied with oval white spots; the primaries dusky, the ends of the greater white; the breast and belly are of a deeper color than the rest of the plumage, streaked downwards with dull yellow; the tail is dark brown, tipped with dirty white; the legs are feathered to the feet, which are yellow. The length of the bird is two feet. This species is found in many parts of Europe, but not in Scandinavia; is frequent in Russia and Siberia; and extends even to Kamptschatka. It is less spirited than other eagles, and is perpetually making a plaintive noise; from which it was styled by the ancients planga; and anataria, from its preying on ducks, which Pliny describes with great elegance. Lib.. x. c. 3. The Arabs used to train it for the chase; but its quarry was cranes and other birds; the more generous eagle being flown at antelopes and various quadrupeds. This species was itself an object of diversion, and made the prey of even so small a bird as the sparrow-hawk; which would pursue it with great eagerness, soar above, then fall on it, and, fastening with its talons, keep beating it about the head with its wings, till they both fell together to the ground. Sir John Chardin saw this practised about Tauris.

9. F. aquila milvus, the kite, is a native of Europe, Asia, and Africa. This species generally breeds in large forests or woody mountainous countries. Its nest is composed of sticks, lined with several odd materials, such as rags, bits of flannel, ropes, and paper. It lays two, or at most three eggs; which, like those of other birds of prey, are much rounded and blunt at the smaller end. They are white, spotted with dirty yellow. Its motion in the air distinguishes it from all other birds, being so smooth and even that it is scarce perceptible. Sometimes it will remain quite motionless for a considerable space; at others glide through the sky without the least apparent action of its wings; from thence deriving the old name of glede, from the Saxon glida. They inhabit the north of Europe, as high as Jarisberg, in the south of Norway; but do not extend farther. They quit Sweden in flocks at the approach of winter, and return in. spring. Some of them winter about Astrakan, but the greater part are supposed to retire into Egypt, being seen in September passing by Constantinople in their way from the north; and again in April returning to Europe, to shun the great heats of the east. They are observed in vast numbers about Cairo, where they are extremely tame, and feed even on dates, probably for want of other food. They also breed there; so that, contrary to the nature of other rapacious birds, they increase and multiply twice in the year; once in the mild winters of Egypt, and a second time in the summers of the north. They appear in Greece in the spring. In Britain they are found the whole year. Lord Bacon observes, that when kites fly high, it portends fair and dry weather. Kerr enumerates three varieties of this species, viz. the Siberian, Russian, and Jaic kites.

10. F. aquila ossifragus, the osprey, or sea eagle, with yellow cere, and half-feathered legs; is about the size of a peacock; the feathers are white at the base, iron-colored in the