Chapter C. to CÆSAR of C by Brewer's Readers Handbook

C. to CÆSAR

C. (See P for alliterative poems in this letter, and in some others.)

C (in Notes and Queries), the right hon. John Wilson Croker.

Caaba (Al), the shrine of Mecca, said by the Arabs to be built by Abraham on the exact spot of the tabernacle let down from heaven at the prayer of repentant Adam. Adam had been a wanderer for 200 years, and here received pardon.

The black stone, according to one tradition, was once white, but was turned black by the kisses of sinners. It is “a petrified angel.”

According to another tradition, this stone was given to Ishmael by the angel Gabriel; and Abraham assisted his son to insert it in the wall of the shrine.

Cabal, an anagram of a ministry formed by Charles II. in 1670, and consisting of C[lifford], A[shley], B[uckingham], A[rlington], L[auderdale].

Cacafogo, a rich, drunken usurer, stumpy and fat, choleric, a coward, and a bully. He fancies money will buy everything and every one.—Fletcher: Rule a Wife and Have a Wife (1624).

Cacurgus, the fool or domestic jester of Misogonus. Cacurgus is a rustic simpleton and cunning mischief- maker.—T. Rychardes: Misogonus (the third English comedy, 1560).

Cacus, a glant who lived in a cave on mount Aventine. When Herculês came to Italy with the oxen which he had taken from Geryon of Spain, Cacus stole part of the herd, but dragged the animals by their tails into his cave, that it might be supposed they had come out of it.

If he falls into slips, it is equally clear they were introduced by him on purpose to confuse, like Cacus, the traces of his retreat.—Encyc. Brit. (article “Romance”).

Cad, a low-born, vulgar fellow. A cadie in Scotland was a carrier of a sedan-chair. A cadie is one who carries your clubs, etc., in golf.

All Edinburgh men and boys know that when sedanchairs were discontinued, the old cadies sank into ruinous poverty, and became synonymous with roughs, The word was brought to London by James Hannay, who frequently used it.—M. Pringle.

(M. Pringle assures us that the word came from Turkey.)

Cadenus, dean Swift. The word is simply de-ca-nus (“a dean”) with the first two syllables transposed (ca-de-nus). “Vanessa” is Miss Esther Vanhomrigh, a young lady who fell in love with Swift, and proposed marriage. The dean’s reply is given in the poem entitled Cadenus and Vanessa [i.e. VanEsther].

Caduceus, the wand of Mercury. The “post of Mercury” means the office of a pimp, and to “bear the caduceus” means to exercise the functions of a pimp.

I did not think the post of Mercury-in-chief quite so honourable as it was called…and I resolved to abandon the Caduceus for ever.—Lesage: Gil Blas, xii. 3, 4 (1715).

Cadurci, the people of Aquitania.

Cadwal. Arviragus, son of Cymbeline, was so called while he lived in the woods with Belarius, who called himself Morgan, and whom Cadwal supposed to be his father.—Shakespeare: Cymbeline (1605).