Chapter Mador to Magnano of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Maggots of the Brain. Swift says it was the opinion of certain virtuosi that the brain is filled with little maggots, and that thought is produced by their biting the nerves.

To tickle the maggot born in an empty head.

Tennyson: Maud, II. v. 3.

Maggy, the half-witted grand-daughter of Little Dorrit’s nurse. She had had a fever at the age of ten, from ill-treatment, and her mind and intellect never went beyond that period. Thus, if asked her age, she always replied, “Ten;” and she always repeated the last two or three words of what was said to her. She called Amy Dorrit “Little Mother.”

She was about eight and twenty, with large bones, large features, large feet and hands, large eyes, and no hair. Her large eyes were limpid and almost colourless; they seemed to be very little affected by light, and to stand unnaturally still. There was also that attentive listening expression in her face, which is seen in the faces of the blind; but she was not blind, having one tolerably serviceable eye. Her face was not exceedingly ugly, being redeemed by a smile…A great white cap, with a quantity of opaque frilling… apologized for Maggy’s baldness, and made it so difficult for her old black bonnet to retain its place upon her head, that it held on round her neck like a gipsy’s baby.…The rest of her dress resembled sea- weed, with here and there a gigantic tea-leaf. Her shawl looked like a huge tea-leaf after long infusion.—Dickens: Little Dorrit, ix. (1857).

Magi or Three kings of Cologne, the “wise men from the East,” who followed the guiding star to the manger in Bethlehem with offerings. Melchior king of Nubia, the shortest of the three. He offered gold, indicative of royalty; Balthazar king of Chaldea offered frankincense, indicative of divinity; and Gaspar king of Tarshish, a black Ethiop, the tallest of the three, offered myrrh, symbolic of death.

(Melchior means “king of light;” Balthazar, “lord of treasures;” and Gaspar or Caspar, “the white one.”)

N. B.—Klopstock, in his Messiah, makes the Magi six in number, and gives the names as Hadad, Selima, Zimri, Mirja, Beled, and Sunith.—Bk. v. (1771).

Magic Garters. No horse can keep up with a man furnished with these garters. They are made thus: Strips of the skin of a young hare are cut two inches wide, and some motherwort, gathered in the first degree of the sign Capricorn and partially dried, is sewn into these strips, which are then folded in two. The garters are to be worn as other garters.—Les Secrets Merveilleux de Petit Albert, 128.

Were it not for my magic garters,… I should not continue the business long.

Longfellow: The Golden Legend (1851).

Magic Rings, like that of Gygês king of Lydia. Plato in his Republic, and Cicero in his Offices, say the ring was found in the flanks of a horse of brass. Those who wore it became invisible. By means of this ring, Gygês entered the chamber of Candaulês, and murdered him.

Magic Staff (The). This staff would guarantee the bearer from all the perils and mishaps incidental to travellers. No robber nor wild beast, no mad dog, venomous animal, nor accident, could hurt its possessor. The staff consisted of a willow branch, gathered on the eve of All Saints’ Day; the pith being removed, two eyes of a young wolf, the tongue and heart of a dog, three green lizards, the hearts of three swallows, seven leaves of vervain gathered on the eve of John the Baptist’s Day, and a stone taken from a lapwing’s nest, were inserted in the place of the pith. The toe of the staff was furnished with an iron ferrule; and