Chapter Ocnus of O by Brewer's Readers Handbook

This drove John into rebellion, and he joined the anabaptists. The count was taken prisoner by Giona, a discarded servant, but was liberated by John. When John was crowned prophet-king, the count entered the banquet-hall to arrest him, and perished with him in the flames of the burning palace.—Meyerbeer: Le Prophète (opera, 1849).

Obi. Among the negroes of the West Indies, “Obi” is the name of a magical power, supposed to affect men with all the curses of an “evil eye.”

Obi-Woman (An), an African sorceress, a worshipper of Mumbo Jumbo.

Obidah, a young man who meets with various adventures and misfortunes allegorical of human life.—Dr. Johnson: The Rambler (1750–52).

Obidicut, the fiend of lust, and one of the five which possessed “poor Tom.”—Shakespeare: King Lear, act iv. sc. 1 (1605).

O’Brallaghan (Sir Callaghan), “a wild Irish soldier in the Prussian army. His military humour makes one fancy he was not only born in a siege, but that Bellona had been his nurse, Mars his schoolmaster, and the Furies his play-fellows” (act i. 1). He is the successful suitor of Charlotte Goodchild.—Macklin: Love à- la-Mode (1759).

O’Brien, the Irish lieutenant under captain Savage.—Marryat: Peter Simple (1833).

Observant Friars, those friars who observe the rule of St. Francis—to abjure books, land, house, and chapel; to live on alms, dress in rags, feed on scraps, and sleep anywhere.

Obsidian Stone, the lapis Obsidianus of Pliny (Nat. Hist., xxxvi. 67 and xxxvii. 76). A black diaphanous stone, discovered by Obsidius in Ethiopia.

For with Obsidian stone ’twas chiefly lined.

Davenant: Gondibert, ii. 6 (died 1668).

Obstinate, an inhabitant of the City of Destruction, who advised Christian to return to his family, and not run on a wildgoose chase.—Bunyan: Pilgrim’s Progress, i. (1678).

Obstinate as a Breton, a French proverbial phrase.

Occasion, the mother of Furor; an ugly, wrinkled old hag, lame of one foot, Her head was bald behind, but in front she had a few hoary locks. Sir Guyon seized her, gagged her, and bound her.—Spenser: Faërie Queene, ii. 4 (1590).

Oceana, an ideal republic, on the plan of Plato’s Atlantis. It represents the author’s notion of a model commonwealth.—Harrington: Oceana (1656).

Ochiltree (Old Edie), a king’s bedesman or blue-gown. Edie is a garrulous, kind-hearted, wandering beggar, who assures Mr. Lovel that the supposed ruins of a Roman camp are no such thing. The old bedesman delighted “to daunder down the burnsides and green shaws.” He is a well-drawn character.—Sir W. Scott: The Antiquary (time, George III.).

Ocnus (The Rope of), profitless labour. Ocnus is represented as twisting with unwearied diligence a rope, which an ass eats as fast as it is made. The allegory signifies that Ocnus worked hard to earn money, which his wife spent by her extravagance.