Chapter Allodials to Aloe of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Alms-house A house where paupers are supported at the public expense; a poor-house. Also a house set apart for the aged poor free of rent.

"Only, alas! the poor who had neither friends nor attendants. Crept away to die in the alms-house, home of the homeless." Longfellow: Evangeline, part ii. 5, 2.

Alms-man One who lives on alms.

Alnaschar Dream (An) Counting your chickens before they are hatched. Alnaschar, the barber's fifth brother, invested all his money in a basket of glass-ware, on which he was to make a certain profit. The profit, being invested, was to make more, and this was to go on till he grew rich enough to marry the vizier's daughter. Being angry with his imaginary wife he gave a kick, overturned his basket, and broke all his wares.

"To indulge in Alnaschar-like dreams of compound interest ad infinitum." - The Times.

Alnaschar of Modern Literature Coleridge has been so called because he "dreamt" his Kubla Khan, and wrote it out next morning. (1772--1834.)

Probably he had been reading Purchas's Pilgrimage, for none can doubt the resemblance of the two pieces.

Aloe A Hebrew word, Greek aloe. A very bitter plant; hence the proverb, Plus aloes quam mellis habet , "(Life) has more bitters than sweets." The French say, "La côte d'Adam contient plus d'aloès que de miel," where côte d'Adam, of course, means woman or one's wife.

Socotrine Aloes came originally from the island called Socotra, in the Indian Ocean.