Chapter Ayah to Azymites of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Ayah to Azymites

Ayah (Anglo-Indian) A native Hindû nurse or lady's maid.

"The ayahs, or nurses, are said to be the best in the world." - B. Taylor: Visit to India , chap. ii. p. 37.

Ayeshah (3 syl.) Mahomet's second and favourite wife. He married her when she was only nine years old, and died in her arms.

Ayrshire Poet Robert Burns, born near the town of Ayr. (1759--1796.)

Azazel The scape-goat; so called by the Jews, because the high priest cast lots on two goats; one lot was for the Lord, and the other lot Azazel or Satan, and the goat on which the latter lot fell was the scape-goat.

Azaziel A seraph who fell in love with Anah, a granddaughter of Cain. When the flood came, he carried her under his wing to some other planet. (Byron: Heaven and Earth.)

Azazil In Milton's Paradise Lost, Azazil is the standard-bearer of the infernal host. According to the Koran, when God commanded the angels to worship Adam, Azazil replied, "Why should the son of fire fall down before a son of clay?" and God cast him out of heaven. His name was then changed to Eblis , which means "despair."

"Then straight commands that at the warlike sound
Of trumpets loud, and clarions, be upreared
His mighty standard; that proud honour claimed Azazil, as his right, a cherub tall."

Milton: Paradise Lost, book i. 531-- 4.

Azim The young convert who joined "the creed and standard" of the veiled prophet of Khorassan, in Moore's Lalla Rookh. When he was witness of the prophet's infamy, he joined the caliph's army, and was mainly instrumental in defeating that of the veiled prophet.

Azo Marquis of Este, married Parisina, who fell in love with Hugo, a natural son of Azo. The marquis ordered Hugo to be beheaded; but no one knows what the fate of Parisina was. Azo, at any rate, married again, and had a family. This Azo was in reality Niccolo of Ferrara. (Byron: Parisina.)

Azor's Mirror Zemira is the name of the lady, and Azor that of the bear, in Marmontel's tale of Beauty and the Beast. Zemira entreats the kind monster to let her see her father, if only for a few moments; so drawing aside a curtain, he shows him to her in a magic mirror. This mirror was a sort of telescope, which rendered objects otherwise too far off distinctly visible.

Azoth The panacea of Paracelsus, regarded by his followers as "the tincture of life."

Azrael (3 syl.) The angel that watches over the dying, and takes the soul from the body. The angel of death. He will be the last to die, but will do so at the second trump of the archangel.

"The Mohammedan doctors say that Azrael was commissioned to inflict the penalty of death on all mankind." - H. Christmas.

The wings of Azrael. The approach of death; the signs of death coming on the dying.

"Those who listen in the ... watches of the night for the wings of Azrael." - Besamt.

Azrafil The archangel commissioned to blow the trumpet of the resurrection. (The Koran.)

Aztecs An indigenous people of Mexico who, in 1325, founded Tenochtitlán. They were in the zenith of their power in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. When the Spaniards arrived, their king was Montezuma; their supreme god was Taoti; and Huitzilopochtli was the divine protector of their nation, to whom they offered human victims.

Azucena An old gipsy who stole Manrico, infant son of Garzia, the Conte di Luna's brother. (Verdi: Il Trovatore.)