Chapter Service Estimates of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Service Estimates

Cipher Dr. Whewell's riddle is-

“A headless man had a letter (o) to write,
He who read it (naught) had lost his sight;
The dumb repeated it (naught) word for word,
And deaf was the man who listened and heard (naught).

Circe (2 syl.). A sorceress. She lived in the island of Ææa. When Ulysses landed there, Circë turned his companions into swine, but Ulysses resisted this metamorphose by virtue of a herb called moly, given him by Mercury.

“Who knows not Circe,
The daughter of the Sun, whose charmëd cup
Whoever tasted lost his upright shape,
And downward fell into a grovelling swine?”
Milton: Comus, 50- 53.

Circle of Ulloa A white rainbow or luminous ring sometimes seen in Alpine regions opposite the sun in foggy weather.

Circuit The journey made through the counties of Great Britain by the judges twice a year. There are six circuits in England, two in Wales, and three in Scotland. Those in England are called the Home, Norfolk, Midland, Oxford, Western, and Northern; those of Wales, the North and South circuits; and those of Scotland, the Southern, Western, and Northern.

Circumbendibus (A). He took a circumbendibus, i.e. he went round about and round about before coming to the point.

“Partaking of what scholars call the periphrastic and ambagitory, and the vulgar the circumbendibus.”- Sir W. Scott: Waverley, chap. xxiv.

Circumcellians A sect of the African Donatists in the fourth century; so called because they rambled from town to town to redress grievances, forgive debts, manumit slaves, and set themselves up as the oracles of right and wrong. (Latin, circum-cello, to beat about.)

Circumcised Brethren (in Hudibras). They were Prynne, Bertie or Burton, and Bastwick, who lost their ears and had their noses slit for lampooning Henrietta Maria and the bishops.

Circumlocution Office A term applied in ridicule to our public offices, because each person tries to shuffle off every act to some one else; and before anything is done it has to pass through so many departments, that every fly is crushed on a wheel. The term was invented by Charles Dickens, and appears in Little Dorrit.

Ciric-Sceat or Church Scot. An ecclesiastical due, paid chiefly in corn, in the reign of Canute, etc., on St. Martin's Day.

Cist (Greek kistê, Latin cista). A chest or box. Generally used as a coffer for the remains of the dead. The Greek and Roman cist was a deep cylindrical basket made of wickerwork, like a lady's work-basket. The basket into which voters cast their tablets was called a “cist;” but the mystic cist used in the rites of Ceres was latterly made of bronze.

Cist Urn (A). An urn for the ashes of those buried in cists.

Cistercians A religious order, so called from the monastery of Cistercium, near Dijon, in France. The abbey of Cistercium or Citeaux was founded by Robert, abbot of Molême, in Burgundy, at the close of the eleventh century.

Citadel (A), in fortification, a small strong fort, constructed either within the place fortified, or on the most inaccessible spot of its general outline; to give refuge for the garrison, that it may prolong the defence after the place has fallen, or to hold out for the best terms of capitulation. Citadels generally command the interior of the place, and are useful, therefore, for overawing a population which might otherwise strive to shorten a siege. (French, citadelle; Italian, citadella, a little city.)

Cities    Cities of Refuge. Moses, at the command of God, set apart three cities on the east of Jordan, and Joshua added three others on the west, whither any person might flee for refuge who had killed a human creature inadvertently. The three on the east of Jordan were Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan; the