Chapter Earthmen to Ebionites of E by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Earthmen to Ebionites

Earthmen (The). Gnomes and fairies of the mines: a solemn race, who nevertheless can laugh most heartily and dance most merrily.

"We [earthmen] work at the mines for men; we put the ore in readiness for the miners." - Besant and Rice: Titania's Farewell.

Earthquakes According to Indian mythology, the world rests on the head of a great elephant, and when, for the sake of rest, the huge monster refreshes itself by moving its head, an earthquake is produced. The elephant is called "Muha-pudma."

"Having penetrated to the south, they saw the great elephant `Muha-pudma,' equal to a huge mountain, sustaining the earth with its head." - The Ramayuna (section xxxiii.).

    The Lamas say that the earth is placed on the back of a gigantic frog, and when the frog stretches its limbs or moves its head, it shakes the earth. Other Eastern mythologists place the earth on the back of a tortoise.
   Greek and Roman mythologists ascribe earthquakes to the restlessness of the giants which Jupiter buried under high mountains. Thus Virgil (Æneid, iii. 578) ascribes the eruption of Etna to the giant Enceladus.

Earwig A corruption of the Saxon ear-wicga (ear-insect); so called because the hind wings resemble in shape the human ear. The word has engendered the notion that these insects are apt to get into our ears.
   An earwig, metaphorically, is one who whispers into our ears all the news and scandal going, in order to curry favour; a flatterer.

"Court earwigs banish from your ears." Political Ballads.

Ease (Anglo-Saxon, eath; Latin, oti-um)
   At ease. Without pain or anxiety.
   Ill at ease. Uneasy, not comfortable, anxious.
   Stand at ease A command given to soldiers to rest for a time. The "gentlemen stood at ease" means in an informal manner.
   To ease one of his money or purse. To steal it. (See Little Ease.)

Ease (Chapel of). (See Chapel .)

Ease Her! A command given on a steamer to reduce speed. The next order is generally "Stop her!" - i.e. the steamboat.

East The custom of turning to the east when the creed is repeated is to express the belief that Christ is the Day-spring and Sun of Righteousness. The altar is placed at the east end of the church to remind us of Christ, the "Day-spring" and "Resurrection"; and persons are buried with their feet to the east to signify that they died in the hope of the Resurrection.
   The ancient Greeks always buried their dead with the face upwards, looking towards heaven; and the feet turned to the east or the rising sun, to indicate that the deceased was on his way to Elysium, and not to the region of night or the inferno. (Diogenés Laertius: Life of Solon, in Greek.)

East Indies
   (1) He came safe from the East Indies, and was drowned in the Thames. He encountered many dangers of great magnitude, but was at last killed where he thought himself secure.
   (2) To send to the East Indies for Kentish pippins. To go round about to accomplish a very simple thing. To crush a fly on a wheel. To send to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for a penny postage-stamp.

Easter April was called Ostermonath - the month of the Ost-end wind (wind from the east). Easter is therefore the April feast, which lasted eight days. Our Easter Sunday must be between March 21st and April 25th. It is regulated by the paschal moon, or first full moon between the vernal equinox and fourteen days afterwards. (Teutonic, ostara; Anglo-Saxon, eastre.)
   Easter. The Saxon goddess of the east, whose festival was held in the spring.

Easter-day Sun It was formerly a common belief that the sun danced on Easter Day. Sir Thomas Browne combats the notion in his Vulgar Errors.

"But oh, she dances such a way,
No sun upon an Easter day
Is half so fine a sight."
Sir John Suckling.

Easter Eggs or Pasch eggs, are symbolical of creation, or the re-creation of spring. The practice of presenting eggs to our friends at Easter is Magian or Persian, and bears allusion to the mundane egg,