Chapter Eblis to Economy of E by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Eblis to Economy

Eblis or Ibleis. A jinn, and the ruler of the evil genii, or fallen angels. Before his fall he was called Azazel or Hharis. When Adam was created, God commanded all the angels to worship him; but Eblis replied, "Me thou hast created of smokeless fire, and shall I reverence a creature made of dust?" God was very angry at this insolent answer, and turned the disobedient fay into a Sheytân (devil), and he became the father of devils.

"His majesty was a hundred feet in height; his skin, striped with red, was covered with small scales, which made it glisten like armour; his hair was so long and curly a snake might have lost its way in it; his flat nose was pierced with a ring of admirable workmanship; his small eyes assumed all the prismatic colours; his ears, which resembled those of an elephant, flapped on his shoulders; and his tail, sixty feet long, terminated in a hooked claw." - Croquemitaine, ii. 10.

"When he said unto the angels, `Worship Adam,' all worshipped him except Eblis." - Al Koran, ii.

Ebony God's image done in ebony. Negroes. Thomas Fuller gave birth to this expression.

Ebu'dæ The Hebrides. (Ariosto: Orlando Furioso.)

Ecce Homo A painting by Correggio of our Lord crowned with thorns and bound with ropes, as He was shown to the people by Pilate, who said to them, "Ecce homo!" (Behold the man!) (John xix. 5.)
   Other conceptions of this subject, either painted or engraved, are by Albert Durer (1471-1528), Titian (1477- 1576), Cigoli (1559-1613), Guido (1574-1642), Albani (1578-1660), Vandyck (1599-1641), Rembrandt (1608-1669), Poussin (1613-1675), and some others.

Ecce Signum See it, in proof; Behold the proof!

"I am eight times thrust through the doublet, four through the hose; my buckler cut through and through; my sword hacked like a handsaw - ecce signum!" - Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., ii. 4.

Eccentric means deviating from the centre; hence irregular, not according to rule. Originally applied to those planets which wander round the earth, like comets, the earth not being in the centre of their orbit. (Latin, ex centrum.)

Eccentric Sensation The sensations of the brain transferred to objects without. For example: we see a tree; this tree is a reflection of the tree on the retina transferred to the brain; but the tree seen is the tree without, not the tree in the brain. This transferred perception is called an "Eccentric Sensation."

Eccentric Theory (The) in astronomy. A theory which uses an eccentric instead of an epicycle in accounting for the sun's motion.

Ecclesiastes (5 syl.). One of the books in the Old Testament, arranged next to Proverbs, generally ascribed to Solomon, because it says (verse 1), "The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem." This seems, so far, to confirm the authorship to Solomon; but verse 12 says, "I, the Preacher, was king over Israel, in Jerusalem," which seems to intimate that he was once a king, but was so no longer. If so, it could not be Solomon, who died king of the twelve tribes. "Son of David" often means a descendant of David, Christ himself being so called.

Ecclesiastical The father of ecclesiastical history. Eusebius of Cæsare'a (264-340).

Ecclesiasticus is so called, not because the writer was a priest, but because the book (in the opinion of the fathers) was the chief of the apocryphal books, designated by them Ecclesiastici Libri (books to be read in churches), to distinguish them from the canonical Scriptures.

Echidna (E-kid'-na). Half-woman, half-serpent. She was mother of the Chimæra, the many-headed dog Orthos, the hundred-headed dragon of the Hesperides, the Colchian dragon, the Sphinx, Cerberos,