Chapter K to Kay of K by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Kajak An Esquimaux boat, used by the men only. Eighteen feet long, eighteen inches broad in the middle, the ends tapering, and one foot deep.

Kaled is Gulnare (2 syl.) in the disguise of a page in the service of Lara. After Lara was shot, she haunted the spot of his death as a crazy woman, and died of a broken heart. (Byron: Lara.)

Kaleda (Sclavonic mythology). The god of peace, somewhat similar to the Latin Janus. His feast was celebrated on the 24th of December.

Kali A Hindu goddess after whom Calcutta receives its name, Kali-Kutta (Kali's village).

Kaliyuga The last of the four Hindu periods contained in the great Yuga, equal to the Iron Age of classic mythology. It consisted of 432,000 solar-sidereal years, and began 3,102 years before the Christian era. The bull, representing truth and right, has but one foot in this period, because all the world delights in wickedness. (See Krita.)

Kalmar' The Union of Kalmar. A treaty made on July 12th 1397, to settle the succession of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark on Queen Margaret and her heirs for ever. This treaty lasted only till the death of Margaret.

Kalmucks - i.e. Khalmuiku (apostates) from Buddhism. A race of western Monguls, extending from western China to the valley of the Volga river.

Kalpa A day and night of Brahmâ, a period of 4,320,000,000 solar-sidereal years. Some say there are an infinity of Kalpas, others limit the number to thirty. A Great Kalpa is a life of Brahmâ; the whole duration of time from the creation to the destruction of the world.

Kalpa-Tarou A tree in Indian mythology from which might be gathered whatever a person desired. This tree is "the tree of the imagination."

Kalyb The "Lady of the Woods," who stole St. George from his nurse, brought him up as her own child, and endowed him with gifts. St. George enclosed her in a rock, where she was torn to pieces by spirits. (Seven Champions of Christendom, part i.)

Kam Crooked. (Erse kaam, squmteyed.) Clean Kam, perverted into Kim Kam, means wholly awry, clean from the purpose.

"This is clean kam - merely awry."
Shakespeare: Coriolanus, iii. 1.

Kama The Hindu god of love. His wife is Rati (voluptuousness), and he is represented as riding on a sparrow, holding in his hand a bow of flowers and five arrows (i.e. the five senses).

Kami The celestial gods of the first mythical dynasty of Japan, the demi-gods of the second dynasty, the spiritual princes, anyone sainted or deified; and now about equal to our lord, a title of respect paid to princes, nobles, ministers, and governors.

Kamsin A simoom or samiel, a hot, dry, southerly wind, which prevails in Egypt and the deserts of Africa.

Kansas U.S. America. So named from the Konsos, an Indian tribe of the locality.

Kansas Bleeding Kansas. So called because it was the place where that sanguinary strife commenced which was the prelude of the Civil War of America. According to the Missouri Compromise made in 1820, slavery was never to be introduced into any western region lying beyond 36 30' north latitude. In 1851, the slave-holders of Missouri, by a local act, pushed their west frontier to the river-bank, and slave lords, with their slaves, took possession of the Kansas hunting grounds, declaring that they would "lynch, hang, tar and feather any white-livered abolitionist who presumed to pollute the soil." In 1854, thirty New England free-soilers crossed the river in open boats; they were soon joined by others, and