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Key to Kick Up a Row Key-cold Deadly cold, lifeless. A key, on account of its coldness, is still sometimes employed to stop
bleeding at the nose. Poor key-cold figure of a holy king!Key-stone The Key-stone State. Pennsylvania; so called from its position and importance. Key and the Bible (A). Employed to discover whether plaintiff or defendant is guilty. The Bible is opened either at Ruth, chap. i., or at the 51st Psalm; and a door-key is so placed inside the Bible, that the handle projects beyond the book. The Bible, being tied with a piece of string, is then held by the fourth fingers of the accuser and defendant, who must repeat the words touched by the wards of the key. It is said, as the words are repeated, that the key will turn towards the guilty person, and the Bible fall to the ground. Key of a Cipher or of a romance. That which explains the secret or lays it open (La clef d'un chiffre or La clef d'un romance ). Key of the Mediterranean The fortress of Gibraltar; so called because it commands the entrance thereof. Key of Russia Smolensk, on the Dnieper. Key of Spain Ciudad Rodrigo, taken by the Duke of Wellington, who defeated the French there in 1812. Keys of stables and cowhouses have not unfrequently, even at the present day, a stone with a hole
through it and a piece of horn attached to the handle. This is a relic of an ancient superstition. The
hag, halig, or holy stone was looked upon as a talisman which kept off the fiendish Mara or night-mare; and
the horn was supposed to ensure the protection of the god of cattle, called by the Romans Pan. Keys (The House of). One of the three estates of the Isle of Man. The Crown in council, the governor
and his council, and the House of Keys, constitute what is termed the court of Tynwald. The House
of Keys consists of twenty-four representatives selected by their own body, vacancies are filled up by
the House presenting to the governor two of the eldest and worthiest men of the isle, one of which
the governor nominates. To them an appeal may be made against the verdicts of juries, and from their
decision there is no appeal, except to the Crown in council. (Manx, kiare-as-feed, four-and-twenty.) |
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