Chapter Ragout to Raleigh of R by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Rain To rain cats and dogs. In northern mythology the cat is supposed to have great influence on the weather, and English sailors still say, “The cat has a gale of wind in her tail,” when she is unusually frisky. Witches that rode upon the storms were said to assume the form of cats; and the stormy north-west wind is called the cat's-nose in the Harz even at the present day.
   The dog is a signal of wind, like the wolf, both which animals were attendants of Odin, the storm-god. In old German pictures the wind is figured as the “head of a dog or wolf,” from which blasts issue.
   The cat therefore symbolises the down- pouring rain, and the dog the strong gusts of wind which accompany a rainstorm; and a “rain of cats and dogs” is a heavy rain with wind. (See Cat and Dog.)
    The French catadoupe or catadupe means a waterfall.

Rain Gauge An instrument or contrivance for measuring the amount of rain which falls on a given surface.

Rainbow (See Circle of Ulloa.)

Rainbow Chasers Problematical politicians and reformers, who chase rainbows, which cannot possibly be caught, to “find the pot of gold at the foot thereof.” This alludes to an old joke, that a pot of gold can be dug up where the rainbow touches the earth.

Raining Tree (The). The Til, a linden-tree of the Canaries, mentioned by a host of persons. Mandelolo describes it minutely, and tells us that the water which falls from this tree suffices for a plentiful supply for men and beasts of the whole island of Fierro, which contains no river. Glas assures us that “the existence of such a tree is firmly believed in the Canaries” (History of the Canary Islands). Cordeyro (Historia Insulana, book ii. chap. v.) says it is an emblem of the Trinity, and that the rain is called Agua Santa. Without doubt a rain falls from some trees (as the lime) in hot weather.

Rainy Day (A). Evil times.
   Lay by something for a rainy day. Save something against evil times.

Raise the Wind To obtain ready money by hook or crook. A sea phrase. What wind is to a ship, money is to commerce.

“I've tried queer ways
The wind to raise,
But ne'er had such a blow.”
Judy (My Lost Dog), Mar. 27, 1889.

Rajah (Sanskrit for king, cognate with the Latin reg' or rex.) Maharajah means the “great rajah.”

Rake A libertine. A contraction of rakehell, used by Milton and others.

“And far away amid their rakehell bands
They speed a lady left all succourless.”
Francis Quarles.

Rakshas Evil spirits who guard the treasures of Kuvera, the god of riches. They haunt cemeteries and devour human beings; assume any shape at will, and their strength increases as the day declines. Some are hideously ugly, but others, especially the female spirits, allure by their beauty. (Hindu mythology.)

Rakush Rustem's horse in the Shah Nameh of Firdusi, the Homer of Korassan. (See Horse. )

Raleigh Sir Walter Scott introduces in Kenilworth the tradition of his laying down his cloak on a miry spot for the queen to step on.

“Hark ye, Master Raleigh, see thou fail not to wear thy muddy cloak, in token of penitence, till our pleasure be further known.”- Sir Walter Scott: Kenilworth, chap. xv.