Chapter Whistle to White Ladies of W by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Whistle to White Ladies

Whistle (verb). You may whistle for that. You must not expect it. The reference is to sailors whistling for the wind. “They call the winds, but will they come when they do call them?”

“Only a little hour ago
I was whistling to St. Antonio
For a capful of wind to fill our sail,
And instead of a breeze he has sent a gale.”
Longfellow: Golden Legend. v.

   You must whistle for more. In the old whistle- tankards, the whistle comes into play when the tankard is empty, to announce to the drawer that more liquor is wanted. Hence the expression, If a man wants liquor, he must whistle for it.

Whistle Down the Wind (To ). To defame a person. The cognate phrase “blown upon” is more familiar. The idea is to whistle down the wind that the reputation of the person may be blown upon.

Whistle for the Wind (See Capfull .)

“What gales are sold on Lapland's shore!
How whistle rash bids tempests roar!”
Sir Walter Scott: Rokeby, ii. II.

White denotes purity, simplicity, and candour; innocence, truth, and hope.
   The ancient Druids, and indeed the priests generally of antiquity, used to wear white vestments, as do the clergy of the Established Church of England when they officiate in any sacred service. The magi also wore white robes.
   The head of Osiris, in Egypt, was adorned with a white tiara; all her ornaments were white; and her priests were clad in white.
   The priests of Jupiter, and the Flamen Dialis of Rome, were clothed in white, and wore white hats. The victims offered to Jupiter were white. The Roman festivals were marked with white chalk, and at the death of a Caesar the national mourning was white; white horses were sacrificed to the sun, white oxen were selected for sacrifice by the Druids, and white elephants are held sacred in Siam.
   The Persians affirm that the divinities are habited in white.

White Bird (The ). Conscience, or the soul of man. The Mahometans have preserved the old Roman idea in the doctrine that the souls of the just lie under the throne of God, like white birds, till the resurrection morn.

“A white bird, she told him once ... he must carry on his bosom across a crowded public place - his own soul was like that.”- Pater: Marius the Epicurean. chap. ii.

White Brethren or White-clad Brethren. A sect in the beginning of the fifteenth century. Mosheim says (bk. ii. p. 2, chap. v.) a certain priest came from the Alps, clad in white, with an immense concourse of followers all dressed in white linen also. They marched through several provinces, following a cross borne by their leader. Boniface X. ordered their leader to be burnt, and the multitude dispersed.

White Caps A rebellious party of zealous Mahometans, put down by Kienlong the Chinese emperor, in 1758. So called from their head-dress.

White Caps An influential family in Kerry (Ireland), who acted a similar part as Judge Lynch in America. When neighbours became unruly, the white caps visited them during the night and beat them soundly. Their example was followed about a hundred years ago in other parts of Ireland.

White Caps (1891). A party in North America opposed to the strict Sabbatarian observance. So called because they wear high white caps. First heard of at Okawaville, Illinois.

White-coat (A ). An Austrian soldier. So called because he wears a white coat. Similarly, an English soldier is called a red-coat. In old Rome, ad saga ire meant to “become a soldier,” and tumere sagum to enlist, from the sagum or military cloak worn by the soldier, in contradistinction to the toga worn by the citizen in times of peace.

White Cockade The badge worn by the followers of Charles Edward, the Pretender.