Chapter Wolf to Wood of W by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

freshly-stripped bulls' hides and exposed to the sun till the hides in shrinking broke their bones.”- Croquemitaine, iii.

Wolf Men Giraldus Cambrensis tells us (Opera, vol. v. p. 119) that Irishmen can be “changed into wolves.” Nennius asserts that the “descendants of wolves are still in Ossory,” and “they retransform themselves into wolves when they bite.” (Wonders of Eri, xiv.)
   These Ossory men-wolves are of the race of Laighne Fxlaidh.

Wolf-month or Wolf-monath. The Saxon name for January, because “people are wont always in that month to be in more danger of being devoured by wolves than in any other.” (Verstegan.)

Wolf's-bane The Germans call all poisonous herbs “banes,” and the Greeks, mistaking the word for “beans,” translated it by kuamoî, as they did “hen-bane” (huos kuamos). Wolf's-bane is an aconite with a pale yellow flower, called therefore the white -bane to distinguish it from the blue aconite. White- bean would be in Greek leukos kuamos, which was corrupted into lukos kuamos (wolf-bean); but botanists, seeing the absurdity of calling aconite a “bean,” restored the original German word “bane,” but retained the corrupt word lukos (wolf), and hence the ridiculous term “wolf's-bane.” (H. Fox Talbot.)
   This cannot be correct: (1) bane is not German; (2) huos kuamos would be hog-bean, not hen-bane; (3) How could Greeks mistranslate German? The truth is, wolf-bane is so called because meat saturated with its juice was supposed to be a wolf-poison.

Wolves It is not true that wolves were extirpated from the island in the reign of Edgar. The tradition is based upon the words of William of Malmesbury (bk. ii. ch. viii.), who says that the tribute paid by the King of Wales, consisting of 300 wolves, ceased after the third year, because “nullum se ulterius posse invenire professus ” (because he could find no more- i.e. in Wales); but in the tenth year of William I. we find that Robert de Umfraville, knight, held his lordship of Riddlesdale in Northumberland by service of defending that part of the kingdom from “wolves.” In the forty-third year of Edward III. Thomas Engarne held lands in Pitchley, Northamptonshire, by service of finding dogs at his own cost for the destruction of “wolves” and foxes. Even in the eleventh year of Henry VI. Sir Robert Plumpton held one bovate of land in the county of Notts by service of “frighting the wolves” in Shirewood Forest.

Wonder A nine days' wonder. Something that causes a sensational astonishment for a few days, and is then placed in the limbo of “things forgot.” Three days' amazement, three days' discussion of details, and three days of subsidence. (See Nine, and Seven. )
    The eighth wonder. The palace of the Escurial in Toledo, built by Felipe II. to commemorate his victory over the French at St. Quentin. It was dedicated to San Lorenzo, and Juan Baptista de Toledo, the architect, took a gridiron for his model- the bars being represented by rows or files of buildings, and the handle by a church. It has 1,860 rooms, 6,200 windows and doors, 80 staircases, 73 fountains, 48 wine cellars, 51 bells, and 8 organs. Its circumference is 4,800 feet (nearly a mile). Escurial is scoria ferri, iron dross, because its site is that of old iron works. (See Tuileries.)
   An eighth wonder. A work of extra-ordinary mechanical ingenuity, such as the Great Wall of China, the dome of Chosroes in Madain, St. Peter's of Rome, the Menai suspension bridge, the Thames tunnel, the bridge over the Niagara, Eddystone lighthouse, the Suez Canal, the railroad over Mont Cenis, the Atlantic cable, etc.
   The Three Wonders of Babylon.
   The Palace, eight miles in circumference.
   The Hanging Gardens.
   The Tower of Babel, said by some Jewish writers to be twelve miles in height! Jerome quotes contemporary authority for its being four miles high. Strabo says its height was 660 feet.

Wonder-worker St. Gregory, of Neo-Cæsare'a, in Pontus. So called because he “recalled devils at his will, stayed a river, killed a Jew by the mere effort of his will, changed a lake into solid earth, and did many other wonderful things.” (See Thaumaturgus. )

Wood Knight of the Wood or Knight of the Mirrors. So called because his coat was overspread with numerous small mirrors. It was Sampson Carasco, a bachelor of letters, who adopted the disguise of a knight under the hope of overthrowing Don Quixote, when he would have imposed upon him the penalty of returning to his home for two years; but it so happéned that Don Quixote was the victor, and Carrasco's scheme was abortive. As Knight of the White Moon Carrasco again challenged the Manchegan lunatic, and overthrew him; whereupon the vanquished knight was obliged to return home, and quit the profession