Aesop of England, John Gay (1688-1732).

Aesop of France, Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695).

Aesop of Germany, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781).

Aesop of India, Bidpay or Pilpay (third century B.C.).

AFER, the south-west wind; Notus, the full south.

Notus and Afer, black with thundrous clouds.  Milton, Paradise Lost, x. 702 (1665).

AFRICAN MAGICIAN (The), pretended to Aladdin to be his uncle, and sent the lad to fetch the “wonderful lamp” from an underground cavern.  As Aladdin refused to hand it to the magician, he shut him in the cavern and left him there.  Aladdin contrived to get out by virtue of a magic ring, and learning the secret of the lamp, became immensely rich, built a superb palace, and married the sultan’s daughter.  Several years after, the African resolved to make himself master of the lamp, and accordingly walked up and down before the palace, crying incessantly, “Who will change old lamps for new!” Aladdin being on a hunting excursion, his wife sent a eunuch to exchange the “wonderful lamp” for a new one; and forthwith the magician commanded “the slaves of the lamp” to transport the palace and all it contained into Africa.  Aladdin caused him to be poisoned in a draught of wine.—­Arabian Nights ("Aladdin or The Wonderful Lamp").

AF’RIT OR AFREET, a kind of Medusa or Lamia, the most terrible and cruel of all the orders of the deevs.—­Herbelot, 66.

  From the hundred chimneys of the village,
  Like the Afreet in the Arabian story [Introduct. 
  Tale],

  Smoky columns tower aloft into the air of amber.

Longfellow, The Golden Milestone.

AGAG, in Dryden’s satire of Absalom and Achit’ophel, is sir Edmondbury Godfrey, the magistrate, who was found murdered in a ditch near Primrose Hill.  Dr. Oates, in the same satire, is called “Corah.”

  Corah might for Agag’s murder call,
  In terms as coarse as Samuel used to Saul.

Part i.

AGAMEMNON, king of the Argives and commander-in-chief of the allied Greeks in the siege of Troy.  Introduced by Shakespeare in his Troilus and Cres’sida.

Vixere fortes ante Agamem’nona, “There were brave men before Agamemnon;” we are not to suppose that there were no great and good men in former times.  A similar proverb is, “There are hills beyond Pentland and fields beyond Forth.”

AGANDECCA, daughter of Starno king of Lochlin [Scandinavia], promised in marriage to Fingal king of Morven [north-west of Scotland].  The maid told Fingal to beware of her father, who had set an ambush to kill him.  Fingal, being thus forewarned, slew the men in ambush; and Starno, in rage, murdered his daughter, who was buried by Fingal in Ardven [Argyll].