AMI’DAS, the younger brother of Brac’idas, sons of Mile’sio; the former in love with the dowerless Lucy, and the latter with the wealthy Philtra.  The two brothers had each an island of equal size and value left them by their father, but the sea daily added to the island of the younger brother, and encroached on that belonging to Bracidas.  When Philtra saw that the property of Amidas was daily increasing, she forsook the elder brother and married the wealthier; while Lucy, seeing herself jilted, threw herself into the sea.  A floating chest attracted her attention, she clung to it, and was drifted to the wasted island.  It was found to contain great riches, and Lucy gave its contents and herself to Bracidas.  Amidas claimed the chest as his own by right, and the question in dispute was submitted to sir Ar’tegal.  The wise arbiter decided, that whereas Armidas claimed as his own all the additions given to his island by the sea, Lucy might claim as her own the chest, because the sea had given it to her.—­Spenser, Faery Queen, v. 4 (1596).

AM’IEL, in Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, is meant for sir Edward Seymour, Speaker of the House of Commons.

  Who can Amiel’s praise refuse? 
  Of ancient race by birth, but nobler yet
  In his own worth, and without title great. 
  The sanhedrim long time as chief he ruled,
  Their reason guided, and their passion cooled.

Part i.

A’MIN (Prince), son of the caliph Haroun-al-Raschid; he married Am’ine, sister of Zobeide (3 syl.), the caliph’s wife.—­Arabian Nights’ Entertainments ("The History of Amine").

Am’ina, an orphan, who walked in her sleep.  She was betrothed to Elvi’no, a rich farmer, but being found the night before the wedding in the chamber of count Rodolpho, Elvino rightly refused to marry her.  The count remonstrated with the young farmer, and while they were talking, the orphan was seen to get out of a window and walk along the narrow edge of a mill-roof while the great wheel was rapidly revolving; she then crossed a crazy old bridge, and came into the same chamber.  Here she awoke, and, seeing Elvino, threw her arms around him so lovingly, that all his doubts vanished, and he married her.—­Bellini, La Sonnambula (an opera, 1831).

AM’INE (3 syl.), half-sister of Zobei’de (3 syl.), and wife of Amin, the caliph’s son.  One day she went to purchase a robe, and the seller told her he would charge nothing if she would suffer him to kiss her cheek.  Instead of kissing he bit it, and Amine, being asked by her husband how she came by the wound, so shuffled in her answers that he commanded her to be put to death, a sentence he afterwards commuted to scourging.  One day she and her sister told the stories of their lives to the caliph Haroun-al-Raschid, when Amin became reconciled to his wife, and the caliph married her half-sister.—­Arabian Nights’Entertainments ("History of Zobeide and History of Amine").