same demon, one who lies with a human for its own purposes,
usually to the detriment of the mortals who are unwise in
their dealings with them.
+*insect
+*insects
+ A minute invertebrate animal; one of the class _Insecta_.
+ The true insects or hexapods have the body divided into a
+ head, a thorax of 3 segments, each of which bears a pair of
+ legs, and an abdomen of 7 to 11 segments, and in development
+ usually pass through a metamorphosis. There are usually 2
+ pairs of wings, sometimes one pair or none.
+ [ Webster's Comprehensive International Dictionary
+ of the English Language ]
+
+ Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow
+ will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
+ And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot
+ be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of
+ that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail,
+ and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:
+ And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy
+ servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither
+ thy fathers, nor thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day
+ that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned
+ himself, and went out from Pharaoh.
+ [ Exodus, 10:4-6 ]
*iron ball
*iron chain
"You are fettered, " said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell me why?"
heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You
have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!"
[ A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens ]
+iron bars
+ Stone walls do not a prison make,
+ Nor iron bars a cage;
+ Minds innocent and quiet take
+ That for an hermitage;
+ If I have freedom in my love,
+ And in my soul am free,
+ Angels alone that soar above
+ Enjoy such liberty.
+ [ To Althea from Prison, by Richard Lovelace ]
ishtar
Ishtar (the star of heaven) is the Mesopotamian goddess of
fertility and war. She is usually depicted with wings and
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
[ Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll ]
+jacinth*
+ Sweet in the rough weather
+ The voice of the turtle-dove
+ 'Beautiful altogether
+ Is my Love.
+ His Hands are open spread for love
+ And full of jacinth stones
+ As the apple-tree among trees of the grove
+ Is He among the sons.'
+ [ The Beloved, by May Probyn ]
jackal
In Asiatic folktale, jackal provides for the lion; he scares
up game, which the lion kills and eats, and receives what is
Jackal goes around behaving the way he does "because he is
Jackal".
[ Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore ]
+*jack*boot*
+ A large boot extending over the knee, acting as protective
+ armour for the leg, worn by troopers in the 17th and 18th
+ centuries and later. It is still the type of boot worn by
+ the Household Cavalry and was adopted by fishermen and others
+ before the advent of gum boots. Figuratively, _to be under the
+ jack-boot_ is to be controlled by a brutal military regime.
+ [ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
jade*
Nothing grew among the ruins of the city. The streets were
broken and the walls of the houses had fallen, but there were
he is a slime-like creature who swallows other creatures
alive, spits acidic secretions, and causes disease in his
victims which can be almost instantly fatal.
+k?ration
+ The K ration was the [ Quartermaster Subsistence Research
+ and Development Laboratory's ] answer to the demand for an
+ individual, easy-to-carry ration that could be used in
+ assault and combat operations. It was noted for compactness
+ and superior packaging and was acknowledged as the ration
+ that provided the greatest variety of nutritionally balanced
+ components within the smallest space.
+ [ Special Rations for the Armed Forces, 1946-53,
+ by Franz A. Koehler ]
kabuto
The kabuto is the helmet worn by the samurai. It was
characterized by a prominent beaked front which jutted out over
evil plight.
[ Don Quixote of La Mancha, by Miquel de
Cervantes Saavedra ]
+*lantern
+ While pretending to be a fancy safety lamp, it is in fact
+ battery powered. A discreet little switch is marked "on/off"
+ in elaborate lettering.
+ [ Adventure 770, by Mike Arnautov ]
+lava
+* lava
+ You are on the edge of a breath-taking view. Far below you
+ is an active volcano, from which great gouts of molten lava
+ come surging out, cascading back down into the depths. The
+ glowing rock fills the farthest reaches of the cavern with a
+ blood-red glare, giving everything an eerie, macabre appearance.
+ The air is filled with flickering sparks of ash and a heavy
+ smell of brimstone. The walls are hot to the touch, and the
+ thundering of the volcano drowns out all other sounds.
+ Embedded in the jagged roof far overhead are myriad twisted
+ formations composed of pure white alabaster, which scatter the
+ murky light into sinister apparitions upon the walls. To one
+ side is a deep gorge, filled with a bizarre chaos of tortured
+ rock which seems to have been crafted by the devil himself.
+ An immense river of fire crashes out from the depths of the
+ volcano, burns its way through the gorge, and plummets into a
+ bottomless pit far off to your left. To the right, an immense
+ geyser of blistering steam erupts continuously from a barren
+ island in the center of a sulfurous lake, which bubbles
+ ominously. The far right wall is aflame with an incandescence
+ of its own, which lends an additional infernal splendor to the
+ already hellish scene. A dark, forboding passage exits to the
+ south.
+ [ Adventure, by Will Crowther and Doug Woods. ]
leash
They had splendid heads, fine shoulders, strong legs, and
straight tails. The spots on their bodies were jet-black and
Men, and it is more pleasant than cram, by all accounts.'
[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
lemure
- The lowliest of the inhabitants of hell.
+larvae
+ The Larvae (Lemures) are Roman spirits of deceased family
+ members. These malignant spirits dwell throughout the house
+ and frighten the inhabitants. People tried to reconcile or
+ avert the Larvae with strange ceremonies which took place on
+ May 9, 11, and 13; this was called the "Feast of the Lemures".
+ The master of the house usually performed these ceremonies,
+ either by offering black beans to the spirits or chasing them
+ away by making a lot of noise. Their counterparts are the
+ Lares, friendly and beneficent house spirits.
+ [ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
leocrotta
leu*otta
... the leucrocotta, a wild beast of extraordinary swiftness,
The pen is mightier than the sword.
[ Richelieu, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]
magic mirror of merlin
- This powerful mirror was created by Merlin, the druid, in ages
- past, when trees sang and rocks danced. It protects all who
- carry it from magic missiles, and gives them ESP.
+ [...] In Dehenbarth (that now South Wales is hight,
+ What time King Ryence reigned, and dealed right)
+ The great magician Merlin had devised,
+ By his deep science, and hell-dreaded might,
+ A looking-glass, right wondrously aguised,
+ Whose virtues through the wide world soon were solemnized.
+
+ It virtue had to show in perfect sight
+ Whatever thing was in the world contained,
+ Betwixt the lowest earth and heaven's height,
+ So that it to the looker appertained;
+ Whatever foe had wrought, or friend had fained,
+ Therein discovered was, nor aught might pass,
+ Nor aught in secret from the same remained;
+# we'll leave out the part about it being a crystal ball...
+# For-thy it round and hollow shaped was,
+# Like the world itself, and seemed a world of glass.
+ [ The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spencer ]
mail d*emon
It is rumoured that these strange creatures can be harmed by
domesticated canines only.
projects / nethack / commitdiff