Fascine
in fortification, a cylindrical bundle of faggots or brushwood used in revetments of earthworks. When the limbs are stouter and longer than usual, it is called a saucisse or saucisson. In civil engineering fascines are used in making sea and river walls to protect shores subject to washing; or to collect sand, silt, and mud to raise the bottom and gradually form an island, either as a breakwater against inroads, or for purposes of cultivation, as in Holland.
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Fascism
a term derived from the Roman fasces or bundle of rods surrounding an ax which symbolized ancient Roman authority. So-called Fasci di Combattimento were formed in Italy after the World War, being bands of exsoldiers organized on a military basis and animated by principles of assertive nationalism. In practice, their efforts were directed in particular to the forcible suppression of communism and communistic activities in the state. Their methods were those of actual warfare, in defiance and contempt of weak constituted authorities. The Italian Fascisti under Mussolini were finally successful, and their leader became premier.
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Fast and Loose
an English exhibition trick. At country fairs and the like an expert loops a string to and fro on a table, and invites rustics to bet that they can drive a skewer or a pen knife into the table through loops in such a way as to entangle the string. In case of a wager, the player seizes the string by the two ends and solemnly pulls it out straight. The rustic sees the loops run out one by one and realizes finally that he has been done out of his money. The rustic is playing at a game in which there is no chance to win. To "play fast and loose" with a person, then, is to lead him on in fancied security and worst him in the end.
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Fat
in anatomy, an animal substance of a more or less oily character deposited in vesicles in adipose tissue. It forms a considerable layer under the skin, is collected in large quantity around certain organs, as, for instance, the kidneys, fills up furrows on the surface of the heart, surrounds joints, and exists in large quantity in the marrow of bones. It gives to the surface of the human frame its smooth, rounded contour. In chemistry, fats are glycerides of acids belonging to the fatty or acetic series and of acids belonging to the acrylic series, being the ethers of the triatomic alcohol glycerine. They are insoluble in water, but soluble in ether. They vary in consistence from a thin oil (olive oil) to a hard, greasy substance (suet). When fats are boiled with any caustic alkali they are decomposed, and yield an alkaline salt of the fatty acid (see SOAP), and GLYCERINE (q. v.). In printing, copy which affords light work, as blank or short pages or lines. The fat is in the fire: All is confusion, or all has failed.
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Fat of the Sorcerers
It was said at one time that the devil made use of human fat for his sorceries. The witches anointed themselves with this fat in order to go to the Sabbath by way of the chimney.
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Fata Morgana
remarkable a aërial phenomenon observed from the harbor of Messina and adjacent places, and supposed by the Sicilians to be the work of the fairy Morgana. Objects are reflected sometimes on the surface of the sea, and sometimes on a kind of aërial screen to 30 feet above it.
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Fatalism
the doctrine that all things are ordered for men by the arbitrary decrees of God or the fixed laws of nature. In theology, it has given birth
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Fates
the Parcæ, or Destinies; the goddesses supposed to preside over the birth, life, and fortunes of men. They were three in number; Clotho held the spindle, Lachesis drew out the thread of man's destiny, and Atropos cut it off.
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Fates, The
The, in mythology, the three goddesses of destiny. According to one account, they are the daughters of Night; according to another, they are the daughters of Zeus. In art, they are represented standing in a group, armed with the distaff and shears. Clotho (klo' tho), the spinner, draws out the thread of human life; Lachesis (lak'e-sis), the presider over lots and games of chance, twists its bright and dark lines together and determines its length; when it has reached its destined length, Atropos (at'ro-pos), the inevitable, clips off the thread with her shears. As is appropriate, they are represented as women of dark and severe countenance. Twist ye, twine ye! even so, Mingle shades of joy and woe, Hope, and fear, and peace, and strife, In the thread of human life.--Scott.
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Fathers
in ecclesiastical history, the bishops of the early churches, whose writings are regarded as authoritative. First of all are the apostles. Athanasius, Basil, Gregory, and Chrysostom are considered fathers of the Greek Church ; Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory the Great, fathers of the Roman Church. Other early writers, as Origen, have scarcely less influence. In a general sense, the term father or fathers is used to indicate the original promoter or promoters of an enterprise. Thus the early settlers of Plymouth are called the Pilgrim Fathers. Douglas was considered the Father of Squatter Sovereignty. Well known titles of this sort are: Father of Angling--Isaak Walton. Father of Comedy--Aristophanes. Father of his Country--George Washington. Father of Democracy--Thomas Jefferson. Father of Dentistry--Pierre Fauchard. Father of English Poetry--Chaucer. Father of English Prose--Roger Ascham. Father of Epic Poetry--Homer. Father of German Literature--Lessing. Father of Greek Tragedy--Aeschylus. Father of History--Herodotus. Father of Lies--Satan. Father of Medicine--Hippocrates. Father of Orthodoxy--Athanasius. Father of Ridicule--Rabelais. Father of the Faithful--Abraham. Father of Waters--The Mississippi.
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Fathers
THE to theories of predestination, and in moral science to such systems as those of Spinoza and Hegel, and more recently to the philosophy of Herbert Spencer. It is carried out to its most pitilessly logical extreme among the Mohammedans, where everything that can happen is "kismet," i. e., fated, or decreed by fate.
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Fatima
fa'te-ma, as commonly known, Bluebeard's seventh wife. There are other characters of this name. Mohammed's favorite daughter was Fatima. She was born at Mecca in 606 and died at Medina in 632. The Prophet called her one of the four perfect women. In the story of Aladdin, in Arabian Nights', the enchantress was named Fatima. Bluebeard's wife Fatima, was "neither proud nor vain," in fact she was a very perfect wife, except that she was too inquisitive. Her one fault nearly cost her life.
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