FAI
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FAI
What remains in the Retort, inftead of Ftfces, is pro- perly denominated Caput mortuum, or Terra damnata. See Damnata Terra, Caput mortuum.
Faeces is alfo uied for the Excrements of an Animal voided by Stool. See Excrement.
FJETOR, Stench. Sec Foetor.
FAGGOT, or Fagot, in Fortification. See Fascine. Menage derives the Word from the Latin Facottus, which was form'd of the Greek ea-Kk. Nicod. borrows it from Fafciculus, a Bundle : 2>u Cange from the bafe Latin Fa- gatum, andfagotum.
A Faggot of Steel is the Quantity of 120 /. weight.
In the time of Popery in thefe Kingdoms, Faggot was a Badge wore on the Sleeve of the upper Garment by fuch as had abjur'd Herefy ; being put on after the Per- fon bad carried a Faggot by way of Penance to fome ap- pointed Place of Solemnity. The Leaving this Badge was fometimes conftrued Apoftacy.
FAGGOTS, among the Military Men, are ineffective Perfons, who receive no regular Pay, nor do any regular Duty, but are hired, occafionally to appear at a Mutter, to fill up the Companies, and hide the real Deficiences thereof.
FAGONA, in Anatomy, a conglomerate Gland, call'd alfo thymus. See Thymus.
FAILLIS, in Heraldry, a French Term, denoting fome Failure or Flaw in an Ordinary, as if it were broke, and a Splinter taken from it.
FAILURE, or Failing, a Species of Bankrupcy ; po- pularly call'd Breaking, or Storing 'Payment. See Bankrupt.
FAINT, alias, Faint-Action, is as much a.sfeign'd Ac- tion ; that is fuch Action, as albeit the Words of the Writ be true, yet, tor certain Caufes the Party has no Title to recover thereby. A falfe Action is that where the Words of the Writ arc falfe. Coke on Littl. fol. $6i. Yet fome- times the two are confounded. See Action.
FAIR, a pubtick Place, where Merchants Traders, and other Perfons from divers Parts meet, on fome fix'd Day of the Year, to buy and fell Commodities, and to partake of the Diverfions ufually accompanying fuch Af- lemblies. Fairs are either free,orcharg'd with Tolls and Impofitions.
The Privileges of Free Fairs confift chiefly, firft, In that all Traders, $S>c. whether Natives, or Foreigners, are allow'd to enter the Kingdom, and are under the Royal Safeguard and Protection in coming and returning, they and their Agents, with their Goods, £5?c. a'v, In that the laid Perfons and their Effects are exempt from all Duties, Impofitions, Tolls and Servitudes. ^', That Merchants in going to, or returning from the Fair, &c. cannot be ar- retted, or their Goods ftop'd, $$c. 'Tis the Prince alone that has a Right, by his Letters Patent, to eftablifh Fairs, whether free., or fubject to Duties, and the other ordi- nary Laws and Penalties.
The Word Fair is formed of the French Foire, which fignifies the fame Thing. And Fcire fome derive from the Latin Forum, Market : Others from the Latin Ferice, by reafon Fairs were antiently always held in the Places where the Wakes, or Fcafts of the Dedications of Churches, call'd Ferice, were held. See Feris:.
The Romans call'd them Nundime. Eric Puteanus has a very pretty little Treatife on the Fairs of the Romans, 2)e NundinisRomanorum, which he calls Nova faflortimj "acula.
Several Fairs are held in the open Fields, or on Heaths & Commons 5 under Tents, Booths and Barracks erected for the Purpofc, as Sturbridge Fair, &c. Others in Places wall'd in for the Purpofe; and form'd into re- gular Streets, Lanes, £fc. for the Occafion. As the Fair of St. Laurence at 'Paris : Laltly, others are held in the open Places and Streets of Cities, as 'Bartholomew Fair, the Srijiol Fair, the Fair of St. Germains, &c.
Fairs, particularly Free Fairs, make a very considerable Article in the Commerce at Europe, efpecially that of the Mediterranean or Inland Parts, as Germany, &c. where the continual Paffage andRepaffage of Veflels is impraaicable.
The moil celebrated Fairs mEurope are thofe, 1 . of Franc- fort, held twice a Year, in Spring and A-utumn : The firft commencing the Sunday before Palm-Sunday, and the o- ther on the Sunday before the eighth of September. Lafts 7 4. Days, or two Weeks, the firft of which is called the Week of Acceptance, and the fecond the Week of Payment. They are famous for the Sale of all Kinds of Commo- dities, but particularly the immenfe Quantity of curious Books, no where elfe to be found, and whence the Book- fellers throughout all Europe ufed to furnifli themfelvcs. Before each Fair there is a Catalogue of all the Books to be fold thereat, printed and difperfed, to call together Purchafers j though the Learned complain of divers un- fair Practices therein 5 as factitious Titles, Names of Books purely imaginary,^- befidc great Faults in the Names of the Authors, and the Titles of the real Books. ;. The
Fairs of Leipjzck, which are held thrice a Year- one be- ginning on the firlt of January, another three Weeks after Eafler ; and a third after Michaelmas. They hold twelve Days a-pieeis, and are at leaft as confiderable as thofe of Franckfort. 3. The Fairs of Novi, a little City in the Mir lanefe, under the Dominion of the Republic of Genoa. There are four in the Year, commencing on the fecond of February, the fecond of May, the firft of Atiguft, and fecond of September. Tho' the Commodities bought and fold here be very confiderable ; yet, what chiefly contributes to renr der them fo famous, is the vaft Concourfe of the moft confi- derable Merchants and Negotiants of the neighbouringKing- doms for the tranfacting ot Affairs, and fettling Accounts. 4. The Fairs of Riga, whereof there are two in the Year; one on May, and the other in September. They are much ■frequented by the Engliflo, "Dutch and French Ships, as alfo from all Parts of the Saitick. The belt Time for the Sale of Goods at Riga, is during the Fairs. Since tho Building of the famous City of Petersbourg, thefe Fairs have fufter'd fome Diminution. 5. Fair of Archangel^ during which, all the Trade Foreigners have with that City, is managed. It holds a Month, or fix Weeks at mod, commencing from the middle of Augltft. The Mufcovite Merchants attend here from all Parts of that vaft Empire 5 and the EnglifJo, 2)utch, French, SiveediJZ?, %)anifl? and other Ships in the Port of that City, on this Occafion, or- dinarily amount to three hundred. But this is no Free Fair, as the reft are. The Duties of Exportation and In- portation are very flrictly paid, and on a very high footing. 6. "The Fair of St. Germain, one of the Suburbs of Paris, commencing on the third of February, and holding till Ea- fler 5 tho' it is only free for the firft fifteen Days. 7. The Fairs of Lyons, which Monf. du Chefne, in his Antiquity of Cities, would infinuate from a Paffage in Strabo, were eftab- lifh'd by the Romans : Tho' 'tis certain, the Pairs, as they now ftand, are of a much later Date. There are three in the Year, each lafting twenty Days, and free for ever. They begin on Eafter Monday ; the atfth of July 5 and the firft of ^December. 8. Fair of Guibray, a Suburb of the City Falaife in the lower Normandy. It is faid to have been eftablifh'd by our William the Conqueror, in Confederation of his being born at Falaife. It commences on the itfth. of Ailgujl, and holds 1 5 Days, free by Charter, and longer by Cuftom. p. Fair of Seaucaire, held partly in a City of that Name, in Languedoc, and partly in the open Coun- try, under Tents, &c. It commences on the aid of July, and only holds for three Days; yet it is the greateft and moft celebrated of all the Fairs in that Part of Europe, both for the Concourfe of Strangers from all Parts of the World ; and for the Traffic! of all kind of Goods : The Money return 'd in thefe three Days amounting fometimes to above fix Million of Livres.
The Fairs of Porto-bcllo, Vera Crux, and the Havana, are the moft confiderable of all thofe in America. The two firft laft as long as the Flota and Gallions continue in thofe Parts ; and the laft is open'd as foon as the Flota or Gallions arrive there upon their Return for Spain ; this be- ing the Place where the two Fleets join. See Flota, and Gallions.
Fair. Pleading. See Beau-pleader.
FAIRY, a Term frequently occurring in antient Tradi- tions and Romances, denoting a kind of Genii, or imagi- nary Deities, converfant on Earth, and diftinguifh'd by a- bundance of fantaftical Act ions andOffices,either good or evil.
The Fairies are a peculiar fpecies of Divinities, that have but little Relation to any of thofe of the antient Greeks and Romans ; unlefs perhaps to the Larvce. See Larvje. Tho' others, and with Reafon, won't have them rank'd a- mong Gods 5 but fuppofe them an intermediate kind of Beings, neither Gods, nor Angels, nor Men, nor Devils.
They are of Oriental Extraction, and feem to have been invented by the Perjians and Arabs, whofe Hiftory and Religion abounds with Tales of Fairies and Dragons. The Perjians call them Peri, and the Arabs Ginn, having a peculiar Country, which they fuppofe them to inhabit, call'd Ginniflan, and by us Fairy Land. Our great Coun- tryman Spencer's Mafter-work, the Fairy Jhicen, is an Epic Poem under the Perfons and Characters of Fairies.
Nauda, in his Mafcurat derives the Origin of our Fables of Fairies, from thofe of the Parcce of the Anticnts ; and fuppofes both the one and the other to have been a kind of Envoys, or Interpreters of the Will of Heaven to Men. But then, by Fairies he means a fort of Witches, famed for foretelling future Events, by means of fome Communica- tion with the Genii above-mentioned. The filly fuperfti- tious Notions of the Antients, he obferves, were not near fo formidable as ours; nor their Hell and Furies any thing comparable to our Devils. Accordingly, in lieu of our Hags and Witches, who do nothing but ill, and are employ'd in the lowed, bafeft Offices, they had a fort of finer Goddef- fes, call'd by Latin Authors Albas SDominas, who fcarce did any thing but good, and took Pleafure in noble, honourable
Deeds:
