Chapter Biting Remark to Blackfoot of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

is a modern corruption. To say the eye is black or evil, is to accuse a person of an evil heart or great ignorance. The Latin niger also meant evil. (See Black Prince.)

“A fool may do all things, and no man say black's his eye.”- The Tell Tale.

Black Act 9 Geo. I. c. 22 is so called, because it was directed against the Waltham deer-stealers, who blackened their faces for disguise, and, under the name of Blacks, appeared in Epping Forest. This Act was repealed in 1827.

Black Acts Acts of the Scottish Parliament between the accession of James I. and the year 1587; so called because they were printed in black characters.

Black Art The art practised by conjurors, wizards, and others, who professed to have dealings with the devil. Black here means diabolical or wicked. Some derive it from nigromancy, a corruption of necromancy.

Black Assize July 6th, 1577, when a putrid pestilence broke out at Oxford during the time of assize.

Black-balled Not admitted to a club; the candidate proposed is not accepted as a member. In voting by ballot, those who accept the person proposed drop a white or red ball into the box, but those who would exclude the candidate drop into it a black one. It is now more usually done by two compartments, for “yes” and “no” respectively.

Black Book A book exposing abuses in Church and State, which furnished much material for political reform in the early part of the present century. (See Black Books .)
    Amherst speaks of the Proctor's black book, and tells us that no one can proceed to a degree whose name is found there. (1726.) It also appears that each regiment keeps a black book or record of ill-behaviour.
   Black Book of the Admiralty. An old navy code, said to have been compiled in the reign of Edward III.

Black Books To be in my black books. In bad odour; in disgrace; out of favour. The black books were those compiled in the reign of Henry VIII. to set forth the scandalous proceedings of the English monasteries, and were so called from the colour of their binding. We have similarly the Blue Book, the Red Book, and so on.
   Black Books of the Exchequer. An official account of the royal revenues, payments, perquisites, etc., in the reign of Henry II. Its cover was black leather. There are two of them preserved in the Public Record Office.

Black Brunswickers A corps of 700 volunteer hussars under the command of Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick, who had been forbidden by Napoleon to succeed to his father's dukedom. They were called “Black” because they wore mourning for the deceased Duke. Frederick William fell at Quatre- Bras, 1815. One of Millais's best pictures is called “The Black Brunswicker.”

Black Cap or the Judgment Cap, worn by a judge when he passes sentence of death on a prisoner. This cap is part of the judge's full dress. The judges wear their black caps on November 9th, when the Lord Mayor is presented in the Court of Exchequer. Covering the head was a sign of mourning among the Israelites, Greeks, Romans, and Anglo-Saxons. (2 Sam. xv. 30.)

Black Cattle Oxen for slaughter; so called because black is their prevailing colour, at least in the north.

Black Cattle Negro slaves.

“She was chartered for the West Coast of Africa to trade with the natives, but not in black cattle, for slavery was never our line of business.”- J. Grant: Dick Rodney, chap. xi.

Black Death A putrid typhus, in which the body turned black with rapid putrefaction. It occurred in 1348, and carried off twenty-five millions in Europe alone, while in Asia and Africa the mortality was even greater.

Black Diamonds Coals; also clever fellows of the lower orders. Coals and diamonds are both carbon.