Oracle of Sieve and Shears (The). This method of divination is mentioned by Theocritos. The modus
operandi was as follows:- The points of the shears were stuck in the rim of a sieve, and two persons
supported them with their finger-tips. Then a verse of the Bible was read aloud, and St. Peter and St.
Paul were asked if it was A, B, or C (naming the persons suspected). When the right person was named,
the sieve would suddenly turn round.
“Searching for things lost with a sieve and shears.”- Ben Jonson: Alchemist, i.
Oracles were extremely numerous, and very expensive to those who consulted them. The most famous
were Dodona, Ammon (in Libya), Delphos, Delos, that of Trophonius (in Boeotia), and that of Venus in
Paphos.
Oracle of APOLLO, at Delphi, the priestess of which was called the Pythoness; at Delos, and
at Claros.
Oracle of Diana, at Colchis; of ESCULAPIUS, at Epidaurus, and another in Rome.
Oracle of
HERCULES, at Athens, and another at Gades.
Oracle of JUPITER, at Dodona (the most noted); another
at Ammon, in Libya; another at Crete.
Oracle of MARS, in Thrace: MINERVA, in Mycenae; PAN, in Arcadia.
Oracle
of TRIPHO'NIUS, in Boeotia, where only men made the responses.
Oracle of VENUS, at Paphos, another
at Aphaca, and many others.
In most of the temples women, sitting on a tripod, made the responses.
Orange Lilies (The). The 35th Foot. Called “orange” because their facings were orange till 1832; and
“lilies” because they were given white plumes in recognition of their gallantry in the battle of Quebec in
1759, when they routed the Royal Roussillon French Grenadiers. The white plume was discontinued in
1800. The 35th Foot is now called the “The Royal Sussex.”
William of Orange. William III. of England
(1650, 1689-1702). “Orange” is a corruption of Arausio, in the department of Vaucluse, some sixteen
miles from Avignon. The town was the capital of a principality from the eleventh to the sixteenth century.
The last sovereign was Philibert de Chaons, whose sister married William, Count of Nassau. William's
grandson (William) married Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I., and their eldest son was our William III.,
referred to in the text.