FAT

F A T

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1. Fasti Calendares, which were what was properly andprimarily called fasti, -are defined by Feslus Pompeius to be bookscoiita.n’mg a description of the whole year : i. e. Ephemerides, ordiaries, distinguishing the several kinds of days, festi, profesti:fasti, nefasti, &c.

2. Fasti Magistrates, the greater fasti, expressed the seve-ral feasts, with every thing relating to the gods, religion, and themagistrates; the emperors, their birth-days, cilices, days conse-crated to them, and teasts and ceremonies established to their ho-nour, or for their prosperity, 3cc. With a number of such circum-stances did llattcry at length swell the fasti; when they becamedenominated Magni to distinguish them from the bare calendar,

or lasti calendares.

FAT, an oily and sulphureous matter, secreted from the blood,anil deposited in the cells of the membrana adiposa, from the in-numerable little vessels which are spread amongst them. The fatis to be found immediately under the skin, in most parts of thebody. There are two sorts of fat; one yellow, soft, and lax,easily melted ; another firm, white, brittle, and not so easily melt-ed, called suet or tallow. Some reckon the marrow of the bones■for a third sort of fat. See Anatomy.

Fat, in the sea language, signilies the same with broad. Thusa ship is said to have a fat quarter, if the trussing in or tuck of herquarter be deep.

Fat, [perhaps properly vat, from r as, a vessel,] likewise de-notes an uncertain measure of capacity. Thus a fat of isinglasscontains from 3] hundred weight to 4 hundred weight; a fat ofunbound books half a mannd or four bales; of wire, from 20 to25 hundred weight; and of yarn, from 220 to 221 bundles.

P A PA' MORGANA, a very remarkable aerial phxnomenon,which is sometimes observed from the harbour of Messina, andadjacent places, at a certain height in the atmosphere. 'The name,which signifies the Fairy Morgana, is derived from an opinion ofthe superstitious Sicilians, that the whole spectacle is produced byfairies, or such like visionary invisible beings. 'Hie populace arcdelighted whenever it appears ; and run about the streets shoutingfor joy, calling every body out to partake of the glorious sight.This singular meteor lias been described by various authors: butthe first who mentioned it with any degree of precision was FatherAngelucei, whose account is thus quoted by Mr. Swinburne inhis “ Tour through Sicily “ On the 15th of August 1643, as Istood at my window, I was surprised with a most wonderful de-lectable vision, 'l’he sea that washes the Sicilian shore swelledup, and became, for ten miles in length, like a chain of darkmountains ; while the waters near our Calabrian roast grew quitesmooth, and in an instant appeared as one clear polished mirror,reclining against the aforesaid ridge. On this gla=s was depicted,in cliairo senro, a string of several thousands of pilasters, all equalin altitude, distance, and degree of light and shade. In a momentthey lost half their height, and bent into arcades, like Romanaqueducts. A long cornice was next formed on the top, andabove it arose ca-tles innumerable, all perfectly alike. Thesesoon split into towers, which were shortly after lost in colonnade-.,then windows, and at la-t ended in pines, cypresses, and othertrees, even and similar. 'This is the Fata Morgana, which for 26years 1 had thought a mere fable.”—To produce this pleasing de-ception, many circumstances must concur, which are not knownto exist in any other situation. The spectator must stand with hisback to the east, in some elevated place behind the. city, that hemay command a view of the whole hay ; beyond which the moun-tains of Messina rise like a wall, and darken the back ground ofthe picture. The winds must be hushed, the surface quitesmoothed, the tide at its height, and the waters pressed up bycurrents to a great elevation in the middle of the channel. Ailthese events coinciding, as soon as the sun surmounts the eastern hillsbehind Reggio, and rises high enough to form an angle of 45 de-grees on the water before the city, every object existing or mov-ing at Reggio will be repeated 1000 fold upon this marine look-ing-glass; which, by its tremulous motion, is as it were cut intofacets. Each image will pass rapidly oil' in succession as the dayadvances, and the stream carries down the wave on which it ap-peared. 'Huis the parts of this moving picture will vanish in thetwinkling of an eye. Sometimes the air is at that moment so im-pregnatecl with vapours, and undisturbed by winds, as to collectobjects in a kind of aerial screen, rising about thirty feet abovetile level of the sea. In cloudy heavy weather, they are drawn

on the surface of the water, bordered with fine prismatical colours.

I To the above account we shall add the following, given by M.Ilouel, whose judgement and veracity render his authority highlyrespectable. “ In tine summer days, when the weather is calm,there rises above the great current a vapour, which acquires a cer-tain density, so as to form in the atmosphere horizontal prisms,whose sides are disposed in swell a manner, that when they cometo their proper degree of perfection, they reliect and representsuccessively, for some time (like a moveable mirror,) the objectson the coast or in the adjacent country. They exhibit by turnsthe city and suburbs of Messina, trees, animals, men, and moun-tains. They .are certainly beautiful aerial moving pictures. Thereare sometimes two or three pi isms, equally perfect; and theycontinue in this state eight or ten minutes. After this, someshining inequalities are observed upon the surface of the prism,which render confused to the eye the objects which had been be-fore so accurately delineated, and the picture vanishes, l iie va-pour forms other combinations, and is dispersed in air. Differentaccounts have been given of this singular appearance ; which formy part I attribute to a bitumen that issues troni certain rocks attiie bottom of the sea, and which is often seen to cover a part ofits surface in the canal of Messina. The subtle parts of thisbitumen being attenuated, combined, and exhaled, with the aque-ous globules that are raised by the air, and Conned into bodies ofvapour, give to this condensed vapour more consistence ; andcontribute, by their smooth and polished particles, to the forma-tion of a kind of aerial crystal, which receives the light, retleets itto the eye, and transmits to it all the luminous points which co-lour the objects exhibited in tills phamoinenon, and render themvisible.” An account of this appearance is given from a treatiseby Mcnasi, in Nicholson’s “ Journal,” 4to. vol. i. p. 225, with alarge engraving. See Priestley’s “ Optics for Atmospheric Phe-nomena,” Iluddart and Vince in the “ Philosophical Transac-tions , 1797 and 1799.” These are also in Nicholson’s “ Journal.”

FATAGAR, a country of Africa , S. E. of Abyssinia. Lon. 39.0. E. Eat. 9. o. N.

FATE, denotes an inevitable necessity depending upon a su-perior cause. 'I’he word is formed from J'ari, futum, to speak ;and primarily implies the same with effatum, viz. a word or de-cree pronounced by God ; or a fixed sentence whereby the Deity has prescribed the "order of things, and allotted to every personwhat shall befal him. 'Flic Greeks called it ryue-apiy,,, as it werea chain or necessary scries of things indissolubly linked together.It is also used to express a certain unavoidable destination oftilings, by which all agents, both necessary and voluntary, areswayed and directed to their ends. See Necessity. In this lastsense, fate is distinguished into Astrological and Stoical , by theancients ; but by later authors, into Divine and Physical.

1. I'atf. Astrological, that arising from the influence andposition of the heavenly bodies, which were supposed both togive laws to the elements and mixed bodies, and to the wills ofmen.

2. Fate Stoicai., is defined by Cicero a series of causes,wherein, cause being linked to cause, each produces another, andthus all things flow from one prime cause. I o this fate the Stoics subjected even the gods.

3. Fate, Divine, is what is more usually called Providence.See Providence.

4. Fate, Physical, is an order and series of natural causesappropriated to the effects, By this fate it is that lire warms, bo-dies communicate motion to each other, &c. and the effects of itare all the ovenfc and phenomena of nature.

FATEMlTliS, FATI1EM1TES, or PATH I MITES, thedescendants of Mohammed by Futhcma, or Fatima, his daughter.They never enjoyed the khalifat of Mecca or Bagdad, but reign-ed in Barbary and Egypt .

FA'FES, in mythology. See Paucas.

FATHER, [father, Saxon. 'Phis word is found likewise inthe Persian language,] a well-known term of relation. See Pa-rent. By the laws of Romulus, a father had ail unlimited powerover his children. Amongst the Lacedemonians, as we learn fromAristotle ’s politics, the father of three children was excused fromthe duty of mounting guard for the security of (be city ; ami a fa-ther of four children was exempted from every public burden.The Poppaian law, amongst the Romans, gianted many valuableprivileges to the fathers of three children; amongst which one

was