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O. Takandi. Thorax yellow ; witli a black line between thewings, which are immaculate : Abdomen tawny, last segmentblack. They infest the back of the rein-deer, so as greatly to re-tard the breed. The rein-deer of Lapland are obliged every yearto fly to the Alpine mountains, to'escape the pursuit of these in-sects: yet a fourth part of their number perish by them at twoyears old ; the rest are emaciated, and have their skins spoiled.See Plate LXXV1.

OETA, in ancient geography, a mountain of Thessaly, ex-tending from Thermopyla: W. to the Sinus Ambracius, andin some measure cutting at right angles the mountainous countrystretching out between Parnassus on the S. and Pindus onthe N.

OETING, a town of Germany, in Upper Bavaria , eight milesW. of Burkhausen. Lon. 12. 47. E. Lat. 48. 0. N.

Oeting, a comity ot Germany, in the circle of Suabia , boundedon the N. and E. liv Franconia ; S. by the duchy of Neuburg ;and W. by that of \\ irtemberg. It is about 40 miles from E. to\V. and 20 from N. toS.

Oeting, or Oetingen, the capital of the above county, 14miles S. of Anspach. Lon. 10. 4.5. K. Eat. 48.52. N.

OFFA, or UEFA, an Anglo-Saxon monarch, king of Mercia ,who succeeded Ethelbald, A. D. 755. lie treacherously mur-dered Etlielbert, king of the East Angles, and took possession ofhis kingdom. As an atonement, he gave the 10th of his goods tothe poor, went on a pilgrimage to Rome , instituted the tax, calledPeter Pence, and built the monastery at St. Albans. He also erect-ed the wall which hears his name. lie died in 794.

OFFANTO, a river of Naples, which rises in the Appennine mountains, and falls into the gulph of Venice, near Salpe.

OFFENBACH, a town of Germany, in the circle ot the UpperRhine . It is live miles E. of Frankfort. Lon. 8. 45. E. Lat.42. 53. N.

OFFENCE, in law, is an act committed against the law, oromitted where the law requires it.

OFFERING, an oblation, any thing offered in worship.

Offerings, Jewish . The Hebrews had several kinds of offer-ings, which they presented at the temple. Some were free-willofferings, and others were of obligation. The first-fruits: the tenths,the sin-offerings, were of obligation : the peace-offerings, vows,offerings of wine, oil, bread, salt, and other things, made to thetemple or to the ministers of the Lord, were offerings of devotion.The Hebrews called all offerings in general corban. But Hie of-ferings of bread, salt, fruits, and liquors, as wine and oil, whichwere presented to the temple, they called mincha. The sacri-fices are not properly offerings, and are not commonly includedunder that name. See Corban, Mincha, and Sacrifice .The offerings of grain, meal, bread, cakes, fruits, wine, salt, andoil, were common in the temple. Sometimes these offerings werealone, and sometimes they accompanied the sacrifices. Honeywas never offered with the sacrifices; but rt might be offered alonein the quality of the firstfruits. These -were the rules that wereobserved in the presenting of those offerings, called in Hebrew mincha orkerbon mincha; in the Septuagint, offerings of sacrifice;and the same by St. Jerom, oblationem sacrificii; but by our trans-lators, meat-offerings: Lev. ii. 1. Ac.) There were five sorts ofthese offerings. 1. Fine flour or meal. 2. Cakes of several sorts,baked in an oven. 3. Cakes baked upon a plate. 4. Anothersort of cakes, baked upon a gridiron, or plate with holes in it. 5.Tiie firstfruits of the new corn, which were offered either pureand without mixture, or roasted, or parched in the ear or out of theear. The cakes were kneaded with olive-oil, or fried with oil in apan, or only dipped in oil after they were baked. The bread of-fered to be presented upon the altar was to be without leaven ;for leaven was never offered upon the altar, nor with the sacrifices.But they might make presents of common bread to the priests andministers of the temple. The offerings now mentioned were ap-pointed on account of the poorer sort, who could not go to thecharge of sacrificing animals. Those that offered only oblations ofbread or of meal, offered also oil, incense, salt, and wine, whichwere in a manner the seasoning of it. The priest in waiting re-ceived the offerings from the hand of him that offered them': laid apart of them upon the altar, and reserved the rest for his own sub-sistence, as his right. Nothing was burnt quite up but the incense,of which the priest kept back nothing for his own share. When

VOL. iv.— no. 162.

an Israelite offered a loaf to the priest, or a cake, the priestbroke the loaf or cake into two parts, setting that part aside thathe reserved to himself, and broke the other into crumbs; pouredoil upon it, salt wine, and incense; and spread the whole upon thethe fire of the altar. If these offerings were accompanied by ananimal for a sacrifice, it was all thrown upon the victim, to be con-sumed along with it. If the offerings were the ears of new corn,either wheat or barley, these ears were parched at the fire or inthe flame, and rubbed in the hand, and then offered to the priestin a vessel; over which he put oil, incense, wine, and salt, andthen burnt it upon the altar, first having taken as much of it as ofright belonged to himself. The greatest part of these offerings werevoluntary, and of pure devotion. But when ail animal was offer-ed in sacrifice, they were not at liberty to omit these offerings.Every thing was to be supplied that was to accompany the sacri-fice, and which served as a seasoning to the victim. There aresome cases in which the law requires only offerings of corn, orbread : for example, when they offered the firstfruits of theirharvest, whether they were offered solemnly by the whole nation,or by the devotion of private persons. As to the quantity ofmeal, oil, wine, or salt, which was to go along with the sacrifices,we do not find that the law determined it. The priest threw anhandful of meal or crumbs upon the fire of the altar, with wine,oil, and salt, in proportion, and all the incense. All the rest be-longed to him, the quantity depended upon the liberality of theofferer. Moses appoints an Assaron, or the tenth part of an ephabof meal, for those that bad not wherewithal to offer the appointedsin-offerings. (Lev. v. ll.xiv. 21.) In the solemn offerings ofthe first fruits for the whole nation, they offered an entire sheaf ofcorn, a lamb of a year old, two tenths of fine meal mixed with oil,and a quarter of an hin of wine for the libation. (Lev. xxiii. 10,11, 12, &c.) In the sacrifice of jealously (Numb. v. 15,) whena jealous husband accused his wife of infidelity, the husband offeredthe tenth part of a satum of barley-meal, without oil or incense,because it was a sacrifice of jealousy, to discover whether his wifewas guilty or not. The offerings of the fruits of the earth, of bread,of wine, oil, and salt, are the most ancient of any that have cometo ourknowledge. Cain offered to the Lord of the fruits of the earth,the firstfruits of his labour (Gen. iv. 4, 4.) Abel offered thefirstlings of his flocks, and of their fat. The heathen havenothing more ancient in their religion, than these sorts of offer-ings made to their gods. They offered clean wheat, flour, andbread.

Offerings, Pagan. See Druids, Libation, PrimitjeSacrifice , &c. ’

OFFICE, a particular charge or trust, or adignity attended witha public function. The word is primarily used in speaking of theoffices of judicature and policy; as the office of a secretary ofstate, the office of a sheriff, of a justice of peace, &c. See Secre-tary, & c.

Office, in architecture, denotes all the apartments appointedfor the necessary occasions of a palace or great house; as kitchen,pantries, confectionaries, &c.

Office, in the canon-law, is used for a benefice that has nojurisdiction annexed to it.

Offices and Pensions, Duty upon, a branch of the king’sextraordinary perpetual revenue, consisting of a payment of Is. inthe pound (over and above all other duties) out of all salaries,fees, and perquisites, of offices and pensions payable by thecrown. This highly popular lax was imposed by stat. 31 Geo. II.c. 22, and is under the direction of the commissioners of the land-tax.

OFFICER, a person possessed of a post or office.

Officers, Commissioned, are such as are appointed bv theking’s commission. Such are all from the general to the cornetand ensign inclusive. They are thus called in contradistinction tonon-commissioned officers.

Officers, Flag. See Admiral , and Flag.

Officers, General, are those whose command is not limit-ed to a single company, troop, or regiment; but extends to abody of forces composed of several regiments: such are the gene-ral, lieutenant-general, major-general, and brigadier.

Officers, Great, of the Crown, are, the lord high-stew-ard, the lord high-chancellor, the lord high-treasurer, the lordpresident of the council, the lord privy-seal, the lord-cham-" k berlain,