Indeed they [fellow-commoners] are popularly denominated "empty bottles," the first word of the appellation being an adjective, though were it taken as a verb there would be no untruth in it.—Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 34.

ENCENIA, pl. Greek [Greek: enkainia], a feast of dedication. Festivals anciently kept on the days on which cities were built or churches consecrated; and, in later times, ceremonies renewed at certain periods, as at Oxford, at the celebration of founders and benefactors.—Hook.

END WOMAN. At Bowdoin College, "end women," says a correspondent, "are the venerable females who officiate as chambermaids in the different entries." They are so called from the entries being placed at the ends of the buildings.

ENGAGEMENT. At Yale College, the student, on entering, signs an engagement, as it is called, in the words following: "I, A.B., on condition of being admitted as a member of Yale College, promise, on my faith and honor, to observe all the laws and regulations of this College; particularly that I will faithfully avoid using profane language, gaming, and all indecent, disorderly behavior, and disrespectful conduct to the Faculty, and all combinations to resist their authority; as witness my hand. A.B." —Yale Coll. Cat., 1837, p. 10.

Nearly the same formula is used at Williams College.

ENGINE. At Harvard College, for many years before and succeeding the year 1800, a fire-engine was owned by the government, and was under the management of the students. In a MS. Journal, under date of Oct. 29, 1792, is this note: "This day I turned out to exercise the engine. P.M." The company were accustomed to attend all the fires in the neighboring towns, and were noted for their skill and efficiency. But they often mingled enjoyment with their labor, nor were they always as scrupulous as they might have been in the means used to advance it. In 1810, the engine having been newly repaired, they agreed to try its power on an old house, which was to be fired at a given time. By some mistake, the alarm was given before the house was fairly burning. Many of the town's people endeavored to save it, but the company, dragging the engine into a pond near by, threw the dirty water on them in such quantities that they were glad to desist from their laudable endeavors.

It was about this time that the Engine Society was organized, before which so many pleasant poems and orations were annually delivered. Of these, that most noted is the "Rebelliad," which was spoken in the year 1819, and was first published in the year 1842. Of it the editor has well remarked: "It still remains the text-book of the jocose, and is still regarded by all, even the melancholy, as a most happy production of humorous taste." Its author was Dr. Augustus Pierce, who died at Tyngsborough, May 20, 1849.

The favorite beverage at fires was rum and molasses, commonly called black-strap, which is referred to in the following lines, commemorative of the engine company in its palmier days.

"But oh! let black-strap's sable god deplore
Those engine-heroes so renowned of yore!
Gone is that spirit, which, in ancient time,
Inspired more deeds than ever shone in rhyme!
Ye, who remember the superb array,
The deafening cry, the engine's 'maddening play,'
The broken windows, and the floating floor,
Wherewith those masters of hydraulic lore
Were wont to make us tremble as we gazed,
Can tell how many a false alarm was raised,
How many a room by their o'erflowings drenched,
And how few fires by their assistance quenched?"
Harvard Register, p. 235.

The habit of attending fires in Boston, as it had a tendency to draw the attention of the students from their college duties, was in part the cause of the dissolution of the company. Their presence was always welcomed in the neighboring city, and although they often left their engine behind them on returning to Cambridge, it was usually sent out to them soon after. The company would often parade through the streets of Cambridge in masquerade dresses, headed by a chaplain, presenting a most ludicrous appearance. In passing through the College yard, it was the custom to throw water into any window that chanced to be open. Their fellow-students, knowing when they were to appear, usually kept their windows closed; but the officers were not always so fortunate. About the year 1822, having discharged water into the room of the College regent, thereby damaging a very valuable library of books, the government disbanded the company, and shortly after sold the engine to the then town of Cambridge, on condition that it should never be taken out of the place. A few years ago it was again sold to some young men of West Cambridge, in whose hands it still remains. One of the brakes of the engine, a relic of its former glory, was lately discovered in the cellar of one of the College buildings, and that perchance has by this time been used to kindle the element which it once assisted to extinguish.