⁂ For other “Fathers,” see under the specific name or vocation, as Botany, Literature, and so on.
Fathers (Last of the), St. Bernard (1091-1153).
⁂ The “Fathers of the Church” were followed by “the Schoolmen.”
Fatherless. Merlin never had a father; his mother was a nun, the daughter of the king of Dimetia.
Fathom (Ferdinand Count), a villain who robs his benefactors, pillages any one, and finally dies in misery and despair.—T. Smollett, The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom (1754).
(The gang being absent, an old beldame conveys the count to a rude apartment to sleep in. Here he found the dead body of a man lately stabbed and concealed in some straw; and the account of his sensations during the night, the horrid device by which he saved his life (by lifting the corpse into his own bed), and his escape, guided by the hag, is terrifically tragic).
Fatima, daughter of Mahomet, and one of the four perfect women. The other three are Khadîjah, the prophet’s first wife; Mary, daughter of Imrân; and Asia, wife of that Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea.
Fat´ima, a holy woman of China, who lived a hermit’s life. There was “no one affected with headache whom she did not cure by simply laying her hands on them.” An African magician induced this devotee to lend him her clothes and stick, and to make him the fac-simile of herself. He then murdered her, and got introduced into the palace of Aladdin. Aladdin, being informed of the trick, pretended to have a bad headache, and when the false Fatima approached, under the pretence of curing it, he plunged a dagger into the heart of the magician and killed him.—Arabian Nights (“Aladdin or the Wonderful Lamp”).
Fat´ima, the mother of Prince Camaral´zaman. Her husband was Schah´zaman, Sultan of the “Isle of the Children of Khal´edan, some twenty days’ sail from the coast of Persia, in the open sea.”—Arabian Nights (“Camaralzaman and Badoura”).
Fat´ima, the last of Bluebeard´s wives. She was saved from death by the timely arrival of her brothers with a party of friends.—C. Perrault, Contes de Fées (1697).