Katmîr´, the dog of the seven sleepers. It spoke with a human voice, and said to the young men who wanted to drive it out of the cave, “I love those who love God. Go to sleep, masters, and I will keep guard.” The dog kept guard over them for 309 years, and neither slept nor ate. At death it was taken up into paradise.—Sale, Al Korân, xviii. notes.
⁂ Katmîr, in the Oriental Tales, is called “Catnier.”
He wouldn’t give a bone to Katmîr, or He wouldn’t throw a bone to the dog of the seven sleepers, an Arabic proverb, applied to a very niggardly man.
Kay (Sir), son of Sir Ector, and foster-brother of Prince Arthur, who made him his seneschal or steward. Sir Kay was ill-tempered, mean-spirited, boastful, and overbearing. He had not strength of mind enough to be a villain like Hagen, nor strength of passion enough to be a traitor like Ganelon and Mordred; but he could detract and calumniate, could be envious and spiteful, could annoy and irritate. His wit consisted in giving nicknames: Thus he called young Gareth “Big Hands”(Beaumains), “because his hands were the largest that ever anyone had seen.” He called Sir Brewnor “The Shocking Bad Coat”(La Cote Male-tailé), because his doublet fitted him so badly, and was full of sword-cuts.—Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, i. 3, 4, 120, etc. (1470). (See Key).
Kayward, the name of the hare in the beast-epic of Reynard the Fox (1498).
Kecksey, a wheezy old wittol, who pretends to like a termagant wife who can flirt with other men—ugh, ugh!—he loves high spirits—ugh, ugh!—and to see his wife—ugh, ugh! happy and scampering about—ugh, ugh!—to theatres and balls—ugh, ugh!—he likes to hear her laugh—ugh, ugh!—and enjoy herself—ugh, ugh! Oh! this troublesome cough!—ugh, ugh!—Garrick, The Irish Widow (1757).
Ke´derli, the St. George of Mohammedan mythology. Like St. George, he slew a monstrous dragon to save a damsel exposed to its fury, and, having drunk of the water of life, rode through the world to aid those who were oppressed.
Keelavine (Mr.), a painter at the Spa hotel—Sir W. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well (time, George III.).
Keenan’s Charge at Chancellorsville, May 2, 1863, where part of a cavalry regiment, barely 300 in number, held 10,000 men in check until the last cavalry man fell, deserves to rank with the Charge of the Six Hundred, and the fight at Thermopylæ.
It is the theme of a poem by George Parsons Lathrop.