[Fawkes, Guy], a notorious English conspirator, born of a respected Yorkshire family; having spent a slender patrimony, he joined the Spanish army in Flanders; was converted to the Catholic faith; and on his return to England allied himself with the conspirators of the [Gunpowder Plot] (q. v.), and was arrested in the cellars of the House of Commons when on the point of firing the explosive; was tried and executed (1570-1606).
[Fay, Andreas], Hungarian dramatist and novelist, born at Kohany; studied law, but the success of a volume of fables confirmed him in his choice of literature in preference; wrote various novels and plays; was instrumental in founding the Hungarian National Theatre; was a member of the Hungarian Diet (1786-1804).
[Fayal] (26), a fruit-bearing island among the [Azores] (q. v.), exports wine and fruits; Horta, with an excellent bay, is its chief town.
[Fayyum] (160), a fertile province of Central Egypt, lies W. of the Nile, 65 miles from Cairo, is in reality a southern oasis in the Libyan desert, irrigated by means of a canal running through a narrow gorge to the Nile valley; its area is about 840 sq. m., a portion of which is occupied by a sheet of water, the Birket-el-Kern (35 m. long), known to the ancients as Lake Moeris, and by the shores of which stood one of the wonders of the world, the famous "Labyrinth."
[Feasts, Jewish, of Dedication], a feast in commemoration of the purification of the Temple and the rebuilding of the altar by Judas Maccabæus in 164 B.C., after profanation of them by the Syrians: of the Passover, a festival in April on the anniversary of the exodus from Egypt, and which lasted eight days, the first and the last days of solemn religious assembly: of Pentecost, a feast celebrated on the fiftieth day after the second of the Passover, in commemoration of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai; both this feast and the Passover were celebrated in connection with harvest, what was presented in one in the form of a sheaf being in the other presented as a loaf of bread: of Purim, a feast in commemoration of the preservation of the Jews from the wholesale threatened massacre of the race in Persia at the instigation of Haman: of Tabernacles, a festival of eight days in memory of the wandering tentlife of the people in the wilderness, observed by the people dwelling in bowers made of branches erected on the streets or the roofs of the house; it was the Feast of Ingathering as well.
[February], the second month of the year, was added along with January by Numa to the end of the original Roman year of 10 months; derived its name from a festival offered annually on the 15th day to Februus, an ancient Italian god of the nether world; was assigned its present position in the calendar by Julius Cæsar, who also introduced the intercalary day for leap-year.
[Fécamp] (13), a seaport in the dep. of Seine-Inférieure, 25 m. NE. of Havre; has a fine Gothic Benedictine church, a harbour and lighthouse, hardware and textile factories; fishing and sugar refineries also flourish; exports the celebrated Benedictine liqueurs.
[Fechner, Gustav Theodor], physicist and psychophysicist, born at Gross-Särchen, in Lower Lusatia; became professor of Physics in Leipzig, but afterwards devoted himself to psychology; laid the foundations of the science of psychophysics in his "Elements of Pyschophysics"; wrote besides on the theory of colour and galvanism, as well as poems and essays (1801-1887).
[Fechter, Charles Albert], a famous actor, born in London, his father of German extraction and his mother English; made his début in Paris at the age of 17; after a tour through the European capitals established himself in London as the lessee of the Lyceum Theatre in 1863; became celebrated for his original impersonations of Hamlet and Othello; removed to America in 1870, where he died (1824-1879).
[Feciales], a college of functionaries in ancient Rome whose duty it was to make proclamation of peace and war, and confirm treaties.