RING THE BELLS BACKWARDS 298 
 
 
Ring the bells backwards. I am all on fire; 
Not all the buckets in a country quire 
Shall quench my rage. 
               The Rebel Scot (1613-1659). 
 
   Ringdove   (The Swarthy).    The re- 
 sponses of the oracle of Dod~na, in Epiros, 
 were made by old women called "pi- 
 geons," who derived their answers from 
 the cooing of certain doves, the bubbling 
 of a spring, a rustling of the sacred oak 
 [or beech], and the tinkling of a gong or 
 bell hung in the tree. The women were 
 called pigeons by a play on the word pelue, 
 which means " old women'" as well as 
 "pigeons;" and as they came from Libya 
 they were swarthy. 
 According to the fable, Zeus gave his 
 daughter, Th~b6, two black doves en- 
 dowed with the gift of human speech ; one 
 of them flew into Libya, and the other 
 into Dodona. The former gave the re- 
 sponses in the temple of Ammon, and the 
 latter in the oracle of Dodona. 
     ... beach or lime, 
       Or that Thessalian growth, 
     In which the swarthy ringdove sat, 
       And mystic sentence spoke. 
                             Tennyson. 
 
  Ringhorse (Sir Robert), a magistrate 
at Old St. Ronan's.-Sir W. Scott, St. 
Ronan's Well (time, George III.). 
 
  Ringwood, a     young   Templar.-Sir 
W. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel (time, James 
I.). 
 
  Rintherout (Jenny), a servant at Monk- 
barns to Mr. Jonathan Oldbuck, the anti- 
quary.-Sir W. Scott, The Antiquary (time, 
George III.). 
 
  Rion (Captain), called by Nelson "The 
Gallant and the Good; "fell in the battle 
of the Baltic. 
 
 
      Brave hearts! to Britain's pride 
        Once so faithful and so true, 
      On the deck of fame that died, 
        With the gallant, good Riou. 
   Campbell, Battle of the Baltic (1777-1844). 
 
   Rip van Winkle slept twenty years in 
 the Catskill Mountains, of North America. 
 (See WINKLE.) 
   Epimenid~s, the Gnostic, slept for fifty- 
 seven years. 
   Gyneth slept 500 years, by the enchant- 
 ment of Merlin. 
   The seven sleepers slept for 250 years 
in Mount Celion. 
   St. David slept for seven years. (See 
ORMANDINE.) 
   (The following are not dead, but only 
sleep till the fulness of their respective 
times :-Elijah, Endymion, Merlin, King 
Arthur, Charlemagne, Frederick Barba- 
rossa and his knights, the three Tells, Des- 
mond of Kilmallock, Thomas of Ercel- 
doune, Boabdil el Chico, Brian Boroimhe, 
Knez Lazar, King Sebastian of Portugal, 
Olaf Tryggvason, the French slain in the 
Sicilian Vespers, and one or two others.) 
 
  Riquet with the Tuft, the beau-ideal 
of ugliness, but with the power of bestow- 
ing wit and intelligence on the person he 
loved best. Riquet fell in love with a most 
beautiful woman, as stupid as he was ugly, 
but possessing the power of giving beauty 
to the person she loved best. The two 
married, whereupon Riquet gave his bride 
wit, and she bestowed on him beauty.- 
Charles Perrault, Contes des FHes (" Riquet 
A la Houppe," 1697). 
  ** This tale is borrowed from the Nights 
of Straparola. It is imitated by Mde. 
Villeneu-e in her Beauty and the Beast. 
 
  Risingham (Bertram), the vassal of 
Philip of Mortham. Oswald Wycliffe in- 
duced him to shoot his lord at Marston 
 
 
RISINGHAM