Mago

“ All praise to Ashtoreth! you are just the man I want. I have a commission from the King to fit out ships for Tarshish; I am captain of the expedition, and here at once I can appoint you my second in command. My pilot is Himilco; and here is Hanno, my scribe; we are on our way to the temple of the goddess, and are going in her presence to draw up the covenants."
"Joy, joy, dear Mago!" ejaculated Bodmilcar; "may the gods be gracious to you, and repay your goodness! I shall not regret my disaster at the hands of the Chaldeans, if it ends in a voyage to Tarshish with you. ”

“ On our approach, our trumpeters gave a loud flourish, which was answered by the flutes and instruments within. The high priest advanced towards us and, in sonorous tones, exclaimed:
"Let Mago, the Sidonian, the son of Maherbaal, now draw near. Commander of the expedition, he comes to present himself before the goddess. Let him now approach, and all his followers attend him!"
Obedient to the summons, I ascended the steps, followed immediately by my slaves; Hanno and Hannibal were on my right hand; Hasdrubal, Hamilcar and Himilco on my left ”

“ The Greeks that were in pay with Hicetes, noising these discourses about their camp, gave Mago some ground to suspect, as indeed he had long sought for a pretence to be gone, that there was treachery contrived against him ”

“ A third evolution she performed, and that, likewise, while still at full gallop. Suddenly, Mago could see nothing but the glittering shield held alongside the horse’s neck, thus protecting it. All that was visible of Elissa herself was one small foot barely showing above the horse’s croup, her whole body being concealed behind the horse. Then, as the horse came round again in a circle, thundering along the path which led before the palace verandah, Elissa, springing up to her seat again, discharged, with the rapidity of lightning, all her darts in rapid succession. ”

“ To pacify them I made some ointment of animal fat and flowers of sulphur, extracted with difficulty from some man’s hoard, and told them how to apply it to some of the worst cases. The horse, being unused to a girth, became fidgety as it was being saddled, creating a stampede among the crowd, and the mago would not touch it again. They are as much afraid of their gentle mares as if they were panthers. All the children followed me for a considerable distance, and a good many of the adults made an excuse for going in the same direction. ”

“ The trained veterans at her disposal did not much exceed some two thousand men. Fifteen hundred of these Elissa placed under the orders of a chief named Mago, with instructions to post the greater number along the walls, both on the land side and the sea side, upon the battlements of which, at every point, were heaped-up piles of darts, huge stones, and masses of lead. ”

“ They keep the feet so soft and spongy that the horses can’t walk without them at all, and as soon as they get thin your horse begins to stumble, the mago gets uneasy, and presently you stop; four shoes, which are hanging from the saddle, are soaked in water and are tied on with much coaxing, raising the animal fully an inch above the ground. Anything more temporary and clumsy could not be devised. The bridle paths are strewn with them, and the children collect them in heaps to decay for manure. They cost 3 or 4 sen the set, and in every village men spend their leisure time in making them. ”

“ Let those who are accustomed to finding fault and censuring ask, while they sit in security at home, “Why did you not do so and so under such circumstances?” I wish they now had this voyage to make. I verily believe that another journey of another kind awaits them, or our faith is nothing.
On the thirteenth of May I reached the province of Mago [Mango] ,405-3 which borders on Cathay, and thence I started [406] for the island of Española. I sailed two days with a good wind, after which it became contrary. ”

“ Eventually I mounted a pack-saddle, and we crossed a spur of Takadayama at a height of 2100 feet on a well-devised series of zigzags, eight of which in one place could be seen one below another. The forest there is not so dense as usual, and the lower mountain slopes are sprinkled with noble Spanish chestnuts. The descent was steep and slippery, the horse had tender feet, and, after stumbling badly, eventually came down, and I went over his head, to the great distress of the kindly female mago. The straw shoes tied with wisps round the pasterns are a great nuisance. ”

“ Gog, in fact, stands to Oannes or Yan in the same relation as Jack stands to John: the one is seemingly a synonym for the other.
Figs. 46 and 47.—From Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (Baring-Gould) .
The word magic implies a connection with Maga or Magog: in Greek mega means great, and the combined idea of great and wise is extended into magus, magister, and magician. The Latin magnus and magna are respectively Mag Unus and Mag Una: Mogounus was one of the titles applied to St. Patrick, and it was also a sobriquet of the Celtic Sun God. ”

“ Gog had been above a mile elevated from the earth when he began to fall, and as he advanced the rapidity increased, so that he went like a ball from a cannon into the morass, and his nose striking against one of the iron-capped hands of his brother Magog, just then rising from the depths, he began to bleed violently, and, but for the softness of the morass, would have lost his life. ”

“ It is not half a bad thing to be living in a world that has some fight in it. It is a good thing for a man to be buffeted and knocked about. I fancy that Gog and Magog could say some specially comforting things to parents. The tendency among us is to try to secure for our children the kind of life that Magog leads, hidden, sheltered, and protected. Yet nobody can take a second glance at poor Magog—his shorter stature, his smaller girth, his softer fibre—without entertaining the gravest doubts concerning the wisdom of so apparently considerate a choice. ”

“ Call’st thou this keeping guard over the treasure? I call it gross negligence.”
386“Well, well, I am vigilant enough now,” rejoined Magog. “What hast thou to say to me?”
“Something that will keep thee wakeful, I trust,” said Xit. “Lend me thine ears, and I will disclose it to thee. I have discovered a plot.”
“Poh! thou art always making some silly discovery that leads to nothing,” rejoined Magog.
“But this will lead more than one man to the scaffold,” pursued Xit, mysteriously. “’Tis an important discovery I have made.” ”

“ I, the Kraedar Borisu, Prae-consul of Magog, have seen to that!"
"Now it's Magog!" cried Muldoon. "A minute ago it was Gog. What's all this double talk—Gog and Magog?"
Gog and Magog! The two names struck a familiar spark in Gary Lane's brain. The ancient legend of Earth, about which they had been talking only the other day. A folk tale of an elder age when giants walked the earth and strove mightily amongst themselves.
The dim beginnings of a horrible conception stirred within him, and he repeated the words. "Gog and Magog. Not two mythical persons, but two worlds. ”

“ In the grand entrance gate are gigantic Ni-o, the Buddhist Gog and Magog, vermilion coloured, and with draperies painted in imitation of flowered silk. A second pair, painted red and green, removed from Iyemitsu's temple, are in niches within the gate. A flight of steps leads to another gate, in whose gorgeous niches stand hideous monsters, in human form, representing the gods of wind and thunder. Wind has crystal eyes and a half-jolly, half-demoniacal expression. ”

“ The furious struggle with the cocoon was Nature's wise way of developing the splendid wings and of sending the vital fluids pulsing through the frame until every particle blushed with their beauty. The naturalist had saved the little creature from the struggle, but had unintentionally ruined and slain it in the process. It is the story of Gog and Magog over again. ”

“ Magog, at my command, put on a kind of armour that he had carried with him for the purpose, corselet of steel, with gauntlets, helmet, &c., so as nearly to resemble a mole. He instantly plunged into the earth, making way with his sharp steel head-piece, and tearing up the ground with his iron claws, and found not much difficulty therein, as morass in general is of a soft and yielding texture. Thus he hoped to undermine Wauwau, and suddenly rising, seize her by the foot, while his brother Gog ascended the air in a balloon, hoping to catch her if she could escape Magog. ”

“ Distinctive Characters of this Species.
The magot has no tail, though he has a small portion of skin, which has some appearance of one. He has pouches on the sides of his jaws, and thick callosities on his posteriors; canine teeth much longer in proportion than those of man; and the bottom part of the face turned up like that of a bull-dog: his visage is hairy or rather covered with a down: he is of a greenish brown on his body, and a pale yellow on the belly: he walks erect on his hind feet, but oftener on all four. ”

“ The orang-outang, which resembles man the most of any, approaches also nearest in intelligence, gentleness of manners, and pliancy of disposition. The magot, which is set further from the human figure, and approaches that of the brutes in form of its [193] face and canine teeth, is wild, impetuous, and disobedient; but the baboon, which only resembles man in the hands, approaches still nearer, and is, in fact, of the savage tribe, having a tail, sharp nails, and a prominent muzzle. ”

“ Gog, according to some authorities, is a Turkish tribe; and Magog is the tribe called “Gilân” by Ptolemy, and “Geli” or “Gelæ” by Strabo.—Al Korân, xviii. note.
Respecting the re-appearance of Gog and Magog, the Korân says: “They [the dead] shall not return ... till Gog and Magog have a passage opened for them, and they [the dead] shall hasten from every high hill,” i.e. the resurrection (ch. xxi.) .
Gog and Magog. The two statues of Guildhall so called are in reality the statues of Gogmagog or Goëmagot and Corineus, referred to in the next article. (See also Corineus.) ”

“ They had scarcely gone ten paces when they met Magor and his charming captive. At sight of these unknown persons, the Sorcerer stood dumb with amazement. At last, full of rage, he cried out:
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"Why did you come here, miserable creatures? Dare you even pretend to take from me the pearl of pearls, the beauty without rival that I have on my arm, my pretty prisoner, the Princess of Golconda?"
"Yes," said the Prince; "and all your magic will serve to confound you, if you do not use your superhuman art."
"So be it," assented Magor. "I will not crush you like an earthworm. I will do better. ”

“ At last, accompanied by a mob of courtiers, appeared the chief in magnifico. He was the only chief who ever entered my tent in Ugogo—​pride and a propensity for strong drink prevented such visits. He was much too great a man to call upon Arab merchants, but in our case curiosity mastered State considerations. Magomba was an old man, black and wrinkled, drivelling and decrepid. ”

“ The Bible dictionary applies Gog and [219] Magog to the Caucasian mountains, a chain that extends from the Black Sea to the Caspian. The Scythians of those regions were a fierce and warlike people. For many years they had made their name a terror to the whole Eastern world. They were finally conquered and driven out, B. C. 596, a few years before the time of Ezekiel's prophesy. These events being fresh in the mind of the ancient seer, the prophetic spirit employs Gog and Magog to represent the acrid and intolerable spirit of sectarianism and its final overthrow. ”

“ Kang—and died.
What if their mission were a success and Magog's power overthrown, the children of Gog returned once more to look upon the sun? The children of Earth within a matter of hours would be obliterated in what to them would be a horrendous holocaust of flame, but would to observers from this far vastness seem no more than the flickering of a momentary candle in lost distances.
He cried in a choked voice, "Borisu! Stop! For God's sake—" ”

“ The Gogean shrugged. "Darkness ... light ... what difference do these things make? We whose lives are spent in everlasting night make no distinction. Long years ago we were forced to either lose the power uff vision entirely or adapt our eyesight to seeing in the dark. Our people haff done the latter.
"When, years ago, the Magogeans with the help of their diabolic ultrawave cannon succeeded in overthrowing our empire, those uff us who were not slain sought refuge here on the eternally dark side of Magog."
"Eternally dark side!" broke in Dr. Kang. ”

“ In Cornwall googou means a cave, den, souterrain, or “giants holt,” and there are several reasons to suppose that the Gogmagogei or gougouites were troglodytes. “Son of Man,” said Ezekiel, “set thy face against Gog the Land of Magog,” and to judge from similar references, it would seem that the followers of Gogmagog were ill-favoured and unloved. Sir John Maundeville (1322) mentions in his Travels, that in the Land of Cathay towards Bucharia, and Upper India, the Jews of ten lineages “who are called Gog and Magog” were penned up in some mountains called Uber. ”

“ The description is evidently symbolic, and Gog and Magog were doubtless not intended to be identified as particular nations; nor can the fulfilment be literally understood. Like many of the prophecies of the past it is surrounded by a haze of indefiniteness that prevents its full interpretation until its meaning is revealed by the course of events. ”

“ This account then goes on to state that they went north, and came ‘to Magomero,’ and fought two days with the Atonga, ‘who dwell there to this day’; and the Atonga ‘clasped their feet,’ i.e. submitted, and acknowledged them as chiefs. The name of Magomero is given by the Blantyre people to the Konde country at the north end of the Lake, as well as to the place of that name, near to Lake Chilwa. As the word seems to mean ‘the slopes,’ it may be of frequent occurrence. They then passed round the north end of the Lake, and turned south again. ”