fate which dooms to slow decay or sudden death and to eternal oblivion all that is great, good and beautiful in this world. There is a touch of Byron, Swinburne and even of Schopenhauer in many of his rubā‘īs, which clearly proves that the modern pessimist is by no means a novel creature in the realm of philosophic thought and poetical imagination.
The Leiden copy of ‘Omar Khayyām's work on algebra was noticed as far back as 1742 by Gerald Meerman in the preface to his Specimen calculi fluxionalis; further notices of the same work by Sedillot appeared in the Nouv. Jour. As. (1834) and in vol. xiii. of the Notices et extraits des MSS. de la Bibl. roy. The complete text, together with a French translation (on the basis of the Leiden and Paris copies, the latter first discovered by M. Libri, see his Histoire des sciences mathematiques en Italie, i. 300), was edited by F. Woepcke, L'Algèbre d'Omar Alkhayyāmi (Paris, 1851). Articles on ‘Omar's life and works are found in Reinaud's Géographie d'Aboulféda, pref., p. 101; Notices et extraits, ix. 143 seq.; Garcin de Tassy, Note sur les Rubā‘iyāt de ‘Omar Hhaïyām (Paris, 1857); Rieu, Cat. Pers. MSS. in the Br. Mus., ii. 546; A. Christensen, Recherches sur les Rubā‘iyāt de ‘Omar ̱Hayyām (Heidelberg, 1905); V. Zhukovski's ‘Umar Khayyām and the “Wandering” Quatrains, translated from the Russian by E. D. Ross in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, xxx. (1898); E. G. Browne, Literary History of Persia, ii. 246. The quatrains have been edited at Calcutta (1836) and Teheran (1857 and 1862); text and French translation by J. B. Nicolas (Paris, 1867) (very incorrect and misleading); a portion of the same, rendered in English verse, by E. FitzGerald (London, 1859, 1872 and 1879). FitzGerald's translation has been edited with commentary by H. M. Batson (1900), and the 2nd ed. of the same (1868) by E. Heron Allen (1908). A new English version was published in Trübner's “Oriental” series (1882) by E. H. Whinfield, and the first critical edition of the text, with translation, by the same (1883). Important later works are N. H. Dole's variorum edition (1896), J. Payne's translation (1898), E. Heron Allen's edition (1898) and the Life by J. K. M. Shirazi (1905); but the literature in new translations and imitations has recently multiplied exceedingly.
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OMBRE, a card game, very fashionable at the end of the 18th century, but now practically obsolete. The following recommendation of the game is taken from the Court Gamester, a book published in 1720 for the use of the daughters of the prince of Wales, afterwards George II:—
“The game of Ombre owes its invention to the Spaniards, and it has in it a great deal of the gravity peculiar to that nation. It is called Ombre, or The Man. It was so named as requiring thought and reflection, which are qualities peculiar to many or rather alluding to him who undertakes to play the game against the rest of the gamesters, and is called the man. To play it well requires a great deal of application, and let a man be ever so expert, he will be apt to fall into mistakes if he think of anything else or is disturbed by the conversation of them that look on. . . . It will be found the most delightful and entertaining of all games to those who have anything in them of what we call the spirit of play.”
Ombre is played by three players with a pack of 40 cards, the 8, 9 and 10 being dispensed with. The order of value of the hands is irregular, being different for trumps and suits not trumps. In a suit not trumps the order is, for red suits: K, Q, Kn, ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; for black suits: K, Q, Kn, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. In trump suits the ace of spades, called spadille, is always a trump, and the highest one, whichever of the four suits may be trumps. The order for red suit trumps is: ace of spades, 7 (called manille), ace of clubs (called basto), ace (called ponto), K, Q, Kn, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. For black suit trumps: ace of spades (spadille), 2 (manille), ace (basto), K, Q, Kn, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. There is no ponto in black trumps. The three highest trumps are called matadores (or mats). The holder of them has the privilege of not following suit, except when a higher mat is played, which forces a lower one if the hand contains no other trump.
Cards are dealt round, and the receiver of the first black ace is the dealer. He deals (towards his right) nine cards, by threes, to each player. The remaining 13 cards form the stock or talon, as at piquet. Each deal constitutes a game. One hand plays against the other two, the solo player being called the Ombre. The player at the dealer's right has the first option of being Ombre, which entails two privileges: that of naming the trump suit, and that of throwing away as many of his cards as he chooses, receiving new ones in their place, as at poker. If, with these advantages in mind, he thinks he can win against the other two hands, he says, “I ask leave,” or “I play.” But in this case his right-hand neighbour has the privilege of claiming Ombre for himself, providing he is willing to play his hand without drawing new cards, or, as the phrase goes, sans prendre. If, however, the other player reconsiders and decides that he will himself play without drawing cards, he can still remain Ombre. If the second player passes, the dealer in his turn may ask to play sans prendre, as above. If all three pass a new deal ensues. After the Ombre discards (if he does not play sans prendre) the two others in turn do likewise, and, if any cards are left in the stock, the last discarder may look at them (as at piquet) and the others after him. But if he does not look at them the others lose the privilege of doing so.
The manner of play is like whist, except that it is towards the right. The second and third players combine to defeat Ombre. If in the sequel Ombre makes more tricks than either of his opponents he wins. If one of his opponents makes more than Ombre the latter loses (called codille). If Ombre and one or both of his opponents make the same number of tricks the game is drawn. When Ombre makes all nine tricks he wins a vole. The game is played with counters having certain values, the pool being emptied by the winner. If all pass, a counter of low value is paid into the pool by each player. If Ombre wins he takes the entire pool. If he draws he forfeits to the pool a sum equal to that already in it, i.e. the pool is doubled. If either of his opponents makes the majority of the tricks (codille), Ombre pays him a sum equal to that in the pool, which itself remains untouched until the next game. When the pool is emptied each player pays in three counters.
OMDURMAN, a town of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, on the west bank of the Nile, immediately north of the junction of the White and Blue Niles in 15° 38′ N., 32° 29′ E., 2 m. N. by W. of Khartum. Pop. (1909 census) 42,779, of whom 541 were Europeans. The town covers a large area, being over 5 m. long and 2 broad. It consists for the most part of mud huts, but there are some houses built of sun-dried bricks. Save for two or three wide streets which traverse it from end to end the town is a network of narrow lanes. In the centre facing an open space are the ruins of the tomb of the Mahdi and behind is the house in which he lived. The Khalifa's house (a two-storeyed building), the mosque, the Beit el Amana (arsenal) and other houses famed in the history of the town also face the central square. A high wall runs behind these buildings parallel with the Nile. Omdurman is the headquarters of the native traders in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, the chief articles of commerce being ivory, ostrich feathers and gum arabic from Darfur and Kordofan. There is also an important camel and cattle market. Nearly every tribe in the Sudan is represented in the population of the city. Among the native artificers the metal workers and leather dressers are noted. The government maintains elementary and technical schools. Mission work is undertaken by various Protestant and Roman Catholic societies.
Omdurman, then an insignificant village, was chosen in 1884 by the Mahdi Mahommed Ahmed as his capital and so continued after the fall of Khartum in Khartum in January 1885. Its growth was rapid, the Khalifa (who succeeded the Mahdi) compelling large numbers of disaffected tribesmen to live in the town under the eye of his soldiery|Army. Here also were imprisoned the European captives of the Mahdists—notably Slatin Pasha and Father Ohrwalder. On the 2nd of September 1898 the Anglo-Egyptian army under Lord Kitchener totally defeated the forces of the Khalifa at Kerreri, 7 m. N. of the town. A marble obelisk marks the spot where the 21st Lancers made a charge. Within the enclosure of the Khalifa's house is the tomb of Hubert Howard, son of the 9th earl of Carlisle, who was killed in the house at the capture of the city by a splinter of a shell fired at the Mahdi's tomb. (See Sudan: Anglo-Egyptian.)
OMELETTE, sometimes Anglicized as "omelet," a French word of which the history is an example of the curious changes a word may undergo. The ultimate origin is Lat. lamella, diminutive of lamina, plate; this became in French lamelle, and a wrong division of la lamelle gave alamelle, alemelle, or alumelle; thence alemette, metathesized to amelette and aumelete, the form in which the word appears in the 15th and 16th centuries. The
