Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/102

FAT FAUCHER ically no less remarkable. The latter appear to have contained ample information about fes- tivals, and details of the honors bestowed upon and the triumphs achieved by Caesar, Octavia- nus, and Tiberius. A most remarkable speci- men of the second class was discovered in 1546 in the forum Eomanum, in large fragments, giving the list of consuls from the 250th to the 765th year of Rome, and is known under the name of fasti Gapitolini. New fragments of the same tablets were found in 1817 and in 1818. Originally they contained the records of Rome from the expulsion of the kings to the death of Augustus. Labbe has given fasti con- sulares out of a MS. of the college of Clermont in his Bibliotheca Nova. Several modern wri- ters, as Sigonius, Reland, and Baiter, have pub- lished chronological tables of Roman magis- trates under the title of fasti. FAT. See ADIPOSE SUBSTANCES, ALIMENT, and CORPULENCE. FATA MORGANA, or castles of the fairy Mor- gana, a mirage occasionally seen from emi- nences on the Calabrian shore, looking west- ward upon the strait of Messina. It occurs in still mornings, when the waters are unruffled by breeze or current, and the sun, rising above the mountains of Calabria, strikes down upon the smooth surface at an angle of 45. The heat then acts rapidly upon the stagnant air, the strata of which but slowly intermingling present a series of mirrors which variously re- flect the objects upon the surface. The tides must have operated to raise the surface into a convex form, as sometimes occurs at this lo- cality. Objects on the Sicilian shore opposite, beneath the dark background of the mountains of Messina, are refracted and reflected upon the water in mid channel, presenting enlarged and duplicated images. Gigantic figures of men and horses move over the picture, as sim- ilar images in miniature are seen flitting across the white sheet of the camera obscura. Some- times the sky above the water is so impreg- nated with vapor that it surrounds these ob- jects with a colored hue. The wonderful ex- hibition is but of short duration. The phe- nomenon is not peculiar to this locality, though the configuration of the coast and the meteoro- logical conditions of the region concur to ren- der its exhibition more frequent and more beau- tiful here than elsewhere. FATES. SeePAKC^E. FATUUTES, or Fatimides, the descendants of Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed, a power- ful Arab dynasty which for two centuries ruled Egypt and Syria, while the Abbasside caliphs reigned at Bagdad. They claimed as their founder Ismael, the 6th of the 12 imams who were descended from Ali and Fatima ; but this claim was disputed, and they were variously said to have first appeared in Persia, in Egypt, and at Fez, and to have been descendants of a Jew, a locksmith, and an eastern sage. They first attained to empire under Abu Obeidallah, who in A. D. 909 announced himself in Syria as the mahdi, or director of the faithful, foretold by the Koran, and expected as the Messiah by a class of heterodox Mussulmans. Denounced by the caliph, he fled to Egypt, was imprisoned for a time in north Africa, but was afterward rec- ognized as a messenger from heaven, and made himself caliph of the whole country from the straits of Gibraltar to the border of Egypt. His successor conquered the island of Sicily. Moez, the 4th caliph, wrested Egypt from the Ab- bassides in 970, founded Cairo, fixing his resi- dence in its present suburb of Fostat, and con- quered Palestine and a large part of Syria. Aziz, his successor (975-996), consolidated and extended his conquests, and embellished Cairo with many monuments. His son Hakem (996- 1021) was preeminently distinguished for fanat- icism and cruelty, persecuting alike Christians, Jews, and orthodox Mohammedans. Declaring himself a manifestation of God, he became near the close of his reign the founder of a new re- ligion, now represented by the Druses of Syria, who expect his reappearance as their Messiah. From his time the power of the Fatimites declined. On the death of Adhed, the 14th caliph, in 1171, the dynasty was extinguished, and a new one established by Saladin. (See CALIPH.) FAUCHE, Hippolyte, a French orientalist, born at Auxerre in 1797, died at Juilly, department of Seine-et-Marne, in 1869. His fortune enabled him to devote his whole life to Hindoo litera- ture, and he translated into French many cele- brated Sanskrit poems and other works. His labors were repeatedly rewarded by academical prizes. His most extensive translations are the Mmdyana (9 vols., 1854-'8) and the MaJia Bharata (7 vols., 1863-7), which latter was interrupted by his death. He also published poetry and a novel. FAUCHER, Leon, a French political econo- mist, born in Limoges, Sept. 8, 1803, died in Marseilles, Dec. 14, 1854. When a boy he sup- ported himself and his mother by making de- signs for embroidery, and afterward became a teacher in Paris. After the revolution of 1830 he was successively editor of the Temps, the Constitutionnel, and the Courrier Fran$ais. He was chosen to the chamber of deputies for Rheims in 1846, and, joining the opposition party, was prominent in the debates on ques- tions touching political economy. He was elected by the department of Marne to the con- stituent assembly of 1848. In December of that year, and again in April, 1851, he was ap- pointed by Louis Napoleon minister of the in- terior, serving each time but a few months. He was instrumental in preparing the law of May 31, 1850, restricting the limits of suffrage ; but he declined to accept office under Louis Napoleon after the coup d'etat. He now de- voted himself chiefly to the interests of the credit fonder, having previously become known by his advocacy of a gradual reduction of duties, and of a commercial league between France, Belgium, Spain, and Switzerland, as a coun-