Zekiel Irons was a lean, reserved fellow, with a black wig and blue chin, and something shy and sinister in his phiz.

The welcoming rite — referred to as a wiccaning, a saining, or a paganing — serves a threefold purpose.

And she dissolved into another round of sniggers and snickles.

Blockheads, friends of my heart and liver, cousins of my tripe, are you ignorant that this symposium is as authentic as any of those tales of the Greek Calends, which you swallow and digest so easily, …?