FESTUS 



First Army (Haig) was ordered to 

 take the offensive on a front N. W. of 

 La Bassee, from Laventie to Riche- 

 bourg 1' Avoue, against the German 

 works on the Aubers Ridge. On 

 the N. portion of this front the 

 4th corps (Rawlinson) attacked ; 

 on the S., the Indian corps (Will 

 cocks) and the 1st corps. On May 

 9 the infantry advanced after a 40- 

 min. bombardment, but found that 

 the Germans were perfectly pre- 

 pared, and that their wire had not 

 been cut or their defences demol- 

 ished by the artillery. The attack 

 failed with heavy British losses. 

 The total of killed, wounded, and 

 missing exceeded 12,000, without 

 any result, except that the Germans 

 were held down in the section of 

 attack. The failure was due to the 

 weakness of the British artillery. 



Nevertheless, French decided to 

 resume the attack, extending it 

 S. to Festubert. On May 15 

 the British once more assaulted, 

 late in the night, after a pro- 

 longed artillery preparation. The 

 troops engaged were the Indian 

 corps on the British left, with 

 the 2nd division at Givenchy 

 and the 7th at Festubert. The 

 Canadian division was placed in 

 support. The 2nd division broke 

 into the German trench system, 

 carrying it for about half a mile, 

 and the 7th division, attacking 

 E. of Festubert, took another 

 section of the German line, but 

 between these two indentations the 

 Germans could not be dislodged. 

 They counter-attacked in the night 

 of May 16, and forced back the 

 2nd division slightly, though most 

 of the ground won was held. On 

 May 17 the British, both from 

 N. and S., assaulted the German 

 wedge, 1,000 yds. long, between 

 the two dents, and cleared it. 



The trench battle continued on 

 the following days ; the British 

 were much hampered by wetweather 

 and insufficient ammunition, but 

 ground was slowly gained, always 

 at the price of heavy sacrifices. On 

 May 20-21 the Canadians took up 

 the work of the 7th division before 

 Festubert ; on May 25 the 47th 

 London Territorial division was 

 put in on the British right at 

 Givenchy, and captured a section 

 of the German line there, which 

 was successfully held. The battle 

 brought little result, as the capture 

 of some thousands of yards of 

 trenches was no compensation for 

 the heavy sacrifices incurred. In 

 killed, the British loss was 3,620; 

 wounded, 17,484; missing, 4,321. 



' _ i H. W. Wilson 



Festus. Poem by Philip James 

 Bailey (q.v.). First published in 

 1839, it was added to and otherwise 

 altered during 50 years until in its 



3130 



final form, 1889, it consists of about 

 10,000 lines. A variant of the 

 Faust legend, illustrating the ulti- 

 mate triumph of good over evil, 

 its scenes take place in Heaven 

 and on the earth, and though it 

 introduces "the three Persons of 

 the Trinity as interlocutors in its 

 wild plot " in a way which many 

 readers resented, it has frequent 

 terse and happy lines which have 

 become familiar quotations. 



Festus, PORCIUS (d. A.D. 62). 

 Procurator of Judaea in succession 

 to Felix, about A.D. 58. He heard, 

 in the presence of Herod Agrippa II 

 and Berenice, the case of S. Paul, 

 whom he sent to Rome for trial 

 (Acts 24-25; Josephus's Ant. of 

 the Jews, xx, 8 ; Wars, ii, 14). He 

 is said temporarily to have sup- 

 pressed the Sicarii or Assassins, and 

 was, if cynical, inclined to justice. 

 He is introduced in a powerful 

 short story, The Procurator of 

 Judaea, bv Anatole France. 



FETH ALl SHAH 



Festus, SEXTUS POMPEIUS (3rd 

 century A.D. ). Latin grammarian. 

 He was the author of an abstract 

 of the important work by Marcus 

 Verrius Flaccus, On the Meaning 

 of Words, containing an alpha- 

 betical list of obsolete words, 

 together with valuable information 

 concerning old state institutions 

 and ceremonial. Part of it (M-T) 

 has been preserved in the abstract 

 of Festus and a further epitome by 

 Paulus Diaconus (8th century), 

 which is complete. 



Feth All Shah OE BABA KHAN 

 (1762-1834). Shah of Persia. 

 Nephew of Aga Mohammed, he 

 came to the throne in 1798, and 

 threw himself into a contest with 

 Russia to recover Persia's lost 

 Caucasian territories. This brought 

 him into conflict with Britain in 



1812, and by the treaty of Gulistan, 



1813, Feth Ali was forced to cede 

 Georgia and seven adjacent prov- 

 inces to Russia. War with Turkey 



Fetishism. 1. Bondu witches or devils from Sierra Leone, a. Man ot 

 Angola worshipping two fetishes. 3. Natives of the Sierra Leone hinter- 

 land with their fetish 



