J70 F A L 
FAKE,/. Among feamtn, a coil of rofee. 
FAKE'ER, Fakyr, or Faquir,/. [Indian, a poor 
man.] A religions order of mendicants is thus named 
by the Arabians, b * the Perfians dervi/Ii or fof, and by 
the Indians fcnajfy: 
A fahser, a religious w*ll known in the eaft. 
Not much like a parfon, dill lefs like a pried. Cambridge. 
In this fingular clafs of men, who in Hindoodan defpife 
every fpecies of clothing, there are a number of enthu- 
fiads, but a far fuperior proportion of knaves ; every 
vagabond of abilities who has an averfion to labour, being 
received into a fraternity which is regulated by laws of an 
uncommon and fecret nature. The Hindoos view them 
with a wonderful 'refpeft, not only on account of their 
fanftified reputation, but from a fubdantial dread of their 
power; the fakeer pilgrimages confiding often of many 
thoufands of naked faints, who exa£t wherever they pafs 
a general tribute, and their character is too facred for 
the civil power to take cognizance of their conduct. 
Every invention, in a word, of perverted ingenuity is 
exhauded in didorting and deforming nature, fome, of 
the mod elevated enthufiafm, driking off even their own 
heads on great folemnities, as a facrifice to the Ganges, 
which river they worlhip ; if the nerves of the felf-de- 
voted viftim are powerful enough to difmember it com¬ 
pletely he unquedionably goes to heaven, if not, his for¬ 
mer fandfity is quedioned, and his future happinefs remains 
a doubt. See the article Hindoostan. 
FA'KF.NHAM, a fmall market town in the county of 
Norfolk, didant from London no miles. It is dtuated on 
the fide of a hill, with the river Yar on the fouth, which 
meanders clofe to the town, and 011 which there is a good 
mill. The market is on Thurfdays, when large quantities 
of barley and wheat are ufually on fale. Fairs, Alh-Wed- 
nefday, and November n. At this town were formerly 
falt-pits, though fix miles from the lea. On a neighbour¬ 
ing hill is dill kept the fiieriff’s tourn and court for the 
whole county. Several coins of Henry VI. and VII. 
were found here in 1741. The town was greatly da¬ 
maged by fire, Augud 4, 1738. Here is a large hand- 
fome church, and a market crofs. Fakenham is twenty- 
five miles from Norwich, twenty-two from Lynn, and 
sixteen from Swafrham. 
FALAI'SE, a town of France, and principal place of a 
diftridt, in the department of the Calvados, on the Ante : 
it has manufactures of lerges, linen, and lace: fix leagues 
fouth of Caen, and feven fouth-vved of Lifieux. Lat. 48. 
55. N. Ion. 17. 25. E. Ferro. 
FALAI'SE, a town of Brabant: fixteen miles fouth- 
ead of Tirlemont. 
FALASH'A, a people of Abyffinia, of Jewifh origin, 
defcribed by Mr. Bruce as having once held the fupreme 
authority, but who now take up their refidence among 
the rugged mountains of Samen ; one of which they choie 
for their capital, and which has ever dnee been called the 
Jews’ Rock. 
FALASJ A'M, a country of Africa, wed of Abydinia. 
FALAVl'ERS, a town of France, in the department 
of the Ifere : five miles weft of Bourgoin. 
FALCA'DE, f. falx, faids, Lat.] A horfe is faid to 
make fulcades when lie throws himfelf upon his haunches 
two or three times, as in very quick curvets; therefore a 
falcade is that adtion of the haunches and of the legs, 
which bend very low when you make a dop and half a 
Hop. Farrier’s Did. 
FALCAN'DUS (Hugh), a Sicilian hiftorian of the 
twelfth century, fuppofed to have been a Norman by 
birth, but to have redded long in Sicily. The fubjedt 
of his work, after a brief view of the firft exploits of 
the Normans in the kingdom of Sicily, is the calamities 
it underwent from 115410 1169, under the two kings 
William I. and II. He appears to have publifhed his 
hidory in 1189 or 1190. It has been l’everal times 
printed, the lad by Muratori, in the feventh volume of 
his great colle&ion of Italian hiftorians. 
F A L 
FALCA'RIA,/! in botany. See Sium. 
FALCA'TA,/. in botany. See Medicag.o. 
FAL'CATED, adj. [falcatus, 1 Lat. ] Hooked; bent 
like a reaping-hook or feythe.—The enlightened part of 
the moon appears in the form of a fickle, or reaping, 
hook, which is while die is moving from the cOnjunftion 
to the oppofition, or from the new moon to the full; but 
from full to a new again, the enlightened part appears 
gibbous, and the dark falcated. Harris. 
FALCA TION,/. [falcis, Lat.] Crookednefs ; form 
like that of a reaper’s hook.—The locufts have antennae 
or long horns before, with a long falcation or forcipated 
tail behind. Brown. 
FALCATU'RA, /. One day’s mowing, performed by 
an inferior tenant as cudomary fervice to his lord. 
FAL'CES, a town of Spain, in the kingdom of Na¬ 
varre, on the Arga : five miles wed of Olite. 
FAL'CHION,/. \_enfis falcatus, Lat. }'auction , Fr.] A 
diort crooked fvvord ; a ley me ter : 
What fighs and tears 
Hath Eugene caufed ! how many widows curfe 
His cleaving falchion. Philips. 
FALCI'DIAN, adj. Belonging to a remarkable law 
made by Falcidius. 
FALCI'DIUS, a man’s name; a Roman tribune, who 
made a law, that no man Ihould difpofe of more than 
three-fourths of his edate to the prejudice of his law¬ 
ful heir. 
FAL'CKENBERG, a town of Germany, In the duchy 
of Holdein : feven miles wed-fouth-wed of Nordtorp. 
FAL'C KEN BURG, a town of Germany, in the circle 
of the Upper Rhine, and duchy of Deux Ponts r twenty 
miles eafi-fouth-eafi of Deux Ponts. 
FAL'CKENBURG, or Niemodlin, a town of Silefia, 
in the principality of Oppeln : eleven miles wed-north- 
wed of Prelkau, and twenty-one north-north-wed of Ober 
Glogau. 
FAL'CO, f. [from falx, Lat. a hook.] In ornitho¬ 
logy, the Eag i.e, Fa lcon, See. a genus of birds, belong¬ 
ing to the order accipitres; and fo called, becaufe the 
bill is bent like a hook. The generic charafters are 
thefe : bill hooked, and furnifhed at its bafe with a cere, 
in which the nodrils are plated ; head clofely befet with 
feathers ; tongue bifid or cloven. Linnaeus has, with 
propriety, claffed the eagles and falcons, or hawks, under 
one genus; becaufe their charafters are precifely the 
fame. Ray and Brid’on feparate the eagles from the fal¬ 
cons : the former has eight fpecies of eagles, and twenty- 
five of falcons 5 the latter fifteen of eagles, and thirty- 
feven of hawks. Such has been the uncertainty of claf-- 
fification, that one naturalift confiders as a fpecies what 
another only marks as a variety. Befides which, fo many 
new difeoveries have been made in the families of birds, 
in the late voyages round the world, the expeditions to 
New South Wales, and the journeys of Gmelin, Pallas, 
Jacquin, Vaillant, & c. that this genus is now found to 
contain no lefs than 164 fpecies, exclufive of varieties. 
The eagle is confidered by far the nobled, and mod ge¬ 
nerous, of the rapacious birds. The golden eagle was 
facred to Jupiter; the Perfians, and after them the Ro¬ 
mans, a (fumed this bird for their enfign in war;, which 
has fince devolved to the houfe of Audria. They gene¬ 
rally inhabit the mountains and rocky countries; and 
fome fpecies of them are to be found almod in every 
quarter of. the world. So great is the native fiercenefs of 
the eagle, that hardly any effort will render it fo tame and 
familiar as to qualify it for the chace. We are informed, 
that they were anciently employed for this purpofe in the 
cad ; but they have long fince been banidied from the 
fyfiem of falconry. They are too heavy to be able, 
without great fatigue, to outdrip the game, and never fo 
tame and gentle, but their caprices or rage are at fome 
moments formidable to their keepers. Every part of 
their figure correfponds to their difpofition; for, inde¬ 
pendent of their drong talons., the whole body is compadt 
