O M B 
mitted to his power; nor does he appear to have been 
checked in a Tingle inftance. In confequence, however, 
of his fuccefs, an attempt was made to afiaffinate him. 
The fa£t is thus related : Wathek Ebn Mofafer, a refo- 
lute young Arab, was procured by the king of Ghaft'an, 
and Tent to Medina for this very purpofe. Some time 
after his arrival, obferving Omar to fall alleep under a 
tree on which he had placed himfelf, To as not to be dif- 
qovered by any perfon, he drew his dagger, and was upon 
the point of ftabbing him, when, looking attentively, he 
Taw adion walking round about him, and licking his feet. 
Nor did the lion ceafe to guard the caliph till he awoke ; 
but then inftantly went away. This phenomenon Itruck 
Wathek with a profound reverence for Omar, whom he 
tiow confidered as the peculiar care of heaven. He there¬ 
fore came down from the tree, on which the lion had forced 
him to remain, killed the caliph’s hand, confeffed his 
crime, and embraced the Mahometan religion ; being To 
ftrongly aft'e6ted with the wonderful deliverance he had 
been an eye-witnefs of. His life, however, was at length 
ended by aflaflination at Medina, as noted in the article 
Arabia, vol. ii. p. n. but other accounts fay he was 
murdered in the temple of Jerufalem, which he had con¬ 
verted into a mofque. We are informed by Eutychius, 
that, during his caliphate, he performed the pilgrimage to 
Mecca nine times. His extenfive conquefts made the 
Modem empire one of the molt powerful and formidable 
monarchies in the world. His dilpofition is reprefented 
to us, with evident partiality indeed, as one of the bell 
pofiible ; and his temperance has always been highly ex¬ 
tolled. 
O'MAR II. the 13 th caliph of the race of the Ommiades, 
fucceeded his coufin, Solyman, in the year 717. He laid 
f;ege to Conllantinople, but was forced to raife it, on ac¬ 
count of a violent ftorm, which deltroyed a great part of 
his fleet. He was poifoned at Emefla, in Syria, in the 
year 720. 
OMA'RA, a river of Brafil, which runs into the At¬ 
lantic in lat. 5. S. 
OMAR'K, a town of Norway: thirty-eight miles 
north-eaft of Frederickftadt. 
OMASUY'OS, a jurifdidtion of South-America, in the 
government of Buenos-Ayres, on the banks of the lake 
Titiaca. The air of this jurifdiftion is fomewhat cold. 
To that it produces little grain ; but that deficiency is 
abundantly compenfated by the great number of cattle 
fed in its paftures ; befides a very advantageous trade car¬ 
ried on in another jurifdidtion, by the Indians living on 
the borders of the lake, who are a6tive and induftrious in 
improving that advantage. 
OM'BA, a fmall ifland in the Adriatic, near the coaft 
of European Turkey. Lat. 4.3. 5. N. Ion. 18. 9. E. 
OMBA'Y, an ifland in the Eaftern Indian Sea, about 
fixty miles in length from eaft to weft, and eighteen in 
breadth. Lat. 7. 58. S. Ion. 125. 7. E. 
OM'BERGAUM, a town of Hindooftan: twenty-five 
miles welt of Poonah. 
OM'BI, or Ombo, a city of ancient Egypt, after¬ 
wards called Arfmoe and Crococlilopolis, was the capital of 
one of the noraes into which that country was divided ; 
and is remarkable, in the annals of idolatry, for the ha¬ 
tred of its inhabitants to the religion of their neighbours 
the citizens of Tentyra. See Juvenal’s 15th Sat. 
The genius of paganifm was To complying with refpeft 
to the objedts of religious worfhip, that, although each 
nation, each city, aud almoft every family, had its own 
tutelar god, we know not a Angle inftance, out of Egypt, 
of one tribe of-Pagans perfecuting another for worfhip- 
ping gods different from theirs. The Jews and Chriitians 
were, indeed, perfecuted by the Romans; not however 
for worlhipping the true God, but becaufe, together with 
him, they would not worlhip Jupiter, Juno, and all the 
rabble of heathen divinities. 
Thereafon of the almoft-univerfal tolerance of idolaters 
to one another, and of the intolerance of all to the Jews 
O M B 471 
and Chriftians, is very obvious. Not a fingle Pagan, a 
very few philofophers perhaps excepted, ever thought of 
paying his adoration to the fupreme and felf-exifting 
Being, but to inferior divinities, to whom it was fuppofed 
that the care of particular perfons, families, cities, and 
nations, was configned by the God of theuniverfe. The 
confequence was, that, as no perfon denied the divinity 
of his neighbour’s objeft of worlhip, an intercommunity 
of gods was every-w'here admitted, and adjoined occa- 
fionally in adoring the gods of the various nations. By 
the Jews and Chriftians this communion was rejected, as 
in the higheft degree impious; and it could not well be 
maintained between the citizens of Ombi and thole of 
Tentyra, for a reafon which we fhall now proceed to affign. 
That brutes were worlhipped in Egypt is univerfally 
known; and Diodorus Siculus informs us, in a paffage 
quoted by Eufebius, that, “ the cities and nomes of Egypt 
being at one time prone to rebellion, and to enter into 
confpiracies againft monarchical government, one of their 
raoft politic kings contrived to introduce into the neigh¬ 
bouring nomes the worlhip of different animals ; To that, 
while each reverenced the deity which itfelf held Tacred, 
and defpifed that which its neighbours had confecrated, 
they could hardly be brought to join cordially in one 
common defign to the difturbance of the government.” 
In this diftribution of gods, he conferred upon Ombi the 
crocodile, and upon Tentyra the mortal enemy of that 
monfter, the ichneumon. The confequence was, that, 
while the Ombites worlhipped the crocodile, the Tenty- 
rites took every opportunity offlaughteringhim,infomuch 
that, according to Strabo, the very voice of an inhabitant 
of Tentyra put the crocodile to flight. This, we confefs, 
is very improbable ; but it is certain that the mutual ha¬ 
tred of thofe cities, on account of their hoftile gods, rofe 
to fuch a height, that, whenever the inhabitants of the 
one were engaged in the more folemn rites of their reli¬ 
gion, thofe of the other were Ture to embrace the oppor¬ 
tunity of fettingfire to their houfes, and rendering them 
every injury in their power to inflift. And what may, to 
a fuperficial thinker, appear extraordinary, though it will 
excite no wonder in the breaft of him who has ftudied 
mankind, this animofity continued between the inhabi¬ 
tants of the two cities long after the crocodile and ichneu¬ 
mon had loft their divinity. The place is now called 
Ombo: it is twenty-fix miles north of Syene. For an ac¬ 
count of the remains of its temple, fee the article Egypt, 
vol. vi. p. 355. 
OM'BERSLEY, a village in Worcefterlhire, weft of 
Droitwich, and five miles from Worcefter on the Shrewf* 
burv-road. The church, dedicated to St. Andrew, is fur- 
nilhed with a handfome fpire. The village itfelf is neat 
and healthy ; and has a charity-fchool. The parilh is 
large, being twelve miles in circuit, and contains leven- 
teen hamlets. It had a market, granted by Edward III. 
long fince difcontinued 5 and one fair. Lady Sandys has 
a ftately manfion here, furrounded with large trees; and 
furnilhed with Tome fine pictures. 
OM'BLA, a river of Dalmatia, which runs into the 
Adriatic a little to the north of Ragufa, forming a con- 
fiderable gulf at its mouth. 
OM'BO. See Ombi. 
OM'BRAS. See Ameras. 
OM'BRE, f [Spanilh.] A game of cards, commonly 
played by three perfons.—He would willingly carry her to 
the play ; but flie had rather go to lady Centaure’s, and 
play at ombre. Toiler. 
When ombre calls, his hand and heart are free ; 
And, join’d to two, he fails not to make three. Young. 
The game of ombre is borrowed from the Spaniards ; 
the name fignifies as much as “ the game of man ( ombre, 
or homhre, in Spanilh, fignifying man 5) in allufion to the 
thought and attention required in it. It is played by two, 
by three, or by five, perfons ; but generally by three. 
In ombre by three, nine cards are dealt to each party ; 
2 thy 
