472 O M B 
the whole ombre-pack being only 40, by reafon the eights, 
nines, and tens, are thrown a fide. After the cards are 
dealt, if none of the parties think their hand ftrong enough 
to attempt for the (lake or game, they all pqfs ; and, after 
fomething put down to the former Hake, deal over again. 
If any one will attempt for it, he henceforth is called the 
ombre; and the other two become leagued together, like 
two partners at vvhift, to defend it againft him. There 
are two ways of thus undertaking for the game : in the 
firft, which is mod ufual, the ombre, after choofing 
what he will have trumps, difcards, or lays afide, what 
number of his cards he pleafes, and in their lieu takes an 
equal number from the remainder of the pack ; the like 
do the other two. The other way is, when he dare trull 
to his own hand, and therefore declines to difcard, or 
change any cards, but leaves that to the others, which is 
called playing Jims prendre; if he gains the point, in this 
latter cafe, he reaps fomewhat extraordinary, more than 
in the firft. If he fail in either cafe, he is faid to be bcafied; 
and the failure is called a remife, or vepuefte; and, if one 
of the defenders of the flake win more tricks than he, 
luch perfon is faid to win codi/le, and takes up the flake 
the ombre played for; and in both cafes, the ombre is to 
forfeit the value of the flake played for to the board. If 
the ombre win all the nine tricks, it is called winning the 
vole, and he reaps double; and if he attempt it, and mif- 
carry, he fuffers proportionally. The overfights and ir¬ 
regularities committed in the courfe of the game, are 
called benjis, .and fubjefl the perfons chargeable there¬ 
with to forfeitures. 
As to the order and value of the cards at ombre, it is to 
be obferved, that the ace of fpades, called fpadille, is always 
the firft or higheft trump, in whatever f< it the trump be: 
the deuce of trumps when trumps are either of the black 
colours, or the feven if of the red, is the fecond trump, 
and called manille; the ace of clubs, called bafto, the third ; 
and, if either of the red fuits be trumps, the ace of that 
fiuit, called punto, the fourth. The reft in the black fuits 
are valued according to the following order: viz. king, 
queen, knave, feven, fix, five, four, and three. In the 
tfed fuits, they follow thus : king, queen, knave, deuce, 
three, four, five, and fix. The three firft or principal 
trumps are called matadores; which have this privilege, 
that they are not obliged to attend an inferior trump w hen 
it leads; but, for want gf another final! trump, the per¬ 
fon may renounce trumps, and play any other card. Add, 
that if the three matadores be in the hands of the ombre, 
in cafe he be beafted, he is to forfeit for them ; or, if he 
gain his point, he is to have a confideration for them ; 
nothing lei's than three. And it mud be farther noted, 
that the trumps immediately fucceeding thefe, viz. pun to, 
king, queen, &c. if they be found in the fame hand with 
the former, are alio reputed as matadores, and to be al¬ 
lowed, or forfeited for, like the reft ; and this as low as 
the fequence reaches, without interruption. There are 
feme varieties in the manner of playing the game of ombre. 
Sometimes he who has fpadille is obliged to play, let his 
game be ever fo bad; which is called forced fpadille; 
lometimes, when all have palled, a perfon undertakes the 
ame on condition of difearding or making up his hand, 
efore he names trump; which is called the gafcarille. 
In ombre by Jive, which fome prefer to that by three, as 
not requiring To much attention, only eight cards a-piece 
are dealt; and five tricks mu ft be won, otherwife the 
ombre is beafted. Here the perfon who undertakes the 
game, after naming the trump, calls a king to his affift- 
ance ; upon which, the perfon in whofe hand the king is, 
without difeovering himfelf, is to aflift him as a partner, 
and to lira re his fate. If between both they can make 
five tricks, the ombre wins ; and then the auxiliary king 
lhares the Ipoil; and vice verfd. If the ombre venture the 
game without calling in any king, this too is called play- 
in g fans prendre; in which cafe the otherfourareall againft 
him, and he muft win five tricks alone, or be beajled. The 
.reft is much the fame as by three. 
O M E 
OM'BRE DE SOLE'IL, or Shadow of the Sutr, m 
heraldry, is when the fun is borne in armory, fo as that 
the eyes, nofe, and mouth, which at other times are repve-- 
fented, do not appear ; and the colouring is thin, fo that 
the field can appear through it. 
OM'BRIA, or Hombria. See Spoleto. 
OM'BRO, or LomeRo, a town of Italy, in the duchy 
of Tulcany, and territory of the Siennois, fituated near 
the Tulean Sea, a little fouth of the lake of Caftiglione : 
forty-five miles fouth-weft of Sienna. 
OMBROM'ETER, /.’ An inftrument to meafure the 
uantity of rain that falls. We have the defeription and 
gure of one in the Phil. Tranf. N° 473. It confifts of a 
tin funnel,,whofe furface is an inch fquare, with a flat 
board, and a glafs tube fet into the middle of it in a groove,” 
The rife of the water in the tube, whofe capacity at dif¬ 
ferent times muft be meafured and marked, ftiows the 
quantity of rain that has fallen. 
OMBRO'NE, a river of Etruria, which runs into the 
Mediterranean five miles fouth of Grofletto in-lat.44. 47. N. 
OMBRO'NE, a town of Etruria, in the territory of 
Sienna, at the mouth of the Ombrone : five miles fouth of 
Grofletto. 
OMBRO'NE, a river of Etruria, which rubs into the 
Arno eight miles below Florence. 
OMDAR'RA, a town of Bengal: twenty-feven miles 
eaft-fouth-eaft of Nagore. 
OMDINAR', a town of Egypt, at the feparation of the 
two great branches of the Nile : feven miles north-north- 
weft of Cairo. Lat. 30. 6. N. Ion. 49. 3. E. 
OMEDUN'DA, a town of Bengal: thirty-four miles 
north-north-eaft of Doefa. 
OME'GA, f. The laft letter of the Greek alphabet, 
therefore taken in the Holy Scripture for the laft.—I am 
alpha and omega , the beginning and the ending. Rev. i. 8. 
OMEG'NA, a town of Italy: fifteen miles fouth-fouth- 
eaft of Domo d’Ofcello, and twenty-five north-north-weft 
of Navarre. 
OM'ELET, f. [ omelette, or omelette, Fr. from ceuf, an 
egg, and melez, mingled.] A kind of pancake made with 
eggs, butter, parfley, See. — Clary, when tender, not to be 
rejected, and, in omelets, made up with cream. Evelyn. 
OMELLOO'R, a town of Hindooftan, in Travancore: 
fix miles north of Anjenga. 
OMELOVA'IA, a town of Ruflia, in the government 
of Ekaterinoflav, on the Dnieper: lixty miles north-eteft 
of Cherfon. 
O'MEN, ([Latin.] A fign, good or bad ; a prognoftic. 
—Hammond would fteal from his fellows into places of 
privacy, there to fay his prayers, omens of his future pa¬ 
cific temper and eminent devotion. Fell. 
When youthful kings begin with fcorn of juftice, 
They make an omen to their after-reign. Dry den. 
The fpeech had omen that the Trojan race 
Should find repofe, and this the time and place. Dryden. 
Omen is a word which, in its proper fenfe, fignifies.a lign 
or indication of fome future event, taken from the lan¬ 
guage of a perfon fpeakiqg without any intent to pro- 
phefy. Hence Tully fays, Pythagorei non J'olum voces 
deorum .obfervarunt, fed etiam horninmn, quae.vacant omiua ; 
“ The Pythagoreans attend to the difeourfe not only of 
gods, but alio of men, which they call omens." This 
fort of omen was fuppofed to depend much upon the-will 
of the perfon concerned in the event; whence the ph rales 
accepit omen, arripuit omen. Such were the original omens; 
but they were afterwards derived from things as well as 
from words. Thus Paterculus, fpeaking of the head of 
Sulpicius on the roftrura, fays it was velut omen imminent is 
proj'criptionis, “ as the omen of an impending profcrip- 
tion.” Suetonius fays of Auguftus, that he believed im¬ 
plicitly in certain omens ; and that, Si mane Jibi calcens 
perperam, ac JpiiJler pro dextero rnduceretur, ut dirum; 
“ If his Ihoes were improperly put on in the morning, 
efpecially if the left flioe was put upon his right foot, he 
held 
