744 O R I 
rally fuppofed to be accompanied, at its rifing, with great 
rains and llorms, it has acquired the epithet of aquofus, 
given it by Virgil. Orion was buried in the ifland of 
Delos; and the monument which the people ofTanagra 
in Bceotia (bowed, as containing the remains of this ce¬ 
lebrated hero, was nothing but a cenotaph. 
The daughters of Orion diftinguilhed themfelves as 
much as their father; and, when the oracle had declared 
that Bceotia fliould not be delivered from a dreadful pefti- 
Ience before two of Jupiter’s children were immolated on 
the altars, they joyfully accepted the offer, and volunta¬ 
rily facrificed themfelves for the good of their country. 
Their names were Mcnippe and Metioche. They had 
been carefully educated by Diana; and Venus and Mi¬ 
nerva had made them very rieh' and valuable pretents. 
The deities of hell were ltruck at the patriotifm of the 
two females; and immediately two liars were feen to 
arife from the earth, which (till fmoked with blood, and 
they were placed in the heavens in the form of a crown. 
According to Ovid, their bodies were burned by the 
Thebans; and from their alhes arofe two perfons, whom 
t-he gods foon after changed into conftellations. 
The circumftance of the three divinities, who are faid 
to have lodged with Orion’s father, led our Hebraizers to 
believe, that this fable was the fame with, or at lead; a 
copy of, the ftory of Abraham’s entertaining the three 
angels, who came and foretold to him the birth of a fon, 
though Sarah his wife was then fuperannuated. h*. le 
Clerc (Bibl.Univ. t. vi.) had this notion of it, without 
infilling however upon the Greek and Hebrew etymolo¬ 
gies, which might have given fome probability to the af- 
lertion. Blaeu,\vho took the name of Ccelius, inlinuntes, 
that this fame fable had a great refemblance to the (lory 
of Jacob, fo much the more as the name of Jacob’s Staff 
is given to the three brighteft liars in the conftellation of 
Orion; and the name of Jacob, which lignifies “ Strong 
againll the Lord,” upon account of the mylterious com¬ 
bat he had with an angel, may have given rife to it. Bo¬ 
lides, the Arabians call the conllellation of Orion Algebar, 
or Algcbao, the Strong, the Giant. The abbe Fourmont 
has alio argued that this llory is the fame with that of the 
venerable patriarch. In favour of this lentiment, the 
authors have to allege, that Orion, being of Tanagrus, a 
city of Bceotia, the country where Cadmus fettled, and 
having there introduced the religion of the Phoenicians, 
tliehiftory of Abraham, fo celebrated in all the Eall, 
might have been knowm there. 
ORI'ON’s RIV'ER, a conllellation, called alfo Eri- 
danus ; which fee, vol. vi. 
ORIPA'A, a town of Sweden, in the government of 
Abo : 'twenty-feven miles north-north-eaft of Abo. 
OR'ISON, J'. [old Fr. oraifon, modern; oratio, Eat. 
When written oraifon, the accent is proper on the fecond 
fyllable; not fo, when written orifon. Cotton, for the 
fake of the rhyme, in a burlefque couplet among the fol¬ 
lowing examples, has indeed forced the accent upon the 
fecond fyllable of orifon. The word is ufually found in 
the plural number. Dyer ules oraifon in the lingular.] 
A prayer; a fupplication. — He went into St. Paul’s 
church, where he had orifons and Te Deum fung. Bacon's 
Hen. VII. 
The midnight clock a11cfts my fervent praj'ers, 
The riling fun my orifons declares. Harte. 
So went he on with his orifons , 
Which, if you mark them well, were wife ones. Cotton. 
ORIS'SA, a country of Hindoollan, bounded on the 
north by Bahar and Bengal ; on the call by the northern 
circars and the Bay of Bengal ; on the fouth by Gol- 
conda; and on the weft by Berar. It was formerly a 
kingdom, till reduced by Akbar in 1592; and extended 
from the Bay of Bengal to the coaft of Coromandel; it is 
now not lo extenfive. The foil is flat, moift, and fertile, 
and the heat excefiive. A part of Oriffa belongs to the 
O R I 
Englilh, and is included in the government of Bengal; 
the remainder belongs to the Berar Mahrattas. 
ORISTA'GNI, or Oristano, a town of the ifland of 
Sardinia, fituated on the weft coaft, on a gulf to which it 
gives name. The fee of an archbifliop. It is fortified, but 
thinly inhabited. It is thirty-eight miles north-weft Cag¬ 
liari. Lat. 39.48. N. Ion. 8. 50. E. 
ORISTAL', a river of Mexico, which runs into the 
Bay of Honduras in lat. 15. 48. N. Ion. 86. 35. W. 
ORI'TES, f. [Gr. inhabiting hilly places.] In botany, 
a genus inftituted by Mr. Brown, in his Prodr. Nov. Holl. i. 
387. and, with many others of the Juflieuan orderProtaceas, 
deicribed in the Linn. Tranf. vol. x. Clafs tetrandria, 
order monogynia, natural order protaceae, Jnf. Generic 
effential character— Petals four, equal, recurved at the 
fummit; ftamens inferred above the middle of the petals, 
prominent; nectariferous glands four; germen feflile; 
ftyle ftraight; ltigma obtufe, vertical; follicle leathery ; 
feeds two, winged at the top. There are two fpecies. 
They are Ihrubs, with alternate leaves, which are either 
entire or toothed. Spikes axillary or terminal, (hort, com- 
poled of pairs of hermaphrodite flowers, each pair accom¬ 
panied by one braCte. 
1. Orites diverfifolia : leaves flat, lanceolate, toothed or 
entire, (lightly downy beneath. Suture of the follicle abrupt. 
Native of the high eft mountains of Van Diemen’s Land. 
2. Orites revoluta: leaves revolute, linear, entire; 
clothed with hoary down beneath. Suture of the follicle 
rounded. Found in the fame country. 
ORI'TES, f. in natural hiftory, the name of a (tone de- 
feribed by the ancients, and celebrated by the writers of 
the middle ages for its wonderful virtues. Pliny fays, 
that it was round, and remained unhurt in the fire; and 
that fome called it Jideritis. To this the later writers 
have added, that there are three kinds of it: The firli 
round and black; this, rubbed over with oil of roles, was 
famous for the bites of venomous beafts. The fecond was 
green, variegated with veins and fpots of white ; this was 
to be annexed to the bodies of perfons, to preferve them 
from many iorts of injuries. And the third was compofed 
of parallel plates, and faid to have the virtue of caufing 
abortion, if only carried in the pocket. 
ORITO'RIUS LA'PIS, f. A name given by Ludovicus 
Dul cis,and fome other authors, to the ochreoferreous cetitce, 
or eagle-ftones ; particularly to a fpecies of them common 
in Germany, and ufed in the fhops there, and in fome 
other places, under the name of eagle-ftones. Thefie are 
of a brownifh colour and fmooth lurface, and are eafily 
broken, being only compofed of a thin cruft of ferrugi¬ 
nous earth, enclofing feveral fmall lumps of a greemth 
marl, which rattle in it when ihaken. 
ORIX'A, f. [of uncertain derivation.] In botany, a 
genus of the clafs tetrandria, order monogynia. Generic 
characters—Calyx: perianthium inferior, of one leaf, 
four-cleft, very Ihort. Corolla: petals four, lanceolate, 
fpreading. Stamina : filaments four, fhorter than the 
petals; antheras globofe. Piftillum : gennen fuperior; 
ftyle ereift, Ihorter than the petals; ftigma capitate, ob¬ 
tufe. Pericarpium: unknown, but molt probably a cap- 
ftile.— Effential Charader. Petals four, lanceolate, flat; 
Calyx four-cleft; ltigma capitate. 
Orixa Japonica : the only fpecies. Stem Ihrubby, about 
fix feet high, fmooth, ereCt, branched. Branches alter¬ 
nate, fmooth, the extreme ones hairy. Leaves alternate, 
llalked, ovate, undivided, green above, paler beneath. 
Flowers in alternate greenifli clufters, an inch long. 
BraCtes concave, oblong, fmooth, under the partial flower- 
Italks, which are hairy, as well as the common (talk. 
This genus belongs toThunberg; and Schreber fug- 
gefts, on the authority of Dahl, that it may poflibly be .the 
lame plant as the Ot/iera of the fame author. Gmelin is 
of the fame opinion ; and Mr. Profeffor Martyn has omit¬ 
ted any mention of it here, no doubt as luppofing it the 
fame. See Othera. 
4 
ORIZA'VA, 
