102 RIG . 
RI'GIDNESS, s. Stiffness; severity; inflexibility.—Giv¬ 
ing themselves over to meditation, to prayer, to fasting, to 
all severity and rigidness of life. Hales. 
RI'GLET, s. [regulet, Fr.] A flat, thin, square piece of 
wood.—The pieces that are intended to make the frames for 
pictures, before they are moulded, are called riglets. 
Moxon. 
RI'GMAROLE, s. A repetition of idle words; a succes¬ 
sion of long stories. A corruption of an old expression, 
namely, of the famous “ ragman's roll," as a collection of 
deeds was called, in which the nobility and gentry were 
compelled to subscribe allegiance to K. Edward I. of Eng¬ 
land ; recorded in four large rolls of parchment, consisting 
of thirty-five pieces hound together. But it may be refer¬ 
red to the old English word ragman, which is used in P. 
Ploughman’s strains (as Dr. Jamieson has shewn), both as a 
brief, and as a herald or recorder, one who recites a long list. 
The pardoner, with his brief, recital, or list of indulgences, is 
thus described: 
“ He — blered their eyes, 
And raughte, with his ragman, both ringes and broches.” 
P. PI. Vision. 
The herald, thus: 
“ There is none heraude hath half swich a rolle 
Right as a rageman hath rekned them newe.” P. PI. Crede. 
Dr. Jamieson thinks that the Teut. rcghe, ordo, series, is 
connected with that word. Ragman-rolls became a familiar 
term, as is evident by Skelton’s usage of it. 
I dyd what I coulde to scarpe out the scrolles, 
Apollo to rase out of her ragman rolles. Skelton. 
Mr. Rigmarole, believe me, a woman with a butt of sack 
at her elbow is never long-lived ! Goldsmith. 
RIGNAC, a town of France, department of the Aveyron. 
Population 2000; 14 miles west-by-north of Rhodez. 
RIGNAC, a town of France, department of the Charente. 
Population 1200; 3 miles south of Barbesieux. 
RIGNANO, a town of Naples, in the Capitanata, at the 
foot of Monte Gargano. It gives name to one of the peaks 
of Monte Gargano. Population 2000; 18 miles west-north¬ 
west of Manfredonia. 
RIGNY LE FERON, a town of France, department of the 
Aube. It manufactures some paper: also coarse woollens. 
Population 1000; 24 miles south-west of Troyes. 
RIGO, a small island near the north-west part of the island 
of Porto Rico, in the West Indies. 
RIGODUNUM, s. The Roman name of Ribchester. 
RI'GOL, s. A circle. Perhaps peculiar to Shakspeare. 
This sleep is sound; this is a sleep, 
That, from this golden rigol, hath divorc’d 
So many English kings. Shakspeare. 
About the mourning and congealed face 
Of that black blood a watery rigol goes. 
Which seems to weep upon the tainted place. Shakspeare. 
HIGOLET DE BON DiEU, a river of the United States, 
in Louisiana, which is formed by the junction of the Sabine 
and Black Lake river, and unites with the Red river, about 
25 miles north-west of Alexandria. 
RtGOLETS, or Regolf.ts, the name of the passage from 
the north part of the gulf of Mexico into Lake PontchartraiD, 
which has communication, through Maurepas lake and the 
gut of Ibberville, with Mississippi river; or the general name 
of the isles in the inner part of the channel into that lake. 
The distance from Lake Pontchartrain through the Rigolets is 
10 miles, and between 300 and 400 yards broad, and lined 
with marshes on each side. On the south side of the Rigolets, 
and near to the entrance from the gulf, there is a large pas¬ 
sage into Lake Borgne, or Blind Lake; and by some creeks 
that fall into it, small craft may go as far as the plantations 
on the Mississippi, and there is a passage between the Lakes 
Borgne and Pontchartrain; but either by this, or that of the 
Rigolets, six, and sometimes seven feet is the deepest water 
through. Near the entrance, at the east end of the Rigolets, 
R 1 L 
and on the north side, are the principal mouths of Pearl riven 
From the Rigolets to the bay of St. Louis is 18 miles. The 
Rigolets, after the Mississippi, is the most important inlet 
into Louisiana. 
RI'GOUR, or Rigor, s. [rigor, Lat. rigucur, Fr.] 
Cold; stiffness. 
Haste, hapless sighs; and let your burning breath 
Dissolve the ice of her indurate heart. 
Whose frozen rigor, like forgetful death, 
Feels never any touch of my desert. Dowland. 
The rest his look 
Bound with Gorgonian rigour, not to move. Milton. 
A convulsive shuddering with sense of cold.— Rigors, 
chillness, and a fever attend every such new suppuration. 
Blackmore. —Severity; sternness; want of condescension to 
other's.—Nature has got the victory over passion, all his ri¬ 
gour is turned to grief and pity. Denham. —Severity of 
life; voluntary pain; austerity.—He resumed his rigors, es¬ 
teeming this calamity such a one that it should not be out¬ 
lived, but that it became men to be martyrs to. Fell .— 
Strictness; unabated exactness.—It may not seem hard, if, in 
cases of necessity, certain profitable ordinances sometimes be 
released, rather than all men always strictly bound to the ge¬ 
neral rigor thereof. Hooker. —Heat and cold are not, ac¬ 
cording to philosophical rigour, the efficients; but are names 
expressing our passions. Glanville. 
The base degenerate age requires 
Severity and justice in its rigour: 
This awes an impious bold offending world. Addison. 
Rage; cruelty; fury. 
He at his foe with furious rigour smites. 
That strongest oak might seem to overthrow; 
The stroke upon his shield so heavy lights. 
That to the ground it doubleth him full low. Spenser. 
Hardness; not flexibility; solidity; not softness. 
The stones the rigor of their kind expel. 
And supple into softness as they fell. Dry den. 
RI'GOROUS, adj. [ rigoureux , Fr.] Severe; allowing 
no abatement. 
He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock. 
With rigorous hands; he hath resisted law. 
And therefore law shall scorn him further trial. 
Than the severity of public power. Shakspeare. 
Exact; scrupulously nice: as, a rigorous demonstration ; 
a rig or ous definition. 
RI'GOROUSLY, adv. Severely ; without tenderness or 
mitigation. 
Lest they faint 
At the sad sentence rigorously urg’d. 
For I behold them soften’d, and with tears 
Bewailing their excess, all terrour hide. Milton. 
Exactly; scrupulously; nicely.-—A man of strict honour, 
because he is punctual to his promises; because he is scrupu¬ 
lous in paying his debts, and rigorously just in discharging 
the duties of his station. The Student. —The rules of the 
three unities are indeed rigorously and scrupulously observed 
Dr. Warton. 
RI'GOROUSNESS, s. Severity, without tenderness or 
mitigation. 
RIGTON, a village of England, West Riding of York¬ 
shire ; 6 miles north-east of Otley. 
RIHA, a village of Upper Egypt, four or five leagues from 
which there is a very remarkable pyramid. 
RIHALL, a village of England, in Rutlandshire, on the 
banks of the river Gwash, near Casterton. 
RIK, a village of Irak, in Persia; 12 miles north of 
Ispahan. 
RIL, a town of Darfur, in Central Africa. It abounds 
with water and provisions, and was at one time the royal 
residence. It forms the key of the southern and eastern 
roads into Darfur; 60 miles south-south-east of Cobbe. 
RILL, 
