above two feet high,
promised, on the payment of a certain sum of money, to free the city of
all its vermin in an hour. The terms were agreed to, and Giouf, by tabor
and pipe, attracted every rat and mouse to follow him to the river
Zenderou, where they were all drowned. Next day, the dwarf demanded the
money; but the people gave him several bad coins, which they refused to
change. Next day, they saw with horror an old black woman, fifty feet
high, standing in the market-place with a whip in her hand. She was the
genie Mergian Banou, the mother of the dwarf. For four days she
strangled daily fifteen of the principal women, and on the fifth day led
forty others to a magic tower, into which she drove them, and they were
never after seen by mortal eye.--T. S. Gueulette, _Chinese Tales_
("History of Prince Kader-Bilah," 1723).

[Asterism] The syrens of classic story had, by their weird
spirit-music, a similar irresistible influence.

(Weird music is called Alpleich or Elfenseigen.[TN-94]

=Pierre= [_Peer_], a blunt, bold, outspoken man, who heads a conspiracy to
murder the Venetian senators, and induces Jaffier to join the gang.
Jaffier (in order to save his wife's father, Priuli), reveals the plot,
under promise of free pardon; but the senators break their pledge, and
order the conspirators to torture and death. Jaffier, being free,
because he had turned "king's evidence" stabs Pierre, to prevent his
being broken on the wheel, and then kills himself.--T. Otway, _Venice
Preserved_ (1682).

_Pierre_, a very inquisitive servant of M. Darlemont, who long suspects
his master has played falsely with his ward, Julio, count of
Harancour.--Thomas Holcroft, _The Deaf and Dumb_ (1785).

=Pierre Alphonse= (_Rabbi Mo[:i]se Sephardi_), a Spanish Jew converted to
Christianity in 1062.

All stories that recorded are
By Pierre Alfonse he knew by heart.

Longfellow, _The Wayside Inn_ (prelude).

=Pierre du Coignet= or =Coign[`e]res=, an advocate-general in the reign of
Philippe de Valois, who stoutly opposed the encroachments of the Church.
The monks, in revenge, nicknamed those grotesque figures in stone
(called "gargoyles"), _pierres du coignet_. At Notre Dame de Paris there
were at one time gargoyles used for extinguishing torches, and the smoke
added not a little to their ugliness.

You may associate them with Master Pierre du Coignet, ... which
perform the office of extinguishers.--Rabelais, _Garg