is duly noticed in biographical dictionaries.

=Pressaeus= ("_eater of garlic_"), the youngest of the frog chieftains.

The pious ardor young Pressaeus brings,
Betwixt the fortunes of contending kings;
Lank, harmless frog! with forces hardly grown,
He darts the reed in combats not his own,
Which, faintly tinkling on Troxartas' shield,
Hangs at the point and drops upon the field.

Parnell, _Battle of the Frogs and Mice_, iii. (about 1712).

=Prest=, a nickname given by Swift to the duchess of Shrewsbury, who was a
foreigner.

=Prester John=, a corruption of _Belul Gian_, meaning "precious stone."
Gian (pronounced _zjon_) has been corrupted into John, and Belul,
translated into "precious;" in Latin _Johannes preciosus_ ("precious
John") corrupted into "Presbyter Joannes." The kings of Ethiopia or
Abyssinia, from a gemmed ring given to Queen Saba, whose son by Solomon
was king of Ethiopia, and was called Melech, with the "precious stone,"
or Melech _Gian-Belul_.

AEthiopes regem suum, quem nos vulgo "Prete Gianni" corrupte
dicimus, quatour appellant nominibus, quorum primum est "Belul
Giad," hoc est _lapis preciosus_. Ductum est autem hoc nomen ab
_annulo Salomonis_ quem ille filio ex regina Saba, ut putant
genito, dono dedisse, quove omnes postea reges usos fuisse
describitor.... Cum vero eum coronant, appellant "Neghuz." Postremo
cum vertice capitis in coronae modum abraso, ungitur a patriarcha,
vocant "Masih," hoc est _unctum_. Haec autem regiae dignitatis nomina
omnibus communia sunt.--Quoted by Selden, from a little annal of
the Ethiopian kings (1552), in his _Titles of Honor_, v. 65 (1614).

[Asterism] As this title was like the Egyptian _Pharaoh_, and belonged
to whole lines of kings, it will explain the enormous diversity of time
allotted by different writers to "Prester John."

Marco Polo says that Prester John was slain in battle by Jenghiz Khan;
and Gregory Bar-Hebraeus says, "God forsook him because he had taken to
himself a wife of the Zinish nation, called Quarakhata.[TN-105]

Bishop Jord[=a]nus, in his description of the world, sets down Abyssinia
as the kingdom of Prester John. Abyssinia used to be called "Middle
India."

Otto of Freisingen is the first author to mention him. This Otto wrote a
chronicle to the date 1156. He says that John was of the family of the
Magi, and ruled over the country of these Wise Men