ld to buy food
for his voracious appetite; but Metra had the power of transforming
herself into any shape she chose, so as often as as her father
sold her, she changed her form and returned to him. After a time,
Erisichthon was reduced to feed upon himself.--Ovid, _Metaph_, viii. 2
(740 to end).

Drayton says when the Wyre saw her goodly oak trees sold for firewood,
she bethought her of Erisichthon's end, who, "when nor sea, nor land,
sufficient were," ate his own flesh.--_Polyolbion_, vii.

So Erisicthon, once fired (as men say),
With hungry rage, fed never, ever feeding;
Ten thousand dishes severed every day,
Yet in ten thousand thousand dishes needing.
In vain his daughter hundred shapes assumed;
A whole camp's meat he in his gorge inhumed;
And all consumed, his hunger yet was unconsumed.

Phineas Fletcher, _The Purple Island_ (1633).

ERLAND, father of Norna "of the Fitful Head."--Sir W. Scott, _The
Pirate_ (time, William III.).

ERL-KING, a spirit of mischief, which haunts the Black Forest of
Thuringia.

Goethe has a ballad called the _Erl-koenig_, and Herder has translated
the Danish ballad of _Sir Olaf and the Erl-King's Daughter_.

In Goethe's ballad, a father, riding home through the night and storm
with a child in his arms is pursued by the Erl-king, who entices the
child with promises of fairy-gifts, and finally kills it.

ERMANGARDE OF BALDRINGHAM (_The Lady_), aunt of the Lady Eveline
Berenger "the betrothed."--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry
II.).

ER'MELINE (_Dame_), the wife of Reynard, in the beast-epic called
_Reynard the Fox_ (1498).

ERMIN'IA, the heroine of _Jerusalem Delivered_. She fell in love with
Tancred, and when the Christian army beseiged Jerusalem, arrayed
herself in Clorinda's armor to go to him. After certain adventures,
she found him wounded, and nursed him tenderly; but the poet has
not told us what was the ultimate lot of this fair Syrian.--Tasso,
_Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

ERNA'NI, the robber-captain, duke of Segor'bia and Cardo'na, lord of
Aragon, and count of Ernani. He is in love with Elvi'ra, the betrothed
of Don Ruy Gomez de Silva, an old Spanish grandee, whom she detests.
Charles V. falls in love with her, and Ruy Gomez joins Ernani in a
league against their common rival. During this league Ernani gives Ruy
Gomez a horn, saying, "Sound but this horn, and at that moment Ernani
will cease to live." Just as he is about to espouse Elvira