Onibiasses, priests and soothsayers among the in- habitants of Madagascar (q. v.), who compound charms, whicli they sell to the people.
Ombrius, a surname of Zeus, as the rain-rjiver, un- der which title he was worshipped on Mount Ilymettus, in Attica.
OnabTwiri, a class of good and gentle spirits who are believed by the natives of Southern Guinea to take part in the government of the world. Almost every man has his own ombwiri as a tutelary and guardian spirit, for which he provides a small house near his own. " All the harm that is escaped in this world," as Mr. Wilson informs us, '• and all the good received, are ascribed to the kindly offices of this guardian spirit. Ombwiri is also regarded as the author of everj'thing which is marvellous or mysterious. Any remarkable feature in the physical aspect of the country, any nota- ble phenomenon iu the heavens, or extraordinarj' event in the affairs of men, is ascribed to Ombwiri. His fa- vorite places of abode are the summits of high moun- tains, deep caverns, large rocks, and the base of very large forest trees. While the people attach no ma- lignity to his character, they guard against any unnec- essary intercourse with him, and they never pass a place where he is supposed to dwell except iu silence. He is the only one of all the spirits recognised by the people that has no priesthood, his intercourse with men being direct and immediate." — Gardner, Faiths of the World, ii, oGO.
O'mega [many Ome'ga, but against the proper rule] (o), fully \2 i-d~/a, i. e. the fjreat or long o, in distinction from "Ofiiicpov. the short o), the last letter of the Greek alphabet, as Alpha is the first. It is used metaphorically to denote the end of anything: " I am Alpha and (^mega, the beginning and the ending . . . the first and the last" (Rev. i, 8, 11 ; comp. xxi, G; xxii, 13). This may be compared with Isa. xli, 4 ; xliv, 6, " I am the first and I am the last, and beside me there is no God." So Pru- dentius {Catkemer. hymn, ix, 11) explains it:
"Alpha et O cognominatur : ipse fous et clnusnla Omnium quse sunt, fucruut, quieque post futura suut."
See Alpha. The svmbol nx, which contains the first
and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, is, according to Buxtorf (Lea-. Talm. p. 244), " among the Cabalists ofteu put mystically for the beginning and end, like A and Q in the Apocalypse." Schoettgen {Hor. Hebr. i, 1086) quotes from Jalkut Rubeni (fol. 17, 4), "Adam trans- gressed the whole law from X to n," that is, from the beginning to the end. It is not necessary to inquire whether in the latter usage the meaning is so full as in the Revelation: that must be determined by separate considerations. As an illustration merely, the reference is valuable. Both Greeks and Hebrews employed the letters of the alphabet as numerals. In the early times of the Christian Church the letters A and Q were com- bined with the cross or with the monogram of Christ (INIaitland, Church in the Catacombs, p. 1G6-8). See MoNOGRAJi OF Christ.
Omen (for the deriv. see O.m), or Prodigy (gen- erally said to be from j^ro and dico, but more probably from pro and arjo, to lead ; hence anything conspicuous or ea-<?-aordinary), the name given by the Romans to signs by which approaching good or bad fortune was supposed to be indicated. The terms Omen and Prodigy were not, however, exactly synonymous; the former being applied rather to signs received by the ear, and particularly to spoken words ; the latter to phenomena and occurrences, such as monstrous births, the appear- ance of snakes, locusts, etc., the striking of the foot against a stone or the like, the breaking of a shoe-tie, and even sneezing, etc. If an omen or prodigj' was promised on the part of a god, it was to be interpreted according to the promise; but otherwise, the interpre- tation was extremely arbitrary. It was supposed that evil indicated as approaching might be averted by va- rious means, as by sacrifices, or by the utterance of cer- tain magic formulas ; or by an extempore felicity of in- terpretation, as when C.-esar, having fallen to the ground on landing in Africa, exclaimed, "I take possession of thee, Africa." Occasionally, it is true, we read of a reckless disregard of omens ; as, for example, when P. Claudius, in the First Punic War, caused the sacred chickens, who would not leave their cage, to be pitched into the sea, saying, "If they won't eat, they must drink." Still the belief in omens was universal, and in general the greatest care M'as taken to avoid unfavor- able ones. The heads of the sacrificial priests were covered, so that nothing distracting might catch their eyes; silence was enjoined at the commencement of every sacred undertaking, and at the opening of the games. Before every sacrificial procession ran the her- alds, calling on the people to " pay respect to it," and admonishing them to cease working till it should have passed, that the priests might not hear unfavorable sounds. At the beginning of a sacrifice, the bystanders were addressed in the words Favete Linguis (" Speak no word of evil import"), and the aid of music was sought to drown whato'cr noises might prove unpropitious. See Fallati, Ueher Bcgrijf und Wese7i des Rom. Omen (Tub. 183G). Comp. Divination.