"a land of darkness and the shadow of death" Job 10: 20–22: "Are not the days of my life few? / Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort / before I go whence I shall not return, / to the land of gloom and deep darkness, / the land of gloom and chaos, / where light is as darkness."
arabesque a complex and elaborate decorative design of intertwined lines suggesting flowers, foliage, animals, etc.
au fait acquainted with the facts; well-informed.
bagging cloth for making bags; George's factory apparently manufactured cloth made from hemp.
bark a small sailing boat; figuratively, Eva's life.
barrens places that do not produce useful crops or fruits; places with poor soil; here, "pine barrens" are woods whose plants are chiefly or overwhelmingly pine trees.
beaver a man's high silk hat, originally made of beaver fur.
bombazin bombazine; a heavy, twilled silk cloth, often dyed black.
brochetelle brocatelle; a heavy, figured cloth like brocade, usually of silk and linen, often used for upholstery.
Bryant i.e., William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878), U.S. poet and journalist.
buffalo a robe or throw made of buffalo skin.
"But as for me . . . I have put my trust in the Lord God" Psalms 73: 2–28.
calaboose [Old Slang] a prison; jail; here, a whipping-establishment or specific place for punishment of slaves.
camphire i.e., camphor, a chemical compound with a strong characteristic odor; as spirits of camphor, often used as a stimulant.
canaille (French) the mob, rabble; a term of contempt for the common people.
cestus in ancient times, a woman's belt or waist-band.
Chateaubriand (Vicomte) Francois Rene de Chateaubriand (1768–1848), French statesman and man of letters; he traveled in North America and wrote about his experiences.
Cicero (Marcus Tullius) (106–43 B.C.) Roman statesman, orator, and philosopher, writer of a classic text on rhetoric.
ciphers things of no importance; nonentities.
class people grouped together because of certain likenesses or common traits; in referring to "men of [Loker's] class," the narrator does not mean social or economic class but "men of Loker's type or temperament."
Coeur de Lion Richard I (1157–99), king of England (1189–99), called "Richard Coeur de Lion," or Richard the Lion-Hearted.
colonizationist one who supported the abolition of slavery with concurrent colonization of Africa by freed American slaves.
"Come unto ME, all ye . . . ." Matthew 11: 28: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. / Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. / For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
"constitutional relations" that is, obligations to the law.
convent i.e., convent school; a boarding school for girls run by Catholic nuns.
"cost and come to" i.e., outgo and income; budgeting.
curveting making leaps, as in equestrian exhibitions (a curvet is a movement where the horse rears, then lifts both back legs into the air just before the front legs come down); here, the implication is that the horses and riders are anxious to be off on the hunt.
"Cursed be Canaan . . . ." Genesis IX, 25: "[H]e [Noah] said: 'Cursed be Canaan; meanest of slaves shall he be to his brethren'"; Noah is cursing his son Ham's child Canaan because Ham looked at his father lying naked and drunk in his tent. One of the justifications cited for slavery was that "Hamites" (supposedly the black African race, a mistaken identification) shared in their ancestor's curse.
