OMELET, or OMELETTE, French, a dish chiefly composed of eggs. These are broken, and their contents put into a proper vessel, in which they are whipped into a froth, which is poured into a very clean and dry frying-pan. with the addition of lard or butter to prevent sticking, and then fried carefully, so that the outside is nicely browned. Before one of a number of ingredients may be added to vary the omelet, such as chopped savory herbs, minced ham or bacon, salt-fish, shell-fish, game, etc. Or sweet omelets may be made by placing preserved fruits upon them when quite or nearly cooked. Tile omelet is an excellent dish, and, simple though it be, it requires notch skill to prepare it successfully.
OMEN (for the deriv., see Om), or Pnootov (generally said to be from pro and dico, but more probably from pro and ago, to lead; hence anything conspicuous. or extraor dinary), the name given by the Romans to signs by which approachiug good or bad for tune 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 mon strous births, the appearance 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 prodigy was promised on the part of a god, it was to be interpreted according to the promise; but otherwise, the interpretation, waS ektremely 'arbitrary. It was supposed that evil indicated as approaching might be averted by various means, as by sacrifices, or by the utterance of certain magic formulas; or by an extempore felicity of interpreta tion, as when Cesar, 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 them was universal, and in general the greatest care was taken to avoid unfavorable omens. 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 Ludi. Before every sacrificial procession ran the heralds, 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 favetelinguis (- speak no word of evil import"), and the aid of music was sought to drown whatever noises might prove unpropitious. Compare AUGURIES AND AUSPICES, and DIVINATION. See also Fallati, Vibe). Begnff vnd TVesen des Rom. Omen (Tao. 1836).
The belief in omens has existed in all ages and countries, and traces of it linger even yet in the most civilized communities; in the dread, for instance, that many entertain at sitting down to table in a party of thirteen. Not a little of the philosophy of omens is contained in the Scottish proverb: "Them who follow freits, freits follow;" meaning, that a fatalistic belief in impending evil paralyzes the endeavor that might prevent it.