phis

If a native falls ill and ordinary medicines fail, the phis are the cause and the sorcerer alone can save the invalid.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability 1840-1916 1913

Last year molecular virologist Richard Webby of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Mem-phis, Tenn., announced he had "reverse engineered" a version of the H5N1 virus that could be the basis for a vaccine, keeping the parts that are recognized by the human immune system while disabling a critical disease-causing function.

The Race Against Avian Flu 2007

Folding tables and thick polychrome blankets spread on the trampled, uneven soil held bracelets and ornamental phis, flashing rings and cascading necklaces, graceful swords and straight-bladed, double-edged knives with grips of rare hardwoods or colored leathers, and hammers, axes, froes, and scutches.

Nightside The Long Sun Wolfe, Gene 1993

But the dark people play on with eyes and faces that know a different knowledge than mine, and they play on with rich sounds that say: I can create phis, this is mine, you can listen and copy but mine is the original, and you will never own that.

My life as a woman Roseanne, Barr 1989

Jenny's flat, as I would have guessed, was not constructed of plasterboard and held together with drawing phis.

Whip Hand Francis, Dick 1979

Jenny's flat, as I would have guessed, was not constructed of plasterboard and held together with drawing phis.

Whip Hand Francis, Dick 1979

I received word about the 11th hour one day that M.phis would visit the prison at the 13th hour -- 2: 00 P.M. E.T. As I had never met the great man and had no idea how to receive him or conduct myself, I was in something of a quandary; as I knew that a single error, however unintentional, would affront him and result in my execution.

Carson of Venus Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 1875-1950 1939

"This one did," persisted the poor little authoress; "the fairies had smeared it with that phis, -- phos, -- oh, you know, that lovely shiny stuff we saw on the sea at night when we were in the ship."

In the Mist of the Mountains Ethel Sybil Turner 1915

With a curious disregard for consistency in his fatalism, the Laotine believes that these phis, the immediate cause of all good and evil, are accessible to prayer.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability 1840-1916 1913

After a parcel of shreds of stuff from Æsop's fables and Tom Thumb, he jumps all at once into his ergo, minus multiplied into minus makes phis.

Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 3 Thomas Jefferson 1784