A he was led away, blanched and shuddering, to the nursery. After that, the fairy never appeared except when he was at school: but long after, when I was looking in a lumber-room with my brother for some mislaid toys, I found in a box the mask of Abracadabra and the horn. I put it hurriedly on, and blew a blast on the horn, which seemed to be of tortoise-shell with metal fittings. To my amazement, he turned perfectly white, covered his face with his hands, and burst out with the most dreadful moans. I thought at first that he was making believe to be frightened, but I saw in a minute or two that he had quite lost control of himself, and the things were hurriedly put away. At the time I thought it a silly kind of affectation. But I perceive now that he had had a real shock the first time he had seen the mask; and though he was then a big schoolboy, the terror was indelible. Who can say of what old inheritance of fear that horror of the great ape-like countenance was the sign? He had no associations of fear with apes, but it must have been, I think, some dim old primeval terror, dating from some ancestral encounter with a forest monster. In no other way can I explain it." -- Arthur Christopher Benson, Where No Fear Was (1914) • "Say abracadabra, but mean it." -- Armand Okur, Pandora's Box (2002) • "A flawless sapphire, star-bright, a cosmic abracadabra . . ." -- Lisa Rosenblatt, "Rivke: The Last Proletariat" (2004) • "The whole thing seemed the stuff of abracadabra." -- Jack Dann, Dreaming Down-Under (2002) Abra-dee, Abra-do, with a Hay and a Ho and a Nonny Nonny No (see abra) Mystique: The sing-song rhythm of this phrase lends a playful and non- dramatic tone. Facts: Abra-dee, abra-do, with a hay and a ho and a nonny nonny no are magic words to grant a wish, featured in an episode of the television series Today's Special (1982). Similar to hey diddle diddle and hey derry down, hey nonny nonny are nonsense words to English folk songs dating back to the Elizabethan era. Such songs were typically performed by dancing jesters. Nonsense phrases were often used by troubadours in Renaissance song lyrics as substitutes for words considered risqué.70 70 Bill Markwick, Classical 96 FM Music Dictionary (2001)