to leave one's duties without permission, to steal away secretly without notice.
Although the expression was current amongst the armed forces during the First World War it is, in fact, considerably older and originated not in the trenches but in polite French society towards the end of the seventeeth century. In these circles it was not considered impolite to leave a social gathering without first making a formal farewell to one's host and hostess.
The Phoenix is a fabulous and sacred bird.
What he does and how he looks like.
How he manages.
Reproduces himself.
Nest carried to Heliopolis.
According to the people of Heliopolis in Egypt, came to that city once in five hundred years to bury his father. Historians have apparently never claimed to have seen this extraordinary creature, except in pictures, and they have found the accounts about this bird quite incredible. It is from the pictures that they have described the Phoenix, saying that it had the appearance of an eagle, both in shape and size, and that his plumage was partly golden and partly red.
It is said that the Phoenix, carrying his father encased in myrrh, comes from Arabia to the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis, where he buries him. In order to do this the Phoenix first moulds an egg of the bitter tasting but aromatic plant called myrrh and then hollows it out, putting his father into it. Having done this he plasters over with more myrrh the hollow of the egg and carries it to Egypt.
Yet the Phoenix has no father in the usual sense. For this bird, they say, is the only creature capable of renewing and reproducing its own being. They add that unlike other birds the Phoenix does not feed on seeds, but on the gum of frankincense, an aromatic resin, and the juices of amomum, a herb of the ginger family.
When the Phoenix has lived for five hundred years, he builds a nest at the top of a palm-tree, which he covers over with cassia-bark, spikes of nard, cinnamon and myrrh, all of them highly aromatic plants. Having then placed himself upon the nest he dies; but from the dead body a little Phoenix springs up, who also lives the length of five centuries. Now, once in the course of his life, the Phoenix removes the nest from the palm and bears it to Heliopolis, where he lays it down before the doors of the Temple of the Sun.
a vulnerable spot
According to Greek mythology, Thetis held her young son Achilles by the heel while dipping him into the river Styx to make him invulnerable.
Achilles' heel, however, remained dry and was his only weakness.
After years as a brave and invincible warrior, Achilles was killed during the Trojan war by an arrow which pierced his heel.
His deadly enemy Paris had learned of this secret and aimed at the weak spot.
The full story is told in Homer's Iliad.
