| E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898. |
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The cow that nourished Ymir with four streams of milk was called Audhumla. (Scandinavian mythology.) (See AUDHUMLA.) | 1 |
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Curst cows. (See under CURST.) | 2 |
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The whiter the cow, the surer is it to go to the altar. The richer the prey, the more likely is it to be seized. | 3 |
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“The system of impropriations grew so rapidly that, in the course of three centuries, more than a third part of all the benefices in England became such, and those the richest, for the whiter the cow, the surer was it to go to the altar.”—Blunt: Reformation in England, p. 63. |
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