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Kabbala
487; cabala [Hebrew: traditional lore], mystical Jewish system of interpretation of the Scriptures. Cabala is based on the belief that every word, letter, number, and even accent of the Scriptures contains mysteries. Cabalistic signs and writings are used as amulets and in magical practices. Cabala has two principal written sources. The first, Sefer Yezira, probably written in the 3rd century, is a series of monologues supposedly delivered by the patriarch Abraham. The second, Zohar, is a mystical commentary on the Pentateuch written by Moses de Leon (13th cent.) but attributed to Simon ben Yohai, a great scholar of the 2nd cent. The movement appears to have arisen in 11th-cent. France and spread, most notably to Spain. After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, cabala became messianic in emphasis, especially as developed by Isaac Luria. This form of cabala had many adherents, including the pseudo-Messiah Sabbatai Zevi. It was also a major influence in the development of 18th-century Hasidism; 523; Kabbalistick Colossus, 685; 721; Wikipedia entry

Kalahari
88; desert region in Africa, situated in southwest Botswana, southeast Südwest and northernmost South Africa. Though called a desert, it is almost entirely covered with grass and woodland, except in Südwest where it is bare sand.

Kalee
112; the Hindu goddess Kali is the wife of Siva and goddess of death and destruction

Kan-cheu School
544; Zhang's discipline "places the Dragon of the land above all else"

Karis
70

Karlsefni, Gudrid
633; wife of Thorfinn (see below)

Karlsefni, Snorri
633; child of Thorfinn & Gudrid (see below)

633; "settlement at Hop"; Icelandic trader who led the first known pre-Columbian attempt by Europeans to settle in North America. On a trading trip to Greenland in the first years of the 11th century, he met and married Gudrid, the widowed sister-in-law of Leif Ericson. Soon afterward he led a large group--different sources mention 65-160 people--of colonists to Vinland, which had been previously explored by Leif, with the aim of permanent settlement. The hostility of local Native Americans, however, drove the settlers out after a stay of three years. During that time Gudrid gave birth to a son, who was named Snorri, the first white child known to have been born in America. Thorfinn subsequently settled at his family estate in northern Iceland. After his death, the date of which is unknown, Gudrid went on a pilgrimage to Rome and then became a nun in Iceland.

The story that Stig tells Mrs. Eggslap about the first American murder at the beginning of chapter 66 is straight out of The Greenlanders' Saga, the story of the Norse settlement of Vinland, written down in the 12th century [source: Gwyn Jones, The Norse Atlantic Saga].

Kasha Varnishkies
279; traditional Yiddish dish comprised primarily of onions, bulgher wheat and noodes; The Recipe

Kastoranthropy
619; Greek: "kastor" = "beaver"; the combination of a human being and a beaver

Kastormorphism
620 Greek: "kastor" = "beaver"; changing into a beaver

Keel
242; barge used on the Tyne to carry coal

Kennedy, Captain
565; of the H.M.S. Coventry

Kepler
17; 94; 98; 162; 631

kicsi Káposta
540; Hungarian for "little cabbage"

Kiddean Chair
27; 'twould be named after the famous Scottish pirate, Captain Kidd (c.1645-1701) who preyed upon merchant ships in the Indian Ocean from 1697. He sailed to Boston and surrendered on promise of a pardon, but was sent to London, where he was convicted and hanged.

Kiddy
113; variant of "Kiddie" = a young criminal or other person who assumes a flashy manner and style of dress

Killogh
614; veteran of Braddock's defeat; brothers, 630

King Louie
44; Louie XV (1710-74) was king of France from 1705 (5 years old!)

Kirk
576; "people of the"

Kit, Mr.
117

Knockwood, Mr.
352; "trans-Elemental Uncle Toby" and Lord of the Inn by Octarara Creek, who studies the flow of water across his land, 364

Krafte, Die
359

Krees
71

Kutztown
353; town in Pennsylvania, near present-day Allentown