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Possible definitions for xag

Magi
In Christian tradition, wise men from the East who came to pay homage to the infant Jesus. According to Matthew 2:1-12, they followed a miraculous guiding star to Bethlehem and brought gifts of "gold and frankincense and myrrh." Herod asked them to report the location of Jesus' birth on their return journey, but an angel warned them of his evil intentions. In later Christian tradition they were said to be kings and were given the names Melchior, Balthasar, and Gaspar. Their visit was seen as evidence that the Gentiles as well as the Jews would worship Jesus, and it is celebrated in the feast of Ephiphany. See also magus.


naga
In Hindu and Buddhist mythology, a semidivine being, half human and half serpent. Nagas can assume either wholly human or wholly serpentine form. They live in an underground kingdom filled with beautiful palaces that are adorned with gems. Brahma is said to have relegated the nagas to the nether regions and to have commanded them to bite only the truly evil or those destined to die prematurely. They are also associated with waters--rivers, lakes, seas, and wells--and are regarded as guardians of treasure.


Nagy
Hungarian politician. He fought in World War I, was captured by the Russians, and joined the Red Army. He lived in Moscow 1929-44, then returned to Hungary under the Soviet occupation and held several ministerial posts. An advocate for peasants' rights, he became premier (1953-55) but was ousted for his independent ideas. During the Hungarian Revolution (1956), he again served as premier and sought to establish Hungary's independence from Soviet domination. He made an unsuccessful appeal to the West for help against the invading Soviet troops, but was arrested, tried, and executed.


raga
In classical Indian music, a principle akin to mode. A raga can be regarded as a vocabulary of melodic figures that tend, as a group, to make certain tones of a scale primary, giving the raga its emotional character. A raga not only emphasizes certain pitches but also implies specific melodic patterns and ornamentation, as well as the character of the music to be improvised. Ragas establish the relative importance of the tones of a given scale; each scale can have several ragas. The scale tones can be divided into primary and secondary; the secondary tones can be used to ornament a line composed of the primary tones. Music of any complexity also requires tones that may be either ornamental or primary depending on context. The concept of the raga, introduced sometime before the 9th cent., became influential throughout S. and E. Asia.


saga
Genre of prose narrative typically dealing with prominent figures and events of the heroic age in Norway and Iceland, especially as recorded in Icelandic manuscripts of the late 12th and 13th cent. Once thought to be orally transmitted history that had finally been written down, sagas are now usually ...

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