COLNA-DONA ("love of heroes"), daughter of King Car’ul.  Fingal sent Ossian and Toscar to raise a memorial on the banks of the Crona, to perpetuate the memory of a victory he had obtained there.  Carul invited the two young men to his hall, and Toscar fell in love with Colna-Dona.  The passion being mutual, the father consented to their espousals.—­Ossian, Colna-Dona.

COLOGNE (The three kings of), the three Magi, called Gaspar, Melchior, and Baltha’zar.  Gaspar means “the white one.”  Melchior, “king of light;” Balthazar, “lord of treasures.”  Klop-stock, in The Messiah, says there were six Magi, whom he calls Hadad, Sel’ima, Zimri, Mirja, Beled, and Sunith.

[Illustration] The “three” Magi are variously named; thus one tradition gives them as Apellius, Amerus, and Damascus; another calls them Magalath, Galgalath, and Sarasin; a third says they were Ator, Sator, and Perat’oras.  They are furthermore said to be descendants of Balaam the Mesopotamian prophet.

COLON, one of the rabble leaders in Hudibras, is meant for Noel Perryan or Ned Perry, an ostler.  He was a rigid puritan “of low morals,” and very fond of bear-baiting.

COLONNA (The Marquis of), a high-minded, incorruptible noble of Naples.  He tells the young king bluntly that his oily courtiers are vipers who would suck his life’s blood, and that Ludovico, his chief minister and favorite, is a traitor.  Of course he is not believed, and Ludovico marks him out for vengeance.  His scheme is to get Colonna, of his own free will, to murder his sister’s lover and the king.  With this view he artfully persuades Vicentio, the lover, that Evadne (the sister of Colonna) is the king’s wanton.  Vicentio indignantly discards Evadne, is challanged to fight by Colonna, and is supposed to be killed.  Colonna, to revenge his wrongs on the king, invites him to a banquet with intent to murder him, when the whole scheme of villainy is exposed:  Ludovico is slain, and Vicentio marries Evadne.—­Shiel, Evadne, or the Statue (1820).

COLOSSOS (Latin, colossus), a gigantic brazen statue 126 feet high, executed by Charles for the Rhodians.  Blaise de Vignenere says it was a striding figure, but Comte de Caylus proves that it was not so, and did not even stand at the mouth of the Rhodian port.  Philo tells us that it stood on a block of white marble, and Lucius Ampellius asserts that it stood in a car.  Tiekell makes out the statue to be so enormous in size, that—­

  While at one foot the thronging galleys ride,
  A whole hour’s sail scarce reached the further side;
  Betwixt the brazen thighs in loose array,
  Ten thousand streamers on the billows play.

Tickell, On the Prospect of Peace.

COLOSSUS.  Negro servant in G.W.  Cable’s “Posson Jone.”  He vainly tries to dissuade his master from drinking, and, in the end, restores to him the money lost during the drunken bout.