Ursula is the Swabian _ursul_ or _hörsel_ (“the moon”), and, if this solution is accepted, then the “virgins who bore her company” are the stars. Ursul is the Scandinavian Hulda. Those who assert the legend to be based on a fact, have supplied the following names as the most noted of the virgins, and, as there are but eleven given, it favors the Freisingen Codex:--(1) Ursula, (2) Sencia or Sentia, (3) Gregoria, (4) Pinnosa, (5) Mardia, (6) Saula, (7) Brittola, (8) Saturnina, (9) Rabacia, Sabatia, or Sambatia, (10) Saturia or Saturnia, and (11) Palladia. In 1837 was celebrated with great splendor the sixteenth centenary “jubilee of their passion.” Bright Ursula the third, who undertook to guide The eleven thousand maids to Little Britain sent, By seas and bloody men devoured as they went; Of which we find these four have been for saints preferred. And with their leader still do live encalendered: St. Agnes, Cor´dula, Odillia, Florence, which With wondrous sumptuous shrines those ages did enrich At Cullen. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xxiv. (1622). =Ursus=, humane, tender-hearted pessimist, posing as a misogynist and philanthropist. His favorite comrade is the tame wolf, _Homo_.--Victor Hugo, _L’Homme qui rit_. =Use of Pests.= David once said he could not image why a wise deity should have created such things as spiders, idiots, and mosquitoes; but his life showed they were all useful to him at any rate. Thus, when he fled from Saul, a spider spun its web at the mouth of the cave, and Saul, feeling assured that the fugitive could not have entered the cave without breaking the web, passed on without further search. Again, when he was taken captive before the king of Gath, he feigned idiocy, and the king dismissed him, for he could not believe such a driveller could be the great champion who had slain Goliath. Once more, when he entered into the tent of Saul, as he was crawling along, Abner, in his sleep, tossed his legs over him. David could not stir, but a mosquito happened to bite the leg of the sleeper, and, Abner shifting it, enabled David to effect his escape.--_The Talmud_. (See VIRGIL’S GNAT.) =Used Up=, an English version of _L’Homme Blasé_, of Felix Auguste Duvert, in conjunction with Auguste Théodore de Lauzanne. Charles Mathews made this dramatic trifle popular in England.--Boucicault, _Used Up_ (1845). =Useless Parliament= (_The_), the first parliament held in the reign of Charles I. (June 18, 1625). It was adjourned to Oxford in August, and dissolved twelve days afterwards.