Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Kite-Flying" to "Kyshtym" (part 4)

We have alluded to his foreign expeditions, which were almost all disastrous. Nearly all arose out of a hankering for the nominal extension of his empire by claiming submission and tribute. Expeditions against Japan were several times repeated; the last, in 1281, on an immense scale, met with huge discomfiture. Kublai’s preparations to avenge it were abandoned owing to the intense discontent which they created. In 1278 he made a claim of submission upon Champa, an ancient state representing what we now call Cochin China. This eventually led to an attempt to invade the country through Tongking, and to a war with the latter state, in which the Mongols had much the worst of it. War with Burma (or Mien, as the Chinese called it) was provoked in very similar fashion, but the result was more favourable to Kublai’s arms. The country was overrun as far as the Irrawaddy delta, the ancient capital, Pagān, with its magnificent temples, destroyed, and the old royal dynasty overthrown. The last attempt of the kind was against Java, and occurred in the last year of the old khan’s reign. The envoy whom he had commissioned to claim homage was sent back with ignominy. A great armament was equipped in the ports of Fu-kien to avenge this insult; but after some temporary success the force was compelled to re-embark with a loss of 3000 men. The death of Kublai prevented further action.

Some other expeditions, in which force was not used, gratified the khan’s vanity by bringing back professions of homage, with presents, and with the curious reports of foreign countries in which Kublai delighted. Such expeditions extended to the states of southern India, to eastern Africa, and even to Madagascar.

Of Kublai’s twelve legitimate sons, Chingkim, the favourite and designated successor, died in 1284/5; and Timur, the son of Chingkim, took his place. No great king arose in the dynasty after Kublai. He had in all nine successors of his house on the throne of Kaan-baligh, but the long and imbecile reign of the ninth, Toghon Timur, ended (1368) in disgrace and expulsion and the native dynasty of Ming reigned in their stead.

(H. Y.)

KUBUS, a tribe inhabiting the central parts of Sumatra. They are nomadic savages living entirely in the forests in shelters of branches and leaves built on platforms. It has been suggested that they represent a Sumatran aboriginal race; but Dr J. G. Garson, reporting on Kubu skulls and skeletons submitted to him by Mr. H. O. Forbes, declared them decidedly Malay, though the frizzle in the hair might indicate a certain mixture of negrito blood (Jour. Anthrop. Instit., April 1884). They are of a rich olive-brown tint, their hair jet black and inclined to curl, and, though not dwarfs, are below the average height.

KUCHĀN, a fertile and populous district of the province Khorasan in Persia, bounded N. by the Russian Transcaspian territory, W. by Bujnurd, S. by Isfaraïn, and extending in the E. to near Radkan. Its area is about 3000 sq. m. and its population, principally composed of Zafaranlu Kurds, descendants of tribes settled there by Shah Abbas I. in the 17th century, is estimated at 100,000. About 3000 families are nomads and live in tents. The district produces much grain, 25,000 to 30,000 tons yearly, and contains two towns, Kuchan and Shirvan (pop. 6000), and many villages.

Kuchan, the capital of the district, has suffered much from the effects of earthquakes, notably in 1875, 1894 and 1895. The last earthquake laid the whole town in ruins and caused considerable loss of life. About 8000 of the survivors removed to a site 7½ m. E. and there built a new town named Nasseriyeh after Nasr-ud-din Shah, but known better as Kuchan i jadid, i.e. New Kuchan, and about 1000 remained in the ruined city in order to be near their vineyards and gardens. The geographical position of the old town is 37° 8´ N., 58° 25´ E., elevation 4100 ft. The new town has been regularly laid out with broad streets and spacious bazaars, and, situated as it is half-way between Meshed and Askabad on the cart-road connecting those two places, has much trade. Its population is estimated at 10,000. There are telegraph and post offices.

KUCH BEHAR, or Cooch Behar, a native state of India, in Bengal, consisting of a submontane tract, not far from Darjeeling, entirely surrounded by British territory. Area, 1307 sq. m. Pop. (1901), 566,974; estimated revenue, £140,000. The state forms a level plain of triangular shape, intersected by numerous rivers. The greater portion is fertile and well cultivated, but tracts of jungle are to be seen in the north-east corner, which abuts upon Assam. The soil is uniform in character throughout, consisting of a light, friable loam, varying in depth from 6 in. to 3 ft., superimposed upon a deep bed of sand. The whole is detritus, washed down by torrents from the neighbouring Himalayas. The rivers all pass through the state from north to south, to join the main stream of the Brahmaputra. Some half-dozen are navigable for small trading boats throughout the year, and are nowhere fordable; and there are about twenty minor streams which become navigable only during the rainy season. The streams have a tendency to cut new channels for themselves after every annual flood, and they communicate with one another by cross-country watercourses. Rice is grown on three-fourths of the cultivated area. Jute and tobacco are also largely grown for export. The only special industries are the weaving of a strong silk obtained from worms fed on the castor-oil plant, and of a coarse jute cloth used for screens and bedding. The external trade is chiefly in the hands of Marwari immigrants from Rajputana. Among other improvements a railway has been constructed, with the assistance of a loan from the British government. The earthquake of the 12th of June 1897 caused damage to public buildings, roads, &c., in the state to the estimated amount of £100,000.

The Koch or Rajbansi, from which the name of the state is derived, are a widely spread tribe, evidently of aboriginal descent, found throughout all northern Bengal, from Purnea district to the Assam valley. They are akin to the Indo-Chinese races of the north-east frontier; but they have now become largely hinduized, especially in their own home, where the appellation “Koch” has come to be used as a term of reproach. Their total number in all India was returned in 1901 as nearly 2½ millions.

As in the case of many other small native states, the royal family of Kuch Behar lays claim to a divine origin in order to conceal an impure aboriginal descent. The greatest monarch of the dynasty was Nar Narayan, the son of Visu Singh, who began to reign about 1550. He conquered the whole of Kamrup, built temples in Assam, of which ruins still exist bearing inscriptions with his name, and extended his power southwards over what is now part of the British districts of Rangpur and Purnea. His son, Lakshmi Narayan, who succeeded him in Kuch Behar, became tributary to the Mogul Empire. In 1772 a competitor for the throne, having been driven out of the country by his rivals, applied for assistance to Warren Hastings. A detachment of sepoys was accordingly marched into the state; the Bhutias, whose interference had led to this intervention, were expelled, and forced to sue for peace through the mediation of the lama of Tibet. By the treaty made on this occasion, April 1773, the raja acknowledged subjection to the Company, and made over to it one-half of his annual revenues. In 1863, on the death of the raja, leaving a son and heir only ten months old, a British commissioner was appointed to undertake the direct management of affairs during the minority of the prince, and many important reforms were successfully introduced. The maharaja Sir Nripendra Narayan, G.C.I.E., born in 1862, was educated under British guardianship at Patna and Calcutta, and became hon. lieutenant-colonel of the 6th Bengal Cavalry. In 1897-98 he served in the Tirah campaign on the staff of General Yeatman-Biggs, and received the distinction of a C.B. He was present at the Jubilee in 1887, the Diamond Jubilee of 1897, and King Edward’s Coronation in 1902, and became a well-known figure in London society. In 1878 he married a daughter of Keshub Chunder Sen, the Brahmo leader. His eldest son was educated in England.

The town of Kuch Behar is situated on the river Tursa, and has a railway station. Pop. (1901), 10,458. It contains a college affiliated to the Calcutta University.

KUDU (koodoo), the native name for a large species of African antelope (q.v.), with large corkscrew-like horns in the male, and the body marked with narrow vertical white lines in both sexes. The female is hornless. Strepsiceros capensis (or S. strepsiceros) is the scientific name of the true kudu, which ranges from the Cape to Somaliland; but there is also a much smaller species (S. imberbis) in East and North-East Africa.

KUENEN, ABRAHAM (1828-1891), Dutch Protestant theologian, the son of an apothecary, was born on the 16th of September 1828, at Haarlem, North Holland. On his father’s death it became necessary for him to leave school and take a humble place in the business. By the generosity of friends he was educated at the gymnasium at Haarlem and afterwards at the university of Leiden. He studied theology, and won his doctor’s degree by an edition of thirty-four chapters of Genesis from the Arabic version of the Samaritan Pentateuch. In 1853 he became professor extraordinarius of theology at Leiden, and in 1855 full professor. He married a daughter of W. Muurling, one of the founders of the Gröningen school, which made the first pronounced breach with Calvinistic theology in the Reformed Church of Holland. Kuenen himself soon became one of the main supports of the modern theology, of which J. N. Scholten (1811-1885) and Karel Willem Opzoomer (b. 1821) were the chief founders, and of which Leiden became the headquarters. His first great work, an historico-critical introduction to the Old Testament, Historisch-kritisch onderzoek naar het onstaan en de verzameling van de boeken des Ouden Verbonds (3 vols., 1861-1865; 2nd ed., 1885-1893; German by T. Weber and C. T. Müller, 1885-1894), followed the lines of the dominant school of Heinrich Ewald. But before long he came under the influence of J. W. Colenso, and learned to regard the prophetic narrative of Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers as older than what was by the Germans denominated Grundschrift (“Book of Origins”). In 1869-1870 he published his book on the religion of Israel, De godsdienst van Israël tot den ondergang van der Joodschen Staat (Eng. trans., 1874-1875). This was followed in 1875 by a study of Hebrew prophecy, De profeten en de profetie onder Israel (Eng. trans., 1877), largely polemical in its scope, and specially directed against those who rest theological dogmas on the fulfilment of prophecy. In 1882 Kuenen went to England to deliver a course of Hibbert lectures, National Religions and Universal Religion; in the following year he presided at the congress of Orientalists held at Leiden. In 1886 his volume on the Hexateuch was published in England. He died at Leiden on the 10th of December 1891.

Kuenen was also the author of many articles, papers and reviews; a series on the Hexateuch, which appeared in the Theologisch Tijdschrift, of which in 1866 he became joint editor, is one of the finest products of modern criticism. His collected works were translated into German and published by K. Budde in 1894. Several of his works have been translated into English by Philip Wicksteed. See the article in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie.

KUEN-LUN, or Kwen-Lun, a term used to designate generally the mountain ranges which run along the northern edge of the great Tibetan plateau in Central Asia. In a wider application it means the succession of ranges which extend from the Pamirs on the W. to 113° E., until it strikes against or merges in the steep escarpments of the S.E. flank of the Mongolian plateau. In the narrower acceptation it applies only to those ranges which part the desert of Takla-makan on the N. from the Tibetan plateau on the S. between the Pamirs and the transverse glen of the Kara-muren, that is, nearly to the longitude of the town of Cherchen (about 85½° E.). Although the use of the name is thus restricted in geographical usage, the mountain system so designated does, as a fact, extend eastwards as far as the great depression of Tsaidam (say 95° E.), though it is uncertain whether its direct orographical continuation eastwards is to be identified with the Astin-tagh, or, as F. Grenard and K. Bogdanovich believe—and with them Sven Hedin is inclined to agree—with the parallel ranges of Kalta-alaghan and Arka-tagh, which lie S. of the Astin-tagh. At any rate the Astin-tagh, whether it is the principal continuation of the Kuen-lun or only a subsidiary flanking system, is itself the westward continuation of the Nan-shan or Southern Mountains, which reach down far into China (to 113° E.).

Taken in its widest meaning, the Kuen-lun Mountains thus stretch in a wavy line for nearly 2500 m. from E. to W., and while in the W. their constituent ranges are folded and squeezed by lateral compression into a breadth of some 150-200 m., their summits being forced up to correspondingly higher altitudes, in the E. they spread out to a breadth of some 600 m., the ranges being in that quarter less folded, and consequently both flatter and lower. In the tectonic structure of Asia the Kuen-lun forms, as it were, the backbone of the continent. In point of age it is very much older than either the Himalayas to the S. or the Tian-shan to the N. But although the crests of its component ranges reach altitudes of 21,500 to 22,000 ft., they are not as a rule overtopped by individual peaks of commanding and towering elevation, as the Himalayas are, but run on the whole tolerably uniform and relatively at little greater altitude than the lofty valleys which separate them one from another. It is a strikingly marked characteristic of the northern edge of the Tibetan plateau that its outermost border-range (e.g. Western Kuen-lun and Astin-tagh) is throughout double; and this “twinning” of the mountain-ranges, as also of the intermont lake-basins among the Kuen-lun ranges, is a peculiar feature of the Tibetan plateau.

The supreme orographic importance of this great Central Asian mountain system was recognized in a fashion even by the geographers of ancient Greece. They used to suppose that an immense range of mountains crossed Asia from west to east on the parallel of the island of Rhodes, extending through Asia Minor, the Kurdish highlands, the N. of Persia, the N. of Bactria (Afghanistan), the Hindu-kush, and so on into China. This long range they supposed to separate the waters which flow N. to the Arctic from those which flow S. to the Indian Ocean. K. Ritter (Asien, ii.) was the first of modern geographers to recognize the true character of the Kuen-lun as a border range of the Tibetan plateau; and Baron von Richthofen (China, i. 1876) still further defined and accentuated the conception of the system by representing it as a complex arrangement of several parallel ranges, running in wavy lines from the Pamirs (76° E.) eastwards to 118° E. But though von Richthofen’s general conception of the Kuen-lun system was broadly sound and in accordance with facts, the details both of his description and of that of his pupil Wegener require now very considerable revision, and need even to be in part recast, as a consequence of explorations and investigations made since they wrote by, amongst others, the Russian explorers N. M. Przhevalsky, M. V. Pyevtsov, V. I. Roboroysky, P. K. Kozlov, K. Bogdanovich, V. A. Obruchev, and (?) Skassi; by the Englishmen A. D. Carey, A. Dalgleish, St G. R. Littledale, H. Bower, H. H. P. Deasy and M. S. Wellby; by the American W. W. Rockhill; the Frenchmen J. L. Dutreuil de Rhins, F. Grenard, P. G. Bonvalot and Prince Henri d’Orléans; by the Hungarians L. von Loczy and Count Szechényi; and above all by the Swede Sven Hedin.

Western Kuen-lun.—On the east the Pamir highlands are fenced off from the East Turkestan lowlands by the double border-ridge of Sarik-kol (the Sarik-kol range and the Muztagh or Kashgar range), which has its eastern foot down in the Tarim basin (4000-4500 ft.) and its western up on the Pamirs at 10,500 to 13,000 ft. above sea-level, while its own summits, e.g. the Muztagh-ata (25,780 ft.), shoot up far above the limits of perpetual snow. This double border-ridge is continued east of the meridian of Yarkand or Yarkent (77° E.) by a succession of twin ranges, all running, though under different names, from the W.N.W. to the E.S.E. According to the investigations of F. Stoliczka and K. Bogdanovich, the same fossils occur in both sets of border ranges, in the Sarik-kol and in their eastward continuations, e.g. corals, Stromatophorae, Bryozoa, Atrypa reticularis, A. latilinguis and A. aspera, Spirifer verneuili, &c., and these the latter geologist assigns to the Devonian epoch. These eastward continuations of the double border-range of the Pamirs are the constituent ranges of the Kuen-lun proper. The names given to them are the Kilian or Kiliang, the Khotan and the Keriya Mountains in the more northerly range and the Raskem or Raskan, the Sughet and the Ullugh-tagh Mountains in the more southerly range. Although they all decrease in altitude from west to east, they nevertheless reach elevations of 19,000 ft., with individual peaks ascending some 2000-2500 ft. higher. From the East Turkestan lowlands on the north the ascent is very steep, and the passes across both sets of ranges lie at great altitudes; for example, the pass of Sanju-davan in the lower range is 16,325 ft. above sea-level, and the Kyzyl-davan, farther east, is 16,900 ft., while the Sughet-davan in the higher range is 17,825 ft. The latter range is separated from the Karakorum Mountains by the deeply trenched gorge of the Raskem or Yarkand-darya, while the deep glen of the Kara-kash or Khotan-darya intervenes between the upper (Sughet Mountains) and the lower (Kilian Mountains) border-ranges. Altogether this western extremity of the Kuen-lun system is a very rugged mountainous region, a consequence partly of the intricacy of the flanking ranges and spurs, partly of the powerful lateral compression to which they have been subjected, and partly of the great and abrupt differences in vertical elevation between the crests of the ranges and the bottoms of the deep, narrow, rugged glens between them. In the broad orographical disposition of the ranges there is considerable similarity between north Tibet and west Persia, in that in both cases the ranges are crowded together in the west, but spread out wider as they advance towards the east. To the two principal ranges in this part of the system F. Grenard, who accompanied J. L. Dutreuil de Rhins on his journey in 1890-1895, gives the names the Altyn-tagh and Ustun-tagh, though he names no less than six parallel ranges altogether. Now as Altyn-tagh is an accepted, though in point of fact erroneous, name for Astin-tagh, it is clear that Grenard considers the main Kuen-lun ranges to be continued directly by the Astin-tagh.

From the transverse breach of the Keriya-darya (about 81½° E.) to that of the Kara-muren in the longitude of Cherchen (about 85½° E.) the parallel border-ranges of the Tibetan plateau trend to the E.N.E., and here occur in the lower or outer range the passes of Dalai-kurghan-art (14,290 ft.), Choka-davan, i.e. Littledale’s Chokur Pass (9530 ft.) and others at altitudes ranging from 8600 to 11,500 ft., while in the upper range are the At-to-davan (16,600 ft.), Yapkak-lik-davan (15,550 ft.), Sarshu-davan (15,680 ft.) and others not named at 16,590 and 17,300 ft.

Middle Kuen-lun.—Between the upper transverse glens of the Kara-muren (or Mitt River) and the Cherchen-darya stretches the short range of Tokuz-davan. From it, on the east side of the Cherchen-daryt, in about 86° E., the component ranges of the middle Kuen-lun begin to diverge and radiate outwards (i.e. to north and to south) like the fingers of the outspread human hand. And here at least four principal ranges or groups of ranges admit of being discriminated, namely the Astin-tagh, the Chimen-tagh, the Kalta-alaghan and the Arka-tagh, all belonging to the mountainous country which borders on the north the actual plateau region of Tibet. Although these several ranges, or systems of ranges, differ considerably in their orographical characteristics, the following description will apply generally to the entire region from the Astin-tagh southwards to the Arka-tagh. The broad features of the surface configuration are a series of nearly parallel mountain-ranges, running from W.S.W. E.N.E. to W.N.W. E.S.E., and separated by high intermont valleys, which are choked with disintegrated material and divided into a chequered pattern of self-contained, shallow lacustrine basins. As a rule the crests of the ranges are worn down by aerial denudation and have the general appearance of rounded domes. Hard rock (mostly granite and crystalline schists, with red sandstone in places) appears only in the transverse glens, which are often choked with their débris in the form either of gravel-and-shingle or loose blocks of stone or both. The flanks of the mountains are so deeply buried in disintegrated material that the difference in vertical altitude between the floors of the valleys and the summits of the ranges is comparatively small. But as each successive range, proceeding south, represents a higher step in the terraced ascent from the desert of Gobi to the plateau of Tibet, the ranges when viewed from the north frequently appear like veritable upstanding mountain ranges, and this appearance is accentuated by the general steepness of the ascent; whereas, when viewed on the other hand from the south, these several ranges, owing to their long and gentle slope in that direction, have the appearance of comparatively gentle swellings of the earth’s surface rather than of well-defined mountain ranges. As a rule, the streams flow alternately east and west down the intermont latitudinal valleys, until they break through some transverse glen in the range on the northern side of the valley. In the western parts of the system they mostly go to feed the Kara-muren or the Cherchen-darya, while farther east they flow down into some larger self-contained basin of internal drainage, such as the Achik-kol, the two lakes Kara-kol, or the Ghaz-kol, and even yet farther east make their way, some of them into the lakes of the Tsaidam depression or become lost in its sands or in those of the Kum-tagh desert on the north, or go to feed the headstreams of the great rivers, the Hwang-ho (Yellow River) and the Yangtsze-kiang (Blue River) in the south. It appears to be a rule that the rivers which eventually terminate in the deserts of Gobi and Takla-makan grow increasingly larger in magnitude from east to west. Another law appears to distinguish the hydrography of at any rate the great latitudinal valleys of the Arka-tagh and the Chimen valley (north of the Chimen-tagh): the streams flow close under the foot of the range that shuts in each individual valley on the north. But in respect of precipitation there is a very marked difference between the valleys of the north and those of the south. Whereas both the mountains and valleys of the Astin-tagh and of the Akato-tagh (the next large range to the Astin-tagh on the south) are arid and desolate in the extreme, smitten as it were with the desiccating breath of the desert, those of the Arka-tagh and beyond are supersaturated with moisture, so that, at any rate in summer, the surface is in many parts little better than a quaking quagmire. Throughout vegetation is scanty and faunal life poor in species, though in some respects certain of the species, e.g. wild yaks, wild asses (kulans), antelopes (orongo and others), marmots, hares and partridges exist locally in large numbers. The wild camel approaches the north outliers of the Astin-tagh, but rarely, if ever, ventures to enter their fastnesses. Bears, wolves, foxes, goats (kökmet), wild sheep (arkharis), lizards, earth-rats, and a small rodent (teshikan), with ravens, eagles, wild ducks and wild geese are the other varieties principally encountered. The vegetation consists almost entirely of scrubby bushes of several varieties, including tamarisks and wild briers, of reeds (kamish), and of grass on the yaylaks (pasture-grounds) of the middle ranges. On the Arka-tagh even the moss, the last surviving representative of the flora, disappears entirely. In the eastern Astin-tagh a variety of wild tea (chay, mountain tea) is used by the Mongols. Gold is obtained in very small quantities in a few places in the Astin-tagh and the Kalta-alaghan. The nomenclature of the numerous ranges in this part of the Kuen-lun is extremely confusing, owing to different travellers having applied the same name to different ranges and to different travellers have applied different names to what is probably often identically the same range. In this article the nomenclature adopted is that employed by the latest, and probably the most thorough, explorer of this part of Central Asia, namely, Sven Hedin. Nevertheless, owing to the fact that nearly all the longer and more important crossings of Tibet and its northern montane region have been made from north to south, or vice versa, that is, transversely across the ranges, and comparatively few from east to west along the intermont latitudinal valleys, the identifications between ranges in the east and ranges in the west are in more than one instance more or less doubtful.

The Astin-tagh, although it occupies a similar position to the twin ranges of the Western Kuen-lun, in that it forms the outermost escarpment or border-ridge on the north of the Tibetan plateau, would appear in the opinion of the most competent judges (e.g. Grenard, Bogdanovich, Sven Hedin, Przhevalsky), to be only a branch or subsidiary range of the main range of the Kuen-lun. It is not however a single, long, continuous chain, as it is shown, for example, on the map of the Russian general staff, but consists of two parallel main ranges, and in the east of three, and even to the N.E. of Tsaidam of four, parallel main ranges, flanked throughout by several subsidiary chains, spurs and offshoots. Beyond that it swells out into the vast massif of Anambaruin-ula, which is traversed by at least three minor parallel chains. But on the east of the Anambaruin-ula it once more contracts to two main ranges, the more southerly being that which Przhevalsky called the Humboldt Range (crossed by a pass at 13,200 ft.). This branch is probably continued in the range which overhangs the Koko-nor on the south, namely, the south Koko-nor Range. The northern branch merges eastwards into the Nan-shan or Southern Mountains. The passes in the Lower Astin-tagh range from altitudes of 10,150 to 10,700 ft., and in the Upper Astin-tagh at 11,770 to 15,680 ft. (Tash-davan), though one pass beside the Charkhlik-su is only 9660 ft. high. And as the relative altitudes of crest and pass remain approximately the same as in the Western Kuen-lun, it is evident how greatly the general elevation of the twin border ridge decreases towards the east. But there exists a striking difference between the crests of the Astin-tagh and those of the ranges which give rise to the gigantic ridge and furrow arrangement on the Tibetan plateau. “Here in the Astin-tagh the mountains, like those in the Kuruk-tagh, are indeed severely weathered, but they always consist, from base to summit, of hard rock, bare and barren, most frequently piled up in eccentric, rugged masses, denticulated, pinnacled crests and peaks. On the Tibetan plateau, on the other hand, most of the ranges are distinguished by their rounded outlines and soft consistency, and their striking poverty in hard rock, which in the best cases only crops out near the summits. There too disintegration has been to a remarkable extent operative. This gives rise to the great morphological difference, that in the former regions, the Astin-tagh and the Kuruk-tagh, the products of disintegration are almost always carried away by the wind, and so disappear; no matter how powerful or how active the disintegration may be, none of the loosened material ever succeeds either in gathering amongst the mountains or in accumulating at their foot. The climate is so arid, and precipitation so extremely rare, that the fine powdery material falls a helpless prey to the winds. On the other hand, the precipitation on the Tibetan plateau is so copious, and so uniformly distributed, that it is able to retain the loosened material in situ, and causes it to heap itself up in rounded masses on the flanks of the mountains that are its primitive source of origin, these projecting in great part like skeletons from the midst of their own ruins.” The twin ranges of the Astin-tagh are fairly equivalent in point of magnitude and regularity; but while the Lower Range, on the north, sensibly decreases in altitude towards the east, the Upper Range, on the south, maintains its general altitude in a remarkable way, and is gapped by steep, wild, deeply incised transverse glens directed towards the north, and generally fenced in by dark precipitous walls of rock. The great valley between the two is “cut up into a series of self-contained basins, each serving as the gathering ground of the brooks that run down off the adjacent mountains. Outside the lower end of each large transverse glen there is a scree of sedimentary matter. These screes are however very flat and their lower edges generally reach all the way down to the central part of the basin, which is occupied by an expanse of yellow clay, perfectly flat and fairly hard, as well as dry and barren, often cracked into polygonal cakes and drawn out in the direction of the long axis of the valley.... But though the great morphological features of this latitudinal valley forcibly recall the latitudinal valleys of Tibet, the climatic differences give rise to differences between the basins corresponding to the differences between the mountain-ranges themselves. For while the self-contained basins of Tibet generally possess a salt lake in the middle, into which brooks and streams of greater or less magnitude gather, often from very considerable distances, these self-contained basins of the Astin-tagh are very small in area, and it is extremely seldom that their central parts receive any water at all, only in fact after copious rain. These terminal lakes, or more accurately sedimentary plains, are therefore almost always dry.”

The next parallel range on the south, the Akato-tagh, and the valley which separates it from the Astin-tagh, are equally arid and waterless. The valley, known by the general name of Kakir, meaning a “hard, dry, sterile expanse of clay,” is chequered with shallow self-contained basins of the usual type and has remarkably gentle slopes up to the mountains on both north and south. Its surface slopes from altitudes of 10,100 to 10,600 ft. in the west, where is the lake of Uzunshor (9650 ft.) to 9400 ft. in the east, in which direction it continues as far as the Anambaruin-ula (see below) and the plain or flat basin of Särtäng, a north extension of Tsaidam. This range of Akato-tagh, the Altun Range of Carey, is the same as that which on the map of the Russian general staff bears the name Chimen-tagh. Like the Astin-tagh it stretches towards the E.N.E., and, like it, appears to be built up of granite and schists, but its crest is greatly denuded, so that it is a mere crumbling skeleton protruding above the deep mantle of disintegrated material which masks its flanks. The slopes on both north and south are extremely gentle, but that on the south is eight to ten times as long as that on the north. In the east the range is mostly narrow, and dies away on the edge of the Tsaidam depression; but in the west it swells out into the lofty and imposing mass of the Ilve-chimen or Shia-manglay, which is capped with perpetual snow. This part of the range is crossed by the pass of Chopur-alik at an altitude of 16,160 ft., but farther east the passes lie at altitudes of 13,380 to 10,520 ft. The latitudinal valley that intervenes between the Akato-tagh and the next great range on the south, the Chimen-tagh, slopes for the most part eastwards, from 12,500 ft. down to the shallow salt lake of Ghaz-kol or Chimen-koli (9305 ft.). In the western part of this valley occurs the very important transverse water-divide of Gulcha-davan (14,150 ft.), which separates the basin of the Cherchen-darya that goes down into the Tarim basin from the area that drains down to the Ghaz-kol, which belongs to the Tsaidam depression. This, the Chimen valley, contains in places a good deal of drift-sand, which however is stationary in the mass and heaped up along the northern foot of the Chimen-tagh. Nevertheless the Akato-tagh is only of secondary importance in the general Kuen-lun system, being nothing more than a central ridge running along the broad Kakir valley that separates the Astin-tagh from the Chimen-tagh.

The latter range, the Chimen-tagh, is identical in its western parts with the Piazlik-tagh and in the east must be equated with the Tsaidam chain of Przhevalsky; and it is probably continued westwards by the range which the Russian explorers call the Moscow Range or the Achik-tagh, running north of the Achik-kol and, according to Przhevalsky, connecting on the west with the Tokuz-davan. The Chimen-tagh rises into imposing summits, some rounded, some pyramidal in outline, which are capped with snow, though the snow melts in summer. This range acts as a “breakwater” to the clouds, arresting and condensing the moisture which is carried northwards by the south winds. Hence its slopes are not so arid as those of the Akato-tagh and the Astin-tagh. Snow falls all the year round on the Chimen-tagh, even in July, and water is abundant everywhere. The southern slope of the range is gentle but short, the northern slope long and steep. Grass is able to grow, and animal life is more abundant. The range is crossed by passes at 13,970, 13,230 and 13,760 ft., and the Piazlik-tagh by a pass at an altitude of 13,640 ft.

The next important range, still going south, is the Kalta-alaghan, Carey’s Chimen-tagh Range, Przhevalsky’s Columbus Range and the range which is variously designated (e.g. by Pyevtsov) as the Ambal-ashkan, Kalga-lagan and Ara-tagh. This last is, however, properly the name of a short secondary range which rises along the middle (ara = middle) of the valley between the Chimen-tagh and the Kalta-alaghan. Not only is it of lower elevation than them both, but it dies away towards the west, the valleys on each side of it meeting round its extremity to form one broad, open valley, with an altitude of 11,790 to 13,725 ft. The Ara-tagh is crossed by a pass at an altitude of 14,345 ft. In the Kalta-alaghan, which is the culminating range of this part of the Kuen-lun, and is overtopped by towering, snow-clad peaks, the passes climb to considerably higher altitudes, namely, 14,560, 14,470, 14,430 and 14,190 ft., while the pass of Avraz-davan ascends to 15,700 ft. This range appears to be linked on to the Tokuz-davan by the Muzluk-tagh, in which there are passes at 16,870 and 15,450 ft. It is possible however that the Muzluk-tagh belongs more intimately to the Chimen-tagh system, that is, to the Moscow or Achik-kol ranges, Indeed Bogdanovich considers that the Tokuz-davan, the Muzluk-tagh, the Moscow Range and the Chimen-tagh form one single closely connected chain, in which he also places Przhevalsky’s isolated peak of Mount Kreml (15,055 ft.). Sven Hedin, whilst agreeing that this may possibly be the true conception, inclines to the view that the Achik-kol Range dies away towards the E., and that the Chimen-tagh and the Kalta-alaghan merge westwards into the border-ranges that lie north of the Muzluk-tagh and the Tokuz-davan. Unlike most of the other parallel ranges of N. Tibet, the Kalta-alaghan does not decrease, but it increases in elevation towards the east, where, like the Chimen-tagh, it abuts upon and merges in the ranges that border Tsaidam on the south.

Immediately south of the Kalta-alaghan comes a relatively deep depression, the Kum-kol valley, forming a very well-marked feature in the physical conformation of this region. It is crossed transversely by a water-divide which separates the basin of the twin-lakes of Kum-kol (12,700 ft.) from the basin of Tsaidam, some 3500 ft. lower. The floor of the valley consequently slopes away in both directions, like the Chimen valley between the Akato-tagh and the Chimen-tagh; and in so far as it slopes westwards towards the Kum-kol lakes it differs from nearly all the other great latitudinal valleys that run parallel with it, because they slope generally towards the east. Not far from the Kum-kol lakes there is a drift-sand area, though the dunes are stationary. The upper lake of Kum-kol (Chon-kum-kol) (12,730 ft.), which contains fresh water, is of small area (8 sq. m.) and in depth nowhere exceeds 13 ft.; but the lower lake (Ayak-kum-kol) (12,685 ft.), which is salt, is much bigger (283 sq. m.) and goes down to depths of 64 and 79 ft. Farther west, lying between the Muzluk-tagh and the Arka-tagh, is the lake of Achik-kol (13,940 ft.), 16½ m. broad and 50 m. in circuit.

The next great parallel range is the lofty and imposing Arka-tagh, the Przhevalsky Range of the Russian geographers, which has its eastward continuations in the Marco Polo Range (general altitude 15,750-16,250 ft.) and Gurbu-naiji Mountains of Przhevalsky. The Arka-tagh is the true backbone of the Kuen-lun system, and in Central Asia is exceeded in elevation only by the Tang-la, a long way farther south, this last being probably an eastern wing of the Karakorum Mountains of the Pamirs region. At the same time the Arka-tagh is the actual border-range of the Tibetan plateau properly so-called; to the south of it none of the long succession of lofty parallel ranges which ridge the Tibetan highlands seems to have any connexion with the Kuen-lun system. Of great length, the Arka-tagh, which is a mountain-system rather than a range, varies greatly in configuration in different parts, sometimes exhibiting a sharply defined main crest, with several lower flanking ranges, and sometimes consisting of numerous parallel crests of nearly uniform altitude. Amongst these it is possible to distinguish in the middle of the system four predominant ranges, of which the second from the north is probably the principal range, though the fourth is the highest. The passes across the first range (north) lie at altitudes of 15,675, 16,420, 17,320 and 18,300 ft.; across the second at 16,830, 17,020, 17,070 and 17,220 ft.; across the third at 16,800, 16,660, 17,065, 17,830 and 17,880 ft.; and across the fourth at 16,540, 16,765, 16,780, 18,100 and 18,110 ft. The crests of the ranges lie comparatively little higher than the valleys which separate them, the altitudes in the latter running at 14,940 to 16,700 ft., if not higher, and being only 500 to 1000 ft. lower than the crests of the accompanying ranges. The Arka-tagh ranges do not culminate in lofty jagged, pinnacled peaks, but in broad rounded, flattened domes, a characteristic feature of the system throughout. These Arka-tagh mountains are built up, at all events superficially, of sand and powdery, finely sifted disintegrated material. Where the hard rock does crop out on the surface, it is so excessively weathered as to be with difficulty recognized as rock at all. The culminating summits of the ranges generally present the appearance of a flat, rounded swelling, and when they are crowned with glaciers, as many of them are, these shape themselves into what may be described as a mantle, a breast-plate, or a flat cap, from which lappets and fringes project at intervals; nowhere do there exist any of the long, narrow, winding glacier tongues which are so characteristic of the Alps of Europe. But not the slightest indication has been discovered that these mountains were ever panoplied with ice. The process of disintegration and levelling down has reached such an advanced stage that, if ever there did exist evidences of former glaciation, they have now become entirely obliterated, even to the complete pulverization of the erratic blocks, supposing there were any. The view that meets the eye southwards from the heights of the Kalta-alaghan is the picture of a chaos of mountain chains, ridges, crests, peaks, spurs, detached masses, in fact, montane conformations of every possible description and in every possible arrangement. Immediately north of the Arka-tagh the country is studded with three or four exceptionally conspicuous and imposing detached mountain masses, all capped with snow and some of them carrying small glaciers. Amongst them are Shapka Monomakha or the Monk’s Cap; the Chulak-akkan, which may however be only Shapka Monomakha seen from a different point of view; Tömürlik-tagh (i.e. the Iron Mountain); and farther west, Ullugh-muz-tagh, which, according to Grenard, reaches an altitude of 24,140 ft. But the relations in which these detached mountain-masses stand to one another and to the Arka-tagh behind them have not yet been elucidated. In the vicinity of the Ullugh-muz-tagh there exist numerous indications of former volcanic activity, the eminences and summits frequently being capped with tuff, and smaller fragments of tuff are scattered over other parts of the Arka-tagh ranges.

The next succeeding parallel range, the Koko-shili, which is continued eastwards by the Bayan-khara-ula, between the upper headstreams of the Hwang-ho or Yellow River and the Yangtsze-kiang, belongs orographically to the plateau of Tibet.

The succession of ranges which follow one another from the deserts of Takla-makan and Gobi up to the plateau proper of Tibet rise in steps or terraces, each range being higher than the range to the north of it and lower than the range to the south of it. The difference in altitude between the lowest, most northerly range, the Lower Astin-tagh, and the most southerly of the Arka-tagh ranges amounts to nearly 7500 ft. With one exception, namely the climb out of the Kum-kol valley to the Arka-tagh, the first three steps are individually the biggest; whereas the Upper Astin-tagh exceeds the Lower Astin-tagh by an altitude of some 1350 ft., it is itself exceeded by the Akato-tagh to the extent of 1760 ft. There is also a considerable rise of 880 ft. from the Akato-tagh to the Chimen-tagh. But between the Chimen-tagh, the Ara-tagh and the Kalta-alaghan there is comparatively little difference in point of elevation, namely, 730 ft. in all. The biggest ascent is that from the Kalta-alaghan to the Arka-tagh, namely, nearly 1850 ft. The ranges of the Arka-tagh, again, run at pretty nearly the same absolute general altitudes, namely, 16,470 to 17,260 ft. When the altitudes of the intermont latitudinal valleys are compared, the significance orographically of the Chimen valley and of the Kum-kol valley is strikingly emphasized. Both are much more deeply excavated than all the other latitudinal valleys that run parallel to them, the Chimen valley being 875 ft. above the valley to the north of it, but no less than 2235 ft. below the valley to the south of it. The case of the Kum-kol valley is altogether exceptional, for it lies not higher, but 680 ft. lower, than the valley to the north of it, and consequently the climb up out of it to the first (on north) of the Arka-tagh valleys amounts to no less than 2900 ft. Hence these ten parallel ranges of the middle Kuen-lun system may be grouped in three divisions—(1) the more strictly border ranges of the Upper and Lower Astin-tagh and the Akato-tagh; (2) the three ranges of Chimen-tagh, Ara-tagh and Kalta-alaghan, which may be considered as forming a transitional system between the foregoing and the third division; (3) the Arka-tagh, which constitute the elevated rampart of the Tibetan plateau proper.

(J. T. Be.)

The Nan-shan Highlands overlook Tsaidam on the N.E. They embrace a region 380 m. long and 260 m. wide, entirely occupied with parallel mountain ranges all running from the N.W. to the S.E. Broad, flat, longitudinal valleys, at altitudes of 12,000 to 14,000 ft. (9000 to 10,000 at the south-western border) and dotted with lakes (Koko-nor, 9970 ft.; Khara-nor, 13,285 ft.), fill up the space between these mountain ranges. In the S.E. the Nan-shan highlands abut upon the highlands of the Chinese province of Kan-suh, and near the great northward bend of the Hwang-ho they meet the escarpments by which the Great Khingan and the In-shan ranges are continued, and by which the Mongolian plateau steps down to the lowlands of China. On the N.E. the Nan-shan highlands have their foot on the Mongolian plateau (average altitude, 4000 ft.), i.e. in the Ala-shan. On the N.W. they are fringed by a border range, the Da-sue-shan, a continuation of the Astin-tagh, which rises to 12,200-13,000 ft. in its passes, and is pierced by several rivers flowing west to Lake Khala-chi or Khara-nor. This border-range, which continues on to the 97th meridian, separates the Nan-shan range from the Pe-shan range.

On the S.W. the Nan-shan mountains consist of short irregular chains, separated by broad plains, dotted with lakes, which differ but slightly in altitude from Tsaidam (8800-9000 ft.). Next a succession of narrow ranges intervene between this lower border terrace and the higher terrace (12,000-13,500 ft.). The first mountain range on this higher terrace is Ritter’s range, covered in part with extensive snow-fields. The passes at both ends of this snow-clad massif lie at altitudes of 15,990 ft. and 14,680 ft. The next range is Humboldt or Ama-surgu range, which runs N.W. to S.E. from the Astin-tagh to about 38° N., and is perhaps continued by the southern Kuku (Koko)-nor range, which strikes the Hwang-ho with an elevation of 7440 ft. It includes, in fact, several other parallel ranges—e.g. the Mushketov, Semenov, Suess, Alexander III., Bain-sarlyk—the mutual relations of which are, however, not yet definitely settled.

Small lateral chains of mountains, rising some 2000 ft. above the general level of that plateau, connect the central Nan-shan with the next parallel ranges, namely, those of the eastern Nan-shan. The mutual relations of the latter, as well as the names of the several constituent chains, are equally unsettled. Thus, one of them is named indiscriminately Nan-shan, Richthofen Range and Momo-shan. In fact, the region is dominated by three ranges of nearly equal altitude, all lifting many of their peaks above the snow-line. Finally, there is a range of mountains, about 10,000 ft. high, named Lung-shan by Obruchev, which borders the Kan-chow and Lian-chow valley on the N.E., and belongs to the Nan-shan system. But the string of oases in Kan-suh province, which stretches between the towns named, lies on the lower level of the Mongolian plateau (4000 to 5000 ft.), so that the Lung-shan ought possibly to be regarded as a continuation of the Pe-shan mountains of the Gobi.

Generally speaking, the Nan-shan highlands are a region raised 12,000 to 14,000 ft. above the sea, and intersected by wild, stony and partly snow-clad mountains, towering another 4000 to 7000 ft. above its surface, and arranged in narrow parallel chains all running N.W. to S.E. The chains of mountains are severally from 8 to 17 m. wide, seldom as much as 35, while the broad, flat valleys between them attain widths of 20 to 27 m. As a rule the passes are at an altitude of 12,000 to 14,000 ft., and the peaks reach 18,000 to 20,000 ft. in the western portion of the highlands, while in the eastern portion they may be about 2000 ft. lower. The glaciers also attain a greater development in the western portion of the Nan-shan, but the valleys are dry, and the slopes of both the mountains and the valleys, furrowed by deep ravines, are devoid of vegetation. Good pasture grounds are only found near the streams. The soil is dry gravel and clay, upon which bushes of Ephedra, Nitraria and Salsolaceae grow sparsely. In the north-eastern Nan-shan, on the contrary, a stream runs through each gorge, and both the mountain slopes and the bottoms of the valleys are covered with vegetation. Forests of conifers (Picea obovata) and deciduous trees—Przhevalsky’s poplar, birch, mountain ash, &c., and a variety of bushes—are common everywhere. Higher up, in the picturesque gorges, grow rhododendrons, willows, Potentilla fruticosa, Spriaeae, Lonicereae, &c., and the rains must evidently be more copious and better distributed. In the central Nan-shan it is only the north-eastern slopes that bear forests. In the south, where the Nan-shan enters Kan-suh province, extensive accumulations of loess make their appearance, and it is only the northern slopes of the hills that are clothed with trees.

(P. A. K.)

Authorities.—An enumeration of the works published before 1890, and a map of itineraries, will be found in Wegener’s Versuch einer Orographie des Kuen-lun (Marburg, 1891), but his map is only approximately correct. Of the books published since 1890 the most important are Sven Hedin’s Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 (Stockholm, 1905-1907, 6 vols.), with an elaborate atlas and a general map of Tibet on the scale of 1 : 1,000,000; H. H. P. Deasy’s In Tibet and Chinese Turkestan (London, 1901), with a good map; F. Grenard’s vol. (iii.) of J. L. Dutreuil de Rhins’s Mission scientifique dans la haute Asie, 1890-1895 (n.p., 1897), also with a very useful map; W. W. Rockhill’s Diary of a Journey through Mongolia and Tibet in 1891 and 1892 (Washington, 1894); M. S. Wellby’s Through Unknown Tibet (London, 1898); P. G. Bonvalot’s De Paris au Tonkin à travers le Tibet inconnu (Paris, 1892); St G. R. Littledale’s “A Journey across Tibet,” in Geog. Journal (May 1896); H. Bower’s Diary of a Journey across Tibet (London, 1894); the Izvestia of the Russian Geog. Soc. and Geog. Journal, both passim.

In “Orographie des Kwen-lun,” in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin (1891).

It is used, for instance, on the map of “Inner-Asien” (No. 62) of Stieler’s Hand-atlas (ed. 1905) and in the Atlas of the Russian General Staff. Etymologically the correct form is Astin-tagh or Astun-tagh, meaning the Lower or Nearer Mountains. Ustun-tagh, which appears on Stieler’s map as an alternative name for Altyn-tagh, means Higher or Farther Mountains, and though not used locally of any specific range, would be appropriately employed to designate the higher and more southerly of the twin border-ranges of the Tibetan plateau.

The Northern Mountains are the Pe-shan in the desert of Gobi (see Gobi).

On the opposite or north side of the desert of Lop (desert of Gobi).

Sven Hedin, Scientific Results, iii. 308.

Ibid. 310-311.

This is the correct form, Arka-tagh meaning the Farther or Remoter Mountains. The form Akka-tagh is incorrect.

The form Tumenlik-tagh is erroneous.

KUFA, a Moslem city, situated on the shore of the Hindieh canal, about 4 m. E. by N. of Nejef (32° 4´ N., 44° 20´ E.), was founded by the Arabs after the battle of Kadesiya in A.D. 638 as one of the two capitals of the new territory of Irak, the whole country being divided into the sawads, or districts, of Basra and Kufa. The caliph ‘Ali made it his residence and the capital of his caliphate. After the removal of the capital to Bagdad, in the middle of the following century, Kufa lost its importance and began to fall into decay. At the beginning of the 19th century, travellers reported extensive and important ruins as marking the ancient site. Since that time the ruins have served as quarries for bricks for the building of Nejef, and at the present time little remains but holes in the ground, representing excavations for bricks, with broken fragments of brick and glass strewn over a considerable area. A mosque still stands on the spot where ‘Ali is reputed to have worshipped. (For history see Caliphate.)

KUHN, FRANZ FELIX ADALBERT (1812-1881), German philologist and folklorist, was born at Königsberg in Neumark on the 19th of November 1812. From 1841 he was connected with the Köllnisches Gymnasium at Berlin, of which he was appointed director in 1870. He died at Berlin on the 5th of May 1881. Kuhn was the founder of a new school of comparative mythology, based upon comparative philology. Inspired by Grimm’s Deutsche Mythologie, he first devoted himself to German stories and legends, and published Märkische Sagen und Märchen (1842), Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche (1848), and Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen (1859). But it is on his researches into the language and history of the Indo-Germanic peoples as a whole that his reputation is founded. His chief works in this connexion are: Zur ältesten Geschichte der Indogermanischen Völker (1845), in which he endeavoured to give an account of the earliest civilization of the Indo-Germanic peoples before their separation into different families, by comparing and analysing the original meaning of the words and stems common to the different languages; Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks (1859; new ed. by E. Kuhn, under title of Mythologische Studien, 1886); and Über Entwicklungsstufen der Mythenbildung (1873), in which he maintained that the origin of myths was to be looked for in the domain of language, and that their most essential factors were polyonymy and homonymy. The Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der Indogermanischen Sprachen, with which he was intimately connected, is the standard periodical on the subject.

See obituary notice by C. Bruchmann in Bursian’s Biographisches Jahrbuch (1881) and J. Schmidt in the above Zeitschrift, xxvi. n.s. 6.

KÜHNE, WILLY (1837-1900), German physiologist, was born at Hamburg on the 28th of March 1837. After attending the gymnasium at Lüneburg, he went to Göttingen, where his master in chemistry was F. Wöhler and in physiology R. Wagner. Having graduated in 1856, he studied under various famous physiologists, including E. Du Bois-Reymond at Berlin, Claude Bernard in Paris, and K. F. W. Ludwig and E. W. Brücke in Vienna. At the end of 1863 he was put in charge of the chemical department of the pathological laboratory at Berlin, under R. von Virchow; in 1868 he was appointed professor of physiology at Amsterdam; and in 1871 he was chosen to succeed H. von Helmholtz in the same capacity at Heidelberg, where he died on the 10th of June 1900. His original work falls into two main groups—the physiology of muscle and nerve, which occupied the earlier years of his life, and the chemistry of digestion, which he began to investigate while at Berlin with Virchow. He was also known for his researches on vision and the chemical changes occurring in the retina under the influence of light. The visual purple, described by Franz Boll in 1876, he attempted to make the basis of a photochemical theory of vision, but though he was able to establish its importance in connexion with vision in light of low intensity, its absence from the retinal area of most distinct vision detracted from the completeness of the theory and precluded its general acceptance.

KUKA, or Kukawa, a town of Bornu, a Mahommedan state of the central Sudan, incorporated in the British protectorate of Nigeria (see Bornu). Kuka is situated in 12° 55´ N. and 13° 34´ E., 4½ m. from the western shores of Lake Chad, in the midst of an extensive plain. It is the headquarters of the British administration in Bornu, and was formerly the residence of the native sovereign, who in Bornu bears the title of shehu.

The modern town of Kuka was founded c. 1810 by Sheikh Mahommed al Amin al Kanemi, the deliverer of Bornu from the Fula invaders. It is supposed to have received its name from the kuka or monkey bread tree (Adansonia digitata), of which there are extensive plantations in the neighbourhood. Kuka or Kaoukaou was a common name in the Sudan in the middle ages. The number of towns of this name gave occasion for much geographical confusion, but Idrisi writing in the 12th century, and Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century, both mention two important towns called Kaou Kaou, of which one would seem to have occupied a position very near to that of the modern Kuka. Ibn Khaldun speaks of it as the capital of Bornu and as situated on the meridian of Tripoli. In 1840 the present town was laid waste by Mahommed Sherif, the sultan of Wadai; and when it was restored by Sheikh Omar he built two towns separated by more than half a mile of open country, each town being surrounded by walls of white clay. It was probably owing to there being two towns that the plural Kukawa became the ordinary designation of the town in Kano and throughout the Sudan, though the inhabitants used the singular Kuka. The town became wealthy and populous (containing some 60,000 inhabitants), being a centre for caravans to Tripoli and a stopping-place of pilgrims from the Hausa countries going across Africa to Mecca. The chief building was the great palace of the sheikh. Between 1823 and 1872 Kuka was visited by several English and German travellers. In 1893 Bornu was seized by the ex-slave Rabah (q.v.), an adventurer from the Bahr-el-Ghazal, who chose a new capital, Dikwa, Kuka falling into complete decay. The town was found in ruins in 1902 by the British expedition which replaced on the throne of Bornu a descendant of the ancient rulers. In the same year the rebuilding of Kuka was begun and the town speedily regained part of its former importance. It is now one of the principal British stations of eastern Bornu. Owing, however, to the increasing importance of Maidugari, a town 80 m. S.S.W. of Kuka, the court of the shehu was removed thither in 1908.

For an account of Kuka before its destruction by Rabah, see the Travels of Heinrich Barth (new ed., London, 1890); and Sahara und Sudan, by Gustav Nachtigal (Berlin, 1879), i. 581-748.

KU KLUX KLAN, the name of an American secret association of Southern whites united for self-protection and to oppose the Reconstruction measures of the United States Congress, 1865-1876. The name is generally applied not only to the order of Ku Klux Klan, but to other similar societies that existed at the same time, such as the Knights of the White Camelia, a larger order than the Klan; the White Brotherhood; the White League; Pale Faces; Constitutional Union Guards; Black Cavalry; White Rose; The ’76 Association; and hundreds of smaller societies that sprang up in the South after the Civil War. The object was to protect the whites during the disorders that followed the Civil War, and to oppose the policy of the North towards the South, and the result of the whole movement was a more or less successful revolution against the Reconstruction and an overthrow of the governments based on negro suffrage. It may be compared in some degree to such European societies as the Carbonara, Young Italy, the Tugendbund, the Confréries of France, the Freemasons in Catholic countries, and the Vehmgericht.

The most important orders were the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camelia. The former began in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, as a social club of young men. It had an absurd ritual and a strange uniform. The members accidentally discovered that the fear of it had a great influence over the lawless but superstitious blacks, and soon the club expanded into a great federation of regulators, absorbing numerous local bodies that had been formed in the absence of civil law and partaking of the nature of the old English neighbourhood police and the ante-bellum slave patrol. The White Camelia was formed in 1867 in Louisiana and rapidly spread over the states of the late Confederacy. The period of organization and development of the Ku Klux movement was from 1865 to 1868; the period of greatest activity was from 1868 to 1870, after which came the decline.

The various causes assigned for the origin and development of this movement were: the absence of stable government in the South for several years after the Civil War; the corrupt and tyrannical rule of the alien, renegade and negro, and the belief that it was supported by the Federal troops which controlled elections and legislative bodies; the disfranchisement of whites; the spread of ideas of social and political equality among the negroes; fear of negro insurrections; the arming of negro militia and the disarming of the whites; outrages upon white women by black men; the influence of Northern adventurers in the Freedmen’s Bureau (q.v.) and the Union League (q.v.) in alienating the races; the humiliation of Confederate soldiers after they had been paroled—in general, the insecurity felt by Southern whites during the decade after the collapse of the Confederacy.

In organization the Klan was modelled after the Federal Union. Its Prescript or constitution, adopted in 1867, and revised in 1868, provided for the following organization: The entire South was the Invisible Empire under a Grand Wizard, General N. B. Forrest; each state was a Realm under a Grand Dragon; several counties formed a Dominion under a Grand Titan; each county was a Province under a Grand Giant; the smallest division being a Den under a Grand Cyclops. The staff officers bore similar titles, relics of the time when the order existed only for amusement: Genii, Hydras, Furies, Goblins, Night Hawks, Magi, Monks and Turks. The private members were called Ghouls. The Klan was twice reorganized, in 1867 and in 1868, each time being more centralized; in 1869 the central organization was disbanded and the order then gradually declined. The White Camelia with a similar history had a similar organization, without the queer titles. Its members were called Brothers and Knights, and its officials Commanders.

The constitutions and rituals of these secret orders have declarations of principles, of which the following are characteristic: to protect and succour the weak and unfortunate, especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers; to protect members of the white race in life, honour and property from the encroachments of the blacks; to oppose the Radical Republican party and the Union League; to defend constitutional liberty, to prevent usurpation, emancipate the whites, maintain peace and order, the laws of God, the principles of 1776, and the political and social supremacy of the white race—in short, to oppose African influence in government and society, and to prevent any intermingling of the races.

During the Reconstruction the people of the South were divided thus: nearly all native whites (the most prominent of whom were disfranchised) on one side irrespective of former political faith, and on the other side the ex-slaves organized and led by a few native and Northern whites called respectively scalawags and carpet-baggers, who were supported by the United States government and who controlled the Southern state governments. The Ku Klux movement in its wider aspects was the effort of the first class to destroy the control of the second class. To control the negro the Klan played upon his superstitious fears by having night patrols, parades and drills of silent horsemen covered with white sheets, carrying skulls with coals of fire for eyes, sacks of bones to rattle, and wearing hideous masks. In calling upon dangerous blacks at night they pretended to be the spirits of dead Confederates, “just from Hell,” and to quench their thirst would pretend to drink gallons of water which was poured into rubber sacks concealed under their robes. Mysterious signs and warnings were sent to disorderly negro politicians. The whites who were responsible for the conduct of the blacks were warned or driven away by social and business ostracism or by violence. Nearly all southern whites (except “scalawags”), whether members of the secret societies or not, in some way took part in the Ku Klux movement. As the work of the societies succeeded, they gradually passed out of existence. In some communities they fell into the control of violent men and became simply bands of outlaws, dangerous even to the former members; and the anarchical aspects of the movement excited the North to vigorous condemnation. The United States Congress in 1871-1872 enacted a series of “Force Laws” intended to break up the secret societies and to control the Southern elections. Several hundred arrests were made, and a few convictions were secured. The elections were controlled for a few years, and violence was checked, but the Ku Klux movement went on until it accomplished its object by giving protection to the whites, reducing the blacks to order, replacing the whites in control of society and state, expelling the worst of the carpet-baggers and scalawags, and nullifying those laws of Congress which had resulted in placing the Southern whites under the control of a party composed principally of ex-slaves.

Authorities.—J. C. Lester and D. L. Wilson, Ku Klux Klan (New York, 1905); W. L. Fleming, Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama (New York, 1905), and Documentary History of Reconstruction (Cleveland, 1906); J. W. Garner, Reconstruction in Mississippi (New York, 1901); W. G. Brown, Lower South in American History (New York, 1901); J. M. Beard, Ku Klux Sketches (Philadelphia, 1876); J. W. Burgess, Reconstruction and the Constitution (New York, 1901).

(W. L. F.)

The judgment of the historian William Garrott Brown, himself a Southerner, is worth quoting: “That violence was often used cannot be denied. Negroes were often whipped, and so were carpet-baggers. The incidents related in such stories as Tourgée’s A Fool’s Errand all have their counterparts in the testimony before congressional committees and courts of law. In some cases, after repeated warnings, men were dragged from their beds and slain by persons in disguise, and the courts were unable to find or to convict the murderers. Survivors of the orders affirm that such work was done in most cases by persons not connected with them or acting under their authority. It is impossible to prove or disprove their statements. When such outrages were committed, not on worthless adventurers, who had no station in the Northern communities from which they came, but on cultivated persons who had gone South from genuinely philanthropic motives—no matter how unwisely or tactlessly they went about their work—the natural effect was to horrify and enrage the North.”

KUKU KHOTO (Chinese Kwei-hwa), a city of the Chinese province of Shan-si, situated to the north of the Great Wall, in 40° 50´ N. and 111° 45´ E., about 160 m. W. of Kalgan. It lies in the valley of a small river which joins the Hwang-ho 50 m. to the south. There are two distinct walled towns in Kuku Khoto, at an interval of a mile and a half; the one is the seat of the civil governor and is surrounded by the trading town, and the other is the seat of the military governor, and stands in the open country. In the first or old town more especially there are strong traces of western Asiatic influence; the houses are not in the Chinese style, being built all round with brick or stone and having flat roofs, while a large number of the people are still Mahommedans and, there is little doubt, descended from western settlers. The town at the same time is a great seat of Buddhism—the lamaseries containing, it is said, no less than 20,000 persons devoted to a religious life. As the southern terminus of the routes across the desert of Gobi from Ulyasutai and the Tian Shan, Kuku Khoto is a great mart for the exchange of flour, millet and manufactured goods for the raw products of Mongolia. A Catholic and a Protestant mission are maintained in the town. Lieut. Watts-Jones, R.E., was murdered at Kwei-hwa during the Boxer outbreak in 1900.

Early notices of Kuku Khoto will be found in Gerbillon (1688-1698, in Du Halde (vol. ii., Eng. ed.), and in Astley’s Collection (vol. iv.)

KULJA (Chinese, Ili-ho), a territory in north-west China; bounded, according to the treaty of St Petersburg of 1881, on the W. by the Semiryechensk province of Russian Turkestan, on the N. by the Boro-khoro Mountains, and on the S. by the mountains Khan-tengri, Muz-art, Terskei, Eshik-bashi and Narat. It comprises the valleys of the Tekez (middle and lower portion), Kunghez, the Ili as far as the Russian frontier and its tributary, the Kash, with the slopes of the mountains turned towards these rivers. Its area occupies about 19,000 sq. m. (Grum-Grzimailo). The valley of the Kash is about 160 m. long, and is cultivated in its lower parts, while the Boro-khoro Mountains are snow-clad in their eastern portion, and fall with very steep slopes to the valley. The Avral Mountains, which separate the Kash from the Kunghez, are lower, but rocky, naked and difficult of access. The valley of the Kunghez is about 120 m. long; the river flows first in a gorge, then amidst thickets of rushes, and very small portions of its valley are fit for cultivation. The Narat Mountains in the south are also very wild, but are covered with forests of deciduous trees (apple tree, apricot tree, birch, poplar, &c.) and pine trees. The Tekez flows in the mountains, and pierces narrow gorges. The mountains which separate it from the Kunghez are also snow-clad, while those to the south of it reach 24,000 ft. of altitude in Khan-tengri, and are covered with snow and glaciers—the only pass through them being the Muzart. Forests and alpine meadows cover their northern slopes. Agriculture was formerly developed on the Tekez, as is testified by old irrigation canals. The Ili is formed by the junction of the Kunghez with the Tekez, and for 120 m. it flows through Kulja, its valley reaching a width of 50 m. at Horgos-koljat. This valley is famed for its fertility, and is admirably irrigated by canals, part of which, however, fell into decay after 55,000 of the inhabitants migrated to Russian territory in 1881. The climate of this part of the valley is, of course, continental—frosts of −22° F. and heats of 170° F. being experienced—but snow lasts only for one and a half months, and the summer heat is tempered by the proximity of the high mountains. Apricots, peaches, pears and some vines are grown, as also some cotton-trees near the town of Kulja, where the average yearly temperature is 48°.5 F. (January 15°, July 77°). Barley is grown up to an altitude of 6500 ft.

The population may number about 125,000, of whom 75,000 are settled and about 50,000 nomads (Grum-Grzimailo). The Taranchis from East Turkestan represent about 40% of the population; about 40,000 of them left Kulja when the Russian troops evacuated the territory, and the Chinese government sent some 8000 families from different towns of Kashgaria to take their place. There are, besides, about 20,000 Sibos and Solons, 3500 Kara-kidans, a few Dungans, and more than 10,000 Chinese. The nomads are represented by about 18,000 Kalmucks, and the remainder by Kirghiz. Agriculture is insufficient to satisfy the needs of the population, and food is imported from Semiryechensk. Excellent beds of coal are found in different places, especially about Kulja, but the fairly rich copper ores and silver ores have ceased to be worked.

The chief towns are Suidun, capital of the province, and Kulja. The latter (Old Kulja) is on the Ili river. It is one of the chief cities of the region, owing to the importance of its bazaars, and is the seat of the Russian consul and a telegraph station. The walled town is nearly square, each side being about a mile in length; and the walls are not only 30 ft. high but broad enough on the top to serve as a carriage drive. Two broad streets cut the enclosed area into four nearly equal sections. Since 1870 a Russian suburb has been laid out on a wide scale. The houses of Kulja are almost all clay-built and flat-roofed, and except in the special Chinese quarter in the eastern end of the town only a few public buildings show the influence of Chinese architecture. Of these the most noteworthy are the Taranchi and Dungan mosques, both with turned-up roofs, and the latter with a pagoda-looking minaret. The population is mainly Mahommedan, and there are only two Buddhist pagodas. A small Chinese Roman Catholic church has maintained its existence through all the vicissitudes of modern times. Paper and vermicelli are manufactured with rude appliances in the town. The outskirts are richly cultivated with wheat, barley, lucerne and poppies. Schuyler estimated the population, which includes Taranchis, Dungans, Sarts, Chinese, Kalmucks and Russians, at 10,000 in 1873; it has since increased.

New Kulja, Manchu Kulja, or Ili, which lies lower down the valley on the same side of the stream, has been a pile of ruins since the terrible massacre of all its inhabitants by the insurgent Dungans in 1868. It was previously the seat of the Chinese government for the province, with a large penal establishment and strong garrison; its population was about 70,000.

History.—Two centuries B.C. the region was occupied by the fair and blue-eyed Ussuns, who were driven away in the 6th century of our era by the northern Huns. Later the Kulja territory became a dependency of Dzungaria. The Uighurs, and in the 12th century the Kara-Khitai, took possession of it in turn. Jenghiz Khan conquered Kulja in the 13th century, and the Mongol Khans resided in the valley of the Ili. It is supposed (Grum-Grzimailo) that the Oirads conquered it at the end of the 16th or the beginning of the 17th century; they kept it till 1755, when the Chinese annexed it. During the insurrection of 1864 the Dungans and the Taranchis formed here the Taranchi sultanate, and this led to the occupation of Kulja by the Russians in 1871. Ten years later the territory was restored to China.

KULM (Culm). (1) A town of Germany, in the province of West Prussia, 33 m. by rail N.W. of Thorn, on an elevation above the plain, and 1 m. E. of the Vistula. Pop. (1905), 11,665. It is surrounded by old walls, dating from the 13th century, and contains some interesting buildings, notably its churches, of which two are Roman Catholic and two Protestant, and its medieval town-hall. The cadet school, founded here in 1776 by Frederick the Great, was removed to Köslin in 1890. There are large oil mills, also iron foundries and machine shops, as well as an important trade in agricultural produce, including fruit and vegetables. Kulm gives name to the oldest bishopric in Prussia, although the bishop resides at Pelplin. It was presented about 1220 by Duke Conrad of Masovia to the bishop of Prussia. Frederick II. pledged it in 1226 to the Teutonic order, to whom it owes its early development. By the second peace of Thorn in 1466 it passed to Poland, and it was annexed to Prussia in 1772. It joined the Hanseatic League, and used to carry on very extensive manufactures of cloth.

(2) A village of Bohemia about 3 m. N.E. of Teplitz, at the foot of the Erzgebirge, celebrated as the scene of a battle in which the French were defeated by the Austrians, Prussians and Russians on the 29th and 30th of August 1813 (see Napoleonic Campaigns).

KULMBACH, or Culmbach, a town of Germany, in the Bavarian province of Upper Franconia, picturesquely situated on the Weisser Main, and the Munich-Bamberg-Hof railway, 11 m. N.W. from Bayreuth. Pop. (1900), 9428. It contains a Roman Catholic and three Protestant churches, a museum and several schools. The town has several linen manufactories and a large cotton spinnery, but is chiefly famed for its many extensive breweries, which mainly produce a black beer, not unlike English porter, which is largely exported. Connected with these are malting and bottling works. On a rocky eminence, 1300 ft. in height, to the south-east of the town stands the former fortress of Plassenburg, during the 14th and 15th centuries the residence of the margraves of Bayreuth, called also margraves of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. It was dismantled in 1807, and is now used as a prison. Kulmbach and Plassenburg belonged to the dukes of Meran, and then to the counts of Orlamunde, from whom they passed in the 14th century to the Hohenzollerns, burgraves of Nuremberg, and thus to the margraves of Bayreuth.

See F. Stein, Kulmbach und die Plassenburg in alter und neuer Zeit (Kulmbach, 1903); Huther, Kulmbach und Umgebung (Kulmbach, 1886); and C. Meyer, Quellen zur Geschichte der Stadt Kulmbach (Munich, 1895).

KULMSEE, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of West Prussia, on a lake, 14 m. by rail N. of Thorn and at the junction of railways to Bromberg and Marienburg. Pop. (1900), 8987. It has a fine Roman Catholic cathedral, which was built in the 13th, and restored in the 15th century, and an Evangelical church. Until 1823 the town was the seat of the bishops of Kulm.

KULP, a town of Russian Transcaucasia, in the government of Erivan, 60 m. W.S.W. from the town of Erivan and 2 m. S. of the Aras river. Pop. (1897), 3074. Close by is the Kulp salt mountain, about 1000 ft. high, consisting of beds of clay intermingled with thick deposits of rock salt, which has been worked from time immemorial. Regular galleries are cut in the transparent, horizontal salt layers, from which cubes of about 70 ℔ weight are extracted, to the amount of 27,500 tons every year.

KULU, a subdivision of Kangra district, Punjab, British India, which nominally includes the two Himalayan cantons or waziris of Lahul and Spiti. The tahsil of Kulu has an area of 1054 sq. m., of which only 60 sq. m. are cultivated; pop. (1901), 68,954. The Sainj, which joins the Beas at Largi, divides the tract into two portions, Kulu proper and Soraj. Kulu proper, north of the Sainj, together with inner Soraj, forms a great basin or depression in the midst of the Himalayan system, having the narrow gorge of the Beas at Largi as the only outlet for its waters. North and east the Bara Bangahal and mid-Himalayan ranges rise to a mean elevation of 18,000 ft., while southward the Jalori and Dhaoladhar ridges attain a height of 11,000 ft. The higher villages stand 9000 ft. above the sea; and even the cultivated tracts have probably an average elevation of 5000 ft. The houses consist of four-storeyed châlets in little groups, huddled closely together on the ledges or slopes of the valleys, picturesquely built with projecting eaves and carved wooden verandas. The Beas, which, with its tributaries, drains the entire basin, rises at the crest of the Rohtang pass, 13,326 ft. above the sea, and has an average fall of 125 ft. per mile. Its course presents a succession of magnificent scenery, including cataracts, gorges, precipitous cliffs, and mountains clad with forests of deodar, towering above the tiers of pine on the lower rocky ledges. It is crossed by several suspension bridges. Great mineral wealth exists, but the difficulty of transport and labour prevents its development. Hot springs occur at three localities, much resorted to as places of pilgrimage. The character of the hillmen resembles that of most other mountaineers in its mixture of simplicity, independence and superstition. Tibetan polyandry still prevails in Soraj, but has almost died out elsewhere. The temples are dedicated rather to local deities than to the greater gods of the Hindu pantheon. Kulu is an ancient Rajput principality, which was conquered by Ranjit Singh about 1812. Its hereditary ruler, with the title of rai, is now recognized by the British government as jagirdar of Rupi.

KUM, a small province in Persia, between Teheran on the N. and Kashan on the S. It is divided into seven bulūk (districts): (1) Humeh, with town; (2) Kumrud; (3) Vazkerud; (4) Kinar Rud Khaneh; (5) Kuhistan; (6) Jasb; (7) Ardahal; has a population of 45,000 to 50,000, and pays a yearly revenue of about £8000. The province produces much grain and a fine quality of cotton with a very long staple.

Kum, the capital, in 34° 39´ N. and 50° 55´ E., on the Anarbar river, which rises near Khunsar, has an elevation of 3100 ft. It owes much of its importance to the fact that it contains the tomb of Imam Reza’s sister Fatmeh, who died there A.D. 816, and large numbers of pilgrims visit the city during six or seven months of the year. The fixed population is between 25,000 and 30,000. A carriage road 92 m. in length, constructed in 1890-1893, connects the city with Teheran. It has post and telegraph offices.

See Eastern Persian Irak, R. G. S. suppl. (London, 1896).

KUMAIT IBN ZAID (679-743), Arabian poet, was born in the reign of the first Omayyad caliph and lived in the reigns of nine others. He was, however, a strong supporter of the house of Hāshim and an enemy of the South Arabians. He was imprisoned by the caliph Hishām for his verse in praise of the Hāshimites, but escaped by the help of his wife and was pardoned by the intercession of the caliph’s son Maslama. Taking part in a rebellion, he was killed by the troops of Khālid ul-Qasrī.

His poems, the Hāshimīyyāt, have been edited by J. Horovitz (Leiden, 1904). An account of him is contained in the Kitāb ul-Aghāni, xv. 113-130.

(G. W. T.)

KUMAON, or Kumaun, an administrative division of British India, in the United Provinces, with headquarters at Naini Tal. It consists of a large Himalayan tract, together with two submontane strips called the Tarai and the Bhabhar; area 13,725 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 1,207,030, showing an increase of less than 2% in the decade. The submontane strips were up to 1850 an almost impenetrable forest, given up to wild animals; but since then the numerous clearings have attracted a large population from the hills, who cultivate the rich soil during the hot and cold seasons, returning to the hills in the rains. The rest of Kumaon is a maze of mountains, some of which are among the loftiest known. In a tract not more than 140 m. in length and 40 m. in breadth there are over thirty peaks rising to elevations exceeding 18,000 ft. (see Himalaya). The rivers rise chiefly in the southern slope of the Tibetan watershed north of the loftiest peaks, amongst which they make their way down valleys of rapid declivity and extraordinary depth. The principal are the Sarda (Kali), the Pindar and Kailganga, whose waters join the Alaknanda. The valuable timber of the yet uncleared forest tracts is now under official supervision. The chief trees are the chir, or three-leaved Himalayan pine, the cypress, fir, alder, sāl or iron-wood, and saindan. Limestone, sandstone, slate, gneiss and granite constitute the principal geological formations. Mines of iron, copper, gypsum, lead and asbestos exist; but they are not thoroughly worked. Except in the submontane strips and deep valleys the climate is mild. The rainfall of the outer Himalayan range, which is first struck by the monsoon, is double that of the central hills, in the average proportion of 80 in. to 40. No winter passes without snow on the higher ridges, and in some years it is universal throughout the mountain tract. Frosts, especially in the valleys, are often severe. Kumaon is occasionally visited by epidemic cholera. Leprosy is most prevalent in the east of the district. Goitre and cretinism afflict a small proportion of the inhabitants. The hill fevers at times exhibit the rapid and malignant features of plague.

In 1891 the division was composed of the three districts of Kumaon, Garhwal and the Tarai; but the two districts of Kumaon and the Tarai were subsequently redistributed and renamed after their headquarters, Naini Tal and Almora. Kumaon proper constituted an old Rajput principality, which became extinct at the beginning of the 19th century. The country was annexed after the Gurkha war of 1815, and was governed for seventy years on the non-regulation system by three most successful administrators—Mr Traill, Mr J. H. Batten and Sir Henry Ramsay.

KUMASI, or Coomassie, the capital of Ashanti, British West Africa, in 6° 34´ 50´´ N., 2° 12´ W., 168 m. by rail N. of Sekondi and 120 m. by road N.N.W. of Cape Coast. Pop. (1906), 6280; including suburbs, over 12,000. Kumasi is situated on a low rocky eminence, from which it extends across a valley to the hill opposite. It lies in a clearing of the dense forest which covers the greater part of Ashanti, and occupies an area about 1½ m. in length and over 3 m. in circumference. The land immediately around the town, once marshy, has been drained. On the north-west is the small river Dah, one of the headstreams of the Prah. The name Kum-asi, more correctly Kum-ase (under the okum tree) was given to the town because of the number of those trees in its streets. The most imposing building in Kumasi is the fort, built in 1896. It is the residence of the chief commissioner and is capable of holding a garrison of several hundred men. There are also officers’ quarters and cantonments outside the fort, European and native hospitals, and stations of the Basel and Wesleyan missions. The native houses are built with red clay in the style universal throughout Ashanti. They are somewhat richly ornamented, and those of the better class are enclosed in compounds within which are several separate buildings. Near the railway station are the leading mercantile houses. The principal Ashanti chiefs own large houses, built in European style, and these are leased to strangers.

Before its destruction by the British in 1874 the city presented a handsome appearance and bore many marks of a comparatively high state of culture. The king’s palace, built of red sandstone, had been modelled, it is believed, on Dutch buildings at Elmina. It was blown up by Sir Garnet (subsequently Viscount) Wolseley’s forces on the 6th of February 1874, and but scanty vestiges of it remain. The town was only partially rebuilt on the withdrawal of the British troops, and it is difficult from the meagre accounts of early travellers to obtain an adequate idea of the capital of the Ashanti kingdom when at the height of its prosperity (middle of the 18th to middle of the 19th century). The streets were numerous, broad and regular; the main avenue was 70 yds. wide. A large market-place existed on the south-east, and behind it in a grove of trees was the Spirit House. This was the place of execution. Of its population before the British occupation there is no trustworthy information. It appears not to have exceeded 20,000 in the first quarter of the 19th century. This is owing partly to the fact that the commercial capital of Ashanti, and the meeting-place of several caravan routes from the north and east, was Kintampo, a town farther north. The decline of Kumasi after 1874 was marked. A new royal palace was built, but it was of clay, not brick, and within the limits of the former town were wide stretches of grass-grown country. In 1896 the town again suffered at the hands of the British, when several of the largest and most ancient houses in the royal and priestly suburb of Bantama were destroyed by fire. In the revolt of 1900 Kumasi was once more injured. The railway from the coast, which passes through the Tarkwa and Obuassi gold-fields, reached Kumasi in September 1903. Many merchants at the Gold Coast ports thereupon opened branches in Kumasi. A marked revival in trade followed, leading to the rapid expansion of the town. By 1906 Kumasi had supplanted the coast towns and had become the distributing centre for the whole of Ashanti.

KUMISHAH, a district and town in the province of Isfahan, Persia. The district, which has a length of 50 and a breadth of 16 m., and contains about 40 villages, produces much grain. The town is situated on the high road from Isfahan to Shiraz, 52 m. S. of the former. It was a flourishing city several miles in circuit when it was destroyed by the Afghans in 1722, but is now a decayed place, with crumbled walls and mouldering towers and a population of barely 15,000. It has post and telegraph offices. South of the city and extending to the village Maksudbeggi, 16 m. away, is a level plain, which in 1835 (February 28) was the scene of a battle in which the army (2000 men, 16 guns) of Mahommed Shah, commanded by Sir H. Lindsay-Bethune, routed the much superior combined forces (6000 men) of the shah’s two rebellious uncles, Firman-Firma and Shuja es Saltana.

KUMQUAT (Citrus japonica), a much-branched shrub from 8 to 12 ft. high, the branches sometimes bearing small thorns, with dark green glossy leaves and pure white orange-like flowers standing singly or clustered in the leaf-axils. The bright orange-yellow fruit is round or ellipsoidal, about 1 in. in diameter, with a thick minutely tuberculate rind, the inner lining of which is sweet, and a watery acidulous pulp. It has long been cultivated in China and Japan, and was introduced to Europe in 1846 by Mr Fortune, collector for the London Horticultural Society, and shortly after into North America. It is much hardier than most plants of the orange tribe, and succeeds well when grafted on the wild species, Citrus trifoliata. It is largely used by the Chinese as a sweetmeat preserved in sugar.

KUMTA, or Coompta, a sea-coast town of British India, in the North Kanara district of Bombay, 40 m. S. of Karwar. Pop. (1901), 10,818. It has an open roadstead, with a considerable trade. Carving in sandal-wood is a speciality. The commercial importance of Kumta has declined since the opening of the Southern Mahratta railway system.

KUMYKS, a people of Turkish stock in Caucasia, occupying the Kumyk plateau in north Daghestan and south Terek, and the lands bordering the Caspian. It is supposed that Ptolemy knew them under the name of Kami and Kamaks. Various explorers see in them descendants of the Khazars. A. Vambéry supposes that they settled in their present quarters during the flourishing period of the Khazar kingdom in the 8th century. It is certain that some Kabardians also settled later. The Russians built forts in their territory in 1559 and under Peter I. Having long been more civilized than the surrounding Caucasian mountaineers, the Kumyks have always enjoyed some respect among them. The upper terraces of the Kumyk plateau, which the Kumyks occupy, leaving its lower parts to the Nogai Tatars, are very fertile.

KUNAR, a river and valley of Afghanistan, on the north-west frontier of British India. The Kunar valley (Khoaspes in the classics) is the southern section of that great river system which reaches from the Hindu Kush to the Kabul river near Jalalabad, and which, under the names of Yarkhun, Chitral, Kashkar, &c., is more extensive than the Kabul basin itself. The lower reaches of the Kunar are wide and comparatively shallow, the river meandering in a multitude of channels through a broad and fairly open valley, well cultivated and fertile, with large flourishing villages and a mixed population of Mohmand and other tribes of Afghan origin. Here the hills to the eastward are comparatively low, though they shut in the valley closely. Beyond them are the Bajour uplands. To the west are the great mountains of Kafiristan, called Kashmund, snow-capped, and running to 14,000 ft. of altitude. Amongst them are many wild but beautiful valleys occupied by Kafirs, who are rapidly submitting to Afghan rule. From 20 to 30 miles up the river on its left bank, under the Bajour hills, are thick clusters of villages, amongst which are the ancient towns of Kunar and Pashat. The chief tributary from the Kafiristan hills is the Pechdara, which joins the river close to Chagan Sarai. It is a fine, broad, swift-flowing stream, with an excellent bridge over it (part of Abdur Rahman’s military road developments), and has been largely utilized for irrigation. The Pechdara finds its sources in the Kafir hills, amongst forests of pine and deodar and thick tangles of wild vine and ivy, wild figs, pomegranates, olives and oaks, and dense masses of sweet-scented shrubs. Above Chagan Sarai, as far as Arnawai, where the Afghan boundary crosses the river, and above which the valley belongs to Chitral, the river narrows to a swift mountain stream obstructed by boulders and hedged in with steep cliffs and difficult “parris” or slopes of rocky hill-side. Wild almond here sheds its blossoms into the stream, and in the dawn of summer much of the floral beauty of Kashmir is to be found. At Asmar there is a slight widening of the valley, and the opportunity for a large Afghan military encampment, spreading to both sides of the river and connected by a very creditable bridge built on the cantilever system. There are no apparent relics of Buddhism in the Kunar, such as are common about Jalalabad or Chitral, or throughout Swat and Dir. This is probably due to the late occupation of the valley by Kafirs, who spread eastwards into Bajour within comparatively recent historical times, and who still adhere to their fastnesses in the Kashmund hills. The Kunar valley route to Chitral and to Kafiristan is being developed by Afghan engineering. It may possibly extend ultimately unto Badakshan, in which case it will form the most direct connexion between the Oxus and India, and become an important feature in the strategical geography of Asia.

(T. H. H.*)

KUNBIS, the great agricultural caste of Western India, corresponding to the Kurmis in the north and the Kapus in the Telugu country. Ethnically they cannot be distinguished from the Mahrattas, though the latter name is sometimes confined to the class who claim higher rank as representing the descendants of Sivaji’s soldiers. In some districts of the Deccan they form an actual majority of the population, which is not the case with any other Indian caste. In 1901 the total number of both Kunbis and Mahrattas in all India was returned at nearly 8¾ millions.

KUNDT, AUGUST ADOLPH EDUARD EBERHARD (1839-1894), German physicist, was born at Schwerin in Mecklenburg on the 18th of November 1839. He began his scientific studies at Leipzig, but afterwards went to Berlin. At first he devoted himself to astronomy, but coming under the influence of H. G. Magnus, he turned his attention to physics, and graduated in 1864 with a thesis on the depolarization of light. In 1867 he became privatdozent in Berlin University, and in the following year was chosen professor of physics at the Zürich Polytechnic; then, after a year or two at Würzburg, he was called in 1872 to Strassburg, where he took a great part in the organization of the new university, and was largely concerned in the erection of the Physical Institute. Finally in 1888 he went to Berlin as successor to H. von Helmholtz in the chair of experimental physics and directorship of the Berlin Physical Institute. He died after a protracted illness at Israelsdorf, near Lübeck, on the 21st of May 1894. As an original worker Kundt was especially successful in the domains of sound and light. In the former he developed a valuable method for the investigation of aerial waves within pipes, based on the fact that a finely divided powder—lycopodium, for example—when dusted over the interior of a tube in which is established a vibrating column of air, tends to collect in heaps at the nodes, the distance between which can thus be ascertained. An extension of the method renders possible the determination of the velocity of sound in different gases. In light Kundt’s name is widely known for his inquiries in anomalous dispersion, not only in liquids and vapours, but even in metals, which he obtained in very thin films by means of a laborious process of electrolytic deposition upon platinized glass. He also carried out many experiments in magneto-optics, and succeeded in showing, what Faraday had failed to detect, the rotation under the influence of magnetic force of the plane of polarization in certain gases and vapours.

KUNDUZ, a khanate and town of Afghan Turkestan. The khanate is bounded on the E. by Badakshan, on the W. by Tashkurghan, on the N. by the Oxus and on the S. by the Hindu Kush. It is inhabited mainly by Uzbegs. Very little is known about the town, which is the trade centre of a considerable district, including Kataghan, where the best horses in Afghanistan are bred.

KUNENE, formerly known also as Nourse, a river of South-West Africa, with a length of over 700 m., mainly within Portuguese territory, but in its lower course forming the boundary between Angola and German South-West Africa. The upper basin of the river lies on the inner versant of the high plateau region which runs southwards from Bihe parallel to the coast, forming in places ranges of mountains which give rise to many streams running south to swell the Kunene. The main stream rises in 12° 30´ S. and about 160 m. in a direct line from the sea at Benguella, runs generally from north to south through four degrees of latitude, but finally flows west to the sea through a break in the outer highlands. A little south of 16° S. it receives the Kulonga from the east, and in about 16° 50´ the Kakulovar from the west. The Kakulovar has its sources in the Serra da Chella and other ranges of the Humpata district behind Mossamedes, but, though the longest tributary of the Kunene, is but a small river in its lower course, which traverses the arid region comprised within the lower basin of the Kunene. Between the mouths of the Kulonga and Kakulovar the Kunene traverses a swampy plain, inundated during high water, and containing several small lakes at other parts of the year. From this swampy region divergent branches run S.E. They are mainly intermittent, but the Kwamatuo, which leaves the main stream in about 15° 8´ E., 17° 15´ S., flows into a large marsh or lake called Etosha, which occupies a depression in the inner table-land about 3400 ft. above sea-level. From the S.E. end of the Etosha lake streams issue in the direction of the Okavango, to which in times of great flood they contribute some water. From the existence of this divergent system it is conjectured that at one time the Kunene formed part of the Okavango, and thus of the Zambezi basin. (See Ngami.)

On leaving the swampy region the Kunene turns decidedly to the west, and descends to the coast plain by a number of cataracts, of which the chief (in 17° 25´ S., 14° 20´ E.) has a fall of 330 ft. The river becomes smaller in volume as it passes through an almost desert region with little or no vegetation. The stream is sometimes shallow and fordable, at others confined to a narrow rocky channel. Near the sea the Kunene traverses a region of sand-hills, its mouth being completely blocked at low water. The river enters the Atlantic in 17° 18´ S., 11° 40´ E. There are indications that a former branch of the river once entered a bay to the south.

KUNERSDORF, a village of Prussia, 4 m. E. of Frankfurt-on-Oder, the scene of a great battle, fought on the 12th of August 1759, between the Prussian army commanded by Frederick the Great and the allied Russians under Soltykov and Austrians under Loudon, in which Frederick was defeated with enormous losses and his army temporarily ruined. (See Seven Years’ War.)

KUNGRAD, a trading town of Asiatic Russia, in the province of Syr-darya, in the delta of the Amu-darya, 50 m. S. of Lake Aral; altitude 260 ft. It is the centre of caravan routes leading to the Caspian Sea and the Uralsk province.

KUNGUR, a town of eastern Russia, in the government of Perm, on the highway to Siberia, 58 m. S.S.E. of the city of Perm. Pop. (1892), 12,400; (1897), 14,324. Tanneries and the manufacture of boots, gloves, leather, overcoats, iron castings and machinery are the chief industries. It has trade in boots, iron wares, cereals, tallow and linseed exported, and in tea imported direct from China.

KUNKEL (or Kunckel) VON LOWENSTJERN, JOHANN (1630-1703), German chemist, was born in 1630 (or 1638), near Rendsburg, his father being alchemist to the court of Holstein. He became chemist and apothecary to the dukes of Lauenburg, and then to the elector of Saxony, Johann Georg II., who put him in charge of the royal laboratory at Dresden. Intrigues engineered against him caused him to resign this position in 1677, and for a time he lectured on chemistry at Annaberg and Wittenberg. Invited to Berlin by Frederick William, in 1679 he became director of the laboratory and glass works of Brandenburg, and in 1688 Charles XI. brought him to Stockholm, giving him the title of Baron von Lowenstjern in 1693 and making him a member of the council of mines. He died on the 20th of March 1703 (others say 1702) at Dreissighufen, his country house near Pernau. Kunkel shares with Boyle the honour of having discovered the secret of the process by which Brand of Hamburg had prepared phosphorus in 1669, and he found how to make artificial ruby (red glass) by the incorporation of purple of Cassius. His work also included observations on putrefaction and fermentation, which he spoke of as sisters, on the nature of salts, and on the preparation of pure metals. Though he lived in an atmosphere of alchemy, he derided the notion of the alkahest or universal solvent, and denounced the deceptions of the adepts who pretended to effect the transmutation of metals; but he believed mercury to be a constituent of all metals and heavy minerals, though he held there was no proof of the presence of “sulphur comburens.”

His chief works were Oeffentliche Zuschrift von dem Phosphor Mirabil (1678); Ars vitriaria experimentalis (1689) and Laboratorium chymicum (1716).

KUNLONG, the name of a district and ferry on the Salween, in the northern Shan States of Burma. Both are insignificant, but the place has gained notoriety from being the nominal terminus in British territory of the railway across the northern Shan States to the borders of Yunnan, with its present terminus at Lashio. In point of fact, however, this terminus will be 7 m. below the ferry and outside of Kunlong circle. At present Kunlong ferry is little used, and the village was burnt by Kachins in 1893. It is served by dug-outs, three in number in 1899, and capable of carrying about fifteen men on a trip. Formerly the trade was very considerable, and the Burmese had a customs station on the island, from which the place takes its name; but the rebellion in the great state of Theinni, and the southward movement of the Kachins, as well as the Mahommedan rebellion in Yunnan, diverted the caravans to the northern route to Bhamo, which is still chiefly followed. The Wa, who inhabit the hills immediately overlooking the Nam Ting valley, now make the route dangerous for traders. The great majority of these Wa live in unadministered British territory.

KUNZITE, a transparent lilac-coloured variety of spodumene, used as a gem-stone. It was discovered in 1902 near Pala, in San Diego county, California, not far from the locality which yields the fine specimens of rubellite and lepidolite, well known to mineralogists. The mineral was named by Dr C. Baskerville after Dr George F. Kunz, the gem expert of New York, who first described it. Analysis by R. O. E. Davis showed it to be a spodumene. Kunzite occurs in large crystals, some weighing as much as 1000 grams each, and presents delicate hues from rosy lilac to deep pink. It is strongly dichroic. Near the surface it may lose colour by exposure. Kunzite becomes strongly phosphorescent under the Röntgen rays, or by the action of radium or on exposure to ultra-violet rays. (See Spodumene.)

KUOPIO, a province of Finland, which includes northern Karelia, bounded on the N.W. and N. by Uleåborg, on the E. by Olonets, on the S.E. by Viborg, on the S. by St Michel and on the W. by Vasa. Its area covers 16,500 sq. m., and the population (1900) was 313,951, of whom 312,875 were Finnish-speaking. The surface is hilly, reaching from 600 to 800 ft. of altitude in the north (Suomenselkä hills), and from 300 to 400 ft. in the south. It is built up of gneisso-granites, which are covered, especially in the middle and east, with younger granites, and partly of gneisses, quartzite, and talc schists and augitic rocks. The whole is covered with glacial and later lacustrine deposits. The soil is of moderate fertility, but often full of boulders. Large lakes cover 16% of surface, marshes and peat bogs over 29% of the area, and forests occupy 2,672,240 hectares. Steamers ply along the lakes as far as Joensuu. The climate is severe, the average temperature being for the year 36° F., for January 13° and for July 63°. Only 2.3% of the whole surface is under cultivation. Rye, barley, oats and potatoes are the chief crops, and in good years these meet the needs of the population. Dairy farming and cattle breeding are of rapidly increasing importance. Nearly 38,800 tons of iron ore are extracted every year, and nearly 12,000 tons of pig iron and 6420 tons of iron and steel are obtained in ten iron-works. Engineering and chemical works, tanneries, saw-mills, paper-mills and distilleries are the chief industrial establishments. The preparation of carts, sledges and other wooden goods is an important domestic industry. Timber, iron, butter, furs and game are exported. The chief towns of the government are Kuopio (13,519), Joensuu (3954) and Iisalmi (1871).

KUOPIO, capital of the Finnish province of that name, situated on Lake Kalla-vesi, 180 m. by rail from the Kuivola junction of the St Petersburg-Helsingfors main line. Pop. (1904), 13,519. It is picturesquely situated, is the seat of a bishop, and has a cathedral, two lyceums and two gymnasia (both for boys and girls), a commercial and several professional schools. There is an agricultural school at Leväis, close by. Kuopio, in consequence of its steamer communication with middle Finland and the sea (via Saima Canal), is a trading centre of considerable importance.

KUPRILI, spelt also Köprili, Koeprulu, Keuprulu, &c., the name of a family of Turkish statesmen.

1. Mahommed Kuprili (c. 1586-1661) was the grandson of an Albanian who had settled at Kupri in Asia Minor. He began life as a scullion in the imperial kitchen, became cook, then purse-bearer to Khosrev Pasha, and so, by wit and favour, rose to be master of the horse, “pasha of two tails,” and governor of a series of important cities and sanjaks. In 1656 he was appointed governor of Tripoli; but before he had set out to his new post he was nominated to the grand vizierate at the instance of powerful friends. He accepted office only on condition of being allowed a free hand. He signalized his accession to power by suppressing an émeute of orthodox Mussulman fanatics in Constantinople (Sept. 22), and by putting to death certain favourites of the powerful Valide Sultana, by whose corruption and intrigues the administration had been confused. A little later (January 1657) he suppressed with ruthless severity a rising of the spahis; a certain Sheik Salim, leader of the fanatical mob of the capital, was drowned in the Bosporus; and the Greek Patriarch, who had written to the voivode of Wallachia to announce the approaching downfall of Islam, was hanged. This impartial severity was a foretaste of Kuprili’s rule, which was characterized throughout by a vigour which belied the expectations based upon his advanced years, and by a ruthlessness which in time grew to be almost blood-lust. His justification was the new life which he breathed into the decaying bones of the Ottoman empire.

Having cowed the disaffected elements in the state, he turned his attention to foreign enemies. The victory of the Venetians off Chios (May 2, 1657) was a severe blow to the Turkish sea-power, which Kuprili set himself energetically to repair. A second battle, fought in the Dardanelles (July 17-19), ended by a lucky shot blowing up the Venetian flag-ship; the losses of the Ottoman fleet were repaired, and in the middle of August Kuprili appeared off Tenedos, which was captured on the 31st and reincorporated permanently in the Turkish empire. Thus the Ottoman prestige was restored at sea, while Kuprili’s ruthless enforcement of discipline in the army and suppression of revolts, whether in Europe or Asia, restored it also on land. It was, however, due to his haughty and violent temper that the traditional friendly relations between Turkey and France were broken. The French ambassador, de la Haye, had delayed bringing him the customary gifts, with the idea that he would, like his predecessors, speedily give place to a new grand vizier; Kuprili was bitterly offended, and, on pretext of an abuse of the immunities of diplomatic correspondence, bastinadoed the ambassador’s son and cast him and the ambassador himself into prison. A special envoy, sent by Louis XIV., to make inquiries and demand reparation, was treated with studied insult; and the result was that Mazarin abandoned the Turkish alliance and threw the power of France on to the side of Venice, openly assisting the Venetians in the defence of Crete.

Kuprili’s restless energy continued to the last, exhibiting itself on one side in wholesale executions, on the other in vast building operations. By his orders castles were built at the mouth of the Don and on the bank of the Dnieper, outworks against the ever-aggressive Tatars, as well as on either shore of the Dardanelles. His last activity as a statesman was to spur the sultan on to press the war against Hungary. He died on the 31st of October 1661. The advice which, on his death-bed, he is said to have given to the sultan is characteristic of his Machiavellian statecraft. This was: never to pay attention to the advice of women, to allow nobody to grow too rich, to keep his treasury well filled, and himself and his troops constantly occupied. Had he so desired, Kuprili might have taken advantage of the revolts of the Janissaries to place himself on the throne; instead, he recommended the sultan to appoint his son as his successor, and so founded a dynasty of able statesmen who occupied the grand vizierate almost without interruption for half a century.

2. Fazil Ahmed Kuprili (1635-1676), son of the preceding, succeeded his father as grand vizier in 1661 (this being the first instance of a son succeeding his father in that office since the time of the Chenderélis). He began life in the clerical career, which he left, at the age of twenty-three, when he had attained the rank of muderris. Usually humane and generous, he sought to relieve the people of the excessive taxation and to secure them against unlawful exactions. Three years after his accession to office Turkey suffered a crushing defeat at the battle of St Gothard and was obliged to make peace with the Empire. But Kuprili’s influence with the sultan remained unshaken, and five years later Crete fell to his arms (1669). The next war in which he was called upon to take part was with Poland, in defence of the Cossacks, who had appealed to Turkey for protection. At first successful, Kuprili was defeated by the Poles under John Sobieski at Khotin and Lemberg; the Turks, however, continued to hold their own, and finally in October 1676 consented to honourable terms of peace by the treaty of Zurawno (October 16, 1676), retaining Kaminiec, Podolia and the greater part of the Ukraine. Three days later Ahmed Kuprili died. His military capacity was far inferior to his administrative qualities. He was a liberal protector of art and literature, and the kindliness of his disposition formed a marked contrast to the cruelty of his father; but he was given to intemperance, and the cause of his death was dropsy brought on by alcoholic abuse.

3. Zade Mustafa Kuprili (1637-1691), surnamed Fazil, son of Mahommed Kuprili, became grand vizier to Suleiman II. in 1689. Called to office after disaster had driven Turkey’s forces from Hungary and Poland and her fleets from the Mediterranean, he began by ordering strict economy and reform in the taxation; himself setting the example, which was widely followed, of voluntary contributions for the army, which with the navy he reorganized as quickly as he could. His wisdom is shown by the prudent measures which he took by enacting the Nizam-i-jedid, or new regulations for the improvement of the condition of the Christian rayas, and for affording them security for life and property; a conciliatory attitude which at once bore fruit in Greece, where the people abandoned the Venetian cause and returned to their allegiance to the Porte. He met his death at the battle of Salankamen in 1691, when the total defeat of the Turks by the Austrians under Prince Louis of Baden led to their expulsion from Hungary.

4. Hussein Kuprili (surnamed Amuja-Zade) was the son of Hassan, a younger brother of Mahommed Kuprili. After occupying various important posts he became grand vizier in 1697, and owing to his ability and energy the Turks were able to drive the Austrians back over the Save, and Turkish fleets were sent into the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The efforts of European diplomacy succeeded in inducing Austria and Turkey to come to terms by the treaty of Carlowitz, whereby Turkey was shorn of her chief conquests (1699). After this event Hussein Kuprili, surnamed “the Wise,” devoted himself to the suppression of the revolts which had broken out in Arabia, Egypt and the Crimea, to the reduction of the Janissaries, and to the institution of administrative and financial reform. Unfortunately the intrigues against him drove him from office in 1702, and soon afterwards he died.

5. Numan Kuprili, son of Mustafa Fazil, became grand vizier in 1710. The expectations formed of him were not fulfilled, as although he was tolerant, wise and just like his father, he injudiciously sought to take upon himself all the details of administration, a task which proved to be beyond his powers. He failed to introduce order into the administration and was dismissed from office in less than fourteen months after his appointment.

6. Abdullah Kuprili, a son of Mustafa Fazil Kuprili, was appointed Kaimmakam or locum tenens of the grand vizier in 1703. He commanded the Persian expedition in 1723 and captured Tabriz in 1725, resigning his office in 1726. In 1735 he again commanded against the Persians, but fell at the disastrous battle of Bagaverd, thus emulating his father’s heroic death at Selankamen.

KURAKIN, BORIS IVANOVICH, Prince (1676-1727), Russian diplomatist, was the brother-in-law of Peter the Great, their wives being sisters. He was one of the earliest of Peter’s pupils. In 1697 he was sent to Italy to learn navigation. His long and honourable diplomatic career began in 1707, when he was sent to Rome to induce the pope not to recognize Charles XII.’s candidate, Stanislaus Leszczynski, as king of Poland. From 1708 to 1712 he represented Russia at London, Hanover, and the Hague successively, and, in 1713, was the principal Russian plenipotentiary at the peace congress of Utrecht. From 1716 to 1722 he held the post of ambassador at Paris, and when, in 1724, Peter set forth on his Persian campaign, Kurakin was appointed the supervisor of all the Russian ambassadors accredited to the various European courts. “The father of Russian diplomacy,” as he has justly been called, was remarkable throughout his career for infinite tact and insight, and a wonderfully correct appreciation of men and events. He was most useful to Russia perhaps when the Great Northern war (see Sweden, History) was drawing to a close. Notably he prevented Great Britain from declaring war against Peter’s close ally, Denmark, at the crisis of the struggle. Kurakin was one of the best-educated Russians of his day, and his autobiography, carried down to 1709, is an historical document of the first importance. He intended to write a history of his own times with Peter the Great as the central figure, but got no further than the summary, entitled History of Tsar Peter Aleksievich and the People Nearest to Him (1682-1694) (Rus.).

See Archives of Prince A. Th. Kurakin (Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1890); A. Brückner, A Russian Tourist in Western Europe in the beginning of the XVIIIth Century (Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1892).

(R. N. B.)

KURBASH, or Kourbash (from the Arabic qurbash, a whip; Turkish qirbach; and French courbache), a whip or strap about a yard in length, made of the hide of the hippopotamus or rhinoceros. It is an instrument of punishment and torture used in various Mahommedan countries, especially in the Turkish empire. “Government by kurbash” denotes the oppression of a people by the constant abuse of the kurbash to maintain authority, to collect taxes, or to pervert justice. The use of the kurbash for such purposes, once common in Egypt, has been abolished by the British authorities.

KŪRDISTĀN, in its wider sense, the “country of the Kūrds” (Koords), including that part of Mount Taurus which buttresses the Armenian table-land (see Armenia), and is intersected by the Batman Su, the Bohtan Su, and other tributaries of the Tigris; and the wild mountain district, watered by the Great and Little Zab, which marks the western termination of the great Iranian plateau.

Population.—The total Kūrd population probably exceeds two and a half millions, namely, Turkish Kūrds 1,650,000, Persian 800,000, Russian 50,000, but there are no trustworthy statistics. The great mass of the population has its home in Kūrdistān. But Kūrds are scattered irregularly over the country from the river Sakarīa on the west to Lake Urmia on the east, and from Kars on the north to Jebel Sinjar on the south. There is also an isolated settlement in Khorasan. The tribes, ashiret, into which the Kūrds are divided, resemble in some respects the Highland clans of Scotland. Very few of them number more than 10,000 souls, and the average is about 3000. The sedentary and pastoral Kūrds, Yerli, who live in villages in winter and encamp on their own pasture-grounds in summer, form an increasing majority of the population. The nomad Kūrds, Kocher, who always dwell in tents, are the wealthiest and most independent. They spend the summer on the mountains and high plateaus, which they enter in May and leave in October; and pass the winter on the banks of the Tigris and on the great plain north of Jebel Sinjar, where they purchase right of pasturage from the Shammar Arabs. Each tribe has its own pasture-grounds, and trespass by other tribes is a fertile source of quarrel. During the periodical migrations Moslem and Christian alike suffer from the predatory instincts of the Kūrd, and disturbances are frequent in the districts traversed. In Turkey the sedentary Kūrds pay taxes; but the nomads only pay the sheep tax, which is collected as they cross the Tigris on their way to their summer pastures.

Character.—The Kūrd delights in the bracing air and unrestricted liberty of the mountains. He is rarely a muleteer or camel-man, and does not take kindly to handicrafts. The Kūrds generally bear a very indifferent reputation, a worse reputation perhaps, than they really deserve. Being aliens to the Turks in language and to the Persians in religion, they are everywhere treated with mistrust, and live as it were in a state of chronic warfare with the powers that be. Such a condition is not of course favourable to the development of the better qualities of human nature. The Kūrds are thus wild and lawless; they are much given to brigandage; they oppress and frequently maltreat the Christian populations with whom they are brought in contact,—these populations being the Armenians in Diarbekr, Erzerum and Van, the Jacobites and Syrians in the Jebel-Tūr, and the Nestorians and Chaldaeans in the Hakkāri country.

Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of the Kūrdish chief is pride of ancestry. This feeling is in many cases exaggerated, for in reality the present tribal organization does not date from any great antiquity. In the list indeed of eighteen principal tribes of the nation which was drawn up by the Arabian historian Masudi, in the 10th century, only two or three names are to be recognized at the present day. A 14th-century list, however, translated by Quatremère, presents a great number of identical names, and there seems no reason to doubt that certain Kūrdish families can trace their descent from the Omayyad caliphs, while only in recent years the Babān chief of Suleimania, representing the old Sohrans, and the Ardelān chief of Sinna, representing an elder branch of the Gurāns, each claimed an ancestry of at least five hundred years. There was up to a recent period no more picturesque or interesting scene to be witnessed in the east than the court of one of these great Kūrdish chiefs, where, like another Saladin, the bey ruled in patriarchal state, surrounded by an hereditary nobility, regarded by his clansmen with reverence and affection, and attended by a bodyguard of young Kūrdish warriors, clad in chain armour, with flaunting silken scarfs, and bearing javelin, lance and sword as in the time of the crusades.

Though ignorant and unsophisticated the Kūrd is not wanting in natural intelligence. In recent years educated Kūrds have held high office under the sultan, including that of grand vizier, have assisted in translating the Bible into Turkish, and in editing a newspaper. The men are lithe, active and strong, but rarely of unusual stature. The women do not veil, and are allowed great freedom. The Kūrds as a race are proud, faithful and hospitable, and have rude but strict feelings of honour. They are, however, much under the influence of dervishes, and when their fanaticism is aroused their habitual lawlessness is apt to degenerate into savage barbarity. They are not deficient in martial spirit, but have an innate dislike to the restraints of military service. The country is rich in traditions and legends, and in lyric and in epic poems, which have been handed down from earlier times and are recited in a weird melancholy tone.

Antiquities.—Kūrdistān abounds in antiquities of the most varied and interesting character. But it has been very little opened up to modern research. A series of rock-cut cuneiform inscriptions extend from Malatia on the west to Miandoāb (in Persia) on the east, and from the banks of the Aras on the north to Rowanduz on the south, which record the glories of a Turanian dynasty, who ruled the country of Nairi during the 8th and 7th centuries, B.C., contemporaneously with the lower Assyrian empire. Intermingled with these are a few genuine Assyrian inscriptions of an earlier date; and in one instance, at Van, a later tablet of Xerxes brings the record down to the period of Grecian history. The most ancient monuments of this class, however, are to be found at Holwān and in the neighbourhood, where the sculptures and inscriptions belong probably to the Guti and Luli tribes, and date from the early Babylonian period.

In the northern Kūrdish districts which represent the Arzanene, Intilene, Anzitene, Zabdicene, and Moxuene of the ancients, there are many interesting remains of Roman cities, e.g. at Arzen, Miyafarikin (anc. Martyropolis), Sisauronon, and the ruins of Dunisir near Dara, which Sachau identified with the Armenian capital of Tigranocerta. Of the Macedonian and Parthian periods there are remains both sculptured and inscribed at several points in Kūrdistān; at Bisitun or Behistun (q.v.), in a cave at Amadīa, at the Mithraic temple of Kereftū, on the rocks at Sir Pūl-o-Zohab near the ruins of Holwān, and probably in some other localities, such as the Bālik country between Lahijān and Koi-Sanjāk; but the most interesting site in all Kūrdistān, perhaps in all western Asia, is the ruined fire temple of Pāī Kūlī on the southern frontier of Suleimanīa. Among the débris of this temple, which is scattered over a bare hillside, are to be found above one hundred slabs, inscribed with Parthian and Pahlavi characters, the fragments of a wall which formerly supported the eastern face of the edifice, and bore a bilingual legend of great length, dating from the Sassanian period. There are also remarkable Sassanian remains in other parts of Kūrdistān—at Salmūs to the north, and at Kermānshāh and Kasr-i-Shīrīn on the Turkish frontier to the south.

Language.—The Kūrdish language, Kermānjī, is an old Persian patois, intermixed to the north with Chaldaean words and to the south with a certain Turanian element which may not improbably have come down from Babylonian times. Several peculiar dialects are spoken in secluded districts in the mountains, but the only varieties which, from their extensive use, require to be specified are the Zaza and the Gurān. The Zaza is spoken throughout the western portion of the Dersim country, and is said to be unintelligible to the Kermānjī-speaking Kūrds. It is largely intermingled with Armenian, and may contain some trace of the old Cappadocian, but is no doubt of the same Aryan stock as the standard Kūrdish. The Gurān dialect again, which is spoken throughout Ardelān and Kermānshāh chiefly differs from the northern Kūrdish in being entirely free from any Semitic intermixture. It is thus somewhat nearer to the Persian than the Kermānjī dialect, but is essentially the same language. It is a mistake to suppose that there is no Kūrdish literature. Many of the popular Persian poets have been translated into Kūrdish, and there are also books relating to the religious mysteries of the Ali-Illāhis in the hands of the Dersimlis to the north and of the Gurāns of Kermānshāh to the south. The New Testament in Kurdish was printed at Constantinople in 1857. The Rev. Samuel Rhea published a grammar and vocabulary of the Hakkāri dialect in 1872. In 1879 there appeared, under the auspices of the imperial academy of St Petersburg a French-Kūrdish dictionary compiled originally by Mons. Jaba, many years Russian consul at Erzerum, but completed by Ferdinand Justi by the help of a rich assortment of Kurdish tales and ballads, collected by Socin and Prym in Assyria.

Religion.—The great body of the nation, in Persia as well as in Turkey, are Sunnis of the Shafi’ite sect, but in the recesses of the Dersim to the north and of Zagros to the south there are large half-pagan communities, who are called indifferently Ali-Illahi and Kizjil-bāsh, and who hold tenets of some obscurity, but of considerable interest. Outwardly professing to be Shi’ites or “followers of Ali,” they observe secret ceremonies and hold esoteric doctrines which have probably descended to them from very early ages, and of which the essential condition is that there must always be upon the earth a visible manifestation of the Deity. While paying reverence to the supposed incarnations of ancient days, to Moses, David, Christ, Ali and his tutor Salmān-ul-Farisi, and several of the Shi’ite imams and saints, they have thus usually some recent local celebrity at whose shrine they worship and make vows; and there is, moreover, in every community of Ali-Illahis some living personage, not necessarily ascetic, to whom, as representing the godhead, the superstitious tribesmen pay almost idolatrous honours. Among the Gurāns of the south the shrine of Baba Yadgār, in a gorge of the hills above the old city of Holwān, is thus regarded with a supreme veneration. Similar institutions are also found in other parts of the mountains, which may be compared with the tenets of the Druses and Nosairis in Syria and the Ismailites in Persia.

History.—With regard to the origin of the Kūrds, it was formerly considered sufficient to describe them as the descendants of the Carduchi, who opposed the retreat of the Ten Thousand through the mountains, but modern research traces them far beyond the period of the Greeks. At the dawn of history the mountains overhanging Assyria were held by a people named Gūtū, a title which signified “a warrior,” and which was rendered in Assyrian by the synonym of Gardu or Kardu, the precise term quoted by Strabo to explain the name of the Cardaces (Κάρδακες). These Gūtū were a Turanian tribe of such power as to be placed in the early cuneiform records on an equality with the other nations of western Asia, that is, with the Syrians and Hittites, the Susians, Elamites, and Akkadians of Babylonia; and during the whole period of the Assyrian empire they seem to have preserved a more or less independent political position. After the fall of Nineveh they coalesced with the Medes, and, in common with all the nations inhabiting the high plateaus of Asia Minor, Armenia and Persia, became gradually Aryanized, owing to the immigration at this period of history of tribes in overwhelming numbers which, from whatever quarter they may have sprung, belonged certainly to the Aryan family.

The Gūtū or Kūrdu were reduced to subjection by Cyrus before he descended upon Babylon, and furnished a contingent of fighting men to his successors, being thus mentioned under the names of Saspirians and Alarodians in the muster roll of the army of Xerxes which was preserved by Herodotus.

In later times they passed successively under the sway of the Macedonians, the Parthians, and Sassanians, being especially befriended, if we may judge from tradition as well as from the remains still existing in the country, by the Arsacian monarchs, who were probably of a cognate race. Gotarzes indeed, whose name may perhaps be translated “chief of the Gūtū,” was traditionally believed to be the founder of the Gurāns, the principal tribe of southern Kūrdistān, and his name and titles are still preserved in a Greek inscription at Behistun near the Kūrdish capital of Kermānshāh. Under the caliphs of Bagdad the Kūrds were always giving trouble in one quarter or another. In A.D. 838, and again in 905, there were formidable insurrections in northern Kūrdistān; the amir, Adod-addaula, was obliged to lead the forces of the caliphate against the southern Kūrds, capturing the famous fortress of Sermāj, of which the ruins are to be seen at the present day near Behistun, and reducing the province of Shahrizor with its capital city now marked by the great mound of Yassin Teppeh. The most flourishing period of Kūrdish power was probably during the 12th century of our era, when the great Saladin, who belonged to the Rawendi branch of the Hadabāni tribe, founded the Ayyubite dynasty of Syria, and Kūrdish chiefships were established, not only to the east and west of the Kūrdistān mountains, but as far as Khorāsān upon one side and Egypt and Yemen on the other. During the Mongol and Tatar domination of western Asia the Kūrds in the mountains remained for the most part passive, yielding a reluctant obedience to the provincial governors of the plains.

When Sultan Selim I., after defeating Shah Ismail, 1514, annexed Armenia and Kūrdistān, he entrusted the organization of the conquered territories to Idris, the historian, who was a Kūrd of Bitlis. Idris found Kūrdistān bristling with castles, held by hereditary tribal chiefs of Kūrd, Arab, and Armenian descent, who were practically independent, and passed their time in tribal warfare or in raiding the agricultural population. He divided the territory into sanjaks or districts, and, making no attempt to interfere with the principle of heredity, installed the local chiefs as governors. He also resettled the rich pastoral country between Erzerūm and Erivan, which had lain waste since the passage of Timūr, with Kūrds from the Hakkiari and Bohtan districts. The system of administration introduced by Idris remained unchanged until the close of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29. But the Kūrds, owing to the remoteness of their country from the capital and the decline of Turkey, had greatly increased in influence and power, and had spread westwards over the country as far as Angora. After the war the Kūrds attempted to free themselves from Turkish control, and in 1834 it became necessary to reduce them to subjection. This was done by Reshid Pasha. The principal towns were strongly garrisoned, and many of the Kūrd beys were replaced by Turkish governors. A rising under Bedr Khān Bey in 1843 was firmly repressed, and after the Crimean War the Turks strengthened their hold on the country. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 was followed by the attempt of Sheikh Obaidullah, 1880-81, to found an independent Kūrd principality under the protection of Turkey. The attempt, at first encouraged by the Porte, as a reply to the projected creation of an Armenian state under the suzerainty of Russia (see Armenia), collapsed after Obaidullah’s raid into Persia, when various circumstances led the central government to reassert its supreme authority. Until the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29 there had been little hostile feeling between the Kūrds and the Armenians, and as late as 1877-1878 the mountaineers of both races had got on fairly well together. Both suffered from Turkey, both dreaded Russia. But the national movement amongst the Armenians, and its encouragement by Russia after the last war, gradually aroused race hatred and fanaticism. In 1891 the activity of the Armenian Committees induced the Porte to strengthen the position of the Kūrds by raising a body of Kūrdish irregular cavalry, which was well armed and called Hamidieh after the Sultan. The opportunities thus offered for plunder and the gratification of race hatred brought out the worst qualities of the Kūrds. Minor disturbances constantly occurred, and were soon followed by the massacre of Armenians at Sasūn and other places, 1894-96, in which the Kūrds took an active part.

Authorities.—Rich, Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan (1836); Wagner, Reise nach Persien und dem Lande der Kurden (Leipzig, 1852); Consul Taylor in R. G. S. Journal (1865); Millingen, Wild Life among the Koords (1870); Von Luschan, “Die Wandervolker Kleinasiens,” in Vn. d. G. für Anthropologie (Berlin, 1886); Clayton, “The Mountains of Kūrdistān,” in Alpine Journal (1887); Binder, Au Kūrdistan (Paris, 1887); Naumann, Vom Goldnen Horn zu den Quellen des Euphrat (Munich, 1893); Murray, Handbook to Asia Minor, &c. (1895); Lerch, Forschungen über die Kurden (St Petersburg, 1857-58); Jaba, Dict. Kurde-Français (St Petersburg, 1879); Justi, Kurdische Grammatik (1880); Prym and Socin, Kurdische Sammlungen (1890); Makas, Kurdische Studien (1901); Earl Percy, Highlands of Asiatic Turkey (1901); Lynch, Armenia (1901); A. V. Williams Jackson, Persia, Past and Present (1906).

(C. W. W.; H. C. R.)

See Notices et Extraits des MSS., xiii. 305. Of the tribes enumerated in this work of the 14th century who still retain a leading place among the Kūrds, the following names may be quoted: Guranieh of Dartang, modern Gurans; Zengeneh, in Hamadan hills, now in Kermānshāh; Hasnani of Kerkuk and Arbil, now in the Dersim mountains, having originally come from Khorāsān according to tradition; Sohrīeh of Shekelabad and Tel-Haftūn, modern Sohrān, from whom descend the Babān of Suleimanieh; Zerzari of Hinjarīn mountains, modern Zerzas of Ushnu (cuneiform pillars of Kel-i-shīn and Sidek noticed by author); Julamerkīeh, modern Julamerik, said to be descended from the caliph Merwān-ibn-Hakam; Hakkarīeh, Hakkāri inhabiting Zuzan of Arab geography; Bokhtieh, modern Bohtān. The Rowadi, to whom Saladin belonged, are probably modern Rawendi, as they held the fortress of Arbil (Arbela). Some twenty other names are mentioned, but the orthography is so doubtful that it is useless to try to identify them.

The Sheref-nama, a history of the Kūrds dating from the 16th century, tells us that “towards the close of the reign of the Jenghizians, a man named Baba Ardilān, a descendant of the governors of Diarbekr, and related to the famous Ahmed-ibn-Merwān, after remaining for some time among the Gurāns, gained possession of the country of Shahrizor” and the Ardelān family history, with the gradual extension of their power over Persian Kūrdistān, is then traced down to the Saffavid period.

The Gurān are mentioned in the Mesalik-el-Absār as the dominant tribe in southern Kūrdistān in the 14th century, occupying very much the same seats as at present, from the Hamadan frontier to Shahrizor. Their name probably signifies merely “the mountaineers,” being derived from gur or giri, “a mountain,” which is also found in Zagros, i.e. za-giri, “beyond the mountain,” or Pusht-i-koh, as the name is translated in Persian. They are a fine, active and hardy race, individually brave, and make excellent soldiers, though in appearance very inferior to the tribal Kūrds of the northern districts. These latter indeed delight in gay colours, while the Gurāns dress in the most homely costume, wearing coarse blue cotton vests, with felt caps and coats. In a great part of Kūrdistān the name Gurān has become synonymous with an agricultural peasantry, as opposed to the migratory shepherds.

“The Kalhūr tribe are traditionally descended from Gudarz-ibn-Gīo, whose son Roham was sent by Bahman Keiāni to destroy Jerusalem and bring the Jews into captivity. This Roham is the individual usually called Bokht-i-nasser (Nebuchadrezzar) and he ultimately succeeded to the throne. The neighbouring country has ever since remained in the hands of his descendants, who are called Gurāns” (Sheref-Nama, Persian MS.). The same popular tradition still exists in the country, and ΓΩΤΑΡΖΗΟ ΓΕΟΠΟΘΡΟΣ is found on the rock at Behistun, showing that Gudarz-ibn-Gīo was really an historic personage. See Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc. ix. 114.

KŪRDISTĀN, in the narrower sense, a province of Persia, situated in the hilly districts between Azerbaijan and Kermanshah, and extending to the Turkish frontier on the W., and bounded on the E. by Gerrus and Hamadan. In proportion to its size and population it pays a very small yearly revenue—only about £14,000—due to the fact that a great part of the population consists of wild and disorderly nomad Kūrds. Some of these nomads pass their winters in Turkish territory, and have their summer pasture-grounds in the highlands of Kūrdistān. This adds much to the difficulty of collecting taxation. The province is divided into sixteen districts, and its eastern part, in which the capital is situated, is known as Ardelan. The capital is Senendij, usually known as Sinna (not Sihna, or Sahna, as some writers have it), situated 60 m. N.W. of Hamadan, in 35° 15´ N., 47° 18´ E., at an elevation of 5300 ft. The city has a population of about 35,000 and manufactures great quantities of carpets and felts for the supply of the province and for export. Some of the carpets are very fine and expensive, rugs 2 yards by 1½ costing £15 to £20. Post and telegraph offices have been established since 1879.

KURGAN, a town (founded 1553) of West Siberia, in the government of Tobolsk, on the Siberian railway, 160 m. E. of Chelyabinsk, and on the left bank of the Tobol, in a wealthy agricultural district. Pop. (1897), 10,579. Owing to its position at the terminus of steam navigation up the river Tobol, it has become second only to Tyumeń as a commercial centre. It has a public library and a botanic garden. There is a large trade in cattle with Petropavlovsk, and considerable export of grain, tallow, meat, hides, butter, game and fish, there being three large fairs in the year. In the vicinity are a great number of prehistoric kurgans or burial-mounds.

KURIA MURIA ISLANDS, a group of five islands in the Arabian Sea, close under the coast of Arabia, belonging to Britain and forming a dependency of Aden. They are lofty and rocky, and have a total area of 28 sq. m., that of the largest, Hallania, being 22 sq. m. They are identified with the ancient Insulae Zenobii, and were ceded by the sultan of Muscat to Britain in 1854 for the purposes of a cable station. They are inhabited by a few families of Arabs, who however speak a dialect differing considerably from the ordinary Arabic. The islands yield some guano.

KURILES (Jap. Chishima, “thousand islands”), a chain of small islands belonging to Japan, stretching in a north-easterly direction from Nemuro Bay, on the extreme east of the island of Yezo, to Chishima-kaikyo (Kuriles Strait), which separates them from the southernmost point of Kamchatka. They extend from 44° 45´ to 50° 56´ N. and from 145° 25´ to 156° 32´ E. Their coasts measure 1496 m.; their area is 6159 sq. m.; their total number is 32, and the names of the eight principal islands, counting from the south, are Kunashiri, Shikotan, Etorofu (generally called Etorop, and known formerly to Europe as Staten Island), Urup, Simusir, Onnekotan, Paramoshiri (Paramusir) and Shumshiri. From Noshapzaki (Notsu-no-sake or Notsu Cape), the most easterly point of Nemuro province, to Tomari, the most westerly point in Kunashiri, the distance is 71⁄3 m., and the Kuriles Strait separating Shumshiri from Kamchatka is about the same width. The name “Kurile” is derived from the Russian kurit (to smoke), in allusion to the active volcanic character of the group. The dense fogs that envelop these islands, and the violence of the currents in their vicinity, have greatly hindered exploration, so that little is known of their physiography. They lie entangled in a vast net of sea-weed; are the resort of innumerable birds, and used to be largely frequented by seals and sea-otters, which, however, have been almost completely driven away by unregulated hunting. Near the south-eastern coast of Kunashiri stands a mountain called Rausunobori (3005 ft. high), round whose base sulphur bubbles up in large quantities, and hot springs as well as a hot stream are found. On the west coast of the same island is a boiling lake, called Ponto, which deposits on its bed and round its shores black sand, consisting almost entirely of pure sulphur. This island has several lofty peaks; Ponnobori-yama near the east coast, and Chachanobori and Rurindake in the north. Chachanobori (about 7382 ft.) is described by Messrs Chamberlain and Mason as “a cone within a cone, the inner and higher of the two being—so the natives say—surrounded by a lake.” The island has extensive forests of conifers with an undergrowth of ferns and flowering plants, and bears are numerous. The chief port of Kunashiri is Tomari, on the south coast. The island of Shikotan is remarkable for the growth of a species of bamboo (called Shikotan-chiku), having dark brown spots on the cane. Etorofu has a coast-line broken by deep bays, of which the principal are Naibo-wan, Rubetsu-wan and Bettobuwan on the northern shore and Shitokap-wan on the southern. It is covered almost completely with dense forest, and has a number of streams abounding with salmon. Shana, the chief port, is in Rubetsu Bay. This island, the principal of the group, is divided into four provinces for administrative purposes, namely, Etorofu, Furubetsu, Shana and Shibetoro. Its mountains are Atosha-nobori (4035 ft.) in Etorofu; Chiripnupari (5009 ft.) in Shana; and Mokoro-nobori (3930 ft.) and Atuiyadake (3932 ft.) in Shibetoro. Among the other islands three only call for notice on account of their altitudes, namely, Ketoi-jima, Rashua-jima and Matua-jima, which rise to heights of 3944, 3304 and 5240 ft. respectively.

Population.—Not much is known about the aborigines. By some authorities Ainu colonists are supposed to have been the first settlers, and to have arrived there via Yezo; by others, the earliest comers are believed to have been a hyperborean tribe travelling southwards by way of Kamchatka. The islands themselves have not been sufficiently explored to determine whether they furnish any ethnological evidences. The present population aggregates about 4400, or 0.7 per sq. m., of whom about 600 are Ainu (q.v.). There is little disposition to emigrate thither from Japan proper, the number of settlers being less than 100 annually.

History.—The Kurile Islands were discovered in 1634 by the Dutch navigator Martin de Vries. The three southern islands, Kunashiri, Etorofu, and Shikotan, are believed to have belonged to Japan from a remote date, but at the beginning of the 18th century the Russians, having conquered Kamchatka, found their way to the northern part of the Kuriles in pursuit of fur-bearing animals, with which the islands then abounded. Gradually these encroachments were pushed farther south, simultaneously with aggressions imperilling the Japanese settlements in the southern half of Sakhalin. Japan’s occupation was far from effective in either region, and in 1875 she was not unwilling to conclude a convention by which she agreed to withdraw altogether from Sakhalin provided that Russia withdrew from the Kuriles.

An officer of the Japanese navy, Lieut. Gunji, left Tokyo with about forty comrades in 1892, his intention being to form a settlement on Shumshiri, the most northerly of the Kurile Islands. They embarked in open boats, and for that reason, as well as because they were going to constitute themselves their country’s extreme outpost, the enterprise attracted public enthusiasm. After a long struggle the immigrants became fairly prosperous.

See Capt. H. J. Snow, Notes on the Kurile Islands (London, 1896).

KURISCHES HAFF, a lagoon of Germany, on the Baltic coast of East Prussia, stretching from Labiau to Memel, a distance of 60 m., has an area of nearly 680 sq. m. It is mostly shallow and only close to Memel attains a depth of 23 ft. It is thus unnavigable except for small coasting and fishing boats, and sea-going vessels proceed through the Memeler Tief (Memel Deep), which connects the Baltic with Memel and has a depth of 19 ft. and a breadth of 800 to 1900 ft. The Kurisches Haff is separated from the Baltic by a long spit, or tongue of land, the so-called Kurische Nehrung, 72 m. in length and with a breadth of 1 to 2 miles. The latter is fringed throughout its whole length by a chain of dunes, which rise in places to a height of nearly 200 ft. and threaten, unless checked, to be pressed farther inland and silt up the whole Haff.

See Berendt, Geologie des Kurischen Haffs (Königsberg, 1869); Sommer, Das Kurische Haff (Danzig, 1889); A. Bezzenberger, Die Kurische Nehrung und ihre Bewohner (Stuttgart, 1889); and Lindner, Die Preussische Wüste einst und jetzt, Bilder von der Kurischen Nehrung (Osterwieck, 1898).

KURNOOL, or Karnul, a town and district of British India, in the Madras presidency. The town is built on a rocky soil at the junction of the Hindri and Tungabhadra rivers 33 m. from a railway station. The old Hindu fort was levelled in 1865, with the exception of one of the gates, which was preserved as a specimen of ancient architecture. Cotton cloth and carpets are manufactured. Pop. (1901), 25,376, of whom half are Mussulmans.

The District of Kurnool has an area of 7578 sq. m., pop. (1901), 872,055, showing an increase of 6% in the decade. Two long mountain ranges, the Nallamalais and the Yellamalais, extend in parallel lines, north and south, through its centre. The principal heights of the Nallamalai range are Biranikonda (3149 ft.), Gundlabrahmeswaram (3055 ft.), and Durugapukonda (3086 ft.). The Yellamalai is a low range, generally flat-topped with scarped sides; the highest point is about 2000 ft. Several low ridges run parallel to the Nallamalais, broken here and there by gorges, through which mountain streams take their course. Several of these gaps were dammed across under native rule, to form tanks for purposes of irrigation. The principal rivers are the Tungabhadra and Kistna, which bound the district on the north. When in flood, the Tungabhadra averages 900 yards broad and 15 ft. deep. The Kistna here flows chiefly through uninhabited jungles, sometimes in long smooth reaches, with intervening shingly rapids. The Bhavanasi rises on the Nallamalais, and falls into the Kistna at Sungameswaram, a place of pilgrimage. During the 18th century Kurnool formed the jagir of a semi-independent Pathan Nawab, whose descendant was dispossessed by the British government for treason in 1838. The principal crops are millets, cotton, oil-seeds, and rice, with a little indigo and tobacco. Kurnool suffered very severely from the famine of 1876-1877, and to a slight extent in 1896-1897. It is the chief scene of the operations of the Madras Irrigation Company taken over by government in 1882. The canal, which starts from the Tungabhadra river near Kurnool town, was constructed at a total cost of two millions sterling, but has not been a financial success. A more successful work is the Cumbum tank, formed under native rule by damming a gorge of the Gundlakamma river. Apart from the weaving of coarse cotton cloth, the chief industrial establishments are cotton presses, indigo vats, and saltpetre refineries. The district is served by the Southern Mahratta railway.

KUROKI, ITEI, Count (1844- ), Japanese general, was born in Satsuma. He distinguished himself in the Chino-Japanese War of 1894-95. He commanded the I. Army in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5), when he won the opening battle of the war at the Yalu river, and afterwards advanced through the mountains and took part with the other armies in the battles of Liao-Yang, Shaho and Mukden (see Russo-japanese War). He was created baron for his services in the former war, and count for his services in the latter.

KUROPATKIN, ALEXEI NIKOLAIEVICH (1848- ), Russian general, was born in 1848 and entered the army in 1864. From 1872 to 1874 he studied at the Nicholas staff college, after which he spent a short time with the French troops in Algiers. In 1875 he was employed in diplomatic work in Kashgaria and in 1876 he took part in military operations in Turkistan, Kokan and Samerkand. In the war of 1877-78 against Turkey he earned a great reputation as chief of staff to the younger Skobelev, and after the war he wrote a detailed and critical history of the operations which is still regarded as the classical work on the subject and is available for other nations in the German translation by Major Krahmer. After the war he served again on the south-eastern borders in command of the Turkestan Rifle Brigade, and in 1881 he won further fame by a march of 500 miles from Tashkent to Geok-Tēpē, taking part in the storming of the latter place. In 1882 he was promoted major-general, at the early age of 34, and he henceforth was regarded by the army as the natural successor of Skobelev. In 1890 he was promoted lieutenant-general, and thirteen years later, having acquired in peace and war the reputation of being one of the foremost soldiers in Europe, he quitted the post of minister of war which he then held and took command of the Russian army then gathering in Manchuria for the contest with Japan. His ill-success in the great war of 1904-5, astonishing as it seemed at the time, was largely attributable to his subjection to the superior command of Admiral Alexeiev, the tsar’s viceroy in the Far East, and to internal friction amongst the generals, though in his history of the war (Eng. trans., 1909) he frankly admitted his own mistakes and paid the highest tribute to the gallantry of the troops who had been committed to battle under conditions unfavourable to success. After the defeat of Mukden and the retirement of the whole army to Tieling he resigned the command to General Linievich, taking the latter officer’s place at the head of one of the three armies in Manchuria. (See Russo-Japanese War.)

KURO SIWO, or Kuro Shio (literally blue salt), a stream current in the Pacific Ocean, easily distinguishable by the warm temperature and blue colour of its waters, flowing north-eastwards along the east coast of Japan, and separated from it by a strip of cold water. The current persists as a stream to about 40 N., between the meridians of 150° E. and 160° E., when it merges in the general easterly drift of the North Pacific. The Kuro Siwo is the analogue of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic.

KURRAM, a river and district on the Kohat border of the North-West Frontier province of India. The Kurram river drains the southern flanks of the Safed Koh, enters the plains a few miles above Bannu, and joins the Indus near Isa-Khel after a course of more than 200 miles. The district has an area of 1278 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 54,257. It lies between the Miranzai Valley and the Afghan border, and is inhabited by the Turis, a tribe of Turki origin who are supposed to have subjugated the Bangash Pathans five hundred years ago. It is highly irrigated, well peopled, and crowded with small fortified villages, orchards and groves, to which a fine background is afforded by the dark pine forests and alpine snows of the Safed Koh. The beauty and climate of the valley attracted some of the Mogul emperors of Delhi, and the remains exist of a garden planted by Shah Jahan. Formerly the Kurram valley was under the government of Kabul, and every five or six years a military expedition was sent to collect the revenue, the soldiers living meanwhile at free quarters on the people. It was not until about 1848 that the Turis were brought directly under the control of Kabul, when a governor was appointed, who established himself in Kurram. The Turis, being Shiah Mahommedans, never liked the Afghan rule. During the second Afghan War, when Sir Frederick Roberts advanced by way of the Kurram valley and the Peiwar Kotal to Kabul, the Turis lent him every assistance in their power, and in consequence their independence was granted them in 1880. The administration of the Kurram valley was finally undertaken by the British government, at the request of the Turis themselves, in 1890. Technically it ranks, not as a British district, but as an agency or administered area. Two expeditions in the Kurram valley also require mention: (1) The Kurram expedition of 1856 under Brigadier Chamberlain. The Turis on the first annexation of the Kohat district by the British had given much trouble. They had repeatedly leagued with other tribes to harry the Miranzai valley, harbouring fugitives, encouraging resistance, and frequently attacking Bangash and Khattak villages in the Kohat district. Accordingly in 1856 a British force of 4896 troops traversed their country, and the tribe entered into engagements for future good conduct. (2) The Kohat-Kurram expedition of 1897 under Colonel W. Hill. During the frontier risings of 1897 the inhabitants of the Kurram valley, chiefly the Massozai section of the Orakzais, were infected by the general excitement, and attacked the British camp at Sadda and other posts. A force of 14,230 British troops traversed the country, and the tribesmen were severely punished. In Lord Curzon’s reorganization of the frontier in 1900-1901, the British troops were withdrawn from the forts in the Kurram valley, and were replaced by the Kurram militia, reorganized in two battalions, and chiefly drawn from the Turi tribe.

KURSEONG, or Karsiang, a sanatorium of northern India, in the Darjeeling district of Bengal, 20 m. S. of Darjeeling and 4860 ft. above sea-level; pop. (1901), 4469. It has a station on the mountain railway, and is a centre of the tea trade. It also contains boys’ and girls’ schools for Europeans and Eurasians.

KURSK, a government of middle Russia, bounded N. by the government of Orel, E. by that of Voronezh, S. by Kharkov and W. by Chernigov. Area, 17,932 sq. m. It belongs to the central plateau of middle Russia, of which it mostly occupies the southern slope, the highest parts being in Orel and Kaluga, to the north of Kursk. Its surface is 700 to 1100 ft. high, deeply trenched by ravines, and consequently assumes a hilly aspect when viewed from the river valleys. Cretaceous and Eocene rocks prevail, and chalk, iron-stone, potters’ clay and phosphates are among the economic minerals. No fewer than four hundred streams are counted within its borders, but none of them is of any service as waterways. A layer of fertile loess covers the whole surface, and Kursk belongs almost entirely to the black-earth region. The flora is distinct from that of the governments to the north, not only on account of the black-earth flora which enters into its composition, but also of the plants of south-western Russia which belong to it, a characteristic which is accentuated in the southern portion of the government. The climate is milder than that of middle Russia generally, and winds from the south-east and the south-west prevail in winter. The average temperatures are—for the year 42° F., for January 14° F. and for July 67° F. The very interesting magnetic phenomenon, known as the Byelgorod anomaly, covering an oval area 20 m. long and 12 m. wide, has been studied near the town of this name. The population, 1,893,597 in 1862, was 2,391,091 in 1897, of whom 1,208,488 were women and 199,676 lived in towns. The estimated pop. in 1906 was 2,797,000. It is thoroughly Russian (76% Great Russians and 24% Little Russians), and 94% are peasants who own over 59% of the land, and live mostly in large villages. Owing to the rapid increase of the peasantry and the small size of the allotments given at the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, emigration, chiefly to Siberia, is on the increase, while 80,000 to 100,000 men leave home every summer to work in the neighbouring governments. Three-quarters of the available land is under crops, chiefly rye, other crops being wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, millet, potatoes, sugar-beets, hemp, flax, sunflowers and fruits. Grain is exported in considerable quantities. Bees are commonly kept, as also are large numbers of livestock. Factories (steam flour-mills, sugar-factories, distilleries, wool-washing, tobacco factories) give occupation to about 23,000 workers. Domestic and petty trades are on the increase in the villages, and new ones are being introduced, the chief products being boots, ikons (sacred images) and shrines, toys, caps, vehicles, baskets, and pottery. About 17 m. from the chief town is held the Korennaya fair, formerly the greatest in South Russia, and still with an annual trade valued at £900,000. The Kursk district contains more than sixty old town sites; and barrows or burial mounds (kurgans) are extremely abundant. Notwithstanding the active efforts of the local councils (zemstvos), less than 10% of the population read and write. The government is crossed from north to south and from west to south by two main lines of railway. The trade in grain, hemp, hemp-seed oil, sheepskins, hides, tallow, felt goods, wax, honey and leather goods is very brisk. There are fifteen districts, the chief towns of which, with their populations in 1897, are Kursk (q.v.) Byelgorod (21,850), Dmitriev (7315), Fatezh (4959), Graivoron (7669), Korocha (14,405), Lgov (5376), Novyi Oskol (2762), Oboyañ (11872), Putivl (8965), Rylsk (11,415), Staryi Oskol (16,662), Shchigry (3329), Suja (12,856) and Tim (7380). There are more than twenty villages which have from 5000 to 12,000 inhabitants each.

(P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)

KURSK, a town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, at the junction of the railways from Moscow, Kiev and Kharkov, 330 m. S.S.W. from Moscow. Pop. (1897), 52,896. It is built on two hills (750 ft.), the slopes of which are planted with orchards. The environs all round are well wooded and the woods are famous for their nightingales. Among the public buildings the more noticeable are a monastery with an image of the Virgin, greatly venerated since 1295; the Orthodox Greek cathedral (18th century); and the episcopal palace, Kursk being a bishopric of the national church. It is essentially a provincial town, and is revered as the birthplace of Theodosius, one of the most venerated of Russian saints. It has a public garden, and has become the seat of several societies (medical, musical, educational and for sport). Its factories include steam flour-mills, distilleries, tobacco-works, hemp-crushing mills, tanneries, soap-works and iron-works. It has a great yearly fair (Korennaya), and an active trade in cereals, linen, leather, fruit, horses, cattle, hides, sheepskins, furs, down, bristles, wax, tallow and manufactured goods.

Kursk was in existence in 1032. It was completely destroyed by the Mongols in 1240. The defence of the town against an incursion of the Turkish Polovtsi (or Comans or Cumani) is celebrated in The Triumph of Igor, an epic which forms one of the most valuable relics of early Russian literature. From 1586 to the close of the 18th century the citadel was a place of considerable strength; the remains are now comparatively few.

KURTZ, JOHANN HEINRICH (1809-1890), German Lutheran theologian, was born at Montjoie near Aix la Chapelle on the 13th of December 1809, and was educated at Halle and Bonn. Abandoning the idea of a commercial career, he gave himself to the study of theology and became religious instructor at the gymnasium of Mitau in 1835, and ordinary professor of theology (church history, 1850; exegesis, 1859) at Dorpat. He resigned his chair in 1870 and went to live at Marburg, where he died on the 26th of April 1890. Kurtz was a prolific writer, and many of his books, especially the Lehrbuch der heiligen Geschichte (1843), became very popular. In the field of biblical criticism he wrote a Geschichte des Alten Bundes (1848-1855), Zur Theologie der Psalmen (1865) and Erklärung des Briefs an die Hebräer (1869). His chief work was done in church history, among his productions being Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte für Studierende (1849), Abriss der Kirchengeschichte (1852) and Handbuch der allgemeinen Kirchengeschichte (1853-1856). Several of his books have been translated into English.

KURUMAN, a town in the Bechuanaland division of Cape Colony, 120 m. N.W. of Kimberley and 85 m. S.W. of Vryburg. It is a station of the London Missionary Society, founded in 1818, and from 1821 to 1870 was the scene of the labours of Robert Moffat (q.v.) who here translated the Bible into the Bechuana tongue. In the middle period of the 19th century Kuruman was the rendezvous of all travellers going north or south. Of these the best known is David Livingstone. The trunk railway line passing considerably to the east of the town, Kuruman is no longer a place of much importance. It is pleasantly situated on the upper course of the Kuruman river, being beautified by gardens and orchards, and presents a striking contrast to the desert conditions of the surrounding country. Its name is that of the son and heir of Mosilikatze, the founder of the Matabele nation. Kuruman disappeared during his father’s lifetime and the succession passed to Lobengula (see Rhodesia: History). In November 1899 the town was besieged by a Boer force. The garrison, less than a hundred strong, held out for six weeks against over 1000 of the enemy, but was forced to surrender on the 1st of January 1900. In June following it was reoccupied by the British.

KURUMBAS and KURUBAS, aboriginal tribes of southern India, by some thought to be of distinct races. There are two types of Kurumbas, those who live on the Nilgiri plateau, speak the Kurumba dialect and are mere savages; and those who live in the plains, speak Kanarese and are civilized. The former are a small people, with wild matted hair and scanty beard, sickly-looking, pot-bellied, large-mouthed, with projecting jaws, prominent teeth and thick lips. Their villages are called mottas, groups of four or five huts, built in mountain glens or forests. At the 1901 census the numbers were returned at 4083.

See James W. Breeks, An Account of Primitive Tribes of the Nilgiris (1873); Dr John Shortt, Hill Ranges of Southern India, pt. i. 47-53; Rev. F. Metz, Tribes Inhabiting the Neilgherry Hills (Mangalore, 1864).

KURUNEGALA, the chief town in the north-western province of Ceylon. Pop. of the town, 6483; of the district, 249,429. It was the residence of the kings of Ceylon from A.D. 1319 to 1347, and is romantically situated under the shade of Adagalla (the rock of the Tusked Elephant), which is 600 ft. high. It was in 1902 the terminus of the Northern railway (59 m. from Colombo), which has since been extended 200 m. farther, to the northernmost coast of the Jaffna Peninsula. Kurunegala is the centre of rice, coco-nut, tea, coffee and cocoa cultivation.

KURUNTWAD, or Kurandvad, a native state of India, in the Deccan division of Bombay, forming part of the Southern Mahratta jagirs. Originally created in 1772 by a grant from the peshwa, the state was divided in 1811 into two parts, one of which, called Shedbal, lapsed to the British government in 1857. In 1855 Kuruntwad was further divided between a senior and a junior branch. The territory of both is widely scattered among other native states and British districts. Area of the senior branch, 185 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 42,474; revenue, £13,000. Area of junior branch, 114 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 34,003; revenue, £9000. The joint tribute is £640. The chiefs are Brahmans by caste, of the Patwardhan family. The town of Kuruntwad, in which both branches have their residence, is on the right bank of the Panchganga river near its junction with the Kistna. Pop. (1901), 10,451.

KURZ, HERMANN (1813-1873), German poet and novelist, was born at Reutlingen on the 30th of November 1813. Having studied at the theological seminary at Maulbronn and at the university of Tübingen, he was for a time assistant pastor at Ehningen. He then entered upon a literary career, and in 1863 was appointed university librarian at Tübingen, where he died on the 10th of October 1873. Kurz is less known to fame by his poems, Gedichte (1836) and Dichtungen (1839), than by his historical novels, Schillers Heimatjahre (1843, 3rd ed., 1899) and Der Sonnenwirt (1854, 2nd ed., 1862), and his excellent translations from English, Italian and Spanish. He also published a successful modern German version of Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan und Isolde (1844). His collected works were published in ten volumes (Stuttgart, 1874), also in twelve volumes (Leipzig, 1904).

His daughter, Isolde Kurz, born on the 21st of December 1853 at Stuttgart, takes a high place among contemporary lyric poets in Germany with her Gedichte (Stuttgart, 1888, 3rd ed. 1898) and Neue Gedichte (1903). Her short stories, Florentiner Novellen (1890, 2nd ed. 1893), Phantasien und Märchen (1890), Italienische Erzählungen (1895) and Von Dazumal (1900) are distinguished by a fine sense of form and clear-cut style.

KUSAN (“lake” or “inland bay”), a small group of North American Indian tribes, formerly living on the Coos river and the coast of Oregon. They call themselves Anasitch, and other names given them have been Ka-us or Kwo-Kwoos, Kowes and Cook-koo-oose. They appear to be in no way related to their neighbours. The few survivors, mostly of mixed blood, are on the Siletz reservation, Oregon.

KUSHALGARH, a village in the Kohat district of the North-West Frontier province of India. It is only notable as the point at which the Indus is bridged to permit of the extension of the strategic frontier railway from Rawalpindi to the Miranzai and Kurram valleys.

KUSHK, a river of Afghanistan, which also gives its name to the chief town in the Afghan province of Badghis, and to a military post on the border of Russian Turkestan. The river Kushk, during a portion of its course, forms the boundary between Afghan and Russian territory; but the town is some 20 m. from the border. Kushk, or Kushkinski Post, is now a fourth-class Russian fortress, on a Russian branch railway from Merv, the terminus of which is 12 m. to the south, at Chahil Dukteran. It is served by both the Transcaspian and the Orenburg-Tashkent railways. The terminus is only 66 m. from Herat, and in the event of war would become an important base for a Russian advance. Some confusion has arisen through the popular application of the name of Kushk to this terminus, though it is situated neither at the Russian post nor at the old town.

(T. H. H.*)

KUSTANAISK, a town of Asiatic Russia, in the province of Turgai, on the Tobol river, 410 m. E.N.E. of Orenburg, in a very fertile part of the steppes. Pop. (1897), 14,065. The first buildings were erected in 1871, and it has since grown with American-like rapidity. The immigrants from Russia built a large village, which became the centre of the district administration in 1884, and a town in 1893, under the name of Nicolaevsk, changed later into Kustanaisk. It is an educational centre, and a cathedral has been built. There are tanneries, tallow works, potteries, and a fair for cattle, while its trade makes it a rival to Orenburg and Troitsk.

KÜSTENLAND (coast-land or littoral), a common name for the three crown-lands of Austria, Görz and Gradisca, Istria and Trieste. Their combined area is 3084 sq. m., and their population in 1900 was 755,183. They are united for certain administrative purposes under the governor of Trieste, the legal and financial authorities of which also exercise jurisdiction over the entire littoral.

KUTAIAH, Kutaya, or Kiutahia, the chief town of a sanjak in the vilayet of Brusa (Khudavendikiar), Asia Minor, is situated on the Pursaksu, an affluent of the Sakaria (anc. Sangarius). The town lies at an important point of the great road across Asia Minor from Constantinople to Aleppo, and is connected by a branch line with the main line from Eski-shehr to Afium Kara-Hissar, of the Anatolian railway. It has a busy trade; pop. estimated at 22,000. Kutaiah has been identified with the ancient Cotiaeum.

See V. Cuinet, Turquie d’Asie, vol. iv. (Paris, 1894).

KUTAIS, a government of Russian Transcaucasia, situated between the Caucasus range on the N. and the Black Sea on the W., the government of Tiflis on the E. and the province of Kars on the S. Area, 14,313 sq. m. The government includes the districts of Guria, Mingrelia, Imeretia, Abkhasia and Svanetia, and consists of four distinct parts: (1) the lowlands, drained by the Rion, and continued N.W. along the shore of the Black Sea; (2) the southern slopes of the main Caucasus range; (3) the western slopes of the Suram mountains, which separate Kutais from Tiflis; and (4) the slopes of the Armenian highlands, as well as a portion of the highlands themselves, drained by the Chorokh and its tributary, the Ajaris-tskhali, which formerly constituted the Batum province. Generally speaking, the government is mountainous in the north and south. Many secondary ridges and spurs shoot off the main range, forming high, narrow valleys (see Caucasus). The district of Batum and Artvin in the S.W., which in 1903 were in part separated for administration as the semi-military district of Batum, are filled up by spurs of the Pontic range, 9000 to 11,240 ft. high, the Arzyan ridge separating them from the plateau of Kars. Deep gorges, through which tributaries of the Chorokh force their passage to the main river, intersect these highlands, forming most picturesque gorges. The lowlands occupy over 2400 sq. m. They are mostly barren in the littoral region, but extremely fertile higher up the Rion.

The climate is very moist and warm. The winters are often without frost at all in the lowlands, while the lowest temperatures observed are 18° F. at Batum and 9° at Poti. The mountains condense the moisture brought by the west winds, and the yearly amount of rain varies from 50 to 120 in. The chief rivers are the Rion, which enters the Black Sea at Poti; the Chorokh, which enters the same sea at Batum; and the Ingur, the Kodor and the Bzyb, also flowing into the Black Sea in Abkhasia. The vegetation is extremely rich, its character suggesting the sub-tropic regions of Japan (see Caucasia). The population belongs almost entirely to the Kartvelian or Georgian group, and is distributed as follows: Imeretians, 41.2%; Mingrelians and Lazes, 22.5%; Gurians, 7.3%; Ajars, 5.8%; Svanetians, 1.3%; of other nationalities there are 6% of Abkhasians, 2.6% of Turks, 2.3% of Armenians, besides Russians, Jews, Greeks, Persians, Kurds, Ossetes and Germans. By religion 87% of the population are Greek Orthodox and only 10% Mussulmans. The total population was 933,773 in 1897, of whom 508,468 were women and 77,702 lived in towns. The estimated population in 1906 was 924,800. The land is excessively subdivided, and, owing to excellent cultivation, fetches very high prices. The chief crops are maize, wheat, barley, beans, rye, hemp, potatoes and tobacco. Maize, wine and timber are largely exported. Some cotton-trees have been planted. The vine, olive, mulberry and all sorts of fruit trees are cultivated, as also many exotic plants (eucalyptus, cork-oak, camellia, and even tea). Manganese ore is the chief mineral, and is extracted for export to the extent of 160,000 to 180,000 tons annually, besides coal, lead and silver ores, copper, naphtha, some gold, lithographic stone and marble. Factories are still in infancy, but silk is spun. A railway runs from the Caspian Sea, via Tiflis and the Suram tunnel, to Kutais, and thence to Poti and Batum, and from Kutais to the Tkvibuli coal and manganese mines. The export of both local produce and goods shipped by rail from other ports of Transcaucasia is considerable, Batum and Poti being the two chief ports of Caucasia. Kutais is divided into seven districts, of which the chief towns, with their populations in 1897, are Kutais, capital of the province (q.v.); Lailashi (834), chief town of Lechgum, of which Svanetia makes a separate administrative unit; Ozurgeti (4694); Oni, chief town of Racha; Senaki (101); Kvirili, of Sharopan district; Zugdidi; and two semi-military districts—Batum (28,512) with Artvin (7000) and Sukhum-kaleh (7809).

(P. A. K.—J. T. Be.)

KUTAIS, a town of Russian Caucasia, capital of the government of the same name, 60 m. by rail E. of Poti and 5 m. from the Rion station of the railway between Poti and Tiflis. Pop. (1897), 32,492. It is one of the oldest towns of Caucasia, having been the ancient capital (Aea or Kutaea) of Colchis, and later the capital of Imeretia (from 792); Procopius mentions it under the name of Kotatision. Persians, Mongols, Turks and Russians have again and again destroyed the town and its fortress. In 1810 it became Russian. It is situated on both banks of the Rion river, which is spanned by three bridges. Its most remarkable building is the ruined cathedral, erected in the 11th century by the Bagratids, the ruling dynasty of Georgia, and destroyed by the Turks in 1692; it is the most important representative extant of Georgian architecture. The fort, mentioned by Procopius, is now a heap of ruins, destroyed by the Russians in 1770. The inhabitants make hats and silks, and trade in agricultural produce and wine. On the right bank of the Rion is a government model garden, with a model farm.

KUT-EL-AMARA, a small town in Turkish Asia, on the east bank of the Tigris (32° 29´ 19´´ N., 44° 45´ 37´´ E.) at the point where the Shatt-el-Haï leaves that stream. It is a coaling station of the steamers plying between Basra and Bagdad, and an important Turkish post for the control of the lower Tigris.

KUTENAI (Kutonaga), a group of North-American Indian tribes forming the distinct stock of Kitunahan. Their former range was British Columbia, along the Kootenay lake and river. They were always friendly to the whites and noted for their honesty. In 1904 there were some 550 in British Columbia; and in 1908 there were 606 on the Flathead Agency, Montana.

KUTTALAM, or Courtallum, a sanatorium of southern India, in the Tinnevelly district of Madras; pop. (1901), 1197. Though situated only 450 ft. above sea-level, it possesses the climate of a much higher elevation, owing to the breezes that reach it through a gap in the Ghats. It has long been a favourite resort for European visitors, the season lasting from July to September; and it has recently been made more accessible by the opening of the railway from Tinnevelly into Travancore. The scenery is most picturesque, including a famous waterfall.

KUTTENBERG (Czech, Kutná Hora), a town of Bohemia, Austria, 45 m. E. by S. of Prague. Pop. (1900), 14,799, mostly Czech. Amongst its buildings are the Gothic five-naved church of St Barbara, begun in 1368, the Gothic church of St Jacob (14th century) and the Late Gothic Trinity church (end of 15th century). The Wälscher Hof, formerly a royal residence and mint, was built at the end of the 13th century, and the Gothic Steinerne Haus, which since 1849 serves as town-hall, contains one of the richest archives in Bohemia. The industry includes sugar-refining, brewing, the manufacture of cotton and woollen stuffs, leather goods and agricultural implements.

The town of Kuttenberg owes its origin to the silver mines, the existence of which can be traced back to the first part of the 13th century. The city developed with great rapidity, and at the outbreak of the Hussite troubles, early in the 14th century, was next to Prague the most important in Bohemia, having become the favourite residence of several of the Bohemian kings. It was here that, on the 18th of January 1410, Wenceslaus IV. signed the famous decree of Kuttenberg, by which the Bohemian nation was given three votes in the elections to the faculty of Prague University as against one for the three other “nations.” In the autumn of the same year Kuttenberg was the scene of horrible atrocities. The fierce mining population of the town was mainly German, and fanatically Catholic, in contrast with Prague, which was Czech and utraquist. By way of reprisals for the Hussite outrages in Prague, the miners of Kuttenberg seized on any Hussites they could find, and burned, beheaded or threw them alive into the shafts of disused mines. In this way 1600 people are said to have perished, including the magistrates and clergy of the town of Kauřim, which the Kuttenbergers had taken. In 1420 the emperor Sigismund made the city the base for his unsuccessful attack on the Taborites; Kuttenberg was taken by Žižka, and after a temporary reconciliation of the warring parties was burned by the imperial troops in 1422, to prevent its falling again into the hands of the Taborites. Žižka none the less took the place, and under Bohemian auspices it awoke to a new period of prosperity. In 1541 the richest mine was hopelessly flooded; in the insurrection of Bohemia against Ferdinand I. the city lost all its privileges; repeated visitations of the plague and the horrors of the Thirty Years’ War completed its ruin. Half-hearted attempts after the peace to repair the ruined mines failed; the town became impoverished, and in 1770 was devastated by fire. The mines were abandoned at the end of the 18th century; one mine was again opened by the government in 1874, but the work was discontinued in 1903.

KUTUSOV [Golenishchev-Kutuzov], MIKHAIL LARIONOVICH, Prince of Smolensk (1745-1813), Russian field marshal, was born on the 16th of September 1745 at St Petersburg, and entered the Russian army in 1759 or 1760. He saw active service in Poland, 1764-69, and against the Turks, 1770-74; lost an eye in action in the latter year; and after that travelled for some years in central and western Europe. In 1784 he became major-general, in 1787 governor-general of the Crimea; and under Suvorov, whose constant companion he became, he won considerable distinction in the Turkish War of 1788-91, at the taking of Ochakov, Odessa, Benda and Ismail, and the battles of Rimnik and Mashin. He was now (1791) a lieutenant-general, and successively occupied the positions of ambassador at Constantinople, governor-general of Finland, commandant of the corps of cadets at St Petersburg, ambassador at Berlin, and governor-general of St Petersburg. In 1805 he commanded the Russian corps which opposed Napoleon’s advance on Vienna (see Napoleonic Campaigns), and won the hard-fought action of Dürrenstein on the 18th-19th of November.

On the eve of Austerlitz (q.v.) he tried to prevent the Allied generals from fighting a battle, and when he was overruled took so little interest in the event that he fell asleep during the reading of the orders. He was, however, present at the battle itself, and was wounded. From 1806 to 1811 Kutusov was governor-general of Lithuania and Kiev, and in 1811, being then commander-in-chief in the war against the Turks, he was made a prince. Shortly after this he was called by the unanimous voice of the army and the people to command the army that was retreating before Napoleon’s advance. He gave battle at Borodino (q.v.), and was defeated, but not decisively, and after retreating to the south-west of Moscow, he forced Napoleon to begin the celebrated retreat. The old general’s cautious pursuit evoked much criticism, but at any rate he allowed only a remnant of the Grand Army to regain Prussian soil. He was now field marshal and prince of Smolensk—this title having been given him for a victory over part of the French army at that place in November 1812. Early in the following year he carried the war into Germany, took command of the allied Russians and Prussians, and prepared to raise all central Europe in arms against Napoleon’s domination, but before the opening of the campaign he fell ill and died on the 25th of March 1813 at Bunzlau. Memorials have been erected to him at that place and at St Petersburg.

Mikhailovsky-Danilevski’s life of Kutusov (St Petersburg, 1850) was translated into French by A. Fizelier (Paris, 1850).

KUWĒT (Kuweit, Koweit), a port in Arabia at the north-western angle of the Persian Gulf in 29° 20’ N. and 48° E., about 80 m. due S. of Basra and 60 m. S.W. of the mouth of the Shat el Arab. The name Kuwēt is the diminutive form of Kut, a common term in Irāk for a walled village; it is also shown in some maps as Grane or Grain, a corruption of Kurēn, the diminutive of Karn, a horn. It lies on the south side of a bay 20 m. long and 5 m. wide, the mouth of which is protected by two islands, forming a fine natural harbour, with good anchorage in from 4 to 9 fathoms of water. The town has 15,000 inhabitants and is clean and well built; the country around being practically desert, it depends entirely on the sea and its trade, and its sailors have a high reputation as the most skilful and trustworthy on the Persian Gulf; while its position as the nearest port to Upper Nejd gives it great importance as the port of entry for rice, piece goods, &c., and of export for horses, sheep, wool and other products of the interior. Kuwēt was recommended in 1850 by General F. R. Chesney as the terminus of his proposed Euphrates Valley railway, and since 1898, when the extension of the Anatolian railway to Bagdad and the Gulf has been under discussion, attention has again been directed to it. An alternative site for the terminus has been suggested in Um Khasa, at the head of the Khor `Abdallah, where a branch of the Shat el Arab formerly entered the sea; it lies some 20 m. N.E. of Kuwēt and separated from it by the island of Bubiān, which has for some time been in Turkish occupation. An attempt by Turkey to occupy Kuwēt in 1898 was met by a formal protest from Great Britain against any infringement of the status quo, and in 1899 Sheikh Mubārak of Kuwēt placed his interests under British protection.

The total trade passing through Kuwēt in 1904-1905 was valued at £160,000. The imports include arms and ammunition, piece goods, rice, coffee, sugar, &c.; and the exports, horses, pearls, dates, wool, &c. The steamers of the British India Steamship Company call fortnightly.

(R. A. W.)

KUZNETSK, two towns of Russia. (1) A town in the government of Saratov, 74 m. by rail east of Penza. It has grown rapidly since the development of the railway system in the Volga basin. It has manufactures of agricultural machinery and hardware, in a number of small factories and workshops, besides tanneries, rope-works, boot and shoe making in houses, and there is considerable trade in sheepskins, grain, salt and wooden goods exported to the treeless regions of south-east Russia. Pop. (1897), 21,740. (2) A town in West Siberia, in the government of Tomsk, 150 m. E.N.E. of Barnaul, on the Upper Tom river, at the head of navigation. It has trade in grain, cattle, furs, cedarwood, nuts, wax, honey and tallow, and is the centre of a coal-mining district. Pop. (1897), 3141.

KVASS, or Kwass (a Russian word for “leaven”), one of the national alcoholic drinks of Russia, and popular also in eastern Europe. It is made, by a simultaneous acid and alcoholic fermentation, of wheat, rye, barley and buckwheat meal or of rye-bread, with the addition of sugar or fruit. It has been a universal drink in Russia since the 16th century. Though in the large towns it is made commercially, elsewhere it is frequently an article of domestic production. Kvass is of very low alcoholic content (0.7 to 2.2%). There are, beside the ordinary kind, superior forms of the drink, such as apple or raspberry kvass.

KWAKIUTL, a tribe of North-American Indians of Wakashan stock. They number about 2000. Formerly the term was used of the one tribe in the north-east of Vancouver, but now it is the collective name for a group of Wakashan peoples. The Kwakiutl Indians are remarkable for their conservatism in all matters and specially their adherence to the custom of Potlatch, which it is sometimes suggested originated with them. Tribal government is in the hands of secret societies. There are three social ranks, hereditary chiefs, middle and third estates, most of the latter being slaves or their descendants. Entry to the societies is forbidden the latter, and can only be obtained by the former after torture and fasting. The hamatsa or cannibal society is only open to those who have been members of a lower society for eight years.

KWANGCHOW BAY (Kwangchow Wan), a coaling station on the south coast of China, acquired, along with other concessions, by the French government in April 1898. It is situated on the east side of the peninsula of Lienchow, in the province of Kwang-tung, and directly north of the island of Hainan. It is held on lease for 99 years on similar terms to those by which Kiaochow is held by Germany, Port Arthur by Japan and Wei-hai-wei by Great Britain. The cession includes the islands lying in the bay; these enclose a roadstead 18 m. long by 6 m. wide, with admirable natural defences and a depth at no part of less than 33 ft. The bay forms the estuary of the Ma-Ts‘e river, navigable by the largest men-of-war for 12 m. from the coast. The limits of the concession inland were fixed in November 1899. On the left bank of the Ma-Ts’e France gained from Kow Chow Fu a strip of territory 11 m. by 6 m., and on the right bank a strip 15 m. by 11 m. from Lei Chow Fu. The country is well populated; the capital and chief town is Lei Chow. The cession carries with it full territorial jurisdiction during the continuance of the lease. In January 1900 it was placed under the authority of the governor-general of Indo-China, who in the same month appointed a civil administrator over the country, which was divided into three districts. The population of the territory is about 189,000. A mixed tribunal has been instituted, but the local organization is maintained for purposes of administration. In addition to the territory acquired, the right has been given to connect the bay by railway with the city and harbour of Ompon, situated on the west side of the peninsula, and in consequence of difficulties which were offered by the provincial government on the occasion of taking possession, and which compelled the French to have recourse to arms, the latter demanded and obtained exclusive mining rights in the three adjoining prefectures. Two lines of French steamships call at the bay. By reason of the great strategical importance of the bay, and the presence of large coal-beds in the near neighbourhood, much importance is attached by the French to the acquirement of Kwangchow Wan.

KWANG-SI, a southern province of China, bounded N. by Kwei-chow and Hu-nan, E. and S. by Kwang-tung, S.W. and W. by French Indo-Chino and Yun-nan. It covers an area of 80,000 sq. m. It is the least populous province of China, its inhabitants numbering (1908) little over 5,000,000. The Skias, an aboriginal race, form two-thirds of the population. The provincial capital is Kwei-lin Fu, or City of the Forest of Cinnamon Trees, and there are besides ten prefectural cities. The province is largely mountainous. The principal rivers are the Si-kiang and the Kwei-kiang, or Cinnamon River, which takes its rise in the district of Hing-gan, in the north of the province, and in the neighbourhood of that of the Siang river, which flows northward through Hu-nan to the Tung-t‘ing Lake. The Kwei-kiang, on the other hand, takes a southerly course, and passes the cities of Kwei-lin, Yang-so Hien, P‘ing-lē Fu, Chao-p’ing Hien, and so finds its way to Wu-chow Fu, where it joins the waters of the Si-kiang. Another considerable river is the Liu-kiang, or Willow River, which rises in the mountains inhabited by the Miao-tsze, in Kwei-chow. Leaving its source it takes a south-easterly direction, and enters Kwang-si, in the district of Hwai-yuen. After encircling the city of that name, it flows south as far as Liu-ch’ēng Hien, where it forms a junction with the Lung-kiang, or Dragon River. Adopting the trend of this last-named stream, which has its head-waters in Kwei-chow, the mingled flow passes eastward, and farther on in a south-easterly direction, by Lai-chow Fu, Wu-suan Hien, and Sin-chow Fu, where it receives the waters of the Si-kiang, and thenceforth changes its name for that of its affluent. The treaty ports in Kwang-si are Wu-chow Fu, Lung-chow and Nanning Fu.

KWANG-TUNG, a southern province of China, bounded N. by Hu-nan, Kiang-si and Fu-kien, S. and E. by the sea, and W. by Kwang-si. It contains an area, including the island of Hainan, of 75,500 sq. m., and is divided into nine prefectures; and the population is estimated at about 30,000,000. Its name, which signifies “east of Kwang,” is derived, according to Chinese writers, from the fact of its being to the east of the old province of Hu-kwang, in the same way that Kwang-si derives its name from its position to the west of Hu-kwang. Kwang-tung extends for more than 600 m. from east to west, and for about 420 from north to south. It may be described as a hilly region, forming part as it does of the Nan Shan ranges. These mountains, speaking generally, trend in a north-east and south-westerly direction, and are divided by valleys of great fertility. The principal rivers of the province are the Si-kiang, the Pei-kiang, or North River, which rises in the mountains to the north of the province, and after a southerly course joins the Si-kiang at San-shui Hien; the Tung-kiang, or East River, which, after flowing in a south-westerly direction from its source in the north-east of the province, empties itself into the estuary which separates the city of Canton from the sea; and the Han River, which runs a north and south course across the eastern portion of the province, taking its rise in the mountains on the western frontier of Fu-kien and emptying itself into the China Sea in the neighbourhood of Swatow. Kwang-tung is one of the most productive provinces of the empire. Its mineral wealth is very considerable, and the soil of the valleys and plains is extremely fertile. The principal article of export is silk, which is produced in the district forming the river delta, extending from Canton to Macao and having its apex at San-shui Hien. Three large coal-fields exist in the province, namely, the Shao-chow Fu field in the north; the Hwa Hien field, distant about 30 m. from Canton; and the west coast field, in the south-west. The last is by far the largest of the three and extends over the districts of Wu-ch‘uen, Tien-pai, Yang-kiang, Yang-ch‘un, Gan-p‘ing, K‘ai-p‘ing, Sin-hing, Ho-shan, Sin-hwang, and Sin-ning. The coal from the two first-named fields is of an inferior quality, but that in the west coast field is of a more valuable kind. Iron ore is found in about twenty different districts, notably in Ts‘ing-yuen, Ts‘ung-hwa, Lung-mēn, and Lu-fēng. None, however, is exported in its raw state, as all which is produced is manufactured in the province, and principally at Fat-shan, which has been called the Birmingham of China. The Kwang-tung coast abounds with islands, the largest of which is Hainan, which forms part of the prefecture of K‘iung-chow Fu. This island extends for about 100 m. from north to south and the same distance from east to west. The southern and eastern portions of Hainan are mountainous, but on the north there is a plain of some extent. Gold is found in the central part; and sugar, coco-nuts, betel-nuts, birds’ nests, and agar agar, or sea vegetable, are among the other products of the island. Canton, Swatow, K‘iung-chow (in Hainan), Pakhoi, San-shui are among the treaty ports. Three ports in the province have been ceded or leased to foreign powers—Macao to Portugal, Hong-Kong (with Kowloon) to Great Britain, and Kwangchow to France.

KWANZA (Coanza or Quanza), a river of West Africa, with a course of about 700 m. entirely within the Portuguese territory of Angola. The source lies in about 13° 40´ S., 17° 30´ E. on the Bihe plateau, at an altitude of over 5000 ft. It runs first N.E. and soon attains fairly large dimensions. Just north of 12° it is about 60 yds. wide and 13 to 16 ft. deep. From this point to 10° it flows N.W., receiving many tributaries, especially the Luando from the east. In about 10°, and at intervals during its westerly passage through the outer plateau escarpments, its course is broken by rapids, the river flowing in a well-defined valley flanked by higher ground. The lowest fall is that of Kambamba, or Livingstone, with a drop of 70 ft. Thence to the sea, a distance of some 160 m., it is navigable by small steamers, though very shallow in the dry season. The river enters the sea in 9° 15´ S., 13° 20´ E., 40 m. S. of Loanda. There is a shifting bar at its mouth, difficult to cross, but the river as a waterway has become of less importance since the fertile district in its middle basin has been served by the railway from Loanda to Ambaca (see Angola).

KWEI-CHOW, a south-western province of China, bounded N. by Sze-ch‘uen, E. by Hu-nan, S. by Kwang-si, and W. by Yun-nan. It contains 67,000 sq. m., and has a population of about 8,000,000. Kwei-yang Fu is the provincial capital, and besides this there are eleven prefectural cities in the province. With the exception of plains in the neighbourhood of Kwei-yang Fu, Ta-ting Fu, and Tsun-i Fu, in the central and northern regions, the province may be described as mountainous. The mountain ranges in the south are largely inhabited by Miao-tsze, who are the original owners of the soil and have been constantly goaded into a state of rebellion by the oppression to which they have been subjected by the Chinese officials. To this disturbing cause was added another in 1861 by the spread of the Mahommedan rebellion in Yun-nan into some of the south-western districts of the province. The devastating effects of these civil wars were most disastrous to the trade and the prosperity of Kwei-chow. The climate is by nature unhealthy, the supply of running water being small, and that of stagnant water, from which arises a fatal malaria, being considerable. The agricultural products of the province are very limited, and its chief wealth lies in its minerals. Copper, silver, lead, and zinc are found in considerable quantities, and as regards quicksilver, Kwei-chow is probably the richest country in the world. This has been from of old the chief product of the province, and the belt in which it occurs extends through the whole district from south-west to north-east. One of the principal mining districts is K‘ai Chow, in the prefecture of Kwei-yang Fu, and this district has the advantage of being situated near Hwang-p‘ing Chow, from which place the products can be conveniently and cheaply shipped to Hankow. Cinnabar, realgar, orpiment and coal form the rest of the mineral products of Kwei-chow. Wild silk is another valuable article of export. It is chiefly manufactured in the prefecture of Tsun-i Fu.

KYAUKPYU, a district in the Arakan division of Lower Burma, on the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal. It consists of, first, a strip of mainland along the Bay of Bengal, extending from the An pass, across the main range, to the Ma-ī River, and, secondly, the large islands of Ramree and Cheduba, with many others to the south, lying off the coast of Sandoway. The mainland in the north and east is highly mountainous and forest-clad, and the lower portion is cut up into numerous islands by a network of tidal creeks. Between the mainland and Ramree lies a group of islands separated by deep, narrow, salt-water inlets, forming the north-eastern shore of Kyaukpyu harbour, which extends for nearly 30 m. along Ramree in a south-easterly direction, and has an average breadth of 3 m. The principal mountains are the Arakan Yomas, which send out spurs and sub-spurs almost to the sea-coast. The An pass, an important trade route, rises to a height of 4664 ft. above sea-level. The Dha-let and the An rivers are navigable by large boats for 25 and 45 m. respectively. Above these distances they are mere mountain torrents. Large forests of valuable timber cover an area of about 650 sq. m. Kyaukpyu contains numerous “mud volcanoes,” from which marsh gas is frequently discharged, with occasional issue of flame. The largest of these is situated in the centre of Cheduba island. Earth-oil wells exist in several places in the district. The oil when brought to the surface has the appearance of a whitish-blue water, which gives out brilliant straw-coloured rays, and emits a strong pungent odour. Limestone, iron and coal are also found. Area 4387 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 168,827, showing an increase in the decade of 2.3%.

The chief town, Kyaukpyu, had a population in 1901 of 3145. It has a municipal committee of twelve members, three ex officio and nine appointed by the local government, and there is a third-class district gaol. Kyaukpyu is a port under the Indian Ports Act (X. of 1889), and the steamers of the British India Navigation Company call there once a week going and coming between Rangoon and Calcutta.

KYAUKSĒ, a district in the Meiktila division of Upper Burma, with an area of 1274 sq. m., and a population in 1901 of 141,253. It is also known as the Ko-kayaing, so called from the original nine canals of the district. It consists of a generally level strip running north and south at the foot of the Shan Hills, and of a hilly region rising up these hills to the east, and including the Yeyaman tract, which lies between 21° 30’ and 21° 40’ N. and 96° 15’ and 96° 45’ E., with peaks rising to between 4500 and 5000 ft. This tract is rugged and scored by ravines, and is very sparsely inhabited. The Panlaung and Zawgyi rivers from the Shan States flow through the district and are utilized for the numerous irrigation canals. Notwithstanding this, much timber is floated down, and the Panlaung is navigable for small boats all the year round. Rain is very scarce, but the canals supply ample water for cultivation and all other purposes. They are said to have been dug by King Nawrahtā in 1092. He is alleged to have completed the system of nine canals and weirs in three years’ time. Others have been constructed since the annexation of Upper Burma. At that time many were in serious disrepair, but most of them have been greatly improved by the construction of proper regulators and sluices. Two-thirds of the population are dependent entirely on cultivation for their support, and this is mainly rice on irrigated land. In the Yeyaman tract the chief crop is rice. The great majority of the population is pure Burmese, but in the hills there are a good many Danus, a cross between Shans and Burmese. The railway runs through the centre of the rice-producing area, and feeder roads open up the country as far as the Shan foot-hills. The greater part of the district consists of state land, the cultivators being tenants of government, but there is a certain amount of hereditary freehold.

Kyauksē town is situated on the Zawgyi River and on the Rangoon-Mandalay railway line, and is well laid out in regular streets, covering an area of about a square mile. It has a population (1901) of 5420, mostly Burmese, with a colony of Indian traders. Above it are some bare rocky hillocks, picturesquely studded with pagodas.

KYD, THOMAS (1558-1594), one of the most important of the English Elizabethan dramatists who preceded Shakespeare. Kyd remained until the last decade of the 19th century in what appeared likely to be impenetrable obscurity. Even his name was forgotten until Thomas Hawkins about 1773 discovered it in connexion with The Spanish Tragedy in Thomas Heywood’s Apologie for Actors. But by the industry of English and German scholars a great deal of light has since been thrown on his life and writings. He was the son of Francis Kyd, citizen and scrivener of London, and was baptized in the church of St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard Street, on the 6th of November 1558. His mother, who survived her son, was named Agnes, or Anna. In October 1565 Kyd entered the newly founded Merchant Taylors’ School, where Edmund Spenser and perhaps Thomas Lodge were at different times his school-fellows. It is thought that Kyd did not proceed to either of the universities; he apparently followed, soon after leaving school, his father’s business as a scrivener. But Nashe describes him as a “shifting companion that ran through every art and throve by none.” He showed a fairly wide range of reading in Latin. The author on whom he draws most freely is Seneca, but there are many reminiscences, and occasionally mistranslations of other authors. Nashe contemptuously said that “English Seneca read by candlelight yeeldes many good sentences,” no doubt exaggerating his indebtedness to Thomas Newton’s translation. John Lyly had a more marked influence on his manner than any of his contemporaries. It is believed that he produced his famous play, The Spanish Tragedy, between 1584 and 1589; the quarto in the British Museum (which is probably earlier than the Göttingen and Ellesmere quartos, dated 1594 and 1599) is undated, and the play was licensed for the press in 1592. The full title runs, The Spanish Tragedie containing the Lamentable End of Don Horatio and Bel-imperia; with the Pitiful Death of Old Hieronimo, and the play is commonly referred to by Henslowe and other contemporaries as Hieronimo. This drama enjoyed all through the age of Elizabeth and even of James I. and Charles I. so unflagging a success that it has been styled the most popular of all old English plays. Certain expressions in Nashe’s preface to the 1589 edition of Robert Greene’s Menaphon may be said to have started a whole world of speculation with regard to Kyd’s activity. Much of this is still very puzzling; nor is it really understood why Ben Jonson called him “sporting Kyd.” In 1592 there was added a sort of prologue to The Spanish Tragedy, called The First Part of Jeronimo, or The Warres of Portugal, not printed till 1605. Professor Boas concludes that Kyd had nothing to do with this melodramatic production, which gives a different version of the story and presents Jeronimo as little more than a buffoon. On the other hand, it becomes more and more certain that what German criticism calls the Ur-Hamlet, the original draft of the tragedy of the prince of Denmark, was a lost work by Kyd, probably composed by him in 1587. This theory has been very elaborately worked out by Professor Sarrazin, and confirmed by Professor Boas; these scholars are doubtless right in holding that traces of Kyd’s play survive in the first two acts of the 1603 first quarto of Hamlet, but they probably go too far in attributing much of the actual language of the last three acts to Kyd. Kyd’s next work was in all probability the tragedy of Soliman and Perseda, written perhaps in 1588 and licensed for the press in 1592, which, although anonymous, is assigned to him on strong internal evidence by Mr Boas. No copy of the first edition has come down to us; but it was reprinted, after Kyd’s death, in 1599. In the summer or autumn of 1590 Kyd seems to have given up writing for the stage, and to have entered the service of an unnamed lord, who employed a troop of “players.” Kyd was probably the private secretary of this nobleman, in whom Professor Boas sees Robert Radcliffe, afterwards fifth earl of Sussex. To the wife of the earl (Bridget Morison of Cassiobury) Kyd dedicated in the last year of his life his translation of Garnier’s Cornelia (1594), to the dedication of which he attached his initials. Two prose works of the dramatist have survived, a treatise on domestic economy, The Householder’s Philosophy, translated from the Italian of Tasso (1588); and a sensational account of The Most Wicked and Secret Murdering of John Brewer, Goldsmith (1592). His name is written on the title-page of the unique copy of the last-named pamphlet at Lambeth, but probably not by his hand. That many of Kyd’s plays and poems have been lost is proved by the fact that fragments exist, attributed to him, which are found in no surviving context. Towards the close of his life Kyd was brought into relations with Marlowe. It would seem that in 1590, soon after he entered the service of this nobleman, Kyd formed his acquaintance. If he is to be believed, he shrank at once from Marlowe as a man “intemperate and of a cruel heart” and “irreligious.” This, however, was said by Kyd with the rope round his neck, and is scarcely consistent with a good deal of apparent intimacy between him and Marlowe. When, in May 1593, the “lewd libels” and “blasphemies” of Marlowe came before the notice of the Star Chamber, Kyd was immediately arrested, papers of his having been found “shuffled” with some of Marlowe’s, who was imprisoned a week later. A visitation on Kyd’s papers was made in consequence of his having attached a seditious libel to the wall of the Dutch churchyard in Austin Friars. Of this he was innocent, but there was found in his chamber a paper of “vile heretical conceits denying the deity of Jesus Christ.” Kyd was arrested and put to the torture in Bridewell. He asserted that he knew nothing of this document and tried to shift the responsibility of it upon Marlowe, but he was kept in prison until after the death of that poet (June 1, 1593). When he was at length dismissed, his patron refused to take him back into his service. He fell into utter destitution, and sank under the weight of “bitter times and privy broken passions.” He must have died late in 1594, and on the 30th of December of that year his parents renounced their administration of the goods of their deceased son, in a document of great importance discovered by Professor Schick.

The importance of Kyd, as the pioneer in the wonderful movement of secular drama in England, gives great interest to his works, and we are now able at last to assert what many critics have long conjectured, that he takes in that movement the position of a leader and almost of an inventor. Regarded from this point of view, The Spanish Tragedy is a work of extraordinary value, since it is the earliest specimen of effective stage poetry existing in English literature. It had been preceded only by the pageant-poems of Peele and Lyly, in which all that constitutes in the modern sense theatrical technique and effective construction was entirely absent. These gifts, in which the whole power of the theatre as a place of general entertainment was to consist, were supplied earliest among English playwrights to Kyd, and were first exercised by him, so far as we can see, in 1586. This, then, is a more or less definite starting date for Elizabethan drama, and of peculiar value to its historians. Curiously enough, The Spanish Tragedy, which was the earliest stage-play of the great period, was also the most popular, and held its own right through the careers of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Fletcher. It was not any shortcoming in its harrowing and exciting plot, but the tameness of its archaic versification, which probably led in 1602 to its receiving “additions,” which have been a great stumbling-block to the critics. It is known that Ben Jonson was paid for these additional scenes, but they are extremely unlike all other known writings of his, and several scholars have independently conjectured that John Webster wrote them. Of Kyd himself it seems needful to point out that neither the Germans nor even Professor Boas seems to realize how little definite merit his poetry has. He is important, not in himself, but as a pioneer. The influence of Kyd is marked on all the immediate predecessors of Shakespeare, and the bold way in which scenes of violent crime were treated on the Elizabethan stage appears to be directly owing to the example of Kyd’s innovating genius. His relation to Hamlet has already been noted, and Titus Andronicus presents and exaggerates so many of his characteristics that Mr Sidney Lee and others have supposed that tragedy to be a work of Kyd’s touched up by Shakespeare. Professor Boas, however, brings cogent objections against this theory, founding them on what he considers the imitative inferiority of Titus Andronicus to The Spanish Tragedy. The German critics have pushed too far their attempt to find indications of Kyd’s influence on later plays of Shakespeare. The extraordinary interest felt for Kyd in Germany is explained by the fact that The Spanish Tragedy was long the best known of all Elizabethan plays abroad. It was acted at Frankfort in 1601, and published soon afterwards at Nuremberg. It continued to be a stock piece in Germany until the beginning of the 18th century; it was equally popular in Holland, and potent in its effect upon Dutch dramatic literature.

Kyd’s works were first collected and his life written by Professor F. S. Boas in 1901. Of modern editions of The Spanish Tragedy may be mentioned that by Professor J. M. Manly in Specimens of the Pre-Shakespearean Drama, vol. ii. (Boston, 1897), and by J. Schick in the Temple Dramatists (1898). See also Cornelia (ed. H. Gassner, 1894); C. Markscheffel, T. Kyd’s Tragödien (1885); Gregor Sarrazin, Thomas Kyd und sein Kreis (1892); G. O. Fleischer, “Bemerkungen über Thomas Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy” (Jahresbericht der Drei-Königschule zu Dresden-Neustadt (1896); J. Schick, “T. Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy” (Literarhistorische Forschungen, vol. 19, 1901); and R. Koppel, in Prölss, Altengl. Theater (vol. i., 1904).

(E. G.)

KYFFHÄUSER, a double line of hills in Thuringia, Germany. The northern part looks steeply down upon the valley of the Goldene Aue, and is crowned by two ruined castles, Rothenburg (1440 ft.) on the west, and Kyffhausen (1542 ft.) on the east. The latter, built probably in the 10th century, was frequently the residence of the Hohenstaufen emperors, and was finally destroyed in the 16th century. The existing ruins are those of the Oberburg with its tower, and of the Unterburg with its chapel. The hill is surmounted by an imposing monument to the emperor William I., the equestrian statue of the emperor being 31 ft. high and the height of the whole 210 ft. This was erected in 1896. According to an old and popular legend, the emperor Frederick Barbarossa sits asleep beside a marble table in the interior of the mountain, surrounded by his knights, awaiting the destined day when he shall awaken and lead the united peoples of Germany against her enemies, and so inaugurate an era of unexampled glory. But G. Vogt has advanced cogent reasons (see Hist. Zeitschrift, xxvi. 131-187) for believing that the real hero of the legend is the other great Hohenstaufen emperor, Frederick II., not Frederick I. Around him gradually crystallized the hopes of the German peoples, and to him they looked for help in the hour of their sorest need. But this is not the only legend of a slumbering future deliverer which lives on in Germany. Similar hopes cling to the memory of Charlemagne, sleeping in a hill near Paderborn; to that of the Saxon hero Widukind, in a hill in Westphalia; to Siegfried, in the hill of Geroldseck; and to Henry I., in a hill near Goslar.

See Richter, Das deutsche Kyffhäusergebirge (Eisleben, 1876); Lemcke, Der deutsche Kaisertraum und der Kyffhäuser (Magdeburg, 1887); and Führer durch das Kyffhäusergebirge (Sangerhausen, 1891); Baltzer, Das Kyffhäusergebirge (Rudolstadt, 1882); A. Fulda, Die Kyffhäusersage (Sangerhausen, 1889); and Anemüller, Kyffhäuser und Rothenburg (Detmold, 1892).

KYNASTON, EDWARD (c. 1640-1706), English actor, was born in London and first appeared in Rhodes’s company, having been, like Betterton, a clerk in Rhodes’s book-shop before he set up a company in the Cockpit in Drury Lane. Kynaston was probably the last and certainly the best of the male actors of female parts, for which his personal beauty admirably fitted him. His last female part was Evadne in The Maid’s Tragedy in 1661 with Killigrew’s company. In 1665 he was playing important male parts at Covent Garden. He joined Betterton at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1695, after which he received less important rôles, retiring in 1699. He died in 1706, and was buried on the 18th of January.

KYNETON, a town of Dalhousie county, Victoria, Australia, on the river Campaspe, 56 m. by rail N.N.W. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901), 3274. It is the centre of a prosperous agricultural and pastoral district. Important stock sales and an annual exhibition of stock are held. There are, moreover, some rich gold quartz reefs in the neighbourhood. Kyneton lies at an elevation of 1687 ft., and the scenery of the district, which includes some beautiful waterfalls, attracts visitors in summer.

KYŌSAI, SHO-FU (1831-1889), Japanese painter, was born at Koga in the province of Shimotsuke, Japan, in 1831. After working for a short time, as a boy, with Kuniyoshi, he received his artistic training in the studio of Kanō Dōhaku, but soon abandoned the formal traditions of his master for the greater freedom of the popular school. During the political ferment which produced and followed the revolution of 1867, Kyōsai attained a considerable reputation as a caricaturist. He was three times arrested and imprisoned by the authorities of the shogunate. Soon after the assumption of effective power by the mikado, a great congress of painters and men of letters was held, at which Kyōsai was present. He again expressed his opinion of the new movement in a caricature, which had a great popular success, but also brought him into the hands of the police—this time of the opposite party. Kyōsai must be considered the greatest successor of Hokusai (of whom, however, he was not a pupil), and as the first political caricaturist of Japan. His work—like his life—is somewhat wild and undisciplined, and “occasionally smacks of the sakē cup.” But if he did not possess Hokusai’s dignity, power and reticence, he substituted an exuberant fancy, which always lends interest to draughtsmanship of very great technical excellence. In addition to his caricatures, Kyōsai painted a large number of pictures and sketches, often choosing subjects from the folk-lore of his country. A fine collection of these works is preserved in the British Museum; and there are also good examples in the National Art Library at South Kensington, and the Musée Guimet at Paris. Among his illustrated books may be mentioned Yehon Taka-kagami, Illustrations of Hawks (5 vols., 1870, &c.); Kyōsai Gwafu (1880); Kyōsai Dongwa; Kyōsai Raku-gwa; Kyōsai Riaku-gwa; Kyōsai Mangwa (1881); Kyōsai Suigwa (1882); and Kyōsai Gwaden (1887). The latter is illustrated by him under the name of Kawanabe Tōyoku, and two of its four volumes are devoted to an account of his own art and life. He died in 1889.

See Guimet (É.) and Regamey (F.), Promenades japonaises (Paris, 1880); Anderson (W.), Catalogue of Japanese Painting in the British Museum (London, 1886); Mortimer Menpes, “A Personal View of Japanese Art: A Lesson from Kyōsai,” Magazine of Art (1888).

(E. F. S.)

KYRIE (in full kyrie eleison, or eleeson, Gr. κύριε ἐλέησον; cf. Ps. cxxii. 3, Matt. XV. 22, &c., meaning “Lord, have mercy”), the words of petition used at the beginning of the Mass and in other offices of the Eastern and Roman Churches. In the Anglican Book of Common Prayer the Kyrie is introduced into the orders for Morning and Evening Prayer, and also, with an additional petition, as a response made by the congregation after the reading of each of the Ten Commandments at the opening of the Communion Service. These responses are usually sung, and the name Kyrie is thus also applied to their musical setting. In the Lutheran Church the Kyrie is still said or sung in the original Greek. “Kyrielle,” a shortened form of Kyrie eleison, is applied to eight-syllabled four-line verses, the last line in each verse being repeated as a refrain.

KYRLE, JOHN (1637-1724), “the Man of Ross,” English philanthropist, was born in the parish of Dymock, Gloucestershire, on the 22nd of May 1637. His father was a barrister and M.P., and the family had lived at Ross, in Herefordshire, for many generations. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and having succeeded to the property at Ross took up his abode there. In everything that concerned the welfare of the little town in which he lived he took a lively interest—in the education of the children, the distribution of alms, in improving and embellishing the town. He delighted in mediating between those who had quarrelled and in preventing lawsuits. He was generous to the poor and spent all he had in good works. He lived a great deal in the open air working with the labourers on his farm. He died on the 7th of November 1724, and was buried in the chancel of Ross Church. His memory is preserved by the Kyrie Society, founded in 1877, to better the lot of working people, by laying out parks, encouraging house decoration, window gardening and flower growing. Ross was eulogized by Pope in the third Moral Epistle (1732), and by Coleridge in an early poem (1794).

KYSHTYM, a town of Russia, in the government of Perm, 56 m. by rail N.N.W. of Chelyabinsk, on a river of the same name which connects two lakes. Pop. (1897), 12,331. The official name is Verkhne-Kyshtymskiy-Zavod, or Upper Kyshtym Works, to distinguish it from the Lower (Nizhne) Kyshtym Works, situated two miles lower down the same river.