"Have no fear, Monsieur Pontmercy, I adjure you. The six hundred thousand francs really belong to Cosette. My life will have been wasted if you do not enjoy them! We managed to do very well with those glass goods. We rivalled what is called Berlin jewellery. However, we could not equal the black glass of England. A gross, which contains twelve hundred very well cut grains, only costs three francs."
"Then the carbineers scoured the country in different directions, but in vain; then, after a time, they disappeared. Vampa then removed the stone, and Cucumetto came out. Through the crevices in the granite he had seen the two young peasants talking with the carbineers, and guessed the subject of their parley. He had read in the countenances of Luigi and Teresa their steadfast resolution not to surrender him, and he drew from his pocket a purse full of gold, which he offered to them. But Vampa raised his head proudly; as to Teresa, her eyes sparkled when she thought of all the fine gowns and gay jewellery she could buy with this purse of gold.
"'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my security.'
"I waited patiently, not to overhear what they said, but because I could do nothing else; besides, the same thing had occurred often before. The man who was with Caderousse was evidently a stranger to the South of France; he was one of those merchants who come to sell jewellery at the Beaucaire fair, and who during the month the fair lasts, and during which there is so great an influx of merchants and customers from all parts of Europe, often have dealings to the amount of 100,000 to 150,000 francs. Caderousse entered hastily. Then, seeing that the room was, as usual, empty, and only guarded by the dog, he called to his wife, 'Hello, Carconte,' said he, 'the worthy priest has not deceived us; the diamond is real.' An exclamation of joy was heard, and the staircase creaked beneath a feeble step. 'What do you say?' asked his wife, pale as death.
"Oh," cried the general, as if branded with a hot iron, "wretch,--to reproach me with my shame when about, perhaps, to kill me! No, I did not say I was a stranger to you. I know well, demon, that you have penetrated into the darkness of the past, and that you have read, by the light of what torch I know not, every page of my life; but perhaps I may be more honorable in my shame than you under your pompous coverings. No--no, I am aware you know me; but I know you only as an adventurer sewn up in gold and jewellery. You call yourself in Paris the Count of Monte Cristo; in Italy, Sinbad the Sailor; in Malta, I forget what. But it is your real name I want to know, in the midst of your hundred names, that I may pronounce it when we meet to fight, at the moment when I plunge my sword through your heart."
The count was dressed in black and with his habitual simplicity; his white waistcoat displayed his expansive noble chest and his black stock was singularly noticeable because of its contrast with the deadly paleness of his face. His only jewellery was a chain, so fine that the slender gold thread was scarcely perceptible on his white waistcoat. A circle was immediately formed around the door. The count perceived at one glance Madame Danglars at one end of the drawing-room, M. Danglars at the other, and Eugenie in front of him. He first advanced towards the baroness, who was chatting with Madame de Villefort, who had come alone, Valentine being still an invalid; and without turning aside, so clear was the road left for him, he passed from the baroness to Eugenie, whom he complimented in such rapid and measured terms, that the proud artist was quite struck. Near her was Mademoiselle Louise d'Armilly, who thanked the count for the letters of introduction he had so kindly given her for Italy, which she intended immediately to make use of. On leaving these ladies he found himself with Danglars, who had advanced to meet him.
"Cosette, I bless thee. I am going to explain to thee. Thy husband was right in giving me to understand that I ought to go away; but there is a little error in what he believed, though he was in the right. He is excellent. Love him well even after I am dead. Monsieur Pontmercy, love my darling child well. Cosette, this paper will be found; this is what I wish to say to thee, thou wilt see the figures, if I have the strength to recall them, listen well, this money is really thine. Here is the whole matter: White jet comes from Norway, black jet comes from England, black glass jewellery comes from Germany. Jet is the lightest, the most precious, the most costly. Imitations can be made in France as well as in Germany. What is needed is a little anvil two inches square, and a lamp burning spirits of wine to soften the wax. The wax was formerly made with resin and lampblack, and cost four livres the pound. I invented a way of making it with gum shellac and turpentine. It does not cost more than thirty sous, and is much better. Buckles are made with a violet glass which is stuck fast, by means of this wax, to a little framework of black iron. The glass must be violet for iron jewellery, and black for gold jewellery. Spain buys a great deal of it. It is the country of jet . . ."
These properties are most highly developed in the substance known as jet, which is a variety of cannel found in the lower oolitic strata of Yorkshire, and is almost entirely used for ornamental purposes, the whole quantity produced near Whitby, together with a further supply from Spain, being manufactured into articles of jewellery at that town. Entry: TABLE
_Commerce._--Hair enters into a considerable variety of manufactures. Bristles are the stout elastic hairs obtained from the backs of certain breeds of pigs. The finest qualities, and the greatest quantities as well, are obtained from Russia, where a variety of pig is reared principally on account of its bristles. The best and most costly bristles are used by shoemakers, secondary qualities being employed for toilet and clothes-brushes, while inferior qualities are worked up into the commoner kinds of brushes used by painters and for many mechanical purposes. For artists' use and for decorative painting, brushes or pencils of hair from the sable, camel, badger, polecat, &c., are prepared. The hair of various animals which is too short for spinning into yarn is utilized for the manufacture of felt. For this use the hair of rabbits, hares, beavers and of several other rodents is largely employed, especially in France, in making the finer qualities of felt hats. Cow hair, obtained from tanneries, is used in the preparation of roofing felts, and felt for covering boilers or steam-pipes, and for other similar purposes. It is also largely used by plasterers for binding the mortar of the walls and roofs of houses; and it is to some extent being woven up into coarse friezes, horse-cloths, railway rugs and inferior blankets. The tail hair of oxen is also of value for stuffing cushions and other upholstery work, for which purpose, as well as for making the official wigs of law officers, barristers, &c., the tail and body hair of the yak or Tibet ox is also sometimes imported into Europe. The tail and mane hair of horses is in great demand for various purposes. The long tail hair is especially valuable for weaving into hair-cloth, mane hair and the short tail hair being, on the other hand, principally prepared and curled for stuffing the chairs, sofas and couches which are covered with the cloth manufactured from the long hair. The horse hair used in Great Britain is principally obtained from South America, Germany and Russia, and its sorting, cleaning and working up into the various manufactures dependent on the material are industries of some importance. In addition to the purposes already alluded to, horse hair is woven into crinoline for ladies' bonnets, plaited into fishing lines, woven into bags for oil and cider pressers, and into straining cloths for brewers, &c., and for numerous other minor uses. The manufactures which arise in connexion with human hair are more peculiar than important, although occasionally fashions arise which cause a large demand for human hair. The fluctuations of such fashions determine the value of hair; but at all times long tresses are of considerable value. Grey, light, pale and auburn hair are distinguished as extra colours, and command much higher prices than the common shades. The light-coloured hair is chiefly obtained in Germany and Austria, and the south of France is the principal source of the darker shades. In the south of France the cultivation and sale of heads of hair by peasant girls is a common practice; and hawkers attend fairs for the special purpose of engaging in this traffic. Hair 5 and even 6 ft. long is sometimes obtained. Scarcely any of the "raw material" is obtained in the United Kingdom except in the form of ladies' "combings." Bleaching of hair by means of peroxide of hydrogen is extensively practised, with the view of obtaining a supply of golden locks, or of preparing white hair for mixing to match grey shades; but in neither case is the result very successful. Human hair is worked up into a great variety of wigs, scalps, artificial fronts, frizzets and curls, all for supplementing the scanty or failing resources of nature. The plaiting of human hair into articles of jewellery, watch-guards, &c., forms a distinct branch of trade. Entry: A
_Manufactures._--Little is done save in the preparation in factories and stores, in Colombo or on the plantations, of the several products exported. The manufacture of jewellery and preparation of precious stones, and, among native women and children, of pillow lace, give employment to several thousands. Iron and engineering works are numerous in Colombo and in the planting districts. The Sinhalese are skilful cabinetmakers and carpenters. The Moormen and Tamils furnish good masons and builders. Entry: CEYLON
GUJRANWALA, a town and district of British India, in the Lahore division of the Punjab. The town is situated 40 m. N. of Lahore by rail. It is of modern growth, and owes its importance to the father and grandfather of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, whose capital it formed during the early period of the Sikh power. Pop. (1901) 29,224. There are manufactures of brass-ware, jewellery, and silk and cotton scarves. Entry: GUJRANWALA
BATTAS (Dutch _Battaks_), the inhabitants of the formerly independent Batta country, in the central highlands of Sumatra, now for the most part subjugated to the Dutch government. The still independent area extends from 98°-99° 35' E., and 2°-3° 25' S. North-east of Toba Lake dwell the Timor Battas, and west of it the Pakpak, but on its north (in the mountains which border on the east coast residency) the Karo Battas form a special group, which, by its dialects and ethnological character, appears to be allied to the Gajus and Allas occupying the interior of Achin. The origin of the Battas is doubtful. It is not known whether they were settled in Sumatra before the Hindu period. Their language contains words of Sanskrit origin and others referable to Javanese, Malay and Tagal influence. Their domain has been doubtless much curtailed, and their absorption into the Achin and Malay population seems to have been long going on. The Battas are undoubtedly of Malayan stock, and by most authorities are affiliated to that Indonesian pre-Malayan race which peopled the Indian Archipelago, expelling the aboriginal negritos, and in turn themselves submitting to the civilized Malays. In many points the Battas are physically quite different from the Malay type. The average height of the men is 5 ft. 4 in.; of the women 4 ft. 8 in. In general build they are rather thickset, with broad shoulders and fairly muscular limbs. The colour of the skin ranges from dark brown to a yellowish tint, the darkness apparently quite independent of climatic influences or distinction of race. The skull is rather oval than round. In marked contrast to the Malay type are the large, black, long-shaped eyes, beneath heavy, black or dark brown eyebrows. The cheek-bones are somewhat prominent, but less so than among the Malays. The Battas are dirty in their dress and dwellings and eat any kind of food, though they live chiefly on rice. They are remarkable as a people who in many ways are cultured and possess a written language of their own, and yet are cannibals. The more civilized of them around Lake Toba are good agriculturists and stock-breeders, and understand iron-smelting. They weave and dye cotton, make jewellery and krisses which are often of exquisite workmanship, bake pottery, and build picturesque chalet-like houses of two storeys. They have an organized government, hereditary chiefs, popular assemblies, and a written civil and penal code. There is even an antiquated postal system, the letter-boxes being the hollow tree trunks at crossroads. Yet in spite of this comparative culture the Battas have long been notorious for the most revolting forms of cannibalism. (See _Memoirs of the Life, &c., of Sir T.S. Raffles_, 1830.) Entry: BATTAS
_Art and Architecture_.--The culture of Assyria, and still more of Babylonia, was essentially literary; we miss in it the artistic spirit of Egypt or Greece. In Babylonia the abundance of clay and want of stone led to the employment of brick; the Babylonian temples are massive but shapeless structures of crude brick, supported by buttresses, the rain being carried off by drains, one of which at Ur was of lead. The use of brick led to the early development of the pilaster and column, as well as of frescoes and enamelled tiles. The walls were brilliantly coloured, and sometimes plated with bronze or gold as well as with tiles. Painted terra-cotta cones were also embedded in the plaster. Assyria in this, as in other matters, the servile pupil of Babylonia, built its palaces and temples of brick, though stone was the natural building material of the country, even preserving the brick platform, so necessary in the marshy soil of Babylonia, but little needed in the north. As time went on, however, the later Assyrian architect began to shake himself free from Babylonian influences and to employ stone as well as brick. The walls of the Assyrian palaces were lined with sculptured and coloured slabs of stone, instead of being painted as in Chaldaea. We can. trace three periods in the art of these bas-reliefs; it is vigorous but simple under Assur-nazir-pal III., careful and realistic under Sargon, refined but wanting in boldness under Assur-bani-pal. In Babylonia, in place of the bas-relief we have the figure in the round, the earliest examples being the statues from Tello which are realistic but somewhat clumsy. The want of stone in Babylonia made every pebble precious and led to a high perfection in the art of gem-cutting. Nothing can be better than two seal-cylinders that have come down to us from the age of Sargon of Akkad. No remarkable specimens of the metallurgic art of an early period have been found, apart perhaps from the silver vase of Entemena, but at a later epoch great excellence was attained in the manufacture of such jewellery as ear-rings and bracelets of gold. Copper, too, was worked with skill; indeed, it is possible that Babylonia was the original home of copper-working, which spread westward with the civilization to which it belonged. At any rate the people were famous from an early date for their embroideries and rugs. The ceramic history of Babylonia and Assyria has unfortunately not yet been traced; at Susa alone has the care demanded by the modern methods of archaeology been as yet expended on examining and separating the pottery found in the excavations, and Susa is not Babylonia. We do not even know the date of the spirited terra-cotta reliefs discovered by Loftus and Rawlinson. The forms of Assyrian pottery, however, are graceful; the porcelain, like the glass discovered in the palaces of Nineveh, was derived from Egyptian originals. Transparent glass seems to have been first introduced in the reign of Sargon. Stone as well as clay and glass were employed in the manufacture of vases, and vases of hard stone have been disinterred at Tello similar to those of the early dynastic period of Egypt. Entry: VII
Even the most rapid revision of the work done by these great twin poets must impress every capable student with a sense of the homage due to this living witness of their large and liberal genius. The loss of their names from the roll of English poetry would be only less than the loss of the few greatest inscribed on it. Nothing could supply the want of their tragic, their comic or romantic drama; no larger or more fiery planet can ever arise to supplant or to eclipse the twin lights of our zodiac. Whatever their faults of shortcoming or excess, there is in their very names or the mere thought of their common work a kind of special and personal attraction for all true lovers of high dramatic poetry. There is the glory and grace of youth in all they have left us; if there be also somewhat too much of its graceless as well as its gracious qualities, yet there hangs about their memory as it were a music of the morning, a breath and savour of bright early manhood, a joyous and vigorous air of free life and fruitful labour, which might charm asleep for ever all thought or blame of all mortal infirmity or folly, or any stain of earth that may have soiled in passing the feet of creatures half human and half divine while yet they dwelt among men. For good or for evil, they are above all things poets of youth; we cannot conceive of them grown grey in the dignity of years, venerable with the authority of long life, and weighted with the wisdom of experience. In the Olympian circle of the gods and giants of our race who on earth were their contemporaries and corrivals, they seem to move among the graver presences and figures of sedater fame like the two spoilt boys of heaven, lightest of foot and heart and head of all the brood of deity. Shakespeare may have smiled as Jonson may have nodded approval of their bright swift work, neither of these great elders grudging his praise to the special charm which won for it a preference during one generation at least even over their own loftier and weightier verse; and indeed the advance in natural ease, in truth and grace of dialogue, is alike manifest whether we turn to such of their comic characters as Valentine and Don John, Rutilio and Monsieur Thomas, from the Truewit of Jonson or even from the Mercutio of Shakespeare; the one too stiff with classic starch, the other too full of mere verbal catches and forced conceits, to persuade us that either can in any age have fairly represented the light free talk and facile humour of its youth. In another field than this Beaumont and Fletcher hold as high and secure a station of their own as any poet of their race. In perfect workmanship of lyrical jewellery, in perfect bloom and flower of song-writing, they equal all compeers whom they do not excel; the blossoms of their growth in this kind may be matched for colour and fragrance against Shakespeare's, and for morning freshness and natural purity of form exceed the finest grafts of Jonson. _The Faithful Shepherdess_ alone might speak for Fletcher on this score, being as it is simply a lyric poem in semi-dramatic shape, to be judged only as such, and as such almost faultless; but in no wise to be classed for praise or blame among the acting plays of its author, whose one serious error in the matter was the submission of his Dryad to the critical verdict of an audience too probably in great part composed of clowns and satyrs far unlike the loving and sweet-tongued sylvan of his lovely fancy. And whether we assign to him or to Beaumont the divine song of melancholy (_moestius lacrymis Simonideis_), perfect in form as Catullus and profound in sentiment as Shelley, which Milton himself could but echo and expand, could not heighten or deepen its exquisite intensity of thought and word alike, there will remain witness enough for the younger brother of a lyric power as pure and rare as his elder's. Entry: BEAUMONT
FILIGREE (formerly written _filigrain_ or _filigrane_; the Ital. _filigrana_, Fr. _filigrane_, Span, _filigrana_, Ger. _Drahtgeflecht_), jewel work of a delicate kind made with twisted threads usually of gold and silver. The word, which is usually derived from the Lat. _filum_, thread, and _granum_, grain, is not found in Ducange, and is indeed of modern origin. According to Prof. Skeat it is derived from the Span. _filigrana_, from "_filar_, to spin, and _grano_, the grain or principal fibre of the material." Though filigree has become a special branch of jewel work in modern times it was anciently part of the ordinary work of the jeweller. Signor A. Castellani states, in his _Memoir on the Jewellery of the Ancients_ (1861), that all the jewelry of the Etruscans and Greeks (other than that intended for the grave, and therefore of an unsubstantial character) was made by soldering together and so building up the gold rather than by chiselling or engraving the material. Entry: FILIGREE
CORTONA, a town and episcopal see of Italy, in the province of Arezzo, 18 m. S. by E. from the town of Arezzo by rail. The ancient and modern names are identical. Pop. (1901) of town, 3579; commune, 29,296. The highest point of Cortona, a medieval castle (Fortezza), is situated 2130 ft. above sea-level on a hill commanding a splendid view, and is approached by a winding road. It is surrounded by its ancient Etruscan walls, which for the greater part of the circuit are fairly well preserved. They are constructed of parallelepipedal blocks of limestone, finely jointed (though the jointing has often been spoilt by weathering), and arranged in regular courses which vary in size in different parts of the enceinte. Near the N.W. angle some of the blocks are 7 to 8½ ft. long and 2½ ft. high, while on the W. side they are a good deal smaller--sometimes only 1 ft. high (see F. Noack in _Römische Mitteilungen_, 1897, 184). Within the town are two subterranean vaulted buildings in good masonry, of uncertain nature, some other remains under modern buildings, and a concrete ruin known as the "Bagni di Bacco." The museum of the Accademia Etrusca, a learned body founded by Ridolfino Venuti in 1726, is situated in the Palazzo Pretorio; it contains some Etruscan objects, among which may be specially noted a magnificent bronze lamp with 16 lights, of remarkably fine workmanship, found in 1740, at the foot of the hill, two votive hands and a few other bronzes, and a little gold jewellery. The library has a good MS. of Dante. The cathedral, originally a Tuscan Romanesque building of the 11th-12th centuries, is now a fine Renaissance basilica restored in the 18th century, containing some paintings by Luca Signorelli, a native of the place. Opposite is the baptistery, with three fine pictures by Fra Angelico. S. Margherita, just below the Fortezza, is an ugly modern building occupying the site of a Gothic church of 1294, and containing a fine original rose window and reliefs from the tomb of the saint by Angelo e Francesco di maestro Pietro d'Assisi. Other works by Signorelli are to be seen elsewhere in the town, especially in S. Domenico; Pietro Berettini (Pietro da Cortona, 1596-1669) is hardly represented here at all. Below the town is the massive tomb chamber (originally subterranean, but now lacking the mound of the earth which covered it) known as the Grotta di Pitagora (grotto of Pythagoras). To the E. is the church of S. Maria del Calcinaio, a fine early Renaissance building by Francesco di Giorgio Martini of Siena, with fine stained glass windows. Entry: CORTONA
With powdered hair and the pigtail passed away the 18th century cloth breeches. Here again some old-fashioned people made a stand against the change, the opposition of the clergy being commemorated in the black breeches still worn by bishops and other dignitaries of the church. But in the regent's time pantaloons of closely fitting and elastic cloth were worn with low shoes or Hessians, and pantaloons and Hessians did not utterly disappear from the streets until the end of the 'fifties. Squires and sportsmen put on buckskins of an amazing tightness and walked the street in top-boots. But the loose Cossack trousers soon made their appearance. The regent's influence made the blue coat with a very high velvet collar, a high-waisted Marcella waistcoat and white duck trousers strapped under the instep, a mode in which men even ventured to appear at evening receptions, although, in the year before Waterloo, the duke of Wellington was refused admittance to Almack's when thus clad. Long skirted overcoats, fur-collared and tight in the waist, completed this costume. Coats were blue, claret, buff and brown. "Pea-green Hayne" was known among clubmen by a brighter coloured garment. Civilians, like Jos Sedley, would sometimes affect a frock frogged and braided in semi-military fashion. The shirt collar turned upward, the points showing above vast cravats whose careful arrangement was maintained by one or two scarf-pins. Brummel the master dandy of his age, may be called the first dandy of the modern school. Dressing, as a rule, in black, he distinguished himself, not as the bucks of an earlier age by bright colours, rich materials or jewellery, but by his extravagant neatness and by the superb fit of garments which set the fashion for lesser men. To him, according to Grantley Berkeley, we owe the modern dress-coat. An idle phrase in Bulwer-Lytton's _Pelham_ (1828), that "people must be very distinguished in appearance" to look well in black, made black henceforward the colour of evening coats and frock coats. With the perfection of the silk hat in the 'thirties, English costume enters on its last phase. The coat cut away squarely in front was then out of the mode; it remains but in the evening-dress coat now always worn unbuttoned, and in the dress of the hunting field. The rest is a record of such slight changes as tailors may cautiously introduce among customers, no one of whom will dare to lead a new fashion boldly. For many decades the fashionably dressed man has been eager to conform to the last authorized vogue and to lose himself among others as shyly obedient. The tubular lines of 20th-century clothing advantage the tailor by the tendency of new clothing to crease at the elbow and bag at the knee. In preserving the necessary straight lines of his garments, in following the season's fashions in details which only an expert eye would mark, and in providing himself with clothes specialized for every hour of the day, for a score of sports and for the gradations of social ceremonial--in these things only can the modern dandy rival his magnificent predecessors. For ornament, other than plain shirt studs, a plain seal ring, a simple watch guard and a rarely-worn scarf pin, is denied him. Entry: FIG