Poor men, when Yule is cold, / Must be content to sit by little fires.
Now is now, and Yule's in winter.
The history of court dancing in Great Britain is practically the same as that of France, and need not occupy much of our attention here. But there are strictly national dances still in existence which are quite peculiar to the country, and may be traced back to the dances and games of the Saxon gleemen. The Egg dance and the Carole were both Saxon dances, the Carole being a Yule-tide festivity, of which the present-day Christmas carol is a remnant. The oldest dances which remain unchanged in England are the Morris dances, which were introduced in the time of Edward III. The name Morris or Moorish refers to the origin of these dances, which are said to have been brought back by John of Gaunt from his travels in Spain. The Morris dances are associated with May-day, and are danced round a maypole to a lively and capering step, some of the performers having bells fastened to their knees in the Moorish manner. They are dressed as characters of old English tradition, such as Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, Little John and Tom the Piper. All the true country dances of Great Britain are of an active and lively measure; they may all, indeed, be said to be founded on the jig; and the hornpipe, which is a kind of jig, is the national dance of England. Captain Cook, on his voyages, made his sailors dance hornpipes in calm weather to keep them in good health. A characteristic of English dances was that they partook to a great extent of the nature of games; there was little variety in the steps, which were nearly all those of the jig or hornpipe, but these were incorporated into various games or plays, of which the Morris dances were the most elaborate. Richard Baxter wrote that "sometimes the Morris dancers would come into the church in all their linen and scarves and antic dresses, with Morris bells jingling at their legs; and as soon as Common Prayer was read, did haste and presently to their play again." May-day has always been celebrated in England with rustic dances and festivities. Before the Reformation there were no really national dances in use at court; but in the reign of Elizabeth the homely, domestic style of dancing reached the height of its popularity. Remnants of many of these dances remain to-day in the games played by children and country people; "Hunt the Slipper," "Kiss in the Ring," "Here we go round the Mulberry Bush," are examples. All the Tudor dances were kissing dances, and must have been the occasion of a great deal of merriment. Mrs Groves gives the following description of the Cushion dance:--"The dance is begun by a single person, man or woman, who, taking a cushion in hand, dances about the room, and at the end of a short time stops and sings: 'This dance it will no farther go,' to which the musician answers: 'I pray you, good sir, why say so?' 'Because Joan Sanderson will not come to.' 'She must come to whether she will or no,' returns the musician, and then the dancer lays the cushion before a woman; she kneels and he kisses her, singing 'Welcome, Joan Sanderson.' Then she rises, takes up the cushion, and both dance and sing 'Prinkum prankum is a fine dance, and shall we go dance it over again?' Afterwards the woman takes the cushion and does as the man did." Other popular dances--generally adapted to the tunes of popular songs, the nature of some of which may be guessed from their titles--were the Trenchmore, Omnium-gatherum, Tolly-polly, Hoite cum toite, Dull Sir John, Faine I would, Sillinger, All in a Garden Green, An Old Man's a Bed Full of Bones, If All the World were Paper, John, Come Kiss Me Now, Cuckholds All Awry, Green Sleeves and Pudding Pies, Lumps of Pudding, Under and Over, Up Tails All, The Slaughter House, Rub her Down with Straw, Have at thy Coat Old Woman, The Happy Marriage, Dissembling Love, Sweet Kate, Once I Loved a Maiden Fair. Dancing practically disappeared during the Puritan _régime_, but with the Restoration it again became popular. It underwent no considerable developments, however, until the reign of Queen Anne, when the glories of Bath were revived in the beginning of the 18th century, and Beau Nash drew up his famous codes of rules for the regulation of dress and manners, and founded the balls in which the polite French dances completely eclipsed the simpler English ones. An account of a dancing lesson witnessed by a fond parent at this time is worth quoting, as it shows how far the writer (but not his daughter) had departed from the jolly, romping traditions of the old English dances:--"As the best institutions are liable to corruption, so, sir, I must acquaint you that very great abuses are crept into this entertainment. I was amazed to see my girl handed by and handing young fellows with so much familiarity, and I could not have thought it had been my child. They very often made use of a most impudent and lascivious step called _setting_ to partners, which I know not how to describe to you but by telling you that it is the very reverse of _back_ to _back_. At last an impudent young dog bid the fiddlers play a dance called _Moll Patley_, and, after having made two or three capers, ran to his partner, locked his arms in hers, and whisked her round cleverly above ground in such a manner that I, who sat upon one of the lowest benches, saw farther above her shoe than I can think fit to acquaint you with. I could no longer endure these enormities, wherefore, just as my girl was going to be made a whirligig, I ran in, seized my child and carried her home." What we may call polite dancing, when it became fashionable, soon invaded London, its first home being Madame Cornely's famous Carlisle House in Soho Square. Ranelagh and Vauxhall and Almack's were all extensively patronized, and the rage for magnificent entertainment and dancing culminated in the erection of the palatial Pantheon in Oxford Street--a place so universally patronized that even Dr Johnson was to be found there. White's and Boodle's were also famous assembly rooms, but the most exclusive of all these establishments was Almack's, the original of Brooks's Club. Entry: M
The exact sites of the two Mongolian capitals were only established in 1889-1891. Sir H. Yule (_The Book of Marco Polo_, 1871) was the first to distinguish two cities of this name. The Russian traveller Paderin in 1871 visited the Uighur capital (see TURKS), named now by the Mongols Kara Balghasun ("black city") or Khara-kherem ("black wall"), of which only the wall and a tower are in existence, while the streets and ruins outside the wall are seen at a distance of 1¾ m. Paderin's belief that this was the old Mongol capital has been shown to be incorrect. As to the Mongolian Karakorum, it is identified by several authorities with a site on which towards the close of the 16th century the Buddhist monastery of Erdeni Tsu was built. This monastery lies about 25 m. south by east of the Uighur capital. North and north-east of the monastery are ruins of ancient buildings. Professor D. Pozdnéev, who visited Erdeni Tsu for a second time in 1892, stated that the earthen wall surrounding the monastery might well be part of the wall of the old city. The proper position of the two Karakorums was determined by the expedition of N. Yadrintsev in 1889, and the two expeditions of the Helsingfors Ugro-Finnish society (1890) and the Russian academy of science, under Dr W. Radlov (1891), which were sent out to study Yadrintsev's discovery. Entry: KARAKORUM
The narrative of the principal expedition appeared in 1873, as _Voyage d'exploration en Indo-Chine effectué pendant les années 1866, 1867 et 1868, publié sous la direction de M. Francis Garnier, avec le concours de M. Delaporte et de MM. Joubert et Thorel_ (2 vols.). An account of the Yang-tsze-Kiang from Garnier's pen is given in the _Bulletin de la Soc. de Géog._ (1874). His _Chronique royale du Cambodje_, was reprinted from the _Journal Asiatique_ in 1872. See _Ocean Highways_ (1874) for a memoir by Colonel Yule; and Hugh Clifford, _Further India_, in the Story of Exploration series (1904). Entry: GARNIER
About the same time a revolution broke out which resulted in King Pagan's dethronement. His tyrannical and barbarous conduct had made him obnoxious at home as well as abroad, and indeed many of his actions recall the worst passages of the history of the later Roman emperors. The Mindôn prince, who had become apprehensive for his own safety, made him prisoner in February 1853, and was himself crowned king of Burma towards the end of the year. The new monarch, known as King Mindôn, showed himself sufficiently arrogant in his dealings with the European powers, but was wise enough to keep free from any approach towards hostility. The loss of Pegu was long a matter of bitter regret, and he absolutely refused to acknowledge it by a formal treaty. In the beginning of 1855 he sent a mission of compliment to Lord Dalhousie, the governor-general; and in the summer of the same year Major (afterwards Sir Arthur) Phayre, _de facto_ governor of the new province of Pegu, was appointed envoy to the Burmese court. He was accompanied by Captain (afterwards Sir Henry) Yule as secretary, and Mr Oldham as geologist, and his mission added largely to our knowledge of the state of the country; but in its main object of obtaining a treaty it was unsuccessful. It was not till 1862 that the king at length yielded, and his relations with Britain were placed on a definite diplomatic basis. Entry: 3
Besides the accounts of his two voyages, Cadamosto left a narrative of Pedro de Cintra's explorations in 1461 (or 1462) to Sierre Leone and beyond Cape Mesurado to El Mina and the Gold Coast; all these relations first appeared in the 1507 Vicenza Collection of Voyages and Travels (the _Paesi novamente retrovati et novo mondo da Alberico Vesputio Florentino_); they have frequently since been reprinted and translated (_e.g._ Ital. text in 1508, 1512, 1519, 1521, 1550 (Ramusio), &c.; Lat. version, _Itinerarium Portugallensium_, &c.,1508, 1532 (Grynaeus), &c.; Fr. _Sensuyt le nouveau monde_, &c., 1516, 1521; German, _Newe unbekante Landte_, &c., 1508). See also C. Schefer, _Relation des voyages ... de Ca' da Mosto_ (1895); R.H. Major, _Henry the Navigator_ (1868), pp. 246-287; C.R. Beazley, _Henry the Navigator_ (1895), pp. 261-288; Yule Oldham, _Discovery of the Cape Verde Islands_ (1892), esp. pp. 4-15. Entry: CADALSO
_History._--The history of Kafiristan has always been of the floating legendary sort. At the present day there are men living in Chitral and on other parts of the Kafiristan frontier who are prepared to testify as eye-witnesses to marvels observed, and also heard, by them, not only in the more remote valleys but even in the Afghan borderland itself. It is not surprising therefore that the earlier records are to a great extent fairy tales of a more or less imaginative kind and chiefly of value to those interested in folk-lore. Sir Henry Yule, a scientific soldier, a profound geographer and a careful student, as the result of his researches thought that the present Kafiristan was part of that pagan country stretching between Kashmir and Kabul which medieval Asiatics referred to vaguely as _Bilaur_, a name to be found in Marco Polo as _Bolor_. The first distinct mention of the Kafirs as a separate people appears in the history of Timur. On his march to the invasion of India the people at Andarab appealed to Timur for help against the Kator and the Siah-Posh Kafirs. He responded and entered the country of those tribes through the upper part of the Panjhir valley. It was in deep winter weather and Timur had to be let down the snows by _glissade_ in a basket guided by ropes. A detachment of 10,000 horse which he speaks of as having been sent against the Siah-Posh to his left, presumably therefore to the north, met with disaster; but he himself claims to have been victorious. Nevertheless he seems quickly to have evacuated the impracticable mountain land, quitting the country at Khawak. He caused an inscription to be carved in the defiles of Kator to commemorate his invasion and to explain its route. Inside the Kafir country on the Najil or Alishang River there is a fort still called Timur's Castle, and in the Kalam fort there is said to be a stone engraved to record that as the farthest point of his advance. In the _Memoirs_ of Baber there is mention of the Kafirs raiding into Panjhir and of their taste for drinking, every man having a leathern wine-bottle slung round his neck. The _Ain-i-Akbari_ makes occasional mention of the Kafirs, probably on the authority of the famous _Memoirs_; it also contains a passage which may possibly have originated the widespread story that the Kafirs were descendants of the Greeks. Yule however believed that this passage did not refer to the Kafirs at all, but to the claims to descent from Alexander of the rulers in Swat before the time of the Yusufzai. Many of the princelings of the little Hindu-Kush states at the present day pride themselves on a similar origin, maintaining the founders of their race to be Alexander, "the two-horned," and a princess sent down miraculously from heaven to wed him. Entry: KAFIRISTAN
'Twas the nocturnal segment of the diurnal period preceding the annual Yuletide celebration, And throughout our place of residence, Kinetic activity was not in evidence among the possessors of this potential, including that species of domestic rodent known as Mus musculus. Hosiery was meticulously suspended from the forward edge of the woodburning caloric apparatus, Pursuant to our anticipatory pleasure regarding an imminent visitation from an eccentric philanthropist among whose folkloric appelations is the honorific title of St. Nicklaus ...
Of Jordanus' _Epistles_ there is only one MS., viz. Paris, National Library, 5006 Lat., fol. 182, r. and v.; of the _Mirabilia_ also one MS. only, viz. London, British Museum, _Additional MSS._, 19,513, fols. 3, r.-12 r. The text of the _Epistles_ is in Quétif and Echard, _Scriptores ordinis praedicatorum_, i. 549-550 (Epistle I.); and in Wadding, _Annales minorum_, vi. 359-361 (Epistle II.); the text of the _Mirabilia_ in the Paris Geog. Soc.'s _Recueil de voyages_, iv. 1-68 (1839). The Papal letters referring to Jordanus are in Raynaldus, _Annales ecclesiastici_, 1330, §§ lv. and lvii. (April 8; Feb. 14). See also Sir H. Yule's _Jordanus_, a version of the _Mirabilia_ with a commentary (Hakluyt Soc., 1863) and the same editor's _Cathay_, giving a version of the _Epistles_, with a commentary, &c. (Hak. Soc., 1866) pp. 184-185, 192-196, 225-230; F. Kunstmann, "Die Mission in Meliapor und Tana" and "Die Mission in Columbo" in the _Historisch-politische Blätter_ of Phillips and Görres, xxxvii. 25-38, 135-152 (Munich, 1856), &c.; C. R. Beazley, _Dawn of Modern Geography_, iii. 215-235. (C. R. B.) Entry: JORDANUS
GYMKHANA, a display of miscellaneous sports, originally at the military stations of India. The word would seem to be a colloquial remodelling of the Hindustani _gend-khana_, ball-house or racquet-court, by substituting for _gend_ the first syllable of the English word "gymnastics." The definition given in Yule's _Glossary_ is as follows: "A place of public resort at a station, where the needful facilities for athletics and games ... are provided." The name of the place was afterwards applied to the games themselves, and the word is now used almost exclusively in this sense. According to Yule the first use of it that can be traced was, on the authority of Major John Trotter, at Rurki in the year 1861, when a gymkhana was instituted there. Gymkhana sports were invented to relieve the monotony of Indian station life, and both officers and men from the ranks took part in them. The first meetings consisted of promiscuous horse and pony races at catch weights. To these were soon added a second variety, originally called the _pagol_ (funny races), the one generally known outside India, which consisted of miscellaneous races and competitions of all kinds, some serious and some amusing, on horseback, on foot and on bicycles. Among these may be mentioned the usual military sports; such as tent-pegging, lemon-cutting and obstacle racing; rickshaw racing; tilting at the ring sack, pillion, hurdle, egg-and-spoon, blindfold, threading-the-needle and many other kinds of races depending upon the inventive powers of the committees in charge. Entry: GYMKHANA
From the above it will have been evident that, as Barlowe remarks concerning the compass, "the lame tale of one Flavius at Amelphus, in the kingdome of Naples, for to have devised it, is of very slender probabilitie"; and as regards the assertion of Dr Gilbert, of Colchester (_De magnete_, p. 4, 1600), that Marco Polo introduced the compass into Italy from the East in 1260,[4] we need only quote the words of Sir H. Yule (_Book of Marco Polo_):--"Respecting the mariner's compass and gunpowder, I shall say nothing, as no one now, I believe, imagines Marco to have had anything to do with their introduction." Entry: A
In the majority of recorded instances, the religious feeling of the savage has been found to express itself in other forms besides that of reverence towards the dead. The oldest literatures of the world, at all events, whether Aryan or Semitic, embody a religion of a much higher type than ancestor worship. The hymns of the Rig-Veda, for example, while not without traces of the other, yet indicate chiefly a worship of the powers of nature, connected with the regular recurrence of the seasons. Thus in iv. 57 we have a hymn designed for use at the commencement of the ploughing time;[4] and in the _Aitareya-Brâhmana_, the earliest treatise on Hindu ceremonial, we already find a complete series of sattras or sacrificial sessions exactly following the course of the solar year. They are divided into two distinct sections, each consisting of six months of thirty days each. The sacrifices are allowed to commence only at certain lucky constellations and in certain months. So, for instance, as a rule, no great sacrifice can commence during the sun's southern progress. The great sacrifices generally take place in spring, in the months of April and May.[5] In the Parsee Scriptures[6] the year is divided into six seasons or gahanbârs of two months each, concluding with February, the season at which "great expiatory sacrifices were offered for the growth of the whole creation in the last two months of the year." We have no means of knowing precisely what were the arrangements of the Phoenician calendar, but it is generally admitted that the worship was solar, the principal festivals taking place in spring and in autumn. Among the most characteristic celebrations of the Egyptians were those which took place at the [Greek: aphanismos] or disappearance of Osiris in October or November, at the search for his remains, and their discovery about the winter solstice, and at the date of his supposed entrance into the moon at the beginning of spring. The Phrygian festivals were also arranged on the theory that the deity was asleep during the winter and awake during the summer; in the autumn they celebrated his retiring to rest, and in spring with mirth and revelry they roused him from his slumbers.[7] The seasonal character of the Teutonic Ostern, the Celtic Beltein and the Scandinavian Yule is obvious. Nor was the habit of observing such festivals peculiar to the Aryan or the Semitic race. The Mexicans, who were remarkable for the perfection of their calendar, in addition to this had an elaborate system of movable and immovable feasts distributed over the entire year; the principal festivals, however, in honour of their chief gods, Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, were held in May, June and December. Still more plainly connected with the revolutions of the seasons was the public worship of the ancient Peruvians, who, besides the ordinary feast at each new moon, observed four solar festivals annually. Of these the most important was the Yntip-Raymi (Sun-feast), which, preceded by a three days' fast, began with the summer solstice, and lasted for nine days. Its ceremonies have been often described. A similar but less important festival was held at the winter solstice. The Cusqui-Raymi, held after seedtime, as the maize began to appear, was celebrated with sacrifices and banquets, music and dancing. A fourth great festival, called Citua, held on the first new moon after the autumnal equinox, was preceded by a strict fast and special observances intended for purposes of purification and expiation, after which the festivities lasted until the moon entered her second quarter. Entry: FEASTS
If the Polynesian method of preparing kava as a drink is distasteful to our ideas, the favourite drinking bowl of the old Tibetans is even more so. Friar Odoric (14th century), quoted by Yule, describes how the Tibetan youth "takes his father's head and straightway cooks and eats it, and of the skull he makes a goblet from which he and all his family always drink devoutly to the memory of the deceased father." This recalls Livy's account of the Boii in Upper Italy, who made a drinking vessel of the head of the Roman consul Postumus. Among the Tibetans skulls are still used, but generally for libations only; for this purpose great care is exercised in the selection of the skull, and the "points" of a good skull are well understood by the Lamas. (C. H. RD.) Entry: A
The introduction of the _danz_, ballads (or _fornkvædi_, as they are now called) for singing, with a burden, usually relating to a love-tale, which were immensely popular with the people and performed by whole companies at weddings, yule feasts and the like, had relegated the regular Icelandic poetry to more serious events or to the more cultivated of the chiefs. But these "jigs," as the Elizabethans would have called them, dissatisfied the popular ear in one way: they were, like old English ballads, which they closely resembled, in rhyme, but void of alliteration, and accordingly they were modified and replaced by the "rimur," the staple literary product of the 15th century. These were rhymed but also alliterative, in regular form, with prologue or _mansong_ (often the prettiest part of the whole), main portion telling the tale (mostly derived in early days from the French romances of the Carlovingian, Arthurian or Alexandrian cycles, or from the mythic or skrök-sögur), and epilogue. Their chief value to us lies in their having preserved versions of several French poems now lost, and in their evidence as to the feelings and bent of Icelanders in the "Dark Age" of the island's history. The ring and melody which they all possess is their chief beauty. Entry: ANCIENT
JOLLY (from O. Fr. _jolif_; Fr. _joli_, the French word is obscure in origin; it may be from late Lat. _gaudivus_, from _gaudere_, to rejoice, the change of _d_ to _l_ being paralleled by _cigada_ and _cigale_, or from O. Norse _jol_, Eng. "yule," the northern festival of midwinter), and adjective meaning gay, cheerful, jovial, high-spirited. The colloquial use of the term as an intensive adverb, meaning extremely, very, was in early usage quite literary; thus John Trapp (1601-1669), _Commentaries on the New Testament, Matthew_ (1647), writes, "All was jolly quiet at Ephesus before St Paul came hither." In the royal navy "jolly" used as a substantive, is the slang name for a marine. To "jolly" is a slang synonym for "chaff." The word "jolly-boat," the name of a ship's small broad boat, usually clinker-built, is of doubtful etymology. It occurs in English in the 18th century, and is usually connected with Dan. or Swed. _jolle_, Dutch _jol_, a small ship's boat; these words are properly represented in English by "yawl" originally a ship's small boat, now chiefly used of a rig of sailing vessels, with a cutter-rigged foremast and a small mizzen stepped far aft, with a spanker sail (see RIGGING). A connexion has been suggested with a word of much earlier appearance in English, _jolywat_, or _gellywatte_. This occurs at the end of the 15th century and is used of a smaller type of ship's boat. This is supposed to be a corruption of the French _galiote_ or Dutch _galjoot_, galliot (see GALLEY). The galliot was, however, a large vessel. Entry: JOLLY
Iceland was not agricultural but pastoral, depending upon flocks Mode of and herds for subsistence, for, though rye and other grain would grow in favoured localities, the hay, self-sown, was the only regular crop. In some districts the fisheries and fowling were of importance, but nine-tenths of the population lived by their sheep and cattle. Life on each homestead was regularly portioned out: out door occupations--fishing, shepherding, fowling, and the hay-making and fuel-gathering--occupying the summer; while indoor business--weaving, tool-making, &c.--filled up the long winter. The year was broken by the spring feasts and moots, the great Althing meeting at midsummer, the marriage and arval gatherings after the summer, and the long yule feasts at midwinter. There were but two degrees of men, free and unfree, though only the franklins had any political power; and, from the nature of the life, social intercourse was unrestrained and unfettered; goði and thrall lived the same lives, ate the same food, spoke the same tongue, and differed little in clothing or habits. The thrall had a house of his own and was rather villein or serf than slave, having rights and a legal price by law. During the heathen days many great chiefs passed part of their lives in Norway at the king's court, but after the establishment of Christianity in Iceland they kept more at home, visiting the continent, however, for purposes of state, suits with clergy, &c. Trade was from the first almost entirely in foreign (Norse) hands. Entry: I