VOLUME IX SLICE VIII Ethiopia to Evangelical Association

Articles in This Slice

ETHIOPIA EUONYMUS

ETHNOLOGY and ETHNOGRAPHY EUPALINUS

ETHYL EUPATORIA

ETHYL CHLORIDE EUPATRIDAE

ETHYLENE EUPEN

ÉTIENNE, CHARLES GUILLAUME EUPHEMISM

ETIQUETTE EUPHONIUM

ETNA (volcano) EUPHORBIA

ETNA (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.) EUPHORBIACEAE

ETON EUPHORBIUM

ÉTRETAT EUPHORBUS

ETRURIA EUPHORION

ETTENHEIM EUPHRANOR

ETTINGSHAUSEN, CONSTANTIN EUPHRATES

ETTLINGEN EUPHRONIUS

ETTMÜLLER, ERNST MORITZ LUDWIG EUPHROSYNE

ETTMÜLLER, MICHAEL EUPHUISM

ETTRICK EUPION

ETTY, WILLIAM EUPOLIS

ETYMOLOGY EUPOMPUS

EU EURASIAN

EUBOEA EURE

EUBULIDES EURE-ET-LOIR

EUBULUS (of Anaphlystus) EUREKA

EUBULUS (Athenian poet) EUREKA SPRINGS

EUCALYPTUS EURIPIDES

EUCHARIS EUROCLYDON

EUCHARIST EUROPA

EUCHRE EUROPE

EUCKEN, RUDOLF CHRISTOPH EUROPIUM

EUCLASE EURYDICE

EUCLID (of Megara) EURYMEDON

EUCLID (Greek mathematician) EUSDEN, LAURENCE

EUCRATIDES EUSEBIUS (many bishops)

EUDAEMONISM EUSEBIUS (bishop of Rome)

EUDOCIA AUGUSTA EUSEBIUS (of Caesarea)

EUDOCIA MACREMBOLITISSA EUSEBIUS (of Emesa)

EUDOXIA LOPUKHINA EUSEBIUS (of Myndus)

EUDOXUS (of Cnidus) EUSEBIUS (of Nicomedia)

EUDOXUS (of Cyzicus) EUSKIRCHEN

EUGENE OF SAVOY EUSTACE

EUGENE EUSTATHIUS (of Antioch)

EUGENICS EUSTATHIUS (Macrembolites)

EUGÉNIE EUSTATHIUS (of Thessalonica)

EUGENIUS EUSTYLE

EUGENOL EUTAWVILLE

EUHEMERUS EUTHYDEMUS

EULENSPIEGEL, TILL EUTIN

EULER, LEONHARD EUTROPIUS

EUMENES (rulers of Pergamum) EUTYCHES

EUMENES (Macedonian general) EUTYCHIANUS

EUMENIDES EUTYCHIDES

EUMENIUS EUYUK

EUMOLPUS EVAGORAS

EUNAPIUS EVAGRIUS

EUNOMIUS EVANDER

EUNUCH EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE

EUNUCH FLUTE EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION

ETHIOPIA, or Aethiopia (Gr. Αἰθιοπία), the ancient classical name of a district of north-eastern Africa, bounded on the N. by Egypt and on the E. by the Red Sea.1 The application of the name has varied considerably at different times. In the Homeric poems the Aethiopes are the furthest of mankind both eastward and westward; the gods go to their banquets and probably the Sun sets in their country. With the growth of scientific geography they came to be located somewhat less vaguely, and indeed their name was employed as the equivalent of the Assyrian and Hebrew Cush (q.v.), the Kesh or Ekōsh of the Hieroglyphics (first found in Stele of Senwosri I.), i.e. a country extending from about the 24th to the 10th degree of N. lat., while its limits to the E. and W. were doubtful. The etymology of the name, which to a Greek ear meant “swarthy-faced,” is unknown, nor can we say why in official inscriptions of the Axumite dynasty the word is used as the equivalent of Habashat (whence the modern Abyssinia), which, from the context would appear to denote a tribe located in S. Arabia, whose name was rendered by the Greek geographers as Abaseni and Abissa.

The inhabitants of Ethiopia, partly perhaps owing to their honourable mention in the Homeric poems, attracted the attention of many Greek researchers, from Democritus onwards. Herodotus divides them into two main groups, a straight-haired race and a woolly-haired race, dwelling respectively to the East and West, and this distinction is confirmed by the Egyptian monuments. From his time onwards various names of tribes are enumerated, and to some extent geographically located, most of these appellations being Greek words, applied to the tribes by strangers in virtue of what seemed to be their leading characteristics, e.g. “Long-lived,” “Fish-eaters,” “Troglodytes,” &c. The bulk of our information is derived from Egyptian monuments, whence it appears that, originally occupied by independent tribes, who were raided (first by Seneferu or Snefru, first king of the IVth or last of the IIIrd Dynasty) and gradually subjected by Egyptian kings (the steps in this process are traced by E.W. Budge, The Egyptian Sudan, 1907, i. 505 sqq.), under the XVIIIth Dynasty it became an Egyptian province, administered by a viceroy (at first the Egyptian king’s son), called prince of Kesh, and paying tributes in negroes, oxen, gold, ivory, rare beads, hides and household utensils. The inhabitants frequently rebelled and were as often subdued; records of these repeated conquests were set up by the Egyptian kings in the shape of steles and temples; of the latter the temple of Amenhotep (Amenophis) III. at Soleb or Sulb seems to have been the most magnificent. Ethiopia became independent towards the 11th century B.C., when the XXIst Dynasty was reigning in Egypt. A state was founded, having for its capital Napata (mod. Merawi) at the foot of Jebel Barkal, “the sacred mountain,” which in time became formidable, and in the middle of the 8th century conquered Egypt; an Egyptian campaign is recorded in the famous stele of King Pankhi. The fortunes of the Ethiopian (XXVth) Dynasty belong to the history of Egypt (q.v.). After the Ethiopian yoke had been shaken off by Egypt, about 660 B.C., Ethiopia continued independent, under kings of whom not a few are known from inscriptions. Besides a number whose names have been discovered in cartouches at Jebel Barkal, the following, of whom all but the third have left important steles, can be roughly dated: Tandamane, son of Tirhaka (667-650), Asperta (630-600), Pankharer (600-560), Harsiōtf (560-525), Nastasen (525-500). From the evidence of the stele of the second (the Coronation Stele) and that of the fifth it has been inferred that the sovereignty early in this period became elective, a deputation of the various orders in the realm being (as Diodorus states), when a vacancy occurred, sent to Napata, where the chief god Amen selected out of the members of the royal family the person who was to succeed, and who became officially the god’s son; and it seems certain that the priestly caste was more influential in Ethiopia than in Egypt both before and after this period. Another stele (called the Stele of Excommunication) records the expulsion of a priestly family guilty of murder (H. Schäfer, Klio, vi. 287): the name of the sovereign who expelled them has been obliterated. The stele of Harsiōtf contains the record of nine expeditions, in the course of which the king subdued various tribes south of Meroë and built a number of temples. The stele of the last of these sovereigns, now in the Berlin Museum, and edited by H. Schäfer (Leipzig, 1901), contains valuable information concerning the state of the Ethiopian kingdom in its author’s time. Shortly after his accession he was threatened with invasion by Cambyses, the Persian conqueror of Egypt, but (according to his own account) destroyed the fleet sent by the invader up the Nile, while (as we learn from Herodotus) the land-force succumbed to famine (see Cambyses). It further appears that in his time and that of his immediate predecessors the capital of the kingdom had been removed from Napata, where in the time of Harsiōtf the temples and palaces were already in ruins, to Mercë at a distance of 60 camel-hours to the south-east. But Napata retained its importance as the religious metropolis; it was thither that the king went to be crowned, and there too the chief god delivered his oracles, which were (it is said) implicitly obeyed. The local names in Nastasen’s inscription, describing his royal circuit, are in many cases obscure. A city named Pnups (Hierogl. Pa-Nebes) appears to have constituted the most northerly point in the empire. These Ethiopian kings seem to have made no attempt to reconquer Egypt, though they were often engaged in wars with the wild tribes of the Sudan. For the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. the history of the country is a blank. A fresh epoch was, however, inaugurated by Ergamenes, a contemporary of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who is said to have massacred the priests at Napata, and destroyed sacerdotal influence, till then so great that the king might at the priests’ order be compelled to destroy himself; Diodorus attributes this measure to Ergamenes’ acquaintance with Greek culture, which he introduced into his country. A temple was built by this king at Pselcis (Dakka) to Thoth. Probably the sovereignty again became hereditary. Occasional notices of Ethiopia occur from this time onwards in Greek and Latin authors, though the special treatises by Agatharchides and others are lost. According to these the country came to be ruled by queens named Candace. One of them was involved in war with the Romans in 24 and 23 B.C.; the land was invaded by C. Petronius, who took the fortress Premis or Ibrim, and sacked the capital (then Napata); the emperor Augustus, however, ordered the evacuation of the country without even demanding tribute. The stretch of land between Assuan (Syene) and Maharraka (Hiera Sycaminus) was, however, regarded as belonging to the Roman empire, and Roman cohorts were stationed at the latter place. To judge by the monuments it is possible that there were queens who reigned alone. Pyramids were erected for queens as well as for kings, and the position of the queens was little inferior to that of their consorts, though, so far as monumental representations go, they always yielded precedence to the latter. Candace appears to be found as the name of a queen for whom a pyramid was built at Meroë. A great builder was Netekamane, who is represented with his queen Amanetari on temples of Egyptian style at many points up the Nile—at Amara just above the second cataract, and at Napata, as well as at Meroë, Benaga and Naga in the distant Isle of Meroë. He belongs, probably, to the Ptolemaic age. Later, in the Roman period, the type in sculpture changed from the Egyptian. The figures are obese, especially the women, and have pronounced negro features, and the royal person is loaded with bulging gold ornaments. Of this period also there is a royal pair, Netekamane and Amanetari, imitating the names of their conspicuous predecessors. In the 4th century A.D. the state of Meroë was ravaged by the Nubas(?) and the Abyssinians, and in the 6th century its place was taken by the Christian state of Nubia (see Dongola).

Contrary to the opinion of the Greeks, the Ethiopians appear to have derived their religion and civilization from the Egyptians. The royal inscriptions are written in the hieroglyphic character and the Egyptian language, which, however, in the opinion of experts, steadily deteriorate after the separation of Ethiopia from Egypt. About the time of Ergamenes, or (according to some authorities) before, a vernacular came to be employed in inscriptions, written in a special alphabet of 23 signs in parallel hieroglyphic and cursive forms. The cursive is to be read from right to left, the hieroglyphic, contrary to the Egyptian method, in the direction in which the figures face. The Egyptian equivalents of six characters have been made out by the aid of bilingual cartouches. Words are divided from each other by pairs of dots, and it is clear that the forms and values of the signs are largely based on Egyptian writing; but as yet decipherment has not been attained, nor can it yet be stated to what group the language should be assigned (F. Ll. Griffith in D.R. MacIver’s Areika, Oxford, 1909, and later researches).

Notices in Greek authors are collected by P. Paulitschke, Die geographische Erforschung des afrikanischen Continents (Vienna, 1880); the inscriptions were edited and interpreted by G. Maspero, Revue archéol. xxii., xxv.; Mélanges d’Assyriologie et d’Égyptologie, ii., iii.; Records of the Past, vi.; T.S.B.A. iv.; Schäfer, l.c., and Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache, xxxiii. See also J.H. Breasted, “The Monuments of Sudanese Nubia,” in American Journal of Semitic Languages (October 1908), and the work of E.W. Budge cited above. A description of the chief ruins and the results of Dr D.R. MacIver’s researches in northern Nubia, begun in 1907, will be found under Sudan: Anglo-Egyptian.

The Axumite Kingdom.—About the 1st century of the Christian era a new kingdom grew up at Axum (q.v.), of which a king Zoscales is mentioned in the Periplus Maris Erythraei. Fragments of the history of this kingdom, of which there is no authentic chronicle, have been made out chiefly by the aid of inscriptions, of which the following is a list:—(1) Greek inscription of Adulis, copied by Cosmas Indicopleustes in 545, the beginning, with the king’s name, lost. (2) Sabaean inscription of Ela Amida in two halves, discovered by J. Theodore Bent at Axum in 1893, and completed by E. Littmann in 1906. (3) Ethiopic inscription probably of the same king, imperfect (Littmann). (4) Trilingual inscription of Aeizanes, the Greek version discovered by Henry Salt in 1805, the Sabaean by Bent, and the Ethiopic (Geez) by Littmann. (5) Ethiopic inscription of Aeizanes (so Littmann), son of Ela Amida, discovered by Eduard Rüppell in 1833. (6) Ethiopic inscriptions of Hetana-Dan’el, son of Dabra Efrem. These are all long inscriptions giving details of wars, &c. The sixth is later than the rest, which are to be attributed to the most flourishing period of the kingdom, the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. The fourth is pagan, the fifth Christian, Aeizanes having in the interval embraced Christianity. It was to this king that the emperor Constantius addressed a letter in 356 A.D.

Aeizanes and his successors style themselves kings of the Axumites, Homerites (Himyar), Raidan, the Ethiopians (Habašat), the Sabaeans, Silee, Tiamo, the Bugaites (Beģa) and Kasu. This style implies considerable conquests in South Arabia, which, however, must have been lost to the Axumites by A.D. 378. They claim to rule the Kasu or Meroitic Ethiopians; and the fifth inscription records an expedition along the Atbara and the Nile to punish the Nuba and Kasu, and a fragment of a Greek inscription from Meroë was recognized by Sayce as commemorating a king of Axum. Except for these inscriptions Axumite history is a blank until in the 6th century we find the Axumite king sending an expedition to wreck the Jewish state then existing in S. Arabia, and reducing that country to a state of vassalage: the king is styled in Ethiopian chronicles Caleb (Kaleb), in Greek and Arabic documents El-Esbaha. In the 7th century a successor to this king, named Abraha or Abraham, gave refuge to the persecuted followers of Mahomet at the beginning of his career (see Arabia: History, ad init.). A few more names of kings occur on coins, which were struck in Greek characters till about A.D. 700, after which time that language seems definitely to have been displaced in favour of Ethiopic or Geez: the condition of the script and the coins renders them all difficult to identify with the names preserved in the native lists, which are too fanciful and mutually contradictory to furnish of themselves even a vestige of history. For the period between the rise of Islam and the beginning of the modern history of Abyssinia there are a few notices in Arabic writers; so we have a notice of a war between Ethiopia and Nubia about 687 (C.C. Rossini in Giorn. Soc. Asiat. Ital. x. 141), and of a letter to George king of Nubia from the king of Abyssinia some time between 978 and 1003, when a Jewish queen Judith was oppressing the Christian population (I. Guidi, ibid. iii. 176, 7).

The Abyssinian chronicles, it may be noted, attribute the foundation of the kingdom to Menelek (or Ibn el-Hakim), son of Solomon and the queen of Sheba. The Axumite or Menelek dynasty was driven from northern Abyssinia by Judith, but soon after another Christian dynasty, that of the Zagués, obtained power. In 1268 the reigning prince abdicated in favour of Yekūnō Amlāk. king of Shoa, a descendant of the monarch overthrown by Judith (see Abyssinia).

See A. Dillman, Die Anfänge des axumitischen Reiches (Berlin, 1879); E. Drouin, Revue archéol. xliv. (1882); T. Mommsen, Geschichte der römischen Provinzen, chap. xiii.; W. Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones selectae, Nos. 199, 200; Littmann u. Kroncker, Vorbericht der deutschen Aksum-Expedition (Berlin, 1906), and Littman’s subsequent researches.

Ethiopic Literature

The employment of the Geez or Ethiopic language for literary purposes appears to have begun no long time before the introduction of Christianity into Abyssinia, and its pagan period is represented by two Axumite inscriptions (published by D.H. Müller in J.T. Bent’s Sacred City of the Ethiopians, 1893), and an inscription at Matara (published by C.C. Rossini, Rendiconti Accad. Lincei, 1896). As a literary language it survived its use as a vernacular, but it is unknown at what time it ceased to be the latter. In Sir W. Cornwallis Harris’s Highlands of Aethiopia (1844) there is a list of rather more than 100 works extant in Ethiopic; subsequent research has chiefly brought to light fresh copies of the same works, but it has contributed some fresh titles. A conspectus of all the MSS. known to exist in Europe (over 1200 in number) was published by C.C. Rossini in 1899 (Rendiconti Accad. Lincei, ser. v. vol. viii.); of these the largest collection is that in the British Museum, but others of various sizes are to be found in the chief libraries of Europe. R.E. Littmann (in the Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, xv. and xvi.) describes two collections at Jerusalem, one of which contains 283 MSS.; and Rossini (Rendiconti, 1904) a collection of 35 MSS. belonging to the Catholic mission at Cheren. Other collections exist in Abyssinia, and many MSS. are in private hands. In 1893 besides portions of the Bible some 40 Ethiopic books had been printed in Europe (enumerated in L. Goldschmidt’s Bibliotheca Aethiopica), but many more have since been published.

Geez literature is ordinarily divided into two periods, of which the first dates from the establishment of Christianity in the 5th century, and ends somewhere in the 7th; the second from the re-establishment of the Salomonic dynasty in 1268, continuing to the present time. It consists chiefly of translations, made in the first period from Greek, in the second from Arabic. It has no authors of the first or even of the second rank. Its character as a sacred and literary language is due to its translation of the Bible, which in the ordinary enumeration is made to contain 81 books, 46 of the Old Testament, and 35 of the New. These figures are most probably obtained by adding to the ordinary canonical books Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Jubilees, Enoch, the Ascension of Isaiah, Ezra IV., Shepherd of Hermas, the Synodos (Canons of the Apostles), the Book of Adam, and Joseph Ben Gorion. For the distinction between canonical and apocryphal appears to be unknown to the Ethiopic Church, whose chief service to Biblical literature consists in its preservation of various apocryphal works which other parts of Christendom have lost or possess only in an imperfect form (see Enoch; Jubilees, Book of, &c.). It should be observed that the Maccabees of the Ethiopic Bible is an entirely different work from the books of that name included in the Septuagint, of which, however, the Abyssinians have a recent version made from the Vulgate; specimens of their own Maccabees have been published by J. Horovitz in the Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, vol. xx. The MSS. of the Biblical books vary very much, and none of them can claim any great antiquity; the oldest extant MS. of the four Books of Kings appears to be one in the Museo Borgiano, presented by King Amda Sion (1314) to the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem (described by N. Roupp, ibid. xvi. 296-342). Hence P. de Lagarde supposed the Ethiopic version to have been made from the Arabic, which indeed is in accordance with a native tradition. This opinion is held by few; C.F.A. Dillman distinguished in the case of the Old Testament three classes of MSS., a versio antiqua, made from the Septuagint (probably in the Hesychian text), a class revised from Greek MSS., and a class revised from the Hebrew (probably through the medium of an Arabic version). An examination of ten chapters of St Matthew by L. Hackspill (ibid. vol. xi.) led to the result that the Ethiopic version of the Gospels was made about A.D. 500, from a Syro-occidental text, and that this original translation is represented by Cod. Paris. Aeth. 32; whereas most MSS. and all printed editions contain a text influenced by the Alexandrian Vulgate, and show traces of Arabic. Rossini (ibid. x. 232) has made it probable that the Abba Salāmā, whom the native tradition identifies with Frumentius, evangelist of Abyssinia, to whom the translation of the Bible was ascribed, was in reality a Metropolitan of the early 14th century, who revised the corrupt text then current. Of the ancient translation the latest book is said to be Ecclesiasticus, translated in the year 678. The New Testament has been published repeatedly (first in Rome, 1548-1549; some letters about its publication were edited by I. Guidi in the Archivio della Soc. Rom. di Storia Patria, 1886), and C.F.A. Dillmann edited a critical text of most of the Old Testament and Apocrypha, but did not live to complete it; portions have been edited by J. Bachmann and others.

Other translations thought to belong to the first period are the Sher‘ata Makhbār, ascribed to S. Pachomius; the Kerilos, a collection of homilies and tracts, beginning with Cyril of Alexandria De recta fide; and the Physiologus, a fanciful work on Natural History (edited by F. Hommel, Leipzig, 1877).

Of the works belonging to the second period much the most important are those which deal with Abyssinian history. A court official, called sahāfē te’ezāzenet (secretary), having under him a staff of scribes, was employed to draw up the public annals year by year; and on these official compositions the Abyssinian histories are based. The earliest part of the Axum chronicle preserved is that recording the wars of Amda Sion (1314-1344) against the Moslems; it is doubtful, however, whether even this exists in its original form, as some scholars think; according to its editor (J. Perruchon in the Journ. Asiat. for 1889) it is preserved in a recension of the time of King Zar‘a Ya‘kūb. Under King Lebna Dengel (1508-1540) the annals of his four predecessors, Zar‘a Ya‘kūb, Baeda Maryam, Eskender and Na‘od (1434-1508) were drawn up; those of the first two were published by J. Perruchon (Paris, 1893); in the Journ. Asiat. for 1894 the same scholar published a further fragment of the history of Baeda Maryam, written by the tutor to the king’s children, and the history of Eskender, Amda Sion II. and Na’od as compiled in Lebna Dengel’s time. The history of Lebna Dengel was published by the same scholar (Journ. Semit. i. 274) and Rossini (Rendiconti, 1894, v. p. 617); that of his successor Claudius (1540-1559) by Conzelmann (Paris, 1895); that of his successor Minas (1559-1563) by F.M.E. Pereira (Lisbon, 1888); those of the three following kings, Sharsa Dengel, Zā Dengel, and Ya’kūb, by Rossini (Rendiconti, 1893). The history of the next king Sysenius (1606-1632) by Abba Meherka Dengel and Tekla Shelase was edited by Pereira (Lisbon, 1892); the chronicles of Joannes I., Iyasu I. and Bakaffa (1682-1730) by I. Guidi, with a French translation (Paris, 1903-1905); all are contemporary, and the names of the chroniclers of the last two kings are recorded. Besides these we have the partly fabulous chronicle of Lalibela (of uncertain date, but before the Salomonian dynasty was restored), edited by Perruchon (Paris, 1892); and a brief chronicle of Abyssinia, drawn up in the reign of Iyasu II. (1729-1753), embodying materials abridged, but often unaltered, was published by R. Basset, in the Journ. Asiat. for 1882 (cf. Rossini in the Rendiconti, 1893-1894, p. 668), and has since formed the basis for Abyssinian history. Many compilations of the sort exist in MS. in libraries, and great praise is bestowed on the one which E. Rüppell, when travelling in Abyssinia, ordered to be drawn up for his use. It is now in the collection of his MSS. at Frankfurt. Ethiopic scholars speak of a special “historical style” which comes from the mixture of the styles of different periods, and the admixture of Amharic phrases and idioms. The historian of the wars of Amda Sion is credited with some literary merit; most of the chroniclers have little.

The remaining literature of the second period is thought to begin somewhat earlier than these chronicles. To the time of King Yekūnō Amlāk (1268-1283) the historical romance called Kebra Nagaset (Glory of Kings) is assigned by its editor, C. Bezold (Bavarian Academy, 1904); other scholars gave it a somewhat later date. Its purpose is to glorify the Salomonian dynasty, whence, in spite of a colophon which declares it to be a translation, it was regarded as an original work; since, however, it shows evident signs of having been translated from Arabic, Bezold supposes that its author, Ishāk, was an immigrant whose native language was Arabic, in which therefore he would naturally write the first draft of his book. To the time of Yagbea Sion (ob. 1294) belongs the Vision of the Prophet Habakkuk in Kartasā, as also the works of Abba Salāmā, regarded as the founder of the Ethiopic renaissance, one of whose sermons is preserved in a Cheren MS. With his name are connected the Acts of the Passion, the Service for the Dead and the translation of Philexius, i.e. Philoxenus. King Zar‘a Ya‘kūb composed or had composed for him as many as seven books; the most important of these is the Book of Light (Mashafa Berhān), paraphrased as Kirchenordnung, by Dillmann, who gave an analysis of its contents (Über die Regierung des Königs Zar‘a Ya‘kob, Berl. Acad., 1884). He also organized the compilation of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary, one of the most popular of Ethiopic books; a magnificent edition was printed by E.W. Budge in the Meux collection (London, 1900). In the same reign the Arabic chronicle of al-Makīn was translated into Geez. Under Lebna Dengel (ob. 1540), besides the above-mentioned collection of chronicles, we hear of the translation from the Arabic of the history and martyrdom of St George, the Commentary of J. Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the ascetic works of J. Saba called Aragāwī manfasāwī. Under Claudius (1540-1559) Maba Sion is said to have translated from the Arabic The Faith of the Fathers, a vast compilation, including the Didascalia Apostalorum (edited by Platt, London, 1834), and the Creed of Jacob Baradaeus (published by Cornill, ZDMG. xxx. 417-466), and to the same reign belong the Book of Extreme Unction (Mashafa Kandīl), and the religious romance Barlaam et Joasaph also paraphrased from the Arabic (partly edited by A. Zotenberg in Notices et Extraits, vol. xxviii.). The Confession of Faith of King Claudius has been repeatedly printed. The reign of Sharsa Dengel (ob. 1595) was marked by many literary monuments, such as the religious and controversial compilation called Mazmura Chrestos, and the translation, by a certain Salik, of the religious encyclopaedia (Mashafa Hāiā) of the monk Nikon; an Arab merchant from Yemen, who took on conversion the name Anbākōm (Habakkuk), translated a number of books from the Arabic. Under Ya’kūb (ob. 1605) the valuable chronicle of John of Nikiou was translated from Arabic (edited by A. Zotenberg with French translation in Notices et extraits, vol. xxiv.). Under John, about 1687, the Spiritual Medicine of Michael, bishop of Adtrib and Malig, was translated. The literature that is not accurately dated consists largely of liturgies, prayers and hymns; Ethiopic poetry is chiefly, if not entirely, represented by the last of these, the most popular work of the kind being an ode in praise of the Virgin, called Weddase Maryam (edited by K. Fries, Leipzig, 1892). Various hymn-books bear the names Degua, Zemmare and Mawas‘et (Antiphones); there is also a biblical history in verse called Mashafa Madbal or Mestīra Zamān. Homilies also exist in large numbers, both original and translated, sometimes after the Arabic fashion in rhymed prose. Hagiology is naturally an important department in Ethiopic literature. In the great collection called Synaxar (translated originally from Arabic, but with large additions) for each day of the year there is the history of one or more saints; an attempt has been made by H. Dünsing (1900) to derive some actual history from it. Many texts containing lives of individual saints have been issued. Such are those of Maba Sion and Gabra Chrestos, edited by Budge in the Meux collection (London, 1899); the Acts of S. Mercurius, of which a fragment was edited by Rossini (Rome, 1904); the unique MS. of the original, one of the most extensive works in the Geez language, was burned by thieves who set fire to the editor’s house. The same scholar began a series of Vitae Sanctorum antiquiorum, while Monumenta Aethiopiae hagiologica and Vitae Sanctorum indigenarum have been edited by B. Turaiev (Leipzig and St Petersburg, 1902, and Rome, 1905). Other lives have been edited by Pereira, Guidi, &c. Similar in historical value to these works is the History of the Exploits of Alexander, of which various recensions have been edited by Budge (London, 1895). See further Alexander the Great, section on the legends, ad fin.

Of Law the most important monument is the Fatha Nagaset (Judgment of Kings), of which an official edition was issued by I. Guidi (Rome, 1899), with an Italian translation; it is a version probably made in the early 16th century of the Arabic code of Ibn ‘Assal, of the 12th century, whose work, being meant for Christians living under Moslem rule, was not altogether suitable for an independent Christian kingdom; yet the need for such a code made it popular and authoritative in Abyssinia. The translator was not quite equal to his task, and the Brit. Mus. MS. 800 exhibits an attempt to correct it from the original.

Science can scarcely be said to exist in Geez literature, unless a medical treatise, of which the British Museum possesses a copy, comes under this head. Philosophy is mainly represented by mystical commentaries on Scripture, such as the Book of the Mystery of Heaven and Earth, by Ba-Hailu Michael, probably of the 15th century, edited by Perruchon and Guidi (Paris, 1903). There is, however, a translation of the Book of the Wise Philosophers, made by Michael, son of Abba Michael, consisting of various aphorisms; specimens have been edited by Dillmann in his Chrestomathy, and J. Cornill (Leipzig, 1876). There is also a translation of Secundus the Silent, edited by Bachmann (Berlin, 1888). Far more interesting than these is the treatise of Zar‘a Ya‘kūb of Axum, composed in the year 1660 (edited by Littman, 1904), which contains an endeavour to evolve rules of life according to nature. The author reviews the codes of Moses, the Gospel and the Koran, and decides that all contravene the obvious intentions of the Creator. He also gives some details of his own life and his occupation of scribe. A less original treatise by Walda Haywat accompanies it. Epistolography is represented by the diplomatic correspondence of some of the kings with the Portuguese and Spanish courts; some documents of this sort have been edited by C. Beccari, Documenti inediti per la storia d’ Etiopia (Rome, 1903); lexicography, by the vocabulary called Sawāsew. The first Ethiopic book printed was the Psalter (Rome, 1513), by John Potken of Cologne, the first European who studied the language.

See C.C. Rossini, “Note per la storia letteraria Abissina,” in Rendiconti della R. Accad. dei Lincei (1899); Fumagalli, Bibliografia Etiopica (1893); Basset, Études sur l’histoire de l’Éthiopie (1882); Catalogues of various libraries, especially British Museum (Wright), Paris (Zotenberg), Oxford and Berlin (Dillmann), Frankfurt (Goldschmidt). Plates illustrating Ethiopic palaeography are to be found in Wright’s Catalogue; an account of the illustrations in Ethiopic MSS. is given by Budge in his Life of Maba Sion; and a collection of inscriptions in the church of St Stefano dei Mori, in Rome, by Gallina in the Archivio della Soc. Rom. di Storia Patria (1888).

(D. S. M.*)

1 For the topography and later history see Sudan and Abyssinia.

ETHNOLOGY and ETHNOGRAPHY (from the Gr. ἔθνος, race, and λόγος, science, or γράφειν, to write), sciences which in their narrowest sense deal respectively with man as a racial unit (mankind), i.e. his development through the family and tribal stages into national life, and with the distribution over the earth of the races and nations thus formed. Though the etymology of the words permits in theory of this line of division between ethnology and ethnography, in practice they form an indivisible study of man’s progress from the point at which anthropology (q.v.) leaves him.

Ethnology is thus the general name for investigations of the widest character, including subjects which in this encyclopaedia are dealt with in detail under separate headings, such as Archaeology, Art (and allied articles), Commerce, Geography (and the headings for countries and tribes), Family, Name, Ethics, Law, Mythology, Folk-Lore (and allied articles), Philology (and allied articles), Agriculture, Architecture, Religion, Sociology, &c., &c. It covers generally the whole history of the material and intellectual development of man, as it has passed through the stages of (a) hunting and fishing, (b) sheep and cattle tending, (c) agriculture, (d) industry. It investigates his food, his weapons, tools and implements, his housing, his social, economic and commercial organization, forms of government, language, art, literature, morals, superstitions and religious systems. In this sense ethnology is the older term for what now is called sociology. At the present day the progress of research has in practice, however, restricted the “ethnologist” as a rule to the study of one or more branches only of so wide a subject, and the word “ethnology” is used with a somewhat vague meaning for any ethnological study; each country or nation has thus its own separate ethnology. It becomes more convenient, therefore, to deal with the ethnology as a special subject in each case. “Ethnography,” in so far as it has a distinctive province, is then conveniently restricted to the scientific mapping out of different racial regions, nations and tribes; and it is only necessary here to refer the reader to the separate articles on continents, &c., where this is done. The only fundamental problem which need here be referred to is that of the whole question of the division of mankind into separate races at all, which is consequential on the earlier problem (dealt with in the article Anthropology) as to man’s origin and antiquity.

If we assume that man existed on the earth in remote geological time, the question arises, was this pleistocene man specifically one? What evidence is there that he represented in his different habitats a series of varieties of one species rather than a series of species? The evidence is of three kinds, (1) anatomical, (2) physiological, (3) cultural and psychical.

1. Dr Robert Munro, in his address to the Anthropological section of the British Association in 1893, said: “All the osseous remains of man which have hitherto been collected and examined point to the fact that, during the larger portion of the quarternary period, if not, indeed, from its very commencement, he had already acquired his human characteristics.” By “characteristics” is here meant those anatomical ones which distinguish man from other animals, not the physical criteria of the various races. Do, then, these anatomical characteristics of pleistocene man show such differences among themselves and between them and the types of man existing to-day as to justify the assumption that there has ever been more than one species of man?

The undoubted “osseous remains” of pleistocene man are few. Burial was not practised, and the few bones found are for the most part those which have by mere chance been preserved in caves or rock-shelters. Of these the three chief “finds,” in order of probable age, are the Trinil (Java) brain-cap, the lowest human skull yet described, characterized by depressed cranial arch, with a cephalic index of 70; the Neanderthal (Germany) skull, remarkable for its flat retreating curve with an index of 73-76; and the two nearly perfect skeletons found at Spy (Belgium), the skulls of which exhibit enormous brow ridges with cranial indices of 70 and 75. All these skulls, taken in conjunction with other well-authenticated human remains such as those found at La Naulette (Belgium), Shipka (Balkan Peninsula), Olmo (Italy), Predmert (Bohemia) and in Argentina and Brazil, make it possible to reconstruct anatomically the varying types of pleistocene man, and to establish the fact that in essential features the same primitive type has persisted through all time. The skeleton bones show differences so slight as to admit of pathological or other explanation. What Professor Kollmann says of man to-day was true in the remotest ages. Referring to Cuvier’s statement that from a single bone it is possible to determine the very species to which an animal belongs, he says, “Precisely on this ground I have mainly concluded that the existence of several human species cannot be recognized, for we are unacquainted with a single tribe from a single bone of which we might with certainty determine to what species it belonged.” Such differences as the bones exhibit are progressive modifications towards the higher neolithic and modern types, and are in themselves entirely incapable of supporting the theory that the owner of the Trinil skull, say, and the “man of Spy” belonged to separate species. All these “osseous remains” belong to the palaeolithic period, and from the cranial indices it is thus clear that palaeolithic man was long-headed. Neolithic man is, speaking generally, round-headed, and it has been urged that round-headedness is entirely synchronous with the neolithic age, and that the long-headed palaeolithic species of mankind gave place all at once to the round-headed neolithic species. The point thus raised involves the physiological as well as, indeed more than, the anatomical proofs of man’s specific unity.

2. All physiologists agree that species cannot breed with species. Darwin himself laid it down as a fundamental principle. If then the palaeolithic and neolithic types represented separate species, they would be found to remain distinct through all time. This is not the case. There is evidence that extreme dolichocephaly continued into neolithic times, and was only slowly modified into brachycephaly. In the neolithic caves of Italy, Austria, Belgium, and the barrows of Great Britain, skulls of all types are found. The later cave-dwellers and early dolmen builders of Europe were at first long-headed, then of medium type, and finally in some places exclusively round-headed. In England the round-heads appear to be synchronous with the metal age, as shown by the contents of the barrows, and, as on the continental mainland, the two types gradually blended. Permanent fertility between them in prehistoric Europe is thus proved. And this is the case throughout the habitable globe. An examination of the osseous remains of American man supports the view that the human species has not varied since quaternary times. The palaeolithic type is to be found among modern European populations. Certain skulls from South Australia seem cast in almost the same mould as the Neanderthal. After thousands of years nearly pure descendants of quaternary man are found among living races. And man’s mutual fertility in prehistoric is repeated throughout historic times: strict racial purity is almost unknown. Thus the unity of the species man is proved by the test of fertility.

3. The works of early man everywhere present the most startling resemblance. The palaeolithic implements all over the globe are all of one pattern. “The implements in distant lands,” writes Sir J. Evans, “are so identical in form and character with the British specimens that they might have been manufactured by the same hands.... On the banks of the Nile, many hundreds of feet above its present level, implements of the European types have been discovered; while in Somaliland, in an ancient river-valley at a great elevation above the sea, Sir H.W. Seton-Karr has collected a large number of implements formed of flint and quartzite, which, judging from their form and character, might have been dug out of the drift-deposits of the Somme and the Seine, the Thames or the ancient Solent.” This identity in the earliest arts is repeated in the later stages of man’s culture; his arts and crafts, his manners and customs, exhibit a similarity so close as to compel the presumption that all the races are but divisions of one family. But perhaps the greatest psychical proof of man’s specific unity is his common possession of language. Theodore Waitz writes: “Inasmuch as the possession of a language of regular grammatical structure forms a fixed barrier between man and brute, it establishes at the same time a near relationship between all people in psychical respects.... In the presence of this common feature of the human mind, all other differences lose their import” (Anthropology, p. 273). As Dr J.C. Prichard urged, “the same inward and mental nature is to be recognized in all races of men. When we compare this fact with the observations, fully established, as to the specific instincts and separate psychical endowments of all the distinct tribes of sentient beings in the Universe we are entitled to draw confidently the conclusion that all human races are of one species and one family.” It has been argued that stock languages imply stock races, but this assumption is untenable. There are some fifty irreducible stock languages in the United States and Canada, yet, taking into consideration the physical and moral homogeneity of the American Indian races, he would be a reckless theorist who held that there were therefore fifty separate human species. If it were so, how have they descended? There are no anthropoid apes in America, none of the ape family higher than the Cebidae, from which it is impossible to trace men. Again, in Australia there is certainly one stock language, yet there are not even Cebidae. In Caucasia, there are many distinct forms of speech, yet all the peoples belong to the Caucasic division of mankind.

Man, then, may be regarded as specifically one, and thus he must have had an original cradle-land, whence the peopling of the earth was brought about by migration. The evidence tends to prove that the world was peopled by a generalized proto-human form. Each division of mankind would thus have had its pleistocene ancestors, and would have become differentiated into races by the influence of climatic and other surroundings. As to the man’s cradle-land there have been many theories, but the weight of evidence is in favour of Indo-Malaysia.

Of all animals man’s range alone coincides with that of the habitable globe, and the real difficulty of the “cradle-land” theory lay in explaining how the human race spread to every land. This problem has been met by geology, which proves that the earth’s surface has undergone great changes since man’s appearance, and that continents, long since submerged, once existed, making a complete land communication from Indo-Malaysia. The evidence for the Indo-African continent has been summed up by R.D. Oldham,1 and proofs no less cogent are available of the former existence of an Eurafrican continent, while the extension of Australia in the direction of New Guinea is more than probable. Thus the ancestor of man was free to move in all directions over the eastern hemisphere. The western hemisphere was more than probably connected with Europe and Asia, in Tertiary times, by a continent, the existence of which is evidenced by a submarine bank stretching from Scotland through the Faeroes and Iceland to Greenland, and on the other side by continuous land at what is now the Behring Straits.

Acclimatization has been urged as an argument against the cradle-land theory, but the peopling of the globe took place in inter-Glacial if not pre-Glacial ages, when the climate was much milder everywhere, and thus pleistocene man met no climatic difficulties in his migrations.

Probably before the close of Palaeolithic times all the primary divisions of man were specialized in their several habitats by the influence of their surroundings. The profound effect of climate is seen in the relative culture of races. Thus, tropical countries are inhabited by savage or semi-savage peoples, while the higher races are confined to temperate zones. The primary divisions of mankind, Ethiopic, Mongolic, Caucasic, were certainly differentiated in neolithic times, and these criteria had almost certainly occurred not consecutively in one area but simultaneously in several areas. A Negro was not metamorphosed into a Mongol, nor the latter into a White, but the several semi-simian precursors under varying environments developed into generalized Negro, generalized Mongol, generalized Caucasian.

Taking, then, these three primary divisions as those into which it is most reasonable broadly to divide mankind they may be analysed as to their racial constituents and their habitats as follows:—

1. Caucasic or White Man is best divided, following Huxley, into (a) Xanthochroi or “fair whites” and (b) Melanochroi or “dark whites.” (a) The first—tall, with almost colourless skin, blue or grey eyes, hair from straw colour to chestnut, and skulls varying as to proportionate width—are the prevalent inhabitants of Northern Europe, and the type may be traced into North Africa and eastward as far as India. On the south and west it mixes with that of the Melanochroi and on the north and east with that of the Mongoloids. (b) The “dark whites” differ from the fair whites in the darkening of the complexion to brownish and olive, and of the eyes and hair to black, while the stature is somewhat lower and the frame lighter. To this division belong a large part of those classed as Celts, and of the populations of Southern Europe, such as Spaniards, Greeks and Arabs, extending as far as India, while endless intermediate grades between the two white types testify to ages of intermingling. Besides these two main types, the Caucasic division of mankind has been held with much reason to include such aberrant types as the brown Polynesian races of the Eastern Pacific, Samoans, Hawaiians, Maoris, &c., the proto-Malay peoples of the Eastern archipelago, sometimes termed Indonesians, represented by the Dyaks of Borneo and the Battaks of Sumatra, the Todas of India and the Ainus of Japan.

2. Mongolic or Yellow Man prevails over the vast area lying east of a line drawn from Lapland to Siam. His physical characteristics are a short squat body, a yellowish-brown or coppery complexion, hair lank, straight and black, flat small nose, broad skull, usually without prominent brow-ridges, and black oblique eyes. Of the typical Mongolic races the chief are the Chinese, Tibetans, Burmese, Siamese; the Finnic group of races occupying Northern Europe, such as Finns, Lapps, Samoyedes and Ostyaks, and the Arctic Asiatic group represented by the Chukchis and Kamchadales; the Tunguses, Gilyaks and Golds north of, and the Mongols proper west of, Manchuria; the pure Turkic peoples and the Japanese and Koreans. Less typical, but with the Mongolic elements so predominant as to warrant inclusion, are the Malay peoples of the Eastern archipelago. Lastly, though differentiated in many ways from the true Mongol, the American races from the Eskimo to the Fuegians must be reckoned in the Yellow division of mankind.

3. Negroid or Black Man is primarily represented by the Negro of Africa between the Sahara and the Cape district, including Madagascar. The skin varies from dark brown to brown-black, with eyes of the same colour, and hair usually black and always crisp or woolly. The skull is narrow, with orbital ridges not prominent, the jaws protrude, the nose is flat and broad, and the lips thick and everted. Two important families are classed in this division; some authorities hold, as special modifications of the typical Negro to-day, others as actually nearer the true generalized Negroid type of neolithic times. First are the Bushman of South Africa, diminutive in stature and of a yellowish-brown colour: the neighbouring Hottentot is believed to be the result of crossing between the Bushman and the true Negro. Second are the large Negrito family, represented in Africa by the dwarf races of the equatorial forests, the Akkas, Batwas, Wochuas and others, and beyond Africa by the Andaman Islanders, the Aetas of the Philippines, and probably the Senangs and other aboriginal tribes of the Malay Peninsula. The Negroid type seems to have been the earliest predominant in the South Sea islands, but it is impossible to say certainly whether it is itself derived from the Negrito, or the latter is a modification of it, as has been suggested above. In Melanesia, the Papuans of New Guinea, of New Caledonia, and other islands, represent a more or less Negroid type, as did the now extinct Tasmanians.

Excluded from this survey of the grouping of Man are the aborigines of Australia, whose ethnical affinities are much disputed. Probably they are to be reckoned as Dravidians, a very remote blend of Caucasic and Negro man. For a detailed discussion of the branches of these three main divisions of Man the reader must refer to articles under race headings, and to Negro; Negritos; Mongols; Malays; Indians, North American; Australia; Africa; &c., &c.

Bibliography.—J.C. Prichard, Natural History of Man (London, 1843), Researches into the Physical History of Mankind (5 vols., 1836-1847); T.H. Huxley, Man’s Place in Nature (London, 1863), and “Geographical Distribution of Chief Modifications of Mankind,” in Journ. Anthropological Institute for 1870; Theodore Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvölker (1859-1871); A. de Quatrefages, Histoire générale des races humaines (Paris, 1889); E.B. Tylor, Anthropology (1881); Lord Avebury, Prehistoric Times (1865; 6th ed., 1900) and Origin of Civilization (1870; 6th ed., 1902); F. Ratzel, History of Mankind (Eng. trans., 1897); A.H. Keane, Ethnology (2nd ed., 1897), and Man: Past and Present (2nd ed., 1899); G. de Mortillet, Le Préhistorique (Paris, 1882; 3rd ed., 1900); D.G. Brinton, Races and Peoples (1890); J. Deniker, The Races of Man (London, 1900); Hutchinson’s Living Races of Mankind (1906).

1 Writing in the Geographical Journal, March 1894, on “Evolution of Indian Geography,” he says: “The plants of Indian and African coal measures are without exception identical, and among the few animals which have been found in India one is indistinguishable from an African species, another is closely allied, and both faunas are characterized by the very remarkable genus group of reptiles comprising the Dicynodon and other allied forms (see Manual of Geology of India, 2nd ed. p. 203). These, however, are not the only analogies, for near the coast of South Africa there are developed a series of beds containing the plant fossils in the lower part and marine shells in the upper, known as the Uitenhage series, which corresponds exactly to the small patches of the Rajmahál series along the east coast of India. The few plant forms found in the lower beds of Africa are mostly identical with or closely allied to the Rajmahál species, while of the very few marine shells in the Indian outcrops, which are sufficiently well preserved for identification, at least one species is identical with an African form. These very close relationships between the plants and animals of India and Africa at this remote period appear inexplicable unless there were direct land communications between them over what is now the Indian Ocean. On the east coast of India in the Khasi Hills, and on the coast of South Africa, the marine fossils of late Jurassic and early cretaceous age are largely identical with, or very closely allied to each other, showing that they must have been inhabitants of one and the same great sea. In western India the fossils of the same age belong to a fauna which is found in the north of Madagascar, in northern and eastern Africa, in western Asia, and ranges into Europe—a fauna differing so radically from that of the eastern exposures that only a few specimens of world-wide range are found in both. Seeing that the distances between the separate outcrops containing representatives of the two faunas are much less than those separating the outcrops from the nearest ones of the same fauna, the only possible explanation of the facts is that there was a continuous stretch of dry land connecting South Africa and India and separating two distinct marine zoological provinces.”

ETHYL, in chemistry, the name given to the alkyl radical C2H5. The compounds containing this radical are treated under other headings; the hydride is better known as ethane, the alcohol, C2H5OH, is the ordinary alcohol of commerce, and the oxide (C2H5)2O is ordinary ether.

ETHYL CHLORIDE, or Hydrochloric Ether, C2H5Cl, a chemical compound prepared by passing dry hydrochloric acid gas into absolute alcohol. It is a colourless liquid with a sweetish burning taste and an agreeable odour. It is extremely volatile, boiling at 12.5° C. (54.5° F.), and is therefore a gas at ordinary room temperatures; it is stored in glass tubes fitted with screw-capped nozzles. The vapour burns with a smoky green-edged flame. It is largely used in dentistry and slight surgical operations to produce local anaesthesia (q.v.), and is known by the trade-name kelene. More volatile anaesthetics such as anestile or anaesthyl and coryl are produced by mixing with methyl chloride; a mixture of ethyl and methyl chlorides with ethyl bromide is known as somnoform.

ETHYLENE, or Ethene, C2H4, or H2C:CH2, the first representative of the series of olefine hydrocarbons, is found in coal gas. It is usually prepared by heating a mixture of ethyl alcohol and sulphuric acid. G.S. Newth (Jour. Chem. Soc., 1901, 79, p. 915) obtains a purer product by dropping ethyl alcohol into syrupy phosphoric acid (sp. gr. 1.75) warmed to 200° C., subsequently raising the temperature to 220° C. It can also be obtained by the action of sodium on ethylidene chloride (B. Tollens, Ann., 1866, 137, p. 311); by the reduction of copper acetylide with zinc dust and ammonia; by heating ethyl bromide with an alcoholic solution of caustic potash; by passing a mixture of carbon bisulphide and sulphuretted hydrogen over red-hot copper; and by the electrolysis of a concentrated solution of potassium succinate,

(CH2·CO2K)2 + 2H2O = C2H4 + 2CO2 + 2KOH + H2.

It is a colourless gas of somewhat sweetish taste; it is slightly soluble in water, but more so in alcohol and ether. It can be liquefied at −1.1° C., under a pressure of 42½ atmos. It solidifies at −181° C. and melts at −169° C. (K. Olszewski); it boils at −105° C. (L.P. Cailletet), or −102° to −103° C. (K. Olszewski). Its critical temperature is 13° C., and its specific gravity is 0.9784 (air = 1). The specific gravity of liquid ethylene is 0.386 (3° C.). Ethylene burns with a bright luminous flame, and forms a very explosive mixture with oxygen. For the combustion of ethylene see Flame. On strong heating it decomposes, giving, among other products, carbon, methane and acetylene (M. Berthelot, Ann., 1866, 139, p. 277). Being an unsaturated hydrocarbon, it is capable of forming addition products, e.g. it combines with hydrogen in the presence of platinum black, to form ethane, C2H6, with sulphur trioxide to form carbyl sulphate, C2H4(SO3)2, with hydrobromic and hydriodic acids at 100° C. to form ethyl bromide, C2H5Br, and ethyl iodide, C2H5I, with sulphuric acid at 160-170° C. to form ethyl sulphuric acid, C2H5·HSO4, and with hypochlorous acid to form glycol chlorhydrin, Cl·CH2·CH2·OH. Dilute potassium permanganate solution oxidizes it to ethylene glycol, HO·CH2·CH2·OH, whilst fuming nitric acid converts it into oxalic acid. Several compounds of ethylene and metallic chlorides are known; e.g. ferric chloride in the presence of ether at 150° C. gives C2H4·FeCl3·2H2O (J. Kachtler, Ber., 1869, 2, p. 510), while platinum bichloride in concentrated hydrochloric acid solution absorbs ethylene, forming the compound C2H4·PtCl2 (K. Birnbaum, Ann., 1868, 145, p. 69).

ÉTIENNE, CHARLES GUILLAUME (1778-1845), French dramatist and miscellaneous writer, was born near Saint Dizier, Haute Marne, on the 5th of January 1778. He held various municipal offices under the Revolution and came in 1796 to Paris, where he produced his first opera, Le Rêve, in 1799, in collaboration with Antoine Frédéric Gresnick. Although Étienne continued to write for the Paris theatres for twenty years from that date, he is remembered chiefly as the author of one comedy, which excited considerable controversy. Les Deux Gendres was represented at the Théâtre Français on the 11th of August 1810, and procured for its author a seat in the Academy. A rumour was put in circulation that Étienne had drawn largely on a manuscript play in the imperial library, entitled Conaxa, ou les gendres dupés. His rivals were not slow to take up the charge of plagiarism, to which Étienne replied that the story was an old one (it existed in an old French fabliau) and had already been treated by Alexis Piron in Les Fils ingrats. He was, however, driven later to make admissions which at least showed a certain lack of candour. The bitterness of the attacks made on him was no doubt in part due to his position as editor-in-chief of the official Journal de l’Empire. His next play, L’Intrigante (1812), hardly maintained the high level of Les Deux Gendres; the patriotic opera L’Oriflamme and his lyric masterpiece Joconde date from 1814. Étienne had been secretary to Hugues Bernard Maret, duc de Bassano, and in this capacity had accompanied Napoleon throughout his campaigns in Italy, Germany, Austria and Poland. During these journeys he produced one of his best pieces, Brueys et Palaprat (1807). During the Restoration Étienne was an active member of the opposition. He was seven times returned as deputy for the department of Meuse, and was in full sympathy with the revolution of 1830, but the reforms actually carried out did not fulfil his expectations, and he gradually retired from public life. Among his other plays may be noted: Les Deux Mères, Le Pacha de Suresnes, and La Petite École des pères, all produced in 1802, in collaboration with his friend Gaugiran de Nanteuil (1778-1830). With Alphonse Dieudonné Martainville (1779-1830) he wrote an Histoire du Théâtre Français (4 vols., 1802) during the revolutionary period. Étienne was a bitter opponent of the romanticists, one of whom, Alfred de Vigny, was his successor and panegyrist in the Academy. He died on the 13th of March 1845.

His Œuvres (6 vols., 1846-1853) contain a notice of the author by L. Thiessé.

ETIQUETTE, a term for ceremonial usage, the rules of behaviour observed in society, more particularly the formal rules of ceremony to be observed at court functions, &c., the procedure, especially with regard to precedence and promotions in an organized body or society. Professions, such as the law or medicine, observe a code of etiquette, which the members must observe as protecting the dignity of the profession and preventing injury to its members. The word is French. The O. Fr. estiquette or estiquet meant a label, or “ticket,” the true English derivative. The ultimate origin is Teutonic, from sticken, to post up, stick, affix. Cotgrave explains the word in French as a billet for the benefit or advantage of him that receives it, a form of introduction and also a notice affixed at the gate of a court of law. The development of meaning in French from a label to ceremonial rules is not difficult in itself, but, as the New English Dictionary points out, the history has not been clearly established.

ETNA (Gr. Αἴτνη, from αἴθω, burn; Lat. Aetna), a volcano on the east coast of Sicily, the summit of which is 18 m. N. by W. of Catania. Its height was ascertained to be 10,758 ft. in 1900, having decreased from 10,870 ft. in 1861. It covers about 460 sq. m., and by rail the distance round the base of the mountain is 86 m., though, as the railway in some places travels high, the correct measurement is about 91 m. The height cannot have been very different in ancient times, for the so-called Torre del Filosofo, which is only 1188 ft. below the present summit, is a building of Roman date. The shape is that of a truncated cone, interrupted on the west by the Valle del Bove, a huge sterile abyss, 3 m. wide, bounded on three sides by perpendicular cliffs (2000 to 4000 ft.). Its south-west portion, which is the deepest, was perhaps the original crater. There are also some 200 subsidiary cones, some of them over 3000 ft. high, which have risen over lateral fissures. On the slopes of the mountain there are three distinct zones of vegetation, distinguished by Strabo (vi. p. 273 ff.). The lowest, up to about 3000 ft., is the zone of cultivation, where vegetables, and above them where water is more scanty, vines and olives flourish. Owing to its extraordinary fertility it is densely populated, having 930 inhabitants per sq. m. below 2600 ft., and 3056 inhabitants per sq. m. in the triangle between Catania, Nicolosi and Acireale. The next zone is the wooded zone, and is hardly inhabited, only a few isolated houses occurring. The lower part of it (up to about 6000 ft.) consists chiefly of forests of evergreen pines (Pinus nigricans), the upper (up to about 6800 ft.) of birch woods (Betula alba). A few oaks and red beeches occur, while chestnut trees grow anywhere between 1000 and 5300 ft. In the third and highest zone the vegetation is stunted, and there is a narrow zone of sub-Alpine shrubs, but no Alpine flora. In the last 2000 ft. five phanerogamous species only are to be found, the first three of which are peculiar to the mountain: Senecio Etnensis (which is found quite close to the crater), Anthemis Etnensis, Robertsia taraxacoides, Tanacetum vulgare and Astragalus siculus. No trace of animal life is to be found in this zone; for the greater part of the year it is covered with snow, but by the end of summer this has almost all melted, except for that preserved in the covered pits in which it is stored for use for cooling liquids, &c., in Catania and elsewhere. The ascent is best undertaken in summer or autumn. From the village of Nicolosi, 9 m. to the N.W. of Catania, about 7 or 8 hours are required to reach the summit. Thucydides mentions eruptions in the 8th and 5th centuries B.C., and others are mentioned by Livy in 125, 121 and 43 B.C. Catania was overwhelmed in 1169, and many other serious eruptions are recorded, notably in 1669, 1830, 1852, 1865, 1879, 1886, 1892, 1899 and March 1910.

According to Lyell, Etna is rather older than Vesuvius—perhaps of the same geological age as the Norwich Crag. At Trezza, on the eastern base of the mountain, basaltic rocks occur associated with fossiliferous Pliocene clays. The earliest eruptions of Etna are older than the Glacial period in Central and Northern Europe. If all the minor cones and monticules could be stripped from the mountain, the diminution of bulk would be extremely slight. Lyell concluded that, although no approximation can be given of the age of Etna, “its foundations were laid in the sea in the newer Pliocene period.” From the slope of the strata from one central point in the Val del Bue he further concluded that there once existed a second great crater of permanent eruption. The rocks erupted by Etna have always been very constant in composition, viz. varieties of basaltic lava and tuff containing little or no olivine—the rock type known as labradorite. At Acireale the lava has assumed the prismatic or columnar form in a striking manner; at the rock of Aci it is in parts spheroidal. The Grotte des Chèvres has been regarded as an enormous gas-bubble in the lava. The remarkable stability of the mountain appears to be due to the innumerable dikes which penetrate the lava flows and tuff beds in all directions and thus bind the whole mass together.

From the earliest times the mountain has naturally been the subject of legends. The Greeks believed it to be either the mountain with which Zeus had crushed the giant Typhon (so Pindar, Pyth. i. 34 seq.; Aeschylus, Prometheus Vinctus, 351 seq.; Strabo xiii. p. 626), or Enceladus (Virgil, Georg. i. 471; Oppian, Cyn. i. 273), or the workshop of Hephaestus and the Cyclopes (Cic. De divin. ii. 19; cf. Lucil., Aetna, 41 seq., Solin, 11). Several Roman writers, on the other hand, attempted to explain the phenomena which it presented by natural causes (e.g. Lucretius vi. 639 seq.; Lucilius, Aetna, 511 seq.). Ascents of the mountain were not infrequent in those days—one was made by Hadrian.

See Sartorius von Waltershausen, Atlas des Ätna (Leipzig, 1880); E. Chaix, Carta Volcanologica e topographica dell’ Etna (showing lava streams up to 1892); G. de Lorenzo, L’Etna (Bergamo, 1907).

ETNA, a borough of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in the western part of the state, on the W. bank of the Allegheny river (about 5 m. from its junction with the Monongahela), and about 2 m. N. of the city of Pittsburg, of which it is a suburb. Pop. (1880) 2334; (1890) 3767; (1900) 5384 (1702 foreign-born); (1910) 5830. It is served by the Pennsylvania railway and by electric lines. Among its industrial establishments are rolling mills, tube and pipe works, furnaces, steel mills, a brass foundry, and manufactories of electrical railway supplies, boxes, asbestos coverings, enamel work and ice. The city’s industrial history dates from 1820, when a small factory for the manufacture of scythes and sickles was set up. Natural gas, piped from Butler county, was early used here as a fuel in the iron mills. Etna, formerly called Steuart’s Town, was incorporated as a borough in 1869.

ETON, a town of Buckinghamshire, England, on the north (left) bank of the river Thames, opposite Windsor, within which parliamentary borough it is situated. Pop. of urban district (1901) 3301. It is famous for its college, the largest of the ancient English public schools. The “King’s College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor” was founded by Henry VI. in 1440-1441, and endowed mainly from the revenues of the alien priories suppressed by Henry V. The founder followed the model established by William of Wykeham in his foundations of Winchester and New College, Oxford. The original foundation at Eton consisted of a provost, 10 priests, 4 clerks, 6 choristers, a schoolmaster, 25 poor and indigent scholars, and the same number of poor men or bedesmen. In 1443, however, Henry considerably altered his original plans; the number of scholars was increased to 70, and the number of bedesmen reduced to 13. A connexion was then established, and has been maintained ever since, though in a modified form, between Eton and Henry’s foundation of King’s College, Cambridge. One of the king’s chief advisers was William of Waynflete, who had been master of Winchester College, and was appointed provost of Eton in 1443. Among further alterations to the foundation in this year was the establishment of commensales or commoners, distinct from the scholars; and these under the name of “oppidans” now form the principal body of the boys. The college survived with difficulty the unsettled period at the close of Henry’s reign; while Edward IV. curtailed its possessions, and was at first desirous of amalgamating it with the ecclesiastical foundation of St George, Windsor Castle. In 1506 the annual revenue amounted to £652; and through benefactions and the rise in the value of property the college has grown to be very richly endowed. In 1870 commissioners under an act of 1868 appointed the governing body of the college to consist of the provost of Eton, the provost of King’s College, Cambridge, five representatives nominated respectively by the university of Oxford, the university of Cambridge, the Royal Society, the lord chief justice and the masters, and four representatives chosen by the rest of the governing body. By this body the foundation was in 1872 made to consist of a provost and ten fellows (not priests, but merely the members of the governing body other than the provost), a headmaster of the school, and a lower master, at least seventy scholars (known as “collegers”), and not more than two chaplains or conducts. Originally it was necessary that the scholars should be born in England, of lawfully married parents, and be between eight and sixteen years of age; but according to the statutes of 1872 the scholarships are open to all boys who are British subjects, and (with certain limitations as to the exact date of birth) between twelve and fifteen years of age. A number of foundation scholarships for King’s College, Cambridge, are open for competition amongst the boys; and there are besides several other valuable scholarships and exhibitions, most of which are tenable only at Cambridge, some at Oxford, and some at either university. The teaching embraces the customary range of classical and modern subjects; but until the first half of the 19th century the normal course of instruction remained almost wholly classical; and although there were masters for other subjects, they were unconnected with the general business of the school, and were attended at extra hours.

The school buildings were founded in 1441 and occupied in part by 1443, but the whole original structure was not completed till fifty years later. The older buildings consist of two quadrangles, built partly of freestone but chiefly of brick. The outer quadrangle, or school-yard, is enclosed by the chapel, upper and lower schools, the original scholars’ dormitory (“long chamber”), now transformed, and masters’ chambers. It has in its centre a bronze statue of the royal founder. The buildings enclosing the inner or lesser quadrangle contain the residence of the fellows, the library, hall and various offices. The chapel, on the south side of the school-yard, represents only the choir of the church which the founder originally intended to build; but as this was not completed Waynflete added an ante-chapel. The chapel was built upon a raised platform of stone, as was the hall, in order to lift it above the flood-level of the Thames. It contains some interesting monuments of provosts of the college and others, and at the west end of the ante-chapel is a fine marble statue of the founder in his royal robes, by John Bacon. A chantry contains the tomb of Roger Lupton (provost 1503-1535), whose most notable monument is the fine tower between the school-yard and the cloisters to the east; though other parts of his building also remain. The space enclosed by two buttresses on the north side of the chapel, at the point where steps ascend to the north door, is the model of the peculiar form of court for the game of fives which takes name from Eton, with its “buttress” (represented by the projecting balustrade), the ledges round the walls, and the step dividing the floor into two levels. From the foundation of the college the chapel was used as the parish church until 1854, and not until 1875, after the alteration of the ancient constitution had secularized the foundation, was the parish of Eton created into a separate vicarage. The chapel does not accommodate the whole school; and a new chapel, from the designs of Sir Arthur Blomfield, is used by the lower school. The library contains many manuscripts (notably an Oriental and Egyptian collection) and rare books; and there is also a library for the use of the boys. The college in modern times has far outgrown its ancient buildings, and new buildings, besides the lower chapel, include the new schools, with an observatory, a chemical laboratory, science schools and boarding-houses. In 1908 King Edward VII. opened a fine range of buildings erected in honour of the Old Etonians who served in the South African War, and in memory of those who fell there. The architect was Mr L.K. Ball, an old Etonian. The buildings include a school hall, a domed octagonal library, and a classical museum.

The principal annual celebration is held on the 4th of June, the birthday of King George III., who had a great kindness for the school. This is the speech-day; and after the ceremonies in the school a procession of boats takes place on the Thames. In the sport of rowing Eton occupies a unique position among the public schools, and a large proportion of the oarsmen in the annual Oxford and Cambridge boat-race are alumni of the school. Another annual celebration is the occasion of the contest between collegers and oppidans at a peculiar form of football known as the wall game, from the fact that it is played against a wall bordering the college playing-field. This game takes place on St Andrew’s Day, the 30th of November. The field game of football commonly played at Eton has also peculiar rules. The annual cricket match between Eton and Harrow schools, at Lord’s ground, London, is always attended by a large and fashionable gathering. A singular custom termed the Montem, of unknown origin, but first mentioned in 1561, was observed here triennially on Whit-Tuesday. The last celebration took place in 1844, the ceremony being abolished just before it fell due in 1847. It consisted of a procession of the boys in a kind of military order, with flags and music, headed by their “captain,” to a small mound called Salt Hill, near the Bath road, where they levied contributions, or “salt,” from the passers-by and spectators. The sum collected sometimes exceeded £1000—the surplus, after deducting certain expenses, becoming the property of the captain of the school. The average number of pupils at Eton exceeds 1000.

See E.S. Creasy, Memoirs of Eminent Etonians, with Notices of the Early History of the College (1850); Sketches of Eton (1873); Sir H.C. Maxwell Lyte, History of Eton College from 1440 to 1875 (1875); J. Heneage Jesse, Memoirs of Celebrated Etonians (1875); The Eton Portrait Gallery, by a Barrister of the Inner Temple (1875); A.C. Benson, Fasti Etonienses (1899); L. Cust, History of Eton College (1899).

ÉTRETAT, a watering-place of France, in the department of Seine-Inférieure, on the coast of the English Channel, 16½ m. N. by E. of Havre by road. Pop. (1906) 1982. It is situated between fine cliffs in which, here and there, the sea has worn archways, pinnacles and other curious forms. The small stream traversing the valley, at the extremity of which Étretat lies, flows underground for some distance but rises to the surface on the beach. A Roman road and aqueduct and other Roman and Gallic remains have been discovered. The church of Notre-Dame, a Romanesque building, with a nave of the 11th century and a central tower and choir of the 13th century, is a fine example of the Norman architecture of those periods. Fishing is carried on, though there is no port and the fishermen haul their boats up the beach; the old hulks (caloges) serve as sheds and even as dwellings. Étretat sprang into popularity during the latter half of the 19th century, largely owing to the frequent references to it in the novels of Alphonse Karr.

ETRURIA, an ancient district of Italy, the extent of which varied considerably, and, especially in the earliest periods, is very difficult to define (see section Language). The name is the Latin equivalent of the Greek Τυρρηνία or Τυρσηνία, which is used by Latin writers also in the forms Tyrrhenia, Tyrrhenii; the Romans also spoke of Tusci, whence the modern Tuscany (q.v.). In early times the district appears to have included the whole of N. Italy from the Tiber to the Alps, but by the end of the 5th century B.C. it was considerably diminished, and about the year 100 B.C. its boundaries were the Arnus (Arno), the Apennines and the Tiber. In the division of Italy by Augustus it formed the seventh regio and extended as far north as the river Macra, which separated it from Liguria.

History.—The authentic history of Etruria is very meagre, and consists mainly in the story of its relations with Carthage, Greece and Rome. At some period unknown, prior to the 6th century, the Etrurians became a conquering people and extended their power not only northwards over, probably, Mantua, Felsina, Melpum and perhaps Hadria and Ravenna (Etruria Circumpadana), but also southwards into Latium and Campania. The chronology of this expansion is entirely unknown, nor can we recover with certainty the names of the cities which constituted the two leagues of twelve founded in the conquered districts on the analogy of the original league in Etruria proper (below). In the early history of Rome the Etruscans play a prominent part. According to the semi-historical tradition they were the third of the constituent elements which went to form the city of Rome. The tradition has been the subject of much controversy, and is still an unsolved problem. It is practically certain, however, that there is no foundation for the ancient theory (cf. Prop. iv. [v.] 1. 31) that the third Roman tribe, known as Luceres, represented an Etruscan element of the population, and it is held by many authorities that the tradition of the Tarquin kings of Rome represents, not an immigrant wave, but the temporary domination of Etruscan lords, who extended their conquests some time before 600 B.C. over Latium and Campania. This theory is corroborated by the fact that during the reigns of the Tarquin kings Rome appears as the mistress of a district including part of Etruria, several cities in Latium, and the whole of Campania, whereas our earliest picture of republican Rome is that of a small state in the midst of enemies. For this problem see further under Rome: History, section “The Monarchy.”

After the expulsion of the Tarquins the chief events in Etruscan history are the vain attempt to re-establish themselves in Rome under Lars Porsena of Clusium, the defeat of Octavius Mamilius, son-in-law of Tarquinius Superbus, at Lake Regillus, and the treaty with Carthage. This last event shows that the Etruscan power was formidable, and that by means of their fleet the Etruscans held under their exclusive control the commerce of the Tyrrhenian Sea. By this treaty Corsica was assigned to the Etruscans while Carthage obtained Sardinia. Soon after this, decay set in. In 474 the Etruscan fleet was destroyed by Hiero I. (q.v.) of Syracuse; Etruria Circumpadana was occupied by the Gauls, the Campanian cities by the Samnites, who took Capua (see Campania) in 423, and in 396, after a ten years’ siege, Veii fell to the Romans. The battle of the Vadimonian Lake (309) finally extinguished Etruscan independence, though for nearly two centuries still the prosperity of the Etruscan cities far exceeded that of Rome itself. Henceforward Etruria is finally merged in the Roman state.

Etruscan Antiquities

The large recent discoveries of Etruscan objects have not materially altered the conclusions arrived at a generation ago. It is not so much our appreciation of the broad lines of the manners and arts of the Etruscans that has altered as our understanding of the geographic and social causes which made them what they were. One great difficulty in the study of the remains is that a very large portion of them have been found by unofficial excavators who have been naturally unwilling to tell whence they came, and that certain other excavations, such as those carried out by Comm. Barnabei for the Villa Giulia museum, have been carried out under conditions which help but little towards increasing our knowledge.1 The increase has, however, been steady, even if not all one could wish.

Ethnology.—The origin of the Etruscans will most likely never be absolutely fixed,2 but their own tradition (Tacitus, Ann. iv. 55) that they came out of Lydia seems not impossible. Herodotus (i. 94) and Strabo (v. 220) tell of Lydians landing at the mouth of the Po and crossing the Apennines into Etruria. Thus it seems certain that though the earliest immigrants, known to the later Etruscans as the Rasena, may have come down from the north, still they were joined by a migration from the east before they had developed a civilization of their own, and it is this double race that became the Etruscans as we know them in tradition and by their works. To give a date to the migration of the Rasena from the north, for which the only evidence is the fact that the Etruscan language is found in various parts of north Italy,3 is impossible, but we can perhaps give an approximate one to the coming of the Lydians or Tyrrhenians (Thuc. iv. 109; Herod. i. 57). We know that there was a great wave of migration from Greece to Italy about 1000 B.C., and as the earliest imported Greek objects found in the tombs cannot be dated many generations later than this, this year may be considered as giving us roughly the time when the real Etruscan civilization began.

It has been, and still is, a common mistake to speak of the Etruscans as though they were closely confined to that part of Italy called Etruria on the maps, but it is quite certain that in the early stages of their development they were differentiated from the Umbrians on the north-east and the Latins on the south in ways due rather to the locality than to race or essential character.4 To primitive peoples open seas or deserts are a greater hindrance to intercourse than mountains or rivers, and even these did not cut off Etruria from the neighbouring regions of Italy. The Apennines that separated her from Umbria were not difficult to cross, and the Tiber which formed the boundary between her and Latium has been a far greater element of separation in the minds of modern authors than it ever was in reality. Narrow, not particularly swift, often shallow, such a stream can never have caused more than a moment’s delay to the hardy Etruscans. When Rome was founded, the river of course could be used like a moat round a castle as a means of defence, but that is very different from its being a permanent bar to the spread of a given culture. The fact that the alphabets used in other parts of Italy besides Etruria are derived from the Etruscan or from similar Grecian sources, that Rome was ruled by Etruscan kings, that the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline was decorated by Etruscan artists (Livy x. 23; Pliny, H.N. xxxv. 157), that the decorations of the temple found by Signor Mazzoleni near Conca (Notizie degli scavi, 1896) are of the same kind as others found in Etruria, show that the influences which grew to their clearest development in the region west of the Tiber had a marked effect over a broader region than is usually admitted. This too was the belief of the Greek historians, many of whom considered Rome as a Tyrrhenian city.5

Cities and Organization.—The chief cities of Etruria proper were Veii, Tarquinii, Falerii, Caere, Volci, Volsinii, Clusium, Arretium, Cortona, Perusia, Volaterrae (Volterra), Rusellae, Populonium and Faesulae. That the country was thickly settled is made plain by the ruins that have been found. It was governed by kings who were elected for life, but whose power depended largely on the leaders (lucumones) of the separate states or regions and on the aristocracy (Censorinus, De die natali, iv. 13). Later the office of king was abolished and replaced by annual magistrates (Livy v. 1). Below the aristocracy came the free people, who were divided into curiae (Serv. ad Aen. x. 202), and then the slaves. There can be little doubt that the early organization of the people at Rome was typical of Etruria (Niebuhr, Röm. Gesch. 2nd ed. i. 389).

A league of twelve cities is mentioned by the ancients (Livy iv. 23), whose delegates met at the temple of Voltumna, but we are not told which cities formed the league, and there can be little doubt that the list changed from time to time. A glance at the map makes clear some of the general relations of these cities to one another and to the outer world. They are well spread all over the country, and by no means only along the coast. None of the important ones is among the mountains. This means that the earliest inhabitants of the country were not roving traders like the Mycenaean Greeks, and that the cities drew their wealth and strength from agricultural pursuits, for which the country was well suited, as the three rivers, Arnus, Umbro and Tiber, with their feeders (not to mention several lesser streams), channel it in all directions. We get a hint as to the government of the cities from the fact that many of the Roman forms and apanages of office were derived from the Etruscans (Dion. Hal. iii. 61); for instance, the diadem worn by those honoured with a triumph, the ivory sceptre and the embroidered toga (Tertull. De Cor. 13), and so too the golden bulla and the praetexta (Festus, s.v. “Sardi”). Such things give us an idea as to the aristocratic basis of the government. Of the actual laws we know something also. Cicero (Div. ii. 23) tells the story of the miraculous uncovering by a ploughboy of a child who had the wisdom of a sage, and how the child’s words were written down by the amazed folk, and became their archives and the source of their law. Coming down to historic times we find that their code, known as the libri disciplinae Etruscae, consisted of various parts (Festus, s.v. “Ritualis”). There were the libri haruspicini (Cic. Div. i. 33, 72), which dealt with the interpretation of the will of the gods by means of sacrifice; the libri fulgurales, which explained the messages of the gods in the thunder and lightning; and finally the libri rituales, which held the rules for the conduct of daily life—how to found cities, where to place the gates, how to take the census, and the general ordering of the people both in peace and war.

Natural Resources and Commerce.—Such was the country and such the laws. The people were a warrior stock with little commercial skill. Much of their wealth was due to trade, but they were not the restless, conquering blood that goes in search of new markets. They waited for the buyers to come to them. That their wealth and consequent power were gathered contemporaneously with that of Greece is shown by various facts. One of these is that Dionysius of Phocaea settled in Sicily after the Ionian revolt (in which his native city took part) had been quelled by Darius, and thence harried the Etruscans (Herod. vi. 17). Their power is also shown by the fact that they made an alliance with the Carthaginians, with the result that they obtained control of Corsica (Herod. i. 166), and this union continued for many generations.6 That this treaty was no exceptional one is shown by Aristotle (Pol. iii. 96, Op. ii. 261), who says that there were numerous treatises, concerning their alliances and mutual rights, between the two peoples. That the Greeks held the Etruscans in considerable dread is suggested by the fact that Hesiod (Theog. 1011 foll.) names one of their leaders Agrios, “the Wild Man,” and by the fear they had of the straits of Messina, where they imagined Scylla and Charybdis, which, unless the whirlpools were of very different character then than now, were as likely to be the pirate bands of Carthaginians and Etruscans who guarded the channel. And this explanation is strengthened by Euripides (Med. 1342, 1359), whose Medea compares herself to “Scylla, who dwells on the Tyrrhenian shore.” The wealth that was the source of this power of the Etruscans must in the main have been drawn from agriculture and forestry. The rich land with its many streams could scarcely be surpassed for the raising of crops and cattle, and the hills were heavily timbered. That it was such material as this, which leaves no trace with the passing of time, that they sold cannot be doubted, for there is plenty of evidence that their country was visited by foreign traders of many lands, and that they bought largely of them, especially of metals. Metals also suggest that another source of their wealth was that of the middleman. Their towns were the centres of exchange, where the north and west met the south and east. They had no mines of gold or tin, but the carriers of tin, iron or amber7 from the north met in the markets of Etruria the Phoenician and Greek merchants bringing gold and ivory and the other luxuries of the East. The quantities of gold, silver and bronze found in Etruscan tombs prove this clearly. Of these metals the only one found in unworked form, in what are practically pigs, is bronze. This in the form of aes rude has frequently been found in considerable quantities, and the larger and better formed bits of metals known as aes signatum are not rare. Both forms are usually spoken of as the earliest forms of money, but as the aes rude generally bears no marks of valuation or of any mint, and as the aes signatum is far too large and heavy for ordinary circulation, it is probable that these shapes of metal are not to be considered strictly or alone as coins, but as forms given to the alloy of tin and copper made and sold by the Etruscans to the foreigners for purposes of manufacture. This of course does not exclude their use as money. Where the copper for this bronze came from is not certain, but probably a great part was from the mines at Volaterrae. Still another proof that what the Etruscans sold was the product of their fields or crude metals imported from the north, is the fact that though in the museum at Carthage and elsewhere there are a few vases and other objects which probably come from Etruria, still such objects are extremely uncommon. On the other hand, articles obviously imported from the East are by no means uncommon in Etruria. Such are the ostrich shells from Volci,8 the Phoenician cups from Palestrina,9 the Egyptian glazed vases and scarabs found on more than one site.10 All this goes to show that the Etruscans lacked in their earlier days skilful workers in the arts and crafts.

Habits and Customs.—The lack of literary remains of the Etruscans does not cramp our knowledge of their habits as much as might be supposed, owing to the numerous paintings that are left. These paintings are on the walls of the tombs at Veii, Corneto, Chiusi (Clusium), and elsewhere,11 and give a varied picture of the dress, utensils and habits of the people. The evidence of many ancient authors cannot be questioned that as a race the Etruscans in historic times were much given to luxurious living. So much so in fact that Virgil (Georg. ii. 193) speaks of the pinguis Tyrrhenus (a trumpeter at the altar) and Catullus (xxxix. 11) of the obesus Etruscus. Diodorus (v. 40) gives a succinct account in which he says that “their country was so fertile they derived therefrom not only sufficient for their needs but enough to supply them with luxuries. Twice a day they partook of elaborate repasts at which the tables were decked with embroidered cloths and vessels of gold and silver. The servants were numerous and noticeable for the richness of their attire. The houses, too, were large and commodious. In fact, giving themselves up to sensuous enjoyments they had naturally lost the glorious reputation their ancestors had won in war.” This last remark shows that Diodorus recognized the important difference between the early Etruscans who built up the country and the later ones who merely enjoyed it. Naturally courtesans flourished in such a community. Timaeus and Theopompus tell how the women lived and ate and even exercised with the men (Athen. xii. 14; cf. iv. 38), habits which of course gave the Roman satirists many openings for attack (Plaut. Cist. ii. 3. 563; cf. Herod, i. 98; Strabo xi. 14). In dress they differed but little from the Romans, both wearing the toga and the tunic. Hats too, often of pointed form, were common (Serv. ad Aen. ii. 683), as the paintings show, but it was their shoes for which they were particularly famous. One author (Lydus, de Magistr. i. 17. 36) suggests that Romulus borrowed from Etruria the type of shoe he gave the senators, and this may well be true, though the form mentioned, the kampagus, is of late origin. At any rate σανδάλια Τυρρηνικά are frequently mentioned. From the pictures and remains we know that they had wooden soles strengthened with bronze, and that the uppers were of leather and bound with thongs.

Their occupations of trade and agriculture have been already mentioned. For their leisure hours they had athletic games including gladiatorial shows (Athen. iv. 153; cf. Livy ix. 40. 7; Strabo v. 250), hunting, music and dancing. All these are shown in the tomb pictures, and all, with the exception of the hunting, developed first as a part of religious service, and their importance is shown by the strictness of the rules that governed them (Cicero, De harusp. resp. ii. 23). Did a dancer lose step, or an attendant lift his hand from the chariot, the games lost their value as a religious service. An idea of the splendour of the triumphs that accompanied victorious generals and of the parades at the games is given by Appian (De reb. Punic. viii. 66) and Dionysius (vii. 92). The music that was an accompaniment of all their occupations, even of hunting (Aelian, De natur. anim. xii. 46), was mainly produced by the single or double flute, the mastery of which by the Etruscans was known to all the world. They also had small harps and trumpets.

For the regularization of all these duties and pleasures there was a calendar and time-division for the day. It is noteworthy that the beginning of the day was for them the moment when the sun was at the zenith (Serv. ad Aen. v. 738). In this they differed from the Greeks, who began their day with the sunset, and the Romans, who reckoned theirs from midnight. The weeks were of eight days, the first being market day and the day when the people could appeal to the king, and the months were lunar. The years were kept numbered by the annual driving of a nail into the walls of the temple of Nortia at Volsinii (Livy vii. 3. 7), a custom later adopted by the Romans, who used the Capitoline temple for the same purpose. In Rome this rite was performed on the Ides of September, and it is likely that it took place in Etruria on the same date, the natural end of the year among an agricultural folk. A still longer measure of time was the saeculum, which was supposed to be the length of the longest life of all those born in the year in which the preceding oldest inhabitant died (Censorinus, De die natali, 17. 5; cf. Zosimus ii. 1). According to later writers12 the Etruscan race was to last ten saecula, and the emperor Augustus in his memoirs (Serv. ad. Bucol. ix. 47) says that the comet of the year 44 B.C. was said by the priests to betoken the beginning of the tenth saeculum. The earliest saecula had been, according to Varro, 100 years long. The later ones varied in length from 105 to 123 years. The round number 100 is obviously an ex post facto approximation, and the accuracy of the others is probably more apparent than real, but if we reckon back some 900 years from the date given by Augustus we arrive at just about the time when the archaeological evidence leads us to believe that the Etruscans in Italy were beginning to recognize their individuality.

Religion.—To retrace the religious development of the Etruscans from its mystic beginnings is beyond our power, and it is unlikely that any future discoveries will help us much. We are, however, able to draw a clear, if not a detailed, picture of the worship paid to the various divinities, partly from the direct information we have concerning them and partly from the analogies which may safely be drawn between them and the Romans.

The frequency of sacrifice among them and their belief in the short duration of the race13 show clearly their belief in a good and a bad principle, and the latter seems to have been predominant in their minds. Storms, earthquakes, the birth of deformities, all gave evidence of evil powers, which could be appeased sometimes only by human sacrifice. We miss here the Greek joy in human life and the beauties of earth. The gods (aesar) were divided into two main groups, the Dii Consentes and a vaguer set of powers, the Dii Involuti (Seneca, Quaest. Nat. ii. 41), to whom even Jupiter bowed. They all dwelt in various parts of the heavens (Martianus Capella, De nupt. Phil. i. 41 ff.). Of the Dii Consentes the most important group consisted of Jupiter (Tinia), Juno (Uni) and Minerva (Menrva). In some towns, such as Veii and Falerii, Juno was the chief deity, and at Perusia she was worshipped like the Greek Aphrodite in conjunction with Vulcan (the Greek Hephaestus). This shows that though in exterior form the Etruscan gods were influenced by the Greeks, still their character and powers betoken different beliefs. An interesting point to note about Minerva (Menrva) is that she was the goddess of the music of flutes and horns. The myth of Athena and Marsyas probably originated in Asia Minor, and a Pelasgian Tyrrhenian founded in Argos the temple of Athena Salpinx (Paus. ii. 21. 3). The evident connexion between Asia Minor and Etruria in these facts cannot be overlooked. Besides these deities there were Venus (Turan), Bacchus (Fufluns), Mercury (Turms), Vulcan (Sethlans). Of these, Sethlans is in a way the most important, for he shows a connexion in prehistoric times between Etruria and the East.14 Other deities of Greek origin there were—Ares, Apollo, Heracles, the Dioscuri; in fact, as the centuries passed, the Greek divinities were adopted almost without exception. Besides these there were also many gods of Latin or Sabine origin, of whom little is known but their names; these may often be local appellations for the same god. Among these were Voltumna at Volsinii and Vertumnus at Rome, Janus, Nortia, goddess of Fortuna, Fēronia, whose temple was at a town of the same name at the foot of Soracte,15 Mantus, Pales, Vejovis, Eileithyia and Ceres. Such were the leading gods; in addition there was the world of spirits whom we know in Rome as the Manes, Lares and Penates. The latter were of four classes, pertaining to Jove, Neptune, the gods of the lower world, and to men.16 The Lares too were of various sorts (familiares, compitales, viales), and with them the souls of the dead, after the performance of due expiatory rites, took their place as dii animales (Serv. ad Aen. iii. 168 and 302). The Manes are the vaguest group of all and were confined almost wholly to the lower world (Festus, s.v. “Mundus”; Apuleius, De deo Socratis). Over all these ruled Mantus and Mania, the counterparts of Pluto and Persephone in Greece. As a result of this complete hierarchy of divine powers the priesthood of Etruria was large, powerful, and of such fame that Etruscan haruspices were sent for from distant places to interpret the sacrifices and the oracles (Livy v. i. 6, xxvii. 37. 6).