RAMAYANA 



4927 



RAMESES H 



army in Ireland. At one time the young man 

 sent to the English court with dispatches, 

 and he became a great favorite with Queen 

 Elizabeth, who knighted him in 1584. He be- 

 came wealthy through grants of lands and cer- 

 tain monopolies given him by the queen. 

 Upon one visit to Ireland, Raleigh discovered 

 the genius of Edmund Spenser, whom he 

 brought to England: later three books of the 

 '< Queene were dedicated to Queen Eliza- 

 beth. 



Icigh was intensely interested in discov- 

 und although the queen would not per- 

 mit him to leave England, he obtained privi- 

 leges and sent several expeditions between 1584 

 and 1589, which were not immediately success- 

 ful. The place wl: r tempted to settle 

 was called Virginia, in honor of the Virgin 

 Queen. Potato and tobacco plants were taken 

 :iul:ind from the new Virginia, so to Ra- 

 leigh is given tin r tho introduction 

 of tobacco into Europe. The potato had al- 

 ome known to some extent in Spain. 

 Spain was England's greatest enemy in those 

 1 some part in the victory 

 Spanish Armada in 1588, and imme- 

 M lu>y helping to prepare ships 

 h could go against Spain. At this time he 

 incurred ; M6 of his 

 for one of her maids of honor, Elizabeth 

 Throgmorton, whom 1 permitted to 

 marry; but thereafter was denied the privf 

 of appearing in the royal court. So Raleigh 



. and soon he sailed for America. 

 On ill.- inland of Trinidad lie found a lako of 

 bubbling pitch, now world-famed as asphalt, 

 with which lie tilled the leaking seams of his 

 vessels. He captured the town of San Josef , 

 and explored the Orinoco Ri 



'l death Kaleigh was partly 

 restored to favor, but Jam-- 1 di>trustid him. 

 had him imprisoned in the Tower of 

 ion for thirteen years, where he lived com- 

 ely with his family and servants. It was 

 during this imprisonment that he v ///'*- 



Of >' \\'nr './. which up to that t 

 the b.-f Knirli.-h hi-torv that had been wn: 



Raleigh was released from tl 

 another expedition to South America for gold. 

 His party, unfortut 1 the Spanish, 



and upon In- return to England he was he- 

 headed upon the demand of S- 



Consult Mar.- / . Sflln- 



</h. 



RAMAYANA, rahmah' yana, a gn 

 poem of India containing 24,000 verses, second 



in length to the Mahabharata, which it sur- 

 passes in interest. Unlike the longer poem, it 

 was written almost entirely by one author, the 

 poet Valmiki, who is supposed to have lived 

 about the beginning of the Christian era. The 

 poem tells in detail the history of Rama, son 

 of Dasaratha, king of Oudh, and his successful 

 conflict with Ravana, king of demons, who 

 dwelt in Lanka. Lanka has been identified 

 with Ceylon. See MAHABHARATA. 



RAMEE, ramay', LOUISA DE LA (1839-1908), 

 an English novelist born in Bury Saint Ed- 

 munds, more familiarly known by her pen 

 name, OUIDA. The latter had been her child- 

 ish way of pronouncing ''Louisa." Her first 

 novel, Held in Bondage, appeared in the Lon- 

 don New Monthly Magazine in 1863. Many 

 others followed, and for a time she was widely 

 popular. Her stories reveal a gift for pictur- 

 esque description and a sense of the dramatic, 

 but they are often cheaply sensational and 

 over-sentimental. She is at her best in writing 

 of Italian peasant life and in descriptions of 

 dogs, of which she was very fond. One of her 

 children's stories Th< Xurnbcrg Stove, has gen- 

 uine literary merit. Her books include Vndir 

 Two Flags, A Dog oj Flanders, Two Litth 

 i<n XltiHf and Bimbi. Though Ouida's 

 writings brought her a fortune, she died in 

 comparative poverty. 



RAMESES II, ram'aseez (reigned 1340- 

 1273 B.C.), one of the i is of the Pha- 



raohs, and tho greatest of the twelve rulers 

 called l\am< >es. Until recently he was sup- 

 posed to be the Pharaoh who oppressed the 



TOM 



iler, forming tho 



facade of the temple at Ipviini.nl. Between the 

 re llfe-slxe figures or his q 



Chil I-Tael, but this is now con-.. 



improbable (see I :btill- HittOTy OJ 



II. ascended the thr< vpt 





 years. During the earlier \-.\\ of his reign 



