174 



CHICHA 



CHICKWEED 



partment in the world, both the children of that 

 ' Great Fire. ' See Andreas' History of Chicago 

 (Chicago, 1885). 



Cliicha. See STERCULIA. 



Chichen', one of over fifty ruined towns in the 

 Mexican province of Yucatan, a few miles WSW. 

 of Valladolid, with the remains of an ancient 

 Indian city, comprising a vast temple with bas- 

 reliefs, a pyramid, houses containing sculptured 

 chambers, &c. 



Chichester, a municipal borough and episcopal 

 city in Sussex, 17 miles ENE. of Portsmouth, 

 and 28 W. of Brighton. It stands on a plain 

 between an arm of the sea and the South Downs, 

 which rise gently on the north. It is well built, 

 and has wide streets. The two main streets cross 

 at right angles, and meet in an elaborate eight- 

 sided market-cross (circa 1500). Within the sub- 

 urbs the city is surrounded by an ancient wall, 

 1^ mile in circuit, with some semicircular bastions, 

 and now a promenade under the shade of elms. 

 The cathedral, erected in the 12th and 13th cen- 

 turies, on the site of a wooden one founded 1108, 

 and burned 1114, measures 410 by 131 feet, with a 

 spire 277 feet high (rebuilt 1865-66, after its fall in 

 1861 ), and a detached bell-tower or campanile, 120 

 feet, the only structure of the kind retained by an 

 English cathedral. The aisles are double a mode 

 of construction elsewhere seen only in Manchester 

 Cathedral and in some parish churches. The 

 choir, lady chapel, and cloisters offer interesting feat- 

 ures. The bishop's palace is supposed to have been 

 erected on the site of a Roman villa. Chichester 

 has twelve parish churches, a market-house, corn 

 exchange, guildhall ( formed out of the chapel of the 

 Franciscan monastery), council-house, a theologi- 

 cal college (1872), and several other educational 

 establishments. The chief trade is in agricultural 

 produce and live-stock. Wool-stapling, malting, 

 brewing, and tanning are also carried on. Pop. 

 (1851) 8662; (1891) 7842. From the time of 

 Edward I. till 1867 Chichester returned two 

 members, and till 1885 one. The port of Chiches- 

 ter, 2 miles to the south-west of the city, is 

 situated on a deep inlet of the English Channel, 

 of about 8 square miles, and is connected with 

 Chichester by a canal. Chichester was the Roman 

 Regnum, and has afforded Roman remains as a 

 mosaic pavement, coins, urns, and an inscription 

 of the dedication of a temple to Neptune and 

 Minerva. Chichester was taken and partly de- 

 stroyed in 491 by the South Saxons. It was soon 

 after rebuilt by Cissa, their king, and called 

 Cissanceaster, or Cissa's Camp. It was for some 

 time the capital of the kingdom of Sussex. The 

 South Saxon see was removed by Stigand from 

 Selsey to Chichester towards the close of the llth 

 century. Among its bishops have been Reginald 

 Pecock, Lancelot Andrews, John Lake, and Simon 

 Patrick. In December 1642 the royalists of 

 Chichester surrendered to the parliamentarians 

 after an eight days' siege, recaptured the city in 

 the December of 1643, but had again to surrender 

 to Waller a month later after a siege of seventeen 

 days. Among the prisoners of war was the famous 

 Chillingworth, who was allowed to die here, and 

 lies buried in the cathedral. See works by Willis 

 (1861), Stephens (1876), and Swainson (1880). 



Chickadee (Parus montamis or atricapillus), 

 A North American titmouse, of sober black and 

 gray plumage, and lively active habit. It is fond 

 of pine-trees, feeds on insect larvae, has a hardy 

 constitution, and remains through the winter. Its 

 cheerful song is echoed in one of Emerson's poems. 

 See TITMOUSE. 



Chickahom'iny, a river of Virginia, which 

 flows within 5 miles of Richmond, and enters the 



James, after a south-easterly course of 90 miles. 

 Four battles were fought near its banks in June 

 1862. 



Chickamailga, a tributary of the Tennessee 

 River, rising in Georgia, and flowing north-west 

 into Tennessee, in which state the Confederate 

 General Bragg defeated Rosecrans in a battle 

 fought on the banks of the stream, September 19 

 and 20, 1863. 



Chickaree is a name given to the red, pine, or 

 Hudson Bay squirrel. See SQUIRREL. 



Chickasaw, a tribe of Indians, allied to the 

 Cherokees (q.v. ), formerly occupying the northern 

 parts of Alabama and Mississippi, but now settled 

 in Indian Territory. They numoer about 6000. 



Chicken-pox, a contagious febrile disease,, 

 chiefly of children, and bearing' some resemblance 

 to a very mild form of Smallpox ( q. v. ). Chicken- 

 pox is distinguished by an eruption of vesicles or 

 blebs, which rarely become pustular or yellow, and 

 leave only a very slight incrustation, which falls 

 off in a few days, leaving little or none of the 

 marking or pitting which is such a prominent 

 feature in smallpox. From its vesicular character 

 it has been called the crystal pock. It has been 

 argued that chicken-pox is, in fact, only smallpox 

 modified by previous vaccination ; but this opinion, 

 though maintained on good authority, is not 

 accepted by most medical men. It is a disease 

 of little or no danger, the fever being often hardly 

 perceptible, and never lasting long. 



Chick Pea (Cicer], a genus of the vetch tribe 

 of LeguminosiTp. The common chick pea ( C. 

 arietinum) is an annual, 1^ to 2 feet high, of a 

 stiff upright habit, covered with glandular hairs, 

 with inflated pods containing a few angular and. 

 wrinkled peas. It is largely cultivated in southern 

 Europe and in many parts of the East, and hence 

 occurs frequently also as a weed in cornfields. It 

 is also grown in Spanish America. Large quan- 

 tities of the peas are exported from British India 

 under the name of gram, now well known in com- 

 merce ; but the name is extended to other East 

 Indian kinds of pulse. The peas are used as food, 

 either boiled or roasted, and are the most common 

 parched pulse of the East. They are a notable 

 article of Spanish and French cookery ; while their 

 importance in Roman times is evidenced by the 

 phrase, fricti ciceris emptor ( ' buyer of roasted 

 chick peas'), as a conversational equivalent for a 

 poor fellow. Its cultivation extends as far as 

 southern Germany ; but in the climate of Britain 

 it is found too tender to be profitable. The herbage 

 affords fodder, and the seeds are one of the occa- 

 sional substitutes for coffee. In summer weather 

 drops exude from this plant, which, on drying, 

 leave crystals of almost pure oxalic acid. The too 

 free and prolonged use of chick peas as food is 

 believed to be liable to become the cause of danger- 

 ous and obstinate forms of disease. 



Chickweed ( Stellaria media ), one of the most 

 common weeds of gardens and cultivated fields, 

 is a species of Stitchwort (q.v.). It is a native 

 of most parts of Europe and of Asia, appearing 

 during the colder months even on the plains of 

 India ; an annual, with a weak procumbent stem 

 and ovate leaves, very variable ; some of the 

 smaller varieties in dry sunny situations sometimes 

 puzzling young botanists from having no petals or 

 only five or three instead of ten stamens ; but 

 always characterised by having the stem curiously 

 marked with a line of hairs, which at each pair of 

 leaves changes from one side to another, and in 

 four changes completes the circuit of the stem. 

 The leaves of chickweed afford a fine instance of 

 the sleep of plants, closing up on the young shoots 



