198 



CHIP HATS 



CHIRON 



fertile islands in the yEgean Sea, belonging to 

 Turkey, 7 miles off the coast of Asia Minor, at the 

 entrance to the Gulf of Smyrna ; about 30 miles long 

 from north to south, by 8 to 15 miles broad, with a 

 coast-line of about 110 miles, an area of 320 sq. m., 

 and a pop. of about 70,000, almost all Greeks. 

 The larger northern part is more mountainous 

 than the southern. The climate is delightful and 

 salubrious. Earthquakes are, however, not rare, 

 and one in 1881 caused the death of 3558 persons, 

 and the destruction of property to the value of 

 three to four millions sterling. The wine produced 

 on the north-west coast, the Vinum Arvisium of 

 ancient times, is still esteemed. Other products 

 are figs, also noted in classical days ; mastic, silk, 

 lemons, oranges, and olives. Goats' skins are also 

 exported. The capital, Chios, about the middle of 

 the east coast, contains about 13,000 inhabitants, 

 and has a haven touched by various services of 

 steamers, and doing a good trade. On the west 

 coast is a rich monastery, Nea-Moni, founded in the 

 llth century. In ancient times excellent marble 

 and potters' clay were quarried in the mountains, 

 and recently pits of antimony and ochre are 

 worked. 



Chios is one of the places which contended for 

 the honour of giving birth to Homer. It formed 

 in early times one of the most flourishing of the 

 Ionian States, and contributed 100 ships to the 

 Greek force defeated by the Persians in the sea- 

 fight off Miletus (494 B.C.). After the Persian 

 victory the town and temples of Chios were burnt 

 and many of the people enslaved. In more recent 

 times the island was taken by the Genoese (1346), 

 and by the Turks (1566), in whose hands it has 

 since, except for a short interval, remained. It 

 was conferred as private property on the sultana. 

 After a long period of prosperity, Chios suffered a 

 terrible blow during the war of Greek independence. 

 A number of the Chiotes having in 1821 joined 

 the revolted Samians, a Turkish fleet and army in 

 1822 inflicted dreadful vengeance ; 25,000 Chiotes 

 fell by the sword, 47,000 were sold into slavery, 

 and only some 5000 escaped. A second rising in 

 1827 was likewise unsuccessful. The island has 

 since been gradually recovering. 



Chip Hats. See BRAZILIAN GRASS. 



Chipmunk ( Tamias striatus}, a kind of squir- 

 rel, common in North America. The genus in- 

 cludes only a few species, often called Ground 

 Squirrels, and distinguished from the common 

 Sciurus by the possession of capacious cheek- 

 pouches, by the longer snout but shorter tail and 

 ears, by the constant absence of the first upper 

 molars. They are pretty little animals, of active 



Chipmunk ( Tamias striatus ). 



disposition, living in underground burrows, where 

 they indulge to apparent excess their mania for 



storing food. The food consists of nuts, seeds, and 

 grain ; and the chipmunks plunder to no incon- 

 siderable extent the fields of wheat and maize. 

 They are, like many other rodents, very prolific. 

 See SQUIRREL. 



Chippendale, THOMAS, came to London from 

 Worcestershire before 1750, and was a successful 

 cabinet-maker and upholsterer. The style of furni- 

 ture named from him was less heavy and severe than 

 that of his successors, and was rather elaborate, 

 delicate, and baroque, with classical tendencies. 

 He wrote a Cabinet-maker's Director ( 1752 ). All 

 18th-century furniture is often miscalled ' Chippen- 

 dale.' See Clouston's Chippendale Period ( 1897). 



Chippeilhaill, an ancient municipal borough 

 (mainly one well-built street) in Wiltshire, on 

 the Avon, here crossed by a bridge of twenty-two 

 arches, 13 miles NE. of Bath. It lost, its last 

 parliamentary member in 1885. Pop. 4618. 



Chippeway Indians (written also Otchipwe 

 and Ojibbeway), a tribe of American Indians of the 

 Algonquin stock, now settled in northern Minne- 

 sota and in Canada. 



Chipping Norton, a sinall municipal borough 

 in the North of Oxfordshire, 85 miles NW. of Lon- 

 don by rail, with woollen, tweed, and glove manu- 

 factures. Pop. ( 1881 ) 4167 ; ( 1891 ) 4222. 



Chipping Wycombe. See WYCOMBE. 



Chiquiclliqui Palm (Leopoldinia Piassaba), 

 the Piassaba of the north of Brazil, and one of the 

 palms which yield the Piassaba (q.v. ) fibre so much 

 used for making brushes. 



Clliquiinu'la, a small town (pop. 6000) in the 

 east of Guatemala, which gives name to a pro- 

 vince, arid to the ISTHMUS OF CHIQUIMULA, with a 

 breadth from the Gulf of Honduras to the Pacific 

 of about 150 miles. 



Chiquiliqilira, the largest town in the depart- 

 ment of Boyaca, Colombia, near the Suarez, 30 miles 

 W. of Tunja, was an Indian place of pilgrimage 

 before the conquest ; and the Spaniards having 

 found here a miraculous image or the Virgin, the 

 church where this is preserved is now visited by 

 some 60,000 pilgrims annually. Pop. 18,000. 



Chiqilitos, or NAQUINONEIS ( ' men ' ), an Indian 

 stem of Bolivia, dwelling between the Paraguay 

 and the Madeira. Bronze-coloured and well built, 

 with large, round heads, low foreheads, and small 

 bright eyes, they are cheerful, hospitable, fond 

 of music and dancing, but of a low morality, 

 and live (about 20,000 in all) in villages formerly 

 founded by the Jesuits. 



Cllira'ta, or CHIRETTA (Ophelia Chirata), an 

 officinal plant belonging to the order Gentianese. 

 It is a native of the mountains of the north of India. 

 The whole plant is intensely bitter, and has been 

 long used in its native country as a tonic and 

 stomachic, as also by European practitioners in 

 India as a febrifuge. 



Clliriqui, an administrative division of the 

 department of Panama, Colombia, adjoining Costa 

 Rica. Area, 6500 so., m. ; pop. 43,000. It is well 

 wooded, and has rich pasturage, especially on the 

 Atlantic coast, where the climate is very moist. 

 The Cordilleras that occupy the interior reach their 

 highest point in the volcano of Chiriqui (11,265 

 feet). Chief town, David. On the north coast is 

 a spacious lagoon of the same name, with a depth 

 of water for the largest ships, which receives an 

 unimportant Rio Chiriqui. 



Chiromancy. See PALMISTRY. 



Clli'roil, or CHEIRON, the most famous of the 

 Centaurs (q.v.), son of Cronos and Philyra, and 

 husband of Nai's or Chariclo. He lived on Mount 

 Pelion, and was famous for his skill in healing, 



