466 



COPTIS 



COPYHOLD 



It often happens that, owing to scantiness of soil 

 or to unfavourable subsoil, oaks and other trees, 

 after growing vigorously for a number of years, 

 are arrested, and remain almost stationary in their 

 growth. In such circumstances, it is advantageous 

 to cut them over early, and to treat the plantation 

 as a copse. Oak is much planted as copse-wood, 

 in consequence of the demand for its bark : in some 

 parts of Herefordshire, the trees are cut over every 

 twelve years ; but in the Highlands of Scotland, 

 twenty-five or thirty years are often necessary for 

 sufficient growth. The largest pieces of the wood 

 are used for making wheel-spokes, and for other 

 purposes of timber ; the smaller portions for char- 

 coal and firewood. Ash-coppice is serviceable for 

 handles of implements, hurdles, hoops. Chestnut 

 copses are planted in England to supply hop-poles. 

 Hazel is in great demand for making crates, &c. 

 Besides the cultivation of different kinds of willow 

 or osier for basket-making, in which they are cut 

 over annually, some of the species are cultivated 

 as copse, and cut every five, six, or seven years, 

 for hoops, crates, &c. (see WILLOW). In some 

 countries, copse-wood affords a valuable supply of 

 fuel. 



Coptis, a genus of Ranunculacese. C. trifoliata, 

 called Gold Thread on account of the appearance 

 and colour of its rhizomes, is a native of swamps in 

 the colder northern regions of both hemispheres. 

 It has ternate leaves and solitary Avhite flowers.. 

 The bitter rhizomes are used in America as a tonic, 

 and as a yellow dye. That of C. teeta of Assam is 

 used in India as a bitter tonic. 



Copts, the Christian descendants of the ancient 

 Egyptians. The name (in Arabic, Kubt) is most 

 probably derived from the same root as IL-gypt. 

 The Copts are in number about 300,000, only one- 

 eighteenth of the population of the country. A large 

 proportion live in Cairo, but there are numerous 

 populous settlements of Copts in Upper Egypt, 

 notably at Girga, Negada, Luksor, Asyut, Den- 

 dera, and Ikhmim, where 40,000 are said to reside. 

 They are essentially townsmen, engaged as clerks on 

 account of their undoubted mathematical talents ; 

 or employed in the finer handicrafts, such as gold- 

 smithery ; and their occupations account for their 

 paleness as compared with their Moslem neigh- 

 bours. The few Copts who work in the fields do 

 not differ perceptibly from the Moslems, and the 

 resemblance to the ancient Egyptians is visible in 

 both, though the inbreeding of the Copt has per- 

 haps retained the ancestral lineaments more faith- 

 fully. They are of middle stature, have black eyes, 

 and black curly hair ; dress like the Moslems, 

 but are generally distinguished by a black or blue 

 turban ; the women are veiled. Their character is 

 in general gloomy, deceitful, and avaricious ; they 

 are ignorant, drunken, and sensual. In religion 

 they are Monophysites (q.v.) of the Jacobite sect ; 

 but a few are united to the Greek and Roman 

 Catholic churches. When the Council of Chalcedon 

 in 451 pronounced the Jacobite opinion heretical, 

 some of the Copts supported the verdict, and bitter 

 jealousies ensued between these ' royalists ' and 

 the Jacobite Copts. The latter did not scruple to 

 welcome the Moslem conquest in 640 in order to 

 expel the Greek faction. They ascribe their con- 

 version from heathenism to St Mark, whom they 

 regard as the first patriarch of Alexandria. Their 

 highest dignitary is the patriarch of Alexandria, 

 whose residence, however, is in Cairo. Their other 

 orders of clergy are twelve bishops, and archpriests, 

 priests, deacons, and monks. The patriarch is 

 named by his predecessor, or chosen oy lot from 

 among the monks of the convent of St Anthony. 

 He is not permitted to marry, and when he sleeps 

 it is necessary to waken him every quarter of an 



hour. He nominates the metropolitan of Abys- 

 sinia ( see ABYSSINIA ). 



The Copts are very strict in some of their 

 religious observances, and hate other Christian 

 sects even more than they hate the Moslems. 

 They maintain the seven sacraments baptism by 

 trine immersion ; confirmation ; penance or con- 

 fession ; orders ; matrimony ; unction ; and the 

 eucharist, administered in both kinds to all, even 

 young children, and formed of leavened bread 

 which has been dipped in wine. They keep 

 Wednesday and Friday with great strictness as 

 fast-days, and have besides an onerous fast of Nine- 

 veh, lasting fifty-five days, and lesser fasts of the 

 Nativity, the Apostles, and the Virgin. Each fast 

 is followed by a feast. Pilgrimage to Jerusalem is 

 prized highly. Priests may be married to one 

 virgin provided the ceremony takes place before 

 ordination ; if the wife die, he may not marry 

 again, nor may the widow of a priest remarry. 

 The Copts seldom marry outside their own sect ; 

 the wedding ceremonies are very peculiar, and may 

 be read in L. Oliphant's Land of Khemi ; the 

 bride is expected to remain at home until confined, 

 or for a year if barren ( see Lane's Modern Egyp- 

 tians}. The Coptic ritual, liturgy, vestments, &c. 

 are specially interesting as preserving unchanged 

 very ancient Christian forms. The churches, of 

 which the most celebrated are those built in the 

 Roman fortress of Babylon at old Cairo, and those 

 in the Nitrian valley, are remarkable for peculiari- 

 ties of construction and plan, and for exceedingly 

 beautiful carved ivory screens. An admirable 

 account of them is given by Mr Butler. They have 

 many schools, but only for boys, who learn the 

 psalms, gospels, and apostolic epistles in Arabic, 

 and then the gospels and epistles in Coptic. The 

 Coptic, however, is not grammatically taught, and 

 is not now a spoken language, having been every- 

 where supplanted by the Arabic. It has not been 

 spoken in Lower Egypt since the 10th century, but 

 lingered for some centuries longer in Upper Egypt. 

 It is, however, still used by the Copts in their 

 religious services, but the lessons, after being read 

 in Coptic, are explained in Arabic. The Coptic 

 language is the descendant of the ancient Egyptian, 

 but the alphabet is Greek uncial, probably intro- 

 duced soon after their conversion to Christianity. 

 ' The romance of language could go no further than 

 to join the speech of Pharaoh and the writing of 

 Homer in the service-book of an Egyptian Chris- 

 tian ' ( Butler ). There are two principal dialects 

 of the language the Sahidic or Upper Egyptian, 

 and the Memphitic or Lower Egyptian, which is 

 sometimes exclusively called Coptic. A third 

 dialect, the Bashmuric, of whfeh only a few 

 remains exist, was spoken in the Delta, and is 

 interesting from its points of resemblance to the 

 language of the hieroglyphics. The literature is 

 wholly religious. See the article EGYPT ; and The 

 Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt, by Alfred J. 

 Butler (2 vols. Oxford Clarendon Press, 1884). 



Copula (Lat., ' a band ') is a term employed in 

 logic to designate the word which unites the two 

 notions of a sentence the subject and predicate 

 into one judgment or thought. 



Copyhold, a species of estate or right of 

 property in land, in Ireland and England, nearly 

 resembling in many particulars the feu-rights of 

 Scotland. Copyhold is expressed technically as 

 ' tenure by copy of court-roll, at the will of the 

 lord, according to the custom of the manor.' This 

 means that it is tenure of land, being part of a 

 manor, the title being evidenced by the court- 

 rolls of the manor, and the right of the owner being 

 in conformity with the immemorial customs of the 

 manor. The addition, 'at the will of the lord,' 



