48 



GABERLUNZIE 



GACHARD 



system which he had invented for his own private 

 use to the purpose of reporting the proceedings of 

 the parliament. Discarding straight lines and sharp 

 angles, he endeavoured to construct a series of 

 signs which should conform as closely as possible 

 to the written signs of German, and for his models 

 went back to the majuscule forms of the so-called 

 Tironian signs employed in Latin. His system is 

 now used for reporting parliamentary proceedings 

 in most of the countries in which German is, the 

 official language ; and it has also been adapted 

 to the languages of several countries outside of 

 Germany. Gabelsberger published an account of 

 his system in Anleitung zur Deutschen Redezeichen- 

 kunst oder Stenographic, (2d ed. 1850). See Gerber, 

 Gabelsbergers Leben und Streben (1868). 



Gaberlunzie* an old Scotch term for a beggar, 

 from his wallet. The word is no doubt originally 

 of the same origin as the English gabardine, ' a 

 cloak,' from the Spanish gaban ; the second part 

 the same as loin, the part on which the wallet rests, 

 There is extant -a fine old ballad of a young lover 

 who gained access to his mistress through adopting 

 the disguise of the gaberlunzie-man. 



Gabes. See CABES. 



Gabion ( Ital. gabbia, related to Lat: cavea, 

 ' hollow ' ), a hollow cylinder of basket-work, 3 feet 

 high and 2 in diameter, employed in fortification 

 for revetting purposes i.e. to retain earth at a 

 steep slope. A sap-roller consists of two concentric 

 gabions, one 4 feet, the other 2 feet 8 inches in 

 diameter, the space between being wedged full 

 of pickets of hard wood, so as to form a mov- 

 able protection for the men working at a saphead. 

 See MINES. 



Gabirol. See AVICEBRON. 



Gable, the triangular part of an exterior wall 

 of a building between the top of the side-walls and 

 the slopes of the roof. The gable is one of the 

 most common and characteristic features of Gothic 

 architecture. The end walls of classic buildings 

 had Pediments (q.v.), which followed the slope of 

 the roofs, but these were always low in pitch. In 

 medieval architecture gables of every angle are 

 used with the utmost freedom, and when covered 

 with the moulded and crocketed copes of the richer 

 periods of the style, they give great variety and 

 beauty of outline. 



Gablets, or small gables, are used in great pro- 

 fusion in connection with the more decorative 

 parts of Gothic architecture, such as canopies, 

 pinnacles, &c. , where they are introduced in end- 

 less variety along with tracery, crockets, and other 

 enrichments. 



The towns of the middle ages had almost all the 

 gables of the houses turned towards the streets, 

 producing great diversity and picturesqueness of 

 effect, as may still be seen in many towns which 

 have been little modernised. The towns of 

 Belgium and Germany especially still retain this 

 medieval arrangement. In the later Gothic and 

 the Renaissance periods the simple outline of the 

 gable . became stepped and broken in the most 

 fantastic manner. This method of finishing gables 

 has again become popular, all sorts of curves and 

 twists being adopted. See CORBIE-STEPS. 



Gablonz, a town of the north of Bohemia, 

 6 miles SE. of Reichenberg, celebrated for its 

 glass manufactures. The town has also textile 

 industries and porcelain-painting. Pop. 14,653. 



Gaboon, a French colony on the west coast of 

 Africa between the Atlantic and the middle Congo. 

 Its north boundary touches the German colony of 

 Cameroon (q. v.) ; its south boundary touches Portu- 

 guese Cabinda and the Congo State ; and to the 

 east the territory stretches along the Mobangi 



(Ubanghi) to the British sphere, and northward, 

 behind the (German) Cameroon country to Lake 

 Tsad. Area, 300,000 sq. m. Inlets into the coast 

 are Corisco Bay and the estuaries of the Gaboon 

 and Ogowe (q.v.), which, with the Kwilu, are 

 the principal rivers of the colony. The Gaboon, 10 

 miles wide at its entrance, penetrates 40 miles 

 inland, with a width varying between 6 and 12 

 miles. On the north bank, which is tolerably high, 

 is the European settlement of Libreville ; the south 

 bank is low and marshy. Its chief affluents are 

 the Como or Olombo from the east and the Remboe 

 from the south. Besides these the Licona, Alima, 

 and Lefini, about which but little is known, now 

 eastwards into the Congo. The climate on tho 

 coastal strip is extremely unhealthy ; mean annu;il 

 temperature, 83 F. On the inland plateau ( 2600 

 feet above sea-level ) it is better. The interior 

 has not yet been fully explored ; certain parts, as 

 the basin of the Ogowe, the region around the 

 sources of the Licona, the Kwilu region, and the 

 coast-lands, are fertile and rich in natural resources. 

 Amongst the exports figure timber, gum, ivory, 

 gutta-percha, palm oil and kernels, earth-nuts, 

 sesamum, and malachite ; other products are brown 

 hematite, quicksilver, sugar-cane, cotton, and 

 bananas. The principal imports are salt, spirits, 

 gunpowder, guns, tobacco, cotton goods, and iron 

 and brass wares. All agricultural operations are 

 performed by women. The coast tribes engage in 

 trade, which is particularly active around Loango 

 in the south-west and on the Gaboon. The 

 people belong for the most part to tribes of the 

 Bantu stock, the more important being the 

 Mpongwe, the Fans, Bakele, Bateke, &c. Sheep 

 arid goats are numerous, but the former yield no 

 wool. This part of Africa was discovered by the 

 Spaniards in the 15th century. The French made 

 their first settlement on the Gaboon estuary in 

 1842 ; twenty years later they extended their sway 

 to the .Ogowe. But they seem never to have 

 attached any importance to the colony until after 

 Savorgnan de Brazza (q.v.) began to explore it in 

 1876-86. Witli the Ogowe (q.v.) territory, the 

 Gaboon is now called French Congo. Franceville 

 is the principal station in the interior. See books 

 on the region by Dubreuil de Ithins (1885), Barret 

 (1887), besides the works on the French Colonies. 



Gaboriau, EMILE, the great master of ' police 

 novels,' was born in 1835 at Saujon in Charente- 

 Inferieure, and was only saved from mercantile 

 life by a timely discovery that he could write. He 

 had already contributed to some of the smaller 

 Parisian papers, when he leaped into fame at a 

 single bound with his story L 'Affaire Lerouge 

 ( 1866) in the feuilleton to Le Pays. It was quickly 

 followed by Le Dossier 113 (1867), Le Crime 

 d'Orcival ( 1868 ), Monsieur Lecoq ( 1869 ), Les Esclaves 

 de Paris ( 1869), La Vie Infernale ( 1870), La Clique 

 Doree (1871), La Corde au Cou (1873), L' Argent 

 des Autres (1874), and La Degringolade (1876). 

 Gaboriau died suddenly, 28th September 1873. 



Gabriel ( Heb. , ' man of God ' ) is, in the Jewish 

 angelology, one of the seven archangels ( see 

 ANGEL ). The Mohammedans hold Gabriel in even 

 greater reverence than the Jews ; he is called the 

 spirit of truth, and is believed to have dictated the 

 Koran to Mohammed. 



Gacliard, Louis PROSPER, writer on the 

 history of Belgium, was born at Paris, 12th March 

 1800. He spent the greater part of his life as 

 keeper of the archives at Brussels. He died 24th 

 December 1885. He edited from the national 

 archives of Belgium and Spain the correspondence 

 of William the Silent ( 1847-58 ), Philip II. ( 1848-59 ), 

 Margaret of Austria (1867-81), and Alba (1850) ; 

 and wrote Les Troubles de Gand sow Charles V. 



