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GONDAB 



GONDS 



herself, which not only creates classes and groups 

 but exceptional figures also. Their figures sub- 

 mit to life without subduing it, and are weighed 

 down by that irresoluteness of will and morbid 

 sensitiveness to suffering which is the especial 

 disease of our age. Their subject is not so much 

 the passions as the manners of the 19th century, 

 and their sense of the enormous influence of envir- 

 onment and habit upon man necessitated so close 

 a study of the arts of contemporary life that their 

 work will be valued by future historians as a store- 

 house of materials. Their descriptive part is always 

 especially prominent, and their stories usually 

 commence without explanation and end without 

 denouement. 



The novels in which the brothers carried out their 

 theories display a marvellous unity, despite their 

 double origin. The first, Les Hommes de Lettres 

 (1860; new ed. as Charles Demailly ), was followed 

 by Sceur Philomene ( 1861 ), Rente Mauperin ( 1864), 

 Germinie Lacerteux ( 1865 ), Manette Salomon ( 1867 ). 

 and Madame Gervaisais (1869). The last is their 

 greatest novel, the sharp and 

 painful analysis of which was 

 too close a reflex of them- 

 selves. Indeed, the weaker of 

 the two did not survive this 

 book, which may be said to 

 have been written with his 

 very heart's blood. After the 

 death of Jules, 20th June 

 1870, Edmond issued the 

 extraordinarily popular La 

 Fille filisa ( 1878 ), La Faiistin 

 (1882), and Cherie (1885). 

 The interesting Idees et Sen- 

 nations (1866) had already 

 revealed to the world their 

 morbid hyper-acuteness of 

 sensation so fatal to nervous 

 health and to that equilibri- 

 um of sanity which belonged 

 to Goethe, Victor Hugo, and 

 all the Olympians ; and La 

 Maison dun Artiste (1881) 

 had shown their patient love 

 for bric-a-brac and its reflex 

 influence upon the mind ; but 



the Lettres de Jules Goncourt (1885), and still more 

 the Journal des Goncourt ( 1888-92), have disclosed 

 their conception of fiction and their method of 

 work so fully, that the latter may be accepted as 

 the propaganda of a school which embraces many 

 of the foremost novelists of France. See a study 

 by Bourget in his Nouveaux Essais de Psychologic 

 (1885); and Belloc and Shedlock, E. and J. de 

 Goncourt (1892). Edmond died in 1896. 



4oii<l;ir. capital of Amhara in Abyssinia, is 

 situated on a basaltic hill 23 miles N. of Lake 

 Tzana (see ABYSSINIA). Gondar was formerly the 

 residence of the emperor, and at one time had 

 about 50,000 inhabitants ; its population numbers 

 at present barely 4000, though there are still some 

 forty churches. The hill is crowned by the ruin 

 of the old castle, built by Indian architects under 

 Portuguese direction ; burned by Theodore in 1867, 

 it is now left to the bats and hyaenas. The 

 Mohammedan town (Islambed), at the foot of the 

 hill, formerly noticeable for its clean streets and 

 pretty houses, has been deserted in consequence of 

 an edict commanding the baptism of the inhabit- 

 ants ; but the Falashas are permitted to keep their 

 Jewish quarter. Part of the town was burned by 

 the Dervishes in 1889. There are manufactures of 

 fine leather and gold and silver filigree-work, church 

 vessels, and musical instruments ; and the priests 

 are masters of penmanship, and prepare religious 

 paintings, reading-desks, and praying-stools. Most 



of the young priests of Abyssinia are educated 

 here. There is a considerable transit trade. 



Goildo koro, a trading-post in the country of 

 the Bari negroes, on the Upper Nile, in about 4 

 54' N. lat. A Catholic mission founded here in 

 1853 was discontinued in 1858 owing to the bad 

 climate and the hostility of the slave-traders. It 

 is now deserted during the greater part of the year, 

 but in December and January merchants arrive 

 and establish an important ivory-market, which 

 was formerly also a centre of the slave-trade. To 

 put this down Baker established a strong military 

 station here in 1871, and changed the name to 

 Ismailia ; but, before the abandonment by Egypt 

 of its possessions in Central Africa, Gordon removed 

 the station to Lado, 6 miles lower down the Nile. 



Gon'dola (Ital.), a long narrow boat (averaging 

 30 feet by 4 ) used chiefly on the canals of Venice. 

 The prow and stern taper to a point, and curve high 

 out of the water. In the centre there may or may 

 not be a curtained chamber for the occupants. 



Venetian Gondola. 



The boat is usually propelled by one man stand- 

 ing at the stern, by means of a large sweep very 

 deftly and powerfully handled by the gondolier ; or 

 there may oe another man at the bow. Immense 

 sums were spent by the wealthy on the luxurious 

 adornment of their gondolas, till in the 16th cen- 

 tury sumptuary laws were passed, the consequence 

 of which was that the ordinary gondola came to be 

 of the plainest funereal black, with black cloth 

 cushions and fittings in Byron's phrase, ' just like 

 a coffin clapp'd in a canoe. ' 



Gondomar, DIEGO SARMIENTO DE ACUNA, 

 MARQUIS DE, Spanish ambassador in England from 

 1613 to 1621. He acquired great influence over 

 King James I. , and plied him with all the arts of 

 persuasion to induce him to bring the projected 

 Spanish match, the marriage of Prince Charles 

 with the Infanta, to a successful termination. 

 The ruling motive of his policy was, however, the 

 warmly cherished hope of oeing able eventually to 

 convert the English nation to Roman Catholicism. 

 See S. R. Gardiner, Prince Charles and the Spanish 

 Marriage (1869). 



Gonds-, a Dravidian people, the most important 

 of the non-Aryan or 'aboriginal' hill-races of the 

 Central Provinces (q*.v.) of India. They probably 

 entered the country at an early period from the 

 north, and gave their name to Gondwana, which 

 comprised the greater part of the Central Provinces ; 



