568 



HARPE 



HARPY 



semitone, so that the C string may be C flat its 

 full length, C natural by the first movement of the 



Sedal, and C sharp by the next movement. The 

 ouble-action harp is tuned in the key of C flat. 



Harpe, JEAN FRANgois DE LA. See LA 

 HARPE. 



Harper and Brothers, a well-known firm 

 of New York publishers, consisted originally of 

 James (1795-1869), John (1797-1875), Joseph 

 Wesley (1801-70), and Fletcher (1806-77). James 

 and John commenced to publish in 1818, as J. & J. 

 Harper, and issued about 200 works. The firm of 

 Harper and Brothers, established in 1833, is now 

 carried on by the descendants of the founders, em- 

 ploying several hundred persons in its large estab- 

 lishment in New York city. The firm issues books, 

 Harper's Magazine ( monthly, since 1850), Harper's 

 Weekly (since 1857 ), Harper's Bazar ( fashions, social 

 life, &c. ; since 1867), and Harper's Round Table 

 (started in 1881 as Harper's Young People). Re- 

 organisation succeeded financial difficulties in 1899. 



Harpers Ferry, a post-town of West Virginia, 

 situated among beautiful scenery at the confluence 

 of the Shenandoah with the Potomac, where the 

 latter is crossed by a bridge, 81 miles W. of Balti- 

 more by rail. It was the scene of John Brown's 

 abolition raid in 1859 ; and here a Union army of 

 over 11,500 men, under General D. H. Miles, sur- 

 rendered to Stonewall Jackson in 1862. The arsenal 

 and armoury were burned in 1861, to prevent their 

 falling into the hands of the Confederates. Pop. 

 896. 



Harpocrates, the name given by Greek 

 writers to the younger Horns, the hieroglyphical 

 inscriptions calling him Har pa khrut, ' Horus the 

 child,' the son of Osiris and Isis. See OSIRIS, 

 EGYPT (Vol. IV. p. 235), Isis. 



Harpoon. See WHALE. 



Harp-shell (Harpa), a genus of gasteropodous 

 molluscs of the whelk 

 family ( Buccinidse ), hav- 

 ing the last whorl of the 

 shell large, and covered 

 with numerous sharp 

 smooth ribs, resembling 

 the strings of a harp. 

 The foot is large, and 

 there is no operculum. 

 These shells are elegantly 

 marked, and much prized 

 for their beauty. Nine 

 species are known, all of 

 them tropical, and living 

 in deep water, on soft, 

 sandy, or muddy bot- 

 toms. 



Harpsichord, a 



keyed musical instrument, formerly in extensive 

 use, but now little known. There were three 

 shapes : the ' grand ' form, resembling a grand 

 piano ; the oblong, often called spinet or virginal ; 

 and the upright, this type very rare. The sound 

 from the strings was produced by a small piece 

 of crow-quill, or a piece of hard leather, which 

 projected out of a slip of wood, called the jack, that 

 stood upright between the strings, and was pushed 

 upwards by the key, till the quill or leather 

 twitched the string, causing a brilliant, but some- 

 what harsh sound, entirely deficient of any means 

 of modification in respect to loudness or softness. 

 Specimens of the harpsichord, although now becom- 

 ing more rare, are still to be found in good preserva- 

 tion, but are regarded rather as articles of vertu or 

 curiosity than as useful musical instruments. Many 

 Italian and Dutch harpsichords were highly orna- 

 mented by the most eminent artists with valuable 



Harp-shell 

 (Harpa imperialis). 



panel paintings on the inside of the lid. The date 1 

 of the invention of the harpsichord is uncertain. 

 It is first mentioned in the rules of the Minnesinger* 

 by Eberhard Cersne, in 1404, which places its in- 

 vention in the preceding century. It was known in 

 England in the 15th century, as mention occurs of 

 it in a MS. dated 1502, where it is alluded to as 

 no novelty. The liuckers family were the great 

 makers in Antwerp in the 16th and 17th centuries. 

 In the 18th century Kirkman, and later Broadwood 

 'and Shudi, were the famous makers in London. The 

 harpsichord will be remembered in history as the 

 instrument on which Bach and Handel played. 

 After the invention of the pianoforte, the harpsi- 

 chord in all its varieties was gradually superseded 

 by the new instrument. See PIANOFORTE. 



Harpy, a fabulous creature in Greek myth- 

 ology, considered as a minister of the vengeance 

 of the gods. Various accounts are given of the 

 numbers and parentage of the Harpies. Homer 

 mentions but one, Podarge ; Hesiod enumerate* 

 two, Ae'llo and Okypete, daughters of Thauma* 

 by the Oceanid Electra, fair-haired and winged 

 maidens, very swift of flight. Three are sometimes 

 recognised by later writers, who call them variously 

 daughters of Poseidon or of Typhon, and describe 

 them as hideous monsters with wings, of fierce and 

 loathsome aspect, with their faces pale with hunger, 

 living in an atmosphere of filth and stench, and 

 contaminating everything that they approached. 

 The most celebrated tradition regarding the Harpies 

 is connected with the blind Phineus, whose meala 

 they carried off as soon as they were spread for him, 

 a plague from which he was delivered by the Argo- 

 nauts, on his engaging to join in their quest. The 

 Boreads Zetes and Calais attacked the Harpies, 

 but spared their lives on their promising to cease 

 from molesting Phineus. Virgil locates them in 

 the Strophades. A harpy in heraldry is represented 

 as a vulture', with the head and breast of a woman. 



Harpy Eagle ( Thrasaetus harpyia). 



The name harpy is also applied to a raptorial bird 

 of the family Falconidse ( Thrasaetus harpyia ), an 

 inhabitant of the great tropical forests, where it 

 preys upon all quadrupeds, except the most power- 

 ful, chiefly, however, on monkeys and sloths ; even 

 children are said to have been carried off by it. It 



