HKIIIMDKS 



HECKMONDWIKE 



617 



Johnson's Journey (1775); Gregory's History (1836) 

 Maoculloch's Deaeription (1819); Buchanan's Hebric 

 Ilr (1H83); and (Jordon-Cuuiining's In the Hebrvdt 



( 1NX3). 



Hebrides MKW. See NEW HEBRIDES. 



llYhron, one of the oldest cities in Palestine 

 belonging to the tribe of Jmlah, 21 miles SS\V. o 

 Jerusalem. It was anciently called Kirjatharlni 

 and at a later period was the seven years' residenc 

 of King David before lie conquered Jerusalem 

 The modern town. Kl Khalil (' the friend ' of God 

 Abraham ), is a poor place, inhabited by some 10,0(X 

 people. It lies low down in a narrow and pictur 

 esque valley the Valley of Eshcol, famous now, as 

 of old, for its thick clustering grapes, its olives, am 

 >tlior fruits. The church erected by the Empress 

 Helena, the mother of Constantino, on the spot 

 when Abraham is said to have been buried, has 

 l>een converted into a mosque called El-Haram 

 ('sanctuary'), built to enclose the cave which is 

 the traditional burial-place of Abraham, Isaac, and 

 Jacob and their wives. See an article by Conder 

 in the Palestine Exploration Quarterly, October 



HecatH'US of Miletus, an early Greek historian 

 and geographer, usually styled 'the logographer, 

 flourished most probably about 500 B.C. He seems 

 to have visited Greece, Thrace, the countries 

 bordering on the Euxine, and many of the pro- 

 vinces of the Persian empire, with parts of Italy, 

 Spain, and Africa, and the results of his observa- 

 tions were given in two great works his Tour of 

 the World, and his Histories or Genealogies ; the 

 latter, however, is little more than a prose version 

 of the poetical legends of the Greeks. Only frag- 

 ments now remain, which have been edited by 

 Creuzer, Klausen, and Miiller. At the revolt of 

 the lonians against Persia he dissuaded its ring- 

 leader, Aristagoras, from an attempt so far above 

 the means of. his countrymen; and when that 

 counsel was despised, urged the formation of a 

 fleet, but in vain. Hecatreus afterwards went as 

 ambassador to the Persian satrap Artaphernes, and 

 induced him to treat the lonians with leniency. 



Hec'ate, a mysterious goddess who was appar- 

 ently unknown to the Greeks of Homeric times 

 and may be of oriental origin. She makes her 

 first appearance in Hesiod as a goddess having 

 power over earth, heaven, and sea. This triple 

 power may perhaps give the clue to the fact that in 

 art she is occasionally represented as a triple figure. 

 t also explains the fact that ultimately, and 

 especially in Orphic literature, she came to be 

 identified with many other goddesses, such as Ar- 

 temis, Eileithyia, Selene, Iris, Persephone, Aphro- 

 lite, Gaia, Hestia, Isis, Physis, and the Bona Dea. 

 Owing to the extent of her domain she was especi- 

 ally able to grant the wishes of her votaries and to 

 give them the fulfilment of their desire in battle, 

 in athletic and other contest*, in the popular 

 ueembly, and in the law-courts. But her power 

 above all displayed in the matter of ghosts 

 Ad lx>geys ; she was able not only to ward off the 

 visits of such hags but also to send them. Indeed 

 be.Mdes sending an Kmpusa or an Antiea, she also 

 herself appeared as a bogey, with torch and sword 

 and snakes for hair ; or she might appear as a dog, 

 a mare, a lioness, or a cow. As her appearance 

 was the sign for dogs to bark, so she was supposed 

 to be accompanied by a train of Stygian dogs. The 

 origin of this figure is uncertain ; she is claimed as 

 a moon goddess, and her name is interpreted in 

 accordance with this view as indicating the action 

 of light at a distance. It makes against this theory, 

 however, that the lunar functions of Hecate are 

 not mentioned by any author earlier than Sophocles, 

 and that they do not become prominent in her 



worship until ]>ost-classical times, and then only ' in 

 the systems of the later mythologiste' (nee C'lcu*. 

 /.'</-. .June 1888). Her intimate connection with 

 the spirits of the dead would rather point to her 

 having originally been a goddess of the nether 

 world, for the earth is regarded as the abode of the 

 spirits of the departed. This would explain her 

 connection with tne mysteries, and the propitiatory 

 offerings made to her in atonement for sin. Finally', 

 the unsatisfactory explanation of her name just 

 given may be safely set aside, as too abstract, in 

 favour of the interpretation of the name as mean- 

 ing 'dog' (Hecate : Ger. hnnd: Eng. hound . . (,\. 

 hekaton : Hund-reA. See Class. Itev. Nov. 1889). 

 This harmonises with various points in the ritual 

 of Hecate ; dogs were offered to her at cross-ways 

 (which are favourite haunts for ghosts), she herself 

 is termed fond of dogs, and sometimes appeared 

 leading Cerberus. 



. Hecatomb, in the worship of the Greeks, and 

 in other ancient religions, a sacrifice of a large 

 number of victims, properly, although by no means 

 necessarily, one hundred. As early as the time of 

 Homer it was usual only to burn the legs wrapped 

 up in the fat and certain parts of the intestines, 

 the rest of the victim being eaten at the festive 

 meal after the sacrifice. In Athens the hecatomb 

 was a most popular form of sacrifice; while the 

 thrifty Spartans on the contrary limited the num- 

 ber both of the victims and of the sacrifices. In 

 the hecatomb, strictly so called, the sacrifice was 

 supposed to consist of one hundred bulls ; but other 

 animals were frequently substituted. 



Hecker, FRIEDRICH KARL FRANZ, a leader of 

 the democratic party in the German revolution of 

 1848, was born at Eichtersheim, Baden, September 

 28, 1811. After studying law in Heidelberg, he 

 became in 1838 advocate of the supreme court in 

 Mannheim. But in 1842 he abandoned his pro- 

 fession for political life, joining the democratic and 

 socialistic party, of which he speedily became one 

 of the recognised heads. On the outbreak of the 

 revolution m 1848 he endeavoured to convert the 

 prelinriuary convention ( Das Vorparlament ) into a 

 permanent republican assembly. But, frustrated 

 in this attempt, he put himself at the head of a 

 band of revolutionists, and invaded Baden from the 

 south ; he was, however, defeated at Kandern 

 J 20th April ), and fled to Switzerland. In the follow- 

 ing year he settled in America as a fanner near 

 Belleville, in Illinois. On the outbreak of the 

 civil war he raised a regiment of Germans, and 

 afterwards for a time commanded a brigade. He 

 died at St Louis, 24th March 1881. 



Hecker, JUSTUS FRIEDRICH KARL, medical 

 author, was born 5th January 1795, and became 

 jrofessor of Medicine at Berlin. He died llth 

 May 1850. Among his writings are a history of 

 medicine (1829), books on the Black Death, '&c., 

 and the great work, the Epidemics of the Middle 

 Ages (trans, for Sydenham Society, 1846). 



Heckles (Mid. Eng. hekele, from the Dutch 

 teket, hank, | a hook ; cf. Ger. haken ; another 

 Sngluh form is hackle) are very important parts of 

 arious machines employed in the preparation of 

 uiimal and vegetable fibres for spinning. They con- 

 ist of a series of long metallic teeth, through which 

 he material is drawn, so that the fibres may be 

 embed out straight and so fitted for the subse- 

 uent operations. Gills are heckles with finer teeth 

 see SPINNING ). Heckling is also now the received 

 erm (first used in Scotland) for the rough and 

 rying process of catechisation to which parlia- 

 icntary candidates and members are subjected by 

 lieir constituencies. 



Heckllioildwike, a market-town in the West 

 Eliding of Yorkshire, 8 miles NE. of Huddersfield. 



