POKHURN 



POLAND 



269 



Pokhurn (Pokaran), a town of India, in the 

 Rajput state of Jodlipur, 70 miles NW. of Jodh- 

 pur. Pop. 15,000. 



Pola. the most important naval station of 

 Austria-Hungary, is situated near the southern 

 extremity of the peninsula of Istria, 105 miles by 

 rail S. of Trieste. The harbour is thoroughly 

 sheltered, deep, and spacious enough to accom- 

 modate the largest fleet. The town is protected 

 by forts and lotteries, and is overlooked by the 

 citadel, by which it and the bay are commanded. 

 The arsenal employs about 2400 men. There are 

 also artillery and powder stores, docks, slips, &c. 

 The cathedral dates from the 15th century. Pola 

 U also a shipping port, exporting wood, tish, sand, 

 and building stones, and importing provisions, coal, 

 and bricks. Pop. (1880) 27,173; (1890) 39,273, of 

 whom 10,000 belonged to the garrison. Founded 

 traditionally by the Colchians who were sent 

 in pursuit of Jason, Pola was destroyed by 

 Augustus, but rebuilt at the request of his 

 (laughter Julia, on which account it was named 

 Pietus Julia. At the beginning of the 3d century 

 it had 30,000 inhabitants, and was a station of the 

 Roman fleet. It was destroyed in 1267 by its 

 Venetian masters, who had conquered it in 1148; 

 and in 1379 the Genoese, after routing the 

 Venetians in a sea-fight off the town, once more 

 ravaged it But it only passed from Venice in 

 1797 to Austria, who chose it as her chief naval 

 harbour in 1848. It contains numerous interest- 

 ing Roman remains, among them a well-preserved 

 amphitheatre, 450 feet long and 360 broad. A 

 temple and several ancient gates are also extant. 

 See A Mason's Antiquities of Pola (Lond. 1819), 

 and Jackson's Dalmatia, the Quarnaro, and Istria 

 <1887). 



Polalliaiis. an ancient Slavic race, belonging 

 to the same group as the Poles, occupying the 

 basin of the Lower Elbe. They have long been 

 Germanised, and their language is now extinct. 

 The term is sometimes used in a wider sense for all 

 Slavonic peoples west and north-west of the Oder 

 and the fcrzgebirge. See SLAVS. 



Polacca. a species of vessel in use in the Medi- 

 terranean, with three masts and a jib-boom ; the 

 fore- and main-masts being of one piece ( ' pole- 

 masts '), and the mizzen-mast with a top and top- 

 mast. 



Polacca. See POLONAISE. 



Poland (called by the natives Polska, a word 

 of the same root as Pole, ' a plain '), a former king- 

 dom of Europe, was, immediately previous to its 

 lUrnemberment, bounded on the N. by the Baltic 

 Sea from Dan/.ig to Riga, and by the Russian 

 provinces of Riga and Pskov ; on the E. by the 

 Russian provinces of Smolensk, Tchernigoff, Pol- 

 tava, and Kherson ; on the S. by Bessarabia, 

 Moldavia, and the Carpathian Mountains ; and 

 on the W. by the Prussian provinces of Silesia, 

 Brandenburg, and Pomerania. Its greatest length 

 from north to south was 713 English miles, and 

 from east to west 693 miles, embracing an area of 

 about 282,000 English sq. m. (40,000 larger than 

 Austria- Hungary is now); an area which in 

 1880 had a population of 24,000,000. This exten- 

 sive tract forms part of the great European central 

 plain, and is crossed by only one range of hills, 

 which rise from the north side of the Carpathians 

 and run north-east through the country, forming 

 the watershed between the rivers which flow into 

 the Baltic and Black Sea. The soil is mostly a 

 light fertile loam, well adapted for cereals, though 

 and there occur extensive barren tracts of 





l, heath, and swamp, especially in the eastern 

 districts. Much of the fertile soil is rich pasture- 

 land, and much is occupied with forests of pine, 



birch, oak, &c. Rye, wheat, barley, and other 

 cereals, hemp, timber, honey and wax, cattle, 

 sheep, and horses, vast mines of salt, and a little 

 silver, iron, copper, and lead constitute the natural 

 riches of the country ; and for the purposes of 

 commerce the Vistula, Dnieper, Dwiua, and their 

 tributaries afford great facilities. 



The kingdom of Poland, during the period of its 

 greatest extent, after the addition of the grand- 

 duchy of Lithuania at the close of the 14th century, 

 was subdivided, for purposes of government, into 

 about forty palatinates (Pol. wojewodztwa), which 

 were mostly governed by hereditary chiefs. The 

 people were divided into two great classes nobles 

 and serfs. The noble class, which was the 

 privileged and governing class, included the higher 

 nobles, the inferior nobles (a numerous class, corre- 

 sponding to the knights and gentry of other 

 countries), and the clergy, and numbered in all 

 200,000 ; the serfs formed the agricultural labourers, 

 and were attached to the soil. Their condition is 

 described by all travellers as a very pitiable one. 

 Such trade as the country had was mostlv in the 

 hands of the Germans and Jews. The nobles were 

 the proprietors of the soil, and appropriated the 

 larger portion of its products, the serfs being left 

 with a bare maintenance. The former were brave 

 and hospitable, but quarrelsome, and generally 

 preferred their own interests to that of their 

 country ; the serfs ( originally called Kmieci ; Lat. 

 Kmetones) were sunk in poverty and ignorance. 

 The present population of the provinces included 

 in the Poland of former days consists of Poles, 

 Lithuanians, Germans, Jews, Malo-Russians, Rou- 

 manians, Gypsies, &c. The Poles, who number 

 10,000,000, form the bulk of the population ; the 

 Lithuanians, 2,100,000 in number, inhabit the 

 north-east of the country ; the Germans, of whom 

 there are 2,000,000, live mostly in the towns ; the 

 Jews are very numerous, being reckoned at 

 2,200,000. Of Roman Catholics there are about 

 9,400,000; of members of the Greek Church 

 (including Uniates), 7,900,000; of Protestants, 

 2,360,000 ; the rest are Jews, Armenians in 

 Galicia, &c. 



History. The Poles are ethnologically a branch 

 of the Slavs (q.v. ). The name appears first in 

 history as the designation of a tribe, the Poliani, 

 who dwelt l>etween the Oder and the Vistula, 

 surrounded by the kindred tribes of the Masovii, 

 Kujavii, Chrobates, Silesians, Obotrites, and others. 

 In course of time the name Poliani became pre- 

 dominant. There is no real Polish history till the 

 reign of Mieczyslaw (962-992) ; up to the period of 

 this sovereign we have only fables. He became a 

 convert to Christianity, and Poland took rank as 

 one of the political powers of Europe. Mieczyslaw 

 acknowledged himself to be the feudatory of Otho 

 of Germany. In his time the first Polish bishopric 

 was founded at Posen. He was succeeded by his 

 son Boleslas I. (992-1025), who extended his king- 

 dom beyond the Oder, the Carpathians, and the 

 Dniester. He was recognised as king by the 

 German emperors. After a period of anarchy he 

 was succeeded by his son Casimir (1040^58), 

 whose reign, and that of his warlike son Boleslas 

 II. ( 1058-1 101 ), although brilliant, were of little real 

 profit to the country. The latter monarch having 

 murdered the Bishop of Cracow with his own hand, 

 Poland was laid under the papal iterdict, and the 

 people absolved from their allegiance, whereupon 

 Boleslas fled to Hungary. For two hundred years 

 from this time Poland was only a duchy. Boleslas 

 III., surnamed the 'Wry-mouthed' (H02-39), an 

 energetic monarch, annexed Pomerania. 



In the time of Casimir II. ( 1177-94) we have the 

 senate established, which was formed from the 

 bishops, palatines, and castellans. His death was 



