684 



KHATSODISTS 



RHEIMS 



been found a series of crypts communicating with 

 the temple by narrow passages formerly <i|H*neil 

 and closed in a similar manner, the stone sculp- 

 tured like the rest of the wall. Again, Wilkinson 

 objected that the soldiers worn no beards ; but bas- 

 reuefs and statues show that F.gyiitiaiis of pure 

 race wore beards according to individual taste ; 

 and besides the soldiers of police in quest inn 

 belonged to a tribe of Libyan origin, named Maziou, 

 who usually wore the beard. 



See Liebrcoht's translation (1851) of Punlnp'g Hit- 

 lory of Prate Fiction ; A. Schiefner in vol. xiv. of the 

 bulletin of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences ; W. 

 A. Clonaton's Popular Tola and Firtioni (1887); and 

 Maspem's Contet Pnpulaim de VSgypte Ancienne (3d 

 ed. 1889). 



Kliapsodists (Gr., from rhaptein, 'to stitch 

 together,' and ode, 'an ode'), a class of men in 

 ancient Greece who travelled from place to place 

 reciting poetry. They are distinct from the pro- 

 fessional minstrels ( aoidoi ') of the Odyssey, although 

 their legitimate successors ; but they also seem, at 

 first at least, to have l>een composers of epic poetry, 

 although it is hardly probable that this was often 

 the case after the 6th century B.C. \Ve find distinct 

 traces of the public recitation by rhapsodists of the 

 Homeric poems as early a 600 B.C., at places so far 

 apart as Sicyon, Syracuse, Delos, Chios, Cyprus, 

 ami Athens. Indeed at Athens ancient law pre- 

 scribed the recitation of Homer once every four 

 years at the festival of the Great Panathennea. 

 To the early rhapsodists mainly belongs the credit 

 of the wide diffusion of the Homeric j>oem8 through- 

 out the Greek world. They themselves were held 

 in high esteem and richly rewarded ; but in later 

 days the art came to lie practised in a mere 

 mechanical manner, and the influence of the rhap- 

 sodists ebbed accordingly. In Plato's Ion we get 

 a picture of the rhapsodist as he was about the 

 middle of the 4th century B.C. Ion is a native of 

 Ephesus who goes from city to city reciting Homer 

 to crowds of hearers, appearing on a platform in a 

 richly -embroidered dress, a golden wreath on his 

 bead. He adds dramatic force to his declamation, 

 and brings Homer home to his hearers' hearts, 

 being himself possessed by Homer. Moreover, he 

 interprets Homer in a continuous exposition, and 

 is proud of his fluency of ideas. Ion is described 

 as devoted exclusively to Homer, but there 

 were a few of his bretfiren who gave themselves 

 also to Orpheus, MUSHMIS, Hesiod, Archilochus, 

 or Simonides. It is unlikely that Homer was ever 

 sung to music, although in earlier times there were 

 heroic lays which were sung to the accompaniment 

 of the lyre. As lyric poetry became more dis- 

 tinctly cultivated, such epic lays came to be simply 

 declaimed, the rhapsodist holding a branch of bay 

 in hU hand instead of a lyre. 



Itliataiiv. or KATTANY, a half-shrubby plant, 

 of the natural order Polygale.'f, a native of the 

 cold sterile tablelands of the Andes in Peni and 

 Bolivia. It in called Rntanhia in Peru. It is 

 valued for the medicinal properties of the root, 

 which are shared more or less by other species of 

 the same genus, also natives of South America. 

 In the British Pharmacopoeia the dried root* of two 

 species (Krameria irinnilni, Peruvian Rhatany, 

 and K. ixina, Savanilla Khatany) are officinal 

 under the name Krameria* Kudix. The roots vary 

 a good deal in si/.e and thickness, but are always 

 rough-looking, and reddish in colour. The Iwtrk 

 has a strongly astringent taste, and when chewed 

 tinges the saliva red ; the wood is nearly tasteless. 

 The dried root is a powerful astringent, and is 

 employed in diarrhoea, mucous discharges, passive 

 htemorrhages, and cases where an astringent or 

 typtic action in indicated. The linely-]>owdered 

 root in also a frequent constituent of tooth-powders. 



Khatany root U imported from various parts of 

 South America, but chiefly from Lima. It is 

 extensively imported into Portugal in order to 



nmunicate a rich red colour to wines. It* 



peculiar properties are due to rhatany-tannic acid, 

 found in the root-bark to the extent of 20 percent. ; 

 it .il-n rniiiaiiis a red colouring mutter. 



Kllil7.cs. or I! \/l, Persian physician and alelmm- 

 IM. See MKIIK-IXK (p. 117) and ARABIA (p. 366). 



Rill, II.K DE. See lit. 



It hca. :i:i ancient Cretan earth-goddess, daughter 

 of Uranus and Giro, wife of her brother the Titan 

 Cronus, and liy him mother of the Olympian deities 

 Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Hestia, Demeter. 

 She was early identified with the Asiatic nature- 

 goddess Cybele, the Great Mother, who was wor- 

 shipped on mountains in Mysia, Lydia, and 

 Phrygia. Her Cretan Curetet corresponded to the 

 Phrygian Corybantes, many of whom mutilated 

 themselves like Attis in the frenzy of their orgies. 

 The regular priests of Cybele, the Galli, made 

 themselves eunuchs for conscience" sake. A Sibyl- 

 line oracle decreed the introduction of the worship 

 of the Great Mother at Kome in 204 B.C., and in 

 217 a temple was dedicated on the Palatine. The 

 cult became widely extended under the Empire. 

 In the 2d century A.D. the rites of the Taurooolia 

 and Criobolia were added, in which candidates 

 were baptised for purification and regeneration 

 with the blood of sacrificial bulls and rarns. See 

 the article CYBELE. RHEA SYLVIA was the mother 

 of Romulus (q.v.). 



Ultra, also called Nandu and American Ostrich, 

 a genus of South American birds, which form, 

 according to the most recent researches, a some- 

 what isolated group, though nearer to the ostriches 

 than to any other birds. They are incapable of 

 flight, but the wings are rather better developed 

 than in any other of the so-called ' Strnthious ' 

 birds ; they present an interesting archaic character 

 in the persistence of a claw u]m each of the three 

 digits, thus recalling very forcibly the origin of 

 the wing from a prehensile forelimb. As in the 

 ostrich and the apteryx, the feathers have no after- 

 shaft, and the colour of the eggs is white. The 

 male bird incubates. There are three distinct 

 species viz. R. amtricana, . macrorhyncha, and 

 R. Darwini, which are to l>e distinguished by their 

 geographical range as well as by external and in- 

 ternal differences of structure. The first-named 

 species inhabits the southern half of the continent. 

 R. macrorhyncha, which is darker coloured, especi- 

 ally on the "head, is found in north-east Brazil. -B. 

 Darwini, in which most of the feathers have white 

 tips, is found in south-eastern South America. 

 They all prefer grassy plains (campos), herd in 

 troops, and run with great rapidity. 



It lira Fibre. See BCEHMERIA. 



i:ii< uiiim. See REGGIO. 



It liri ins. or REIMS, a city in the French depart- 

 ment of Mame, situated on the Vesle (a tributary 

 of the Aisne), 100 miles ENE. of Paris by mil. 

 Strongly fortified with detached forts since the 

 l''r.inco-'German war, when it was for a time the 

 German headquarters, it is well built, and from the 

 material employed in building, which i- the chalk- 

 Mono of the district, and from the prevalence of the 

 older style of domestic architecture, has a pictur- 

 esque appearance. It is built on the site of l>nrix-i>r- 

 tnrum, which is mentioned by Cn-sar as the capital 

 of the Kern i. from which people it subsequently luciU 

 its present name. Christianity may have found an 

 entrance into Rheims at an earlier period, but it 

 was not till aliont 3BO that it became a bishop's 

 see. Under the Frank rule it was a place of mncli 

 importance, and it acquired a deeply religious 



