RUNJEET-SINGH 



RUPERT 



25 



the 5th century B.C. have been found in the region 

 of the Baltic. The oldest runic inscriptions being 

 retrograde, the Goths must have obtained the art 

 of writing from the Greeks at a time when Greek 

 was still written in the retrograde direction from 

 right to left, which gives us a date earlier than 

 the 5th century, but after the new letters tmega 

 and chi had been evolved, and while H retained 

 the value both of h, which it has in the Latin 

 alphabet, and of e, which it has in the Greek, and 

 also before koppa, which became Q in Latin, fell 

 into disuse among the Greeks. From these and 

 similar data it appears that the runic writing must 

 have been obtained from the Greeks after the 7th 

 and earlier than the 5th century B.c. That the runic 

 alphabet was developed from the Greek is proved 

 among other things by the facte that it contains a 

 symbol for 6 which was developed from omega, a 

 letter peculiar to the Greeks, ana that it contains a 

 symbol for ng, which proves to be a ligature of two 

 gammas, Greek being the only language in which 

 gg has the phonetic value of ng. The value of the 

 runes must have changed to some extent after the 

 symbols were obtained from the Greeks, owing to 

 the sound changes tabulated in Grimm's Law (q.v.) 

 not having been completed at the time when the 

 runic writing was obtained. Thus, according to 

 Grimm's Law, a Greek '// answers to a Gothic d, 

 and a Greek ch to a Gothic g, and we find, as we 

 should expect, that the d rune was derived from 

 theta, and the g rune from chi. The forms of the 

 runes were considerably modilied by the fact that 

 they were cut with a knife on wooden slabs ; con- 

 sequently horizontal strokes, which would follow 

 the grain of the wood, are necessarily avoided, and 

 all the strokes are either vertical or slanting. 



There are several interesting runic inscriptions 

 in England, among which may be mentioned that 

 on the Ruthwell (q.v.) cross 

 in Dumfriesshire, and that 

 on the Bewcastle (q.v.) cross 

 in Cumberland, a lac-simile 

 of which is jnven here. It 

 is a memorial of Alcfrid, 

 son of Oswin, king of North- 

 nmbria, and dates from the 

 ~ th centur y- Several crosses 



nfHMTTFN 



munmn 



_. K . , 

 D D fr $ 



i> is. K 



F KK F F 



ornament, and are in the form 



f th f old , Iri8h '.""? As 

 they have also runic inscnp- 



' tions ' tliis 8t >' le of Iri * h a ~ 



ment has wronglv acquired 

 W M 'X 1 F M U M the name f runic knot-work, 

 1 and the Irish form of cross is 

 P^ll^PIU FPTfN M "ft* 11 called the ninic cross. 

 nil I l|[) These names originated at 

 a time when archaeological 

 knowledge was less advanced than it is now, and 

 should be rejected. 



Fac-similes of the chief runic inscriptions have been 

 conveniently collected by Dr G. Stephens of Copenhagen 

 in his Handbook of Runic Monument* ( 1884 ), which is an 

 abridgment of his larger work on the Old Northtrn Runic 

 MMWaVHf*(8Tgh.lM6-fl8-M). The origin of the rnnes 

 is diocnawd by the present author in his book on The 

 Alphafxt (1883), and at greater length in a monograph 

 entitled Greek* and Optht : a Study on the Kuwt (1879). 

 The works of Dr Wimmer, l>r Bngge, Mr Haigh, and 

 Dr Kirchhoff may also be consulted. 



Riuijret-Sineh. See RANJIT. 



Rnnn of Catch. See CUTCH. 



Runner, in Botany, is a long, slender branch 

 proceeding from a lateral bud of a herbaceous 

 plant with very short axis, or, in popular language, 

 without stem. It extends along the ground, and 

 produces l>u>U a- it proceeds, which often take 



root and form new plants. Strawberries afford a. 

 familiar example. Another is found in Potentilla 

 anserina. Runners are common in the genus Ran- 

 unculus. 



Runners. See BEAN. 



Rnnnimede, a long stretch of green meadow, 

 lying alonj* the right bank of the Thames, 1 mile 

 above Staines and 36 miles by river WSW. of 

 London. Here, or on Charta Island, a little way 

 off the shore, Magna Charta ( q. v. ) was signed by 

 King John, June 15, 1215. It bears to have been 

 signed 'per manum nostrum in prato quod vocatur 

 Runnimede.' 



Running. See ATHLETIC SPORTS. 



Ruiirig Lands are a species of ownership, 

 still existing in different parts of Scotland and 

 Ireland, under which the alternate ridges of a 

 field belong to separate proprietors. The right of 

 the several parties to the alternate ridges is 

 absolute, and thus this kind of possession differs 

 from common property. These runrig, runridge, 

 or rundale lands, as they are variously called, are 

 survivals of the simple form of open-field hus- 

 bandry, under the tribal system once univer- 

 sally prevalent in the western districts of Britain, 

 and well suited to the precarious and shifting- 

 agriculture of those times. The form of rural 

 economy which gave rise to this mode of tenure 

 has lately been carefully and successfully investi- 

 gated bv several student*, prominent among whom 

 is Mr Frederic Seebohm, who has published the 

 results of his researches in his well-known work on 

 the English Village Community. The obstruction 

 to agricultural improvement resulting from the 

 land being thus dispersed in small pieces inter- 

 mixed with each other led, in the end of the 17th 

 century, to the introduction of a mode of com- 

 pulsory division or allotment of such lands. By 

 statute 1695, chap. 23, it was provided that, 

 ' wherever lands of different heritors be runrig,' 

 application may be made to the judge ordinary 

 or justices of the peace ' to the effect that these 

 lands may lie divided according to their respec- 

 tive interests.' This remedy, however, does not 

 apply to burgh acres or to patches of land less than 

 four acres in extent. 



Rupee', a silver coin current in India, of the 

 value of 2s. English (see INDIA, Vol. VI. p. 114). 

 Owing to the depreciation of silver, the present 

 average value of the rupee is Is. -'.'I. A lac (or 

 lakh ) of rupees is 100,000 ( at the old value of 2s. 

 = 10,000), and a crore is 10,000,000. Coins are 

 struck in silver of the value of 1, 2, 4, i, and J 

 rupee. The first rupee was struck by Slier Shah, 

 the Afghan emperor of Delhi (1540-45), and was 

 adopted by Akbar and his successors ; but in the 

 decline of the Mohammedan empire every petty 

 chief coined his own rupee, varying in weight and 

 value, though usually bearing the name and titles 

 of the reigning emperor. The rupee is the official 

 money of account in the island of Mauritius. 



Rupert, PRINCE, third son of the Elector 

 Palatine Frederick V. and Elizabeth, daughter 

 of James I. of England, was born at Prague on 

 18th December 1619, his parents having the month 

 before l>een crowned king and queen of Bohemia. 

 He studied at Leyden, and became well grounded 

 in mathematics and religion ( ' indeed, made Jesuit- 

 proof), as well as in French, Spanish, and Italian, 

 and above all the art of war. After a year and a 

 half at the English court, where it was proposed to 

 make a bishop of him or viceroy of Madagascar, 

 he served in 1637-38, during the Thirty Years' 

 War, against the Imperialists, until at Lemgo he 

 was taken prisoner, and confined for nearly three 

 years at Lmz. In 1642 he returned to England, 



