I 



VOKK. CUSTOMS UK. 





that " Ewe fit for a bowe to be mole on," U the bough, the plant 

 (item t), and the bole ; the bough U knotty, the plant is apt to break, 

 and the bole, or boole, u pronounced to be the best. He adds, " If 

 you come into a ahoppe and fyndc a bowe that U small, longe, heavye, 

 strongs, lyinge straight*, not wyndynge, not uiarred with knutte, gaule, 

 wytxUhakr, wen, treat, or pinch bye that bowe of my warrant." 

 The pieces of yew fashioned into bows were from 4 to 6 feet in length. 

 In the time of Elizabeth foreign yew began to grow scarce ; it 



until at length it became ciutomary to join two pieces together yew 

 to make the belly of the bow, and a,-h or elm for the back. At the 

 present day, very few yew trees are found with ciich a growth of trunk 

 an.l tranches as to be suitable for bows. 



The nut yields an oil nutritious for fattening poultry. The dried 

 leares are sometimes used medicinally, and so are other portions of the 

 tree, but not to any great extent, as there is much poisonous matter 

 secreted by the yew. This poison U one of the causes of the durability 

 of the tree, as it repels the attack* of insects. 



V'iKK. (TSTO.MS OR [\\i 



YTntiA. [Tmnm.] 



YTTKIl'M (\ <\. This very rare metal occurs as an oxide in several 

 minerals. The names, sources, and properties of these mineral* have 

 already been described. [YTTRIUM, in NAT. HIST. Div.] yttrium 

 itaelf i* obtained on heating a stratified mixture of chloride of yttrium 

 and potassium in a platinum cruciMe. After removing the chloride of 



poUasium by water the yttrium ri-i.i.iin- in dark, iron-gray, si 

 pulverulent scale*. Dbdar t] . r it assumes a h 



lustre ; it is not oxidised by steam or at a red heat in the air. 



Ytlria O'O). yttrium burns with splendid scintillations in oxygen 

 gas, and yields a white protoxide, or yttria. Yttria is best obtained 

 from the mineral gadolinite, which is digested in aqua rep 

 mixture filtered, the nitrate evaporated to dryness, the residue digested 

 in dilute hydrochloric acid, again filtered, the filtrate mixed with large 

 excess of crystallised sulphate of potash, the solution carefully 

 neutralised by ammonia, iron precipitated by suceinate of ammonia, 

 nn<l ammonia added in PXCPMI to throw down basic sulphate of yttria. 

 The latter l>y digestion in carbonate of ammonia solution i* ci.nvrrtoil 

 into carbonate of yttria, which by evaporation to dryness and i 

 furnishes oxide of yttrium. 



yttria in a white powder of specific gravity 4'* I- : i> in 

 tasteless ; is insoluble in alkalis, but soluble in 

 especially that of ammonia. It occurs as a hydrate when preci; 

 from aqueous solutions of its salts. 



Phosphorus, sulphur, iixlinr, bromine, ftc., combine with yttrium 

 to form more or less crystalline colourless salt 



is formed on passing chlorine over a mixture of yttria and charcoal 

 heated in a porcelain tube ; it forms white shining n. . ,11 

 nf yttria, obtained as above indicated, occurs in four-sided transparent 

 prisms which lose water at 17G* Fhr. and become milk-white without 

 change of form. 



Solutions of yttria are characterised by yielding a white precipitate 

 with ferroayanide of potassium. 



V like Y, was only found in the later Roman alphabet [X], from 

 " which it has been transferred to the alphabets of Western Europe. 

 In the Greek series of letters it occupied the seventh place, the sixth 

 being the property of the subsequently disused Vau or F. Two 

 questions then arise which deserve on answer : how was it that the 

 Romans gave this letter a place so different from that occupied l>y the 

 Greek letter? and secondly, how are we to account for the Latin 

 letter G occupying the place which should have been given to Z 1 We 

 would first observe that the Greeks were surrounded on the north by 

 Slavonic races, with whom an abundance of sibilants has always been 

 in favour, so that the early position in the alphabet of Z need surprise 

 no one. In the second place, we strongly suspect that the genuine 

 sound of the Greek Z in early times was not, as is sometimes stated, 

 that of nl or dt, for then it would have been a superfluous letter, and 

 would scarcely have appeared so early hi the alphabet. We would 

 rather believe that the sound was similar to that of the English j, in 

 which case the established interchange of (and Si before vowels would 

 be explained. For instance, the form Ztuj iii that case would not 

 surprise us alongside of either Aies or Jupiter, Jorti, Ac., or of the 

 Italian ftiore. [I) ; J.] Next looking to the Roman alphabet we are 

 disposed to contend that the character G was originally employed with 

 the same power. At any rate it was not the equivalent of the Greek P, 

 for the third letter of the Roman alphabet, Cas it derived its form 

 from the Greek T, merely changing its angle into a curve (a change 

 not unknown to the Greeks themselves, see the tables of the old Greek 

 character under ALPHABET), also possessed precisely the same power, 

 a fact for which we have abundant testimony among the Romans 

 themselves. [C.J But if G originally represented n sound different 

 from the thick guttural r, what sound is more likely to have belonged 

 to it than that of our English j, when we know that this sound is still 

 current in Italy, although they want a single character to represent it, 

 and, secondly, when it is an undoubted fact that the two sounds are 

 very apt to be interchanged. In our own tongue the very letter in 

 <|iie-tion performs the two offices we are speaking of, in gender and yet, 

 even before the same vowel ; and we once met with a child already ten 

 yean of age, whose ear and tongue could moke no distinction between 

 gooK and juict. In point of fact, the three sounds of ill before a vowel, 

 of an English j, nnd of our initial y, are closely related. Those who 

 read the ball.-i<!< in Percy's ' Reliqucs ' will find many words where a z 

 U used with the power of a y, as is still the case in the Scotch names 

 Dal:rl, Mtti-tenae, and the Scotch word capercailzie, for the English 

 pronunciation of these words is incorrect in giving to them the sound 

 of our English z. Kay, in words where an precedes z, the sound ny 

 is heard : thus Mtmiet is pronounced 3/iii;t-rs. I'.ut if the Latin G 

 and the Greek Z hod originally the same power, as well as the same 

 place in the alphabetical series, it becomes difficult to believe that the 

 Q alone of all the Latin letters did not derive its form too from the 

 Greek symbol. Nor is the change so violent as would at first appear. 

 If the Greek Z be written with its oblique shaft from north 

 oath-east instead of from north-east to south-west (a sup: 

 having little difficulty in it, if letters were originally pictorial), then 

 the ordinary change from an angle to a curve would bring us to some- 

 thing very near the true Roman G. Or again, taking the ordinary 



Greek Z, the upper horizontal line is already greatly shortened in the 

 cursive character C, and in the same way might easily slip into the 

 character. The permutations to which 2 is liable have partly been 

 spoken of above, and all of them anticipated in the other letters. [D ; 

 G ; 1 ; .1 ; S ; T ; Y.] 



ZAKFRE. [COBALT.] 



ZEMINDAR, a Persian word which signifies literally a landholder. 

 The word was introduced into Hindustan by the Mohammedans, but it 

 is probable that the office to which it is applied was previovi.-ly iu 

 existence as a port of the system of village organisation which extends 

 throughout the whole of Hindustan. A village in II in 

 simply a collection of houses smaller than that of a town ; it is a tract 

 of country comprising hundreds (sometimes thousands) of acres of 

 arable and waste land, the inhabitant* of which form a soil of corpo- 

 ration, with several officers, each of whom has his distinct duti. .-. The 

 head man of this village corporation is the potail, who has at In 

 mand the village police. A number of villages form a district, which 

 is larger or smaller according to the number and extent of the village.-. 

 The head man of such a district is, in the greater part of llin 

 called a zemindar, and the district itself a :rmindary. The 

 business of the zemindar is to collect the revenues of hi- 

 the government ; and that he may do this effectually, the police of the 

 district is under his control. The collectorate, however, is not insepa- 

 rable from the zemindary ; and should the collection be withdi 

 it occasionally was, the zemindar still remains the head m:ui 

 district, and the representative of it to the go\ 



This account of the zemindars applies to such of the states of II in 

 duxtan as were independent of the British government ; but a change 

 in the collection of the revenue was made under Warren Hastings in 

 177'J. when the zemindaries were let to the highest bidder fora t 

 years, the zemindar in possession, however, being preferred when he 

 offered terms which were deemed reasonable. 



At length a permanent settlement was made with the zemindars 

 during the government of Lord Cornwallis, in 1791, but was not com- 

 pletely carried out till 1793, forming, as it did, a port of the great 

 financial and judicial reforms introduced by him. The amount to be 

 paid to the government was settled at a fixed rate, in the first instance 

 for a term of ten years ; but this was to be rendered perman 

 sanctioned by the authorities in England. The zemindars were recog- 

 nised as proprietors of the soil, and thus have become, in fact, 

 the British government, what they hod not been before, 

 under the native governments landed proprietors of the /emindary. 

 The ryots, all of whom had hereditary right* in their lands, \vei. 

 over to the zemindars, who too frequently used their new i 

 oppressively. Hut in 1822 it was enacted that tenants holding lands by 

 any hereditary or prescriptive rights should not be dispossessed so 

 long as they paid the rente agreed upon, nor should the rente be 

 increased except under certain specified circumstances. The zemindar 

 may dispose of the lands as he thinks fit, and the go\ .,- not 



interfere, so long as the tax is paid. 



(Mill's //iiliiry of lirititk India, by Wilson ; .Malcolm's C't / 

 Jones, On Kent.) 



/.li.N'U is the name usually given by Parsee priests to the language 



