GOLD 



3585 



GOLDEN BOUGH 



Gold and Silver Wyre Draw- 

 ers' Company, THE. London 

 city livery company. Incorporated 

 in 1693, it is 

 first mentioned 

 in 1461. Offices, 

 9, Laurence 

 Pountney Hill, 

 E.G. See History 

 of the ... 

 Gold and Silver 

 Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers, 

 Wyre Drawers' H. Stewart, 

 Company arms ]891. 

 Goldau. Village of Switzerland, 

 in the canton of Schwyz. Situated 

 between the lakes of Zug and Lo- 

 werz, 6 m. W.N.W. of Schwyz, on 

 the St. Gotthard Rly. (Arth-Goldau 

 station ),it is a junction for Zug and 

 Einsiedeln-Wadenswil, and the 

 starting point of the Arth-Rigi Rly. 

 On Sept. 2, 1806, the former village 

 of this name at the base of the 

 Rossberg, with three other villages, 

 was destroyed by a landslip, the 

 track of which can be seen from the 

 railway. Pop. 500. 



Goldbeating. Process of ham- 

 mering pieces of gold into extreme- 

 ly thin leaves, known as gold leaf. 

 To separate the leaves a prepara- 

 tion from the peritoneum of the ox, 

 called goldbeaters' skin, is used. 

 This is also used for the treatment 

 of slight cuts or wounds, and 

 during the Great War was em- 

 ployed to line the gasbags of 

 airships. See Gold Leaf. 



Gold Coast. British colony of 

 W. Africa, situated between French 

 Togoland and the French colony of 

 the Ivory Coast. 

 With Ashanti 

 (q.v.) and the 

 protected North- 

 ern Territories it 

 forms a com- 

 pact country 

 stretching from 

 the Gulf of 

 Guinea to the 

 French Sudan, a distance of 480 m. 

 from N. to S. Along the coast it 

 measures 334 m. The area of the 

 colony proper is 24,200 sq. m., that 

 of Ashanti is 20,000 sq. m., and 

 that of the Northern Territories is 

 35,800 sq. m., or a total of 80,000 

 sq. m. The colony is divided into 

 three provinces : Western, Central, 

 and Eastern. Fcom the lagoons of 

 the coastal regions the country 

 rises gradually towards the interior, 

 being crossed by numerous small 

 streams and by one large river, the 

 Volta. The country is inhabited by 

 a large number of tribes, governed 

 by their chiefs, and each more or 

 less independent of the others. 



The river-deposits of gold, from 

 which the Gold Coast derived its 

 mine, were worked by the natives 

 priortotheadvent of the Portuguese 



and French navigators in the 14th 

 century. The first European settle- 

 ment was made in 1482, when Fort 

 San Jorge de Mina (Elmina) was 

 built by the Portuguese. Subse- 

 quently other nations, notably the 

 Dutch, established themselves on 

 the coast, building castles and forts, 

 several of which still remain. Eng- 

 lish expeditions visited the Gold 

 Coast long before the formation of 

 the " Company of Adventurers of 

 London trading into Africa," in 

 1618, but it was not until that year 

 that English traders obtained a 

 definite footing. Among those who 

 established settlements were the 

 Brandenburgers, who for a time 

 (1682-1720) maintained their posi- 

 tion in the country. 



The subsequent history of the 

 country until the English forts were 

 definitely occupied by the British 

 Government in 1843 is largely the 



Gold Coast. Map of the British colony 

 in West Africa, on the Gulf of Guinea 



history of various trading com- 

 panies, such as the Royal African 

 Company (1672), the African Com- 

 pany of Merchants, and other pri- 

 vate trading corporations. In 1850 

 the British Government purchased 

 the forts belonging to the Danes, and 

 in 1871 the Dutch also transferred 

 their possessions. In 1874 the Gold 

 Coast became a separate colony. 



The climate of the Gold Coast, 

 though hot and damp, is not in 

 itself unhealthy ; great improve- 

 ments i'n sanitation having taken 

 place during recent years. The 

 chief products are palm oil,, palm 

 kernels, rubber, cocoa, kola nuts, 

 lumber, and gold. The cocoa in- 

 dustry in particular has made 

 great progress during recent years. 

 There is a rly. from Seccondee, 

 through Tarquah, to Kumasi, 

 with a branch to Prestea ; and 

 another line from Accra, the 

 capital, to Tafu. The chief gold 

 mines are in the Prestea and Tar- 

 quah districts. The chief ports in 



order of importance are Seccondee 

 (Sekondi), Accra, Addah, Winne- 

 bah, Saltpond, Cape Coast, and 

 Axim. The pop. of the colony is 

 853,766 (including 2,203 Euro- 

 peans), that of Ashanti is 287,814, 

 and that of the Northern Terri- 

 tories is 361,800. 



Bibliography. History of the Gold 

 Coast, A. B. Ellis, 1893 ; History of 

 the Gold Coast, C. C. Reindorf, 1895 ; 

 Alone in West Africa, Mary Gaunt, 

 1912 ; History of the Gold Coast 

 and Ashanti, W. W. Claridge, 2 

 vols., 1915. 



Golden Age. In classical myth- 

 ology, the period when Saturn or 

 Cronos, after being dethroned by 

 Zeus, reigned in Latium as king. 

 Saturn taught agriculture and the 

 arts of civilization to his people, 

 and the period of his reign, being 

 one of peace, happiness, and pros- 

 perity, came to be known as the 

 Golden Age. 



Golden Ass, THE. Name by 

 whichThe Metamorphoses of Lucius 

 Apuleius is generally known. An 

 allegorical fable in 1 1 books, much 

 of it is a paraphrase of The Ass of 

 Lucian, which was originally de- 

 rived from a work of Lucius of 

 Patrae, a Platonist who flourished 

 in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. 

 See Apuleius, Lucius. 



Golden Bough, THE. General 

 title for a series of studies in magic 

 and religion by Sir J. G. Frazer (q.v. ), 

 first publ. in 2 vols., 1890. In its 

 revised and much expanded edition 

 (12 vols., 1907-15), the work con- 

 sists of seven parts : The Magic 

 Art ; Taboo ; The Dying God ; 

 Adonis, Attis, Osiris ; Spirits of the 

 Corn and of the Wild ; The Scape- 

 goat ; and Balder the Beautiful. 

 The 12th volume is a bibliography 

 and index. The work deals with 

 the history of supernatural beliefs 

 and symbolic rituals, and was in- 

 spired by a wish to inquire into the 

 legend of the golden bough utilised 

 by Virgil. 



This legend is identified with 

 the mistletoe, which, growing on the 

 oak, represents the external soul of 

 a living sun-god represented by the 

 tree. The Norse myth of Balder 

 (q.v. ) had its counterpart in Italy in 

 the rex Nemorensis, the priest of 

 Diana in the grove by Lake Nemi, 

 near Aricia. Balder and the priest 

 both personified the oak-spirit, 

 whose life or death was in the mis- 

 tletoe and who could not be slain 

 so long as that remained intact. 

 The priesthood was gained by one 

 plucking the golden bough and 

 slaying the armed priest in combat, 

 after which the victim was burned 

 at the midsummer fire festival and 

 the victor assumed his place and 

 title until in turn displaced by. a 

 stronger. 



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