QUIRITES 



Quirinal, Rome. Main entrance to the royal palace. 



On the left are the fountain and obelisk, and two 



colossal statues of horse tamers 



The modern palace erected on the of court roll 

 summit was founded by Gregory 

 III in 1574 ; since 1870 it has been 

 a royal palace. See Quirites ; Rome. 



Quirites. In Roman history, 

 originally the Sabine inhabitants 

 of the Quirinal. After the union of 

 Sabines and Romans the name 

 was applied to the individual old 

 citizens, all of whom bore arms ; 

 collectively, to all the citizens of 

 Rome. Later, the term was used 

 for civilians as opposed to soldiers, 

 to whom it was a reproach to be 

 called Quirites. The word has been 

 derived from Lat. quiris (Sabine, 

 curia, a lance), or from Cures, a 

 Sabine town. See Rome ; Sabines. 

 Pron, Kwiri-teez. 



Quirk. Term applied in archi- 

 tecture to the groove or channel 

 which separates the convex part of 

 a moulding (q.v.) from the fillet 

 that covers it. 



Quito. City of Ecuador, capital 

 of the prov. of Pichincha and of the 

 republic. Picturesquely placed 

 amid lofty volcanic peaks, at an 

 alt. of 9,350 ft., it is 164 m. direct 

 and 297 m. by rly. N.N.E. of 

 Guayaquil, and lies just below the 

 equator. The seat of the arch- 

 bishop of Ecuador, it has a cathe- 

 dral, presidential and archiepisco- 

 pal palaces, a 

 mint, m o n a s- 

 teries, university, 

 etc. Manufactures 

 include saddlery, 

 ponchos, carpets, 

 cotton and 

 woollen goods, 

 jewelry, and 

 articles of Mexican 

 " onyx." Hides 

 and rubber are ex- 

 ported, and a large 

 trade is carried on 

 in oil paintings of 

 religious subjects. 

 Quito was an In- 

 dian capital before 

 its capture by the 



6449 



Incas in 1470 and 

 the Spaniards in 

 1534. It has suf- 

 fered repeatedly 

 from earthquakes 

 i and in the civil 

 | wars. Pop. 70,000. 

 Pron. Kee-to. 



Quit rent (Lat. 

 quietus, free, at 

 rest). Rent by 

 which a tenant 

 secures release 

 from all other ser- 

 vices. Under the 

 ancient feudal 

 manorial law the 

 lord of the manor 

 always had some 

 servile tenants 

 who held by copy 

 (copyholders) who 

 were bound, in return for the land 

 granted to them, to perform certain 

 services so many days in the year, 

 e.g. to plough the lord's land, to 

 reap his harvest, and to manure his 

 fields. In course of time copy- 

 holders began to pay a small fixed 

 rent, so as to be quit of the ser- 

 vices ; and once this had become 

 customary the lord could not 

 demand the old services, but only 

 the quit rent. Further, the amount 

 of the quit rent could not be in- 

 creased, so that to-day copyholders 

 hold at a quit rent of a few pence 

 which, when it was fixed, was 

 worth forty or fifty times its present 

 amount. See Copyhold ; Manor. 



Quiver (Old Fr. quivre). Sheath 

 or case in which a bowman carried 

 his arrows. See Archery. 



Quoad Sacra (Lat., sacred 

 thus far). Term used in Scottish 

 local government. It describes 

 parishes that are such for ecclesias- 

 tical purposes only, being thus dif- 

 ferent from civil parishes. They can 

 be created under an Act of 1844. 



Quodlibet (Lat., what pleases 

 you). Old musical term for the 

 simultaneous performance of a 

 number of different melodies, 

 either prepared and modified so as 



Quito. A hill-side street in the historic and 

 picturesque capital of Ecuador 



1 QUOITS 



to fit together, or more commonly 

 sung extemporaneously. In the 

 latter case the incongruity of the 

 tunes and words gave rise to a 

 certain amount of merriment, 

 which was the end aimed at. The 

 quodlibet was popular in the 16th 

 and 17th centuries, and was a 

 favourite pastime of the Bachs. 



Quoich,LocH. Lake in the S.W. 

 part of Inverness -shire, Scotland. 

 It is 6 m. long by J m. broad. It 

 receives the river Quoich (8 m. long) 

 from the W., and is drained E. to 

 Loch Garry by the river Garry. 



Quoin (Fr. coin, corner, wedge). 

 In architecture, the stone block 

 employed at the external corners 

 of a building to emphasise its 

 solidity and strength. A " rustic " 

 quoin is roughened and raised 

 above the general wall surface, so 

 as to accentuate the differences 

 between the former and the latter. 

 The word is also applied to the 

 wedge used for tightening or lock- 

 ing up formes in printing. See 

 Forme ; Masonry. 



Quoits. Pastime which prob- 

 ably had its origin in England and 

 Scotland in the 15th century. At 

 the present day the game is played 

 in Scotland, principally by mem- 

 bers of the various curling clubs, 

 and in England by the workmen 

 of Lancashire and the Midlands ; 

 it also claims a certain number of 

 devotees in the U.S.A. and Canada. 



The playing area is formed of 

 two beds of clay, each 3 ft. in 

 diameter and generally situated 

 18 yds. apart from centre to centre. 

 Into each centre is driven an iron 

 pin, termed the hob, of which an 

 inch remains exposed above the 

 level of the ground. The quoit is 

 a flattened ring of iron, thick at its 

 inner and thin at its outer edge, 

 not exceeding 8 ins. in diameter 

 and usually weighing about 9 Ib. 



The object of the game is for the 

 player, who stands at one end just 

 outside the clay bed and in a line 

 with the pin, to cast his quoit so 

 that it falls over the phi at the far 

 end termed scoring a ringer or 

 as near to it as possible. Each 

 player throws two quoits in succes- 

 sion, a ringer scoring two. Should 

 neither player throw a ringer, the 

 player whose quoits are nearest to 

 the pin scores two ; if only one of 

 his quoits is nearest it counts one. 

 If the two nearest quoits are at the 

 same distance from the pin and 

 belong to different players, neither 

 scores. The players then throw to 

 the other end, continuing until one 

 of them has scored the number of 

 points agreed upon for game. 



Matches are played between 

 single players or two on each side. 

 All quoits which alight on their 

 backs are foul, and in important 



M 8 



