RAGUSA 



a great commercial 

 city. Plagues and 

 the earthquake of 

 1667, when a fifth of 

 the pop. perished, 

 terminated its pros- 

 perity. Napoleon 

 seized it in 1806, 

 two years later it 

 ceased to be inde- 

 pendent, and in 

 1814 it was given 

 to Austria. Pop. 

 12,000. 



Ragusa. Town 

 of Sicily, in the 

 prov. of Syracuse. 

 It stands among 

 hills at an alt. of 1,630 ft., overlook- 

 ing the river Ragusa, 3 m. W. of 

 Modica and 32 m. W.S.W. of Syra- 

 cuse. The neighbouring rocks con- 

 tain caverns with ancient tombs. 

 Ragusa has been identified by some 

 with the ancient Hybla Heraea, and 

 by others with Ina. Manufactures 

 include cotton and woollen goods. 

 Pop. 40,000. 



Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea). 

 Perennial herb of the natural order 

 Compositae. It is a native of Eu- 

 rope and Asia. It has leafy stems 

 about 4 ft. high, with deeply lobed, 



Ragwort. Flower-heads of the way- 

 side flower 



dark green leaves, and large clus- 

 ters of bright yellow, rayed flower- 

 heads. The bruised leaves give off 

 an unpleasant odour. 



Rahotep. Egyptian prince of the 

 Illrd dynasty. The mastaba-tomb 

 of him and his wife Nefert, near 

 Seneferu's pyramid at Medum, dis- 

 covered by Daninos in Mariette's 

 time, yielded two incomparable 

 painted limestone portrait-statues, 

 4 ft. high, on stone seats, now in 

 Cairo. A British Museum bas-re- 

 lief from the tomb portrays Raho- 

 tep seated before a table of offer- 

 ings, with hieroglyphs. See Egypt. 



Rahu. Dragon or demon of 

 Hindu mythology. It is believed to 

 cause eclipses of the sun or moon. 



Raibolini, FRANCESCO. Real 

 name of the Italian painter, Fran- 

 cesco Francia (q.v.). 



Ragusa, Dalmatia. The ancient town and harbour, 

 on the east shore of the Adriatic, seen from the west 



Raichur. Dist. and town of 

 Hyderabad, India. The district is 

 in the Marathwara division in the 

 S.W. of the state, being adjacent 

 to Bombay and Madras Presi- 

 dencies. Nearly the whole of the 

 cultivable area is in use, mainly for 

 native food grains. The rainfall is 

 22 ins. The Kistna and Tunga- 

 bhadra rivers form the N. and S. 

 boundaries. Area 6,791 sq. m. 

 Pop. 994,000. The town ia 

 centrally situated on the Bombay- 

 Madras Rly. Pop. 25,000. 



Raid. In international law, a 

 hostile invasion of territory of a 

 state at peace, undertaken without 

 the sanction of any recognized po- 

 litical community. Historic ex- 

 amples are the Fenian Raid, from 

 the U.S.A. into Canada, in 1866 ; 

 and the Jameson Raid into the 

 Transvaal, 1895-96. Such raiders 

 have no claim to the rights of 

 belligerents at the hands of the 

 country invaded, which may deal 

 with them according to its own laws. 



Further, in international law, 

 the country from which the raid 

 was organized is liable for dam- 

 ages, if negligence on its part can 

 be proved. In Britain the or- 

 ganization of, or participation in, a 

 raid into a friendly country is a 

 crime under the Foreign Enlist- 

 ment Act. During the Great War 

 the term raid, or trench raid, was 

 applied to attacks by day or night 

 on opposing trenches by small 

 bodies of men for the purpose of de- 

 moralising the enemy, and of iden- 

 tifying by the prisoners taken the 

 units engaged in a particular part 

 of the line, and air raids to attacks 

 by enemy aircraft. See Air Raids ; 

 Jameson Raid ; Trench Warfare. - 



Raiffeisen, FRIEDRICH WILHELM 

 (1818-88). German economist and 

 founder of agricultural cooperative 

 banking. Born at Hamm on the 

 Sieg, Rhineland, March 30, 1818, 

 he entered public life as burgomas- 

 ter from 1845 onwards at various 

 places, including Heddesdorf, near 

 Neuwied, where he died March 11, 

 1888. In 1847 he established the 



first agricultural cooperative bank. 

 This soon found imitators, and in a 

 few years a network of Raiffeisen 

 banks spread over the country. 

 See Agricultural Credit Banks ; 

 Cooperation. 



Raikes, ROBERT (1735-1811). 

 British philanthropist. Born at 

 Gloucester, Sept. 14, 1735, his 

 father was the 

 proprietor o f 

 The Gloucester 

 Journal. In 

 1757 he suc- 

 ceeded to the 

 f amily business, 

 which he car- 

 ried on until 

 1802. Mean- 

 while, he had 

 become inter- 

 ested in the 'question of prison 

 reform, but it was his establish- 

 ment of a Sunday school in 

 Gloucester in 1780 that made his 

 fame, for his venture was the begin- 

 ning of that movement. He died 

 April 5, 1811. See Sunday Schools. 



Rail. Name given to birds of the 

 family Rallidae, distributed over 

 many parts of the world and distin- 



Rpbert Raikes, Brit- 

 ish philanthropist 



Rail. The water-rail, a swimmer 

 and diver that nests in the sedges 



W. S. Berridge, F.Z.S. 



guished by having laterally flat- 

 tened bodies suitable for passing 

 through dense undergrowth. They 

 are comparatively long in the leg 

 and toes. The tail is short and 

 inconspicuous, the head small, and 

 the beak usually rather long and 

 more or less curved at the tip. In 

 Great Britain the family is repre- 

 sented by the corn-crake, coot, 

 watr-hen, and water-rail. The last 

 named occurs sparsely in the fens 

 and marshes. The plumage is olive- 

 brown on the upper parts and grey 

 below, and it has a conspicuous 

 red beak. It is about 11 his. long, 

 and is to be found all the year 

 round. It nests among the sedges 

 by the sides of ponds and streams, 

 is a strong swimmer and diver, and 

 flies only when compelled. Three 

 other rails, the spotted rail, the 

 little rail, and Baillion's rail, occur 

 in Great Britain. See Coot. 



