3dO 



GAMBIA -G A MMUT. 



when, amidst Uie Tictories of his squadrons, he sank 

 under the infirmities of age, and died, December 24, 

 1524, at Goa. 



GAMBIA, or CAMBRIA, or GAMBA (an- 

 ciently Stac/iir] ; a river in Western Africa, which 

 rises from the mountains on the borders of Foota Jal- 

 loo.and flowswesterly into tiie Atlantic, about Ion. 16 

 3(y W., lat. 13 3(X N. It is navigable to Barraconda, 

 ubout 4(X) miles. In the higher part of its course, 

 it is called by the natives Ba Deema. It annually 

 overflows its banks. The territory along its banks 

 Is divided among a multitude of petty sovereignties, 

 the most considerable of which is Boor Salum. The 

 northern side is inhabited chiefly by the Jaloffs and 

 Mandingoes ; the southern by the Feloops. The 

 commerce of the Gambia is chiefly in the hands 

 of the British, who have erected Jumes Fort near 

 its mouth, and formed the settlement of Bathurst. 



GAMBOGE is a gum-resin, said to be the pro- 

 duct of the garcinia gambogia, a large tree, nearly 

 related to the celebrated mangostan, inhabiting 

 India, Ceylon, Siam, Cochin-China, and Cambodia. 

 The leaves are opposite, glabrous, oval, and acute ; 

 the flowers few and terminal, of a yellowish colour ; 

 the calyx consists of four leaves, and the corolla of 

 four petals ; the stigma has eight lobes, and the sta- 

 mens are numerous ; the fruit is about the size of an 

 orange, and has a slightly acid taste. Gamboge is 

 said to be the inspissated juice of this tree, and is 

 obtained in commerce in masses of a dull orange 

 colour, with a conchoidal fracture, possessing no 

 smell, but an acrid taste, which is very slowly deve- 

 loped. When ignited, it melts, throwing out a dense 

 smoke with sparks ; is soluble, or, more properly, 

 diffusible in water, affording a beautiful colour, very 

 much employed by painters ; is also used to stain 

 wood in imitation of box ; and the tincture enters 

 into the composition of the gold-coloured varnish, 

 with which manufactures of brass are overlaid. It 

 is said to give also a beautiful and durable yellow 

 stain to marble. Its medical properties are violently 

 purgative. 



GAME, in general, signifies any diversion or sport 

 performed with regularity, or restrained by rules. 

 Games are usually distinguished into those of ad- 

 dress, and those of hazard. To the first belong 

 chess, tennis, billiards, wrestling, &c. ; and to the 

 latter, those performed with cards or dice, as back- 

 gammon, ombre, picquet, whist, &c. (q. v.) See 

 also Sports. 



GAME LAWS. The game laws of England pro- 

 hibit persons not having certain qualifications from 

 killing certain kinds of game, and all persons from 

 killing such game at certain seasons of the year. 

 The laws limiting the privilege of killing game 

 to qualified persons are relics of the ancient forest 

 laws, which made it as great an offence to kill 

 one of the king's deer as to kill one of his sub- 

 jects. These laws are justified upon the assump- 

 tion, that beasts of the chase and game are a 

 sort of unappropriated cliattels, and so belong to the 

 king ; and, accordingly, it is no infringement of the 

 right of any of his subjects to grant the privilege of 

 killing them to any persons, with the exclusion of 

 others, any morfe than to grant an exclusive right to 

 a piece of unowned land to one man is an infringe- 

 ment of the right of another. But this mode of rea- 

 soning would justify any exclusive privileges which 

 could be granted to a part of the subjects of a go- 

 vernment in preference to others, the property of 

 every thing being, in theory, in the government. 

 But this is, in fact, not a question of legal right, but 

 of civil policy, and of economical utility; and it is by 

 no means a satisfactory reason for continuing a privi- 

 lege to some, and continuing to deprive others of it, 



that, from time immemorial, the distinction has been 

 made. One ostensible reason in favour of these laws is 

 the preservation of game. This object could, however 

 be sufficiently secured by giving all the subjects an 

 equal right to kill game at certain seasons of the year, 

 and prohibiting every one from destroying it at cer- 

 tain other periods. Such laws have been enacted, 

 in respect to certain game, in some of the United 

 States of America. Thus, in Massachusetts, there is 

 a penalty for shooting certain birds, or killing deer, 

 or taking certain kinds of fish in certain months of 

 the year ; and sportsmen, having the same interest 

 with the rest of the community in their preservation, 

 vigilantly watch the execution of these laws. These 

 laws are not liable to the odium and reproach of the 

 English game laws. The English game laws really 

 make a very considerable code, the enforcement of 

 which is watched and maintained by the game-keep- 

 ers, appointed in all parts of the kingdom by the 

 lords of manors. By the statute of 25 Geo. III., no 

 person can kill game until he has given in his name 

 to the clerk of the peace, or other officer, and obtain- 

 ed a certificate of his qualifications. The penalties 

 for a violation of these laws are extremely severe. 

 Destroying conies is punished by transportation by 5 

 Geo. III., c. 14 ; robbing warrens was made felony 

 by 9 Geo. I ; killing conies in the night, or attempt- 

 ing to kill them, is punished by a fine of ten shillings, 

 by 22 and 23 Charles II., c. 25 ; stalking deer with- 

 out permission, by a fine of 10, by 19 Henry VII., 

 c. 11 ; hunting or killing them, by a fine of ,10, and 

 bonds to keep the peace, by 5 Elizabeth, c. 21 ; 

 engines for the destruction of game kept by unquali- 

 fied persons, are liable to be seized, under 3 James I., 

 c. 13 ; selling such engines, by a fine of forty shillings, 

 under 3 James I., c. 27 ; and these penalties, under 

 the statutes of William III., George I., and George 

 II., are increased, and the laws made more severe. 



GAMES, in antiquity, were public diversions, ex- 

 hibited on solemn occasions. Such, among the 

 Greeks, were the Olympic, Pythian, Nemzean, &c. 

 games ; and among the Romans, the Apollinarian, 

 Circensian, Capitoline, &c. games. The Romans 

 had three sorts of games, viz. sacred, honorary, and 

 ludicrous. The first were instituted hi honour of 

 some deity or hero ; of which kind were those 

 already mentioned, together with the Augustales, 

 Romani, Palatini, &c. The second were those exhi- 

 bited by private persons to please the people ; as, 

 the combats of gladiators, the scenic games, and 

 other amphitheatrical sports. The ludicrous games 

 were much of the same nature with the games of 

 exercise and hazard among us ; sucli were the Indus 

 Trqfanus, tesserae, tali, trochus, &c. See Olympic, Py- 

 thian, Nemcean, &c. Games ; also, Circus, Games of. 



GAMING. See Sports, unlawful. 



GAMLA ; a Swedish word, which appears in 

 several geographical names, signifying ancient, as 

 Gamla Carleby, Ancient Caroline. 



GAMMUT. The name given to the table 01 

 scale laid down by Guido, to the notes of which he 

 applied the monosyllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. 

 Having added a note below the proslambanomenos. 

 or lowest tone of the ancients, he adopted for its sign 

 the gamma of the Greek alphabet ; and hence his 

 scale was afterwards called gammut. This gammut 

 consisted of twenty notes, viz., two octaves and a 

 major-sixth. The first octave was distinguished by 

 capital letters, as G, A, B, &c.; the second by small 

 letters, as g, a, b, &c., and the supernumerary sixth 

 by double letters, as gg, aa, bb, &c. By the word 

 gammut, we now generally understand the whole 

 present existing scale ; and to learn the names and 

 situations of its different notes, is to learn the gam- 

 mut. It, however, sometimes simply signifies Lha 



