KANGAROO KANT. 



tin- Russian yoke, to the small pox, the unnatural 

 practices of the women to procure abortion, ami to 

 tlu-ir \ct -ssivc indulgence in spirituous liquors. 

 There is besides n class of criminals banished to this 

 inhospitable region, and a varying population ot 

 merchants, Imnurs, and seamen. The Kamtschadales 

 are an ugly branch of the Mongol race, and call 

 themselves Itelmes. They are good natured and 

 l.>-('ital>U:, but given to the grossest sensuality. They 

 are excessive eaters, practise lascivious dances, am 1 arc 

 very dirty. Every Kamtschadale village (ostrosc/iok) 

 consists of several summer dwellings, uuilt on piles, 

 rising several feet from the ground ; the occupants 

 enter by ascending notched trunks of trees. In win- 

 ter, the occupants of half a dozen of these balagans, 

 as they are called, collect into a jurta, or winter 

 dwelling, five feet deep, covered by a cone-shaped 

 roof, and which cannot be entered, except by ascend- 

 ing the roof, and going down the chimney through 

 the smoke. The clothing of the Kamtschadales is 

 prepared from the skins of reindeer or dogs, but 

 much of the Russian style of dress has been intro- 

 duced. The Kamtschadale women alone perform the 

 household occupations, while the men take their ease, 

 if necessity does not drive them to hunt, or to fish, or to 

 prepare tools for both these occupations, or to build 

 sledges and houses. The objects of the chase are the 

 fur-bearing animals and the reindeer; the principal fish 

 taken are the whale and the seal. Barley, potatoes, 

 turnips, cabbage, hemp, cucumbers, horse-radish, are 

 mostly cultivated only by the Russians. The chief 

 food of the Kamtschadales consists of fish, seasoned 

 with whale and seal fat, and a kind of paste prepared of 

 the tender birch bark. Their favourite drink is the 

 juice of the birch. The chief domestic animal is the 

 dog, which serves for draught, and the skins furnish 

 clothing. To prepare the dogs for draught, they are 

 castrated, and four to eight are attached to a little 

 sled, sixteen pounds in weight, and capable of carry- 

 ing a man, at the rate of four or five miles an hour. 

 These dugs require to be fed only in the winter ; in 

 the summer, they live on the fish which they pick 

 up on the shores of the sea and the rivers. The 

 Kamtschadale does not tame the reindeer, although 

 all the neighbouring people do. Since 1820, swine 

 and hens have been found here. The religion of the 

 Kamtschadales was, and is still among the few who 

 have not embraced Christianity, Shamanism. But 

 even the Christian Kamtschadales have not relin- 

 quished their sorcerers or shamans. They believe in 

 an almighty God, creator of the world, called Kutka, 

 but do not worship him, because their innumerable 

 fetiches absorb all their attention. They believe in 

 the immortality of the soul, which they also ascribe 

 to the meanest brute. They give to animals speech 

 and reason, and believe that dogs are making 

 inquiries of strangers when they bark at them. They 

 relate also that, ages ago, a universal deluge covered 

 the earth, out of which only one pair of human beings 

 were saved. 



KANGAROO (tnacropus, Shaw). These extra- 

 ordinary animals, which are peculiar to Australasia, 

 belonging to the marsupial order of quadrupeds 

 (those with an abdominal pouch), from the other 

 genera of which they differ by having but two kinds 

 of teeth, the canine being wanting. Their incisors 

 are six in the upper jaw, and but two in the lower; 

 the former short, and the latter long. The molars, 

 which are separated from the incisors by a large 

 vacant space, are ten in number in each jaw. The 

 limbs of the kangaroo are strangely disproportioned ; 

 the fore legs being small and short, whilst the hinder 

 nre long and powerful. The tail is very thick at its 

 base, gradually tapering, and appears to act as a sup- 

 plemental limb, when the animal assumes its usual 



erect or sitting posture, in which position it is sup- 

 ported by the joint action of the tail and hinder legs. 

 This conlormation also enables it to take amazing 

 leaps. The tore feet are furnished with five toes, each 

 terminating in a moderately strong and hooked claw. 

 The hinder feet, on the contrary, are provided with 

 only four toes, one of which is long, of great strength, 

 and terminated by a large and powerful claw, like an 

 elongated hoof. The head and upper parts are 

 small and delicate, and appear disproportioned to the 

 posterior parts of the animal, which are robust and 

 powerful. They use their tails and hinder feet as 

 weapons of defence. When they are pursued and 

 overtaken by dogs, they turn, and, seizing them with 

 their fore feet, strike them with their hinder extrem- 

 ities, and often tear them to such a degree as to 

 destroy them. The kangaroos feed entirely on 

 vegetable substances, chiefly on grass. They asso- 

 ciate in small herds, under the guidance of the older 

 males. The female has two mammae in the abdominal 

 pouch, on each of which are two teats ; the younger 

 at birth are very diminutive, not exceeding an inch in 

 length. At this time, the mouth is merely a round 

 hole, just capable of embracing the extremity of the 

 nipple ; but gradually enlarges, till it can receive the 

 whole of this part into its cavity, where it lies in a 

 groove formed in the middle of the tongue. The 

 young continues to reside in the pouch, till it has 

 attained maturity, occasionally leaving it for exercise 

 or amusement, but immediately seeking refuge in it 

 on the least alarm. The flesh of these animals is said 

 to be nutritious and savoury, somewhat resembling 

 mutton. They are capable of being domesticated, 

 in which state they are harmless and even timid. 

 The species of these singular animals have not hither- 

 to been satisfactorily determined, as the differences 

 on which the distinguishing characters of each have 

 been founded, are merely those of size and slight 

 modifications of colour. 



KANSAS. See Indians. 



KANSAS, or KANZAS, or KANSEZ ; a river of 

 North America, which rises in the Rocky mountains, 

 and, after an easterly course of about 1200 miles, 

 unites with the Missouri, 340 miles from the Missis- 

 sippi, in Ion. 94 20' W.; lat. 38 31' N. 



KANT, IMMANUEL, born in Konigsberg, in 

 Prussia Proper, April 22, 1724, was the son of a har- 

 ness-maker, in the suburbs of his native place a 

 man of integrity and respectability, though of an 

 humble station. Kant's mother was a woman of great 

 piety, and much attached to the strict tenets and dis- 

 cipline of doctor Schultz, a professor of theology at the 

 university of Konigsberg a distinguished divine in his 

 day. Though far from being in easy circumstances, 

 his parents resolved to bestow upon their son Tmmanuel 

 the advantage of a liberal education. After having 

 learned to read and to write in the charity school of 

 the suburb, Kant was sent, in 1732, to the Collegium 

 Fredericianum, at the suggestion of doctor Schultz, 

 who, even at that early period, had the penetration 

 to discover the talents of the boy. At this school, 

 he contracted an intimate friendship with Ruhnken, 

 afterwards so celebrated as a philologist. Both 

 were indefatigable students, and read and studied 

 much together. It is remarkable that, at this 

 period, Kant devoted his attention principally to 

 philological studies, while his friend Ruhnken seemed 

 to have more fondness for philosophy. In their 

 maturer years, they exchanged pursuits. In 1740, 

 Kant repaired to the university of his native city, 

 and, at first, studied theology, in consequence of the 

 necessity of depending entirely on his profession for 

 future maintenance. But at no period did he neglect 

 philosophy and mathematics. Hardly had he arrived 

 at the age of manhood, when he lost both his parents, 



