814 



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY EISENACH. 



(hall bow their heads to the dust. Everything that zeal in 

 tl.e cause of science, combined with the most extensive 

 knowledge, haa been able to collect, in a land rich as Egypt is 

 in monuments of every kind, and in the ran^t cmm.sitiea, is 

 comprised in a work, compiled at the cost of the French go- 

 vernment, by the committee for Egyptian antiquities. This 

 work corresponds, in the grandeur of its proportions, to the 

 edifices which it describes. The Detcriptton de PF.gypte, ou 

 RecueildeiObiemationitt det RecherchespendantfErpi'ililinn 

 de f Annie Franqaue, K vols., with more than 900 engravings 

 und 3ono sketches (the last number appeared in 1826), contains 

 all the transactions of the institute of Cairo. The first of the 

 three great divisions contains the antiquities, the second the 

 modern condition, and the third the natural history of Egypt. 

 In compliance with the wishes of Napoleon, only a few copies 

 were printed. Of these, a small number were sent to foreign 

 courts. None of the essays were received till after a previous 

 examination by a committee consisting of the tacantt and ar- 

 tiitts who had accompanied the army under Bonaparte to 

 Egypt. Among these were Berthollet, Costar, Degenettes, 

 Fourier, Girard, Monge, Conti: and Laurent The place of 

 the two la.-t, who died during the progress of the work, was 

 supplied byjomard and JalUiis, to whom were afterwards added 

 Delille and Devilliers. Louis XVIII. and Charles X. caused the 

 publication of this valuable work to be continued, and, in 1.-2I, 

 Pauckoucke, a bookseller in Paris, was permitted to undertake 

 a new edition, and make use of the valuable copperplates of 

 the former edition. Jacotin's splendid map of Egypt, con. 

 .-tnirted by the French engineer* on the spot, is annexed to the 

 Atlas of Egypt. The discoveries of Champollion, and the pre- 

 valent zeal for investigating the " country of wonders," may 

 be said to have had their origin in the French expedition to 

 Egypt. The account of this expedition and of the motives 

 which prompted it, gi ven in the third and eighth chapters of the 

 tecond volume of Buchholz's Geschichte Napoleon Bonaparte"! 

 History of N. Bonaparte), Berlin, 1829, 3 vols., is good. See 

 also the memoirs of the duke of Rovigo (Savary). There has 

 been published, L'Hittoire scientifique et militaire de f Expedi- 

 tion Franqaite en Kgypte (Paris, 1830). under the direction of 

 X. B. Saiutine, with an atlas, preceded by a history of Egypt 

 from the earliest times, and with an account of the administra- 

 tion of AH Pacha, and likewise Campagne d'Egypte, tuite de 

 fHutoire de France, par Anquetil, 3d voL by FVFayot, Paris, 

 1830. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY. See Cemetery, 

 Charon, and Hieroglyphics. 



EHRENBREITSTEIN ; an important fortress, on 

 a rock upon the Rhine, opposite Coblentz, in the 

 former archbishopric of the Treves. The French con- 

 tinued to blockade it in 1798 and 1799, during the 

 negotiations for peace, till at length it was obliged to 

 surrender for want of provisions, January 29, and, in 

 1 801 , was blown up. At the bottom of the rock, near 

 the little town of Thal-Ehrenbreitstein, is the castle oi 

 the elector, which, however, was in great part de- 

 stroyed during the siege. In 1802, the dilapidated for- 

 tress, the village, and the jurisdiction appertaining to 

 it, were bestowed upon the prince of Nassau- Weilberg 

 by way of indemnity. They were subsequently cedec 

 to Prussia, and now belong to the Prussian grand-duchy 

 of the Lower Rhine (the province of Cleves-Berg) 

 The fortress has been lately rebuilt, on the newest ane 

 most approved principles, so that it is considered oneo 

 the finest fortresses in the world. See Coblentz. 



EIDER DUCK (anas mollissima, Lin., Wilson 

 fuligula, Bon.) This valuable bird is found from 45 

 north to the highest latitudes yet visited, both in Eu 

 rope and America. Its favourite haunts are solitary 

 rocky shores and islands. In Greenland and Iceland 

 they ocqpr in great quantities. In particular spots 

 their nests are so abundant, that a person can scarcel 

 walk without treading on them. The eider duck i 

 about twice the size of the common duck. Thei 

 nests are usually formed of drift grass, dry sea-weec 

 lined with a large quantity of down, which the fe- 

 male plucks from her own breast. In this soft be 

 she lays five eggs, which she covers over with 

 layer of down ; then the natives, who watch her ope- 

 rations, take away both the eggs and the down : th 

 duck lays a second time, and again has recourse t 

 the feathers of her body to protect her offspring 

 even this, with the eggs, is generally taken away 

 and it is said, that, in this extremity, her own stoc 

 being exhausted, the drake furnishes the third quan 

 tity of down : if the robbery should be repeate( 

 however, they alndon the place. One female ge 



erally furnishes about half a pound of down, which 

 s worth about two dollars. This down, from its 

 uperior warmth, lightness, and elasticity, is preferred 

 y the luxurious, to every other article for beds and 

 overlets ; and, from the great demand for it, those 

 istricts in Norway and Iceland, where these birds 

 Ijound, are regarded as the most valuable property, 

 nd are guarded with the greatest vigilance. Kadi 

 roprietor endeavours, by every means in his power, 

 o draw those birds from his neighbour's ground to 

 is own, and, when they settle in an island oft' the 

 lore, the cattle and herdsmen are removed to allow 

 icm to breed undisturbed. Very little of the eider 

 own remains in the countries where it is collected. 

 As found in commerce, this down is in balls of the 

 ize of a man's fist, and weighing from three to four 

 ounds. It is so fine and elastic, that when a ball 



opened, and the down cautiously held over hot 

 oals to expand, it will completely fill a quilt five 

 eet square. The down from dead birds is little es- 

 emed, having lost its elasticity. 



The length of this duck is two feet tiiree inches, 

 xtent of the wings three feet, weight from six to 

 even pounds : the head is large, and the bill of sin- 

 gular structure, being three inches in length, forked 

 n a remarkable manner, running high up in the fore- 

 icad, between which the plumage descends nearly 

 ,0 the nostrils : the whole of the bill is of a dull, yel- 

 owish horn colour, somewliat dusky in the middle. 

 The male is black, head and back white, with a 

 >lack crown. The female is wholly reddish drab, 

 spotted with black, with two white bands across the 

 wings. The young of both sexes are the same, being 

 covered with a kind of hairy down, throat and breast 

 whitish, and a cinereous luie from the bill through 

 he eyes to the hind head. These birds associate in 

 locks, generally in deep water, diving to great 

 depth for shell-fish, which constitute their principal 

 bod. They frequently retire to the rocky shores to 

 rest, particularly on the appearance of an approach- 

 ng storm. Their flesh is eaten by the Greenlanders, 

 jut tastes strongly of fish. The eggs, however, are 

 esteemed. These and the down are both frequently 

 obtained at the hazard of life by people let down by 

 ropes from craggy steeps. With five pounds of the 

 best eider down, a whole bed may be well filled. 

 The Greenlanders likewise use the skin, taken off', 

 feathers and all, for their under dresses. The down 

 is divided into two sorts ; sea-weed down, and grass 

 down. The former kind is the heaviest ; but the 

 labour of cleaning is greater. Much of the down is 

 lost in cleaning. Iceland furnishes annually from 

 200 to 300 pounds cleaned, and from 1500 to 2000 

 pounds impure. 



EIFEL ; a district rich in momunents of the Ro- 

 mans, and of the middle ages, lying between the 

 Moselle, the Rhine, and the Roer. Schannat's Eiflia 

 illustrata was published by Barsch in Latin, with an- 

 notations (Cologne, 1824, 2 vols.). 



EISENACH (anciently Isenacum) ; a town in Ger- 

 many, and capital of a principality of the same name, 

 belonging to the grand-duchy of Saxe-Weimar, on 

 the Nesse ; 26 miles west Erfurt, 40 west Weimar ; 

 Ion. 10 20' E.; lat. 50 59' N. It is a well built 

 town, and contains five churches, a gymnasium with 

 a library, and has some manufactures, chiefly of 

 coarse woollen. It is most agreeably situated, near 

 the mountains of Thuringia. Half a league from this 

 town lies the Wartburg, an ancient mountain castle, 

 to which the elector, Frederic the Wise, of Saxony, 

 ordered Luther to be carried, after the latter had 

 been placed under the bann of the empire, by the 

 diet at Worms. Luther lived here as the chevalier 

 George, from May 4, 1521, to March 6, 152J2, and 

 laboured zealously in the translation of the Bible. 



