716 



UMBER UNCIAL. 



tinguished for his activity and valour. With Dio- 

 medes he murdered Rhesus, and slaughtered the 

 Thrai-ians in their camp. He also introduced him- 

 self into the city of Priam, and carried away the 

 Palladium of the Trojans. (See Palladium.') For 

 these services he was rewarded with the arms of 

 Achilles. After the war, Ulysses was exposed to 

 a number of misfortunes, before he reached his na- 

 tive country. He was thrown upon the coasts of 

 Africa, and visited the country of the Lotophagi, 

 and of the Cyclops in Sicily. Polyphemus seized 

 him, with his companions, five of whom he de- 

 voured (see Polyphemus'); but the prince, having 

 intoxicated him and put out his eyes, escaped 

 irom the cave. JEolus gave him, confined in 

 bags, all the winds which could obstruct his 

 return to Ithaca; but the curiosity of his com- 

 panions to know what the bags contained, proved 

 nearly fatal. The winds rushed out, and all the 

 fleet was destroyed, except the ship which carried 

 Ulysses. Then he was thrown upon the coasts of 

 the Lxstrygones, and of the island ^Eea, where 

 Circe changed his companions into pigs. He escaped 

 their fate by means of an herb which he had received 

 from Mercury ; and, after he had obliged the magi- 

 cian, by force of arms, to restore his companions to 

 their original shape, he yielded to her charms, and 

 made her mother of Telegonus. He visited the in- 

 fernal regions, and consulted Tiresias how to return 

 with safety to his country ; and, after he had re- 

 ceived the necessary information, he returned on 

 earth. He passed along the coasts of the Sirens 

 unhurt, by the directions of Circe (see Sirens'), and 

 escaped the whirlpools and shoals of Scylla and 

 Charybdis. On the coasts of Sicily, his companions 

 killed some oxen sacred to Apollo, for which the 

 god destroyed the ships ; and all were drowned 

 except Ulysses, who swam to the island of Calypso, 

 where, for seven years, he forgot Ithaca, in the 

 arms of the goddess, by whom he had two children. 

 The gods at last interfered, and Calypso suffered 

 him to depart. Neptune, still mindful that his son 

 Polyphemus had been robbed of his eyes by Ulysses, 

 raised a storm and sunk his ships. Ulysses swam 

 to the island of the Phaeacians, where the kindness 

 of Nausicaa, and the humanity of her father, king 

 Alcinous, entertained him for a while. He related 

 his misfortunes to the monarch, and was conducted 

 in a ship to Ithaca, after an absence of twenty 

 years. He was informed that his palace was be- 

 sieged by suitors, who continually disturbed the 

 peace of Penelope ; and, therefore, he assumed the 

 habit of a beggar, by the advice of Minerva, and 

 made himself known to his son and his faithful 

 shepherd Eumaeus. The suitors were put to death, 

 and Ulysses restored to peace and the bosom of his 

 family. He lived about sixteen years after his re- 

 turn, and was at last killed by his son Telegonus, 

 who had landed in Ithaca, with the hopes of mak- 

 ing himself known to his father. The adventures 

 of Ulysses on his return are the subject of Homer's 

 Odyssey. 



UMBER, OR UMBRE (Italian ombrid), in paint- 

 ing ; a kind of dry, dusky-coloured earth, which, 

 diluted with water, serves to make a dark-brown 

 colour, usually called with us a hair colour. This 

 substance was originally obtained from Ombria, 

 the ancient name of the duchy of Spoleto, in Italy. 



UMBRELLA; from the Italian ombreUo, 'a 

 little shade.' This useful article was first intro- 

 duced into England from Italy, as the name indi- 

 cates, but at what period is uncertain. Dryden 



mentions it ; and also Guy, in his ' Trivia, or lhi> 

 An of Walking the Streets,' published in 1712. 



" Good hnu!Mwive all the winter's rape detp'w, 



Di'friidrd l>y the riil ii.-l 



Or undi>nic:ith th' iiinliri-lla's <u]\ 



.Sit.' ihniu.-li tin* v. el iu clinking pattens tread. 



I.ct I'lTfimi damps th' umbrelllPl rilis ili~)>lay 



To guard tlii-ir |it>.uitii>< from tin- sinmv ray ; 



Or Mvratiiiir s-lnvi's oiinport tho shady (oad, 



Whi'ii caMrni miiMuvlis ..lio.v tlit'ir state abroad ; 



Hritain in wintc'r only knows its aid 



To guard Irom chilly liu\v'n the walking m tid." 



In Bailey's English Dictionary, originally pub- 

 lished in 1736, we have the following definition : 



Umbrella, a sort of wooden frame, covered with 

 cloth, put over a window, to keep out the sun; 

 also a screen carried over the head to defend from 

 sun or rain." Although, however, umbrellas were 

 known so far back, it was late in the last century 

 before they came into general use. They were for 

 a long time used exclusively by ladies, it being 

 considered effeminate for a man to be seen with one. 

 Dr Cleland, in his ' Statistical Account of Glasgow,' 

 says: " About the year 1781 or 1782, the late Mr 

 John Jamieson, surgeon, returning from Paris, 

 brought an umbrella with him, which was the first 

 seen in this city. The doctor, who was a man of 

 humour, took great pleasure in relating to me how 

 he was stared at with his umbrella. For a number 

 of years, there were few used in Glasgow, and these 

 were made of glazed cotton cloth. Now every 

 child at school, mechanic, and servant, is provided 

 with an umbrella." Notwithstanding the more 

 stately appearance of the umbrella, it is but the 

 child of the parasol, or rather, the original and al- 

 most exclusive use of the umbrella is that to which 

 the parasol is now appropriated, to afford shelter 

 from the sun. The applicability of the same imple- 

 ment as a defence against rain was sufficiently ob- 

 vious, but is scarcely known in the original coun- 

 tries of the umbrella except as introduced from 

 Europe. The umbrella is of Asiatic origin. Some 

 commentators on the Bible think they can discover 

 it in some passages where " a shade defending from 

 the sun" is mentioned. This is not unlikely. The 

 article has, however, from times immemorial, been 

 so well known in all the warm countries of Asia 

 that it is impossible to discover in which of them it 

 originated, although there are circumstances which 

 seem to point to a common origin. It is more in 

 use in China than elsewhere in Asia; and when 

 we find a practice in that country we seem natural- 

 ly disposed to look there for the origin of it ; but 

 there is no evidence for the prior claims of China, 

 nor is the point well worth investigating. Except 

 in that country, and in some Europeanized parts of 

 Turkey, the umbrella is no where in Asia an article 

 in common use among the people. In most of the 

 Asiatic nations it forms a distinction peculiar to 

 royalty, while in some others it is also conceded to 

 persons high in authority and place, particularly to 

 governors of provinces, who in most Asiatic coun- 

 tries are, for purposes of government, invested with 

 powers almost regal. In the farther peninsula of 

 India the umbrella is strictly confined to royalty 

 itself. China and Turkey are the only countries in 

 Asia where the umbrella has been abandoned to 

 the people ; and it is remarkable that it is only in 

 these countries that the implement is used as a 

 shelter from rain ; elsewhere its uses are exclusive- 

 ly those of a parasol. 



UMPIRE. See Arbitrator. 



UNCIAL (Latin, vncia, a twelfth) ; a term ap 



