CRUSTACEANS 



1653 



CRYPT 



who declared that God had called him to the 

 rescue of the Holy Land. When the children 

 reached Marseilles they expected the waters of 

 the sea to divide and give them passage to Pales- 

 tine. Bitterly disappointed, many of them made 

 their way homeward, but several thousand were 

 lured on board seven ships by merchants who 

 promised to take them to Palestine free of charge. 

 Two of the vessels were wrecked off the coast of 

 Sardinia, and the others carried the children to 

 Alexandria, where they were sold into slavery. 



About the same time another crusading band, 

 consisting of 20,000 children, started southward 

 from Germany, under the leadership of a boy 

 named Nicholas. Thousands died of hunger and 

 exposure on the way, and the remainder got no 

 farther than Geneva. Few of these ever reached 

 home again. 



Results of the Crusades. Though the Cru- 

 saders failed to realize their great ideal, the 

 Holy Wars profoundly influenced European 

 history. By their warfare against the Turks the 

 Crusaders delayed the fall of Constantinople 

 three centuries, giving the young Christian 

 civilization of the West an opportunity to con- 

 serve its strength before Mohammedanism 

 again gained a foothold in Europe. By pro- 

 moting commercial intercourse between the 

 West and the East the Crusades added much 

 to the wealth and prosperity of Europe, and 

 were an important factor in the development 

 of the great Italian seaports. 



The Holy Wars helped to destroy feudalism, 

 for large numbers of the nobles perished in 

 the Crusades or lost their fortunes and their 

 estates, and the power of the kings and com- 

 mon people was correspondingly increased. 

 Europe also developed intellectually by these 

 centuries of contact with the more advanced 

 culture of the East. Finally, the Crusades 

 awakened the spirit of exploration and dis- 

 covery, and therefore played an important part 

 in the epoch-making voyages of the fifteenth 

 and sixteenth centuries. B.M.W. 



Consult Chronicles of the Crusades, in "Every- 

 man's Library" ; Archer and Kingsford's The 

 Crusades. 



Related Subjects. The following articles in 

 these volumes will give added light on the Cru- 

 sades and on the period in which they occurred : 



Bernard, Saint Louis, subhead 

 Edward, subhead Louis IX 



Edward I Peter the Hermit 



Feudal System Richard, subhead 

 Frederick I, Barbarossa Richard I 



Godfrey de Bouillon Saladin 



CRUSTACEANS, krus ta'sheanz, members 

 of the shellfish family named Crustacea, some 

 of the larger types of which are among the 

 favorite sea-foods of all nations, the smaller 



ones furnishing an important source of food to 

 other marine animals. This family forms the 

 most important class of joint-footed animals, 

 the Arthropoda (which see). The familiar 

 crawfish, crab and lobster are three of the best 

 known of the 10,000 present species of crus- 

 taceans, most of which are sea animals, al- 

 though a few are found in fresh waters and on 

 land. 



Although the structure and also the habits 

 of crustaceans vary, all have a hard body coat- 

 ing; in some this is almost bonelike, while in 

 others it is merely tough and leathery. The 

 body consists of a number of segments, either 

 free or joined together. All appendages, such 

 as legs, feet, feelers (antennae) and jaws are 

 arranged in pairs and are jointed. There are 

 two or more compound or single eyes, usually 

 stalked. The animals are reproduced by means 

 of eggs which are generally hatched in water, 

 although some species, like lobsters, carry eggs 

 and young on the under side of the abdomen. 

 As the animals grow, their skins become tight 

 and a painful process of casting off skin 

 and shell and growing new coverings must be 

 passed through. Crustaceans possess great 

 powers of reproduction of lost parts, such as 

 feet, claws and feelers. Most of these animals 

 eat decaying animal matter and so are useful 

 in ridding waters and beaches of carrion. 



Related Subjects. A more detailed knowl- 

 edge of the structure and importance of the crus- 

 taceans may be gained from a study of the follow- 

 ing articles : 



Barnacle Horseshoe Crab 



Crab Land Crab 



Crawfish Lobster 



Fiddler Crab Shrimp 



Hermit Crab 



CRYPT, kript, a word derived from the 

 Greek kryptein, meaning to hide, and now 

 applied to a vault under an old church or 

 cathedral in which the bodies of saints and 

 martyrs were placed. The crypt was usually 

 the nucleus of the church which was to be 

 erected over it, elevating the altar of the saint 

 to whom the edifice was dedicated. In early 

 ages the crypt also contained altars for the 

 worship of saints and martyrs whose bones 

 were supposed to be deposited there. One of 

 the most famous and beautiful of existing 

 crypts is found beneath Glasgow Cathedral, 

 made famous by Sir Walter Scott in his novel 

 Rob Roy. Saint Peter's, Rome, and the 

 cathedrals of Canterbury and Gloucester also 

 contain crypts of great historical interest and 

 architectural beauty. 



