CUPID 



1671 



CURASSOW 



The above, translated, reads : 



CUNEIFORM CHARACTERS 

 "She put me in a basket of rushes ; with pitch my door she shut." 



complicated and also the most important, be- 

 cause of what it has revealed to the modern 

 world of the history of the ancients, and espe- 

 cially of peoples mentioned in the Bible. 



Though Herodotus, Plutarch and other an- 

 cient writers referred to cuneiform texts, they 

 seem to have passed out of the remembrance 

 of maa until the fifteenth century, when Euro- 

 pean travelers became interested in the famous 

 inscription of Darius, carved 300 feet above the 

 ground on the steep side of Behistun Rock, in 

 Western Persia. On this lofty cliff Darius had 

 recorded his achievements in three languages, 

 Persian, Susian and Babylonian. The de- 

 ciphering of the Persian text was begun in 

 1802 by a German scholar, Georg Grotefend, 

 who succeeded in making out the name Darius. 

 In 1838 Sir Henry Rawlinson made an epoch- 

 making translation of a considerable portion 

 of the Persian inscription, and six years later 

 the translation of the Susian text was begun 

 by Westergaard. Other scholars, including 

 Rawlinson, succeeded in interpreting trie Baby- 

 lonian inscriptions, and since then marked 

 progress has been made in this field of investi- 

 gation. There are, however, thousands of cu- 

 neiform texts yet to be deciphered. B.M.W. 



CUPID, Tcu'pid, the god of love of classic 

 mythology, represented in sculpture and paint- 

 ing as a beautiful, chubby, naked boy with 

 gauzy wings and a roguish, dimpled face, and 

 armed with a bow and a quiver of arrows. No 

 other character of mythology has been adopted 

 more generally into the literature and senti- 

 ment of the present day. Frequently men- 

 tioned as Dan Cupid, this "archer of archers" 

 is usually spoken of as blind or blindfolded. 

 Shakespeare in Midsummer Night's Dream 

 says: 



"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind ; 

 And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." 



Cupid was the son of Mars, god of war, and 

 of Venus, the goddess of love. The legend 

 is that he loved a mortal princess named 

 Psyche, who after many trials was made im- 

 mortal by the gods. As Cupid is the emblem 

 of the heart, Psyche is the symbol of the soul. 



Long ago Cupid was at times represented 

 with a helmet, a spear and a buckler, and rfding 

 on the back of a lion or on a dolphin, to show 

 his power. The Greek Eros is identified with 

 Cupid as the god of love. See PSYCHE. 



CUPOLA, ku'pola, a word derived from the 

 Latin cupula, meaning a little bowl, or cup. 

 It is applied in architecture to a roof resem- 

 bling an inverted bowl. The words cupola and 

 dome are used synonymously, but they should 

 be distinguished, for while a cupola is usually 

 more or less inconspicuous, the term dome is 

 applied to a large building, the roof of which 

 could not be said to resemble a little cup. 

 The term would not be applicable to the dome 

 of the Capitol at Washington, for instance. 

 Saint Paul's Cathedral, London, has one con- 

 spicuous dome and two cupolas, or smaller 

 domes, covering portions of the building. The 

 term cupola is also applied to a saucerlike tur- 

 ret beneath which guns are concealed in a fort. 



CURACAO, or CURACOA, koorahso', or 

 koo rah sah ' o, one of the Dutch West Indies, in 

 the Caribbean Sea, about forty miles north 

 of Venezuela. Although small, covering an 

 area of only 210 square miles, the island is com- 

 mercially important and is the center of a 

 thriving Dutch colony. The surface of Curacao 

 is for the most part flat and of coral formation, 

 though in the south there are volcanic hills 

 rising to a height of 1,200 feet. Owing to 

 lack of rain, agriculture is backward, but sugar, 

 corn, fruits and tobacco are raised. The island 

 is noted for a bitter orange from which a 

 popular liquor is made (see below). The prin- 

 cipal mining products are salt and phosphate 

 of lime. The colony is administered by a gov- 

 ernor, appointed by the Crown of the Nether- 

 lands, with headquarters at Willemstad, the 

 capital. Population of the island in 1913, 

 32,959; of the colony, 55,183. 



Curacao, a popular cordial or liquor pre- 

 pared from the yellow rind of a bitter orange 

 grown on the island of Curacao. It has an aro- 

 matic odor and a somewhat cloying, fruity 

 taste. The rind is first steeped in alcohol, then 

 distilled and mixed with syrup. The genuine 

 curacao is much imitated, substitutes being 

 prepared from ordinary oranges and colored by 

 chemical processes. 



CURASSOW, ku'raso, or kuras'o, a large 

 handsome bird resembling the domestic fowl, 

 a native of tropical America. The crested cu- 

 rassow of Guiana, Mexico and Brazil is best 

 known. It is nearly as large as a turkey, but 

 more striking in appearance. The plumage is 

 black, with a purplish-green gloss above and 



