JEWS 



3151 



JIGGER 



the Jew flourished and unfolded a remarkable 

 literary activity. From Italy and Spain they 

 gradually spread into Southern France, into 

 Germany and into England, while on the other 

 hand, from Asia Minor the Jewish dispersion 

 crossed over into Southwestern Europe and 

 made its way to the Crimea and into Southern 

 and Central Russia. These two waves of mi- 

 gration, one spreading over Western Europe 

 towards the east and the other from Asia 

 Minor across Southeastern Europe towards the 

 north and west, met in Russia, which became 

 the very center of Jewish settlements, compris- 

 ing until recently considerably more than half 

 of the entire Jewish population of the world 

 (see RUSSIA). 



Persecutions. Restrictions and persecution 

 often drove the Jews from one country to 

 another. Driven out of Spain, after enduring 

 unutterable hardships and after a thousand had 

 been burned at the stake, thousands upon 

 thousands passed northward into France and 

 Holland or moved to the east in the Balkan 

 states and other sections of Southeastern 

 Europe. Enduring persecutions at various 

 times in Germany, they nevertheless main- 

 tained themselves there. With the discovery of 

 America at the end of the fifteenth century, 

 and with permission to settle in England, which 

 was given about the middle of the seventeenth 

 century, a better era dawned for this ancient 

 people. Gradually Europe awoke to the ne- 

 cessity of a thorough political reorganization, 

 which led, as an inevitable consequence, to the 

 political rehabilitation of the Jews in all coun- 

 tries, even in Russia, for after the revolution 

 of 1917 which deposed autocracy the condition 

 of the Russian Jews appeared more hopeful. 

 In all the countries in which Jews have re- 

 ceived the right of citizenship they have shown 

 themselves to be thoroughly loyal, contribut- 

 ing their full share towards the social, political, 

 intellectual and artistic advance of the lands in 

 which they live and which they regard as their 

 own country in the same sense as do their fel- 

 low-citizens of other creeds and of other na- 

 tional origins. M.J. 



Consult Shurer's History of the Jewish People 

 in the Time of Jesus Christ; Guerber's Story of 

 the Chosen People; Wade's Our Little Jewish 

 Cousin. Good stories are Wallace's Ben Hur 

 and Stoddard's The Swordmaker's Son. 



Related Subjects. The sketch of the Jews 

 here given may be supplemented by the follow- 

 ing articles in these volumes, and by the biog- 

 raphies of the famous men listed under the article 

 BIBLE : 



JEW'S-HARP 



Bedouins Maccabees 



Bible Nebuchadnezzar 



Cyrus Nomad Life 

 Hebrew Language and Palestine 



Literature Semites 



Jerusalem Temple 



Judea Zionist Movement 



JEW'S-HARP, a small musical instrument, 

 deriving its name, according to some authori- 

 ties, from the French word jeu, meaning play, 

 from the fact of its being a toy. More prob- 

 ably it was named in ironic allusion to the 

 harp of David. 

 The instrument 

 comprises two 

 narrow metal 

 prongs, open at 

 one end and 

 rounding into a 

 circular form at 

 the other end. To the latter is attached a flat 

 spring which passes along between the prongs, 

 terminating in a short section bent at a right 

 angle. The prongs are held between the teeth, 

 away from the lips, and the sound is pro- 

 duced by inhaling and exhaling air from the 

 lungs, while the player strikes the upright 

 spring with the finger. The device is an old 

 one, being mentioned in 1619 by Praetorius in 

 his Organographia under the name of crem- 

 balum. 



JEYPORE, jipoor'. See JAIPUR. 



JEZ'EBEL, a Bible character, portrayed as 

 the cruel and heartless daughter of King Eth- 

 baal of Tyre, and wife of Ahab, king of Israel. 

 Her marriage with the latter was for the pur- 

 pose of allying the two countries, and she won 

 the disfavor of the people when she estab- 

 lished her own form of worship at her hus- 

 band's court. She opposed Elijah, the prophet, 

 who bitterly denounced her, and she was 

 accused of attempting to cause the death of 

 certain other prophets. By her orders Naboth, 

 a neighbor, was stoned to death for refusing 

 to sell his vineyard to King Ahab (7 Kings 

 XXI, 1-13). Jezebel herself was finally mur- 

 dered by Jehu (// Kings IX, 30-37), fourteen 

 years after her husband's death. See AHAB; 

 JEHU; ELIJAH. 



JIG'GER, or CHIG'GER, a species of flea, 

 resembling the common flea, except that it is 

 smaller. It is found in South America, the West 

 Indies and Southern United States. In the 

 United States the name is applied to small red 

 mites which burrow under the skin of verte- 

 brate animals, causing great annoyance. The 

 first indication of the presence of jiggers is a 



