KNI 



KNI 



packhorses. When the soldiers reposed, 

 they hung up the empty sacks, and slept 

 in them. The word should be napsack, 

 from napping, &c. to slumber. The army 

 was supplied by packhorses, and all 

 things were in sacks, so that every 

 soldier had his sack. Such is the ac- 

 count given by a very worthy and re- 

 spectable friend ; but we are inclined to 

 to think that knapsack comes from the 

 Saxon word snapsack, a bag to carry 

 food. See James's Dictionary. 



KNAUTIA, in botany, so named from 

 Christopher Knaut, a genus of the Tetran- 

 dria Monogynia class and order. Natu- 

 ral order of Aggregate. Dipsaceae, Jus- 

 sieu. Essential character ; calyx common 

 oblong, simple, five to ten flowered ; 

 corollets irregular; receptacle naked. 

 There are four species, mostly natives of 

 the Levant. 



KNEE. See ANATOMY. 



KN EE, a crooked piece of timber, having 

 two branches or arms, and generally used 

 to connect the beams of a ship with her 

 sides or timbers. The branches of the 

 knees form an angle of greater or smaller 

 extent, according to the mutual situation 

 of the pieces which they are designed to 

 unite. One branch is securely bolted to 

 one of the deck-beams, and the other in 

 the same manner strongly attached to a 

 corresponding timber in the ship's side. 

 Besides the great utility of knees in 

 connecting the beams and timbers into 

 one compact frame, they contribute 

 greatly to the strength and solidity of the 

 ship, in the different parts of her frame to 

 which they are bolted, and thereby ena- 

 ble her with great firmness to resist the 

 effects of a turbulent sea. 



KNIGHT, in military concerns. This 

 word is an anglicism of the German word 

 knecht, signifying a person possessing the 

 talents and bravery of a soldier, and re- 

 warded for some particular acts of cou- 

 rage and address by the sovereign. 



Knights, or Equites, in the Roman art 

 of war, were originally instituted by Ro- 

 mulus, who selected three hundred ath- 

 letic young men from the best families of 

 the class of patricians, and had them 

 trained to serve their country on horse- 

 back. This politic mode of securing the 

 services of the most important part of the 

 community to the existing government, 

 was improved upon by Servius Tullus, 

 after the introduction of the census, who 

 admitted all persons worth four hundred 

 sestertia into the noble order of the 

 Equites, whose conduct and morals were 

 irreproachable, a precaution hie-Illy ho- 



VOL. IV. 



s performed by the government, calcu- 

 jd to impress the members with the 



nourable to the Roman character, and 

 acted upon rigidly by monarchs, consuls, 

 and censors. Having ascertained this 

 point, by regular scrutiny, the name of 

 the individual approved was enrolled with, 

 those of the order, a ring was presented 

 to him as a pledge ot his acceptance into 

 it, and he received a horse provided at the 

 public expense : thus instituted a knight, 

 he was required and expected to appear 

 at a moment's notice, ready to execute to 

 the utmost of his ability those services 

 which the state demanded. 



There were three distinct and solemn 

 acts 

 latec 



necessity of adhering to their compact 

 with their country ; those were termed 

 the Probatio, the Transvectio, and the 

 Recensio. The first may be considered 

 an annual examination as to the moral 

 conduct of the Equites, the state of their 

 arms, their horses, and their own health ; 

 the second, an universal assemblage of 

 the knights in the forum, is thus describ- 

 ed by Dyonisius : " The sacrifices being 

 finished, all those who are allowed horses 

 at the expense of the state, ride along in 

 order, as if returning from a battle, being 

 habited in the Togx Palmatse, or the Trabae, 

 and crowned with wreaths of olive. The 

 procession begins at the temple of Mars, 

 without the walls, and is carried on 

 through all the eminent parts of the city, 

 particularly the Forum, and the temple of 

 Castor and Pollux. The number some- 

 times reaches to five thousand ; every 

 man bearing the gifts and ornaments re- 

 ceived as a reward of his valour from the 

 general. A most glorious sight, and wor- 

 thy of the Roman grandeur." According 

 to Plutarch, this honourable body of sol- 

 diers, and the rest of the army engaged 

 in battle with the Latins, about the two 

 hundred and fifty-seventh year of the city, 

 were personally assisted by Castor and 

 Pollux, who after wards appeared in Rome 

 mounted on horses foaming with exertion, 

 near the fountain where their temple was 

 subsequently erected; grateful for their 

 supernatural aid, the Romans established 

 the Transvectio in honour of the deified 

 brothers. 



The Recensio resembled the Probatio 

 in some degree, except that more import- 

 ance was attached to the former, as it was 

 an universal mtiater of the whole people, 

 including the Equites, to answer the use- 

 ful military purposes of ascertaining the 

 then state of discipline of men bearing- 

 arms, enrolling of new names, and ex- 

 punging others. The ceremony occuri cd 



ti 



