GEN 



'Piilr nan\cs of woifliip, and not of dignity. And before 

 thefe the heralds rank all colonels, ferjeants at k\v, and 

 dodors in the three leained profeffions. See Prece- 



DEN'CE. 



Sir Thomas Smith (ubi fupra) fays, that whofoever ftu- 

 dieth the law r. of the realm, or lludieth in the univerfity, or 

 profcfTeth the liberal faiences ; and (in (hort) who can live 

 idly, and witliout manual labour, and will bear the port, 

 charge, and countenance of a gentleman, fliiill be called 

 mafter, and (liall be taken for a gentleman. 



Gentleman Ufier of the Black Rod, is the chief gentle- 

 man ufher to the king, called in the black book " Lator vir- 

 gx nigra:, et haftiarius," and elfevvhere " Virgasbajulus." His 

 duty is to bear the rod before the king at the feart of St. 

 George at Windfor ; he has alfo the keeping of the chapter- 

 lioufe door, when a chapter of the order of the garter is 

 fitting ; and in time of parliament attends the houfe of 

 peers. His badge is a "black rod," with a lion in gold at 

 top. This rod has the authority of a mace ; and to his 

 cuftody all peers queftioned for any crime are firft com- 

 mitted. 



Gentleman of the Bed-chamber. See Bed-Chamber. 



Gentlemen of t'le Chapel, are officers whole duty and at- 

 tendance are in the royal chapel, being in number thirty- ; ten 

 whereof are priefts, and the other twenty called clerhs of the 

 chapel, who alutt in the performance of Divine ferrice. One 

 of the firfl ten is chofen for confeffor of the houlhold, 

 v'hofe office it is to read prayers every morning to the houf- 

 hold fervants ; to vifit the lick, examine-and prepare com- 

 municants, and adrninifter the facramcnt. 



Another, well verfed in mulic, is chofen firft organifl : 

 who is mailer of the children, to inflruck them in muiic, and 

 ■what is neceflary for the fervice of the chapel : a fecond is 

 likewife an organitl ; a third a lutenift ; and a fourth a 

 violill. 



There are likewife three vergers, fo called from the filver 

 rods they ufually carry in their hands ; being a ferjeant, yeo- 

 man, and groom of the veilry : the firft attends the dean 

 and fub-dean ; finds furplices and other neceffaries for the 

 chapel : the fecond has the whole care of the chapel ; keeps 

 the pews, and feats the nobility and gentry ; the groom 

 has his attendance within the chapel-door, and looks after 

 it. 



Gentlemen Perifoneri. See Pensioners. 



GENTLEN, in Geography, a town of Germany, in the 

 duchv of Magdeburg ; 30 miles N.E. of Magdeburg. 



GENTLEWOMAN, Generosa, is a good addition 

 for the eftate and degree of a woman, as generofus is for that 

 of a man ; and if a gentlewoman be named fpinfter in any 

 original writ, appeal, &c. it hath been held that fl.e may 

 abate, and quaili the fame. (2 Inft. 668.) But it feems that 

 fpinfter is in general a good addition for an unmarried wo- 

 man, as fingle woman is for one w!jd, being unmarried, hath 

 had a ballard. 



GENTOOS, in Mod:i~h Hiflory, according to the com- 

 mon acceptation of the term, denote the profefTors of the 

 religion of the Bramins (fee BuACiiMANs), who inhabit the 

 country called Hindoolian, in the Eaft Indies, from the 

 word _/?/!«, a region, and h'tr.d or h'lndoo ; which Ferifhteh, as 

 ve learn from colonel Dow's traudition of his Hiftory, 

 fappoles to have been a fon of Plam, the fon of Noah. It 

 is obferved, however, that Hindoo is not the name by which 

 the inhabitants originally ilylcd themfelves, but according 

 to the idiom of the Shanfcrit, which they ufe, jtimbodeep, 

 from fumboo, a jaciall, an animal common in their country, 

 and diet), a large portion of land lurrounded by the fea, or 

 IherteUiuntf from khunt, i. e. a continent, and iherrut, the 



GEN 



name of on? of the Srft Indian rajahs. It is alfo obferved, 

 that they have afl'umed the name of Hindoos only nnce th'* . 

 era of the Tartar government, to dillinguiili themfelvcs 

 from their conquerors, the MufTulmen. The term Ger.loo, 

 or Ctnt, in the Shanfcrit dialedl, denotes animal in general, 

 and in its more confined fcnfe mankind, and is never appro- 

 priated particularly to fuch as follow the doftrines of Brhima. 

 Thefe are divided into four great tribes, each cf which has 

 its ov^n feparate appellation ; but they have no common or 

 collective term that comprehends the whole nation undci- the 

 idea afSxed by the Europeans to the word Gentoo. Mr. 

 Halhead, in tfie preface to his tranflation of the " Code of 

 Gentoo Laws," conjeftures that the Portuguefe en their firll 

 arrival in India, hearing the word frequently in the mouths 

 of the natives, ss applied to mankind in general, might 

 adopt it for the domeftic appellation of the Indians them- 

 felves, or, perhaps, their bigotry might force from the word 

 Gentoo a fanciful allufion to gentile or pagan. The Hindoos, 

 or Gentoos, vie with the Chinefe as to the antiquity of their 

 nation. They reckon the duration of the world by four 

 jogaes, or diilinft ages ; the firft is the Suttee jogue, or 

 age of purity, which is faid to have lafted about 3,200,000 

 years, during which the life of man was ioo,OCO yi-ar,--, and 

 his ttature twenty-one cubits ; the fecond, the Tirtah jogue, 

 or the age in which one-third of mankind were repi'obate, 

 which confifted of 2,400,000 yeai-s, when men lived to the 

 age of lo,oco years ; the third, the Dwapaar jogue, in 

 which half the human race became depraved, which endured 

 to 600,000 years, when mens' lives were reduced to i,coo 

 years ; and fourthly, the Collee jogue, in which all mankind 

 wei-e corrupted, or rather diminifhed, which the word ccHe 

 imports. This is the prefclit era, which they fuppofe will 

 fublllt for 400,000 years, of which neai' 5,000 are already 

 paft, and man's life in this period is limited to 1 00 years. It 

 is fuppofed by many authors, that moft of the Gentoojhajleri 

 or fcriptures, were compofcd about the beginning of tiie 

 collee jogue or cal jug, of which, according to Mr. Dow, 

 the year of Chrift 1 769 was the 4887th ; but an objec- 

 tion occurs againft tliis fuppofitien, viz. that the ffiafters 

 take no notice of the deluge ; to which the Bramins reply, 

 that all their fcriptures were written before the time of Noah, 

 and the deluge never extended to Hindooftan. Neverthc- 

 lefs it appears from the (liafters thcmfelves, that they claim a 

 much higher antiquity than this ; inftances of which are re- 

 cited by Mr. Halhead. 



After all, it muft be allowed, that perfons of fagacity and 

 good judgment have made it appear with fufficient evidence, 

 tliat the oldeft accounts of the Hindoo nation do not, in re- 

 ality, go further back than to the deluge mentioned in the 

 books of Mofes, and that their religious inftitutions were 

 confequently pofterior to that event. Sir William Jones 

 fays, (Diflertations relating to Afia, vol. i. p. 199.) that the 

 firft corruption of the pureft and oldeft religion, which con- 

 fifted in the wcrfliip of one God, the maker and governor of 

 all things, was the fyftem of the Indian theology, invented 

 by the Bramins, and prevailing in thofe teiritories, where 

 the bock of Mahabad, or Menu, is at this time the ftandard 

 of all religious and moral duties. In his preface to the " In- 

 ftitutions cf Menu,'' (fee Menu) he fays, they are fuppofed 

 by the Bramins to have been prom.ulgated by Menu, the fon 

 or grandfon of Brahma, or the firft of created beings. Tliis 

 work he fuppofes to have been written about 300 years after 

 the 'Vedas, or about 1 280 years B. C. Sir W. Jones is of 

 opinion, that the origin of the Hindoo nation and govern- 

 ment is to be looked for in Iran, or Perfia, where a oreat 

 monarchy was cftablifhed before the All'yrian, called by the 

 oriental hiftorians the " Piftidadian dynafty ;" and they fay, 



that 



