W I T 



whole defignation feems to hare the force of expreffing an 

 eledled member. Among the perfons figning to the adl of 

 the gemote at Clofelhoe in 824 is, " Ego Beonna ekdus 

 confent. et fubfcrib." 



The members of the gemote were convened by the king's 

 writ, of which many inilances occur ; and the times of their 

 meeting feem to have been ufually the great feftivals of the 

 church, as Chriftmas, Eafter, and Whitfuntide ; but of 

 thefe Eafter, being moft frequently mentioned, feems to 

 have been the favourite period. Their meetings, however, 

 were not abfolutely reflriftcd to thefe feafons. The place 

 of their aflembly was not fixed. Perhaps this might depend 

 on the king's refidence at the time, and might have fuited 

 his convenience. Our monarchs feem to have maintained 

 their influence in the wittena-gemote by their munificence. 

 The king prefided at this council, and fometimes, perhaps 

 always, addrefled them. In 993 we have an account of a 

 royal fpeech. One of their duties was to eleft the fovereigii, 

 and to aflift at his coronation. Another was to co-operate 

 with the king in making laws. The wittena-gemote ap- 

 pears alfo to have made treaties jointly with the king. 

 Many inftances occur to this purpofe. The treaty, printed 

 in Wilkins's Leges Anglae-Saxonicse, p. 104, is faid to 

 have been made by the king and his witan. They are alfo 

 mentioned as afQfting the king in directing the military pre- 

 parations of the kingdom. Impeachments of great men were 

 made before the wittena-gemote. At thefe councils grants 

 of land were made and confirmed ; and the wittena-gemote 

 frequently appears in the Saxon remains, as the high court 

 of judicature of the kingdom, and it exercifed power over 

 the public guilds of the nation. The lands of the Anglo- 

 Saxons, the burghs, and the people, appear in all the docu- 

 ments of our anceftors, as fubjedied to certain definite pay- 

 ments to the king as to their lords ; and by a cuftom, whofe 

 origin is loft in its antiquity, among the Anglo-Saxons, all 

 their landfs, unlefs fpecially exempted, were liable to three 

 great burdens, the building and reparation of bridges and 

 fortifications, and to military expeditions. But what we now 

 call taxation feems to have begun in the time of Ethelred, 

 and to have arifen from the evils of a foreign invafion. 

 Thus the payment of io,oao/. to the Danes to buy off 

 their hoilility, mentioned by Henry of Huntingdon, and 

 thofe which followed, are ftated to have been ordered by 

 the king and the wittena-gemote. Under fovereigns of 

 feeble capacity, the wittena-gemote feems to have been the 

 fcene of thofe faftions, which always attend both arifto- 

 cracies and democracies, when no commanding talents exift 

 to predominate in the difcuflions, and to (hape the council. 

 Turner's Hift. of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. ii. book 10. 

 Littelton's Hift. Henry II. vol. iii. 



WITTENBERG, in Geography, a town of Saxony, and 

 capital of a circle or diftrift, fituated on the fide of the 

 Elbe, over which is a ferry : it is the head town of the 

 eleftoral circle, the feat of an aulic judicature, of the affize, 

 as alfo aconfiftory, together with that of the general fuper- 

 intendancy of the eleftoral circle, a fpiritual infpeftion, the 

 circle amt, and a famous univerfity, founded in the year 

 1502, at which, in 15 1 7, the Reformation took its rife by 

 means of Martin Luther. This town is not large, but for- 

 tified. The old citadel was formerly the eledoral refi- 

 dence ; near it ftands an arfenal. In the large round tower 

 are kept the archives of the eleftoral and princely houfes. 

 The univerfity library is kept in what was formerly an 

 Auguftine cloifter. The firft founder of the town of Wit- 

 tenberg was Bernard, duke of Saxony. In the year 1547, 

 it was taken by the emperor Charles V. ; in the year 1756, 

 it was poffefled by the Pruflians, who alfo broke down a 



8 miles 

 Lauen- 



WIT 



baftion of the fortifications; 60 miles N. of Drefden 

 N. lat. 51° 53'. E. long. 12'^ 46'. 



Wittenberg, a town of Pruffia, in Natangen ; 

 N. of Heilfterg. — Alfo, a town of the duchy of 

 burg, on the Elbe ; 8 miles W. of Lauenburg. 



WITTENBERGEN, a town of Brandenburg, in the 

 Mark of Pregnitz ; 6 miles S.S.W. of Perleberg. N. lat. 

 53° 2'. E. long. 1 1° 50'.— Alfo, a town of the duchy of 

 Holftein ; 8 miles S.W. of Lutkenborg. 



WITTENBURG, a town of the duehy of Mecklen- 

 burg ; 1 7 miles W. of Schwerin. 



WITTENHALL, a town(hip of England, in StafFord- 

 ftiire ; 2 miles N.E. of Wolverhampton. 



WITTENH AUSEN, a town of the duchy of Holftein ; 

 5 miles W. of Oldeburg. 



WITTENSTEIN, a town of Pruffia, in the province 

 of Natangen ; 10 miles S.S.E. of Kbnigfberg. 



WITTGENAU. See Witgenau? 



WITTHOEC, a town of Africa, in the country of 

 Cape Lopez Gonfalvo ; 30 miles N. of Olibato. 



WITTICHSTHAL, a town of Saxony, in the circle 

 of Erzgebirg ; 7 miles S. of Schwartzenberg. 



WITTINGEN, a town of Weftphalia, in the princi- 

 pality of Luneburg ZcUe ; 27 miles E. of Zelle. 



WITTLESEE Mere, a lake of England, in the county 

 of Huntingdon ; 4 miles S. of Peterborough. 



WITTLICH, a town of France, in the department of 

 the Rhine and Mofelle ; 16 miles N.E. of Treves. N. lat. 

 50° 4'. E. long. 6° 52'. 



WITTMUND, a town of Eaft Friefeland, on the 

 Harle ; 7 miles S.E. of Eifens. 



WITTOBA, in Hindoo Mythology, is a name of the 

 god Vifhnu in one of his numerous defcents, or avataras, as 

 they are called. Some account of thefe avataras is given 

 under our article Vishnu. This, now under confideration, 

 was one of inferior importance ; and not, it is faid, of very 

 ancient occurrence, and therefore not defcribed in the 

 Puranas, unlefs it be in the one fuppofed to be more modern 

 than the reft, which is entitled Maha Bhagavat. (See 

 PuRANA, and Sri Bhagavata. ) A fplendid temple is 

 dedicated to the worthip of Wittoba, or Vifhnu, at Pander- 

 poor, a town of great refpeftability on the river Beemah, 

 about 100 miles to the fouth-callward of Poona. The 

 manifeftation is faid to have taken place there. He is there 

 reprefented fculptured in ftone, of the fize of a man, ftand- 

 ing with his feet parallel to each other ; his hands upon his 

 hips, the fingers pointing forward, his thumbs backward. 

 Two of the wives of Vifhnu in his avatara of Krifhna ac- 

 companied him in this ; thefe were Rukmeni and Satyavama, 

 and they have fmaller temples at Panderpoor, befides their 

 lord's. (See Krishna, Rukmeni, and Satyavama.) 

 Images of Wittoba are common in the Mahratta country, 

 generally of clumfy manufafture. Several reprefentations 

 of Wittoba and his wives are given in the Hindoo Pantheon, 

 from cafts and piftures. That work contains alfo a hift.ory 

 of the avatara, and many particulars refpefting it. 



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

 county of Verden ; 10 miles S.S.E. of Rotenburg. 



WITTOW, a town on a peninfula at the northern ex- 

 tremity of the ifland of Ufedom, near Artona, an ancient 

 fortrefs deftroyed by the Swedes. N. lat. 54° 44'. E. 

 long. 13° 27'. 



WITTSTOCK, a town of Brandenburg, in the Mark 

 of Pregnitz ; 47 miles N.N.W. of Berlin. N. lat. 53° 10*. 



E. long. 12° 39' Alfo, a town of Brandenburg, in the 



New Mark; 12 miles N. of Cuflrin. N. lat. 52° 49'. 



E. long. 14° jo'. 



4C 



WITWALL, 



