502 CHI 
CHIREZOUR', a town of Afiatic Turkey, in the pro¬ 
vince of Kurdiftan : fixty miles ealt of Moful, and one 
hundred fouth of Betlis. 
CHIRIQUI', or Chi ri quit a, a town of Mexico, in the 
province of Veragua, on the coalt of the Pacific Ocean, 
with a harbour, about a league from the fea, and eight 
miles from the town : thirty leagues weft of St. Jago. 
Lat. 1 1 .20. N. Ion. 65. 50. W. Ferro. 
CHIRiVICO'LA, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of' 
Naples, and province of Capitanata: nine miles fouth- 
weft of Vielta. 
CHI'ROGRAPH,yi [ cbirographum , or fcriptum chirogra- 
fhatum.'] Any public inftrument or gift of conveyance, 
attefted by the fublcription and erodes of witneffes, was 
in the time of the Saxons called cbirographum ; which 
being fomewhat changed in fofm and manner by the 
Normans, was by them (tiled charta: in following times, 
to prevent frauds and concealments, they made their 
deeds of mutual covenant in a feript and refeript , or in a 
part and counter-part, and in the middle, between the 
two copies, they drew the capital letters of the alphabet, 
and then tallied or cut afunder in an indented manner, 
the flieet or fkin of parchment; which being delivered to 
the two parties concerned, were proved authentic by 
matching with, and anfwering to, one another : and when 
this prudent cuftom had for fome time prevailed, then 
the word cbirographum was appropriated to lucli bipartite 
writings or indentures. Anciently when they made a 
chirograph or deed, which required a counter-part, they 
ingrafted it twice upon one piece of parchment contrari- 
wile, leaving a fpfree between, in which they wrote in 
great letters the word and then cut 
the parchment in two, fometimes even and fometimes 
with indenture, through the midft of the word : this was 
afterwards called di-videnda, becaufe the parchment was 
fo divided or cut; and it is faid the firft ufe of thefe chi¬ 
rographs was in Henry the Third’s time. 
Chirograph was of old u fed for a fine ; the manner of in- 
grofiing whereof, and cutting the parchment in two 
pieces, is ftill obferved in the Chirographer’s office : but 
as to deeds, that was formerly called a Chirograph , which 
was fubferibed by the proper hand-writing of the vendor 
or debtor, and delivered to the vendee or creditor: and it 
differed from fyngraphus , which was in this manner, viz. 
Both parties, as well the creditor as debtor, wrote their 
names and the fum of money borrowed, on paper, &c. 
and the word &£Ji 2 (S 3 ilE 113 SpiIII 5 in capital letters in the 
middle thereof, which letters were cut in the middle, 
and one part given to each party, that upon comparing 
them (if any difpute fhould arife) they might put an end 
to the difference. 
CHIRO'GRAPHER, f. [%£i£, the hand, and ygatpa, to 
write.] He that exercifes or profelfes the art or bufmefs 
of writing.—Thus pafteth it from this office to the chiro- 
grapher's , to be engrafted. Bacon. 
CHIRO'GRAPHER OF FINES, [ chirographus finium 
& concordiarum ; of the Greek ^s^oy^aepot, a compound 
of %el§, manus, the hand, and y^atpu, jferibo, I write ; a 
writing of a man’s hand.] In law, that officer in the com¬ 
mon pleas who ingroffeth fines, acknowledged in that 
court into a perpetual record, after they are examined 
and paffed in the other offices, and that writes and deli¬ 
vers the indentures of them to the party: and this officer 
makes out two indentures, one for the buyer, another for 
the feller ; and alfo makes one other indented piece, con¬ 
taining the effedl of the fine, which he delivers to the 
cufios brevium, which is called the foot of the fine. The 
chirographer likewife, or his deputy, proclaims all the 
fines in the court every term, according to the llatute, 
and endorles the proclamations upon the backfide of the 
foot thereof; and always keeps the writ of covenant, and 
note of the fine. The chirographer lhall take but 4s. fee 
for a fine, on pain to forfeit his office, &c. Statutes 
2 Hen.IV. c. 8, 23EUZ. c. 3. zlnfi. 468. 
CHI 
CHIRO GR APHIST, f. This word is ufed in the fol¬ 
lowing pallage, Johnfon fays, improperly, for one that 
tells fortunes by examining the hand •. the true word is 
chirofopbifi or chiromancer. —Let the phyfiogno.mifts exa¬ 
mine his features ; let the chirographifis behold his palm; 
but, above all, let us coniult for the calculation of his 
■nativity. Arhuthnot. 
CHIRO'GRAPHY, / The art of writing. 
CHI'ROMANCER, f One that foretels future events 
by infpefting the hand : 
The middle fort, who have not much to fpare. 
To chiromancers’' cheaper art repair. 
Who clap the pretty palm, to make the lines more fair. 
Drydcn. 
CHI'ROMANCY, f [from the hand, and 
a prophet.] The art of foretelling the events of life, by 
infpedting the hand. See the article Divination. 
CHI'RDN, a famed perfonage in antiquity, ityled by 
Plutarch the nuife Centaur. Sir Ifaac Newton places his 
birth in the firft age after Deucalion’s deluge, commonly 
called the golden age ; and adds, that he formed the con- 
ftellations for the ufe of the Argonauts, when he was 
eighty-eight years old; for he was a practical aftronomer, 
as well as his daughter Hippo: he may, therefore, be faid 
to have flourilhed in the earlieft ages of Greece, as he pre¬ 
ceded the conquell of the Golden Fleece, and the Trojan 
war. He is generally laid to have been born in Theflldy 
among the Centaurs, who were the firft Greeks that had 
acquired the art of breaking and riding horfes ; whence 
the poets, painters, and lculptors, have reprefented 
them as a compound of man and horle; and perhaps 
it was at firft imagined by the Greeks, as well as the 
Americans, when they firft favv cavalry, that the horle 
and the rider conftituted the fame animal. Chiron was 
reprefented by the ancients as one of the firft inventors 
of medicine, botany, and chirurgery, a word which fome 
etymologilts have derived from his name. He inhabited 
a grotto or cave in the foot of mount Pelion, which, from 
his wifdom and great knowledge, became the moft famous 
fichool throughout Greece. Almoft all the heroes of his 
time were fond of receiving his inftruftions; and Xeno¬ 
phon, who enumerates them, names the following illufi- 
trious perionages among his dil’ciples : Cephalus, FElcu- 
lapius, Melanion, Neftor, Amphiaraus, Peleus, Tela¬ 
mon, Meleager, Thefeus, Hippolitus, Palamedes, Ulyfles, 
Mneftheus, Diomedes, Caftor and Pollux, Machaon and 
Podalirius, Antilochus, JEneas, and Achilles. From this, 
catalogue it appears, that Chiron frequently inftrucled 
both fathers and fons; and Xenophon has given a fhort 
eulogium on each. In the heathen mythology, Chiron 
is reprefented as half a man and half a horfe, fon of Phi- 
lyra and Saturn, who had changed himfelf into a horfe, 
to efcape the enquiries of his wife Rhea. He was wounded 
in the knee by a poifoned arrow (hot by Hercules, in his 
purfuit of the Centaurs. Hercules flew to his affiftance; 
but as the wound was incurable, and the caule of the 
moft excruciating pains, Chiron begged Jupiter to de¬ 
prive him of immortality. His prayers were heard, and 
he was placed by the god among the conftellations, under 
the name of Sagittarius, tiefiod. Mr.' Biyant reprelents 
Chiron as a tower or temple perfonified by that name. 
He lays, “ this temple flood at Nephele in Tnefi'aly, and 
was inhabited by a let of priefts, called Centawri. They 
were lo denominated from the deity they worlhipped, who 
was reprefented under a particular form. They liiled him 
Cahen-iaur ; he was the lame as the Minotaur of Crete, 
and the Tauromen of Sicilia. Chiron is a compound of 
Chir-on, in purport the fame as Kir-on , the tower and 
t mple of the lun. In places of this fort people ufed to 
ftudy the heavenly motions ; and they were made ufe of lor 
. emiuaries, where young people were inftrudted, on which 
account they were liiled 'sscc^olgotpoj. Hence Achilles and 
others were l’uppoied to have been taught by Chiron: but 
