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1. Rhaphis trivialis.—A very common grass in China and 
Cochinchina, growing by road sides, and proving very 
troublesome on account of its seeds, which stick into the 
clothes of passengers, and cannot be shaken out. Rumphius 
speaks of it as equally common in the islands of the East 
Indies. The root is annual, creeping. Stem a foot high, 
erect, round, slender, smooth, scarcely branched, almost 
leafless, except at the base. Leaves nearly all radical, ses¬ 
sile, short, lanceolate, clasping the lower part of the stem. 
Panicle simple, solitary, terminal, conical, lax; its branches 
long, straight, ascending. Brown refers this to the genus 
■H olcus. 
, RHAPIS, [from Pam;, Gr. the same as jja£§o?, a staff or 
rod.] In botany, a genus of the class polygamia, order 
dioecia, natural order palmae. Generic Character.—Her¬ 
maphrodite flowers.—Calyx: perianth one-leaved, trifid. 
Corolla: one-petalled, trifid. Stamina: filaments six. Male 
flowers.—Calyx, corolla, stamina, as in the hermaphrodites. 
■Essential Character. —Calyx trifid: corolla one: stamina 
six: pistil one. 
1. Rhapis flabelliformis,creeping-rooted rhapis, or ground- 
ratan.—Stem arboreous, lofty. Leaves pale and smooth un¬ 
derneath : lobes cohering at the base, linear, cloven at the 
end, having rugged veins, placed on three-cornered entire 
petioles, the length of the leaves. Flowers in a decompound, 
spreading panicle, on the outmost pedicels sessile. Besoms 
are made of the thin netted bark of the trunk.—Native of 
China and Japan. It flowers in August. 
2. Rhapis arundinacea, or simple-leaved rhapis.—Fronds 
two-parted, lobes acute plaited, plaits somewhat rugged.— 
Native of Carolina. It flowers in September. 
RIIAPPHA, a town of India, on the other side of the 
Ganges, among the people called Gangani. 
. RHAPSA, a town of Asia, in the interior of Media. 
RHAPSODI. [Pai//a)8oi, Gr.] Persons who made a business 
of singing or reciting pieces of Homer’s poems. 
Cuper informs us, that the rhapsodi were clothed in red, 
when they sung the Iliad ; and in blue, when they sung the 
Odyssey. 
. They performed on the theatres; and sometimes strove for 
prizes, in contests of. poetry, singing, &c. 
After the two antagonists had finished their parts, the 
two pieces, or papers they were written in, were joined to¬ 
gether again; whence the name, viz. from gcntTu, suo, I 
join together, and w8oj, ode, song. 
But there seem to have been other rhapsodi of higher an¬ 
tiquity than these ; people who composed heroic poems, or 
songs in praise of heroes and great men, and sung their own 
compositions from town to town, for a livelihood; of which 
profession, it is said, was Homer himself. 
Hence, some critics, instead of the former origin, derive 
the word rhapsodist from oa€dco ccdeiv, to sing with a laurel- 
rod in the hand, which, it seems, was the badge of the pri¬ 
mitive rhapsodi. 
Philochorus, again, derives the word from pair reiv 
a,;, q. d. trvvrlOevcu, to compose songs or poems ; as if 
they were the authors of the poems they sung. This opinion, 
to which Scaliger inclines, reduces these rhapsodi to the 
second kind. 
In effect, it is probable, that they were all of the same 
class, whatever distinction some authors may imagine among 
them; and that their business was to sing or rehearse poems, 
either of their own, or other people’s composition, as might 
best serve their purpose, which was gaining a pecuniary ad¬ 
vantage by them. So that we do not apprehend it any in¬ 
jury to them, to set them on the foot of our ballad-singers; 
some of whom may probably pen their own ditties. Alter 
Homer’s time, it is no wonder they confined themselves 
altogether to his pieces, for which the people had the ut¬ 
most veneration; nor is it surprising, that they should erect 
stages, &c. and dispute the point of recitation in fairs and 
markets. 
The import of the word rhapsodist underwent several 
changes in antiquity: it was first appropriated to bards, 
who sung their own verses from town to town, or at the 
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tables of the great; in this .sense Homer was called a rhap¬ 
sodist. It was next bestowed on those who sung the verses 
of Homer on the stage, usually for a prize, allotted to the 
best performer of them; and, lastly, to such singers of 
centos, as have been just described. A rhapsody, in mo¬ 
dern language, conveys no other meaning than that of an 
incoherent jumble of ideas. This sense of the word un¬ 
doubtedly took its rise from the notorious folly and absur¬ 
dity of the rhapsodists, in their rapturous comments upon 
their favourite poets; for they undertook to explain, as well 
as to recite. Hence it is that in Suidas, the word pa.\pu$tci 
is defined by <p\va.gia, nonsense. 
RHAPSO'DICAL, adj. Unconnected.—See Dr. Hejlin’s 
confutation of Fuller’s rhapsodical stories of the church of 
England. D can Martin. 
RHA'PSODIST, s. One who recites or sings rhapso¬ 
dies, or compositions, for a livelihood; one who makes 
and repeats extempore verses. See the first sense of 
Rhapsody. —Ossian and Homer, though both of the pro¬ 
fession of rhapsodists, are thought to be very unlike. Tyers. 
—One who writes without regular dependence of one part 
upon another.—Ask our rhapsodist, if you have nothing but 
the excellence and loveliness of virtue to preach, and no 
future rewards or punishments, how many vicious wretches 
will you ever reclaim. Watts. 
RHAPSODOMANCY, [oa.ipubopavTeia., Gr.~\ An ancient 
kind of divination, performed by fixing on a passage of a 
poet at hazard, and reckoning on it as a prediction of what 
was to come to pass. 
There were various methods of practising this rhapsodo- 
mancy. Sometimes they wrote several verses or sentences of 
a poet on so many pieces of wood, paper, or the like; shook 
them together in an urn; and drew out one, which was ac¬ 
counted the lot. Sometimes they cast dice on a table, on 
which verses were written ; and that on which the die lodged, 
contained the prediction. The third manner was by opening 
a hook, and pitching on some verse at first sight. This me¬ 
thod was called, according to the poet thus made use of, 
sortes Homericcc, sortes Virgiliance, &c. 
RHA'PSODY, s. [oai|/a8ia, aa.nla, Gr. to sew, or join 
together; and aty, a song.] A collection of songs, or verses; 
dispersed pieces joined together.—Homer wrote a sequel of 
songs and rhapsodies, to be sung by himself for small earn¬ 
ings, and good cheer, at festivals and other days of merri¬ 
ment; the Ilias he made for the men, and the Odysseisfor 
the other sex. These loose songs were not collected together 
in the Epic form till Pisistratus’s time, above 500 years after. 
Bentley .—Any number of parts joined together, without 
necessary dependence or natural connection. 
Such a deed, as sweet religion makes 
A rhapsody of words. Shakspeare. 
Hence among the moderns, rhapsody is also used for an 
assemblage of passages, thoughts, and authorities, raked 
.together from divers authors, to compose some new 
piece. Lipsius’s Politics make such a raphsody, in which 
there is nothing of the author’s own but conjunction and 
particles. 
RHAPTE, in ancient geography, the metropolis of the 
Ethiopians, near the river Raptus. Steph. Byz. 
RHATOSTATH1B1US, or, as Baxter thinks it was origi¬ 
nally written, ltetostaubius, a river of the isle of Albion, on 
the western side, the mouth of which is placed by Ptolemy 
between that of the Tobius and the estuary of Sabrina. 
This is the river Wye, and its ancient name is derived from 
“ Rot in Tany,” the course of a river. 
RHATTA, a town of Asia, in Babylonia, in the vicinity 
ofChiriphe. Ptolemy. 
RH AUCUS, a town of the island of Crete. Steph. Byz. 
RHAVENA, a prefecture of Asia, along the Euphrates. 
Ptolemy places in it six towns on the banks of the Euphrates, 
and four in the interior of the country. 
RIIAV1UM, a river of Hibernia, the mouth of which is 
placed by Ptolemy between the promontory “ Boreum” and 
the town “ Magnata." 
RIIAUNDAL 
