The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 276

KRuDENER, MADAME DE, novelist, born at Riga; auth.o.r.ess of an autobiographical novel ent.i.tled "Valerie"; lived partly at St. Petersburg and partly at Paris; was a mystic religious enthusiast and political prophetess (1764-1824).

KRuGER, S. J. PAUL, President of the Transvaal Republic, born at Rastenburg; became member of the Executive Council in 1872; in 1882 was chosen President, and has been three times elected to the same office since; a man of st.u.r.dy, stubborn principles, a champion of the rights of the Boers, and a cunning diplomatist; _b_. 1825.

KRUMMACHER, FREDERICK, German theologian, author of "Elijah the Tisbite," a popular work; was an opponent of the Rationalists (1796-1868).

KRUPP, ALFRED, metal and steel founder, born at Essen, where through his father he became the proprietor of a small foundry which grew in his hands into such dimensions as to surpa.s.s every other establishment of the kind in the world; the BESSEMER (q. v.) process was early introduced here in the manufacture of steel, which Krupp was the first to employ in the manufacture of guns; the works cover an immense area, and employ 20,000 people, and supply artillery to every Government of Europe (1810-1887).

KUBERA or KUVERA, the Hindu Plutus, or G.o.d of riches, represented as deformed and mounted on a car drawn by hobgoblins.

KUBLAI KHAN was a great Mongol emperor of the 13th century; built up an empire which included all the continent of Asia (except India, Arabia, and Asia Minor) and Russia, the most extensive that ever existed; he was an enlightened prince, adopted Chinese civilisation, promoted learning, and established Buddhism throughout his domains.

KUENEN, ABRAHAM, a Dutch Biblical critic, born at Haarlem; studied at Leyden, and became professor there; distinguished for his researches on the lines of the so-called higher criticism bearing upon the literary history of the books of the Old Testament, beginning with that of the Pentateuch (1828-1891).

KUEN-LUN, N. of Thibet, a great snow-clad mountain range, 18,000 to 25,000 ft. high; stretches for 700 m., with a breadth of 100 m. It was explored by General Prjevalski, a Russian, 1876-88.

KULM, a Bohemian village on the left bank of the Elbe, 50 m. NW. of Prague, where the French under Vandamme surrendered to the Russians and Prussians in 1813.

KUNERSDORF, a village near Frankfort-on-Oder, where Frederick the Great was defeated by Russians and Austrians in 1759.

KURDISTAN (2,250), a stretch of plateau and mountain land in Turkish, Persian, and Russian Trans-Caucasian territory, consisting of gra.s.sy plains and lofty ranges through which rivers like the Zabs, Batman-su, and Euphrates force their way; is inhabited by a partly nomad, partly agricultural people of ancient stock, who export wool, gum, and hides; the Kurds retain their old customs and organisation, are subject to their own chiefs, impatient of the rule of the Porte and the Shah; predatory by instinct, but brave and chivalrous; they are Moslems and Nestorians.

KURILE ISLANDS, a chain of 26 islands, being a continuation of the peninsula of Kamchatka, enclosing the sea of Okhotsk; very spa.r.s.ely inhabited.

KURRACHEE (105), the chief port of the Punjab; situated on the delta of the Indus, with an extensive harbour and trade.

KURTZ, HEINRICH, German theologian, professor at Dorpat; author, among other works, of a "Handbook of Church History"; _b_. 1809.

KURUMAN, in Bechua.n.a.land, 140 m. NW. of Kimberley; is the place where Livingstone and Moffat laboured.

KYD, THOMAS, Elizabethan dramatist, born in London, and trained a scrivener, but won fame as a writer of tragedies, of which the best was "The Spanish Tragedy" (1557-1595).

KYOTO (298), from 784 to 1868 the capital of j.a.pan, on the Kamo River, inland, 190 m. W. of Yedo; is still the centre of j.a.panese Buddhism, and is noted for its pottery, bronze-work, c.r.a.pes, and velvets.

KYRIE ELEISON, means "Lord have mercy upon us," and with CHRISTE ELEISON, "Christ have mercy upon us," occurs in all Greek liturgies, in the Roman Ma.s.s, and in the English Prayer Book, where it forms the "lesser litany."

KYRLE, JOHN, philanthropist, born in Gloucesters.h.i.+re; celebrated by Pope as the "Man of Ross," from the name of the place in Herefords.h.i.+re where he lived; was distinguished for his benefactions; has given name to a society founded, among other things, for the betterment of the homes of the people (1637-1724).

L

LAB'ARUM, the standard, surmounted by the monogram of Christ, which was borne before the Emperor Constantine after his conversion to Christianity, and in symbol of the vision of the cross in the sky which led to it. It was a lance with a cross-bar at its extremity and a crown on top, and the monogram consisted of the Greek letter for Ch and R.

LABe, LOUISE, poetess, surnamed "La belle Cordiere" as the wife of a rope-maker, born in Lyons; wrote in prose "Dialogue d'Amour et de Folie,"

and elegies and sonnets, with "a singular approach to the ring of Shakespeare's" (1526-1566).

LAb.i.+.c.hE, EUGENE, a French dramatist, born at Paris; his dramas give evidence of a genius of inexhaustible fertility of invention, wit, and humour; his best-known play "Le Voyage de M. Perrichon," 1860 (1815-1888).

LABLACHE, a celebrated operatic deep ba.s.s singer, born in Naples, of French origin; he created quite a _furore_ wherever he went; was teacher of singing to Queen Victoria (1794-1858).

LABOULAYE, RENe DE, a French jurist, born in Paris; was a Moderate in politics; wrote on French law, and was the author of some tales of a humorous turn, such as "Paris in America" (1811-1883).

LABOURDONNAIS, MARe DE, French naval officer, born at St. Malo, Governor of the Isle of France; distinguished himself against the English in India; was accused of dishonourable conduct, and committed to the Bastille, but after a time found guiltless and liberated (1699-1753).

LABRADOR (6), the great peninsula in the E. of Canada, washed by Hudson's Bay, the Greenland Sea, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence; is a high tableland, with many lakes and rivers, and forests of birch and fir. The climate is much too severe for agriculture. Summer is very short, and plagued with mosquitoes. The rivers abound in salmon; the fox, marten, otter, and other animals are trapped for their fur; iron and labradorite are plentiful. The population is largely Eskimo, christianised by the Moravians. The name Labrador specially belongs to the region along the eastern coast, between Capes St. Louis and Chudleigh, presenting a barren front to the sea, precipitous, much indented, and fringed with rocky islands. This region is governed by Newfoundland; its chief industry is cod and herring fis.h.i.+ng.

LA BRUYeRE, JEAN DE, a celebrated French moralist, born at Paris; was tutor to the Duke of Bourbon, the grandson of the great Conde, and spent a great part of his life in Paris in connection with the Conde family; his most celebrated work is "Les Caracteres de Theophrastus"

(1687), which abounds in wise maxims and reflections on life, but gave offence to contemporaries by the personal satires in it under disguised names; he ranks high as a writer no less than as a moralist; his style is "a model of ease, grace, and fluency, without weakness in his characters; a book," adds Professor Saintsbury, "most interesting to read, and especially to Englishmen" (1645-1696).

LABUAN (6), a small island, distant 6 m. from the W. coast of North Borneo, ceded to Britain in 1846, and administered by the British North Borneo Company; has rich coal-beds; its town, Victoria, is a market for Borneo and the Sulu Archipelago, and exports sago, camphor, and pearls; the population is chiefly Malay and Chinese.

LABYRINTH, a name given to sundry structures composed of winding pa.s.sages so intricate as to render it difficult to find the way out, and sometimes in. Of these structures the most remarkable were those of Egypt and of Crete. The Egyptian to the E. of Lake Moeris, consisted of an endless number of dark chambers, connected by a maze of pa.s.sages into which it was difficult to find entrance; and the Cretan, built by Daedalus, at the instance of Minos, to imprison the Minotaur, out of which one who entered could not find his way out again unless by means of a skein of thread. It was by means of this, provided him by ARIADNE, PERSEUS (q. v.) found his way out after slaying the MINOTAUR (q. v.).

LAC, a term employed in India for a hundred thousand, a crore amounting to 100 lacs, usually of money.

LACCADIVES, THE, or THE HUNDRED THOUSAND ISLES (14), a group of low-lying coral islands 200 m. W. of the Malabar coast of India, mostly barren, and yielding chiefly cocoa-nuts; the population being Hindus professing Mohammedanism and poorly off.