Chapter 12

On Num. xii. I seeJethro; and consult H. Winckler,Keil. u. das alte Test., 3rd ed., p. 144 sq., andIm Kampfe um den alten Orient, ii. pp. 36 seq., and the literature cited underMizraim.

(S. A. C.)

1For Seba, seeSabaeans, and cf. generally the commentaries on Gen. x. 7. In Hab. iii. 7 Cushan (obviously a related form) is parallel to Midian.

CUSHING, CALEB(1800-1879), American political leader and lawyer, was born in Salisbury, Massachusetts, on the 17th of January 1800. He graduated at Harvard in 1817, was tutor in mathematics there in 1820-1821, was admitted to practice in the court of common pleas in December 1821, and began the practice of law in Newburyport, Mass., in 1824. After serving, as a Democratic-Republican, in the state house of representatives in 1825, in the state senate in 1826, and in the house again in 1828, he spent two years, from 1829 to 1831, in Europe, again served in the state house of representatives in 1833 and 1834, and in the latter year was elected by the Whigs a representative in Congress. He served in this body from 1835 until 1843, and here the marked inconsistency which characterized his public life became manifest; for when John Tyler had become president, had been “read out” of the Whig party, and had vetoed Whig measures (including a tariff bill), for which Cushing had voted, Cushing first defended the vetoes and then voted again for the bills. In 1843 President Tyler nominated him for secretary of the treasury, but the senate refused to confirm him for this office. He was, however, appointed later in the same year commissioner of the United States to China, holding this position until 1845, and in 1844 negotiating the first treaty between China and the United States. In 1847, while again a representative in the state legislature, he introduced a bill appropriating money for the equipment of a regiment to serve in the Mexican War; although the bill was defeated, he raised the necessary funds privately, and served in Mexico first as colonel and afterwards as brigadier-general of volunteers. In 1847 and again in 1848 the Democrats nominated him for governor of Massachusetts, but on each occasion he was defeated at the polls. He was again a representative in the state legislature in 1851, became an associate justice of the supreme court of Massachusetts in 1852, and during the administration (1853-1857) of President Pierce, was attorney-general of the United States. In 1858, 1859, 1862 and 1863 he again served in the state house of representatives. In 1860 he presided over the National Democratic Convention which met first at Charleston and later at Baltimore, until he joined those who seceded from the regular convention; he then presided also over the convention of the seceding delegates, who nominated John C. Breckinridge for the presidency. During the Civil War, however, he supported the National Administration. At the Geneva conference for the settlement of the “Alabama” claims in 1871-1872 he was one of the counsel for the United States.In 1873 President Grant nominated him for chief justice of the United States, but in spite of his great learning and eminence at the bar, his ante-war record and the feeling of distrust experienced by many members of the senate on account of his inconsistency, aroused such vigorous opposition that his nomination was soon withdrawn. From 1874 to 1877 Cushing was United States minister to Spain. He died at Newburyport, Mass., on the 2nd of January 1879. He publishedHistory and Present State of the Town of Newburyport, Mass.(1826);Review of the late Revolution in France(1833);Reminiscences of Spain(1833);Oration on the Growth and Territorial Progress of the United States(1839);Life and Public Services of William H. Harrison(1840); andThe Treaty of Washington(1873).

CUSHING, WILLIAM BARKER(1842-1874), American naval officer, was born in Delafield, Wisconsin, on the 4th of November 1842. He entered the Naval Academy from New York in 1857, but resigned in March 1861. When, however, the Civil War began, he volunteered into the navy, was rated acting master’s mate, and became a midshipman in October 1861, and a lieutenant in July 1862, serving in the North Atlantic blockading squadron. The work of blockade, and of harassing the Confederates on the coast and the rivers of the Atlantic seaboard, called for much service in boats, and entailed a great deal of exposure. Cushing was distinguished by his readiness to volunteer, his indefatigability, and by his good fortune, the reward of vigilance and intelligence. The feat by which he will be remembered was the destruction of the Confederate ironclad “Albemarle” in the Roanoke river on the 27th of October in 1864. The vessel had done much damage to the Federal naval forces, and her destruction was greatly desired. She was at anchor surrounded by baulks of timber, and a cordon of boats had been stationed to row guard against an expected Federal attack. Lieutenant Cushing undertook the attack on her with a steam launch carrying a spar-torpedo and towing an armed cutter. He eluded the Confederate lookout and reached the “Albemarle” unseen. When close to he was detected, but he had time to drive the steam launch over the baulks and to explode the torpedo against the “Albemarle” with such success that a hole was made in her and she sank. Cushing’s own launch was destroyed. He and the few men with him were compelled to take to the water; one was killed, another was drowned, Cushing and one other escaped, and the rest were captured. Cushing himself swam to the swamps on the river bank, and after wading among them for hours reached a Federal picket boat. For destroying the “Albemarle” he was thanked by Congress and was promoted to be lieutenant-commander. On the 15th of January 1865 he took a conspicuous part in the land attack on the sea-front wall of Fort Fisher. After the war he commanded the “Lancaster” (1866-1867) and the “Maumee” (1868-1869) in the Asiatic Squadron. In 1872 he was promoted commander at what was an exceptionally early age, but he died on the 17th of December 1874 of brain fever. He had suffered extreme pain for years before his death, and in fact broke down altogether under disease contracted in the discharge of his duty.

CUSHION(from O. Fr.coisson,coussin; according to theNew English Dict., from Lat.coxa, a hip; others say from Lat.culcita, a quilt), a soft bag of some ornamental material, stuffed with wool, hair, feathers, or even paper torn into fragments. It may be used for sitting or kneeling upon, or to soften the hardness or angularity of a chair or couch. It is a very ancient article of furniture, the inventories of the contents of palaces and great houses in the early middle ages constantly making mention of it. It was then often of great size, covered with leather, and firm enough to serve as a seat, but the steady tendency of all furniture has been to grow smaller. It was, indeed, used as a seat, at all events in France and Spain, at a very much later period, and in Saint-Simon’s time we find that at the Spanish court it was still regarded as a peculiarly honourable substitute for a chair. In France the right to kneel upon a cushion in church behind the king was jealously guarded and strictly regulated, as we may learn again from Saint-Simon. This type of cushion was called acarreauor square. When seats were rude and hard the cushion may have been a necessity; it is now one of the minor luxuries of life.

The term “cushion” is given in architecture to the sides of the Ionic capital. It is also applied to an early and simple form of the Romanesque capitals of Germany and England, which consist of cubical masses, square at the top and rounded off at the four corners, so as to reduce the lower diameter to a circle of the same size as the shaft.

CUSHMAN, CHARLOTTE SAUNDERS(1816-1876), American actress, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 23rd of July 1816. Her father, a West India merchant, left his family in straitened circumstances, and Charlotte, who had a fine contralto voice, went on the operatic stage. In 1835 she successfully appeared at the Tremont theatre as the countess Almaviva inThe Marriage of Figaro. But her singing voice failing her she entered the drama, and played Lady Macbeth in the same year. She then engaged herself as a stock actress, but was soon given leading parts. In 1842 she managed and played in the Walnut Street theatre in Philadelphia. She accompanied Macready on an American tour, winning a great reputation in tragedy, and in 1845 and in 1854-1855 she fulfilled successful engagements in London. She was a keen student, and acquired a large range of classic rôles. Her best parts were perhaps Lady Macbeth and Queen Katherine, her most popular Meg Merrilies, in a dramatization of Scott’sGuy Mannering. Her figure was commanding and her face expressive, and she was animated by a temperament full of vigour and fire. These qualities enabled her to play with success such male parts as Romeo and Cardinal Wolsey. During her later years Miss Cushman worked hard as a dramatic reader, in which capacity she was much appreciated. Her last appearance on the stage took place on the 15th of May 1875, at the Globe theatre, Boston, in which city she died on the 18th of February 1876.

See Emma Stebbins’sCharlotte Cushman, her Letters and Memories of her Life(Boston, 1878); H. A. Clapp’sReminiscences of a Dramatic Critic(Boston, 1902); and W. T. Price,A Life of Charlotte Cushman(New York, 1894).

CUSP(Lat.cuspis, a spear, point), a projecting point, or pointed end. In architecture (Fr.feuille, Ital.cuspide, Ger.Knöpfe), a cusp is the point where the foliations of tracery intersect. The earliest example of a plain cusp is probably that at Pythagoras school, at Cambridge,—of an ornamented cusp at Ely cathedral, where a small roll, with a rosette at the end, is formed at the termination of a cusp. In the later styles the terminations of the cusps were more richly decorated; they also sometimes terminate not only in leaves or foliages, but in rosettes, heads and other fanciful ornaments. The term “feathering” is used of the junction of the foliated cusps in window tracery, but is usually restricted to those cases where it is ornamented with foliage, &c.

CUSTARD1APPLE,a name applied to the fruit of various species of the genusAnona, natural orderAnonaceae. The members of this genus are shrubs or small trees having alternate, exstipulate leaves, and flowers with three small sepals, six petals arranged in a double row and numerous stamens. The fruit ofA. reticulata, the common custard apple, or “bullock’s heart” of the West Indies, is dark brown in colour, and marked with depressions, which give it a quilted appearance; its pulp is reddish-yellow, sweetish and very soft (whence the name); the kernels of the seeds are said to be poisonous. The sour-sop is the fruit ofA. muricata, native of the West Indies. The plant, which is a small tree, has become naturalized in some parts of India where it is extensively cultivated, as elsewhere in the tropics. It is covered with soft prickles, is of a light-greenish hue, and has a peculiar but agreeable sour taste, and a scent resembling that of black currants. The sweet-sop is produced byA. squamosa, also a native of the West Indies and widely cultivatedin the tropics. It is known as the custard apple by Europeans in India. It is an egg-shaped fruit, with a thick rind and luscious pulp. An acrid principle, fatal to insects, is contained in its seeds, leaves and unripe fruits, which, powdered and mixed with the flour of gram (Cicer arietinum), are used to destroy vermin.A. Cherimoliayield the Peruvian cherimoyer, which is held to be a fruit of very superior flavour, and is much esteemed by the creoles.A. palustris, alligator apple, or cork-wood, a native of South America and the West Indies, is valued for its wood, which serves the same purposes as cork; the fruit, commonly known as the alligator-apple, is not eaten, being reputed to contain a dangerous narcotic principle.

1The term “custard,” now given to a dish made with eggs beaten up with milk, &c., and either served in liquid form or baked to a stiff consistency, originally denoted a kind of open pie. It represents the older form “crustade,” Fr.croustade, Ital.crostata, fromcrostare, to encrust.

CUSTER, GEORGE ARMSTRONG(1839-1876), American cavalry soldier, was born in New Rumley, Harrison county, Ohio, on the 5th of December 1839. He graduated from West Point in 1861, and was at once sent to the theatre of war in Virginia, joining his regiment on the battlefield of Bull Run. Afterwards he served on the staff of General Kearny, and on that of General W. F. Smith in the Peninsular Campaign. His daring and energy, and in particular a spirited reconnaissance on the Chickahominy river, brought him to the notice of General McClellan, who made him an aide-de-camp on his own staff, with the rank of captain. A few hours afterwards Custer attacked a Confederate picket post and drove back the enemy. He continued to serve with McClellan until the general was relieved of his command, when Custer returned to duty with his regiment as a lieutenant. Early in 1863 General Pleasonton selected him as his aide-de-camp, and in June 1863 Custer was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers. He distinguished himself at the head of the Michigan cavalry brigade in the battle of Gettysburg, and frequently did good service in the remaining operations of the campaign of 1863. When the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac was reorganized under Sheridan in 1864, Custer retained his command, and took part in the various actions of the cavalry in the Wilderness and Shenandoah campaigns. At the end of September 1864, he was appointed to command a division, and on the 9th of October fought, along with General Merritt, the brilliant cavalry action called the battle of Woodstock. Soon afterwards he was made brevet-major-general, U.S.V., having already won the brevets of major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel U.S.A., for his services at Gettysburg, Yellow Tavern and Winchester. His part in the decisive battle of Cedar Creek (q.v.) was most conspicuous. He served with Sheridan in the last great cavalry raid, won the action of Waynesboro, and in the final campaign added to his laurels by his conduct at Dinwiddie and Five Forks, and in other operations. At the close of the war he received the brevets of brigadier and major-general in the regular army, and was promoted major-general of volunteers. In 1866 Custer was made lieutenant-colonel of the 7th U.S. Cavalry, and took part under General Hancock in the expedition against the Cheyenne Indians, upon whom he inflicted a crushing defeat at Washita river on the 27th of November 1868. In 1873 he was sent to Dakota Territory to serve against the Sioux.

In 1876 an expedition, of which Custer and his regiment formed part, was made against the Sioux and their allies. As the advanced guard of the troops under General Terry, Custer’s force arrived at the junction of Big Horn and Little Big Horn rivers, in what is now the state of Montana, on the night of June 24; the main body was due to join him on the 26th. Unfortunately, the presence of what was judged to be a small isolated force of Indians was reported to the general. On the 25th, dividing his regiment into three parties, he moved forward to surround this force. But instead of meeting only a small force of Indians, the 7th were promptly attacked by the full forces of the enemy. The flanking columns maintained themselves with difficulty until Terry came up. Custer and 264 men of the centre column rode into the midst of the enemy and were slaughtered to a man.

The general’s wife,Elizabeth Bacon Custer, who accompanied him in many of his frontier expeditions, wroteBoots and Saddles, Life with General Custer in Dakota(1885),Tenting on the Plains(1887) andFollowing the Guidon(1891). General Custer himself wroteMy Life on the Plains(1874).

See F. Whittaker,Life of General George A. Custer(1876).

His brotherThomas Ward Custer(1845-1876), in spite of his youth, fought in the early campaigns of the Civil War. Becoming aide-de-camp to General Custer, he accompanied him throughout the latter part of the war, distinguishing himself by his daring on all occasions, and winning successively the brevets of captain, major and lieutenant-colonel, though he was barely twenty years of age when the war ended. He was first lieutenant in the 7th cavalry when he fell with his brother at the Little Big Horn.

CUSTINE, ADAM PHILIPPE,Comte de(1740-1793), French general, began his military career in the Seven Years’ War. He next served with distinction against the English in the War of American Independence. In 1789 he was elected to the states-general by thebailliageof Metz. In October 1791 he again joined the army, with the rank of lieutenant-general and became popular with the soldiers, amongst whom he was known as “général moustache.” General-in-chief of the army of the Vosges, he took Spires, Worms, Mainz and Frankfort in September and October 1792. He carried on the revolutionary propaganda by proclamations, and levied heavy taxes on the nobility and clergy. During the winter a Prussian army forced him to evacuate Frankfort, re-cross the Rhine and fall back upon Landau. He was accused of treason, defended by Robespierre, and sent back to the army of the north. But he dared not take the offensive, and did nothing to save Condé, which the Austrians were besieging. Sent to Paris to justify himself, he was found guilty by the Revolutionary Tribunal of having intrigued with the enemies of the republic, and guillotined on the 28th of August 1793. (SeeFrench Revolutionary Wars.)

See A. Rambaud,Les Français sur le Rhin(Paris, 1880); A. Chuquet,Les Guerres de la Révolution(1886-1895; vol. vi. “L’Expédition de Custine”).

CUSTOM(from O. Fr.custume,costumeorcoustume; Low Lat.costuma, a shortened form ofconsuetudo), in general, a habit or practice. Thus a tradesman calls those who deal with him his “customers,” and the trade resulting as their “custom.” The word is also used for a toll or tax levied upon goods; there was at one time a distinction between the tax on goods exported or imported, termedmagna custuma(the great custom), and that on goods taken to market within the realm, termedparva custuma(the little custom), but the word is now used in this sense only in the plural, to signify the duties levied upon imported goods. It is also used as a name for that department of the public service which is employed in levying the duty.

In law, such long-continued usage as has by common consent become a rule of conduct is termed custom. Jessel, M. R. (Hammertonv.Honey, 24 W. R. 603), has defined it as “local common law. It is common law because it is not statute law; it is local law because it is the law of a particular place, as distinguished from the general common law. Local common law is the law of the country (i.e.particular place) as it existed before the time of legal memory.” There has been much discussion among jurists as to whether custom can properly be reckoned a source of law (seeJurisprudence). As to the distinction between prescription (which is a personal claim) and custom, seePrescription. The adoption of local customs by the judiciary has undoubtedly been the origin of a great portion of the English common law. Blackstone divides custom into (1) general, which is the common law properly so called, and (2) particular, which affects only the inhabitants of particular districts. The requisites necessary to make a particular custom good are: (1) it must have been used so long that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary; (2) it must have been continued, and (3) enjoyed peaceably; (4) it must be reasonable, and (5) certain; (6) it must be compulsory, and not left to the option of every man whether he will use it or no; (7) it must be consistent with other customs, for one custom cannot be set up in opposition to another. Customs may be of various kinds, for example, customs of merchants, customs of a certain district(such as gavelkind and borough English), customs of a particular manor, &c. The word custom is also generally employed for theusageof a particular trade or market; for a trade custom to be established to the satisfaction of the law it must be a uniform and universal practice so well defined and recognized that contracting parties must be assumed to have had it in their minds when they contracted (Russell, C. J.,Fox-Bournev.Vernon, 10TimesRep. 649).

In the history of France the term “custom” was given to those special usages of different districts which had grown up into a body of local law, as the “custom of Paris,” the “custom of Normandy” (seeFrance:Law and Institutions).

CUSTOMARY FREEHOLD,in English law, a species of tenure which may be described as a variety of copyhold. It is also termed privileged copyhold or copyhold of frank tenure. It is a tenure by copy of court roll, but not expressed to be at the will of the lord. It is, in fact, only a superior kind of copyhold, and the freehold is in the lord. It is subject to the general law of copyholds, except where the law may be varied by the custom of the particular manor. (SeeCopyhold.)

CUSTOM-HOUSE,the house or office appointed by a government where the taxes or duties (if any) are collected upon the importation and exportation of commodities; where duties, bounties or drawbacks payable or receivable upon exportation or importation are paid or received, and where vessels are entered and cleared. In the United Kingdom there is usually a custom-house established at every port or harbour to which any considerable amount of shipping resorts, the officer in charge being called “collector of customs”; in the minor ports the officer is usually termed “superintendent of customs” or “principal coast officer.”

CUSTOM DUTIES,the name given to taxes on the import and export of commodities. They rank among the most ancient, as they continue to prevail as one of the most common modes, in all countries, of levying revenue for public purposes. In an insular country like the United Kingdom customs duties came in process of time to be levied only or chiefly in the seaports, and thus applied only to the foreign commerce, where they may be brought under the control of fair and reasonable principles of taxation. But this simplification of customs duties was only reached by degrees; and during a long period special customs were levied on goods passing between England and Scotland; and the trade of Ireland with Great Britain and with foreign countries was subjected to fiscal regulations which could not now stand in the light of public reason. The taxes levied, on warrant of some ancient grant or privilege, upon cattle or goods at a bridge or a ferry or other point of passage from one county or province to another, of which there are some lingering remains even in the United Kingdom, and those levied at the gates of cities on the produce of the immediate country—a not uncommon form of municipal taxation on the European continent—are all of the nature of customs dues. It is from the universality of this practice that the English term “customs” appears to have been derived.

SeeTaxation;Protection;Tariff.

CUSTOS ROTULORUM,the keeper of the English county records, and by virtue of that office the highest civil officer in the county. The appointment until 1545 lay with the lord chancellor, but is now exercised by the crown under the royal sign-manual, and is usually held by a person of rank, most frequently the lord-lieutenant of the county. He is one of the justices of the peace. In practice the records are in the custody of the clerk of the peace. This latter official was, until 1888, appointed by thecustos rotulorum, but since the passing of the Local Government Act of that year, the appointment is made by the standing joint-committee of the county council. Lambarde described thecustos rotulorumas a “man for the most part especially picked out either for wisdom, countenance or credit.”

CUSTOZZA,a village of Italy, in the province of Verona, 11 m. S.W. of Verona, famous as the scene of two battles between the Austrians and the Italians in the struggle for Italian unity. The first battle of Custozza was fought on the 23rd-25th of July 1848, the Austrians commanded by Field-Marshal Radetzky being victorious over the Piedmontese army under King Charles Albert. The second battle was fought on the 24th of June 1866, and resulted in the complete victory of the Austrians under the archduke Albert, over the Italian army of King Victor Emmanuel I. (SeeItalian Wars, 1848-1870.)

CÜSTRIN, orKüstrin, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, a fortress of the first rank, at the confluence of the Oder and Warthe, 18 m. N.E. from Frankfort-on-Oder and 51 m. N.E. of Berlin by rail. Pop. (1900) 16,473 (including the garrison). It consists of the town proper within the strong fortifications, a suburb on the left bank of the Oder, and one on the right bank of the Warthe. There are three Evangelical churches and one Roman Catholic, and a handsome town hall. There are bridges over both rivers. Cüstrin has some manufactories of potato-meal, machinery, pianos, furniture, cigars, &c., and there is a considerable river trade.

About 1250 a town was erected on the site of Cüstrin, where a fishing village originally stood. From 1535 till 1571 it was the residence of John, margrave of Brandenburg-Cüstrin, who died without male heirs in 1571. Cüstrin was the prison of Frederick the Great when crown-prince, and the scene of the execution of his friend Hans Hermann von Katte on the 6th of November 1730.

CUTCH,orKach, a native state of India within the Gujarat division of Bombay, with an area of 7616 sq. m. It is a peninsular tract of land, enclosed towards the W. by the eastern branch of the Indus, on the S. by the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Cutch, and on the N. and E. towards the interior, by the great northern Runn, a salt morass or lake. The interior of Cutch is studded with hills of considerable elevation, and a range of mountains runs through it from east to west, many of them of the most fantastic shapes, with large isolated masses of rock scattered in all directions. The general appearance of Cutch is barren and uninteresting. The greater part is a rock destitute of soil, and presenting the wildest aspect; the ground is cold, poor and sterile; and the whole face of the country bears marks of volcanic action. From the violence of tyranny, and the rapine of a disorderly banditti, by which this district long suffered, as well as from shocks of earthquakes, the villages have a ruinous and dilapidated appearance; and, with the exception of a few fields in their neighbourhood, the country presents a rocky and sandy waste, with in many places scarcely a show of vegetation. Water is scarce and brackish, and is chiefly found at the bottom of low ranges of hills, which abound in some parts; and the inhabitants of the extensive sandy tracts suffer greatly from the want of it. Owing to the uncertainty of the periodical rains in Cutch, the country is liable to severe famines, and it has suffered greatly from plague.

The temperature of Cutch during the hot season is high, the thermometer frequently rising to 100° or 105° F.; and in the months of April and May clouds of dust and sand, blown about by hurricanes, envelop the houses, the glass windows scarcely affording any protection. The influence of the monsoon is greatly moderated before it reaches this region, and the rains sometimes fail altogether. Bhuj, the capital of the state, is situated inland, and is surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills, some of which approach within 3 or 4 m. of the city. The hill of Bhuja, on which the fort is situated, rises to the height of 500 ft. in the middle of the plain, and is detached from other high ground. The residency is 4 m. distant in a westerly direction. There are many mountain streams, but no navigable rivers. They contain scarcely any water except in the rainy season, when they are very full and rapid, and discharge themselves into the Runn, all along the coast of which the wells and springs are more or less impregnated with common salt and other saline ingredients.

Various causes have contributed to thin the population of this country. In 1813 it was ravaged by a famine and pestilence, which destroyed a great proportion of its inhabitants,—according to some accounts, nearly one-half. This, joined to the tyranny and violence of the government until the year 1819, and subsequently to a succession of unfavourable seasons, forced manyof the cultivators to remove to Sind and other countries. The inhabitants numbered 488,022 in 1901, being a decrease of 13% during the decade, due to the famines of 1899-1900. One-third are Mahommedans and the remainder Hindus of various castes. The Jareja Rajputs form a particular class, being the aristocracy of the country; and all are more or less connected with the family of the rao or prince. There are in Cutch about 200 of these Jareja chiefs, who all claim their descent from a prince who reigned in Sind about 1000 years ago. From him also the reigning sovereign is lineally descended, and he is the liege lord of whom all the chiefs or nobles hold their lands in feu, for services which they or their ancestors had performed, or in virtue of their relationship to the family. They are all termed the brotherhood of the rao or Bhayad, and supposed to be his hereditary advisers, and their possessions are divided among their male children. To prevent the breaking down of their properties, the necessary consequence of this law of inheritance, there is no doubt that infanticide was common among them, and that it extended to the male as well as the female progeny, but it has been put down by the Infanticide Rules, which provide for the registration of Jareja children. The Jarejas have a tradition that when they entered Cutch they were Mahommedans, but that they afterward adopted the customs and religion of the Hindus. It is certain, indeed, that they still retain many Mahommedan customs. They take oaths equally on the Koran or on the Shastras; they employ Mussulman books; they eat from their hands; the rao, when he appears in public, alternately worships God in a Hindu pagoda and a Mahommedan mosque; and he fits out annually at Mandvi a ship for the conveyance of pilgrims to Mecca, who are maintained during the voyage chiefly by the liberality of the prince. The Mahommedans in Cutch are of the same degenerate class as those usually found in the western parts of India. The natives are in general of a stronger and stouter make, and even handsomer, than those of western India; and the women of the higher classes are also handsome. The peasants are described as intelligent, and the artizans are justly celebrated for their ingenuity and mechanical skill. The palace at Mandvi, and a tomb of one of their princes at Bhuj, are fair specimens of their architectural skill. The estimated gross revenue is £126,322. There are special manufactures of silver filigree-work and embroidery. The maritime population supplies the best sailors in India. There are cotton presses and ginning factories.

The country of Cutch was invaded about the 13th century by a body of Mahommedans of the Summa tribe, who under the guidance of five brothers emigrated from Sind, and who gradually subdued or expelled the original inhabitants, consisting of three distinct races. Cutch continued tranquil under their sway for many years, until some family quarrel arose, in which the chief of an elder branch of the tribe was murdered by a rival brother. His son Khengayi fled to Ahmedabad to seek the assistance of the viceroy, who reinstated him in the sovereignty of Cutch, and Morvi in Káthiáwár, and in the title of rao, about the year 1540. The succession continued in the same line from the time of this prince until 1697, when a younger brother, Pragji, murdered his elder brother and usurped the sovereignty. This line of princes continued till 1760 without any remarkable event, when, in the reign of Rao Ghodji, the country was invaded four times by the Sinds, who wasted it with fire and sword. The reign of this prince, as well as that of his son Rao Rayadan, by whom he was succeeded in 1778, was marked by cruelty and blood. The latter prince was dethroned, and, being in a state of mental derangement, was during his lifetime confined by Fateh Mahommed, a native of Sind, who continued, with a short interval (in which the party of the legal heir, Bhaiji Bawa, gained the ascendancy), to rule the country until his death in 1813. It was in the reign of Fateh Mahommed that a communication first took place with the British government. During the contests for the sovereignty between the usurper and the legal heir, the leader of the royal party, Hansraj, the governor of Mandvi, sought the aid of the British. But no closer connexion followed at that time than an agreement for the suppression of piracy, or of inroads of troops to the eastward of the Runn or Gulf of Cutch. But the gulf continued notwithstanding to swarm with pirates, who were openly encouraged or connived at by the son of Hansraj, who had succeeded his father, as well as by Fateh Mahommed. The latter left several sons by different wives, who were competitors for the vacant throne. Husain Miyan succeeded to a considerable portion of his father’s property and power. Jugjevan, a Brahman, the late minister of Fateh Mahommed, also received a considerable share of influence; and the hatred of these two factions was embittered by religious animosities, the one being Hindu and the other Mahommedan. The deceased rao had declared himself a Mahommedan, and his adherents were preparing to inter his body in a magnificent tomb, when the Jarejas and other Hindus seized the corpse and consigned it to the flames, according to Hindu custom.

The administration of affairs was nominally in the hands of Husain Miyan and his brother Ibrahim Miyan. Many sanguinary broils now ensued, in the course of which Jugjevan was murdered, and the executive authority was much weakened by the usurpations of the Arabs and other chiefs. In the meantime Ibrahim Miyan was assassinated; and after various other scenes of anarchy, the rao Bharmulji, son of Rao Rayadan, by general consent, assumed the chief power. But his reign was one continued series of the grossest enormities; his hostility to the British became evident, and accordingly a force of 10,500 men crossed the Runn in November 1815, and were within five miles of Bhuj, the capital of the country, when a treaty was concluded, by which the rao Bharmulji was confirmed in his title to the throne, on agreeing, among other stipulations, to cede Anjar and its dependencies in perpetuity to the British. He was, however, so far from fulfilling the terms of this treaty that it was determined to depose him; and an army being sent against him, he surrendered to the British, who made a provision for his maintenance, and elevated his infant son Desalji II. to the throne (1819).

In 1822 the relations subsisting between the ruler of Cutch and the British were modified by a new treaty, under which the territorial cessions made by the rao in 1816 were restored in consideration of an annual payment. The sum fixed was subsequently thought too large, and in 1832 the arrears, amounting to a considerable sum, were remitted, and all future payments on this account relinquished. From that time the rao has paid a subsidy of £13,000 per annum to the British for the maintenance of the military force stationed within his dominions.

Rao Desalji II. did much to suppress infanticide, suttee and the slave trade in his state. His successor Maharao Pragmalji in recognition of his excellent administration was in 1871 honoured with the title of knight grand commander of the Star of India. During his rule harbour works were built at Mandvi, an immense reservoir for rain water in the Chadwa hills was constructed, and many schools and colleges were endowed. In 1876 he was succeeded by Maharaja Rao Khengarji III., who was also a keen advocate for education and especially the education of women. He founded museums, libraries and schools, and inaugurated scholarships and a fund from which deserving scholars desirous of studying in England and America could obtain their expenses.

CUTCH, GULF OF,an inlet of the sea on the coast of western India. It lies between the peninsula of Kathiawar and that of Cutch, leading into the Runn of Cutch.

CUTCH, RUNN OF,orRann of Kach, a salt morass on the western coast of India in the native state of Cutch. From May to October it is flooded with salt water and communicates, at its greatest extent, with the Gulf of Cutch on the west and the Gulf of Cambay on the east, these two gulfs being united during the monsoon. It varies in breadth from five to eighty miles across, and during the rains is nearly impassable for horsemen. The total area of this immense morass is estimated at about 8000 sq. m., without including any portion of the Gulf of Cutch, which is in parts so shallow as to resemble a marshy fen rather than an arm of the sea. The Runn is said to be formed by the overflow of the rivers Pharan, Luni, Banas and others, during the monsoon; but in December it is quite dry, and in most places hard, but in some moist and muddy. The soil is impregnatedwith salt, and the Runn is an important source for the supply of salt. The present condition of the Runn is probably the result of some natural convulsion, but the exact method of its formation is disputed. The wild ass is very common on the borders of this lake, being seen in herds of 60 or 70 together.

CUTHBERT, SAINT(d. 687), bishop of Lindisfarne, was probably a Northumbrian by birth. According to the extantLiveshe was led to take the monastic vows by a vision at the death of bishop Aidan, and the date of his entry at Melrose would be 651. At this time Eata was abbot there, and Boisel, who is mentioned as his instructor, prior, in which office Cuthbert succeeded him about 661, having previously spent some time at the monastery of Ripon with Eata. Bede gives a glowing picture of his missionary zeal at Melrose, but in 664 he was transferred to act as prior at Lindisfarne. In 676 he became an anchorite on the island of Farne, and it is said that he performed miracles there. In 684 at the council of Twyford in Northumberland, Ecgfrith, king of Northumbria, prevailed upon him to give up his solitary life and become a bishop. He was consecrated at York in the following year as bishop of Hexham, but afterwards he exchanged his see with Eata for that of Lindisfarne. In 687 he retired to Farne, and died on the island on the 20th of March 687, the same day as his friend Hereberht, the anchorite of Derwentwater. He was buried in the island of Lindisfarne, but his remains were afterwards deposited at Chester-le-Street, and then at Durham.

Another Cuthbert was bishop of Hereford from 736 to about 740, and archbishop of Canterbury from the latter date until his death in October 758.

There are several lives of St Cuthbert, the best of which is the prose life by Bede, which is published in Bede’sOpera, edited by J. Stevenson (1841). See also C. Eyre,The History of St Cuthbert(1887); and J. Raine,St Cuthbert(1828).

CUTLASS,the naval side-arm, a short cutting sword with a slightly curved blade, and a solid basket-shaped guard (seeSword). The word is derived from the Fr.coutelas, orcoutelace, a form ofcoutel, moderncouteau, a knife, from Lat.cultellus, diminutive ofculter, a ploughshare, or cutting instrument. Two variations appear in English: “curtelace,” where therrepresents probably thelof the original Latin word, or is a further variant of the second variation; and “curtelaxe,” often spelled as two words, “curtal axe,” where the prefixcurtalis confused with various English words such as “curtan,” “curtal” and “curtail,” which all mean “shortened,” and are derived from the Lat.curtus; the word thus wrongly derived has been supposed to refer to some non-existent form of battle-axe. In every case the weapon to which these various forms apply is a broad cutting or slashing sword.

CUTLER, MANASSEH(1742-1823), American clergyman, was born in Killingly, Connecticut, on the 13th of May 1742. He graduated at Yale College in 1765, and after being a school teacher and a merchant, and occasionally appearing in the courts as a lawyer, he decided to enter the ministry, and from 1771 until his death was pastor of the Congregational church at what is now Hamilton, but until 1793 was a parish of Ipswich, Massachusetts. During the War of Independence he was for several months in 1776 chaplain to the regiment of Colonel Ebenezer Francis, raised for the defence of Boston; and in 1778, as chaplain to the brigade of General Jonathan Titcomb (1728-1817), he took part in General John Sullivan’s expedition to Rhode Island. Soon after his return from this expedition he fitted himself for the practice of medicine, in order to supplement the scanty income of a minister, and in 1782 he established a private boarding school, which he conducted for about a quarter of a century. In 1786 he became interested in the settlement of western lands, and in the following year, as agent of the Ohio Company (q.v.), which he had taken a prominent part in organizing, he made a contract with Congress, whereby his associates, former soldiers in the War of Independence, might purchase, with the certificates of indebtedness issued to them by the government for their services, 1,500,000 acres of land in the region north of the Ohio at the mouth of the Muskingum river. He also took a leading part in drafting the famous Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory, the instrument as it was finally presented to Congress by Nathan Dane (1752-1835), a Massachusetts delegate, probably being largely Cutler’s work. From 1801 to 1805 he was a Federalist representative in Congress. He died at Hamilton, Massachusetts, on the 28th of July 1823. A versatile man, Cutler was one of the early members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and besides being proficient in the theology, law and medicine of his day, conducted painstaking astronomical and meteorological investigations, and was one of the first Americans to make researches of a real scientific value in botany. In 1789 the degree of doctor of laws was conferred upon him by Yale.

See William P. and Julia P. Cutler,The Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Manasseh Cutler(2 vols., Cincinnati, 1888); and an article, “The Ordinance of 1787 and Dr Manasseh Cutler,” by W. F. Poole, in vol. 122 of theNorth American Review.

CUTLERY(Fr.coutellerie, from the Lat.cultellus, a little knife), a branch of industry which originally embraced the manufacture of all cutting instruments of whatever form or material. The progress of manufacturing industry has, however, detached from it the fabrication of several kinds of edge-tools, saws and similar implements, the manufacture of which is now regarded as forming distinct branches of trade. On the other hand modern cutlery includes a great number of articles which are not strictly cutting instruments, but which, owing to their more or less intimate relation to table or pocket cutlery, are classed with such articles for convenience’ sake. A steel table or carving fork, for example, is an important article of cutlery, although it is not a cutting tool.

The original cutting instruments used by the human race consisted of fragments of flint, obsidian, or similar stones, rudely flaked or chipped to a cutting edge; and of these tools numerous remains yet exist. Stone knives and other tools must have been employed for a long period by the prehistoric races of mankind, as their later productions show great perfection of form and finish. In the Bronze period, which succeeded the Stone Age, the cutlery of our ancestors was fabricated of that alloy. The use of iron was introduced at a later but still remote period; and it now, in the form of steel, is the staple article from which cutlery is manufactured.

From the earliest period in English history the manufacture of cutlery has been peculiarly associated with the town of Sheffield, the prominence of which in this manufacture in his own age is attested by Chaucer, who says of the miller of Trumpington—

“A Sheffeld thwitel baar he in his hose.”

That town still retains a practical monopoly of the ordinary cutlery trade of Great Britain, and remains the chief centre of the industry for the whole world. Its influence on methods of production has also been widely extended; for instance, many Sheffield workmen emigrated to the United States of America to take part in the manufacture of pocket-knives when it was started in Connecticut towards the middle of the 19th century.

The thwitel or whittle of Chaucer’s time was a very poor rude implement, consisting of a blade of bar steel fastened into a wooden or horn handle. It was used for cutting food as well as for the numerous miscellaneous duties which now fall to the pocket-knife. To the whittle succeeded the Jack knife,—the Jacques-de-Liége, or Jock-te-leg of the Scottish James VI.,—which formed the prototype of the modern clasp-knife, inasmuch as the blade closed into a groove in the handle. About the beginning of the 17th century, the pocket-knife with spring back was introduced, and no marked improvement thereafter took place till the early part of the 19th century. In 1624, two centuries after the incorporation of the Cutlers’ Company of London, the cutlers of Hallamshire—the name of the district of which Sheffield is the centre—were formed into a body corporate for the protection of the “industry, labour, and reputation” of the trade, which was being disgraced by the “deceitful and unworkmanlike wares of various persons.” The act of incorporation specifies the manufacture of “knives, scissors, shears, sickles andother cutlery,” and provides that all persons engaged in the business shall “make the edge of all steel implements manufactured by them of steel, and steel only, and shall strike on their wares such mark, and such only, as should be assigned to them by the officers of the said company.” Notwithstanding these regulations, and the pains and penalties attached to their infringement, the corporation was not very successful in maintaining the high character of Sheffield wares. Most manufacturers made cutlery to the order of their customers, on which the name of the retailer was stamped, and very inferior malleable or cast iron blades went forth to the public with “London made,” “best steel,” and other falsehoods stamped on them to order. The corporate mark and name of a few firms, among which Joseph Rodgers & Sons stand foremost, are a guarantee of the very highest excellence of material and finish; and such firms decline to stamp any name or mark other than their own on their manufactures. In foreign markets, however, the reputation of such firms is much injured by impudent forgeries; and so far was this system of fraud carried that inferior foreign work was forwarded to London to be transhipped and sent abroad ostensibly as English cutlery. To protect the trade against frauds of this class the Trades Mark Act of 1862 was passed chiefly at the instigation of the Sheffield chamber of commerce.

The variety of materials which go to complete any single article of cutlery is very considerable; and as the stock list of a cutler embraces a vast number of articles different in form, properties and uses, the cutlery manufacturer must have a practical knowledge of a wide range of substances. The leading articles of the trade include carving and table knives and forks, pocket or clasp knives, razors, scissors, daggers, hunting knives and similar articles, surgical knives and lancets, butchers’ and shoemakers’ knives, gardeners’ pruning-knives, &c. The blades or cutting portions of a certain number of these articles are made of shear steel, and for others crucible cast steel is employed. Sometimes the cutting edge alone is of steel, backed or strengthened with iron, to which it is welded. The tang, or part of the blade by which it is fastened to the handles, and other non-cutting portions, are also very often of iron. Brass, German silver, silver, horn, tortoise-shell, ivory, bone, mother-of-pearl, and numerous fancy woods are all brought into requisition for handles and other parts of cutlery, each demanding special treatment according to its nature. The essential processes in making a piece of steel cutlery are (1) forging, (2) hardening and tempering, (3) grinding, (4) polishing, and (5) putting together the various pieces and finishing the knife, the workmen who perform these last operations being the only ones known in the trade as “cutlers.”

The following outline of the stages in the manufacture of a razor will serve to indicate the sequence of operations in making an article which, though simple in form, demands the highest care and skill. The first essential of a good razor is that it be made of the finest quality of cast steel. The steel for razors is obtained in bars the thickness of the back of the instrument. Taking such a bar, the forger heats one end of it to the proper forging temperature, and then dexterously fashions it upon his anvil, giving it roughly the required form, edge and concavity. It is then separated from the remainder of the bar, leaving only sufficient metal to form the tang, if that is to be made of steel. The tang of the “mould,” as the blade in this condition is termed, is next drawn out, and the whole “smithed” or beaten on the anvil to compact the metal and improve the form and edge of the razor. At this stage the razor is said to be “forged in the rough,” and so neatly can some workmen finish off this operation that a shaving edge may be given to the blade by simple whetting. The forged blade is next “shaped” by grinding on the dry stone; this operation considerably reduces its weight, and removes the oxidized scale, thereby allowing the hardening and tempering to be done with certainty and proper effect. The shaped razor is now returned to the forge, where the tang is file-cut and pierced with the joint-hole, and into the blade is stamped either the name and corporate mark of the maker, or any mark and name ordered by the tradesman for whom the goods are being manufactured. The hardening is accomplished by heating the blade to a cherry-red heat and suddenly quenching it in cold water, which leaves the metal excessively hard and brittle. To bring it to the proper temper for a razor, it is again heated till the metallic surface assumes a straw colour, and after being plunged into water, it is ready for the process of wet grinding. The wet grinding is done on stones which vary in diameter from 1½ to 12 in. according to the concavity of surface desired (“hollow-ground,” “half hollow-ground,” &c.). “Lapping,” which is the first stage in polishing, is performed on a wheel of the same diameter as the wet-grinding stone. The lap is built up of segments of wood having the fibres towards the periphery, and covered with a metallic alloy of tin and lead. The lap is fed with a mixture of emery powder and oil. “Glazing” and “polishing,” which follow, are for perfecting the polish on the surface of the razor, leather-covered wheels with fine emery being used; and the work is finished off with crocus. The finished blade is then riveted into the scales or handle, which may be of ivory, bone, horn or other material; and when thereafter the razor is set on a hone it is ready for use.

The processes employed in making a table-knife do not differ essentially from those required for a razor. Table-knife blades are forged from shear and other steels, and, if they are not in one piece, a bit of malleable iron sufficient for the bolster or shoulder and tang is welded to each, often by machinery, especially in the case of the cheaper qualities. The bolster is formed with the aid of a die and swage called “prints,” and the tang is drawn out. The tang is variously formed, according to the method by which it is to be secured in the haft, and the various processes of tempering, wet grinding and polishing are pursued as described above. Steel forks of an inferior quality are cast and subsequently cleaned and polished; but the best quality are forged from bar steel, and the prongs are cut or stamped out of an extended flattened extremity called the mould or “mood.” In the United States of America machinery has been extensively adopted for performing the various mechanical operations in forging and fitting table cutlery, and in Sheffield it is employed to a great extent in the manufacture of table and pocket knife blades, scissors and razors. The cutler of the 18th century was an artisan who forged and ground the blades and fitted them in the hafts ready for sale; to-day the division of labour is carried to an extreme degree. In the making of a common pocket-knife with three blades not fewer than one hundred separate operations are involved, and these may be performed by as many workmen composed of five distinct classes—the scale and spring makers (the scale being the metal lining which is covered by the handle proper), the blade forgers, the grinders, the cutters of the coverings of ivory, horn, &c., that form the handles, and the hafters or cutlers proper. Grinders are divided into three classes—dry, wet and mixed grinders, according as they work at dry or wet stones. This branch of trade is, in Sheffield, conducted in distinct establishments called “wheels,” which are divided up into separate apartments or “hulls,” the dry grinding being as much as possible separated from the wet grinding. Dry grinding, such as is practised in the shaping of razors described above, the “humping” or rounding of scissors, and other operations, used to be a process especially dangerous to health, lung diseases being induced by the fine dust of silica and steel with which the atmosphere was loaded; but a great improvement has been effected by resorting to wet grinding as much as possible, by arranging fans to remove the dust by suction, and by general attention to sanitary conditions.

CUTTACK,a city and district of British India in the Orissa division of Bengal. The city is situated at the head of the delta of the Mahanadi. Pop. (1901) 51,364. It is the centre of the Orissa canal system, and an important station on the East Coast railway from Madras to Calcutta. It contains the government college, named after Mr Ravenshaw, a former commissioner; a high school, a training school, a survey school, a medical school and a law school. The city formed one of the five royal strongholds of ancient Orissa and was founded by a warlike Hindu prince, Makar Kesari, who reigned from 953 to 961. Native kings protected it from the rivers by a masonry embankment several miles long, built of enormous blocks of hewn stone, andin some places 25 ft. high. A fortress defended the north-west corner of the town, and was captured by the English from the Mahrattas in October 1803. It is now abandoned as a place of defence.

TheDistrict of Cuttacklies in the centre of Orissa, occupying the deltas of the Mahanadi and Brahmani, together with a hilly tract inland. Its area is 3654 sq. m. It consists of three physical divisions: first, a marshy woodland strip along the coast, from 3 to 30 m. in breadth; second, an intermediate stretch of rice plains; third, a broken hilly region, which forms the western boundary of the district. The marshy strip along the coast is covered with swamps and malaria-breeding jungles. Towards the sea the solid land gives place to a vast network of streams and creeks, whose sluggish waters are constantly depositing silt, and forming morasses or quicksands. Cultivation does not begin till the limits of this dismal region are passed. The intermediate rice plains stretch inland for about 40 m. and occupy the older part of the delta between the sea-coast strip and the hilly frontier. They are intersected by three large rivers, the Baitarani, Brahmani and Mahanadi. These issue in magnificent streams through three gorges in the frontier hills. The Cuttack delta is divided into two great valleys, one of them lying between the Baitarani and the Brahmani, the other between the Brahmani and the Mahanadi. The rivers having, by the silt of ages, gradually raised their beds, now run along high levels. During floods they pour over their banks upon the surrounding valleys, by a thousand channels which interlace and establish communication between the main streams. After numerous bifurcations they find their way into the sea by three principal mouths. Silt-banks and surf-washed bars render the entrance to these rivers perilous. The best harbour in Cuttack district is at False Point, on the north of the Mahanadi estuary. It consists of an anchorage, land-locked by islands or sand-banks, and with two fair channels navigable towards the land. The famine commissioners in 1867 reported it to be the best harbour on the coast of India from the Hugli to Bombay.

The intermediate tract is a region of rich cultivation, dotted with great banyan trees, thickets of bamboos, exquisite palm foliage and mango groves. The hilly frontier separates the delta of British Orissa from the semi-independent tributary states. It consists of a series of ranges, 10 to 15 m. in length, running nearly due east and west, with densely-wooded slopes and lovely valleys between. The timber, however, is small, and is of little value except as fuel. The political character of these three tracts is as distinct as are their natural features. The first and third are still occupied by feudal chiefs, and have never been subjected to a regular land-settlement, by either the Mussulman or the British government. They pay a light fixed tribute. The intermediate rice plains, known as the Mogholbandi, from their having been regularly settled by the Mahommedans, have yielded to the successive dynasties and conquerors of Orissa almost the whole of the revenues derived from the province. The deltaic portions are of course a dead level; and the highest hills within the district in the western or frontier tract do not exceed 2500 ft. They are steep, and covered with jungle, but can be climbed by men. The most interesting of them are the Assa range, with its sandal trees and Buddhist remains; Udayagiri (Sunrise-hill), with its colossal image of Buddha, sacred reservoir, and ruins; and Assagiri, with its mosque of 1719. The Mahavinayaka peak, visible from Cuttack, has been consecrated for ages to Siva-worship by ascetics and pilgrims.

The population of the district in 1901 was 2,062,758, showing an increase of 6% in the preceding decade. The aboriginal tribes here, as elsewhere, cling to their mountains and jungles. They chiefly consist of the Bhumij, Tala, Kol and Savara peoples, the Savaras being by far the most numerous, numbering 14,775. They are regarded by the orthodox Hindus as little better than the beasts of the wildernesses which they inhabit. Miserably poor, they subsist for the most part by selling firewood or other products of their jungle; but a few of them have patches of cultivated land, and many earn wages as day labourers to the Hindus. They occupy, in fact, an intermediate stage of degradation between the comparatively well-to-do tribes in the tributary states (the stronghold and home of the race), and the Pans, Bauris, Kandras and other semi-aboriginal peoples on the lowlands, who rank as the basest castes of the Hindu community. The great bulk of the Indo-Aryan or Hindu population consists of Uriyas, with a residue of immigrant Bengalis, Lala Kayets from Behar and northern India, Telingas from the Madras coast, Mahrattas from central and western India, a few Sikhs from the Punjab and Marwaris from Rajputana. The Mahommedans are chiefly the descendants of the Pathans who took refuge in Orissa after the subversion of their kingdom in Bengal by the Moguls in the 16th century.

Rice forms the staple product of the district; its three chief varieties arebialior early rice,sarador winter rice, anddaluaor spring rice. The other cereal crops consist ofmandua(a grass-like plant producing a coarse grain resembling rice), wheat, barley, andchina, a rice-like cereal.Suan, another rice-like cereal, not cultivated, grows spontaneously in the paddy fields. Pulses of different sorts, oilseeds, fibres, sugar-cane, tobacco, spices and vegetables also form crops of the district. The cultivators consist of two classes—the resident husbandmen (thani) and the non-resident or migratory husbandmen (pahe).

The Orissa canal system, which lies mainly within Cuttack district, is used both for irrigation and transport purposes. The railway across the district towards Calcutta, a branch of the Bengal-Nagpur system, was opened in 1899. Considerable trade is carried on at the mouth of the rivers along the coast.

CUTTLE-FISH.The more familiar and conspicuous types of the molluscan class Cephalopoda (q.v.) are popularly known in English as cuttle-fish, squid, octopus and nautilus. The first of these names (from the A.S.cudele) is applied more particularly to the commonSepia(fig. 1), characterized by its internal calcareous shell, sometimes known as cuttle-bone, and its ink-sac, the contents of which have been long in use as a pigment (sepia). The term squid is employed among fishermen for the ten-armed Cephalopods in which the shell is represented by an uncalcified flexible structure somewhat resembling a pen. Hence in Italian a squid is calledcalamaio, fromcalamusa reed or pen, and in English the similar term calamary is sometimes used. Like theSepia, squids also possess the ink-sac, whence they have sometimes been called pen and ink fish, and in German bothSepiaand squid and their allies are known asTinten-fische. The squids have generally softer and more watery tissues than theSepia, but the former term is not in general use, and the distinction not generally understood. The term cuttle-fishes is sometimes extended to include all the Cephalopoda, but as the peculiarities of the remarkable shell of the true nautilus, and those of the shell-less Octopoda are widely known, we shall consider the name here as applying only to those forms which have ten arms, an ink-sac, an internal shell-rudiment, and only one pair of gills in the mantle cavity. Technically these form the sub-order Decapoda, of the order Dibranchia.

The cuttle-fishes are characteristically swimming animals, in contrast with the octopods, which creep about by means of their suckers among the rocks, and lurk in holes. InSepiathe integument is produced laterally into two muscular fins, rather narrow and of uniform breadth running the whole length of the body, but separated by a notch behind. There are four pairs of short non-retractile arms surrounding the mouth, and furnished with suckers on their oral surface, and between the third and fourth of these arms on each side is a much longer tentacular arm, which is usually kept entirely withdrawn into a pocket of the skin. The mantle cavity is on the posterior side of the body, which is the lower side in the swimming position, and the funnel is a tube open at both ends and connected with the body within the mouth of the mantle cavity. The mantle during life performs regular respiratory movements by which water is drawn into the cavity, passing between mantle and funnel, and is expelled through the funnel. In swimming the short arms are directed forwards, the fins undulate, and the motion is slow and deliberate; but if the animal is threatened or alarmed it swims suddenly and rapidly backwards by expelling waterforcibly from the mantle cavity through the funnel, at the same time expelling a cloud of ink from its ink-sac.

TheSepiafeeds principally on Crustacea, and in aquaria has been observed to pursue and capture prawns. The method in which it secures its prey has been carefully observed and described by the present writer, who studied the living animal in the aquarium of the biological laboratory at Plymouth. The prawns support themselves on their long slender legs on convenient points of the rockwork, and theSepiastalks them with great caution and determination, the rapid play of its chromatophores giving evidence of its excitement. When it has arrived within striking distance, the two tentacular arms are shot out with great rapidity, and the prawn is seized between the two expanded ends, drawn within the circle of short arms, and devoured; unless, as sometimes happens, the prawn springs away and theSepiamisses its aim.

Two species ofSepiaoccur in British and European waters, including the Mediterranean, namely,S. elegansandS. officinalis. The usual length of the body is about 9 or 10 in. They live mostly between ten and forty fathoms, coming into shallower water in July and August to deposit their eggs, which are about as large as black currants and of somewhat similar colour, and are connected by elongated stalks into a cluster attached to the sea-bottom. Other species occur in various parts of the world,e.g.S. cultrata, which is common on the coasts of Australia. TheSepiidaeform the only family of cuttle-fishes in which the shell is calcified. They belong to the tribe Myopsida, characterized by the complete closure of the external corneal covering of the eye outside the iris and the lens.

SepiolaandRossiabelong to another family of the Myopsida. Both are British genera living in shallow water, and entering estuaries. The animals of both genera are small, not more than 2 or 3 in. in length, with the body rounded at the aboral end, and the fins short and rounded, inserted in the middle of the body length, instead of extending from end to end.Sepiola, although it swims by means of its fins and funnel when active, spends much of its time buried in the sand for concealment.Rossiahas similar habits. The shell is chitinous and shorter than the body. In other genera of theSepiolidaethe shell is entirely absent.Idiosepiusis the smallest of the Cephalopoda, only 1.5 in. in length. It inhabits the Indian Ocean. The body is elongated and the fins rudimentary. In theSepiadariidaealso the shell is absent. The body is short and the mantle united with the head dorsally. The two generaSepiadariumandSepioloideaoccur in the Pacific Ocean. The common squidLoligois the type of the only remaining family of the Myopsida. In this species the shell is a well-developed chitinous pen or gladius with a thickened axis narrowing to a point behind, but bearing posteriorly a wide thin plate on each side. The shape closely resembles that of a quill pen with the quill in front. The fins are large and triangular, extending over rather more than half of the length of the body aborally. The tentacular arms are only partly retractile. The body is elongated and conical, and reaches about a foot in length. The squid is gregarious, and forms a favourite food of the larger fishes, especially of conger. All the Myopsida are more or less littoral in habit, and the British forms are familiar in consequence of their frequent capture in the nets of fishermen. The shell, or “bone” as it is commonly called, of the commonSepiafrequently occurs in abundance on the shore among the sea-weed and other refuse left by the tide.

The Oigopsida, or cuttle-fishes in which the corneal covering of the eye is perforated, are on the whole more oceanic than littoral, and many of the species are abyssal.Ommatostrephes sagittatusis one of the forms that occurs off the British coasts, especially the more northern,e.g.in the Firth of Forth. In general appearance it resembles the common squid, but the fins are broader and shorter, not extending to the middle of the body.The shell is similar to that ofLoligo, but ends aborally in a little hollow cone. The suckers bear chitinous rings which are toothed along the outer edge. The tentacular arms are rather short and thick. Two specimens of allied species have been taken on British coasts, one of which, captured off Salcombe in Devonshire in 1892, had a body 66 cm. (22 in.) long, and tentacular arms 64 cm. long, or nearly the same length as the body. Most of the species ofOmmatostrephesare naturally gregarious and oceanic, and occur in the open seas in all latitudes, swimming near the surface and often leaping out of the water. They are largely devoured by albatrosses and other marine birds, and by Cetacea. They are used as bait in the Newfoundland cod fishery.

Some of the oceanic cuttle-fishes reach a very large size, and the stories of these ocean monsters which are narrated by the older writers, though to some extent exaggerated, are now known to be founded on fact. The figure given by one author of a gigantic Cephalopod rising from the surface of the ocean and embracing with its arms a full-rigged ship does not accurately represent an actual occurrence, but on the other hand there are authentic instances on record of fishermen in small boats on the banks of Newfoundland being in great peril in consequence of large squids throwing their arms across their boats. In November 1874 a specimen was brought ashore at St John’s, Newfoundland, which had been caught in herring nets. Its body was 7 ft. long, its fins 22 in. broad, and its tentacular arms 24 ft. long. Several others have been recorded, taken in the same region, which were as large or larger, the total length of the body and tentacles together varying from 30 to 52 ft., and the estimated weight of one of them being 1000 ℔.

In April 1875 one of these large squids occurred off Boffin’s Island on the Irish coast. The crew of a curragh rowed out to it and attacked it, cutting off two of its arms and its head. The shorter arms measured 8 ft. in length and 15 in. in circumference; the tentacular arms are said to have been 30 ft. long. In the Natural History Museum in London there is one of the shorter arms of a specimen; this arm is 9 ft. in length and 11 in. in circumference, and the total length of the specimen, including body and tentacles, is stated to have been 40 ft. The maximum known length of these giant squids is stated to be 18 metres or about 58½ ft. All these gigantic specimens belong, so far as at present known, to one genus calledArchiteuthis, referred to the same family asOmmatostrephes. They are the largest known invertebrates.

Back to Index Next