See Sir Herbert Maxwell,History of Dumfries and Galloway(Edinburgh, 1896); Rev. Andrew Symson,A Large Description of Galloway(1684; new ed., 1823); Thomas Murray,The Literary History of Galloway(1822); Rev. William Mackenzie,History of Galloway(1841); P. H. McKerlie,History of the Lands and their Owners in Galloway(Edinburgh, 1870-1879);Galloway Ancient and Modern(Edinburgh, 1891); J. A. H. Murray,Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland(London, 1873).
See Sir Herbert Maxwell,History of Dumfries and Galloway(Edinburgh, 1896); Rev. Andrew Symson,A Large Description of Galloway(1684; new ed., 1823); Thomas Murray,The Literary History of Galloway(1822); Rev. William Mackenzie,History of Galloway(1841); P. H. McKerlie,History of the Lands and their Owners in Galloway(Edinburgh, 1870-1879);Galloway Ancient and Modern(Edinburgh, 1891); J. A. H. Murray,Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland(London, 1873).
KIRKE, PERCY(c.1646-1691), English soldier, was the son of George Kirke, a court official to Charles I. and Charles II. In 1666 he obtained his first commission in the Lord Admiral’s regiment, and subsequently served in the Blues. He was with Monmouth at Maestricht (1673), and was present during two campaigns with Turenne on the Rhine. In 1680 he became lieutenant-colonel, and soon afterwards colonel of one of the Tangier regiments (afterwards the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regt.) In 1682 Kirke became governor of Tangier, and colonel of the old Tangier regiment (afterwards the Queen’s Royal West Surrey). He distinguished himself very greatly as governor, though he gave offence by the roughness of his manners and the wildness of his life. On the evacuation of Tangier “Kirke’s Lambs” (so called from their badge) returned to England, and a year later their colonel served as a brigadier in Faversham’s army. After Sedgemoor the rebels were treated with great severity; but the charges so often brought against the “Lambs” are now known to be exaggerated, though the regiment shared to the full in the ruthless hunting down of the fugitives. It is often stated that it formed Jeffreys’s escort in the “Bloody Assize,” but this is erroneous. Brigadier Kirke took a notable part in the Revolution three years later, and William III. promoted him. He commanded at the relief of Derry, and made his last campaign in Flanders in 1691. He died, a lieutenant-general, at Brussels in October of that year. His eldest son, Lieut.-General Percy Kirke (1684-1741), was also colonel of the “Lambs.”
KIRKEE(orKirki), a town and military cantonment of British India in Poona district, Bombay, 4 m. N.W. of Poona city. Pop. (1901), 10,797. It is the principal artillery station in the Bombay presidency, and has a large ammunition factory. It was the scene of a victory over Baji Rao, the last peshwa, in 1817.
KIRKINTILLOCH,a municipal and police burgh of Dumbartonshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901), 10,680. It is situated 8 m. N.E. of Glasgow, by the North British railway, a portion of the parish extending into Lanarkshire. It lies on the Forth & Clyde canal, and the Kelvin—from which Lord Kelvin, the distinguished scientist, took the title of his barony—flows past the town, where it receives from the north the Glazert and from the south the Luggie, commemorated by David Gray. The Wall of Antoninus ran through the site of the town, the Gaelic name of which (Caer, a fort, notKirk, a church) means “the fort at the end of the ridge.” The town became a burgh of barony under the Comyns in 1170. The cruciform parish church with crow-stepped gables dates from 1644. The public buildings include the town-hall, with a clock tower, the temperance hall, a convalescent home, the Broomhill home for incurables (largely due to Miss Beatrice Clugston, to whom a memorial was erected in 1891), and the Westermains asylum. In 1898 the burgh acquired as a private park the Peel, containing traces of the Roman Wall, a fort, and the foundation of Comyn’s Castle. The leading industries are chemical manufactures, iron-founding, muslin-weaving, coal mining and timber sawing.Lenzie, a suburb, a mile to the south of the old town, contains the imposing towered edifice in the Elizabethan style which houses the Barony asylum. David Gray, the poet, was born at Merkland, near by, and is buried in Kirkintilloch churchyard, where a monument was erected to his memory in 1865.
KIRK-KILISSEH(Kirk-KilisseorKirk-Kilissia), a town of European Turkey, in the vilayet of Adrianople, 35 m. E. of Adrianople. Pop. (1905), about 16,000, of whom about half are Greeks, and the remainder Bulgarians, Turks and Jews. Kirk-Kilisseh is built near the headwaters of several small tributaries of the river Ergene, and on the western slope of the Istranja Dagh. It owes its chief importance to its position at the southern outlet of the Fakhi defile over these mountains, through which passes the shortest road from Shumla to Constantinople. The name Kirk-Kilisseh signifies “four churches,” and the town possesses many mosques and Greek churches. It has an important trade with Constantinople in butter and cheese, and also exports wine, brandy, cereals and tobacco.
KIRKSVILLE,a city and the county-seat of Adair county, Missouri, U.S.A., about 129 m. N. by W. of Jefferson City. Pop. (1900), 5966, including 112 foreign-born and 291 negroes; (1910), 6347. It is served by the Wabash and the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City railways. It lies on a rolling prairie at an elevation of 975 ft. above the sea. It is the seat of the First District Missouri State Normal School (1870); of the American School of Osteopathy (opened 1892); and of the related A. T. Still Infirmary (incorporated 1895), named in honour of its founder, Andrew Taylor Still (b. 1820), the originator of osteopathic treatment, who settled here in 1875. In 1908 the School of Osteopathy had 18 instructors and 398 students. Grain and fruit are grown in large quantities, and much coal is mined in the vicinity of Kirksville. Its manufactures are shoes, bricks, lumber, ice, agricultural implements, wagons and handles. Kirksville was laid out in 1842, and was named in honour of Jesse Kirk. It was incorporated as a town in 1857 and chartered as a city of the third class in 1892. In April 1899 a cyclone caused serious damage to the city.
KIRKWALL(Norse,Kirkjuvagr, “church bay”), a royal, municipal and police burgh, seaport and capital of the Orkney Islands, county of Orkney, Scotland. Pop. (1901), 3711. It is situated at the head of a bay of the same name on the east of the island of Pomona, or Mainland, 247 m. N. of Leith and 54 m. N. of Wick by steamer. Much of the city is quaint-looking and old-fashioned, its main street (nearly 1 m. long) being in parts so narrow that two vehicles cannot pass each other. The more modern quarters are built with great regularity and the suburbs contain several substantial villas surrounded by gardens. Kirkwall has very few manufactures. The linen trade introduced in the middle of the 18th century is extinct, and a like fate has overtaken the kelp and straw-plaiting industries. Distilling however prospers, and the town is important not only as regards its shipping and the deep-sea fishery, but also as a distributing centre for the islands and the seat of the superior law courts. The port has two piers. Kirkwall received its first charter from James III. in 1486, but the provisions of this instrument being disregarded by such men as Robert (d. 1592) and Patrick Stewart (d. 1614), 1st and 2nd earls of Orkney, and others, the Scottishparliament passed an act in 1670 confirming the charter granted by Charles II. in 1661. The prime object of interest is the cathedral of St Magnus, a stately cruciform red sandstone structure in the severest Norman, with touches of Gothic. It was founded by Jarl Rognvald (Earl Ronald) in 1137 in memory of his uncle Jarl Magnus who was assassinated in the island of Egilshay in 1115, and afterwards canonized and adopted as the patron saint of the Orkneys. The remains of St Magnus were ultimately interred in the cathedral. The church is 234 ft. long from east to west and 56 ft. broad, 71 ft. high from floor to roof, and 133 ft. to the top of the present spire—the transepts being the oldest portion. The choir was lengthened and the beautiful eastern rose window added by Bishop Stewart in 1511, and the porch and the western end of the nave were finished in 1540 by Bishop Robert Reid. Saving that the upper half of the original spire was struck by lightning in 1671, and not rebuilt, the cathedral is complete at all points, but it underwent extensive repairs in the 19th century. The disproportionate height and narrowness of the building lend it a certain distinction which otherwise it would have lacked. The sandstone has not resisted the effects of weather, and much of the external decorative work has perished. The choir is used as the parish church. Theskellat, or fire-bell, is not rung now. The church of St Olaf, from which the town took its name, was burned down by the English in 1502; and of the church erected on its site by Bishop Reid—the greatest building the Orkneys ever had—little more than the merest fragment survives. Nothing remains of the old castle, a fortress of remarkable strength founded by Sir Henry Sinclair (d. 1400), earl and prince of Orkney and 1st earl of Caithness, its last vestiges having been demolished in 1865 to provide better access to the harbour; and the earthwork to the east of the town thrown up by the Cromwellians has been converted into a battery of the Orkney Artillery Volunteers. Adjoining the cathedral are the ruins of the bishop’s palace, in which King Haco died after his defeat at Largs in 1263. The round tower, which still stands, was added in 1550 by Bishop Reid. It is known as the Mass Tower and contains a niche in which is a small effigy believed to represent the founder, who also endowed the grammar school which is still in existence. To the east of the remains of the bishop’s palace are the ruins of the earl’s palace, a structure in the Scottish Baronial style, built about 1600 for Patrick Stewart, 2nd earl of Orkney, and on his forfeiture given to the bishops for a residence. Tankerness House is a characteristic example of the mansion of an Orkney laird of the olden time. Other public buildings include the municipal buildings, the sheriff court and county buildings, Balfour hospital, and the fever hospital. There is daily communication with Scrabster pier (Thurso), via Scapa pier, on the southern side of the waist of Pomona, about 1½ m. to the S. of Kirkwall; and steamers sail at regular intervals from the harbour to Wick, Aberdeen and Leith. Good roads place the capital in touch with most places in the island and a coach runs twice a day to Stromness. Kirkwall belongs to the Wick district group of parliamentary burghs, the others being Cromarty, Dingwall, Dornoch and Tain.
KIRRIEMUIR,a police burgh of Forfarshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901), 4096. It is situated on a height above the glen through which the Gairie flows, 6¼ m. N.W. of Forfar by a branch line of the Caledonian railway of which it is the terminus. There are libraries, a public hall and a park. The staple industry is linen-weaving. The hand-loom lingered longer here than in any other place in Scotland and is not yet wholly extinct. The Rev. Dr Alexander Whyte (b. 1837) and J. M. Barrie (b. 1860) are natives, the latter having made the town famous under the name of “Thrums.” The original Secession church—the kirk of the Auld Lichts—was founded in 1806 and rebuilt in 1893. Kinnordy, 1½ m. N.W., was the birthplace of Sir Charles Lyell the geologist; and Cortachy castle, a fine mansion in the Scottish Baronial style, about 4 m. N., is the seat of the earl of Airlie.
KIRSCH(orKirschenwasser), a potable spirit distilled from cherries. Kirsch is manufactured chiefly in the Black Forest in Germany, and in the Vosges and Jura districts in France. Generally the raw material consists of the wild cherry known asCerasus avium. The cherries are subjected to natural fermentation and subsequent distillation. Occasionally a certain quantity of sugar and water are added to the cherries after crushing, and the mass so obtained is filtered or pressed prior to fermentation. The spirit is usually “run” at a strength of about 50% of absolute alcohol. Compared with brandy or whisky the characteristic features of kirsch are (a) that it contains relatively large quantities of higher alcohols and compound ethers, and (b) the presence in this spirit of small quantities of hydrocyanic acid, partly as such and partly in combination as benzaldehyde-cyanhydrine, to which the distinctive flavour of kirsch is largely due.
KIR-SHEHER,the chief town of a sanjak of the same name in the Angora vilayet of Asia Minor, situated on a tributary of the Kizil Irmak (Halys), on the Angora-Kaisarieh road. It is on the line of the projected railway from Angora to Kaisarieh. The town gives its name to the excellent carpets made in the vicinity. On the outskirts there is a hot chalybeate spring. Population about 9000 (700 Christians, mostly Armenians). Kir-sheher represents the ancientMocissus, a small town which became important in the Byzantine period: it was enlarged by the emperor Justinian, who re-named itJustinianopolis, and made it the capital of a large division of Cappadocia, a position it still retains.
KIRWAN, RICHARD(1733-1812), Irish scientist, was born at Cloughballymore, Co. Galway, in 1733. Part of his early life was spent abroad, and in 1754 he entered the Jesuit novitiate either at St Omer or at Hesdin, but returned to Ireland in the following year, when he succeeded to the family estates through the death of his brother in a duel. In 1766, having conformed to the established religion two years previously, he was called to the Irish bar, but in 1768 abandoned practice in favour of scientific pursuits. During the next nineteen years he resided chiefly in London, enjoying the society of the scientific men living there, and corresponding with many savants on the continent of Europe, as his wide knowledge of languages enabled him to do with ease. His experiments on the specific gravities and attractive powers of various saline substances formed a substantial contribution to the methods of analytical chemistry, and in 1782 gained him the Copley medal from the Royal Society, of which he was elected a fellow in 1780; and in 1784 he was engaged in a controversy with Cavendish in regard to the latter’s experiments on air. In 1787 he removed to Dublin, where four years later he became president of the Royal Irish Academy. To its proceedings he contributed some thirty-eight memoirs, dealing with meteorology, pure and applied chemistry, geology, magnetism, philology, &c. One of these, on the primitive state of the globe and its subsequent catastrophe, involved him in a lively dispute with the upholders of the Huttonian theory. His geological work was marred by an implicit belief in the universal deluge, and through finding fossils associated with the trap rocks near Portrush he maintained basalt was of aqueous origin. He was one of the last supporters in England of the phlogistic hypothesis, for which he contended in hisEssay on Phlogiston and the Constitution of Acids(1787), identifying phlogiston with hydrogen. This work, translated by Madame Lavoisier, was published in French with critical notes by Lavoisier and some of his associates; Kirwan attempted to refute their arguments, but they proved too strong for him, and he acknowledged himself a convert in 1791. His other books includedElements of Mineralogy(1784), which was the first systematic work on that subject in the English language, and which long remained standard;An Estimate of the Temperature of Different Latitudes(1787);Essay of the Analysis of Mineral Waters(1799), andGeological Essays(1799). In his later years he turned to philosophical questions, producing a paper on human liberty in 1798, a treatise on logic in 1807, and a volume of metaphysical essays in 1811, none of any worth. Various stories are told of his eccentricities as well as of his conversational powers. He died in Dublin in June 1812.
KISFALUDY, KÁROLY[Charles] (1788-1830), Hungarian author, was born at Téte, near Raab, on the 6th of February1788. His birth cost his mother her life and himself his father’s undying hatred. He entered the army as a cadet in 1804; saw active service in Italy, Servia and Bavaria (1805-1809), especially distinguishing himself at the battle of Leoben (May 25, 1809), and returned to his quarters at Pest with the rank of first lieutenant. It was during the war that he composed his first poems,e.g.the tragedyGyilkos(“The Murder,” 1808), and numerous martial songs for the encouragement of his comrades. It was now, too, that he fell hopelessly in love with the beautiful Katalin Heppler, the daughter of a wealthy tobacco merchant. Tiring of the monotony of a soldier’s life, yet unwilling to sacrifice his liberty to follow commerce or enter the civil service, Kisfaludy, contrary to his father’s wishes, now threw up his commission and made his home at the house of a married sister at Vörröck, where he could follow his inclinations. In 1812 he studied painting at the Vienna academy and supported himself precariously by his brush and pencil, till the theatre at Vienna proved a still stronger attraction. In 1812 he wrote the tragedyKlára Zách, and in 1815 went to Italy to study art more thoroughly. But he was back again within six months, and for the next three years flitted from place to place, living on the charity of his friends, lodging in hovels and dashing off scores of daubs which rarely found a market. The united and repeated petitions of the whole Kisfaludy family failed to bring about a reconciliation between the elder Kisfaludy and his prodigal son. It was the success of his dramaIlka, written for the Fehérvár dramatic society, that first made him famous and prosperous. The play was greeted with enthusiasm both at Fehérvár and Buda (1819). Subsequent plays,The Voivode StiberandThe Petitioners(the first original Magyar dramas), were equally successful. Kisfaludy’s fame began to spread. He had found his true vocation as the creator of the Hungarian drama. In May 1820 he wrote three new plays for the dramatic society (he could always turn out a five-act drama in four days) which still further increased his reputation. From 1820 onwards, under the influence of the great critic Kazinczy, he learnt to polish and refine his style, while his friend and adviser György Gaal (who translated some of his dramas for the Vienna stage) introduced him to the works of Shakespeare and Goethe. By this time Kisfaludy had evolved a literary theory of his own which inclined towards romanticism; and in collaboration with his elder brother Alexander (see below) he founded the periodicalAurora(1822), which he edited to the day of his death. TheAurorawas a notable phenomenon in Magyar literature. It attracted towards it many of the rising young authors of the day (including Vörösmarty, Bajza and Czuczor) and speedily became the oracle of the romanticists. Kisfaludy’s material position had now greatly improved, but he could not shake off his old recklessness and generosity, and he was never able to pay a tithe of his debts. The publication ofAuroraso engrossed his time that practically he abandoned the stage. But he contributed toAuroraballads, epigrams, short epic pieces, and, best of all, his comic stories. Kisfaludy was in fact the founder of the school of Magyar humorists and his comic types amuse and delight to this day. When the folk-tale became popular in Europe, Kisfaludy set to work upon folk-tales also and produced (1828) some of the masterpieces of that genre. He died on the 21st of November 1830. Six years later the great literary society of Hungary, theKisfaludy Társaság, was founded to commemorate his genius. Apart from his own works it is the supreme merit of Kisfaludy to have revived and nationalized the Magyar literature, giving it a range and scope undreamed of before his time.
The first edition of Kisfaludy’s works, in 10 volumes, appeared at Buda in 1831, shortly after his death, but the 7th edition (Budapest 1893) is the best and fullest. See Ferenc Toldy,Lives of the Magyar Poets(Hung.) (Budapest, 1870); Zsolt Beöthy,The Father of Hungarian Comedy(Budapest, 1882); Tamás Szana,The Two Kisfaludys(Hung.) (Budapest, 1876). Kisfaludy’s struggles and adventures are also most vividly described in Jókai’s novel,Eppur si muove(Hung.).
The first edition of Kisfaludy’s works, in 10 volumes, appeared at Buda in 1831, shortly after his death, but the 7th edition (Budapest 1893) is the best and fullest. See Ferenc Toldy,Lives of the Magyar Poets(Hung.) (Budapest, 1870); Zsolt Beöthy,The Father of Hungarian Comedy(Budapest, 1882); Tamás Szana,The Two Kisfaludys(Hung.) (Budapest, 1876). Kisfaludy’s struggles and adventures are also most vividly described in Jókai’s novel,Eppur si muove(Hung.).
Sándor [Alexander] Kisfaludy(1772-1844), Hungarian poet, elder brother of the preceding, was born at Zala on the 27th of September 1772, educated at Raab, and graduated in philosophy and jurisprudence at Pressburg. He early fell under the influence of Schiller and Kleist, and devoted himself to the resuscitation of the almost extinct Hungarian literature. Disgusted with his profession, the law, he entered the Life Guards (1793) and plunged into the gay life of Vienna, cultivating literature, learning French, German and Italian, painting, sketching, assiduously frequenting the theatre, and consorting on equal terms with all the literary celebrities of the Austrian capital. In 1796 he was transferred to the army in Italy for being concerned with some of his brother officers of the Vienna garrison in certain irregularities. When Milan was captured by Napoleon Kisfaludy was sent a prisoner of war to Vaucluse, where he studied Petrarch with enthusiasm and fell violently in love with Caroline D’Esclapon, a kindred spirit to whom he addressed his melancholyHimfy Lays, the first part of the subsequently famous sonnets. On returning to Austria he served with some distinction in the campaigns of 1798 and 1799 on the Rhine and in Switzerland; but tiring of a military life and disgusted at the slowness of his promotion, he quitted the army in September 1799, and married his old love Rózá Szegedy at the beginning of 1800. The first five happy years of their life were passed at Kám in Vás county, but in 1805 they removed to Sümeg where Kisfaludy gave himself up entirely to literature.
At the beginning of the 19th century he had published a volume of erotics which made him famous, and his reputation was still further increased by hisRegékor Tales. During the troublous times of 1809, when the gentry of Zala county founded a confederation, the palatine appointed Kisfaludy one of his adjutants. Subsequently, by command, he wrote an account of the movement for presentation to King Francis, which was committed to the secret archives, and Kisfaludy was forbidden to communicate its contents. In 1820 the Marczebánya Institute crowned hisTalesand the palatine presented him with a prize of 400 florins in the hall of the Pest county council. In 1822 he started theAurorawith his younger brother Károly (see above). When the academy was founded in 1830 Kisfaludy was the first county member elected to it. In 1835 he resigned because he was obliged to share the honour of winning the academy’s grand prize with Vörösmarty. After the death of his first wife (1832) he married a second time, but by neither of his wives had he any child. The remainder of his days were spent in his Tusculum among the vineyards of Sümeg and Somla. He died on the 28th of October 1844. Alexander Kisfaludy stands alone among the rising literary schools of his day. He was not even influenced by his friend the great critic Kazinczy, who gave the tone to the young classical writers of his day. Kisfaludy’s art was self-taught, solitary and absolutely independent. If he imitated any one it was Petrarch; indeed his famousHimfy szerelmei(“The Loves of Himfy”), as his collected sonnets are called, have won for him the title of “The Hungarian Petrarch.” But the passion of Kisfaludy is far more sincere and real than ever Petrarch’s was, and he completely Magyarized everything he borrowed. After finishing the sonnets Kisfaludy devoted himself to more objective writing, as in the incomparableRegék, which reproduce the scenery and the history of the delightful counties which surround Lake Balaton. He also contributed numerous tales and other pieces toAurora. Far less successful were his plays, of whichHunyádi János(1816), by far the longest drama in the Hungarian language, need alone be mentioned.
The best critical edition of Sándor Kisfaludy’s works is the fourth complete edition, by David Angyal, in eight volumes (Budapest, 1893). See Tamás Szana,The two Kisfaludys(Hung.) (Budapest, 1876); Imre Sándor,The Influence of the Italian on the Hungarian Literature(Hung.) (Budapest, 1878); Kálmán Sümegi,Kisfaludy and his Tales(Hung.) (Budapest, 1877).
The best critical edition of Sándor Kisfaludy’s works is the fourth complete edition, by David Angyal, in eight volumes (Budapest, 1893). See Tamás Szana,The two Kisfaludys(Hung.) (Budapest, 1876); Imre Sándor,The Influence of the Italian on the Hungarian Literature(Hung.) (Budapest, 1878); Kálmán Sümegi,Kisfaludy and his Tales(Hung.) (Budapest, 1877).
(R. N. B.)
KĪSH,orKais(the first form is Persian and the second Arabic), an island in the Persian Gulf. It is mentioned in the 12th century as being the residence of an Arab pirate from Oman, who exacted a tribute from the pearl fisheries of the gulf and had the title of “King of the Sea,” and it rose to importance in the13th century with the fall of Siraf as a transit station of the trade between India and the West. In the 14th century it was supplanted by Hormuz and lapsed into its former insignificance. The island is nearly 10 m. long and 5 m. broad, and contains a number of small villages, the largest, Mashi, with about 100 houses, being situated on its north-eastern corner in 26° 34′ N. and 54° 2′ E. The highest part of the island has an elevation of 120 ft. The inhabitants are Arabs, and nearly all pearl fishers, possessing many boats, which they take to the pearl banks on the Arabian coast. The water supply is scanty and there is little vegetation, but sufficient for sustaining some flocks of sheep and goats and some cattle. Near the centre of the north coast are the ruins of the old city, now known as Harira, with remains of a mosque, with octagonal columns, masonry, water-cisterns (two 150 ft. long, 40 ft. broad, 24 ft. deep) and a fine underground canal, or aqueduct, half a mile long and cut in the solid rock 20 ft. below the surface. Fragments of glazed tiles and brown and blue pottery, of thin white and blue Chinese porcelain, of green céladon (some with white scroll-work or figures in relief), glass beads, bangles, &c., are abundant. Kīsh is the Kataia of Arrian; Chisi and Quis of Marco Polo; Quixi, Queis, Caez, Cais, &c., of Portuguese writers; and Khenn, or Kenn, of English.
KISHANGARH,a native state of India, in the Rajputana agency. Area, 858 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 90,970, showing a decrease of 27% in the decade, due to the famine of 1899-1900; estimated revenue, £34,000; there is no tribute. The state was founded in the reign of the emperor Akbar, by a younger son of the raja of Jodhpur. In 1818 Kishangarh first came into direct relations with the British government, by entering into a treaty, together with the other Rajput states, for the suppression of the Pindari marauders by whom the country was at that time overrun. The chief, whose title is maharaja, is a Rajput of the Rathor clan. Maharaja Madan Singh ascended the throne in 1900 at the age of sixteen, and attended the Delhi Durbar of 1903 as a cadet in the Imperial Cadet Corps. The administration, under thediwan, is highly spoken of. Irrigation from tanks and wells has been extended; factories for ginning and pressing cotton have been started; and the social reform movement, for discouraging excessive expenditure on marriages, has been very successful. The state is traversed by the Rajputana railway. The town ofKishangarhis 18 m. N.W. of Ajmere by rail. Pop. (1901), 12,663. It is the residence of many Jain merchants.
KISHINEV(Kishlanowof the Moldavians), a town of south-west Russia, capital of the government of Bessarabia, situated on the right bank of the Byk, a tributary of the Dniester, and on the railway between Odessa and Jassy in Rumania, 120 m. W.N.W. from the former. At the beginning of the 19th century it was but a poor village, and in 1812 when it was acquired by Russia from Moldavia it had only 7000 inhabitants; twenty years later its population numbered 35,000, while in 1862 it had with its suburbs 92,000 inhabitants, and in 1900 125,787, composed of the most varied nationalities—Moldavians, Walachians, Russians, Jews (43%), Bulgarians, Tatars, Germans and Gypsies. A massacre (pogrom) of the Jews was perpetrated here in 1903. The town consists of two parts—the old or lower town, on the banks of the Byk, and the new or upper town, situated on high crags, 450 to 500 ft. above the river. The wide suburbs are remarkable for their gardens, which produce great quantities of fruits (especially plums, which are dried and exported), tobacco, mulberry leaves for silkworms, and wine. The buildings of the town are sombre, shabby and low, but built of stone; and the streets, though wide and shaded by acacias, are mostly unpaved. Kishinev is the seat of the archbishop of Bessarabia, and has a cathedral, an ecclesiastical seminary with 800 students, a college, and a gardening school, a museum, a public library, a botanic garden, and a sanatorium with sulphur springs. The town is adorned with statues of Tsar Alexander II. (1886) and the poet Pushkin (1885). There are tallow-melting houses, steam flour-mills, candle and soap works, distilleries and tobacco factories. The trade is very active and increasing, Kishinev being a centre for the Bessarabian trade in grain, wine, tobacco, tallow, wool and skins, exported to Austria and to Odessa. The town played an important part in the war between Russia and Turkey in 1877-78, as the chief centre of the Russian invasion.
KISHM(also Arab.Jazīrat ut-tawīlah, Pers.Jazarīh i darāz,i.e.Long Island), an island at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, separated from the Persian mainland by the Khor-i-Jafari, a strait which at its narrowest point is less than 2 m. broad. On British Admiralty charts it figures as “Clarence Strait,” the name given to it by British surveyors in 1828 in honour of the duke of Clarence (William IV.). The island is 70 m. long, its main axis running E.N.E. by W.S.W. Its greatest breadth is 22 m. and the mean breadth about 7 m. A range of hills from 300 to 600 ft. high, with strongly marked escarpments, runs nearly parallel to the southern coast; they are largely composed, like those of Hormuz and the neighbouring mainland, of rock salt, which is regularly quarried in several places, principally at Nimakdan (i.e.salt-cellar) and Salakh on the south coast, and forms one of the chief products of the island, finding its way to Muscat, India and Zanzibar. In the centre of the island some hills, consisting of sandstone and marl, rise to an elevation of 1300 ft. In its general aspect the island is parched and barren-looking, like the south of Persia, but it contains fertile portions, which produce grain, dates, grapes, melons, &c. Traces of naphtha were observed near Salakh, but extensive boring operations in 1892 did not lead to any result. The town of Kishm (pop. 5000) is on the eastern extremity of the island. The famous navigator, William Baffin, was killed here in January 1622 by a shot from the Portuguese castle close by, which a British force was then besieging. Lafit (Laft, Leit), the next place in importance (reduced by a British fleet in 1809), is situated about midway on the northern coast in the most fertile part of the island. There are also many flourishing villages. At Basidu or Bassadore (correct name Baba Sa’idu), on the western extremity of the island, the British government maintained until 1879 a sanatorium for the crews of their gunboats in the gulf, with barracks for a company of sepoys belonging to the marine battalion at Bombay, workshops, hospital, &c. The village is still British property, but its occupants are reduced to a couple of men in charge of a coal depot, a provision store and about 90 villagers. In December 1896 a terrible earthquake destroyed about four-fifths of the houses on the island and over 1000 persons lost their lives. The total population is generally estimated at about 15,000 to 20,000, but the German Admiralty’sSegelhandbuch für den Persischen Golffor 1907 has 40,000.
Kishm is the ancientOaracta, orUorochta, a name said to have survived until recently in a village called Brokt, or Brokht. It was also called the island of the Beni Kavan, from an Arab tribe of that name which came from Oman.
(A. H.-S.)
KISKUNFÉLEGYHÁZA,a town of Hungary, in the county of Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun, 80 m. S.S.E. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900), 33,242. Among the principal buildings are a fine town hall, a Roman Catholic gymnasium and a modern large parish church. The surrounding country is covered with vineyards, fruit gardens, and tobacco and corn fields. The town itself, which is an important railway junction, is chiefly noted for its great cattle-market. Numerous Roman urns and other ancient relics have been dug up in the vicinity. In the 17th century the town was completely destroyed by the Turks, and it was not recolonized and rebuilt till 1743.
KISLOVODSK,a town and health-resort of Russian Caucasia, in the province of Terek, situated at an altitude of 2690 ft., in a deep caldron-shaped valley on the N. side of the Caucasus, 40 m. by rail S.W. of Pyatigorsk. Pop. (1897), 4078. The limestone hills which surround the town rise by successive steps or terraces, and contain numerous caves. The mineral waters are strongly impregnated with carbonic acid gas and have a temperature of 51° F. The principal spring is known as Narsan, and its water is called by the Circassians the “drink of heroes.”
KISMET,fate, destiny, a term used by Mahommedans to express all the incidents and details of man’s lot in life. Theword is the Turkish form of the Arabicgismat, fromgasama, to divide.
KISS,the act of pressing or touching with the lips, cheek, hand or lips of another, as a sign or expression of love, affection, reverence or greeting. Skeat (Etym. Dict., 1898) connects the Teut. basekussawith Lat.gustus, taste, and with Goth.kustus, test, fromkinsan, to choose, and takes “kiss” as ultimately a doublet of “choice.”
For the liturgicalosculum pacisor “kiss of peace,” seePax. See further C. Nyrop,The Kiss and its History, trans. by W. F. Harvey (1902); J. J. Claudius,Dissertatio de salulationibus veterum(Utrecht, 1702); and “Baisers d’étiquette” (1689) inArchives curieuses de l’histoire de France(1834-1890, series ii. tom. 12).
For the liturgicalosculum pacisor “kiss of peace,” seePax. See further C. Nyrop,The Kiss and its History, trans. by W. F. Harvey (1902); J. J. Claudius,Dissertatio de salulationibus veterum(Utrecht, 1702); and “Baisers d’étiquette” (1689) inArchives curieuses de l’histoire de France(1834-1890, series ii. tom. 12).
KISSAR,orGytarah Barbaryeh, the ancient Nubian lyre, still in use in Egypt and Abyssinia. It consists of a body having instead of the traditional tortoiseshell back a shallow, round bowl of wood, covered with a sound-board of sheepskin, in which are three small round sound-holes. The arms, set through the sound-board at points distant about the third of the diameter from the circumference, have the familiar fan shape. Five gut strings, knotted round the bar and raised from the sound-board by means of a bridge tailpiece similar to that in use on the modern guitar, are plucked by means of a plectrum by the right hand for the melody, while the left hand sometimes twangs some of the strings as a soft drone accompaniment.
KISSINGEN,a town and watering-place of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, delightfully situated in a broad valley surrounded by high and well-wooded hills, on the Franconian Saale, 656 ft. above sea-level, 62 m. E. of Frankfort-on-Main, and 43 N.E. of Würzburg by rail. Pop. (1900), 4757. Its streets are regular and its houses attractive. It has an Evangelical, an English, a Russian and three Roman Catholic churches, a theatre, and various benevolent institutions, besides all the usual buildings for the lodging, cure and amusement of the numerous visitors who are attracted to this, the most popular watering-place in Bavaria. In the Kurgarten, a tree-shaded expanse between the Kurhaus and the handsome colonnaded Konversations-Saal, are the three principal springs, the Rákóczy, the Pandur and the Maxbrunnen, of which the first two, strongly impregnated with iron and salt, have a temperature of 51.26° F.; the last (50.72°) is like Selters or Seltzer water. At short distances from the town are the intermittent artesian spring Solensprudel, the Schönbornsprudel and the Theresienquelle; and in the same valley as Kissingen are the minor spas of Bocklet and Brückenau. The waters of Kissingen are prescribed for both internal and external use in a great variety of diseases. They are all highly charged with salt, and productive government salt-works were at one time stationed near Kissingen. The number of persons who visit the place amounts to about 20,000 a year. The manufactures of the town, chiefly carriages and furniture, are unimportant; there is also a trade in fruit and wine.
The salt springs were known in the 9th century, and their medicinal properties were recognized in the 16th, but it was only during the 19th century that Kissingen became a popular resort. The town belonged to the counts of Henneberg until 1394, when it was sold to the bishop of Würzburg. With this bishopric it passed later to Bavaria. On the 10th of July 1866 the Prussians defeated the Bavarians with great slaughter near Kissingen. On the 13th of July 1874 the town was the scene of the attempt of the fanatic Kullmann to assassinate Prince Bismarck, to whom a statue has been erected. There are also monuments to Kings Louis I. and Maximilian I. of Bavaria.
See Balling,Die Heilquellen und Bäder zu Kissingen(Kissingen, 1886); A. Sotier,Bad Kissingen(Leipzig, 1883); Werner,Bad Kissingen als Kurort(Berlin, 1904); Leusser,Kissingen für Herzkranke(Würzburg, 1902); Diruf,Kissingen und seine Heilquellen(Würzburg, 1892); and Roth,Bad Kissingen(Würzburg, 1901).
See Balling,Die Heilquellen und Bäder zu Kissingen(Kissingen, 1886); A. Sotier,Bad Kissingen(Leipzig, 1883); Werner,Bad Kissingen als Kurort(Berlin, 1904); Leusser,Kissingen für Herzkranke(Würzburg, 1902); Diruf,Kissingen und seine Heilquellen(Würzburg, 1892); and Roth,Bad Kissingen(Würzburg, 1901).
KISTNA,orKrishna, a large river of southern India. It rises near the Bombay sanatorium of Mahabaleshwar in the Western Ghats, only about 40 m. from the Arabian Sea, and, as it discharges into the Bay of Bengal, it thus flows across almost the entire peninsula from west to east. It has an estimated basin area of 97,000 sq. m., and its length is 800 m. Its source is held sacred, and is frequented by pilgrims in large numbers. From Mahabaleshwar the Kistna runs southward in a rapid course into the nizam’s dominions, then turns to the east, and ultimately falls into the sea by two principal mouths, carrying with it the waters of the Bhima from the north and the Tungabadhra from the south-west. Along this part of the coast runs an extensive strip of land which has been entirely formed by the detritus washed down by the Kistna and Godavari. The river channel is throughout too rocky and the stream too rapid to allow navigation even by small native craft. In utility for irrigation the Kistna is also inferior to its two sister streams, the Godavari and Cauvery. By far the greatest of its irrigation works is the Bezwada anicut, begun by Sir Arthur Cotton in 1852. Bezwada is a small town at the entrance of the gorge by which the Kistna bursts through the Eastern Ghats and immediately spreads over the alluvial plain. The channel there is 1300 yds. wide. During the dry season the depth of water is barely 6 ft., but sometimes it rises to as much as 36 ft., the maximum flood discharge being calculated at 1,188,000 cub. ft. per second. Of the two main canals connected with the dam, that on the left bank breaks into two branches, the one running 39 m. to Ellore, the other 49 m. to Masulipatam. The canal on the right bank proceeds nearly parallel to the river, and also sends off two principal branches, to Nizampatam and Comamur. The total length of the main channels is 372 m. and the total area irrigated in 1903-1904 was about 700,000 acres.
KISTNA(orKrishna), a district of British India, in the N.E. of the Madras Presidency. Masulipatam is the district headquarters. Area, 8490 sq. m. The district is generally a flat country, but the interior is broken by a few low hills, the highest being 1857 ft. above sea-level. The principal rivers are the Kistna, which cuts the district into two portions, and the Munyeru, Paleru and Naguleru (tributaries of the Gundlakamma and the Kistna); the last only is navigable. The Kolar lake, which covers an area of 21 by 14 m., and the Romparu swamp are natural receptacles for the drainage on the north and south sides of the Kistna respectively.
In 1901 the population was 2,154,803, showing an increase of 16% in the decade. Subsequently the area of the district was reduced by the formation of the new district of Guntur (q.v.), though Kistna received an accretion of territory from Godavari district. The population in 1901 on the area as reconstituted (5899 sq. m.) was 1,744,138. The Kistna delta system of irrigation canals, which are available also for navigation, connect with the Godavari system. The principal crops are rice, millets, pulse, oil-seeds, cotton, indigo, tobacco and a little sugar-cane. There are several factories for ginning and pressing cotton. The cigars known in England as Lunkas are partly made from tobacco grown onlankasor islands in the Kistna. The manufacture of chintzes at Masulipatam is a decaying industry, but cotton is woven everywhere for domestic use. Salt is evaporated, under government supervision, along the coast. Bezwada, at the head of the delta, is a place of growing importance, as the central junction of the East Coast railway system, which crosses the inland portion of the district in three directions. Some seaborne trade, chiefly coasting, is carried on at the open roadsteads of Masulipatam and Nizampatam, both in the delta. The Church Missionary Society supports a college at Masulipatam.
The early history of Kistna is inseparable from that of the northern Circars. Dharanikota and the adjacent town of Amravati were the seats of early Hindu and Buddhist governments; and the more modern Rajahmundry owed its importance to later dynasties. The Chalukyas here gave place to the Cholas, who in turn were ousted by the Reddi kings, who flourished during the 14th century, and built the forts of Bellamkonda, Kondavi and Kondapalli in the north of the district, while the Gajapati dynasty of Orissa ruled in the north. Afterwards the entire district passed to the Kutb Shahis of Golconda, until annexed to the Mogul empire by Aurangzeb in 1687. Meantime the English had in 1611 established a small factory at Masulipatam, where they traded with varying fortune from 1759, when,Masulipatam being captured from the French by Colonel Forde, with a force sent by Lord Clive from Calcutta, the power of the English in the greater part of the district was complete.
KIT(1) (probably an adaptation of the Middle Dutchkitie, a wooden tub, usually with a lid and handles; in modern Dutchkitmeans a tankard), a tub, basket or pail used for holding milk, butter, eggs, fish and other goods; also applied to similar receptacles for various domestic purposes, or for holding a workman’s tools, &c. By transference “kit” came to mean the tools themselves, but more commonly personal effects such as clothing, especially that of a soldier or sailor, the word including the knapsack or other receptacle in which the effects are packed. (2) The name (perhaps a corruption of “cittern” Gr.κιθάρα) of a small violin, about 16 in. long, and played with a bow of nearly the same length, much used at one time by dancing-masters. The French name ispochette, the instrument being small enough to go into the pocket.