Chapter 8

KER, JOHN(1673-1726), Scottish spy, was born in Ayrshire on the 8th of August 1673. His true name was Crawfurd, his father being Alexander Crawfurd of Crawfurdland; but having married Anna, younger daughter of Robert Ker, of Kersland, Ayrshire, whose only son Daniel Ker was killed at the battle of Steinkirk in 1692, he assumed the name and arms of Ker in 1697, after buying the family estates from his wife’s elder sister. Having become a leader among the extreme Covenanters, he made use of his influence to relieve his pecuniary embarrassments, selling his support at one time to the Jacobites, at another to the government, and whenever possible to both parties at the same time. He held a licence from the government in 1707 permitting him to associate with those whose disloyalty was known or suspected, proving that he was at that date the government’s paid spy; and in hisMemoirsKer asserts that he had a number of other spies and agents working under his orders in different parts of the country. He entered into correspondence with Catholic priests and Jacobite conspirators, whose schemes, so far as he could make himself cognisant of them, he betrayed to the government. But he was known to be a man of the worst character, and it is improbable that he succeeded in gaining the confidence of people of any importance. The duchess of Gordon was for a time, it is true, one of his correspondents, but in 1707 she had discovered him to be “a knave.” He went to London in 1709, where he seems to have extracted considerable sums of money from politicians of both parties by promising or threatening, as the case might be, to expose Godolphin’s relations with the Jacobites. In 1713, if his own story is to be believed, business of a semi-diplomatic nature took Ker to Vienna, where, although he failed in the principal object of his errand, the emperor made him a present of his portrait set in jewels. Ker also occupied his time in Vienna, he says, by gathering information which he forwarded to the electress Sophia; and in the following year on his way home he stopped at Hanover to give some advice to the future king of England as to the best way to govern the English. Although in his own opinion Ker materially assisted in placing George I. on the English throne, his services were unrewarded, owing, he would have us believe, to the incorruptibility of his character. Similar ingratitude was the recompense for his revelations of the Jacobite intentions in 1715;and as he was no more successful in making money out of the East India Company, nor in certain commercial schemes which engaged his ingenuity during the next few years, he died in a debtors’ prison, on the 8th of July 1726. While in the King’s Bench he sold to Edmund Curll the bookseller, a fellow-prisoner, who was serving a sentence of five months for publishing obscene books, the manuscript of (or possibly only the materials on which were based) theMemoirs of John Ker of Kersland, which Curll published in 1726 in three parts, the last of which appeared after Ker’s death. For issuing the first part of theMemoirs, which purported to make disclosures damaging to the government, but which Curll in self-justification described as “vindicating the memory of Queen Anne,” the publisher was sentenced to the pillory at Charing Cross; and he added to the third part of theMemoirsthe indictment on which he had been convicted.

See the above-mentionedMemoirs(London, 1726-1727), and in particular the “preface” to part i.; George Lockhart,The Lockhart Papers(2 vols., London, 1817); Nathaniel Hooke,Correspondence, edited by W. D. Macray (Roxburghe Club, 2 vols., London, 1870), in which Ker is referred to under several pseudonyms, such as “Wicks,” “Trustie,” “The Cameronian Mealmonger,” &c.

KERAK,a town in eastern Palestine, 10 m. E. of the southern angle of the Lisan promontory of the Dead Sea, on the top of a rocky hill about 3000 ft. above sea-level. It stands on a platform forming an irregular triangle with sides about 3000 ft. in length, and separated by deep ravines from the ranges around on all sides but one. The population is estimated at 6000 Moslems and 1800 Orthodox Greek Christians. Kerak is identified with the Moabite town of Kir-Hareseth (destroyed by the Hebrew-Edomite coalition, 2 Kings iii. 25), and denounced by Isaiah under the name Kir of Moab (xv. 1), Kir-Hareseth (xvi. 7) or Kir-Heres (xvi. 11): Jeremiah also refers to it by the last name (xxxix. 31, 36). The modern name, in the formΧάραξ, appears in 2 Macc. xii. 17. Later, Kerak was the seat of the archbishop of Petra. The Latin kings of Jerusalem, recognizing its importance as the key of the E. Jordan region, fortified it in 1142; from 1183 it was attacked desperately by Saladin, to whom at last it yielded in 1188. The Arabian Ayyubite princes fortified the town, as did the Egyptian Mameluke sultans. The fortifications were repaired by Bibars in the 13th century. For a long time after the Turkish occupation of Palestine and Egypt it enjoyed a semi-independence, but in 1893 a Turkish governor with a strong garrison was established there, which has greatly contributed to secure the safety of travellers and the general quiet of the district. The town is an irregular congeries of flat mud-roofed houses. In the Christian quarter is the church of St George; the mosque also is a building of Christian origin. The town is surrounded by a wall with five towers; entrance now is obtained through breaches in the wall, but formerly it was accessible only by means of tunnels cut in the rocky substratum. The castle, now used as the headquarters of the garrison and closed to visitors, is a remarkably fine example of a crusaders’ fortress.

(R. A. S. M.)

KERALA,orChera, the name of one of the three ancient Dravidian kingdoms of the Tamil country of southern India, the other two being the Chola and the Pandya. Its original territory comprised the country now contained in the Malabar district, with Travancore and Cochin, and later the country included in the Coimbatore district and a part of Salem. The boundaries, however, naturally varied much from time to time. The earliest references to this kingdom appear in the edicts of Asoka, where it is calledKeralaputra(i.e.son of Kerala), a name which in a slightly corrupt form is known to Pliny and the author of thePeriplus. There is evidence of a lively trade carried on by sea with the Roman empire in the early centuries of the Christian era, but of the political history of the Kerala kingdom nothing is known beyond a list of rajas compiled from inscriptions, until in the 10th century the struggle began with the Cholas, by whom it was conquered and held till their overthrow by the Mahommedans in 1310. These in their turn were driven out by a Hindu confederation headed by the chiefs of Vijayanagar, and Kerala was absorbed in the Vijayanagar empire until its destruction by the Mahommedans in 1565. For about 80 years it seems to have preserved a precarious independence under the naiks of Madura, but in 1640 was conquered by the Adil Shah dynasty of Bijapur and in 1652 seized by the king of Mysore.

See V. A. Smith,Early Hist. of India, chap. xvi. (2nd ed., Oxford, 1908).

KERASUND(anc.Choerades,Pharnacia,Cerasus), a town on the N. coast of Asia Minor, in the Trebizond vilayet, and the port—an exposed roadstead—of Kara-Hissar Sharki, with which it is connected by a carriage road. Pop. just under 10,000, Moslems being in a slight minority. The town is situated on a rocky promontory, crowned by a Byzantine fortress, and has a growing trade. It exports filberts (for which product it is the centre), walnuts, hides and timber. Cerasus was the place from which the wild cherry was introduced into Italy by Lucullus and so to Europe (hence Fr.cerise, “cherry”).

KÉRATRY, AUGUSTE HILARION,Comte de(1769-1859), French writer and politician, was born at Rennes on the 28th of December 1769. Coming to Paris in 1790, he associated himself with Bernardin de St Pierre. After being twice imprisoned during the Terror he retired to Brittany, where he devoted himself to literature till 1814. In 1818 he returned to Paris as deputy for Finistère, and sat in the Chamber till 1824, becoming one of the recognized liberal leaders. He was re-elected in 1827, took an active part in the establishment of the July monarchy, was appointed a councillor of state (1830), and in 1837 was made a peer of France. After thecoup d’étatof 1851 he retired from public life. Among his publications wereContes et Idylles(1791);Lysus et Cydippe, a poem (1801);Inductions morales et physiologiques(1817);Documents pour servir à l’histoire de France(1820);Du Beau dans les arts d’imitation(1822);Le Dernier des Beaumanoir(1824). His last work,Clarisse(1854), a novel, was written when he was eighty-five. He died at Port-Marly on the 7th of November 1859.

His son, comte Emile de Kératry (1832- ), became deputy for Finistère in 1869, and strongly supported the war with Germany in 1870. He was in Paris during part of the siege, but escaped in a balloon, and joined Gambetta. In 1871 Thiers appointed him to the prefecture, first of the Haute-Garonne, and subsequently of the Bouches-du-Rhône, but he resigned in the following year. He is the author ofLa Contre-guérilla française au Mexique(1868);L’Élévation et la chute de l’empereur Maximilien(1867);Le Quatre-septembre et le gouvernement de la défense nationale(1872);Mourad V.(1878), and some volumes of memories.

KERBELA,orMeshed-Ḥosain, a town of Asiatic Turkey, the capital of a sanjak of the Bagdad vilayet, situated on the extreme western edge of the alluvial river plain, about 60 m. S.S.W. of Bagdad and 20 m. W. of the Euphrates, from which a canal extends almost to the town. The surrounding territory is fertile and well cultivated, especially in fruit gardens and palm-groves. The newer parts of the city are built with broad streets and sidewalks, presenting an almost European appearance. The inner town, surrounded by a dilapidated brick wall, at the gates of which octroi duties are still levied, is a dirty Oriental city, with the usual narrow streets. Kerbela owes its existence to the fact that Ḥosain, a son of ‘Ali, the fourth caliph, was slain here by the soldiers of Yazid, the rival aspirant to the caliphate, on the 10th of OctoberA.D.680 (seeCaliphate, sec. B, § 2). The most important feature of the town is the great shrine of Ḥosain, containing the tomb of the martyr, with its golden dome and triple minarets, two of which are glided. Kerbela is a place of pilgrimage of the Shi’ite Moslems, and is only less sacred to them than Meshed ‘Ali and Mecca. Some 200,000 pilgrims from the Shi’ite portions of Islam are said to journey annually to Kerbela, many of them carrying the bones of their relatives to be buried in its sacred soil, or bringing their sick and aged to die there in the odour of sanctity. The mullahs, who fix the burial fees, derive an enormous revenue from the faithful. Formerly Kerbela was a self-governing hierarchy and constituted an inviolable sanctuary for criminals; but in 1843 the Turkishgovernment undertook to deprive the city of some of these liberties and to enforce conscription. The Kerbelese resisted, and Kerbela was bombarded (hence the ruined condition of the old walls) and reduced with great slaughter. Since then it has formed an integral part of the Turkish administration of Irak. The enormous influx of pilgrims naturally creates a brisk trade in Kerbela and the towns along the route from Persia to that place and beyond to Nejef. The population of Kerbela, necessarily fluctuating, is estimated at something over 60,000, of whom the principal part are Shi’ites, chiefly Persians, with a goodly mixture of British Indians. No Jews or Christians are allowed to reside there.

See Chodzko,Théâtre persan(Paris, 1878); J. P. Peters,Nippur(1897).

(J. P. Pe.)

KERCH,orKertch, a seaport of S. Russia, in the government of Taurida, on the Strait of Kerch or Yenikale, 60 m. E.N.E. of Theodosia, in 45° 21′ N. and 36° 30′ E. Pop. (1897), 31,702. It stands on the site of the ancientPanticapaeum, and, like most towns built by the ancient Greek colonists in this part of the world, occupies a beautiful situation, clustering round the foot and climbing up the sides of the hill (called after Mithradates) on which stood the ancient citadel or acropolis. The church of St John the Baptist, founded in 717, is a good example of the early Byzantine style. That of Alexander Nevsky was formerly the Kerch museum of antiquities, founded in 1825. The more valuable objects were subsequently removed to the Hermitage at St Petersburg, while those that remained at Kerch were scattered during the English occupation in the Crimean War. The existing museum is a small collection in a private house. Among the products of local industry are leather, tobacco, cement, beer, aerated waters, lime, candles and soap. Fishing is carried on, and there are steam saw-mills and flour-mills. A rich deposit of iron ore was discovered close to Kerch in 1895, and since then mining and blasting have been actively prosecuted. The mineral mud-baths, one of which is in the town itself and the other beside Lake Chokrak (9 m. distant), are much frequented. Notwithstanding the deepening of the strait, so that ships are now able to enter the Sea of Azov, Kerch retains its importance for the export trade in wheat, brought thither by coasting vessels. Grain, fish, linseed, rapeseed, wool and hides are also exported. About 6 m. N.E. are the town and old Turkish fortress of Yenikale, administratively united with Kerch. Two and a half miles to the south are strong fortified works defending the entrance to the Sea of Azov.

The Greek colony of Panticapaeum was founded about the middle of the 6th centuryB.C., by the town of Miletus. From about 438B.C.till the conquest of this region by Mithradates the Great, king of Pontus, about 100B.C., the town and territory formed the kingdom of the Bosporus, ruled over by an independent dynasty. Phanaces, the son of Mithradates, became the founder of a new line under the protection of the Romans, which continued to exist till the middle of the 4th centuryA.D., and extended its power over the maritime parts of Tauris. After that the town—which had already begun to be known as Bospora—passed successively into the hands of the Eastern empire, of the Khazars, and of various barbarian tribes. In 1318, the Tatars, who had come into possession in the previous century, ceded the town to the Genoese, who soon raised it into new importance as a commercial centre. They usually called the place Cerchio, a corruption of the Russian name K’rtchev (whence Kerch), which appears in the 11th century inscription of Tmutarakan (a Russian principality at the north foot of the Caucasus). Under the Turks, whose rule dates from the end of the 15th century, Kerch was a military port; and as such it plays a part in the Russo-Turkish wars. Captured by the Russians under Dolgorukov in 1771, it was ceded to them along with Yenikale by the peace of Kuchuk-Kainarji, and it became a centre of Russian naval activity. Its importance was greatly impaired by the rise of Odessa and Taganrog; and in 1820 the fortress was dismantled. Kerch suffered severely during the Crimean War.

Archaeologically Kerch is of particular interest, the kurgans or sepulchral mounds of the town and vicinity having yielded a rich variety of the most beautiful works of art. Since 1825 a large number of tombs have been opened. In the Altun or Zolotai-oba (Golden Mound) was found a great stone vault similar in style to an Egyptian pyramid; and within, among many objects of minor note, were golden dishes adorned with griffins and beautiful arabesques. In the Kul-oba, or Mound of Cinders (opened in 1830-1831), was a similar tomb, in which were found what would appear to be the remains of one of the kings of Bosporus, of his queen, his horse and his groom. The ornaments and furniture were of the most costly kind; the king’s bow and buckler were of gold; his very whip intertwined with gold; the queen had golden diadems, necklace and breast-jewels, and at her feet lay a golden vase. In the Pavlovskoi kurgan (opened in 1858) was the tomb of a Greek lady, containing among other articles of dress and decoration a pair of fine leather boots (a unique discovery) and a beautiful vase on which is painted the return of Persephone from Hades and the setting out of Triptolemus for Attica. In a neighbouring tomb was what is believed to be “the oldest Greek mural painting which has come down to us,” dating probably from the 4th centuryB.C.Among the minor objects discovered in the kurgans perhaps the most noteworthy are the fragments of engraved boxwood, the only examples known of the art taught by the Sicyonian painter Pamphilus.Very important finds of old Greek art continue to be made in the neighbourhood, as well as at Tamañ, on the east side of the Strait of Kerch. The catacombs on the northern slope of Mithradates Hill, of which nearly 200 have been explored since 1859, possess considerable interest, not only for the relics of old Greek art which some of them contain (although most were plundered in earlier times), but especially as material for the history and ethnography of the Cimmerian Bosporus. In 1890 the first Christian catacomb bearing a distinct date (491) was discovered. Its walls were covered with Greek inscriptions and crosses.See H. D. Seymour’sRussia on the Black Sea and Sea of Azoff(London, 1855); J. B. Telfer,The Crimea(London, 1876); P. Bruhn,Tchernomore, 1852-1877(Odessa, 1878); Gilles,Antiquités du Bosphore Cimmérien(1854); D. Macpherson,Antiquities of Kertch(London, 1857);Compte rendu de la Commission Imp. Archéologique(St Petersburg); L. Stephani,Die Alterthümer vom Kertsch(St Petersburg, 1880); C. T. Newton,Essays on Art and Archaeology(London, 1880);Reportsof the [Russian] Imp. Archaeological Commission;Izvestia(Bulletin) of the Archives Commission for Taurida;Antiquités du Bosphore Cimmérien, conservées au Musée Impérial de l’Ermitage(St Petersburg, 1854);Inscriptiones antiquae orae septentrionalis Ponti Euxini graecae et latinae, with a preface by V. V. Latyshev (St Petersburg, 1890);Materials for the Archaeology of Russia, published by the Imp. Arch. Commission (No. 6, St Petersburg, 1891).

Very important finds of old Greek art continue to be made in the neighbourhood, as well as at Tamañ, on the east side of the Strait of Kerch. The catacombs on the northern slope of Mithradates Hill, of which nearly 200 have been explored since 1859, possess considerable interest, not only for the relics of old Greek art which some of them contain (although most were plundered in earlier times), but especially as material for the history and ethnography of the Cimmerian Bosporus. In 1890 the first Christian catacomb bearing a distinct date (491) was discovered. Its walls were covered with Greek inscriptions and crosses.

See H. D. Seymour’sRussia on the Black Sea and Sea of Azoff(London, 1855); J. B. Telfer,The Crimea(London, 1876); P. Bruhn,Tchernomore, 1852-1877(Odessa, 1878); Gilles,Antiquités du Bosphore Cimmérien(1854); D. Macpherson,Antiquities of Kertch(London, 1857);Compte rendu de la Commission Imp. Archéologique(St Petersburg); L. Stephani,Die Alterthümer vom Kertsch(St Petersburg, 1880); C. T. Newton,Essays on Art and Archaeology(London, 1880);Reportsof the [Russian] Imp. Archaeological Commission;Izvestia(Bulletin) of the Archives Commission for Taurida;Antiquités du Bosphore Cimmérien, conservées au Musée Impérial de l’Ermitage(St Petersburg, 1854);Inscriptiones antiquae orae septentrionalis Ponti Euxini graecae et latinae, with a preface by V. V. Latyshev (St Petersburg, 1890);Materials for the Archaeology of Russia, published by the Imp. Arch. Commission (No. 6, St Petersburg, 1891).

(P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)

KERCKHOVEN, JAN POLYANDER VAN DEN(1568-1646), Dutch Protestant divine, was born at Metz, in 1568. He became French preacher at Dort in 1591, and afterwards succeeded Franz Gomarus as professor of theology at Leiden. He was invited by the States General of Holland to revise the Dutch translation of the Bible, and it was he who edited the canons of the synod of Dort (1618-1619).

His many published works includeResponsio ad sophismata A. Cocheletii doctoris surbonnistae(1610),Dispute contre l’adoration des reliques des Saincts trespassés(1611),Explicatio somae prophetae(1625).

KERGUELEN ISLAND,Kerguelen’s Land, orDesolation Island, an island in the Southern Ocean, to the S.E. of the Cape of Good Hope, and S.W. of Australia, and nearly half-way between them. Kerguelen lies between 48° 39′ and 49° 44′ S. and 68° 42′ and 70° 35′ E. Its extreme length is about 85 m., but the area is only about 1400 sq. m. The island is throughout mountainous, presenting from the sea in some directions the appearance of a series of jagged peaks. The various ridges and mountain masses are separated by steep-sided valleys, which run down to the sea, forming deep fjords, so that no part of the interior is more than 12 m. from the sea. The chief summits are Mounts Ross (6120 ft.), Richards (4000), Crozier (3251), Wyville Thomson (3160), Hooker (2600), Moseley (2400). The coast-line is extremely irregular, and the fjords, at least on the north, east and south, form a series of well-sheltered harbours. As the prevailing winds are westerly, the safest anchorage is on the north-east. Christmas Harbour on the north and Royal Sound on the south are noble harbours, the latter with a labyrinth of islets interspersed over upwards of 20 m. of land-locked waters. The scenery is generally magnificent. A district of considerable extent in the centre of the island is occupiedby snowfields, whence glaciers descend east and west to the sea. The whole island, exclusive of the snowfields, abounds in freshwater lakes and pools in the hills and lower ground. Hidden deep mudholes are frequent.

Kerguelen Island is of undoubted volcanic origin, the prevailing rock being basaltic lavas, intersected occasionally by dikes, and an active volcano and hot springs are said to exist in the south-west of the island. Judging from the abundant fossil remains of trees, the island must have been thickly clothed with woods and other vegetation of which it has no doubt been denuded by volcanic action and submergence, and possibly by changes of climate. It presents evidences of having been subjected to powerful glaciation, and to subsequent immersion and immense denudation. The soundings made by the “Challenger” and “Gazelle” and the affinities which in certain respects exist between the islands, seem to point to the existence at one time of an extensive land area in this quarter, of which Kerguelen, Prince Edward’s Islands, the Crozets, St Paul and Amsterdam are the remains. The Kerguelen plateau rises in many parts to within 1500 fathoms of the surface of the sea. Beds of coal and of red earth are found in some places. The summits of the flat-topped hills about Betsy Cove, in the south-east of the island, are formed of caps of basalt.According to Sir J. D. Hooker the vegetation of Kerguelen Island is of great antiquity; and may have originally reached it from the American continent; it has no affinities with Africa. The present climate is not favourable to permanent vegetation; the island lies within the belt of rain at all seasons of the year, and is reached by no drying winds; its temperature is kept down by the surrounding vast expanse of sea, and it lies within the line of the cold Antarctic drift. The temperature, however, is equable. The mean annual temperature is about 39° F., while the summer temperature has been observed to approach 70°. Tempests and squalls are frequent, and the weather is rarely calm. On the lower slopes of the mountains a rank vegetation exists, which, from the conditions mentioned, is constantly saturated with moisture. A rank grass,Festuca Cookii, grows thickly in places up to 300 ft., withAzorella,Cotula plumosa, &c. Sir J. D. Hooker enumerated twenty-one species of flowering plants, and seven of ferns, lycopods, andCharaceae; at least seventy-four species of mosses, twenty-five ofHepaticae, and sixty-one of lichens are known, and there are probably many more. Several of the marine and many species of freshwater algae are peculiar to the island. The characteristic feature of the vegetation, the Kerguelen’s Land cabbage, was formerly abundant, but has been greatly reduced by rabbits introduced on to the island. Fur-seals are still found in Kerguelen, though their numbers have been reduced by reckless slaughter. The sea-elephant and sea-leopard are characteristic. Penguins of various kinds are abundant; a teal (Querquedula Eatoni) peculiar to Kerguelen and the Crozets is also found in considerable numbers, and petrels, especially the giant petrel (Ossifraga gigantea), skuas, gulls, sheath-bills (Chionis minor), albatross, terns, cormorants and Cape pigeons frequent the island. There is a considerable variety of insects, many of them with remarkable peculiarities of structure, and with a predominance of forms incapable of flying.

According to Sir J. D. Hooker the vegetation of Kerguelen Island is of great antiquity; and may have originally reached it from the American continent; it has no affinities with Africa. The present climate is not favourable to permanent vegetation; the island lies within the belt of rain at all seasons of the year, and is reached by no drying winds; its temperature is kept down by the surrounding vast expanse of sea, and it lies within the line of the cold Antarctic drift. The temperature, however, is equable. The mean annual temperature is about 39° F., while the summer temperature has been observed to approach 70°. Tempests and squalls are frequent, and the weather is rarely calm. On the lower slopes of the mountains a rank vegetation exists, which, from the conditions mentioned, is constantly saturated with moisture. A rank grass,Festuca Cookii, grows thickly in places up to 300 ft., withAzorella,Cotula plumosa, &c. Sir J. D. Hooker enumerated twenty-one species of flowering plants, and seven of ferns, lycopods, andCharaceae; at least seventy-four species of mosses, twenty-five ofHepaticae, and sixty-one of lichens are known, and there are probably many more. Several of the marine and many species of freshwater algae are peculiar to the island. The characteristic feature of the vegetation, the Kerguelen’s Land cabbage, was formerly abundant, but has been greatly reduced by rabbits introduced on to the island. Fur-seals are still found in Kerguelen, though their numbers have been reduced by reckless slaughter. The sea-elephant and sea-leopard are characteristic. Penguins of various kinds are abundant; a teal (Querquedula Eatoni) peculiar to Kerguelen and the Crozets is also found in considerable numbers, and petrels, especially the giant petrel (Ossifraga gigantea), skuas, gulls, sheath-bills (Chionis minor), albatross, terns, cormorants and Cape pigeons frequent the island. There is a considerable variety of insects, many of them with remarkable peculiarities of structure, and with a predominance of forms incapable of flying.

The island was discovered by the French navigator, Yves Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec, a Breton noble (1745-1797), on the 13th of February 1772, and partly surveyed by him in the following year. He was one of those explorers who had been attracted by the belief in a rich southern land, and this island, the South France of his first discovery, was afterwards called by him Desolation Land in his disappointment. Captain Cook visited the island in 1776, and, among other expeditions, the “Challenger” spent some time here, and its staff visited and surveyed various parts of it in January 1874. It was occupied from October 1874 to February 1875 by the expeditions sent from England, Germany and the United States to observe the transit of Venus. The German South Polar expedition in 1901-1902 established a meteorological and magnetic station at Royal Sound, under Dr Enzensperger, who died there. In January 1893 Kerguelen was annexed by France, and its commercial exploitation was assigned to a private company.

See Y. J. de Kerguelen-Trémarec,Relation de deux voyages dans les mers australes(Paris, 1782); Narratives of the Voyages of Captain Cook and the “Challenger” Expedition;Phil. Trans., vol. 168, containing account of the collections made in Kerguelen by the British transit of Venus expedition in 1874-1875; Lieutard, “Mission aux îles Kerguelen,” &c.,Annales hydrographiques(Paris, 1893).

KERGUELEN’S LAND CABBAGE,in botany,Pringlea antiscorbutica(natural order Cruciferae), a plant resembling in habit, and belonging to the same family as, the common cabbage (Brassica oleracea). The cabbage-like heads of leaves abound in a pale yellow highly pungent essential oil, which gives the plant a peculiar flavour but renders it extremely wholesome. It was discovered by Captain Cook during his first voyage, but the first account of it was published by (Sir) Joseph Hooker inThe Botany of the Antarctic Voyageof the “Erebus” and “Terror” in 1839-1843. During the stay of the latter expedition on the island, daily use was made of this vegetable either cooked by itself or boiled with the ship’s beef, pork or pea-soup. Hooker observes of it, “This is perhaps the most interesting plant procured during the whole of the voyage performed in the Antarctic Sea, growing as it does upon an island the remotest of any from a continent, and yielding, besides this esculent, only seventeen other flowering plants.”

KERKUK,orQerqūq, the chief town of a sanjak in the Mosul vilayet of Asiatic Turkey, situated among the foot hills of the Kurdistan Mountains at an elevation of about 1100 ft. on both banks of the Khassa Chai, a tributary of the Tigris, known in its lower course as Adhem. Pop. estimated at 12,000 to 15,000, chiefly Mahommedan Kurds. Owing to its position at the junction of several routes, Kerkuk has a brisk transit trade in hides, Persian silks and cottons, colouring materials, fruit and timber; but it owes its principal importance to its petroleum and naphtha springs. There are also natural warm springs at Kerkuk, used to supply baths and reputed to have valuable medical properties. In the neighbourhood of the city is a burning mountain, locally famous for many centuries. Kerkuk is evidently an ancient site, the citadel standing upon an artificial mound 130 ft. high. It was a metropolitan see of the Chaldean Christians. There is a Jewish quarter beneath the citadel, and the reputed sarcophagi of Daniel and the Hebrew children are shown in one of the mosques.

(J. P. Pe.)

KERMADEC,a small group of hilly islands in the Pacific, about 30° S., 178° W., named from D’Entrecasteaux’s captain, Huon Kermadec, in 1791. They are British possessions. The largest of the group is Raoul or Sunday Island, 20 m. in circumference, 1600 ft. high, and thickly wooded. The flora and fauna belong for the most part to those of New Zealand, on which colony the islands are also politically dependent, having been annexed in 1887.

KERMAN(the ancientKarmania), a province of Persia, bounded E. by Seistan and Baluchistan, S. by Baluchistan and Fars, W. by Fars, and N. by Yezd and Khorasan. It is of very irregular shape, expanding in the north to Khorasan and gradually contracting in the south to a narrow wedge between Fars and Baluchistan; the extreme length between Seistan and Fars (E. and W.) is about 400 m., the greatest breadth (N. and S.) from south of Yezd to the neighbourhood of Bander Abbasi about 300 m., and the area is estimated at about 60,000 sq. m. Kerman is generally described as consisting of two parts, an uninhabitable desert region in the north and a habitable mountainous region in the south, but recent explorations require this view to be considerably modified. There are mountains and desert tracts in all parts, while much of what appears on maps as forming the western portion of the great Kerman desert consists of the fertile uplands of Kuhbanan, Raver and others stretching along the eastern base of the lofty range which runs from Yezd south-east to Khabis. West of and parallel to this range are two others, one culminating north-west of Bam in the Kuh Hazar (14,700 ft.), the other continued at about the same elevation under the name of the Jamal Bariz (also Jebel Bariz) south-eastward to Makran. These chains traverse fertile districts dividing them into several longitudinal valleys of considerable length, but not averaging more than 12 m. in width. Snow lies on them for a considerable part of the year, feeding the springs and canals by means of which large tracts in this almost rainless region in summer are kept under cultivation. Still farther west the Kuh Dina range is continued from Fars, also in a south-easterly direction to Bashakird beyond Bander Abbasi. Between the south-western highlands and the Jamal Bariz there is some arid and unproductive land, but the true desert of Kerman lies mainly in the north and north-east, where it merges northwards in the great desert “Lut,” which stretches intoKhorasan.1These southern deserts differ from the kavir of central Persia mainly in three respects: they are far less saline, are more sandy and drier, and present in some places tracts of 80 to 100 miles almost absolutely destitute of vegetation. Yet they are crossed by well-known tracks running from Kerman eastwards and north-eastwards to Seistan and Khorasan and frequently traversed by caravans. It appears that these sandy wastes are continually encroaching on the fertile districts, and this is the case even in Narmashir, which is being invaded by the sands of the desolate plains extending thence north-westwards to Bam. There are also somekefehor salt swamps answering to the kavir in the north, but occurring only in isolated depressions and nowhere of any great extent. The desert of Kerman lies about 1000 ft., or less, above the sea, apparently on nearly the same level as the Lut, from which it cannot be geographically separated. The climate, which varies much with the relief of the land, has the reputation of being unhealthy, because the cool air from the hills is usually attended by chills and agues. Still many of the upland valleys enjoy a genial and healthy climate. The chief products are cotton, gums, dates of unrivalled flavour from the southern parts, and wool, noted for its extreme softness, and the soft underhair of goats (kurk), which latter are used in the manufacture of the Kerman shawls, which in delicacy of texture yield only to those of Kashmir, while often surpassing them in design, colour and finish. Besides woollen goods (shawls, carpets, &c.) Kerman exports mainly cotton, grain and dates, receiving in return from India cotton goods, tea, indigo, china, glass, sugar, &c. Wheat and barley are scarce. Bander Abbasi is the natural outport; but, since shipping has shown a preference for Bushire farther west, the trade of Kerman has greatly fallen off.

For administrative purposes the province is divided into nineteen districts, one being the capital of the same name with its immediate neighbourhood (humeh); the others are Akta and Urzu; Anar; Bam and Narmashir; Bardsir; Jiruft; Khabis; Khinaman; Kubenan (Kuhbanan); Kuhpayeh; Pariz; Rafsinjan; Rahbur; Raver; Rayin; Rudbar and Bashakird; Sardu; Sirjan; Zerend. The inhabitants number about 700,000, nearly one-third being nomads.

(A. H.-S.)

1The wordlutmeans bare, void of vegetation, arid, waterless, and has nothing in common with the Lot of Holy Writ, as many have supposed.

KERMAN,capital of the above province, situated in 30° 17′ N., 56° 59′ E., at an elevation of 6100 ft. Its population is estimated at 60,000, including about 2000 Zoroastrians, 100 Jews, and a few Shikarpuri Indians. Kerman has post and telegraph offices (Indo-European Telegraph Department), British and Russian consulates, and an agency of the Imperial bank of Persia. The neighbouring districts produce little grain and have to get their supplies for four or five months of the year from districts far away. A traveller has stated that it was easier to get a mann (6½ ℔) of saffron at Kerman than a mann of barley for his horse, and in 1879 Sir A. Houtum-Schindler was ordered by the authorities to curtail his excursions in the province “because his horses and mules ate up all the stock.” Kerman manufactures great quantities of carpets and felts, and its carpets are almost unsurpassed for richness of texture and durability. The old name of the city was Guvashir. Adjoining the city on hills rising 400 to 500 ft. above the plain in the east are the ruins of two ancient forts with walls built of sun-dried bricks on stone foundations. Some of the walls are in perfect condition. Among the mosques in the city two deserve special notice, one the Masjid i Jama, a foundation of the Muzaffarid ruler Mubariz ed din Mahommed dating fromA.H.1349, the other the Masjid i Malik built by Malik Kaverd Seljuk (1041-1072).

KERMANSHAH,orKermanshahan, an important province of Persia, situated W. of Hamadan, N. of Luristan, and S. of Kurdistan, and extending in the west to the Turkish frontier. Its population is about 400,000, and it pays a yearly revenue of over £20,000. Many of its inhabitants are nomadic Kurds and Lurs who pay little taxes. The plains are well watered and very fertile, while the hills are covered with rich pastures which support large flocks of sheep and goats. The sheep provide a great part of the meat supply of Teheran. The province also produces much wheat and barley, and could supply great quantities for export if the means of transport were better.

Kermanshah(Kermisinof Arab geographers), the capital of the province, is situated at an elevation of 5100 ft., in 34° 19′ N., and 46° 59′ E., about 220 m. from Bagdad, and 250 m. from Teheran. Although surrounded by fortifications with five gates and three miles in circuit, it is now practically an open town, for the walls are in ruins and the moat is choked with rubbish. It has a population of about 40,000. The town is situated on the high road between Teheran and Bagdad, and carries on a transit trade estimated in value at £750,000 per annum.

KERMES(Arab.qirmiz; seeCrimson), a crimson dye-stuff, now superseded by cochineal, obtained fromKermes ilicis(=Coccus ilicis, Lat. =C. vermilio, G. Planchon). The genusKermesbelongs to theCoccidaeor Scale-insects, and its species are common on oaks wherever they grow. The species from which kermes is obtained is common in Spain, Italy and the South of France and the Mediterranean basin generally, where it feeds onQuercus coccifera, a small shrub. As in the case of other scale-insects, the males are relatively small and are capable of flight, while the females are wingless. The females of the genusKermesare remarkable for their gall-like form, and it was not until 1714 that their animal nature was discovered.

In the month of May, when full grown, the females are globose, 6 to 7 millim. in diameter, of a reddish-brown colour, and covered with an ash-coloured powder. They are found attached to the twigs or buds by a circular lower surface 2 millim. in diameter, and surrounded by a narrow zone of white cottony down. At this time there are concealed under a cavity, formed by the approach of the abdominal wall of the insect to the dorsal one, thousands of eggs of a red colour, and smaller than poppy seed, which are protruded and ranged regularly beneath the insect. At the end of May or the beginning of June the young escape by a small orifice, near the point of attachment of the parent. They are then of a fine red colour, elliptic and convex in shape, but rounded at the two extremities, and bear two threads half as long as their body at their posterior extremity. At this period they are extremely active, and swarm with extraordinary rapidity all over the food plant, and in two or three days attach themselves to fissures in the bark or buds, but rarely to the leaves. In warm and dry summers the insects breed again in the months of August and September, according to Eméric, and then they are more frequently found attached to the leaves. Usually they remain immovable and apparently unaltered until the end of the succeeding March, when their bodies become gradually distended and lose all trace of abdominal rings. They then appear full of a reddish juice resembling discoloured blood. In this state, or when the eggs are ready to be extruded, the insects are collected. In some cases the insects from which the young are ready to escape are dried in the sun on linen cloths—care being taken to prevent the escape of the young from the cloths until they are dead. The young insects are then sifted from the shells, made into a paste with vinegar, and dried on skins exposed to the sun, and the paste packed in skins is then ready for exportation to the East under the name of “pâte d’écarlate.”In the pharmacopoeia of the ancients kermes triturated with vinegar was used as an outward application, especially in wounds of the nerves. From the 9th to the 16th century this insect formed an ingredient in the “confectio alkermes,” a well known medicine, at one time official in the London pharmacopoeia as an astringent in doses of 20 to 60 grains or more. Syrup of kermes was also prepared. Both these preparations have fallen into disuse.

In the pharmacopoeia of the ancients kermes triturated with vinegar was used as an outward application, especially in wounds of the nerves. From the 9th to the 16th century this insect formed an ingredient in the “confectio alkermes,” a well known medicine, at one time official in the London pharmacopoeia as an astringent in doses of 20 to 60 grains or more. Syrup of kermes was also prepared. Both these preparations have fallen into disuse.

Mineral kermes is trisulphide of antimony, containing a variable portion of trioxide of antimony both free and combined with alkali. It was known aspoudre des Chartreuxbecause in 1714 it is said to have saved the life of a Carthusian monk who had been given up by the Paris faculty; but the monk Simon who administered it on that occasion called itAlkermes mineral. Its reputation became so great that in 1720 the French government bought the recipe for its preparation. It still appears in the pharmacopoeias of many European countries and in that of the United States. The product varies somewhat according to the mode of preparation adopted. According to the French directions the official substance is obtained by adding 60 grammes of powdered antimony trisulphide to a boiling solution of 1280 grammes of crystallized sodium carbonate in 12,800 grammes of distilled water and boiling for one hour. The liquid is then filtered hot, and on being allowed to cool slowly deposits thekermes, which is washed and dried at 100° C.; prepared in this way it is a brown-red velvety powder, insoluble in water.

See G. Planchon,Le Kermes du chêne(Montpellier, 1864); Lewis,Materia Medica(1784), pp. 71, 365;Memorias sobre la grana Kermes de España(Madrid, 1788); Adams,Paulus Aegineta, iii. 180; Beckmann,History of Inventions.

KERMESSE(alsoKermisandKirmess), originally the mass said on the anniversary of the foundation of a church and in honour of the patron, the word being equivalent to “Kirkmass.” Such celebrations were regularly held in the Low Countries and also in northern France, and were accompanied by feasting, dancing and sports of all kinds. They still survive, but are now practically nothing more than country fairs and the old allegorical representations are uncommon. The Brussels Kermesse is, however, still marked by a procession in which the effigies of the Mannikin and medieval heroes are carried. At Mons the Kermesse occurs annually on Trinity Sunday and is called the procession of Lumeçon (Walloon forlimaçon, a snail): the hero is Gilles de Chin, who slays a terrible monster, captor of a princess, in the Grand Place. This is the story of George and the Dragon. At Hasselt the Kermesse (now only septennial) not only commemorates the Christian story of the foundation of the town, but even preserves traces of a pagan festival. The word Kermesse (generally in the form “Kirmess” ) is applied in the United States to any entertainment, especially one organized in the interest of charity.

See Demetrius C. Boulger,Belgian Life in Town and Country(1904).

KERN, JAN HENDRIK(1833- ), Dutch Orientalist, was born in Java of Dutch parents on the 6th of April 1833. He studied at Utrecht, Leiden and Berlin, where he was a pupil of the Sanskrit scholar, Albrecht Weber. After some years spent as professor of Greek at Maestricht, he became professor of Sanskrit at Benares in 1863, and in 1865 at Leiden. His studies included the Malay languages as well as Sanskrit. His chief work isGeschiedenis van het Buddhisme in Indië(Haarlem, 2 vols., 1881-1883); in English he wrote a translation (Oxford, 1884) of theSaddharma Pundarîkaand aManual of Indian Buddhism(Strassburg, 1896) for Bühler Kielhorn’sGrundriss der indoarischen Philologie.

KERNEL(O.E.cyrnel, a diminutive of “corn,” seed, grain), the soft and frequently edible part contained within the hard outer husk of a nut or the stone of a fruit; also used in botany of the nucleus of a seed, the body within its several integuments or coats, and generally of the nucleus or core of any structure; hence, figuratively, the pith or gist of any matter.

KERNER, JUSTINUS ANDREAS CHRISTIAN(1786-1862), German poet and medical writer, was born on the 18th of September 1786 at Ludwigsburg in Württemberg. After attending the classical schools of Ludwigsburg and Maulbronn, he was apprenticed in a cloth factory, but, in 1804, owing to the good services of Professor Karl Philipp Conz (1762-1827) of Tübingen, was enabled to enter the university there; he studied medicine but had also time for literary pursuits in the company of Uhland, Gustav Schwab and others. He took his doctor’s degree in 1808, spent some time in travel, and then settled as a practising physician in Wildbad. Here he completed hisReiseschatten von dem Schattenspieler Luchs(1811), in which his own experiences are described with caustic humour. He next co-operated with Uhland and Schwab in producing thePoetischer Almanack für 1812, which was followed by theDeutscher Dichterwald(1813), and in these some of Kerner’s best poems were published. In 1815 he obtained the official appointment of district medical officer (Oberamtsarzt) in Gaildorf, and in 1818 was transferred in a like capacity to Weinsberg, where he spent the rest of his life. His house, the site of which at the foot of the historical Schloss Weibertreu was presented by the municipality to their revered physician, became the Mecca of literary pilgrims. Hospitable welcome was extended to all, from the journeyman artisan to crowned heads. Gustavus IV. of Sweden came thither with a knapsack on his back. The poets Count Christian Friedrich Alexander von Württemberg (1801-1844) and Lenau (q.v.) were constant guests, and thither came also in 1826 Friederike Hauffe (1801-1829), the daughter of a forester in Prevorst, a somnambulist and clairvoyante, who forms the subject of Kerner’s famous workDie Seherin von Prevorst, Eröffnungen über das innere Leben des Menschen und über das Hineinragen einer Geisterwelt in die unsere(1829; 6th ed., 1892). In 1826 he published a collection ofGedichtewhich were later supplemented byDer letzte Blütenstrauss(1852) andWinterblüten(1859). Among others of his well-known poems are the charming balladDer reichste Fürst; a drinking song,Wohlauf, noch getrunken, and the pensiveWanderer in der Sägemühle.

In addition to his literary productions, Kerner wrote some popular medical books of great merit, dealing with animal magnetism, a treatise on the influence of sebacic acid on animal organisms,Das Fettgift oder die Fettsäure und ihre Wirkungen auf den tierischen Organismus(1822); a description of Wildbad and its healing waters,Das Wildbad im Königreich Württemberg(1813); while he gave a pretty and vivid account of his youthful years inBilderbuch aus meiner Knabenzeit(1859); and inDie Bestürmung der württembergischen Stadt Weinsberg im Jahre 1525(1820), showed considerable skill in historical narrative. In 1851 he was compelled, owing to increasing blindness, to retire from his medical practice, but he lived, carefully tended by his daughters, at Weinsberg until his death on the 21st of February 1862. He was buried beside his wife, who had predeceased him in 1854, in the churchyard of Weinsberg, and the grave is marked by a stone slab with an inscription he himself had chosen:Friederike Kerner und ihr Justinus. Kerner was one of the most inspired poets of the Swabian school. His poems, which largely deal with natural phenomena, are characterized by a deep melancholy and a leaning towards the supernatural, which, however, is balanced by a quaint humour, reminiscent of the Volkslied.

Back to Index Next