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Eighty-five MSS. of the book are known, and their texts exhibit considerable differences. These fall under four principal types. Of these, type i. is found completely only in that old French codex which has been mentioned (Paris, National Library, Fr. 1116). Type ii. is shown by several valuable MSS. in purer French (Paris, Nat. Libr., Fr. 2810; Fr. 5631; Fr. 5649; Bern, Canton Library, 125), which formed the basis of the edition prepared by the late M. Pauthier in 1865. It exhibits a text condensed and revised from the rude original, but without any exactness, though perhaps under some general direction by Marco Polo himself, for an inscription prefixed to certain MSS. (Bern, Canton Libr. 125; París, Nat. Libr., Fr. 5649) records the presentation of a copy by the tra veller himself to the Seigneur Thiébault de Cépoy, a distinguished Frenchman known to history, at Venice in the year 1306. Type iii. is that of a Latin version prepared in Marco Polo's lifetime, though without any sign of his cognisance, by Francesco Pipino, a Dominican of Bologna, and translated from an Italian copy. In this, condensation and curtailment are carried a good deal further than in type ii. Some of the forms under which this type appears curiously illustrate the effects of absence of effective publication, not only before the invention of the press, but in its early days. Thus the Latin version published by Grynacus at. Basel in the Novus Orbis (1532) is different in its language from Pipino's, and yet is clearly traceable to that as its foundation. In fact it is a retranslation into Latin from some version of Pipino (Marsden thinks the Portuguese printed one of 1502). It introduces changes of its own, and is worthless as a text; yet Andreas Müller, who in the 17th century took so much trouble with Polo, unfortunately chose as his text this fifth-hand version. The French editions published in the middle of the 16th century were translations from Grynacus's Latin. Hence they complete this curious and vicious circle of transmission-French, Italian, Pipino's Latin, Portuguese, Grynaeus's Latin, French.

Type iv. deviates largely from those already mentioned; its history and true character are involved in obscurity. It is only represented by the Italian version prepared for the press by John Baptist Ramusio, with interesting preliminary dissertations, and published at Venice two years after his death, in the second volume of the Navigationi e viaggi. Its peculiarities are great. Ramusio seems to imply that he made some use of Pipino's Latin, and various passages confirm this. But many new circumstances, and anecdotes occurring in no other copy, are introduced; many names assume a new shape; the whole style is more copious and literary than that of any other version. While a few of the changes and interpolations seem to carry us farther from the truth, others contain facts of Asiatic nature or history, as well as of Polo's alleged experiences, which it is difficult to ascribe to any hand but the traveller's own.

We recognize to a certain extent tampering with the text, as in cases where Polo's proper names have been identified, and more modern forms substituted. In some other cases the editorial spirit has gone astray. Thus the age of young Marco has been altered to correspond with a date which is itself erroneous. Ormuz is described as an island, contrary to the old texts, and to the fact in Polo's time. In speaking of the oil-springs of Caucasus the phrase "camel-loads has been substituted for " ship-loads,"

in ignorance that the site was Baku on the Caspian.

But, on the other hand, there are a number of new circumstances certainly genuine, which can hardly be ascribed to any one but Polo himself. Such is the account which Ramusio's version gives of the oppressions exercised by Kublai's Mahommedan minister Ahmad, telling how the Cathayans rose against him and murdered him, with the addition that Messer Marco was on the spot when all this happened. Not only is the whole story in substantial accordance with the Chinese annals, even to the name of the chief conspirator (Vanchu in Ramusio, Wangcheu in the Chinese records), but the annals also tell of the frankness of "Polo, assessor of the privy council," in opening Kublai's eyes to the iniquities of his

agent.

Polo was the first traveller to trace a route across the whole longitude of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after kingdom which he had seen; the first to speak of the new and brilliant court which had been established at Peking; the first to reveal China in all its wealth and vastness, and to tell of the nations on its borders; the first to tell more of Tibet than its name, to speak of Burma, of Laos, of Siam, of Cochin-China, of Japan, of Java, of Sumatra and of other islands of the archipelago, of the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, of Ceylon and its sacred peak, of India but as a country seen and partially explored; the first in medieval times to give any distinct account of the secluded Christian Empire of Abyssinia, and of the semi-Christian island of Sokotra, and to speak, however dimly, of Zanzibar, and of the vast and distant Madagascar; whilst he carries us also to the remotely opposite region of Siberia and the Arctic shores, to speak of dog-sledges, white bears and reindeerriding Tunguses.

The diffusion of the book was hardly so rapid as has been sometimes alleged. We know from Gilles Mallet's catalogue of the books collected in the Louvre by Charles V., dating c. 1370-1375, that five copies of Marco Polo's work were then in the collection; but on the other hand, the 202 known MSS. and the numerous early printed

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editions of "Mandeville," with his lying wonders, indicates a much greater popularity. Dante, who lived twenty-three years after the book was dictated, and who touches so many things in the seen and unseen worlds, never alludes to Polo, nor, we believe, to anything that can be connected with him; nor can any trace of Polo be discovered in the book of his contemporary, Marino Sanudo the Elder, though this worthy is well acquainted with the work, later by some years, of Hayton the Armenian, and though many of the subjects on which he writes in his own book (Secreta Fidelium Crucis1) challenge a reference to Polo's experiences. ville" himself, who plundered right and left, hardly ever plunders Polo (see one example in Dawn of Modern Geography, iii. 323, note). The only literary works we know of the 14th century which show acquaintance with Polo's book or achievements are Pipino's Chronicle, Villani's Florentine History, Pietro d'Abano's Conciliator the Chronicle of John of Ypres, and the poetical romance of Baudouin de Seboure, which last borrows themes largely from Polo. Within the traveller's own lifetime we find the carliest examples of the practical and truly scientific coast-charts (Portolani), based upon the experience of pilots, mariners, merchants, &c. In two of the most famous of the 14th century Portolani, we trace Marco Polo's influence-first, very slightly in the Laurentian or Medicean Portolano of 1351 (at Florence), but afterwards with clearness and in remarkable detail in the Catalan Atlas of 1375 (now at Paris). Both of these represent a very advanced stage of medieval knowledge, a careful attempt to represent the known world on the basis of collected fact, and a disregard for theological or pseudoscientific theory; in the Catalan Allas, as regards Central and Further Asia, and partially as regards India, Marco Polo's Book is the basis of the map. His names are often much perverted, and it is not always easy to understand the view that the compiler took of his itineraries. Still we have Cathay placed in the true position of China, as a great empire filling the south-east of Asia. The trans-Gangetic peninsula is absent, but that of India proper is, for the first time in the history of geography, represented with a fair approximation to correct form and position. It is curious that, in the following age, owing partly to his unhappy reversion to the fancy of a circular disk, the map of Fra Mauro (1459), one of the greatest map-making enterprises in history, and the result of immense labour in the collection of facts and the endeavour to combine them, gives a much less accurate idea of Asia than the Carta catalana. Columbus possessed a printed copy of the Latin version of Polo's book made by Pipino, and on more than seventy pages of this there are manuscript notes in the admiral's handwriting, testifying, what is sufficiently evident from the whole history of the Columbian voyages, to the immense influence of the work of the Venetian merchant upon the discoverer of the new world.

When, in the 16th century, attempts were made to combine new and old knowledge, the results were unhappy. The earliest of such combinations tried to realize Columbus's ideas regarding the identity of his discoveries with the Great Khan's dominions; but even after America had vindicated its independent existence, and the new knowledge of the Portuguese had named China where the Catalan map had spoken of Cathay, the latter country, with the whole of Polo's nomenclature, was shunted to the north, forming a separate system. Henceforward the influence of Polo's work on maps was simply injurious; and when to his names was added a sprinkling of Ptolemy's, as was usual throughout the 16th century, the result was a hotchpotch conveying no approximation to facts (see further MAP).

As to the alleged introduction of important inventions into Europe by Polo-although the striking resemblance of early Euro pean block-books to those of China seems clearly to indicate the derivation of the art from that country, there is no reason for connecting this introduction (any more than that of gunpowder or the mariner's compass) with the name of Marco. In the 14th century not only were missions of the Roman Church established in some of the chief cities of eastern China, but a regular overland trade, was carried on between Italy and China, by way of Tana (Azov), Astrakhan, Otrar, Kamul (Hami) and Kanchow. Many a traveller other than Marco Polo might have brought home the block-books, and some might have witnessed the process of making them. This is the less to be ascribed to Polo, because he so curiously omits to speak of the process of printing, when, in describing the block-printed paper-money of China, his subject seems absolutely to challenge a description of the art.

See the Recueil of the Paris Geographical Society (1824), vol. i., giving the text of the fundamental MS. (Nat. Libr. Paris, Fr. 1116; see above), as well as that of the oldest Latin version; G. Pauthier's edition, Livre .. de Marco Polo . (Paris, 1865). based mainly upon the three Paris MSS. (Nat. Libr. Fr. 2810; Fr. 5631; Fr. 5649; see above) and accompanied by a commentary of great value; Baldelli-Boni's Italian edition, giving the oldest Italian version (Florence, 1827); Sir Henry Yule's edition, which in its final shape, as revised and augmented by Henri Cordier (... Marco Polo London, 1903). is the most complete

...

1 Printed by Bongars in the collection called Gesta Dei per Francos (1611), ii. 1–281.

storehouse of Polo learning in existence, embodying the labours
of all the best students of the subject, and giving the essence of
such works as those of Major P. Molesworth Sykes (Ten Thousand
Miles in Persia, &c.) so far as these touch Marco Polo; the
Archimandrite Palladius Katharov's " Elucidations of Marco Polo "
(from vol. x. of the Journal of the North China Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society (1876), pp. 1-54; F. von Richthofen, Letters
to Shangai Chamber of Commerce; E. C. Baber, Travels in
Western China; G. Phillips, Identity of... Zaitun with Chang
chau in Toung Pao (Oct. 1890), and other studies in Toung-Pao
(Dec. 1895 and July 1896). There are in all 10 French editions
of Polo as well as 4 Latin editions, 27 Italian, 9 German, 4 Spanish,
I Portuguese, 12 English, 2 Russian, 1 Dutch, 1 Bohemian (Chekh),
f Danish and 1 Swedish. See also E. Bretschneider, Mediaeval
Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources, i. 239, 167; ii. 8, 71, 81-84,
184; Léon Cahun, Introduction à l'histoire de l'Asie, 339, 386;
C. Raymond Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, iii. 15-160,
545-547, 554, 556-563.
(H. Y.; C. R. B.)

POLO (Tibetan pulu, ball), the most ancient of games with
stick and ball. Hockey, the Irish national game of hurling
(and possibly golf and cricket) are derived from polo.
History.
The latter was called hockey or hurling on horse-
back in England and Ireland respectively, but historically
hockey and hurling are polo on foot.

The earliest records of polo are Persian. From Persia the game spread westward to Constantinople, eastwards through Turkestan to Tibet, China and Japan. From Tibet polo travelled to Gilgit and Chitral, possibly also to Manipur. Polo also flourished in India in the 16th century. Then for 200 years its records in India cease, till in 1854 polo came into Bengal from Manipur by way of Cachar and in 1862 the game was played in the Punjab. There have been twelve varieties of the game during its existence of at least 2000 years. (1) A primitive form consisting of feats of horsemanship and of skill with stick and ball. (2) Early Persian, described in Shahnama, a highly organized game with rules, played four a side. (3) Later Persian, 16th century, the grounds 300 by 170 yds. Sir Anthony Shirley says the game resembled the rough football of the same period in England. (4) The game in the 17th century in Persia. A more highly organized game than No. 3, as described by Chardin. (5) The Byzantine form played at Constantinople in the 12th century. A leathern ball the size of an apple and a racquet were used. (6) The Chinese game, about A.D. 600 played with a light wooden ball. The goal was formed by two posts with a boarding between, in the latter a hole being cut and a net attached to it in the form of a bag. The side which hit the ball into the bag were the winners. Another Chinese form was two teams ranged on opposite sides of the ground, each defending its own goal. The object of the game was to drive the ball through the enemy's goal. (7) The Japanese game, popular in feudal times, still survives under the name of Dakiu, or ball match. The Japanese game has a boarded goal; 5 ft. from the ground is a circular hole I ft. 2 in. in diameter with a bag behind. The balls are of paper with a cover of pebbles or bamboo fibre, diameter 17 in., weight roz. The sticks are racket shaped. The object is to lift over or carry the ball with the racket and place it in the bag. (8) Called rõl, played with a long stick with which the ball was dribbled along the ground. (9) Another ancient Indian form in which the sides ranged up on opposite sides of the ground and the ball was thrown in. This is probably the form of the game which reached India from Persia and is represented at the present day by Manipur and Gilgit polo, though these forms are probably rougher than the old Indian game. (10) Modern English with heavy ball and sticks, played in England and the colonies and wherever polo is played in Europe. Its characteristics are: offside; severe penalties for breach of the rules; close combination; rather short passing; low scoring, and a strong defence. (11) Indian polo has a lighter ball, no boards to the grounds, which are usually full-sized; a modified offside-rule, but the same system of penalties. It is a quicker game than the English. (12) The American game has no offside and no penalties, in the English sense. The attack is stronger, the passing longer, the pace greater and more sustained. American players are more certain

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goal-hitters and their scoring is higher. They defeated the English players in 1909 with ease.

Polo was first played in England by the 10th Hussars in 1869. The game spread rapidly and some good play was seen at Lillie Bridge. But the organization of polo in England dates from its adoption by the Hurlingham Club in 1873. The ground was boarded along the sides, and this device, which was employed as a remedy for the irregular shape of the Hurlingham ground, has become almost universal and has greatly affected the developcode of rules, which reduced the number of players to five a side ment of the game. The club committee, in 1874, drew up the first and included offside. The next step was the foundation of the Champion Cup, in 1877. Then came the rule dividing the game into periods of ten minutes, with intervals of two minutes for changing ponies after each period, and five minutes at halftime. The height of ponies was fixed at 14-2, and a little later an official measurer was appointed, no pony being allowed to play unless registered at Hurlingham. The next change was the present scale of penalties for offside, foul riding or dangerous play. A short time after, the crooking of the adversary's stick, unless in the act of hitting the ball, was forbidden. The game grew faster, partly as the result of these rules. Then the ten minutes' rule was revised. The period did not close until the ball went over the boundary. Thus the period might be extended to twelve or thirteen minutes, and although this time was deducted from the next period the strain of the extra minutes was too great on men and ponies. It was therefore laid down that the ball should go out of play on going out of bounds or striking the board, whichever happened first. In 1910 a polo handicap was established, based on the American system of estimating the number of goals a player was worth to his side. This was modified in the English handicap by assigning to each player a handicap number as at golf. The highest number is ten, the lowest one. The Hurlingham handicap is revised during the winter, again in May, June and July, each handicap coming into force one month after the date of issue. In tournaments under handicap the individual handicap numbers are added together, and the team with the higher aggregate concedes goals to that with the lower, according to the conditions of the tournament. The handicap serves to divide second from first class tournaments, for the former teams must not have an aggregate over 25.

The size of the polo ground is 300 yds. in length and from 160 to 200 yds. in width. The larger size is only found now where boards are not used. The ball is made of willow root, is 3 in. in diameter, weight not over 5 oz. The polo stick has no standard size or weight, and square or cigar-shaped heads are used at the discretion of the player. On soft grounds, the former, on hard grounds the latter are the better, but Indian and American players nearly always prefer the cigar shape.

The goal posts, now generally made of papier mâché, are 8 yds. apart. This is the goal line. Thirty yards from the goal line a line is marked out, nearer than which to the goal no one of a fouled side may be when the side fouling has to hit out, as a penalty from behind the back line, which is the goal line produced. At 50 yds. from each goal there is generally a mark to guide the man who takes a free hit as a penalty.

Penalties are awarded by the umpires, who should be two in number, well mounted, and with a good knowledge of the rules of the game. The Hurlingham and Ranelagh clubs appoint official umpires. There should also be a referee in case of disagreement between the umpires, and it is usual to have a man with a flag behind each goal to signal when a goal is scored. The Hurlingham club makes and revises the rules of the game, and its code is, with some local modifications, in force in the United Kingdom, English-speaking colonies, the Argentine Republic, California, and throughout Europe. America and India are governed by their own polo associations.

The American rules have no offside, and their penalties consist of subtracting a goal or the fraction of a goal, according to the offence, from the side which has incurred a penalty for fouling. The differences between the Hurlingham and Indian rules

are very slight, and they tend to assimilate more as time goes on.

Polo in the army is governed by an army polo committee, which fixes the date of the inter-regimental tournament. The semi-finals and finals are played at Hurlingham. The earlier ties take place at centres arranged by the army polo committee, who are charged by the military authorities with the duty of checking the expenditure of officers on the game. The value of polo as a military exercise is now fully recognized, and with the co-operation of Hurlingham, Ranelagh and Roehampton the expenses of inter-regimental tournaments have been regulated and restrained.

The Polo

racehorse and the docility of a pony. At first the ponies were small, but now each pony must pass the Hurlingham official measurer and be entered on the register. The English system of measurement is the fairest and most Poay. humane possible. The pony stripped of his clothing is led by an attendant, not his own groom, into a box with a perfectly level floor and shut off from every distraction. A veterinary surgeon examines to see that the pony is neither drugged nor in any way improperly prepared. The pony is allowed to stand easily, and a measuring standard with a spirit-level is then placed on the highest point of the wither, and if the pony measures 14.2 and is five years old it is registered for life. Ponies The County Polo Association has affiliated to it all the county are of many breeds. There are Arabs, Argentines, Americans, clubs. It is a powerful body, arranging the conditions of county Irish and English ponies, the last two being the best. The Polo tournaments, constructing the handicaps for county players, and and Riding Pony Society, with headquarters at 12 Hanover in conjunction with the Ranelagh club holding a polo week for Square, looks after the interests of the English and Irish pony county players in London. The London clubs are three and encourages their breeders. The English ponies are now Hurlingham, Ranelagh and Roehampton. Except that they use bred largely for the game and are a blend of thoroughbred Hurlingham rules the clubs are independent, and arrange the con-blood (the best are always the race-winning strains) or Arab and ditions and fix the dates of their own tournaments. Ranelagh of the English native pony. has four, Roehampton three and Hurlingham two polo grounds. There are about 400 matches played at these clubs, besides members' games from May to July during the London season. At present the Meadowbrook still hold the cup which was won by an English team in 1886. In 1902 an American team made an attempt to recover it and failed. Polo. They lacked ponies and combination; but they bought the first and learned the second, and tried again successfully în 1909, thus depriving English polo of the championship of

International

the world.

The Game.

Polo in England has passed through several stages. It was always a game of skill. The cavalry regiments in India in early polo days, the 5th, 9th, 12th and 17th Lancers, the 10th Hussars and the 13th Hussars, had all learned the value of combination. In very early days regimental players had learned the value of the backhanded stroke, placing the ball so as to give opportunities to their own side. The duty of supporting the other members of the team and riding off opponents so as to clear the way for players on the same side was understood. This combination was made easier when the teams were reduced from five a side to four. Great stress was laid on each man keeping his place, but a more flexible style of play existed from early days in the 17th Lancers and was improved and perfected at the Rugby Club by the late Colonel Gordon Renton and Captain E. D. Miller, who had belonged to that regiment. For a long time the Rugby style of play, with its close combination, short passes and steady defence, was the model on which other teams formed themselves. The secret of the success of Rugby was the close and unselfish combination and the hard work done by every member of the team. After the American victories of 1909 a bolder, harder hitting style was adopted, and the work of the forwards became more important, and longer passes are now the rule. But the main principles are the same. The forwards lead the attack and are supported by the half-back and back when playing towards the adversaries' goal. In defence the forwards hamper the opposing No. 3 and No. 4 and endeavour to clear the way for their own No. 3 and No. 4, who are trying not merely to keep the ball out of their own goal but to turn defence into attack. Each individual player must be a good horseman, able to make a pony gallop, must have a control of the ball, hitting hard and clean and in the direction he wishes it to go. He must keep his eye on the ball and yet know where the goal-posts are, must be careful not to incur penalties and quick to take advantage of an opportunity. Polo gives no time for second thoughts. A polo player must not be in a hurry, but he must never be slow nor dwell on his stroke. He must be able to hit when galloping his best pace on to the ball and able to use the speed of his pony in order to get pace. He must be able to hit a backhander or to meet a ball coming to him, as the tactics of the game require. Polo has given rise to a new type of horse, an animal of 14 hands 2 in. with the power of a hunter, the courage of a

AUTHORITIES.-Polo in England: J. Moray Brown, Riding and Polo, Badminton Library, revised and brought up to date by T. F. Dale (Longmans, 1899); Captain Younghusband, Polo in India, (n.d.); J. Moray Brown, Polo (Vinton, 1896); T. F. Dale, The Game of Polo (A. Constable & Co., 1897); Captain Younghusband, Tourna ment Polo (1897); Captain de Lisle, Durham Light Infantry, Hints to Polo Players in India (1897); T. B. Drybrough, Polo (Vinton, 1898; revised, Longmans, 1906); Captain E. D. Miller, Modern Polo (1903); H. L. Fitzpatrick, Equestrian Polo, in Spalding's Polo (1904); T. F. Dale "Polo, Past and Present," Country Life; Athletic Library (1904); Major G. J. Younghusband, Tournament Walter Buckmaster, "Hints on Polo Combination," Library of Sport (George Newnes Ltd., 1905; Vinton & Co., 1909); Hurlingham Club, Rules of Polo, Register of Ponies; Polo and Riding Pony Society Stud Book (12 vols., 12 Hanover Square). Annuals: American Polo Association, 143 Liberty Street, New York; Indian Polo Association, Lucknow, N. P.; Captain E. D. Miller, D.S.O., The Polo Players' Guide and Almanack; The Polo Annual, ed. by L. V. L. Simmonds. Monthlies: Bailey's Magazine (Vinton & Co.); The Polo Monthly (Craven House, Kingsway, London). Polo in Persia: Firdousi's Shahnama, translated as Le Livre des rois by J. Mohl, with notes and comm.; Sir Anthony Shirley, Travels in Persia (1569); Sir John Chardin, Voyages en Perse (1686), ed. aug. de notes, &c. par L. Langles, 1811; Sir William Ouseley, Travels in Various Countries of the East, particularly Persia (1810).

There are many allusions to polo in the poets, notably Nizami, Jami and Omar Khayyam.

Polo in Constantinople: Cinnamus Joannes epitome rerum ab Ioanne et Alexio Commenis gest. (Bonn, 1836).

Polo in India: Ain-i-Akbari (1555); G. F. Vigne, Travels in Kashmir (Ladakh and Iskardo, 1842); Colonel Algernon Durand, The Making of a Frontier (1899).

Polo in Gilgit and Chitral: "Polo in Baltistan." The Field (1888); Polo in Manipur, Captain McCulloch, Manipuris and the Adjacent Tribes (1859). (T. F. D.)

POLONAISE (i.e. Polish, in French), a stately ceremonious dance, usually written in time. As a form of musical composition it has been employed by such composers as Bach, Handel, Beethoven, and above all by Chopin. It is usual to date the origin of the dance from the election (1573) of Henry duke of Anjou, afterwards Henry III. of France, to the throne of Poland. The ladies of the Polish nobility passed in ceremonial procession before him at Cracow to the sound of stately music. This procession of music became the regular opening ceremony at royal functions, and developed into the dance.

The term is also given to a form of skirted bodice, which has been fashionable for ladies at different periods.

POLONNARUWA, a ruined city and ancient capital of Ceylon. It first became a royal residence in A.D. 368, when the lake of Topawewa was formed, and succeeded Anuradhapura as the capital in the middle of the 8th century. The principal ruins date chiefly from the time of Prakrama Bahu (A.D. 1153– 1186). The most imposing pile remaining is the Jetawanarama temple, a building 170 ft. in length, with walls about 80 ft. high and 12 ft. thick. The city is now entirely deserted, and, as in the case of Anuradhapura, its ruins have only recently been rescued from the jungle.

POLOTSK, a town of Russia, in the government of Vitebsk, at the confluence of the Polota with the Dvina, 62 m. by rail N.W. of the town of Vitebsk. Pop. 20,751. Owing to the continuous wars, of which, from its position on the line of communication between central Russia and the west it was for many centuries the scene, scarcely any of its remarkable antiquities remain. The upper castle, which stood at the confluence of the rivers and had a stone wall with seven towers, is in ruins, as is the lower castle formerly enclosed with strong walls and connected with the upper castle by a bridge. The cathedral of St Sophia in the upper castle, built in the 12th century, fell to ruins in the 18th century, whereupon the United Greek bishop substituted a modern structure. Upwards of two-thirds of the inhabitants are Jews; the remainder have belonged mostly to the Orthodox Greek Church since 1839, when they were compelled to abandon the United Greek Church. Flax, linseed, corn and timber are the leading articles of commerce.

The estimated population in 1906 was 3,312,400. The great majority are Little Russians. Agriculture is the principal pursuit, 60% of the total area being arable land. The crops chiefly grown are wheat, rye and oats; the sunflower is largely cultivated, especially for oil, and the growing of tobacco, always important, has made a great advance. Kitchen gardening, the cultivation of the plum, and the preparation of preserved fruits are important branches of industry. At Lubny, where an apothecaries' garden is maintained by the Crown, the collection and cultivation of medicinal plants are a speciality. The main source of wealth in Poltava always has been, and still is, its live-stock breeding-horses, cattle, sheep, pigs. Some of the wealthier landowners and many peasants rear finer breeds of horses. The land is chiefly owned by the peasants, who possess 52% of the cultivable area; 42% belongs to private persons, and the remainder to the Crown, the clergy, and the municipalities.

Polotesk or Poltesk is mentioned in 862 as one of the towns Among the manufactures distilleries hold the leading place, given by the Scandinavian Rurik to his men. In 980 it had after which come flour-mills, tobacco factories, machine-making, a prince of its own, Ragvald (Rogvolod or Rognvald), whose tanneries, saw-mills, sugar-works and woollen manufactures. daughter is the subject of many legends. It remained an In the villages and towns several domestic trades are carried independent principality until the 12th century, resisting the on, such as the preparation of sheepskins, plain woollen cloth, repeated attacks of the princes of Kiev; those of Pskov, Lithu- leather, boots and pottery. The fair of Poltava is of great ania, and the Livonian Knights, however, proved more effective, importance for the whole woollen trade of Russia, and and Polotsk fell under Lithuanian rule in 1320. About 1385 its leather, cattle, horses, coarse woollen cloth, skins, and various independence was destroyed by the Lithuanian prince Vitovt. | domestic wares are exchanged for manufactures imported from It was five times besieged by Moscow in 1500-18, and was Great Russia. The value of merchandise brought to the fair taken by Ivan the Terrible in 1563. Recaptured by Stephen averages over £2,500,000. Several other fairs, the aggregate Bathory, king of Poland, sixteen years later, it became Polish returns for which reach more than one-half of the above, are by the treaty of 1582. It was then a large and populous held at Romny (tobacco), Kremenchug (timber, corn, tallow city, and carried on an active commerce. Pestilences and and salt), and Kobelyaki (sheepskins). Corn is exported to a conflagrations were its ruin; the plague of 1566 wrought considerable extent to the west and to Odessa, as also saltpetre, great havoc among its inhabitants, and that of 1600 destroyed spirits, wool, tallow, skins and woollen cloth. The Dnieper is 15,000. The castles, the town and its walls were burned in the principal artery for the exports and for the import-timber. 1607 and 1642. The Russians continued their attacks, burning The chief river-ports are Kremenchug and Poltava. Steamers and plundering the town, and twice, in 1633 and 1705, taking ply between Kiev and Ekaterinoslav; but the navigation is possession of it for a few years. It was not definitely annexed, hampered by want of water and becomes active only in the however, to Russia until 1772, after the first dismemberment south. Traffic mostly follows the railway. Poltava is divided of Poland. In 1812 its inhabitants resisted the French invasion, into fifteen districts, of which the chief towns are Poltava, and the town was partially destroyed. Gadyach, Khorol, Kobelyaki, Konstantinograd, Kremenchug, Lokhvitsa, Lubny, Mirgorod, Pereyaslavl, Piryatin, Priluki, Romny, Zenkov and Zolotonosha.

POLTAVA, a government of south-western Russia, bounded by the government of Chernigov on the N., Kharkov on the E., Ekaterinoslav and Kherson on the S., and Kiev on the W., and having an area of 19,260 sq. m. Its surface is an undulating plain 500 to 600 ft. above sea-level, with a few elevations reaching 670 ft. in the north, and gently sloping to 300 and 400 ft. in the south-west. Owing to the deep excavations of the rivers, their banks, especially those on the right, have the aspect of hilly tracts, while low plains stretch to the left. Almost the whole of the surface consists of Tertiary deposits; Cretaceous rocks appear in the north-east, at the bottom of the deeper ravines. The government touches the granitic region of the Dnieper only in the south, below Kremenchug. Limestone with dolerite veins occurs in the isolated hill of Isachek, which rises above the marshes of the Sula. The whole is covered with a layer, 20 to 60 ft. thick, of boulder clay, which again is often mantled with a thick sheet of loess. Sandstone (sometimes suitable for grindstones) and limestone are quarried, and a few beds of gypsum and peat-bog are known within the government. With the exception of some sandy tracts, the soil is on the whole very fertile. Poltava is drained by the Dnieper, which flows along its border, navigable throughout, and by its tributaries the Sula, Psiol, Vorskla, Orel, Trubezh, and several others, none of them navigable, although their courses vary from 150 to 270 m. each in length. Even those which used to be navigated within the historical period, such as the Trubezh and Supoi, are now drying up, while the others are being partially transformed into marshes. Deep sand-beds intersected by numberless ravines and old arms of the river stretch along the left bank of the Dnieper, where accordingly the settlements are few. Only 5% of the total area is under forest; timber, wooden wares, and pitch are imported.

History. At the dawn of Russian history the region now occupied by Poltava was inhabited by the Slav tribe of the Syeveryanes. As early as 988 the Russians erected several towns on the Sula and the Trubezh for their protection against the Turkish Petchenegs and Polovtsi, who held the southeastern steppes. Population extended, and the towns of Pereyaslavl, Lubny, Priluki, Piryatin, Romny, begin to be mentioned in the 11th and 12th centuries. The Mongol invasion of 1239-42 destroyed most of them, and for two centuries afterwards they disappear from Russian annals. About 1331 Gedimin, prince of Lithuania, annexed the so-called "Syeversk towns" and on the recognition of the union of Lithuania with Poland they were included in the united kingdom along with the remainder of Little Russia. In 1476 a separate principality of Kiev under Polish rule and Polish institutions was formed out of Little Russia, and remained so until the rising of the Cossack chief Bogdan Chmielnicki in 1654. By the Andrussowo Treaty, the left bank of the Dnieper being ceded to Russia, Poltava became part of the dominions of the Zaporogian Cossacks, and was divided into "regiments," six of which (Poltava, Pereyaslavl, Priluki, Gadyach, Lubny and Mirgorod) lay within the limits of the present government. They lost their independence in 1764. (P. A. K.; J. T. BE.)

POLTAVA, a town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, on the right bank of the Vorskla, 88 m. by rail W.S.W. of Kharkov. Pop. 53,060. The town is built on a plateau which descends by steep slopes on nearly every side. Several suburbs, inhabited by Cossacks, whose houses are buried amid gardens, and a German colony, surround the town. The oldest buildings are a monastery, erected in 1650, and a wooden

church visited by Peter the Great after the battle of Poltava. | interesting than the simple tricks played in the dark by impudent There are a military school for cadets, a theological seminary and two girls' colleges; also flour-mills, tobacco works and a tannery. Poltava is mentioned in Russian annals in 1174, under the name of Ltava, but does not again appear in history until 1430, when, together with Glinsk, it was given by Gedimin, prince of Lithuania, to the Tatar prince Leksada. Under the Cossack chief, Bogdan Chmielnicki, it was the chief town of the Poltava "regiment." Peter the Great of Russia defeated Charles XII. of Sweden in the immediate neighbourhood on the 27th of June 1709, and the victory is commemorated by a column over 50 ft.-throwing about of crockery and sounds of heavy footfallsin height.

POLTERGEIST (Ger. for "racketing spirit "), the term applied to certain phenomena of an unexplained nature, such as movements of objects without any traceable cause, and noises equally untraced to their source; but in some cases exhibiting intelligence, as when raps answer a question by a code. In the word Poltergeist, the phenomena are attributed to the action of a Geist, or spirit: of old the popular explanation of all residuary phenomena. The hypothesis, in consequence of the diffusion of education, has been superseded by that of electricity"; while sceptics in all ages and countries have accounted for all the phenomena by the theory of imposture. The last is at least a vera causa: imposture has often been detected; but it is not so certain that this theory accounts for all the circumstances. To the student of human nature the most interesting point in the character of poltergeist phenomena is their appearance in the earliest known stages of culture, their wide diffusion, and their astonishing uniformity. Almost all the beliefs usually styled "superstitious "are of early occurrence and of wide diffusion: the lowest savages believe in ghosts of the dead and in wraiths of the living. Such beliefs when found thriving in our own civilization might be explained as mere survivals from savagery, memories of all

"The superstitions idle-headed eld
Received and did deliver to our age."

But we have not to deal only with a belief that certain apparently impossible things may occur and have occurred in the past. We are met by the evidence of sane and credible witnesses, often highly educated, who maintain that they themselves have heard and beheld the unexplained sounds and sights. It appears, therefore, that in considering the phenomena of the poltergeist we are engaged with facts of one sort or another; facts produced either by skilled imposture, or resting on hallucinations of the witnesses; or on a mixture of fraud and of hallucination caused by "suggestion." There remains the chance that some agency of an unexplored nature is, at least in certain cases, actually at work.

A volume would be needed if we were to attempt to chronicle the phenomena of the poltergeist as believed in by savages and in ancient and medieval times. But among savages they are usually associated with the dead, or with the medicine-men of the tribes. These personages are professional "mediums," and like the mediums of Europe and America, may be said to have domesticated the poltergeist. At their séances, savage or civilized, the phenomena are reported to occur-such as rappings and other noises, loud or low, and "movements of objects without physical contact." (See, for a brief account, A. Lang, Cock Lane and Common Sense, "Savage Spiritualism "; and see the Jesuit Lettres édifiantes, North America, 1620-1770, and Kohl's Kitchi Gami.) But "induced phenomena," where professional mediums and professional medical men are the agents, need not here be considered. The evidence, unless in the case of Sir William Crookes's experiments with Daniel Dunglas Home, is generally worthless, and the laborious investigations of the Society for Psychical Research resulted only in the detection of fraud as far as "physical" manifestations by paid mediums were concerned.

The spontaneous poltergeist, where, at least, no professional is present, and no séance is being held, is much more curious and

charlatans. The phenomena are identical, as reported, literally "from China to Peru." The Cieza de Leon (1549) tells us that the cacique of Pirza, in Popyan, during his conversion to Christianity, was troubled by stones falling mysteriously through the air (the mysterious point was the question of whence they came, and what force urged them), while Christians saw at his table a glass of liquor raised in the air, by.no visible hand, put down empty, and replenished! Mr Dennys (Folk Lore of China, 1876, p. 79) speaks of a Chinese householder who was driven to take refuge in a temple by the usual phenomena after the decease of an aggrieved monkey. This is only one of several Chinese cases of poltergeist; and the phenomena are described in Jesuit narratives of the 18th century, from Cochin China. In these papers no explanation is suggested. There is a famous example in a nunnery, recorded (1528) by a notable witness, Adrien de Montalembert, almoner to Francis I. The agent was supposed to be the spirit of a sister recently deceased. Among multitudes of old cases, that of the "Drummer of Tedworth" (1662-1663, see Glanvil, Sadducismus triumphatus, 1666); that at Rerrick, recorded by the Rev. Mr Telfer in 1695; that of the Wesley household (1716-1717) chronicled in contemporary letters and diaries of the Wesley family (Southey's Life of John Wesley); that of Cideville (1851), from the records of the court which tried the law-suit arising out of the affair (Proc. Soc. Psychical Research, xviii. 454-463); and the Alresford case, attested by the great admiral, Lord St Vincent, are among the most remarkable. At Tedworth we have the evidence of Glanvil himself, though it does not amount to much; at Rerrick, Telfer was a good chronicler and gives most respectable signed vouchers for all the marvels: Samuel Wesley and his wife were people of sense, they were neither alarmed nor superstitious, merely puzzled; while the court which tried the Cideville case, only decided that "the cause of the events remains unknown." At Alresford, in Hampshire, the phenomena attested by Lord St Vincent and his sister Mrs Ricketts, who occupied the house, were peculiarly strange and emphatic: the house was therefore pulled down. At Willington Mill, near Morpeth (1831-1847), the phenomena are attested by the journal of Mr Procter, the occupant, a Quaker, a "tee-totaller," and a man of great resolution. He and his family endured unspeakable things for sixteen years, and could find no explanation of the sights and sounds, among which were phantasms of animals, as at Epworth, in the Wesley case.

Of all these cases that of the Wesleys has attracted most critical attention. It was not, in itself, an extreme instance of poltergeist: at Alresford, at the close of the 18th century, and at Willington Mill in the middle of the 19th the disturbances were much more violent and persistent than at Epworth, while our evidence is, in all three examples, derived from the contemporary narratives, letters and journals of educated persons. The Wesleys, however, were people so celebrated and so active in religion that many efforts have been made to explain their "old Jeffrey," as they called the disturbing agency These attempts at explanation have been fruitless. The poet Coleridge, who said that he knew many cases, explained all by a theory of contagious epidemic hallucination of witnesses. Dr Salmon, of Trinity College, Dublin, set all down to imposture by Hetty Wesley, a vivacious girl (Fortnightly Review, 1866). The documents on which he relied, when closely studied, did not support his charges, for he made several important errors in dates, and on these his argument rested. F. Podmore, in several works (e.g. Studies in Psychical Research), adopted a theory of exaggerative memory in the narrators, as one element. with a dose of imposture and of hallucination begotten of excited expectation. The Wesley letters and journals, written from day to day, do not permit of exaggerative memory, and when the records of 1716-1717 are compared with the reminiscences collected from his family by John Wesley in 1726, the discrepancies are seen to be only such as occur in all human

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