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ENCYCLOPAEDIA LONDINENSIS
ii'
OR,
UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY
OF
ARTS, SCIENCES, AND LITERATURE:
COMPREHENDING,
UNDER ONE GENERAL ALPHABETICAL ARRANGEMENT ,
ALL THE WORDS AND SUBSTANCE OF
EVERY KIND OF DICTIONARY EXTANT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
IN WHICH THE IMPROVED DEPARTMENTS OF
THE MECHANICAL ARTS, THE LIBERAL SCIENCES, THE HIGHER MATHEMATICS, AND THE SEVERAL
BRANCHES OF POLITE LITERATURE,
• ARE SELECTED FROM THE
ACTS, MEMOIRS, AND TRANSACTIONS, OF THE MOST EMINENT LITERARY SOCIETIES
IN EUROPE, ASIA, AND AMERICA.
FORMING A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT STATE, OF HUMAN LEARNING IN EVERY PART OF THE WORLD.
EMBELLISHED WITH A MOST
MAGNIFICENT SET OF COPPER-PLATE ENGRAVINGS,
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COMPILED, DIGESTED, AND ARRANGED,
By JOHN WILKES, of MILLAND HOUSE, in the COUNTY of SUSSEX, Esquire-
o ’
ASSISTED BY EMINENT SCHOLARS OF THE ENGLISH, SCOTCH, AND IRISH, UNIVERSITIES.
VOLUME XVIII.
CONTAINING
A comprehenlive Treatife on PAI And a Hillory of PARIS to the Death of Napoleon.
Hontton :
PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETOR, AT THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OFFICE, 17, AVE-MARI A.LANE, ST. PAUL’S;
AND SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS.
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1821.
raw >
Non audiendifunt homines imperiti, qui humano ingenio major em, vel inutilem, et rebus gerendis adverfum, vro'Kvp.c&eia.v criminantur. EJl fcilicet qucedam Scientiarum cognatio et conciliato ; unde et EyitvxAo7rcn^««> vocant Grceci; ut in unci per fed us dici nequeat, qui cat eras non attigerit. Morhofi Polyhift. 1. i. c. i. f. i.
T^hofe inexperienced perfons, who make it a charge of accufation againft variety and extenfive learning, that it exceeds the compafs of human ability, or is ufelefs, or that it is an impediment to tranfa&irig bufinefs, deferve no attention. For there is between the Sciences a degree of natural and clofe connexion j from which the Greeks ufe the term “ Encyclopaedia j” fo that no one can be perfect in any one Science, who has not attained to fome know¬ ledge of the reft.
DESCRIPTION OF THE FRONTISPIECE ILLUSTRATING
PAINTING.
THE GRECIAN MAID (THE DAUGHTER OF DIBUTADES, AN EMINENT ARTIST IN POTTERY), AT THE LIGHT THROWN UPON HER LOVER BY THE TORCH OF THE GOD OF LOVE, TRACES THE OUTLINES OF HIS SHADOW. ON THE WALL. THE GENIUS OF PAINTING, TO WHOM THIS CIRCUMSTANCE HAS GIVEN BIRTH, SOARS ALOFT, BEARING THE EMBLEMS OF THE ART. THE CORINTHIAN PILLARS ALLUDE TO THE COUNTRY WHERE THE SCENE TOOK PLACE ; AND THE MOON IN HER DECLINE SHOWS THAT THE LOVER WAS ON THE POINT OF UNDERTAKING A JOURNEY.
.'-S' * "■ ^ . -
s
ENCYCLOPAEDIA LONDINENSIS;
OR, AN
UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY
OF
ARTS, SCIENCES, and LITERATURE.
o s i
OSI'RIS, a great deity of the Egyptians, fon of Jupiter and Niobe. The ancients greatly differ in their opi¬ nions concerning this celebrated god ; but they all agree that, as king of Egypt, he took particular care to civilize Iris fubje&s, to poliffi their morals, to give them good and falutary laws, and to teach them agriculture. After he had accomplifhed a reform at home, Ofiris refolved to go and fpread civilization in the other parts of the earth. He left his kingdom to the care of his wife IHs, and of her faithful minifter Hermes or Mercury. The command of his troops at home was left to the truft of Hercules, a warlike officer. In his expedition, Ofiris was accompa¬ nied by his brother Apollo, and by Annbis, Macedo, and Pan. His march was through .^Ethiopia, where his army was increafed by the addition of the Satyrs, a hairy race of monfters, who made dancing and playing on mu- fical inftruments their chief ftudy. He afterwards paffed through Arabia, and vifited the greateft part of the king¬ doms of Afia and of Europe, where he enlightened the minds of men by introducing among them the worffiip of the gods, and a reverence for the wifdom of a Supreme Being. At his return home, Ofiris found the minds of his fubjects roufed and agitated. His brother Typhon had raifed fediTions, and endeavoured to make liimfelf popular. Ofiris, whofe fentiments were always of the moft pacific nature, endeavoured to convince his brother of his ill conduH ; but be fell a facrifice to the attempt. Typhon murdered him in a fecret apartment, and cut his body to pieces, which were divided among the affociates of his guilt. Typhon, according to Plutarch, Unit up his brother in a coffer, and threw him into the Nile. The enquiries of Ifis difcovered the body of her hufband on the coafts of Phoenicia, where it bad been conveyed by the waves ; but Typhon Hole it as it was carrying to Mem¬ phis, and be divided it among his companions, as was before obferved. This cruelty incenfed Ifis : (lie revenged her lm {band’s death ; and, w ith her fon Orus, (fee vol. xvii. p. Boo.) defeajtedTyphon and thepartifansofhis confpiracy. She recovered the mangled pieces of her hufband’s body, (the genirals excepted, which the murderer had throw'n into the fea ;) and, to render him all the honour which his humanity deferved, ffie made as many ftatues of wax as there were mangled pieces of his body. Each ffatue contained a piece of the fleffi of the dead monarch ; and Ifis, after (lie had fummoned into her prefence, one by one, the priefts of all the different deities in her dominions, gave them each a ffatue, intimating that, in doing that, (lie had preferred them to all the other communities of Egypt; and (lie bound them by a folemn oath that they would keep fecret that mark of her favour, and endeavour Vol. XVIII. No. 1219.
R IS.
to (how their fenfe of it by eftablifhinga form of worffiip, and paying divine honours to their prince. They were further diredted to choofe whatever animals they pleafed, to reprefen t the perfon and the divinity of Ofiris ; and they were enjoined to pay the greateft reverence to that reprefentative of divinity, and to bury it, when dead, with the greateft folemnity. To render their eftabliftiment more popular, each facerdotal body had a certain portion of land allotted to maintain them, and to defray the expenfes which neceffarily attended the facrifices and ceremonial rites. As Ofiris had particularly inftrudted his fubjefts in cultivating the ground, the priefts chofe the ox to reprefen t him, and paid the moft fuperftitious veneration to that animal. See Apis.
Ofiris, according to the opinion of fome mythologifts, is the fame as the Sun; and the adoration which is paid by different nations to Anubis, Bacchus, Dionyfius, Jupiter, Pan, &c. is the fame as that which Ofiris received in the Egyptian temples. Ifis alfo, after death, received di¬ vine honours as well as her huffiand ; and, as the ox was the fymbol of the fun, or Ofiris, fo the cow was the emblem of the moon, or Ifis. Nothing can give a clearer idea of the power and greatnefs of Ofiris than this infcription, which has been found on fome ancient monuments: “ Saturn, the youngeft of all the gods, was my father. I am Ofiris, who conducted a large and numerous army as far as the deferts of India, and travelled over the greateft part of the world, and vifited the ftreams of the liter, and the remote (Lores of the ocean, diffufmg bene¬ volence to all the inhabitants of the earth.”
Some authors have alleged that Ofiris was Jofeph, and others maintain that he was Mofes ; whilft it is afferted by others, that this king of Egypt was more ancient than either, and that his worffiip was eftabliffied in their time through all Egypt, fince the Ifraelites imitated its cere¬ monies in the adoration of the golden calf. Bannier is of opinion, that Ofiris is the fame as Mizraim, the fon of Ham, who peopled Egypt fome time after the deluge, and who, after his death, was deified ; and he is called by the ancients the fon of Jupiter, becaufe he was the fon of Ham, or Hamraon, whom he liimfelf had acknowledged as a god. Marffiam takes Ofiris to have been Ham him- felf, known under the name of Menis, at the head of the d.ynalties which fucceeded to the gods and demigods. Indeed, the learned in general allow, that Ofiris was one of the firft defcendants of Noah by Ham, and that he go¬ verned Egypt, whither his father had repaired, and there founded a fmall kingdom, a few’ years after the difperfion which happened in the time of Peleg. Diodorus fays, fome think that Ofiris is Serapis ; others that he is Dio- B nufus j
2 O S I
nufus; others Pluto ; many take him for Zeus, or Jupi¬ ter; and many for Pan. “ This was an unnecefl’ary em- barralfment, (fays Bryant;) for they were all titles of the fame god.”
Though the original Ofiris was undoubtedly the fun, or the intelligence actuating the fun, yet there is reafon to believe that there was a fecondary Ofiris, who at a very early period reigned in Egypt, and was deified after his death for the benefits he had rendered to his country. This is indeed fo generally admitted, as to have occa- fioned great controverfies among the learned refpedling the time when he flourifiied, and whether he was the ci¬ vilizer of rude barbarians, or the vidlorious fovereign of a polilhed nation. The illuftrious Newton, it is well known, lias adopted the latter opinion ; and with much plausibi¬ lity endeavoured to prove, that Ofiris was the fame with Seloftris, or Sefac: but it mull be confefied, that his con¬ clusion is contrary to all the moll authentic records of antiquity; and that it would be eafy, by the Same mode of arguing, to give a Show of identity to two perfonsuni- verlally known to have flourished in very diftant ages. The annals of Egypt, as may be feen in the writings of Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Plutarch, and others, who copied from thofe annals, exprefsly aSTerted the diftindt personality of Ofiris and Sefoftris, and placed them in eras vaftly dillant from each other. Ofiris, if any credit be due to thofe hiflorians, was the founder of the Egyptian monarchy; and, as was cuftomary in thofe days, having either received the name of the fun, or communicated his own to that luminary, was, after his death, deified, for the benefits which he had rendered to his country; and, being at firft worshipped as a demigod, was, in procefs of time, advanced to full divinity, and con¬ founded with his heavenly godfather.
Since the above article was compiled, we have been fa¬ voured with an original communication on the fame fub- jeft from another hand, with the drawings which appear on the annexed Engraving. Though it mull neceSlarily caufe fome repetitions, perhaps fome contradictions, yet we have thought it beft to prei'ent it to our readers entire as we received it.
Clouds of obfcurity and doubt hang fo heavily over this Egyptian deity, that it is almoft impoflible to decide whether he was a god or a man, or whether he ever existed at all. Armies of ancient historians and mythographers, fupported by their Still more numerous auxiliaries, the commentators, with their lexicons and gloflaries, multcr very Strong; but, as they, of courfe, never agree, the en¬ quirers are Sadly puzzled, and the fubjedt becomes neu¬ tralized ; that is to fay, vanishes by degrees from their fight, and, like the diamond placed in the burning focus of concentrically-refleCting mirrors, lofes all claim to Substantiality. To reconcile them, and bring their va¬ rious opinions to an indifputable thefis, would be a more than Herculean talk, which we do not intend to under¬ take ; but we Shall endeavour to place in a clear point of view what has been faid of Ofiris, leaving each reader at liberty to adopt the explanation wliich beft agrees with his refpeftive tafte.
i. According to Tacitus and others, Ofiris was the moft ancient divinity to whom the Egyptians paid the public and private honours of worShip, (Tacit. Hift. lib. iv. c. 84.) and it appears that, by him, they understood in the abStraCt Omne prinripium facilitate liumettaiuli praditum; “ all principle endowed with the faculty of creating moif- ture.” This definition feems to blow our Skiff far from the land of difcovery; fince we are foon to find Ofiris identified with the fun. It feems that he was originally black, Homo niger , /u,EX«y;£fovs ; and this countenances the opinion of thofe who, from the name of Adam, (which in Hebrew means dark, brown, the colour of the earth out of which man was made by the plaftic hand of the Almighty,) pretend that the firft-created human being was a perfeCl Negro, and that the fair complexion of the
R I S.
white is but an alteration from the original tint of the Skin, occafioned by the fun having receded from the arCtic pole, or having loft a great deal of its native heat.
Ofiris was the huSband, the brother, and the fon, of I Sis ; a fort of enigma which the Egyptian priefts had folved, in fuppofing that Ifis was made pregnant by Ofiris in the womb of their mother; an allegory which probably alluded to the heat of the fun operating upon the earth, and rendering it fit for agriculture. However Typhon, who is an emblem of exceffive drought, killed Ofiris, the principle of moifture, and cut his body into feveral pieces, which Ills, after long fearch, fortunately found, except the private parts, which She caufed to be imitated and ex¬ posed to the veneration of the Egyptians, under the name of Phallus, and instituted the Pamylia, festivals in which was carried about this Jimulacltrum, of a Size three times as big as nature ; a.iS'oion r^iTrXoariov. Plut. de Ifid. and Ofir. We mult obferve, that ancient writers aflert that no fort of indecent idea was then attached to this A galma or idol.
In an ancient medal defcribed by Reufch, Ofiris is re- prefented with along robe; in allufion to which, Tibullus, who relates his fate in a moft elegant manner. Says, Fufa fed adteneros lutea palla pedes ; and this deep-yellow gown was adopted to reprefent the golden blaze of the fun. (See the annexed Plate, fig. 1.) for Ofiris was a fy mbol of the fun, according to other authors, while Ifis was intended to reprefent the moon. Agreeable to this idea, we find him among ancient Ahraxea, under the difguife of afparrow-hawk, or, at leaft, with the head of this bird upon a human body; (fee fig. 2.) becaufe the hawk was, on 'ac¬ count of his fleetnefs through the air, and his excellent ken, dedicated to the god of day. But here we are puzzled again, on account of the crefcent with which he is crefted ; but, to efcape from this difficulty, commentators pretend that it is the calathus, or balket, a fymbol of that fecundity which Ofiris, as the fun, naturally caufes. Ofiris is alfo armed with a whip; fome lay, becaufe he wasentrufted with the government of departed fouls; and, confequently, becomes Mercury, whole duty it was to conduft droves of “ gibberiffi” ghofts (OdylT.) to the infernal regions ; others, in allufion to his being the fame as the great cha¬ rioteer Apollo. Horus or Orus, and Harpocrates, have been often fuppofed to be the fame as Ofiris.
2. Thus far we have confidered Ofiris as an Egyptian god; and mythology has done her duty. But, in confi- dering him as a man, hiftory will not, we are afraid, affift us in any comfortable way. Tacitus, (Hift. v. 2.) who wrote a great deal of curious nonfenfe, in relating what was the opinion about the Jews in his time, roundly aflerts that they left Egypt when Ofiris and Ifis were fitting on the throne of that kingdom. Ofiris, therefore, mull; be the fame as Pharaoh. The Romans hated the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Jews, as we do gypfeys and fortune¬ tellers; but they did alfo, as fome of our contemporaries do, pay thefe foothlayers, and abufe them, as a fort of in¬ demnification for the lofs of their money. Lucan, lib. viih v. 833. fays :
Nos in templa tuam Romana accepimus Ifin, Semideofque canes, et Siftra jubentia ludfus,
Et quern tu plangens hominem teftaris Ofirim.
“ Your Ifis we received into our Roman temples, with your demi-gods of canine breed, and yourdoleful Siftrum, and Ofiris, whom, by mourning for him, you declare to be (not a god but) a man.”
3. We are come now to the confideration of Ofiris as being neither a god nor a man; and, indeed, he appears to have been but an hieroglyphic fymbol of the Sun, ac¬ cording to Herodotus, Diodorus, and many others; whereas Plutarch takes him to be the image of the lunar orb. But this laft opinion mull be wrong, fince we find him in contrapofition with the Moon ; and that, moft indifputa- bly, in a very curious and excellent bas-relief preferved in the Albani Villa at Rome. Our readers will be pleafed with an exaft defcription of this myftical piece of anti¬ quity.
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\ m v. <2, CZnaru Jenn<wm^y^iA/)rj, ^JtnJL^€/m/. 3, <JU /a a^d -/r&u^ a^ri^ea^nJan^, C^y-nym, ty/iu^ra/, <$ ,J^,^)wni//6/e/ 'ilo//a/ ^y^l/jinj/a/'^ame'. 4-, (J/cra ad oz/m^rnym^. 5, Osi-cne cmtaji^yuk4/ty/^//aU>
Engraved. for the Encyclopedia Londinensis. June, 182.0 .
O S I
quity, reprefented at fig. 3. In this fpecimen of ancient fculpture, Mithra, with the Perfian or Phrygian mitre on his head, prefl'es with his right knee upon a fubjugated bull, whole tail ends in an ear of corn ; his flowing mantle feems violently agitated by the element of air, whilft the production of the earth and water feems to afi'ail the ox. On one fide, the head of Ifis iflues from a half-moon ; on the other is the head of Ofiris, or Apollo. A bird of the raven kind feems to peck at the principal figure in the group. The Bui! certainly means Agriculture; but why, fubdued by Mithra, who with one hand holds one of his ears and his mouth with the other, he fliould be teafed by the afl'aults of a young lion’s whelp, a ferpent, a fcorpion, and a crab, we muft leave for others to guefs. We thought at firft, that thefe animals might allude, in a diftant view, to the figns of the zodiac ; but that view was fo diftant, that the objects became imperceptible. Is Mithra, the principal agent, a fymbol of that life which pervades the whole of the univerfe ; as Virgil lays, Spiritus intus alit? Is the bull, then, an emblem of the teeming earth, which produces harveft underthe influence of the fun and moon ? Do the water-animals, the ferpent, the fcorpion, the crab, defignate moifture in fuch an abundance as to injure the growth of corn ? All thefe, we are afraid, will prove un- J’olvable queftions. Here the thick veil of antiquity de¬ feats the keeneft and moft eager curiofity of the man of knowledge and refearch, and lets him down upon the fame form with the moft ignorant of fchool boys.
Whatever this curious bafl'o-relievo may mean, it will not be uninterefting to compare it with one which has been lately publilhed in the Archaeologia of the Anti¬ quarian Society. See vol. xix. Part I. It is fuppofed to reprefent the fafcinum , or evil eye, mentioned by Theo¬ critus and Virgil, (Nefcio quis teneros oculus mihi faf- cinat agnos. Eel. iii. v. 103.) and to have been fculptured in the time of Septimius Severus, when the worlhip of Mithra began to be widely diffufed in the weftern parts of the Roman empire. The eye is properly fet in the centre ; Mithra is above, and his back is turned towards the fpe&ator; on his right is a warrior, or mirmillio- gla¬ diator, armed with a trident and a fliort fword ; another figure was probably correfponding on the other fide, but it is loft. Beneath the eye we find the fnake, the raven, and the fcorpion, a crane, and part of a lion, nearly in the fame pofition as they are reprefented in our Engrav¬ ing at fig. 3. This is fuppofed (by the Rev. Stephen Wefton) to allude to the ceremonies obferved at the ini¬ tiation of candidates to the Mithraic fociety, a fort of free- mafonry of thofe times ; and to indicate that the neophytes were to be transformed for a certain number of years into thefe animals before they could obtain the purity necef- fary for their admiflion. But probably the eye reprefents the fun, oculus mundi, the eye of the world; the figure called Mithra, at top, denotes Ofiris, who is the fame ; and the fuppofed gladiator certainly indicates Typhon, who, having killed Ofiris with his Jword, throws his fe¬ vered limbs in the fea, hinted at by the trident which he holds in his right hand : from which we may conclude, that this fculpture has the fame intent as the Albani bas- relief, and does not refer to any fort of fafeination, but merely to agricultural purfuits.
Fig. 4. is a half-length figure of Ofiris as a mummy, holding in his right hand a whip, and in his left a crooked ftafF; on the chin is a beard, or an ornament refembling one, fuch as is found on a number of Egyptian figures. Fig. 5. Ofiris (landing naked ; his head drefled in a kind of mitre, with the lotus ; the right hand raifed, the left holding his phallus. According to Plutarch, Ofiris was often reprefented thus ; and the Greek Cyllenian Mer¬ cury refembled him, according to Paufanias. Both thefe gems were in the fuperb cabinet of the late baron Philip de Stofch ; but derived to us through the medium of Mr. Taflie’s Mufeum, in Leicefter-fquare, London.
OSI'TH, or Osyth (St.) an ifland of England, at the mouth of the Blackwater-river, or Malden- water, in the
O S M 3
county of Eflex, with a village. It is faid to have changed its name from Chiche to that of St. Ofith, who was a vir¬ gin murdered here by the Danes, and canonized. A mo- naftery of black Auguftine canons was founded here »o her memory by Richard Beaver bifliop of London, in the year 1120. St. Ofith is eleven miles fouth-eall of Col- chefter.
O'SIUS, Bifliop of Cordova in Spain, was born in 257. He became the friend of Conftantine, who, by his perfua- fions, convened, in 323, the council of Nice, where Olios prefided. Under Conftantius he was fo much perfecutcd, that he turned Arian. It fliould however be mentioned, that he was then very aged, being alinoft 100 years old. Having made his recantation, he was permitted to retur* to hisdiocefe, where he died foon after, extremely penitent, and in his lalt moments renounced the Arian herefy with great fervour.
O'SIUS (Felix), a learned Italian, was born at Milan in 1587, and became profeflor of rhetoric at Padua, where be died in 1631. His principal works are, 1. Romano-Grsecia. 2. Traftatus de Sepulchris Epitaphiis Ethnicorum et Chriftianorum. 3. Elogia Scriptorum illullrium; and fe- veral other works, in high efiimation at the period in which he flouriftied.
OSKAWA', a river of Moravia, which runs into the Marlcli near Oimutz.
OSKIPA'RA, a town of Perfian Armenia: thirty-fix miles north-w'eft of Kanja.
OS'KOL, a river of Ruflia, which runs into the Donetz near Izium, in the government of Charkov.
OS'KOL, a town of Ruflia, in the government of Kurfk, on the river Olkol : fixty miles fouth-eall of Kurlk. Lat. 50. 50. N. Ion. 37. 14. E.
OSKO'VA, a mountain of Bofnia: twenty miles fouth- eaft of Serajo.
OSLAWA', a town of Moravia, in the circle of Brunn : twelve miles well of Brunn.
OSLAWA', a river of Moravia, which runs into the Iglau near Eybenfchitz.
OS'MA, a decayed town of Spain, in Old Caftile, on the Duero, the fee of a bifliop : forty miles fouth-eall of Burgos, and fifty-two north-north-ealt of Madrid. Lat. 41 . 45. N. Ion. 2. 58. W.
OS'MAN A'GA, a town of Walachia: twenty-two miles fouth-weft of Galacz.
OS'MAN TO'PAL, a diftinguiflied Turkilh general, was born in 1673. He was brought up among the youth of the feraglio dellined to public employments ; and, by his proficiency in learning languages and military ex- ercifes, and his amiable difpofition, obtained the elleem of his mailers. He was appointed fuperintendant of the carriages; and, in 1698 or 1699, he was fent to Cairo with a meflage from the emperor. In his paflage the vef- fel in which he had embarked was attacked by an Alge¬ rine cruifer, and taken, after an action, in which Ofman, bravely fighting, w'as dangeroufly wounded in the arm and thigh. The confequences of the latter wound ren¬ dered him lame for life, and gave him the furname of. Topal, which fignifies “ halting.” The prize was car¬ ried to Malta, where it was vifited by Vincent Arniaud, a native of Marfeilles, then port-captain. Ofman, on his coming on-board, faid to him, “ Do a generous aflion : ranfomme: you will be no lofer by it.” Arniaud, (truck, with this addrefs, alked the captain who took him, what he demanded for the ranfom of this Have : the anfwer was, a thoufand lequins. Arniaud turned to Ofman : “ I never faw you before in my life; I know nothing of you; and you alk me to pay a thoufand fequins for you, on your bare word.” “ Both of us (replied Ofman) aft in charac¬ ter. For myfelf, I am in fetters ; and it is natural that I fliould employ every means to regain my liberty. You naturally diftrull my faith. I have no fecurity to giv* but my word, in which you have no reafon to confide ; if, however, you will run the ri Ik, I repeat, you will not repent it.” Impreffed with the franknefs of his words
4 and
4
O S M
and manner, Arniaud agreed with the captain for five hundred fequins, which he paid down, and, putting Of- man on-hoard a bark of his own, fent him medical aflift- ance, and every thing neceflary for liis recovery. When cured, Ofman propofed to him to write to Conftantinople for re-payment of what he had advanced, and defired to be difmiffed upon his parole. Arniaud would not be ge¬ nerous by halves; but gave Ofman permiffion to take the bark, and difpofe of it as he pleafed. He immediately fet fail for Damietta, whence he afcended the Nile to Cairo. He there paid the captain one thoufand fequins oil account of his benefaftor, and prefented him with two rich peliffes for liimfelf. He executed his commifiion, re¬ turned happily to Conftantinople, and was himfelf the bearer of the news of his captivity. His gratitude to Ar¬ niaud terminated only with his life; and, during all the fteps of his elevation, he never intermitted a correfpond- ence of letters and prefents with him. He even extended liis beneficence to all the Frenchmen with whom he had any concern.
In 1715, war having been declared between the Turks and the Venetians, the grand vizier Ali, intending to in¬ vade the Morea, affembled his army in the neighbourhood of the ifthmus of Corinth, and gave in charge to Ofman to force the pafiage, which he effected, and at the fame time carried the city of Corinth by ftorm. In recom- penfe, he was made a bafhaw of two tails. He afted as fecond at the fiege of Corfu in 1716; and, when it was raifed, he remained three days after the general, to favour the retreat of the troops, not withdrawing till they were in fafety. He was appointed feralkier, or chief commander in the Morea, in 172.2, on which occafion he requefted Arniaud to fend him one of his fons, that he might give him a lucrative employment. He next rofe to the rank of a baftiaw of three tails, and was nominated to the go¬ vernment of Romelia. In 1731, Ofman was called to the high dignity of grand vizier. He caufed Arniaud to be informed of this promotion, who, with his fon, vifited Conftantinople on the occafion, bringing wdth him twelve Turkifli captives whom he had ranfomed. The vizier re¬ ceived them in the prefence of the great officers of the empire, to whom he related the ftory of his benefaftor’s generofity to him, adding, “ Where is the Muffulman capable of fuch an aftion ?” He treated them with the moll affectionate familiarity, and gave them fubftantial proofs of his kindnefs. Ofman in 1732 was depofed, more to the regret of the people, to whom he had reftored plenty, than to his own ; and he felicitated himfelf that lie left his place with a good confidence, and without for¬ feiting the regard of his fovereign. Fie fet out for the government of Trebifond, to which he had been ap¬ pointed ; but, by the way, he received an order to take the command of the Turkifli army in Perfia. In July 1733, he fought a bloody battle with Thomas Kouli-Khan, in which the Ottoman arms were victorious; and his fuccefs was rewarded with an accefiion of power and dignity. A fecond battle, however, in the following September, proved extremely difaftrous to the Turks, and fatal to Ofman, who was killed in the field by two mufket-fhots. Frazer's Life of Nadir Shah, 1742.
OSMAND'GIK, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in the go¬ vernment of Sivas : 140 miles north-weft of Sivas, and eighty fouth of Sinob. Lat.40.45.N- Ion. 35. 10. E.
CSM AN'TKUS, J'. in botany. See Olea.
OS'MI, a town of Dagheftan : twenty-eight miles north-weft, of Defbund.
OS'MINGTON, a village in Dorfetfhire, near Wey¬ mouth ; where is a quarry of ftone called Horfefieffi. On the fouth fide of the church-yard was a burial-place for the anabaptifts ; now an orchard. The church is a large ancient ftrufture, with fome ancient grave-ftones.
OSMI'FES, /’. [from 0j7-p.il, Gr. odour; on account of its powerful lweet fmelh] In botany-, a genus of the clafs fyngenefia, order polygamia . fruftranea, natural order of compofitae difcoideae, (corymbiferse, Jujf.) Generic cha-
O S M
rafters — Calyx: common imbricate, gibbous; with the inmoft leaflets augmented at the tip. Corolla : compound radiate; corollets hermaphrodite, feveral in the difk; fe¬ male in the ray. Proper of the hermaphrodite tubular, five-cleft; of the female ligulate, entire. Stamina: in the hermaphrodite; filaments five, very ftiort; anther cylin¬ drical, tubular. Piftillum: in the hermaphrodites; ger- men oblong; ftyle filiform, the length of the corollet; ftigma bifid. In the females, germen fmaller; ftyle fili¬ form, the length of the corollet; ftigma obfolete. Peri- carpium : none; calyx unchanged. Seeds: in the her¬ maphrodites folitary, oblong; with fcarcely any pappus, or only margined; the pappus obfolete and fomewhat chaffy: in the females, rudiments commonly abortive. Receptacle : chaffy. — Effential Char after. Calyx imbri¬ cate, fcariofe ; corolla of the ray ligulate ; down obfolete ; receptacle chaffy. There are five fpecies.
1. Ofmites bellidiaftrum, or hyffop-leaved ofmites : leaves linear, flelhy; ftems fcariofe. Branches woody and thickifh. Leaves oblong, narrow, acute, nearly of the fame form and fize with thofe of hyffop, feflile all over the branches to the very flowers, which are feveral in num¬ ber, at the ends of the ftems and branches; the difk of them is yellow, and the ray white.
2. Ofmites dentata, or toothed ofmites: leaves obo- vate, toothed, villofe. Adopted on the authority of Thunberg.
3. Ofmites camphorina, or fweet-fmelling ofmites: leaves lanceolate, fubferrate, toothed at the bafe. Stems quite Ample, with one peduncled flower. Leaves like thofe of Chryfanthemum leucanthemum, or ox-eye daify, tooth-ferrate, naked, gradually fmaller towards the top; they are feflile, alternate, cluftered, tomentofe. Ray of the corolla white; difk yellow. It has a very ftrong fmell of camphor, whence both its names. See the Plate, fig. 1.
4. Ofmites afterifcoides, or faint-fmelling ofmites : leaves lanceolate, obfoleteiy-ferrulated. Stem thick. Leaves alternate, thickly fet, (lightly embracing the ftem. Flowers capitate, terminal, feflile, yellowifh-white. The fmell of camphor is not fo ftrong in this fpecies as in the preceding. See fig. 2.
5. Ofmites calycina: leaves lanceolate, naked ; calyxes fcariofe. Stem erect. Leaves fcattered, ereft, narrow- lanceolate, naked, or very little pubefcent, nerved un¬ derneath. Flowers terminating, folitary, feflile; corolla yellow.
Thefe are all fhrubs, natives of the Cape of Good Hope. This laft fpecies is made a diltinft genus, Lapeyroulia, by Thunberg and Wildenow.
OS'MIUM, f. See the article Mineralogy, vol. xv. p. 508.
OS'MOND (St ), was born in Normandy, of a noble family. In 1066 he followed the fortunes of William, who became the conqueror of England, and who made him the chancellor of this kingdom, and nominated him to the bifhopric of Salifbury. He reformed the liturgy for his diocefe, which form afterwards became general throughout the kingdom, under the name of the Salifbury Liturgy. He died in 1099, and was canonized by Ca- lixtus III.
OS'MONDS, f. in our old writers, a kind of iron an¬ ciently brought into England. It is mentioned in flat. 32 Hen. VIII. c. 14.
OS'MONDSTON, or Schole, a village in Norfolk, on the north fide of the river Waveney, in the road from Ipfvvich to Norwich, it being on the borders of Suffolk. In the reign of Edward III. Schole was only a hamlet to Ofmondfton; but was fo increafed in the reign of Henry VIII. as to become the chief part of the town. Here is the White Hart, called the Schole inn, formerly remarked for its fine carved-work, and images as big as the life. It is ninety-three miles from London.
OSMOR'ZSKOI, a town of Ruflia, in the government of Kolivan, on the Irtifch : 201 miles weft-fouth-well of Kolivan. Lat. 53. 15. N, Ion. 76.14. E.
OS'MUND,
O S M I T E S .
9
cd. >t-/ tfu. Zna/clopxeUa. Xcmdisunsu i£zs .
5
O S M U N D A.
OS'MUND, or Osmund Royal,/ A plant fometinies ufed in medicine. It grows upon bogs in divers parts of England. See Osmunda.
OSMUN'DA, f. [a word of which no explanation has ever been given, and which Linnaeus, in his Philofophia Botanica, mentions as one of thofe which can hardly be traced to any language. But OJ’rnund is a Saxon proper name for a man, and exprefles “ domeftic peace.” Its application to the plant is found to have originated in England. The elegant Filix florida, or flowering fern, ■which firft received it, and which is an aquatic plant, fliould feem, by Gerard’s Herbal, a type or memorial of fome “ Qfmund, a water-man,” whole hiftory had not come down, even to that old writer, but “ whofe heart (he fays) was commemorated in the core of the root.”] In botany, a genus of theclafs cryptogamia, order Alices, natural order of Alices, or ferns. Eflential generic cha¬ racters — Capfules diftinft, difpofed in a raceme in fuch a manner as to look the fame way, or elfe heaped on the back of the pinna, or divifion of the frond, feflile, fub- globular, opening tranfverlely, without any ring. Seeds very many, extremely minute.
Some of the fpecies (as ftruthiopteris, fpicant, and crifpa) do not belong to this genus, having the elaftic ring common to the dorflferous ferns, or ferns properly fo called. O. fpicant is referred to Blechnum by fome, to Acroftichum by others, to Struthiopteris by Haller, Sco- poli, and Weis. O. crifpa is referred to Pteris; Villars makes it an Acroftichum ; old authors, in general, name it an Adiantum. “ Till the genera of ferns are better arranged, (fays Mr. Profeftor Martyn,) I have left the twenty-feven fpecies as I And them in the 14-th edition of S} ftema Vegetabilium i though there is no doubt of the fpecies named above being effentially different from the genuine Ofmundas.”
1. Ofmunda Zeylanica : fcape cauline, folitary ; fronds verticillate, lanceolate, undivided. Plant a foot high, with a naked ftem, terminated commonly by feven pe- tioled undivided lanceolate leaves, placed in a ring, and ereCI ; among them rifes a cylindrical peduncled lpike. Native of Ceylon and Amboyna.
2. Ofmunda lunaria, or moon-wort: fcape cauline, fo¬ litary ; frond pinnate, folitary. Root ftbrous. Plant three, four, or five, inches high ; fometimes a little higher. The ftem divides in the middle into two branches, one of which immediately puts forth leaflets on each fide; the other fupports a naked flowering raceme. Pinnas of the frond flefhy, crefcent-fhaped, fenti-circular, and halbert- fliaped, irregularly fcolloped, from three to eight pairs, with an odd one. Spike, or rather panicle, from one to tw o inches long. The branches lean one way ; two rows of globular capfules are affixed to them, green at flrft, but yellow when ripe, and burfting vertically from the top to the bafe ; thefe capfules are divided by an annular zone, and contain numerous oval duft-like feeds.
Linnaeus obferves, that, within the bafe of the ftem, early in the fpring, we may And a complete rudiment of the next year’s plant. Woodward remarks, that moon- wort fo exactly refembles Ophiogloffum vulgatum in ha¬ bit and ftrubture, that they ought by no means to be fe- parated.
The difficulty, fays Mor.f. Villars, of meeting with this plant, which is not common, and lies concealed among grafs, the Angularity of its leaves, and the fuperftitious reveries of Matthiolus, who has attributed fupernatural virtues to it, all confpire to make it fought after by phi- lofophers, herbarifts, and thofe who hunt after wonderful fecrets and the philofopher’s ftone. After all, it is merely vulnerary, aftringent, and a little mucilaginous. Nativeof moft parts of Europe, in dry paftures; flowering from May to July. With us, near Linton and Chippenham, in Cambridgefhire ; Colchefter in Eflex ; Bury in Suffolk; Stratton-heath in Norfolk ; Shotoyer-hill, and North- Leigh-heath, in Oxfordffiire ; Scadbury-park, Maidftone, Blackheath, and Chiflelhurft-common, in Kent; north Vol. XVIII. No. 1219.
Ade of Bredon-hill, and near Stourbridge, in Worcefter- fliire; near Bath in Somerfetfhire ; Nottinghamfhire ; Lan- cafhire; near Settle and Ingleton, in Yorkfhire; in moun¬ tainous paftures of Weftmoreland ; in Scotland, on Ard- gath-hill, to the north of Linlithgow ; near Dundonald’s, two miles from Little Loch Broom, on the weftern coaft of Rofsfhire; in the Ifle of Skye, &c. In Ireland, on the riftng ground of a meadow, two hundred yards north of the fecond Lock of Lagan-canal ; found by Mr. John Tem¬ pleton, of Orange-grove, near Belfaft.
There are feveral varieties of this curious little plant, with many leaves and fpikes, and with the leaves cloven.
3. Ofmunda Virginica : fcape cauline, folitary ; frond fuper-decompound. Native of North America.
4. Ofmunda ternata: fcape cauline, folitary; frond three-parted, fuper-decompound. Root compofed of nu¬ merous Aliform fibres in bundles, with few Abrils. Stipe Ample at bottom, an inch high, and then dividing into a frond and a. floriferous fcape. Scape from the bale of the petiole roundifh, ftriated, ereft, naked, fmooth, twice as long as the frond, drooping and flowering at top. Native of Japan, about Nagafaki ; flowering in October and No¬ vember.
5. Ofmunda phyllitidis : fcapes cauline, in pairs; frond pinnate; ftem even. Native of South America.
6. Ofmunda hirta : fcapes cauline, in pairs; frcnd pin¬ nate; ftem rough-haired. Root a bundle of final 1 fibres. Stems Ax or feven, a foot high, brittle, green, with brown hairs. On the upper part of thefe .are two oppofite fronds, an inch and a half long, and half an inch wide, mucro- nate, toothed on the edge, green and fmooth on the upper furface, but loaded with white hairs on the under. From the bafe of the fronds arife two fcapes, half a foot long, flender, covered with a Alky lanugo, and terminated by ereft pyramidal racemes, two inches long. Found by Plunder in the illand of Martinico.
7. Ofmunda hirfuta : fcapes cauline, in pairs; frond bipinnate, hirlute. This rifes a foot or more, and is higher than the next fpecies. In its higher fpikes, which are double, it exaftly agrees with it; but the pinnules are longer, narrower, not cut quite into the midrib, and of a paler-green colour, fomething, in their divifions, like the leaves of Matricaria. Native of Jamaica.
8. Ofmunda adiantifolia : fcapes cauline, in pairs; frond fuper-decompound. This is fometimes about a foot, but moftly fix or feven inches, high, having a very- flender green ltalk, at firft coming out of the earth of a dark colour. At about four inches from the ground, out of one fide of the ftalk arifes one branch, on which twigs are fet alternately, having feveral broad irregularly-figured roundifh pinnules, fometimes deeply cut, at other times a little indented on the edges, of a pale-green colour, like Adiantum album, and having many furrows appearing radiated. From the axil of this branch rife two round fmall green ftalks, two inches long, towards the tops of which are feveral fmall bunches of capfules, at firft green, afterwards ferruginous. The root is covered with blackifh hair, having feveral fibrils. Native of Jamaica, by the banks of Rio Cobre.
9. Ofmunda verticillata : fcapes radicate; racemes ver¬ ticillate ; frond fuper-decompound. 10. Ofmunda cer- vina : fcape radicate; frond pinnate; pinnas quite en¬ tire. 11. Ofmunda bipinnata : fcape radicate ; frond pin¬ nate ; pinnas pinnatifid. Found in South America by Plunder.
12. Ofmunda peltata : fhoot creeping; fruStifications pedate, diftinft, roundifh-halved, entire; fronds dicho¬ tomous, with linear fegments. This is a native of Ja¬ maica, where it was found by Swartz. According to the Prefident of the Linnsean Society, it is a fpecies of Acrof¬ tichum.
13. Ofmunda aurita : fcapes radicate ; fronds bipinnate at bottom; pinnate at top; pinnas at the bafe eared up¬ wards, ferrate, convex, finning. Nativeof Jamaica, where it was found by Swartz.
C
14. Ofmunda
6
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14. Ofraunda filiculifolia : fcape radicate, panicled ; frond fuper-decompcund. Found in South America by Plumier.
15. Ofmunda regalis, ofmund-royal, or flowering fern : fronds bipinnate; racemiferous at the top. Root thick, externally fibrous, and covered with thin brown fcales. Plant from two to four foet high, of a pleafant tranfpa- rent green. Pinnules of the frond from fix to ten pairs, with an odd one at the end, each about two inches long ; lanceolate or Jinear-lanceolate, blunt; finely, but indif- tinftly, l'errated, divided by a midrib, from both fides of which arife numerous fine bifid dichotomous nerves, their ramifications capillary and parallel; the lower and younger ones often lobed at the bafe. The central leaves are terminated by a bipinnate branch of fructifications ; the pinnules awl-fliaped, and crowded with feffile clutters of globular capfules, green when young, but reddiih- brown when ripe, and burfting vertically. The external leaves are barren. Native of feveral parts of Europe, and alfo of Virginia, in watery places, and bogs. It is the large!! and handfomeft of our Britifh ferns ; and is found near Yarmouth, and St. Faith’s Newton-bogs near Nor¬ wich ; in the New Forelt; in Cornwall; in the ifle of Anglefea ; in feveral parts of Scotland ; in Ireland, where it is called bog-onion, in Kirkiftown-bog. In Gerard, the names are, water-fern, Ofmund the Waterman, St. Chrif- t'opher’s herb. This is the only fpecies of Ofmunda which is noticed by Mr. Miller. A full idea of it will be acquired by infpeCting the annexed Plate.
16. Ofmunda Claytoniana, or Virginian ofmunda: fronds pinnate; pinnas pinnatifid, clofely-fruftifying at top. Linnteus remarks, that O. regalis connects the pre¬ ceding with this, and that this connefts the following fpecies with that. Native of North America. Introduced in 1772 by Samuel Martin, M.D. It flowers in Auguft.
17. Ofmunda Capenfis : fronds pinnate; pinnas cor¬ date-lanceolate, crenulate. Frond leafy, more than a foot high, Amply pinnate, with a chaffy flock. Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
18. Ofmunda cinnamomea, or woolly ofmunda : frond pinnate; pinnas pinnatifid ; fcapes hirfu.te; racemes op- pofite, compound. Native of North America. Introduced ir. 1772 by Samuel Martin, M.D. It flowers in June.
19. Ofmunda ftruthiopteris, bird’s-neft, or Ruffian, of- munda: fronds pinnate; pinnas pinnatifid; fruftifying fcape diftich. The fronds grow' in a ring, forming a hol¬ low dilk, as in Afpleniutn nidus and Scrophularia nodofa, and thus affording an afylum to fome of the amphibia, and a neft to birds ; whence the name. It is a native of the north of Europe; and was cultivated in 1760 by Peter Collinfon, efq. It is reprefented on Plate II.
20. Ofmunda lineata : fronds pinnate, lanceolate ; ob- liqnely-cordate at the bafe. entire at the edge; the fruc¬ tifying pinnas crenulate, fcaly in the middle. 21. Of- munda poiypodioides : fronds lanceolate, pinnatifid ; feg- ments confluent, entire, afcending, with raifed dots at the edge; Rape lanceolate; pinnas remote. Natives of Jamaica.
22. Ofmunda fpicant, or rough fpleenwort : fronds lan¬ ceolate, pinnatifid ; fegments confluent, quite entire, pa¬ rallel. Several barren leaves proceed from one fibrous root, difpofed in a ring, half upright or reclining, from a fpan to a foot in length, refembling thole of common polypody ; the pinnas clofe, alternate, lanceolate, oblong, only about two lines broad, quite entire, curved upwards ; the middle ones largeft, an inch or an inch and a half in length; the upper and lower ones ihorter, ribbed, the edge cartilaginous, very (lightly notched, and bent back¬ wards.
Dr. Withering, who in his fecond edition had made this fern an Acroftichum, in his third introduces it as a Blechnum, in compliance with the opinion of Dr. Smith and Mr. Robfon, though, from the narrownefs of the leaf¬ lets, it is not eafy to determine whether the rows of cap¬ fules may more properly be confidered as contiguous and
O S N
parallel to the midrib, which is the character of that genus, or as difpofed along the edge of the leaf,- which would refer it to the Pteris. It appears, however, from Hed- vvig’s microfcopical diffedHons, that the antherse are found upon the midrib ; and that circumffance feems fufficient to determine that the rows of capfules more properly be¬ long to that than to the edge of the leaf, notwithftanding Hedwig himfelf has determined it to belong to the genus Acroftichum. Wherever botanifts may at length agree to fix this fern, it is clear that it cannot he an Ofmunda. It is a native of feveral parts of Europe, in w aods and on moift heaths, producing its frudlifications from July to September. It is not uncommon in Great Britain.
23. Ofmunda crifpa, curled ofmunda, or. ftone-fern : leaf-ftalks from two to feven inches long, waved, green ; leaf from an inch and a half to -three inches long. Cap¬ fules furrounded with an elaftic ring; and therefore this fern is not an Ofmunda. Native of feveral parts of Eu¬ rope, as Swifterland, Denmark, the fouth of France, Italy, and Grea,t Britain. With us, in the county of Rutland; Cader Idris in Wales; Shap, near Kendal, &c. in the northern counties, on rocks, heaths, and old walls, com¬ mon ; on rocks and ftones upon the highland mountains of Scotland. The frudiifications are ripe in September.
24. Ofmunda Japonica: frond bipinnate; pinnas cor¬ date-lanceolate, ferrate. Stipe of the frond round, yellow, frnooth. Frond bipinnate, with an odd leaflet. It differs from O. regalis, which it refembles very much, in having the fertile fronds diftinft. Native of Japan ; flowering in April and May.
25. Ofmunda lancea : frond bipinnate ; pinnas lanceo¬ late, ferrate. This alfo has the fertile fronds diftinft, with the flowering fpikes fiiper-decompound, ternate. Native of Japan ; flowering in April and May.
26. Ofmunda difcolor : fronds pinnate ; pinnas oblong, fharpiih, entire, feffile, alternate, approximating. 27. Of- munda procera : fronds pinnate; pinnas remote, ovate- oblong, acuminate, ferrate, feflile. Natives of New Zea¬ land.
Propagation and Culture. Ofmund-royal, and the other European forts, except moon-wort, will grow in a moifl fliady fituation in gardens; hut will not thrive very well without bog-earth. Moon-wort muff; have a dry fituation. See Acrostichum, Blechnum, Botrychium, Ono- clea, and Pteris.
OS'NABRUCK TOWN'SHIP, the fourth town (hip in the county of Stormont, in Upper Canada, in afcending the river St. Lawrence. In front of this townfhip is the rapid called the Long Sault.
OS'NABURG, or Osnabruck (Bifliopric of), a prin¬ cipality of Germany, bounded on the north and weft by the bifliopric of Munfter, on the eaft by the counties of Ravenfberg and Diepholz, and principality of Minden, and on the fouth by the county of Ravenfberg; about forty miles long, and from fixteen to twenty-four wide. Almoft half of this bifliopric confifts of heath-lands, which yield feveral forts of turf and pafturage. The heft fpot in it lies about Quackenbruck, and is called Artland. This country produces as much rye as fupplies the necef- fities of the inhabitants, and five hundred Hills ; but confi- derable quantities of wheat, oats, and barley, are imported from the principality of Minden, and the county of Schauenburg. The breeding of cattle is but fmall : out of Eaft Friefland, during harveft-time in particular, large numbers of cattle are brought hither. In this country, too, is little wood ; but, befides turf, it produces coal. Bifliop Erneft Auguftus II. eftablilhed a falt-work at Diffen. Marble is alfo found herein plenty ; and bifliop Erneft opened a filver-mine, but this was afterwards aban¬ doned. In the whole country are four principal towns, and three fmaller, and about 20,000 fire-places or hearths ; and in each of thefe two families frequently refide. The inhabitants are diligent and induftrious. Of the peafants, about the number of 6000 go yearly to Flolland, where they mow, till, cut turf, and do other work, for hire. The
religion
31Bh ' va jsrriKs o
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ravc3. foT-&u.£ruycli7pc&dia,Io
O S N
religion of this country is partly Roman-catholic, and partly Lutheran. No Jews are tolerated.
The greatelt and molt beneficial occupation of the in¬ habitants of this country confifts in the fpinning of yarn, and the manufacturing a coarl’e kind of linen, which is conveyed by the Dutch, Englifh, and Spaniards, to Guinea and America, and annually brings into this country 1,000,000 of rix-dollars
The bifhopric of Ofnaburg is the firft and oldeft in all Weftphaiia, being founded by the emperor Charlemagne. In x6^8, it was Le t tied that this bifhopric fliould alter¬ nately have a Roman-catholic and a Lutheran bifliop, and that the chapter might choofe and feleCt the former, either from among themfelves or elfewhere ; but that they fhould always fele£L the latter out of the houfe of Brunf- wick-Luneburg, and therein out of the pofterity of duke George, and, on the full extinction of thefe, out of the pofterity of duke Auguftus. At the fettling of the in¬ demnities in 1802 at Ratifbon, it was agreed, that the bifhopric fhould devolve to the houfe of Brunfwick in perpetuity, on condition that the king of England, as eleftor of Hanover, fhould refign all pretenfions to Hil- defheim, Corvey, andHoxter; and abandon his rights in the cities of Hamburgh and Bremen ; that he fhould cede the bailiwick of Wildhaufen to the duke of Olden¬ burg, and his right of fuccefiion in the county of Sayn Altenkirchen to the prince of Naffau Ufingen. By the peace of Tilfit, the new kingdom of Weftphaiia was an¬ nounced, and Ofnaburg annexed to it, and formed part of the department of the Wefer. That fhort-lived king¬ dom being now’ defunCt, the territory of Ofnaburg has re¬ turned to the houfe of Brunfwick.
OS'NABURG, the chief city of the above-mentioned principality, has its name from a bridge over the river Hafe, or Ofe, which divides it into the Old and New Town; and ftands feventy-five miles weft of Hanover, and thirty north-eaft of Munfter ; being furrounded with walls and ditches, but commanded by a mountain within cannon-fhot. It ftands in afine plain, and is adorned with feveral good buildings ; and on the mountain there is an abbey. The magiftracy of this city, which is re-chofen yearly on the 2d of January, is "Lutheran; and the churches'belong, fome to the Lutherans, and forne to the Papifts. Both parties have the full and free exercife of their religion, whether the biftiop be proteftant or papift. The bilhop’s palace, called Peterjburg/i, was built by bi¬ fliop Erneft Auguftus, brother to king George I. It is well fortified, and feparated from the town by a bridge. It is a hexagon, with a court in the middle, and at each corner a turret. In the town-houfe m-e ftill preferved the pictures of the plenipotentiaries that afiifted at the con¬ ferences there for the famous treaty of Weftphaiia. In the treafury of the cathedral are ftill to be feen fome orna¬ ments given by Charlemagne; as alfo his crown, which is only of filver gilt, and his comb and batoon, fix feet in length, both of ivory; together with other curiofities. They have the belt bread and beer that is to be met with in all Weftphaiia ; and have a pretty good trade in bacon and linen, as alfo by brewing a palatable thick fort of beer called bufe. This city is noted fora treaty between the emperor and the king of Sweden in 1648, wherein the affairs of the Proteftants were regulated, which was a branch of the treaty of Weftphaiia. The town, with the reft of the principality, is fubjeCt to its bilhop, who is a count of the empire, and by the treaty of Weftphaiia muft be alternately a proteftant and papift. The popifti biftiop is fuffragan to the archbifhop of Cologne; but the pro¬ teftant bifnop is indeed a temporal prince, and always of the houfe of Brunfwick. Frederic duke of York, bro¬ ther to his majefty George IV. is the prefent bifliop. The cathedral is in the hands of the Roman- catholics, with the church and monaftery of the Dominicans in the old city, and the collegiate church of St. John in the new. The Proteftants are mafters of the great parochial church of St. Mary in the old city ; and both religions have a
O S O 7
voice in the election of the magiftrates. The bifhop’s pa¬ lace is fortified like a cattle; here it was that George T was born, on the 28th of May, 1660, his father Ernett- Auguftus being then biftiop and prince of the place; and here alio he died, in the night of' the loth of June, 1727 ; and, as fome fay, in the very room in which he was born.
Not far from this city are to be feen the ruins of an old church and cattle called Beelem, which fome lay was built by king Witekind, upon his converfion ; and about two miles from it lies the monaftery of Rulle, on the. bank of a lake, fo deep, that report fays if could never yet be fa¬ thomed. This was the firft town in Weftphaiia which re¬ ceived the Lutheran doCtrine. Ofnaburg is twenty-four miles north-north-eall of Munfter. Lat. 52. 17. N. ion. 7.4. F„
OS'NABURG, a townfhip of North America, in the ftate of Ohio, and in Stark-county ; containing 300 in¬ habitants.
OSNABURG HOU'SE, a fettlement or ftation of the Hudfon’s Bay Company in North America, fituated at the north-eaft corner of lake St. Jofepii, 100 miles weft-by- fouth of Gloucefter-houfe. Lat. 51.0. N. Ion. 90. 15. W.
OSNABURG I'SLAND, a fmall ifland in the South Pacific Ocean, fuppofed to have been firft difcovered by Quiros, in 1606, who called it Dezana ; Bougainville called it Boudoir; Capt. Wallis, who vilited it in 1769, called it Ofnaburg ; the natives name it Maitea. The form is nearly circular, and the land elevated, but no anchoring- place was found. In fome parts it appeared covered with cocoa-nut and other trees, and in others nothing but a naked rock ; the inhabitants were well clothed, and feemed to be of a humane difpofition : they made ufe of canoes to vilit the neighbouring iftands : fome hogs were feen. Captain Cook vifited this ifland in the year 1769. Lat. 17. 51. S. Ion. 147. 30. V/.
OSNABURG I'SLAND, an ifland in the South Pacific Ocean, difcovered by Capt. Carteret in the year 1767. It is a fmall flat ifland, covered with trees. Lat. 22. S. Ion. 141. 34. W.
OS'NABURG S, f. White and brown coarfe linens im¬ ported from Ofnaburg in Germany. A cloth refembling them is manufactured in Angus in Scotland.
OS'NEY. See the article Oxford.
OSOKOL'SKO, a town of Rufiia, in the government of Archangel, on the river Mezen : 104 miles eaft-north- eaft of Archangel.
OSO'LA, a town of the ifland of Sardinia: fourteen miles north-north-eaft of Saffari.
OSONA'LA, a town of Naples, in Abruzzo Ultra: ten miles eaft-fouth-eaff of Aquila.
OSO'PO, a fortrefs of Italy, in Friuli : five miles weft of Gemona, and fifteen north-weft of Udina.
OSO'RIO (Jerome), a learned Portuguefe prelate, who flouriftied in the fixteenth century. Flattery and fable deduce the family of the Oforios from no lefs a perfon than Oliris, who figures in the fabulous hiltory of Portu¬ gal. Without going back to the demigods, Jerome was defcended by both his parents from iiluftrious families, and born at Lifbon in the year 1506. From early child¬ hood he difcovered a ftrong inclination for learning, and aftoniflied his mafters by the rapidity with which he be¬ came fuch a proficient in the Latin language as to be able to converfe in it. At the age of thirteen he was lent to the univerfity of Salamanca, where he perfected liimfelf in Latin and Greek, and afterwards, by the command of his parents, applied for fome time to the ftudy of the civil law, carefully reading the beft writers in that fa¬ culty. When he was nineteen years old he removed to Paris, where he ftudied dialectics and natural philofophy under the celebrated profeffors in that city. From Paris Oforio went to Bologna, where he devoted himfeif en¬ tirely to the ftudy of divinity, the facred fcriptures, and the Hebrew language. The character which he here ac¬ quired for profound Ikill in theological and biblical know¬ ledge, induced king John, upon Oforio’s return to his 2 native
8
o s o
native country, to appoint him profeflor of facred litera¬ ture at the univerfity of Coimbra, where he explained the prophet Ifaiali, and theEpiftle of St. Paul to the Romans, with great applau'fe. Some time afterwards he was or¬ dained prie'd, when the infant Don Louis prefented him to the benefice of Tavara. Not long after this, cardinal Henry, brother to the king, and archbifhop of Evora, made him archdeacon of his church ; upon which occa- fion he voluntarily refigr.ed his benefice of Tavara, that lie might afford no ground for fufpicion that he had de¬ voted himfelf to the ecclefiallical profeflion from inte- reded motives. He retained this p.oft till Catharine of Auftria, the widow of king John, and regent of the king¬ dom during the minority of her grandfon Sebaftian, pro¬ moted him to the bifhopric of Sylves. He now applied to the government of his diocefe with exemplary dili¬ gence and fidelity. Every third year he regularly vifited the whole of it, exercifing the ftridieft vigilance over the charafters and morals of his clergy ; and, where his ad¬ monitions failed in correcting the profligate and infuffi- cient, fupplying their places with well-informed and worthy fucceffors. Inftead of accumulating his revenues, or expending them in needlefs oftentation, he devoted the whole, beyond what his frugal and neceflary demands re¬ quired, to ufeful and benevolent purpofes. His palace was the refort of learned and worthy men, whom he fup- ported and encouraged in their honourable purfuits. He was free of accefs to all ; and the poor and afflifted found in him a kind advifer and generous benefactor.
When king Sebaftian arrived at his majority, he de¬ termined to attempt the ccnqueft of Africa, againft which Oforio earneftly admonilhed and humbly entreated him, forefeeing and predi&ing the difaftrous confequences that would necefi'arily refult from it. When he found his remonftrances unavailing, he went under various pre¬ tences to Rome, that he might not be a witnefs to the ca¬ lamities which he was fenfible were impending over his country. He was favourably and refpeftfully received by Gregory XIII. Sebaftian, though he would not fol¬ low the advice of this prelate, could not bear that he fliould be abfent from his country, and recalled him to Portugal within twelve months of his departure. He re¬ turned, and almoft immediately received the fatal intelli¬ gence of the deftruftion of his fovereign and his army in the battle of Alcazar againft the Moors. (See the article Portugal.) We cannot in this place enter into the miferies in which the confequences of that battle in¬ volved Portugal, particularly after the death of king Henry. On this laft event, Oforio, always the friend of peace, advifed fubmiffion to the claims of Philip II. king of Spain to the crown, and he laboured to preferve the people of his diocefe from taking a part in the tumults which diftrafted and laid wafte the kingdom. Thefe dif- orders he took fo much to heart, that it isfaid he died with grief, in the year 1580, when about the age of feventy.
Dupin gives him the followdng character as an author : “ He wrote with eafe and eloquence. He is entitled to the denomination of the Portuguefe Cicero, fmce no win¬ ter has more clofely imitated that Roman, whether we regard his ftyle, his choice of fubjefts, or his manner of treating them.” Notwithftanding the eulogium of this critic on his ftyle, our countryman Bacon condemns “ the weak and waterifli vein” of Oforio. His works are nu¬ merous, partly political and partly theological. The lat¬ ter chiefly confiftea of Paraphrafes on Job, the Book of Pfalms, the Book of Wifdom, and Ifaiah ; and Commen¬ taries upon feveral of the books of the Old Teftament. Thefe works, with twenty-one Sermons, w.ere collected together, and publiftied at Rome in 1592,111 four volumes, by his nephew Jerome, canon of Evora, who alfo wrote, 1. A Life of his uncle, which he prefixed to the collec¬ tion of his works, a. Notationcs in Hieronymi Oforii Paraphrafim Pfalmorum, printed in the third volume of the above-named collcftion ; and Hid by Dupin to con-
O S R
tain valuable critical obfervations on the Hebrew text. 3. Paraphrafis et Commentaria in Ecclefiaftem nunc pri- mum edita ; et Paraphrafis in Canticum Canticorum et in ipfam recens auftse Notationes, 1611, quo.
“ The work (fays Mr. Southey) by which the bifliop of Sylves is belt known, is his hiitory De Rebus Emma- nuelis, Lufitanise Regis, &c. of which a new edition ap¬ peared fo lately as 1791, at Coimbra, in 3 vols. nmo. Of this work, which is beautifully printed, there is a French tranflation, and alfo an Englilh one. The kings of Portugal, as their hiftory was more fplendid than that of all others, feein to have been of all fovereigns moft defirous that it fliould be fully related and extenfively known. Not content therefore with the works of Caftan- lieda, Bras d’Alboquerqne, and Joam de Barros, they would have their eaftern conquefts chronicled in Latin, that all learned men might become familiar with triumphs fo glorious. Purfuant to the defire, two hiftories in La¬ tin of the difcovery of India, and the conquefts there, appeared about the fame time, one by thejefuit Maffseus, and the other this work by Oforio. Oforio’s library was carried off by the Englifh fleet on their return from Cadiz in 1596. The Bodleian was opened the enfuing year ; and Eflex gave fir Thomas Bodley a confiderable part of this collection. Gen. Biog.
OSOR'NO, a town of Chili, fituated in a diftriCt aboun¬ ding in gold mines : forty miles fouth-eaft of Valdivia. Lat. 40. S. Ion. 73.40. W.
OS'PRAY, or Osprey, f. [corrupted from ojjifragns, Lat. Juhnfon. — Serenius derives it from the Goth, os, the mouth of a river, and prey.~\ The fea-eagle. See Falco offifragus, vol. vii. — Among the fowls that fhall not be eaten, are the eagle, the offifrage, and th eojpray. Lev. xi. 13.
I think he’ll be to Rome,
As is the ofpray to the filh, who takes it By fovereignty of nature. S/iaheJ'peare's Coriolanus.
OS'PRINGE. See Feversham, vol. vii. p. 343.
OS'QU'ES, or Op'iques, a people of Italy, called alfo Aufonians, or Auronces; and thought to be the moft ancient inhabitants of Italy, and the original pofleffors of Herculaneum. A Grecian colony which eftabliftied itfelf upon the neighbouring coafts, and founded the city of Cuma, difpoffeffed the Ofques of all the coalt on the gulf of Naples, and confequently of Herculaneum. See Gent. Mag. for 1755. p. 123.
OSRHOE'NE, in ancient geography, a final] ftate of Afia, which occupied the northern and moft fertile part of Mefopotamia, between the Euphrates and the Tigris. Under the Seleucidx, a part of this country took the name of Mygdonia, with the title of kingdom. Poly¬ bius fpeaks of this kingdom in connexion with Antio- chus the Great. The capital of this kingdom was Edessa; which fee. The feeble fovereigns of Ofrhoene, placed on the dangerous verge of two contending empires, were at¬ tached from inclination to the Parthian caufe ; but the fuperior power of Rome exaCted from them a reluCtant homage, which is ltill attefted by their medals. After the conciufion of the Parthian war under Marcus, it was judged prudent to lecure fome fubllantial pledges of their doubtful fidelity. Forts were conftruCted in feveral parts of the country, and a Roman garrifon was fixed in the ftrong town of Nilibis. During the troubles that fol¬ lowed the death of Common us, the princes of Ofrhoene attempted to (hake off the yoke ; but the ftern policy of Severus confirmed their dependence, and the perfidy of Caracalla completed the eafy conqueft. Abgarus, the laft king of Edeffa, (A.D. 216.) was fent in chains to Rome, his dominions reduced into a province, and his capital dignified with the rank of colony; and thus the Romans, about ten years before the fall of the Parthian monarchy, obtained a firm and permanent eftabliihment beyond the Euphrates.
OSRUSH'NAH, a town of Turkeftan, and capital of
a diftri<8,
OSS
OSS
f)
a diftrift, or province; to which it gives name : fixty-five miles north-north-eaft of Samarcapd, and feventy fouth- weft of Kojend. Lat. 40. 30. N. Ion. 64. 40. E.
OS'SA, a lofty mountain of Theflaly, near the Peneus, which runs between this mountain and Olympus ; famous in the fabulous ftory of the giants ; (Homer, Virgil, Ho¬ race, Seneca, Ovid.) The bending and unbending of its pines, on the blowing of a ftrong north wind, formed a clafhing found like thunder; (Lucan.) It was once the refidence of the Centaurs, and was formerly joined to Mount Olympus; but Hercules, as fome report, fepa- rated them, and made between them the celebrated valiey of Tempe. This reparation of the two mountains was more probably effected by an earthquake, which happened about 1 885 years before the Chriftian era. Its greateft cele¬ brity arifes from its being one of thofe mountains which the giants in their wars againlt the gods heaped up one on the other, to fcale the heavens with more facility.
OS'SA, a river of Pruflia, which runs into the Viftula fifteen miles below Culm.
OSSABAW', an ifland in the Atlantic, near the coaft of Georgia, twenty miles in circumference. Lat. 31.42. N. Ion. 81. 17. W.
OSSABAW' SOU'ND, a channel of the Atlantic, be¬ tween the iflands of Great W a flaw and Ofl’abaw. Lat. 31. 43. N. Ion. 81. 12. W.
OSSAPE'E. See Ossipee.
OSSA'RA, a town of Hindooftan, in Mohurbunge : eighteen miles north of Harriopour.
OS'SAT (Arnaud d’), Cardinal, was born in 1536, of parents in humble life, at a village near Auch : he was left an orphan at an early age, and rofe in the world wholly by bis own merit and induftry. Entering into the fervice of a young nobleman of the houfe of Marca, he ftudied with him, and in time became his preceptor. In 1559 he took his pupil, with two otheryoung perfons, to Paris, where he carefully fuperintended their educa¬ tion, at the fame time taking care not to negleft his own ftudies. In philofophy he was a difciple of Ramus, and compofed a work in his mailer’s defence. After he had made what he deemed fufficient progrefs in his legal ftu¬ dies, he praftifed at the bar in Paris, and was greatly.ad- mired for his mafculine eloquence. He obtained the poft of a counfellor in the prelidial court of Melun : after this he went with Paul de Foix, archbiihop of Touloufe, who had been nominated by Henry III. ambaffador to thecourt of Rome, as his fecretary. After the death of that pre¬ late, in 1584, Oflat took holy orders, and was received into the houfe of cardinal d’Efte. The fecretary of ftate, Viileroi, made him charge d’affaires for the French court ; and in this quality, at the beginning of Henry IVth’s reign, he was highly ferviceable in promoting the recon¬ ciliation of that king with the fee of Rome. In 1598 he was honoured with a cardinal’s hat ; and, in three years afterwards, was made bifliop of Bayeux. He died in 1604. An eminent French writer gives him the following cha» rafter: “ He was a man of great penetration, and Angu¬ larly prudent and circumfpeft in the management of af¬ fairs ; fo that it is faid of him, that he never made ’a falfb ftep.” He left behind him a great number of Letters re¬ lative to the negociations in which he was engaged, which are reckoned models of political fagacity. The belt edi¬ tion is that of Amelot de la Houflaye, in 1698, in two vols. 4to. and five vols. nrao.
OSS'EGG, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Leit- meritz: eighteen miles north-north- weft of Leitmeritz.
OSS'ELET, J'. [Fr. a little bone.] A very hard excref- cence, refemblinga little bone, on the infide of the knee, (and neveron theoutfide,) appearingtobe ofthe lamefub- ftance with the reft of the knee, and only diftinguilhable from the knee by its extending a little lower.
OSS'EN, a town of Silefia, in the principality of Oels : two miles louth-weft of Mittelwald.
OSSENI'GA, a town of Italy, in the Veronefe: fix miles north of Verona.
Vol. XVIII, No. 1219..
OSS'F.OUS, arfj. [offeus, Lat.] Bony; refembling a bone. — To purfue the uffeous and l’olid part of goodnefs, which gives liability and reftitude to all the relt. Brown’s Chr. Morals. — A medullary, and con fequently o[)eous, fubftance, BiMoih. Bill.
OSS'ETT, a village .in the Weft Riding of Yorkfhire, containing about 3500 inhabitants, of whom 1000 are employed in trade and manufaftures. It is three miles weft of Wakefield.
OSS'ERBACH, a river of Germany, which runs into the Wichra near Frohburg, in the margravate ofMeilfen.
OSS'IACH, a town of the duchy of Carinthia, 011 the lake Ofliacher : four miles fouth-weft of Feltkirchen.
OSSl'ACHER SEE', a lake of Carinthia, four miles long and two wide: four miles north-eaft of Villach.
OS'SIAN, [O’Sian, Irifli and Gothic, the Man of Song.] A Celtic bard, who, as well as Fingal and other heroes whom he is faid to have celebrated in his poems, is claimed both by the Highlanders of Scotland and by the Iriih. It is highly probable, that the name of Ollian and his he¬ roes would have been confined to thefe people, had not Macpherfon, about the middle of the latl century, pub- lilbed two volumes of poems, as the genuine offspring of this Celtic bard. The circumftances which he Hated as having attended the difcovery of thefe poems, and the nature and defcription of the poems themfelves, excited ftrong fufpicions of their authenticity, almofl as foon as they were given to the world: the controverfy to which thefe fufpicions gave birth, contributed to render them known and popular; however, it would be unfair to deny, that their intrinfic merits, though certainly very much mifreprelented and overrated, alfo obtained them popular applaufe ar.d favour. There were alfo other circum¬ ftances, befides the lingular and fufpicious nature of their difcovery and publication, and the poetic merit which they poffelfed, or were fuppofed to poflefs, which fixed on them the curiolity and intereft of men of philofophy and literature. They exhibited a mod uncommon and unparalleled pifture of human manners; a pifture which, if it were drawn from nature, would confound all the principles which philofophy had deduced from the hiftory of mankind : they alfo related events, not eafily recon¬ cilable to the authenticated hiftory of the country where the fcene was laid. On thefe accounts, the intereft of alrnoft ail dalles was fixed upon them : they were admired by the lovers of poetry, who, in their admiration, had not time or inclination to inveftigate their authenticity ; while, by thofe who viewed them more coolly and philo- fophically, and who could not permit themfelves to ad¬ mire before they were convinced of their authenticity, ftrong and various objections were urged againft their claim to be confidered as the poems of Ollian. The inte¬ reft which they excited was ftill farther increafed, by the Highlanders taking- up the queftion, both refpefting their authenticity and their poetical merits, as one in which their honour and pride were immediately and deeply con¬ cerned : they couW not tamely or quietly abandon the belief that Offian wrote thefe poems; and, when Mac¬ pherfon was charged with having forged them, the firm conviftion they had exprelfed of their authenticity, joined to thedifigrace which, through MacpherfoA, they thought would fall on themfelves, rendered them molt obftinate in their original belief.
Whether Ollian and his heroes were Scotch or Iriih — the period during which they llourilhed — and the contro¬ verfy refpefting the authenticity ofthe poems — are points to which more attention has been given than to the- real merits of the compofitions themfelves.
Although the claims of the Highlanders to Oflian and his heroes have been more urgent and repeated than thofe ofthe Iriih, there is good re'afon for believing that the lattef pollefs the greateft juftice. There are numberlefs traditions in Ireland concerning the Fions, a fpecies of militia inhabiting Leinller, and commanded by Fin Mac Coul : that this Fin Mac Coul is the lame as the Fingal D off
10
OSS
of Macpherfon is clear, from the identic name of the father Cowal, the fon Oifin, and the grandfon Olkir; and from the old Scotch poets, who fometimes call him Fin- gal, and fometimes Fin Mac Coul. Among the warriors of this ancient militia, the Irifh traditions and hiftories hand down the names of Goll Mac Morn, (Gaul the foil of Morni,) of Ofgur the fon of Oifin, evidently the Of- fian of Macpherfon, of Fergus O’Fillan, and other war¬ riors. Offian himfelf, alfo, is celebrated among theFions. Befides thefe heroes, Irifh traditions and ancient manu- fcripts mention a military order in Ulfler of earlier date, the chief ornament and fupport of whom was Cuchulliii. This evidence undoubtedly afcribes Ofiian and his heroes to Ireland ; but it is farther corroborated, even by the traditions and old fongs and poems of the Highlands ; though the paffages in the latter which defcribe Ireland as the native country of Offian, Fingal, &c. have been altered forcontroverfial purpofes : it is needlefs to cite all thefe paffages. The following, from Erfe poems, collec¬ ted in the Highlands by Dr. Young bifliop ofClonmore, and publiflied in the firff volume of the Irifh Tranfa&ions, may fuffice. In the combat of Con the fon of Dargo, and Gaul fon of Morns, the Fions are called “ the noble Fions of Ireland this, in the Perth edition of this poem, is changed into “ the nobles and great chieftains.” In the combat of Ofgar, and Ilian fon of the king of Spain, for “theFions of Ireland,” the Perth edition fubftitutes the “noble Fions.” In a poem called the Death of Ofcar, of which Macpherfon made ufe in the firff: book of Ternora, Ireland is exprefsiy mentioned as the country of that prince : “ The death of Ofcar grieved my heart; our lofs is great in the prince of the chiefs of Ireland :” and, in another poem on this fubjedt, ftill cur¬ rent in the Highlands, Ofcar is called the “ prince of Ire¬ land : the prince of the heroes of fertile Ireland.” Even fo late as the time of Gawin Douglas, Ireland feems to have been regarded as the country of Fingal and the other heroes of Offian :
Great Gow Mac Morn, and Fin Mac Coul, and how They ffiould be gods in Ireland, as men fay.
There is another circumftance, which confiderably ftrengthens the opinion that the Fions were natives of Ireland. No Highlander ever heard of Selma, except through the poems publilhed by Macpherfon ; whereas Almhuin is pointed out by every old Iriffnnan as the abode of Fingal : the name of this place occurs frequently in the poems which were collected in the Highlands by Dr. Young; it is always mentioned as the palace of Fin¬ gal ; neither Selma, nor any other place of relidence, is given in thefe poems to this hero; and it is worthy of re¬ mark, that Macpherfon, in the ufe he has made of thefe poems, has either omitted altogether the name of Almhuin, in order that no trace of Fingal’s real country might exiff, or changed it into Albin, in order to countenance the idea that lie was a native of Scotland ; as will appear from the following paffages: “ Greater love feized all the he¬ roes of Fin of Almhuin.” On this paflage Dr, Young- remarks: “The palace of Fin Mac Cumhal in Leinffer, was feated on the fummit of the hill of Allen, or rather, as the natives of that country pronounce it, Allowin : the .village and bog of Allen have r h e n Ce derived their name. There are ftill the remains of fome trenches on the top of the hill, where Fin Mac Cumhal and his Fions were wont to celebrate their feafts.. The country hereabouts abounds in wonderful tales of the exploits of thefe ancient heroes. Thefe two lines are omitted in the Perth edition.”- Irifli Tranfactions, i. 76.
In the Dublin copy of the poem on the invafion of Ire¬ land by Erragon, which Macpherfon appears to have made ufe of in his battle of Lora, thefe words occur: “ To Almhuin in Leinffer, the relidence of the Fions, they took their voyage acrofs the fea:” in this plape Macpher¬ fon has fubftituted the word Albin, though, as Dr. Young- remarks, there can be no excufe for this alteration, “ as the king of Lochlin is represent: :1 lice ring his fleet boldly
I A N.
to the coafts of Ireland, and challenging the heroes of Innisfail. The infidelity therefore of the queen of Lochlin could not be faid to have been the caufe of ffpilling Scottilh blood, fince the fcene of the whole t ran faction is laid in Ireland, and they are the heroes of Innisfail who fell in battle.”
As therefore the Irifli traditions refpecfting the Fions are uniform and confident; as, even in the poems which celebrate their exploits, and which are current and popu¬ lar in the Highlands, many paffages occur, in which Ire¬ land is exprefsiy mentioned as their native country; and as, befides, the palace of Fingal is a place not known in the Highlands, but is ftill pointed out, at leaft by fimila- rity of name, in Ireland, we are juffified in concluding that Offian and his heroes were natives of Ireland. This conclufion will be ftill farther ftrengthened, if we examine the vague and inconfiftent notices which Scotch tradition and hiftory records of Offian and his heroes. Indeed, in Scottifti hiftory they were never heard of till Bruce claimed them as of Scotch extradiion ; for, in the paffages quoted by the Highland Society (in their Report on the Poems of Offian), Fingal, and the other heroes of that bard, are mentioned, without any reference to the country of which they were natives. The Highland Society lay great ftrefs on the proverbs which are current in the Highlands refpedling Ofiian, and the names of places correfponding with the names of his heroes. Offian dale, blind Ofiian, is a perfon as well known there as ftrong Sampfon, or wife Solomon: the very boys, in their fports, cry out for fair play, “ the equal combat of the Fingalians:” and “ Ofi- fian, the laft of his race,” is proverbial, to fignify a man who has had the misfortune to furvive his kindred. Old people (fays Mrs. Grant) can very well remember, before Mr. Macpherfon ever thought of tranflating thefe remains, when many comparifons and allufions to be found in them were as current ks Scripture-quotations in the laft age among the peafants of the weft. “ She is as beautiful as Agandecca, the daughter of the fnow ; (he is mufical as Malvina; he is as forlorn as Offian" after the departure of the Fingalians ; fuch a one is alert and nimble as Cu- chullin :” were phrafes in common ufe. Whatever em- belliihments or whatever anachronifms the injudicious vanity of a tranflator may have grafted on thefe poems, no perfon who lived in the country of their reputed au¬ thor ever doubted their exiftence or antiquity : there every ftream and mountain, every tale, long, or adage, re¬ tained fome traces of the generous hero, or the mounful bard. And, in anfwer to the queries which were tranf- mitted by the Highland Society, feveral of their corref- pondents mentioned the names of various places in their neighbourhood, tending to fliow the univerfal ancient traditionary belief of the exiftence of Fingal and his he¬ roes. “ Among many others, were enumerated the well- known cave of Staffa, firft made known by the defcrip- ticn of fir Jofeph Banks ; the whirlpool, or gulf, fet down in Blair’s Atlas Scoriae, publilhed A. D. 1662, called Caire Fin Mae Coul, or the Whirlpool of Fion fon of Comhal ; and the hill in the ifie of Sky, known by the name of Ait Suidh F/tinu, or Fingal’s Sear. Indeed, there are few diftriifis in the north-weft of Scotland, where fuch inftances may not be found.” Report on the Poems of Offian. Poems by Mrs. Grant of Laggan.
But all thefe circumftances, even when collefted and taken together, do not amount to a proof that Offian and his heroes were natives of the Highlands of Scotland : they merely prove the antiquity of the tradition and belief re- fpedting them. In Ireland, on the other hand, there are not- only fimilar proverbial and local notices (if the ex- preffion may be allowed) of Offian and his heroes, bu£ there is historical evidence that the Fions were Irifh, and the palace of their chief is ftill recognifed and pointed out. None of the traditions, or genuine poems, preserved in the Highlands, which have reference to them, name or claim them as natives of that country ; whereas, in feveral paffages of the latter, they are clearly and exprefsiy de¬ clared to have been natives of Ireland, and to have re-
fided
OSS
fided there, and there to have carried on their military exploits. But it may be afked, how happens it, if Ofiian and his heroes were Irilh, that the tradition of them is fo ftrong and prevalent in the Highlands, the proverbial ex- preflions relating to them fo marked and numerous, and the places named after them fo common. The folution of this difficulty is very eafy : it is well known that, at the period when the Fions lived, the intercourfe between that part of Ireland where they are faid to have refided, and the Highlands of Scotland, was frequent; and it is alfo highly probable, as will afterwards be ffiovvn, that an Irifh colony, nearly at, or immediately fubfequent to, this pe¬ riod, paffed over to that part ofthe Highlands where the tra¬ ditions and notices of Offian are molt commonly met with.
It is not very eafy accurately and fatisfadtorily to fix the period when Fingal and Offian flourifhed : the era which Macpherfon affigns them mud be given up. Later Irifh manufcripts, traditions, and poems, both in Ireland and the Highlands, reprefent Offian as contemporary with St. Patrick; but, if we may depend on the account of the Irifh militias of Ullterand Leinfter, Fingal muft have pre¬ ceded St. Patrick nearly two centuries ; and,confequently, his fon Offian could not have been contemporary with him. According to the Irifh annals (on the authenticity of which, however, much ftrefs ought not to be laid), Fin¬ gal flourifhed under Cormac O’Cuin, about the year 254. That Offian was not contemporary with St. Patrick, is, however, moft fatisfadlorily proved from Jocelin, a writer of the twelfth century, in his life of that faint, who places Fin Mac Coul above a hundred years before him. Offian and his heroes may therefore be placed about the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth century; and it may be inferred, that all poems that refer them to a later period, are not the genuine poems of Offian. It will be proper to keep this remark in our recolledfion when we come to difcufs the authenticity ofthe poems which have been aferibed to this bard.
There are fcarcely any notices refpedting thefe poems to be found in old authors who treat either of Ireland or of Scotland : the bards or feanachies of the latter country do not trace up their kings to the Fions, or heroes of Fin¬ gal, but to the Dalriadic monarchs. At the coronation of Alexander III. a Highland genealogift is introduced by Fordun to recite the royal pedigree ; but, inftead of af- cending from Fergus Mac Ertb, to Erth Congal, Fergus, Fingal, and from thence, according to Offian, to Comhal, Trahal, and Trenmor, he proceeds through the whole race to Fergus I. a fufficient proof that there was no tradition then of “ the fix kings of Morven,” nor any poems which treated of the exploits of Fingal and his heroes. Had thefe poems exilled in the time of Monro dean of the Illes, he would have appealed to them in his genealogy of the clans. Buchanan indeed, in his account of the fa¬ mily of Buchanan, mentions the militia of Fin, and fpeaks of “ rude rimes,” on the adtions of Fin Mac Coul, as retained by the Irifh and Scottifh Highlanders. There is, however, a paffage in bifliop Carfwell’s introdudlion to his tranflation of the Forms of Prayer into Gaelic, printed at Edinburgh in the year 1567, which is quoted in the Report of the Highland Society, in order to give an idea of the general impreffion and delight which the recital of the poems or ballads (of Offian) produced among the in¬ habitants of the Highlands. In this paffage the biffiop complains, that “ great is the blindnei's and finful dark- nefs, and ignorance, and evil defign, of fuch as teach, and write, and cultivate, the Gaelic language, that, with a view of obtaining for themfelves the vain reward of this world, they are more defirous and more accuftomed to carnpofe vain, tempting, lying, worldly hiftories, concern¬ ing the Tuutha de dannan , and concerning warriors and champions, and Fingal the fon of Cumhali, with his he¬ roes, and concerning many others which I will not at prefent enumerate, than to write, and teach, and main¬ tain, the faithful word of God, and of the perfed! w’ay of truth.” Now this paffage, cited by the Highland Society,
4-
I A N. 11
in order to prove the currency and popularity of Offian’s poems, a ifually proves, that the bards were accuftomed, in che time ot bifliop Carlwell, to cnmpnfe poems con¬ cerning Fingal, which poems were probably in fubfequent ages confidered as the genuine poems of Offian.
The firft perfon who feems to have conceived the idea of colledling the poems and ballads of the Highlands, was a young man, Jerome Stone of Dunkeld, who had ac¬ quired a knowledge of the Gaelic language. Of one of the poems which he colledled he publiihed a tranflation in rhyme, in the Scotch Magazine for January 1756. Nearly about the fame time, Mr. Pope, minifter of Reay in Caithnefs, entertained the defign of making a collection of the ancient poetry of the Highlands; but, in conlequence of the death of the gentleman who engaged with him in this undertaking, he feems to have dropped it very foon.
The next collector of Gaelic poetry was Mr. James Macpherfon. In the year 1759, Mr Home, the author of Douglas, met him at Moffat; in the courfe of a conver- fation on the manners of the Highlands, Macpherfon in¬ formed him that one of their favourite amufements “ was to liften to the tales and compofitions of their ancient bards, which he deferibed as containing much pathos and poetical imagery ; and, at Mr. Home’s defire, he tranf- lated fome fragments which his memory ferved him to recoiled!. The beauty of thefe fragments ftruck Mr. Home, and his friends at Mofrat, to whom he communi¬ cated, them fo forcibly, that they prevailed on Mr. Mac¬ pherfon, who was rather averfe to the undertaking, to publiffi them in a fmall volume at Edinburgh, of which they agreed to fuperintend the publication, and defray the expenfe.” (Report of the Highland Society on the Poems of Offian, p. 27.) This fmall volume contained the opening, and fome epifodes, of Fingal ; and an inti¬ mation was given, that, if it were favourably received, the whole of Fingal might be recovered. A fubferiptiori was. accordingly fet on foot, to enable Macpherfon to per¬ form a tour through the Highlands, to collect larger and more complete fpecimens of Gaelic poetry. When he returned to Edinburgh, he communicated to his literary patrons the refult of his expedition ; and, foon afterwards, Fingal, an Epic Poem in Six Books, was publiihed, aiong with fome fmall detached pieces. In the. year 1765, he publiihed another epic poem, entitled Temora. To one ofthe books of this poem he annexed what. he called the original Gaelic; but of the reft he only publiihed the tranflations. At his death, however, he left 1000I. to de¬ fray the expenfe of the publication of the originals of the whole; on which publication we fliali afterwards offer fome remarks.
The fuccefs which attended Macpherfon’s refearches, and the fame he acquired by the publication of the poems of Offian, incited feveral others to proceed into the Highlands, and to colled!, from tradition or manufcripts, Gaelic ballads; while, as a fufpicion of the authenticity of what Macpherfon had publiihed arofe in the minds of many, enquiries were alfo fet on foot, for the pnrpofe, if poffi’ole, of detedling the fuppofed impofture. There is reafon to believe, too, that fome of the poems which were given to the world, after the fuccefs and fame of Macpher¬ fon, were not genuine Gaelic poems, nor even founded on the traditionary ballads of the Highlands, but entirely the fabrication of thofe who publiihed them.
Previoufly to the year 1780, Mr. Duncan Kennedy, formerly a fchool-malter in Afgylefhire, and afterwards pradHfing as an accountant in Glafgow, began to colled! and tranlcribe from oral recitation, among the natives in the weftern Highlands, feveral fragments of Gaelic poe¬ try; and his colledlion, confiding of three thin manu- feript volumes in folio, was purchafed by the Highland Society of Scotland, in whole poffefficn they ftill remain. It is however very uncertain what part of thefe MSS. is genuine ancient Gaelic poetry, and what is to be aferibed to the colledfor as his own compofition ; lince he has avowed himfelf the author of two of the poerns, and has
hinted
12 OSS
hinted that various pafiages in others of them were either compofed or altered by him. Whether or not we are to fet thefe confefiions to the account of Mr. Kennedy’s va¬ nity, it is impofllble for us to determine ; but it is gene¬ rally allowed that at lead: a confiderable part of the MSS. is of an ancient date.
In the year 1730, Mr. John Clark, land-furveyor in Badenoch, publiflied tranflations of Gaelic poetry. The principal of thefe was a regular poem in-three books, two of which were afterwards publiflied in a verfe-t ran flat ion by Mrs. Grant of Laggan. In the fame year, Mr. Hill, in a tour through the Highlands, collected, chiefly from one Macnab, a blackfmith in Argylefliire, copies of feveral ancient poems; which, from the incidents they con¬ tain, and other internal evidence, mud be deemed of a iater date than that which Macpherfon is difpofed to at¬ tribute to the poems which he publiftied. Along with tranflations of thefe poems Mr. Hill gave the Gaelic ori¬ ginal ; and to the whole he fubjoined remarks on the au¬ thenticity of Macpherfon’s Oflian, which at that time had become the fubjedl of keen controverfy.
But the mod voluminous collector of Gaelic poetry, fince the time of Macpherfon, was Dr. Smith, minifler of Campletown in Argylefliire. In the year 1780, he pub¬ liflied “ Differtations on Gaelic Antiquities,” to which he annexed a “ Collection of Ancient Poems, tranflated from the Gaelic of Oflian, Ullin, Oran, and others and after¬ wards, in 1787, he publiflied the original Gaelic poems from which he profeffed to have tranflated that collection. Of thefe compoiitions, too, much has been afcribed to Dr. Smith as an author; and, as the doCtor declined giving a categorical anfwer to the queftions of Dr. Graham on this delicate point, we may perhaps' conftrue his filence into a tacit confeflion that he had at lead a {hare in the formation of the poems. It appears evident, however, from Dr. Graham’s literal tranflations of paffages in Smith’s Gaelic poems, compared with the Engliih ver- flons publiflied by the latter gentleman, that theie poems were originally compofed in Gaelic, which is at lead a Arong preemption in favour of their antiquity ; for, what¬ ever the oppofers of Macpherfon may allege refpeCting the poetical abilities of this gentleman, and other later collectors of Gaelic poems, it is improbable that, in the prefent date of Gaelic literature, (when the language is confeffedly declining in ufe,) and in the prefent altered date of manners and fociety in the Highlands, (which is by no means favourable to poetic genius,) perfons fliould dill be found capable of compoflng, in that language, poems equal in beauty and fublimity to what we might expeCt from a much more ancient, and, as far as genuine poetry is concerned, a more enlightened period.
Some years after Dr. Smith had publiflied his trunjla- iious, but a year previous to the appearance of his ori¬ ginals, a large collection of Gaelic poetry, ancient and modern, was printed by Mr. John Gillies, a boolcfeller at Perth. Of this work we know nothing; but, in the opi¬ nion of Mr. Mackenzie, it has confiderable merit ; though it is evident, from the manner in which it is arranged, that it was not prepared for the prefs with fufficient ac¬ curacy and attention.
About the year 1784, Dr. Young, afterwards bifliop of Clonmore, made an excurfion through the Scottilh High¬ lands, for the purpofe of collecting all the information in his power concerning the authenticity of Macpherfon’s Oflian. The refult of his enquiries and invefligation he gave to the world in the fil'd volume of the TranfaCtions of the Royal Irifh Academy. It confided of fome rude ancient Gaelic poems refpeCting the race of the Fions, which we have already had occafion to notice and quote. Thefe poems Dr. Young tranfcribed letter for letter from the copies current in the Highlands, except fo far as they were corrected by the edition publiflied at Perth. Dr. Young does not mention the apparent antiquity of the MSS. from which he tranfcribed thefe ballads.
Thefe are the principal collections of Gaelic poetry
IAN.
which have been publiflied, as preferved by tradition or in manufcript, in the Highlands of Scotland. In Ireland a collection made its appearance foon after Macpherfon’s Oflian; this confided of a tranflation in rhyme, by Mif’s Brooke, of fome Irifli ballads, which die fuppofes to be of a later date than that in which Oflian flouriflied, and probably of the eighth, ninth, and tenth, centuries. Mod of thefe Irifn poems relate to the Fingalians ; but they differ both in the incidents wdiich they relate, and in their manner and flyle, from the poems under fimilar titles which have been collected in the Highlands of Scotland. One mod driking difference confids in the magical ma¬ chinery of the Irifli poems, inflead of the mere reference to the belief of the employment and intervention of de¬ parted fpirits, which the Fingalian poetry of the High¬ lands exhibits.
Before we proceed to inquire into the authenticity of the poems of Oflian, we (hall endeavour to point out, in very few words, their mod driking charaCteriflics.
On the firlt perufal of thefe poems, the reader is druck with their obfcurity ; he finds it necefiary to paufe and re¬ flect, before he can afcertain the meaning of many pafiages, or perceive and trace the connection of the narrative. Even after he has become accuflomed to the flyle, lie is obliged to leave in defpair many parts as abfolutely unin¬ telligible, or at lead as conveying no clear and diflinft idea or image to his mind. Befides this great fault, the poems labour under the imputation of being exceflively bombaflic and turgid ; fo that a reader of fade and judg¬ ment has feveral difliculties to overcome, before he can fit down to their perufal in fucli a date of mind and feeling as will permit and enable him calmly and impartially to ap¬ preciate their merits. And, even after he has got over the repugnance excited by their obfcurity and bombaflic flyle, he will be in danger of being repelled and difgufled by their fentimental effufions, which, in many indances, are of the mod romantic and fickly character. Still, how¬ ever, there is fomething in the poems which gets the bet¬ ter of all thefe objections, and which is more powerful in its attractions than the faults which we have noticed are in their repulfive quality. The great charaCteriflics of Oflian’s poetry, are undoubtedly, as Dr. Blair remarks, tendernefs and fublimity; but the tendernefs is pathetic, melancholy, and folemn ; and the fublimity is dreary, defolate, and gloomy. There is nothing gay or cheerful ; the mind of the reader is prepared for the grave and fo¬ lemn events which they record, by the wild and romantic fcenery which they defcribe. The extended heath by the fea-fhore; the mountain fhaded with mid; the torrent r u filing through a folitary valley ; the fcattered oaks, and the tombs of warriors overgrown with rnofs;” all produce a folemn attention in the mind, and prepare it for great and extraordinary events. We agree with the French poet Lebrun :
Homere, au foleil de la Grece,
Emprunte fes plus doux rayons j
Mais Oflian n’a point d’ivreffe:
La lpne glace fes crayons.
Sa fublimite monotone
Plane fur de trifles climats ;
C’efl un long orage qui tonne Dans la faifon des noirs frimas.
De manes, de fantomes fombres,
II charge les ailes des vents ;
Et le fouffle des pales ombres Refroidit meme les vivans.
Upon the whole, the merits of Oflian’s poetry mud be allowed to be great ; it has alfo great faults: to thofe whofe judgment and fade have been difciplined by fludv, and formed on the models of antiquity, the faults will feem to counterbalance the beauties; but, in the opinion of the multitude, the beauties will preponderate, and with them the poems of Oflian will always be popular.
Though
OSS
Though the publication of Fingal and Temora pro¬ cured for Macpherfon a confiderable fhare of public fa¬ vour, and were fupported by all the abilities and enthu- fiafm of Dr. Blair, yet, even on their firft appearance, perfons of talent and critical acutenefs openly avowed a difbelief of their authenticity. Many others, though dif- pofed to favour the poems and their editor, exprelled fcepticifm with refpeft to the manner in which the ori¬ ginals were faid to have been obtained, and the fidelity with which they had been tranflated. Among thefe may be ranked David Hume, wdio, in his letters to Dr. Blair on this fubjeft, written in 1763, and reprinted by the Highland Society in the beginning of their Report, inti¬ mates the fufpicions which heand others entertained, and points out the method in which he thinks thefe doubts are moft likely to be removed. From the firft of thefe letters, it appears that, immediately after the publication of the poems, many literary men rejedted them with dif- dain and indignation, as a palpable and moft impudent forgery; on the grounds, that the manners defcribed in the tranflations were not fuch as were likely to prevail at the early period which was aftlgned as the era of Oftian ; and that it was fcarcely poflible for fuch long and con- nedled compofitions to be preferved, by oral tradition alone, during the lapfe of fourteen centuries.
Notwithftanding the ftatement of thefe difficulties, the editor refufed to fatisfy the world refpedting thofe points in which his veracity had been called in queftion ; and nothing of importance was publifhed on either fide, till Dr. Johnfon and Mr. Bofweli returned from their northern tour. During that journey, they had made fe- veral inquiries concerning the traditionary poems faid to exift among the Highlanders; but thefe inquiries were unfuccefsful, and tended to confirm the preconceived no¬ tions of Johnfon ; who, alw'ays prejudiced againft Scotch¬ men and Scottifh literature, had, almoft without exami¬ nation, condemned Macpherfon as a literary felon. Dr. Johnfon’s objections to the authenticity of OfTian’s poems reft almoft entirely on the idea that no written poems in the Gaelic language were then extant, and of courfe that the publifhed translations muft be a forgery : to this charge Macpherfon replied only by menaces and abufe ; a con¬ duct which tended materially to injure his caule, and ftill farther to impugn his veracity.
The fpirit of fcepticifm was not confined to the Englifli literati ; but none of Mr. Macpherfon’s countrymen ap¬ peared openly as his opponents, till Mr. W. Shaw, author of the Gaelic Did! ionary and Grammar, publifhed in 1781 “ An Enquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems afcribed to Offtan.” The arguments and affertions adduced in this inquiry were truly formidable, and to many readers appeared perfedlly conclufive. Mr. Shaw feemed to have proved that both the fable and the machinery of Mac¬ pherfon’s principal poems were Irifh ; that none but Irifh MSS. had been or could be offered to the infpedtion of the public ; that many of the teftimonies adduced by Dr. Blair were either falfehoods or mifreprefentations ; and that the principal literary charadfers of Scotland had en¬ gaged in a combination to fupport the caufe and credit of their countrymen, at the expenfe of honefty and truth.
Oftian and his editor foon encountered a much more formidable, becaufe more refpectable, antagonift, in Mr. Malcolm Laing, who, at the end of his Hiliory of Scot¬ land, publifhed in 1800, gave an elaborate “ Differtation on Offian’s Poems;” in which he minutely examined the compofitions in queftion, and compared them with other publications of Mr. Macpherfon. In the controverfy on this fubjedl, before Mr. Laing took it up, the whole jet of the argument and proof lay on the existence, in tradi¬ tion or manufcript, of poems in the Highlands, compofed by Oftian, and fimilar in all their leading features to thofe publifhed by Macpherfon : the internal evidence, though generally mentioned by the difbelievers in their authen¬ ticity as ftrongly in favour of their opinion, was never minutely and thoroughly examined, before Mr. Laing in-
Vol. XVIII. No. 1220.
I x\ N. 13
veftigated it. The objedlions to the authenticity of thefe poems may be thus ftated and arranged.
1. It is highly improbable, that, at the time when Oftian lived, he could compofe fuch long and regular poems, without the ufe and aftiftance of letters; and the moft fturdy and zealous advocates for thefe poems will not contend that letters were known in the Highlands in the third century. It may indeed be urged, that Homer compofed his Iliad and Odyffey when he v’as equally a ftranger with Oftian to the ufe of letters; but of this af¬ fection there is no proof: the prefumption, on the con¬ trary, is, that in the time of Homer letters were known in Greece. It is fcarcely neceffary to dwell on the pofi- tion here laid down, that, if letters were unknown in the Highlands in the time of Oftian, that bard’s compofitions muft have been very fhort, and probably very irregular; certainly not of the defcription of poems which Macpher¬ fon publifhed in his name, and which Dr. Blair, in his Differtation, has proved to be written in exadt conformity to the rules which Ariftotle lays down for the compofi- tion of an epic poem.
Even allowing that fuch long and regular poems could have been compofed without the ufe of letters, it is not credible that they could' have been tranfmitted from the time of Oftian to the time of Macpherfon, or at leaft to the time of the date of the moll ancient manufcripts found in the Highlands. This objection cannot be put in a ftronger way, than in the words in which Hume has expreffed it, in a letter to Gibbon : “ It is indeed ftrange, that any man of fenfe could have imagined it poffible, that above 20,000 verfes, along with numberlefs hiftorical fadts, could have been preferved by oral tradition, during fifty generations, by the rudeft, perhaps, of all civilized nations, the moft neceflitous, the moft turbulent, and the moft unfettled. There is nothing fimilar to this in any other language, or among any other nation : the Gothic poems are all fhort ; the Death-fong of Radnor Lodbrog, which is amongrt the longeft pieces of Gothic poetry fup- pofed to be traditionally preferved, extends but to twen¬ ty-nine oftavo ftanzas, of fhort lines; and, in order to relieve the memory in this and other Gothic poems, there is always a burden. Befides, thefe ballads were written only a few centuries before letters were common among the Gothic nations ; and, confequently, their prefervation (independently of the circumftance of their fhortnefs) cannot be coniidered as in the leaft fimilar to the fuppofed prefervation of Ofiian’s poems.”
2. The inconfiftency of the events related in thefe poems with the Roman hiltory of Britain, and with the hiftory of the middle ages, has been pointed out by Mr. Laing, as another proof of their forgery. “ The arrival or return of the Scots from Ireland, under Fergus Mac Erth, and his brother Loarn, is eftablifhed by the con¬ currence of every Scottifh and Irifh hiftorian ; and their firft arrival is marked by Bede, under Riada their leader, from whom their fettlement was named Dalriada:” hence it is an hiftorical fadf, that there was not a Highlander in Scotland, of the prefent race, at the beginning-of the era aftlgned to Fingal. This obfervation will derive great ad¬ ditional weight, if we have proved that Fingal and his heroes belong originally to Ireland ; and, confequently, were probably introduced to the knowledge of the High¬ landers at the era of the Dalriadic fettlement in Scotland. Fingal, in the poems publifhed by Macpherfon, is con- nedfed with Caracalla in 208, and with Caraufius in 286; and his reign and exploits are prolonged in the Temora to the battle of Gabhra, in 296 ; “ with the fame pro¬ priety (Mr. Laing obferves) as if a youthful patriot, who refilled a union in the Scotch parliament, were again in¬ troduced at the end of the century, oppolinga union with Ireland in the Britifh fenate!”
3. With refpedt to the MSS. laid to have been procured by Macpherfon, he always refufed to produce them, ex¬ cept one, which Mr. Laing examined, and which, inftead of being a MS. of Offian’s poems, is an Irifh MS. in a
E charadfer
14
o s s
character and language which fcareely any Highlander can diftindtly read ; and which, as far as it has been made out, contains no poems, either of Oflian or of any other bard. It has been already mentioned, that Macpherfon left a Aim of money for the purpofe of publifhing his Gaelic MSS. after his death ; from fome caufe or other, their publication was delayed till the year 1807, when the)' appeared, with a literal tranflation into Latin by the late Robert Macpherfon, A. M. together with a Dif- fertation on the Authenticity of the Poems, by Sir John Sinclair; a tranflation on the abbe Cefarotti’s Differtation on the Controverfy, with Notes, and a Supplemental EfTay, by Dr. Mac Arthur : the work was publifhed un¬ der the fanftion of the Highland Society of London. The editors of this work thought that they fliould decide the controverfy ; but there were certain awkward and trou- blefome queftions afked : the Gaelic poems thus publifhed were all in Macpherfon’s hand-writing ; what had become of the MSS. which he pretended to have got in the High¬ lands, and from which, if they really exifled, he mud have made his copy? To this no fatisfa&ory anfwer can be given. On the margin of the fir ft edition of his OlTian, Macpherfon marked, with his own hand, the time when the Gaelic was delivered to Mr. John Mackenzie, the fecretary to the Highland Society ; among thefe memo¬ randa, the following are found : “ Delivered the three Duans of Cathlode, as complete as the tranflation." Does not this expreflion warrant the belief that the Gaelic was written after the Englifli ? elfe why fay, “ as complete as the tranflation ?” It would be natural and proper to talk of a tranflation being as complete as the original, but to fpeak of an original being as complete as the tranflation, would fcareely have occurred to any one whole thoughts and language had not been at direif variance. Again, be fays, “ Delivered all that could be found of Carthon but, if the Englifli Carthon had been the tranflation, why could he find little more than half the original from which the tranflation was made ? The mere circumftance of the poems of Oflian being publifhed in Gaelic, from MSS. in Macpherfon’s li and- writing, can prove nothing in favour of their authenticity; nor be a fatisfaflory an- fwer to thofe who called for MSS. before they would give up t-heir fcepticifm ; unlefs there had been fatisfadtory evidence, that this Gaelic Oflian had been copied from old MSS. for Macpherfon could forge poems as well in Gaelic as in Englifli ; and the undoubted faffs, that he never would fliow any old MSS. that he delayed publifh¬ ing the Gaelic during his life-time, and that he was very flow in delivering it over to thofe to whom he committed the publication, confirm the fufpicion of Mr. Laing, that he tranflatetl his Englifli Oflian into Gaelic, and that this tranflation he left for publication after his deceafe.
4. But Macpherfon, in various paffages of his prefaces and in trodudt ions, feems difpofed to acknowledge the impofture, and to claim the higher merit of an original poet : in one place he fays, “ Thofe who alone are capa¬ ble of transferring ancient poetry into a modern language might be better employed in giving originals of their own, were it not for that wretched envy and meannefs, which aftedts to defpife contemporary genius. I allure my anta- gonifts, I fliould not tranflaie what I could not imitate.” And in his preface lie fays, “ Without increafing his ge¬ nius, the author may have improved his language, in the eleven years that the poems have been in the hands of the public.” And again, “ In a convenient indifference for a literary reputation, the author hears praife without being elevated, and ribaldry without being depreffed :” and, in the conchifion, lie fays, “ the tranflator who can¬ not equal his original, is incapable of exprefling its beau¬ ties.” Thefe paffages, when confidered in connection with all the other lufpicious circumflances ; with Mac¬ pherfon’s inability to produce any ancient MSS. with the plagiarifms contained in the poems; and with the internal marks of forgery which they dil'play ; tell ftrongly againft their authenticity. But there is more diredt and pofitive proof that Macpherfon confelfed the impofture ;
I A N.
The late venerable bifhop of Dromore, in a letter to a friend, (quoted by the Britifli Critic, for 1809, p. 275.) fays, “ I repeatedly received the molt pofitive affurances from fir John Elliot, the confidential friend of Macpher¬ fon, that all the poems publifhed by him as tranflations of Oflian, were entirely of his own compofition. This I did not underftand fo ftridllyas that Macpherfon might not have introduced fome fragments of ancient Erie poetry, preferved by tradition; but that he had no ge¬ nuine originals of Offian’s compofition. This, fir John Elliot did not communicate to me .as the refult of one fingle converfation, but what he was fully allured of, by repeated conventions, during the intimacy of many years.”
We have now enumerated the moft important objec- . tions that have been ftated at various times againft the authenticity of Ofiian’s poems; from which objections has even arifen a doubt whether ever “ Fingal fought, or Oflian fung.”
It was not to be expected that the admirers of Oflian, and the friends of his tranflator, fliould regard thefe hof- tilities with that filent contempt and pertinacious for¬ bearance which Macpherfon himfelf feems to have gloried in difplaying. At a very early period of the difpute, the refpedlable profefl'or, who had at firft attempted to prove the authenticity, and point out the beauties, of the poems, flood up in defence of hisadopted child ; and, in deference to the advice of his friend Hume, he colledled and pub- liflied numerous teftimonies in favour of its legitimacy. Tlrefe teftimonies confift chiefly of eleven letters from gentlemen and clergymen of refpedlabiiity in the High¬ lands, and are reprinted by the Committee of the High¬ land Society, at the head of the Appendix to their Re¬ port : they tend to prove that, at the time in which they were written, viz. 1763, there were living in the High¬ lands and I (lands of Scotland feveral perfons who either pofiefled ancient Gaelic MSS. or could recite long paffages from traditionary Gaelic poems, which agreed in their fubjedl, and often in their compofition, with thofe that had been publifhed in Englifli by Macpherfon. Thefe teftimonies, though fatisfadlory as far as they go, are by no means complete; and much more was wanting to fatisfy the doubts and remove the fcruples of the Englifli literati.
In confequence of the ferious attack made by Mr William Shaw on the authenticity of the poems, and on the literary and moral character of Mr. Macpherfon and his advocates, but particularly to vindicate his own re¬ putation againft the attacks of that author, Mr. John Clark, member of the fociety of Scottifh Antiquaries, and tranflator ofthe Caledonian Bards, publifhed in 1781, “An Anfwer to Mr.Shaw’s Enquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems aferibed to OlTian.” In this Anfwer, Mr. Clark not only repelled the allegations of Mr. Shaw againft himfelf, and expofed Mr. S.’s ignorance of the Gaelic language and antiquities, but affirmed, on what appeared to be the fulleft evidence, that the accufations of Mr. Shaw had been dictated by private pique and re- fentment, and were in numerous inftances falfe and ma¬ licious; that Mr. S. had really been fhown an ancient Gaelic manufeript, referring to Ofcar the foil of Oflian, which, however, he appeared fcareely to underftand ; and- that he had never applied to Mr. Macpherfon for a fight of the MSS. in Mr. M.’s pofleffion, as he had aflerted.
For the purpofe of throwing the fulleft light on this far-famed controverfy, and procuring the molt complete evidence which the nature of exifting circumflances would allow, the Highland 'Society of Scotland, fome time previous to the year 1797, appointed a committee of their body to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Oflian. In the time of nominating this committee, the fociety were peculiarly fortunate : Dr. Blair, Profefl'or Ferguflbn, Dr. Carlyle, and Mr. John Home, the principal advifers and promoters of the origi¬ nal publication of Macpherfon, and many other gentle¬ men of refpedlabiiity, who had been intimately acquainted
with
15
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with Mr. Macpherfon, and had either affifted him in his refearches, or witnefied the profecution of his undertaking, were Hill living; and the immediate defendant of the laftof the Caledonian bards remained, to give his tefti- motiy as to the manner in which Macpherfon had become poflefled of an ancient Gaelic MS, which was laid to have fu pp lied him with a great part of his materials. By the direction of this committee, queries, very diftinftly and accurately worded, were tranfmitted to every one who, from pertbnal knowledge or opportunities of en¬ quiry, was fuppofed capable of throwing light on the lubjeft. In 1805 the report of this committee was pub¬ lilhed, fanftioned by the name of Mr. Henry Mackenzie, chairman. The line of condudl purfued by the commit¬ tee was very fimilar to that which had been chalked out by Hume, in a letter to Blair, loon after the firll appear¬ ance of the poems of Offian by Macpherfon. Dr. Blair had written to Hume refpefting the reception, in England, of his diflertation on thefe poems. Mr. Hume, in his anfwer, mentions the general incredulity of the Englilli literati on their authenticity arifing partly from the be¬ haviour of Macpherfon, who refilled to fatisfy any one who doubted of his veracity, and partly from the ex¬ treme improbability that fuch long connected pieces fhould have been preferved by oral tradition for fourteen centuries. Mr. Hume there points out the line of con¬ duct which it would be necelfary for Dr. Blair to purfue, if he wilhed to lilence this general fcepticifm : “ The tef- timonies may, in my opinion, be of two kinds. Macpher¬ fon pretends that there is an ancient MS. of part of Fin- gal in the family, I think, of Clanranold: get that faft afcertained by more than one perfon of credit; let thefe perfons be acquainted with the Gaelic ; let them com¬ pare the original and the tranllation ; and let them teftify the fidelity of the latter. But the chief point in which it will be necelfary for you to exert yourfelf will be, to get pofitive tcftimony from many different hands, that luch poems are vulgarly recited in the Highlands, and have there been long the entertainment of the people. This teftimony mull be as particular as it is pofitive. It will not be fufficient that a Highland gentleman or clergy¬ man fay, or write to you, that he has heard fuch poems : nobody queftions that there, are traditional poems in that part of the country, where the names of Offian and Fin- gal, and Ofcar and Gaul, are mentioned in every ftanza. The only doubt is, whether any of thefe poems have any farther refemblance tothepoemspublifhed by Macpherfon. Generality muft be carefully guarded again ft, as being of no authority.”
It is evident from thefe precautionary directions, that Mr. Hume was well aware of the loofe and unfatisfadlory evidence which moft probably would be produced in fup- port of the authenticity of Offian ; and the Highland Society, notwithftanding they tranfmitted very clear, pre- cile, and diftindl, queries, received, in molt cafes, only very general anfwer 5 : fuch was the impatient zeal, or fuch the clouded underftandings, of the Highlanders on this fubjedl, that they either would not permit themfelves to reply to any objections with an appeal to fafts, or they mifapprehended the quefiion, and fuppofed it was the exiftence of traditionary poetry refpedting Offian and Fiagal, and not the fidelity of Macpherfon’s tranllation, on which they were requefted to give evidence. The confequence was, that much of the evidence produced on the report of the Highland Society is quite exceptionable, on the grounds which Hume ftates and wiflies to guard Dr. Blairagainft; and the evidence which goes to the point, only confirms that fcepticifm which it was intended to remove ; iince it only proves that there were in the High¬ lands KlSS. and traditionary ballads refpeCting Fingal and his heroes, attributed to Offian, of which ballads Macpherfon had made ufe, but which were not the originals of his poems.
In the report it is exprefsly admitted that, “ The 'com¬ mittee has not been able to obtain any one poem the
I A N.
fame in title and tenor with the poems publilhed by Macpherfon.” This admiffion is fufficient to put the feal upon the queftion of their forgery: and the High¬ land Society, after this admiffion, fhould have difdained the unworthy and ridiculous fubftitute to which they have had recourfe, in order to make out fomething like an original for fome of Macpherfon’s poems.
There can be no doubt that Macpherfon collected Gaelic poetry, and made ufe of it in his Offian ; but his materials were few and fcanty, and of a very different character, in every refpeCt, from the poems which he conftrudted from them. Fingal is principally founded on a ballad narrating the invafion of Ireland by Magnus the Bare-footed : this ballad contains about fifty ftanzas of four lines each ; which Macpherfon has enlarged into fix books, and thrown into the form of a regular epic poem. The ftory of the ballad bears fome refemblance to that of Fingal ; but, in the former, there is no mention of the battle between Cuthullin and Sivaran, nor of thole circumftances related by Macpherfon- in fuch detail, and by means of which he has fwelled Fingal into fix books. Befidesthis ballad of Magnus, Macpherfon, in the com- pofition of his Fingal, has made ufe of other fmall genuine pieces of Celtic poetry.
The Battle of Lora, the next piece for which any au¬ thority has been difcovered, is founded on a poem called Erragon : the incidents are nearly the fame, but the man¬ ner of relating them, the fentiments, and the language, are extremely unlike ; and thefe fufliciently prove, that the peculiarities of Offian’s poetry are, in fa£t, the oft- fpring folely of Macpherfon’s mufe.
Carthon, the next poem, is founded on the tale of Con- loch, natural fon of Cuthullin, who, being educated in Scotland, comes to Ireland, encounters his father there, without being known to him, and is flain by him. Mac¬ pherfon has altered the incidents in lome refpefts ; and, as ufual, fubllituted his own fentiments and language. There is good reafon for fuppofing that the famous ad- drefs to the fun, with which this poem concludes, is not genuine. No Gaelic original has been difcovered for the death ot Cuthullin. Darthula is well known in the High¬ lands under the name of Devidre ; but Macpherfon has very materially altered the ftory. The ballad of Lammon Mor feems to have been the foundation of Macpherfon’s “ Luthmon ;” but, in the latter, the ftory is told different¬ ly ; and the night-attack, by Offian and Gaul, with the im¬ agery which Blair extols, are not in the ballad. For the firft book of Temora there is fome authority, in a poem celebrating the fatal battle of Gablira, in which Ofgur and moft or the Fions were flain : as however Mac¬ pherfon intended, when he publilhed the firft book of Temora, to add a fecond, he has omitted this cafaitrophe : and the Fions Itill live and fight. Such are the ilender materials on which Macpherfon conftruCted the pieces contained in his firft publication -. for thole contained in his fecond volume no genuine authorities can be found.
The refult, therefore, of the enquiries of the High¬ land Society, muft be confidered as having finally and completely fettled the queftion refpe&ing the authenti¬ city of Qilian’s poems. As publilhed by Macpherfon, they are much more his own, even in incident's, and moft efpecially in fentiment, imagery, and language, than the compofition of Offian, or any Celtic bard; and the ballads which he employed in their conftru&ion, or fuch as exilt in MS. or in tradition in the Highlands, can on no pofitive or probable evidence beafcribed to Oifian, nor indeed traced up to any particular bard or era what¬ ever.
It feems not to have been the delign of the Society to refute the objections urged by Mr. Laing, in his Difierta- tion ; or at lealt they have not attempted to carry fuch a defign into execution. This talk, therefore, was left to fome other admirer of Offian’s poems, and it has been performed by two writers, Mr. Archibald Macdonald of Liverpool, and Dr. Graham. The former of thefe gen¬ tlemen
16
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O S T
tlemen has pnblifhed “Some of Offian’s leffer Poems, rendered into verfe ; with a Preliminary Difcourfe, in anfwer to Mr. Laing.” But the lateft, and by far the molt refpeflable, tradt on this fide of the controverfy which we have feen, is an “Effayon the Authenticity of the Poems of Odian, in which the ObjedHons of Malcolm J.aing, Efq. are particularly confidered and refuted ; by Patrick Graham, D.D. Minifter of Aberfoyle. To which is added, an ElTay on the Mythology of OlTian’s Poems, by Profeffor Richardfon, of Glafgow College.” Our limits, however, preclude us from entering farther into this controverfy, which indeed we think abfolutely fet¬ tled by what we have already adduced. But we may refer our readers to the Monthly Review' for December 1810, where that work and four others are examined with great judgment and liberality; and we may add, that Dr. Graham’s work is w'ritten with fome degree of elegance, and, what is not ufual in controverfy, with temper and moderation.
OSS'ICLE, /! [ officulnm , Eat.] A final! bone. — There are three very little bones in the ear, upon whofe right conftirution depends the due tendon of the tympanum ; and, if the aclion of one little mufcle, which ferves to draw one of thefe officles fixt to the tympanum, be loft or abated, the tenfion of that membrane ceafing, found is hindered from coming into the ear. Holder on Speech.
OSSIF'IC, adj. [from the Lat. os, a bone, and /«rio, to make.] Having the pow'er of making bone, or changing carneous or membraneous to bony fubftance. — If the caries be fuperficial, and the bone firm, you may, by me¬ dicaments, confume the moifture in the caries, dry the bone, and difpofe it, by virtue of its oQ'ific faculty, to thru ft out callus, and make feparation of its caries. Wifeman.
OSSIFICA'TION, f. Change of carneous, membra¬ nous, or cartilaginous, into bony fubftance. — O ffifications or indurations of the artery, appear fo conftantly in the beginnings of aneurifms, that it- is not eafy to judge whether they are the caufe or the effeft of them. Sharp.
OSSIFRA'GA, f. in botany. See Euphorbia.
OSS'IFRAGE, '( [ ojjfragus , or bone-breaker, Lat.] A kind of eagle. — The ojj'ifragus, or ofprey, is thus called, becaufe it breaks the bones of animals in order to come at the marrow. It is faid to dig up bodies in church¬ yards, and eat what it finds in the bones, which has been the occafion that the Latins call it avis bujlaria. Calmet. — See, however, Ospray. — Among the fowls that (hall not be eaten, are the eagle, the offrage, and theofpray. Lev.x i. 13.
OSSIF'RAGOUS, adj. [from the Lat. os, a bone, and frango, fo break.] Breaking the bones.
OSSIFR AN'GENT, adj. Breaking the bones.
To OSS'IFY, v. a. To change to bone. — The dilated aorta every-where in the neighbourhood of the cyft is ge¬ nerally ofjified. Sharp's Surgery.
OSS'IG, a town of Silefia, in the principality of Neilfe : three miles eaft-north-eaft of Grotkau.
OSS'IG, a town of Saxony, in the bilhopric of Naum- burg : four miles fouth of Zeitz.
OSSIPE'E, Ossapee, or Osapy, a poft-town, mountain, and lake,inStrafford-county,Neu’Hampftiire, North Ame¬ rica. The town was incorporated in 1785, and has 1205 inhabitants: it is forty miles north of Concord. The lake lies north-eaft of Winnipifcogee-lake, between which and Offapee-lake is the Oftapee-mountain. Its waters run eaft, and are joined by South-river, from Great Offapee-river, whiclvdifcharges it felf into Saco -river, near the divifion-line between York and Cumberland counties in Maine, and be¬ tween Limericand Gorham, in lat. 43. 46. N. Ion. 70.45. W.
OSSIPEE GO'RE, a townlhip of the fame ftate and county; with 125 inhabitants.
OSSIV'OROUS, adj. Devouring bones. — The bore of the gullet is not in all creatures alike anfwerable to the body or ftomach ; as in the fox, which feeds on bones, and fwallows whole, or with little chewing ; and next, in
a dog, and other ojjivorous quadrupeds, it is very large.— Derham.
OSSNO'BIAN, or AsseNeboyne, a river of North America, which runs into Winnipeg-lake in lat. 50. 3. N. Ion. 97. o. W.
Ossnobian or Asseneeoyne Indians, a tribe of fa- vages found about the fource of the above river, far weft of Lake Superior. The Moravian- miffionaries report, that thefe men, inftead of cultivating the land, live wholly upon animal food, or at leaft reftrift themfelves to the fpontaneous productions of nature, denominating thofe who dig the ground “ Haves.” Bread is unknown to them ; and they rejeft it fr&m their mouths, calling it rotten wood. Thefe Indians, as well as thofe numerous nations who inhabit the country from Lake Superior to¬ wards the Shining Mountains, are great admirers of hunting-horfes, with which the country abounds. The Olfnobians have no permanent place of abode ; and live in tents made of buffalo and other hides, with which they travel from one place to another, like the Arabs ; and, as loon as the food for their horfes is expended, they re¬ move, and pitch their tents in another fertile lpot : and thus they emigrate, without fcarcely ever returning to the fame fpots again.
OSSO'LA, or Oscel'la, a diftricl of Italy, between the Valais and Lake Maggiora, about thirty-five miles in length, and from fifteen to twenty-five in breadth ; the country is compofed of mountains and valleys, but is fertile and populous. Domo d’ Ofcello is the capital.
OSS'OLIN, a town of Poland, in the palatinate of Sandomirz : twenty miles weft of Sandomirz.
OSSOO'RAH, a town of Hindooftan, in Bengal : fix- teen miles north of Biffunpour.
OSS'ORY, the name of a bifhopric in Ireland, the ca¬ thedral of which is at Kilkenny. It includes almoft the whole county of Kilkenny, a good part of the Queen’s County, and fome of the King’s County, extending for¬ ty-fix Englilh milesin length and twenty-nine in breadth, and containing 136 parilhes. Such however are the unions of parilhes, that there are only fifty benefices, and of thefe twenty were without churches when Dr. Beau¬ fort publifhed. There is alfo a barony called Offory, which gave the title of earl to the eldeft fon of the dukes of Ormond.
OSS'UARY, f. [ ojfuarium , Lat.] A charnel-houfe ; a place where the bones of dead people are kept.
OSSUE'RO. See Osero.
OSSUN', a town of France, in the department of the Upper Pyrenees: fix miles fouth-fouth-weft of Tarbe, and twelve north of Argellez.
OSSU'NA, an ancient and well-peopled town of Spain, in the province of Seville. It derives great advantage, in cafe of a liege, from a fountain in the middle of it, which furnilhes water to the inhabitants, whilft the whole coun¬ try, for eight miles round, is totally deftituteof thatne- ceffary article. When Cselar befieged Offima, he was obliged to bring his provifions, and particularly water, from a great diftance. It is forty-rive miles north-eaft of Seville.
OST, or Oust, f. A kiln where hops or malt are dried. See Oast.
OSTABAT', a town of France, in the department of the Lower Pyrenees : fix miles fouth of St. Palais, and nine weft of Mauleon.
OSTA'DE (Adrian Van), an eminent painter of the Dutch fchooi, was born at Lubeck in 1610. He ftudied his art at Haarlem under Francis Hals, and was fellow- pupil with Brouwer, with whom he contracted a great in¬ timacy. His tafte and ftyle were perfectly thofe of the country in which he praCtifed, being charaCterifed by a moftexaCt imitation of nature, with great beauty of •co¬ louring and exquifite finilh, but the loweft pollible choice of fubjects, which are uniformly taken from ale-houfes, kitchens, and places of vulgar refort, and often exhibit 2 objects
O S T O S T 17
objects of difguft. Mr. Fufeli, in his edition of Pilking- ton’s Dictionary, defcribes him as an artift in the follow¬ ing energetic terms : “ He has contented himfelf to trace the line which juft difcriminates the animal from the brute, and ftamps his aftors with inftinCt rather than with paflions. He has perfonified the dregs of vulgarity with¬ out recommending them by the moft evanefcent feature of tafte ; and yet decoys our curiofity to dive with him into the habitation of filth, beguiles the eye to dwell on the loathfome inmates and contents, and furprifes our judgment into implicit admiration, by a truth of charac¬ ter, an energy of efteCl, a breadth and geniality of touch and finifh, which leave no room for cenfure. If he is lefs filvery, lefs airy, than Teniers, he is far more vigorous and gleaming ; if his forms be more fquat and brutal, they are lefs fantaftic and more natural ; if he group with lefs amenity, he far excels the Fleming in depth and real compofition.”
Oftade long refided at Haarlem, where he attained a high reputation. The approach of the French troops in 167s, drove him to Amfterdam, where he died in 1685. His genuine works of his beft time and manner are very fcarce, and bear extremely high prices. Thofe of his brother IJ'aac, who painted in the fame ftyle, but with much inferior excellence, often pafs for his ; many of them, indeed, are copies of his works. Adrian was fre¬ quently folicited by cotemporary landfcape-painters to add figures to their pieces, which has given them a great additional value. He etched a number of his own de¬ signs, and feveral eminent engravers have wrought from his pictures. The ciphers he ufed to his own engravings may hefeen on the preceding Plate.
OS'TAKRE, a town of the kingdom of the Nether¬ lands : four miles north of Ghent.
OSTAL'RIC, a town of Spain, on the Tordera. In 1694, this town was taken by the French, who quitted it the year following, after having deftroyed the fortifica¬ tions : twenty-two miles fouth-weft of Gerona, and twenty fouth-eaft of Vique.
OSTA'NO, a tcwn of Italy : ten miles north of Como.
OSTASCH'KOV, a town of Ruflia, in the government of Tver, near the lake Seliger : eighty miles weft of Tver. Lat. 56. 50. N. Ion. 33. 34. E.
OST'BY, a town of Sweden, in Angermanland : fixty miles north of Hernofand.
OS'TE, a river which rifes in the fouth part of the duchy of Bremen, pafles by Bremervorde, &c. and runs into the Elbe, at its mouth, in lat. 53. 54. N. Ion. 8. 54. E.
OSTELLA'TO, a town of Italy, in the department of the Lower Po : fourteen miles fouth-eaft of Ferrara.
OS'TEN, a town of Germany, in the duchy of Bre¬ men : eleven miles north-weft of Stade.
OSTEN'D, a ftrong feaport-town of the kingdom of the Netherlands, in the province of Weft Flanders 5 with a good harbour, and well fortified.
Among the flouriftiing and numerous cities of the Ne¬ therlands, Oftend formerly held a diftinguifhed rank. It had, however, long declined, though its port continued to be frequented. About the commencement of the French revolution, it appeared almoft a defolate and de¬ ferred place. That event, if it did not reftore it to its former opulence, at leaft prevented its utter decay. By the various circumftances of the revolutionary war, Of¬ tend acquired a partial revival of its commerce and con- fequence. In the long line of coaft from the Texel to Breft, there is not one good natural harbour; for the embouchures of the Rhine and Scheldt, though accefiible at all times of the tide in fine weather, yet are fo blocked up and impeded by fand-banks and fhifting fands, that the approach in bad weather, or during dark nights, is very dangerous. The other ports are factitious tide-har¬ bours, dry at low water, and fome of them even at half¬ tide. Of thefe, Oftend (which word fignifies Enjt Port ) is among the beft. The harbour is formed by a natural inlet of the fea, which has forced a paflage between two
Vol. XVIII. No. 1 220.
fand-hills. The fouth-weftern bank, or beach, is of a triangular fliape, and poflefles fome degree of elevation above high-water mark and the furrounding flat coun¬ try, fo that, at half-tide, it is completely peninfulated ; and on this bank the town is built. This inlet has been improved at different times. The ground has been fcooped out fo as to form the interior harbour or bafin, which terminates in the great canal of Bruges, to which it is connected by fuperb flood-gates, piers, and fluices. Externally the channel is confined and deepened by two piers or jetties : their conftruCtion is Ample, yet effective, being nothing more than double rows of piles driven into the fand, and connected by a flooring of ftrong planks. Not above a hundred yards from the end of the piers there is a bar, which runs acrofs the harbour’s mouth, upon which, in neap-tides, there is not more than feven or eight feet water ; at high-water, in ordi¬ nary tides, there are twelve feet ; and, in lunar tides, twenty-five feet and upwards on the bar. If thefe jetties were carried out fo as to reft upon the fand-bank which forms the bar, it would deepen the water, and prevent the further accumulation of fand, which is conftantly thrown by the northern current on the eaft fide of the harbour.
During the period of its commercial profperity, that is, between the years 1720 and 1780, the town of Oftend be¬ came greatly enlarged. Ramparts were demolifhed to make room for buildings, and a new town was regularly laid out and completed. It in fome refpeCts refembles an Englifh town, being built of brick, with flagged foot¬ ways, a convenience not met with any where elfe on the continent : yet the inhabitants perfift in walking in the middle of the ftreet, amidft heaps of dung, carts, horfes, &c. fo inveterate are prejudice and habit. The beauty of the new town confifts principally in a fine quay, which borders the inner harbour, where the large and handfome hotel of the ci-devant Eaft-India Company makes at this day a confpicuous figure.
The old town has a ftiattered and fomewhat fhabby ap¬ pearance. It contains, however, two good fquares. The Maifon de Ville, or town-houfe, forms the entire fide of one of them. It was formerly reckoned among the moft magnificent ftruCtures of the kind in the Netherlands, be¬ ing ornamented with two, fine towers at each wing, and a dome in the centre ; but this fuperb building was nearly ruined by the bombardment of 1745. The body of the town-houfe ftill fublifts ; but of its dome and two beauti¬ ful towers, there only remains the ftump of one of them, furmounted by a wooden cupola. The church is a large heavy building of brick, without the fmalleft claim to architectural merit ; but the infide is richly ornamented. It has a lofty oftangular fteeple, with a very clumfy fpire ; affording, however, an excellent fea-mark, which may be feen at a great diftance, when nothing elfe on land can be dilcerned. The Pharos is alfo a ftriking ob- jeCt. It is a Ample column, Handing folitary, like Pom- pey’s Pillar, on the beach. It fupports a large reverbe¬ rating lanthorn. Near the Pharos is a flag-ftatf, on which a blue flag is gradually hoifted, in proportion as the tide flows into the harbour. The fortifications of Oftend are more than two miles in circumference. They were dis¬ mantled, but had not been eflentially injured. They are now undergoing repairs and additions, which will make them very formidable. As the place is fituated on an elevated beach, the ramparts tower above the flat coun¬ try, which, being lower than high-water mark, can be fpeedily and extenfively inundated. The only hoftile approaches are along the high fand-hills to the north and fouth : the former is protefted by a ftrong redoubt, built by the late French government, called Fort Napo¬ leon ; and there are at prefent two thoufand men at work conftruCfing another on the fouth fide. By a cen- fus made ten years ago, the inhabitants of Oftend were found to amount to 10,570 individuals, exclufive of the garrifon.
F
The
18 O S T
The civil and military hiftory of Oftend is interefting. Like many of the towns of modern Europe, it was in¬ debted for its origin to ecclefiaftical eftablifhments, the figniory being inverted in the abbey of St. Bertin at St. Omer’s. Mankind owes more to faints and their reliques than an incredulous world is willing to allow. If fome of thefe never had exiftence, we know that their fofter- fathers, the monks, had; that, like the martins that built their nefts in Macbeth’s caftle, they enjoyed an in- ftindtive perception in the choice of the molt healthy, fertile, and piflurefqtie, fituations, for their habitations; and that to their fele&ion we are indebted for fome of the finert and moil flourifhing cities of Europe. On this fantftified ground Robert le Frifon count of Flanders built a church, dedicated to Notre Dame, in the year 1072. This Robert was an ufurper, and, like molt ufurpers, was a man of talent and courage. He difpof- fefi'ed his nephew, the true heir, who fled to Philip I. king of France. Philip marched with a great army to reinftate him ; but the ufurper totally defeated the French, and the nephew fell in the battle. Robert being now ef- tablilhedin the pofleflion of Flanders, the pope enjoined him, as a penance, to build churches and found abbeys. Robert did not difpute the mandate of his holinefs ; he was one of the firft improvers of the country ; and, after a long reign, left it in a flourifhing condition. The church, like that of Dunkirk, was foon furrounded with dwellings, and became a confiderable town ; but, on the 22d of November, 1334, both church and town were fwallowed up by a fudden influx of the fea. The very next year, however, a new church and a new town, for¬ tified with palifadoes, were built higher up on the beach, which have braved the fury of the elements ever fince. In 1445, Philip le Bon count of Flanders furrounded Oftend with walls, erefted the four gates, and formed the harbour. About this period Oftend acquired mari¬ time importance, and became the mod noted filhing-fta- tion on the whole coaft. Its fifhermen are commemo¬ rated for catching mermaids, fea-monfters, and odd fifties. This fpecies of fiftiery has of late declined.
It was not until the year 1583 that Oftend was regu¬ larly fortified, by Maurice of Nafl'au prince of Orange, who made it the feaport of the great cities of Ghent and Bruges, which he had recently taken. The fame year Alexander Farnefe prince of Parma attempted to carry the newly-fortified town by a coup de main, in which he failed. But the archduke Albert, the Spanifh governor of the Netherlands, having lately efpoufed Ifabella, in¬ fanta of Spain, daughter of Philip II. thought that he could not better fignalize the outlet of his government than by the reduction of fo important a place. Oftend was therefore inverted by the Spaniards with a powerful army in 1601. For two years the liege was profecuted with that calm fortitude and fteady perfeverance which fo eminently dirtinguilh the Spanifh character; but it was defended by that obftinate valour and that indefatigable exertion for which the Dutch were no lefs remarkable. The latter, moreover, threw in fuccoursby fea, of which they had the undifputed pofleflion. Duke Albert, find¬ ing that no ferious impreflion was made on the place, whilft the Ioffes of the befiegers were immenfe, had the good fenfe to difcover the fuperior talents of Ambrofe Spinofa, then a junior general, to whom he entrusted the future conduit of the fiege, notwithftanding the open difcontents of his fuperiors. Spinofa foon changed the afpeit of affairs. His firft care was to equip a flotilla of galleys, to cut off the fupplies by fea; and, though this fleet was defeated in an attempt to raife the fiege of Sliiys, then befieged by the prince of Orange, yet it partly ef¬ fected its purpofe. Meanwhile Spinofa pulhed on his ap¬ proaches through fands and marfhes, which were fuppofed to be utterly impalfable, with the utmoft vigour. He fucceeded at length in railing his batteries within point- blank fhot, from which the works were inceffantly bat¬ tered by cannon of a large calibre, carrying fifty-pound
E N D,
balls. The fire was returned with equal fpirit by the be~- fieged; and it is reported, that the noife of the'firing was heard as far as London. At laft, the place being totally deltroyed, the remnant of the brave garrifon capitulated on the 14th of September, 1604, and obtained honour¬ able terms, after a fiege, for ever memorable, of three years, three months, and three days. Oftend was com¬ manded during the fiege by four fuccefiive governors : Charles Vandernoot and Robert de Vere (an Englifli ge¬ neral) were killed, and Frederic van Dorp was danger- -oufly wounded. Daniel de Hortain lord de Marquette furvived, and figned the capitulation.
The archduke Albert and his con fort Ifabella made their triumphal entry into what they expedited to find the city ; inftead of which, their terrified looks glanced over the horrors of an immenfe cemetery, where mutilated human bodies were intermingled with mafles of fmoking ruins. They could not contemplate fuch a feene without reflect¬ ing, that fo much important time had been thrown away, fo much blood and treafure expended, for the forrowful conqueft of a fterile bank of fand and a misthapen heap of rubbilh. During the fiege the garrifon was frequently renewed : the befieged fuftaineda lofs of about 50,000 men, whilft that of the befiegers amounted to more than 80,000. See an anecdote connected with this fiege under the word Isabella, vol. xi. p. 394.
Oftend, being a convenient feaport, foon rofe from its allies. The Netherlands having parted to the houfe of Aultria, it remained under that government till the French revolution. In 1648, the French attempted to carry the place by a coup de main. They embarked in batteaux for that purpofe a feleCt corps of two thoufand men; but the flotilla was intercepted, and moft of the troops killed or made prifoners. The town was com¬ pelled to fuftain another fiege in the year 1706. The allies, commanded by field-marlhal Naffau de Overkerke, fat down before it on the 23d of June, whilft it was blockaded by an Englifli fquadron under admiral Fair¬ born. After undergoing a furious bombardment, which again reduced the place to ruins, it furrendered, on ca¬ pitulation, the 6th of July following. Oftend then re¬ ceived a Dutch garrifon ; but it was reftored to the em¬ peror by the barrier-treaty, concluded in 1715. Front this date, Oftend began greatly to profper. The empe¬ ror Charles VI. eftabliflied an Eaft-India Company there, which had fo much fuccefs, that it excited the commer¬ cial jealoufy of the Dutch, Englifli, and French. The court of Vienna was induced to abandon this fertile fource of wealth, from political and diplomatic intrigue. It is even affirmed, that a douceur of ten millions of flo¬ rins caufed the India-Company of Oftend, with all its rights and charters, to be transferred to Amfterdam. After this, the place foon began to decline : two thou¬ fand of its richert and moft commercial citizens tranf- ported themfelves, their wealth, experience, and induf- try, to other places ; and, though various attempts were made to revive its trade, for which purpofe, in 1781, it was declared a free port, yet it never could recover itfelf.
Before its abfolute decay, Oftend was fated once more to fuft'er a deftruftive fiege. When the battle of Fonte- noy had laid open all Flanders to the French, Oftend was befieged by count Lowendhal. He fat down before the place on the 23d of Auguft, 1745 ;and, after thirteen days’ open trenches, and five days’ bombardment, (which dila¬ pidated the greater part of the buildings, and, among the reft, the fuperb Maifon de Ville,) it furrendered upon ho¬ nourable terms. The garrifon amounted to 3600 men, moft of whom were Englifli. Louis XV. made his tri¬ umphal entry into Oftend on the 3d of the following Sep¬ tember ; but it was again reftored to Auftriaby the peace of Aix la Chapelle. When the emperor Jofeph II. caufed all the towns of the Auftrian Netherlands to be unforti¬ fied, Oftend was difmantled, but its ramparts remained entire.
On the breaking out of tbe French revolution, the
battle
O S T
O S T
battle of Jemappe put this maritime fortrefs into the bands of the republicans. The fubfequent reverfes of Dumourier reftored it to the Auftrians. Become now a fort of military fhuttlecock, it was again placed at the difpofal of the French; when the fatal battle of Fleurus opened all the Netherlands, and Holland itfelf, to the enemy. The Englifh government having at all times ap¬ preciated the importance of Oftend, planned an expedi¬ tion, in 1800, to furprife the place, or at leaf!: render it ufe- lefs to the enemy. About three thoufand men, under the command of fir Eyre Coote, difembarked without op- pofition near the city, and immediately proceeded tode- ftroy the flood-gates, and blow-up the locks which joined the inner harbour to the canal of Bruges, and fituated about a mile and a half outfide the fortifications. After effecting this fervice, the troops attempted to re-embark ; but, in the mean time, the weather had become ftormy, and fo great a furf broke on the beach, that no vefl'el, not even a boat, could approach it. The little army was therefore obliged to bivouac on the fand-hills ; and the next day, the wind blowing (fill frefher, it found itfelf furrounded by numerous military corps, called in from all the neighbourhood. A partial aftion took place, in which the Englifh had about a hundred men killed and wounded, the general being among the latter. No way of efcape being open, the linall force had the mortifica¬ tion to ground their arms and become prifoners, even within view of the fleet, which could not poflibly aflift it. Napoleon meditated great improvements for Oftend ; but the fuperior importance of Antwerp engrafted all his care. That city and Oftend were the laft places which the French reludftantly evacuated, agreeably to the late treaty of Paris. Oftend lies twelve miles weft of Bruges, ten miles and a half north-eaft of Nieuport, thirty-one miles and a half north-eaft-by-eaft of Dunkirk. It is fcarcely twenty marine leagues eaft-by-fouth from Ramf- gate. Lat. 51. 30. N. Ion. 3. 3. E. from London. Acker¬ man's Repofitory, vol. xiv.
OSTEN'D, a town of Africa, on the Ivory Coaft : thirty miles north-eaft of Cape Palmas.
OSTENSIBLE, adj. [ojtendo, Lat. to (how.] Such as is proper or intended to be fhown. — I take this oppor¬ tunity of exprefling my furprife, that this ajlenfible com¬ ment of the dumb-fhew fliould not regularly appear in the tragedies of Shakfpeare. Wharton's IdiJ't. E. P. — Colour¬ able ; plaufible. — He had, as dictator, an ojlenjible right to the cuftody and command of this ; and, under pretext of this oftenfible, he by force of arms feized it. Pownall on Antiq.
OSTEN'SIO, f. A tax anciently paid by merchants, &c. for leave to Jhow, or expofe their goods to fale, in markets.
OSTEN'SIVE, adj. Showing; betokening.
OSTEN'T, f. [ ojientum , Lat.] Appearance ; air ; manner ; mien :
Ufe all the obfervance of civility,
Like one well ftudied in a fad qmnt,
To pleafe his grandam. Shakfpeare' s Merck, of Few.
Show; token. Thefe fenfes are peculiar to Shakfpeare: Be merry, and employ your chiefeft thoughts To courtfhip, and fuch fair ojtents of love,
As Ihali conveniently become you there. Shakfpeare.
A portent 5 a prodigy ; any thing ominous :
Latinus, frighted with this dire ojlent,
For counfel to his father Faunus went. Dryden.
To OSTEN'TATE, v.a. \ofiento, Lat.] To make an ambitious difplay of ; to difplay boaftingly.— Who is fo open-hearted and Ample, but they either conceal their defefls, or oftentate their fufficiencies, ftiort or beyond what either of them really are ? Bp. Taylor's Artif. Handfom. — So far I muft needs ojlentate my reading, as to aflure you, that I have viewed with my own eyes, and tranfcribed from all the originals, whatever I have fet down. Fleetwood's C/tron. Pretiofum.
19
OSTENTA'TION, f. [Fr. from ofentatio, Lat.] Outward (how ; appearance. — March on my fellows ; make good this ojlentation. Shuhfpeare’s Coriol.
You are come
A market-maid to Rome, and have prevented
The ojlentation of our love. Shakfpeare.
Ambitious difplay ; boaft ; vain (how. This is the nfnil fenfe. — He knew that good and bountiful minds were fometimes inclined to ojlentation, and ready to cover it with pretence of inciting others by their example, and therefore checks this vanity : Take heed, fays lie, that you do not your alms before men, to be feen. Atterbury. With all her luftre, now, her lover warms;
Then out of ojlentation hides her charms. Young.
A ftiow ; a fpeffacle. Not in ufe. — The king would have me prefent the princes with fome delightful ojlentation, ftiow, pageant, antic, or firework. Skakfpeare’s Love's Lab. Lofl.
OSTENTA'TIOUS, adj. Boaftful ; vain ; fond of ftiow ; fond to expofe to view. — Your modefty is fo far from being oftentatious of the good you do, that it blufhes even to have it known ; and therefore I muft leave you to the fatisfaflion of your own confidence, which, though a filent panegyric, is yet the beft. Dryden.
OSTENTATIOUSLY, adv. Vainly; boaftfully.
OSTENTA'TIOUSNESS, f. Vanity; boaftfulnefs.
OSTENTATI'TIOUS, adj. Oftentatious. Cole.
OSTEN'TATIVE, adj. Apt to boaft; oftentatious. Phillips.
OSTENTA'TOR, ft [Fr. from ofento, Lat.] A boafter; a vain fetter to ftiow. Sherwood.
OSTENTIF'EROUS, adj. [from the Lat. oftentum, a prodigy, and fero, to bring.] Producing omens ; bring¬ ing prodigies.
OSTEN'TOUS, adj. Fond of (how; fond to expofe to view. — Sometimes we ought to be thankful for an enemy. He gives us occafion to fliew the world our parts and piety, which elfe, perhaps, in our dark graves would lleep and moulder with us quite unknown ; or could not otherwife well be feen without the vanity of a light and an oflentous mind. Feltham. — Such rude and imperfect draughts being far better, in their efteem, than fuch as are adorned with more pomp, and ojientatious circumftances. Evelyn.
OSTEOCOL'LA, f. [from the Gr. ofhov, bone, and wMaa, to glue together.] A white or afli-coloured fparry fubftance, in ihape like a bone, and by fome fup- pofed to have the quality of uniting broken bones, on which account it is ordered in fome plafters ; a fuppofi- tion, we fear, which is not warranted by experience.
It is found in long, thick, and irregularly-cylindric, pieces, which are in general hollow, but are fometimes filled up with a marly earth, and fometimes contain within them the remains of a flick, round which the of- teocolla had been formed ; but, though it is plain from thence, that many pieces of ofteocolla have been formed by incruftations round flicks, yet the greater number are not fo, but are irregularly tubular, and appear to be formed of a flat cake, rolled up in a cylindric ftiape. The ofteocolla is found of different lizes, from that of a crow- quill to the thicknefs of a man’s arm. It is compofed of fand and earth, which may be feparated by waffling the powdered ofteocolla with water; and is found both in digging, and in feveral brooks, in many parts of Ger¬ many, and elfewhere. It is called hammojleus in many parts of Germany. It has this name in thefe places from its always growing in fand, never in clay, or any folid foil, nor even in gravel. Where a piece of it any-where appears on the furface, they dig down for it, and find the branches run ten or twelve feet deep. They ufually run ftraight down ; but fometimes they are found fpreading into many parts near the furface, as if it were a fubter- raneous tree, whofe main ftem began at twelve feet depth, and thence grew up in a branched manner till met
by
20 O S T
by the open air. The main trunk is ufually as thick as a man’s leg ; and the branches that grow out from it are thickeft near the trunk, and thinner as they feparate from it. The thinneft are about the fize of a man’s finger.
The ofteocolla found in the earth is at fir ft foft and duftiie ; but in half an hour’s time, if expofed to the air, it becomes as hard as we find it in the (hops. The method to take up a perfeft piece for a fpecimen, is to open the ground, clear away the fand, and leave it fo for an hour or thereabouts ; in this time it will harden, and may be taken out whole. It is certain that the ofteocolla is pro¬ duced at this time; for, if a pit be cleared of it, there will more grow there in a year or two, only it will be fofter, and will not harden fo eafily in the air as the other.
The above account is chiefly from the Phil. Tranf. N® 39. for the year 166B. And, in a fubfequent volume, for 1739, tw0 furgical cafes are given, in which the ex¬ hibition of ofteocolla as medicine and as food, was fup- pofed to have contributed very confiderably to the for¬ mation of bone, fo as to reftore what had been loft by compound f raft u re and exfoliation. Mr. Ambrofe Bearer, of Norimberg, (Phil. Tranf. 1748.) endeavours to prove, that ofteocolla is the petrified root of the black poplar- tree, Populus niger. But fee the experiments of Mar- graf, in the Mem. of the Berlin Academy for 1748.
OSTE'OCOPE, f. [from the Gr. oreov, a bone, and y.ovlu, to cut.] Pains in the bones, or rather in the nerves and membranes that encompafs them.
OSTEOL'OGER, f. A defcriber of the bones. — Of- teologers have very well obferved, that the parts apper¬ taining to the bones, which ftand out at a diftance from the bodies, are either the adnate or the enate parts. Smith on Old Age.
OSTEOL'OGIST, f. An anatomift ; one (killed in of- teology.
OSTEOL'OGY, f. [from the Gr. ej-iov, bone, and *oyo?, a difcourfe.] A defcription of the bones. — Richard Farloe, well known for his acutenefs in difleftion of dead bodies, and his great fkill in ofteolugy , has now laid by that praftice. Tatler.
OSTEOSPER'MUM, f. [from the Gr. orsov, bony, and crn-epya, feed ; in allufion to its hard bony feeds.] In bo¬ tany, a genus of the clafs fyngenefia, order polygamia neceffaria, natural order of compofitae difcoidete, (corym- biferae, Jujf.) Generic characters — Calyx s common Sim¬ ple, hemifpherical, many-leaved ; leaflets awl-fhaped, Small. Corolla : compound rayed ; corollets, herma¬ phrodite very many in the difk ; females about ten in the ray. Proper of the hermaphrodite tubular, five¬ toothed, the length of the calyx ; of the female ligulate, linear, three-toothed, very long. Stamina: in the her¬ maphrodites ; filaments five, capillary, very lhort ; an¬ ther cylindrical, tubulous. Piftillum : in the herma¬ phrodites ; germen very fmall ; ftyle filiform, fcarcely the length of the ftamens; ftigma obfolete : in the fe¬ males, germen globular ; ftyle filiform, the length of the ftamens ; ftigma emarginate. Pericarpium : none ; calyx unchanged. Seeds : in the hermaphrodites, none ; in the females, folitary, fubglobular, coloured, at length hardened, inclofing a kernel of the fame fliape ; pappus none. Receptacle : naked, flat. — EJfential Charader. Calyx Ample, or in two rows, many-leaved, almoft equal. Seeds globular, coloured, bony, (berried or nucamenta- ceous, Gartner.) Down none ; receptacle naked. There are feventeen fpecies, all natives of the Cape of Good Hope.
1. Ofteofpermum fpinofum, or prickly ofteofpermum : fpines branched. This is a low (hrubby plant, which fel- dom rifes above three feet high, and divides into many branches; the ends of the (hoots are befet with green branching fpines ; the leaves are very clammy, efpecially in warm weather; they are long and narrow, and fet on without any order. The flowers are produced fingly at the ends of the (hoots ; they are yellow, and appear in
O S T
July and Auguft. It is very nearly allied to the next fpecies. The fruit hangs down on an oblong peduncle, and confifts of duflcy-purple, bony, globular, berries, difpofed in a ring. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. Cultivated in 1700 by Dr. Uvedale. It flowers from Fe¬ bruary to Oftober.
2. Ofteofpermum pififerum, or fmooth ofteofpermum : leaves lanceolate, mucronate, fubpetioled, fmooth, fer¬ rate; branchlets angular- toothletted. Stem four or five feet high, dividing into many branches towards the top, which fpread out flat on every fide ; they have a purplilh bark. Leaves of a thick confidence, and fucculent, al¬ ternate, of a light-green colour, from two to three inches long, and one inch broad in the middle ; more pointed than in the reft. Berry oval, at firft green, then red, but, when fully ripe, of a dark-purple colour, having a thin pulp, which covers one hard feed. It produces tufts of yellow flowers at the extremity of the (hoots, from fpring to autumn ; and frequently ripens feeds. It was cultivated in 1757 by Mr. Miller.
3. Ofteofpermum moniliferum, or poplar-leaved ofteo¬ fpermum: leaves obovate, ferrate, petioled, fubdecur- rent. This rifes with a flirubby (talk feven or eight feet high, covered with a fmooth grey bark, and dividing into feveral branches. Flowers in clufters at the ends of the branches, fix or eight coming out together on petioles an inch and a half long; they are yellow, and (haped like thofe of ragwort (Senecio Jacobsea), having about ten ligulate florets in the ray. This plant flowers but feldom in England ; the time of its flowering is July or Auguft. It was cultivated here in 1714.
4. Ofteofpermum ilicifolium, or holm-leaved ofteofper¬ mum : leaves oblong, tooth-angulate, rugged, half-em¬ bracing ; branches grooved. Leaves feflile, angular, with three teeth on each fide, rolled in at the edge ; above rugged, beneath villofe.
5. Ofteofpermum ciliatum, or fringe-leaved ofteofper¬ mum : leaves elliptic-lanceolate, crenate, ciliate. This is a woolly (hrub, with oblong, toothed, ciliate, leaves.
6. Ofteofpermum junceum, or reedy ofteofpermum : leaves linear, acute, keeled, aidant; panicle terminat¬ ing. Stem five feet high, upright, ftiff and ftraight, even. Leaves awl- (haped or linear, ftiff, even, feflile, very remote.
7. Ofteofpermum triquetrum, or three-fided ofteofper¬ mum: leaves linear, three-lided. Stem fuffruticofe ; leaves even, a finger’s length, abundant. Flowers-from the uppermoft axils, folitary, yellow.
8. Ofteofpermum corymbofum : leaves lanceolate, . fmooth ; flowers panicled. Stem upright, the thicknefs of a finger. Leaves alternate, feflile, ftiff, a finger’s length, on the flowering branches fmaller, rugged at the edge. Flowers yellow. Seeds oblong, larger than grains of wheat.
9. Ofteofpermum imbricatum : leaves ovate, blunt, imbricate. Stem two feet high. Peduncle terminating, filiform, the length of the flower; one-flowered, pubef- cent, leaflefs ; corolla yellow. It differs from O. polyga- loides, in not having the leaves lanceolate, or acute, or keeled; and the peduncles without a linear leaflet.
10. Ofteofpermum herbaceum : leaves ovate, fubfeflile, fpatulate, ferrate 5 ftem herbaceous. This refembles a Verbefina. Leaves exaCtly fpatulate.
11. Ofteofpermum niveum : leaves ovate, petioled, toothed, woolly. The whole herb is covered with a thick and very white lanugo.
12. Ofteofpermum perfoliatum : leaves ovate, petioled, angular-toothed, tomentofe underneath, petioles perfo¬ liate-embracing. This is lingular in having the petiole dilated at the infertion, like a little wheel round the ftem.
13. Ofteofpermum polygaloides : leaves lanceolate, fcattered, decurrent, fmooth, quite entire, axils woolly. Stalk about four feet high, dividing into many fmall branches. The flowers come out at the end of the branches, Handing fingly on peduncles about an inch
z long.
O S T
long. The (tern between the leaves has frequently vil- lofe hairs on it, like thofe on the bag of the filk-worm. It was cultivated by Mr. Miller in 1759.
14.. Ofteofpermum calendulaceum : leaves lanceolate, fetTiie, toothed, rugged ; ftem flelhy, lax. This refembles Calendula arvenfis very much, and thence has its name ; but it differs in the feeds not being winged, but cylindri¬ cal, bony, and fmooth.
15. Ofteofpermum arClotoides : leaves lyrate, petioled ; petioles eared at the bafe, half-embracing, tomentofe. In the furface, the figure of the herb, and leaves, and almoll in the flower, this fpecies refembles an ArClotis, but in the fmoothnefs of its feeds an Ofteofpermum. Linn. Snppt.
16. Ofteofpermum rigidum, or rigid ofteofpermum : leaves toothed-pinnatifid, hairy ; branches unarmed. In¬ troduced by Mr. Francis Mafi'on in 174-4.. It flowers from April to July.
17. Ofteofpermum cseruleum, or blue-flowered ofteo- fpermum : leaves pinnate; pinnas toothed. This is an underflirub, three feet high, with a ftrong fmell. Root woody, branching, fibrous. Stem fomewhat woody, ereCt, round, regularly branched, grey. Leaves alternate, fpreading; they are without veins, and have only one nerve prominent beneath ; they are of the fame colour on both fides, and fragrant; from an inch and a half to two inches in length, and fifteen lines in breadth. Flowers blue, an inch wide. Seeds obovate, fomewhat angular and rugged, not at all bony. L' Heriticr.
Propagation and Culture. Thefe plants, being too ten¬ der to live in the open air in England, are placed in the green-houfe in OCtober, and may be treated in the fame manner as myrtles, and other hardy green-houfe plants, which require a large (hare of air in mild weather; and, in the beginning of May, the plants maybe removed into the open air, and placed in a flieltered fituation during the fummer-feafon. The firft and fecond forts mufthave plenty of water, being very thirfty plants. They are propagated by cuttings, which may be planted in the lummer- months upon a bed of light earth, and Ihould be watered and (haded until they have taken root, which they will in five or fix weeks, when they muft be taken up and planted in pots ; for, if they are fuffered to ftand long, they will make ftrong vigorous (hoots, and will be difficult to tranfplant afterwards, efpecially the fecond and third forts. During fummer the pots ihould be fre¬ quently removed, to prevent the plants from rooting through the holes at the bottom of the pots into the ground, which they are very apt to do when they conti¬ nue long undifturbed, and then they (hoot very luxuri¬ antly ; and, on their being removed, thefe (hoots, and fometirr.es the whole plants, will decay. See Polymnia.
OS'TER, a river of Ruifla, which runs into the Defna near Kozeltz, in the government of Kiev.
OS'TER, a town of Ruffia, in the government of Kiev, at the union of the rivers Ofterand Defna : twenty-four miles north of Kiev. Lat. 50. 58. N. Ion. 31. 14. E.
OS'TER CAP'PELN, a town of Weftphalia, in the bifliopricof Ofnaburg : ten miles eaft-north-eaft of Vorden.
OS'TER O'EN, an ifland near the coaft of Norway: twenty miles north-weft of Bergen.
OS'TERBURG, a town of Weftphalia, in the Old Mark : thirty-fix miles north-weft of Brandenburg, and fixty weft-north-weft; of Berlin. Lat. 52. 48. N. Ion. 1 1 . 56. E.
OS'TERBY, a town of Sweden, in the province of Upland. This place is remarkable for its furnaces; and near it is the iron-mine of Dannemora, one of the largeft and richeftin Sweden. It was firft opened in 1527 ; and the ore yields from 70 to 90 per cent, to the amount of 18,000 tons annually : twenty-four miles north of Upfal.
OS'TERFELD, a town of Saxony, in the bifliopric of Naumberg : eight miles weft of Zeitz, and feven fouth- ealt of Naumburg. Lat. 51. 5. N. Ion. n, 53. E.
Vol. XVIII. No. 1220.
O S T 21
OS'TERHOFEN, a town of Bavaria, on the Danube : nine miles north-weft of Vilzhofen, and twenty north- weft of Paffau.
OS'TERHOLZ, a town of the duchy of Bremen. The principal trade of the inhabitants is digging peat or turf, of which they fell to the amount of 18,000 rix-dollars yearly to the inhabitants of Bremen : feven miles eaft of Bremen.
OS'TERLOF, a town of Sweden, in the province of Schonen : eight miles north of Chriftianftadt.
OS'TERMARK, a town of Sweden, in Eaft Bothnia : eighteen miles north-eaft of Chriftianftadt.
OS'TERO, a fmall ifland on the eaft fide of the gulf of Bothnia. Lat. 63.23. N. Ion. 21. 39. E.
OS'TEROD, a town of Norway: twenty-eight miles north-north- weft of Drontheim.
OSTERO'DE, a town of Weftphalia, in the principa¬ lity of Grubenhagen, on the Saal. It contains about 800 houfes, and a magazine for corn, which is delivered out to the miners of Harz Foreft always at a fixed price. Here is a manufacture of woollen (luffs. It is (ixteen miles fouth-weft of Goflar, and eighteen eaft-fouth-eaft of Ein- beck. Lat. 51.44. N. Ion. 10. 16. E.
OSTERO'E, one of the Feroer-iflands, eaft of Stromoe, from which it is feparated by a narrow channel. Lat. 61. 50. N.
OSTERRO'DE, a town of Pruffia, in the province of Oberland, on the river Dribentz, defended by a caftle : fixty-five miles fouth-eaft of Dantzic, and feventy fouth- fouth-weft of Koniglberg. Lat. 53. 36. N. Ion. 19. 52. E.
OS'TERSUND, a town of Sweden, and capital of Jamt- land, on the eaft fide of the lake Storfio : ninety-five miles weft-north-well of Hernofand, and eighty fix north-weft of Sundfwall. Lat. 63. 10. N. Ion. 14. 27. E.
OSTERSUN'DOM, a town of Sweden, in the province of Nyland : nine miles north-eaft of Helfingfors.
OS'TERTZ, a town of Croatia: fourteen miles fouth- weft of Varafdin.
OS'TERVALD (John-Frederic), a celebrated Swifs proteftant divine, was defcended from an ancient and no¬ ble family, and born at Neufchatel in the year 1663. He commenced his academical (ladies at Sautnur, where his proficiency was fo rapid, that he was admitted to the de¬ gree of M.A. before he was (ixteen years of age. After¬ wards he purfucd his (Indies at Orleans and Paris, and was admitted to the office of the miniftry. We have no account of his fettlement with any church in the capacity of pallor before the year 1699, when he entered into that relation with the church at his native place. He con¬ tracted an intimate friendfnip with the celebrated John Alphonfus Turretin of Geneva, and the learned Samuel Werenfels of Bafil ; and the union of thefe three theolo¬ gians, which was called the triumvirate of Swifs divines , laded till their deaths. M. Oftervald died in 1747, about the age of eighty-four. He was the author of feveral ufe- ful works, written in the French language, of which the principal are, 1. A TreatiCe concerning the Caufes of the prefent Corruption of Chriftians, and their Remedies, 8vo. 2. A Catechifm, explaining the Grounds and Principles of the Chriltian Religion, 8vo. prefixed to which is An Abridgment of the Sacred Hillory, which was adopted by the Society at London for the Propagation of the Gofpel in Foreign Parts, and tranflated into Arabic, in order to be fent to the Eaft Indies ; and the author alfo had the compliment paid him of being admitted an honorary member of the fociety. 3. A Difcourfe againft the Sin of Uncleannefs, 8vo. 4. A Collection of Sermons. 5. Ethica Chriftiana. 6. Theologias Compendium. 7. A Treatife on the Sacred Miniftry, 8vo. The three pieces lad mentioned were collected from his public difcourfes and leClures, and printed without his knowledge ; but met, neverthelefs, like all his other performances, with a very favourable reception from the public. The three firft pieces on the above lift were tranflated into the Eng- G lift.
22
O S T
lifts, Dutch, and German, languages. M. Oftervald alfo pubiiftied an edition of the Geneva French verfion of The Holy Bible, with arguments and reflections, in folio.
His eldell fon, John Rodolph Ostervald, became paftor of the French church at Baft], where he worthily fuftained the honour of being a defcendant from lb excel¬ lent a man, and publifhed a treatife held in much eftima- tion by French Proteftants, and entitled “ The Duties of Communicants,” umo. JEncy. Brit.
OS'TER WICK, a town of Pomerelia : ten miles fouth- fouth-eaft of Dantzic.
OS'TER WICK, a town of Weftphalia, in the princi¬ pality ot Halberftadt, on the life, containing feveral woollen manufactures s thirteen miles weft of Halberftadt, and fifteen riorth-eaft of Goflar. Lat. 50. 59. N. ion. 10. 33. E.
OS'TERWITZ, a citadel of the duchy of Carinthia : four miles eaft of St. Veit.
OSTERZE'LE, a town in the kingdom of the Nether¬ lands : nine miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Ghent.
OSTHAMMA'R, a feaport-town of Sweden, in the province ot Upland, formerly a ftaple-town, on a fmall rocky ifland called Gold Sheor, in the Aland’s Haft’, near the coaft. It is thirty miles north-eaft of Upfal. Lat. 60. 1 5. N. ion. 18. 19. E.
OS'THAN, or Ostein, a river of France, which runs into the Chiers three miles above Montmedy.
OS'THEIM, a town of the duchy of Wurzburg : two miles weft-north-weft of Volckach.
OS'THEIM, a town of Germany, in the margravate of Anfpach : four miles eaft of Waftertrudingen.
OS'THEIM, a town of Germany, in the county of Henneberg: eight miles fouth-weft of Meinungen.
OS'THEIM, a town of Bavaria, in the territory of Rothenburg: five miles fouth of Rothenburg.
OS'THEIM vor de RHCE'NE, a town of Germany, in the county of Henneberg: fix miles louth-weft of Meinungen.
OST'HOFEN, late a town of France, in the depart¬ ment of Mont Tonnerre : two miles north-north- weft of Manheim, and five north of Worms.
OS'TIA, a town of Italy, fituated at the mouth of the Tiber, about twelve miles to the weftward of Rome. It was built by Ancus Martius, the fourth king of Rome; and was called OJlia Tiberina, in the plural number, i. e. the Two Mouths of the Tiber, which were feparated by the Holy Ifland, an equilateral triangle, whofe fides were each of them computed at about two miles. The colony of Oftia was founded immediately beyond the left or fouthern, and the port immediately beyond the right or northern, branch of the river ; and the diftance between their re¬ mains meafures fomething more than two miles on Cin- olani’s map. In the time of Strabo, the fand and mud epofited by the Tiber bad choked the harbour of Oftia; the progrefs of the fame caufe has added much to the fize of the Holy Ifland, and gradually left both Oftia and the port at a confiderable diftance from the fhore. Its port was one of the moft ftupendous works of Roman magni¬ ficence, and it was a long time one of the belt towns on the coaft; but, having been deftroyed by the Saracens, and the harbour choked up, as mentioned above, it has not been able fince to recover itfelf. Though it be an in- confiderable place, and but poorly inhabited, by reafon of the badnefs of the air, yet it is the fee of a bifhop, who is always deacon of the cardinals, and crowns the pope. The Old Oftia, where are the ruins of the ancient harbour, is beyond New Oftia, towards the fea ; the latter is but a little clufter of houies, built round the cathedral, with a fmall caftle. It is twelve miles fouth-weft of Rome. Lat. 41.46. N. Ion. is. 13. E.
There were falt-works in Oftia, called Salinee OJtienfes , as early as the time of Ancus Martius (Livy); from which the Via Salaria, which led to the Sabines, took its name ( Varro). It gave name to one of the gates of Rome, which was called OJlienfis (Ammian).
OS']1
OS'TIAKS, a people of Siberia in Alia, fubjeft to the Ruffians, and comprehending three tribes. Before the Ruffians conquered Siberia, it was under the dominion of the Tartars, who gave the name of Onfchtaik, fignifying “ lavage,” to the nations who inhabit it, as a mark- of their contempt: hence they were called Oftiaki. The Oftiaks are divided into three very diftinft people, both in defcent and language; viz. the Oftiaks of the Oby, of the Marym or Narym, and of the Yenifley.
The Oftiaks of the Oby are held to be the moft nu¬ merous of the three tribes ; but accurate ftatements of the amount of their population are wanting. The Oftiaks of the Southern Oby call themfelves AJt/ah.c, from the river Oby, which in their language is called Yak; the northern, Khondi Khai, People of Konda, becaufe they withdrew from that river towards the north.
The Narym Oftiaks, who are alfo called Morafes, are about the upper parts of the Surgut, in the diftri&s of the Oby quite to the Narym, and about the mouths of the rivers Ket and Torn.
The Yenifley Oftiaks, though they refemble the two other nations of that name in appellation and mode of life, yet fpeak a language fo entirely different from that of the Oftiaks, as well as from all the Siberian tongues, that they might rather be taken fora race of a particular nation, though not the ftnalleft indications of their origin have been hitherto difeovered. Thefe dwell about the inferior Yenifley, near and between the Samoyei'es. When the Ruffians, in the feventeenth century, had ex¬ tended their conqueft hither, thefe Oftiaks not only im¬ mediately fubmitted, but alfo affifted the Ruffians to fub- due the neighbouring nations.
The Oftiaks are the moft numerous nations of Siberia, where the population, on account of the rigour of the climate, is not very great. Thefe people feidom exceed the middle fize, and are not remarkable for their beauty ; their complexion is yellowifh, and their hair generally a deep-red 5 yet they are not ill made. They are in a ftate of great barbarifm ; and get their living chiefly by hunt¬ ing and fifhing, as none of them cultivate the foil. They have neither horfes, oxen, nor ftieep ; their live ftock con- fifts of rein-deer, which they employ in draught. Their drefs is generally formed of the fkins of different animals and furs. They wear ffiort trowfers; their ftockings are made of flein, which go all over the feet, and ferve them for boots, which they ftrengthen by placing the /kin double for the foie. They have a fort of jacket next their - fkin ; and over all they put a long coat with clofe fleeves, which has a hood that entirely covers the head, and' only leaves out the face; and, in very cold weather, they even wear another over this. Cojiume of the Ruffian Em¬ pire; 1804.
In the winterthey build theirhuts in woods and fore/Is, where they find the greateft plenty of game, and dig deep in the earth, to fee lire themfelves from the cold, laying a roof of bark or ruffies over theirhuts, which are foon co¬ vered with fnow. In fummer they build aboveground on the banks of the rivers, to enjoy the convenience of fifhing; and make no difficulty of forfaking their habi¬ tations. They have a fort of princes among them, in one of whofe houfes fome European travellers found four wives. One of thefe had a red cloth coat on, and was let off with all forts of glafs beads. There was no other fur¬ niture than cradles and chefts, made of the bark of trees fewed together. Their bed confifted of wood-fhavings, almoft as foft as feathers.
Their religion is pagan ; and they have fome little idols, reprefenting men and animals, made of wood and earth, all of which are d relied in filks, in the manner of Ruffian ladies. In general, however, they are ill made, every man being his own carver. They place them on the tops of hills, in groves, and in the pleafanteft places their coun¬ try affords, and fometimes before their huts; yet they have no fet time for performing religious wor/hip, but ap¬ ply to their gods for fuccefs in their occafioual under-
4 takings*
O S T
takings. As they have no regular priefts, every old man nuy devote himfelf to that fervice ; and the office is fre¬ quently performed by the mafters and heads of families. Strahlenberg fays that, when he was among them, he faw one of their temples, which was built of wood in an ob¬ long form, like a great barn, covered at the top with birch-bark. At the end of the wall fupporting the gable was a kind of altar, made of timber, on which were placed two idols, reprefenting a man and woman, dreffed in all forts of tawdry rags; and round thefe were other fmall figures, as deer, foxes, and hares, all which were roughly carved in wood, and alfo clothed. They did not appear to have much devotion, ncr any great reverence for their idols. When they offer facrifices, they prefent the beaft to the idol ; and, having bound it, an old man puts up the petitions of thofe who brought the offering ; he then lets fly 311 arrow at the beaft, afid the people affifi in killing it. It is then drawn three times round the idol; and, the blood being received into a veffel, they fprinkle it on their houfes; they afterwards drefs the flefh and eat it, rejoicing and finging their country-fongs : they alfo befmear the idol with the blood of the facrifice, and greafe their mouths with the fat. What they cannot eat they carry home to their families, and make prefents of it to their neighbours : they as often facrifice a fifli as a beaft. At the Conclufion of the feaft they fhout, to fhow their gratitude to the idol for his attending and accepting their devotions; for they are perfuaded that the faint or hero reprefented by the image always attends their facrifices, and that, when they are over, he returns to his abode in theffir.
The Oftiaks are obliged to take an oath of fidelity to the Ruffian government; and on thefe occafions they ufe the following ceremony. After laying down a bear-fkin and an axe, and holding over it a piece of bread on a knife, they fay, “ In cafe I do not to my life’s end prove true and faithful to the fupreme government of the country, or if I knowingly and willingly break through my allegiance, or be wanting in the duty I owe to the faid fupreme go¬ vernment, may the bear tear me to pieces in the wood ; may the bread I eat ftick in my throat and choke me 5 may the knife ftab me, and the axe cut off my head.”
OSTIA'NO, a town of Italy: twelve miles north-eaft of Cremona.
OSTIA'NY, a town of Lithuania, in the palatinate of Wilna: forty Vniles fbuth eaft of Wilna.
OS'PIARY, /i [ojlivm, from os, mouth, Lat] The opening at wliich a river difembogues itfelf.- — It is re¬ ceived that the Nilus hath feven oftiai ies ; that, is by feven channels difburtheneth itfelf into the fea. Brawn. — For¬ merly an ecclefiaftical officer. — The office of the ojliarie was to open and fliut the church-doors, to look to the de¬ cent keeping of the church, and the holy ornaments laid up in the veftrie. Weever.
OS'TICO, a fmall lake of America, in Onondago- county, New York, which fends its waters from the north end by a ftream of fixteen miles long to Salt-lake.
OSTIGL'IA, a town of Italy : ten miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Mantua.
OSTIMU'RI, a town of New Mexico, in the province of Hiaqui : forty miles eaft of Riochico. Lat. 29. 12. N. Ion. 1 10. 56. W.
OS'TING HAUSEN, a town of Germany, in Weft- phalia : eight miles weft of Lippftadt, and four north-eaft of Werl.
OS’TINS TOWN, or Char'les Town, a town of the ifland of Barbadoes.
OSTIO'NES, a fmall ifland in the Pacific Ocean, near the coaft of America. Lat. 4.10. N.
OSTIS'CO, or Os'tico, a lake of New York: eight miles fouth-weft of Onondago Caftle.
OST'LER, f. [ hofielier , Fr.] The man who takes care of horfes at an inn. — The fmith, the ojller, and the boot- catcher, ought to partake. Swift.
O S T 23
OST'LERY,/! [ hojielerie , Fr.] The place belonging to the oftler.
OST'MEN, f. jtl. [i. e. Ea/lmen, as coming from a country eaft of Ireland. OJlmanni, low Lat.] Danifh fer- tlers in Ireland. — Anlave was chief of the O/imen in that ifland, and ftyled king of Dublin. Ld. Lyttelton.
GS'TRACH, a village of the grand duchy of Baden, in the territory of Salmanfweiler : five miles north-eaft of Pfullendorf.
OS'TRACFI, a river of Germany, which runs into the Danube about a mile below Scheer.
OSTRA'CION, f. the Trunk Fish; in ichthyology, a genus of the order branchioftegi. Generic characters — Teeth round, pointing forwards, blunt ; aperture of the gills linear; body mailed by a complete bony covering; no ventral fins.
This genus of fifties is eafily diftinguiflied by a hard bone or (hell covering the whole body except the tail. They refenible confequently the tortoife, but efpecially the echini; for, like thefe, their armour is in divifions ornamented with pearly tubercles; and, like the former, their (hells are occafionally filed, or come away in tlje dreffing. Thefe bony plates generally have an hexagonal form, decorated with radiated figures or a flight network. The head is truncated ; the mouth is fmall, opening at the extremity ; the teeth are blunt, (landing clofe toge¬ ther, and of an orange-colour; the lips are movable, and red ; the tongue is ftxort, fixed, and fmooth, as is the pa¬ late. The eyes are at the top of the head, near together, with a bony ledge or eyebrow hanging over, to proteCi them from accidents; thefe ledges form a furrow on the top of the head. The noftrils are fmall and long, fome- times Angle, fometimes double, and near the eyes. The gill-aperture is long, narrow, and curved. The back is (harp, and arched in fome fpecies, and in others it is broad, d’he, (ides are very long, high, and comprefled above. The furface of the beily is broad and long; and the vent is near the tail-fin. The tail is naked, fmooth, and mo¬ vable, below the round furrow which is feen on each fide the (hell. There is no appearance of lateral line or of (cales. They have five fins ; two peClorals under the aperture of the gills, which, having the fame direction as in the Diodon mola, or fun-fifli, cannot affift its progref- five motion, but only enable it to keep a balance, or to turn on one fide; but, the tail being at liberty, the fifli can, by its'means, turn any way, or go forwards ; for this organ, which is very ftrong, performs the office of peCto- ral and tail fin in mod fifli, and of dorfid and tail in the fun fifli. The other three fins are the dorfal, anal, and tail ; the two firft are fmall, like the peClorals ; but the fin of the tail is large. The fins are all of a round figure, with branched rays; ventral fins, none. Thefe are car¬ nivorous fifli, and haunt the Eaft and Weft Indian Seas, and the Red Sea. Their flefh is little in quantity, but well-tafted. Gmelin’s Linnaius has ten fpecies, Turton’s twelve; Cepede has fifteen, of which he makes four di¬ vifions.
1. Oftracion triqueter, the fmooth trunk-fiffi. Specific character, the body triangular and without fpines, the pieces of (hell convex. There are 17 rays in the peCtoral fins, 12 in the anal, 14 in the tail, and 11 in the dorfal. The under is the narrowed of the three fides ; all three are broad in the middle, and diminifti towards the extre¬ mities ; they form together an acute angle, and a convex rim at the back and belly; the lower rims are fmooth and blunt, the upper one (harp and uneven. If the fi(h be cut in pieces direCtly through, or from back to belly, each piecb forms a triangle, not entirely regular. The (hell is in hexagonal pieces rifing up towards the middle, upon each of which is a white tubercle. The noftrils are long, and near the eyes. The pupil of the eye is black, in a white iris inclofed in a yellow circle. The body is of a red-brown; the fins yellow. The tail is long, orna¬ mented with round white fpots edged with dark-brown.
The .
24
OST-RACION.
The fins are rounded with ramified rays. This fipecies is from the Eaft and Weft Indies, living on fhell-fifh, and growing to the length of a foot and a half. It is fo much efteemed as food, that only the rich can procure it ; for, according to Brown, it furpafies all the fifli of America. This large fpecies isfhown on the annexed Plate, at fig. i.
2. Oftracion concatenatus, the fettered trunk-fifh : body triangular, without fpines, and marked with chain or net¬ work. There are iz rays in the peftoral fins, 9 in the anal, 8 in the tail, and 10 in, the dorfal. The fides are narrower, the back lefs arched, and the extremities of the back and belly more even, than in the preceding. By help of a magnifier, a curious arrangement is obfervable on the furface of the (hell ; each piece is compofed of fix triangles, four of which havealmoft equal fides,and the two middle ones have Ion glides ; t he felaft being connected with their bafes, and their angles touching the adjoining piece, form that chain- work of which we have fpoken ; but thole interfefftions difappear by degrees towards the belly, be- caufe all the triangles become ifoceles, or of equal fides. The edges of thele pieces are raifed, and of a white co¬ lour. The aperture of the mouth is fmall; the upper jaw rather the longeft, and five teeth in each. The pupil of the eye is black, with a yellow border, and a green iris. The head is alh colour, with fome ftripes of blue. The fides are violet inclining to grey ; and the belly is white, as is the network on the fhelt. The tail is brownilh ; the fins of a dirty-red. Plunder found this in the Antilles.
3. Olfracion trigonus, the triangular trunk-fifh: the back arched, 14. rays in the dorfal fin, fubcaudal fpines 2. There are 12 rays in the pefforal fins,' 7 in the tail, 9 in the anal. The furfaces of the three fides are higher in this filh than in any of the other fpecies of this genus ; the head is alfo larger, and more truncated. The mouth is very fmall ; there are ten teeth in the upper jaw, eight in the lower. On the fides, the pieces of armour are raifed in the centre, on the belly at the rims; they are marked with lines, on which are ftrong pearly tubercles. The eyes are large, with a black pupil and golden iris. The head is grey, inclining to yellow ; the body yellow, (haded with brown; the fins are yellow, inclining to blue at the extremities, with ftrong ramified rays; the fpines at the anus are very ftrong, and channelled or fluted. This fifh grows a foot long or rtiore. It is natural to the Antilles and Brafil, feeding on coral and the animals it finds therein; Marcgrave found (and or gravel in the ftomach, ■which probably had been taken in to help digeftion, as in many birds. The fame author found one of thefe in the ftomach of a fpotted perch, (Perea guttata ;) which proves that the hard (hell it is covered with does not proteft it from the voracious tribes. Dutertre fays, that, when caught, it grunts like a hog, which has gained it the name of Jea-hog. The flefli is hard and tough. It is caught with a net ; it will bite at a bait ; but, if not drawn up quickly, it bites the hook in two with its ftrong teeth.
4. Oftracion biaculeatus, the two-fpined trunk-fiih : the body triangular and fpotted, two fpines near the anus. There are 13 rays in the pectoral fins, 9 in the anal, 8 in the tail, and 10 in the dorfal. The eyes are large, with a black pupil and reddifh iris; the noftrils are fingle, and near the eyes. There are fixteen teeth in the upper jaw, and twelve in the lower. The furface of this fifh is rough to the touch, and covered all over with black fpots, as is the tail and its fin, but not the other fins. The colour of the body is grey, mixed with pale-yellow; the fins are yellow, which is darker towards the extremities, with ramified rays. This fpecies is found in the Eaft Indies; it is from a foot to a foot and a half long; its food is like the preceding.
(3. There is a variety of this, which Lifter, Ray, Arte- dius, and Klein, have made a feparate fpecies. But the conftru&ion is entirely the fame; the only difference is, that, initead of the round black fpots, each piece of ar¬ mour has the appearance of a ftar with fix rays. Perhaps
both are only varieties of the O. trigonus. The pe&oral fins have but 11 rays.
5. Oftracion tricornis, the three-fpined trunk-fifh: body triangular ; one fpine on the back, and one over each eye. The fpines on the forehead are nothing more than pro¬ longations of the bony covering near the eyes, extending to a point, and direfted forwards. It is found in the In¬ dian Sea.
Cepede remarks, thafe-the authorities brought by Gme- lin for this fpecies belong to other oftracions; and that the remarks of Daubenton and Bonaterra, in the Encyclop. Method, fhould have been applied to Lifter’s trunk-fifh, and not to this.
6. Oftracion quadricornis, the four-fpined trunk-fifh : body triangular, with four fpines. There are 6 rays in the peftoral fins, 8 in the anal, 10 in the tail, 7 in the dorfal. In this fpecies, the furfaces of the fides are fome- what broader than the preceding, and the forehead not fo flat. The eyes are oval, with a dark-blue pupil enclofed in ayellowifli iris. There are fourteen teeth in the upper jaw, and twelve underneath. The (hell is rough to the touch, becaufe of the little tubercles with which it is befet. The colour of this fifli is brown inclining to red, with long brown fpots in various direftions. The fins are yel¬ low, with branched rays; the tail is of the fame colour; with black fpots ; its fin is large, but the dorfal and anal are fhort. The back is arched. Two of the fpines are upon the forehead, the other two under the tail. This fpecies inhabits the feas of Jamaica, the Antilles, Guinea, and the Eaft Indies, growing about fifteen inches long. It is not very flefliy, nor much efteemed as food.
7. Oftracion L’fter, the five-fpined, or Lifter’s, trunk- fifh : body triangular; one large fpine under the tail. This fpecies has five fpines, four of them placed fimilar to the quadricornis ; but the two under the belly feem to have been overlooked by Artedius, Daubenton, and Bo¬ naterra, (or rather the two latter have copied the former,) for they have called it the three-fpined. As Lifter (ap. Will. Ichthyol. p. 19.) firft deferibed it properly, Cepede has given it his name. The fpine on the tail, below or behind the armour of the body, is hard, pointed, and as long as the anal fin ; it it nearer the caudal fin than to the edge of the bony cafe. The dorfal