Chapter XX: Act 1737: , and the Apportionment Act 1834, and is now allowed generally (11)

Mahommedans call the centuries before the Prophet's birth waqt-el jahiliya, "the time of ignorance," but the fact is that the Arab world has in some respects never since reached so high a level as it had in those days which it suits Moslems to paint in dreary colours. Writing was a fine art and poetry flourished. Eloquence was an accomplishment all strove to acquire, and each year there were assemblies, lasting sometimes a month, which were devoted to contests of skill among the orators and poets, to listen to whose friendly rivalry tribesmen journeyed long distances. Last, that surest index of a people's civilization--the treatment of women--contrasted very favourably with their position under the Koran. Women had rights and were respected. The veil and the harem system were unknown before Mahomet. According to Noldeke the Nabataean inscriptions and coins show that women held a high social position in northern Arabia, owning large estates and trading independently. Polyandry and polygamy, it is true, were practised, but the right of divorce belonged to the woman as well as the man. Two kinds of marriage were celebrated. One was a purely personal contract, with no witnesses, the wife not leaving her home or passing under marital authority. The other was a formal marriage, the woman becoming subject to her husband by purchase or capture. Even captive women were not kept in slavery. Arabic wealth and culture had indeed thus early reached a stage which justified Professor Robertson Smith in writing, "In this period the name of Arab was associated to Western writers with ideas of effeminate indolence and peaceful opulence ... the golden age of Yemen." But long before Mahomet's time this early Arab predominance was at an end, possibly due in great measure to the loss of the caravan trade through the increase of shipping. The abandonment of great cities and the ruin of many tribes contributed to the apparent nationalization of the Arab peoples. Though the traditional jealousy and hostility of the two branches, the Yemenites and Maadites or Ishmaelites, remained, the Arab world had attained by the levelling process of common misfortune the superficial unity it presents to-day. The nation thus formed, never a nation in the strict sense of the word, was distinctively and thoroughly Semitic in character and language, and has remained unchanged to the present day. The sporadic brilliancy of the ancient Arab kingdoms gave place to a social and political lethargy, the continuation of which for many centuries made the uprise of Saracenic empires seem a miracle to a world ignorant of the Arab past. The Arab race up to Mahomet's day had been in the main pagan. Monotheism, if it ever prevailed, early gave place to sun and star worship, or simple idolatry. Professor Robertson Smith suggests that totemism was the earliest form of Arabian idolatry, and that each tribe had its sacred animal. This he supports by the fact that some tribal names were derived from those of animals, and that animal-worship was not unknown in Arabia. What seems certain is that Arab religion was of a complex hybrid nature, not much to be wondered at when one remembers that Arabia was the asylum of many religious refugees, Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians. In the later pre-Islamitic times spirits, or jinns, as they were called, of which each tribe or family had its own, were worshipped, and there was but a vague idea of a Supreme Being. Images of the jinns to the number of 360, one for each day of the lunar year, were collected in the temple at Mecca, the chief seat of their worship. That worship was of a sanguinary nature. Human sacrifice was fairly frequent. Under the guise of religion female infanticide was a common practice. At Mecca the great object of worship was a plain black stone, and to it pilgrimages were made from every part of Arabia. This stone was so sacred to the Arabs that even Mahomet dared not dispense with it, and it remains the central object of sanctity in the Ka'ba to-day. The temples of the Sabaeans and the Minaeans were built east of their cities, a fact suggesting sun-worship, yet this is not believed to have been the cult of the Minaeans. Common to both was the worship of Attar, the male Ashtoreth.

With the appearance of Mahomet the Arabs took anew a place in the world's history.

Physique.

Physically the Arabs are one of the strongest and noblest races of the world. Baron de Larrey, surgeon-general to Napoleon on his expedition to Egypt and Syria, writes: "Their physical structure is in all respects more perfect than that of Europeans; their organs of sense exquisitely acute, their size above the average of men in general, their figure robust and elegant, their colour brown; their intelligence proportionate to their physical perfection and without doubt superior, other things being equal, to that of other nations." The typical Arab face is of an oval form, lean-featured; the eyes a brilliant black, deep-set under bushy eyebrows; nose aquiline, forehead straight but not high. In body the Arab is muscular and long-limbed, but lean. Deformed individuals or dwarfs are rare among Arabs; nor, except leprosy, which is common, does any disease seem to be hereditary among them. They often suffer from ophthalmia, though not in the virulent Egyptian form. They are scrupulously clean in their persons, and take special care of their teeth, which are generally white and even. Simple and abstemious in their habits, they often reach an extreme yet healthy old age; nor is it common among them for the faculties of the mind to give way sooner than those of the body.

Character.

Thus, physically, they yield to few races, if any, of mankind; mentally, they surpass most, and are only kept back in the march of progress by the remarkable defect of organizing power and incapacity for combined action. Lax and imperfect as are their forms of government, it is with impatience that even these are borne; of the four caliphs who alone reigned--if reign theirs could be called--in Arabia proper, three died a violent death; and of the Wahhabi princes, the most genuine representatives in later times of pure Arab rule, almost all have met the same fate. The Arab face, which is not unkindly, but never smiling, expresses that dignity and gravity which are typical of the race. While the Arab is always polite, good-natured, manly and brave, he is also revengeful, cruel, untruthful and superstitious. Of the Arab nature Burckhardt (other authorities, e.g. Barth and Rohlfs, are far less complimentary) wrote: "The Arab displays his manly character when he defends his guest at the peril of his own life, and submits to the reverses of fortune, to disappointment and distress, with the most patient resignation. He is distinguished from a Turk by the virtues of pity and gratitude. The Turk is cruel, the Arab of a more kind temper; he pities and supports the wretched, and never forgets the generosity shown to him even by an enemy." The Arab will lie and cheat and swear false oaths, but once his word is pledged he may be trusted to the last. There are some oaths such as _Wallah_ (by Allah) which mean nothing, but such an oath as the threefold one with _wa, bi_ and _ta_ as particles of swearing the meanest thief will not break. In temper, or at least in the manifestation of it, the Arab is studiously calm; and he rarely so much as raises his voice in a dispute. But this outward tranquillity covers feelings alike keen and permanent; and the remembrance of a rash jest or injurious word, uttered years before, leads only too often to that blood-revenge which is a sacred duty everywhere in Arabia.

There exist, however, marked tribal or almost semi-national diversities of character among the Arabs. Thus, the inhabitants of Hejaz are noted for courtesy and blamed for fickleness; those of Nejd are distinguished by their stern tenacity and dignity of deportment; the nations of Yemen are gentle and pliant, but revengeful; those of Hasa and Oman cheerful and fond of sport, though at the same time turbulent and unsteady. Anything approaching to a game is rare in Nejd, and in the Hejaz religion and the yearly occurrence of the pilgrim ceremonies almost exclude all public diversions; but in Yemen the well-known game of the "jerid," or palm-stick, with dances and music is not rare. In Oman such amusements are still more frequent. Again in Yemen and Oman, coffee-houses, where people resort for conversation, and where public recitals, songs and other amusements are indulged in, stand open all day; while nothing of the sort is tolerated in Nejd. So too the ceremonies of circumcision or marriage are occasions of gaiety and pastime on the coast, but not in the central provinces.

Manners and customs.

An Arab town, or even village, except it be the merest hamlet, is invariably walled round; but seldom is a stronger material than dried earth used; the walls are occasionally flanked by towers of like construction. A dry ditch often surrounds the whole. The streets are irregular and seldom parallel. The Arab, indeed, lacks an eye for the straight. The Arab carpenter cannot form a right angle; an Arab servant cannot place a cloth square on a table. The Ka'ba at Mecca has none of its sides or angles equal. The houses are of one or two storeys, rarely of three, with flat mud roofs, little windows and no external ornament. If the town be large, the expansion of one or two streets becomes a market-place, where are ranged a few shops of eatables, drugs, coffee, cottons or other goods. Many of these shops are kept by women. The chief mosque is always near the market-place; so is also the governor's residence, which, except in size and in being more or less fortified Arab fashion, does not differ from a private house. Drainage is unthought of; but the extreme dryness of the air obviates the inconvenience and disease that under other skies could not fail to ensue, and which in the damper climates of the coast make themselves seriously felt. But the streets are roughly swept every day, each householder taking care of the roadway that lies before his own door. Whitewash and colour are occasionally used in Yemen, Hejaz and Oman; elsewhere a light ochre tint, the colour of the sun-dried bricks, predominates, and gives an Arab town the appearance at a distance of a large dust-heap in the centre of the bright green ring of gardens and palm-groves. Baked bricks are unknown in Arabia, and stone buildings are rare, especially in Nejd. Palm branches and the like, woven in wattles, form the dwellings, of the poorer classes in the southern districts. Many Arab towns possess watch-towers, like huge round factory chimneys in appearance, built of sun-dried bricks, and varying in height from 50 to 100 ft. or even more. Indeed, two of these constructions at the town of Birkat-el-Mauj, in Oman, are said to be each of 170 ft. in height, and that of Nezwah, in the same province, is reckoned at 140; but these are of stone.

The principal feature in the interior of an Arab house is the "kahwah" or coffee-room. It is a large apartment spread with mats, and sometimes furnished with carpets and a few cushions. At one end is a small furnace or fireplace for preparing coffee. In this room the men congregate; here guests are received, and even lodged; women rarely enter it, except at times when strangers are unlikely to be present. Some of these apartments are very spacious and supported by pillars; one wall is usually built transversely to the compass direction of the Ka'ba; it serves to facilitate the performance of prayer by those who may happen to be in the kahwah at the appointed times. The other rooms are ordinarily small.

The Arabs are proverbially hospitable. A stranger's arrival is often the occasion of an amicable dispute among the wealthier inhabitants as to who shall have the privilege of receiving him. Arab cookery is of the simplest. Roughly-ground wheat cooked with butter; bread in thin cakes, prepared on a heated iron plate or against the walls of an open oven; a few vegetables, generally of the leguminous kinds; boiled mutton or camel's flesh, among the wealthy; dates and fruits--this is the _menu_ of an ordinary meal. Rice is eaten by the rich and fish is common on the coasts. Tea, introduced only a few decades back, is now largely drunk. A food of which the Arabs are fond is locusts boiled in salt and water and then dried in the sun. They taste like stale shrimps, but there is a great sale for them. Spices are freely employed; butter much too largely for a European taste.

After eating, the hands are always washed, soap or the ashes of an alkaline plant being used. A covered censer with burning incense is then passed round, and each guest perfumes his hands, face, and sometimes his clothes; this censer serves also on first receptions and whenever special honour is intended. In Yemen and Oman scented water often does duty for it. Coffee, without milk or sugar, but flavoured with an aromatic seed brought from India, is served to all. This, too, is done on the occasion of a first welcome, when the cups often make two or three successive rounds; but, in fact, coffee is made and drunk at any time, as frequently as the desire for it may suggest itself; and each time fresh grains are sifted, roasted, pounded and boiled--a very laborious process, and one that requires in the better sort of establishments a special servant or slave for the work. Arabs generally make but one solid meal a day--that of supper, soon after sunset. Even then they do not eat much, gluttony being rare among them, and even daintiness esteemed disgraceful. Wine, like other fermented drinks, is prohibited by the Koran, and is, in fact, very rarely taken, though the inhabitants of the mountains of Oman are said to indulge in it. On the coast spirits of the worst quality are sometimes procured; opium and hashish are sparingly indulged in. On the other hand, wherever Wahhabiism has left freedom of action, tobacco-smoking prevails; short pipes of clay, long pipes with large open bowls, or most frequently the water-pipe or "nar-ghileh," being used. The tobacco smoked is generally strong and is either brought from the neighbourhood of Bagdad or grown in the country itself. The strongest quality is that of Oman; the leaf is broad and coarse, and retains its green colour even when dried; a few whiffs have been known to produce absolute stupor. The aversion of the Wahhabis to tobacco is well known; they entitle it "mukhzi" or "the shameful," and its use is punished with blows, as the public use of wine would be elsewhere.

Dress.

In dress much variety prevails. The loose cotton drawers girded at the waist, which in hot climates do duty for trousers, are not often worn, even by the upper classes, in Nejd or Yemama, where a kind of silk dressing-gown is thrown over the long shirt; frequently, too, a brown or black cloak distinguishes the wealthier citizen; his head-dress is a handkerchief fastened round the head by a band. But in Hejaz, Yemen and Oman, turbans are by no means uncommon; the ordinary colour is white; they are worn over one or more skullcaps. Trousers also form part of the dress in the two former of these districts; and a voluminous sash, in which a dagger or an inkstand is stuck, is wrapped round the waist. The poorer folk, however, and the villagers often content themselves with a broad piece of cloth round the loins, and another across the shoulders. In Oman trousers are rare, but over the shirt a long gown, of peculiar and somewhat close-fitting cut, dyed yellow, is often worn. The women in these provinces commonly put on loose drawers and some add veils to their head-dresses; they are over-fond of ornaments (gold and silver); their hair is generally arranged in a long plait hanging down behind. All men allow their beards and moustaches full growth, though this is usually scanty. Most Arabs shave their heads, and indeed all, strictly speaking, ought by Mahommedan custom to do so. An Arab seldom or never dyes his hair. Sandals are worn more often than shoes; none but the very poorest go barefoot.

Slavery.

Slavery is still, as of old times, a recognized institution throughout Arabia; and an illicit traffic in blacks is carried on along the coasts of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The slaves themselves were obtained chiefly from the east African coast districts down as far as Zanzibar, but this source of supply was practically closed by the end of the 19th century. Slaves are usually employed in Arabia as herdsmen or as domestic servants, rarely in agricultural work; they also form a considerable portion of the bodyguards with which Eastern greatness loves to surround itself. Like their countrymen elsewhere, they readily embrace the religion of their masters and become zealous Mahommedans. Arab custom enfranchises a slave who has accepted Islam at the end of seven years of bondage, and when that period has arrived, the master, instead of exacting from his slave the price of freedom, generally, on giving him his liberty, adds the requisite means for supporting himself and a family in comfort. Further, on every important occasion, such as a birth, circumcision, a marriage or a death, one or more of the household slaves are sure of acquiring their freedom. Hence Arabia has a considerable free black population; and these again, by inter-marriage with the whites around, have filled the land with a mulatto breed of every shade, till, in the eastern and southern provinces especially, a white skin is almost an exception. In Arabia no prejudice exists against negro alliances; no social or political line separates the African from the Arab. A negro may become a sheik, a kadi, an amir, or whatever his industry and his talents may render him capable of being. This is particularly so in Nejd, Yemen and Hadramut; in the Hejaz and the north a faint line of demarcation may be observed between the races.

Military qualities.

The Arabs are good soldiers but poor generals. Personal courage, wonderful endurance of privation, fixity of purpose, and a contempt of death are qualities common to almost every race, tribe and clan that compose the Arab nation. In skirmishing and harassing they have few equals, while at close quarters they have often shown themselves capable of maintaining, armed with swords and spears alone, a desperate struggle against guns and bayonets, neither giving nor receiving quarter. Nor are they wholly ignorant of tactics, their armies, when engaged in regular war, being divided into centre and wings, with skirmishers in front and a reserve behind, often screened at the outset of the engagement by the camels of the expedition. These animals, kneeling and ranged in long parallel rows, form a sort of entrenchment, from behind which the soldiers of the main body fire their matchlocks, while the front divisions, opening out, act on either flank of the enemy. This arrangement of troops may be traced in Arab records as far back as the 5th century, and was often exemplified during the Wahhabi wars.

Arab women are scarcely less distinguished for their bravery than the men. Records of armed heroines occur frequently in the chronicles or myths of the pre-Islamitic time; and in authentic history the Battle of the Camel, 656 A.D., where Ayesha, the wife of Mahomet, headed the charge, is only the first of a number of instances in which Arab amazons have taken, sword in hand, no inconsiderable share in the wars and victories of Islam. Even now it is the custom for an Arab force to be always accompanied by some courageous maiden, who, mounted on a blackened camel, leads the onslaught, singing verses of encouragement for her own, of insult for the opposing tribe. Round her litter the fiercest of the battle rages, and her capture or death is the signal of utter rout; it is hers also to head the triumph after the victory of her clan.

Education.

There is little education, in the European sense of the word, in Arabia. Among the Bedouins there are no schools, and few, even of the most elementary character, in the towns or villages. Where they exist, little beyond the mechanical reading of the Koran, and the equally mechanical learning of it by rote, is taught. On the other hand, Arab male-children, brought up from early years among the grown-up men of the house or tent, learn more from their own parents and at home than is common in other countries; reading and writing are in most instances thus acquired, or rather transmitted; besides such general principles of grammar and eloquence, often of poetry and history, as the elders themselves may be able to impart. To this family schooling too are due the good manners, politeness, and self-restraint that early distinguish Arab children. In the very few instances where a public school of a higher class exists, writing, grammar and rhetoric sum up its teachings. Law and theology, in the narrow sense that both these words have in the Islamitic system, are explained in afternoon lectures given in most mosques; and some verses of the Koran, with one of the accepted commentaries, that of Baidawi for example, form the basis of the instruction. Great attention is paid to accuracy of grammar and purity of diction throughout Arabia; yet something of a dialectic difference may be observed in the various districts. The purest Arabic, that which is as nearly as possible identical in the choice of words and in its inflections with the language of the Koran, is spoken in Nejd, and the best again of that in the province of Suder. Next in purity comes the Arabic of Shammar. Throughout the Hejaz in general, the language, though extremely elegant, is not equally correct; in el-Hasa, Bahrein and Oman it is decidedly influenced by the foreign element called Nabataean. In Yemen, as in other southern districts of the peninsula, Arabic merges insensibly into the Himyaritic or African dialect of Hadramut and Mahra. (See SEMITIC LANGUAGES.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Lieutenant Wellsted, _Travels in Arabia_ (Lond., 1838);
"Narrative of a Journey to the Ruins of Nakeb el Hajar" (_Jour. R.
Geog. Soc._ vii. 20); Carsten Niebuhr. _Travels through Arabia_
(transl. into English by Robert Heron, 2 vols., Edin., 1792); John
Lewis Burckhardt, _Travels in Arabia_ (2 vols., Lond., 1829); _Notes
on the Bedouins and Wahabis_, (2 vols., Lond., 1830; in German,
Weimar, 1831); C.J. Cruttenden, _Journal of an Excursion to Sana'a,
the Capital of Yemen_ (Bombay, 1838); A. Sprenger, _Die alte
Geographie Arabiens als Grundlage der Entwicklungsgeschichte des
Semitismus_ (Berne, 1875); Sir Richard F. Burton, _Personal Narrative
of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah_ (Lond., 1855); W. Robertson
Smith, _Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia_ (Cambridge); E. Reclus,
_Les Arabes_ (Brussels, 1898); Lady Anne Blunt, _A Pilgrimage to Nejd_
(2 vols., Lond., 1881); C.M. Doughty, _Arabia Deserta_ (2 vols.,
1888); Rev. S.M. Zwemer, _Arabia: the Cradle of Islam_ (1900);
Albrecht Zehme, _Arabien und die Araber, seit hundert Jahren_ (1875).

ARACAJU, a city and seaport of Brazil, capital of the state of Sergipe, 170 m. N.N.E. of Bahia, on the river Cotinguiba, or Cotindiba, 6 m. from the coast. The municipality, of which it forms a part, had a population in 1890 of 16,336, about two-thirds of whom lived in the city itself. Aracaju is a badly built town on the right bank of the river at the base of a ridge of low sand-hills and has the usual features of an unprogressive provincial capital. Good limestone is quarried in its vicinity, and the country tributary to this port produces large quantities of sugar. Cotton is also grown, and the back country sends down hides and skins for shipment. The anchorage is good, but a dangerous bar at the mouth of the river prevents the entrance of vessels drawing more than 12 ft. The port is visited, therefore, only by the smaller steamers of the coastwise lines. The river is navigable as far as the town of Maroim, about 10 m. beyond Aracaju. The city was founded in 1855.

ARACATY, or ARACATI, a city and port of Brazil, in the state of Ceara, 75 m. S.E. of Fortaleza, on the river Jaguaribe, 8 m. from the sea. Pop. of the municipality (1890) 20,182, of whom about 12,000 belonged to the city. A dangerous bar at the mouth of the river permits the entrance only of the smaller coasting steamers, but the port is an important commercial centre, and exports considerable quantities of cotton, hides, manicoba, rubber, fruit, and palm wax.

ARACHNE, in Greek mythology, the daughter of Idmon of Colophon in Lydia, a dyer in purple. She had acquired such skill in the art of weaving that she ventured to challenge Athena. While the goddess took as subjects her quarrel with Poseidon as to the naming and possession of Attica, and the warning examples of those who ventured to pit themselves against the immortals, Arachne depicted the metamorphoses of the gods and their amorous adventures. Her work was so perfect that Athena, enraged at being unable to find any blemish in it, tore it to pieces. Arachne hanged herself in despair; but the goddess out of pity loosened the rope, which became a cobweb, while Arachne herself was changed into a spider (Ovid, _Metam_. vi. 5-145). The story probably indicates the superiority of Asia over Greece in the textile arts.

ARACHNIDA, the zoological name given in 1815 by Lamarck (Gr. [Greek: harachnae], a spider) to a class which he instituted for the reception of the spiders, scorpions and mites, previously classified by Linnaeus in the order Aptera of his great group Insecta. Lamarck at the same time founded the class Crustacea for the lobsters, crabs and water-fleas, also until then included in the order Aptera of Linnaeus. Lamarck included the Thysanura and the Myriapoda in his class Arachnida. The Insecta of Linnaeus was a group exactly equivalent to the Arthropoda founded a hundred years later by Siebold and Stannius. It was thus reduced by Lamarck in area, and made to comprise only the six-legged, wing-bearing "Insecta." For these Lamarck proposed the name Hexapoda; but that name has been little used, and they have retained to this day the title of the much larger Linnaean group, viz. Insecta. The position of the Arachnida in the great sub-phylum Arthropoda, according to recent anatomical and embryological researches, is explained in the article

ARTHROPODA. The Arachnida form a distinct class or line of descent in the grade Euarthropoda, diverging (perhaps in common at the start with the Crustacea) from primitive Euarthropods, which gave rise also to the separate lines of descent known as the classes Diplopoda, Crustacea, Chilopoda and Hexapoda.

LAP, Left anterior process. PLR, Posterior lateral rod or
RAP, Right anterior process. tendon.
PhN, Pharyngeal notch. PLP, Posterior lateral process.
ALR, Anterior lateial rod or tendon. Natural size.

(From Lankester, _Q J. Mic. Sci._, N S vol. xxiv, 1884)]

_Limulus an Arachnid._--Modern views as to the classification and affinities of the Arachnida have been determined by the demonstration that _Limulus_ and the extinct Eurypterines (_Pterygotus_, &c.) are Arachnida; that is to say, are identical in the structure and relation of so many important parts with _Scorpio_, whilst differing in those respects from other Arthropoda, that it is impossible to suppose that the identity is due to homoplasy or convergence, and the conclusion must be accepted that the resemblances arise from close genetic relationship. The view that Limulus, the king-crab, is an Arachnid was maintained as long ago as 1829 by Strauss-Durckheim (1), on the ground of its possession of an internal cartilaginous sternum--also possessed by the Arachnida (see figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6)--and of the similarity of the disposition of the six leg-like appendages around the mouth in the two cases (see figs. 45 and 63). The evidence of the exact equivalence of the segmentation and appendages of Limulus and Scorpio, and of a number of remarkable points of agreement in structure, was furnished by Ray Lankester in an article published in 1881 ("Limulus an Arachnid," _Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci._ vol. xxi. N.S.), and in a series of subsequent memoirs, in which the structure of the entosternum, of the coxal glands, of the eyes, of the veno-pericardiac muscles, of the respiratory lamellae, and of other parts, was for the first time described, and in which the new facts discovered were shown uniformly to support the hypothesis that Limulus is an Arachnid. A list of these memoirs is given at the close of this article (2, 3, 4, 5 and 13). The Eurypterines (Gigantostraca) were included in the identification, although at that time they were supposed to possess only five pairs of anterior or prosomatic appendages. They have now been shown to possess six pairs (fig. 47), as do Limulus and Scorpio.

(From Lankester.)]

asp, Paired anterior process of the sub-neural arch.
snp, Sub-neural arch.
ap, Anterior lateral process (same as RAP and LAP in fig. 1).
lmp, Lateral median process (same as ALR and PLR of fig. 1).
pp, Posterior process (same as PLP in fig. 1).
pf, Posterior flap or diaphragm of Newport.
m^1 and m^2, Perforations of the diaphragm for the passage of
muscles.
DR, The paired dorsal ridges.
GC, Gastric canal or foramen.
AC, Arterial canal or foramen.

(After Lankester, _loc. cit._)]

The various comparisons previously made between the structure of Limulus and the Eurypterines on the one hand, and that of a typical Arachnid, such as Scorpio, on the other, had been vitiated by erroneous notions as to the origin of the nerves supplying the anterior appendages of Limulus (which were finally removed by Alphonse Milne-Edwards in his beautiful memoir (6) on the structure of that animal), and secondly by the erroneous identification of the double sternal plates of Limulus, called "chilaria," by Owen, with a pair of appendages (7). Once the identity of the chilaria with the pentagonal sternal plate of the scorpion is recognized--an identification first insisted on by Lankester--the whole series of segments and appendages in the two animals, Limulus and Scorpio, are seen to correspond most closely, segment for segment, with one another (see figs. 7 and 8). The structure of the prosomatic appendages or legs is also seen to present many significant points of agreement (see figures), but a curious discrepancy existed in the six-jointed structure of the limb in Limulus, which differed from the seven-jointed limb of Scorpio by the defect of one joint. R.I. Pocock of the British Museum has observed that in Limulus a marking exists on the fourth joint, which apparently indicates a previous division of this segment into two, and thus establishes the agreement of Limulus and Scorpio in this small feature of the number of segments in the legs (see fig. 11).

(After Lankester, _loc. cit._)]

It is not desirable to occupy the limited space of this article by a
full description of the limbs and segments of Limulus and Scorpio. The
reader is referred to the complete series of figures here given, with
their explanatory legends (figs 12, 13, 14, 15). Certain matters,
however, require comment and explanation to render the comparison
intelligible. The tergites, or chitinized dorsal halves of the body
rings, are fused to form a "prosomatic carapace," or carapace of the
prosoma, in both Limulus and Scorpio (see figs. 7 and 8). This region
corresponds in both cases to six somites, as indicated by the presence
of six pairs of limbs. On the surface of the carapace there are in
both animals a pair of central eyes with simple lens and a pair of
lateral eye-tracts, which in Limulus consist of closely-aggregated
simple eyes, forming a "compound" eye, whilst in Scorpio they present
several separate small eyes. The microscopic structure of the central
and the lateral eyes has been shown by Lankester and A.G. Bourne (5)
to differ; but the lateral eyes of Scorpio were shown by them to be
similar in structure to the lateral eyes of Limulus, and the central
eyes of Scorpio to be identical in structure with the central eyes of
Limulus (see below).

(From Lankester, _loc. cit._)]

(After Lankester, _loc. cit._)]

Following the prosoma is a region consisting of six segments (figs. 14
and 15), each carrying a pair of plate-like appendages in both Limulus
and Scorpio. This region is called the mesosoma. The tergites of this
region and those of the following region, the metasoma, are fused to
form a second or posterior carapace in Limulus, whilst remaining free
in Scorpio. The first pair of foliaceous appendages in each animal is
the genital operculum; beneath it are found the openings of the
genital ducts. The second pair of mesosomatic appendages in Scorpio
are known as the "pectens." Each consists of an axis, bearing numerous
blunt tooth-like processes arranged in a series. This is represented
in Limulus by the first gill-bearing appendage. The leaves (some 150
in number) of the gill-book (see figure) correspond to the tooth-like
processes of the pectens of Scorpio. The next four pairs of appendages
(completing the mesosomatic series of six) consist, in both Scorpio
and Limulus, of a base carrying each 130 to 150 blood-holding,
leaf-like plates, lying on one another like the leaves of a book.
Their minute structure is closely similar in the two cases; the
leaf-like plates receive blood from the great sternal sinus, and serve
as respiratory organs. The difference between the gill-books of
Limulus and the lung-books of Scorpio depends on the fact that the
latter are adapted to aerial respiration, while the former serve for
aquatic respiration. The appendage carrying the gill-book stands out
on the surface of the body in Limulus, and has other portions
developed besides the gill-book and its base; it is fused with its
fellow of the opposite side. On the other hand, in Scorpio, the
gill-book-bearing appendage has sunk below the surface, forming a
recess or chamber for itself, which communicates with the exterior by
an oval or circular "stigma" (fig. 10, stg). That this in-sinking
has taken place, and that the lung-books or in-sunken gill-books of
Scorpio really represent appendages (that is to say, limbs or
parapodia) is proved by their developmental history (see figs. 17 and
18). They appear at first as outstanding processes on the surface of
the body.

The exact mode in which the in-sinking of superficial outstanding
limbs, carrying gill-lamellae, has historically taken place has been a
matter of much speculation. It was to be hoped that the specimen of
the Silurian scorpion (_Palaeophonus_) from Scotland, showing the
ventral surface of the mesosoma (fig. 49), would throw light on this
matter; but the specimen recently carefully studied by the writer and
Pocock reveals neither gill-bearing limbs nor stigmata. The
probability appears to be against an actual introversion of the
appendage and its lamellae, as was at one time suggested by Lankester.
It is probable that such an in-sinking as is shown in the accompanying
diagram has taken place (fig. 15); but we are yet in need of evidence
as to the exact equivalence of margins, axis, &c., obtaining between
the lung-book of Scorpio and the gill-book of Limulus. Zoologists are
familiar with many instances (fishes, crustaceans) in which the
protective walls of a water-breathing organ or gill-apparatus become
converted into an air-breathing organ or lung, but there is no other
case known of the conversion of gill processes themselves into
air-breathing plates.

oc, Lateral compound eyes.
oc', Central monomeniscous eyes.
PA, Post-anal spine.
I to VI, The six appendage-bearing somites of the prosoma.
VII, Usually considered to be the tergum of the genital somite, but
suggested by Pocock to be that of the otherwise suppressed
praegenital somite.
VIII to XIII, The six somites of the mesosoma, each with a movable
pleural spine and a pair of dorsal entopophysis or muscle-attaching
ingrowths.
XIV to XVIII, The confluent or unexpressed six somites of the
metasoma.

[According to the system of numbering explained in the text, if VII
is the tergum of the praegenital somite (as is probable) it should
be labelled _Prg_ without any number, and the somites VIII to XIII
should be lettered 1 to 6, indicating that they are the six normal
somites of the mesosoma; whilst XV to XVIII should be replaced by
the numbers 7 to 12--an additional suppressed segment (making up the
typical six) being reckoned to the metasomatic fusion.]

(From Lankester, _Q J. Micr Set_. vol. xxi., 1881)]

The identification of the lung-books of Scorpio with the gill-books of
Limulus is practically settled by the existence of the pectens in
Scorpio (fig. 14, VIII) on the second mesosomatic somite. There is no
doubt that _these_ are parapodial or limb appendages, carrying
numerous imbricated secondary processes, and therefore comparable in
essential structure to the leaf-bearing plates of the second
mesosomatic somite of Limulus. They have remained unenclosed and
projecting on the surface of the body, as once were the appendages of
the four following somites. But they have lost their respiratory
function. In non-aquatic life such an unprotected organ cannot
subserve respiration. The "pectens" have become more firmly chitinized
and probably somewhat altered in shape as compared with their
condition in the aquatic ancestral scorpions. Their present function
in scorpions is not ascertained. They are not specially sensitive
under ordinary conditions, and may be touched or even pinched without
causing any discomfort to the scorpion. It is probable that they
acquire special sensibility at the breeding season and serve as
"guides" in copulation. The shape of the legs and the absence of
paired terminal claws in the Silurian _Palaeophonus_ (see figs. 48 and
49) as compared with living scorpions (see fig. 10) show that the
early scorpions were aquatic, and we may hope some day in
better-preserved specimens than the two as yet discovered, to find the
respiratory organs of those creatures in the condition of projecting
appendages serving aquatic respiration somewhat as in Limulus, though
not necessarily repeating the exact form of the broad plates of
Limulus.

(From Lankester, _loc. cit._)]

It is important to note that the series of lamellae of the lung-book
and the gill-book correspond _exactly_ in structure, the narrow, flat
blood-space in the lamellae being interrupted by pillar-like junctions
of the two surfaces in both cases (see Lankester (4)), and the free
surfaces of the adjacent lamellae being covered with a very delicate
chitinous cuticle which is drawn out into delicate hairs and
processes. The elongated axis which opens at the stigma in Scorpio and
which can be cleared of soft, surrounding tissues and coagulated blood
so as to present the appearance of a limb axis carrying the book-like
leaves of the lung is not really, as it would seem to be at first
sight, the limb axis. That is necessarily a blood-holding structure
and is obliterated and fused with soft tissues of the sternal region
so that the lamellae cannot be detached and presented as standing out
from it. The apparent axis or basal support of the scorpion's
lung-books shown in the figures, is a false or secondary axis and
merely a part of the infolded surface which forms the air-chamber. The
maceration of the soft parts of a scorpion preserved in weak spirit
and the cleaning of the chitinized in-grown cuticle give rise to the
false appearance of a limb axis carrying the lamellae. The margins of
the lamellae of the scorpion's lung-book, which are _lowermost_ in the
figures (fig. 15) and appear to be free, are really those which are
attached to the blood-holding axis. The true free ends are those
nearest the stigma.

Passing on now from the mesosoma we come in Scorpio to the metasoma of
six segments, the first of which is broad whilst the rest are
cylindrical. The last is perforated by the anus and carries the
post-anal spine or sting. The somites of the metasoma carry no
parapodia. In Limulus the metasoma is practically suppressed. In the
allied extinct Eurypterines it is well developed, and resembles that
of Scorpio. In the embryo Limulus (fig. 42) the six somites of the
mesosoma are not fused to form a carapace at an early stage, and they
are followed by three separately marked metasomatic somites; the other
three somites of the metasoma have disappeared in Limulus, but are
represented by the unsegmented prae-anal region. It is probable that
we have in the metasoma of Limulus a case of the disappearance of once
clearly demarcated somites. It would be possible to suppose, on the
other hand, that new somites are only beginning to make their
appearance here. The balance of various considerations is against the
latter hypothesis. Following the metasoma in Limulus, we have as in
Scorpio the post-anal spine--in this case not a sting, but a powerful
and important organ of locomotion, serving to turn the animal over
when it has fallen upon its back. The nature of the post-anal spine
has been strangely misinterpreted by some writers. Owen (7) maintained
that it represented a number of coalesced somites, regardless of its
post-anal position and mode of development. The agreement of the
grouping of the somites, of the form of the parapodia (appendages,
limbs) in each region, of the position of the genital aperture and
operculum, of the position and character of the eyes, and of the
powerful post-anal spines not seen in other Arthropods, is very
convincing as to the affinity of Limulus and Scorpio. Perhaps the
most important general agreement of Scorpio compared with Limulus and
the Eurypterines is the division of the body into the three regions
(or tagmata)--prosoma, mesosoma and metasoma--each consisting of six
segments, the prosoma having leg-like appendages, the mesosoma having
foliaceous appendages, and the metasoma being destitute of appendages.

(After Lankester, _loc. cit._)]

In 1893, some years after the identification of the somites of Limulus
with those of Scorpio, thus indicated, had been published, zoologists
were startled by the discovery by a Japanese zoologist, Kishinouye
(8), of a seventh prosomatic somite in the embryo of Limulus
longispina. This was seen in longitudinal sections, as shown in fig.
19. The simple identification of somite with somite in Limulus and
Scorpio seemed to be threatened by this discovery. But in 1896 Dr
August Brauer of Marburg (9) discovered in the embryo of Scorpio a
seventh prosomatic somite (see VII PrG, figs. 17 and 18), or, if we
please so to term it, a _praegenital_ somite, hitherto unrecognized.
In the case of Scorpio this segment is indicated in the embryo by the
presence of a pair of rudimentary appendages, carried by a well-marked
somite. As in Limulus, so in Scorpio, this unexpected somite and its
appendages disappear in the course of development. In fact, more or
less complete "excalation" of the somite takes place. Owing to its
position it is convenient to term the somite which is excalated in
Limulus and Scorpio "the praegenital somite." It appears not
improbable that the sternal plates wedged in between the last pair of
legs in both Scorpio and Limulus, viz. the pentagonal sternite of
Scorpio (fig. 10) and the chilaria of Limulus (see figs. 13 and 20),
may in part represent in the adult the sternum of the excalated
praegenital somite. This has not been demonstrated by an actual
following out of the development, but the position of these pieces and
the fact that they are (in Limulus) supplied by an independent
segmental nerve, favours the view that they may comprise the sternal
area of the vanished praegenital somite. This interpretation, however,
of the "metasternites" of Limulus and Scorpio is opposed by the
coexistence in Thelyphonus (figs. 55, 57 and 58) of a similar
metasternite with a complete praegenital somite. H.J. Hansen (10) has
recognized that the "praegenital somite" persists in a rudimentary
condition, forming a "waist" to the series of somites in the Pedipalpi
and Araneae. The present writer is of opinion that it will be found
most convenient to treat this evanescent somite as something special,
and not to attempt to reckon it to either the prosoma or the mesosoma.
These will then remain as typically composed each of six
appendage-bearing somites-the prosoma comprising in addition the
ocular prosthomere.[1] When the praegenital somite or traces of it are
present it should not be called "the seventh prosomatic" or the "first
mesosomatic," but simply the "praegenital somite." The first segment
of the mesosoma of Scorpio and Limulus thus remains the first segment,
and can be identified as such throughout the Eu-arachnida, carrying as
it always does the genital apertures. But it is necessary to remember,
in the light of recent discoveries, that the sixth prosomatic pair of
appendages is carried on the seventh somite of the whole series, there
being two prosthomeres or somites in front of the mouth, the first
carrying the eyes, the second the chelicerae; also that the first
mesosomatic or genital somite is not the seventh or even the eighth of
the whole senes of somites which have been historically present, but
is the ninth, owing to the presence or to the excalation of a
praegenital somite. It seems that confusion and trouble will be best
avoided by abstaining from the introduction of the non-evident
somites, the ocular and the praegenital, into the numerical
nomenclature of the component somites of the three great body regions.
We shall, therefore, ignoring the ocular somite, speak of the first,
second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth leg-bearing somites of the
prosoma, and indicate the appendages by the Roman numerals, I, II,
III, IV, V, VI, and whilst ignoring the praegenital somite we shall
speak of the first, second, third, &c., somite of the mesosoma or
opisthosoma (united mesosoma and metasoma) and indicate them by the
Arabic numerals.

M, Mouth behind the oval median camerostome.
I, The chelicerae.
II, The chelae.
III to VI, the four pairs of walking legs.
VIIgo, The genital somite or first somite of the mesosoma with the
genital operculum (a fused pair of limbs).
VIIIp, The pectiniferous somite.
IXstg to XIIstg, the four pulmonary somites.
met, The pentagonal metasternite of the prosoma behind all the
coxae.
x, The sternum of the pectiniferous somite.
y, The broad first somite of the metasoma.]

There are a number of other important points of structure besides
those referring to the somites and appendages in which Limulus agrees
with Scorpio or other Arachnida and differs from other Arthropoda. The
chief of these are as follows:--

(From a drawing by Pocock.)]

1. _The Composition of the Head_ (that is to say, of the anterior part
of the prosoma) _with especial Reference to the Region in Front of the
Mouth._--It appears (see ARTHROPODA) that there is embryological
evidence of the existence of two somites in Arachnida which were
originally post-oral, but have become prae-oral by adaptational
shifting of the oral aperture. These forwardly-slipped somites are
called "prosthomeres." The first of these has, in Arachnids as in
other Arthropods, its pair of appendages represented by the eyes. The
second has for its pair of appendages the small pair of limbs which in
all living Arachnids is either chelate or retrovert (as in spiders),
and is known as the chelicerae. It is possible, as maintained by some
writers (Patten and others), that the lobes of the cerebral nervous
mass in Arachnids indicate a larger number of prosthomeres as having
fused in this region, but there is no _embryological_ evidence at
present which justifies us in assuming the existence in Arachnids of
more than two prosthomeres. The position of the chelicerae of Limulus
and of the ganglionic nerve-masses from which they receive their
nerve-supply, is closely similar to that of the same structures in
Scorpio. The cerebral mass is in Limulus more easily separated by
dissection as a median lobe distinct from the laterally-placed ganglia
of the chelceral somite than is the case in Scorpio, but the relations
are practically the same in the two forms. Formerly it was supposed
that in Limulus both the chelicerae and the next following pair of
appendages were prosthomerous, as in Crustacea, but the dissections of
Alphonse Milne-Edwards (6) demonstrated the true limitations of the
cerebrum, whilst embryological researches have done as much for
Scorpio. Limulus thus agrees with Scorpio and differs from the
Crustacea, in which there are three prosthomeres--one ocular and two
carrying palpiform appendages. It is true that in the lower Crustacea
(Apus, &c.) we have evidence of the gradual movement forward of the
nerve-ganglia belonging to these palpiform appendages. But although in
such lower Crustacea the nerve-ganglia of the third prosthomere have
not fused with the anterior nerve-mass, there is no question as to the
prae-oral position of two appendage-bearing somites in addition to the
ocular prosthomere. The Crustacea have, in fact, three prosthomeres in
the head and the Arachnida only two, and Limulus agrees with the
Arachnida in this respect and differs from the Crustacea. The central
nervous systems of Limulus and of Scorpio present closer agreement in
structure than can be found when a Crustacean is compared with either.
The wide divarication of the lateral cords in the prosoma and their
connexion by transverse commissures, together with the "attraction" of
ganglia to the prosomatic ganglion group which properly belong to
hinder segments, are very nearly identical in the two animals. The
form and disposition of the ganglion cells are also peculiar and
closely similar in the two. (See Patten (42) for important
observations on the neuromeres, &c., of Limulus and Scorpio.)

cox, Coxa or basal segment of the leg.
stc, The sterno-coxal process or jaw-like up-growth of the coxa.
epc, The articulated movable outgrowth of the coxa, called the
epi-coxite (present only in III of the scorpion and III, IV and V
of Limulus).
ex^1, The exopodite of the sixth limb of Limulus.
a, b, c, d, Movable processes on the same leg (see for some
suggestions on the morphology of this leg, Pocock in _Quart. Journ.
Micr. Sci._ March 1901; see also fig. 50 below and explanation).

(From Lankester, _loc. cit._)]

(From Lankester, _loc. cit._)]