Chapter V: Part 5

In 1802 Georg Friedrich Grotefend (q.v.) was persuaded by the librarian of Gottingen University to essay the task. He began with the assumption that there were three languages, and that of these the first was ancient Persian, the language of the Achaemenians, who had erected these palaces and caused these inscriptions to be written. For his first attempts at decipherment he chose two of these old Persian inscriptions and laid them side by side. They were of moderate length, and the frequent recurrence of the same signs in them seemed to indicate that their contents were similar. The method which he now pursued was so simple, yet so sure, as he advanced step by step, that there seemed scarcely a chance of error. Munter had observed in all the Persian texts a word which occurred in two forms, a short and a longer form. This word appeared in Grotefend's two texts in both long and short forms. Munter had suggested that it meant "king" in the short form and "kings" in the longer, and that when the two words occurred together the expression meant "king of kings." But further, this word occurred in both inscriptions in the first line, and in both cases was followed by the same word. This second word Grotefend supposed to mean "_great_," the combined expression being "king great," that is, "great king." All this found support in the phraseology of the lately deciphered Sassanian inscriptions, and it was plausible in itself. It must, however, be supported by definite facts, and furthermore each word must be separated into its alphabetic parts, every one of them identified, and the words themselves be shown to be philologically possible by the production of similar words in related languages. In other words, the archaeological method must find support in a philological method. To this Grotefend now devoted himself with equal energy. His method was as simple as before. He had made out to his own satisfaction the titles "great king, king of kings." Now, in the Sassanian inscriptions, the first word was always the king's name, followed immediately by "great king, king of kings," and Grotefend reasoned that this was probably true in his texts. But if true, then these two texts were set up by two different kings, for the names were not the same at the beginning. Furthermore the name with which his text No. I. began appears in the third line of text No. II., but in a somewhat longer form, which Grotefend thought was a genitive and meant "of N." It followed the word previously supposed to be "king" and another which might mean son (N king son), so that the whole expression would be "son of N king." From these facts Grotefend surmised that in these two inscriptions he had the names of three rulers, grandfather, father and son. It was now easy to search the list of the Achaemenian dynasty and to find three names which would suit the conditions, and the three which he ventured to select were Hystaspes, Darius, Xerxes. According to his hypothesis the name at the beginning of inscription I. was Darius, and he was ready to translate his texts in part as follows:--

I. Darius, great king, king of kings ... son of Hystaspes....
II. Xerxes, great king, king of kings ... son of Darius king.

The form which he provisionally adopted for Darius was Darheush; later investigation has shown that it ought really to be read as Daryavush, but the error was not serious, and he had safely secured at least the letters D, A, R, SH. It was a most wonderful achievement, the importance of which he did not realize, for in it was the key to the decipherment of three ancient languages. To very few men has it been given to make discoveries so important both for history and for philology.

To Grotefend it was, however, not given to translate a whole text, or even to work out all the words whose meaning he had surmised. Rasmus Christian Rask (1787-1832), who followed him, found the plural ending in Persian, which had baffled him; and Eugene Burnouf (1801-1852), by the study of a list of Persian geographical names found at Naksh-i-Rustam, discovered at a single stroke almost all the characters of the Persian alphabet, and incidentally confirmed the values already determined by his predecessors.

At the same time as Burnouf, the eminent Sanskrit scholar Professor Christian Lassen (1800-1876), of Bonn, was studying the same list of names; and his results were published at the same time. The controversy which resulted as to priority of discovery may be here passed over while we sum up the results in general conclusions. Lassen may certainly claim in the final court of history that he discovered independently of Burnouf the values of at least six and possibly of eight signs. But in another respect he made very definite progress over Burnouf. He discovered that, if the system of Grotefend were rigidly followed, and to every sign were given the value Grotefend had assigned, some words would be left wholly or almost wholly without vowels; and therefore unpronounceable. As instances of such words he mentioned CPRD, THTGUS, KTPTUK, FRAISJM. This situation led Lassen to a very important discovery, towards which his knowledge of the Sanskrit alphabet did much to bring him. He came, in short, to the conclusion that the ancient Persian signs were not entirely alphabetic, but were at least partially syllabic, that is, that certain signs were used to represent not merely an alphabetic character like "b," but also a syllable such as "ba," "bi" or "bu." He claimed that he had successfully demonstrated that the sign for "a" was only used at the beginning of a word, or before a consonant, or before another vowel, and that in every other case it was included in the consonant sign. Thus in the inscription No I. in the second line the signs should be read VA-ZA-RA-KA. This was a most important discovery, and may be said to have revolutionized the study of these long puzzling texts.

During the entire time of this slow process of decipherment, from the first essays of Grotefend in 1802 until the publication of Lassen's book in 1836, there were more sceptics than believers in the results of the deciphering process. Indeed the history of all forms of decipherment of unknown languages shows that scepticism concerning them is far more prevalent than credulity or even a too ready acceptance. There was need for a man of another people, of different training and a fresh and unbiased mind, to put the capstone upon the decipherment, and he was already at work when Lassen's important researches appeared.

Major (afterward Sir) Henry Rawlinson had gone out to India, in the service of the East India Company, while still a boy. There he had learned Persian and several of the Indian vernaculars. That was not the sort of training that had prepared Grotefend, Burnouf or Lassen, but it was the kind that the early travellers and copyists had enjoyed. In 1833 young Rawlinson went to Persia, to work with other British officers in the reorganization of the Persian army. While engaged in this service his attention was drawn to the ancient Persian cuneiform inscriptions. In 1835 he copied with great care the texts at Hamadan, and began their decipherment. Of all the eager work which had been going on in Europe he knew little. It is no longer possible to ascertain when he gained his first information of Grotefend's work, for Norris, the secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, has left us no record of when he began to send notices of the German's work. Whenever it was, there seems to be no doubt that Rawlinson worked independently for a time. His method was strikingly like Grotefend's. He had copied two trilingual inscriptions, and recognized at once that he had three languages before him. In 1839 (_Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, x. pp. 5, 6) he thus wrote of his method: "When I proceeded ... to compare and interline the two inscriptions (or rather the Persian columns of the two inscriptions, for, as the compartments exhibiting the inscription in the Persian language occupied the principal place in the tablets, and were engraved in the least complicated of the three classes of cuneiform writing, they were naturally first submitted to examination) I found that the characters coincided throughout, except in certain particular groups, and it was only reasonable to suppose that the grounds which were thus brought out and individualized must represent proper names. I further remarked that there were but three of these distinct groups in the two inscriptions; for the group which occupied the second place in one inscription, and which, from its position, suggested the idea of its representing the name of the father of the king who was there commemorated, corresponded with the group which occupied the first place in the other inscription, and thus not only served determinately to connect the two inscriptions together, but, assuming the groups to represent proper names, appeared also to indicate a genealogical succession. The natural inference was that in these three groups of characters I had obtained the proper names belonging to three consecutive generations of the Persian monarchy; and it so happened that the first three names of Hystaspes, Darius and Xerxes, which I applied at hazard to the three groups, according to the succession, proved to answer in all respects satisfactorily and were, in fact, the true identification."

Rawlinson's next work was the copying of the great inscription of Darius on the rocks at Behistun (q.v.). He had first seen it in 1835, and as it was high up on the rocky face, and apparently inaccessible, he had studied it by means of a field-glass. He was not able to copy the whole of the Persian text, but in 1837, when he was more skilled in the script, he secured more of it. In the next year he forwarded to the Royal Asiatic Society of London his translation of the first two paragraphs of the Persian text, containing the name, titles and genealogy of Darius. This was little less than a _tour de force_, for it must be remembered that this had been accomplished without the knowledge of other ancient languages which his European competitors had enjoyed. The translation, received in London on the 14th of March, made a sensation, and a transcript sent in April to the Asiatic Society of Paris secured him an honorary membership in that distinguished body. He was now known, and many made haste to send him copies of everything important which had been published in Europe. The works of Burnouf, Niebuhr, le Brun and Porter came to his hands, and with such assistance he made rapid progress, and in the winter of 1838-1839 his alphabet of ancient Persian was almost complete. In 1839 he was in Bagdad, his work written out and almost ready for publication. But he delayed, hoping for more light, and revising sign by sign with exhaustless patience. He expected to publish his preliminary memoir in the spring of 1840, when he was suddenly sent to Afghanistan as political agent at Kandahar. Here he was too busily engaged in war administration to attend to his favourite studies, which were not renewed until 1843 when he returned to Bagdad. There he received fresh copies and corrections of the Persepolis inscriptions which had been made by Westergaard, and later made a journey to Behistun to perfect his own copies of the texts which had formed the basis of his own first study. At last, after many delays and discouragements, he published, in 1846, in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, his memoir, or series of memoirs, on the ancient Persian inscriptions, in which for the first time he gave a nearly complete translation of the Persian text of Behistun. In this one publication Rawlinson attained imperishable fame in Oriental research. His work had been carried on under greater difficulties than those in the path of his European colleagues, but he had surpassed them all in the making of an intelligible and connected translation of a long inscription. He had indeed not done it without assistance from the work of Burnouf, Grotefend and Lassen, but when all allowance is made for these influences his fame is not diminished nor the extent of his services curtailed. His method was adopted before he knew of Lassen's work. That two men of such different training and of such opposite types of mind should have lighted upon the same method, and by it have attained the same results, confirmed in the eyes of many the truth of the decipherment.

The work of the decipherment of the old Persian texts was now complete for all practical purposes. But in 1846 there appeared a paper read before the Royal Irish Academy by the Rev. Edward Hincks of Killyleagh, County Down, Ireland, whose keen criticisms of Lassen's work, and original contributions to the definite settlement of syllabic values, may be regarded as closing the period of decipherment of Persian cuneiform writing.

The next problem in the study of cuneiform was the decipherment of the second language in each of the trilingual groups. The first essay in this difficult task was made in 1844 by Niels Louis Westergaard. His method was very similar to that used by Grotefend in the decipherment of Persian. He selected the names of Darius, Hystaspes, Persians and others, and compared them with their equivalents in the Persian texts. By this means he learned a number of signs, and sought by their use in other words to spell out syllables or words whose meanings were then ascertained by conjecture or by comparison. He estimated the number of characters at eighty-two or eighty-seven, and judged the writing to be partly alphabetic and partly syllabic. The language he called Median, and classified it in "the Scythian, rather than in the Japhetic family." The results of Westergaard were subjected to incisive criticism by Hincks, who made a distinct gain in the problem. It next passed to the hands of de Saulcy, who was able to see further than either. But the matter moved with difficulty because the copied texts were not accurate. By the generosity of Sir Henry Rawlinson his superb copies of the Behistun text, second column, were placed in the hands of Mr Edwin Norris, who was able in 1852 to present a paper to the Royal Asiatic Society deciphering nearly all of it. Mordtmann followed him, naming the language Susian, which was met with general acceptance and was not displaced by the name Amardian, suggested by A. H. Sayce in two papers which otherwise made important contributions to the subject. With his contributions the problem of decipherment of Susian may be considered as closed. The latter workers could only be builders on foundations already laid.

The decipherment of the third of the three languages found at Persepolis and Behistun followed quickly on the success with Susian. The first worker was Isadore Lowenstern, who made out the words for "king" and "great" and the sign for the plural, but little more. The first really great advance was made by Hincks in 1846 and 1847. In these he determined successfully the values of several signs, settled the numerals, and was apparently on the high-road toward the translation of an entire Assyrian text. He was, however, too cautious to proceed so far, and the credit of first translating a short Assyrian text belongs to Longperier, who in 1847 published the following as the translation of an entire text: "Glorious is Sargon, the great king, the (...) king, king of kings, king of the land of Assyria." It was nearly all correct, but it advanced our knowledge but slightly because it did not give the forms of the words--because (to put it in another way) he was not able to transliterate the Assyrian words. This was the great problem. In the Persian texts there were but forty-four signs, but in the third column of the Persepolis texts Grotefend had counted one hundred and thirty different characters, and estimated that in all the Babylonian texts known to him there were about three hundred different signs, while Botta discovered six hundred and forty-two in the texts found by him at Khorsabad. That was enough to make the stoutest heart quail, for a meaning must be found for every one of these signs. There could not be so many syllables, and it was, therefore, quite plain that the Babylonian language must have been written in part at least in ideograms. But in 1851 Rawlinson published one hundred and twelve lines of the Babylonian column from Behistun, accompanied by an interlinear transcription into Roman characters, and a translation into Latin. That paper, added to Hinck's still more acute detail studies, brought to an end the preliminary decipherment of Babylonian. There were still enormous difficulties to be surmounted in the full appreciation of the complicated script, but these would be solved by the combined labours of many workers.

Origin.

The cuneiform script had its origin in Babylonia and its inventors were a people whom we call the Sumerians. Before the Semitic Babylonians conquered the land it was inhabited by a people of unknown origin variously classified, by different scholars, with the Ural-altaic or even with the Indo-European family, or as having blood relationship with both. This people is known to us from thousands of cuneiform inscriptions written entirely in their language, though our chief knowledge of them was for a long time derived from Sumerian inscriptions with interlinear translations in Assyrian. Their language is called Sumerian (li-sa-an Su-me-ri) by the Assyrians (Br. Mus. 81-7-27, 130), and its characteristics are being slowly developed by the elaborate study of the immense literature which has come down to us. In 1884 Halevy denied the existence of the Sumerian language, and claimed that it was merely a cabalistic script invented by the priests of the Semites. His early success has not been sustained, and the vast majority of scholars have ceased to doubt the existence of the language.

The Sumerians developed their script from a rude picture-writing, some early forms of which have come down to us. In course of time they used the pictures to represent sounds, apart from ideas. They wrote first on stone, and when clay was adopted soon found that straight lines in soft clay when made by a single pressure of the stylus tend to become wedges, and the pictures therefore lost their character and came to be mere conventional groups of wedges. Some of these wedge-shaped signs are of such character that we are still able to recognize or re-construct the original picture from which they came. The Assyrian sign [symbol], which means heaven, appears in early texts in the form [symbol] in which its star-like form is quite evident (star = heaven) and from which the linear form [symbol] may be not improbably pre-supposed. A number of other cases were enumerated by the Assyrians themselves (see _Cuneiform Texts from Bab. Tab. in Brit. Museum_, vol. v., 1898), and there can be no reasonable doubt that this is the origin of the script.

Development and characteristics.

The number of the original picture-signs cannot have been great, but the development of new signs never ceased till the cuneiform script passed wholly from use. The simplest form of development was doubling, to express plurality or intensity. After this came the working of two signs into one; thus [symbol] "water," when placed in [symbol] "mouth" gave the new sign [symbol] "to drink," and many others. Other signs were formed by the addition of four lines, either vertically or horizontally, to intensify the original meaning. Thus, for instance, the old linear sign [symbol] means dwelling, but with four additional signs, thus [symbol], it means "great house." This sign gradually changed in form until it came to be [symbol]. This method of development was called by the Sumerians _gunu_, and signs thus formed are now commonly called by us, _gunu_ signs. They number hundreds and must be reckoned with in our study of the script development, though perhaps recent scholars have somewhat exaggerated their importance. The process of development is obscure and must always remain so.

The script as finally developed and used by the Assyrians is cumbrous and complicated, and very ill adapted to the sounds of the Semitic alphabet. It has (1) simple syllables, consisting of one vowel and a consonant, or a vowel by itself, thus [symbol] "a," [symbol] ab, [symbol] ib, [symbol] ub, [symbol] ba, [symbol] bi, [symbol] bu. In addition to these the Assyrian had also (2) compound syllables, such as [symbol] bit, [symbol] bal, and (3) ideograms, or signs which express an entire word, such as [symbol] _beltu_, lady, [symbol] _abu_, father. The difficulty of reading this script is enormously increased by the fact that many signs are polyphonous, i.e. they may have more than one syllabic value and also be used as an ideogram. Thus the sign [symbol] has the ideographic values of _matu_, land, _shadu_, mountain, _kashadu_, to conquer, _napachu_, to arise (of the sun), and also the syllabic values _kur_, _mad_, _mat_, _shad_, _shat_, _lat_, _nad_, _nat_, _kin_ and _gin_. This method of writing must lead to ambiguity, and this difficulty is helped somewhat by (4) determinatives, which are signs intended to indicate the class to which the word belongs. Thus, the [symbol] is placed before names of persons, and [symbol] (the ideogram for _matu_, country, and _shadu_, mountain) is placed before names of countries and mountains, and [symbol] (_ilu_, god) before the names of gods.

History.

The cuneiform writing, begun by the Sumerians in a period so remote that it is idle to speculate concerning it, had a long and very extensive history. It was first adopted by the Semitic Babylonians, and as we have seen was modified, developed, nay almost made over. Their inscriptions are written in it from _circa_ 4500 B.C. to the 1st century B.C. From their hands it passed to the Assyrians, who simplified some characters and conventionalized many more, and used the script during the entire period of their national existence from 1500 B.C. to 607 B.C. From the Babylonian by a slow process of evolution the much simplified Persian script was developed, and with the Babylonian is also to be connected the Susian, less complicated than the Babylonian, but less simple than the Persian. The Chaldians (not Chaldaeans), who lived about Lake Van, also adopted the cuneiform script with values of their own, and expressed a considerable literature in it. The discovery in 1887 of the Tell-el-Amarna tablets in upper Egypt showed that the same script was in use in the 15th century B.C., from Elam to the Mediterranean and from Armenia to the Persian Gulf for purposes of correspondence. There is good reason to expect the discovery of its use by yet other peoples. It was one of the most widely used of all the forms of ancient writing.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The history of the decipherment may be further studied
in R. W. Rogers, _History of Babylonia and Assyria_, vol. i. (N.Y. and
London, 1900); and in A. J. Booth, _The Discovery and Decipherment of
the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions_ (London, 1902), which is very
exhaustive and accurate. The Sumerian question may best be studied in
F. H. Weissbach, _Die Sumerische Frage_ (Leipzig, 1898), and Charles
Fossey, _Manuel d'Assyriologie_, tome i. (Paris, 1904). For
development and characteristics, see Friedrich Delitzsch, _Die
Entstehung des altesten Schriftsystems_ (Leipzig, 1897); Paul
Toscanne, _Les Signes sumeriens derives_ (Paris, 1905). (R. W. R.)

CUNEO (Fr. _Coni_), a town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, the capital of the province of Cuneo, 55 m. by rail S. of Turin, 1722 ft. above sea-level. Cuneo lies on the railway from Turin to Ventimiglia, which farther on passes under the Col di Tenda (tunnel 5 m. long). It is also a junction for Mondovi and Saluzzo, and has steam tramways to Borgo S. Dalmazzo, Boves, Saluzzo and Dronero. Pop. (1901) 15,412 (town), 26,879 (commune). Its name ("wedge") is due to its position on a hill between two streams, the Stura and the Gesso, with fine views of the mountains. The Franciscan church, now converted into a military storehouse, belongs to the 12th century, but there are no other buildings of special interest. The fortifications have been converted into promenades. Cuneo was founded about 1120 by refugees from local baronial tyranny, who, after the destruction of Milan by Barbarossa, were joined by Lombards. In 1382 it swore fealty to Amedeus VI., duke of Savoy. It was an important fortress, and was ceded by the treaty of Cherasco (1796), with Ceva and Tortona, to the French. In 1799 it was taken after ten days' bombardment by the Austrian and Russian armies, and, in 1800, after the victory of Marengo, the French demolished the fortifications.

CUNEUS (Latin for "wedge"; plural, _cunei_), the architectural term applied to the wedge-shaped divisions of the Roman theatre separated by the _scalae_ or stairways; see Vitruvius v. 4.

CUNITZ, MARIA (c. 1610-1664), Silesian astronomer, was the eldest daughter of Dr Heinrich Cunitz of Schweinitz, and the wife (1630) of Dr Elias von Loven, of Pitschen in Silesia--both of them men of learning and distinction. From her universal accomplishments she was called the "Silesian Pallas," and the publication of her work, _Urania propitia_ (Oels, 1650), a simplification of the Rudolphine Tables, gained her a European reputation. It was composed at the village of Lugnitz, close by the convent of Olobok (Posen), where, with her husband, she had taken refuge at the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, and was dedicated to the emperor Frederick III. The author became a widow in 1661, and died at Pitschen on the 24th of August 1664.

See A. G. Kastner, _Geschichte der Mathematik_, iv. 430 (1800); N.
Henelii, _Silesiographia renovata_, cap. vi. p. 684; J. C. Eberti's
_Schlesiens wohlgelehrtes Frauenzimmer_, p. 25 (Breslau, 1727);
_Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_ (Schimmelpfenning); &c.

CUNNINGHAM, ALEXANDER (c. 1655-1730), Scottish classical scholar and critic, was born in Ayrshire. Very little is known of his uneventful life. It is probable that he completed his education at Leiden or Utrecht. He was tutor to the son of the first duke of Queensberry, through whose influence he was appointed professor of civil law in the university of Edinburgh. In 1710, the Edinburgh magistrates, regarding the university patronage as their privilege, appointed another professor, ignoring the appointment of Cunningham, who had been installed in the office for at least ten years. Cunningham thereupon left England for the Hague, where he resided until his death. He is chiefly known for his edition of Horace (1721) with notes, mostly critical, which included a volume of _Animadversiones_ upon Richard Bentley's notes and emendations. They marked him as one of the most able critics of Bentley's (in many cases) rash and tasteless conjectural alterations of the text. Cunningham also edited the works of Virgil and Phaedrus (together with the _Sententiae_ of Publilius Syrus and others). He had also been engaged for some years in the preparation of an edition of the Pandects and of a work on Christian evidences.

Life by D. Irving in _Lives of Scottish Writers_ (1839).

The above must not be confused with Alexander Cunningham, British minister to Venice (1715-1720), a learned historian and author of _The History of Great Britain_ (from 1688 to the accession of George I.), originally written in Latin and published in an English translation after his death.

CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN (1784-1842), Scottish poet and man of letters, was born at Keir, Dumfriesshire, on the 7th of December 1784, and began life as a stone mason's apprentice. His father was a neighbour of Burns at Ellisland, and Allan with his brother James visited James Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd, who became a friend to both. Cunningham contributed some songs to Roche's _Literary Recreations_ in 1807, and in 1809 he collected old ballads for Robert Hartley Cromek's _Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song_; he sent in, however, poems of his own, which the editor inserted, even though he may have suspected their real authorship. In 1810 Cunningham went to London, where he supported himself chiefly by newspaper reporting till 1814, when he became clerk of the works in the studio of Francis Chantrey, retaining this employment till the sculptor's death in 1841. He meanwhile continued to be busily engaged in literary work. Cunningham's prose is often spoiled by its misplaced and too ambitious rhetoric; his verse also is often over-ornate, and both are full of mannerisms. Some of his songs, however, hold a high place among British lyrics. "A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea" is one of the best of our sea-songs, although written by a landsman; and many other of Cunningham's songs will bear comparison with it. He died on the 30th of October 1842.

He was married to Jean Walker, who had been servant in a house where he lived, and had five sons and one daughter. JOSEPH DAVEY CUNNINGHAM (1812-1851) entered the Bengal Engineers, and is known by his _History of the Sikhs_ (1849). SIR ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM (1814-1893) also entered the Bengal Engineers, attaining the rank of major-general; he was director general of the Indian Archaeological Survey (1870-1885), and wrote an _Ancient Geography of India_ (1871) and _Coins of Medieval India_ (1894). PETER CUNNINGHAM (1816-1869) published several topographical and biographical studies, of which the most important are his _Handbook of London_ (1849) and _The Life of Drummond of Hawthornden_ (1833). FRANCIS CUNNINGHAM (1820-1875) joined the Indian army, and published editions of Ben Jonson (1871), Marlowe (1870) and Massinger (1871).

The works of Allan Cunningham include _Lives of the Most Eminent
British Painters, Sculptors and Architects_ (1829-1833); _Sir
Marmaduke Maxwell_ (1820), a dramatic poem; _Traditionary Tales of the
Peasantry_ (1822), several novels (_Paul Jones, Sir Michael Scott,
Lord Roldan_); the _Maid of Elwar_, a sort of epic romance; the _Songs
of Scotland_ (1825); _Biographical and Critical History of the
Literature of the Last Fifty Years_ (1833); an edition of _The Works
of Robert Burns_, with notes and a life containing a good deal of new
material (1834); _Biographical and Critical Dissertations_ affixed to
Major's _Cabinet Gallery of Pictures_; and _Life, Journals and
Correspondence of Sir David Wilkie_, published in 1843. An edition of
his _Poems and Songs_ was issued by his son, Peter Cunningham, in
1847.

CUNNINGHAM, WILLIAM (1805-1861), Scottish theologian and ecclesiastic, was born at Hamilton, in Lanarkshire, on the 2nd of October 1805, and educated at the university of Edinburgh. He was licensed to preach in 1828, and in 1830 was ordained to a collegiate charge in Greenock, where he remained for three years. In 1834 he was transferred to the charge of Trinity College parish, Edinburgh. His removal coincided with the commencement of the period known in Scottish ecclesiastical history as the Ten Years' Conflict, in which he was destined to take a leading share. In the stormy discussions and controversies which preceded the Disruption the weight and force of his intellect, the keenness of his logic, and his firm grasp of principle made him one of the most powerful advocates of the cause of spiritual independence; and he has been generally recognized as one of three to whom mainly the existence of the Free Church is due, the others being Chalmers and Candlish. On the formation of the Free Church in 1843, Cunningham was appointed professor of church history and divinity in the New College, Edinburgh, of which he became principal in 1847 in succession to Thomas Chalmers. His career was very successful, his controversial sympathies combined with his evident desire to be rigidly impartial qualifying him to be an interesting delineator of the more stirring periods of church history, and a skilful disentangler of the knotty points in theological polemics. In 1859 he was appointed moderator of the General Assembly. He had received the degree of D.D. from the university of Princeton in 1842. He died on the 14th of December 1861. He was one of the founders of the Evangelical Alliance. A theological lectureship at the New College, Edinburgh, was endowed in 1862, to be known as the Cunningham lectureship.

A _Life of Cunningham_, by Rainy and Mackenzie, appeared in 1871.

CUNNINGHAM, WILLIAM (1849- ), English economist, was born at Edinburgh on the 29th of December 1849. Educated at Edinburgh Academy and University and Trinity College, Cambridge, he graduated 1st class in the Moral Science tripos in 1873, and in the same year took holy orders. He was university lecturer in history from 1884 to 1891, in which year he was appointed professor of economics at King's College, London, a post which he held until 1897. He was lecturer in economic history at Harvard University (1899), and Hulsean lecturer at Cambridge (1885). He became vicar of Great St Mary's, Cambridge, in 1887, and was made a fellow of the British Academy. In 1906 he was appointed archdeacon of Ely. Dr Cunningham's _Growth of English Industry and Commerce during the Early and Middle Ages_ (1890; 4th ed., 1905) and _Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern Times_ (1882; 3rd ed., 1903) are the standard works of reference on the industrial history of England. He also wrote _The Use and Abuse of Money_ (1891); _Alien Immigration_ (1897); _Western Civilization in its Economic Aspect in Ancient Times_ (1898), and _in Modern Times_ (1900), and _The Rise and Decline of Free Trade_ (1905). Dr Cunningham's eminence as an economic historian gave special importance to his attitude as one of the leading supporters of Mr Chamberlain from 1903 onwards in criticizing the English free-trade policy and advocating tariff reform.

CUP (in O. E. _cuppe_; generally taken to be from Late Lat. _cuppa_, a variant of Lat. _cupa_, a cask, cf. Gr. [Greek: kypellon]), a drinking vessel, usually in the form of a half a sphere, with or without a foot or handles. The footless type with a single handle is preserved in the ordinary tea-cup. The cup on a stem with a base is the usual form taken by the cup as used in the celebration of the eucharist, to which the name "chalice" (Lat. _calix_, Gr. [Greek: kylix], a goblet) is generally given. (See DRINKING VESSELS and PLATE.)

CUPAR, a royal, municipal and police burgh, and capital of the county of Fifeshire, Scotland, 11 m. W. by S. of St Andrews by the North British railway. Pop. (1901) 4511. It is situated on the left bank of the Eden, in the east of the Howe (Hollow) of Fife, and is sometimes written Cupar-Fife to distinguish it from Coupar-Angus in Perthshire. Among the chief buildings are the town hall, county buildings, corn exchange, Duncan Institute, cottage hospital, Union Street Hall and the Bell-Baxter school. The school, formerly called the Madras Academy, was originally endowed (1832) by Dr Bell, founder of the Madras system of education, but, having been enriched at a later date by a bequest of Sir David Baxter (1873), it was afterwards called the Bell-Baxter school. The Mercat Cross stands at "the Cross" in the main street, where it was set up in 1897, having been removed from Hilltarvit, an eminence in the neighbourhood of Cupar, on the western slope of which, at Garliebank, the truce was signed between Mary of Guise and the lords of the Congregation. In the parish, but at a distance from the town, are the Fife and Kinross asylum and the Adamson institute, a holiday home for poor children from Leith. The town received its charter in 1356 from David II., and, being situated between Falkland and St Andrews, was constantly visited by Scottish sovereigns, James VI. holding his court there for some time in 1583. The site of the 12th-century castle, one of the strongholds of the Macduffs, thanes or earls of Fife, is occupied by a public school. On the esplanade in front of Macduff Castle, still called the Playfield, took place in 1552 one of the first recorded performances of Sir David Lindsay's _Ane Satyre of the Three Estaits_ (1540); his _Tragedy of the Cardinal_ (1547), referring to the murder of Beaton, being also performed there. Sir David sat in the Scottish parliament as commissioner for Cupar, his place, the Mount, being within 3 m. north-west of the town. Lord Chancellor Campbell (1799-1861) was a native of Cupar.

Cupar is an agricultural and legal centre. Its chief industry is the manufacture of linen, and tanning is carried on. At Cupar Muir, 1(1/2) m. to the west, there are a sandstone quarry and brick works. The town has also some repute for the quality of its printing, both in black and colour. This was largely due to the Tullis press, which produced about the beginning of the 19th century editions of Virgil, Horace and other classical writers, under the recension of Professor John Hunter of St Andrews, which were highly esteemed for the accuracy of their typography. Cupar belongs to the St Andrews district group of burghs for returning one member to parliament, the other constituents being Crail, the two Anstruthers, Kilrenny, Pittenweem and St Andrews.

There are several interesting places within a few miles. To the north-east is the parish of Dairsie, where one of the few parliaments that ever met in Fife assembled in 1335. The castle in which the senate sat was also the residence for a period of Archbishop Spottiswood, who founded the parish church in 1621. Two miles and a half north of Dairsie is situated Kilmany, which was the first charge of Thomas Chalmers. He was ordained to it in May 1803 and held it for twelve years. David Hackston, the Covenanter, who was a passive assister at the assassination of Archbishop Sharp, belonged to this parish, his place being named Rathillet. After his execution at Edinburgh (1680) one of his hands was buried at Cupar, where a monument inscription records the circumstances of his death. To the west of Kilmany lies Creich, where Alexander Henderson (1583-1646), the Covenanting divine and diplomatist, and John Sage (1652-1711), the non-juring archbishop of Glasgow, were born. Henderson took a keen interest in education and gave the school at Creich a small endowment. Some 3 m. to the south-west of Cupar is Cults, where Sir David Wilkie, the painter, was born. His father was minister of the parish, and Pitlessie, the fair of which provided the artist with the subject of the first picture in which he showed distinct promise, lies within a mile of the manse. In the sandstone of Dura Den, a ravine on Ceres Burn, 2(1/2) m. E. of Cupar, have been found great quantities of fossils of ganoid fishes. The rocks belong to the Upper Old Red Sandstone.

CUPBOARD, a fixed or movable closet usually with shelves. As the name suggests, it is a descendant of the credence or buffet, the characteristic of which was a series of open shelves for the reception of drinking vessels and table requisites. After the word lost its original meaning--and down to the end of the 16th century we still find the expression "on the cupboard"--this piece of furniture was, as it to some extent remains, movable, but it is now most frequently a fixture designed to fill a corner or recess. Throughout the 18th century the cupboard was a distinguished domestic institution, and the housewife found her chief joy in accumulating cupboards full of china, glass and preserves. With the exception of a very few examples of fine ecclesiastical cupboards which partook chiefly of the nature of the armoire in that they were intended for the storage of vestments, the so-called court-cupboard is perhaps the oldest form of the contrivance. The derivation of the expression is somewhat obscure, but it is generally taken to refer to the French word _court_, short. This particular type was much used from the Elizabethan to the end of the Carolinian period. It was really a sideboard with small square doors below, and a recessed superstructure supported upon balusters. Of these many examples remain. Less frequent is the livery cupboard, the meaning of which may be best explained by the following quotation from Spenser's _Account of the State of Ireland_:--"What livery is we by common use in England know well enough, namely, that it is an allowance of horse-meat, as they commonly use the word stabling, as to keep horses at livery; the which word I guess is derived of livering or delivering forth their nightly food; so in great houses the livery is said to be served up for all night--that is, their evening allowance for drink." The livery cupboard appears usually to have been placed in bedrooms, so that a supply of food and drink was readily available when a very long interval separated the last meal of the evening from the first in the morning. The livery cupboard was often small enough to stand upon a sideboard or cabinet, and had an open front with a series of turned balusters. It was often used in churches to contain the loaves of bread doled out to poor persons under the terms of ancient charities. They were then called dole cupboards; there are two large and excellent examples in St Alban's Abbey. The butter, or bread and cheese cupboard, was a more ordinary form, with the back and sides bored with holes, sometimes in a geometrical pattern, for the admission of air to the food within. The corner cupboard, which is in many ways the most pleasing and artistic form of this piece of furniture, originated in the 18th century, which as we have seen was the golden age of the cupboard. It was often of oak, but more frequently of mahogany, and had either a solid or a glass front. The older solid-fronted pieces are fixed to the wall half-way up, but those of the somewhat more modern type, in which there is much glass, usually have a wooden base with glazed superstructure. Most corner cupboards are attractive in form and treatment, and many of them, inlaid with satinwood, ebony, holly or box, are extremely elegant.

CUPID (_Cupido_, "desire"), the Latin name for the god of love, Eros (q.v.). Cupid is generally identical with Amor. The idea of the god of love in Roman poetry is due to the influence of Alexandrian poets and artists, in whose hands he degenerated into a mischievous boy with essentially human characteristics. His usual attribute is the bow. For the story of Cupid and Psyche, see under PSYCHE.

CUPOLA (Ital., from Lat. _cupula_, small cask or vault, _cupa_, tub), a term, in architecture, for a spherical or spheroidal covering to a building, or to any part of it. In fortification the word is used of a form of armoured structure, in which guns or howitzers are mounted. It is a low flat turret resembling an overturned saucer and showing little above the ground except the muzzles of the guns. See for details and illustrations FORTIFICATION AND SIEGECRAFT; also ORDNANCE.

CUPPING. The operation of cupping is one of the methods that have been adopted by surgeons to draw blood from an inflamed part in order to relieve the inflammation. The skin is washed and dried; a glass cup with a rounded edge is then firmly applied, after the air in it has been heated; the cooling of the air causes the formation of a partial vacuum, and the blood is thus drawn from the neighbouring parts to the skin under the cup. Either the blood is drawn from the patient's body through a number of small wounds which are made in the skin, with a special instrument, before the cup is applied; or the cup is simply applied to the unbroken skin and the blood drawn into the subcutaneous tissue within the circumference of the cup. The result of both methods is the same,--namely, a withdrawal of blood locally from the inflamed part. The former is called moist cupping, the latter dry cupping. This operation has naturally declined in vogue with the obsolescence of blood-letting as a remedy.

CUPRA, the name of two ancient Italian _municipia_ in Picenum.

1. Cupra Maritima (Civita di Marano near the modern Cupra Marittima), on the Adriatic coast, 48 m. S.S.E. of Ancona, erected in the neighbourhood of an ancient temple of the Sabine goddess Cupra, which was restored by Hadrian in A.D. 127, and probably (though there is some controversy on the point) occupied the site of the church of S. Martino, some way to the south, in which the inscription of Hadrian exists. At Civita the remains of what was believed to be the temple were more probably those of the forum of the town, as is indicated by the discovery of fragments of a calendar and of a statue of Hadrian. Some statuettes of Juno were also among the finds. An inscription of a water reservoir erected in 7 B.C. is also recorded. But the more ancient Picene town appears to have been situated near the hill of S. Andrea, a little way to the south, where pre-Roman tombs have been discovered.

See C. Hulsen in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopadie_ (Stuttgart, 1901),
iv. 1760; G. Speranza, _Il Piceno_ (Ascoli Piceno, 1900), i. 119 seq.

2. Cupra Montana, 10 m. S.W. of Aesis (mod. Jesi) by road. The village, formerly called Massaccio, has resumed the ancient name. Its site is fixed by inscriptions--cf. Th. Mommsen in _Corp. Inscrip. Lat._ ix. (Berlin, 1883), p. 543; and various ruins, perhaps of baths, and remains of subterranean aqueducts have been discovered near the church of S. Eleuterio.

See F. Menicucci in G. Colucci, _Antichita Picene_, xx. (1793).

CUPRITE, a mineral consisting of cuprous oxide, Cu2O, crystallizing in the cubic system, and forming an important ore of copper, of which element cuprite contains 88.8%. The name cuprite (from Lat. _cuprum_, copper) was given by W. Haidinger in 1845; earlier names are red copper ore and ruby copper, which at once distinguish this mineral from the other native copper oxide--cupric oxide--known as black copper ore or melaconite. Well-developed crystals are of common occurrence; they usually have the form of the regular octahedron, sometimes in combination with the cube and the rhombic dodecahedron. A few Cornish crystals have been observed with faces of a form {_hkl_} known as the pentagonal icositetrahedron, since it is bounded by twenty-four irregular pentagons. In this class of cubic crystals there are no planes or centre of symmetry, but the full number (thirteen) of axes of symmetry; it is known as the trapezohedral hemihedral class, and cuprite affords the best example of this type of symmetry. The etching figures do not, however, conform to this lower degree of symmetry, nor do crystals of cuprite rotate the plane of polarization of plane-polarized light. The colour of the mineral is cochineal-red, and the lustre brilliant and adamantine to sub-metallic in character; crystals are often translucent, and show a crimson-red colour by transmitted light. On prolonged exposure to light the crystals become dull and opaque. The streak is brownish-red. Hardness 3(1/2); specific gravity 6.0; refractive index 2.85.

Compact to granular masses also occur, and there are two curious varieties--chalcotrichite and tile-ore--which require special mention. Chalcotrichite (from Gr. [Greek: chalkos], copper, and [Greek: thrix], [Greek: trichos], hair) or "plush copper ore" is a capillary form with a rich carmine colour and silky lustre; the delicate hairs are loosely matted together, and each one is an individual crystal enormously elongated in the direction of the diagonal or the edge of the cube. Tile-ore (Ger. _Ziegelerz_) is a soft earthy variety of a brick-red to brownish-red colour; it contains admixed limonite, and has been formed by the alteration of chalcopyrite (copper and iron sulphide).

Cuprite occurs in the upper part of copper-bearing lodes, and is of secondary origin, having been produced by the alteration of copper sulphides. Beautifully crystallized specimens were formerly found in Wheal Gorland and Wheal Unity at Gwennap, and in Wheal Phoenix near Liskeard in Cornwall; they also occur in the copper mines of the Urals, and in Arizona. Isolated crystals bounded by faces on all sides, and an inch or more in diameter, are found embedded in a soft white clay at Chessy near Lyons; they are usually altered on the surface, or throughout, to malachite. Chalcotrichite comes from Wheal Phoenix and Fowey Consols mine in Cornwall, and from Morenci in Arizona; tile-ore from Bogoslovsk in the Urals, Atacama in South America, and other localities. Small crystals of cuprite, together with malachite, azurite and cerussite, are sometimes found encrusting ancient objects of copper and bronze, such as celts and Roman coins, which have for long periods remained buried in the soil. Artificially formed crystals have been observed in furnace products. (R. W. R.)

CUPULIFERAE, a botanical order, or, in recent arrangements, group of orders, containing several familiar trees. The plants are trees or shrubs with simple leaves alternately arranged and small unisexual flowers generally arranged in catkins and pollinated by wind-agency. The generally one-seeded nut-like fruit is associated with the persistent often hardened or greatly enlarged bracts forming the so-called cupule which gives the name to the group. The group is subdivided as follows, and these subdivisions are now generally regarded either as distinct natural orders or the first two as sub-orders of one natural order.

_Betuleae_ or _Betulaceae_. Female flowers arranged, two to three together on scale-like structures formed by the union of bracts, in catkins; ovary two-celled; fruit small, flattened, protected between the ripened scales of the catkin. Includes _Betula_ (birch) and _Alnus_ (alder).

_Coryleae_ or _Corylaceae_. Female flowers in pairs, the bracts enlarging in the fruit to form a membranous cup (hazel), or a flat three-lobed structure (hornbeam). Ovary two-celled. Includes _Corylus_ (hazel) and _Carpinus_ (hornbeam).

_Fagaceae_ (Cupuliferae in a restricted sense). Bracts forming a fleshy or hard cupule which envelops the one to several fruits. Ovary three-celled. Includes _Quercus_ (oak), _Fagus_ (beech), _Castanea_ (sweet-chestnut).

Detailed accounts of the trees will be found under separate headings.

CURACAO, or CURACOA, an island in the Dutch West Indies. It lies 40 m. from the north coast of Venezuela, in 12 deg. N. and 69 deg. W., being 40 m. long from N.W. to S.E., with an average width of 10 m. and an area of 212 sq. m. The surface is generally flat, but in the south-west there are hills attaining an elevation of 1200 ft. The shores are in places deeply indented, forming several natural harbours, the chief of which is that of St Anna on the south-west coast. Curacao consists of eruptive rocks, chiefly diorite and diabase, and is surrounded by coral reefs. Streams are few and the rainfall is scanty, averaging only 16 in. per annum. Although the plains are for the most part arid wastes, sugar, aloes, tobacco and divi-divi are produced with much toil in the more fertile glens. Salt, phosphates and cattle are exported. The commerce is mainly with the United States, and there is a large carrying trade with Venezuela. The famous Curacoa liqueur (see below) was originally made on the island from a peculiar variety of orange, the _Citrus Aurantium curassuviensis_. Willemstad (pop. about 8000), on the harbour of St. Anna, is the principal town. It bears a strong resemblance to a Dutch town, for the houses are built in the style of those of Amsterdam, and the narrow channel separating it from its western suburb of Overzijde and the waters of the Waigat, which intersect it, recall the canals. The narrow entrance leading to the Schottegat or Inner Harbour is protected by forts. The negroes of the island speak a curious dialect called _Papaimento_, composed of Spanish, Dutch, English and native words. Curacao gives name to the government of the Dutch West Indies, which consists of Aruba, an island lying W. of Curacao, with an area of 69 sq. m. and a population of 9591; Buen Ayre, lying 20 m. N.E., with an area of 95 sq. m. and a population of 4926; together with St Eustatius, Saba and part of St Martin. The governor is assisted by a council of four members and a colonial council of eight members nominated by the crown. The island of Curacao has a population of 30,119; and altogether the Dutch West Indies have a population of 51,693.

Curacao was discovered by Hojeda about 1499 and occupied by the Spaniards in 1527. In 1634 it fell into the hands of the Dutch, who have held it ever since, except during the year 1798 and from 1806 to 1814 when it passed into the possession of Great Britain.

See Wynmalen, "Les Colonies neerlandaises dans les Antilles," _Revue
colon. internat._ (1887), ii. p. 391; K. Martin, _West-Indische
Skizzen_ (Leiden, 1887); De Veer, _La Colonie de Curacoa_ (Les Pays
Bas, 1898). Also several articles on all the islands in _Tijdschrift
v. h. Ned. Aardr. Genootschap_ (1883-1886).

CURACOA, a liqueur, chiefly manufactured in Holland. It is relatively simple in composition, the predominating flavour being obtained from the dried peel of the Curacoa orange. The method of preparation is in principle as follows. The peel is first softened by maceration; then a part of the softened peel is distilled with spirit and water, and the remainder is macerated in a portion of the distillate so obtained. After two or three days the infusion is strained and added to the remainder of the original distillate. This simple method is subject to variations in manufacture, and the addition of a small quantity of Jamaica rum, in particular, is said to much improve the flavour. Dry Curacoa contains about 39%, the sweet variety about 36% of alcohol. A lighter variety of Curacoa, made with fine brandy, is known as "Grand Marnier."