Chapter XV: Part 15

EBERS, GEORG MORITZ (1837-1898), German Egyptologist and novelist, was born in Berlin on the 1st of March 1837. At Goettingen he studied jurisprudence, and at Berlin oriental languages and archaeology. Having made a special study of Egyptology, he became in 1865 _docent_ in Egyptian language and antiquities at Jena, and in 1870 he was appointed professor in these subjects at Leipzig. He had made two scientific journeys to Egypt, and his first work of importance, _Aegypten und die Buecher Moses_, appeared in 1867-1868. In 1874 he edited the celebrated medical papyrus ("Papyrus Ebers") which he had discovered in Thebes (translation by H. Joachim, 1890). Ebers early conceived the idea of popularizing Egyptian lore by means of historical romances. _Eine aegyptische Koenigstochter_ was published in 1864, and obtained great success. His subsequent works of the same kind--_Uarda_ (1877), _Homo sum_ (1878), _Die Schwestern_ (1880), _Der Kaiser_ (1881), of which the scene is laid in Egypt at the time of Hadrian, _Serapis_ (1885), _Die Nilbraut_ (1887), and _Kleopatra_ (1894), were also well received, and did much to make the public familiar with the discoveries of Egyptologists. Ebers also turned his attention to other fields of historical fiction--especially the 16th century (_Die Frau Buergermeisterin_, 1882; _Die Gred_, 1887)--without, however, attaining the success of his Egyptian novels. Apart from their antiquarian and historical interest, Ebers's books have not a very high literary value. His other writings include a descriptive work on Egypt (_Aegypten in Wort und Bild_, 2nd ed., 1880), a guide to Egypt (1886) and a life (1885) of his old teacher, the Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius. The state of his health led him in 1889 to retire from his chair at Leipzig on a pension. He died at Tutzing in Bavaria, on the 7th of August 1898.

Ebers's _Gesammelte Werke_ appeared in 25 vols. at Stuttgart
(1893-1895). Many of his books have been translated into English. For
his life see his _Die Geschichte meines Lebens_ (Stuttgart, 1893);
also R. Gosche, _G. Ebers, der Forscher und Dichter_ (2nd ed.,
Leipzig, 1887).

EBERSWALDE, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, 28 m. N.E. of Berlin by rail; on the Finow canal. Pop. (1905) 23,876. The town has a Roman Catholic and two Evangelical churches, a school of forestry, a gymnasium, a higher-grade girls' school and two schools of domestic economy. It possesses a mineral spring, which attracts numerous summer visitors, and has various industries, which include iron-founding and the making of horse-shoe nails, roofing material and bricks. A considerable trade is carried on in grain, wood and coals. In the immediate neighbourhood are one of the chief brass-foundries in Germany and an extensive government paper-mill, in which the paper for the notes of the imperial bank is manufactured.

Eberswalde received its municipal charter in 1257. It was taken and sacked during the Thirty Years' War. In 1747 Frederick the Great brought a colony of Thuringian cutlers to the town, but this branch of industry has entirely died out. About 4 m. to the north lies the old Cistercian monastery of Chorin, the fine Gothic church of which contains the tombs of several margraves of Brandenburg.

EBERT, FRIEDRICH ADOLF (1791-1834), German bibliographer, was born at Taucha, near Leipzig, on the 9th of July 1791, the son of a Lutheran pastor. At the age of fifteen he was appointed to a subordinate post in the municipal library of Leipzig. He studied theology for a short time at Leipzig, and afterwards philology at Wittenberg, where he graduated doctor in philosophy in 1812. While still a student he had already published, in 1811, a work on public libraries, and in 1812 another work entitled _Hierarchiae in religionem ac literas commoda_. In 1813 he was attached to the Leipzig University library, and in 1814 was appointed secretary to the Royal library of Dresden. The same year he published _F. Taubmanns Leben und Verdienste_, and in 1819 _Torquato Tasso_, a translation from Pierre Louis Ginguene with annotations. The rich resources open to him in the Dresden library enabled him to undertake the work on which his reputation chiefly rests, the _Allgemeines bibliographisches Lexikon_, the first volume of which appeared in 1821 and the second in 1830. This was the first work of the kind produced in Germany, and the most scientific published anywhere. From 1823 to 1825 Ebert was librarian to the duke of Brunswick at Wolfenbuettel, but returning to Dresden was made, in 1827, chief librarian of the Dresden Royal library. Among his other works are--_Die Bildung des Bibliothekars_ (1820), _Geschichte und Beschreibung der koeniglichen oeffentlichen Bibliothek in Dresden_ (1822), _Zur Handschriftenkunde_ (1825-1827), and _Culturperioden des obersaechsischen Mittelalters_ (1825). Ebert was a contributor to various journals and took part in the editing of Ersch and Gruber's great encyclopaedia. He died at Dresden on the 13th of November 1834, in consequence of a fall from the ladder in his library.

See the article in _Ersch und Grubers Encyclopaedie_, and that in the
_Allg. deutsche Biog._ by his successor in the post of chief librarian
in Dresden, Schnorr von Carolsfeld.

EBINGEN, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Wuerttemberg, on the Schmiecha, a left-hand tributary of the Danube, 22 m. S. of Tuebingen and 37 m. W. of Ulm by rail. It manufactures velvet and cotton-velvet ("Manchester") goods, stockings, stays, hats, needles, tools, &c. There are also tanneries. Pop. 9000.

EBIONITES (Heb. [Hebrew: ebyonim], "poor men"), a name given to the ultra-Jewish party in the early Christian church. It is first met with in Irenaeus (_Adv. Haer._ i. 26. 2), who sheds no light on the origin of the Ebionites, but says that while they admit the world to have been made by the true God (in contrast to the Demiurge of the Gnostics), they held Cerinthian views on the person of Christ, used only the Gospel of Matthew (probably the Gospel according to the Hebrews--so Eusebius), and rejected Paul as an apostate from the Mosaic Law, to the customs and ordinances of which, including circumcision, they steadily adhered. A similar account is given by Hippolytus (_Haer._ vii. 35), who invents a founder named Ebion. Origen (_Contra Celsum_, v. 61; _In Matt._ tom. xvi. 12) divides the Ebionites into two classes according to their acceptance or rejection of the virgin birth of Jesus, but says that all alike reject the Pauline epistles. This is confirmed by Eusebius, who adds that even those who admitted the virgin birth did not accept the pre-existence of Jesus as Logos and Sophia. They kept both the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Lord's day, and held extreme millenarian ideas in which Jerusalem figured as the centre of the coming Messianic kingdom. Epiphanius with his customary confusion makes two separate sects, Ebionites and Nazarenes. Both names, however, refer to the same people[1] (the Jewish Christians of Syria), the latter going back to the designation of apostolic times (Acts xxiv. 5), and the former being the term usually applied to them in the ecclesiastical literature of the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

The origin of the Nazarenes or Ebionites as a distinct sect is very obscure, but may be dated with much likelihood from the edict of Hadrian which in 135 finally scattered the old church of Jerusalem. While Christians of the type of Aristo of Pella and Hegesippus, on the snapping of the old ties, were gradually assimilated to the great church outside, the more conservative section became more and more isolated and exclusive. "It may have been then that they called themselves the Poor Men, probably as claiming to be the true representatives of those who had been blessed in the Sermon on the Mount, but possibly adding to the name other associations." Out of touch with the main stream of the church they developed a new kind of pharisaism. Doctrinally they stood not so much for a theology as for a refusal of theology, and, rejecting the practical liberalism of Paul, became the natural heirs of those early Judaizers who had caused the apostle so much annoyance and trouble.

Though there is insufficient justification for dividing the Ebionites into two separate and distinct communities, labelled respectively Ebionites and Nazarenes, we have good evidence, not only that there were grades of Christological thought among them, but that a considerable section, at the end of the 2nd century and the beginning of the 3rd, exchanged their simple Judaistic creed for a strange blend of Essenism and Christianity. These are known as the Helxaites or Elchasaites, for they accepted as a revelation the "book of Elchasai," and one Alcibiades of Apamea undertook a mission to Rome about 220 to propagate its teaching. It was claimed that Christ, as an angel 96 miles high, accompanied by the Holy Spirit, as a female angel of the same stature, had given the revelation to Elchasai in the 3rd year of Trajan (A.D. 100), but the book was probably quite new in Alcibiades' time. It taught that Christ was an angel born of human parents, and had appeared both before (e.g. in Adam and Moses) and after this birth in Judea. His coming did not annul the Law, for he was merely a prophet and teacher; Paul was wrong and circumcision still necessary. Baptism must be repeated as a means of purification from sin, and proof against disease; the sinner immerses himself "in the name of the mighty and most high God," invoking the "seven witnesses" (sky, water, the holy spirits, the angels of prayer, oil, salt and earth), and pledging himself to amendment. Abstinence from flesh was also enjoined, and a good deal of astrological fancy was interwoven with the doctrinal and practical teaching. It is highly probable, too, that from these Essene Ebionites there issued the fantastical and widely read "Clementine" literature (_Homilies_ and _Recognitions_) of the 3rd century. Ebionite views lingered especially in the country east of the Jordan until they were absorbed by Islam in the 7th century.

In addition to the literature cited see R.C. Ottley, _The Doctrine of
the Incarnation_, part iii. Sec. ii.; W. Moeller, _Hist. of the Christian
Church_, i. 99; art. in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopaedie_, s.v.
"Ebioniten"; also CLEMENTINE LITERATURE.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] So A. Harnack, _Hist. of Dogma_, i. 301, and F.J.A. Hort,
_Judaistic Christianity_, p. 199. Th. Zahn and J.B. Lightfoot ("St.
Paul and the Three," in _Commentary on Galatians_) maintain the
distinction.

EBNER-ESCHENBACH, MARIE, FREIFRAU VON (1830- ), Austrian novelist, was born at Zdislavic in Moravia, on the 13th of September 1830, the daughter of a Count Dubsky. She lost her mother in early infancy, but received a careful intellectual training from two stepmothers. In 1848 she married the Austrian captain, and subsequent field-marshal, Moritz von Ebner-Eschenbach, and resided first at Vienna, then at Klosterbruck, where her husband had a military charge, and after 1860 again at Vienna. The marriage was childless, and the talented wife sought consolation in literary work. In her endeavours she received assistance and encouragement from Franz Grillparzer and Freiherr von Muench-Bellinghausen. Her first essay was with the drama _Maria Stuart in Schottland_, which Philipp Eduard Devrient produced at the Karlsruhe theatre in 1860. After some other unsuccessful attempts in the field of drama, she found her true sphere in narrative. Commencing with _Die Prinzessin von Banalien_ (1872), she graphically depicts in _Bozena_ (Stuttgart, 1876, 4th ed. 1899) and _Das Gemeindekind_ (Berlin, 1887, 4th ed. 1900) the surroundings of her Moravian home, and in _Lotti, die Uhrmacherin_ (Berlin, 1883, 4th ed. 1900), _Zwei Comtessen_ (Berlin, 1885, 5th ed. 1898), _Unsuehnbar_ (1890, 5th ed. 1900) and _Glaubenslos?_ (1893) the life of the Austrian aristocracy in town and country. She also published _Neue Erzaehlungen_ (Berlin, 1881, 3rd ed. 1894), _Aphorismen_ (Berlin, 1880, 4th ed. 1895) and _Parabeln, Maerchen und Gedichte_ (2nd ed., Berlin, 1892). Frau von Ebner-Eschenbach's elegance of style, her incisive wit and masterly depiction of character give her a foremost place among the German women-writers of her time. On the occasion of her seventieth birthday the university of Vienna conferred upon her the degree of doctor of philosophy, _honoris causa_.

An edition of Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach's _Gesammelte Schriften_
began to appear in 1893 (Berlin). See A. Bettelheim, _Marie von
Ebner-Eschenbach: biographische Blaetter_ (Berlin, 1900), and M.
Necker, _Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, nach ihren Werken geschildert_
(Berlin, 1900).

EBOLI (anc. _Eburum_), a town of Campania, Italy, in the province of Salerno, from which it is 16 m. E. by rail, situated 470 ft. above sea-level, on the S. edge of the hills overlooking the valley of the Sele. Pop. (1901) 9642 (town), 12,423 (commune). The sacristy of St Francesco contains two 14th-century pictures, one by Roberto da Oderisio of Naples. The ancient Eburum was a Lucanian city, mentioned only by Pliny and in inscriptions, not far distant from the Campanian border. It lay above the Via Popillia, which followed the line taken by the modern railway. Some scanty remains of its ancient polygonal walls may still be seen. (T. As.)

EBONY (Gr. [Greek: ebenos]), the wood of various species of trees of the genus _Diospyros_ (natural order Ebenaceae), widely distributed in the tropical parts of the world. The best kinds are very heavy, are of a deep black, and consist of heart-wood only. On account of its colour, durability, hardness and susceptibility of polish, ebony is much used for cabinet work and inlaying, and for the manufacture of pianoforte-keys, knife-handles and turned articles. The best Indian and Ceylon ebony is furnished by _D. Ebenum_, a native of southern India and Ceylon, which grows in great abundance throughout the flat country west of Trincomalee. The tree is distinguished from others by the inferior width of its trunk, and its jet-black, charred-looking bark, beneath which the wood is perfectly white until the heart is reached. The wood is stated to excel that obtained from _D. reticulata_ of the Mauritius and all other varieties of ebony in the fineness and intensity of its dark colour. Although the centre of the tree alone is employed, reduced logs 1 to 3 ft. in diameter can readily be procured. Much of the East Indian ebony is yielded by the species _D. Melanoxylon_ (Coromandel ebony), a large tree attaining a height of 60 to 80 ft., and 8 to 10 ft. in circumference, with irregular rigid branches, and oblong or oblong-lanceolate leaves. The bark of the tree is astringent, and mixed with pepper is used in dysentery by the natives of India. The wood of _D. tomentosa_, a native of north Bengal, is black, hard and of great weight. _D. montana_, another Indian species, produces a yellowish-grey soft but durable wood. _D. quaesita_ is the tree from which is obtained the wood known in Ceylon by the name _Calamander_, derived by Pridham from the Sinhalee _kalumindrie_, black-flowing. Its closeness of grain, great hardness and fine hazel-brown colour, mottled and striped with black, render it a valuable material for veneering and furniture making. _D. Dendo_, a native of Angola, is a valuable timber tree, 25 to 35 ft. high, with a trunk 1 to 2 ft. in diameter. The heart-wood is very black and hard and is known as black ebony, also as billet-wood, and Gabun, Lagos, Calabar or Niger ebony. What is termed Jamaica or West Indian ebony, and also the green ebony of commerce, are produced by _Brya Ebenus_, a leguminous tree or shrub, having a trunk rarely more than 4 in. in diameter, flexible spiny branches, and orange-yellow, sweet-scented flowers. The heart-wood is rich dark brown in colour, heavier than water, exceedingly hard and capable of receiving a high polish.

From the book of Ezekiel (xxvii. 15) we learn that ebony was among the articles of merchandise brought to Tyre; and Herodotus states (iii. 97) that the Ethiopians every three years sent a tribute of 200 logs of it to Persia. Ebony was known to Virgil as a product of India (_Georg._ ii. 116), and was displayed by Pompey the Great in his Mithradatic triumph at Rome. By the ancients it was esteemed of equal value for durability with the cypress and cedar (see Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xii. 9, xvi. 79). According to Solinus (_Polyhistor_, cap. lv. p. 353, Paris, 1621), it was employed by the kings of India for sceptres and images, also, on account of its supposed antagonism to poison, for drinking-cups. The hardness and black colour of the wood appear to have given rise to the tradition related by Pausanias, and alluded to by Southey in _Thalaba_, i. 22, that the ebony tree produced neither leaves nor fruit, and was never seen exposed to the sun.

EBRARD, JOHANNES HEINRICH AUGUST (1818-1888), German theologian, was born at Erlangen on the 18th of January 1818. He was educated in his native town and at Berlin, and after teaching in a private family became _Privatdocent_ at Erlangen (1841) and then professor of theology at Zuerich (1844). In 1847 he was appointed professor of theology at Erlangen, a chair which he resigned in 1861; in 1875 he became pastor of the French reformed church in the same city. As a critic Ebrard occupied a very moderate standpoint; as a writer his chief works were _Christliche Dogmatik_ (2 vols., 1851), _Vorlesungen ueber praktische Theologie_ (1864), _Apologetik_ (1874-1875, Eng. trans. 1886). He also edited and completed H. Olshausen's commentary, himself writing the volumes on the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Johannine Epistles, and Revelation. In the department of belles-lettres he wrote a good deal under such pseudonyms as Christian Deutsch, Gottfried Flammberg and Sigmund Sturm. He died at Erlangen on the 23rd of July 1888.

EBRO (anc. _Iberus_ or _Hiberus_), the only one of the five great rivers of the Iberian Peninsula (Tagus, Douro, Ebro, Guadalquivir, Guadiana) which flows into the Mediterranean. The Ebro rises at Fuentibre, a hamlet among the Cantabrian Mountains, in the province of Santander; at Reinosa, 4 m. east, it is joined on the right by the Hijar, and thus gains considerably in volume. It flows generally east by south through a tortuous valley as far as Miranda de Ebro, passing through the celebrated Roman bridge known as La Horadada ("the perforated"), near Ona in Burgos. From Miranda it winds south-eastward through the wide basin enclosed on the right by the highlands of Old Castile and western Aragon, and on the left by the Pyrenees. The chief cities on its banks are Logrono, Calahorra, Tudela, Saragossa and Caspe. Near Mora in Catalonia it forces a way through the coastal mountains, and, passing Tortosa, falls into the Mediterranean about 80 m. south-west of Barcelona, after forming by its delta a conspicuous projection on the otherwise regular coast line. In its length, approximately 465 m., the Ebro is inferior to the Tagus, Guadiana and Douro; it drains an area of nearly 32,000 sq. m. Its principal tributaries are--from the right hand the Jalon with its affluent the Jiloca, the Huerva, Aguas, Martin, Guadalope and Matarrana; from the left the Ega, Aragon, Arba, Gallego, and the Segre with its intricate system of confluent rivers. The Ebro and its tributaries have been utilized for irrigation since the Moorish conquest; the main stream becomes navigable by small boats about Tudela; but its value as a means of communication is almost neutralized by the obstacles in its channel, and seafaring vessels cannot proceed farther up than Tortosa. The great Imperial Canal, begun under the emperor Charles V. (1500-1558), proceeds along the right bank of the river from a point about 3 m. below Tudela, to El Burgo de Ebro, 5 m. below Saragossa; the irrigation canal of Tauste skirts the opposite bank for a shorter distance; and the San Carlos or New Canal affords direct communication between Amposta at the head of the delta and the harbour of Los Alfaques. From Miranda to Mora the Bilbao-Tarragona railway follows the course of the Ebro along the right bank.

EBROIN (d. 681), Frankish "mayor of the palace," was a Neustrian, and wished to impose the authority of Neustria over Burgundy and Austrasia. In 656, at the moment of his accession to power, Sigebert III., the king of Austrasia, had just died, and the Austrasian mayor of the palace, Grimoald, was attempting to usurp the authority. The great nobles, however, appealed to the king of Neustria, Clovis II., and unity was re-established. But in spite of a very firm policy Ebroin was unable to maintain this unity, and while Clotaire III., son of Clovis II., reigned in Neustria and Burgundy, he was obliged in 660 to give the Austrasians a special king, Childeric II., brother of Clotaire III., and a special mayor of the palace, Wulfoald. He endeavoured to maintain at any rate the union of Neustria and Burgundy, but the great Burgundian nobles wished to remain independent, and rose under St Leger (Leodegar), bishop of Autun, defeated Ebroin, and interned him in the monastery of Luxeuil (670). A proclamation was then issued to the effect that each kingdom should keep its own laws and customs, that there should be no further interchange of functionaries between the kingdoms, and that no one should again set up a tyranny like that of Ebroin. Soon, however, Leger was defeated by Wulfoald and the Austrasians, and was himself confined at Luxeuil in 673. In the same year, taking advantage of the general anarchy, Ebroin and Leger left the cloister and soon found themselves once more face to face. Each looked for support to a different Merovingian king, Ebroin even proclaiming a false Merovingian as sovereign. In this struggle Leger was vanquished; he was besieged in Autun, was forced to surrender and had his eyes put out, and, on the 12th of October 678, he was put to death after undergoing prolonged tortures. The church honours him as a saint. After his death Ebroin became sole and absolute ruler of the Franks, imposing his authority over Burgundy and subduing the Austrasians, whom he defeated in 678 at Bois-du-Fay, near Laon. His triumph, however, was short-lived; he was assassinated in 681, the victim of a combined attack of his numerous enemies. He was a man of great energy, but all his actions seem to have been dictated by no higher motives than ambition and lust of power.

See _Liber historiae Francorum_, edited by B. Krusch, in _Mon. Germ.
hist. script. rer. Merov._ vol. ii.; _Vita sancti Leodegarii_, by
Ursinus, a monk of St Maixent (Migne, _Patr. Latina_, vol. xcvi.);
"Vita metrica" in _Poetae Latini aevi Carolini_, vol. iii. (_Mon.
Germ. hist._); J.B. Pitra, _Histoire de Saint Leger_ (Paris, 1846);
and J. Friedrich, "Zur Gesch. des Hausmeiers Ebroin," in the
_Proceedings of the Academy of Munich_ (1887, pp. 42-61).
(C. Pf.)

EBURACUM, or EBORACUM (probably a later variant), the Roman name of York (q.v.) in England. Established about A.D. 75-80 as fortress of the Ninth legion and garrisoned (after the annihilation of that legion about A.D. 118) by the Sixth legion, it developed outside its walls a town of civil life, which later obtained Roman municipal rank and in the 4th century was the seat of a Christian bishop. The fortress and town were separated by the Ouse. On the left bank, where the minster stands, was the fortress, of which the walls can still be partly traced, and one corner (the so-called Multangular Tower) survives. The municipality occupied the right bank near the present railway station. The place was important for its garrison and as an administrative centre, and the town itself was prosperous, though probably never very large. The name is preserved in the abbreviated form Ebor in the official name of the archbishop of York, but the philological connexion between Eboracum and the modern name York is doubtful and has probably been complicated by Danish influence. (F. J. H.)

ECA DE QUEIROZ, JOSE MARIA (1843-1900), Portuguese writer, was born at the northern fishing town of Povoa de Varzim, his father being a retired judge. He went through the university of Coimbra, and on taking his degree in law was appointed Administrador de Concelho at Leiria, but soon tired of the narrow mental atmosphere of the old cathedral town and left it. He accompanied the Conde de Rezende to Egypt, where he assisted at the opening of the Suez Canal, and to Palestine, and on his return settled down to journalism in Lisbon and began to evolve a style, at once magical and unique, which was to renovate his country's prose. Though he spent much of his days with the philosopher sonneteer Anthero de Quental, and the critic Jayme Batalha Reis, afterwards consul-general in London, he did not restrict his intimacy to men of letters, but frequented all kinds of society, acquiring a complete acquaintance with contemporary Portuguese life and manners. Entering the consular service in 1872, he went to Havana, and, after a tour in the United States, was transferred two years later to Newcastle-on-Tyne and in 1876 to Bristol. In 1888 he became Portuguese consul-general in Paris, and there died in 1900.

Queiroz made his literary debut in 1870 by a sensational story, _The Mystery of the Cintra Road_, written in collaboration with the art critic Ramalho Ortigao, but the first publication which brought him fame was _The Farpas_, a series of satirical and humorous sketches of various phases of social life, which, to quote the poet Guerra Junqueiro, contain "the epilepsy of talent." These essays, the joint production of the same partners, criticized and ridiculed the faults and foibles of every class in turn, mainly by a comparison with the French, for the education of Queiroz had made him a Frenchman in ideas and sympathies. His Brazilian friend, Eduardo Prado, bears witness that at this period French literature, especially Hugo's verse, and even French politics, interested Queiroz profoundly, while he altogether ignored the _belles-lettres_ of his own country and its public affairs. This phase lasted for some years, and even when he travelled in the East he was inclined to see it with the eyes of Flaubert, though the publication of _The Relic_ and that delightful prose poem _Sweet Miracle_ afterwards showed that he had been directly impressed and deeply penetrated by its scenery, poetry and mysticism. The Franco-German War of 1870, however, by lowering the prestige of France, proved the herald of a national Portuguese revival, and had a great influence on Queiroz, as also had his friend Oliveira Martins (q.v.), the biographer of the patriot kings of the Aviz dynasty. He founded the Portuguese Realist-Naturalist school, of which he remained for the rest of his life the chief exponent, by a powerful romance, _The Crime of Father Amaro_, written in 1871 at Leiria but only issued in 1875. Its appearance then led to a baseless charge that he had plagiarized _La Faute de l'Abbe Mouret_, and ill-informed critics began to name Queiroz the Portuguese Zola, though he clearly occupied an altogether different plane in the domain of art. During his stay in England he produced two masterpieces, _Cousin Basil_ and _The Maias_, but they show no traces of English influence, nor again are they French in tone, for, living near to France, his disillusionment progressed and was completed when he went to Paris and had to live under the regime of the Third Republic. Settling at Neuilly, the novelist became chronicler, critic, and letter-writer as well, and in all these capacities Queiroz displayed a spontaneity, power and artistic finish unequalled in the literature of his country since the death of Garrett. A bold draughtsman, he excelled in freshness of imagination and careful choice and collocation of words, while his warmth of colouring and brilliance of language speak of the south. Many of his pages descriptive of natural scenery, such for instance as the episode of the return to Tormes in _The City and the Mountains_, have taken rank as classic examples of Portuguese prose, while as a creator of characters he stood unsurpassed by any writer of his generation in the same field. He particularly loved to draw and judge the middle class, and he mocks at and chastises its hypocrisy and narrowness, its veneer of religion and culture, its triumphant lying, its self-satisfied propriety, its cruel egotism. But though he manifested a predilection for middle-class types, his portrait gallery comprises men and women of all social conditions. _The Maias_, his longest book, treats of _fidalgos_, while perhaps his most remarkable character study is of a servant, Juliana, in _Cousin Basil_. At least two of his books, this latter and _The Crime of Father Amaro_, are _chroniques scandaleuses_ in their plots and episodes; these volumes, however, mark not only the high-water line of the Realist-Naturalist school in Portugal, but are in themselves, leaving aside all accidentals, creative achievements of a high order.

Though Queiroz was a keen satirist of the ills of society, his pages show hardly a trace of pessimism. _The City and the Mountains_, and in part _The Relic_ also, reveal the apostle of Realism as an idealist and dreamer, a true representative of that Celtic tradition which survives in the race and has permeated the whole literature of Portugal. _The Mandarin_, a fantastic variation on the old theme of a man self-sold to Satan, and _The Illustrious House of Ramires_, are the only other writings of his that require mention, except _The Correspondence of Fradique Mendes_. In conjunction with Anthero de Quental and Jayme Batalha Reis, Queiroz invented under that name a smart man of the world who had something of himself and something of Eduardo Prado, and made him correspond on all sorts of subjects with imaginary friends and relatives to the delight of the public, many of whom saw in him a mysterious new writer whose identity they were eager to discover. These sparkling and humorous letters are an especial favourite with admirers of Queiroz, because they reveal so much of his very attractive personality, and perhaps the cleverest of the number, that on Pacheco, has received an English dress. In addition to his longer and more important works, Queiroz wrote a number of short stories, some of which have been printed in a volume under the title of _Contos_. The gems of this remarkable collection are perhaps _The Peculiarities of a Fair-haired Girl_, _A Lyric Poet_, _Jose Matthias_, _The Corpse_, and _Sweet Miracle_.

Most of his books have gone through many editions, and they are even
more appreciated in the Brazils than in Portugal. It should be
mentioned that the fourth edition of _Father Amaro_ is entirely
different in form and action from the first, the whole story having
been rewritten. One of Queiroz's romances and two of his short stories
have been published in English. An unsatisfactory version of _Cousin
Basil_, under the title _Dragon's Teeth_, appeared at Boston, U.S.A.,
in 1889, while _Sweet Miracle_ has had three editions in England and
one in America, and there is also a translation of _O Defunto_ (_The
Corpse_) under the name of _Our Lady of the Pillar_.

An admirable critical study of the work of Queiroz will be found in _A
Geracao Nova--Os Novellistas_, by J. Pereira de Sampaio (_Bruno_),
(Oporto, 1886). The _Revista moderna_ of the 20th of November 1897 was
entirely devoted to him. Senhor Batalha Reis gives interesting
reminiscences of the novelist's early days in his preface to some
prose fragments edited by him and named _Prosas Barbaras_ (Oporto,
1903). (E. Pr.)

ECARTE (Fr. for "separated," "discarded"), a game at cards, of modern origin, probably first played in the Paris _salons_ in the first quarter of the 19th century. It is a development of a very old card game called _la triomphe_ or _French-ruff_. Ecarte is generally played by two persons, but a pool of three may be formed, the player who is out taking the place of the loser, and the winner of two consecutive games winning the pool. At French ecarte (but not at English) bystanders who are betting may advise the players, but only by pointing to the cards they desire them to play, and the loser of the game goes out, one of the _rentrants_ taking his place, unless the loser is playing _la chouette_, i.e. playing single-handed against two, and taking all bets.

The small cards (from the two to the six, both inclusive) are removed from an ordinary pack. The players cut for deal, the highest having the choice. The king is the highest card, the ace ranking after the knave. The dealer gives five cards to his adversary, and five to himself, by two at a time to each and by three at a time to each, or vice versa. The eleventh card is turned up for trumps. If it is a king, the dealer scores one, at any time before the next deal. The non-dealer then looks at his cards. If satisfied with them he plays, and there is no discarding; if not satisfied he "proposes." The dealer may either accept or refuse. If he accepts, each player discards face downwards as many cards as he thinks fit, and fresh ones are given from the undealt cards or "stock," first to complete the non-dealer's hand to five, then to complete the dealer's. To ask for "a book" is to ask for five cards. Similarly a second proposal may be made, and so on, until one player is satisfied with his hand. If the dealer refuses, the hand is played without discarding. If the non-dealer announces that he holds the king of trumps, he scores one; and similarly, if the dealer holds the king and announces it, he scores one. The announcement must be made before playing one's first card, or if that card be the king, on playing it. The non-dealer, being satisfied with his hand, leads a card. The dealer plays a card to it, the two cards thus played forming a trick. The winner of the trick leads to the next, and so on. The second to play to a trick must follow suit if able, and must win the trick if he can.

The scores are for the king and for the majority of tricks. The player who wins three tricks scores one for the "point"; if he wins all five tricks, he scores two for the "vole." If the non-dealer plays without proposing, or the dealer refuses the first proposal, and fails to win three tricks, the adversary scores two, but no more even if he wins the vole. The game is five up. The points are conveniently marked with a three-card and a two-card, as at euchre. The three is put face upwards with the two face downwards on the top of it. When one or two or three points are scored the top card is moved so as to expose them. At four, one pip of the two-card is put under the other card. Games may be recorded similarly.

_Hints to Players._--The following hints may be of service to
beginners:--

Shuffle thoroughly after every deal.

Do not announce the king until in the act of playing your first card.

The hands which should be played without proposing, called _jeux de
regle_ (standard hands), ought to be thoroughly known. They are as
follows:--

1. All hands with three or more trumps, whatever the other cards.

2. Hands with _two trumps_ which contain also--

(a) Any three cards of one plain suit;

(b) Two cards of one plain suit, one being as high as a queen;

(c) Two small cards of one suit, the fifth card being a king of
another suit;

(d) Three high cards of different suits.

3. Hands with _one trump_, which contain also--

(a) King, queen, knave of one suit, and a small card of another;

(b) Four cards of one suit headed by king;

(c) Three cards of one suit headed by queen, and queen of another
suit.

4. Hands with _no trump_, which contain three queens or cards of equal
value in different suits, e.g., four court cards.

5. Hands from which only two cards can be discarded without throwing a
king or a trump.

Holding cards which make the point certain, propose. If you hold a
_jeu de regle_, and one of the trumps is the king, propose, as your
adversary cannot then take in the king.

When discarding, throw out all cards except trumps and kings.

If your adversary proposes you should accept, unless you are guarded
in three suits (a queen being a sufficient guard), or in two suits
with a trump, or in one suit with two trumps. Hence the rule not to
discard two cards, unless holding the king of trumps, applies to the
dealer.

The hands with which to refuse are the same as those with which to
play without proposing, except as follows:--

1. Two trumps and three cards of one plain suit should not be played
unless the plain suit is headed by a court card.

2. One trump and a tierce major is too weak, unless the fifth card is
a court card. With similar hands weaker in the tierce major suit,
accept unless the fifth card is a queen.

3. One trump and four cards of a plain suit is too weak to play.

4. One trump and two queens is too weak, unless both queens are singly
guarded.

5. One trump, queen of one suit, and knave guarded of another should
not be played unless the queen is also guarded, or the card of the
fourth suit is a court card.

6. One trump, a king and a queen, both unguarded, should not be
played, unless the fourth suit contains a card as high as an ace.

7. Four court cards without a trump are too weak to play, unless they
are of three different suits.

Refuse with three queens, if two are singly guarded; otherwise,
accept.

Lead from your guarded suit, and lead the highest.

If the strong suit led is not trumped, persevere with it, unless with
king of trumps, or queen (king not having been announced), or knave
ace, when lead a trump before continuing your suit.

You should not lead trumps at starting, unless you hold king or queen,
knave, or knave ace, with court cards out of trumps.

The score has to be considered. If the dealer is at four, and the king
is not in your hand nor turned up, play any cards without proposing
which give an even chance of three tricks, e.g. a queen, a guarded
knave, and a guarded ten. The same rule applies to the dealer's
refusal.

At the adverse score of four, and king not being in hand or turned up,
any hand with one trump should be played, unless the plain cards are
very small and of different suits.

If the non-dealer plays without proposing when he is four to three,
and the dealer holds the king he ought not to mark it. The same rule
applies to the non-dealer after a refusal, if the dealer is four to
three.

At the score of non-dealer three, dealer four, the dealer should
refuse on moderate cards, as the player proposing at this score must
have a very bad hand.

At four a forward game should not be played in trumps, as there is no
advantage in winning the vole.

_Laws of Ecarte._--The following laws are abridged from the revised
code adopted by the Turf Club:--A cut must consist of at least two
cards. Card exposed in cutting, fresh cut. Order of distribution of
cards, whether by three and two, or vice versa, once selected, dealer
must not change it during game. Player announcing king when he has not
got it, and playing a card without declaring error, adversary may
correct score and have hand played over again. If offender wins point
or vole that hand, he scores one less than he wins. Proposal,
acceptance, or refusal made cannot be retracted. Cards discarded must
not be looked at. Cards exposed in giving cards to non-dealer, he has
option of taking them or of having next cards; dealer exposing his own
cards, no penalty. Dealer turning up top card after giving cards,
cannot refuse second discard. Dealer accepting when too few cards in
stock to supply both, non-dealer may take cards, and dealer must play
his hand. Card led in turn cannot be taken up again. Card played to a
lead can only be taken up prior to another lead, to save revoke or to
correct error of not winning trick. Card led out of turn may be taken
up prior to its being played to. Player naming one suit and leading
another, adversary has option of requiring suit named to be led. If
offender has none, no penalty. Player abandoning hand, adversary is
deemed to win remaining tricks, and scores accordingly. If a player
revokes or does not win trick when he can do so, the adversary may
correct score and have hand replayed.

See _Academie des jeux_ (various editions after the first quarter of
the 19th century); Hoyle's _Games_ (various editions about the same
dates); Ch. Van-Tenac et Louis Delanoue, _Traite du jeu de l'ecarte_
(Paris, 1845; translated in Bohn's _Handbook of Games_, London, 1850);
"Cavendish," _The Laws of Ecarte, adopted by the Turf Club, with a
Treatise on the Game_ (London, 1878); _Pocket Guide to Ecarte_
("Cavendish," 1897); Foster's _Encyclopaedia of Indoor Games_ (1903).

ECBATANA (_Agbatana_ in Aeschylus, _Hangmatana_ in Old Persian, written _Agamtanu_ by Nabonidos, and _Agamatanu_ at Behistun, mod. _Hamadan_), the capital of Astyages (Istuvegu), which was taken by Cyrus in the sixth year of Nabonidos (549 B.C.). The Greeks supposed it to be the capital of Media, confusing the Manda, of whom Astyages was king, with the Mada or Medes of Media Atropatene, and ascribed its foundation to Deioces (the _Daiukku_ of the cuneiform inscriptions), who is said to have surrounded his palace in it with seven concentric walls of different colours. Under the Persian kings, Ecbatana, situated at the foot of Mount Elvend, became a summer residence; and was afterwards the capital of the Parthian kings. Sir H. Rawlinson attempted to prove that there was a second and older Ecbatana in Media Atropatene, on the site of the modern Takht-i-Suleiman, midway between Hamadan and Tabriz (_J.R.G.S._ x. 1841), but the cuneiform texts imply that there was only one city of the name, and Takht-i-Suleiman is the Gazaca of classical geography. The Ecbatana at which Cambyses is said by Herodotus (iii. 64) to have died is probably a blunder for Hamath.

See Perrot and Chipiez, _History of Art in Persia_ (Eng. trans.,
1892); M. Dieulafoy, _L'Art antique de la Perse_, pt. i. (1884); J. de
Morgan, _Mission scientifique en Perse_, ii. (1894). See HAMADAN and
PERSIA: _Ancient History_, Sec. v. 2. (A. H. S.)

ECCARD, JOHANN (1553-1611), German composer of church music, was born at Muehlhausen on the Unstrut, Prussia, in 1553. At the age of eighteen he went to Munich, where he became the pupil of Orlando Lasso. In his company Eccard is said to have visited Paris, but in 1574 we find him again at Muehlhausen, where he resided for four years, and edited, together with Johann von Burgk, his first master, a collection of sacred songs, called _Crepundia sacra Helmboldi_ (1577). Soon afterwards he obtained an appointment as musician in the house of Jacob Fugger, the Augsburg banker. In 1583 he became assistant conductor, and in 1599 conductor, at Koenigsberg, to Georg Friedrich, margrave of Brandenburg-Anspach, the administrator of Prussia. In 1608 he was called by the elector Joachim Friedrich to Berlin as chief conductor, but this post he held only for three years, owing to his premature death at Koenigsberg in 1611. Eccard's works consist exclusively of vocal compositions, such as songs, sacred cantatas and chorales for four or five, and sometimes for seven, eight, or even nine voices. Their polyphonic structure is a marvel of art, and still excites the admiration of musicians. At the same time his works are instinct with a spirit of true religious feeling. His setting of the beautiful words "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott" is still regarded by the Germans as their representative national hymn. Eccard and his school are inseparably connected with the history of the Reformation.

Of Eccard's songs a great many collections are extant; see K.G.A. von
Winterfeld, _Der Evangelische Kirchengesang_ (1843); Doering
(_Choralkunde_, p. 47).

ECCELINO [or EZZELINO] DA ROMANO (1194-1259), Ghibelline leader, and supporter of the emperor Frederick II., was born on the 25th of April 1194. He belonged to a family descended from a German knight named Eccelin, who followed the emperor Conrad II. to Italy about 1036, and received the fief of Romano near Padua. Eccelin's grandson was Eccelino III., surnamed the Monk, who divided his lands between his two sons in 1223, and died in 1235. The elder of these two sons was Eccelino, who in early life began to take part in family and other feuds, and in 1226, at the head of a band of Ghibellines, seized Verona and became _podesta_ of the city. He soon lost Verona, but regained it in 1230; and about this time came into relations with Frederick II., who in 1232 issued a charter confirming him in his possessions. In 1236 when besieged in Verona he was saved by the advance of the emperor, who in November of the same year took Vicenza and entrusted its government to Eccelino. In 1237 he obtained authority over Padua and Treviso; and on the 27th of November in that year he shared in the victory gained by the emperor over the Lombards at Cortenuova. In 1238 he married Frederick's natural daughter, Selvaggia; in 1239 was appointed imperial vicar of the march of Treviso; but in the same year was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX. He was constantly engaged in increasing his possessions; was present at the siege of Parma in 1247, and after Frederick's death in 1250 he supported his son, the German king Conrad IV. His cruelties had, however, aroused general disgust, and in 1254 he was again excommunicated. In 1256 Pope Alexander IV. proclaimed a crusade against him, and a powerful league was soon formed under the leadership of Philip, archbishop of Ravenna. Padua was taken from Eccelino, but on the 1st of September 1258 he defeated his enemies at Torricella. He then made an attempt on Milan, and the rival forces met at Cassano on the 27th of September 1259, when Eccelino was wounded and taken prisoner. Enraged at his capture, he tore the bandages from his wounds, refused to take nourishment, and died at Soncino on the 7th of October 1259. In the following year his brother Albert was put to death, and the Romano family became extinct. Eccelino, who is sometimes called the _tyrant_, acquired a terrible reputation on account of his cruelties, a reputation that won for him the immortality of inclusion in Dante's _Inferno_; but his unswerving loyalty to Frederick II. forms a marked contrast to the attitude of many of his contemporaries.

Eccelino is the subject of a novel by Cesare Cantu and of a drama by J. Eichendorff.

See J.M. Gittermann, _Ezzelino da Romano_ (Freiburg, 1890); S. Mitis,
_Storia d' Ezzelino IV. da Romano_ (Maddaloni, 1896); and F. Stieve,
_Ezzelino von Romano_ (Leipzig, 1909).

ECCENTRIC (from Gr. [Greek: ek], out of, and [Greek: kentron], centre), literally "out from the centre," and thus used to connote generally any deviation from the normal. In astronomy the word denotes a circle round which a body revolves, but whose centre is displaced from the visible centre of motion. In the ancient astronomy the ellipses in which it is now known that the planets revolve around the sun could not be distinguished from circles, but the unequal angular motion due to ellipticity was observed. The theory of the eccentric was that the centre of the epicycle of each planet moved uniformly in a circle, the centre of which was displaced from that of the earth by an amount double the eccentricity of the actual ellipse, as the case is now understood. When measured around this imaginary centre, which is so situated on the major axis of the ellipse that the focus, or place of the real sun, is midway between it and the centre of the ellipse, the motion is approximately uniform. In engineering, an eccentric is a mechanical device for converting rotary into reciprocating motion (see STEAM-ENGINE). For eccentric angle see ELLIPSE.

ECCHELLENSIS (or ECHELLENSIS), ABRAHAM (d. 1664), a learned Maronite, whose surname is derived from Eckel in Syria, where he was born towards the close of the 16th century. He was educated at the Maronite college in Rome, and, after taking his doctor's degree in theology and philosophy, returned for a time to his native land. He then became professor of Arabic and Syriac in the college of the Propaganda at Rome. Called to Paris in 1640 to assist Le Jay in the preparation of his polyglot Bible, he contributed to that work the Arabic and Latin versions of the book of Ruth and the Arabic version of the third book of Maccabees. In 1646 he was appointed professor of Syriac and Arabic at the College de France. Being invited by the Congregation of the Propaganda to take part in the preparation of an Arabic version of the Bible, Ecchellensis went again in 1652 or 1653 to Rome. He published several Latin translations of Arabic works, of which the most important was the _Chronicon Orientale_ of Ibnar-Rahib (Paris, 1653), a history of the patriarchs of Alexandria. He was engaged in an interesting controversy with John Selden as to the historical grounds of episcopacy, in the course of which he published his _Eutychius vindicatus, sive Responsio ad Seldeni Origines_ (Rome, 1661). Conjointly with Giovanni Borelli he wrote a Latin translation of the 5th, 6th and 7th books of the _Conics_ of Apollonius of Perga (1661). He died at Rome in 1664.

ECCLES, a municipal borough in the Eccles parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 4 m. W. of Manchester, of which it forms practically a suburb. Pop. (1901) 34,369. It is served by the London & North-Western railway and by the Birkenhead railway (North-Western and Great Western joint). The Manchester Ship Canal passes through. The church of St Mary is believed to date from the 12th century, but has been enlarged and wholly restored in modern times. There are several handsome modern churches and chapels, a town hall, and numerous cotton mills, while silk-throwing and the manufacture of fustians and ginghams are also among the industries, and there are also large engine works. A peculiar form of cake is made here, taking name from the town, and has a wide reputation. Eccles was incorporated in 1892, and the corporation consists of a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. The borough maintains the tramway service, &c., but water and gas are supplied from Manchester and Salford respectively. Area, 2057 acres.

Before the Reformation the monks of Whalley Abbey had a grange here at what is still called Monks' Hall; and in 1864 many thousands of silver pennies of Henry III. and John of England and William I. of Scotland were discovered near the spot. Robert Ainsworth, the author of the Latin and English dictionary so long familiar to English students, was born at Eccles in 1660; and it was at the vicarage that William Huskisson expired on the 15th of September 1830 from injuries received at the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester railway. From early times "wakes" were held at Eccles, and bull-baiting, bear-baiting and cock-fighting were carried on. Under Elizabeth these festivals, which had become notoriously disorderly, were abolished, but were revived under James I., and maintained until late in the 19th century on public ground. The cockpit remained on the site of the present town hall. A celebration on private property still recalls these wakes.

ECCLESFIELD, a township in the Hallamshire parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 5 m. N. of Sheffield, on the Great Central and Midland railways. The church of St Mary is Perpendicular, with a central tower, and contains excellent woodwork. It formerly bore, and must have deserved, the familiar title of the "Minster of the Moors." Ecclesfield was the seat of a Benedictine priory, which passed to the Carthusians in the 14th century. Cutlery and tools are largely manufactured, and there are coal-mines, paper mills and iron and fire-clay works. After the inclusion within the county borough of Sheffield of part of the civil parish of Ecclesfield in 1901, the population was 18,324.

ECCLESHALL, a market town in the north-western parliamentary division of Staffordshire, England; 7 m. N.W. from Stafford, and 4 W. of Norton Bridge station on the London & North-Western main line. Pop. (1901) 3799. The church of the Holy Trinity, one of the most noteworthy in Staffordshire, is principally Early English, and has fine stained glass. Several bishops of Lichfield are buried here, as Eccleshall Castle was the episcopal residence from the 13th century until 1867. Of this the ancient remains include a picturesque tower and bridge. To the west on the borders of Shropshire is Blore Heath, the scene of a defeat of the Lancastrians by the Yorkists in 1459.