Chapter V: H. S (4)

While the existence of such a personage as Gilgamesh may be admitted, he belongs to an age that could only have preserved a dim recollection of his achievements and adventures through oral traditions. The name[1] is not Babylonian, and what evidence as to his origin there is points to his having come from Elam, to the east of Babylonia. He may have belonged to the people known as the Kassites who at the beginning of the 18th century B.C. entered Babylonia from Elam, and obtained control of the Euphrates valley. Why and how he came to be a popular hero in Babylonia cannot with our present material be determined, but the epic indicates that he came as a conqueror and established himself at Erech. In so far we have embodied in the first part of the epic dim recollections of actual events, but we soon leave the solid ground of fact and find ourselves soaring to the heights of genuine myth. Gilgamesh becomes a god, and in certain portions of the epic clearly plays the part of the sun-god of the spring-time, taking the place apparently of Tammuz or Adonis, the youthful sun-god, though the story shows traits that differentiate it from the ordinary Tammuz myths. A separate stratum in the Gilgamesh epic is formed by the story of Eabani--introduced as the friend of Gilgamesh, who joins him in his adventures. There can be no doubt that Eabani, who symbolizes primeval man, was a figure originally entirely independent of Gilgamesh, but his story was incorporated into the epic by that natural process to be observed in the national epics of other peoples, which tends to connect the favourite hero with all kinds of tales that for one reason or the other become embedded in the popular mind. Another stratum is represented by the story of a favourite of the gods known as Ut-Napishtim, who is saved from a destructive storm and flood that destroys his fellow-citizens of Shurippak. Gilgamesh is artificially brought into contact with Ut-Napishtim, to whom he pays a visit for the purpose of learning the secret of immortal life and perpetual youth which he enjoys. During the visit Ut-Napishtim tells Gilgamesh the story of the flood and of his miraculous escape. Nature myths have been entwined with other episodes in the epic and finally the theologians took up the combined stories and made them the medium for illustrating the truth and force of certain doctrines of the Babylonian religion. In its final form, the outcome of an extended and complicated literary process, the Gilgamesh Epic covered twelve tablets, each tablet devoted to one adventure in which the hero plays a direct or indirect part, and the whole covering according to the most plausible estimate about 3000 lines. Of all twelve tablets portions have been found among the remains of Assur-bani-pal's library, but some of the tablets are so incomplete as to leave even their general contents in some doubt. The fragments do not all belong to one copy. Of some tablets portions of two, and of some tablets portions of as many as four, copies have turned up, pointing therefore to the great popularity of the production. The best preserved are Tablets VI. and XI., and of the total about 1500 lines are now known, wholly or in part, while of those partially preserved quite a number can be restored. A brief summary of the contents of the twelve may be indicated as follows:

In the 1st tablet, after a general survey of the adventures of Gilgamesh, his rule at Erech is described, where he enlists the services of all the young able-bodied men in the building of the great wall of the city. The people sigh under the burden imposed, and call upon the goddess Aruru to create a being who might act as a rival to Gilgamesh, curb his strength, and dispute his tyrannous control. The goddess consents, and creates Eabani, who is described as a wild man, living with the gazelles and the beasts of the field. Eabani, whose name, signifying "Ea creates," points to the tradition which made Ea (q.v.) the creator of humanity, symbolizes primeval man. Through a hunter, Eabani and Gilgamesh are brought together, but instead of becoming rivals, they are joined in friendship. Eabani is induced by the snares of a maiden to abandon his life with the animals and to proceed to Erech, where Gilgamesh, who has been told in several dreams of the coming of Eabani, awaits him. Together they proceed upon several adventures, which are related in the following four tablets. At first, indeed, Eabani curses the fate which led him away from his former life, and Gilgamesh is represented as bewailing Eabani's dissatisfaction. The sun-god Shamash calls upon Eabani to remain with Gilgamesh, who pays him all honours in his palace at Erech. With the decision of the two friends to proceed to the forest of cedars in which the goddess Irnina--a form of Ishtar--dwells, and which is guarded by Khumbaba, the 2nd tablet ends. In the 3rd tablet, very imperfectly preserved, Gilgamesh appeals through a Shamash priestess Rimat-Belit to the sun-god Shamash for his aid in the proposed undertaking. The 4th tablet contains a description of the formidable Khumbaba, the guardian of the cedar forest. In the 5th tablet Gilgamesh and Eabani reach the forest. Encouraged by dreams, they proceed against Khumbaba, and despatch him near a specially high cedar over which he held guard. This adventure against Khumbaba belongs to the Eabani stratum of the epic, into which Gilgamesh is artificially introduced. The basis of the 6th tablet is the familiar nature-myth of the change of seasons, in which Gilgamesh plays the part of the youthful solar god of the springtime, who is wooed by the goddess of fertility, Ishtar. Gilgamesh, recalling to the goddess the sad fate of those who fall a victim to her charms, rejects the offer. In the course of his recital snatches of other myths are referred to, including he famous Tammuz-Adonis tale, in which Tammuz, the youthful bridegroom, is slain by his consort Ishtar. The goddess, enraged at the insult, asks her father Anu to avenge her. A divine bull is sent to wage a contest against Gilgamesh, who is assisted by his friend Eabani. This scene of the fight with the bull is often depicted on seal cylinders. The two friends by their united force succeed in killing the bull, and then after performing certain votive and purification rites return to Erech, where they are hailed with joy. In this adventure it is clearly Eabani who is artificially introduced in order to maintain the association with Gilgamesh. The 7th tablet continues the Eabani stratum. The hero is smitten with sore disease, but the fragmentary condition of this and the succeeding tablet is such as to envelop in doubt the accompanying circumstances, including the cause and nature of his disease. The 8th tablet records the death of Eabani. The 9th and 10th tablets, exclusively devoted to Gilgamesh, describe his wanderings in quest of Ut-Napishtim, from whom he hopes to learn how he may escape the fate that has overtaken his friend Eabani. He goes through mountain passes and encounters lions. At the entrance to the mountain Mashu, scorpion-men stand guard, from one of whom he receives advice as to how to pass through the Mashu district. He succeeds in doing so, and finds himself in a wonderful park, which lies along the sea coast. In the 10th tablet the goddess Sabitu, who, as guardian of the sea, first bolts her gate against Gilgamesh, after learning of his quest, helps him to pass in a ship across the sea to the "waters of death." The ferry-man of Ut-Napishtim brings him safely through these waters, despite the difficulties and dangers of the voyage, and at last the hero finds himself face to face with Ut-Napishtim. In the 11th tablet, Ut-Napishtim tells the famous story of the Babylonian flood, which is so patently attached to Gilgamesh in a most artificial manner. Ut-Napishtim and his wife are anxious to help Gilgamesh to new life. He is sent to a place where he washes himself clean from impurity. He is told of a weed which restores youth to the one grown old. Scarcely has he obtained the weed when it is snatched away from him, and the tablet closes somewhat obscurely with the prediction of the destruction of Erech. In the 12th tablet Gilgamesh succeeds in obtaining a view of Eabani's shade, and learns through him of the sad fate endured by the dead. With this description, in which care of the dead is inculcated as the only means of making their existence in Aralu, where the dead are gathered, bearable, the epic, so far as we have it, closes.

The reason why the flood episode and the interview with the dead Eabani are introduced is quite clear. Both are intended as illustrations of doctrines taught in the schools of Babylonia; the former to explain that only the favourites of the gods can hope under exceptional circumstances to enjoy life everlasting; the latter to emphasize the impossibility for ordinary mortals to escape from the inactive shadowy existence led by the dead, and to inculcate the duty of proper care for the dead. That the astro-theological system is also introduced into the epic is clear from the division into twelve tablets, which correspond to the yearly course of the sun, while throughout there are indications that all the adventures of Gilgamesh and Eabani, including those which have an historical background, have been submitted to the influence of this system and projected on to the heavens. This interpretation of the popular tales, according to which the career of the hero can be followed in its entirety and in detail in the movements in the heavens, in time, with the growing predominance of the astral-mythological system, overshadowed the other factors involved, and it is in this form, as an astral myth, that it passes through the ancient world and leaves its traces in the folk-tales and myths of Hebrews, Phoenicians, Syrians, Greeks and Romans throughout Asia Minor and even in India.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The complete edition of the Gilgamesh Epic by Paul
Haupt under the title _Das babylonische Nimrodepos_ (Leipzig,
1884-1891), with the 12th tablet in the _Beitrage zur Assyriologie_,
i. 48-79; German translation by Peter Jensen in vol. vi. of Schrader's
_Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek_ (Berlin, 1900), pp. 116-273. See also
the same author's comprehensive work, _Das Gilgamesch-Epos in der
Weltliteratur_ (vol. i. 1906, vol. ii. to follow). An English
translation of the chief portions in Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia
and Assyria_ (Boston, 1898), ch. xxiii. (M. Ja.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The name of the hero, written always ideographically, was for a
long time provisionally read _Izdubar_; but a tablet discovered by T.
G. Pinches gave the equivalent _Gilgamesh_ (see Jastrow, _Religion of
Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 468).

GILGIT, an outlying province in the extreme north-west of India, over which Kashmir has reasserted her sovereignty. Only a part of the basin of the river Gilgit is included within its political boundaries. There is an intervening width of mountainous country, represented chiefly by glaciers and ice-fields, and intersected by narrow sterile valleys, measuring some 100 to 150 m. in width, to the north and north-east, which separates the province of Gilgit from the Chinese frontier beyond the Muztagh and Karakoram. This part of the Kashmir borderland includes Kanjut (or Hunza) and Ladakh. To the north-west, beyond the sources of the Yasin and Ghazar in the Shandur range (the two most westerly tributaries of the Gilgit river) is the deep valley of the Yarkhun or Chitral. Since the formation of the North-West Frontier Province in 1901, the political charge of Chitral, Dir and Swat, which was formerly included within the Gilgit agency, has been transferred to the chief commissioner of the new province, with his capital at Peshawar. Gilgit proper now forms a _wazarat_ of the Kashmir state, administered by a _wazir_. Gilgit is also the headquarters of a British political agent, who exercises some supervision over the _wazir_, and is directly responsible to the government of India for the administration of the outlying districts or petty states of Hunza, Nagar, Ashkuman, Yasin and Ghizar, the little republic of Chilas, &c. These states acknowledge the suzerainty of Kashmir, paying an annual tribute in gold or grain, but they form no part of its territory.

Within the wider limits of the former Gilgit agency are many mixed races, speaking different languages, which have all been usually classed together under the name Dard. The Dard, however, is unknown beyond the limits of the Kohistan district of the Indus valley to the south of the Hindu Koh, the rest of the inhabitants of the Indus valley belonging to Shin republics, or Chilas. The great mass of the Chitral population are Kho (speaking Khowar), and they may be accepted as representing the aboriginal population of the Chitral valley. (See HINDU KUSH.) Between Chitral and the Indus the "Dards" of Dardistan are chiefly Yeshkuns and Shins, and it would appear from the proportions in which these people occupy the country that they must have primarily moved up from the valley of the Indus in successive waves of conquest, first the Yeshkuns, and then the Shins. No one can put a date to these invasions, but Biddulph is inclined to class the Yeshkuns with the Yuechi who conquered the Bactrian kingdom about 120 B.C. The Shins are obviously a Hindu race (as is testified by their veneration for the cow), who spread themselves northwards and eastwards as far as Baltistan, where they collided with the aboriginal Tatar of the Asiatic highlands. But the ethnography of "Dardistan," or the Gilgit agency (for the two are, roughly speaking, synonymous), requires further investigation, and it would be premature to attempt to frame anything like an ethnographical history of these regions until the neighbouring provinces of Tangir and Darel have been more fully examined. The _wazarat_ of Gilgit contains a population (1901) of 60,885, all Mahommedans, mostly of the Shiah sect, but not fanatical. The dominant race is that of the Shins, whose language is universally spoken. This is one of the so-called Pisacha languages, an archaic Aryan group intermediate between the Iranian and the Sanskritic.

In general appearance and dress all the mountain-bred peoples extending through these northern districts are very similar. Thick felt coats reaching below the knee, loose "pyjamas" with cloth "putties" and boots (often of English make) are almost universal, the distinguishing feature in their costume being the felt cap worn close to the head and rolled up round the edges. They are on the whole a light-hearted, cheerful race of people, but it has been observed that their temperament varies much with their habitat--those who live on the shadowed sides of mountains being distinctly more morose and more serious in disposition than the dwellers in valleys which catch the winter sunlight. They are, at the same time, bloodthirsty and treacherous to a degree which would appear incredible to a casual observer of their happy and genial manners, exhibiting a strange combination (as has been observed by a careful student of their ways) of "the monkey and the tiger." Addicted to sport of every kind, they pursue no manufacturing industries whatsoever, but they are excellent agriculturists, and show great ingenuity in their local irrigation works and in their efforts to bring every available acre of cultivable soil within the irrigated area. Gold washing is more or less carried on in most of the valleys north of the river Gilgit, and gold dust (contained in small packets formed with the petals of a cup-shaped flower) is an invariable item in their official presents and offerings. Gold dust still constitutes part of the annual tribute which, strangely enough, is paid by Hunza to China, as well as to Kashmir.

_Routes in the Gilgit Agency._--One of the oldest recorded routes
through this country is that which connects Mastuj in the Chitral
valley with Gilgit, passing across the Shandur range (12,250). It now
forms the high-road between Gilgit and Chitral, and has been
engineered into a passable route. From the north three great
glacier-bred affluents make their way to the river of Gilgit, joining
it at almost equal intervals, and each of them affords opportunity for
a rough passage northwards. (1) The Yasin river, which follows a
fairly straight course from north to south for about 40 m. from the
foot of the Darkot pass across the Shandur range (15,000) to its
junction with the river Gilgit, close to the little fort of Gupis, on
the Gilgit-Mastuj road. Much of this valley is cultivated and
extremely picturesque. At the head of it is a grand group of glaciers,
one of which leads up to the well-known pass of Darkot. (2) 25 m. (by
map measurement) below Gupis the Gilgit receives the Ashkuman affluent
from the north. The little Lake of Karumbar is held to be its source,
as it lies at the head of the river. The same lake is sometimes called
the source of the river Yarkhun or Chitral; and it seems possible that
a part of its waters may be deflected in each direction. The Karumbar,
or Ashkuman, is nearly twice the length of the Yasin, and the upper
half of the valley is encompassed by glaciers, rendering the route
along it uncertain and difficult. (3) 40 m. or so below the Ashkuman
junction, and nearly opposite the little station of Gilgit, the river
receives certain further contributions from the north which are
collected in the Hunza and Nagar basins. These basins include a system
of glaciers of such gigantic proportions that they are probably
unrivalled in any part of the world. The glacial head of the Hunza is
not far from that of the Karumbar, and, like the Karumbar, the river
commences with a wide sweep eastwards, following a course roughly
parallel to the crest of the Hindu Kush (under whose southern slopes
it lies close) for about 40 m. Then striking south for another 40 m.,
it twists amidst the barren feet of gigantic rock-bound spurs which
reach upwards to the Muztagh peaks on the east and to a mass of
glaciers and snow-fields on the west, hidden amidst the upper folds of
mountains towering to an average of 25,000 ft. The next great bend is
again to the west for 30 m., before a final change of direction to the
south at the historical position of Chalt and a comparatively straight
run of 25 m. to a junction with the Gilgit. The valley of Hunza lies
some 10 m. from the point of this westerly bend, and 20 (as the crow
flies) from Chalt. Much has been written of the magnificence of Hunza
valley scenery, surrounded as it is by a stupendous ring of
snow-capped peaks and brightened with all the radiant beauty that
cultivation adds to these mountain valleys; but such scenery must be
regarded as exceptional in these northern regions.

_Glaciers and Mountains._--Conway and Godwin Austen have described the
glaciers of Nagar which, enclosed between the Muztagh spurs on the
north-east and the frontier peaks of Kashmir (terminating with
Rakapushi) on the south-west, and massing themselves in an almost
uninterrupted series from the Hunza valley to the base of those
gigantic peaks which stand about Mount Godwin Austen, seem to be set
like an ice-sea to define the farthest bounds of the Himalaya. From
its uttermost head to the foot of the Hispar, overhanging the valley
above Nagar, the length of the glacial ice-bed known under the name of
Biafo is said to measure about 90 m. Throughout the mountain region of
Kanjut (or Hunza) and Nagar the valleys are deeply sunk between
mountain ranges, which are nowhere less than 15,000 ft. in altitude,
and which must average above 20,000 ft. As a rule, these valleys are
bare of vegetation. Where the summits of the loftier ranges are not
buried beneath snow and ice they are bare, bleak and splintered, and
the nakedness of the rock scenery extends down their rugged spurs to
the very base of them. On the lower slopes of tumbled debris the sun
in summer beats with an intensity which is unmitigated by the cloud
drifts which form in the moister atmosphere of the monsoon-swept
summits of the Himalaya. Sun-baked in summer and frost-riven in
winter, the mountain sides are but immense ramps of loose rock debris,
only awaiting the yearly melting of the upper snow-fields, or the
advent of a casual rainstorm, to be swept downwards in an avalanche of
mud and stones into the gorges below. Here it becomes piled and massed
together, till the pressure of accumulation forces it out into the
main valleys, where it spreads in alluvial fans and silts up the
plains. This formation is especially marked throughout the high level
valleys of the Gilgit basin.

_Passes._--Each of these northern affluents of the main stream is
headed by a pass, or a group of passes, leading either to the Pamir
region direct, or into the upper Yarkhun valley from which a Pamir
route diverges. The Yasin valley is headed by the Darkot pass (15,000
ft.), which drops into the Yarkhun not far from the foot of the
Baroghil group over the main Hindu Kush watershed. The Ashkuman is
headed by the Gazar and Kora Bohrt passes, leading to the valley of
the Ab-i-Punja; and the Hunza by the Kilik and Mintaka, the connecting
links between the Taghdumbash Pamir and the Gilgit basin. They are all
about the same height--15,000 ft. All are passable at certain times of
the year to small parties, and all are uncertain. In no case do they
present insuperable difficulties in themselves, glaciers and
snow-fields and mountain staircases being common to all; but the
gorges and precipices which distinguish the approaches to them from
the south, the slippery sides of shelving spurs whose feet are washed
by raging torrents, the perpetual weary monotony of ascent and descent
over successive ridges multiplying the gradient indefinitely--these
form the real obstacles blocking the way to these northern passes.

_Gilgit Station._--The pretty little station of Gilgit (4890 ft. above
sea) spreads itself in terraces above the right bank of the river
nearly opposite the opening leading to Hunza, almost nestling under
the cliffs of the Hindu Koh, which separates it on the south from the
savage mountain wilderness of Darel and Kohistan. It includes a
residency for the British political officer, with about half a dozen
homes for the accommodation of officials, barracks suitable for a
battalion of Kashmir troops, and a hospital. Evidences of Buddhist
occupation are not wanting in Gilgit, though they are few and
unimportant. Such as they are, they appear to prove that Gilgit was
once a Buddhist centre, and that the old Buddhist route between Gilgit
and the Peshawar plain passed through the gorges and clefts of the
unexplored Darel valley to Thakot under the northern spurs of the
Black Mountain.

_Connexion with India._--The Gilgit river joins the Indus a few miles
above the little post of Bunji, where an excellent suspension bridge
spans the river. The valley is low and hot, and the scenery between
Gilgit and Bunji is monotonous; but the road is now maintained in
excellent condition. A little below Bunji the Astor river joins the
Indus from the south-east, and this deep pine-clad valley indicates
the continuation of the highroad from Gilgit to Kashmir via the
Tragbal and Burzil passes. Another well-known route connecting Gilgit
with the Abbottabad frontier of the Punjab lies across the Babusar
pass (13,000 ft.), linking the lovely Hazara valley of Kaghan to
Chilas; Chilas (4150 ft.) being on the Indus, some 50 m. below Bunji.
This is a more direct connexion between Gilgit and the plains of the
Punjab than that afforded by the Kashmir route via Gurais and Astor,
which latter route involves two considerable passes--the Tragbal
(11,400) and the Burzil (13,500); but the intervening strip of
absolutely independent territory (independent alike of Kashmir and the
Punjab), which includes the hills bordering the road from the Babusar
pass to Chilas, renders it a risky route for travellers unprotected by
a military escort. Like the Kashmir route, it is now defined by a good
military road.

_History._--The Dards are located by Ptolemy with surprising accuracy (_Daradae_) on the west of the Upper Indus, beyond the head-waters of the Swat river (_Soastus_), and north of the _Gandarae_, i.e. the Gandharis, who occupied Peshawar and the country north of it. The _Dardas_ and _Chinas_ also appear in many of the old Pauranic lists of peoples, the latter probably representing the _Shin_ branch of the Dards. This region was traversed by two of the Chinese pilgrims of the early centuries of our era, who have left records of their journeys, viz. Fahien, coming from the north, c. 400, and Hsuan Tsang, ascending from Swat, c. 631. The latter says: "Perilous were the roads, and dark the gorges. Sometimes the pilgrim had to pass by loose cords, sometimes by light stretched iron chains. Here there were ledges hanging in mid-air; there flying bridges across abysses; elsewhere paths cut with the chisel, or footings to climb by." Yet even in these inaccessible regions were found great convents, and miraculous images of Buddha. How old the name of _Gilgit_ is we do not know, but it occurs in the writings of the great Mahommedan savant al-Biruni, in his notices of Indian geography. Speaking of Kashmir, he says: "Leaving the ravine by which you enter Kashmir and entering the plateau, then you have for a march of two more days on your left the mountains of Bolor and Shamilan, Turkish tribes who are called _Bhattavaryan_. Their king has the title Bhatta-Shah. Their towns are _Gilgit_, Aswira and Shiltash, and their language is the Turkish. Kashmir suffers much from their inroads" (Trs. Sachau, i. 207). There are difficult matters for discussion here. It is impossible to say what ground the writer had for calling the people _Turks_. But it is curious that the _Shins_ say they are all of the same race as the Moguls of India, whatever they may mean by that. Gilgit, as far back as tradition goes, was ruled by rajas of a family called Trakane. When this family became extinct the valley was desolated by successive invasions of neighbouring rajas, and in the 20 or 30 years ending with 1842 there had been five dynastic revolutions. The most prominent character in the history was a certain Gaur Rahman or Gauhar Aman, chief of Yasin, a cruel savage and man-seller, of whom many evil deeds are told. Being remonstrated with for selling a _mullah_, he said, "Why not? The Koran, the word of God, is sold; why not sell the expounder thereof?" The Sikhs entered Gilgit about 1842, and kept a garrison there. When Kashmir was made over to Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu in 1846, by Lord Hardinge, the Gilgit claims were transferred with it. And when a commission was sent to lay down boundaries of the tracts made over, Mr Vans Agnew (afterwards murdered at Multan) and Lieut. Ralph Young of the Engineers visited Gilgit, the first Englishmen who did so. The Dogras (Gulab Singh's race) had much ado to hold their ground, and in 1852 a catastrophe occurred, parallel on a smaller scale to that of the English troops at Kabul. Nearly 2000 men of theirs were exterminated by Gaur Rahman and a combination of the Dards; only one person, a soldier's wife, escaped, and the Dogras were driven away for eight years. Gulab Singh would not again cross the Indus, but after his death (in 1857) Maharaja Ranbir Singh longed to recover lost prestige. In 1860 he sent a force into Gilgit. Gaur Rahman just then died, and there was little resistance. The Dogras after that took Yasin twice, but did not hold it. They also, in 1866, invaded Darel, one of the most secluded Dard states, to the south of the Gilgit basin, but withdrew again. In 1889, in order to guard against the advance of Russia, the British government, acting as the suzerain power of Kashmir, established the Gilgit agency; in 1901, on the formation of the North-West Frontier province, the rearrangement was made as stated above.

AUTHORITIES.--Biddulph, _The Tribes of the Hindu Kush_ (Calcutta,
1880); W. Lawrence, _The Kashmir Valley_ (London, 1895); Tanner, "Our
Present Knowledge of the Himalaya," _Proc. R.G.S._ vol. xiii., 1891;
Durand, _Making a Frontier_ (London, 1899); _Report of Lockhart's
Mission_ (Calcutta, 1886); E. F. Knight, _Where Three Empires Meet_
(London, 1892); F. Younghusband, "Journeys in the Pamirs and Adjacent
Countries," _Proc. R.G.S._ vol. xiv., 1892; Curzon, "Pamirs," _Jour.
R.G.S._ vol. viii., 1896; Leitner, _Dardistan_ (1877). (T. H. H.*)

GILL, JOHN (1697-1771), English Nonconformist divine, was born at Kettering, Northamptonshire. His parents were poor and he owed his education chiefly to his own perseverance. In November 1716 he was baptized and began to preach at Higham Ferrers and Kettering, until the beginning of 1719, when he became pastor of the Baptist congregation at Horsleydown in Southwark. There he continued till 1757, when he removed to a chapel near London Bridge. From 1729 to 1756 he was Wednesday evening lecturer in Great Eastcheap. In 1748 he received the degree of D.D. from the university of Aberdeen. He died at Camberwell on the 14th of October 1771. Gill was a great Hebrew scholar, and in his theology a sturdy Calvinist.

His principal works are _Exposition of the Song of Solomon_ (1728);
_The Prophecies of the Old Testament respecting the Messiah_ (1728);
_The Doctrine of the Trinity_ (1731); _The Cause of God and Truth_ (4
vols., 1731); _Exposition of the Bible_, in 10 vols. (1746-1766), in
preparing which he formed a large collection of Hebrew and Rabbinical
books and MSS.; _The Antiquity of the Hebrew Language--Letters, Vowel
Points, and Accents_ (1767); _A Body of Doctrinal Divinity_ (1767); _A
Body of Practical Divinity_ (1770); and _Sermons and Tracts_, with a
memoir of his life (1773). An edition of his _Exposition of the Bible_
appeared in 1816 with a memoir by John Rippon, which has also appeared
separately.

GILL. (1) One of the _branchiae_ which form the breathing apparatus of fishes and other animals that live in the water. The word is also applied to the _branchiae_ of some kinds of worm and arachnids, and by transference to objects resembling the _branchiae_ of fishes, such as the wattles of a fowl, or the radiating films on the under side of fungi. The word is of obscure origin. Danish has _giaelle_, and Swedish _gal_ with the same meaning. The root which appears in "yawn," "chasm," has been suggested. If this be correct, the word will be in origin the same as "gill," often spelled "ghyll," meaning a glen or ravine, common in northern English dialects and also in Kent and Surrey. The _g_ in both these words is hard. (2) A liquid measure usually holding one-fourth of a pint. The word comes through the O. Fr. _gelle_, from Low Lat. _gello_ or _gillo_, a measure for wine. It is thus connected with "gallon." The _g_ is soft. (3) An abbreviation of the feminine name Gillian, also often spelled Jill, as it is pronounced. Like Jack for a boy, with which it is often coupled, as in the nursery rhyme, it is used as a homely generic name for a girl.

GILLES DE ROYE, or EGIDIUS DE ROYA (d. 1478), Flemish chronicler, was born probably at Montdidier, and became a Cistercian monk. He was afterwards professor of theology in Paris and abbot of the monastery of Royaumont at Asnieres-sur-Oise, retiring about 1458 to the convent of Notre Dame des Dunes, near Furnes, and devoting his time to study. Gilles wrote the _Chronicon Dunense_ or _Annales Belgici_, a resume and continuation of the work of another monk, Jean Brandon (d. 1428), which deals with the history of Flanders, and also with events in Germany, Italy and England from 792 to 1478.

The Chronicle was published by F. R. Sweert in the _Rerum Belgicarum
annales_ (Frankfort, 1620); and the earlier part of it by C. B. Kervyn
de Lettenhove in the _Chroniques relatives a l'histoire de la
Belgique_ (Brussels, 1870).

GILLES LI MUISIS, or LE MUISET (c. 1272-1352), French chronicler, was born probably at Tournai, and in 1289 entered the Benedictine abbey of St Martin in his native city, becoming prior of this house in 1327, and abbot four years later. He only secured the latter position after a contest with a competitor, but he appears to have been a wise ruler of the abbey. Gilles wrote two Latin chronicles, _Chronicon majus_ and _Chronicon minus_, dealing with the history of the world from the creation until 1349. This work, which was continued by another writer to 1352, is valuable for the history of northern France, and Flanders during the first half of the 14th century. It is published by J. J. de Senet in the _Corpus chronicorum Flandriae_, tome ii. (Brussels, 1841); Gilles also wrote some French poems, and these _Poesies de Gilles li Muisis_ have been published by Baron Kervyn de Lettenhove (Louvain, 1882).

See A. Molinier, _Les Sources de l'histoire de France_, tome iii.
(Paris, 1903).

GILLESPIE, GEORGE (1613-1648), Scottish divine, was born at Kirkcaldy, where his father, John Gillespie, was parish minister, on the 21st of January 1613, and entered the university of St Andrews as a "presbytery bursar" in 1629. On the completion of a brilliant student career, he became domestic chaplain to John Gordon, 1st Viscount Kenmure (d. 1634), and afterwards to John Kennedy, earl of Cassillis, his conscience not permitting him to accept the episcopal ordination which was at that time in Scotland an indispensable condition of induction to a parish. While with the earl of Cassillis he wrote his first work, _A Dispute against the English Popish Ceremonies obtruded upon the Church of Scotland_, which, opportunely published shortly after the "Jenny Geddes" incident (but without the author's name) in the summer of 1637, attracted considerable attention, and within a few months had been found by the privy council to be so damaging that by their orders all available copies were called in and burnt. In April 1638, soon after the authority of the bishops had been set aside by the nation, Gillespie was ordained minister of Wemyss (Fife) by the presbytery of Kirkcaldy, and in the same year was a member of the famous Glasgow Assembly, before which he preached (November 21st) a sermon against royal interference in matters ecclesiastical so pronounced, as to call for some remonstrance on the part of Argyll, the lord high commissioner. In 1642 Gillespie was translated to Edinburgh; but the brief remainder of his life was chiefly spent in the conduct of public business in London. Already, in 1640, he had accompanied the commissioners of the peace to England as one of their chaplains; and in 1643 he was appointed by the Scottish Church one of the four commissioners to the Westminster Assembly. Here, though the youngest member of the Assembly, he took a prominent part in almost all the protracted discussions on church government, discipline and worship, supporting Presbyterianism by numerous controversial writings, as well as by an unusual fluency and readiness in debate. Tradition long preserved and probably enhanced the record of his victories in debate, and especially of his encounter, with John Selden on Matt. xviii. 15-17. In 1645 he returned to Scotland, and is said to have drawn the act of assembly sanctioning the directory of public worship. On his return to London he had a hand in drafting the Westminster confession of faith, especially chap. i. Gillespie was elected moderator of the Assembly in 1648, but the laborious duties of that office (the court continued to sit from the 12th of July to the 12th of August) told fatally on an overtaxed constitution; he fell into consumption, and, after many weeks of great weakness, he died at Kirkcaldy on the 17th of December 1648. In acknowledgment of his great public services, a sum of L1000 Scots was voted, though destined never to be paid, to his widow and children by the committee of estates. A simple tombstone, which had been erected to his memory in Kirkcaldy parish church, was in 1661 publicly broken at the cross by the hand of the common hangman, but was restored in 1746.

His principal publications were controversial and chiefly against
Erastianism: Three sermons against Thomas Coleman; _A Sermon before
the House of Lords_ (August 27th), on Matt. iii. 2, _Nihil Respondem_
and _Male Audis_; _Aaron's Rod Blossoming, or the Divine Ordinance of
Church-government vindicated_ (1646), which is deservedly regarded as
a really able statement of the case for an exclusive spiritual
jurisdiction in the church; _One Hundred and Eleven Propositions
concerning the Ministry and Government of the Church_ (Edinburgh,
1647). The following were posthumously published by his brother: _A
Treatise of Miscellany Questions_ (1649); _The Ark of the New
Testament_ (2 vols., 1661-1667); _Notes of Debates and Proceedings of
the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, from February 1644 to January
1645_. See _Works_, with memoir, published by Hetherington (Edinburgh,
1843-1846).

GILLESPIE, THOMAS (1708-1774), Scottish divine, was born at Clearburn, in the parish of Duddingston, Midlothian, in 1708. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh, and studied divinity first at a small theological seminary at Perth, and afterwards for a brief period under Philip Doddridge at Northampton, where he received ordination in January 1741. In September of the same year he was admitted minister of the parish of Carnock, Fife, the presbytery of Dunfermline agreeing not only to sustain as valid the ordination he had received in England, but also to allow a qualification of his subscription to the church's doctrinal symbol, so far as it had reference to the sphere of the civil magistrate in matters of religion. Having on conscientious grounds persistently absented himself from the meetings of presbytery held for the purpose of ordaining one Andrew Richardson, an unacceptable presentee, as minister of Inverkeithing, he was, after an unobtrusive but useful ministry of ten years, deposed by the Assembly of 1752 for maintaining that the refusal of the local presbytery to act in this case was justified. He continued, however, to preach, first at Carnock, and afterwards in Dunfermline, where a large congregation gathered round him. His conduct under the sentence of deposition produced a reaction in his favour, and an effort was made to have him reinstated; this he declined unless the policy of the church were reversed. In 1761, in conjunction with Thomas Boston of Jedburgh and Collier of Colinsburgh, he formed a distinct communion under the name of "The Presbytery of Relief,"--relief, that is to say, "from the yoke of patronage and the tyranny of the church courts." The Relief Church eventually became one of the communions combining to form the United Presbyterian Church. He died on the 19th of January 1774. His only literary efforts were an _Essay on the Continuation of Immediate Revelations in the Church, and a Practical Treatise on Temptation_. Both works appeared posthumously (1774). In the former he argues that immediate revelations are no longer vouchsafed to the church, in the latter he traces temptation to the work of a personal devil.

See Lindsay's _Life and Times of the Rev. Thomas Gillespie_;
Smithers's _History of the Relief Church_; for the Relief Church see
UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

GILLIE (from the Gael. _gille_, Irish _gille_ or _giolla_, a servant or boy), an attendant on a Gaelic chieftain; in this sense its use, save historically, is rare. The name is now applied in the Highlands of Scotland to the man-servant who attends a sportsman in shooting or fishing. A _gillie-wetfoot_, a term now obsolete (a translation of _gillie-casfliuch_, from the Gaelic _cas_, foot, and _fliuch_, wet), was the gillie whose duty it was to carry his master over streams. It became a term of contempt among the Lowlanders for the "tail" (as his attendants were called) of a Highland chief.

GILLIES, JOHN (1747-1836), Scottish historian and classical scholar, was born at Brechin, in Forfarshire, on the 18th of January 1747. He was educated at Glasgow University, where, at the age of twenty, he acted for a short time as substitute for the professor of Greek. In 1784 he completed his _History of Ancient Greece, its Colonies and Conquests_ (published 1786). This work, valuable at a time when the study of Greek history was in its infancy, and translated into French and German, was written from a strong Whig bias, and is now entirely superseded (see GREECE: _Ancient History_, "Authorities"). On the death of William Robertson (1721-1793), Gillies was appointed historiographer-royal for Scotland. In his old age he retired to Clapham, where he died on the 15th of February 1836.

Of his other works, none of which are much read, the principal are:
_View of the Reign of Frederic II. of Prussia, with a Parallel between
that Prince and Philip II. of Macedon_ (1789), rather a panegyric than
a critical history; translations of Aristotle's _Rhetoric_ (1823) and
_Ethics and Politics_ (1786-1797); of the _Orations_ of Lysias and
Isocrates (1778); and _History of the World from Alexander to
Augustus_ (1807), which, although deficient in style, was commended
for its learning and research.

GILLINGHAM, a market town in the northern parliamentary division of Dorsetshire, England, 105 m. W.S.W. from London by the London & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 3380. The church of St Mary the Virgin has a Decorated chancel. There is a large agricultural trade, and manufactures of bricks and tiles, cord, sacking and silk, brewing and bacon-curing are carried on. The rich undulating district in which Gillingham is situated was a forest preserved by King John and his successors, and the site of their lodge is traceable near the town.

GILLINGHAM, a municipal borough of Kent, England, in the parliamentary borough of Chatham and the mid-division of the county, on the Medway immediately east of Chatham, on the South-Eastern & Chatham railway. Pop. (1891) 27,809; (1901) 42,530. Its population is largely industrial, employed in the Chatham dockyards, and in cement and brick works in the neighbourhood. The church of St Mary Magdalene ranges in date from Early English to Perpendicular, retaining also traces of Norman work and some early brasses. A great battle between Edmund Ironside and Canute, c. 1016, is placed here; and there was formerly a palace of the archbishops of Canterbury. Gillingham was incorporated in 1903, and is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. The borough includes the populous districts of Brompton and New Brompton. Area, 4355 acres.

GILLOT, CLAUDE (1673-1722), French painter, best known as the master of Watteau and Lancret, was born at Langres. His sportive mythological landscape pieces, with such titles as "Feast of Pan" and "Feast of Bacchus," opened the Academy of Painting at Paris to him in 1715; and he then adapted his art to the fashionable tastes of the day, and introduced the decorative _fetes champetres_, in which he was afterwards surpassed by his pupils. He was also closely connected with the opera and theatre as a designer of scenery and costumes.

GILLOTT, JOSEPH (1799-1873); English pen-maker, was born at Sheffield on the 11th of October 1799. For some time he was a working cutler there, but in 1821 removed to Birmingham, where he found employment in the "steel toy" trade, the technical name for the manufacture of steel buckles, chains and light ornamental steel-work generally. About 1830 he turned his attention to the manufacture of steel pens by machinery, and in 1831 patented a process for placing elongated points on the nibs of pens. Subsequently he invented other improvements, getting rid of the hardness and lack of flexibility, which had been a serious defect in nibs, by cutting, in addition to the centre slit, side slits, and cross grinding the points. By 1859 he had built up a very large business. Gillott was a liberal art-patron, and one of the first to recognize the merits of J. M. W. Turner. He died at Birmingham on the 5th of January 1873. His collection of pictures, sold after his death, realized L170,000.

GILLOW, ROBERT (d. 1773), the founder at Lancaster of a distinguished firm of English cabinet-makers and furniture designers whose books begin in 1731. He was succeeded by his eldest son Richard (1734-1811), who after being educated at the Roman Catholic seminary at Douai was taken into partnership about 1757, when the firm became Gillow & Barton, and his younger sons Robert and Thomas, and the business was continued by his grandson Richard (1778-1866). In its early days the firm of Gillow were architects as well as cabinet-makers, and the first Richard Gillow designed the classical Custom House at Lancaster. In the middle of the 18th century the business was extended to London, and about 1761 premises were opened in Oxford Street on a site which was continuously occupied until 1906. For a long period the Gillows were the best-known makers of English furniture--Sheraton and Heppelwhite both designed for them, and replicas are still made of pieces from the drawings of Robert Adam. Between 1760 and 1770 they invented the original form of the billiard-table; they were the patentees (about 1800) of the telescopic dining-table which has long been universal in English houses; for a Captain Davenport they made, if they did not invent, the first writing-table of that name. Their vogue is indicated by references to them in the works of Jane Austen, Thackeray and the first Lord Lytton, and more recently in one of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas.

GILLRAY, JAMES (1757-1815), English caricaturist, was born at Chelsea in 1757. His father, a native of Lanark, had served as a soldier, losing an arm at Fontenoy, and was admitted first as an inmate, and afterwards as an outdoor pensioner, at Chelsea hospital. Gillray commenced life by learning letter-engraving, in which he soon became an adept. This employment, however, proving irksome, he wandered about for a time with a company of strolling players. After a very checkered experience he returned to London, and was admitted a student in the Royal Academy, supporting himself by engraving, and probably issuing a considerable number of caricatures under fictitious names. Hogarth's works were the delight and study of his early years. "Paddy on Horseback," which appeared in 1779, is the first caricature which is certainly his. Two caricatures on Rodney's naval victory, issued in 1782, were among the first of the memorable series of his political sketches. The name of Gillray's publisher and printseller, Miss Humphrey--whose shop was first at 227 Strand, then in New Bond Street, then in Old Bond Street, and finally in St James's Street--is inextricably associated with that of the caricaturist. Gillray lived with Miss (often called Mrs) Humphrey during all the period of his fame. It is believed that he several times thought of marrying her, and that on one occasion the pair were on their way to the church, when Gillray said: "This is a foolish affair, methinks, Miss Humphrey. We live very comfortably together; we had better let well alone." There is no evidence, however, to support the stories which scandalmongers invented about their relations. Gillray's plates were exposed in Humphrey's shop window, where eager crowds examined them. A number of his most trenchant satires are directed against George III., who, after examining some of Gillray's sketches, said, with characteristic ignorance and blindness to merit, "I don't understand these caricatures." Gillray revenged himself for this utterance by his splendid caricature entitled, "A Connoisseur Examining a Cooper," which he is doing by means of a candle on a "save-all"; so that the sketch satirizes at once the king's pretensions to knowledge of art and his miserly habits.

The excesses of the French Revolution made Gillray conservative; and he issued caricature after caricature, ridiculing the French and Napoleon, and glorifying John Bull. He is not, however, to be thought of as a keen political adherent of either the Whig or the Tory party; he dealt his blows pretty freely all round. His last work, from a design by Bunbury, is entitled "Interior of a Barber's Shop in Assize Time," and is dated 1811. While he was engaged on it he became mad, although he had occasional intervals of sanity, which he employed on his last work. The approach of madness must have been hastened by his intemperate habits. Gillray died on the 1st of June 1815, and was buried in St James's churchyard, Piccadilly.

The times in which Gillray lived were peculiarly favourable to the growth of a great school of caricature. Party warfare was carried on with great vigour and not a little bitterness; and personalities were freely indulged in on both sides. Gillray's incomparable wit and humour, knowledge of life, fertility of resource, keen sense of the ludicrous, and beauty of execution, at once gave him the first place among caricaturists. He is honourably distinguished in the history of caricature by the fact that his sketches are real works of art. The ideas embodied in some of them are sublime and poetically magnificent in their intensity of meaning; while the coarseness by which others are disfigured is to be explained by the general freedom of treatment common in all intellectual departments in the 18th century. The historical value of Gillray's work has been recognized by accurate students of history. As has been well remarked: "Lord Stanhope has turned Gillray to account as a veracious reporter of speeches, as well as a suggestive illustrator of events." His contemporary political influence is borne witness to in a letter from Lord Bateman, dated November 3, 1798. "The Opposition," he writes to Gillray, "are as low as we can wish them. You have been of infinite service in lowering them, and making them ridiculous." Gillray's extraordinary industry may be inferred from the fact that nearly 1000 caricatures have been attributed to him; while some consider him the author of 1600 or 1700. He is invaluable to the student of English manners as well as to the political student. He attacks the social follies of the time with scathing satire; and nothing escapes his notice, not even a trifling change of fashion in dress. The great tact Gillray displays in hitting on the ludicrous side of any subject is only equalled by the exquisite finish of his sketches--the finest of which reach an epic grandeur and Miltonic sublimity of conception.

Gillray's caricatures are divided into two classes, the political
series and the social. The political caricatures form really the best
history extant of the latter part of the reign of George III. They
were circulated not only over Britain but throughout Europe, and
exerted a powerful influence. In this series, George III., the queen,
the prince of Wales, Fox, Pitt, Burke and Napoleon are the most
prominent figures. In 1788 appeared two fine caricatures by Gillray.
"Blood on Thunder fording the Red Sea" represents Lord Thurlow
carrying Warren Hastings through a sea of gore: Hastings looks very
comfortable, and is carrying two large bags of money. "Market-Day"
pictures the ministerialists of the time as horned cattle for sale.
Among Gillray's best satires on the king are: "Farmer George and his
Wife," two companion plates, in one of which the king is toasting
muffins for breakfast, and in the other the queen is frying sprats;
"The Anti-Saccharites," where the royal pair propose to dispense with
sugar, to the great horror of the family; "A Connoisseur Examining a
Cooper"; "Temperance enjoying a Frugal Meal"; "Royal Affability"; "A
Lesson in Apple Dumplings"; and "The Pigs Possessed." Among his other
political caricatures may be mentioned: "Britannia between Scylla and
Charybdis," a picture in which Pitt, so often Gillray's butt, figures
in a favourable light; "The Bridal Night"; "The Apotheosis of Hoche,"
which concentrates the excesses of the French Revolution in one view;
"The Nursery with Britannia reposing in Peace"; "The First Kiss these
Ten Years" (1803), another satire on the peace, which is said to have
greatly amused Napoleon; "The Handwriting upon the Wall"; "The
Confederated Coalition," a fling at the coalition which superseded the
Addington ministry; "Uncorking Old Sherry"; "The Plum-Pudding in
Danger"; "Making Decent," i.e. "Broad-bottomites getting into the
Grand Costume"; "Comforts of a Bed of Roses"; "View of the Hustings in
Covent Garden"; "Phaethon Alarmed"; and "Pandora opening her Box." The
miscellaneous series of caricatures, although they have scarcely the
historical importance of the political series, are more readily
intelligible, and are even more amusing. Among the finest are:
"Shakespeare Sacrificed"; "Flemish Characters" (two plates); "Twopenny
Whist"; "Oh! that this too solid flesh would melt"; "Sandwich
Carrots"; "The Gout"; "Comfort to the Corns"; "Begone Dull Care"; "The
Cow-Pock," which gives humorous expression to the popular dread of
vaccination; "Dilletanti Theatricals"; and "Harmony before Matrimony"
and "Matrimonial Harmonics"--two exceedingly good sketches in violent
contrast to each other.