Chapter M: T. M (3)

The modern harp with double action is the only instrument with fixed
tones, not determined by the ear or touch of the performer, which has
separate notes for naturals, sharps and flats, giving it an enharmonic
compass. On the harp the appreciable interval between D[sharp] and
E[flat] can be played. The harp in its normal condition is tuned to
C[flat] major; it rests with the performer to transpose it at will in
a few seconds into any other key by means of the pedals. Each of the
pedals influences one note of the scale throughout the compass,
beginning at the left with D, C, and B worked by the left foot.
Missing the fourth or forte pedal, and continuing towards the right we
get the E, F, G and A pedals worked by the right foot. By lowering the
D pedal into the first notch the D[flat] becomes D[natural], and into
the second notch D[sharp], and so on for all the pedals. If, for
example, a piece be written in the key of E major, the harp is
transposed into that key by depressing the E, A, and B pedals to the
first notch, and those for F, G, C and D to the second or sharp notch
and so on through all the keys. Accidentals and modulations are
readily played by means of the pedals, provided the transitions be not
too rapid. The harp is the instrument upon which transposition
presents the least difficulty, for the fingering is the same for all
keys. The strings are twanged with the thumbs and the first three
fingers.

The quality of tone does not vary much in the different registers, but
it has the greatest brilliancy in keys with many flats, for the
strings are then open and not shortened by the forks. Various effects
can be obtained on the harp: (1) by harmonics, (2) by damping, (3) by
guitar tones, (4) by the glissando. (1) Harmonics are produced by
resting the ball of the hand on the middle of the string and setting
it in vibration by the thumb or the first two fingers of the same
hand, whereby a mysterious and beautiful tone is obtained. Two or
three harmonics can be played together with the left hand, and by
using both hands at once as many as four are possible. (2) Damping is
effected by laying the palm against the string in the bass and the
back of the finger in the treble. (3) Guitar or pizzicato notes are
obtained by twanging the strings sharply at the lower end near the
soundboard with the nails. (4) The glissando effect is produced, as on
the pianoforte, by sliding the thumb or finger along the strings in
quick succession; this does not necessarily give the diatonic scale,
for by means of the pedals the harp can be tuned beforehand to chords.
It is possible to play on the harp all kinds of diatonic and arpeggio
passages, but no chromatic, except in very slow tempo, on account of
the time required by the mechanism of the pedals; and chords of three
or four notes in each hand, shakes, turns, successions of double notes
can be easily acquired. The same note can also be repeated slowly or
quickly, the next string being tuned to a duplicate note, and the two
strings plucked alternately in order to give the string time to
vibrate.

Pleyel's chromatic harp, patented in 1894 and improved in 1903 by
Gustave Lyon, manager of the firm of Pleyel, Wolff & Co., is an
instrument practically without mechanism which has already won great
favour in France and Belgium, notably in the orchestra. It has been
constructed on the familiar lines of the pianoforte. Henry Pape, a
piano manufacturer, had in 1845 conceived the idea of a chromatic harp
of which the strings crossed in the centre as in the piano, and a
report on the construction was published at the time; the instrument,
however, was not considered successful, and was relegated to oblivion
until Mr Lyon revised the matter and brought out a successful and
practical instrument. The advantages claimed for this harp are the
abandonment of the whole pedal mechanism, a metal framing which
insures the strings keeping in tune as long as those of a piano, and
an easily acquired technique. The chromatic harp consists of (1) a
pedestal on castors, (2) a steel pillar without internal mechanism,
(3) a wide neck containing two brass wrest-planks in which are fixed
two rows of tuning pins, and (4) a soundchest in which is firmly
riveted the steel plate to which the strings are fastened, and the
soundboard pierced with eyelet holes through which the strings are
drawn to the string plate. There is a string for every chromatic
semitone of the scale of C major, the white strings representing the
white keys of the piano keyboard, and the black strings corresponding
to the black keys. The tuning pins for the black strings are set in
the left side of the neck in alternate groups of twos and threes, and
those for the white in the right side in alternate groups of threes
and fours. The strings cross half-way between neck and soundboard,
this being the point where they are plucked; the left hand finds the
black notes above, and the right hand below the crossing. There is
besides in the neck a set of twelve tuning buttons, each one of which
on being pressed gives out one note of the chromatic scale tuned to
the pitch of the diapason normal. It is obvious that the repertoire
for this harp is very extensive, including many compositions written
for the piano, which however cannot be played with any legato effects,
these being still impossible on this chromatic harp.

_History._--While the instrument is of great antiquity, it is yet from
northern Europe that the modern harp and its name are derived. The
Greeks and Romans preferred to it the lyre in its different varieties,
and a Latin writer, Venantius Fortunatus,[1] describes it in the 7th
century of our era as an instrument of the barbarians--"Romanusque
lyra, plaudat tibi barbarus harpa." This is believed to be the
earliest mention of the name, which is clearly Teutonic,--O.H.Ger.
_harapha_, A.-S. _hearpe_, Old Norse _harpa_. The modern Fr. _harpe_
retains the aspirate; in the Spanish and Italian _arpa_ it is dropped.

The earliest delineations of the harp in Egypt give no indication that
it had not existed long before. There are, indeed, representations in
Egyptian paintings of stringed instruments of a bow-form having
affinities with both primitive harp and _nefer_ (a kind of oval
guitar) that support the idea of the invention of the harp from the
tense string of the warrior's or hunter's bow. This primitive-looking
instrument, called _nanga_, had a boat-shaped sound-chest with a
parchment or skin soundboard, down the centre of which one end of the
string was fastened to a strip of wood, whilst the other was wound
round pegs in the upper part of the bow. The nanga was played
horizontally, being borne upon the performer's shoulder.[2] Between it
and the grand vertical harps in the frescos of the time of Rameses
III., more than 3000 years old, discovered by the traveller Bruce[3]
(fig. 1), there are varieties that permit us to bind the whole, from
the simplest bow-form to the almost triangular harp, into one family
(see fig. 2).

The Egyptian harp had no front pillar, and as it was strung with
catgut the tension and pitch must necessarily have been low. The harps
above-mentioned depicted in the tomb at Thebes, assumed from the
players to be more than 6 ft. high, have not many strings, the one
having ten, the other thirteen. What the accordance of these strings
was it would be hard to recover. We must be content with the knowledge
that the old Egyptians possessed harps in principle like our own, the
largest having pedestals upon which they bestowed a wealth of
decoration, as if to show how much they prized them.

The ancient Assyrians had harps like those of Egypt in being without a
front pillar, but differing from them in having the sound-body
uppermost, in which we find the early use of soundholes; while the
lower portion was a bar to which the strings were tied and by means of
which the tuning was apparently effected.[4] What the Hebrew harp was,
whether it followed the Egyptian or the Assyrian, we do not know. That
King David played upon the harp as commonly depicted is rather a
modern idea. Medieval artists frequently gave King David the psaltery,
a horizontal stringed instrument from which has gradually developed
the modern piano. The Hebrew "kinnor" may have been a kind of
trigonon, a triangular stringed instrument between a small harp and a
psaltery, sounded by a plectrum, or more probably, as advocated by Dr
Stainer in his essay on the music of the Bible, a kind of lyre.

The earliest records that we possess of the Celtic race, whether
Gaelic or Cymric, give the harp a prominent place and harpists
peculiar veneration and distinction. The names for the harp are,
however, quite different from the Teutonic. The Irish "clairseach,"
the Highland Scottish "clarsach," the Welsh, Cornish, Breton "telyn,"
"telein," "telen," show no etymological kinship to the other European
names. The first syllable in clairseach or clarsach is derived from
the Gaelic "clar," a board or table (soundboard), while the first
syllable of telyn is distinctly Old Welsh, and has a tensile meaning;
thus resonance supplies the one idea, tension the other.

The literature of these Celtic harps may be most directly found in
Bunting's _Ancient Music of Ireland_ (Dublin, 1840), Gunn's
_Historical Enquiry respecting the Performance on the Harp in the
Highlands of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1807), and E. Jones's _Musical and
Poetical Memoirs of the Welsh Bards_ (London, 1784). The treatises of
Walker, Dalyell, and others may also be consulted; but in all these
authorities due care must be taken of the bias of patriotism, and the
delusive aim to reconstruct much that we must be content to receive as
only vaguely indicated in records and old monuments. There is,
however, one early Irish monument about which there can be no mistake,
the harp upon a cross belonging to the ancient church of Ullard near
Kilkenny, the date of which cannot be later than 830; the sculpture is
rude, but the instrument is clearly shown by the drawing in Bunting's
work to have no front pillar. This remarkable structural likeness to
the old harps of Egypt and Assyria may be accidental, but permits the
plausible hypothesis of Eastern descent. The oldest specimen of the
beautiful form by which the Irish harp is now recognized, with
gracefully curved front pillar and sweep of neck (the latter known as
the harmonic curve), is the famous harp in Trinity College, Dublin,
the possession of which has been attributed to King Brian Boiroimhe.
From this mythic ownership Dr Petrie (see essay in Bunting) has
delivered it; but he can only deduce the age from the ornamentation
and heraldry, which fix its date in the 14th century or a little
later. There is a cast of it in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The
next oldest is in the Highlands of Scotland, the _Clarsach Lumanach_,
or Lamont's Clarschoe, belonging, with another of later date, to the
old Perthshire family of Robertson of Lude. Both are described in
detail by Gunn. This Lamont harp was taken by a lady of that family
from Argyleshire about 1460, on her marriage into the family of Lude.
It had about thirty strings tuned singly, but the scale was sometimes
doubled in pairs of unisons like lutes and other contemporary
instruments. The Dalway harp in Ireland (fig. 3) inscribed "Ego sum
Regina Cithararum," and dated 1621, appears to have had pairs of
strings in the centre only. These were of brass wire, and played with
the pointed finger-nails. The Italian contemporary "Arpa Doppia" was
entirely upon the duplex principle, but with gut strings played by the
fleshy ends of the fingers. When E. Bunting met at Belfast in 1792 as
many Irish harpers as could be at that late date assembled, he found
the compass of their harps to comprise [music notes] thirty notes
which were tuned diatonically in the key of G, under certain
circumstances transposable to C and rarely to D, the scales being the
major of these keys. The harp first appeared in the coat of arms of
Ireland in the reign of Henry VIII.; and some years after in a map of
1567 preserved in a volume of state papers, we find it truly drawn
according to the outlines of the national Irish instrument.[5]
References to the Highlands of Scotland are of necessity included with
Ireland; and in both we find another name erroneously applied by
lexicographers to the harp, viz. "cruit." Bunting particularly
mentions the "cinnard cruit" (harp with a high head) and the "crom
cruit" (the curved harp). In the Ossianic MSS. of the Dean of Lismore
(1512) the word "crwt" occurs several times, and in Neill M'Alpine's
_Gaelic Dictionary_ (1832), which gives the dialect of Islay, closely
related to that of Ulster, the word "cruit" is rendered "harp." The
confusion doubtless arose from the fact that from the 11th century
cithara is glossed _hearpan_ in Anglo-Saxon MSS., a word which, like
_citharisare_ in medieval Latin, referred to plucking or twanging of
strings in contradistinction to those instruments vibrated by means of
the bow. In Irish of the 8th and 9th centuries (Zeuss) cithara is
always glossed by "crot." The modern Welsh "crwth" is not a harp but a
"rotta" (see CROWD). An old Welsh harp, not triple strung, exists,
which bears a great resemblance to the Irish harp in neck, soundboard
and soundholes. But this does not imply derivation of the harp of
Wales from that of Ireland or the reverse. There is really no good
historical evidence, and there may have been a common or distinct
origin on which ethnology only can throw light.[6] The Welsh like the
Irish harp was often an hereditary instrument to be preserved with
great care and veneration, and used by the bards of the family, who
were alike the poet-musicians and historians. A slave was not allowed
to touch a harp, and it was exempted by the Welsh laws from seizure
for debt. The old Welsh harp appears to have been at one time strung
with horse-hair, and by the Eisteddfod laws the pupil spent his
noviciate of three years in the practice of a harp with that
stringing. The comparatively modern Welsh triple harp (fig. 4) is
always strung with gut. It has a rising neck as before stated, and
three rows of strings,--the outer rows tuned diatonic, the centre one
chromatic for the sharps and flats. Jones gives it 98 strings and a
compass of 5 octaves and one note, from violoncello C. As in all
Celtic harps, the left is the treble hand, and in the triple harps
there are 27 strings on that side, the right or bass hand having 37,
and the middle or chromatic row 34.

The first pattern of the modern harp is discovered in German and
Anglo-Saxon illuminated MSS. as far back as the 9th century.[7] A
diatonic instrument, it must have been common throughout Europe, as
Orcagna, Fra Angelico, and other famous Italian painters depict it
over and over again in their masterpieces. No accidental semitones
were possible with this instrument, unless the strings were shortened
by the player's fingers. This lasted until the 17th century, when a
Tirolese maker adapted hooks[8] (perhaps suggested by the fretted or
bonded clavichord) that, screwed into the neck, could be turned
downwards to fix the desired semitone at pleasure. At last, somewhere
about 1720, Hochbrucker, a Bavarian, invented pedals that, acting
through the pedestal of the instrument, governed by mechanism the
stopping, and thus left the player's hands free, an indisputable
advantage; and it became possible at once to play in no less than
eight major scales. By a sequence of improvements, in which two
Frenchmen named Cousineau took an important part, the various defects
inherent in Hochbrucker's plan became ameliorated. The pedals were
doubled, and, the tuning of the instrument being changed from the key
of E[flat] to C[flat], it became possible to play in fifteen keys,
thus exceeding the power of the keyboard instruments, over which the
harp has another important advantage in the simplicity of the
fingering, which is the same for every key.

It is to Sebastian Erard we owe the perfecting of the pedal harp (fig.
5), a triumph he gained in Paris by unremitting studies begun when he
adopted a "fork" mechanism in 1786 and ended in 1810 when he had
attained complete success with the double action pedal mechanism
already described above. Erard's merit was not confined to this
improvement only; he modified the structure of the comb that conceals
the mechanism, and constructed the sound-body of the instrument upon a
modern principle more advantageous to the tone.

Notwithstanding these improvements and the great beauty of tone the
harp possesses, the domestic use of it in modern times has almost
disappeared. The great cost of a good harp, and the trouble to many
amateurs of tuning, may have led to the supplanting of the harp by the
more convenient and useful pianoforte. With this comes naturally a
diminution in the number of solo-players on the instrument. Were it
not for the increasing use of the harp in the orchestra, the colour of
its tone having attracted the masters of instrumentation, so that the
great scores of Meyerbeer and Gounod, of Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner are
not complete without it, we should perhaps know little more of the
harp than of the dulcimer, in spite of the efforts of distinguished
virtuosi whose devotion to their instrument maintains its technique on
an equality with that of any other, even the most in public favour.
The first record of the use of harps in the orchestra occurs in the
account of the _Ballet comique de la royne_ performed at the chateau
de Moutiers on the occasion of the marriage of Mary of Lorraine with
the duc de Joyeuse in 1581, when harps formed part of the _concert de
musique_.

See in addition to the works already referred to, Engel's _Musical
Instruments in the South Kensington Museum_ (1874); and the articles
"Harp," in Rees's _Cyclopaedia_, written by Dr Burney, in Stainer and
Barrett's _Dictionary of Musical Terms_ (1876), and in Grove's
_Dictionary of Music and Musicians_. On the origins of the instrument
see _Proceedings of British Association_ (1904) (address of president
of anthropological section). (K. S.; A. J. H.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Poemata_, lib. vii. cap. 8, p. 245, Migne's _Patrologiae cursus
completus_ (Paris, 1857-1866, vol. 88).

[2] A few nangas (c. 1500 B.C.) are preserved among the Egyptian
antiquities at the British Museum, fourth Egyptian room.

[3] Bruce's harps are reproduced by Champollion, tome iii. p. 261.

[4] Representations of these may be seen among the musical scenes in
the Nimrod Gallery at the British Museum.

[5] See also a woodcut in John Derrick's _Image of Ireland_ (1581),
pl. iii. (Edinburgh ed. 1883).

[6] See the fine volume _Musical Instruments_ on the Irish and
Scottish harps by Robert Bruce Armstrong (1904), vol. i. Vol. ii.,
which deals with the Welsh harp, has unfortunately been withdrawn
from sale.

[7] See for the medieval harp a careful article by Hortense Panum,
"Harfe und Lyra im alten Nord-Europa," in _Intern. Mus. Ges._ vol.
vii. pt. 1 (Leipzig, 1905); and for references as to illuminated
MSS., early woodcuts, paintings, &c. see Hugo Leichtentritt, "Was
lehren uns die Bildwerke des 14-17 Jahrhunderts uber die
Instrumentalmusik ihrer Zeit?" ibid. vol. vii. p. 3 (Leipzig, 1906).

[8] See Nauwerk, "Die Hakenharfe, Die Vervollkommnung des Mechanismus
an der deutschen Harfe." in _Allg. musik. Ztg._ (Leipzig, 1815), p.
545 seq.

HARPENDEN, an urban district in the Mid or St Albans parliamentary division of Hertfordshire, England, 25 m. N.W. by N. from London by the Midland railway, served also by a branch of the Great Northern railway. Pop. (1901) 4725. It is a favourite outlying residential district for those whose work lies in London. The church of St Nicholas is a modern reconstruction with the exception of the Perpendicular tower. In the Lawes Testimonial Laboratory there is a vast collection of samples of experimentally grown produce, annual products, ashes and soils. Sir John Bennet Lawes (d. 1900) provided an endowment of L100,000 for the perpetuation of the agricultural experiments which he inaugurated here at his seat of Rothamsted Park. The success of his association of chemistry with botany is shown by the fact that soil has been made to bear wheat without intermission for upwards of half a century without manure. The country neighbouring to Harpenden is very pleasant, including the gorse-covered Harpenden Common and the narrow well-wooded valley of the upper Lea.

HARPER'S FERRY, a town of Jefferson county, West Virginia, U.S.A., finely situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers (which here pass through a beautiful gorge in the Blue Ridge), 55 m. N.W. of Washington. Pop. (1900) 896; (1910) 766. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio railway, which crosses the Potomac here, by the Winchester & Potomac railway (Baltimore & Ohio) of which it is a terminus, and by boats on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, which passes along the Maryland side of the Potomac. Across the Potomac on the north rise the Maryland Heights; across the Shenandoah, on the West Virginia side, the Virginia or Loudoun Heights; and behind the town to the W. the Bolivar Heights. A United States arsenal and armoury were established at Harper's Ferry in 1796, the site being chosen because of the good water-power; these were seized on the 16th of October 1859 by John Brown (q.v.), the abolitionist, and some 21 of his followers. For four months before the raid Brown and his men lived on the Kennedy Farm, in Washington county, Maryland, about 4 m. N.W. of Harper's Ferry. The engine-house in which Brown was captured was exhibited at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago and was later rebuilt on Bolivar Heights; a marble pillar, marked "John Brown's Fort," has been erected on its original site. On Camp Hill is Storer College (state-aided), a normal school for negroes, which was established under Free Baptist control in 1867, and has academic, normal, biblical, musical and industrial departments.

The first settlement here was made about 1747 by Robert Harper, who ran a ferry across the Potomac. The position of Harper's Ferry at the lower end of the Shenandoah Valley rendered it a place of strategic importance during the Civil War. On the 18th of April 1861, the day after Virginia passed her ordinance of secession, when a considerable force of Virginia militia under General Kenton Harper approached the town--an attack having been planned in Richmond two days before--the Federal garrison of 45 men under Lieutenant Roger Jones set fire to the arsenal and fled. Within the next few days large numbers of Confederate volunteers assembled here; and Harper was succeeded in command (27th April) by "Stonewall" Jackson, who was in turn succeeded by Brigadier-General Joseph E. Johnston on the 23rd of May. Johnston thought that the place was unimportant, and withdrew when (15th June) the Federal forces under General Robert Patterson and Colonel Lew Wallace approached, and Harper's Ferry was again occupied by a Federal garrison. In September 1862, during General Lee's first invasion of the North, General McClellan advised that the place be abandoned in order that the 10,000 men defending it might be added to his fighting force, but General Halleck would not consent, so that when Lee needed supplies from the Shenandoah Valley he was blocked by the garrison, then under the command of Colonel Dixon S. Miles. On Jackson's approach they were distributed as follows: about 7000 men on Bolivar Heights, about 2000 on Maryland Heights, and about 1800 on the lower ground. On the 13th of September General Lafayette McLaws carried Maryland Heights and General John G. Walker planted a battery on Loudoun Heights. On the 14th there was some fighting, but early on the 15th, as Jackson was about to make an assault on Bolivar Heights, the garrison, surrounded by a superior force, surrendered. The total Federal loss (including the garrisons at Winchester and Martinsburg) amounted to 44 killed (the commander was mortally wounded), 12,520 prisoners, and 13,000 small arms. For this terrible loss to the Union army the responsibility seems to have been General Halleck's, though the blame was officially put on Colonel Miles, who died immediately after the surrender. Jackson rejoined Lee on the following day in time to take part in the battle of Antietam, and after the battle General McClellan placed a strong garrison (the 12th Corps) at Harper's Ferry. In June 1863 the place was again abandoned to the Confederates on their march to Pennsylvania. After their defeat at Gettysburg, the town again fell into the hands of the Federal troops, and it remained in their possession until the end of the war. On the 4th of July 1864 General Franz Sigel, who was then in command here, withdrew his troops to Maryland Heights, and from there resisted Early's attempt to enter the town and to drive the Federal garrison from Maryland Heights. Harper's Ferry was seriously damaged by a flood in the Shenandoah in October 1878.

HARPIES (Gr. [Greek: Harpyiai], older form [Greek: Arepyiai], "swift robbers"), in ancient mythology, the personification of the sweeping storm-winds. In Homer, where they appear indifferently under the name of [Greek: harpyiai] and [Greek: thyellai], their function is to carry off those whose sudden disappearance is desired by the gods. Only one of them is there mentioned (_Iliad_, xvi. 150) by name, Podarge, the mother of the coursers of Achilles by Zephyrus, the generative wind. According to Hesiod (_Theog._ 265) they are two in number, Aello and Ocypete, daughters of Thaumas and Electra, winged goddesses with beautiful locks, swifter than winds and birds in their flight, and their domain is the air. In later times their number was increased (Celaeno being a frequent addition and their leader in Virgil), and they were described as hateful and repulsive creatures, birds with the faces of old women, the ears of bears, crooked talons and hanging breasts; even in Aeschylus (_Eumenides_, 50) they appear as ugly and misshapen monsters. Their function of snatching away mortals to the other world brings them into connexion with the Erinyes, with whom they are often confounded. On the so-called Harpy monument from Lycia, now in the British Museum, the Harpies appear carrying off some small figures, supposed to be the daughters of Pandareus, unless they are intended to represent departed souls. The repulsive character of the Harpies is more especially seen in the legend of Phineus, king of Salmydessus in Thrace (Apollodorus i. 9, 21; see also Diod. Sic. iv. 43). Having been deprived of his sight by the gods for his ill-treatment of his sons by his first wife (or for having revealed the future to mortals), he was condemned to be tormented by two Harpies, who carried off whatever food was placed before him. On the arrival of the Argonauts, Phineus promised to give them particulars of the course they should pursue and of the dangers that lay before them, if they would deliver him from his tormentors. Accordingly, when the Harpies appeared as usual to carry off the food from Phineus's table, they were driven off and pursued by Calais and Zetes, the sons of Boreas, as far as the Strophades islands in the Aegean. On promising to cease from molesting Phineus, their lives were spared. Their place of abode is variously placed in the Strophades, the entrance to the under-world, or a cave in Crete. According to Cecil Smith, _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xiii. (1892-1893), the Harpies are the hostile spirits of the scorching south wind; E. Rohde (_Rheinisches Museum_, i., 1895) regards them as spirits of the storm, which at the bidding of the gods carry off human beings alive to the under-world or some spot beyond human ken.

See articles in Roscher's _Lexikon der Mythologie_ and Daremberg and
Saglio's _Dictionnaire des antiquites_. In the article GREEK ART, fig.
14 gives a representation of the winged Harpies.

HARPIGNIES, HENRI (1819- ), French landscape painter, born at Valenciennes in 1819, was intended by his parents for a business career, but his determination to become an artist was so strong that it conquered all obstacles, and he was allowed at the age of twenty-seven to enter Achard's atelier in Paris. From this painter he acquired a groundwork of sound constructive draughtsmanship, which is so marked a feature of his landscape painting. After two years under this exacting teacher he went to Italy, whence he returned in 1850. During the next few years he devoted himself to the painting of children in landscape setting, and fell in with Corot and the other Barbizon masters, whose principles and methods are to a certain extent reflected in his own personal art. To Corot he was united by a bond of warm friendship, and the two artists went together to Italy in 1860. On his return, he scored his first great success at the Salon, in 1861, with his "Lisiere de bois sur les bords de l'Allier." After that year he was a regular exhibitor at the old Salon; in 1886 he received his first medal for "Le Soir dans la campagne de Rome," which was acquired for the Luxembourg Gallery. Many of his best works were painted at Herisson in the Bourbonnais, as well as in the Nivernais and the Auvergne. Among his chief pictures are "Soir sur les bords de la Loire" (1861), "Les Corbeaux" (1865), "Le Soir" (1866), "Le Saut-du-Loup" (1873), "La Loire" (1882), and "Vue de Saint-Prive" (1883). He also did some decorative work for the Paris Opera--the "Vallee d'Egerie" panel, which he showed at the Salon of 1870.

HARP-LUTE, or DITAL HARP, one of the many attempts to revive the popularity of the guitar and to increase its compass, invented in 1798 by Edward Light. The harp-lute owes the first part of its name to the characteristic mechanism for shortening the effective length of the strings; its second name--dital harp--emphasizes the nature of the stops, which are worked by the thumb in contradistinction to the pedals of the harp worked by the feet. It consists of a pear-shaped body, to which is added a curved neck supported on a front pillar or arm springing from the body, and therefore reminiscent of the harp. There are 12 catgut strings. The curved fingerboard, almost parallel with the neck, is provided with frets, and has in addition a thumb-key for each string, by means of which the accordance of the string is mechanically raised a semitone at will. The dital or key, on being depressed, acts upon a stop-ring or eye, which draws the string down against the fret, and thus shortens its effective length. The fingers then stop the strings as usual over the remaining frets. A further improvement was patented in 1816 as the British harp-lute. Other attempts possessing less practical merit than the dital harp were the lyra-guitarre, which appeared in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century; the accord-guitarre, towards the middle of the same century; and the keyed guitar. (K. S.)

HARPOCRATES, originally an Egyptian deity, adopted by the Greeks, and worshipped in later times both by Greeks and Romans. In Egypt, Harpa-khruti, Horus the child, was one of the forms of Horus, the sun-god, the child of Osiris. He was supposed to carry on war against the powers of darkness, and hence Herodotus (ii. 144) considers him the same as the Greek Apollo. He was represented in statues with his finger on his mouth, a symbol of childhood. The Greeks and Romans, not understanding the meaning of this attitude, made him the god of silence (Ovid, _Metam._ ix. 691), and as such he became a favourite deity with the later mystic schools of philosophy.

See articles by G. Lafaye in Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire des
antiquites_, and by E. Meyer (_s.v._ "Horos") in Roscher's _Lexikon
der Mythologie_.

HARPOCRATION, VALERIUS, Greek grammarian of Alexandria. He is possibly the Harpocration mentioned by Julius Capitolinus (_Life of Verus_, 2) as the Greek tutor of Antoninus Verus (2nd century A.D.); some authorities place him much later, on the ground that he borrowed from Athenaeus. He is the author of a [Greek: Lexikon] (or [Greek: Peri ton lexeon) ton deka rhetoron], which has come down to us in an incomplete form. The work contains, in more or less alphabetical order, notes on well-known events and persons mentioned by the orators, and explanations of legal and commercial expressions. As nearly all the lexicons to the Greek orators have been lost, Harpocration's work is especially valuable. Amongst his authorities were the writers of Atthides (histories of Attica), the grammarian Didymus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and the lexicographer Dionysius, son of Tryphon. The book also contains contributions to the history of Attic oratory and Greek literature generally. Nothing is known of an [Greek: 'Antheron synagoge], a sort of anthology or chrestomathy attributed to him by Suidas. A series of articles in the margin of a Cambridge MS. of the lexicon forms the basis of the _Lexicon rhetoricum Cantabrigiense_ (see DOBREE, P. P.).

The best edition is by W. Dindorf (1853); see also J. E. Sandys,
_History of Classical Scholarship_, i. (1906), p. 325; C. Boysen, _De
Harpocrationis fontibus_ (Kiel, 1876).

HARPOON (from Fr. _harpon_, a grappling-iron, O. Fr. _harpe_, a dog's claw, an iron clamp for fastening stones together; the source of these words is the Lat. _harpago_, _harpa_, &c., formed from Gr. [Greek: harpage], hook, [Greek: harpazein], to snatch, tear away, cf. "harpy"), barbed spear, particularly one used for spearing whales or other large fish, and either thrown by hand or fired from a gun (see WHALE-FISHERY).

HARPSICHORD, HARPSICON, DOUBLE VIRGINALS (Fr. _clavecin_; Ger. _Clavicymbel_, _Kiel-Flugel_; Ital. _arpicordo_, _cembalo_, _clavicembalo_, _gravecembalo_; Dutch, _clavisinbal_), a large keyboard instrument (see PIANOFORTE), belonging to the same family as the virginal and spinet, but having 2, 3, or even 4 strings to each note, and a case of the harp or wing shape, afterwards adopted for the grand pianoforte. J. S. Bach's harpsichord, preserved in the museum of the Hochschule fur Musik at Charlottenburg, has two manuals and 4 strings to each note, one 16 ft., two 8 ft. and one 4 ft. By means of stops the performer has within his power a number of combinations for varying the tone and dynamic power. In all instruments of the harpsichord family the strings, instead of being struck by tangents as in the clavichord, or by hammers as in the pianoforte, are plucked by means of a quill firmly embedded in the centred tongue of a jack or upright placed on the back end of the key-lever. When the finger depresses a key, the jack is thrown up, and in passing the crow-quill catches the string and twangs it. It is this twanging of the string which produces the brilliant incisive tone peculiar to the harpsichord family. What these instruments gain in brilliancy of tone, however, they lose in power of expression and of accent. The impossibility of commanding any emphasis necessarily created for the harpsichord an individual technique which influenced the music composed for it to so great an extent that it cannot be adequately rendered upon the pianoforte.

The harpsichord assumed a position of great importance during the 16th and 17th centuries, more especially in the orchestra, which was under the leadership of the harpsichord player. The most famous of all harpsichord makers, whose names form a guarantee for excellence, were the Ruckers, established at Antwerp from the last quarter of the 16th century. (K. S.)

HARPY, a large diurnal bird of prey, so named after the mythological monster of the classical poets (see HARPIES),--the _Thrasaetus harpyia_ of modern ornithologists--an inhabitant of the warmer parts of America from Southern Mexico to Brazil. Though known since the middle of the 17th century, its habits have come very little under the notice of naturalists, and what is said of them by the older writers must be received with some suspicion. A cursory inspection of the bird, which is not unfrequently brought alive to Europe, its size, and its enormous bill and talons, at once suggest the vast powers of destruction imputed to it, and are enough to account for the stories told of its ravages on mammals--sloths, fawns, peccaries and spider-monkeys. It has even been asserted to attack the human race. How much of this is fabulous there seems no means at present of determining, but some of the statements are made by veracious travellers--D'Orbigny and Tschudi. It is not uncommon in the forests of the isthmus of Panama, and Salvin says (_Proc. Zool. Society_, 1864, p. 368) that its flight is slow and heavy. Indeed its owl-like visage, its short wings and soft plumage, do not indicate a bird of very active habits, but the weapons of offence with which it is armed show that it must be able to cope with vigorous prey. Its appearance is sufficiently striking--the head and lower parts, except a pectoral band, white, the former adorned with an erectile crest, the upper parts dark grey banded with black, the wings dusky, and the tail barred; but the huge bill and powerful scutellated legs most of all impress the beholder. The precise affinities of the harpy cannot be said to have been determined. By some authors it is referred to the eagles, by others to the buzzards, and by others again to the hawks; but possibly the first of these alliances is the most likely to be true. (A. N.)

HARRAN, HARAN or CHARRAN (Sept. [Greek: Charrhran] or [Greek: Charrha]: Strabo, [Greek: Karrhai]: Pliny, _Carrae_ or _Carrhae_; Arab. _Harran_), in biblical history the place where Terah halted after leaving Ur, and apparently the birthplace of Abraham, a town on the stream Jullab, some nine hours' journey from Edessa in Syria. At this point the road from Damascus joins the highway between Nineveh and Carchemish, and Haran had thus considerable military and commercial value. As a strategic position it is mentioned in inscriptions as early as the time of Tiglath Pileser I., about 1100 B.C., and subsequently by Sargon II., who restored the privileges lost at the rebellion which led to the conquest referred to in 2 Kings xix. 12 (= Isa. xxxvii. 12). It was the centre of a considerable commerce (Ezek. xxvii. 23), and one of its specialities was the odoriferous gum derived from the strobus (Pliny, _H.N._ xii. 40). It was here that Crassus in his eastern expedition was attacked and slain by the Parthians (53 B.C.); and here also the emperor Caracalla was murdered at the instigation of Macrinus (A.D. 217). Haran was the chief home of the moon-god Sin, whose temple was rebuilt by several kings, among them Assur-bani-pal and Nabunidus and Herodian (iv. 13, 7) mentions the town as possessing in his day a temple of the moon. In the middle ages it is mentioned as having been the seat of a particular heathen sect, that of the Haranite Sabeans. It retained its importance down to the period of the Arab ascendancy; but by Abulfeda it is mentioned as having before his time fallen into decay. It is now wholly in ruins. The Yahwistic writer (Gen. xxvii. 43) makes it the home of Laban and connects it with Isaac and Jacob. But we cannot thus put Haran in Aramnaharaim; the home of the Labanites is rather to be looked for in the very similar word Hauran.

HARRAR (or HARAR), a city of N.E. Africa, in 8 deg. 45' N., 42 deg. 36' E., capital of a province of Abyssinia and 220 m. S.S.W. of the ports of Zaila (British) and Jibuti (French) on the Gulf of Aden. With Jibuti it is connected by a railway (188 m. long) and carriage-road. Harrar is built on the slopes of a hill at an elevation of over 5000 ft. A lofty stone wall, pierced by five gates and flanked by twenty-four towers, encloses the city, which has a population of about 40,000. The streets are steep, narrow, dirty and unpaved, the roadways consisting of rough boulders. The houses are in general made of undressed stone and mud and are flat-topped, the general aspect of the city being Oriental and un-Abyssinian. A few houses, including the palace of the governor and the foreign consulates, are of more elaborate and solid construction than the majority of the buildings. There are several mosques and an Abyssinian church (of the usual circular construction) built of stone. Harrar is a city of considerable commercial importance, through it passing all the merchandise of southern Abyssinia, Kaffa and Galla land. The chief traders are Abyssinians, Armenians and Greeks. The principal article of export is coffee, which is grown extensively in the neighbouring hills and is of the finest quality. Besides coffee there is a large trade in durra, the kat plant (used by the Mahommedans as a drug), ghee, cattle, mules and camels, skins and hides, ivory and gums. The import trade is largely in cotton goods, but every kind of merchandise is included.

Harrar is believed to owe its foundation to Arab immigrants from the Yemen in the 7th century of the Christian era. In the region of Somaliland, now the western part of the British protectorate of that name, the Arabs established the Moslem state of Adel or Zaila, with their capital at Zaila on the Gulf of Aden. In the 13th century the sultans of Adel enjoyed great power. In 1521 the then sultan Abubekr transferred the seat of government to Harrar, probably regarding Zaila as too exposed to the attacks of the Turkish and Portuguese navies then contending for the mastery of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Abubekr's successor was Mahommed III., Ahmed ibn Ibrahim el-Ghazi (1507-1543), surnamed Gran (Granye), the left-handed. He was not an Arab but, probably, of Somali origin. The son of a noted warrior, he quickly rose to supreme power, becoming sultan or amir in 1525. He is famous for his invasion of Abyssinia, of which country he was virtual master for several years. From the beginning of the 17th century Adel suffered greatly from the ravages of pagan Galla tribes, and Harrar sank to the position of an amirate of little importance. It was first visited by a European in 1854 when (Sir) Richard Burton spent ten days there in the guise of an Arab. In 1875 Harrar was occupied by an Egyptian force under Raouf Pasha, by whose orders the amir was strangled. The town remained in the possession of Egypt until 1885, when the garrison was withdrawn in consequence of the rising of the Mahdi in the Sudan. The Egyptian garrison and many Egyptian civilians, in all 6500 persons, left Harrar between November 1884 and the 25th of April 1885, when a son of the ruler who had been deposed by Egypt was installed as amir, the arrangement being carried out under the superintendence of British officers. The new amir held power until January 1887, in which month Harrar was conquered by Menelek II., king of Shoa (afterwards emperor of Abyssinia). The governorship of Harrar was by Menelek entrusted to Ras Makonnen, who held the post until his death in 1906.

The Harrari proper are of a distinct stock from the neighbouring peoples, and speak a special language. Harrarese is "a Semitic graft inserted into an indigenous stock" (Sir R. Burton, _First Footsteps in East Africa_). The Harrari are Mahommedans of the Shafa'i or Persian sect, and they employ the solar year and the Persian calendar. Besides the native population there are in Harrar colonies of Abyssinians, Somalis and Gallas. By the Somalis the place is called Adari, by the Gallas Adaray.

See ABYSSINIA; SOMALILAND. Also P. Paulitschke, _Harar:
Forschungsreise nach den Somal- und Galla-Landern Ost-Afrikas_
(Leipzig, 1888).

HARRATIN, black Berbers, dwelling in Tidikelt and other Saharan oases. Many of them are blacker than the average negro. In physique, however, they are true to the Berber type, being of handsome appearance with European features and well-proportioned bodies. They are the result of an early crossing with the Sudanese negro races, though to-day they have all the pride of the Berbers (q.v.), and do not live with or intermarry among negroes.

HARRIER, or HEN-HARRIER, name given to certain birds of prey which were formerly very abundant in parts of the British Islands, from their habit of harrying poultry. The first of these names has now become used in a generic sense for all the species ranked under the genus _Circus_ of Lacepede, and the second confined to the particular species which is the _Falco cyaneus_ of Linnaeus and the _Circus cyaneus_ of modern ornithologists.

One European species, _C. aeruginosus_, though called in books the marsh-harrier, is far more commonly known in England and Ireland as the moor-buzzard. But harriers are not, like buzzards, arboreal in their habits, and always affect open country, generally, though not invariably, preferring marshy or fenny districts, for snakes and frogs form a great part of their ordinary food. On the ground their carriage is utterly unlike that of a buzzard, and their long wings and legs render it easy to distinguish the two groups when taken in the hand. All the species also have a more or less well-developed ruff or frill of small thickset feathers surrounding the lower part of the head, nearly like that seen in owls, and accordingly many systematists consider that the genus _Circus_, though undoubtedly belonging to the _Falconidae_, connects that family with the Striges. No osteological affinity, however, can be established between the harriers and any section of the owls, and the superficial resemblance will have to be explained in some other way. Harriers are found almost all over the world,[1] and fifteen species are recognized by Bowdler Sharpe (_Cat. Birds Brit. Museum_, i. pp. 50-73). In most if not all the harriers the sexes differ greatly in colour, so much so that for a long while the males and females of one of the commonest and best known, the _C. cyaneus_ above mentioned, were thought to be distinct species, and were or still are called in various European languages by different names. The error was maintained with the greater persistency since the young males, far more abundant than the adults, wear much the same plumage as their mother, and it was not until after Montagu's observations were published at the beginning of the 19th century that the "ringtail," as she was called (the _Falco pygargus_ of Linnaeus), was generally admitted to be the female of the "hen-harrier." But this was not Montagu's only good service as regards this genus. He proved the hitherto unexpected existence of a second species,[2] subject to the same diversity of plumage. This was called by him the ash-coloured falcon, but it now generally bears his name, and is known as Montagu's harrier, _C. cineraceus_. In habits it is very similar to the hen-harrier, but it has longer wings, and its range is not so northerly, for while the hen-harrier extends to Lapland, Montagu's is but very rare in Scotland, though in the south of England it is the most common species. Harriers indeed in the British Islands are rapidly becoming things of the past. Their nests are easily found, and the birds when nesting are easily destroyed. In the south-east of Europe, reaching also to the Cape of Good Hope and to India, there is a fourth species, the _C. swainsoni_ of some writers, the _C. pallidus_ of others. In North America _C. cyaneus_ is represented by a kindred form, _C. hudsonius_, usually regarded as a good species, the adult male of which is always to be recognized by its rufous markings beneath, in which character it rather resembles _C. cineraceus_, but it has not the long wings of that species. South America has in _C. cinereus_ another representative form, while China, India and Australia possess more of this type. Thus there is a section in which the males have a strongly contrasted black and grey plumage, and finally there is a group of larger forms allied to the European _C. aeruginosus_, wherein a grey dress is less often attained, of which the South African _C. ranivorus_ and the New Zealand _C. gouldi_ are examples. (A. N.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The distribution of the different species is rather curious,
while the range of some is exceedingly wide,--one, _C. maillardi_,
seems to be limited to the island of Reunion (Bourbon).

[2] A singular mistake, which has been productive of further error,
was made by Albin, who drew his figure (_Hist. Birds_, ii. pi. 5)
from a specimen of one species, and coloured it from a specimen of
the other.

HARRIGAN, EDWARD (1845- ), American actor, was born in New York of Irish parents on the 26th of October 1845. He made his first appearance in San Francisco in 1867, and soon afterwards formed a stage partnership with Tony Hart, whose real name was Anthony Cannon. As "Harrigan and Hart," they had a great success in the presentation of types of low life in New York. Beginning as simple sketches, these were gradually worked up into plays, with occasional songs, set to popular music by David Braham. The titles of these plays indicate their character, _The Mulligan Guards_, _Squatter Sovereignty_, _A Leather Patch_, _The O'Regans_. The partnership with Hart lasted from 1871-1884. Subsequently Harrigan played in different cities of the United States, one of his favourite parts being George Coggswell in _Old Lavender_.

HARRIMAN, EDWARD HENRY (1848-1909), American financier and railroad magnate, son of the Rev. Orlando Harriman, rector of St George's Episcopal church, Hempstead, L.I., was born at Hempstead on the 25th of February 1848. He became a broker's clerk in New York at an early age, and in 1870 was able to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange on his own account. For a good many years there was nothing sensational in his success, but he built up a considerable business connexion and prospered in his financial operations. Meanwhile he carefully mastered the situation affecting American railways. In this respect he was assisted by his friendship with Mr Stuyvesant Fish, who, on becoming vice-president of the Illinois Central in 1883, brought Harriman upon the directorate, and in 1887, being then president, made Harriman vice-president; twenty years later it was Harriman who dominated the finance of the Illinois Central, and Fish, having become his opponent, was dropped from the board. It was not till 1898, however, that his career as a great railway organizer began with his formation, by the aid of the bankers, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., of a syndicate to acquire the Union Pacific line, which was then in the hands of a receiver and was generally regarded as a hopeless failure. It was soon found that a new power had arisen in the railway world. Having brought the Union Pacific out of bankruptcy into prosperity, and made it an efficient instead of a decaying line, he utilized his position to draw other lines within his control, notably the Southern Pacific in 1901. These extensions of his power were not made without friction, and his abortive contest in 1901 with James J. Hill for the control of the Northern Pacific led to one of the most serious financial crises ever known on Wall Street. But in the result he became the dominant factor in American railway matters. At his death, on the 9th of September 1909, his influence was estimated to extend over 60,000 m. of track, with an annual earning power of $700,000,000 or over. Astute and unscrupulous manipulation of the stock markets, and a capacity for the hardest of bargaining and the most determined warfare against his rivals, had their place in this success, and Harriman's methods excited the bitterest criticism, culminating in a stern denunciation from President Roosevelt himself in 1907. Nevertheless, besides acquiring colossal wealth for himself, he helped to create for the American public a vastly improved railway service, the benefit of which survived all controversy as to the means by which he triumphed over the obstacles in his way.

HARRIMAN, a city of Roane county, Tennessee, U.S.A., on the Emory river, about 35 m. W. by S. of Knoxville. Pop. (1900) 3442 (516 being negroes); (1910) 3061. Harriman is served by the Harriman & North Eastern, the Tennessee Central, and the Southern railways. It is the seat of the East Tennessee Normal and Industrial Institute, for negroes, and of the American University of Harriman (Christian Church, coeducational; 1893), which comprises primary, preparatory, collegiate, Bible school, civic research, commercial, music and art departments, and in 1907-1908 had 12 instructors and 317 students. Near the city are large deposits of iron and an abundance of coal and timber. Among manufactures are cotton products, farming tools, leather, tannic acid, furniture and flour. Harriman was founded in 1890 by a land company. A clause in this company's by-laws requires that every conveyance of real estate by the company "shall contain a provision forbidding the use of the property or any building thereon, for the purpose of making, storing or selling intoxicating beverages as such." Harriman was chartered as a city in 1891, and its charter was revised in 1899.