Chapter XVII: Part 17

In 1898 Kruger was elected president of the Transvaal for the fourth and last time. In 1899 relations between the Transvaal and Great Britain had become so strained, by reason of the oppression of the foreign population, that a conference was arranged at Bloemfontein between Sir Alfred (afterwards Lord) Milner, the high commissioner, and President Kruger. Kruger was true to his principles. At every juncture in his life his object had been to gain for himself and his own narrow policy everything that he could, while conceding nothing in return. It was for this reason that he invariably failed to come to any arrangement with Sir John Brand while the latter was president of the Free State. In 1889, the very year following President Brand's death, he was able to make a treaty with President Reitz, his successor, which bound each of the Boer republics to assist the other in case its independence was menaced, unless the quarrel could be shown to be an unjust one on the part of the state so menaced. In effect it bound the Free State to share all the hazardous risk of the reckless anti-British Transvaal policy, without the Free State itself receiving anything in return. Kruger thus achieved one of the objects of his life. With such a history of apparent success, it is not to be wondered at that the Transvaal president came to Bloemfontein to meet Sir Alfred Milner in no mood for concession. It is true that he made an ostensible offer on the franchise question, but that proposal was made dependent on so many conditions that it was a palpable sham. Every proposition which Sir Alfred Milner made was met by the objection that it threatened the independence of the Transvaal. This retort was President Kruger's rallying cry whenever he found himself in the least degree pressed, either from within or without the state. To admit Uitlanders to the franchise, to no matter how moderate a degree, would destroy the independence of the state. In October 1899, after a long and fruitless correspondence with the British government, war with Great Britain was ushered in by an ultimatum from the Transvaal. Immediately after the ultimatum Natal and the Cape Colony were invaded by the Boers both of the Transvaal and the Free State. Yet one of the most memorable utterances made by Kruger at the Bloemfontein conference was couched in the following terms: "We follow out what God says, 'Accursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark.' As long as your Excellency lives you will see that we shall never be the attacking party on another man's land." The course of the war that followed is described under TRANSVAAL. In 1900, Bloemfontein and Pretoria having been occupied by British troops, Kruger, too old to go on commando, with the consent of his executive proceeded to Europe, where he endeavoured to induce the European powers to intervene on his behalf, but without success.

From this time he ceased to have any political influence. He took up his residence at Utrecht, where he dictated a record of his career, published in 1902 under the title of _The Memoirs of Paul Kruger_. He died on the 14th of July 1904 at Clarens, near Vevey, on the shores of the Lake of Geneva, whither he had gone for the sake of his health. He was buried at Pretoria on the following 16th of December, Dingaan's Day, the anniversary of the day in 1838 when the Boers crushed the Zulu king Dingaan--a fight in which Kruger, then a lad of thirteen, had taken part. Kruger was thrice married, and had a large family. His second wife died in 1891. When he went to Europe he left his third wife in Lord Roberts's custody at Pretoria, but she gradually failed, and died there (July 1901). It was in her grave that the body of her husband was laid. It is recorded that when a statue to President Kruger at Pretoria was erected, it was by Mrs. Kruger's wish that the hat was left open at the top, in order that the rain-water might collect there for the birds to drink.

See J. F. van Oordt, _P. Kruger en de opkomst d. Zuid-Afrikaansche
Republiek_ (Amsterdam, 1898); the _Memoirs_ already mentioned; F. R.
Statham, _Paul Kruger and his Times_ (1898); and, among works with a
wider scope, G. M. Theal, _History of South Africa_ (for events down
to 1872 only); Sir J. P. Fitzpatrick, _The Transvaal from Within_
(1899); _The Times History of the War in South Africa_ (1900-9); and
A. P. Hillier, _South African Studies_ (1900).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, in _The Transvaal from Within_, ch. iii.

KRUGERSDORP, a town of the Transvaal, 21 m. N.W. of Johannesburg by rail. Pop. (1904), 20,073, of whom 6946 were whites. It is built on the Witwatersrand at an elevation of 5709 ft. above the sea, and is a mining centre of some importance. It is also the starting-point of a railway to Zeerust and Mafeking. Krugersdorp was founded in 1887 at the time of the discovery of gold on the Rand and is named after President Kruger. Within the municipal area is the Paardekraal monument erected to commemorate the victory gained by the Boers under Andries Pretorius in 1838 over the Zulu king Dingaan, and on the 16th of December each year, kept as a public holiday, large numbers of Boers assemble at the monument to celebrate the event. Here in December 1880 a great meeting of Boers resolved again to proclaim the independence of the Transvaal. The formal proclamation was made on Dingaan's Day, and after the defeat of the British at Majuba Hill in 1881 that victory was also commemorated at Paardekraal on the 16th of December. The monument, which was damaged during the war of 1899-1902, was restored by the British authorities. It was at Doornkop, near Krugersdorp, that Dr L. S. Jameson and his "raiders" surrendered to Commandant Piet Cronje on the 2nd of January 1896 (see TRANSVAAL: _History_). At Sterkfontein, 8 m. N.W. of Krugersdorp, are limestone caves containing beautiful stalactites.

KRUMAU (in Czech, _Krumlov_), is a town in Bohemia situated on the banks of the Moldau (Vitava). It has about 8000 inhabitants, partly of Czech, partly of German nationality. Krumau is principally celebrated because its ancient castle was long the stronghold of the Rosenberg family, known also as _pani z ruze_, the lords of the rose. Henry II. of Rosenberg (d. 1310) was the first member of the family to reside at Krumau. His son Peter I. (d. 1349) raised the place to the rank of a city. The last two members of the family were two brothers, William, created prince of Ursini-Rosenberg in 1556 (d. 1592), and Peter Vok, who played a very large part in Bohemian history. Their librarian was Wenceslas Brezan, who has left a valuable work on the annals of the Rosenberg family. Peter Vok of Rosenberg, a strong adherent of the Utraquist party, sold Krumau shortly before his death (1611), because the Jesuits had established themselves in the neighbourhood.

The lordship, one of the most extensive in the monarchy, was bought by the emperor Rudolph II. for his natural son, Julius of Austria. In 1622 the emperor Ferdinand II. presented the lordship to his minister, Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg, and in 1625 raised it to the rank of an hereditary duchy in his favour. From the Eggenberg family Krumau passed in 1719 to Prince Adam Franz Karl of Schwarzenberg, who was created duke of Krumau in 1723. The head of the Schwarzenberg family bears the title of duke of Krumau. The castle, one of the largest and finest in Bohemia, preserves much of its ancient character.

See W. Brezan, _Zivot Vilema z Rosenberka_ (Life of William of
Rosenberg), 1847; also _Zivot Petra Voka z Rosenberka_ (Life of Peter
Vok of Rosenberg), 1880.

KRUMBACHER, CARL (1856-1909), German Byzantine scholar, was born at Kürnach in Bavaria on the 23rd of September 1856. He was educated at the universities of Munich and Leipzig, and held the professorship of the middle age and modern Greek language and literature in the former from 1897 to his death. His greatest work is his _Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur_ (from Justinian to the fall of the Eastern Empire, 1453), a second edition of which was published in 1897, with the collaboration of A. Ehrhard (section on theology) and H. Gelzer (general sketch of Byzantine history, A.D. 395-1453). The value of the work is greatly enhanced by the elaborate bibliographies contained in the body of the work and in a special supplement. Krumbacher also founded the _Byzantinische Zeitschrift_ (1892) and the _Byzantinisches Archiv_ (1898). He travelled extensively and the results of a journey to Greece appeared in his _Griechische Reise_ (1886). Other works by him are: _Casia_ (1897), a treatise on a 9th-century Byzantine poetess, with the fragments; _Michael Glykas_ (1894); "Die griechische Litteratur des Mittelalters" in P. Hinneberg's _Die Kultur der Gegenwart_, i. 8 (1905); _Das Problem der neugriechischen Schriftsprache_ (1902), in which he strongly opposed the efforts of the purists to introduce the classical style into modern Greek literature, and _Populäre Aufsätze_ (1909).

KRUMEN (KROOMEN, KROOBOYS, KRUS, or CROOS), a negro people of the West Coast of Africa. They dwell in villages scattered along the coast of Liberia from below Monrovia nearly to Cape Palmas. The name has been wrongly derived from the English word "crew," with reference to the fact that Krumen were the first West African people to take service in European vessels. It is probably from Kraoh, the primitive name of one of their tribes. Under Krumen are now grouped many kindred tribes, the Grebo, Basa, Nifu, &c., who collectively number some 40,000. The Krus proper live in the narrow strip of coast between the Sino river and Cape Palmas, where are their five chief villages, Kruber, Little Kru, Settra Kru, Nana Kru and King William's Town. They are traditionally from the interior, but have long been noted as skilful seamen and daring fishermen. They are a stout, muscular, broad-chested race, probably the most robust of African peoples. They have true negro features--skin of a blue-black hue and woolly and abundant hair. The women are of a lighter shade than negro women generally, and in several respects come much nearer to a European standard. Morally as well as physically the Krumen are one of the most remarkable races in Africa. They are honest, brave, proud, so passionately fond of freedom that they will starve or drown themselves to escape capture, and have never trafficked in slaves. Politically the Krus are divided into small commonwealths, each with an hereditary chief whose duty is simply to represent the people in their dealings with strangers. The real government is vested in the elders, who wear as insignia iron rings on their legs. Their president, the head fetish-man, guards the national symbols, and his house is sanctuary for offenders till their guilt is proved. Personal property is held in common by each family. Land also is communal, but the rights of the actual cultivator cease only when he fails to farm it.

At 14 or 15 the Kru "boys" eagerly contract themselves for voyages of twelve or eighteen months. Generally they prefer work near at home, and are to be found on almost every ship trading on the Guinea coast. As soon as they have saved enough to buy a wife they return home and settle down. Krumen ornament their faces with tribal marks--black or blue lines on the forehead and from ear to ear. They tattoo their arms and mutilate the incisor teeth. As a race they are singularly intelligent, and exhibit their enterprise in numerous settlements along the coast. Sierra Leone, Grand Bassa and Monrovia all have their Kru towns. Dr Bleek classifies the Kru language with the Mandingo family, and in this he is followed by Dr R. G. Latham; Dr Kölle, who published a Kru grammar (1854), considers it as distinct.

See A. de Quatrefages and E. T. Hamy, _Crania ethnica_, ix. 363
(1878-1879); Schlagintweit-Sakunlunski, in the _Sitzungsberichte_ of
the academy at Munich (1875); Nicholas, in _Bull. de la Soc.
d'Anthrop._ (Paris, 1872); J. Büttikofer, _Reisebilder aus Liberia_
(Leiden, 1890); Sir H. H. Johnston, _Liberia_ (London, 1906).

KRUMMACHER, FRIEDRICH ADOLF (1767-1845), German theologian, was born on the 13th of July 1767 at Tecklenburg, Westphalia. Having studied theology at Lingen and Halle, he became successively rector of the grammar school at Mörs (1793), professor of theology at Duisburg (1800), preacher at Crefeld, and afterwards at Kettwig, _Consistorialrath_ and superintendent in Bernburg, and, after declining an invitation to the university of Bonn, pastor of the Ansgariuskirche in Bremen (1824). He died at Bremen on the 14th of April 1845. He was the author of many religious works, but is best known by his _Parabeln_ (1805; 9th ed. 1876; Eng. trans. 1844).

A. W. Möller published his life and letters in 1849.

His brother GOTTFRIED DANIEL KRUMMACHER (1774-1837), who studied theology at Duisburg and became pastor successively in Bärl (1798), Wülfrath (1801) and Elberfeld (1816), was the leader of the "pietists" of Wupperthal, and published several volumes of sermons, including one entitled _Die Wanderungen Israels durch d. Wüste nach Kanaan_ (1834).

FRIEDRICH WILHELM KRUMMACHER (1796-1868), son of Friedrich Adolf, studied theology at Halle and Jena, and became pastor successively at Frankfort (1819), Ruhrort (1823), Gemarke, near Barmen in the Wupperthal (1825), and Elberfeld (1834). In 1847 he received an appointment to the Trinity Church in Berlin, and in 1853 he became court chaplain at Potsdam. He was an influential promoter of the Evangelical Alliance. His best-known works are _Elias der Thisbiter_ (1828-1833; 6th ed. 1874; Eng. trans. 1838); _Elisa_ (1837) and _Das Passionsbuch, der leidende Christus_ (1854, in _English The Suffering Saviour_, 1870). His _Autobiography_ was published in 1869 (Eng. trans. 1871).

EMIL WILHELM KRUMMACHER (1798-1886), another son, was born at Mörs in 1798. In 1841 he became pastor in Duisburg. He wrote, amongst other works, _Herzensmanna aus Luthers Werken_ (1852). His son Hermann (1828-1890), who was appointed _Consistorialrath_ in Stettin in 1877, was the author of _Deutsches Leben in Nordamerika_ (1874).

KRUPP, ALFRED (1812-1887), German metallurgist, was born at Essen on the 26th of April 1812. His father, Friedrich Krupp (1787-1826), had purchased a small forge in that town about 1810, and devoted himself to the problem of manufacturing cast steel; but though that product was put on the market by him in 1815, it commanded but little sale, and the firm was far from prosperous. After his death the works were carried on by his widow, and Alfred, as the eldest son, found himself obliged, a boy of fourteen, to leave school and undertake their direction. For many years his efforts met with little success, and the concern, which in 1845 employed only 122 workmen, did scarcely more than pay its way. But in 1847 Krupp made a 3 pdr. muzzle-loading gun of cast steel, and at the Great Exhibition of London in 1851 he exhibited a solid flawless ingot of cast steel weighing 2 tons. This exhibit caused a sensation in the industrial world, and the Essen works sprang into fame. Another successful invention, the manufacture of weldless steel tires for railway vehicles, was introduced soon afterwards. The profits derived from these and other steel manufactures were devoted to the expansion of the works and to the development of the artillery with which the name of Krupp is especially associated (see ORDNANCE). The model settlement, which is one of the best-known features of the Krupp works, was started in the 'sixties, when difficulty began to be found in housing the increasing number of workmen; and now there are various "colonies," practically separate villages, dotted about to the south and south-west of the town, with schools, libraries, recreation grounds, clubs, stores, &c. The policy also was adopted of acquiring iron and coal mines, so that the firm might have command of supplies of the raw material required for its operations. Alfred Krupp, who was known as the "Cannon King," died at Essen on the 14th of July 1887, and was succeeded by his only son, Friedrich Alfred Krupp (1854-1902), who was born at Essen on the 17th of February 1854. The latter devoted himself to the financial rather than to the technical side of the business, and under him it again underwent enormous expansion. Among other things he in 1896 leased the "Germania" ship-building yard at Kiel, and in 1902 it passed into the complete ownership of the firm. In the latter year, which was also the year of his death, on the 22nd of November, the total number of men employed at Essen and its associated works was over 40,000. His elder daughter Bertha, who succeeded him, was married in October 1906 to Dr Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach, who on that occasion received the right to bear the name Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. The enormous increase in the German navy involved further expansion in the operations of the Krupp firm as manufacturers of the armour plates and guns required for the new ships, and in 1908 its capital, then standing at £9,000,000, was augmented by £2,500,000.

KRUSENSTERN, ADAM IVAN (1770-1846), Russian navigator, hydrographer and admiral, was born at Haggud in Esthonia on the 19th of November 1770. In 1785 he entered the corps of naval cadets, after leaving which, in 1788, with the grade of midshipman, he served in the war against Sweden. Having been appointed to serve in the British fleet for several years (1793-1799), he visited America, India and China. After publishing a paper pointing out the advantages of direct communication between Russia and China by Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, he was appointed by the emperor Alexander I. to make a voyage to the east coast of Asia to endeavour to carry out the project. Two English ships were bought, in which the expedition left Kronstadt in August 1803 and proceeded by Cape Horn and the Sandwich Islands to Kamchatka, and thence to Japan. Returning to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope, after an extended series of explorations, Krusenstern reached Kronstadt in August 1806, his being the first Russian expedition to circumnavigate the world. The emperor conferred several honours upon him, and he ultimately became admiral. As director of the Russian naval school Krusenstern did much useful work. He was also a member of the scientific committee of the marine department, and his contrivance for counteracting the influence of the iron in vessels on the compass was adopted in the navy. He died at Reval on the 24th of August 1846.

Krusenstern's _Voyage Round the World in 1803-1806_ was published at
St Petersburg in 1810-1814, in 3 vols., with folio atlas of 104 plates
and maps (Eng. ed., 2 vols. 1813; French ed., 2 vols., and atlas of 30
plates, 1820). His narrative contains a good many important
discoveries and rectifications, especially in the region of Japan, and
the contributions made by the various savants were of much scientific
importance. A valuable work is his _Atlas de l'Océan Pacifique_, with
its accompanying _Recueil des mémoires hydrographiques_ (St
Petersburg, 1824-1827). See _Memoir_ by his daughter, Madame Charlotte
Bernhardi, translated by Sir John Ross (1856).

KRUSHEVATS (or KRUSEVAC), a town of Servia, lying in a fertile region of hills and dales near the right bank of the Servian Morava. Pop. (1900), about 10,000. Krushevats is the capital of a department bearing the same name, and has an active trade in tobacco, hemp, flax, grain and livestock, for the sale of which it possesses about a dozen markets. It was in Krushevats that the last Servian tsar, Lazar, assembled his army to march against the Turks, and lose his empire, at Kosovo, in 1389. The site of his palace is marked by a ruined enclosure containing a fragment of the tower of Queen Militsa, whither, according to legend, tidings of the defeat were brought her by crows from the battlefield. Within the enclosure stands a church, dating from the reign of Stephen Dushan (1336-1356), with beautiful rose windows and with imperial peacocks, dragons and eagles sculptured on the walls. Several old Turkish houses were left at the beginning of the 20th century, besides an ancient Turkish fountain and bath.

KSHATTRIYA, one of the four original Indian castes, the other three being the Brahman, the Vaisya and the Sudra. The Kshattriya was the warrior caste, and their function was to protect the people and abstain from sensual pleasures. On the rise of Brahmin ascendancy the Kshattriyas were repressed, and their consequent revolt gave rise to Buddhism and Jainism, the founders of both these religions belonging to the Kshattriya caste. Though, according to tradition, the Kshattriyas were all exterminated by Parasurama, the rank is now conceded to the modern Rajputs, and also to the ruling families of native states. (See CASTE.)

KUBAN, a river of southern Russia, rising on the W. slope of the Elbruz, in the Caucasus, at an altitude of 13,930 ft., races down the N. face of the Caucasus as a mountain-torrent, but upon getting down to the lower-lying steppe country S. of Stavropol it turns, at 1075 ft. altitude, towards the N.W., and eventually, assuming a westerly course, enters the Gulf of Kyzyl-tash, on the Black Sea, in the vicinity of the Straits of Kerch. Its lower course lies for some distance through marshes, where in times of overflow its breadth increases from the normal 700 ft. to over half a mile. Its total length is 500 m., the area of its basin 21,480 sq. m. It is navigable for steamers for 73 m., as far as the confluence of its tributary, the Laba (200 m. long). This, like its other affluents, the Byelaya (155 m.), Urup, and Great and Little Zelenchuk, joins it from the left. The Kuban is the ancient Hypanis and Vardanes and the Pshishche of the Circassians.

KUBAÑ, a province of Russian Caucasia, having the Sea of Azov on the W., the territory of Don Cossacks on the N., the government of Stavropol and the province of Terek on the E., and the government of Kutais and the Black Sea district on the S. and S.W. It thus contains the low and marshy lowlands on the Sea of Azov, the western portion of the fertile steppes of northern Caucasia, and the northern slopes of the Caucasus range from its north-west extremity to the Elbruz. The area is 36,370 sq. m. On the south the province includes the parallel ranges of the Black Mountains (Kara-dagh), 3000 to 6000 ft. high, which are intersected by gorges that grow deeper and wider as the main range is approached. Owing to a relatively wet climate and numerous streams, these mountains are densely clothed with woods, under the shadow of which a thick undergrowth of rhododendrons, "Caucasian palms" (_Buxus sempervirens_), ivy, clematis, &c., develops, so as to render the forests almost impassable. These cover altogether nearly 20% of the aggregate area. Wide, treeless plains, from 1000 to 2000 ft. high, stretch north of the Kubañ, and are profusely watered by that river and its many tributaries--the Little and Great Zelenchuk, Urup, Laba, Byelaya, Pshish--mountain torrents that rush through narrow gorges from the Caucasus range. In its lower course the Kubañ forms a wide, low delta, covered with rushes, haunted by wild boar, and very unhealthy. The same characteristics mark the low plains on the east of the Sea of Azov, dotted over with numerous semi-stagnant lakes. Malaria is the enemy of these regions, and is especially deadly on the Tamañ Peninsula, as also along the left bank of the lower and middle Kubañ.

There is considerable mineral wealth. Coal is found on the Kubañ and its tributaries, but its extraction is still insignificant (less than 10,000 tons per annum). Petroleum wells exist in the district of Maikop, but the best are in the Tamañ Peninsula, where they range over 570 sq. m. Iron ores, silver and zinc are found; alabaster is extracted, as also some salt, soda and Epsom salts. The best mineral waters are at Psekup and Tamañ, where there are also numbers of mud volcanoes, ranging from small hillocks to hills 365 ft. high and more. The soil is very fertile in the plains, parts of which consist of black earth and are being rapidly populated.

The population reached 1,928,419 in 1897, of whom 1,788,622 were Russians, 13,926 Armenians, 20,137 Greeks and 20,778 Germans. There were at the same date 945,873 women, and only 156,486 people lived in towns. The estimated population in 1906 was 2,275,400. The aborigines were represented by 100,000 Circassians, 5000 Nogai Tatars and some Ossetes. The Circassians or Adyghe, who formerly occupied the mountain valleys, were compelled, after the Russian conquest in 1861, either to settle on the flat land or to emigrate; those who refused to move voluntarily were driven across the mountains to the Black Sea coast. Most of them (nearly 200,000) emigrated to Turkey, where they formed the Bashi-bazouks. Peasants from the interior provinces of Russia occupied the plains of the Kubañ, and they now number over 1,000,000, while the Kubañ Cossacks in 1897 numbered 804,372 (405,428 women). In point of religion 90% of the population were in 1897 members of the Orthodox Greek Church, 4% Raskolniks and other Christians and 5.4% Mahommedans, the rest being Jews.

Wheat is by far the chief crop (nearly three-quarters of the total area under crops are under wheat); rye, oats, barley, millet, Indian corn, some flax and potatoes, as also tobacco, are grown. Agricultural machinery is largely employed, and the province is a reserve granary for Russia. Livestock, especially sheep, is kept in large numbers on the steppes. Bee-keeping is general, and gardening and vine-growing are spreading rapidly. Fishing in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, as also in the Kubañ, is important.

Two main lines of railway intersect the province, one running N.W. to S.E., from Rostov to Vladikavkaz, and another starting from the former south-westwards to Novorossiysk on the north coast of the Black Sea. The province is divided into seven districts, the chief towns of which, with their populations in 1897, are Ekaterinodar, capital of the province (65,697), Anapa (6676), Labinsk (6388), Batalpashinsk (8100), Maikop (34,191), Temryuk (14,476) and Yeisk (35,446).

The history of the original settlements of the various native tribes, and their language and worship before the introduction of Mahommedanism, remain a blank page in the legends of the Caucasus. The peninsula of Tamañ, a land teeming with relics of ancient Greek colonists, has been occupied successively by the Cimmerians, Sarmatians, Khazars, Mongols and other nations. The Genoese, who established an extensive trade in the 13th century, were expelled by the Turks in 1484, and in 1784 Russia obtained by treaty the entire peninsula and the territory on the right bank of the Kubañ, the latter being granted by Catherine II. in 1792 to the Cossacks of the Dnieper. Then commenced the bloody struggle with the Circassians, which continued for more than half a century. Not only domestic, but even field work, is conducted mostly by the women, who are remarkable for their physical strength and endurance. The native mountaineers, known under the general name of Circassians, but locally distinguished as the Karachai, Abadsikh, Khakuchy, Shapsugh, have greatly altered their mode of life since the pacification of the Caucasus, still, however, maintaining Mahommedanism, speaking their vernacular, and strictly observing the customs of their ancestors. Exports include wheat, tobacco, leather, wool, petroleum, timber, fish, salt and live cattle; imports, dry goods, grocery and hardware. Local industry is limited to a few tanneries, petroleum refineries and spirit distilleries. (P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)

KUBELIK, JAN (1880- ), Bohemian violinist, was born near Prague, of humble parentage. He learnt the violin from childhood, and appeared in public at Prague in 1888, subsequently being trained at the Conservatorium by the famous teacher Ottakar Sevcik. From him he learnt an extraordinary technique, and from 1898 onwards his genius was acclaimed at concerts throughout Europe. He first appeared in London in 1900, and in America in 1901, creating a _furore_ everywhere. In 1903 he married the Countess Czaky Szell.

KUBERA (or KUVERA), in Hindu mythology, the god of wealth. Originally he appears as king of the powers of evil, a kind of Pluto. His home is Alaka in Mount Kailasa, and his garden, the world's treasure-house, is Chaitraratha, on Mount Mandara. Kubera is half-brother to the demon Ravana, and was driven from Ceylon by the latter.

KUBLAI KHAN (or KAAN, as the supreme ruler descended from Jenghiz was usually distinctively termed in the 13th century) (1216-1294), the most eminent of the successors of Jenghiz (Chinghiz), and the founder of the Mongol dynasty in China. He was the second son of Tule, youngest of the four sons of Jenghiz by his favourite wife. Jenghiz was succeeded in the khanship by his third son Okkodai, or Ogdai (1229), he by his son Kuyuk (1246), and Kuyuk by Mangu, eldest son of Tule (1252). Kublai was born in 1216, and, young as he was, took part with his younger brother Hulagu (afterwards conqueror of the caliph and founder of the Mongol dynasty in Persia) in the last campaign of Jenghiz (1226-27). The Mongol poetical chronicler, Sanang Setzen, records a tradition that Jenghiz himself on his death-bed discerned young Kublai's promise and predicted his distinction.

Northern China, Cathay as it was called, had been partially conquered by Jenghiz himself, and the conquest had been followed up till the Kin or "golden" dynasty of Tatars, reigning at K'ai-feng Fu on the Yellow River, were completely subjugated (1234). But China south of the Yangtsze-kiang remained many years later subject to the native dynasty of Sung, reigning at the great city of Lingan, or Kinsai (_King-sz'_, "capital"), now known as Hang-chow Fu. Operations to subdue this region had commenced in 1235, but languished till Mangu's accession. Kublai was then named his brother's lieutenant in Cathay, and operations were resumed. By what seems a vast and risky strategy, of which the motives are not quite clear, the first campaign of Kublai was directed to the subjugation of the remote western province of Yunnan. After the capture of Tali Fu (well known in recent years as the capital of a Mahommedan insurgent sultan), Kublai returned north, leaving the war in Yunnan to a trusted general. Some years later (1257) the khan Mangu himself entered on a campaign in west China, and died there, before Ho-chow in Sze-ch'uen (1259).

Kublai assumed the succession, but it was disputed by his brother Arikbugha and by his cousin Kaidu, and wars with these retarded the prosecution of the southern conquest. Doubtless, however, this was constantly before Kublai as a great task to be accomplished, and its fulfilment was in his mind when he selected as the future capital of his empire the Chinese city that we now know as Peking. Here, in 1264, to the north-east of the old city, which under the name of Yenking had been an occasional residence of the Kin sovereigns, he founded his new capital, a great rectangular plot of 18 m. in circuit. The (so-called) "Tatar city" of modern Peking is the city of Kublai, with about one-third at the north cut off, but Kublai's walls are also on this retrenched portion still traceable.

The new city, officially termed T'ai-tu ("great court"), but known among the Mongols and western people as Kaan-baligh ("city of the khan") was finished in 1267. The next year war against the Sung Empire was resumed, but was long retarded by the strenuous defence of the twin cities of Siang-yang and Fan-cheng, on opposite sides of the river Han, and commanding two great lines of approach to the basin of the Yangtsze-kiang. The siege occupied nearly five years. After this Bayan, Kublai's best lieutenant, a man of high military genius and noble character, took command. It was not, however, till 1276 that the Sung capital surrendered, and Bayan rode into the city (then probably the greatest in the world) as its conqueror. The young emperor, with his mother, was sent prisoner to Kaan-baligh; but two younger princes had been despatched to the south before the fall of the city, and these successively were proclaimed emperor by the adherents of the native throne. An attempt to maintain their cause was made in Fu-kien, and afterwards in the province of Kwang-tung; but in 1279 these efforts were finally extinguished, and the faithful minister who had inspired them terminated the struggle by jumping with his young lord into the sea.

Even under the degenerate Sung dynasty the conquest of southern China had occupied the Mongols during half a century of intermittent campaigns. But at last Kublai was ruler of all China, and probably the sovereign (at least nominally) of a greater population than had ever acknowledged one man's supremacy. For, though his rule was disputed by the princes of his house in Turkestan, it was acknowledged by those on the Volga, whose rule reached to the frontier of Poland, and by the family of his brother Hulagu, whose dominion extended from the Oxus to the Arabian desert. For the first time in history the name and character of an emperor of China were familiar as far west as the Black Sea and not unknown in Europe. The Chinese seals which Kublai conferred on his kinsmen reigning at Tabriz are stamped upon their letters to the kings of France, and survive in the archives of Paris. Adventurers from Turkestan, Persia, Armenia, Byzantium, even from Venice, served him as ministers, generals, governors, envoys, astronomers or physicians; soldiers from all Asia to the Caucasus fought his battles in the south of China. Once in his old age (1287) Kublai was compelled to take the field in person against a serious revolt, raised by Nayan, a prince of his family, who held a vast domain on the borders of Manchuria. Nayan was taken and executed. The revolt had been stirred up by Kaidu, who survived his imperial rival, and died in 1301. Kublai himself died in 1294, at the age of seventy-eight.

Though a great figure in Asiatic history, and far from deserving a niche in the long gallery of Asiatic tyrants, Kublai misses a record in the short list of the good rulers. His historical locus was a happy one, for, whilst he was the first of his race to rise above the innate barbarism of the Mongols, he retained the force and warlike character of his ancestors, which vanished utterly in the effeminacy of those who came after him. He had great intelligence and a keen desire for knowledge, with apparently a good deal of natural benevolence and magnanimity. But his love of splendour, and his fruitless expeditions beyond sea, created enormous demands for money, and he shut his eyes to the character and methods of those whom he employed to raise it. A remarkable narrative of the oppressions of one of these, Ahmed of Fenaket, and of the revolt which they provoked, is given by Marco Polo, in substantial accordance with the Chinese annals.

Kublai patronized Chinese literature and culture generally. The great astronomical instruments which he caused to be made were long preserved at Peking, but were carried off to Berlin in 1900. Though he put hardly any Chinese into the first ranks of his administration, he attached many to his confidence, and was personally popular among them. Had his endeavour to procure European priests for the instruction of his people, of which we know through Marco Polo, prospered, the Roman Catholic church, which gained some ground under his successors, might have taken stronger root in China. Failing this momentary effort, Kublai probably saw in the organized force of Tibetan Buddhism the readiest instrument in the civilization of his countrymen, and that system received his special countenance. An early act of his reign had been to constitute a young lama of intelligence and learning the head of the Lamaite Church, and eventually also prince of Tibet, an act which may be regarded as a precursory form of the rule of the "grand lamas" of Lassa. The same ecclesiastic, Mati Dhwaja, was employed by Kublai to devise a special alphabet for use with the Mongol language. It was chiefly based on Tibetan forms of Nagari; some coins and inscriptions in it are extant; but it had no great vogue, and soon perished. Of the splendour of his court and entertainments, of his palaces, summer and winter, of his great hunting expeditions, of his revenues and extraordinary paper currency, of his elaborate system of posts and much else, an account is given in the book of Marco Polo, who passed many years in Kublai's service.

We have alluded to his foreign expeditions, which were almost all disastrous. Nearly all arose out of a hankering for the nominal extension of his empire by claiming submission and tribute. Expeditions against Japan were several times repeated; the last, in 1281, on an immense scale, met with huge discomfiture. Kublai's preparations to avenge it were abandoned owing to the intense discontent which they created. In 1278 he made a claim of submission upon Champa, an ancient state representing what we now call Cochin China. This eventually led to an attempt to invade the country through Tongking, and to a war with the latter state, in which the Mongols had much the worst of it. War with Burma (or Mien, as the Chinese called it) was provoked in very similar fashion, but the result was more favourable to Kublai's arms. The country was overrun as far as the Irrawaddy delta, the ancient capital, Pagan, with its magnificent temples, destroyed, and the old royal dynasty overthrown. The last attempt of the kind was against Java, and occurred in the last year of the old khan's reign. The envoy whom he had commissioned to claim homage was sent back with ignominy. A great armament was equipped in the ports of Fu-kien to avenge this insult; but after some temporary success the force was compelled to re-embark with a loss of 3000 men. The death of Kublai prevented further action.

Some other expeditions, in which force was not used, gratified the khan's vanity by bringing back professions of homage, with presents, and with the curious reports of foreign countries in which Kublai delighted. Such expeditions extended to the states of southern India, to eastern Africa, and even to Madagascar.

Of Kublai's twelve legitimate sons, Chingkim, the favourite and designated successor, died in 1284/5; and Timur, the son of Chingkim, took his place. No great king arose in the dynasty after Kublai. He had in all nine successors of his house on the throne of Kaan-baligh, but the long and imbecile reign of the ninth, Toghon Timur, ended (1368) in disgrace and expulsion and the native dynasty of Ming reigned in their stead. (H. Y.)

KUBUS, a tribe inhabiting the central parts of Sumatra. They are nomadic savages living entirely in the forests in shelters of branches and leaves built on platforms. It has been suggested that they represent a Sumatran aboriginal race; but Dr J. G. Garson, reporting on Kubu skulls and skeletons submitted to him by Mr. H. O. Forbes, declared them decidedly Malay, though the frizzle in the hair might indicate a certain mixture of negrito blood (_Jour. Anthrop. Instit._, April 1884). They are of a rich olive-brown tint, their hair jet black and inclined to curl, and, though not dwarfs, are below the average height.

KUCHAN, a fertile and populous district of the province Khorasan in Persia, bounded N. by the Russian Transcaspian territory, W. by Bujnurd, S. by Isfaraïn, and extending in the E. to near Radkan. Its area is about 3000 sq. m. and its population, principally composed of Zafaranlu Kurds, descendants of tribes settled there by Shah Abbas I. in the 17th century, is estimated at 100,000. About 3000 families are nomads and live in tents. The district produces much grain, 25,000 to 30,000 tons yearly, and contains two towns, Kuchan and Shirvan (pop. 6000), and many villages.

KUCHAN, the capital of the district, has suffered much from the effects of earthquakes, notably in 1875, 1894 and 1895. The last earthquake laid the whole town in ruins and caused considerable loss of life. About 8000 of the survivors removed to a site 7½ m. E. and there built a new town named Nasseriyeh after Nasr-ud-din Shah, but known better as Kuchan i jadid, i.e. New Kuchan, and about 1000 remained in the ruined city in order to be near their vineyards and gardens. The geographical position of the old town is 37° 8´ N., 58° 25´ E., elevation 4100 ft. The new town has been regularly laid out with broad streets and spacious bazaars, and, situated as it is half-way between Meshed and Askabad on the cart-road connecting those two places, has much trade. Its population is estimated at 10,000. There are telegraph and post offices.

KUCH BEHAR, or COOCH BEHAR, a native state of India, in Bengal, consisting of a submontane tract, not far from Darjeeling, entirely surrounded by British territory. Area, 1307 sq. m. Pop. (1901), 566,974; estimated revenue, £140,000. The state forms a level plain of triangular shape, intersected by numerous rivers. The greater portion is fertile and well cultivated, but tracts of jungle are to be seen in the north-east corner, which abuts upon Assam. The soil is uniform in character throughout, consisting of a light, friable loam, varying in depth from 6 in. to 3 ft., superimposed upon a deep bed of sand. The whole is detritus, washed down by torrents from the neighbouring Himalayas. The rivers all pass through the state from north to south, to join the main stream of the Brahmaputra. Some half-dozen are navigable for small trading boats throughout the year, and are nowhere fordable; and there are about twenty minor streams which become navigable only during the rainy season. The streams have a tendency to cut new channels for themselves after every annual flood, and they communicate with one another by cross-country watercourses. Rice is grown on three-fourths of the cultivated area. Jute and tobacco are also largely grown for export. The only special industries are the weaving of a strong silk obtained from worms fed on the castor-oil plant, and of a coarse jute cloth used for screens and bedding. The external trade is chiefly in the hands of Marwari immigrants from Rajputana. Among other improvements a railway has been constructed, with the assistance of a loan from the British government. The earthquake of the 12th of June 1897 caused damage to public buildings, roads, &c., in the state to the estimated amount of £100,000.

The Koch or Rajbansi, from which the name of the state is derived, are a widely spread tribe, evidently of aboriginal descent, found throughout all northern Bengal, from Purnea district to the Assam valley. They are akin to the Indo-Chinese races of the north-east frontier; but they have now become largely hinduized, especially in their own home, where the appellation "Koch" has come to be used as a term of reproach. Their total number in all India was returned in 1901 as nearly 2½ millions.

As in the case of many other small native states, the royal family of Kuch Behar lays claim to a divine origin in order to conceal an impure aboriginal descent. The greatest monarch of the dynasty was Nar Narayan, the son of Visu Singh, who began to reign about 1550. He conquered the whole of Kamrup, built temples in Assam, of which ruins still exist bearing inscriptions with his name, and extended his power southwards over what is now part of the British districts of Rangpur and Purnea. His son, Lakshmi Narayan, who succeeded him in Kuch Behar, became tributary to the Mogul Empire. In 1772 a competitor for the throne, having been driven out of the country by his rivals, applied for assistance to Warren Hastings. A detachment of sepoys was accordingly marched into the state; the Bhutias, whose interference had led to this intervention, were expelled, and forced to sue for peace through the mediation of the lama of Tibet. By the treaty made on this occasion, April 1773, the raja acknowledged subjection to the Company, and made over to it one-half of his annual revenues. In 1863, on the death of the raja, leaving a son and heir only ten months old, a British commissioner was appointed to undertake the direct management of affairs during the minority of the prince, and many important reforms were successfully introduced. The maharaja Sir Nripendra Narayan, G.C.I.E., born in 1862, was educated under British guardianship at Patna and Calcutta, and became hon. lieutenant-colonel of the 6th Bengal Cavalry. In 1897-98 he served in the Tirah campaign on the staff of General Yeatman-Biggs, and received the distinction of a C.B. He was present at the Jubilee in 1887, the Diamond Jubilee of 1897, and King Edward's Coronation in 1902, and became a well-known figure in London society. In 1878 he married a daughter of Keshub Chunder Sen, the Brahmo leader. His eldest son was educated in England.

The town of Kuch Behar is situated on the river Tursa, and has a railway station. Pop. (1901), 10,458. It contains a college affiliated to the Calcutta University.

KUDU (_koodoo_), the native name for a large species of African antelope (q.v.), with large corkscrew-like horns in the male, and the body marked with narrow vertical white lines in both sexes. The female is hornless. _Strepsiceros capensis_ (or _S. strepsiceros_) is the scientific name of the true kudu, which ranges from the Cape to Somaliland; but there is also a much smaller species (_S. imberbis_) in East and North-East Africa.

KUENEN, ABRAHAM (1828-1891), Dutch Protestant theologian, the son of an apothecary, was born on the 16th of September 1828, at Haarlem, North Holland. On his father's death it became necessary for him to leave school and take a humble place in the business. By the generosity of friends he was educated at the gymnasium at Haarlem and afterwards at the university of Leiden. He studied theology, and won his doctor's degree by an edition of thirty-four chapters of Genesis from the Arabic version of the Samaritan Pentateuch. In 1853 he became professor extraordinarius of theology at Leiden, and in 1855 full professor. He married a daughter of W. Muurling, one of the founders of the Gröningen school, which made the first pronounced breach with Calvinistic theology in the Reformed Church of Holland. Kuenen himself soon became one of the main supports of the modern theology, of which J. N. Scholten (1811-1885) and Karel Willem Opzoomer (b. 1821) were the chief founders, and of which Leiden became the headquarters. His first great work, an historico-critical introduction to the Old Testament, _Historisch-kritisch onderzoek naar het onstaan en de verzameling van de boeken des Ouden Verbonds_ (3 vols., 1861-1865; 2nd ed., 1885-1893; German by T. Weber and C. T. Müller, 1885-1894), followed the lines of the dominant school of Heinrich Ewald. But before long he came under the influence of J. W. Colenso, and learned to regard the prophetic narrative of Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers as older than what was by the Germans denominated _Grundschrift_ ("Book of Origins"). In 1869-1870 he published his book on the religion of Israel, _De godsdienst van Israël tot den ondergang van der Joodschen Staat_ (Eng. trans., 1874-1875). This was followed in 1875 by a study of Hebrew prophecy, _De profeten en de profetie onder Israel_ (Eng. trans., 1877), largely polemical in its scope, and specially directed against those who rest theological dogmas on the fulfilment of prophecy. In 1882 Kuenen went to England to deliver a course of Hibbert lectures, _National Religions and Universal Religion_; in the following year he presided at the congress of Orientalists held at Leiden. In 1886 his volume on the Hexateuch was published in England. He died at Leiden on the 10th of December 1891.

Kuenen was also the author of many articles, papers and reviews; a
series on the Hexateuch, which appeared in the _Theologisch
Tijdschrift_, of which in 1866 he became joint editor, is one of the
finest products of modern criticism. His collected works were
translated into German and published by K. Budde in 1894. Several of
his works have been translated into English by Philip Wicksteed. See
the article in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_.

KUEN-LUN, or KWEN-LUN, a term used to designate generally the mountain ranges which run along the northern edge of the great Tibetan plateau in Central Asia. In a wider application it means the succession of ranges which extend from the Pamirs on the W. to 113° E., until it strikes against or merges in the steep escarpments of the S.E. flank of the Mongolian plateau. In the narrower acceptation it applies only to those ranges which part the desert of Takla-makan on the N. from the Tibetan plateau on the S. between the Pamirs and the transverse glen of the Kara-muren, that is, nearly to the longitude of the town of Cherchen (about 85½° E.). Although the use of the name is thus restricted in geographical usage, the mountain system so designated does, as a fact, extend eastwards as far as the great depression of Tsaidam (say 95° E.), though it is uncertain whether its direct orographical continuation eastwards is to be identified with the Astin-tagh, or, as F. Grenard and K. Bogdanovich believe--and with them Sven Hedin is inclined to agree--with the parallel ranges of Kalta-alaghan and Arka-tagh, which lie S. of the Astin-tagh. At any rate the Astin-tagh, whether it is the principal continuation of the Kuen-lun or only a subsidiary flanking system, is itself the westward continuation of the Nan-shan or Southern Mountains, which reach down far into China (to 113° E.).

Taken in its widest meaning, the Kuen-lun Mountains thus stretch in a wavy line for nearly 2500 m. from E. to W., and while in the W. their constituent ranges are folded and squeezed by lateral compression into a breadth of some 150-200 m., their summits being forced up to correspondingly higher altitudes, in the E. they spread out to a breadth of some 600 m., the ranges being in that quarter less folded, and consequently both flatter and lower. In the tectonic structure of Asia the Kuen-lun forms, as it were, the backbone of the continent. In point of age it is very much older than either the Himalayas to the S. or the Tian-shan to the N. But although the crests of its component ranges reach altitudes of 21,500 to 22,000 ft., they are not as a rule overtopped by individual peaks of commanding and towering elevation, as the Himalayas are, but run on the whole tolerably uniform and relatively at little greater altitude than the lofty valleys which separate them one from another. It is a strikingly marked characteristic of the northern edge of the Tibetan plateau that its outermost border-range (e.g. Western Kuen-lun and Astin-tagh) is throughout double; and this "twinning" of the mountain-ranges, as also of the intermont lake-basins among the Kuen-lun ranges, is a peculiar feature of the Tibetan plateau.

The supreme orographic importance of this great Central Asian mountain
system was recognized in a fashion even by the geographers of ancient
Greece. They used to suppose that an immense range of mountains
crossed Asia from west to east on the parallel of the island of
Rhodes, extending through Asia Minor, the Kurdish highlands, the N. of
Persia, the N. of Bactria (Afghanistan), the Hindu-kush, and so on
into China. This long range they supposed to separate the waters which
flow N. to the Arctic from those which flow S. to the Indian Ocean. K.
Ritter (_Asien_, ii.) was the first of modern geographers to recognize
the true character of the Kuen-lun as a border range of the Tibetan
plateau; and Baron von Richthofen (_China_, i. 1876) still further
defined and accentuated the conception of the system by representing
it as a complex arrangement of several parallel ranges, running in
wavy lines from the Pamirs (76° E.) eastwards to 118° E. But though
von Richthofen's general conception of the Kuen-lun system was broadly
sound and in accordance with facts, the details both of his
description and of that of his pupil Wegener[1] require now very
considerable revision, and need even to be in part recast, as a
consequence of explorations and investigations made since they wrote
by, amongst others, the Russian explorers N. M. Przhevalsky, M. V.
Pyevtsov, V. I. Roboroysky, P. K. Kozlov, K. Bogdanovich, V. A.
Obruchev, and (?) Skassi; by the Englishmen A. D. Carey, A. Dalgleish,
St G. R. Littledale, H. Bower, H. H. P. Deasy and M. S. Wellby; by the
American W. W. Rockhill; the Frenchmen J. L. Dutreuil de Rhins, F.
Grenard, P. G. Bonvalot and Prince Henri d'Orléans; by the Hungarians
L. von Loczy and Count Szechényi; and above all by the Swede Sven
Hedin.