Chapter XV: Part 15

_History._--The Lapps have a dim tradition that their ancestors lived in a far eastern land, and they tell rude stories of conflicts with Norsemen and Karelians. But no answer can be obtained from them in regard to their early distribution and movements. It has been maintained that they were formerly spread over the whole of the Scandinavian peninsula, and they have even been considered the remnants of that primeval race of cave-dwellers which hunted the reindeer over the snow-fields of central and western Europe. But much of the evidence adduced for these theories is highly questionable. The contents of the so-called Lapps' graves found in various parts of Scandinavia are often sufficient in themselves to show that the appellation must be a misnomer, and the syllable Lap or Lapp found in many names of places can often be proved to have no connexion with the Lapps.[5] They occupied their present territory when they are first mentioned in history. According to Düben the name first occurs in the 13th century--in the _Fundinn Noregr_, composed about 1200, in Saxo Grammaticus, and in a papal bull of date 1230; but the people are probably to be identified with those Finns of Tacitus whom he describes as wild hunters with skins for clothing and rude huts as only means of shelter, and certainly with the Skrithiphinoi of Procopius (_Goth._ ii. 15), the Scritobini of Paulus Warnefridus, and the Scridifinni of the geographer of Ravenna. Some of the details given by Procopius, in regard for instance to the treatment of infants, show that his informant was acquainted with certain characteristic customs of the Lapps.

In the 9th century the Norsemen from Norway began to treat their
feeble northern neighbours as a subject race. The wealth of Ottar,
"northmost of the northmen," whose narrative has been preserved by
King Alfred, consisted mainly of six hundred of those "deer they call
hrenas" and in tribute paid by the natives; and the Eigils saga tells
how Brynjulf Bjargulfson had his right to collect contributions from
the Finns (i.e. the Lapps) recognized by Harold Haarfager. So much
value was attached to this source of wealth that as early as 1050
strangers were excluded from the fur-trade of Finmark, and a kind of
coast-guard prevented their intrusion. Meantime the Karelians were
pressing on the eastern Lapps, and in the course of the 11th century
the rulers of Novgorod began to treat them as the Norsemen had treated
their western brethren. The ground-swell of the Tatar invasion drove
the Karelians westward in the 13th century, and for many years even
Finmark was so unsettled that the Norsemen received no tribute from
the Lapps. At length in 1326 a treaty was concluded between Norway and
Russia by which the supremacy of the Norwegians over the Lapps was
recognized as far east as Voljo beyond Kandalax on the White Sea, and
the supremacy of the Russians over the Karelians as far as Lyngen and
the Målself. The relations of the Lapps to their more powerful
neighbours were complicated by the rivalry of the different
Scandinavian kingdoms. After the disruption of the Calmar Union (1523)
Sweden began to assert its rights with vigour, and in 1595 the treaty
of Teusina between Sweden and Russia decreed "that the Lapps who dwell
in the woods between eastern Bothnia and Varanger shall pay their dues
to the king of Sweden." It was in vain that Christian IV. of Denmark
visited Kola and exacted homage in 1599, and every year sent
messengers to protest against the collection of his tribute by the
Swedes (a custom which continued down to 1806). Charles of Sweden took
the title of "king of the Kajans and Lapps," and left no means untried
to establish his power over all Scandinavian Lapland. By the peace of
Knäröd (1613) Gustavus Adolphus gave up the Swedish claim to Finmark;
and in 1751 mutual renunciations brought the relations of Swedish and
Norwegian (Danish) Lapland to their present position. Meanwhile
Russian influence had been spreading westward; and in 1809, when
Alexander I. finally obtained the cession of Finland, he also added to
his dominions the whole of Finnish Lapland to the east of the Muonio
and the Köngämä. It may be interesting to mention that Lapps, armed
with bows and arrows, were attached to certain regiments of Gustavus
Adolphus in Germany during the Thirty Years' War.

The Lapps have had the ordinary fate of a subject and defenceless
people; they have been utilized with little regard to their own
interest or inclinations. The example set by the early Norwegians was
followed by the Swedes: a peculiar class of adventurers known as the
Birkarlians (from _Bjark_ or _Birk_, "trade") began in the 13th
century to farm the Lapps, and, receiving very extensive privileges
from the kings, grew to great wealth and influence. In 1606 there were
twenty-two Birkarlians in Tornio, seventeen in Lule, sixteen in Pite,
and sixty-six in Ume Lappmark. They are regularly spoken of as having
or owning Lapps, whom they dispose of as any other piece of property.
In Russian Lapland matters followed much the same course. The very
institutions of the Solovets monastery, intended by St Tryphon for the
benefit of the poor neglected pagans, turned out the occasion of much
injustice towards them. By a charter of Ivan Vasilivitch (November
1556), the monks are declared masters of the Lapps of the Motoff and
Petchenga districts, and they soon sought to extend their control over
those not legally assigned to them (Ephimenko). Other monasteries were
gifted with similar proprietary rights; and the supplication of the
patriarch Nikon to Alexis Mikhaelovitch, for example, shows clearly
the oppression to which the Lapps were subjected.

It is long, however, since these abuses were abolished; and in
Scandinavia more especially the Lapps of the present day enjoy the
advantages resulting from a large amount of philanthropic legislation
on the part of their rulers. There seems to be no fear of their
becoming extinct, except it may be by gradual amalgamation with their
more powerful neighbours. In Norway the total number of Lapps was
20,786 in 1891, and in Sweden in 1904 it was officially estimated that
there were 7000. Add to these some 3000 for Russian Lapland, and the
total Lapp population approximates to 30,000. In Sweden the Lapps are
gradually abandoning their nomadic habits and becoming merged in the
Swedish population. The majority of the Norwegian Lapps lead a
semi-nomadic existence; but the number of inveterate nomads can
scarcely reach 1500 at the present day. In Sweden there are about 3500
nomads.

AUTHORITIES.--G. von Düben, _Om Lappland och Lapparne_ (Stockholm,
1873), with list of over 200 authorities; C. Rabot, "La Laponie
suédoise d'après les récentes explorations de MM. Svenonius et
Hamberg," _La Géographie_, Soc. Géog. de Paris VII. (1903); S.
Passarge, _Fahrten in Schweden, besonders in Nordschweden und
Lappland_ (Berlin, 1897); Bayard Taylor, _Northern Travel_ (London,
1858); E. Rae, _The White Sea Peninsula_ (London, 1882), and _Land of
the North Wind_ (London, 1875); P. B. du Chaillu, _Land of the
Midnight Sun_ (London, 1881); S. Tromholt, _Under the Rays of the
Aurora Borealis_ (London, 1885); Y. Nielsen, _Det Norske geogr.
Selskabs Aarbog_ (1891); H. H. Reusch, _Folk og natur i Finmarken_
(1895); K. B. Wicklund, _De Svenska nomadlapparnas flyttningar till
Norge i älore och nyare tid_ (Upsala, 1908); see also SWEDEN. Among
older works may be mentioned Scheffer, _Lapponia_ (Frankfurt, 1673,
English trans. Oxford, 1674); Regnard, _Voyage de Laponie_, English
version in Pinkerton's _Voyages_, vol. i.; Leem, _Beskrivelse over
Finmarkens Lapper_ (Copenhagen, 1767), in Danish and Latin; see also
Pinkerton, loc. cit.; Sir A. de C. Brooke, _A Winter in Lapland_
(London, 1827); Laestadius, _Journal_ (1831).

As to the language, J. A. Friis, professor of Lapp in the university
of Christiania, has published _Lappiske Sprogprover: en samling lapp.
eventyr, ordsprog, og gåder_ (Christiania, 1856), and _Lappisk
mythologi eventyr og folkesagn_ (Christiania, 1871). See also G.
Donner, _Lieder der Lappen_ (Helsingfors, 1876); Poestion,
_Lappländische Märchen_, &c. (Vienna, 1885). Grammars of the Lapp
tongue have been published by Fjellström (1738), Leem (1748), Rask
(1832), Stockfleth (1840); lexicons by Fjellström (1703), Leem
(1768-1781), Lindahl (1780), Stockfleth (1852). Among more recent
works may be mentioned a dictionary (1885), by J. A. Friis; a reader,
with German translations (1888), by J. Qvigstad; a dictionary (1890)
and two grammars (1891 and 1897) of the Luleå dialect, and a
chrestomathy of Norwegian Lappish (1894), by K. B. Wiklund; a
dictionary of Russian Lappish, or the Kola dialect (1891), by A.
Genetz; readers of different dialects (1885-1896), by J. Halász; and a
grammar of Norwegian Lappish (1882), by S. Nielsen; further, a
comparative study of Lappish and Finnish by Qvigstad in the _Acts of
the Finnish Academy of Science_, vol. xii., 1883; the same author's
_Nordische Lehnwörter im Lappischen_ (1893); Wiklund, _Entwurf einer
urlappischen Lautlehre_ (1896); see also various articles by these
writers, Paasonen and others in the _Journal de la Société
Finno-Ougrienne_ and the _Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen_; Qvigstad and
Wiklund, _Bibliographie der lappischen Literatur_ (1900).

The older literature on the Lapps received a notable addition by the
discovery in 1896, among the letters of Linnaeus preserved in the
British Museum, of a MS. diary of a journey made in 1695 to the north
of Swedish Lappmark by Olof Rudbeck the younger. On missionary work
see Stockfleth, _Dagbog over mine missions Reiser_ (1860); E. Haller,
_Svenska Kyrkans mission i Lappmarken_ (1896). It was not until 1840
that the New Testament was translated into Norwegian Lappish, and not
until 1895 that the entire Bible was printed in the same dialect. In
the Russian dialect of Lappish there exist only two versions of St
Matthew's gospel.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The most probable etymology is the Finnish _lappu_, and in this
case the meaning would be the "land's end folk."

[2] Hence they have been supposed by many to be the originals of the
"little folk" of Scandinavian legend.

[3] Bertillon found in one instance a cephalic index of 94. The
average obtained by Pruner Bey was 84.7, by Virchow 82.5.

[4] A valuable paper by Ephimenko, on "The Legal Customs of the
Lapps, especially in Russian Lapland," appeared in vol. viii. of the
_Mem. of Russ. Geog. Soc._, Ethnog. Section, 1878.

[5] The view that the Lapps at one time occupied the whole of the
Scandinavian peninsula, and have during the course of centuries been
driven back by the Swedes and Norwegians is disproved by the recent
investigations of Yngvar Nielsen, K. B. Wiklund and others. The fact
is, the Lapps are increasing in numbers, as well as pushing their way
farther and farther south. In the beginning of the 16th century their
southern border-line in Norway ran on the upper side of 64° N. In
1890 they forced their way to the head of the Hardanger Fjord in 60°
N. In Sweden the presence of Lapps as far south as Jämtland (or
Jemtland) is first mentioned in 1564. In 1881 they pushed on into the
north of Dalecarlia, about 61° 45´ N.

LA PLATA, a city of Argentina and capital of the province of Buenos Aires, 5 m. inland from the port of Ensenada, or La Plata, and about 31 m. S.E. of the city of Buenos Aires, with which it is connected by rail. Pop. (1895) 45,609; (1907, estimate) 84,000. La Plata was founded in 1882, two years after Buenos Aires had been constituted a federal district and made the national capital. This necessitated the selection of another provincial capital, which resulted in the choice of an open plain near the former port of Ensenada de Barragán, on which a city was laid out after the plan of Washington. The streets are so wide that they seem out of proportion to the low brick buildings. The principal public buildings, constructed of brick and stucco, are the government-house, assembly building, treasury, municipal hall, cathedral, courts of justice, police headquarters, provincial museum and railway station. The museum, originally presented by Dr Moreno, has become one of the most important in South America, its palaeontological and anthropological collections being unique. There are also a university, national college, public library, astronomical observatory, several churches, two hospitals and two theatres. A noteworthy public park is formed by a large plantation of eucalyptus trees, which have grown to a great height and present an imposing appearance on the level, treeless plain. Electricity is in general use for public and private lighting, and tramways are laid down in the principal streets and extend eastward to the port. The harbour of the port of La Plata consists of a large artificial basin, 1450 yds. long by 150 yds. wide, with approaches, in addition to the old port of Ensenada, which are capable of receiving the largest vessels that can navigate the La Plata estuary. Up to the opening of the new port works of Buenos Aires a large part of the ocean-going traffic of Buenos Aires passed through the port of La Plata. It has good railway connexions with the interior, and exports cattle and agricultural produce.

LAPORTE, ROLAND (1675-1704), Camisard leader, better known as "Roland," was born at Mas Soubeyran (Gard) in a cottage which has become the property of the Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme français, and which contains relics of the hero. He was a nephew of Laporte, the Camisard leader who was hunted down and shot in October 1702, and he himself became the leader of a band of a thousand men which he formed into a disciplined army with magazines, arsenals and hospitals. For daring in action and rapidity of movement he was second only to Cavalier. These two leaders in 1702 secured entrance to the town of Sauve under the pretence of being royal officers, burnt the church and carried off provisions and ammunition for their forces. Roland, who called himself "general of the children of God," terrorized the country between Nîmes and Alais, burning churches and houses, and slaying those suspected of hostility against the Huguenots, though without personally taking any part of the spoil. Cavalier was already in negotiation with Marshal Villars when Roland cut to pieces a Catholic regiment at Fontmorte in May 1704. He refused to lay down his arms without definite assurance of the restoration of the privileges accorded by the Edict of Nantes. Villars then sought to negotiate, offering Roland the command of a regiment on foreign service and liberty of conscience, though not the free exercise of their religion, for his co-religionists. This parley had no results, but Roland was betrayed to his enemies, and on the 14th of August 1704 was shot while defending himself against his captors. The five officers who were with him surrendered, and were broken on the wheel at Nîmes. Roland's death put an end to the effective resistance of the Cévenols.

See A. Court, _Histoire des troubles des Cévennes_ (Villefranche,
1760); H. M. Baird, _The Huguenots and the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes_ (2 vols., London, 1895), and other literature dealing with the
Camisards.

LA PORTE, a city and the county seat of La Porte county, Indiana, U.S.A., 12 m. S. of Lake Michigan and about 60 m. S.E. of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 7126; (1900) 7113 (1403 foreign-born); (1910) 10,525. It is served by the Lake Erie & Western, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the Père Marquette, the Chicago, South Bend & Northern Indiana (electric), and the Chicago-New York Electric Air Line railways. La Porte lies in the midst of a fertile agricultural region, and the shipment of farm and orchard products is one of its chief industries. There are also numerous manufactures. La Porte's situation in the heart of a region of beautiful lakes (including Clear, Pine and Stone lakes) has given it a considerable reputation as a summer resort. The lakes furnish a large supply of clear ice, which is shipped to the Chicago markets. La Porte was settled in 1830, laid out in 1833, incorporated as a town in 1835, and first chartered as a city in 1852.

LAPPA, an island directly opposite the inner harbour of Macao, the distance across being from 1 to 1½ m. It is a station of the Chinese imperial maritime customs which collects duties on vessels trading between China and the Portuguese colony of Macao. The arrangement is altogether abnormal, and was consented to by the Portuguese government in 1887 to assist the Chinese authorities in the suppression of opium smuggling. A similar arrangement prevails at the British colony of Hong-Kong, where the Chinese customs station is Kowloon. In both cases the customs stations levy duties on vessels entering and leaving the foreign port in lieu of levying them, as ought to be done, on entering or leaving a Chinese port.

LAPPARENT, ALBERT AUGUSTE COCHON DE (1839-1908), French geologist, was born at Bourges on the 30th of December 1839. After studying at the École Polytechnique from 1858 to 1860 he became _ingénieur au corps des mines_, and took part in drawing up the geological map of France; and in 1875 he was appointed professor of geology and mineralogy at the Catholic Institute, Paris. In 1879 he prepared an important memoir for the geological survey of France on _Le Pays de Bray_, a subject on which he had already published several memoirs, and in 1880 he served as president of the French Geological Society. In 1881-1883 he published his _Traité de géologie_ (5th ed., 1905), the best European text-book of stratigraphical geology. His other works include _Cours de minéralogie_ (1884, 3rd ed., 1899), _La Formation des combustibles minéraux_ (1886), _Le Niveau de la mer et ses variations_ (1886), _Les Tremblements de terre_ (1887), _La Géologie en chemin de fer_ (1888), _Précis de minéralogie_ (1888), _Le Siècle du fer_ (1890), _Les Anciens Glaciers_ (1893), _Leçons de géographie physique_ (1896), _Notions générales sur l'écorce terrestre_ (1897), _Le Globe terrestre_ (1899), and _Science et apologétique_ (1905). With Achille Delesse he was for many years editor of the _Révue de géologie_ and contributed to the _Extraits de géologie_, and he joined with A. Potier in the geological surveys undertaken in connexion with the Channel Tunnel proposals. He died in Paris on the 5th of May 1908.

LAPPENBERG, JOHANN MARTIN (1794-1865), German historian, was born on the 30th of July 1794 at Hamburg, where his father, Valentin Anton Lappenberg (1759-1819), held an official position. He studied medicine, and afterwards history, at Edinburgh. He continued to study history in London, and at Berlin and Göttingen, graduating as doctor of laws at Göttingen in 1816. In 1820 he was sent by the Hamburg senate as resident minister to the Prussian court. In 1823 he became keeper of the Hamburg archives; an office in which he had the fullest opportunities for the laborious and critical research work upon which his reputation as an historian rests. He retained this post until 1863, when a serious affection of the eyes compelled him to resign. In 1850 he represented Hamburg in the German parliament at Frankfort, and bis death took place at Hamburg on the 28th of November 1865. Lappenberg's most important work is his _Geschichte von England_, which deals with the history of England from the earliest times to 1154, and was published in two volumes at Hamburg in 1834-1837. It has been translated into English by B. Thorpe as _History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings_ (London 1845, and again 1881), and _History of England under the Norman Kings_ (Oxford, 1857), and has been continued in three additional volumes from 1154 to 1509 by R. Pauli. His other works deal mainly with the history of Hamburg, and include _Hamburgische Chroniken in Niedersächsischer Sprache_ (Hamburg, 1852-1861); _Geschichtsquellen des Erzstiftes und der Stadt Bremen_ (Bremen, 1841); _Hamburgisches Urkundenbuch_ (Hamburg, 1842); _Urkundliche Geschichte des Hansischen Stahlhofes zu London_ (Hamburg, 1851); _Hamburgische Rechtsalterthümer_ (Hamburg, 1845); and _Urkundliche Geschichte des Ursprunges der deutschen Hanse_ (Hamburg, 1830), a continuation of the work of G. F. Sartorius. For the _Monumenta Germaniae historica_ he edited the _Chronicon_ of Thietmar of Merseburg, the _Gesta Hammenburgensis ecclesiae pontificum_ of Adam of Bremen and the _Chronica Slavorum_ of Helmold, with its continuation by Arnold of Lübeck. Lappenberg, who was a member of numerous learned societies in Europe, wrote many other historical works.

See E. H. Meyer, _Johann Martin Lappenberg_ (Hamburg, 1867); and R.
Pauli in the _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_, Band xvii. (Leipzig,
1883).

LAPRADE, PIERRE MARTIN VICTOR RICHARD DE (1812-1883), known as VICTOR DE LAPRADE, French poet and critic, was born on the 13th of January 1812 at Montbrison, in the department of the Loire. He came of a modest provincial family. After completing his studies at Lyons, he produced in 1839 a small volume of religious verse, _Les Parfums de Madeleine_. This was followed in 1840 by _La Colère de Jésus_, in 1841 by the religious fantasy of _Psyché_, and in 1844 by _Odes et poèmes_. In 1845 Laprade visited Italy on a mission of literary research, and in 1847 he was appointed professor of French literature at Lyons. The French Academy, by a single vote, preferred Émile Augier at the election in 1857, but in the following year Laprade was chosen to fill the chair of Alfred de Musset. In 1861 he was removed from his post at Lyons owing to the publication of a political satire in verse (_Les Muses d'État_), and in 1871 took his seat in the National Assembly on the benches of the Right. He died on the 13th of December 1883. A statue has been raised by his fellow-townsmen at Montbrison. Besides those named above, Laprade's poetical works include _Poèmes évangéliques_ (1852), _Idylles héroïques_ (1858), _Les Voix de silence_ (1864), _Pernette_ (1868), _Poèmes civiles_ (1873), _Le Livre d'un père_ (1877), _Varia_ and _Livre des adieux_ (1878-1879). In prose he published, in 1840, _Des habitudes intellectuelles de l'avocat_. _Questions d'art et de morale_ appeared in 1861, succeeded by _Le Sentiment de la nature, avant le Christianisme_ in 1866, and _Chez les modernes_ in 1868, _Éducation libérale_ in 1873. The material for these books had in some cases been printed earlier, after delivery as a lecture. He also contributed articles to the _Revue des deux mondes_ and the _Revue de Paris_. No writer represents more perfectly than Laprade the admirable genius of French provincial life, its homely simplicity, its culture, its piety and its sober patriotism. As a poet he belongs to the school of Chateaubriand and Lamartine. Devoted to the best classical models, inspired by a sense of the ideal, and by worship of nature as revealing the divine--gifted, too, with a full faculty of expression--he lacked only fire and passion in the equipment of a romantic poet. But the want of these, and the pressure of a certain chilly facility and of a too conscious philosophizing have prevented him from reaching the first rank, or from even attaining the popularity due to his high place in the second. Only in his patriotic verse did he shake himself clear from these trammels. Speaking generally, he possessed some of the qualities, and many of the defects, of the English Lake School. Laprade's prose criticisms must be ranked high. Apart from his classical and metaphysical studies, he was widely read in the literatures of Europe, and built upon the groundwork of a naturally correct taste. His dislike of irony and scepticism probably led him to underrate the product of the 18th century, and there are signs of a too fastidious dread of Philistinism. But a constant love of the best, a joy in nature and a lofty patriotism are not less evident than in his poetry. Few writers of any nation have fixed their minds so steadily on whatsoever things are pure, and lovely and of good report.

See also Edmond Biré, _Victor de Laprade, sa vie et ses oeuvres_. (C.)

LAPSE (Lat. _lapsus_, a slip or departure), in law, a term used in several senses. (1) In ecclesiastical law, when a patron has neglected to present to a void benefice within six months next after the avoidance, the right of presentation is said to lapse. In such case the patronage or right of presentation devolves from the neglectful patron to the bishop as ordinary, to the metropolitan as superior and to the sovereign as patron paramount. (2) The failure of a testamentary disposition in favour of any person, by reason of the decease of its object in the testator's lifetime, is termed a lapse. See LEGACY, WILL.

LAPWING (O.Eng. _hleápewince_ = "one who turns about in running or flight"),[1] a bird, the _Tringa vanellus_ of Linnaeus and the _Vanellus vulgaris_ or _V. cristatus_ of modern ornithologists. In the temperate parts of the Old World this species is perhaps the most abundant of the plovers, _Charadriidae_, breeding in almost every suitable place from Ireland to Japan--the majority migrating towards winter to southern countries, as the Punjab, Egypt and Barbary--though in the British Islands some are always found at that season. As a straggler it has occurred within the Arctic Circle (as on the Varanger Fjord in Norway), as well as in Iceland and even Greenland; while it not unfrequently appears in Madeira and the Azores. Conspicuous as the strongly contrasted colours of its plumage and its very peculiar flight make it, it is remarkable that it maintains its ground when so many of its allies have been almost exterminated, for the lapwing is the object perhaps of greater persecution than any other European bird that is not a plunderer. Its eggs are the well-known "plovers' eggs" of commerce,[2] and the bird, wary and wild at other times of the year, in the breeding-season becomes easily approachable, and is shot to be sold in the markets for "golden plover." Its growing scarcity in Great Britain was very perceptible until the various acts for the protection of wild birds were passed. It is now abundant and is of service both for the market and to agriculture. What seems to be the secret of the lapwing holding its position is the adaptability of its nature to various kinds of localities. It will find sustenance equally on the driest of soils as on the fattest pastures; upland and fen, arable and moorland, are alike to it, provided only the ground be open enough. The wailing cry[3] and the frantic gestures of the cock bird in the breeding-season will tell any passer-by that a nest or brood is near; but, unless he knows how to look for it, nothing save mere chance will enable him to find it. The nest is a slight hollow in the ground, wonderfully inconspicuous even when deepened, as is usually the case, by incubation, and the black-spotted olive eggs (four in number) are almost invisible to the careless or untrained eye. The young when first hatched are clothed with mottled down, so as closely to resemble a stone, and to be overlooked as they squat motionless on the approach of danger. At a distance the plumage of the adult appears to be white and black in about equal proportions, the latter predominating above; but on closer examination nearly all the seeming black is found to be a bottle-green gleaming with purple and copper; the tail-coverts, both above and below, are of a bright bay colour, seldom visible in flight. The crest consists of six or eight narrow and elongated feathers, turned slightly upwards at the end, and is usually carried in a horizontal position, extending in the cock beyond the middle of the back; but it is capable of being erected so as to become nearly vertical. Frequenting parts of the open country so very divergent in character, and as remarkable for the peculiarity of its flight as for that of its cry, the lapwing is far more often observed in nearly all parts of the British Islands than any other of the group Limicolae. The peculiarity of its flight seems due to the wide and rounded wings it possesses, the steady and ordinarily somewhat slow flapping of which impels the body at each stroke with a manifest though easy jerk. Yet on occasion, as when performing its migrations, or even its almost daily transits from one feeding-ground to another, and still more when being pursued by a falcon, the speed with which it moves through the air is very considerable. On the ground this bird runs nimbly, and is nearly always engaged in searching for its food, which is wholly animal.

Allied to the lapwing are several forms that have been placed by ornithologists in the genera _Hoplopterus_, _Chettusia_, _Lobivanellus_, _Defilippia_. In some of them the hind toe, which has already ceased to have any function in the lapwing, is wholly wanting. In others the wings are armed with a tubercle or even a sharp spur on the carpus. Few have any occipital crest, but several have the face ornamented by the outgrowth of a fleshy lobe or lobes. With the exception of North America, they are found in most parts of the world, but perhaps the greater number in Africa. Europe has three species--_Hoplopterus spinosus_, the spur-winged plover, and _Chettusia gregaria_ and _C. leucura_; but the first and last are only stragglers from Africa and Asia. (A. N.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Skeat, _Etym_. Dict. (1898), _s.v_. Caxton in 1481 has
"lapwynches" (_Reynard the Fox_, cap. 27). The first part of the word
is from _hleápan_, to leap; the second part is "wink" (O.H.G.
_winchan_, Ger. _wanken_, to waver). Popular etymology has given the
word its present form, as if it meant "wing-flapper," from "lap," a
fold or flap of a garment.

[2] There is a prevalent belief that many of the eggs sold as
"plovers'" are those of rooks, but no notion can be more absurd,
since the appearance of the two is wholly unlike. Those of the
redshank, of the golden plover (to a small extent), and enormous
numbers of those of the black-headed gull, and in certain places of
some of the terns are, however, sold as lapwings', having a certain
similarity of shell to the latter, and a difference of flavour only
to be detected by a fine palate.

[3] This sounds like _pee-weet_, with some variety of intonation.
Hence the names peewit, peaseweep and teuchit, commonly applied in
some parts of Britain to this bird--though the first is that by which
one of the smaller gulls, _Larus ridibundus_ (see GULL), is known in
the districts it frequents. In Sweden _Vipa_, in Germany _Kiebitz_,
in Holland _Kiewiet_, and in France _Dixhuit_, are names of the
lapwing, given to it from its usual cry. Other English names are
green plover and hornpie--the latter from its long hornlike crest and
pied plumage. The lapwing's conspicuous crest seems to have been the
cause of a common blunder among English writers of the middle ages,
who translated the Latin word _Upupa_, property hoopoe, by lapwing,
as being the crested bird with which they were best acquainted. In
like manner other writers of the same or an earlier period latinized
lapwing by _Egrettides_ (plural), and rendered that again into
English as egrets--the tuft of feathers misleading them also. The
word _Vanellus_ is from _vannus_, the fan used for winnowing corn,
and refers to the audible beating of the bird's wings.

LAPWORTH, CHARLES (1842- ), English geologist, was born at Faringdon in Berkshire on the 30th of September 1842. He was educated partly in the village of Buckland in the same county, and afterwards in the training college at Culham, near Oxford (1862-1864). He was then appointed master in a school connected with the Episcopal church at Galashiels, where he remained eleven years. Geology came to absorb all his leisure time, and he commenced to investigate the Silurian rocks of the Southern Uplands, and to study the graptolites and other fossils which mark horizons in the great series of Lower Palaeozoic rocks. His first paper on the Lower Silurian rocks of Galashiels was published in 1870, and from that date onwards he continued to enrich our knowledge of the southern uplands of Scotland until the publication by the Geological Society of his masterly papers on _The Moffat Series_ (1878) and _The Girvan Succession_ (1882). Meanwhile in 1875 he became an assistant master in the Madras College, St Andrews, and in 1881 professor of geology and mineralogy (afterwards geology and physiography) in the Mason College, now University of Birmingham. In 1882 he started work in the Durness-Eriboll district of the Scottish Highlands, and made out the true succession of the rocks, and interpreted the complicated structure which had baffled most of the previous observers. His results were published in "The Secret of the Highlands" (_Geol. Mag._, 1883). His subsequent work includes papers on the Cambrian rocks of Nuneaton and the Ordovician rocks of Shropshire. The term Ordovician was introduced by him in 1879 for the strata between the base of the Lower Llandovery formation and that of the Lower Arenig; and it was intended to settle the confusion arising from the use by some writers of Lower Silurian and by others of Upper Cambrian for the same set of rocks. The term Ordovician is now generally adopted. Professor Lapworth was elected F.R.S. in 1888, he received a royal medal in 1891, and was awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society in 1899. He was president of the Geological Society, 1902-1904. His _Intermediate Text-book of Geology_ was published in 1899.

See article, with portrait and bibliography, in _Geol. Mag._ (July
1901).

LAR, a city of Persia, capital of Laristan, in 27° 30´ N., 53° 58´ E., 180 m. from Shiraz and 75 from the coast at Bander Lingah. It stands at the foot of a mountain range in an extensive plain covered with palm trees, and was once a flourishing place, but a large portion is in ruins, and the population which early in the 18th century numbered 50,000 is reduced to 8000. There are still some good buildings, of which the most prominent are the old bazaar consisting of four arcades each 180 ft. long, 14 broad and 22 high, radiating from a domed centre 30 ft. high, an old stone mosque and many cisterns. The crest of a steep limestone hill immediately behind the town and rising 150 ft. above the plain is crowned by the ruins of a castle formerly deemed impregnable. Just below the castle is a well sunk 200 ft. in the rock. The tower-flanked mud wall which surrounds the town is for the most part in ruins.

LARA, western state of Venezuela, lying in the angle formed by the parting of the N. and N.E. ranges of the Cordillera de Mérida and extending N.E. with converging frontiers to the Caribbean. Pop. (1905 estimate) 272,252. The greater part of its surface is mountainous, with elevated fertile valleys which have a temperate climate. The Tocuyo river rises in the S.W. angle of the state and flows N.E. to the Caribbean with a total length of 287 m. A narrow-gauge railway, the "South-western," owned by British capitalists, runs from the port of Tucacas 55 m. S.W. to Barquisimeto by way of the Aroa copper-mining district. Lara produces wheat and other cereals, coffee, sugar, tobacco, neat cattle, sheep and various mineral ores, including silver, copper, iron, lead, bismuth and antimony. The capital, Barquisimeto, is one of the largest and most progressive of the inland cities of Venezuela. Carora is also prominent as a commercial centre. Tocuyo (pop. in 1891, 15,383), 40 m. S.W. of Barquisimeto, is an important commercial and mining town, over 2000 ft. above sea-level, in the midst of a rich agricultural and pastoral region. Yaritagua (pop. about 12,000), 20 m. E. of Barquisimeto, and 1026 ft. above the sea, is known for its cigar manufactories.

LARAISH (_El Araish_), a port in northern Morocco on the Atlantic coast in 35° 13´ N., 6° 9´ W., 43 m. by sea S. by W. of Tangier, picturesquely situated on the left bank of the estuary of the Wad Lekkus. Pop. 6000 to 7000. The river, being fairly deep inside the bar, made this a favourite port for the Salli rovers to winter in, but the quantity of alluvial soil brought down threatens to close the port. The town is well situated for defence, its walls are in fair condition, and it has ten forts, all supplied with old-fashioned guns. Traces of the Spanish occupation from 1610-1689 are to be seen in the towers whose names are given by Tissot as those of St Stephen, St James and that of the Jews, with the Castle of Our Lady of Europe, now the kasbah or citadel. The most remarkable feature of Laraish is its fine large market-place inside the town with a low colonnade in front of very small shops. The streets, though narrow and steep, are generally paved. Its chief exports are oranges, millet, dra and other cereals, goat-hair and skins, sheepskins, wool and fullers' earth. The wool goes chiefly to Marseilles. The annual value of the trade is from £400,000 to £500,000.

In 1780 all the Europeans in Laraish were expelled by Mohammed XVI., although in 1786 the monopoly of its trade had been granted to Holland, even its export of wheat. In 1787 the Moors were still building pirate vessels here, the timber for which came from the neighbouring forest of M'amora. Not far from the town are the remains of what is believed to be a Phoenician city, Shammish, mentioned by Idrisi, who makes no allusion to Laraish. It is not, however, improbable from a passage in Scylax that the site of the present town was occupied by a Libyan settlement. Tradition also connects Laraish with the garden of the Hesperides, '_Arasi_ being the Arabic for "pleasure-gardens," and the "golden apples" perhaps the familiar oranges.

LARAMIE, a city and the county-seat of Albany county, Wyoming, U.S.A., on the Laramie river, 57 m. by rail N.W. of Cheyenne. Pop. (1900) 8207, of whom 1280 were foreign-born; (1905) 7601; (1910) 8237. It is served by the Union Pacific and the Laramie, Hahn's Peak & Pacific railways, the latter extending from Laramie to Centennial (30 m.). The city is situated on the Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7165 ft., and is hemmed in on three sides by picturesque mountains. It has a public library, a United States Government building and hospitals, and is the seat of the university of Wyoming and of a Protestant Episcopal missionary bishopric. There is a state fish hatchery in the vicinity. The university (part of the public school system of the state) was founded in 1886, was opened in 1887, and embraces a College of Liberal Arts and Graduate School, a Normal School, a College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, an Agricultural Experiment Station (established by a Federal appropriation), a College of Engineering, a School of Music, a Preparatory School and a Summer School. Laramie is a supply and distributing centre for a live-stock raising and mining region--particularly coal mining, though gold, silver, copper and iron are also found. The Union Pacific Railroad Company has machine shops, repair shops and rolling mills at Laramie, and, a short distance S. of the city, ice-houses and a tie-preserving plant. The manufactures include glass, leather, flour, plaster and pressed brick, the brick being made from shale obtained in the vicinity. The municipality owns and operates the water-works; the water is obtained from large springs about 2½ m. distant. Laramie was settled in 1868, by people largely from New England, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, and was named in honour of Jacques Laramie, a French fur trader. It was first chartered as a city in 1868 by the legislature of Dakota, and was rechartered by the legislature of Wyoming in 1873.

LARBERT, a parish and town of Stirlingshire, Scotland. Pop. of parish (1901) 6500, of town, 1442. The town is situated on the Carron, 8 m. S. by E. of Stirling by the North British and Caledonian railways, the junction being an important station for traffic from the south by the West Coast route. Coal-mining is the chief industry. The principal buildings are the church, finely placed overlooking the river, the Stirling district asylum and the Scottish National Institution for imbecile children. In the churchyard is a monument to James Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, who was born and died at Kinnaird House, 2½ m. N.E. Two m. N. by W. are the ruins of Torwood Castle and the remains of Torwood forest, to which Sir William Wallace retired after his defeat at Falkirk (1298). Near "Wallace's oak," in which the patriot concealed himself, Donald Cargill (1619-1681), the Covenanter, excommunicated Charles II. and James, duke of York, in 1680. The fragment of an old round building is said to be the relic of one of the very few "brochs," or round towers, found in the Lowlands.

LARCENY (an adaptation of Fr. _larcin_, O. Fr. _larrecin_, from Lat. _latrocinium_, theft, _latio_, robber), the unlawful taking and carrying away of things personal, with intent to deprive the rightful owner of the same. The term _theft_, sometimes used as a synonym of larceny, is in reality a broader term, applying to all cases of depriving another of his property whether by removing or withholding it, and includes larceny, robbery, cheating, embezzlement, breach of trust, &c.

Larceny is, in modern legal systems, universally treated as a crime, but the conception of it as a crime is not one belonging to the earliest stage of law. To its latest period Roman law regarded larceny or theft (_furtum_) as a delict _prima facie_ pursued by a civil remedy--the _actio furti_ for a penalty, the _vindicatio_ or _condictio_ for the stolen property itself or its value. In later times, a criminal remedy to meet the graver crimes gradually grew up by the side of the civil, and in the time of Justinian the criminal remedy, where it existed, took precedence of the civil (_Cod._ iii. 8. 4). But to the last criminal proceedings could only be taken in serious cases, e.g. against stealers of cattle (_abigei_) or the clothes of bathers (_balnearii_). The punishment was death, banishment, or labour in the mines or on public works. In the main the Roman law coincides with the English law. The definition as given in the _Institutes_ (iv. 1. 1) is "furtum est contrectatio rei fraudulosa, vel ipsius rei, vel etiam ejus usus possessionisve," to which the _Digest_ (xlvii. 2. 1, 3) adds "lucri faciendi gratia." The earliest English definition, that of Bracton (150b), runs thus: "furtum est secundum leges contrectatio rei alienae fraudulenta cum animo furandi invito illo domino cujus res illa fuerit." Bracton omits the "lucri faciendi gratia" of the Roman definition, because in English law the motive is immaterial,[1] and the "usus ejus possessionisve," because the definition includes an intent to deprive the owner of his property permanently. The "animo furandi" and "invito domino" of Bracton's definition are expansions for the sake of greater clearness. They seem to have been implied in Roman law. _Furtum_ is on the whole a more comprehensive term than larceny. This difference no doubt arises from the tendency to extend the bounds of a delict and to limit the bounds of a crime. Thus it was _furtum_ (but it would not be theft at English common law) to use a deposit of pledge contrary to the wishes of the owner, to retain goods found, or to steal a human being, such as a slave or _filius familias_ (a special form of _furtum_ called _plagium_). The latter would be in English law an abduction under certain circumstances but not a theft. One of two married persons could not commit _furtum_ as against the other, but larceny may be so committed in England since the Married Women's Property Act 1882. As a _furtum_ was merely a delict, the _obligatio ex delicto_ could be extinguished by agreement between the parties; this cannot be done in England. In another direction English law is more considerate of the rights of third parties than was Roman. The thief can give a good title to stolen goods; in Roman law he could not do so, except in the single case of a _hereditas_ acquired by _usucapio_. The development of the law of _furtum_ at Rome is historically interesting, for even in its latest period is found a relic of one of the most primitive theories of law adopted by courts of justice: "They took as their guide the measure of vengeance likely to be exacted by an aggrieved person under the circumstances of the case" (Maine, _Ancient Law_, ch. x.). This explains the reason of the division of _furtum_ into _manifestum_ and _nec manifestum_. The manifest thief was one taken red-handed--"taken with the manner," in the language of old English law. The Twelve Tables denounced the punishment of death against the manifest thief, for that would be the penalty demanded by the indignant owner in whose place the judge stood. The severity of this penalty was afterwards mitigated by the praetor, who substituted for it the payment of quadruple the value of the thing stolen. The same penalty was also given by the praetor in case of theft from a fire or a wreck, or of prevention of search. The Twelve Tables mulcted the non-manifest thief in double the value of the thing stolen. The actions for penalties were in addition to the action for the stolen goods themselves or their value. The quadruple and double penalties still remain in the legislation of Justinian. The search for stolen goods, as it existed in the time of Gaius, was a survival of a period when the injured person was, as in the case of summons (_in jus vocatio_), his own executive officer. Such a search, by the Twelve Tables, might be conducted in the house of the supposed thief by the owner in person, naked except for a cincture, and carrying a platter in his hand, safeguards apparently against any possibility of his making a false charge by depositing some of his own property on his neighbour's premises. This mode of search became obsolete before the time of Justinian. Robbery (_bona vi rapta_) was violence added to _furtum_. By the _actio vi bonorum raptorum_ quadruple the value could be recovered if the action were brought within a year, only the value if brought after the expiration of a year. The quadruple value included the stolen thing itself, so that the penalty was in effect only a triple one. It was inclusive, and not cumulative, as in _furtum_.

In England theft or larceny appears to have been very early regarded by legislators as a matter calling for special attention. The pre-Conquest compilations of laws are full of provisions on the subject. The earlier laws appear to regard it as a delict which may be compounded for by payment. Considerable distinctions of person are made, both in regard to the owner and the thief. Thus, by the laws of Æthelberht, if a freeman stole from the king he was to restore ninefold, if from a freeman or from a dwelling, threefold. If a theow stole, he had only to make a twofold reparation. In the laws of Alfred ordinary theft was still only civil, but he who stole in a church was punished by the loss of his hand. The laws of Ina named as the penalty death or redemption according to the wer-gild of the thief. By the same laws the thief might be slain if he fled or resisted. Gradually the severity of the punishment increased. By the laws of Æthelstan death in a very cruel form was inflicted. At a later date the _Leges Henrici Primi_ placed a thief in the king's mercy, and his lands were forfeited. Putting out the eyes and other kinds of mutilation were sometimes the punishment. The principle of severity continued down to the 19th century, and until 1827 theft or larceny of certain kinds remained capital. Both before and after the Conquest local jurisdiction over thieves was a common franchise of lords of manors, attended with some of the advantages of modern summary jurisdiction.