LURAY CAVERN MACABRE
LURCH McADAM, JOHN LOUDON
LURGAN MACAIRE
LURIA, ISAAC BEN SOLOMON McALESTER
LURISTAN MACALPINE, JOHN
LUSATIA MACAO
LUSHAI HILLS MACAQUE
LUSIGNAN MACARONI
LUSSIN MACARONICS
LUSTRATION MACARSCA
LUTE MACARTNEY, GEORGE MACARTNEY
LUTHARDT, CHRISTOPH ERNST MACASSAR
LUTHER, MARTIN MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY
LUTHERANS MACAW
LUTHER LEAGUE MACBETH
LUTON MACCABEES
LUTSK MACCABEES, BOOKS OF
LUTTERWORTH MacCARTHY, DENIS FLORENCE
LUTTRELL, HENRY M'CARTHY, JUSTIN
LÜTTRINGHAUSEN McCHEYNE, ROBERT MURRAY
LÜTZEN McCLELLAN, GEORGE BRINTON
LÜTZOW, ADOLF McCLERNAND, JOHN ALEXANDER
LUXEMBURG, DE MONTMORENCY-B. MACCLESFIELD, CHARLES GERARD
LUXEMBURG (district) MACCLESFIELD
LUXEMBURG (town) M'CLINTOCK, SIR FRANCIS LEOPOLD
LUXEUIL-LES-BAINS McCLINTOCK, JOHN
LUXOR McCLOSKEY, JOHN
LUXORIUS M'CLURE, SIR ROBERT JOHN LE MESURIER
LUYNES MacCOLL, MALCOLM
LUZÁN DE SUELVES, IGNACIO McCOMBIE, WILLIAM
LUZ-SAINT-SAUVEUR McCOOK, ALEXANDER McDOWELL
LUZZATTI, LUIGI MacCORMAC, SIR WILLIAM
LUZZATTO, MOSES HAYIM McCORMICK, CYRUS HALL
LUZZATTO, SAMUEL DAVID McCOSH, JAMES
LYALL, SIR ALFRED COMYN McCOY, SIR FREDERICK
LYALL, EDNA M'CRIE, THOMAS
LYALLPUR MACCULLAGH, JAMES
LYCAEUS MACCULLOCH, HORATIO
LYCANTHROPY McCULLOCH, HUGH
LYCAON M'CULLOCH, SIR JAMES
LYCAONIA MACCULLOCH, JOHN
LYCEUM M'CULLOCH, JOHN RAMSAY
LYCIA McCULLOUGH, JOHN EDWARD
LYCK MACCUNN, HAMISH
LYCOPHRON MACDONALD, FLORA
LYCOPODIUM MACDONALD, GEORGE
LYCOSURA MACDONALD, SIR HECTOR ARCHIBALD
LYCURGUS (Spartan) MACDONALD, JACQUES ÉTIENNE ALEXANDRE
LYCURGUS (Attic orator) MACDONALD, SIR JOHN ALEXANDER
LYCURGUS (Greek leader) MACDONALD, JOHN SANDFIELD
LYDD MACDONALD, LAWRENCE
LYDENBURG MACDONELL, JAMES
LYDFORD MACDONNELL, ALESTAIR RUADH
LYDGATE, JOHN MACDONNELL, SORLEY BOY
LYDIA MACDONOUGH, THOMAS
LYDUS, JOANNES LAURENTIUS MacDOWELL, EDWARD ALEXANDER
LYE McDOWELL, IRVIN
LYELL, SIR CHARLES MACDUFF
LYLY, JOHN McDUFFIE, GEORGE
LYME REGIS MACE
LYMINGTON MACEDO, JOSÉ AGOSTINHO DE
LYMPH and LYMPH FORMATION MACEDONIA
LYMPHATIC SYSTEM MACEDONIAN EMPIRE
LYNCH, PATRICIO MACEDONIUS
LYNCHBURG MACEIÓ
LYNCH LAW McENTEE, JERVIS
LYNDHURST, JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY MACER, AEMILIUS
LYNDSAY, SIR DAVID MACERATA
LYNEDOCH, THOMAS GRAHAM MACFARREN, SIR GEORGE ALEXANDER
LYNN McGEE, THOMAS D'ARCY
LYNTON and LYNMOUTH McGIFFERT, ARTHUR CUSHMAN
LYNX McGILLIVRAY, ALEXANDER
LYON, MARY MASON MACGILLIVRAY, WILLIAM
LYON, NATHANIEL MacGREGOR, JOHN
LYONNESSE MACH, ERNST
LYONS, EDMUND LYONS MACHAERODUS
LYONS, RICHARD BICKERTON LYONS MACHALE, JOHN
LYONS (city of France) MACHAULT D'ARNOUVILLE, BAPTISTE DE
LYONS, COUNCILS OF MACHAUT, GUILLAUME DE
LYRA MACHIAVELLI, NICCOLÒ
LYRE MACHICOLATION
LYRE-BIRD MACHINE
LYRICAL POETRY MACHINE-GUN
LYSANDER MACÍAS
LYSANIAS MACINTOSH, CHARLES
LYSIAS MACKAY, CHARLES
LYSIMACHUS MACKAY, HUGH
LYSIPPUS MACKAY, JOHN WILLIAM
LYSIS OF TARENTUM MACKAY
LYSISTRATUS McKEESPORT
LYTE, HENRY FRANCIS McKEES ROCKS
LYTHAM MACKENNAL, ALEXANDER
LYTTELTON, GEORGE LYTTELTON MACKENZIE, SIR ALEXANDER
LYTTELTON MACKENZIE, ALEXANDER
LYTTON, EDWARD GEORGE BULWER-LYTTON MACKENZIE, SIR ALEXANDER CAMPBELL
LYTTON, EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON MACKENZIE, SIR GEORGE
M MACKENZIE, HENRY
MAAS, JOSEPH McKENZIE, SIR JOHN
MAASIN MACKENZIE, SIR MORELL
MAASSLUIS MACKENZIE, WILLIAM LYON
MAASTRICHT MACKENZIE (river of Canada)
MABILLON, JOHN MACKEREL
MABINOGION McKIM, CHARLES FOLLEN
MABUSE, JAN MACKINAC ISLAND
MACABEBE
LURAY CAVERN, a large cave in Page county, Virginia, U.S.A., 39° 35´ N.
and 78° 17´ W., near the village of Luray, on the Norfork & Western
railway. The valley, here 10 m. wide, extends from the Blue Ridge to the
Massanutton Mountain. The ridges lie in vast folds and wrinkles; and
elevations in the valley are often found to be pierced by erosion. Cave
Hill, 300 ft. above the water-level, had long been an object of local
interest on account of its pits and oval hollows or sink-holes, through
one of which, on the 13th of August 1878, Andrew J. Campbell and others
entered, thus discovering the cavern now described.
The Luray cavern does not date beyond the Tertiary period, though carved
from the Silurian limestone. At some period, long subsequent to its
original excavation, and after many large stalactites had grown, it was
completely filled with glacial mud charged with acid, whereby the
dripstone was eroded into singularly grotesque shapes. After the mud had
been mostly removed by flowing water, these eroded forms remained amid
the new growths. To this contrast may be ascribed some of the most
striking scenes in the cave. The many and extraordinary monuments of
aqueous energy include massive columns wrenched from their place in the
ceiling and prostrate on the floor; the Hollow Column, 40 ft. high and
30 ft. in diameter, standing erect, but pierced by a tubular passage
from top to bottom; the Leaning Column nearly as large, undermined and
tilting like the campanile of Pisa; the Organ, a cluster of stalactites
in the chamber known as the Cathedral; besides a vast bed of
disintegrated carbonates left by the whirling flood in its retreat
through the great space called the Elfin Ramble.
The stalactitic display exceeds that of any other cavern known. The old
material is yellow, brown or red; and its wavy surface often shows
layers like the gnarled grain of costly woods. The new stalactites
growing from the old, and made of hard carbonates that had already once
been used, are usually white as snow, though often pink, blue or
amber-coloured. The Empress Column is a stalagmite 35 ft. high,
rose-coloured, and elaborately draped. The double column, named from
Professors Henry and Baird, is made of two fluted pillars side by side,
the one 25 and the other 60 ft. high, a mass of snowy alabaster.
Several stalactites in the Giant Hall exceed 50 ft. in length. The
smaller pendants are innumerable; in the canopy above the Imperial
Spring it is estimated that 40,000 are visible at once.
The "cascades" are wonderful formations like foaming cataracts caught in
mid-air and transformed into milk-white or amber alabaster. The
Chalcedony Cascade displays a variety of colours. Brand's Cascade, the
finest of all, is 40 ft. high and 30 ft. wide, and is unsullied and
wax-like white, each ripple and braided rill seeming to have been
polished.
The Swords of the Titans are monstrous blades, eight in number, 50 ft.
long, 3 to 8 ft. wide, hollow, 1 to 2 ft. thick, but drawn down to an
extremely thin edge, and filling the cavern with tones like tolling
bells when struck heavily by the hand. Their origin and also that of
certain so-called scarfs and blankets is from carbonates deposited by
water trickling down a sloping and corrugated surface. Sixteen of these
alabaster scarfs hang side by side in Hovey's Balcony, three white and
fine as crape shawls, thirteen striated like agate with every shade of
brown, and all perfectly translucent. Down the edge of each a tiny rill
glistens like silver, and this is the ever-plying shuttle that weaves
the fairy fabric.
[Illustration: Luray Cavern. Scale 500 ft. to the inch.
1. The Vestibule. 19. Chalcedony Cascade.
2. Washington's Pillar. 20. Coral Spring.
3. Flower Garden. 21. The Dragon.
4. Amphitheatre. 22. Bootjack Alley.
5. Natural Bridge. 23. Scaly Column.
6. Fish Market. 24. Lost Blanket.
7. Crystal Spring. 25. Helen's Scarf.
8. Proserpine's Pillar. 26. Chapman's Lake.
9. The Spectral Column. 27. Broaddus Lake.
10. Hovey's Balcony. 28. Castles on the Rhine.
11. Oberon's Grot. 29. Imperial Spring.
12. Titania's Veil. 30. The Skeleton.
13. Saracen's Tent. 31. The Twin Lakes.
14. The Organ. 32. The Engine Room.
15. Tower of Babel. 33. Miller's Room.
16. Empress Column. 34. Hawes Cabinet.
17. Hollow Column. 35. Specimen Avenue.
18. Henry-Baird Column. 36. Proposed Exit.]
Streams and true springs are absent, but there are hundreds of basins,
varying from 1 to 50 ft. in diameter, and from 6 in. to 15 ft. in depth.
The water in them is exquisitely pure, except as it is impregnated by
the carbonate of lime, which often forms concretions, called according
to their size, pearls, eggs and snowballs. A large one is known as the
cannon ball. On fracture these spherical growths are found to be
radiated in structure.
Calcite crystals, drusy, feathery or fern-like, line the sides and
bottom of every water-filled cavity, and indeed constitute the
substance of which they are made. Variations of level at different
periods are marked by rings, ridges and ruffled margins. These are
strongly marked about Broaddus Lake and the curved ramparts of the
Castles on the Rhine. Here also are polished stalagmites, a rich buff
slashed with white, and others, like huge mushrooms, with a velvety
coat of red, purple or olive-tinted crystals. In some of the smaller
basins it sometimes happens that, when the excess of carbonate acid
escapes rapidly, there is formed, besides the crystal bed below, a
film above, shot like a sheet of ice across the surface. One pool 12
ft. wide is thus covered so as to show but a third of its surface. The
quantity of water in the cavern varies greatly at different seasons.
Hence some stalactites have their tips under water long enough to
allow tassels of crystals to grow on them, which, in a drier season,
are again coated over with stalactitic matter; and thus singular
distortions are occasioned. Contiguous stalactites are often inwrapped
thus till they assume an almost globular form, through which by making
a section the primary tubes appear. Twig-like projections, to which
the term _helictite_ has been applied by the present writer, are met
with in certain portions of the cave, and are interesting by their
strange and uncouth contortions. Their presence is due to lateral
outgrowths of crystals shooting from the side of a growing stalactite,
or to deflections caused by currents of air, or to the existence of a
diminutive fungus peculiar to the locality and designated from its
habitat _Mucor stalactitis_. The Toy-Shop is an amusing collection of
these freaks of nature.
The dimensions of the various chambers included in Luray Cavern cannot
easily be stated, on account of the great irregularity of their
outlines. Their size may be seen from the diagram. But it should be
understood that there are several tiers of galleries, and the vertical
depth from the highest to the lowest is 260 ft. The large tract of land
owned by the Luray Caverns Corporations covers all possible modes of
entrance.
The waters of this cavern appear to be entirely destitute of life; and
the existing fauna comprises only a few bats, rats, mice, spiders, flies
and small centipedes. When the cave was first entered, the floor was
covered with thousands of tracks of raccoons, wolves and bears--most of
them probably made long ago, as impressions made in the tenacious clay
that composes most of the cavern floor would remain unchanged for
centuries. Layers of excrementitious matter appear, and also many small
bones, along with a few large ones, all of existing species. The traces
of human occupation are pieces of charcoal, flints, moccasin tracks and
a single skeleton embedded in stalagmite in one of the chasms,
estimated, from the present rate of stalagmitic growth, to have lain
where found for not more than five hundred years.
The temperature is uniformly 54° Fahr., coinciding with that of Mammoth
Cave, Kentucky. The air is very pure, and the avenues are not
uncomfortably damp. The portions open to the public are now lighted by
electric lamps. The registered number of visitors in 1906 was 18,000. A
unique and highly successful experiment merits mention, by which the
cool pure air of Luray Cavern is forced through all the rooms of the
Limair sanatorium erected in 1901, by Mr T. C. Northcott, president of
the Luray Caverns Corporation, on the summit of Cave Hill. Tests made
for several successive years by means of culture media and sterile
plates, demonstrated the perfect bacteriologic purity of the air, first
drawn into the caverns through myriads of rocky crevices that served as
natural filters, then further cleansed by floating over the transparent
springs and pools, and finally supplied to the inmates of the
sanatorium.
For a full description see an article by Dr G. L. Hunner, of Johns
Hopkins University, in the _Popular Science Monthly_ for April 1904.
(H. C. H.)
LURCH, a word with several meanings, the etymological relationships of
which are obscure. The chief uses which survive are--(1) in the phrase
"to leave in the lurch," to abandon some one, to leave him in a position
of great difficulty; (2) a stagger, sudden leaning over, originally a
nautical expression of a sudden "list" made by a ship; (3) the name of a
dog, the "lurcher" used by poachers, properly a cross between a sheepdog
or collie and a greyhound. In (1) "lurch" is the name of a game, of
which nothing is known (it is supposed to have resembled backgammon),
and also of a state of the score in various games, in which the loser
either scores nothing or is beaten by very heavy points. In this sense
the term is practically obsolete. It was taken from Fr. _lourche_,
connected with many German forms, now only dialectical such as
_Lortsch_, _Lurtsch_, _Lorz_, _Lurz_, all for some kind of game, but
also meaning left-hand, wrong, which the _New English Dictionary_ thinks
is the origin of the word, it being first used as a term in gambling. In
(2) "lurch" occurs first in the form "lee-lurches," sudden rolls a ship
takes to leeward in a heavy sea, which may be a corruption of
"lee-latch," defined in Smyth's _Sailor's Word Book_ as dropping to
leeward of the course. In (3) "lurch" is probably another form of
"lurk," to lie in wait for, watch stealthily, hence to pilfer, steal.
LURGAN, a market-town of Co. Armagh, Ireland, well situated on high
ground overlooking Lough Neagh a few miles to the north; 20 m. S.W. of
Belfast by the Great Northern railway. Pop. (1901) 11,782. The parish
church of Shankill (this parish including Lurgan) has a finely
proportioned tower. Contiguous to the town is Lurgan Castle, a fine
modern Elizabethan structure, the seat of Lord Lurgan. Lurgan is famed
for its diapers, and the linen trade is of the first importance, but
there are also tobacco factories and coach factories. It is governed by
an urban district council. Lurgan was founded by William Brownlow, to
whom a grant of the town was made by James I. In 1619 it consisted of
forty-two houses, all inhabited by English settlers. It was burned by
the insurgents in 1641, and again by the troops of James II. After its
restoration in 1690 a patent for a market and fair was obtained.
LURIA, ISAAC BEN SOLOMON (1534-1572), Jewish mystic, was born in
Jerusalem. From his German descent he was surnamed _Ashkenazi_ (the
German), and we find that epithet applied to him in a recently
discovered document of date 1559. In that year Isaac Luria was living in
Cairo and trading as a spice merchant with his headquarters in
Alexandria. He had come to Egypt as a boy after his father's death, and
was brought up by his wealthy maternal uncle Mordecai Francis. The boy,
according to the legends which soon grew round his life, was a
"wonder-child," and early displayed marvellous capacity. He married as a
lad of fifteen, his bride being his cousin. For some time he continued
his studies; later on when engaged in business there was no break in
this respect. Two years after his marriage he became possessed of a copy
of the Kabbalistic "Bible"--the _Zohar_ of Moses de Léon (q.v.). In
order to meditate on the mystic lore he withdrew to a hut by the Nile,
returning home for the Sabbath. Luria afterwards gave to the Sabbath a
mystic beauty such as it had never before possessed. Thus passed several
years; he was still young, but his new mode of life produced its effects
on a man of his imagination and saintly piety. He became a visionary.
Elijah, who had been his godfather in his babyhood, now paid him
frequent visits, initiating him into sublime truths. By night Luria's
soul ascended to heaven and conversed with celestial teachers who had
once been men of renown on earth.
In 1566 at earliest Luria removed to Safed. This Palestinian town was in
the 16th century the headquarters of the Kabbala. A large circle of
Talmudists lived there; at their head Joseph Qaro, then over eighty
years of age. Qaro's son married Luria's daughter, and Qaro rejoiced at
the connexion, for he had a high opinion of Luria's learning. Mysticism
is often the expression of a revolt against authority, but in Luria's
case mysticism was not divorced from respect for tradition. After his
arrival at Safed Luria lived at most six years, and died in 1572. But
these years were momentous for Judaism. He established an extraordinary
reputation; his personality had a winning attractiveness; and he founded
a school of mystics who powerfully affected Judaism after the master's
death. The Holy Spirit, we are told, rested on him, drawn to him by the
usual means of the mystics--self-flogging, ablutions and penance. He had
wonderful gifts of insight, and spoke to the birds. Miracles abounded.
More soberly true is the statement that he went on long walks with
enthusiastic disciples, whom he taught without books. Luria himself
wrote no mystical works; what we know of his doctrines and habits comes
chiefly from his Boswell, Hayim Vital.
There was little of originality in Luria's doctrines; the theory of
emanations, the double belief in the process of the Divine Essence as
it were self-concentrating (_Zimzum_) and on the other hand as
expanding throughout creation; the philosophical "sceptism" which
regards God as unknowable but capable of direct intuition by
feeling--these were all common elements of mystical thought. Luria was
an inspirer of saintly conduct rather than an innovator in theories.
Not beliefs, he said, but believers need rebirth. As he rose in the
morning he prayed: "O God, grant that throughout this coming day I may
be able to love my neighbour as myself." Never would he retire to rest
until he had fulfilled his definite engagements to those who had
served him. Luria and his school altered the very look of the Jewish
Prayer Book. Prayer was his main prop. By it men became controllers of
the earthly world and reached God. He or his school introduced
innumerable ritual customs, some of them beautiful enough. On Sabbath
he dressed in white, wearing a four-fold garment to typify the four
letters of the Divine Name. The Sabbath was to him an actual cult. It
was a day of the most holy joy. Resuming the Talmudic idea of an
Over-soul present in every Israelite on the Sabbath, Luria and his
school made play with this Over-soul, fed it with spiritual and
material dainties and evolved an intricate maze of mystic ceremonial,
still observed by countless masses. Another strong point with Luria
was penance. The confessions of sin which he introduced descend to
minute ritual details and rise to the most exalted aspects of social
and spiritual life. He deprecated general confessions and demanded
that the individual must lay bare the recesses of his heart. Hayim
Vital reports that on his death-bed Luria said to his disciples: "Be
at peace with one another: bear with one another: and so be worthy of
my coming again to reveal to you what no mortal ear has heard before."
His mystic ceremonial became a guide to religious practice, and though
with this there came in much meaningless and even bewildering
formalism, yet the example of his life and character was a lasting
inspiration to saintliness.
See S. Schecher, _Studies in Judaism_, second series, pp. 251 seq.;
_Jewish Encyclopedia_, viii. 210; E. Worman in _Revue des Études
Juives_, lvii. 281. (I. A.)
LURISTAN, in the wider sense (as its name implies) the "Land of the
Lurs," namely that part of western Persia which is bounded by Turkish
territory on the west and extends for about 400 m. N.W.-S.E. from
Kermanshah to Fars with a breadth of 100 to 140 m. It is chiefly
mountainous, being intersected by numerous ranges running N.W.-S.E. The
central range has many summits which are almost within the line of
perpetual snow, rising to 13,000 ft. and more, and in it are the sources
of Persia's most important rivers, as the Zayendeh-rud, Jarahi, Karun,
Diz, Abi, Kerkheh. Between the higher ranges are many fertile plains and
low hilly districts, well watered but comparatively little cultivated in
consequence of intertribal feuds. The Lurs are thought to be aboriginal
Persians with a mixture of Semitic blood. Their language is a dialect of
Persian and does not differ materially from Kurdish. Outwardly they are
Mussulmans of the Shiah branch, but most of them show little veneration
for either Prophet or Koran, and the religion of some of them seems to
be a mixture of Ali-Illahism involving a belief in successive
incarnations combined with mysterious, ancient, heathen rites. The
northern part of Luristan, which was formerly known as Lurikuchik
(little Luristan), is inhabited by the Feili Lurs and these are divided
into the Pishkuh (cis-montane) Lurs in the east and Pushtkuh
(ultra-montane) Lurs in the west adjoining Turkish territory. They
number about 350,000. Little Luristan was governed by a race of
independent princes of the Khurshidi dynasty, and called atabegs, from
1155 to the beginning of the 17th century when the last atabeg, Shah
Verdi Khan, was removed by Shah Abbas I. and the government of the
province given to Husain Khan, the chief of a rival tribe, with the
title of vali in exchange for that of atabeg. The descendants of Husain
Khan have retained the title but now govern only the Pushtkuh Lurs, to
whom only the denomination of Feili is at present applied. The southern
part of Luristan was formerly known as Lur i Buzurg (great Luristan) and
is composed of the Bakhtiari division of the Arabistan province and the
districts of the Mamasennis and Kuhgilus which belong to Fars. The
Bakhtiaris number about 200,000, the others 40,000. Great Luristan was
an independent state under the Fazlevieh atabegs from 1160 until 1424,
and its capital was Idaj, now represented by mounds and ruins at Malamir
60 m. S.E. of Shushter.
LUSATIA (Ger. _Lausitz_), a name applied to two neighbouring districts
in Germany, Upper and Lower Lusatia, belonging now mainly to Prussia,
but partly to Saxony. The name is taken from the Lusitzi, a Slav tribe,
who inhabited Lower Lusatia in the 9th and 10th centuries.
In the earliest times Lower Lusatia reached from the Black Elster to the
Spree; its inhabitants, the Lusitzi, were conquered by the German king,
Henry the Fowler, and by the margrave Gero in the 10th century. Their
land was formed into a separate march, which for about three centuries
was sometimes attached to, and sometimes independent of, the margraviate
of Meissen, its rulers being occasionally called margraves of Lusatia.
In 1303 it was purchased by the margrave of Brandenburg, and after other
changes it fell in 1368 into the hands of the king of Bohemia, the
emperor Charles IV., who already possessed Upper Lusatia. During the
Hussite wars its people remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church. In
1469 they recognized Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, as their
sovereign, but in 1490 they came again under the rule of the Bohemian
king.
The district now known as Upper Lusatia was occupied by a Slav tribe, the
Milzeni, who like the Lusitzi, were subdued by Henry the Fowler early in
the 10th century. For about three centuries it was called Baudissin
(Bautzen), from the name of its principal fortress. In the 11th and 12th
centuries it was connected at different periods with Meissen, Poland and
Bohemia. Towards 1160 the emperor Frederick I. granted it to Ladislas,
king of Bohemia, and under this ruler and his immediate successors it was
largely colonized by German immigrants. In 1253 it passed to the margrave
of Brandenburg, and about the same time it was divided into an eastern
and a western part, Baudissin proper and Görlitz. In 1319 the former was
restored to Bohemia, which also recovered Görlitz in 1329. During the
14th century the nobles and the townsmen began to take part in the
government, and about this time Upper Lusatia was known as the district
of the six towns (_Sechsstädtelandes_), these being Bautzen, Görlitz,
Zittau, Löbau, Lauban and Kamenz. From 1377 to 1396 Görlitz was a
separate duchy ruled by John, a son of the emperor Charles IV., and, like
Lower Lusatia, Upper Lusatia owned the authority of Matthias Corvinus
from 1469 to 1490, both districts passing a little later with the
kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia to the German king, Ferdinand I. The "six
towns" were severely punished for their share in the war of the league of
Schmalkalden, and about this time the reformed teaching made very rapid
progress in Lusatia, the majority of the inhabitants becoming
Protestants. The name of Lusatia hitherto confined to Lower Lusatia, was
soon applied to both districts, the adjectives Upper and Lower being used
to distinguish them. In 1620, early in the Thirty Years' War, the two
Lusatias were conquered by the elector of Saxony, John George I., who was
allowed to keep them as the price of his assistance to the emperor
Ferdinand I. In 1635 by the treaty of Prague they were definitely
transferred from Bohemia to Saxony, although the emperor as king of
Bohemia retained a certain supremacy for the purpose of guarding the
rights and privileges of the Roman Catholics. They suffered much during
the wars of the 18th century. By the peace of Vienna (1815) the whole of
Lower Lusatia and part of Upper Lusatia were transferred from Saxony to
Prussia.
The area of the part of Upper Lusatia retained by Saxony was slightly
increased in 1845; it is now about 960 sq. m. In 1900 Lower Lusatia
contained 461,973 inhabitants, of whom 34,837 were Wends; the portion of
Upper Lusatia belonging to Prussia had 305,080 inhabitants, of whom
24,361 were Wends. There were 405,173 inhabitants, including 28,234
Wends, in Saxon Upper Lusatia. Laws relating to this district, after
passing through the Saxon parliament must be submitted to the Lusatian
diet at Bautzen. The chief towns of Upper Lusatia are Bautzen, Zittau,
Löbau, Kamenz, Görlitz, Rothenburg, Hoyerswerda and Lauban; in Lower
Lusatia they are Guben, Kottbus, Forst, Lübben and Spremberg. The
principal rivers are the Spree with its tributaries, the Black Elster
and the Neisse. Upper Lusatia is generally mountainous and picturesque,
Lower Lusatia is flat and sandy. The chief industries are linen weaving,
cloth making and coal mining.
For the history of Lusatia see the collections, _Scriptores rerum
Lusaticarum antiqui et recentiores_, edited by C. G. Hoffmann (4
vols., Leipzig and Bautzen, 1719); and _Scriptores rerum Lusaticarum_
(4 vols., Görlitz, 1839-1870). See also W. Lippert, _Wettiner und
Wittelsbacher sowie die Niederlausitz im 14 Jahrhundert_ (Dresden,
1894); T. Scheltz, _Gesamtgeschichte der Ober- und Niederlausitz_,
Band i. (Halle, 1847), Band ii. (Görlitz, 1882); J. G. Worbs,
_Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte des Markgraftums Niederlausitz_ (Lübben
1897); and J. A. E. Köhler, _Die Geschichte der Oberlausitz_ (Görlitz,
1867).
LUSHAI HILLS, a mountainous district of Eastern Bengal and Assam, south
of Cachar, on the border between Assam and Burma. Area, 7227 sq. m.;
pop. (1901) 82,434. The hills are for the most part covered with dense
bamboo jungle and rank undergrowth; but in the eastern portion, owing
probably to a smaller rainfall, open grass-covered slopes are found,
with groves of oak and pine interspersed with rhododendrons. These hills
are inhabited by the Lushais and cognate tribes, but the population is
extremely scanty. From the earliest known times the original inhabitants
were Kukis, and the Lushais were not heard of until 1840, when they
invaded the district from the north. Their first attack upon British
territory took place in November 1849, and after that date they proved
one of the most troublesome tribes on the north-east frontier of India;
but operations in 1890 resulted in the complete pacification of the
northern Lushai villages, and in 1892 the eastern Lushais were reduced
to order. The management of the South Lushai hill country was
transferred from Bengal to Assam in 1898. To obtain more efficient
control over the country the district has been divided into eighteen
circles, each in charge of an interpreter, through whom all orders are
transmitted to the chiefs. The Welsh Presbyterian Mission began work at
Aijal in 1897, and the people have shown unexpected readiness to accept
education. According to the census of 1901 the total number of Lushais
in Assam was 63,452.
See Colonel T. H. Lewin, _Wild Races of N.E. India_ (1870); _Lushai
Hills Gazetteer_ (Calcutta, 1906).
LUSIGNAN, the name of a family which sprang from Poitou[1] and
distinguished itself by its connexion with the kingdom of Jerusalem, and
still more by its long tenure of the kingdom of Cyprus (1192-1475). A
Hugh de Lusignan appears in the ill-fated crusade of 1100-1101; another
Hugh, the Brown, came as a pilgrim to the Holy Land in 1164, and was
taken prisoner by Nureddin. In the last quarter of the 12th century the
two brothers Amalric and Guy, sons of Hugh the Brown, played a
considerable part in the history of the Latin East. About 1180 Amalric
was constable of the kingdom of Jerusalem; and he is said to have
brought his handsome brother Guy to the notice of Sibylla, the widowed
heiress of the kingdom. Guy and Sibylla were married in 1180; and Guy
thus became heir presumptive of the kingdom, if the young Baldwin V.,
Sibylla's son by her first marriage to William of Montferrat, should die
without issue. He acted as regent in 1183, but he showed some incapacity
in the struggle with Saladin, and was deprived of all right of
succession. In 1186, however, on the death of Baldwin V., he succeeded
in obtaining the crown, in spite of the opposition of Raymund of
Tripoli. Next year he suffered a crushing defeat at the battle of
Hittin, and was taken prisoner by Saladin. Released on parole in 1188,
he at once broke his parole, and began the siege of Acre. Difficulties,
however, had arisen with Conrad of Montferrat; and when Guy lost his
wife Sibylla in 1190, and Conrad married Isabella, her sister, now
heiress of the kingdom, these difficulties culminated in Conrad's laying
claim to the crown. Guy found his cause espoused in 1191 by the overlord
of his house, Richard I. of England; but Conrad's superior ability, and
the support of the French crusaders, ultimately carried the day, and in
1192 Richard himself abandoned the pretensions of Guy, and recognized
Conrad as king. Though Conrad was almost immediately assassinated, the
crown did not return to Guy, but went to Henry of Champagne, who
married the widowed Isabella. Guy found some satisfaction for his loss
in buying from the Templars the island of Cyprus, and there he reigned
for the last two years of his life (1192-1194). He is judged harshly by
contemporary writers, as _simplex_ and _insufficiens_; but Dodu (in his
_Histoire des institutions du royaume de Jerusalem_) suggests that Guy
was depreciated because the kingdom had been lost in his reign, in much
the same way as Godfrey of Bouillon was exalted because Jerusalem had
just been won at his accession. Guy was a brave if not a particularly
able knight; and his instant attack on Acre after his release by Saladin
shows that he had the _sentiment de ses devoirs_.
He was succeeded in Cyprus by his brother Amalric, who acquired the
title of king of Cyprus from the emperor Henry VI., and became king of
Jerusalem in 1197 by his marriage to Isabella, after the death of Henry
of Champagne (see AMALRIC II.). Amalric was the founder of a dynasty of
kings of Cyprus, which lasted till 1475, while after 1269 his
descendants regularly enjoyed the title of kings of Jerusalem. The
scions of the house of Lusignan proved themselves the most sincere of
crusaders. They possessed in Cyprus a kingdom, in which they had
vindicated for themselves a stronger hold over their feudatories than
the kings of Jerusalem had ever enjoyed, and in which trading centres
like Famagusta flourished vigorously; and they used the resources of
their kingdom, in conjunction with the Hospitallers of Rhodes, to check
the progress of the Mahommedans.
Among the most famous members of the house who ruled in Cyprus three may
be mentioned. The first is Hugh III. (the Great), who was king from 1267
to 1285: to him, apparently, St Thomas dedicated his _De Regimine
Principum_; and it is in his reign that the kingdom of Jerusalem becomes
permanently connected with that of Cyprus. The second is Hugh IV.
(1324-1359), to whom Boccaccio dedicated one of his works, and who set
on foot an alliance with the pope, Venice and the Hospitallers, which
resulted in the capture of Smyrna (1344). The last is Peter I., Hugh's
second son and successor, who reigned from 1359 to 1369, when he was
assassinated as the result of a conspiracy of the barons. Peter and his
chancellor de Mezières represent the last flicker of the crusading
spirit (see CRUSADES).
Before the extinction of the line in 1475, it had succeeded in putting a
branch on the throne of Armenia. Five short-lived kings of the house
ruled in Armenia after 1342, "Latin exiles," as Stubbs says, "in the
midst of several strange populations all alike hostile." The kingdom of
Armenia fell before the sultan of Egypt, who took prisoner its last king
Leo V. in 1375, though the kings of Cyprus afterwards continued to bear
the title; the kingdom of Cyprus itself continued to exist under the
house of Lusignan for 100 years longer. The mother of the last king,
James III. (who died when he was two years old), was a Venetian lady,
Catarina Cornaro. She had been made a daughter of the republic at the
time of her marriage to the king of Cyprus; and on the death of her
child the republic first acted as guardian for its daughter, and then,
in 1489, obtained from her the cession of the island.
See J. M. J. L. de Mas-Latrie, _Histoire de l'île de Chypre sous les
princes de la maison de Lusignan_ (Paris, 1852-1853); W. Stubbs,
_Lectures on Medieval and Modern History_ (3rd ed., Oxford, 1900).