“1391. Une manche d’or d’un essay de lincourne pour attoucher aux
viandes de Monseigneur le Dauphin.” _Comptes Royaux_, quoted by Mrs.
Bury Palliser.
In allusion to this property, Alviano, the champion of the Orsini
family, adopted as his device a unicorn at a fountain surrounded by
snakes, toads, and other reptiles, and stirring up the water with its
horn before he drinks, with the motto, “I expel poisons.”
=Union Cloths.= Fabrics of wool with wefts of cotton.
[Illustration: Fig. 675. Present Union Jack.]
=Union Jack.= The National Ensign of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain—exhibiting the Union of the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew
combined—first displayed in the reign of James I., 1606. The flag as it
is now used, dates from the beginning of this century. It is borne on a
shield, charged in pretence upon the escutcheon of the Duke of
Wellington.
=Upapitha=, Hind. The pedestal of the Hindoo orders, which included,
besides the pedestal properly so called, the base (_athisthama_), the
pillar or shaft (_stambu_) which was either square or polygonal and only
rounded at the upper part near the capital or _cushion_ which took its
place, and lastly the entablature (_prastura_).
=Uræus=, Egyp. A transcription of the Egyptian word _ârâ_ or the asp
_hajé_, a kind of serpent called by the Greeks _basilicon_ (βασιλικόν).
The _uræus_ as an emblem of the sovereign power forms the distinctive
ornament in the head-dress of the Egyptian kings.
[Illustration: Fig. 676. Plate of Urbino Ware, Louvre Museum.]
=Urbino Ware=, made at Urbino, under the patronage of its Duke. “A
city,” says Jacquemart, “which has supplied potters and painters to the
greater part of the workshops of Italy; which has sent ceramic colonies
to Flanders and Corfu, and yet we are scarcely acquainted with its
works, except those of its decline.” (Fig. 676.) (See MAJOLICA.)
=Urceolated= (Basket), Arch. The corbel of the capital which narrows a
little underneath its upper part.
=Urceolus.= Diminutive of URCEUS (q.v.).
=Urceus=, R. An earthenware pitcher used in religious ceremonies;
represented on coins in the form of a modern ewer.
=Uriant=, Her. Said of a fish when it swims in a vertical position; head
downwards. (Cf. HAURIANT.)
[Illustration: Fig. 677. Funereal urn, Indian.]
=Urn.= The common urn, the κάλπις of the Greeks, had a narrow neck and
swelling body; it was used for conveying water from the fountain. The
funereal cinerary urn was in general quadrangular, but there were a
large number which resembled the _kalpis_, with the exception that they
had a wider neck and were furnished in every case with a lid. Fig. 677
represents a funeral urn of Indian pottery, of very ancient date. The
electoral urn, from which lots were drawn at the comitia to decide the
order of voting, was of an oval form and had a narrow neck to prevent
the possibility of more than one number being drawn out at a time. An
urn is always introduced as an appropriate emblem of the river-gods. The
_urna_ was a measure of capacity containing eight _congii_ or half an
AMPHORA.
=Urnarium=, R. A square table or hollow slab on which _urnæ_ or
earthenware vessels were placed.
=Ustrina=, =Ustrinum=, R. (_uro_, to burn). A public place for burning
the bodies of the dead, in contradistinction to BUSTUM, a private place
of cremation, situated within the sepulchral enclosure. It was in the
public ustrina that the bodies of people of moderate means as well as
the poor were burned.
=Uter=, R. A wine-skin or large leathern bag made of goat-skin,
pig-skin, or ox-hide, and used for holding wine or other liquids. _Uter
unctus_ was a goat-skin inflated with air and thoroughly greased on the
outside. The peasants of Greece were fond of dancing and leaping upon
these wine-skins, which it was extremely difficult to do without
frequent falls. This was a very popular rustic game, and formed a
principal feature of the second day of the festival of Bacchus, called
by the Greeks _Ascolia_ (Ἀσκώλια), ἀσκὸς being the Greek equivalent of
_uter_.
=Uti Rogas=, R. A voting formula affirmative of the proposition in
debate, written on the ticket in the abbreviated form V. R. for _uti
rogas_ (as you propose).
=Utricularius=, R. (from _uter_). A performer on the bagpipe.
=Utriculus.= Diminutive of UTER (q.v.).