Oath

Sacred or solemn voluntary promise usually involving the penalty of divine retribution for intentional falsity and often used in legal procedures. It is not certain that the oath was always considered a religious act; such ancient peoples as the Germanic tribes, Greeks, Romans, and Scythians swore by their swords or other weapons. These peoples, however, were actually

Accentual Verse

In prosody, a metrical system based only on the number of stresses or accented syllables in a line of verse. In accentual verse the total number of syllables in a line can vary as long as there are the prescribed number of accents. This system is used in Germanic poetry, including Old English and Old Norse, as well as in some English verse. The poem "what if a much of a which

Vajrayana

Also called �Tantric Buddhism, � important development within Buddhism in India and neighbouring countries, notably Tibet. Vajrayana, in the history of Buddhism, marks the transition from Mahayana speculative thought to the enactment of Buddhist ideas in individual life. The term vajra (Sanskrit: �diamond,� or �thunderbolt�) is used to signify the absolutely real and indestructible in man, as opposed

Baetic Cordillera

Spanish �Sistema Penib�tico, � mountain system comprising the Andalusian mountains of southern Spain, of which the northern range runs about 360 miles (580 km) from Cape Trafalgar to Cape Nao. The central and southern ranges, the Baetic proper, extend a shorter distance from Estepona to Cape Gata. Separating the two systems is a complex series of structures, traceable in longitudinal corridors and high

Earp, Wyatt (berry Stapp)

Earp and his four

Swale

Borough (district), administrative and historic county of Kent, southeastern England, on the south side of the Thames estuary at its mouth. Swale borough includes the Isle of Sheppey, 9 miles (14 km) long and 4 miles (6 km) wide, to the north. The island is separated from the mainland (south) by The Swale, a branch of the River Medway estuary, which gives its name to the district. Land on

Dye

Coloured substance synthesized from certain chemical compounds called benzenoid hydrocarbons, obtained from either coal tar or petroleum. Its most important use is in dyeing textiles. Wool or cotton fabrics may have dyes applied at any stage of manufacture from fibre to finished garment, depending on the nature of the textile, its subsequent processing, and

Duarte, Fausto (castilho)

Duarte was educated under the official program of assimila�ao (�assimilation�), which after 1921 had social and political equality for Africans in the Portuguese sphere of influence as a goal. He was then

Wainganga River

River, tributary of the Godavari River, western India. It rises in the Mahadeo Hills in south-central Madhya Pradesh state and flows 360 miles (580 km) south to join the Wardha River (a headwater of the Godavari) northeast of Kagaznagar in Maharashtra state. Along the final 142 miles (229 km) of its course, the river forms the boundary between Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh states and is known as

Perak, Tun

A leader in the Malay defeat of a Siamese invasion in 1445 - 46, Tun Perak was made bendahara by Sultan Muzaffar Shah in 1456, when he again led Malacca's forces in a decisive defeat of the Siamese. He

1812, War Of

(June 18, 1812 - Dec. 24, 1814), inconclusive British - U.S. conflict arising chiefly out of U.S. grievances over oppressive maritime practices during the Napoleonic Wars. The long struggle between Great Britain and France, fought intermittently between 1793 and 1815, led both belligerents to infringe on the rights and impair the interests of neutrals. Napoleon averted hostilities

Porsgrunn

Town, Telemark fylke (county), southern Norway, at the mouth of the Skienselva (river) on Frierfjorden. Established as a customs post in 1652 with the name Porsgrund, it received its town charter in 1842. An export and industrial centre, it contains the huge Norsk Hydro chemical factories, a factory that produces Norway's finest porcelain, shipyards, metalworks, and lumber mills.

Biblical Literature, Pseudepigrapha connected with the Dead Sea Scrolls

There are three Pseudepigrapha that are closely connected with the writings of the Dead Sea sect: the Book of Jubilees, the Ethiopic Book of Enoch, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. It is not accidental that fragments of the two first books and of two sources of the third were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Lillehei, C(larence) Walton

American surgeon who in 1952 performed the first successful open-heart operation; he also helped develop the first wearable pacemaker and artificial heart valves (b. Oct. 23, 1918, Minneapolis, Minn. - d. July 5, 1999, St. Paul, Minn.).

Rachmaninoff, Sergey

Rachmaninoff's letters have been collected and published in Russian in Pisma, ed. by Z.A. Apetian (1955), which includes all previously published letters and some newly published ones. Rachmaninoff's Recollections, Told to Oskar von Riesemann, trans. from German by Dolly Rutherford (1934, reissued 1979), are reminiscences by the composer about his life and work; the last chapter is Riesemann's analysis of Rachmaninoff's qualities as a composer. Sergei Bertensson, Jay Leyda, and Sophia Satin, Sergei Rachmaninoff: A Lifetime in Music (1956, reissued 1965), is a comprehensive biography whose preparation was assisted by the composer's cousin and sister-in-law; it is especially useful for its description of the composer's years in the United States. Other biographical studies are Patrick Piggott, Rachmaninov (1978), including detailed musical commentary and critique; Barrie Martyn, Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor (1990), drawing extensively on archival and Russian-language sources, with a discography; and Geoffrey Norris, Rachmaninoff, rev. and updated ed. (1994).

Royal Courts Of Justice

Within its confines are held sessions of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice, and the Crown Court. Prior to the opening of the complex in 1882, civil cases were decided

Harvard Classification System

In the 1860s the Italian astronomer Angelo Secchi distinguished four main spectral types of stars. At the Harvard College Observatory in the 1880s, during the compilation of the Henry

Al Wahibah Dunes

Arabic �Ramlat Al Wahibah, � sandy desert, east-central Oman. It fronts the Arabian Sea on the southeast and stretches along the coast for more than 100 miles (160 km). The desert consists of honey-coloured dunes that are dark red at their base and rise to heights of 230 feet (70 m). The sands are crisscrossed with tracks and routes for vehicles. There is very little surface water, but underground water traditionally

Creed, Lutheran confessions

The Augsburg Confession (1530) was the first of these statements, and still remains the most authoritative standard in Lutheran churches. It (as well as the Apology of the Augsburg Confession of 1531) was written by Philipp Melanchthon and approved by Martin Luther, and presents an irenic statement aiming to show that the pope and his allies, not the Reformers, had departed from

France, History Of, Louis I the Pious

Only chance ensured that the empire remained united under Louis I the Pious, the last surviving son of Charlemagne (the latter had anticipated the partitioning of his empire among his sons). The era of great conquests had ended, and, on the face of it, Louis's principal preoccupation was his relations with the peoples to the north. In the hope of averting the threat posed

Bondi, Sir Hermann

Bondi received his M.A. from Trinity College, Cambridge. During World War II he worked in the British Admiralty (1942 - 45). He then taught mathematics at Cambridge (1945 - 54) and at King's College, London (1954 - 85; emeritus 1985); he served as master of Churchill

Romanian Literature

In the period of national unity in Romania following World War I, the novel began to compete with lyric poetry. Writers took inspiration from society or recent events, principally the war. Liviu Rebreanu wrote of the peasants' need for land and independence and in Rascoala (1932; The Uprising) described the 1907 peasant uprising in Moldavia and Walachia. His best work, inspired

Hypertension

Normally, the pumping of the heart creates a rhythmic pulsing of blood along and against the walls of the blood vessels, which are flexible enough to dilate or contract and thus keep the pressure

Italic Languages, South Picene

Approximately two dozen short inscriptions from the southern part of ancient Picenum (most of them found near Ascoli Piceno and Teramo) preserve extremely early remains (6th and 5th centuries BC) of the Italic language now known as South Picene (see Figure 2). Formerly referred to as Old Sabellian or Central Adriatic, South Picene

Arndt, Ernst Moritz

Arndt was educated at Stralsund, Greifswald, and Jena and qualified for the Lutheran ministry. At the age of 28 he rejected his clerical career and for 18 months travelled through Europe. On his return to Germany the sight of

Siskind, Aaron

Carl Chiarenza, Aaron Siskind: Pleasures and Terrors (1982); Boston College Museum of Art, Aaron Siskind: Toward a Personal Vision, 1935 - 1955 (1994).

Sachsenhausen

Sachsenhausen's first great influx of prisoners began after Kristallnacht in November

Stimulant

The major stimulant