Part 127 (2/2)

CIRCE, a sorceress who figures in the ”Odyssey.” Ulysses having landed on her isle, she administered a potion to him and his companions, which turned them into swine, while the effect of it on himself was counteracted by the use of the herb moly, provided for him by Hermes against sorcery; she detained him with her for years, and disenchanted his companions on his departure.

CIRCEAN POISON, a draught of any kind that is magically and fatally infatuating, such as the effect often of popular applause.

CIRCUITS, districts outside of London into which England is divided for judicial purposes, for the trial of civil as well as criminal cases connected with them; are seven in number--the Midland, the Oxford, the North-Eastern, the South-Eastern, the Northern, the Western, and North Wales and South Wales; the courts are presided over by a judge sent from London, or by two, and are held twice a year, or oftener if the number of cases require it.

CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD, the course of the blood from the heart through the arteries to the minute vessels of the body, and from these last through the veins back to the heart again.

CIRc.u.mCISION, the practice of cutting away the foreskin, chiefly of males, as observed by the Jews and the Mohammedans, as well as other nations of remote antiquity; regarded by some as a mark of belonging to the tribe, and by others as a sacrifice in propitiation by blood.

CIRc.u.mLOCUTION OFFICE, a name employed by d.i.c.kens in ”Little Dorrit”

to designate the wearisome routine of public business.

CISALPINE GAUL, territory occupied by Gauls on the Italian or south side of the Alps.

CISALPINE REPUBLIC, a republic so called on both sides of the Po, formed out of his conquests by Napoleon, 1797; became the Italian Republic in 1802, with Milan for capital, and ceased to exist after the fall of Napoleon.

CISLEITHANIA, Austria proper as distinguished from Hungary, which is called Transleithania, on account of the boundary between them being formed by the river Leitha.

CISTERCIANS, a monastic order founded by Abbot Robert in 1098 at Citeaux, near Dijon; they followed the rule of St. Benedict, who reformed the Order after it had lapsed; became an ecclesiastical republic, and were exempt from ecclesiastical control; contributed considerably to the progress of the arts, if little to the sciences.

CITHaeRON, a wood-covered mountain on the borders of Boeotia and Attica; famous in Greek legend.

CITIES OF REFUGE, among the Jews; three on the E. and three on the W. of the Jordan, in which the manslayer might find refuge from the avenger of blood.

CITIES OF THE PLAIN, Sodom and Gomorrah, with adjoining cities under the like doom.

CITIZEN KING, Louis Philippe of France, so called as elected by the citizens of Paris.

CITY OF BELLS, Strasburg.

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