Part 262 (1/2)

JASHER, BOOK OF, a Hebrew book twice quoted in the Old Testament, no longer extant; believed to have been a collection of national ballads.

JASMIN, JACQUES, a Gascon barber and poet, who by his romances, burlesques, and odes, published between 1835 and 1849, raised the patois of the S. of France to the status of a literary language, and created a wholesome influence on French life and letters (1778-1864).

JASON, a mythological Greek hero, son of aeson, king of Iolcos; brought up by the centaur Chiron, was supplanted on the throne by his half-brother Pelias; undertook the leaders.h.i.+p of the Argonautic expedition, a.s.sisted by Medea in this enterprise; he took her to wife, but cast her off for Creusa, whom Medea to avenge herself killed, with her father and her two sons by Jason, she herself escaping to Athens in a chariot drawn by winged dragons; Jason took refuge from her fury in the sanctuary of Poseidon near Corinth, where the timber of the s.h.i.+p Argo deposited there breaking up fell upon him and crushed him to death.

JASPER, an opaque quartz found in all colours, and spotted, striped, and clouded; is valued in ornamental lapidary work because of the polish it takes.

Ja.s.sY (90), ancient capital of Moldavia, situated 89 m. NE. of Bucharest; is the seat of an archbishop and a university, and has a large community of Jews; trades largely with Russia in corn, spirits, and wine.

JaTAKA, a Pali collection of stories recounting 550 previous ”births” of the Buddha, the earliest collection of popular tales, and the ultimate source of many of aesop's fables and Western folk-lore legends.

JATS, are the princ.i.p.al race in the Punjab, where they number 4 millions, and are engaged in agriculture. There is much debate as to their origin and their racial relations.h.i.+p.

JAVA (23,868), the finest island of the Indian Archipelago, lying between Sumatra and Bali, with the Indian Ocean on the S. and the Java Sea separating it from Borneo on the N., lies E. and W., traversed by a mountain chain with a rich alluvial plain on the N.; there are many volcanoes; the climate is hot, and on the coast unhealthy; the mountains are densely wooded, and the teak forests are valuable; the plain is fertile; coffee, tea, sugar, indigo, and tobacco are grown and exported; all kinds of manufactured goods, wine, spirits, and provisions are imported; the natives are Malays, more civilised than on neighbouring islands; there are 240,000 Chinese, many Europeans and Arabs; the island is nearly as large as England, and belongs to Holland; the chief towns are Batavia (105) and Samarang (70), both on the N.

JAY, JOHN, American statesman, born in New York, and called to the bar in 1768; took a part in the struggle for independence second only to Was.h.i.+ngton's; represented his country subsequently in Madrid and London; was first Chief-Justice of the United States, and from 1795 to 1801 governor of New York (1745-1829).

JAY, WILLIAM, eminent Congregationalist minister, born in Wilts.h.i.+re; was first a stone-mason, but entered the ministry, and after a short term of service near Chippenham was pastor of Argyle Chapel, Bath, for 62 years. He was an impressive preacher and a popular writer (1769-1853).

JAYADEVA, a Hindu poet, born near Burdwan, in Bengal, flourished in the 12th century, whose great work, the ”Gita Govinda,” the ”Song of the Shepherd Krishna,” has been translated by Sir Edwin Arnold as the ”Indian Song of Songs,” in celebration of the love of Krishna and his wife Radha; it has often been compared with the ”Song of Songs,” in the Hebrew Scriptures.

JEAN D'ePEE (Jean, i. e. the Frenchman with the sword), a name given to Napoleon by his partisans who conspired for his restoration in 1814.

JEAN JACQUES, Rousseau, from his Christian name.

JEAN PAUL, RICHTER (q. v.), from his Christian name.

JEANNE D'ALBRET. See D'ALBRET, JEANNE.

JEANNE D'ARC. See JOAN OF ARC.

JEBB, PROFESSOR, eminent Greek scholar, born in Dundee; elected in 1889 Regius Professor of Greek in Cambridge; has represented Cambridge in Parliament since 1891; edited ”Sophocles,” ”The Attic Orators,”

”Introduction to Homer,” &c.; B. 1841.