Prince, Harold

The son of a New York stockbroker, Prince majored in English at the University of Pennsylvania (B.A., 1948) and began his theatrical career as an apprentice and stage manager for the noted producer

Pre-columbian Civilizations, The origins and expansion of the Inca state

Inca origins and early history are largely shrouded in legends that may be more mythical than factual. Their later history, particularly from the reign of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui (Pachakuti 'Inka Yupanki; see Table 2) onward, is largely based on fact, even though it presents what the Inca wanted people to know. Whether these historical traditions are true, in the sense

Nechung Oracle

Oracle-priest of Tibet who, until the conquest of Tibet in 1959 by the People's Republic of China, was consulted on all important occasions. The priest chosen to be the Nechung oracle was the chief medium of Pe-har, a popular folk divinity incorporated into Buddhism, and resided at the Nechung (Gnas-chung-lcog) monastery near Drepung ('Bras-spungs), the centre of the Pe-har cult.

Barb

Also called �Barbary, � native horse breed of the Barbary states of North Africa. It is related to, and probably an offshoot of, the Arabian horse but is larger, with a lower placed tail, and has hair at the fetlock (above and behind the hoof). The coat colour is usually bay or brown. Like the Arabian, it is noted for speed and endurance. A variety known as the Spanish-Barb is bred in small numbers in the

Dielectric Constant

Property of an electrical insulating material (a dielectric) equal to the ratio of the capacitance of a capacitor filled with the given material to the capacitance of an identical capacitor in a vacuum without the dielectric material. The insertion of a dielectric between the plates of, say, a parallel-plate capacitor always increases its capacitance, or ability

Damascus, The Muslim city

Damascus was the first great city of the ancient world that the Muslim Arab forces encountered. In 661, Mu'awiyah, the first Umayyad caliph, moved out of Arabia and established his court in the Syrian capital. The city was renowned for almost a century thereafter as the capital of a luxurious and extensive empire - the most far-reaching of any achieved by Islam. The principal

Dagobert Iii

Merovingian Frankish king who succeeded his father, Childebert III, in 711. For most of his reign the boy was dominated by Pippin II of Herstal, the Austrasian mayor of the palace.

Amalric I

Amalric, the son of King Fulk of Jerusalem, had been count of Jaffa and Ascalon before succeeding his elder brother Baldwin III on the throne in 1163. He was forced first to annul his marriage to Agnes of Courtenay because she was his third

Catamaran

Twin-hulled sailing and powered boat developed for sport and recreation in the second half of the 20th century. Its design is based on a raft of two logs bridged by planks that had earlier been used by peoples in the Indonesian archipelago and throughout Polynesia and Micronesia. Early catamarans were up to 21.3 m (70 ft) long, originally paddled by many men, and used for visiting,

Beja

Distrito (�district�), southern Portugal. It is the largest district in Portugal and produces olives, olive oil, wheat, rye, cork, dairy products, and leather goods. There is mining for copper, silver, lead, and zinc near Beja city at the Castro Verde project. In 1974 the Portuguese government initiated an agrarian reform program by which most of the estate holdings of the district

Consistory

(from Latin consistorium, �assembly place�), a gathering of ecclesiastical persons for the purpose of administering justice or transacting business, particularly meetings of the Sacred College of Cardinals with the pope as president. From the 11th century, when the institution of the cardinalate became more important, the Sacred College of Cardinals, assembled in

'umar I

A member of the clan of 'Adi of the Meccan tribe of Quraysh (Koreish), 'Umar at first opposed Muhammad but, about 615, became a Muslim. By 622, when he went to Medina with Muhammad and the other Meccan Muslims,

Biblical Literature, Italian versions

These medieval versions were never made from the original languages. They were influenced by French and Proven�al renderings as well as by the form of the Latin Vulgate current

Furniture, Early Middle Ages

With the collapse of the Roman Empire during the 4th - 5th centuries, Europe sank into a period in which little furniture, except the most basic, was used: chairs, stools, benches, and primitive chests were the most common items. Several centuries were to pass before the invading Teutonic peoples evolved forms of furniture that approached the Roman standard of domestic

Sukhothai Style

The most direct influence on Sukhothai style

Turishcheva, Lyudmila Ivanovna

Turishcheva graduated from the Rostov Pedagogical Institute in 1974. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, she won a gold medal as a team member in the combined exercises, as she also did at the 1972 Games in Munich and the 1976 Games in Montreal. She won a gold medal for individual

Talca

Formerly �San Agust�n De Talca, � capital of Talca provincia and Maule regi�n, central Chile, in the Central Valley near the Maule River. Founded in 1692, it was destroyed by earthquakes in 1742 and 1928; completely rebuilt, it is now a major urban centre midway between Santiago, 160 miles (260 km) to the north-northeast, and Concepci�n. It lies in the nation's greatest wine-making zone and contains Chile's largest match industry,

Ord��ez, Antonio

Antonio Ord��ez was the son of Cayetano Ord��ez, called �Ni�o de la Palma,� who was the prototype for Pedro Romero, the matador in Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises. Hemingway is said to have ranked the son even higher than the father.

France, History Of, Foreign policy and financial crisis

The monarchy's international performance from 1715 to 1783 was basically creditable. From the time of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 - 14), when France had been invaded and nearly beaten, French statesmen pursued a double goal - the preservation of the balance of power in Europe, and, in the world at large, the expansion of the French colonial empire and the containment of England.

Nicobar Islands

Island group, Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory, India. The islands lie in the Bay of Bengal and have a land area of 711 square miles (1,841 square km). With the nearby Andaman Islands, they constitute a union territory of India (see Andaman and Nicobar Islands). The Nicobar group includes the islands of Car Nicobar (north), Camorta (Kamorta) and Nancowry (central group), and

Saki

Any of seven species of arboreal South American monkeys having long nonprehensile furred tails. The �true� sakis of the genus Pithecia are approximately 30 - 50 cm (12 - 20 inches) long, not including the bushy, tapering tail of 25 - 55 cm. Females generally weigh less than 2 kg (4.4 pounds) and males more than 2 kg. These sakis are covered with long, coarse hair that falls like a hood

Abd Al-hafid

Appointed caliph of Marrakech by Abd al-Aziz, Abd al-Hafid had no difficulty there in rousing the Muslim community against his brother's Western ways. With Marrakech his, Abd al-Hafid routed his brother's forces and pensioned off the sultan.

Breath Analyzer

Also called �Breathalyzer, � device used by police to determine the amount of alcohol in the system of persons suspected of being intoxicated. In the analyzer, a precise amount of the suspect's exhaled breath is passed through a solution of potassium dichromate and sulfuric acid; the change in the colour of the solution is proportional to the amount of alcohol in the air sample, which, in turn, is

Neal, Patricia

Neal studied theatre at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and then moved to New York City after landing an understudy assignment for the play The Voice of the

Indonesian Literatures

The poetry and prose writings in Javanese, Malay, Sundanese, and other languages of the peoples of Indonesia. They include works orally transmitted and then preserved in written form by the Indonesian peoples, oral literature recorded by Western anthropologists and ethnologists, and the modern literatures that began to emerge in the early 20th century as the result

France, History Of, The Third Republic

A provisional government of national defense was set up and took as its first task the continuation of the war against the invaders. Composed of the deputies representing Paris and formally headed by General Louis-Jules Trochu, the new government's most forceful member was L�on Gambetta, hero of the radical republicans. Gambetta, a young Parisian lawyer of provincial

Presbyterian Church (u.s.a.)

The U.S. Presbyterian Church traces its beginnings to the earliest Presbyterian

Udayagiri

Village and archaeological site, south-central Orissa state, eastern India. In the village are located several Jaina and Buddhist rock-cut caves. One of these is a double-storied cave with ranges of cells cut into three sides of an open courtyard. Inscriptions in the caves date from the 2nd century BC to the 10th century AD.

Scandinavian Literature, Sources of modern Swedish literature

Four influences combined to free Swedish literature from petrifying conventions: the English writings of Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and John Stuart Mill; the French Naturalism of �mile Zola; the drama of the Norwegians Henrik Ibsen and Bj�rnstjerne Bj�rnson; and the criticism of the Dane Georg Brandes. The modern literature growing out of this was first

Argyll And Bute

Council area, western Scotland, extending from the southwestern Grampian Mountains into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and North Channel in ragged peninsulas indented and separated by deepwater lochs (sea inlets). Freshwater lochs (lakes) dot the inland areas. It includes many islands of the Inner Hebrides - notably Mull, Islay, and Jura. The council area incorporates

Vedic Religion

The ancient Vedic worshipers offered sacrifices to these gods in the hope that they in return would grant abundant numbers of cattle, good fortune, good health, long life, and male progeny, among other material benefits. To ensure the efficacy of their prayers, the people came to believe that their offerings could be made more acceptable to the gods if accompanied