R

THE eighteenth letter in the English and other Western alphabets, is one of the group of liquids. See LETTERS Its name in Hebrew was Resh, meaning forehead, and the rude outline of a head is thought to be yet recognisable in the Phoenician form of the letter. Of all the consonants, R approaches most nearly to the vowels. In Sanscrit, there is an R-vowel, distinguished from the R-consonant by a different character. The Greek also had two varieties of R, one with the 'spiritus asper' (), or rough breathing, at the beginning of words, and when following another R; and another with the weaker breathing () in other positions. The Romans in spelling Greek words represented the former by rh, and hence we still White Rhodes, rheumatism, catarrh. This rh was probably of the guttural kind commonly called a barr. This pronunciation of r occurs as a pecufarity of individuals everywhere, but it is universal in Northumberland and Durham, and characterises the pronunciation of the letter in certain positions! throughout Germany and Scandinavia. The normal pronunciation of R in English and in the Romanic tongues (and it appears to have been the same in Latin is a vibratory sound produced by applying the tip of the tongue near the roots of the upper fore-teeth. From the resemblance to the growl of an angry dog, R was called by the ancients the dog's letter. In modern English, there is an increasin tendency to smooth down the roughness of the vibration, until, in such words as far, serf, world, ther has dwindled to a kind of nondescript vowel, modifying the preceding vowel. This emasculating process-for such it undoubtedly is-is in so far only the operation of the universal law of phonetic RAAʼLTE, a cantonal town of the Netherlands, decay, arising from the natural tendency to spend in the province of Overyssel, 11 miles north-northas little energy as possible; but it has been acceler-east of Deventer. Pop. 5570, of whom one-fourth ated in this case by a fashion which is apt to mistake languor and indifference for refinement. This affectation goes so far as to turn words like ry, rare, into vewy, waaw. R is one of the most difficult articulations; children are long in learning it and some individuals never can pronounce it Whole nations (e. g., the Chinese and some Polyestan tribes) have no such consonant in their language, using instead. The interchanges of with are noticed under L. A more remarkable substitution is that of r for d, which was very prevalent in early Latin, as we learn from Priscian and from inscriptions. Ex. arvocatos for advocatos. The Latin of the literary period had returned from ths corruption, except in arbiter (from an old verb, adb tere, to go to, to intervene), arcesso, and meridies (for medidies, from medius). The substibation is easily accounted for, when we consider that in both sounds the tongue is applied to the same part of the palate; only in the one it is sped firmly; in the other, loosely, so as to

is the sinking or degradation of an original ● between two vowels into r. On inscriptions, w? find Lases, ass, esum, for what at a later period was written Lares, aras, eram. Jus, mos, became in the genitive juris, moris, instead of jusis, mosis. Even final & was sometimes degraded to r, as in the double forms, arbor = arbos, honor honos. Curiously, we know the date when the tendency to change & between two vowels into r set in; for Cicero remarks that L. Papirius Crassus, who was consul 336 B. C., was the first that was called Papirius, the ancestral name having been Papisius. The interchange in question occurs also to some extent in the Teutonic tongues. Compare Eng. forlorn with lose (Ger. verlieren), was with were; Ger. wesen (to be) with war (was); Goth. hausjan with Ger. hören (to hear); Eng. hare with Ger. hase. The unstable nature of this articulation is manifested in its frequently changing its place with regard to an adjoining vowel; compare board with broad; bird with old brid; grass with A.-S. gærs. RA. See EGYPT.

RAAB (Hung. Györ), a town of Hungary, stands on a marshy plain at the confluence of the Raab and the Little Danube, a branch of the great river of that name, 67 miles west-north-west of Buda It consists of an inner and outer town-the former well defended-is well built, but suffers from an insufficient supply of drinking-water. It contains numerous religious edifices among which is a beautiful cathedral. The manufactures are chiefly tobacco and cutlery; and the trade of the town, favoured by its position on the highway between Vienna and Buda, is important both by land and by steamers on the river. Pop. 16,300.

brate.

A very common phenomenon, especially in Latin,

belong to the Reformed Church, and the remainder, excepting 50 Jews, to the Roman Catholic. The trade is chiefly in agricultural produce, cattle, wool, wood, and bark for tanning. R. is one of the prettiest places in the province, having many beautiful houses, and in the neighbourhood, seats of the nobility. Hans Willem, Baron van Bentinck, the founder of the ducal house of Portland, was born at R. in 1651.

RAA'SAY, one of the Western Isles, belongs to the group of the Inner Hebrides, and lies between the Isle of Skye and the mainland; the sound of Raasay separating it from the former, and Applecross Sound from the latter. It is 13 miles in length by 2 miles in greatest breadth. Pop., which is gradually decreasing, was, in 1861, 388. The western side of the island is bare and uninteresting. On the eastern and more sheltered side, there are numerous farms, some patches of plantation, and bold and striking scenery. Brochel Castle, on the east shore-now a mere ruin-is the chief object of interest in the island. It is perched on the summit of a lofty cliff, which beetles over the sea,

BABAT-RABBIT.

and is entirely inaccessible, save by a pathway It is not adapted. Eke hares to seek safety by i arvond the ci

rapid and cocinas ruang, bat by retreating to barrows, which it excavates with great dexterity. RABAT. RABATT, a sesport and mannExtent in some varieties, which result from domes forterstown in the kings of Fen Mrocen stans at the most of the Easter 135 station, the ears are only about as long as the head The wild R. is of a graya-brown or, paler or $51-412-west of the entrance to the strat of kinsh on the under parts; the ears and tipped is as sunded by was: protected with back, Eke those of the common bare; the by tatters, and by a crude caled & mor; tail rather larger and more consteca-ias-brown and gretas sameras moda marets bazaars ahore, white beneath. The R. exhibets a remarkable & Oring to the stay up of the mouth of the frence from the hare in its gregarins habits; rrer, the camere of Rhas much decised and another in the comparatively imperfect state Manida tires, however, of carpeta boru w of the young at their birth, which are bind for farm waterproods maxed en and a goods. DOTT. Be are activery carmed ca R. was femerty the centre of the European trade with Mese and sal experts sive mods

RABBIT-SKINS-RABELAIS.

from the original type are preferred. Rabbits eat almost any kind of vegetable food; the coarser blades of cabbages, turnip-leaves, celery-tops, carrottops, and other produce of the garden, not suitable for human use, are readily consumed by them, as well as chick-weed, sow-thistle, dandelion, and many other weeds. With very little trouble, and still less expense, a man can easily secure one or two rabbits a week for his family from the produce of his stock. When the rabbitenclosure contains a plot of grass and clover, it affords them an important part of their food. Great care is requisite to keep their boxes dry, neglect of which, and a too exclusive feeding with green and succulent food, cause diseases, often fatal, partienlarly to the young. Dry food, such as corn, ought to be frequently given; and aromatic herbssuch as parsley, thyme, milfoil, &c.—not only tend to preserve the health of rabbits, but to improve the flavour of their flesh. It is usual to give no water to tame rabbits; but it is better to supply them regularly with it, and the females particularly need it after producing young.

The Angora R. is a remarkable variety, with very long silky hair, which is easily stripped off in summer, and is of considerable value. The rearing of this kind of R. is extensively practised in some parts of France, in order to the manufacture of gloves, &c. An old English name for the R. is cony, and its name in many other languages is similar to this, as Lat. cuniculus, Ital. coniglio, Ger. Kaninchen, Welsh woningen; but the R. is not the Cony (q. v.) of Scripture.

any

As

stopped on the highway by a constable (and he cannot be stopped by any other person there), t cannot be taken into custody, but merely is liable to be summoned before justices, and fined. Poachers who take rabbits in the night-time now commit an indictable offence, and not merely an offence which justices can punish summarily. There is no closetime as to rabbits, and any person may buy and sell them without any licence. In Scotland, the law does not materially differ from that of England as to rabbits, and the tenant is entitled to kill them if there is no express reservation of them to the landlord. Poachers of rabbits are punished summarily in the same way; and constables on highways may stop poachers as in England. The only difference between the law of England and Ireland is, that in Ireland a game licence is not required in any case for killing rabbits, whether the lands are the sportsman's own lands or not. See also GAME, POACHING. Paterson's Game-laws of the United Kingdom.

At the

value in consequence of the hair being well adapted
RABBIT-SKINS have a regular commercial
for felting purposes; hence they are collected in
large numbers by the chiffoniers of this and other
countries; and the hair itself is not unfrequently
imported from Holland and Germany, under the
in making the bodies of felt hats; and this is now
Its chief use is
erroneous name of 'cony-wool.'
done by machinery of very ingenious construction.
It consists of a hollow cone of copper, of the size of
the felt cones required by the hatters. The cone is
shaft of the diameter of its base, by means of a
covered with perforations, and it fits on to a metal
collar, which can be turned round by a band, so as
to carry the perforated cone with it.
bottom of the metal shaft is a fan, moved by
machinery, which produces a strong downward
draft, so that if the hairs are thrown against the
cone, they are held tightly by the current of air
through the perforations; and as the cone regularly
revolves, its outer surface becomes entirely coated
with the rabbit-hair. When a sufficient thick-
ness is obtained, the smooth copper cone is easily
by the usual processes of wetting, beating, &c.
drawn out, leaving a cone of wool, which is felted
Another ingenious contrivance in this machine is
to make the draft of air caused by the fan blow
the rabbit-fur forward to the cone, so as to dis-
tribute it with an evenness which could not other-
wise be attained.

The skins, after the hair has been removed from

ture of glue and size.

The Gray R. (Lepus sylvaticus) of North America is the most plentiful species of the genus Lepus in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the more southern states; but although it somewhat resembles the common R. in colour, and is rather inferior to it in size, its habits are intermediate between those of the R. and of the hare. It does not burrow, although, when hard pressed by a pursuer, it retreats into any accessible hole, and sometimes digs, in order to escape from or enter an enclosure. RABBITS, in point of law, give rise to many nice questions, which in practical life are of no small importance, for they form a branch of the Game Laws (q. v.). In England and Ireland, whoever is owner of the soil is entitled to catch and kill all the rabbits he finds upon it, without game licence; but if he is not the owner or tenant of the lands, nor acting by their express direction them, are sold to the glue-makers, and are used -or permission, then he must have a licence. between landlord and tenant, the rule is, that unless mixed with shreds of other skins in the manufacthe lease expressly say that the rabbits shall belong of rabbits are dressed as furs, in various ways, to Besides these uses, the skins to the landlord, they belong to the tenant, who can kill and catch them at discretion. A tenant, how supply the demand for cheap articles; and so ever, though having a right to kill rabbits on his skilfully is this branch of trade carried on, that farm, cannot give leave to strangers to come on furs are made. Thus, ermine and miniver are made admirable imitations of the rarer and more costly his farm and enjoy a day's sport there, though from white rabbit-skins, the block ones furnishing nothing but rabbits are killed, the privilege of killing the spots; and the common variety is dressed and the rabbits being personal to the tenant. Nevertheless, the tenant may employ his servant or a rabbit-dyed various ways, to represent the furs of darkatcher to kill the rabbits if they exist in excessive rabbit-fur was valued very highly, and was worn coloured animals. In the reign of Henry VIIL, quantities, for in that case he deals with them as vermin. Though rabbits are not game, still they are the charter of the Skinners' Company. by the nobles of the realm; this is referred to in protected against poachers in precisely the same way; for if any one trespass on land to kill rabbits, he is liable to be fined £5; and he may be arrested, if caught in the act on the lands, and detained, provided he do not tell his name and address, and quit the lands. The rabbits which he has poached cannot, however, be taken from him by any person, except, only, when he is on the highway and then only by a constable, who suspects he has poached them. In the latter case, viz., where the poacher is

United States for the imitation furs prepared from There has been a very large market in the rabbit-skins, to which country British manufac turers have largely exported.

RABELAIS, FRANÇOIS, the greatest of French humorists, was born, according to the general statement of biographers, in 1483,ut more probably towards 1495, at Chinon, a small town in Touraine. His father, Thomas Rabelais, was proprietor of a

RABELAIS-RABIES.

The scientific treatises of R. are almost in the nature of the case-long since utterly forgotten; but his romance, in which are narrated the wonderful adventures of Garagantua and Pantagruel, continues to take rank as one of the world's mas terpieces of humour and grotesque invention. In the form of a sportive and extravagant fiction, it is, in fact, a satirical criticism of the corrupt society of the period, the prevalent follies and vices of which are parodied with surprising effect and ingenuity. The difficulty of its allegorical form, however, and the quantity of recondite allusion it embodies, tend somewhat to impair the effect of the work for most modern readers. Also, it must be said, that in his attempt to

farm in the neighbourhood, celebrated for the accompany him, in fulfilment of a desire long quality of its wine, the sale of which he perhaps cherished. While at Rome, he petitioned Paul IIL combined with the business of an apothecary. His for a remission of the penalties still attached to his prosperous circumstances enabled him to give to his misdemeanour before mentioned; and through the son every advantage of education, and at an early interest of Du Bellay and others, a bull was age, the boy was sent as a pupil to the neighbouring obtained, absolving him, and permitting his return Abbey of Seully. His progress in his studies being to the order of St Benedict. But he continued the found by no means satisfactory, he was thence exercise of his profession of medicine at Montpelher removed to the university of Angers. Here- and other towns till 1538, when he with trew as though as a scholar he still remained quite canon into Du Bellay's own abbey of St Maur des undistinguished-he was fortunate enough to Fosses, near Paris, and resumed his monastic habit. make the acquaintance of Jean (afterwards the The death of Francis L. in 1547, was followed by celebrated Cardinal) Du Bellay, to whose steady the fall of Cardinal du Bellay, the new monarch, and helpful friendship he was subsequently much Henry II., favouring the Cardinal de Lorraine. R indebted. At the desire of his father he consented shared for a time in the disgrace of his old protector, to embrace the monastic state, and after passing whom he appears to have followed to Rome, but through the preliminary novitiate, became a brother his tact and irresistible humour won him friends of the order of St Francis, in the convent of Fon- among the Lorraines, and in 1551 he obtained the tenay le Comte, according to the annalist, Pierre curacy of Meudon, in the occupancy of which de St Romuald, in 1511, but the discovery of a the remainder of his life was passed. So far as document by M. B. Fillon (Poitou et Vendée, Fon- record remains of it, his life here was happy and tenay, 1861), renders the date 1519 more probable. blameless. He was exemplary in the fulfilment of R. now devoted himself with the utmost ardour duty, profuse of charity, sedulous in the relief of and perseverance to the prosecution of his hitherto suffering, for which his medical knowledge afforded neglected studies. Aiming at the widest culture him unusual facilities; and always specially attainable, he ranged the whole circle of the delighted to cultivate, as occasion served, the sciences as then understood. To medicine, in society of those any way noted as eminent in learn. particular, he seems to have been strongly attracted; ing or science. He died at Paris, in 1553, in the and in the sphere of language, in addition to Latin Rue des Jardins, in the parish of St Paul, in the and Greek, he is said to have attained a compe- cemetery of which he was buried. tent mastery of Italian, Spanish, German, English, Hebrew, and Arabic, Meantime, with his brother monks, he was much the reverse of a favourite. They hated him for his devotion to the new learning, and suspected his Greek to be only a cover for heresy. About 1523, a search was made in his cell for suspicious books; the whole were confiscated, and to save himself from further and sharper persecution he fled. But though only a poor monk, the wit and learning of R. had gained him several influential friends, through whose exertions he obtained from Pope Clement VII. an indulgence to transfer himself from the order of St Francis to that of St Benedict, and became an inmate of the monastery of Maillezais. For the calumny afterwanis circulated, that his removal was Cleanse the foul body of the infected world, necessitated by the odium attached to a life of profligate indulgence, there seems no reason to it is the whim of the writer to infect himself with suppose that there ever was the smallest ground. not a little of its foulness; and such is the We must infer that in his new abode he found riotous licence of the buffoonery, from behind which, himself not much more comfortable than before, as a stalking-horse, he shoots the arrows of his wit, as after a few years he quitted it abruptly, without that few books are less fitted for general perusal in the sanction of his ecclesiastical superiors, thereby the present more decorous times. On the publication incurring the severest censures of the church. But of his work, the charge of irreligion and athersm it was not persecution that induced this second was freely preferred against R., and certain other flight from the monastic state. It was the incurable scandals were circulated, for which there sems to aversion of the grotesque hun, rist to the restraints have been in his life no foundation, except as the of the 'regular' clergy. And nobody seems to have, free tone assumed by the writer might suggest a really blamed him for his professional apostacy-precarious inference to defective morality in the his own bishop, among others, receiving him at his man. The religious corruptions of the time, and table in the most friendly manner! During 1524- the vices of the priestly class, had formed one 1530 he appears to have frequented the universities favourite theme of his satire, and he simply paid of Paris and Bourg; which may account for the the usual penalty in thus incurring the easy retort intimate knowledge of university manners and calumnious. See Delécluze, François Rabelais (Par. opinions shewn in his great work. In the year 1530, 1841), and P. Lacroix, Rabelais sa Vie et ses Ouvrages he settled himself at Montpellier, and taking a (Par. 1859), in the latter of which works the muc medical degree at the university, was appointed to dents of his career are for the first time clearly and the post of lecturer. In 1532 he went as hospital correctly narrated. physician to Lyon, where he published several | RA'BIES, the name given to a disease affecting works on medical science, bes des other miscel- the dog and other animals, was known to the laneous matter bearing on archæology, jurispru. ancients, and is spoken of by Aristotle, Pliny, and dence, &c. In the beginning of 1534, his old Horace; but it does not seem to have been then friend, Jean Du Bellay, then Bishop of Paris, and so virulent in its nature, or alarming in its conshortly after to be Cardinal, passed through Lyon, sequences, and Aristotle, perhaps in ignorance, on an embassy to Rome, whither, in the capacity states that man was not subject to its attacks it of travelling physician, R. was delighted to was very prevalent on the continent two or three

RABINET-RACCONIGL.