The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 375

RHAPSODISTS, a cla.s.s of minstrels who in early times wandered over the Greek cities reciting the poems of Homer, and through whom they became widely known, and came to be translated with such completeness to us.

RHEA, in the Greek mythology a G.o.ddess, the daughter of Ura.n.u.s and Gaia, the wife of Kronos, and mother of the chief Olympian deities, Zeus, Pluto, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia, and identified by the Greeks of Asia Minor with the great earth G.o.ddess Cybele, and whose worship as such, like that of all the other earth deities, was accompanied with wild revelry.

RHEA SILVIA, a vestal virgin, the mother of Romulus and Remus, twins, whom she bore to Mars, the G.o.d of war, who had violated her.

RHEIMS (104), an important French city in the department of Marne, on the Vesle, 100 m. NE. of Paris; as the former ecclesiastical metropolis of France it has historical a.s.sociations of peculiar interest; the French monarchs were crowned in the cathedral (a Gothic structure of unique beauty) from 1179 to 1825; has a beautiful 12th-century Romanesque church, an archiepiscopal palace, a Roman triumphal arch, a Lycee, statues, &c.; situated in a rich wine district, it is one of the chief champagne entrepots, and is also one of the main centres of French textiles, especially woollen goods; is strongly fortified.

RHEINGAU, a fruitful wine district in the Rhine Valley, stretching along the right bank of the river in Hesse-Na.s.sau; has a sunny, sheltered situation, and its wines are famed for their quality.

RHENISH PRUSSIA (4,710), the most westerly and most densely populated of the Prussian provinces, lies within the valleys of the Rhine and the Lower Moselle, and borders on Belgium and the Netherlands; is mountainous and forest-clad, except in the fertile plains of the N. and in the rich river valleys, where vines, cereals, and vegetables are extensively cultivated; large quant.i.ties of coal, iron, zinc, and lead are mined; as an industrial and manufacturing province it ranks first in Germany. Coblenz (capital), Aix-la-Chapelle, Bonn, and Cologne are among its chief towns; was formed in 1815 out of several smaller duchies.

RHEOCHORD, a wire to measure the resistance or variability of an electric current.

RHEOMETRY, measurement of the force or the velocity of an electric current.

RHESUS, a monkey held sacred in several parts of India.

RHETORIC, the science or art of persuasive or effective speech, written as well as spoken, and that both in theory and practice was cultivated to great perfection among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and to some extent in the Middle Ages and later, but is much less cultivated either as a science or an art to-day.

RHINE, one of the chief rivers of Europe; of several small Alpine head-streams, the Nearer and the Farther Rhine are the two princ.i.p.al, issuing from the eastern flanks of Mount St Gothard; a junction is formed at Reichenau, whence the united stream--the Upper Rhine--flows N. to Lake Constance, and issuing from the NW. corner curves westward to Basel, forming the boundary between Switzerland and Germany. From Basel, as the Middle Rhine, it pursues a northerly course to Mainz, turns sharply to the W. as far as Bingen, and again resumes its northward course. The Rhine-Highland between Bingen and Bonn is the most romantic and picturesque part of its course. As the Lower Rhine it flows in a sluggish, winding stream through the Rhenish Lowlands, enters Holland near Cleves, at Nimeguen bends to the W., and flowing through Holland some 100 m. reaches the German Ocean, splitting in its lowest part into several streams which form a rich delta, one-third of Holland. It is 800 m. in length; receives numerous affluents, _e. g_. Neckar, Main, Moselle, Lippe; is navigable for ships to Mannheim.

RHINOPLASTIC OPERATION, an operation of repairing destroyed portions of the nose by skin from adjoining parts.

RHODE ISLAND (346), the smallest but most densely populated of the United States, and one of the original 13; faces the Atlantic between Connecticut (W.) and Ma.s.sachusetts (N. and E.); is split into two portions by Narragansett Bay (30 m. long); hilly in the N., but elsewhere level; enjoys a mild and equable climate, and is greatly resorted to by invalids from the S.; the soil is rather poor, and manufactures form the staple industry; coal, iron, and limestone are found. Providence, Pawtucket, and Newport are the chief towns.

RHODES (10), a Turkish island in the Mediterranean, 12 m. distant from the SW, coast of Asia Minor, area 49 m. by 21 m.; mountainous and woody; has a fine climate and a fertile soil, which produces fruit in abundance, also some grain; it is ill developed, and has a retrogressive population, most of whom are Greeks; sponges, chief export; figures considerably in ancient cla.s.sic history; was occupied by the Knights Hospitallers of St. John for more than two centuries, and was taken from them by the Turks in 1523.

RHODES, CECIL, statesman, born in Hertfordshire, son of a vicar; went to South Africa; became director of the diamond mines at Kimberley, and ama.s.sed a large fortune; entered the Cape Parliament, and became Prime Minister in 1890; he has been active and successful to extend the British territories in South Africa, aiming at destroying the race prejudices that prevail in it, and at establishing among the different colonies a federated union; _b_. 1853.

RHODESIA, the territory in South Africa occupied and administered by the British South Africa Company, under the leadership of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, and founded by royal charter in 1889, hence the name it goes under, is bounded on the E. by Portuguese East Africa, on the N. by German East Africa and the Congo Free State, on the W. by Angola and German South-West Africa, and on the S. by Bechua.n.a.land and the Transvaal; is traversed by the Zambesi, which divides it into Northern and Southern Rhodesia; the Northern has been little prospected, though the land is being cultivated, crops raised, and cattle-breeding commenced, besides a new industry started in fibre; the Southern is divided into two provinces, MASHONALAND (q. v.) and MATABELELAND (q. v.); in Rhodesia public roads have been made to the extent of 2230 miles, and telegraph lines to the extent of 1856 miles of line and 2583 of wire; it is favourable to the breeding of stock, though the rinderpest raged in it disastrously for a time; the climate is suitable for the cultivation of cereals of all kinds, and vegetables, tobacco, india-rubber, and indigo are indigenous, and well repay cultivation; there are forests of timber, and gold, silver, copper, coal, tin, &c., have been discovered; it is, roughly speaking, as large as the German Empire, and in consequence of the Jameson raid the control of the military forces, formerly under the control of the Company, is now in the hands of the Imperial Government.

RHoNE, one of the four great rivers of France, rises on Mount St.

Gothard, in the Swiss Alps; pa.s.ses through the Lake of Geneva, and flowing in a south-westerly course to Lyons, is there joined by its chief affluent, the Saone, hence it flows due S.; at Arles it divides into two streams, which form a rich delta before entering the Gulf of Lyons, in the Mediterranean; length, 504 m.; navigable to Lyons, but the rapid current and shifting sandbanks greatly impede traffic.

RHoNE (807), a department of France lying wholly within the western side of the Saone and Rhone basin, hilly and fruitful; wine is produced in large quant.i.ties; has an active industrial population; capital, Lyons.

RHUMB LINE, a circle on the earth's surface making a given angle with the meridian; applied to the course of a ship in navigation.

RHYL (6), a popular watering-place of Flintshire, North Wales, situated on the coast at the mouth of the Clwyd, 16 m. E. of Conway; has a fine promenade pier, esplanade, gardens, &c.

RHYMER, THOMAS THE, or TRUE THOMAS, Thomas of Ercildoune, or Earlston, a Berwickshire notability of the 13th century, famous for his rhyming prophecies, who was said, in return for his prophetic gift, to have sold himself to the fairies.

RHYS, JOHN, Celtic scholar, born in Wales; professor of Celtic at Oxford; has written on subjects related to that of the chair; _b_. 1840.

RIBBONISM, the principles of secret a.s.sociations among the lower Irish Catholics, organised in opposition to Orangeism, the name being derived from a green ribbon worn as a badge in a b.u.t.ton-hole by the members; they were most active between 1835 and 1855.

RIBERA, JUSEPE, a Spanish painter, born near Valencia; indulged in a realism of a gruesome type; had Salvator Rosa and Giordano for pupils (1588-1656).

RICARDO, DAVID, political economist, born in London, of Jewish parentage; realised a large fortune as a member of the Stock Exchange; wrote on political economy on abstract lines, and from a purely mercantile and materialistic standpoint (1772-1823).

RICASOLI, BARON, Italian statesman, born at Florence; devoted to the cultivation of the vine, the olive, and the mulberry; was drawn into political life in 1847 in the interest of Italian unity, succeeded Cavour as Prime Minister, but retired from political life in 1866; his "Letters and Papers," in 5 vols., were published posthumously (1806-1880).

RICCI, LORENZO, last general of the Jesuits, born in Florence; entered the order when 15; became general in 1736; on the suppression of the order retired to the castle of St. Angelo, where he died 1775.

RICCI, MATTEO, founder of the Jesuit mission in China, born in Macerato, Italy; accommodated himself to the manners of the Chinese, and won their confidence (1552-1610).

RICCIO, DAVID. See RIZZIO.

RICE, JAMES, novelist, born at Northampton, educated at Cambridge; designed for the law, but took to literature; owned and edited _Once a Week_; best known as the successful _collaborateur_ of WALTER BESANT (q. v.) in such popular novels as "The Golden b.u.t.terfly,"

"Ready-Money Mortiboy," &c. (1844-1882).

RICH, EDMUND. See EDMUND, ST.

RICHARD I., (surnamed Coeur de Lion), king of England from 1189 to 1199, third son and successor of Henry II.; his early years were spent in Poitou and Aquitaine, where he engaged in quarrels with his father; after his accession to the throne he flung himself with characteristic ardour into the Crusade movement; in 1190 joined his forces with Philip Augustus of France in the third crusade; upheld the claims of Tancred in Sicily; captured Cyprus, and won great renown in the Holy Land, particularly by his defeat of Saladin; was captured after shipwreck on the coast on his way home by the Archduke of Austria, and handed over to the Emperor Henry VI. (1193); was ransomed at a heavy price by his subjects, and landed in England in 1194; his later years were spent in his French possessions warring against Philip, and he died of an arrow wound at the siege of Chalus; not more than a year of his life was spent in England, and his reign is barren of const.i.tutional change (1157-1199).