The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 459

XERES (61), a town in Spain, 14 m. NE. of Cadiz, a well-built, busy town, and the centre of the trade in sherry wine, which takes its name from it, and of which there are large stores.

XERXES, a king of Persia, son of Darius I., whom he succeeded on the throne in 485 B.C.; in his ambition to subdue Greece, which, after suppressing a revolt in Egypt, he in 481 essayed to do with an immense horde of men both by sea and land, he with his army crossed the h.e.l.lespont by means of a bridge of boats, was checked for a time at Thermopylae by Leonidas and his five hundred, advanced to Athens to see his fleet destroyed at Salamis by Themistocles, fled at the sight by the way he came, and left Mardonius with 300,000 men to carry out his purpose, but, as it happened, to suffer defeat on the fatal field of Plataea in 479, and the utter annihilation of all his hopes; the rest of his life he spent in obscurity, and he was a.s.sa.s.sinated in 465 by Artaba.n.u.s, the captain of his bodyguard, after a reign of 20 years.

XESIBELAND, a region in South Africa lying between Griqualand East and Pondoland; was annexed to Cape Colony in 1886.

XIMENES DE CISNEROS, FRANCISCO, cardinal and statesman, born in Castile, of a poor but n.o.ble family; studied at Salamanca and went to Rome, where he gained favour with the Pope, who appointed him to the first vacant ecclesiastical preferment in Spain, as the result of which he in 1495 became archbishop of Toledo, but not till he was 60 years of age; in 10 years after this he became regent of Spain, and conducted the affairs of the kingdom with consummate ability. He was a severe man, and he was careful to promote what he considered the best and highest interests of the nation; but he was narrow-minded, and did often more harm than good; he was intolerant of heresy such as the Church deemed it to be, and contrived by his policy to confer more than sovereign rights upon the crown. He was to Spain pretty much what Richelieu was to France.

XINGU, a river in Brazil, which rises in the heart of the country, and after a course of 1300 m. falls into the Amazon 210 m. W. of Para.

XUCAR or JUCAR, a river of Valencia, in Spain, which rises near the source of the Tagus, and after a course of 317 m. falls diminished into the Mediterranean, most of its water having been drained off for purposes of irrigation in connection with orange-gardens on its way, gardens which yield, it is said, 20 millions of oranges a year.

Y

YABLONOI MOUNTAINS, a range of mountains which extend NE. from the Altai chain, and run S. of Lake Baikal, near the frontier of China, dividing the basin of the Amur from that of the Lena.

YACU-MAMA, a fabulous marine monster, said to haunt the lagoons of the Amazon, and to suck into its mouth and swallow whatever comes within a hundred yards of it; before bathing in a lagoon, where he apprehends its presence, the Indian sounds a horn, the effect of which is to make it reveal itself if it is there.

YAHOO, name of a race of brutes, subject to the Houyhuhnms (q. v.), in "Gulliver's Travels," with the form and all the vices of men.

YAJUR-VEDA, one of the books of the VEDAS (q. v.), containing the prescribed formulae in connection with sacrifices.

YAKSHA, a species of gnome in the Hindoo mythology.

YAKUTSK (5), a capital town in East Siberia, on a branch of the Lena; occupied chiefly by traders in furs, hides, &c.; is said to be the coldest town in the world.

YALE UNIVERSITY, a well-equipped university at New Haven, Connecticut, U.S., founded in 1701, which derives its name from Elihu Yale, a Boston man, and which was given to it in recognition of his benefactions; it occupies a square in the heart of the city, has a staff of 70 professors, besides tutors and lecturers, also 1200 students, and a library of 200,000 volumes; the faculties include arts, medicine, law, theology, fine arts, and music, while the course of study extends over four years.

YAMA, in the Hindu mythology "a solar hero who rules over the dead; might have lived as an immortal, but chose to die; was the first to traverse the road from which there is no return, tracing it for future generations; in the remotest extremity of the heavens, the abode of light and the eternal waters, he reigns in peace and in union with VARUNA (q. v.); there by the sound of his flute, under the branches of the mythic tree, he a.s.sembles around him the dead who have lived n.o.bly, they reach him in a crowd, convoyed by AGNI (q. v.), grimly scanned as they pa.s.s by two monstrous dogs that are the guardians of the road."

YAMBO or YAMBU, the port of Medina, in Arabia, on the Red Sea.

YANAON (5), a small patch of territory belonging to France, on the G.o.davery, enclosed in the British province of Madras, India.

YANG-TSZE-KIANG, or the Blue, or Great, River, the largest river in China and in the East; rises in the plateau of Tibet, and after a course of 3200 m., draining and irrigating great part of China by the way, falls by a wide estuary into the Yellow Sea, terminating near Shanghai; it has numerous tributaries, some of great length, and is of great value to the country as a waterway; it is navigable 1000 m. from its mouth, and at Hankow, 700 m. up, is a mile in width.

YANKEE, slang name for a New Englander; applied in England to the citizens of the United States generally; it is of uncertain derivation.

YAPURA, an affluent of the Amazon, which rises in Columbia; has a course of 1750 m., and is navigable to steamers for 970 m.

YARKAND (60), the capital or chief city of Eastern Turkestan, 100 m.

SE. of Kashgar; is in the centre of a very fertile district of the vast continental basin of Central Asia, abounding also in large stores of mineral wealth; it is a great emporium of trade, and the inhabitants are mostly Mohammedans.

YARMOUTH (49), a seaport, fishing town, and watering-place of Norfolk, 20 m. E. of Norwich and some 2 m. above the mouth of the Yare; is the princ.i.p.al seat of the English herring fishery, and is famous for its herrings, known as bloaters; it has a fine roadstead called Yarmouth Roads, a safe anchorage for ships, being protected by sandbanks; has a number of public buildings, in particular a parish church, one of the largest in England, and a fine marine parade.

YARRELL, WILLIAM, naturalist, born at Westminster; wrote "History of British Fishes" and "History of British Birds" (1784-1856).

YARROW, a famous Scottish stream which rises on the confines of the shires of Peebles, Dumfries, and Selkirk, pa.s.ses NE. through the Loch of the Lowes and St. Mary's Loch, and joins the Ettrick 2 m. above Selkirk after a course of 25 m.

YATES, EDMUND, journalist, founded _The World_ newspaper; wrote a supremely interesting "Autobiography" (1831-1894).

YEDDO. See TOKYO.

YELLOW SEA, or WHANG-HAI, an inlet of the Pacific, on the NE.

coast of China, bounded on the E. by the Corea, including in the NW. the Gulf of Pechili, some 600 m. long, and its average breadth 300 m.; is very shallow, and gradually silting up owing to the quant.i.ty of alluvium brought down by the rivers which fall into it.

YELLOWSTONE, THE, a river which rises in the NW. of WYOMING (q. v.), and falls into the Missouri as one of its chief tributaries after a course of 1300 m.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, a high-lying tract of land in the State of WYOMING (q. v.) traversed by the Yellowstone, about the size of Kent, being a square about 75 m. in diameter; is set apart by Congress as a great pleasure ground in perpetuity for the enjoyment of the people; it abounds in springs and geysers, and care is taken that it be preserved for the public benefit, to the exclusion of all private right or liberty.

YEMEN (3,000), a province in the SW. of Arabia, bounded on the N. by Hedjaz, bordering on the Red Sea, and forming the Arabia Felix of the ancients; about 400 m. in length and 150 m. in breadth; it is a highly fertile region, and yields tropical and sub-tropical fruits, in particular coffee, dates, gums, spices, and wheat.

YENIKALE or KERTCH, a strait 20 m. long, connecting the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea.

YENISEI, a river which rises in the mountainous region that borders the plateau of Gobi, its head-waters collecting in Lake Baikal, and after a course of 3200 m. through the centre of Siberia, falls by a long estuary or gulf into the Arctic Ocean; it is the highway of a region rich in both mineral and vegetable products, the traffic on which is encouraged by privileges and bounties to the trader at the hands of the Russian government.