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fate which dooms to slow decay or sudden death and to eternal | Ombre for himself, providing he is willing to play his hand without oblivion all that is great, good and beautiful in this world. There is a touch of Byron, Swinburne and even of Schopenhauer in many of his ruba'is, which clearly proves that the modern pessimist is by no means a novel creature in the realm of philosophic thought and poetical imagination.

The Leiden copy of 'Omar Khayyam's work on algebra was noticed as far back as 1742 by Gerald Meerman in the preface to bis Specimen calculs fluxionalis; further notices of the same work by Sedillot appeared in the Nouv. Jour. As. (1834) and in vol. xiii. of the Notices et extraits des MSS. de la Bibl. roy. The complete text, together with a French translation (on the basis of the Leiden and Paris copies, the latter first discovered by M. Libri, see his Histoire des sciences mathématiques en Italie, i. 300), was edited by F. Woepcke, L'Algèbre d'Omar Alkhayyam: (Paris, 1851). Articles on Omar's life and works are found in Reinaud's Géographie d'Aboulfida, pref., p. 101; Notices et extraits, ix. 143 seq.; Garcin de Tassy, Note sur les Ruba'iyât de ‘Omar Hhaiyām (Paris, 1857); Rieu, Cat. Pers. MSS. in the Br. Mus., ii. 546; A. Christensen, Recherches sur les Ruba'iyat de "Omar Hayyam (Heidelberg, 1905); V. Zhukovski's 'Umar Khayyam and the "Wandering" Quatrains, translated from the Russian by E. D. Ross in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, xxx. (1898); E. G. Browne, Literary History of Persia, ii. 246. The quatrains have been edited at Calcutta (1836) and Teheran (1857 and 1862); text and French translation by J. B. Nicolas (Paris, 1867) (very incorrect and misleading); a portion of the same, rendered in English verse, by E. FitzGerald (London, 1859, 1872 and 1879). FitzGerald's translation has been edited with commentary by H. M. Batson (1900), and the 2nd ed. of the same (1868) by E. Heron Allen (1908). A new English version was published in Trübner's" Oriental" series (1882) by E. H. Whinfield, and the first critical edition of the text, with translation, by the same (1883). Important later works are N. H. Dole's variorum edition (1896), J. Payne's translation (1898), E. Heron Allen's edition (1898) and the Life by J. K. M. Shirazi (1905); but the literature in new translations and imitations has recently multiplied exceedingly. (H. E.; X.)

OMBRE, a card game, very fashionable at the end of the 18th century, but now practically obsolete. The following recommendation of the game is taken from the Court Gamester, a book published in 1720 for the use of the daughters of the prince of Wales, afterwards George II:

"The game of Ombre owes its invention to the Spaniards, and it has in it a great deal of the gravity peculiar to that nation. It is called Ombre, or The Man. It was so named as requiring thought and reflection, which are qualities peculiar to many or rather alluding to him who undertakes to play the game against the rest of the gamesters, and is called the man. To play it well requires a great deal of application, and let a man be ever so expert, he will be apt to fall into mistakes if he think of anything else or is disturbed by the conversation of them that look on. . . . It will be found the most delightful and entertaining of all games to those who have anything in them of what we call the spirit of play."

Ombre is played by three players with a pack of 40 cards, the 8, 9 and 10 being dispensed with. The order of value of the hands is irregular, being different for trumps and suits not trumps. In a suit not trumps the order is, for red suits: K, Q, Kn, ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; for black suits: K, Q, Kn, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. In trump suits the ace of spades, called spadille, is always a trump, and the highest one, whichever of the four suits may be trumps. The order for red suit trumps is; ace of spades 7 (called manille), ace of clubs (called basto), ace (called ponto), K, Q, Kn, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. For black suit trumps: ace of spades (spedille), 2 (manille), ace (basto), K, Q, Kn, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. There is no ponto in black trumps. The three highest trumps are called matadores (or mats). The holder of them has the privilege of not following suit, except when a higher mat is played, which forces a lower one if the hand contains no other trump.

Cards are dealt round, and the receiver of the first black acc is the dealer. He deals (towards his right) nine cards, by threes, to each player. The remaining 13 cards form the stock or talon, as at piquct. Each deal constitutes a game. One hand plays against the other two, the solo plaver being called the Ombre. The player at the dealer's right has the first option of being Ombre, which entails two privileges: that of naming the trump suit, and that of throwing away as many of his cards as he chooses, receiving new ones in their place, as at poker. If, with these advantages in mind, he thinks he can win against the other two hands, he says, "I ask leave," or "I play.' But in this case his right-hand neighbour has the privilege of claiming

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drawing new cards, or, as the phrase goes, sans prendre. If, however, the other player reconsiders and decides that he will himself play without drawing cards, he can still remain Ombre. If the second player passes, the dealer in his turn may ask to play sans prendre, as above. If all three pass a new deal ensues. After the Ombre discards (if he does not play sans prendre) the two others in turn do likewise, and, if any cards are left in the stock, the last discarder may look at them (as at piquet) and the others after him. But if he does not look at them the others lose the privilege of doing so.

The manner of play is like whist, except that it is towards the right. The second and third players combine to defeat Ombre. If in the sequel Ombre makes more tricks than either of his opponents he wins. If one of his opponents makes more than Ombre the latter loses (called codille). If Ombre and one or both of his opponents make the same number of tricks the game is drawn. When Ombre makes all nine tricks he wins a vole. The game is played with counters having certain values, the pool being emptied by the winner. If all pass, a counter of low value is paid into the pool by each player. If Ombre wins he takes the entire pool. If he draws he forfeits to the pool a sum equal to that already in it, i.e. the pool is doubled. If either of his opponents makes the majority of the tricks (codille), Ombre pays him a um equal to that in the pool, which itself remains untouched until the next game. When the pool is emptied cach player pays in three counters.

OMDURMAN, a town of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, on the west bank of the Nile, immediately north of the junction of the White and Blue Niles in 15° 38′ N., 32° 29' E., 2 m. N. by W. of Khartum. Pop. (1909 census) 42,779, of whom 541 were Europeans. The town covers a large area, being over 5 m. long and 2 broad. It consists for the most part of mud huts, but there are some houses built of sun-dried bricks. Save for two or three wide streets which traverse it from end to end the town is a network of narrow lanes. In the centre facing an open space are the ruins of the tomb of the Mahdi and behind is the house in which he lived. The Khalifa's house (a two-storeyed building), the mosque, the Beit el Amana (arsenal) and other houses famed in the history of the town also face the central square. A high wall runs behind these buildings parallel with the Nile. Omdurman is the headquarters of the native traders in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, the chief articles of commerce being ivory, ostrich feathers and gum arabic from Darfur and Kordofan. There is also an important camel and cattle market. Nearly every tribe in the Sudan is represented in the population of the city. Among the native artificers the metal workers and leather dressers are noted. The government maintains elementary and technical schools. Mission work is undertaken by various Protestant and Roman Catholic societies.

Omdurman, then an insignificant village, was chosen in 1884 by the Mahdi Mahommed Ahmed as his capital and so continued after the fall of Khartum in January 1885. Its growth was rapid, the Khalifa (who succeeded the Mahdi) compelling large numbers of disaffected tribesmen to live in the town under the eye of his soldiery. Here also were imprisoned the European captives of the Mahdists-notably Slatin Pasha and Father Ohrwalder. On the 2nd of September 1898 the Anglo-Egyptian army under Lord Kitchener totally defeated the forces of the Khalifa at Kerreri, 7 m. N. of the town. A marble obelisk marks the spot where the 21st Lancers made a charge. Within the enclosure of the Khalifa's house is the tomb of Hubert Howard, son of the 9th earl of Carlisle, who was killed in the house at the capture of the city by a splinter of a shell fired at the Mahdi's tomb. (See SUDAN: Anglo-Egyptian.)

OMELETTE, sometimes Anglicized as "omelet," a French word of which the history is an example of the curious changes a word may undergo. The ultimate origin is Lat lamella, diminutive of lamina, plate; this became in French lamelle, and a wrong division of la lamelle gave alamelle, alemelle, or alumelle; thence alemette, metathesized to amelette and aumelete, the form in which the word appears in the 15th and 16th centuries. The

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original meaning scems to be pancake of a thin flat shape. Omelettes are made with eggs, beaten up lightly, with the addition of milk, flour, herbs, cheese, mushrooms, &c., according to the requirement, and cooked quickly in a buttered pan. OMEN (a Latin word, either connected with os, mouth, or more probably with auris (Gr. ous, car; apparently, meaning a thing heard" or " spoken "), a sign in divination, favourable or unfavourable as the case may be (see DIVINATION, AUGURS and ORACLE). The taking of omens may be said to be a part of all systems of divination, in which the future is predicted by means of indications of one sort or another; and tradition has thus gathered round many subjects-events, actions, colours, numbers, &c.—which are considered "ominous," an adjective which generally connotes ill-fortune.

One of the oldest and most widespread methods of divining the future, both among primitive people and among several of the civilizations of antiquity, was the reading of omens in the signs noted on the liver of the animal offered as a sacrifice to some deity. The custom is vouched for by travellers as still observed in Borneo, Burma, Uganda and elsewhere, the animal chosen being a pig or a fowl. It constituted the most common form of divination in ancient Babylonia, where it can be traced back to the 3rd millennium B.C. Among the Etruscans the prominence of the rite led to the liver being looked upon as the trade-mark of the priest. From the Etruscans it made its way to the Romans, though as we shall see it was also modified by them. The evidence for the rite among the Greeks is sufficient to warrant the conclusion of its introduction at a very early period and its persistence to a late day.

The theory upon which the rite everywhere rests is clearly the belief, for which there is an abundance of concurrent testimony, that the liver was at one time regarded as the seat of vitality. This belief appears to be of a more primitive character than the view which places the seat of life in the heart, though we are accustomed to think that the latter was the prevailing view in antiquity. The fact, however, appears to be that the prominence given to the heart in popular beliefs dates from the time when in the course of the development of anatomical knowledge the important function of the heart in animal life came to be recognized, whereas the supposition that the liver is the seat of vitality rests upon other factors than anatomical knowledge, and, being independent of such knowledge, also antedates it. Among the reasons which led people to identify the liver with the very source of life, and hence as the seat of all affections and emotions, including what to us are intellectual functions, we may name the bloody appearance of that organ. Filled with blood, it was natural to regard it as the seat of the blood, and as a matter of fact one-sixth of the entire blood of man is in the liver, while in the case of some animals the proportion is even larger. Now blood was everywhere in antiquity associated with life, and the biblical passage, Genesis ix. 3, which identifies the blood with the soul of the animal and therefore prohibits its use fairly represents the current conception both among primitive peoples as well as among those who had advanced along the road of culture and civilization. The liver being regarded as the seat of the blood, it was a natural and short step to identify the liver with the soul as well as with the seat of life, and therefore as the centre of all manifestations of vitality and activity. In this stage of belief, therefore, the liver is the seat of all emotions and affections, as well as of intellectual functions, and it is only when with advancing anatomical knowledge the functions of the heart and then of the brain come to be recognized that a differentiation of functions takes place which had its outcome in the assignment of intellectual activity to the brain or head, of the higher emotions and affections (as love and courage) to the heart, while the liver was degraded to the rank of being regarded as the seat of the lower emotions and affections, such as jealousy, moroseness and the like.

Hepatoscopy, or divination through the liver, belongs therefore to the primitive period when that organ summed up all vitality and was regarded as the seat of all the emotions and affections-the higher as well as the lower-and also as the scat of intellectual |

| functions. The question, however, still remains to be answered how people came to the belief or to the assumption that through the soul, or the seat of life of the sacrificial animal, the intention of the gods could be divined. There are two theories that may be put forward. The one is that the animal sacrificed was looked upon as a deity, and that, therefore, the liver represented the soul of the god; the other theory is that the deity in accepting the sacrifice identified himself with the animal, and that, therefore, the liver as the soul of the animal was the counterpart of the soul of the god. It is true that the killing of the god plays a prominent part in primitive cults, as has been shown more particularly through the valuable researches of J. G. Frazer (The Golden Bough). On the other hand, serious difficulties arise if we assume that every animal sacrificed represents a deity; and even assuming that such a belief underlies the rite of animal sacrifice, a modification of the belief must have been introduced when such sacrifices became a common rite resorted to on every occasion when a deity was to be approached. It is manifestly impossible to assume, e.g. that the daily sacrifices which form a feature of advanced cults involved the belief of the daily slaughter of some deity, and even before this stage was reached the primitive belief of the actual identification of the god with the animal must have yielded to some such belief as that the deity in accepting the sacrifice assimilates the animal to his own being, precisely as man assimilates the food that enters into his body. The animal is in a certain sense, indeed, the food of the god.

The theory underlying hepatoscopy therefore consists of these two factors: the belief (1) that the liver is the seat of life, or, to put it more succinctly, what was currently regarded as the soul of the animal; and (2) that the liver of the sacrificial animal, by virtue of its acceptance on the part of the god, took on the same character as the soul of the god to whom it was offered. The two souls acted in accord, the soul of the animal becoming a reflection, as it were, of the soul of the god. If, therefore, one understood the signs noted on a particular liver, one entered, as it were, into the mind-as one of the manifestations of soul-life-of the deity who had assimilated the being of the animal to his own being. To know the mind of the god was equivalent to knowing what the god in question proposed to do. Hence, when one approached a deity with an inquiry as to the outcome of some undertaking, the reading of the signs on the liver afforded a direct means of determining the course of future events, which was, according to current beliefs, in the control of the gods. That there are defects in the logical process as here outlined to account for the curious rite constitutes no valid objection to the theory advanced, for, in the first place, primitive logic in matters of belief is inherently defective and even contradictory, and, secondly, the strong desire to pierce the mysterious future, forming an impelling factor in all religions-even in the most advanced of our own day-would tend to obscure the weakness of any theory developed to explain a rite which represents merely one endeavour among many to divine the intention and plans of the gods, upon the knowledge of which so much of man's happiness and welfare depended.

Passing now to typical examples, the beginning must be made with Babylonia, which is also the richest source of our knowledge of the details of the rite. Hepatoscopy in the Euphrates valley can be traced back to the 3rd millennium before our era, which may be taken as sufficient evidence for its survival from the period of primitive culture, while the supreme importance attached to signs read on the livers of sacrificial animals-usually a sheep-follows from the care with which omens derived from such inspection on occasions of historical significance were preserved as guides to later generations of priests. Thus we have a collection of the signs noted during the career of Sargon I. of Agade (c. 2800 B.C.), which in some way were handed down till the days of the Assyrian king Assur-bani-pal (668-626 B.C.). One of the chief names for the priest was bāru-literally the "inspector "-which was given to him because of the prominence of his function as an inspector of livers for the purpose of divining the intention of the gods. It is to the collections formed by these

bird priests as a guidance for themselves and as a basis of instruction for those in training for the priesthood that we owe our knowledge of the parts of the liver to which particular attention was directed, of the signs noted, and of the principles guiding the interpretation of the signs.

The inspection of the liver for purposes of divination led to the study of the anatomy of the liver, and there are indeed good reasons for believing that hepatoscopy represents the startingpoint for the study of animal anatomy in general. We find in the Babylonian-Assyrian omen-texts special designations for the three main lobes of the sheep's liver-the lobus dexter, the lobus sinister and the lobus caudatus; the first-named being called "the right wing of the liver," the second "the left wing of the liver," and the third "the middle of the liver." Whether the division of the lobus dexter into two divisions-(1) lobus dexter proper and (2) lobus quadratus, as in modern anatomical nomenclature was also assumed in Babylonian hepatoscopy, is not certain, but the groove separating the right lobe into two sections the fossa venae umbilicalis-was recognized and distinguished by the designation of " river of the liver." The two appendixes attached to the upper lobe or lobus pyramidalis, and known in modern nomenclature as processus pyramidalis and processus papillaris, were described respectively as the "finger" of the liver and as the "offshoot." The former of these two appendixes plays an especially important part in hepatoscopy, and, according to its shape and peculiarities, furnishes a good or bad omen. The gall-bladder, appropriately designated as "the bitter," was regarded as a part of the liver, and the cystic duct (compared, apparently, to a "penis") to which it is joined, as well as the hepatic duct (pictured as an "outlet ") and the ductus choleductus (described as a "yoke "), all had their special designations. The depression separating the two lower lobes from the lobus caudatus, and known as the porta hepatis, was appropriately designated as the "crucible " of the liver. Lastly, to pass over unnecessary details, the markings of various kinds to be observed on the lobes of the livers of freshly-slaughtered animals, which are due mainly to the traces left by the subsidiary hepatic ducts and hepatic veins on the liver surface, were described as "holes," "paths," "clubs" and the like. The constantly varying character of these markings, no two Evers being alike in this respect, furnished a particularly large feld for the fancy of the bärü-priest.

| of instruction and as a basis for the practical work of divination.
Divination through the liver remained in force among the
Assyrians and Babylonians down to the end of the Babylonian
Empire.

Among the Greeks and Romans likewise it was the liver that continued throughout all periods to play the chief rôle in divination through the sacrificial animal. Blecher (De Extispicio Capita Tria, Giessen, 1905, pp. 3-22) has recently collected most of the references in Greek and Latin authors to animal divination, and an examination of these shows conclusively that, although the general term used for the inspection of the sacrificial animal was iera or iercia (i.e. " victims " or "sacred parts ") in Greek, and exta in Latin, when specific illustrations are introduced, the reference is almost invariably to some sign or signs on the liver; and we have an interesting statement in Pliny (Hist. Nat. xi. § 186), furnishing the date (274 B.C.) when the examination of the heart was for the first time introduced by the side of the liver as a means of divining the future, while the lungs are not mentioned till we reach the days of Cicero (de Divinatione, i. 85). We are justified in concluding, therefore, that among the Greeks and Romans likewise the examination of the liver was the basis of divination in the case of the sacrificial animal. It is well known that the Romans borrowed their methods of hepatoscopy from the Etruscans, and, apart from the direct evidence for this in Latin writings, we have, in the case of the bronze model of a liver found near Piacenza in 1877, and of Etruscan origin, the unmistakable proof that among the Etruscans the examination of the liver was the basis of animal divination. Besides this object dating from about the 3rd century B.C., according to the latest investigator, G. Körte (“ Die Bronzeleber von Piacenza," in Mitt. d. K. D. Archaeol. Instituts, 1905, xx. pp. 348-379), there are other Etruscan monuments, e.g. the figure of an Etruscan augur holding a liver in his hand as his trade-mark (Körte, ib. pl. xiv.), which point in the same direction, and indicate that the model of the liver was used as an object lesson to illustrate the method of divination through the liver. For further details the reader is referred to Thulin's monograph, Die Etruskische Disciplin, II Die Haruspicin (Gothenburg, 1906).

As for the Greeks, it is still an open question whether they perfected their method of hepatoscopy under Etruscan influence or through the Babylonians. In any case, since the Eastern origin of the Etruscans is now generally admitted, we may temporarily, at least, accept the conclusion that hepatoscopy as a method of divination owes its survival in advanced forms of culture to the elaborate system devised in the course of centuries by the Babylonian priests, and to the influence, direct and indirect, exerted by this system in the ancient world. But for this system hepatoscopy, the theoretic basis of which as above set forth falls within the sphere of ideas that belong to primitive culture, would have passed away as higher stages of civilization were reached; and as a matter of fact it plays no

In the interpretation of these signs the two chief factors were association of ideas and association of words. If, for example, the processus pyramidalis was abnormally small and the proccssus papillaris abnormally large, it pointed to a reversion of the natural order, to wit, that the servant should control the master or that the son would be above the father. A long cystic duct would point to a long reign of the king. If the gall-bladder was swollen, it pointed to an extension or enlargement of some kind. If the porta hepatis was torn it prognosticated a plundering of the enemy's land. As among most people, a sign on the right side was favourable, but the same sign on the left side unfavour-part in the Egyptian culture or in the civilization of India, while able. If, for example, the porta hepatis was long on the right side and short on the left side, it was a good sign for the king's army, but if short on the right side and long on the left, it was unfavourable; and similarly for a whole series of phenomena connected with any one of the various subdivisions of the liver. Past experience constituted another important factor in establishing the interpretation of signs noted. If, for example, on a certain occasion when the liver of a sacrificial animal was examined, certain events of a favourable character followed, the conclusion was drawn that the signs observed were favourable, and hence the recurrence of these signs on another occasion suggested a favourable answer to the question put to the priests. With this in view, omens given in the reigns of prominent rulers were preserved with special care as guides to the priests.

In the course of time the collections of signs and their interpretation made by the bára-priests grew in number until elaborate series were produced in which the endeavour was made to exhaust so far as possible all the varieties and modifications of the many signs, so as to furnish a complete handbook both for purposes

among the Hebrews only faint traces of the primitive idea of the liver as the seat of the soul are to be met with in the Old Testament, among which an allusion in the indirect form of a protest against the use of the sacrificial animal for purposes of divination in the ordinance (Exodus xxix. 13, 22; Leviticus iii. 4, 10, 15, &c.) to burn the processus pyramidalis of the liver, which played a particularly significant rôle in hepatoscopy, calls for special mention.

In modern times hepatoscopy still survives among primitive peoples in Borneo, Burma, Uganda, &c.

It but remains to call attention to the fact that the earlier view of the liver as the seat of the soul gave way among many ancient nations to the theory which, reflecting the growth of anatomical knowledge, assigned that function to the heart, while, with the further change which led to placing the seat of soul-life in the brain, an attempt was made to partition the various functions of manifestations of personality among the three organs, brain, heart and liver, the intellectual activity being assigned to the first-named the higher emotions, as love

and courage, to the second; while the liver, once the master of the entire domain of soul-life as understood in antiquity, was degraded to serve as the seat of the lower emotions, such as jealousy, anger and the like. This is substantially the view set forth in the Timaeus of Plato (§ 71 c). The addition of the heart to the liver as an organ of the revelation of the divine will, reflects the stage which assigned to the heart the position once occupied by the liver. By the time the third stage, which placed the seat of soul-life in the brain, was reached through the further advance of anatomical knowledge, the religious rites of Greece and Rome were too deeply incrusted to admit of further radical changes, and faith in the gods had already declined too far to❘ bring new elements into the religion. In phrenology, however, as popularly carried on as an unofficial cult, we may recognize a modified form of divination, co-ordinate with the third stage in the development of beliefs regarding the seat of soul and based on the assumption that this organ is-as were its predecessors-Mesha throws welcome light upon his conquest of Moab (q.v.); a medium of revelation of otherwise hidden knowledge.

(M. JA.) OMICHUND (d. 1767), an Indian whose name is indelibly associated with the treaty negotiated by Clive before the battle of Plassey in 1757- His real name was Amir Chand; and he was not a Bengali, as stated by Macaulay, but a Sikh from the Punjab. It is impossible now to unravel the intrigues in which he may have engaged, but some facts about his career can be stated. He had long been resident at Calcutta, where he had acquired a large fortune by providing the "investment" for the Company, and also by acting as intermediary between the English and the native court at Murshidabad. In a letter of Mr Watts of later date he is represented as saying to the nawab (Suraj-ud-daula): "He had lived under the English protection these forty years; that he never knew them once to break their agreement, to the truth of which he took his oath by touching a Brahman's foot; and that if a lie could be proved in England upon any one, they were spit upon and never trusted." Several houses owned by him in Calcutta are mentioned in connexion with the fighting that preceded the tragedy of the Black Hole in 1756, and it is on record that he suffered heavy losses at that time. He had been arrested by the English on suspicion of treachery, but afterwards he was forward in giving help to the fugitives and also valuable advice. On the recapture of Calcutta he was sent by Clive to accompany Mr Watts as agent at Murshidabad. It seems to have been through his influence that the nawab gave reluctant consent to Clive's attack on Chandernagore. Later, when the treaty with Mir Jafar was being negotiated, he put in a claim for 5% on all the treasure to be recovered, under threat of disclosing the plot. To defeat him, two copies of the treaty were drawn up: the one, the true treaty, omitting his claim; the other containing it, to be shown to him, which Admiral Watson refused to sign, but Clive directed the admiral's signature to be appended. When the truth was revealed to Omichund after Plassey, Macaulay states (following Orme) that he sank gradually into idiocy, languished a few months, and then died. As a matter of fact, he survived for ten years, till 1767; and by his will he bequeathed £2000 to the Foundling Hospital (where his name may be seen in the list of benefactors as "a black merchant of Calcutta ") and also to the Magdalen Hospital in London. (J. S. Co.) OMNIBUS (Lat. " for all "), a large closed public conveyance with seats for passengers inside and out (see CARRIAGE). The name, colloquially shortened to "bus," was, in the form voiture omnibus, first used for such conveyances in Paris in 1828, and was taken by Shillibeer for the vehicle he ran on the Paddington road in 1829. The word is also applied to a box at the opera which is shared by several subscribers, to a bill or act of parliament dealing with a variety of subjects, and in electrical engineering to the bar to which the terminals of the generators are attached and from which the current is taken off by the wires supplying the various consumers.

OMRI, in the Bible, the first great king of Israel after the separation of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, who flourished in the early part of the 9th century B.C. The

| dynasty of Jeroboam had been exterminated by Baasha (see ASA) at a revolt when the army was besieging the Philistines at Gibbethon, an unidentified Danite site. A quarter of a century later, Baasha's son Elah, after a reign of two years, was slain by Zimri, captain of the chariots, in a drinking bout, and again the royal family were put to the sword. Meanwhile, the general Omri, who was at Gibbethon, was promptly elected king by the army, and Zimri himself in a short while1 met his death in the royal city of Tirzah. However, fresh disturbance was caused by Tibni ben Ginath (perhaps of Naphtali), and Israel was divided into rival factions. Ultimately Tibni and his brother Joram (1 Kings xvi. 22, LXX.) were overcome, and Omri remained in sole possession of the throne. The compiler of the biblical narratives takes little interest in Omri's work (1 Kings xvi. 15-28), and records briefly his purchase of Samaria, which became the capital of his dynasty (see SAMARIA). The inscription of the position of Israel during the reign of Omri's son Ahab (q.v.) bears testimony to the success of the father; and the fact that the land continued to be known to the Assyrians down to the time of Sargon as "house of Omri" indicates the reputation which this little-known king enjoyed. (S. A. C.)

OMSK, a town of Russia, capital of the province of Akmolinsk, capital of western Siberia from 1839 to 1882, and now capital of the general-governorship of the Steppes. Pop. (1881) 31,000, (1900) 53,050. It is the seat of administration of the Siberian Cossacks, and the see of the bishop of Omsk. Situated on the right bank of the Irtysh, at its confluence with the Om, at an altitude of 285 ft., and on the Siberian railway, 1862 m. via Chelyabinsk from Moscow, and 586 m. W.S.W. of Tomsk, it is the meeting-place of the highways to middle Russia, Orenburg and Turkestan. Steamers ply down the Irtysh and the Ob, and up the former to the Altai towns and Lake Zaisan. The climate is dry and relatively temperate, but marked by violent snow-storms and sand-storms. The average temperatures are, for the year, 31° F.; for January, 5°; for July, 68°; the annual rainfall is 12.4 in. The town is poorly built. Apart from the railway workshops, its industries are unimportant (steam sawmill, tanneries); but the trade, especially since the construction of the railway, is growing. There are two yearly fairs. Omsk has a society for education, which organizes schools, kindergartens, libraries and lectures for the people. There are a corps of cadets, medical, dramatic and musical societies, and the west Siberian section of the Russian Geographical Society, with

a muscum.

The "fort" of Omsk was erected in 1716 to protect the blockhouses on the Russian frontier, along the Ishim and the Irtysh. In consequence of the frequent incursions of the Kirghiz about the end of the 18th century, stronger earthworks were erected on the right bank of the Om; but these have now almost entirely disappeared.

ONAGRACEAE, in botany, an order of dicotyledons belonging to the series Myrtiflorae, to which belongs also the myrtle order, Myrtaceae. It contains about 36 genera and 300 species, and occurs chiefly in the temperate zone of the New World, especially on the Pacific side. It is represented in Britain by several species of Epilobium (willow-herb), Circaca (enchanter's nightshade), and Ludwigia, a small perennial herb very rare in boggy pools in Sussex and Hampshire. The plants are generally herbaceous, sometimes annual, as species of Epilobium, Clarkia, Godetia, or biennial, as Oenothera biennis-evening primroseor sometimes become shrubby or arborescent, as Fuchsia (9.3.). The simple leaves are generally entire or inconspicuously toothed, and are alternate, opposite or whorled in arrangement; they are generally exstipulate, but small caducous stipules occur in Fuchsia, Circaea and other genera. The flowers are often solitary in the leaf-axils, as in many fuchsias, Clarkia, &c., or associated, as in Epilobium and Oenothera, in large showy terminal spikes or racemes; in Circara the small white or red

He is said to have reigned seven days, but the LXX. (B) in 1 Kings xvi. 15 read seven years. Further confusion is caused by the fact that the LXX. reads Zimri throughout for Omri.

flowers are borne in terminal and lateral racemes. The regular | the genera are well known as garden plants, e.g. Fuchsia, flowers have the parts in fours, the typical arrangement as Oenothera, Clarkia and Godetia. Evening primrose (Oenothera illustrated by Epilobium, Oenothera and Fuchsia being as biennis), a native of North America, occurs apparently wild as follows: 4 sepals, 4 a garden escape in Britain. Jussieua is a tropical genus petals, two alternating of water- and marsh-herbs with well-developed aerating whorls of 4 stamens, and tissue. 4 inferior carpels. The floral receptacle is produced above the ovary into the so-called calyxtube, which is often petaloid, as in Fuchsia, and is sharply distinguished from the ovary, from which it separates after flowering.

FIG. 1.-Fuchsia coccinea

1, Flower cut open after removal of sepals; 2, fruit; 3, floral diagram.

sa

sa

In Clarkia the inner whorl of stamens is often barren, and in an allied genus, Eucharidium, it is absent. In Circaea the flower has its parts

FIG. 2.-Floral diagram of Circaea.

in twos. Both sepals and petals are free; the former have a broad insertion, are valvate in bud, and reflexed in the flower; in Fuchsia they are petaloid. The petals have a narrow attachment, and are generally convolute in bud; they are entire (Fuchsia) or bilobed (Epilobium); in some species of Fuchsia they are small and scale-like, or absent (F. apetala). The stamens are free, and those of the inner whorl are generally shorter than those of the outer whorl. The flowers of Lopezia (Central America) have only one fertile stamen. The large spherical pollen grains are connected by viscid threads. The typically quadrilocular ovary contains numerous ovules on axile placentas; the 1-to-2-celled ovary of Circaea has a single ovule in each loculus. The long slender style has a capitate (Fuchsia), 4-rayed (Oenothera, Epilobium) or 4-notched (Circaea) stigma. The flowers, which have generally an attractive corolla and honey secreted by a swollen disk at the base of the style or on the lower part of the " calyx-tube," are adapted for pollination by insects, chiefly bees and lepidoptera; sometimes by nightflying insects when the flowers are pale and open towards evening, as in evening primrose. The fruit is generally a capsule B. Fruit of Epilobium after splitting into 4 valves and dehiscence. , outer wall; m, leaving a central column on columella formed by the septa; which the seeds are borne as a, seed with tufts of hairs. in Epilobium and Oenothera

١١

f

B

From Vines' Students' Text-Book of Botany, by permission of Swan Sonnenschein & Co. FIG. 3.

A, Young flower of Epilobium hirsutum. c, petals; f, inferior evary; k, sepals; s, pedicel.

in the former the seeds are scattered by aid of a long tuft of silky hairs on the broader end. In Fuchsia the fruit is a berry, which is sometimes edible, and in Circaea a nut bearing recurved bristles. The seeds are exalbuminous. Several of

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ONATAS, a Greek sculptor of the time of the Persian wars, a member of the flourishing school of Aegina. Many of his works are mentioned by Pausanias; they included a Hermes carrying the ram, and a strange image of the Black Demeter made for the people of Phigalia; also some elaborate groups in bronze set up at Olympia and Delphi. For Hiero I., king of Syracuse, Onatas executed a votive chariot in bronze dedicated at Olympia. If we compare the descriptions of the works of Onatas given us by Pausanias with the well-known pediments of Aegina at Munich we shall find so close an agreement that we may safely take the pedimental figures as an index of the style of Onatas. They are manly, vigorous, athletic, showing great knowledge of the human form, but somewhat stiff and automaton-like.

ONEGA, the largest lake in Europe next to Ladoga, having an area of 3764 sq. m. It is situated in the government of Olonets in European Russia, and, discharging its waters by the Svir into Lake Ladoga, belongs to the system of the Neva. The lake basin extends north-west and south-east, the direction characteristic of the lakes of Finland and the line of glacier-scoring observed in that region. Between the northern and southern divisions of the lake there is a considerable difference: while the latter has a comparatively regular outline, and contains hardly any islands, the former splits up into a number of inlets, the largest being Povyenets Bay, and is crowded with islands (e.g. Klimetsk) and submerged rocks. It is thus the northern division which brings the coast-line up to 870 m. and causes the navigation of the lake to be so dangerous. The north-western shore between Petrozavodsk and the mouth of the river Lumbosha consists of dark clay slates, generally arranged in horizontal strata and broken by protruding, parallel ridges of diorite, which extend far into the lake. The eastern shore, as far as the mouth of the Andoma, is for the most part alluvial, with outcroppings of red granite and in one place (the mouth of the Pyalma) diorite and dolomite. To the south-east are sedimentary Devonian rocks, and the general level of the coast is broken by Mount Andoma and Cape Petropavlovskiy (160 ft. above the lake); to the south-west a quartz sandstone (used as a building and monumental stone in St Petersburg) forms a fairly bold rim. Lake Onega lies 125 ft. above the sea. The greatest depths, 318 to 408 ft., occur at the entrance to the double bay of Lizhemsk and Unitsk. On the continuation of this line the depth exceeds 240 ft. in several places. In the middle of the lake the depth is 120 to 282 ft., and less than 120 ft. in the south. The lake is 145 m. long, with an average breadth of 50 m. The most important affluents, the Vodka, the Andoma and the Vytegra, come from the east. The Kumsa, a northern tributary, is sometimes represented as if it connected the lake with Lake Seg, but at the present time the latter drains to the White Sea. The Onega canal (45 m. long) was constructed in 1818-1851 along the southern shore in order to connect the Svir (and hence Lake Ladoga and the Baltic) with the Vytegra, which connects with the Volga. Lake Onega remains free from ice for 209 days in the year (middle of May to second week of December). The water is at its lowest level in the beginning of March; by June it has risen 2 ft. A considerable population is scattered along the shores of the lake, mainly occupied in the timber trade, fisheries and mining industries. Salmon, palya (a kind of trout), burbot, pike, perchpike and perch are among the fish caught in the lake. Steamboats were introduced in 1832

The river Onega, which, after a course of 250 m., reaches the Gulf of Onega, an inlet of the White Sea, has no connexion with Lake Onega. At the mouth of this river (on the right bank) stands the town and port of Onega (pop. 2694 in 1897), which dates from settlements made by the people of Novgorod in the 15th century, and known in history as Ustenskaya or Ustyanskaya. It has a cathedral, erected in 1796. (P. A. K.; J. T. BE.)

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