OR, UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY OF KNOWLEDGE, On an Original Plan: COMPRISING THE TWOFOLD ADVANTAGE OF A PHILOSOPHICAL AND AN ALPHABETICAL ARRANGEMENT, WITH APPROPRIATE ENGRAVINGS. EDITED BY THE REV. EDWARD SMEDLEY, M.A., LATE FELLOW OF SIDNEY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; THE REV. HUGH JAMES ROSE, B.D., PRINCIPAL OF KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON; AND THE REV. HENRY JOHN ROSE, B.D., LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. VOLUME XVII. [MISCELLANEOUS AND LEXICOGRAPHICAL, VOL. 4.] LONDON: B. FELLOWES; F. AND J. RIVINGTON; DUNCAN AND MALCOLM; SUTTABY AND CO.; E. HODGSON; J. DOWDING; T. HODGES; AND H. WASHBOURNE; ALSO J. H. PARKER, AND T. LAYCOCK, OXFORD; 1845. CONTENTS TO VOL. XVII. THE LEXICON. Dr. RICHARDSON. ORIENTAL GEOGRAPHY, MYTHOLOGY, AND STATISTICS. AFRICAN GEOGRAPHY. ANCIENT GEO- NORTH AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY. CHARLES VIGNOLES, Esq., Civil Engineer. SOUTH AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY. Captain BONNYCASTLE, Royal Engineers. CUBA. CHARLES VIGNOLES, Esq., and Captain BONNYCASTLE. BOTANY. THOMAS EDWARDS, Esq., F.L.S. ZOOLOGY. VERTEBRALS. J. F. SOUTH, Esq., F.L.S., Lecturer on Anatomy at St. Thomas's Hospital. ZOOLOGY. INVERTEBRALS. THOMAS BELL, Esq., F.L.S., and J. E. GRAY, Esq., F.L.S. LAW. FRANCIS SMEDLEY, Esq. COPT. COSSACK. CRESCENT. DIALECT. The Rev. G. C. RENOUARD. COMITIA. CONSUL. CRETE. CROMLECH. CUMA. CURIA. DÆMON. DIANA. DICTATOR. The Rev. CONCORDANCE. CONFESSION. CONGREGATION. CONSECRATION. CONSISTORY. CONVOCATION. CULDEES. The Right Rev. Bishop RUSSELL. DIALLING. PETER BARLOW, Esq., F.R.S., Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. ENCYCLOPÆDIA METROPOLITANA ; OR, UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY OF KNOWLEDGE. Fourth Division. COHORT. MISCELLANEOUS AND LEXICOGRAPHICAL. COHORT, Vossius and others say, from yopros, hortus being arranged behind the first Cohort were also picked COHORT. septum; sepire, to enclose or enfold; and any thing was so called, quod in anteriore domo vel villá clausum et septum esset. Vossius. And Varro,—Cohors, quod, ut in villá ex pluribus textis conjungitur, ac quiddam fit unum, sic hæc ex manipulis pluribus copulatur Cohors. lib. iv. A band, or united body of soldiers. Whole bands or cohorts, if any of them gave ground and reculed, he tithed, that is to say, executed every tenth man of them and the rest, he allowed barly instead of wheat to feede upon. Holland. Suetonius. Augustus, fol. 47. Eight cohorts by themselves consisting of four hundred in a band were enrolled, even the most able and choice men of all others. Id. Livius, fol. 254. Hence to the gates cast round thine eyes, and see What conflux issuing forth, or entering in,Legions, and cohorts, turmes of horse, and wings. Milton. Paradise Regained, book iv. 1. 66. The word CoнORT in its usual application has wandered far from its original meaning, and the reasons assigned are for the most part fanciful and unsatisfactory. The Cohortes, or Courts in building, are often circular, say the Etymologists; and bodies of men when closing together assume a circular form. This is sufficiently silly, but we have nothing better which we can offer. Modestus and Vegetius, the great authorities on Roman military antiquities, give ten Cohorts to each Legion. Of these the first consisted of picked men ; it was intrusted with the care of the Eagle, and formed on the right. It consisted of 1105 foot and 132 horse, and was termed Cohors militaris. The second consisted of 555 foot and 66 horse, it was called Cohors quinquagenaria; the third was of the same number, but of choicer troops, because it formed on the centre of the front line. The fourth and fifth had each 600 men and 66 cavalry, and the last of these formed on the left. The five remaining Cohorts were posted in the second line. The sixth had 555 foot and 66 horse; these VOL. XX. men. The seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth 555 foot and 56 horse. This mixture of cavalry and infantry explains the words Cohors equitata, which are frequently met with on Inscriptions, and which have puzzled such Antiquaries as have considered Cohors to be applicable to infantry alone. Rosinus (Ant. Rom. iv. 5) has fallen into a most unaccountable error, when he says that Cohorts are never mentioned by Livy. The word is of frequent occurrence in that historian. Cohortes auxiliarie were those furnished by the allied powers. Prætoriana the General's body guard; from which, under Augustus, first proceeded the Prætorian Bands, afterwards so powerful in Imperial Rome. Togata, the police, or gens d'armerie of the Capital. Vigilum, (of which there were seven in Rome, one to each two regions of the City,) a band which acted as night Patrols. COIF, v. COIF, n. Cor'FED, Fr. coife; It. coffia; Mid. Lat. cuphia; Dutch, huve; Ger. haube. Vossius, de from Ger. heben, levare, tollere in CorFFURE. altum, to heave, to raise on high. Wachter gives, haube, crista, which was subsequently applied ad mitras, and to other coverings of the head. Belge, he adds, dicunt huif and kuif promiscuè; for h and k are interchangeable in all dialects. Wherefore first I dyd throwe away my quylted cappe, and my other close bonnettes, and onely dyd lye in a thynne coyfe, whiche I haue euer sens vsed both wynter and somer. Sir Thomas Elyot. Castel of Helth, book iv. Judges of the kinge's lawes He countes them foles and dawse, He sayeth they are to seke. Skelton. Why come ye not to Court. gold) called Shapka Zempska, edged with some riche furre, and Ouer that her cappe, (made after the coife fashion of cloth of set with pearle and stone. Hakluyt. Voyage, &c. The Maners of the Russes, vol. i. fol. 497. B COIF. |