natural consequence follows, that the wool becomes inferior in quantity and fineness. It grows, also, very slowly in the warm part of the year, and more vigorously as the cold season approaches. The head of the Asiatic goat is large, the horns situated backwards, and somewhat curved, the legs slender. The colder the region where the animal pastures, the heavier is its fleece. Proper food and careful tending increase the fineness of the wool. Yearlings, as in the case with the Merino sheep, afford the finest wool. A full-grown goat yields not more than 8 ounces. The goats which pasture in the highest vales of Thibet have a bright ochre color. In lower grounds, the color becomes of a yellowish-white, and, still farther downwards, entirely white. The highest mountains of the Himalaya, inhabitable by man, contain also a kind of goats with black wool, which, in India, and in the mountainous country of the goats, obtains the highest price, as a material for shawls. The goats of Thibet and Cashmere have the fine curled wool close to the skin, just as the under-hair of our common goat lies below the coarse upper-hair. The wool is shorn in the spring, shortly before the warm season-t -the time when the animal, in its natural state, seeks thorns and hedges in order to free itself from the burden of its warm covering. All the hard and long hairs are picked out most carefully. The wool, thus purified, is washed, first in a warm solution of potash, and afterwards in cold water, in which process felting must be carefully avoided. It is then bleached upon the grass, and carded for spinning. The shawl-wool is three times dyedbefore carding, after spinning, and in the shawl. The Asiatics avoid spinning the wool hard, in order that the shawl may be soft. They use a spindle, which consists of a ball of clay, with an iron wire attached. The finger and the thumb of the spinner are kept smooth by steatite powder. A large shawl, of the finest quality, requires 5 pounds of the wool; one of inferior quality, from 3 to 4 pounds. Main, in London, has invented a machine, which spins this wool, in a very simple way, finer than can be done by the best spindles of Thibet, and, at the same time, of a firmer thread. The flesh of the Cashmere goat tastes as well as that of the common one; and its milk is as rich, if it is well tended. Since 1820, this species has been introduced into France, and succeeds very well. The enterprising baron Ternaux (q. v.) ordered 1289

of these goats to be brought to France (1820), under the care of the celebrated professor of Oriental languages in Paris, Amadée Joubert. Joubert found these goats already spread from Cashmere to the Ural, over Bucharia, in Independent Tartary, purchased them in the deserts there, and transported them over the Volga along the coast to Theodosia, in the Crimea, where they were put on board vessels to be carried to France. On the voyage, which lasted a long time, a great number died: there remained, however, more than 400 healthy animals, which were sent from Toulon and Marseilles, partly to the Pyrenees of Roussillon, partly to the lime-hills of Provence, and to the pastures of Alsatia and Rambouillet.

CASHNA, or CASSINA, or KASSINA; a city in Africa, capital of a kingdom, between Bornou and Timbuctoo; 220 miles W. N. W. Bornou, 690 E. S. E. Timbuctoo; lon. 11° 34′ E.; lat. 16° 30′ N. A large proportion of the country of Cashna consists of land of great fertility, interspersed with arid wastes. Cashna is level, and said to contain 1000 towns and villages. The monarch is called sultan of all Soudan, i. e. Negroland. The principal articles of traffic are senna, gold dust, slaves, cotton cloths, goat skins, ox and buffalo hides, and civet. Cashna has no salt lakes or mines, but is supplied with salt from Bornou.

CASHOO; the common name of the anacardium occidentale of Lin. ; a native of Bahar. The fruit of the tree is called cashoo-nut. The expressed juice makes a pleasant wine; and an aromatic and medicinal drug is prepared by a decoction and maceration of several parts of the tree, afterwards consolidated by evaporation. The Indians chew it. The Europeans employ it as a digestive, and a soother of coughs.

CASIMIR III, the Great, king of Poland, son of Uladislaus Loketek, distinguished himself by his valor, under the reign of his father, who had commissioned him to take revenge on the knights of the Teutonic order; and, that he might learn the art of governing, made him regent of Great Poland. In 1333, he ascended the throne, and had many contests with the Teutonic knights, made himself master of Little Russia, which had formerly belonged to Poland, conquered Silesia, repelled the Tartars, who had advanced to Poland, and the Bohemians, who attempted to gain possession of Silesia, as a fief of Bohemia. He died in 1370, without children, having named a son of the

king of Hungary his successor, in 1339. He caused a new code of laws to be compiled, and protected the peasants with much energy, on which account he was called the peasants' king. He had a great number of mistresses, among whom was a Jewess, named Esther, who procured for her nation those liberties which they enjoy in Poland to the present day. With Casimir, the line of the Piasti, which had ruled in Poland for 523 years, became extinct. From that time, the Poles chose foreigners for their kings, and thus laid the foundation of the troubles which distracted the kingdom till its final ruin.

CASINO, in Germany, is used to signify a clubhouse. They are now to be found in almost every place of middling population.

CASIRI, Michael, a learned Orientalist and Syro-Maronite clergyman, was born at Tripoli, in Syria, 1710, came to Rome, where he studied in the college of St. Peter and St. Marcellino, and, in 1734, entered the clerical profession. The following year, he accompanied the learned Assemanni to Syria, where he was going, at the command of the pope, to attend the synod of the Maronites, and, in 1738, gave, at Rome, an exact account of the religious tenets of the Maronites. He afterwards taught, in his monastery, the Arabic, Syrian and Chaldee languages, theology and philosophy; and, in the year 1748, was invited to Madrid, where he was appointed to an office in the royal library. In 1749, he devoted his attention, by the king's orders, to the library of the Escurial, of which he subsequently became the superintendent. Here he collected the materials for his celebrated work, Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana (Madrid, 1760-70, 2 vols., folio), which enumerates, in 1851 articles, the manuscripts of the Escurial library, perhaps the richest in Europe in Arabic manuscripts. This work, though not entirely free from errors, contains very important information and valuable extracts, and is indispensable to every Orientalist. Casiri died at Madrid in 1791.

CASPIAN SEA; a large lake, or inland sea, in Asia; bounded N. by Russia, E. by Tartary and Persia, S. by Persia, and W. by Persia, Circassia and Russia; 646 miles in length from N. to S., and from 100 to 265 in breadth; supposed to be the largest lake in the eastern part of the globe. The water is less salt than that of the ocean, of a bitter taste, and of an ochre color, without ebb or flow. In some places it is exceedingly deep, yet it

abounds in shallows, so as to prevent the navigation of ships which draw more than 9 or 10 feet of water. Among the rivers which flow into it are the Volga, Ural and Kur. It has no outlet. The fisheries here, which are very valuable, occupy and train many seamen. The coasts are divided among the Russians, Persians and Tartars. The Caspian sea was, by the ancients, called the Hyrcanian sea; the Tartars call it Akdingis, i e. the White sea; the Georgians call it the Kurtshensian sea; and by the Persians it is styled Gursen. The level of the Caspian sea is 375 feet lower than that of the ocean. The Truchmenes, on the shores of the Caspian sea, assert, that the lake KuliDaria, which is connected with the gulf of Karabogaskoi, a part of the Caspian sea, contains a whirlpool, which takes in the water of the latter. In fact, the current from the Caspian sea into the gulf of Karabogaskoi is very great. The most recent information respecting the shores of the Caspian sea is that given by Murawiew in his Journey to Khiwa, in the year 1819, in Russian.

CASSANDER, George, born in 1515, in the island of Cadsand, or Cassand, near Bruges, in the Netherlands, from which he received his name, is celebrated for his endeavors to settle the disputes between religious parties. At Bruges, Ghent and Cologne, he studied, and taught philology, the canon law and Catholic theology, and accepted no public office, on account of his ill health. In 1561, he published a work designed to allay religious disputes, in which his censure of Calvin for his violence and intol.. erance drew upon him the attacks both of Calvin and Beza. In 1564, he was employed by the duke of Cleves to convert the Anabaptists. The emperor Ferdinand I invited him to Vienna, to compose articles of union between the Catholics and Protestants. These he published, under Maximilian II, the successor of Ferdinand—De Articulis Religionis inter Catholicos et Protestantes Controversis ad Impp. Ferd. I, et Max. II, Consultatio, ed. Hug. Grot. (1642.) Though a sincere Catholic, he founded his opinions on the doctrines of the old Christian fathers, and showed his concurrence with the Protestants, in regard to fundamental doc trines, by proposing communion under both forms, the marriage of priests, the abolition of image-worship, the reform of many abuses, and a modification of the Catholic system. But he asserted the supremacy of the pope, supported the

doctrine of transubstantiation, and the importance of the sacrament, ex opere operato. His proposals were not relished by the zealots of either party. He died at Cologne, in 1566, with the reputation of a learned and liberal theologian.

CASSANDRA, also ALEXANDRA; daughter of Priam and Hecuba, and twin-sister of Helenus. Both children, according to tradition, were playing in the vestibule of the temple of the Thymbræan Apollo, not far from Ilium; and, having staid there too late to be carried home, a couch of laurel twigs was prepared for them, for the night, in the temple. When the nurses went to them the next morning, they found two serpents at the side of the children, which, instead of injuring them, harmlessly licked their ears. This miracle produced a still greater one; the hearing of the children was rendered so acute, that they could distinguish the voices of the gods. Cassandra subsequently spent much of her time in the temple of Apollo, who, becoming enamored of her charms, disclosed to her all the secrets of the prophetic art, and, in return, demanded her love. But Cassandra, when her curiosity was satisfied, refused the dishonorable reward. Apollo, incensed at this, put a curse on her prophesies, that they should never find belief. She frequently and continually foretold the destruction of Troy, and warned her countrymen in vain against the deceitful horse. When Troy was conquered, and Cassandra, with the other maidens, fled to the temple of Minerva, Ajax tore her from the altar, deflowered the virgin in the sacred place, and dragged her away to the other female slaves, with her hands tied. On the division of the booty, she fell to Agamemnon, who carried her, as his slave and mistress, to Mycene. Clytemnestra murdered them both. Agamemnon had twins by herTeledamus and Pelops. The ancients regarded this rape of Cassandra as a most infamous atrocity. It has often afforded a subject to poets and sculptors. The Locrians, the countrymen of Ajax, were afflicted, on this account, for many years, with storms, and their country was desolated with the plague.

CASSAS, Louis Francis, born in 1756, inspector and professor in the Gobelin manufactory, celebrated as a draughtsman, is a pupil of Lagrenée, junior, and Le Vien. He travelled as companion of the count of Choiseul-Gouffier, about 1770, over Asia Minor, Palestine, Syria, a part of Egypt, Istria, Dalmatia, and Troas.

He compared the present topography of those places with the accounts of the ancients, took exact measurements of the finest remains of architecture, made drawings of the most remarkable places with equal taste and accuracy, and published his labors, engraved by the best masters, in splendid editions. His Voyage Pittoresque de la Syrie, de la Phenicie, de la Palestine, et de la Basse Egypte (1799 et seq. 30 livraisons, folio, text by De la Porte du Theil), is fully described by Landon (ii., 133-6). The original drawings are preserved in the king's library at Paris. In his Voyage Pittor. de l'Istrie et de la Dalmatie, he has inserted a journal and a short history of this province, digested by Joseph la Vallée (Paris, 1802, grand fol., with engravings).

CASSATION; a term used in the courts on the continent of Europe. It is derived from the middle ages, and signifies the annulling of any act or decision, if the forms prescribed by law have been neglected, or if any thing is contained in it contrary to law.

Cassation, Court of (Cour de Cassation); one of the most important institutions of modern France, which gives to the whole jurisdiction of that country coherency and uniformity, without endangering the necessary independence of the courts. It was established by the first national assembly, and has been preserved, in every essential respect, under all the changes of the revolution and restoration. It has been maintained even in those districts which, by their union with France, became subjected to French laws, but, by the peace of Paris, have become part of the Prussian monarchy. In France, as early as the reign of Louis IX (1226— 1272), petitions were presented to the king by appellants from the decisions of the courts. In later times, appeals to the parliaments, as the highest courts of the kingdom, came into use, and their decisions were not liable to be set aside by the ordinary forms of law. Yet the parties were allowed to dispute even these decisions, if they were founded upon errors of fact, or violated undisputed principles of law; and, by an ordinance of 1302, it was provided, that the parties should be allowed royal letters for the defence of their rights against the decisions of the supreme courts (lettres de grâce de dire contre les arrets), which should be issued from the chancery (by the chancellor of France). The case was then sent back to the parliament for further investigation, but was examined and decided in the

presence of the king himself or of a special commissioner. An abuse, however, crept in, of transferring these cases to the royal council, where they were decided by officers called maîtres des requêtes. These letters received the name of lettres de proposition d'erreur, and, during the civil commotions at the end of the 14th century, began to be more frequently presented to the council, which, as soon as one party complained of the partiality of the parliaments, transferred the case to its own bar, and obstructed the course of justice by lettres d'état (suspensions of the process, on the pretext of the absence of one of the parties in the service of the king). Under the chancellor Poyet (1538 -1542), this abuse reached its highest pitch; but the chancellors Olivier (1545 —1551) and Hôpital (1560-1568), the two great reformers of French jurisprudence, limited the use of these lettres, till, by the ordinance of Blois (1576), all the provisions against the decisions of the parliaments were reduced to these three-the proposition d'erreur, for an error of fact; requête civile, to restore the parties to their former condition, on account of the fraud of one of the parties, or the mistakes of the attorney; and cassation (petition for abrogation), for violation of forms or settled principles of law. By the famous order of procedure of 1667, the first of these provisions was abolished, but the province of the requête civile and cassation was enlarged, and more precisely defined. The former was always brought before the court itself, and decided there, the latter before the council. For this purpose, in the conseil privé, or cons. des parties, a particular committee was formed, consisting of the chancellor, the four secretaries of state (ministers of the departments), the council of state, and all the maîtres des requêtes (in 1789, 78 in number). The decisions of this committee were too much influenced by the will of the king and the ministers, and by various other circumstances, so that they did not enjoy great respect, though they often exposed acts of great injustice on the part of the parliament, and other high courts. It was therefore abolished in the first national assembly, and its place supplied by an independent court-the tribunal of cassation (law of Nov. 27, 1790), which was retained in all the constitutions, and received, under the imperial government, (1804), the name court of cassation, which it still retains. It consisted, according to the organization of 1800, of 48 members, chosen from the senate, on the nomina

tion of the consuls, who elected their own president from among themselves. The appointment of president was afterwards vested in the emperor. In the Charte Constitutionnelle of 1814, the right of appointing the counsellors was vested in the king; but they are not removable. The minister of justice or keeper of the seals (garde des sceaux) has the right of presiding when the tribunal exercises its right of censorship over the cours royales: it has, besides, a first president and three presidents of sections. This court never decides on the main question at issue, but on the competency of the other courts, and on the petitions to have their decisions reviewed or annulled, and assigns the question to another court, if a decision is to be set aside for an evident violation of the forms or the principles of the law. For this purpose, it is divided into three sections:-the section des requêtes, which decides on the admissibility of the petitions in civil cases; the section de cassation civile; and the section de cassation criminelle. After a decision has been reversed, if a second court decides the same case in the same way, and an appeal is entered again, the court of cassation must either request an authentic explanation of the law from the government, or, at least, all the three sections must unite, to pronounce a second reversal, or cassation; and if a third decision is the same as the preceding, a repeated petition for a reversal makes the authentic explanation indispensably necessary. The sentences of the court of cassation are not only recorded in the journals of the courts, the decisions of which are reversed, but published likewise in an official bulletin, by which consistency and uniformity are preserved. The tribunal of cassation has enjoyed, from its commencement, the respect and confidence of France, and numbers among its members several of the most distinguished lawyers, as the president Henrion de Pansey, the counsellors Chabot, Merlin and Carnot.-For the Prussian province on the Rhine (the districts of Cleves, Düsseldorf, Coblentz, Aixla-Chapelle, Treves and Cologne), by the ordinance of June 21, 1819, a court of revision and cassation was established at Berlin (consisting of a president and 16 judges, among whom is professor Savigny), which has under it the court of appeal at Düsseldorf (consisting of a president, together with 32 other officers), and six district courts (the former resembling the French royal courts, the latter the French tribunals of original jurisdic

tion). (See Appeal, Writs of Error, and Courts.)

CASSAVA, or CASSADA. The cassava or cassada (jatropha manihot) is a South American shrub, about three feet in height, with broad, shining, and somewhat hand-shaped leaves, and beautiful white and rose-colored flowers. It is a very remarkable circumstance, that the roots of the cassava, if eaten raw, are a fatal poison, both to man and beast, and that, when prepared by heat, they yield a safe and valuable food; on which, indeed, many, both of the Indian and European inhabitants of South America, almost wholly subsist. The roots are the only edible parts of the plant. These are white, soft and farinaceous, from one to two feet in length, and five or six inches in circumference. They are dug out of the earth, washed, stripped of their rind, and ground to a pulp. The juice, or poisonous part, is carefully pressed out, and thrown away; since cattle and other animals, which have accidentally drank of it, have almost instantly died. The flour that remains after pressure is formed into thin, round cakes, and baked. To a European, accustomed to eat bread, these, though sweetish and not unpalatable, have an insipid taste. If placed in close vessels, and preserved from the attacks of insects, cassava bread may be kept for several months without injury. With the natives of South America, it is not unusual to throw a great number of cakes of cassava together to heat; after which they soak them in water, which causes a rapid fermentation to take place; and, from the liquor thus obtained, they make a very sharp and disagreeable, but intoxicating beverage, which will not keep longer than 24 hours without spoiling. From the pure flour of cassava is formed the substance called tapioca, which is frequently used for jelly, puddings, and other culinary purposes. This is separated from the fibrous part of the roots by taking a small quantity of the pulp, after the juice is extracted, and working it in the hand till a thick, white cream appears on the surface. This, being scraped off and washed in water, gradually subsides to the bottom. After the water is poured off, the remaining moisture is dissipated by a slow fire, the substance being constantly stirred, until, at length, it forms into grains about the size of sago. These become hard by keeping, and are the purest and most wholesome part of the cassava.-The roots of another species of this shrub,

called sweet cassava, are usually eaten with butter, after being roasted in hot ashes. They have much the flavor of chestnuts, and are an agreeable and nutritive food.

CASSEL, the residence of the elector of Hesse Cassel, lies on the Fulda; lat. 51° 19′ 20′′ N.; lon. 9° 35′ 18′′ E.; and has 1586 houses and 23,300 inhabitants, among whom are 500 Jews. One part of the city is quite regular. The river Fulda is navigable at this place. The situation renders the climate pure and healthy. It has 19 squares, 9 churches, and many public buildings, containing highly valuable libraries, collections of works of art, &c. The gallery of paintings contains some famous masterpieces. An observatory is likewise situated here. The city was much embellished under the government of Jerome, king of Westphalia, whose capital it was till the dissolution of this kingdom, in October, 1813. The old elector again took possession of it, Nov. 21, 1813. About a league distant is the summer palace, called Wilhelmshöhe. Cassel has considerable manufactories.

CASSEL (Hesse-Cassel). (See Hesse.) CASSIA. Wild cinnamon, or cassia, is the bark of a tree of the bay tribe (laurus cassia), which grows in the East Indies and China, and is distinguished by having spear-shaped leaves, each with three nerves. This bark was well known to the ancients, and highly esteemed by them. But since the use of cinnamon has been generally adopted, the cassia bark has fallen into disrepute, on account of its inferiority. It is thicker and more coarse than cinnamon, of weaker quality, and abounds more with a viscid, mucilaginous matter. For many purposes, cassia, as being much less expensive, is substituted for cinnamon, but more particularly for the preparation of what is called oil of cinnamon; and nearly the whole of what is at present sold under the name either of simple or spirituous cinnamon waters, is prepared from cassia. The buds as well as the bark of this tree are used in cooking, &c. Cassia is imported mostly from China.

CASSINA. (See Cashna.)

CASSINI; a name famous in the history of astronomy and geography for three generations.-1. Giovanni Domenico, born July 8, 1625, at Perinaldo, near Nice, studied at Genoa with the Jesuits. Chance turned his attention to astronomy, in which he made such rapid progress, that, in 1650, the senate of Bologna