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Rh to modern times, the principal district whence they are taken being north-central Africa (Bagirmi, &c.). As the larger proportion of children die after the operation (generally total removal) owing to unskilful surgery, such as recover fetch at least three or four times the ordinary price of slaves. Even more vile, as being practised by a civilized European nation, was the Italian practice of castrating boys to prevent the natural development of the voice, in order to train them as adult soprano singers, such as might formerly be heard in the Sistine chapel. Though such mutilation is a crime punishable with severity, the supply of “soprani” never failed so long as their musical powers were in demand in high quarters. Driven long ago from the Italian stage by public opinion, they remained the musical glory and moral shame of the papal choir till the accession of Pope Leo XIII., one of whose first acts was to get rid of them. Mention must here also be made of the class of voluntary eunuchs, who have emasculated themselves, or caused the operation to be performed on them, for the avoidance of sexual sin or temptation. This unnatural development of asceticism appears in early Christian ages, its votaries acting on the texts Matt. xix. 12, v. 28-30. Origen’s case is the most celebrated example, and by the 3rd century there had arisen a sect of eunuchs, of whom Augustine says (De haeres. c. 37), “Valesii et seipsos castrant et hospites suos, hoc modo existimantes Deo se debere servire” (see Neander, History of Chr. Church, vol. ii. p. 462; Bingham, Antiq. Chr. Church, book iv. chap. 3.) Such practices have been always opposed by the general body of the Christian churches, but have not even now ceased. A secret sect of the kind exists in Russia, whose practice of castration is expressed in their name of Skopzi.

EUNUCH FLUTE, or (Fr. flûte eunuque, flûte à l’onion, mirliton; Ger. Zwiebelflöte), a wind instrument in use during the 16th and 17th centuries, producing music akin to the comb-music of the nursery, and still manufactured as a toy (mirliton). The onion flute consists of a wooden tube widening out slightly to form a bell. The upper end of the tube is closed by means of a very fine membrane similar to an onion skin stretched across the aperture like the vellum of a drum. The mouthpiece, a simple round hole, is pierced a couple of inches below the membrane; into this hole the performer sings, his voice setting up vibrations in the membrane, which thus intensifies the sound and changes its timbre to a bleating quality. A movable cap fits over the membrane to protect it. Mersenne has given a drawing of the eunuch flute together with a description; he states that the vibrations of the membrane improve the sound of the voice, and by reflecting it, give it an added charm. There were concerts of these flutes in four or five parts in France, adds Mersenne, and they had the advantage over other kinds of reproducing more nearly the sound of the voice.

 EUONYMUS, in botany, a genus of deciduous or evergreen shrubs or small trees, widely distributed in the north temperate zone, and represented in Britain by E. europaeus, the spindle tree, so called from its hard tough wood being formerly used for spindles. It is a shrub or small tree growing in copses or hedges, with a grey smooth bark, four-angled green twigs, opposite leaves and loose clusters of small greenish-white flowers. The ripe fruit is a pale crimson colour and splits into four lobes exposing the bright orange-coloured seed. E. japonicus is a hardy evergreen shrub, often variegated and well known in gardens. The Greek name , of good name, lucky, is probably a euphemism; the flowering was said to foretell plague.

 EUPALINUS, of Megara, a Greek architect, who constructed for the tyrant Polycrates of Samos a remarkable tunnel to bring water to the city, passing under a hill. This aqueduct still exists, and is one of the most remarkable constructions in Greece (see : Greek).

 EUPATORIA (Russ. Evpatoria; also known as Kozlov and to the Turks as Gezlev), a seaport of Russia, in the government of Taurida, on the W. coast of the Crimea, 20 m. N.W. of Simferopol, on a sandy promontory on the north of Kalamita Bay, in 45° 12′ N. and 33° 40′ E. Pop. (1871) 8294; (1897) 17,915. This number includes many Jews, the Karaite sect having here their principal synagogue. Here too resides the spiritual head (gakhan) of the sect. Of its numerous ecclesiastical buildings three are of interest—the synagogue of the Karaite Jews; one of the mosques, which has fourteen cupolas and is built (1552) after the plan of St Sophia in Constantinople; and the Greek Catholic cathedral (1898). The port or rather roadstead has a sandy bottom, and is exposed to violent storms from the N.E. The trade is principally in cereals, skins, cow-hair, felt, tallow and salt. Eupatoria has some repute as a sea-bathing resort.

According to some authorities it was near this spot that a military post, Eupatorium, was established in the 1st century by Diophantus, the general of Mithradates the Great, king of Pontus. Towards the end of the 15th century the Turks built the fortress of Gezleveh on the present site, and it became the capital of a khanate. It was occupied by the Russians under Marshal Münnich in 1736, and in 1771 by Prince Dolgorukov. Its annexation to Russia took place in 1783. In 1854 the Anglo-French troops were landed in the neighbourhood of Eupatoria, and in February 1855 the town was occupied by the Turkish forces.

EUPATRIDAE (Gr. , well;  , father, i.e. “Sons of noble fathers”), the ancient nobility of Attica. Tradition ascribes to Theseus, whom it also regards as the author of the union (synoecism) of Attica round Athens as a political centre, the division of the Attic population into three classes, Eupatridae, Geomori and Demiurgi. The lexicographers mention as characteristics of the Eupatridae that they are the autochthonous population, the dwellers in the city, the descendants of the royal stock. It is probable that after the time of the synoecism the nobles who had hitherto governed the various independent communities were obliged to reside in Athens, now the seat of government; and at the beginning of Athenian history the noble clans form a class which has the monopoly of political privilege. It is possible that in very early times the Eupatridae were the only full citizens of Athens; for the evidence suggests that they alone belonged to the phratries, and the division into phratries must have covered the whole citizen body. It is indeed just possible that the term may originally have signified “true member of a clan,” since membership of a phratry was a characteristic of each clan ( ). It is not probable that the Eupatrid families were all autochthonous, even in the loose sense of that term. Some had no doubt immigrated to Attica when the rest had long been settled there. Traces of this union of immigrants with older inhabitants have been detected in the combination of Zeus Herkeios with Apollo Patroös as the ancient gods of the phratry.

The exact relation of the Eupatridae to the other two classes has been a matter of dispute. It seems probable that the Eupatridae were the governing class, the only recognized nobility, the Geomori the country inhabitants of all ranks, and the Demiurgi the commercial and artisan population. The division attributed to Theseus is always spoken of by ancient authorities as a division of the entire population; but Busolt has recently maintained the view that the three classes represent three elements in the Attic nobility, namely, the city nobility, the landed nobility and the commercial nobility, and exclude altogether the mass of the population. At any rate it seems certain from the little we know of the early constitutional history of Athens, that the Eupatridae represent the only nobility that had any political recognition in early times. The political history of the Eupatridae is that of a gradual curtailment of privilege. They were at the height of their power in the period during the limitation of the monarchy. They alone held the two offices, those of polemarch and archon, which were instituted during the 8th century to restrict the powers of the kings. In 712 the office of king ( ) was itself thrown open to all Eupatrids (see ). They thus had the entire control of the administration, and were the sole dispensers of justice in the state. At this latter privilege, which perhaps formed the strongest bulwark of the authority of the Eupatridae, a severe blow was struck (c. 621 ) by the publication of a criminal