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Rh who are Polynesian in physique, possibly remnants, much mixed by subsequent crossings with the Papuan indigenes, of the Caucasian hordes emigrating in prehistoric times across the Pacific. M. Achille Raffray gives a description of them in Tour du monde (1879) where photographs will be found. “They are as unlike the Malays as we are, excelling them in tallness of stature and elegance of shape, and being perfectly distinguished by their oval face, with a fairly high and open brow, their aquiline nose and their horizontally placed eyes. Their beards are sometimes thick; their limbs are muscular; the colour of their skins is cinnamon brown. Spears of iron-wood, abundantly barbed, and small bows and bamboo arrows free from poison are their principal weapons.” They are further described as having temples (sabuas) in which they suspend images of serpents and other monsters as well as the trophies procured by war. They believe in a better life hereafter, but have no idea of a hell or a devil, their evil spirits only tormenting them in the present state.

The Portuguese and Spaniards were better acquainted with Halmahera than with many other parts of the archipelago; they called it sometimes Batu China and sometimes Moro. It was circumnavigated by one of their vessels in 1525, and the general outline of the coasts is correctly given in their maps at a time when separate portions of Celebes, such as Macassar and Menado, are represented as distinct islands. The name (Jilolo) was really that of a native state, the sultan of which had the chief rank among the princes of the Moluccas before he was supplanted by the sultan of Ternate about 1380. His capital, Jilolo, lay on the west coast on the first bay to the north of that of Dodinga. In 1876 Danu Hassan, a descendant of the sultans of Jilolo, raised an insurrection in the island for the purpose of throwing off the authority of the sultans of Tidore and Ternate; and his efforts would probably have been successful but for the intervention of the Dutch. In 1878 a Dutch expedition was directed against the pirates of Tobalai, and they were virtually extirpated. Slavery remains in the interior. Missionary work, carried on in the northern peninsula of Halmahera since 1866, has been fairly successful among the heathen natives, but less so among the Mahommedans, who have often incited the others against the missionaries and their converts.

HALMSTAD, a seaport of Sweden, chief town of the district (län) of Halland, on the E. shore of the Cattegat, 76 m. S.S.E. of Gothenburg by the railway to Helsingborg. Pop. (1900), 15,362. It lies at the mouth of the river Nissa, having an inner harbour (15 ft. depth), an outer harbour, and roads giving anchorage (24 to 36 ft.) exposed to S. and N.W. winds. In the neighbourhood there are quarries of granite, which is exported chiefly to Germany. Other industries are engineering, shipbuilding and brewing, and there are cloth, jute, hat, wood-pulp and paper factories. The principal exports are granite, timber and hats; and butter through Helsingborg and Gothenburg. The imports are coal, machinery and grain. Potatoes are largely grown in the district, and the salmon fisheries are valuable. The castle is the residence of the governor of the province. There are both mineral and sea-water baths in the neighbourhood.

Mention of the church of Halmstad occurs as early as 1462, and the fortifications are mentioned first in 1225. The latter were demolished in 1734. There were formerly Dominican and Franciscan monasteries in the town. The oldest town-privileges date from 1307. During the revolt of the miner Engelbrekt, it twice fell into the hands of the rebels—in 1434 and 1436. The town appears to have been frequently chosen as the meeting-place of the rulers and delegates of the three northern kingdoms; and under the union of Kalmar it was appointed to be the place for the election of a new Scandinavian monarch whenever necessary. The län of Halland formed part of the territory of Denmark in Sweden, and accordingly, in 1534, during his war with the Danes, Gustavus Vasa assaulted and took its chief town. In 1660, by the treaty of Copenhagen, the whole district was ceded to Sweden. In 1676 Charles XII. defeated near Halmstad a Danish army which was attempting to retake the district, and since that time Halland has formed part of Sweden.

HALO, a word derived from the Gr. , a threshing-floor, and afterwards applied to denote the disk of the sun or moon, probably on account of the circular path traced out by the oxen threshing the corn. It was thence applied to denote any luminous ring, such as that viewed around the sun or moon, or portrayed about the heads of saints.

In physical science, a halo is a luminous circle, surrounding the sun or moon, with various auxiliary phenomena, and formed by the reflection and refraction of light by ice-crystals suspended in the atmosphere. The optical phenomena produced by atmospheric water and ice may be divided into two classes, according to the relative position of the luminous ring and the source of light. In the first class we have halos, and coronae, or “glories,” which encircle the luminary; the second class includes rainbows, fog-bows, mist-halos, anthelia and mountain-spectres, whose centres are at the anti-solar point. Here it is only necessary to distinguish halos from coronae. Halos are at definite distances (22° and 46°) from the sun, and are coloured red on the inside, being due to refraction; coronae closely surround the sun at variable distances, and are coloured red on the outside, being due to diffraction.

The phenomenon of a solar (or lunar) halo as seen from the earth is represented in fig. 1; fig. 2 is a diagrammatic sketch showing the appearance as viewed from the zenith; but it is only in exceptional circumstances that all the parts are seen. Encircling the sun or moon (S), there are two circles, known as the inner halo I, and the outer halo O, having radii of about 22° and 46°, and exhibiting the colours of the spectrum in a confused manner, the only decided tint being the red on the inside. Passing through the luminary and parallel to the horizon, there is a white luminous circle, the parhelic circle (P), on which a number of images of the luminary appear. The most brilliant are situated at the intersections of the inner halo and the parhelic circle; these are known as parhelia (denoted by the letter p in the figures) (from the Gr. , beside, and  , the sun) or “mock-suns,” in the case of the sun, and as paraselenae (from  and , the moon) or “mock-moons,” in the case of the moon. Less brilliant are the parhelia of the outer halo. The parhelia are most brilliant when the sun is near the horizon. As the sun rises, they pass a little beyond the halo and exhibit flaming tails. The other images on the parhelic circle are the paranthelia (q) and the anthelion (a) (from the Greek , opposite, and  , the sun). The former are situated at from 90° to 140° from the sun; the latter is a white patch of light situated at the anti-solar point and often exceeding in size the apparent diameter of the luminary. A vertical circle passing through the sun may also be seen. From the parhelia of the inner halo two oblique curves (L) proceed. These are known as the “arcs of Lowitz,” having been first described in 1794 by Johann Tobias Lowitz (1757–1804). Luminous arcs (T), tangential to the upper and lower parts of each halo, also occur, and in the case of the inner halo, the arcs may be prolonged to form a quasi-elliptic halo.

The physical explanation of halos originated with René Descartes, who ascribed their formation to the presence of ice-crystals in the atmosphere. This theory was adopted by Edmé Mariotte, Sir Isaac Newton and Thomas Young; and, although