Page:EB1911 - Volume 12.djvu/959

 Whatever may be the conclusion as to the position of Dinophilus and Histriodrilus, it seems only reasonable to suppose that Polygordius and Protodrilus, so far from representing a stage in the phylogeny of the Annelida before setae were developed, have lost the setae, which are already in a reduced state in Saccocirrus.

—Hatschek, “Studien z. Entw. der Anneliden,” ''Arb. Zool. Inst. Wien, vol. i., 1878; “Protodrilus,” ibid''. vol. iii. (1881); Fraipont, “Le Genre Polygordius,” Fauna u. Flora d. Golfes v. Neapel., xiv., 1887; Weldon, “Dinophilus gigas,” Quart. ''Journ. Micr. Sci. vol. xxvii., 1886; Harmer, “Dinophilus,” Journ.'' Mar. Biol. N.S. vol. i., 1889; Schimkewitsch, “Entwickl. des Dinophilus,” ''Zeit. f. wiss. Zool.'' vol. lix., 1895; Korschelt, “Über Bau u. Entw. des Dinophilus,” ''Zeit. f. wiss. Zool.'' vol. xxxvii., 1882; Foettinger, “Histriobdella,” ''Arch. Biol.'' vol. v., 1884; Goodrich, “On Saccocirrus,” ''Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci.'' vol. xliv., 1901.

 HAPTARA (lit. conclusion), the Hebrew title given to the prophetic lessons with which the ancient Synagogue service concluded. In the time of Christ these prophetic lessons were already in vogue, and Christ himself read the lessons and discoursed on them in the synagogues of Galilee. In the modern synagogue these readings from the prophets are regularly included in the ritual of Sabbaths, festivals and some other occasions.

 HAPUR, a town of British India in the Meerut district of the United Provinces, 18 m. S. of Meerut. Pop. (1901) 17,796. It is said to have been founded in the 10th century, and was granted by Sindhia to his French general Perron at the end of the 18th century. Several fine groves surround the town, but the wall and ditch have fallen out of repair, and only the names of the five gates remain. Considerable trade is carried on in sugar, grain, cotton, timber, bamboos and brass utensils.

 HARA-KIRI (Japanese hara, belly, and kiri, cutting), self-disembowelment, primarily the method of suicide permitted to offenders of the noble class in feudal Japan, and later the national form of honourable suicide. Hara-kiri has been often translated as “the happy dispatch” in confusion with a native euphemism for the act. More usually the Japanese themselves speak of hara-kiri by its Chinese synonym, Seppuku. Hara-kiri is not an aboriginal Japanese custom. It was a growth of medieval militarism, the act probably at first being prompted by the desire of the noble to escape the humiliation of falling into an enemy’s hands. By the end of the 14th century the custom had become a much valued privilege, being formally established as such under the Ashi-Kaga dynasty. Hara-kiri was of two kinds, obligatory and voluntary. The first is the more ancient. An official or noble, who had broken the law or been disloyal, received a message from the emperor, couched always in sympathetic and gracious tones, courteously intimating that he must die. The mikado usually sent a jewelled dagger with which the deed might be done. The suicide had so many days allotted to him by immemorial custom in which to make dignified preparations for the ceremony, which was attended by the utmost formality. In his own baronial hall or in a temple a daïs 3 or 4 in. from the ground was constructed. Upon this was laid a rug of red felt. The suicide, clothed in his ceremonial dress as an hereditary noble, and accompanied by his second or “Kaishaku,” took his place on the mat, the officials and his friends ranging themselves in a semicircle round the daïs. After a minute’s prayer the weapon was handed to him with many obeisances by the mikado’s representative, and he then made a public confession of his fault. He then stripped to the waist. Every movement in the grim ceremony was governed by precedent, and he had to tuck his wide sleeves under his knees to prevent himself falling backwards, for a Japanese noble must die falling forward. A moment later he plunged the dagger into his stomach below the waist on the left side, drew it across to the right and, turning it, gave a slight cut upward. At the same moment the Kaishaku who crouched at his friend’s side, leaping up, brought his sword down on the outstretched neck. At the conclusion of the ceremony the bloodstained dagger was taken to the mikado as a proof of the consummation of the heroic act. The performance of hara-kiri carried with it certain privileges. If it was by order of the mikado half only of a traitor’s property was forfeited to the state. If the gnawings of conscience drove the disloyal noble to voluntary suicide, his dishonour was wiped out, and his family inherited all his fortune.

Voluntary hara-kiri was the refuge of men rendered desperate by private misfortunes, or was committed from loyalty to a dead superior, or as a protest against what was deemed a false national policy. This voluntary suicide still survives, a characteristic case being that of Lieutenant Takeyoshi who in 1891 gave himself the “belly-cut” in front of the graves of his ancestors at Tōkyo as a protest against what he considered the criminal lethargy of the government in not taking precautions against possible Russian encroachments to the north of Japan. In the Russo-Japanese War, when faced by defeat at Vladivostok, the officer in command of the troops on the transport “Kinshu Maru” committed hara-kiri. Hara-kiri has not been uncommon among women, but in their case the mode is by cutting the throat. The popularity of this self-immolation is testified to by the fact that for centuries no fewer than 1500 hara-kiris are said to have taken place annually, at least half being entirely voluntary. Stories of amazing heroism are told in connexion with the performance of the act. One noble, barely out of his teens, not content with giving himself the customary cuts, slashed himself thrice horizontally and twice vertically. Then he stabbed himself in the throat until the dirk protruded on the other side with the sharp edge to the front, and with a supreme effort drove the knife forward with both hands through his neck. Obligatory hara-kiri was obsolete in the middle of the 19th century, and was actually abolished in 1868.

 HARALD, the name of four kings of Norway.

(850–933), surnamed Haarfager (of the beautiful hair), first king over Norway, succeeded on the death or his father Halfdan the Black in 860 to the sovereignty of several small and somewhat scattered kingdoms, which had come into his father’s hands through conquest and inheritance and lay chiefly in south-east Norway (see ). The tale goes that the scorn of the daughter of a neighbouring king induced Harald to take a vow not to cut nor comb his hair until he was sole king of Norway, and that ten years later he was justified in trimming it; whereupon he exchanged the epithet “Shockhead” for the one by which he is usually known. In 866 he made the first of a series of conquests over the many petty kingdoms which then composed Norway; and in 872, after a great victory at Hafrsfjord near Stavanger, he found himself king over the whole country. His realm was, however, threatened by dangers from without, as large numbers of his opponents had taken refuge, not only in Iceland, then recently discovered, but also in the Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides and Faeroes, and in Scotland itself; and from these winter quarters sallied forth to harry Norway as well as the rest of northern Europe. Their numbers were increased by malcontents from Norway, who resented Harald’s claim of rights of taxation over lands which the possessors appear to have previously held in absolute ownership. At last Harald was forced to make an expedition to the west to clear the islands and Scottish mainland of Vikings. Numbers of them fled to Iceland, which grew into an independent commonwealth, while the Scottish isles fell under Norwegian rule. The latter part of Harald’s reign was disturbed by the strife of his many sons. He gave them all the royal title and assigned lands to them which they were to govern as his representatives; but this arrangement did not put an end to the discord, which continued into the next reign. When he grew old he handed over the supreme power to his favourite son Erik “Bloody Axe,” whom he intended to be his successor. Harald died in 933, in his eighty-fourth year.

, surnamed Graafeld, a grandson of Harald I., became, with his brothers, ruler of the western part of Norway in 961; he was murdered in Denmark in 969. 