Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/727

 L I T L I T 703 Moghileff (1000). The Lithuanians proper inhabit the governments of Kovno (435,810), Vilna (350,700), Suvalki (54,300), and Grodno (2500) ; whilst the Samoghitians, or Jmud, inhabit the governments of Kovno (498,900) and Suvalki (165,200). To these must be added about 200,000 Borussians, the whole number of Lithuanians being 2,687,000 in 1870 (2,873,000 with the Cours), or, taking into account the rate of increase of population for different governments, about 3,014,700 in 1882 (3,231,000 with Cours). Other authors estimate the number of Lithuanians in the Polish provinces at 277,050 in 1869, probably including Yatvyags, mixed to some extent with Mazurs. In this case the number of Lithuanians would be in 1882 about 3,082,000 (3,298,000 with Cours). They are now slowly extending towards the south, especially the Letts, who leave their country in consequence of want of land and of the difficulty they experienced in getting means of subsistence ; numerous emigrants have already penetrated into Slavonic lands as far as the govern ment of Voronesh. The Lithuanians are well built ; the face is mostly elongated, the features fine ; the very fair hair, blue eyes, and delicate skin dis tinguish them from Poles and Eussians. Their dress is usually plain in compaiison with that of Poles, and the predominance in it of greyish colours has been frequently noticed. Their language has great similarities to the Sanskrit. It is affirmed that whole Sanskrit phrases are well understood by the peasants of the banks of the Niemen. But it contains also a considerable amount of Slavonic words. The vocabulary is very copious, especially in words referring to natural phenomena, and which express certain pathological states of the mind. Diminutives are exceedingly numerous, and various diminutive forms are applied even to adjectives and verbs. But, as a whole, the Lithuanian language is at a very low stage of development, and the written literature is very poor ; only religious books, a few translations, and a single newspaper are published in it. On the other hand, the unwritten popular literature is very rich, and contains true treasures of poetry. It was long doubted if Lithuanians have any epic poetry ; it now appears, however, that there are, scattered in songs, fragments of a great Lithuanian epic poem. But the popular poetry is especially rich in idyllic and lyric songs, imbued with tenderest love and melancholy, and a most poetical feeling of nature, and remarkable by their absolute chastity ; the irony which sometimes appears in them is usually refined and gentle. The elegies (raudas) are very melancholy, and of a rare beauty. The national character is fully expressed in these songs, not warlike at all, melancholy, very lovely, and not very sociable. The language of the Letts is, according to Schleicher, as similar to the Lithuanian as the Italian to the Latin, but contains a greater mixture of German and Slavonic words. The literary language is more developed. A scientific Lettish grammar was published by Stender at the end of the last century, and the Letts possess translations of Shakespeare, Schiller, and other great poets. Five political papers were published in Lettish in 1876. A revival of national feeling having begun in this century, rich collections of Lettish songs were published by Germans, Russians, and Letts, M. Briwsemniaks s collection, published by the Moscow Anthropologi cal Society, being the most recent. The Lettish songs have the same characters as those of the Lithuanians, to which a special feature, the hatred of the people to the German landholders, must be added. The Letts of Courland, with the exception of about 50,000 who belong to the Greek Church, are Lutherans. Nearly all can read. Those of the government of Vitebsk, who were under Polish dominion, are Catholics, as well as the Lithuanians proper, a part of whom, however, have returned to the Greek Church, in which they were before the union with Poland. The Samoghitians are Catholics ; they more than other Lithuanians have conserved their national features. But all Lithuanians have maintained much of their heathen practices and creed ; the names of pagan divinities, very numerous in the former mythology, are continually mentioned in songs, and also in common speech. The chief occupation of Lithuanians is agriculture. The trades in towns are generally carried on by men of other races mostly by Germans, Jews, or Poles. The only exception is afforded to some extent by the Letts. The Samoghitians are good hunters, and all Lithuanians arc given to apiculture and cattle breeding. But the Lithuanians, as well in the Baltic provinces as in the central ones, were not until the most recent time proprietors of the soil they tilled. They have given a few families to the Russian nobility, but the great mass of the people became serfs of foreign landowners, German and Polish, who reduced them to the greatest misery. Since the Polish insurrection of 1863, the Eussian Government has given to the Lithuanians the land of the Polish proprietors on much easier terms than in central Russia ; but the allotments of soil and the redemption taxes are very unequally distributed ; and a not insig nificant number of peasants (the tchinsheviki) were even deprived of the land they had for centuries considered their own. The Letts remain in the same state as before, and are restrained from emigrating en masse only by coercive measures. (P. A. K.) LITMUS (German, Lackmus; French, Tournesol}, a colouring matter which occurs in commerce in the form of small blue tablets, which, however, consist mostly, not of the pigment proper, but of carbonate and sulphate of lime and other matter devoid of tinctorial value. Litmus is never used as a dye, but is extensively employed by chemists as a reagent for the detection of free acids and free alkalies. An aqueous infusion of litmus, when exactly neutralized by an acid, exhibits a violet colour, which by the least trace of free acid is changed to red, while free alkali turns it to blue. The reagent is generally used in the form of test paper, bibulous paper dyed red, purple, or blue by the respective kind of infusion. Litmus is manufactured in Holland from the same kinds of lichens (species of lioccella and Lecanora] as are used for the preparation of ARCHIL (q.v.). &quot;Whatorcein is to archil, a substance &quot;azolitmin,&quot; which Kane extracted from it, seems to be to litmus. At any rate, Kane s analysis supports the idea of its being formed from orcin, thus: C 7 H 8 2 + NH 3 + 3 = H 2 + C 7 H 9 N0 4. Orcin. Azolitmin. A solution of this substance when treated with nascent hydrogen loses its colour. So does litmus solution when left to itself in closely stoppered bottles. When pieserved in contact with air it retains its colour. LITTLE FALLS, a village and township in Herkimer county, New York, on the Erie canal, 73| miles west- north-west of Albany by the New York Central and Hud son River Railroad, at a point where the Mohawk river passes by a series of rapids through a picturesque defile. The water-power is turned to account in the manufacture of paper, woollen and cotton goods, starch, &c. The vil lage, which lies partly in the township of Manheim, had a population of 6910 in 1880. Little Falls has the largest cheese market in the United States. LITTLE ROCK, capital of the State of Arkansas, United States, as well as of Pulaski county, is situated on the south bank of the Arkansas river, about 250 miles from its mouth, and near the centre of the State. It derives it name from occupying the top of a rocky cliff about 50 feet in height, which is much less conspicuous than the precipitous cliffs that line the river just above the city. The river, which is navigable by large steamers to this point during two-thirds of the year, is crossed here by an iron drawbridge on the St Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern Railway. Little Rock, founded in 1820, con tains the State house, the State asylums for the blind and for deaf mutes, the State prison, the State library, St John s Military College, and other schools. It is also the seat of the United States court of the eastern dis trict of Arkansas, and a United States arsenal and land office. Flour-mills, carriage- works, and foundries are among the chief industrial establishments. Population in 1880, 13,138. LITTLETON, THOMAS DE, of Frankley in Worcester shire, judge of the court of common pleas in the reign of Edward IV., and author of the well-known work on Tenures. Littleton s surname was that of his mother, who was the sole daughter and heiress of Thomas de Littleton, lord of Frankley. She married one Thomas Westcote. Thomas was the eldest of four sons of the marriage, and took the name of Littleton, or, as it seems to have been more commonly spelt, Luttelton. The date of his birth appears to be uncertain. He is said by Sir E. Coke to have been a member of the Inner Temple, and to have lectured there on the Statute of Westminster II., De Donis Conditionali- lus. His name occurs in the Paston letters about 1445 as that of a well-known counsel. He appears to have been recorder of Coventry in 1450, to have been made king s sergeant in 1455, and afterwards to have been a justice of assize on the northern circuit. In 1466 he was made a