Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/581

Rh P S P S 559 especially associated with his worship ; he was said to have produced the first horse by striking the ground in Thessaly with his trident. At a fountain in Argolis horses bitted and bridled were sacrificed to him by being drowned in the water, and similarly Sextus Pompeius sought to propitiate him by throwing horses into the sea. He bore the surname of &quot;Horse Neptune,&quot; and was regarded as the tamer as well as the creator of the steed. His worship was thought by Herodotus to have been derived from the Libyans. It had special seats in Thessaly, Boeotia, and the Peloponnesus. He had a famous cave-like temple at Tienarum in Laconia. On the island of Tenos he was worshipped as the physician, and crowds gathered from the neighbouring islands to offer sacrifice. At Mycale in Asia Minor the Panionium, or place of general assembly of the Ionian Greeks, was sacred to him. In the Trojan War Poseidon sided with the Greeks because he had been cheated of his reward by Laomedon, the former king of Troy, for whom he had built the city walls. The offspring of his numerous amours were mostly wild and cruel like the sea ; such were the Lasstrygones, Polyphemus, Cycnus, Antaeus, Busiris, Pro crustes, Sciron, and Orion. Alcinous, king of the sea faring Phaeacians in the Odyssey, traced his lineage to Poseidon. By far the most famous of the festivals of Poseidon was that celebrated every second year on the Isthmus of Corinth and hence called the &quot;Isthmian festival &quot; (see vol. x. p. 65). Pine trees were sacred to Poseidon ; a row of them stood close to his temple on the isthmus. Amongst the lonians the stormy month which precedes the winter solstice was called by the name of Poseidon. He was described as dark -haired, broad -breasted, and blue- eyed. In works of art he appeared holding a trident and with a dolphin on his hand or under his feet ; sometimes he was represented riding a bull, a horse, or a sea-horse, or in a chariot, often surrounded by the Tritons, Nereids, and other fabulous creatures of the sea. There were colossal statues of him at Helice in Achaia, on the Isthmus of Corinth (set up by the Greeks after the Persian wars), and at Tenos. The derivation of his name is uncertain ; some refer it to the same root as TTOTOS, Trorayuos, &c. ; others compare TTOTVIO.. In modern Greece St Nicholas has taken the place of Poseidon as patron of sailors. But the Zachynthians have a special sea -god, half man, half fish, who dwells under the sea, rides on dolphins or in a car drawn by dolphins, and wields a trident. He seems to combine the attributes of Poseidon and Nereus. For the Roman sea-god, see NEPTUNE. POSEN, a province in the east of Prussia, with an area (11,180 square miles) nearly equal to that of Belgium, is bounded on the N. by the province of Prussia, on the E. by Russian Poland, on the S. by Silesia, and on the W. by Brandenburg. It belongs physically to the great north German plain, and consists of a low plateau intersected by the beds of the Netze, the Warthe, and the Obra. The three rivers just named drain into the Oder, but part of the province falls within the basin of the Vistula, which forms the frontier for a short distance on the north-east. The surface of the w r hole district is dotted with small lakes and ponds, and there are many broad fens and marshes. The soil on the whole is light and sandy, but much of the land reclaimed in the boggy districts is very fertile. Up wards of 6 1 per cent, of the area is under cultivation, while 13 per cent, is occupied by pasture and meadows and 20 per cent, by forests. The principal crops are wheat, rye, oats, barley, potatoes, and hops (compare PRUSSIA) ; the vine is cultivated to some extent in the south-west corner, and tobacco is also grown. The marshy tracts often afford excellent pasture and support large numbers of cattle, sheep, and goats. The mineral resources of the province are practically restricted to brown coal and salt, about 26,000 tons of the former and 75,000 tons of the latter being raised in 1882. The industry is confined to a few points, and is of comparatively little importance. Besides beer and brandy, the chief products are machinery, cloth, tobacco, and bricks. Trade, carried on briskly in timber and agricultural produce, is facilitated by the net work of navigable rivers and canals. Both industry and trade are somewhat cramped by the duties imposed at the llussian frontier. The population of the province in 1880 was 1,703,397, including 1,112,962 lioman Catholics, 532,498 Protestants, and 56,609 Jews. The Roman Catholics are mainly Poles, of whom there are about 950,000 in Posen, while the great bulk of the 750,000 Germans are Protestants. About 65 per cent, of the popu lation is returned as &quot;rural&quot; in spite of the large number of so-called &quot; towns,&quot; only seven of which, however, have more than 10,000 inhabitants. The largest are Posen and Bromberg. The province of Posen enjoys the unenvi able distinction of being the worst educated corner of the German dominions, a fact illustrated by the high ratio of illiterate recruits (9 75 per cent, in 1882-83). It is re presented in the German reichstag by fifteen and in the Prussian parliament by twenty-nine deputies. History. The history of the district of Posen, comprehending great part of the cradle of the old kingdom of Poland, including its most ancient capital (Gnesen), falls properly within the scope of the article POLAND (q.v. ). Its political connexion with Prussia began in 1772, when the districts to the north of the Netze fell to the share of that power in the first partition of Poland. The rest followed in 1793, and was united with the Xetze district to form the province of South Prussia. After the peace of Tilsit Posen was in corporated with the grand-duchy of Warsaw, but in 1815 it reverted to Prussia under the style of the &quot;grand-duchy of Posen.&quot; In 1848 the Polish inhabitants of the province revolted and had to be put down by force ; and a thoroughly harmonious uniou of the two elements of the population is still unattained. The tide of German immigration into Posen began at an early period and flowed very strongly in the 13th and following centuries. The industrious German settlers were heartily welcomed by the Polish nobles and were the founders of most of the towns, in which they lived after their own customs and were governed by their own laws. They established the few manufactures of which the district can boast, introduced the cultivation of hops, reclaimed the waste soil, and did much to improve agriculture generally. In the 16th century Protestantism was widely diffused by their means. A strong reaction, however, set in in the following century, and persecution of the Protestants went hand in hand with the ravages of war in hastening the political, intellectual, and agricultural decline of the territory. By the 18th century the burghers had sunk to the level of &quot;stlidtische Bauern,&quot; or peasants with municipal privileges, and poverty and misery were widely spread. The Prussian rule, in spite of many defects, proved so beneficial that even Napoleon was compelled to praise it. Posen contains a numerous Polish noblesse, many of the members of which are very poor. A double transformation is going on in the ownership of the ground, the large estates passing into the hands of the peasants and Polish proprietors giving place to German. A few years ago between 60 and 70 per cent, of the soil was occupied by &quot; latifundia, &quot; while at present it is pretty equally divided between those and peasant holdings. In the four years 1878-81, inclusive, the land in the possession of Germans increased at the expense of Polish landowners by upwards of 100,000 acres. The peasant- farmers are generally deeply in debt, partly owing to the educational and communal burdens, but mainly owing to the pernicious custom of &quot; Leibgedinge,&quot; according to which an able-bodied man in the prime of life will give up his holding in return for an annuity from his successor. In some instances two annuitants of this kind are found living on the same small patch of ground in addition to the actual cultivator. POSEN (Polish, Pozndn capital of the above province, the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop, and the head quarters of a corps of the German army, is situated at the confluence of the Cybina and Warthe, 150 miles to the east of Berlin and 90 miles to the north of Breslau. It is a fortress of the first rank and of great strategic import ance ; the works consist of a citadel and inner line of bastions, and an outer circle of twelve detached forts. The principal part of the town lies on the west bank of the Warthe, and comprises the so-called Altstadt and the