Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/651

Rh R O L R O L 627 Roland seems to be the 12th-century statue in the church of San Zeno at Verona. 1 The whole history of Roncesvalles is blazoned in the 13th-century window in Chartres cathedral. 2 A similar window existed formerly in the abbey church of St Denis. M. Vetault (Hist, de Oh., p. 496) has also figured a Carolingian coin which bears the names of both Roland and Charles. The so-called Roland statues of Germany are most probably symbolical of the judicial and other rights once possessed by the people of those towns where they are to be found. In some cases at least the name seems to have been transferred to what were originally meant to be representations of the first Othos (10th century). The earliest known allusion to a "statua Rolandi" under this name occurs in a privilegium granted by Heniy V. to the town of Bremen (1111). The word " Rolandssaule " is perhaps a piece of folk-etymology for an earlier " Rothland-siiule " or red-land-pillar, i.e., the before- mentioned figure or pillar, which signified that the state in which it stood had the power of life and death, in other words, was a Blutgerichtstatte. Grimm suspects a connexion between the Roland statues and those old Teutonic pillars of which the Irminsul de- stroyed by Charlemagne is the best-known example. 3 These Roland statues are sometimes in the open air, as at Bremen and Magdeburg ; or against the town-house, as at Halberstadt ; or in the church, as formerly at Gottingen. Sometimes they ride on horseback, as at Haldensleben near Magdeburg ; but more generally they are to be found standing upright. They always bear a sword in their right hand and very frequently a shield in their left. They are usually armoured, as at Magdeburg, but are occasionally dressed in more peaceful robes, as at Halle (on the Saale), or both cloaked and armoured, as at Wedel in Holstein and at Bremen. Sometimes they are crowned, as at Wedel and Nordhausen. The heads of the statues differ extremely, being long -bearded at Erfurt, short-bearded at Wedel, and absolutely smooth-faced at Bremen. At Brandenburg the Roland was ornamented with silver and perhaps with gold. The statues are often of colossal height, that of Belgern (Merseburg) being over 9 ells high, exclusive of its pedestal. Perhaps the most famous Roland pillar still remaining is that of Bremen. For further information on this subject see Leibnitz, Annales Imperil, i. 478, &c. ; the treatises of Gryphiander (ed. 1666) Eggelingius (1700), B. Carpzov (1742), J. H. Hartmann (1735), and Nicholas Meyer, De W-lcUldis (1739) ; and Zoepfl's exhaustive account in vol. iii. of his Alterthiimer des deutschen Reichs. For the Roland legend generally consult Leon Gautier's Epopees Francises, iii., and Chanson de Roland, edd. 1870 and 1881. Besides these, see the various romances of the Charlemagne cycle edited for the series of Anciens Poetes de France, the various volumes of Romania, and the late editions of the several poems alluded to in the foregoing article. For the relationship of the Roland legend to the Italian poets see the works of P. Rajna. (T. A. A.) ROLLER, a very beautiful bird so called from its way of occasionally rolling or turning over in its flight, 4 some- what after the fashion of a Tumbler-Pigeon. It is the Coracias garrulus of ornithology, and is widely though not very numerously spread over Europe and Western Asia in summer, breeding so far to the northward as the middle of Sweden, but retiring to winter in Africa. It occurs almost every year in some part or other of the British Islands, from Cornwall to the Shetlands, while it has visited Ireland several times, and is even recorded from St. Kilcla. But it is only as a wanderer that it comes hither, since there is no evidence of its having ever attempted to breed in Great Britain ; and indeed its conspicuous appear- ance for it is nearly as big as a Daw and very brightly coloured would forbid its being ever allowed to escape the gun of the always ready murderers of stray birds. Except the back, scapulars, and tertials, which are bright reddish-brown, the plumage of both sexes is almost entirely blue of various shades, from pale turquoise to dark ultra- marine tinted in parts with green. The bird seems to be purely insectivorous. The genus Coracias, for a long while placed by systematists among the Crows, has really no affinity whatever to them, and is now properly considered to belong to the heterogeneous group of Birds in this work called Picariee (ORNITHOLOGY, vol. xviii. p. 41), in which 1 Figured in Gautier's Chanson, ed. 1881, p. 38. 2 Figured in Vetault's Hist, de Charlemagne, pp. 74, 545. 3 Poeta Saxo, ap. Jaffe, 64-68 ; see Grimm's Teut. Myth. (Stally- brass), i. 119. 4 Gesner in 1555 said that the bird was thus called, and for this reason, near Strasburg, but the name seems not to be generally used in Germany, where the bird is commonly called Hake, apparently from its harsh note. The French have kept the name Rollier. It is a curious fact that the Roller, notwithstanding its occurrence in the Levant, cannot Le identified with any species mentioned by Aristotle. it forms the type of the Family Coradidse ; and its alliance to the Bee-eaters, Meropidae, and KING-FISHERS (vol. xiv. p. 81), Alcedinidae, is very evident. Some eight other species of the genus have been recognized, one of which, C. lewo- cephalus or C. abyssinus, is said to have occurred in Scotland. India has two species, C. indicus and C. affinis, of which thousands upon thousands are annually destroyed to supply the demand for gaudy feathers to bedizen ladies' dresses. One species, C. temmincki, seems to be peculiar to Celebes and the neighbouring islands, but otherwise the rest are natives of the Ethiopian or Indian Regions. Allied to Coracias is the genus Eurystomus with some half dozen species, of similar distribution, but one of them, E. jjaciftcus, has a wider range, for it inhabits Australia and reaches Tasmania. Madagascar has four or five very remarkable forms which have often been considered to belong to the Family Coraciidx ; and, according to Professor A. Milne- Edwards, no doubt should exist on that point. Yet if any may be entertained it is in regard to one of them, Lepto- somus discolor, which on account of its zygodactylous feet some authorities place among the Cuculidx, while others have considered it the type of a distinct Family Lepto- somatidsR. The genera Brachypteracias and Atelornis pre- sent fewer structural differences from the Rollers, and perhaps may be rightly placed with them ; but the species of the latter have long tarsi, and are believed to be of terrestrial habit, which Rollers generally certainly are not. These very curious and in some respects very interesting forms, which are peculiar to Madagascar, are admirably described and illustrated by a series of twenty plates in the great work of MM. Grandidier and A. Milne-Edwards on that island (Oiseaux, pp. 223-250), while the whole Family Coraciidse is the subject of a monograph by Mr Dresser, as a companion volume to his monograph on the Meropidse. (A. N.) ROLLER MILL. See FLOUE, vol. ix. pp. 345, 346. ROLLIN, CHAKLES (1661-1741), was born at Paris on 30th January 1661. He was the son of a tradesman, but distinguished himself at school, and at the age of twenty- two was made a master in the College du Plessis. He was successively promoted to various other posts of the same kind. In 1694 he was rector of the university of Paris. He held that post for two years instead of one, and was then appointed principal of the College de Beau- vais. He was of Jansenist principles, and in the later years of his life was for this cause deprived of his appoint- ments and disqualified for the rectorship, to which in 1719 he had been re-elected. It is said that the same reason prevented his election to the French Academy, though he was a member of the Academy of Inscriptions. He was concerned in the affair of the deacon Paris, and shortly before his death (14th December 1741) protested publicly against the acceptance of the bull Unigenitus. Rollin's literary work dates chiefly from the later years of his life, when he had been forbidden to teach. His once famous Aiwient History (Paris, 1730-38) and the less generally read Roman History which followed it were avowed compilations, and compila- tions which were not only far from critical but even somewhat in- accurate. But they have had the merit not merely of instructing but of interesting generation after generation almost to the pre- sent day. A more original and really important work,^ though less generally known out of France, was his Traite des Etudes (Paris, 1726-31). It contains a summary of what was even then a reformed and innovating system of education, including a more frequent and extensive use of the vulgar tongue and discarding the mediaeval traditions that had lingered in France. It had very considerable influence. Rollin's style is good and his personal character was irreproachable. ROLLING MILL. See IRON, vol. xiii. p. 328 sq. ROLLO, ROLF, or ROTJ, Scandinavian rover, born c. 860, died 932. He made himself independent of Harold of Norway, visited Scotland, England, and Flanders in pirating expeditions, and about 912 established himself