Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/786

710 the best of which are those executed in aquafortis. No one ever possessed in a higher degree the talent for group ing a large number of figures in a small space, and of repre senting with two or three bold strokes the expression, action, and peculiar features of each individual. Freedom, variety, and naivete characterize all his pieces. His Fairs, his Miseries of War, his Sieges, his Temptation of Sfc Anthony, and his Conversion of St Paul will be sought after and admired as long as there are artists to learn and a public to appreciate.  CALMAR, or, the capital of a province of the same name in Sweden, on Calmar Sound opposite the island of Oland, about 190 miles from Stockholm, in 56 40 N. lat., 16 20 E. long. It is built on the island of Quarnholm, and communicates with the suburbs on the mainland by a bridge of boats. Most of the houses are built of wood ; but the cathedral, erected in the 17th century by Nicodemus Tessin the younger, the castle, the town-house, and other public edifices are of stone, of which there are good quarries in the island of Oland. It has a gymnasium, and several smaller educational establishments. The harbour is safe and commodious, but a large part of the trade has been transferred to Stockholm. Besides its manufactures of woollen stuffs, leather, tobacco, and potash, the town carries on shipbuilding and an export trade in flax, timber, iron, alum, pitch, &c. Calmar was once a flourish ing and strongly-fortified town ; and, previous to the con flagration of 1647, was built on the mainland. It is frequently mentioned both in the military and political annals of Sweden, and especially gives name to the treaty by which Sweden_, Denmark, and Norway were, in 1397, erected into one kingdom under Queen Margaret. Popula tion in 1868, 9420.  CALMET, (1672-1757), a scholar and Biblical critic, born at Mesnil-la-Horgne in Lorraine, in 1672. In his fifteenth year he went to the university of Pont-a-Mousson, which he attended for a single session. In 1688 he joined the Benedictines at the abbey of St Mansin, into whose order he was publicly received in the following- year. His theological and philosophical studies he com pleted at the abbey of Munster, to which he was sent in 1704 with the rank of sub-prior. He here organized an academy of eight or ten monks, the sole business of whose life was to assist him in preparing his Commentary on the Bible. The publication of this voluminous work, begun in 1707, was not completed till 1716. Two years after this latter date he was rewarded for his services with a presenta tion to the abbey of St Leopold at Nancy, and ten years after to that of Sdnones, where he died in 1757. His attachment to his country and congregation was such, that he refused a bishopric in partibus offered to him by Pope Benedict XIII. Besides his Commentary, he wrote many other works, of which the most important are his Histoire de I Ancien et du Nouveau Testament, an introduc tion to the Ecclesiastical History of Fleury ; Dictionnaire historique, critique, et chronologique de la Bible, an extremely learned, but by no means judicious work and Histoire universelle sacree et profane, 15 vols. 4to. The Dictionary of the Bible has been translated into English, and is a well- known work.  CALMUCKS,, or , a people of Mongolian race who inhabit various parts of the Russian and Chinese empires, as well as other portions of Central Asia. They are of the middle height, fairly proportioned, and of considerable strength ; their cheek-bones are pro minent, the chin short, the nose turned up, the beard thin, and the hair scrubby. For the most part still in the nomadic stage, they inhabit conical felt tents, which they set up in regular lines like the streets of a town. Their wealth consists entirely in small but high-spirited horses, excellent cattle, and broad-tailed, rough-fleeced sheep. They are so much addicted to gaming that they not unfrequently stake everything they possess. In reli gion they are adherents of Lamaism, and their conduct is greatly under the control of their priests. Their language is closely connected with Mongolian proper, and is written with a similar alphabet ; its grammar and vocabulary have been made known to Europeans more especially by A. H. Zwick about 1853. Of their literature the great propor tion is religious, and is derived from Indian originals. The Siddhi Kiir, a collection of stories, which is one of then- most famous productions, was published with a German translation, a glossary, and notes, by B. Jiilg, at Leipsic in 1866. As early as the 16th century the Calmucks pos sessed an extensive district of Central Asia between the Altai mountains and the Thian Shan, and between the desert of Gobi and the Balkash or Tengis Lake ; and they were also settled in what is now the southern part of the Yeniseisk government, where indeed they were first met by Russian emigrants. At that time they bore the name of Derben Oirat, or Four Confederates, being divided into the four tribes of Jungars, Turguts, Khoshots, and Durbots. In the 17th century the Calmucks grew extremely strong, and after violent feuds united themselves, under the leader ship of Batur and his son Galdan, into the powerful Jun- garian kingdom. The strife which preceded the unifica tion occasioned important movements of some Calmuck bands towards the E. and S.E. of .Russia. Under Kour- liuk, the great mass of the Turguts appeared for the first time within the Russian territory on the eastern side of the Volga in 1630. They conquered the nomadic Nogais of the district, but on this first occasion turned back to the Kirghiz steppes. In 1636 as many as 50,000 Tdbtikas, or more than 200,000 men and women crossed the Emba, and took possession of the Trans- Volga steppes of the present Astrakhan government ; and plundering incursions began to be made on the Russian settlements, in Saratoff, Penza, and Tamboff, while Tobolsk, in Siberia, had to defend itself with arms in 1646. After the fall of Kour- liuk, in an attack on Astrakhan itself, the Calmucks became less aggressive, and in 1655 passed of their own accord under Russian authority. Down to the middle of the 18th century bauds, however, continued to arrive, and the depredations on Russian ground did not cease du ring- all the long reign of the Khan Ayuka (1670-1724). This chief more than once broke his oath to the Russian Govern ment ; but he also on several occasions supplied very important contingents to the imperial army. His power is shown by the fact that his court was visited in 1713 by an ambassador from China. In the reign of the Empress Catharine the Russian Government created great discontent among the Calmucks by their general treatment, and still more by refusing to confirm Ubashi, the grandson of Ayuka, in his dignities. A Calmuck chieftain from Jun- garia skilfully took advantage of this condition of affairs to persuade TJbashi and his subjects to return to Jungaria, and attempt its conquest. The result was the wonderful and disastrous flight of the Calmucks from Russia in 1771, so graphically described by De Quincey. The number of the fugitives amounted, according to some authorities, to 120,000. Harassed on all sides by savage troops of Cossacks and Khirghises, the wretched Calmucks pursued their way across the barren steppes, and their main body was routed in a terrible battle on the shores of the Bal kash. The remnants were settled on the banks of the Hi by the Chinese emperor Kien Long, and there their de scendants are still to be found. There still remained in Russia the DurbotSj who were living in the Don territory, and those of the Astrakhan Calmucks who at the time of the flight happened to be on the right bank of the Volga, 