Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/545

Rh E 11 L E 11 L 525 Sea, on the Zengui, Zanga, or Ilrastan, an affluent of the Araxes, about 171 miles S.S.W. of Tiflis by road. The old Persian portion of the town consists mainly of narrow crooked lanes inclosed by mud walls, which effectually con ceal the houses, and the modern Russian portion is laid out in long ill-paved streets. On a steep rock, rising about GOO feet above the niver, stands the old Turkish fortress, surrounded by ditches and earthen ramparts, and containing within its area part of the palace of the ancient Persian governors, a handsome but greatly dilapidated mosque, a Greek church of modern erection, a cannon foundry, and barracks. One chamber, called the Hall of the Sardar, bears witness to the former splendour of the palace by its pictorial decorations, which include legendary and historical scenes from the lives of Zal and Rustam, of Abbas- Mirza and Nadir Shah. The finest building in the city is undoubtedly the mosque of Hussein Ali Khan, familiarly known as the Blue Mosque from the colour of the enamelled tiles with which it is richly encased. At the mosque of Zal Khan a yearly passion play is performed illustrative of the assassination of Hussein the son of Ali. Besides the episcopal church of St Sergius (Sourp Sarghis), the Armenians possess five churches, a monastery, and a seminary. Several hundred travellers can be accommodated in the new caravanserai ; and there is a club which in some degree makes up for the absence of hotels. The bazaar, though extensive, is poorly supplied with goods ; and the only manufactures of the town are a little cotton cloth, leather, earthenware, and blacksmiths work. The fruits of the district are exceedingly cheap, and noted for their ex cellence especially the grapes, apples, apricots, and melons. The surrounding country is richly watered by a system of canals connected with the Gokcha or Sevanga Lake and the river Zengui. Armenians, Persians, and Tatars are the main elements in the population, to which is added a certain number of Russians and Greeks making a total in 1874 of 30,000. The origin of Krivan is altogether unknown. One pious Armenian tradition recognizes in the name the joyful exclamation of Noah at the reappearance of the dry ground Erevan, it has shown itself; another explains it as equivalent to Eromntavan, the place of defeat of Erovant II. of Armenia ; and a third identifies it with the name of Kewan Kul, who built a castle about 1412 on the spot at the command of Shah Ismail. The present fortress at any rate was erected by the Turks in the 16th century, and since that time the place has been of considerable celebrity. It was taken by the Persians under Shah Abbas in 1604, besieged by the Turks for four months in 1615, and reconquered by the Persians under Xadir Shah in the 18th century. In 1780 it was successfully defended against Heraclius of Georgia ; and in 1804 it resisted the Russians under Prince Tsitsianotf. &quot; At length in 1827 Paskievitch took the fortress by storm, and in the following year the town and province were ceded to Russia by the peace of Turkmanchai. The successful general was rewarded by the title of Count of Erivan (Krivanski). A Tatar poem in celebration of the event has been preserved by Bodenstedt in his &quot; Thousand and One Days in the East.&quot; See Fr. Dubois dc Montpdreux, Voyage autour du Caucate, vol. iii., 1S30; Baron Thielman, Travels in the. Caucasus, &c., 1875; J. B. Tetter, Crimea and Transcau casia, 1870; J. Bryce, Transcaucasia and Ararat, 1877. ERLANGEN&quot;, a town of Bavaria, in the district of Middle Franconia, is situated at the confluence of the Schwabach with the Regnitz, eleven miles N.N.W. of Nuremberg, and on the railway between that town and Bamberg. It is sur rounded by walls, and divided into an old and new town, the latter consisting of wide, straight, and well-built streets. It possesses a large brewery, the beer of which is in high repute in Germany; and among its other industries are stocking and glove making, glass and tobacco manufacture, and cotton -spinning. It is, however, best known as the seat of a university founded by Frederick, margrave of Bayreuth, who in 1742 established a university at B.iyreuth, but in 1743 changed its situation to Erlangen. A statue of this margrave, erected in 1843 by King Louis of Bavaria, stands in the market-place, facing the university buildings. The university occupies the ancient palace of the margraves of Bayreuth, and has faculties of arts, medicine, and theology. At the beginning its endowments were small, but they have latterly become considerable, especiilly through the benefactions of the margrave Alexander. The number of students in attendance in 1876 was 429. Con nected with the university are a library containing 1 10,000 volumes and 1000 manuscripts, an infirmary, an eye hospital, a maternity hospital, an anatomical museum, and a botanic garden. Erlangen also possesses a gymnasium and a commercial school. The town owes the foundation of its prosperity chiefly to the French Protestant refugees who settled here on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and introduced various manufactures. In 1017 Erlangen was transferred from the bishopric of Wiirzburg to that of Bamberg; in 1361 it was transferred to that of Bohemia; it came into the possession of the counts of Nuremberg in 1400, of the margraves of Bayreutlt in 1541, of Prussia in 1791, and of Bavaria in 1809. The population in 1875 was 13,597. ERLAU (the Hungarian Eger, Slavonic Jager, and Latin Agria), a fortified town of Hungary, capital of the varmegye or county of Heves, on the Erlau, or Eger, an affluent of the Theiss (47 54 N. lat, 20 22 E. long.), 67 miles E.N.E. of Pesth. Previous to 1803, Erlau was the see of a bishopric founded by St Stephen, king of Hungary, in the llth century; in 1804 it was elevated to an arch bishopric. The town is situated in a valley surrounded by hills covered with vineyards, the cultivation of which forms the chief employment of the inhabitants ; the red wines from this district are considered the best in Hungary, and are largely exported to foreign countries. The other manufac tures consist of woollen and linen fabrics, hat and shoo making, and leather dressing. The town is inclosed by old walls and entered by six gates ; the streets are narrow, but embellished with several fine buildings, the principal of which are the cathedral, the archbishop s palace, a diocesan lyceum with a library and observatory 172 feet high, the county hall, and two monasteries. Besides the cathedral, there are several other Roman Catholic churches, also a Greek and a Protestant church, and several schools. Erlau was founded by King Stephen of Hungary, who resided there in 1010. On an eminence above the tower stands an ancient Turkish fortress, which was often besieged during the constant wars between the Moslems and Christians. In 1552 the town resisted the repeated assaults of a large Turkish force; in 1596, however, it was given up to the Turks by the Austrian party in the garrison. During the revolution of 1848-49, Erlau was remarkable for the patriotic spirit displayed by its inhabi tants ; and it was here that the principal campaigns against the Austrians were organized. The population at the census of 1870 numbered 19,150, chiefly Roman Catholics. ERLKONIG, or ERL-Kixo, a mythical character in modern German literature, represented as a gigantic, bearded man with a golden crown and trailing garments, who carries children away to that undiscovered country where he him self abides. There is no such personage in ancient German mythology, and the name is linguistically nothing more than the perpetuation of a blunder. It first appeared in Herder s Stimmen der Volker, 1778, where it is used in the transla tion of the Danish song of the Elf-King s Daughter as equi valent to the Danish ellerkonge, or Mekong?, that is, elver- lionge, the king of the elves; and the true German word would have been Elbkonig, or Elbtnkonig, afterwards used under the modified form of Elfenkunig by &quot;Wieland in his Oberon, 1780. Herder was probably misled by the fact that the Danish word elle signifies not only elf, but alsv alder-tree (Germ. Erie). His mistake at any rate has been