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CUPID

487

CURRAN

merely spelling out a few letters. .These inscriptions are found to be mostly histories of reigns. For example, the great Behistun inscription gives an account of the reign of Darius Hystaspes, king of Persia, enumerating lists of his ancestors, a description of the extent of his power, the main events of his reign, the palaces he built and his prayers. Cuneiform inscriptions are of the first importance in the light they throw on those great early eastern empires and on facts mentioned and referred to in the Bible.

Cu'pid, called also Amor, the Latin name for the Greek god Eros, is the god of love and the son of Venus. He appears as a boy, playful and mischievous, with bow and arrow, and sometimes with torch, quiver and wings. His eyes are often covered so that he shoots blindly. His darts were said to pierce the fish at the bottom of the sea, the birds in the air and even the gods in Olympus. Praxiteles7 statue of Cupid is famous as a representation of the god.

Cu'pule (in plants), the peculiar involucre which invests the nuts of the oak, beech, chestnut, etc. The bracts of the involucre coalesce, and in the acorn form a cup-like structure. The name is also applied to cup-like structures which appear on the bodies of certain liverworts, as Marchantia, and which contain the peculiar reproductive bodies called gemmas.

Curacao (k8D-rd-so') is the most important of the Dutch West Indies. It is situated about 40 miles from Venezuela, and is about 40 miles long by 10 broad, covering an area of 210 square miles. The chief product is salt. From the peel of the Curacao orange is made, in Holland, the Curacao liqueur. The capital, Willemstad, is the headquarters of the government of the Dutch West Indies, including besides Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire, St. Eustache, Saba and the Dutch part of St. Martin, with a population of 53,486. The trade is mainly with the United States, and consists of maize, beans, pulse, salt and phosphate of lime, besides cattle. Cura£ao was discovered by the Spaniards in 1527, was taken by the Dutch in 1634, conquered by the English in 1798 and again in 1806, and restored to Holland in 1814. Population, 31,587.

Curculio. See AVERIL.

Curfew. See BELL.

Curie (ku-re) Pierre (1859-1906), joint discoverer with his wife, Madame Sklod.owska Curie (1867), of radium. Mons. Curie, son of a noted metallurgist near Paris, was himself professor of physics and chemistry at the Sorbonne, and for many years pursued laborious investigations as to the ladial activity of metallic uranium. In this he was substantially assisted by his talented wife, a Pole, who had herself discovered a new metal, which she named polonium. Jointly, while continuing their investiga-

tions, they succeeded in separating radium from the barium extracted from several toils of pitchblende, and for this they were rewarded by the Royal Society of London, which body conferred upon the Curies (husband and wife) the Sir Humphrey Davy gold medal. In April, 1906, M. Curie was accidentally run over by a wagon and killed in the streets of Paris. The discovery of the Curies is admittedly a momentous one, since it is possible by it to explain some of the grave riddles of the universe, especially such as have to do with heat-radiation, without combustion or chemical change and without any appreciable increase in its energy.

Curling, a winter outdoor game played with round, flattened stones furnished with a handle (the stones being about 36 inches in circumference) on an ice-rink. It is a familiar game in Scotland, and is now played more or less extensively in the United States and Canada. The game consists in playing four on a side in matches (each player having two stones) from a tee at one end of the rink, marked by a circle, to a tee at the far end, 40 yards apart—the object being to plant the stone near to the far tee and to guard it there, as well as to drive out the stone of an opponent. The weight of stone and handle is usually about 50 pounds; and each player makes use of a broom to clean the ice of any snow or impeding obstacles that may prevent the stone of a player, on one's own side, reaching the tee or striking aside an adversary's stone. Around each tee is a circle of seven feet radius, called the home or ring, while behind the near tee and beyond the far one are 12 feet spaces, divided into "back-scores." Between the two tees (114 feet apart) is a middle score line; while at either end (21 feet from each tee) is an intervening line called the hog-score. Two leaders called skips command the opposing teams and have the management of the game, each for his own side. The highest possible score in the game is 72. Curling is a most healthful, manly game, and has the positive advantage of having little or no betting attached to it.

Cur'ran, John Philpot, a famous Irish orator, was born on July 24, 1750, at Newmarket, Ireland. He was idle and reckless^ both while at school and at Trinity College, Dublin. While studying law in London, he had his earliest practice in speaking at the students' debating societies. On his first rising in court, he was so nervous that he could hardly read the few words of a legal form, and, when told by *he judge to read more clearly, he could not 20 on at all. But he soon conquered this, ftid his wit and eloquence made him famous* throughout Ireland. He became a member of the Irish house of commons, was a supporter of Grattan, andj though, a Protestant