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 602 CIONE CIRCAKS tugal have a palace here, which was formerly the residence of the Moorish monarchs. In it Alfonso V. was born and died, and Alfonso VI. was confined during the last eight years of his life. On the summit of one of the highest peaks of the sierra is the Penha convent, built by Emanuel the Great, and restored and beau- tified for use as a palace by the ex-king Ferdi- nand. There is another convent built for the reformed Franciscans by De Castro, and called the " convent of cork," from the circumstance of the cells being lined with that substance. It is partly hollowed out of the rock. The residence of De Castro, and a chapel built by him after his return from India in 1542, are shown to visitors. Iivthe vicinity of the town are quarries of beautiful marble. On Aug. 30, 1808, a convention was concluded here by the English commander, Sir Hugh Dalrymple, with Gen. Junot, after the defeat of the French at The Penha Convent. Vimieiro, under which they were not only per- mitted to leave Portugal, but were conveyed to France with their arms and property. < lou:. Andrea dl. See ORCAGNA. CIOTAT, La, a seaport town of France, in the department of Bouche-du-Rhone, on the rail- way from Marseilles to Toulon, 14 m. S. E. of Marseilles; pop. in 1866, 10,017. The port is accessible to vessels of 300 tons. It has a large parish church, a fine public promenade, a steam engine factory, considerable ship build- ing, and an extensive coasting trade. ' CIPHER (Arab, sifr, empty), one of the ten characters used in the notation of numbers by the Arabic system. When it stands by itself it signifies zero. Each cipher placed at the right of a significant figure representing a whole number increases its value tenfold. In decimal fractions every cipher that is placed before a significant figure reduces it to one tenth its previous value. The term is also used for an enigmatical intertexture of letters, as the initials of a name engraved upon car- riages, furniture, plate, seals, or tombs, which it was formerly the custom of tradesmen and citizens to display, much as a coat of arms was displayed by the nobility ; also to the mono- gram or conventional figure by which some ar- tists have designated their names upon their works. It is also the name of any disguised method of writing, designed to be understood only by the persons who have especially agreed upon the significance of the characters em- ployed. The oldest example of this is the Spartan scytale. When the general of the army departed on any expedition, he took a round wooden staff, called a scytale, with him, leaving another exactly like it with the ephors. When the latter had any communication to make to him, they wound a slip of parchment around the staff, and on this wrote the message. Being unrolled, only detached and fragmentary letters appeared ; but when sent to the gen- eral he was able to put it in position upon his staff and read it. The art of secret writing in mod- ern times was long re- garded as a branch of magic. When the abbot Trithemius published a treatise on it about 1500, the elector palatine caused a copy of it to be burned, as containing diabolic mysteries. More recent writers on the subject are Giambattista Porta, Vigenere, J. P. Niceron, Kluber (Tubin- gen, 1809), and Martens (Leipsic, 1851). The chief use of cipher wri- ting since the time of Richelieu has been in diplomatic correspondence, employing various methods, by figures, letters, and catchwords. The introduction of the electric telegraph in recent times has also given occasion for the use of commercial ciphers, by which merchants and bankers transact distant affairs without betray- ing their secrets. CIRCARS, Northern, an old division of the presidency of Madras, British India, on the E. coast of the peninsula, between lat. 15 40' and 20 17' N., and Ion. 79 12' and 85 20' E., bounded N. and W. by Orissa, S. by the Car- natic, and E. by the bay of Bengal; area, 23,750 sq. m. ; pop. about 3,000,000. The division formerly comprised five districts, call- ed circars, viz. : Cicacole, Rajahmundry, El- lore, Condapilly, and Guntoor, the territory embraced in which was afterward distributed among the British districts of Guntoor, Masuli- patam, Rajahmundry, Vizagapatam, and Gan- jam. A range of mountains runs along the W. frontier, supporting a growth of valuable