Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/607

 CYANOGEN OYBELE 603 in iron, timber, and vegetable ivory. Accord- ing to the national tradition, Cuzco was the most ancient city of Peru, having been found- ed in the llth century by Manco Oapac, the first inca, who established there the seat of his empire. The name, according to Garcilaso, signifies navel, and is equivalent to the umbil- icus terrarum of the ancients. It was called the holy city, and contained a magnificent tem- ple of the sun, richly adorned with gold and silver, to which pilgrims resorted from all parts of the empire. Portions of the walls of this splendid edifice are still to be seen in the Do- minican convent which occupies its site. Be- sides the temple, there were from 300 to 400 inferior places of worship, and the pilgrimage to this Peruvian Mecca was as binding upon the Indian noble as that in the East upon the Moslem. Toward the north it was defended by a spur of the great Cordillera, on which rose a strong fortress, a stupendous specimen of Cyclopean architecture, the ruins of which are still visible ; 20,000 men are said to have been employed on this structure, and 50 years consumed in building it. In 1532 Atahuallpa's generals took possession of the famous city, and in the following year (probably on Nov. 15) Pizarro made his entrance into the Peru- vian capital. The population of the city was computed at that time by one of the Spanish conquerors at 200,000, and that of the suburbs at as many more ; but although this estimate is probably exaggerated, all accounts agree in the remarkable prosperity and beauty of the city, which surpassed all that the Spaniards had yet seen in the new world. The neighbor- hood of Cuzco frequently became the theatre of chivalrous combats between the Spaniards and the incas, which, according to Prescott, " wanted only the song of the minstrel to throw around it a glory like that which rested on the last days of the Moslems of Spain." The rapacity of the Spanish conquerors soon stripped Cuzco of its ancient splendor; but the appearance of the city and the structure of the houses, many of which still retain the walls of the ancient buildings, recall the glo- rious era of the incas. The remarkable high- way which led over the mountains from Cuzco to the northern part of Peru is still in exist- ence, and is called the incas' road. Cuzco, along with the rest of Peru, proclaimed its independence of Spain in 1821. On Aug. 9, 1835, a victory was achieved there by the Bo- livian Gen. Santa Cruz over Gainarra, the commander of the Peruvian forces. CYANOGEN (Gr. Kkavoc, blue, and yevvdetv, to produce), a principal ingredient in Prussian blue, being a compound gas consisting of two atoms of carbon and one of nitrogen, and properly designated dicyanogen, the chemical equivalent of which is 60. It is of particular interest, being the first instance known of a compound body performing the part of an ele- ment in its combinations. It was discovered by Gay-Lussac in 1814, and may be obtained by decomposing the cyanide mercury in a small glass retort by the heat of a spirit lamp ; the mercury sublimes, and the gas passes over. It may also be obtained in combination by heat- ing nitrogenous bodies, as clippings of hides, hoofs, &c., in a close vessel, together with iron and potash or carbonate of potash. The gas as it is produced combines with the potassium and iron to form a ferro-cyanide. Cyanogen is a colorless gas of specific gravity 1'80, pos- sessing a strong pungent odor similar to that of the kernels of peach stones or of prussic (hydrocyanic) acid. It is inflammable, burn- ing with a blue and purple colored flame, and passing into carbonic acid gas and nitrogen. By the cold of 22 F. or the pressure of 3 '6 atmospheres it may be liquefied, forming a thin colorless fluid ; at the freezing point of mer- cury it becomes solid. It is absorbed by water, but is soon decomposed in this condition, and forms compounds with the water possessing acid reaction, besides many others of the dif- ferent elements variously combined. Exposed to a high temperature, the gas is not decom- posed ; but mixed with two volumes of oxy- gen, it explodes violently at a red heat, or by the electric spark, separating into carbonic acid and nitrogen. The properties of cyano- gen in relation to other bodies are analogous to those of chlorine, bromine, and iodine. It forms an acid with hydrogen (hydrocyanic or prussic acid), and binary compounds with the metals, cyanides, or cyanurets, which readily combine among themselves or with the chlo- rides and sulphurets, forming double cyanurets, chlorocyanurets, and sulphocyanurets. With oxygen cyanogen unites to form several acids, as cyanic acid, CyHO ; fulminic acid, Cy 2 H 2 2 ; and cyanuric acid, Cy 3 H 3 3. The first is a volatile colorless fluid, with the odor of acetic acid. Its salts are cyanates. Paracyanogen, C 3 N 3, is the brown matter which remains in the retort after the preparation of cyanogen. It is insoluble in water, is neither volatile nor fusible, and like cyanogen enters into combina- tion with other elementary bodies. CYAXARES I. and II. See MEDIA. CYBELE, or Rhea, a Greek and Roman divin- ity, daughter of Uranus or Ccelus and Ge or Terra, wife of Cronos or Saturn, and mother of the highest gods and goddesses. As Saturn in- sisted on devouring his children, the goddess mother, when she found herself pregnant with Zeus, proceeded, by the advice of her parents, to Lyctus in Crete, where she gave birth to her son. The moment the infant was born, certain pious youths of the neighborhood assembled round him with clashing arms and loud instru- ments of music, and drowned the child's cries, while his crafty mother hied away to offer her husband a stone wrapped up like a child. The stratagem was successful, and Saturn swal- lowed the stone. The infant was nursed by shepherd youths, whom Cybele rewarded by initiating them into the mysteries of her wor- ship, and appointing them to be priests and