Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/780

 764: ETOWA1I ETRURIA classes are divided between the lower and up- per school. There are a head master and a lower master, 23 assistant masters in the upper school and 4 in the lower, 6 mathematical mas- ters, and masters of the French, German and Hebrew, and Italian languages. The course of instruction was .formerly almost wholly classical; but mathematics and modern lan- guages are now a part of the curriculum. The annual elections take place in the last days of July every year. The usual number of schol- ars is between 700 and 800. The Eton mon- tem was a peculiar ceremony, formerly bien- nial, but after 1759 held triennially on Whit- Tuesday, and discontinued since 1844. On this occasion the boys marched in procession to an elevation on the Bath road called Salt hill, under the lead of the head boy of the foundation scholars as captain. Here they spent the day, partook of a bountiful breakfast and dinner, with music and various ceremo- nies, and collected toll from all spectators and passers-by. The scene was visited by great numbers of people, and even sometimes by the royal family, and the contributions, called salt, have been known to exceed 1,000. After deducting expenses, the remainder was paid over to the captain, who in 1847 was indemni- fied by the queen for his loss by the omission of the ceremony. See "History of the School of Eton," by J. H. Jesse (London, 1872). ETOWAH, a N. E. county of Alabama, inter- sected by Coosa river ; area, about 500 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 10,109, of whom 1,708 were col- ored. The Alabama and Chattanooga railroad passes through it. The surface is somewhat mountainous, but the soil is fertile. Forests abound. The chief productions in 1870 were 41,128 bushels of wheat, 181,034 of Indian corn, 16,745 of sweet potatoes, 13,791 Ibs. of wool, and 1,383 bales of cotton. There were 923 horses, 4,623 cattle, 4,950 sheep, and 8,649 swine. Capital, Gadsden. ETRURIA, or Tnscia, a division of ancient Italy, bounded W. by the Tyrrhenian sea, and separated on the N. W. from Liguria by the river Macra (now Magra), N. E. by the Apen- nines from Cispadine Gaul, and E. and S. by the Tiber from Umbria and Latium. It thus embraced the modern Tuscany, and some ad- joining territories, and was a fertile and well cultivated country. Its principal mountains were the Ciminius (Monte di Viterbo) and So- racte (Monte di San Oreste). Its chief riv- ers were the Tiber and the Arnus (Arno) ; its chief lakes the Thrasymenus (lake of Perugia), the Lacus Vadimonis (Bassano), the Volsini- ensis (Bolsena), and the Sabatinus (Brocciano). The testimony of ancient writers, and late discoveries of antique monuments, comprising walls, cloaca, tombs adorned with sculptures, vases, coins, &c., prove that Etruria was in- habited by a civilized and cultivated people long before the foundation of Rome. They were called Etrusci or Tusci by the Romans, and Tyrrheni or Tyrseni by the Greeks ; their national name w r as Ras, or with the gentile termination Ras-ennas. They were distin- guished from the Latin and Sabellian Italians, as well as from the Greeks, by their bodily structure, as the sculptures of the Etruscans exhibit only short sturdy figures with large heads and thick arms ; by their religion, which was of a gloomy character, delighting in mys- tical handling of numbers and in horrible specu- lations and practices; and by the complete iso- lation of their language. For these reasons no one has as yet succeeded in connecting the Etruscans with any other race. Many dialects have been examined, and sometimes tortured, with a view of discovering some affinity, but in vain. The geographical position of the Basque nation suggested that the Basque language might be cognate to the Etruscan ; but no analogies of a decisive character have been brought forward. The scanty remains of the Ligurians, and the sepulchral towers called nuraghe, which are found by thousands in the Tuscan sea, and especially in Sardinia, fail to evince relationship with the Tuscan people. As the oldest Etruscan towns lay far inland, it was conjectured that they migrated into the peninsula by land, and perhaps over the in the Grisons and Tyrol, the Rha3ti, spoke Etruscan down to historical times, and their name has a resemblance to that of Ras. In strong contradiction to this opinion stands the view that the Etruscan language was Semitic, as well as the ancient tradition that the Etruscans were Lydians who had emigrated from Asia. The latter occurs in Herodotus; but Dionysius asserts that there was not the slightest apparent similarity between the Lyd- ians and Etruscans in religion, laws, manners, or language. It is possible that the belief rested on a mere verbal mistake. The Etrus- cans or Turs-ennce (which seems to be the original form of the Greek Tlvpa-rjvoi, Tvppqvoi, and of the Roman Tusci, -Etrusci) nearly coin- cide in name with the Lydian people, the loppy/Hoi ; and Thucydides confounded their maritime commerce with the piracy of the Lydians, and the Torrhebian pirates with the buccaneering Pelasgians. Schwegler's opinion is that the Etruscans were driven into Rhaetia by the Gauls. Livy's account is also at variance with the opinion given above (Mommsen's) that the Etruscans came from the north. The Roman historians generally represent the origi- nal Etruscan settlements to have been on the southern or Roman side of the Apennines, and that the Etruscans pushed forward northward to the Alps. It is thus still unexplained how the Etruscans came into Italy. They probably occupied at one time the plains of Lombardy, having subdued the Umbrians, and were then themselves driven out by the Celts or Gauls, about the time of Tarquinius Priscus, when part of them seem to have taken refuge in the mountains of Rhsetia, and the remainder to have proceeded toward the south. The few
 * Rhsetian Alps, for the oldest traceable settlers