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 SHALE SIIAMOKIN 823 to Mental Disorders," by Henry Maudsley, including a profound essay on Hamlet (12mo, London, 1873) ; u Essays on Shakespeare," by Karl Elze, translated from the German by L. D. Schmitz (8vo, London, 1874) ; " Jot- tings on the Text of Hamlet, first Folio ver- sus Cambridge Edition," by Hiram Corson, (8vo, Ithaca, 1874) ; " A Concordance to Shake- speare's Poems," by Mrs. H. H. Furness (8vo, Philadelphia, 1874) ; " Shakespeare's Centu- rie of Prayse," by C. M. Ingleby (8vo, London, 1874) ; " An Essay on the Authorship of ... Henry VI.," by George L. Rives, a Cambridge university (England) prize essay, but founded on, and chiefly an abridgment of, Mr. Grant White's essay on the same subject (8vo, Cam- bridge, 1874) ; " Shakespeare Lexicon, a Com- plete Dictionary of all the English Words and Phrases," &c., by Alexander Schmidt (2 vols. 8vo, Berlin, 1874-'5) ; and "Shakespeare, a Critical Study of his Mind and Art," by Ed- ward Dowden (8vo, London, 1875). The Ger- mans have taken a lively interest in this dis- cussion ; and indeed Shakespeare for 75 years has been almost as assiduously studied in Ger- many as in Great Britain and America. But there is no sufficient ground for the assertion that the Germans taught the English race to understand him. The best German thought of the day upon this subject is gathered in the Jdhrbuch der Deutschen Shakespeare- Gesell- schaft, edited by F. Bodenstedt and F. Leo (Berlin, 1865 et seq.). Shakespeare's works have been translated into all the languages of the civilized world, but best into German. The version of Schlegel and Tieck, which has been often reprinted, is probably the most perfect transfusion of thought from one form into another that ever was accomplished. A German version has recently been produced jointly by Bodenstedt, Freiligrath, Paul Heyse Herwegh, and others (38 vols., Leipsic, 1868- '72). No adequate French translation has yet appeared. Three of importance have been made : the first by Le Tourneur (1776-'82), in which the poet's thought is often ludicrous- ly perverted; the next by Francisque Michel (1839-'40) ; and the third by Francois Victor Hugo (1859-'65). Of these, the second is the most faithful and scholarly. Shakespeare's name is found in the manuscripts of his pe- riod spelled with all varieties of letters and ar- rangement of letters which express its sound or a semblance of it ; but he himself, and his friend Ben Jonson, when they printed the name, spelled it Shakespeare. In this form, too, it is found in almost every book of their time in which it appeared. Therefore, al- though he sometimes wrote it Shakspere, there seems to be no good reason for deviating from the orthography to which he gave a sort of formal recognition. The spelling Shakspeare was long prevalent. SHALE (Ger. scMlen, to peel, to split), a rock composed of clayey sediments consolidated in layers which are fissile like the original clay. but not often divisible into smooth sheets like the argillaceous slates. Beds of shale are ommon throughout the range of the secondary rocks, and constitute a large portion of some of the formations. They alternate with the sandstone and other strata of these forma- tions, and in the coal measures are abundant in beds blackened by the carbonaceous mat- ters intermixed with the clayey sediments. In the red sandstone groups they are commonly also red from oxide of iron, and in other for- mations they are olive, and sometimes green and variegated. They are soft and earthy, and are easily worn down into a muddy powder. By intermixture of carbonate of lime they be- come calcareous, and as the proportion of this increases they pass from calcareous shale to argillaceous limestone. Sand renders them arenaceous, and with excess of it they become sandstones. Carbonaceous matter renders them bituminous, and when the proportion is large the material is used for some of the pur- poses of coal. Shales of this character yield oil. (See COAL, and PETROLEUM.) SHAMANISM, in a wide sense, all spirit wor- ship connected with magic arts, but common- ly only that of the north Asiatic races. The name is a corruption of the Sanskrit cramana, a Buddhist ascetic or mendicant. Shamanism is one of the earliest phases of religious life, and is met in various forms among all the savage races of the world. It is akin to or a mixture of fetichism, or the adoration of magic stones and trees, and other material objects considered as abodes of spirits, and sabaism, or the worship of the stars. Shamanic priests affect to know the secret of controlling the coming and departing of evil spirits. Their offices are generally called into requisition in cases of sickness or death, which most rude peoples ascribe to the presence or ill will of demons. In Siberia the priest usually sucks the part of the body of the patient which aches the most, and finally takes out of his mouth either a thorn, a bug, a stone, or some other object, which he exhibits as the cause of the complaint. The process is sometimes accompanied with beating of drums and blow- ing of horns, while the priest works himself into a state of trance and epilepsy. Simi- lar practices are recorded in the Vedic litera- ture of the Hindoos, and the historical exten- sion of shamanism among the tribes of north- ern Asia runs parallel with the spread of Buddhism. It appears also that some of the ancient religious schisms among the Iranians were due to the prevalence of shamanism. Until the reign of Genghis Khan the Mongols were almost wholly given to similar magic and sorcery ; but subsequently many of them passed over to lamaisin, which is in a measure also a kind of shamanism, but infused with Buddhistic doctrines. SHAMOKIN, a borough of "Northumberli co., Pennsylvania, on Shamokin creek and the Northern Central and Philadelphia and Read-