Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/466

 446 WANDERING JEW WAPITI French, and Dutch settlers, being known in French as porcelaine and in Dutch as zewant. In the Dutch colony four beads, and at a later date six, passed for a stiver ; in New England it varied also, and was fixed in 1640 at six beads for a penny. The strings were called fathoms, and varied from 10. to 5s. It was strung and used by the Indians for ear rings, necklaces, bracelets, and belts. It was nsed in all treaties and on all public occasions, a string or belt being given to bind each arti- cle of a treaty, and a treaty belt being deliv- ered as a solemn ratification. On these figures were elaborately worked with the different colored beads, not arbitrary, but according to a recognized system, so as to form a record of the event that could be read. WAMMiKI Mi JEW, The, according to the pop- ular legend, a person born of the tribe of Naphtali, seven or eight years before the birth of Christ, who ran away from his father to accompany the three wise men from the east who were guided by a star to the manger at Bethlehem. On his return to Jerusalem, his stories of what ho had seen, and of the rich presents which the eastern monarchs con- ferred on the child, saluting him as king of the Jews, were the cause of the massacre of the innocents. Being a carpenter, he was em- ployed in making the cross destined for the passion of Christ, who passed his workshop on the way to Calvary. The soldiers begged him to allow the Saviour to enter for a few moments' rest, but ho contemptuously refused and offered insult. According to another le- gend, he was a shoemaker, sitting at his bench as the Saviour passed, and refused to permit him to nit for rest. According to both legends, Christ bade him to traverse the earth, without possibility of stopping or resting, until the second coming. In his ceaseless wanderings from that time he has in vain sought death amid the greatest dangers and calamities. The legend first appears in the chronicle of Mat- thew Paris in the 13th century, where the wandering Jew is called Cartaphilus, and said to have been a servant of Pilate. His name in the later forms of the legend is Ahasue- rus. The legend has formed the basis of many poems, tragedies, and romances. The most notable designs illustrating it are those of Gustavo Dor6 (Paris, 1856). See Griisso, Die Sage vom ewigen Juden (Dresden, 1844; enlarged ed., 1861). WANDEROO. See MACAQUE. WAPELLO, a S. E. county of Iowa, intersect- ed by the Des Moines river ; area, 432 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 22,346. The surface is undula- ting and the soil highly fertile. Bituminous coal and limestone are found. It is traversed by the Des Moines Valley, the Burlington and Missouri River, and the St. Louis, Kansas City, and Northern railroads. The chief pro- ductions in 1870 were 205,050 bushels of wheat, 14,835 of rye, 1,054,570 of Indian corn, 166,- 356 of oats, 86,156 of potatoes, 814,300 Ibs. of butter, 82,511 of wool, and 20,487 tons of hay. There were 6,826 horses, 5,163 milch cows, 9,254 other cattle, 25,193 sheep, and 27,389 swine ; 3 manufactories of agricultural imple- ments, 5 of bricks, 5 of carriages and wagons, 1 of iron castings, 2 pork-packing establish- ments, 8 flour mills, 7 saw mills, and 3 wool- len mills. Capital, Ottumwa. WAPITI, a name given to the cervus Cana- densis (Erxl.), a large American deer, the new world representative of the stag of Europe. It is 7 to 1 ft. in total length, and 4| to 5 ft. high at the shoulders ; the color in sum- mer is reddish brown, with a yellowish white disk on the rump having a black streak on each side ; in the male the hair of the throat is elongated, and black tipped with red ; in winter the color is more grayish ; the ears, middle of nape, and front of legs blackish. The tail is very short, the muzzle broad, and Wapiti (Cervus Canadensls). the suborbital openings large ; hoofs short, wide, and rounded ; ears shorter in proportion than in the Virginia deer, narrow, sharp- pointed, and hairy on both surfaces. The horns are much larger than those of the stag, round, erect, branching, ending in a fork, measuring 4 or 5 ft. in their widest spread, and weighing from 20 to 30 Ibs. ; they are thickly covered with warty elevations arranged in longitudinal lines, with smooth, sharp, and whitish points, the general color being walnut brown ; all the snags spring from the anterior surface. They live in families of six or seven, in clumps of wood, feeding on grasses, young shoots of the willow and poplar, the fruit of the wild rose, &c. ; they are usually shy, and make a harsh braying noise ; the flesh is rather coarse. They are found from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in the northern states and in Cana- da, not going further N. than lat. 57; they are most abundant on the upper Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, and have occasionally been found in the Alleghanies. The wapiti is hunt-