Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/718

* TJNALASKA. 624 UNCONFORMITY. are indented with fiords, and it consists main- ly of barren and treeless mountains, among which rises the volcano of Makushin to a hoiglit of 59t)l feet. The island is thinly populated by Aleuts and a few Russians and Americans, chiefly engaged in fishing and seal- ing. The largest inhabited place is Unalaska Village or Iliuliuk, with a population, in 1000, of 428. It is the chief port of call for all vessels navigating Bering Sea, and since the gold dis- coveries its trade has increased considernljly. TJNAU. The two-toed sloth (q.v.). ITN'CAS (?-c.l683). A famous sachem of the Mohegan Indians in Connecticut. At first a Pequot chief, he revolted about 1635 and col- lected a number of Indians, who took the name of Mohegans, which had once belonged to the Pequots, against whom he fought as an ally of the English in the Pequot War of 1637. (See Pequots.) He was rewarfarraganset chief iliantonomoh (q.v.), and somewhat later, with the sanction of the commissioners representing the United Colo- nies of New England, had him put to death. In 1648 the Mohawks and Poeomtocks began an un- successful war against him. In 1657 he was be- sieged by the Narraganset sachem Pessaeus, but, according to tradition, was relieved by En- sign Thomas Leffingwell, to whom he is said to have granted the site of Xorwich, Conn. The date of his death is unknown, though he is known to have been alive in 1682. A monument to his memory was erected at Norwich. Conn., in 1842. Consult: Stone, Uveas and Miantono- moh. a Historical Discourse (New York, 1842) ; Drake, The Book of the Indians of North America (Boston, 1834). UNCIAL LETTERS. A term applied in Greek and Latin paleography to a modification of capital letters, which are made rounded instead of square, as being written on papyrus or vellum. See section Letters amd Their Forms, under Paleographt. UNCLEANNESS. As used in the Old Tes- tament, a term having several shades of meaning. In its primary sense it signifies a bodily condi- tion which during its continuance excluded from the 'holy community.' Such a condition might be produced by a variety of causes, as childbirth (Lev. xii.), contact with a dead body (Num. xix. 11-12), or leprosy (Lev. xiii.-xiv.). Various purificatory rites are prescribed in the Penta- teuchal codes to free from this condition. In a wider sense the term 'unclean' is applied to ani- mals prohibited as food (Lev. xi. : Deut. xiv. 3-21), and the fruit of trees was unclean (i.e. could not be eaten) for the first three years (Lev. xix. 23). Certain functions of the body were very generally regarded in early times as render- ing a person unfit to perform the rites of reli- gion, or, in other words, to approach the deity. These functions are all connected in some way with the phenomena of reproduction. The stipulations in regard to certain animals regarded as unclean belong in a diff'erent cate- gory. In all parts of the world certain animals are regarded as sacred either because a clan re- gards itself as descended from a particular ani- mal or because for other reasons the animal in question is regarded as affording protection to the clan. Accordingly the animal formerly re- garded as sacred comes to be avoided as unclean. And connect ion with the widespread symbolism of giving to deities the shapes of animals leads to the conception that certain aniuuils are to be avoided because of their demoniac nature. In the Pentateuchal regulations all these factors may be traced — the sanctity attached to certain animals, their position as totems, as well as the later con- ception which regarded them as the abode of evil spirits. In primitive religions disease is ascribed to the presence of a demon or evil spirit in the body, brought there by the power of a sorcerer or witch. A cure is thought to be eiTected by cer- tain rites in which sympathetic magic plays a prominent part. In the Pentateuchal codes, how- ever, an advance in religious ideas is manifested by designating a diseased person as one 'smitten' by God. The disease chiefly dealt with is a form of leprosy, which is still common in the East. From disease to death is but a short step, and the primitive views held in regard to death lead to precautions to be exercised by those who are obliged to come into contact with a dead body. On the one hand, death itself indicates the tri- umph of the evil spirit, while on the other, the uncertainty as to the whereabouts of the soul or spirit of the dead person incites fear and like- wise leads to precautions against the unexpected return of the spirit which has perhaps only tem- porarily disappeared. By a natural extension of the term tlie dead person is regarded as unclean. The rabbinical schools in Babylonia and Pales- tine elaliorated the subject still further, and in the Talmud the laws and degrees of the various kinds of uncleanness are set forth in great detail accompanied with minute discussions of casuis- tical problems raised in connection with the sub- ject. The extension' of the term imclean to the fruits of trees for the first three years is quite secondary, and dates from the late period when it had acquired the general sense of forbidden, without reference to any genuine uncleanness con- nected with the transgression involved. The pro- hibition appears to have been a purely economic regulation to insure productiveness. Consult the commentaries on the passages cited and the He- brew arch.Tologies of Nowack and Benzinger; also Stade, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, vol. i. (Berlin. 18871. UNCLE SAM. See National Nicknames. UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. See Stowe. Har- riet Beeciier. UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER, The. A series of papers written by Charles Dickens for All the Year Round, from January 28 to October 13, 1860, in book form in 1860. In the edition of 1868 eleven new sketches were added to the first collection, and that of 1869 was increased by seven more. The papers consist of stories and impressions, htimorous and pathetic, gained, doubtless, during the author's early, journalistic experiences in London. UNCONFORMITY. A term applied in geol- ogy to a break or interruption in the sequence of rock formations. In areas of stratified rocks one series may be found sometimes tn rest upon the upturned or eroded edges of another series, thus showing that the deposition of the inferior beds