The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 440

UDALL, NICHOLAS, author of "Ralph Roister-Doister," the earliest of English comedies, and "the earliest picture of London manners," born in Hants; was a graduate of Oxford, and head-master first of Eton and subsequently of Westminister School (1505-1556).

UEBERWEG, FRIEDRICH, German philosopher, professor at Konigsberg; author of a "History of Philosophy," an excellent text-book (1826-1871).

UGANDA, a territory in East Africa along the N. and NW. sh.o.r.e of Victoria Nyanza, with a population of from 300,000 to 500,000, and the seat of an active mission propaganda on the part of both the Catholic and Protestant Churches; has since 1890 been under British protection. The capital is Mengo.

UGOLINO, COUNT, tyrant of Pisa; was of the Guelph party; celebrated for his tragic fate; having fallen into the hands of his enemies, he was in 1288 thrown into a dungeon along with his two sons and two grandsons, and starved to death, a fate which suggested to Dante one of the most terrible episodes in his "Inferno"; the dungeon referred to has since borne the name of the "Tower of Hunger."

UHLAND, JOHANN LUDWIG, German poet, born at Tubingen; studied law, and wrote essays as well as poems, but it is on the latter his fame rests, and that is as wide as the German world; he was a warm-hearted patriot, and in keen sympathy with the cause of German liberation (1787-1862).

UHLANS, a body of light cavalry in the German army, introduced first into the Polish service, and of Tartar origin it is said.

UIST, two islands of the Outer Hebrides, called respectively North and South, forming part of Inverness-s.h.i.+re; separated by the island of Benbecula, with a population of over 3000 each; engaged chiefly in fis.h.i.+ng.

UKASE, an edict issued by the Czar, having the force of a law.

UKRAINE (frontier), a fertile Russian province of undefined limits in the basin of Dnieper, originally a frontier territory of Poland against the Tartars.

ULEABORG (11), a seaport town in Russian Finland, near the head of the Gulf of Bothnia; trades in wood and tar.

ULEMA, a body in Turkey, or any Mohammedan country, of the learned in the Mohammedan religion and law, such as the Imams, or religious teachers, the Muftis, or expounders of the law and the Cadis, or judges; its decrees are called "fetvas."

ULLMANN, KARL, German theologian; was professor at Heidelberg: wrote "Reformers before the Reformation," but is best known as author of "The Sinlessness of Jesus" (1796-1865).

ULLSWATER, second largest of the English lakes, lies between c.u.mberland and Westmorland, 8 m. long, and its average breadth 1 m.; is looked down upon by Helvellyn, on the SW.

ULM (36), city of Wurtemberg, on the Danube, 46 m. SE. of Stuttgart; was an imperial free city, and is a place of great importance; is famed for its cathedral, which for size ranks next to Cologne, as well as for its town hall; has textile manufactories and breweries, and is famed for its confectionery; here General Mack, with 28,000 Austrians, surrendered to Marshal Key in 1805.

ULOTRICHI, name given to the races that have crisp or woolly hair.

ULPHILAS, Gothic bishop; famous for his translation of the Scriptures into Gothic, the part which remains being of great philological value; was an Arian in theology (311-381).

ULRICI, HERMANN, German philosopher and literary critic, born in Lower Lusatia; professor at Halle; wrote against the Hegelian philosophy as pantheistic, and also studies in Shakespeare (1806-1884).

ULSTER (1,617), the northern province of Ireland, is divided into the nine counties of Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan, and Tyrone, and has an area of 8560 sq. m.; became an English settlement in 1611, and was largely colonised from Scotland; it is the most Protestant part of the island, though the Catholics predominate, and is the most enterprising and prosperous part; the land is extensively cultivated, and flax growing and spinning the chief industries.

ULTIMUS ROMANORUM (the last of the Romans), name given by Caesar to Brutus, as one with whom the old Roman spirit would become extinct; applied to the last of any st.u.r.dy race.

ULTRAMONTANISM, name given to extreme views in the matter of the prerogatives and authority of the Pope, so called in France as prevailing on the other side of the Alps.

ULUGH-BEG, a Tartar prince, grandson of Tamerlane; astronomy was a favourite study of his, and in the patronage of it he founded an observatory at Samarcand; after a reign of 40 years conjointly with his father and by himself, he was put to death by a son who had rebelled against him (1394-1449).

ULYSSES (i. e. Greek Odysseus), chieftain of Ithaca, one of the Greek heroes in the Trojan War, in which he was with difficulty persuaded to join, but in which, however, he did good service both by his courage and his counsels; he is less famed for what he did before Troy than for what befell him in his ten years' wandering homeward after, as recorded by Homer in a separate poem called after him the "ODYSSEY" (q. v.), which relates his stay among the LOTUS-EATERS (q. v.), his encounter with POLYPHEMUS (q. v.), the enchantments of CIRCE (q. v.), the SIRENS (q.

v.), and CALYPSO (q. v.), and his s.h.i.+pwreck, &c. Tennyson represents him as impatient of the humdrum life of Ithaca on his return, and as longing to join his Trojan comrades in the Isles of the Blessed. See PENELOPE and TELEMACHUS.

ULYSSES' BOW, a bow which only Ulysses could wield.

UMA (the gracious one), the consort of SIVA (q. v.), and sometimes also of RUDRA (q. v.).

UMBALLA (499), a city in the Punjab, 150 m. NW. of Delhi; is an important military station and a railway centre; carries on a large trade.

UMBRIA, a province of ancient Italy, between Cisalpine Gaul and the territory of the Sabines; inhabited originally by a powerful Latin race.

UMLAUT, name given by Grimm to the modification of a vowel in a syllable through the influence of a vowel in the succeeding.

UNA (i. e. who is one), the personification of Truth, the companion of St. George in his adventures, and who, after various adventures herself, is at last wedded to him.

UNCIAL LETTERS, large round characters or letters used in ancient MSS.

UNCLE SAM, name given to the United States Government, derived from a humorous translation of the initials U.S.

UNCONSCIOUS, THE, name given to a spiritual supernatural influence operating in and affecting the life and character, but which we are not sensible of ourselves, and still less reveal a conscious sense of to others.

UNDERSTANDING, THE. See REASON.

UNDINE, a female spirit of the watery element, naturally without, but capable of receiving, a human soul, particularly after being wedded to a man and after giving birth to a child.