Single-source entries: G (16)

Gauze

a light, transparent silk or cotton stuff. Gauzes have been occasionally made of thread, but the name has always signified a silk fabric.

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Gavarnie

CIRQUE DE (sērk de), a natural amphitheater in the Pyrenees, 14 miles S. S. E. of Cauterets. It is 24 miles in width and 5,380 feet in height.

CASCADE waterfall in the Cirque de DE, a Gavarnie, Pyrenees. It is the second highest in Europe, being 1,385 feet in height.

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Gavelkind

a law or custom of inheritance by which the property of the parent is distributed to all the children alike. It is the general practice in civilized countries, save in parts of England and certain other districts where a desire to keep fine estates together as a whole has led to giving the chief part of a man's estate to his oldest son, according to the so-called law of primogeniture. According to one form of gavelkind all the sons come in for a share of the land, but the daughters are left out. Gavelkind is the common law of France and of Germany. It is still the law in many parts of Great Britain . In a rural community gavelkind results in many small farms. See France ; German Empire ; Inheritance

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Gaveston

PIERS (gä-ves-tôn), the favorite of Edward II., King of England. He was a Gascon by birth, and on account of his father's services to Edward I. was chosen companion to the Prince of Wales, over whom he acquired a complete and very mischievous ascendency, and breeding dissension between him and his father. Edward I. banished him in 1307, but dying the same year, Edward II. at once recalled him, made him Earl of Cornwall, and gave him in marriage his niece, Margaret de Clare. Intoxicated with his elevation and honors he exasperated the nobles. He was again banished, again recalled, and, the barons having declared war, was besieged in Scarborough castle, captured, and execиted near Warwick, June 19, 1312.

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Gavial

ga'vi-al, a long-bodied, longnosed crocodile of India, with a hundred even teeth, and fleshy, horn-like nostrils at the end of the upper jaw. The gavial attains a length of ten to twenty feet, and is an unpleasant animal to look upon; but it is not dangerous to man or beast. It lives in the fresh waters of Borneo and India. It feeds on fish. It is to be distinguished from the man-eating crocodile. The stout snout of the Mississippi alligator is about twice as long as it is wide. The slender snout of the gavial is several times as long as it is wide. See Crocodile

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Gavotte

or GAVOT (gā-vot'), originally a dance of the gavots or people of Gap, in the department of the Upper Alps. Origin: French. The description of the dance, "a brisk round for as many as will," identifies it with the country dance. The gavotte seems to have been more popular as an instrumental piece than as a dance, and to have been a favorite movement in suites lessons, and sonatas from the latter part of the 17th century.

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Gay Head

a promontory and lighthouse on the S. W. extremity of Martha's Vineyard, Mass.

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Gay-Lussac

JOSEPH LOUIS (gā-lü-säk'), a French physicist; born in St. Leonard, Haute-Vienne, France, Dec. 6, 1778. In 1804 he was the first to make balloon ascensions for purposes of scientific investigation; became a member of the society of Arcueil, and was introduced to Humboldt, with whom he prosecuted an investigation of the polarization of light and other subjects. To him we are indebted for the discovery of the hydro-sulphuric and oxy-chloride acids. In 1830 he became a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and in 1839 was created a peer of France. He was Professor of Chemistry at the Jardin du Roi. He died in Paris, May 9, 1850.

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Gaya

the chief town of Gaya district, in Bengal, India, on the Phalgu, 57 miles S. of Patna. It is a place of the greatest sanctity, from its associations with the founder of BUDDHISM (q. v.), and is annually visited by about 100,000 Hindu pilgrims, who, under the guidance of the Brahman priests, pray for the souls of their ancestors at the 45 sacred 1 shrines within and without the walls. Pop. about 50,000.

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Gaynor

WILLIAM JAY, an American lawyer and public official; born at Whitestown, Oneida co., N. Y., in 1851; educated in the local seminary and at the Christian Brothers' College, St. Louis, Mo. Employed for a time as a teacher in Boston, he subsequently removed to Brooklyn, N. Y., became a reporter and studied law. In 1875 he was admitted to practice and quickly identified himself with the reform party in Flatbush. Elected Police Commissioner of that village, his activities against corrupt politics soon made him a prominent figure in municipal affairs. After serving two terms as Supreme Court Justice, he was elected Mayor of New York City in 1909, with the support of Tammany Hall. Shot, Aug. 9, 1910, while boarding an ocean liner, he never fully recovered from the wound and succumbed to the strain of his campaign for re-election, Sept. 10, 1913.

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Gaza

one of the five chief cities of the ancient Philistines, situated in the S. W. of Palestine, about 3 miles from the sea, on the borders of the desert which separates Palestine from Egypt. It is often mentioned in the history of Samson, and was the scene of constant struggles between the Israelites and the Philistines. In 333 B. c. it was taken after a five months' siege by Alexander the Great, and from that time down to 1790, when the French under Kleber captured it, it witnessed the victories of the Maccabees, the Calif Abubekr, the Templars, and the heroic Saladin. Constantine the Great, who rebuilt the town, made it the seat of a bishop. The modern Guzzeh is a collection of mere villages. It was occupied by British forces Nov. 7, 1917, in the advance on Palestine.

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Gazaland

a district in the Portuguese possession in east Africa, lying to the eastward of the Transvaal and watered by the Limpopo river. The Portuguese obtained their first foothold here in 1830. In 1833 they were almost driven out by an uprising of the natives, all their trading posts being captured. Gradually the country was securely occupied and the district enlarged, notably in 1884, after the death of the friendly chieftain, Umzila. In 1890 a war was waged with the forces of the British South African Company, with the final result of a boundary settlement in the interior in favor of the Portuguese. After 1906 the Portuguese occupation was more firmly established by the death of the chief of the unruly elements among the natives, Gungunyana.

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