con

the largest temple of ancient Egypt. The descriptions of the classical writers are very contradictory and give no clear idea of the struction; they agree, however, in describing the main building as a series of chambers (about twenty), each roofed with a single stone slab of immense size. In front of the chambers were covered passages, with large monolithic columns, and adjoining them large courts filled with other buildings. The fondness of the Egyptians for using immense stones is said to have been specially manifest in this temple. According to a rude sketch in a hieroglyphic papyrus of Roman times, it was dedicated to Souchos (Sobk), the god of Crocodilopolis, though all the principal gods of the other Egyptian nomes were also worshiped in it. It is not improbable that Herodotus was right in saying that sacred crocodiles and some favored men were buried in the crypts of the temple; but this was not the principal purpose of the temple. A large cemetery of crocodiles existed northwest of the structure, and the founder had his tomb in a brick pyramid at the north side of the building. The name of this builder is variously given by classical writers; the best tradition being that of Manetho, that the fourth (better the sixth) King of the Twelfth Dynasty, Amenemês, or Amenemhat III., built the labyrinth as a tomb for himself. His name is given in Manetho as Lamarês (i.e. hieroglyphic Ne-ma(t)-rê, the official name of the King), which to the ear of the Greeks sounded like labyrinth, and which was rupted by later writers to Menes, Mendes, Ismandes, etc. The Moris of Herodotus is the same King. The temple, however, was not his burial-place, although it probably served for the cult of the founder, who must have been associated with the gods worshiped there. (See MŒRIS.) Later, the Queen Sebk-nefru (Skemiophris) seems to have built on the temple. This immense building, which was still standing in the first century A.D., has disappeared so completely that Petrie could find little more than traces of the foundations. Lepsius erroneously considered as remnants of it a few miserable ruins of brick houses erected there in late Roman times. The limestones of the temple must have been used as building material for the numerous cities and villages of the Fayum, or else burned to lime.

cor

The Cretan labyrinth, famous in Greek mythology as the abode of the Minotaur whom Theseus slew, was reputed to have been built by Dædalus. It is probable, however, that no such structure ever existed, and that the myth referred to the natural fissures in the rocks near Cnossus, unless indeed, it refers to the royal palace recently excavated in this locality. The Lemnian labyrinth was an ancient structure in the Isle of Samos, partly due to nature. Pliny used the term Italian Labyrinth to designate the gigantic tomb of Porsenna near Clusium. The classical quotations in regard to the Egyptian labyrinth have been collected in Wiedemann, Herodots zweites Buch (Leipzig, 1890); for the ruins, consult Petrie, Hawara, Biahmu and Arsinoë (London, 1889).

LAB'YRIN'THODONT (from Gk. λaßúpivłos, labyrinthos, labyrinth +ódous, odous, tooth). An extinct reptile found in rocks of Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic age, having peculiar labyrinthine structure of the teeth. See STEGO

CEPHALIA.

LAC (Pers. lak, Hind. lākh, from Skt. lākṣā, lac-insect, from lakṣa, hundred thousand; so called from the great numbers of the insect in a single nest). The general name under which the various products of the lac-insect (Coccus lacca) are known. The insects live upon the twigs of certain trees, and soon become covered with a secretion, from certain pores, which increases in thickness protecting the body and the eggs and which constitutes the lac of commerce. It is said that to each of the males there are at least 5000 females, and the winged males are at least twice as large as the females. When a colony, consisting of a few adult females and one or two males, find. their way to a new branch, they attach themselves to the bark, and having pierced it with holes, through which they draw up the resinous juices upon which they feed, they become fixed or glued by the superfluous excretion, and after a time die, forming by their dead bodies little domes or tents over the myriads of minute eggs which they have laid. In a short time the eggs burst into life, and the young, which are very minute, swarm all over the twig or small young branch of the tree in such countless numbers as to give it the appearance of being covered with a blood-red dust. They soon spread to all parts of the tree where the bark is tender enough to afford them food, and generation after generation dwells upon the same twig until it is enveloped in a coating, often half an inch in thickness, of the resinous exudation, which is very cellular throughout, the cells being the casts of the bodies of the dead females. During their lifetime they secrete a beautiful purple coloring matter, which does not perish with them, but remains shut up in the cells with the other results of decomposition.

In districts like the Province of Assam, in Northern India, where the gathering of lac is an important industry, the natives do not depend upon the natural crop, but regulate and increase the amount by cultivation. Two crops are gathered each year, one in May or June and the other six months later. The first is gathered principally for seed purposes, and the second for commerce. The twigs gathered at the first harvest from the tree covered with live insects still in the larval stage, and called stick lac, rre tied onto the fresh trees; or the stick lac is

placed in little bamboo baskets, which are fas

tened to the trees. Soon the insects crawl out of the twigs, fasten onto the branches, and the resinous formation begins. It is stated that usually a tree, after furnishing food for the lacalthough some trees will produce lae for twelve insect for three or four years, requires a rest, suited to the insects are such as are only modyears and continue to thrive. The trees best erately vigorous.

species of Ficus, including the Ficus religiosa, The principal lac-producing trees are several or 'religious tree' of the Hindus; the Cajanus dicus, Palas, Kusum, and some other trees which are natives of India, China, and Japan.

The usual method of separating the resinous matter from the dye and other contents of the stick lac is as follows: The covered twigs are broken up or coarsely pulverized, and placed in hot water, which melts the resinous matter. liberates the pieces of wood and the remains of the insects, and also dissolves the coloring matter. This is facilitated by kneading the melted resin

while in the hot water; it is then taken out and dried. The process of washing and drying is repeated a number of times until the resin is well separated from the coloring matter. The resin is then put into strong and very coarse cotton bags, which are held near enough to charcoal fires to melt the resin without burning the bags. By twisting the bags, the melted resin is then forced through the fabric, and received in thin curtain-like films upon strips of wood. This hardens as its surface becomes acted upon by the air, and being broken off in fragments, constitutes the shellac of commerce. The best shellac is that which is most completely freed from impurities, and approaches most to a light orange-brown color. If the coloring matter has not been well washed out, the resin is often very dark. Much that is squeezed through the bags falls to the ground, without touching the sticks placed to catch it; small quantities falling form button-like drops, which constitute the button lac; while larger ones, from 1 inch to 2 or 3 inches in diameter, constitute the plate lac of

commerce.

Below the lac-bearing trees there is always a very considerable quantity of the resin in small particles, which have been detached by the wind shaking and chafing the branches; this also is collected, and constitutes the seed lac of merchants. The name of seed lac is also applied to the resin after it has been freed from coloring matter and is ready to be fused. See "Lac Industry of Assam," in Journal of the Society of Fine Arts, February 8, 1901.

The water in which the stick lac is first softened contains, as before mentioned, the coloring matter of the dead insect. This is strained and evaporated until the residue is a purple sediment, which, when sufficiently dried, is cut in small cakes about two inches square, and stamped with certain trade-marks, indicating its quality. These are then fully dried, and packed for sale as lac dye.

Another method of separating the resin from the dye consists in passing the twigs through crushing rollers. The powdered matter, mixed with water, is put into a stirring cylinder, where resinous and coloring matters are separated. The coloring matter is precipitated from the water by the addition of lime. The water is then drawn off and the precipitate strained and pressed into cakes which are dried in the sun. The resin is fused in closed vessels by steam heat, drawn off into a shallow trough, and then spread on hollow zine columns, filled with warm water, which extend from the trough at an angle of 45 degrees. Here the shellac rapidly congeals, assuming a leather-like texture. While still hot it is removed, and after drying and cooling is ready to be packed and shipped.

The shellac of commerce varies in appearance, according to the thoroughness with which it was separated from the coloring matter, from a dark red-brown, called ruby shellac, to a pale gold, called blonde shellac. White shellac is shellac which has been bleached with chlorine. The process is a delicate one, and the product is likely to deteriorate.

The great value of the lacs is found in their adaptability for the manufacture of varnishes, both in consequence of their easy solubility and also because of the fine, hard coating, susceptible of high polish, which they give when dry.

All the varieties of lac are translucent, and some of the finer kinds, which are in flakes not much thicker than writing paper, are quite transparent. If a quantity of shellac be softened by heat, it may, by continually drawing it out into lengths, and twisting it, be made not only quite white, but also opaque; in this state it has a beautiful silky lustre, and if melted and mixed with vermilion, or any other coloring matter, it forms some of the fancy kinds of sealing-wax. The more usual kinds are, however, made by merely melting shellac with a little turpentine and camphor, and mixing the coloring matter. Shellac has the property of being less brittle after the first melting than after subsequent meltings; hence the sealing-wax manufactured in India has always had a high reputation, and hence also the extreme beauty and durability of those Chinese works of art in lac. some of which are very ancient. These are usually chowchow boxes, tea-basins, or other small objects made in wood or metal, and covered over with a crust of lac, colored with vermilion, which, while soft, is molded into beautiful patterns. In India lac is used as a coating for wooden toys, and many articles of personal adornment are made from it. It is also used as a cement and by goldsmiths as a filling for hollow ornaments.

LAC (Hind. lak, lakh, lākh, from Skt. lakṣa, hundred thousand). In the East Indies, a word signifying a sum of 100,000 rupees. One hundred lacs, or ten millions of rupees, make a crore.

LA CAILLE, là'ki'y', NICOLAS LOUIS DE (1713-62). A French astronomer, born at Rumigny. He was a protégé of the Duke de Bourbon, and under his patronage became connected with the scientists Cassini and Maraldi, and later was actively engaged in meridional measurements in France. He was elected to the Academy in 1741, and about the same time professor of mathematics at the Collège Mazarin, where he established an observatory in 1746. His Leçons élémentaires de mathématique (1741), Leçons d'astronomie géométrique et physique (1746), Leçons de mécanique (1743), and Leçons d'optique (1750) were composed for the use of the students there. From 1750 until 1754 he was in charge of an astronomical expedition at the Cape of Good Hope, where he made many valuable discoveries among the southern stars and constellations. His other works include Tabulæ Solares (1758), Astronomia Fundamenta (1759), Cœlum Australe Stelliferum (1760), and some Tables de logarithmes (1760). His Journal was published in 1763.

LA CALPRENÈDE, lå kål'pre-něd', GAUTIER DE COSTES DE (1610-63). A prominent French novelist of the seventeenth century, born at the Château de Tolgon, near Cahors, in Quercy. In his youth La Calprenède appears as a frank, free, over-bold gallant, an officer of the Guards, then royal chamberlain. From this function he withdrew on making a rich but not congenial marriage with a noted blue-stocking, herself an author and president of a literary salon. La Calprenède wrote ten plays and three novels, in 29 volumes of over 500 pages each. The plays are in the style of Corneille, and would be conspicuous were they not outshone by such masterpieces. The best of them are: La mort de Mithridate (1637); Bradamante (1637); Jeanno d'Angleterre (1637); Le comte d'Essex (1639);

and Edouard, roi d'Angleterre (1640). Cassandre, the first of his novels, was published during the years 1640-43, in ten volumes. Its popularity was such that the first volumes were twice reprinted before the completion of the last, and the whole reprinted twice during La Calprenède's life (1650-54). It was again printed in 1731, and condensed into three volumes in 1752. This novel is interesting because it shows that La Calprenede was well acquainted with the romances of chivalry as well as with Greek novels. Cassandre was followed by Cléopatre (1647) in twelve volumes (begun in 1647), and this by Faramond: histoire de France (begun in 1661), which La Calprenède left unfinished at its seventh volume. Five more volumes were added by Pierre de Vaumorière. All these purport to be histori: cal novels. Faramond has also the interest attaching to the first attempt at a novel of national history. La Calprenède is the first French novelist who had a conscious and defined plan in writing. Cassandre was rendered into German, Italian, and Dutch. In England Cléopatre was the favorite; yet three English dramas are based on Faramond. If priority be taken into account, La Calprenède is the most significant, if not the best, of the idealist novelists of the century. Consult Körting, Geschichte des französischen Romans im XVIIten Jahrhundert, vol. i. (Oppeln, 1891).

LACANDÓN, lä'kån-dōn'. A tribe of Mayan stock (q.v.), formerly occupying a considerable territory upon the Lacandón and Usumacinta rivers of Chiapas (Mexico) and Guatemala, but now confined to the more inaccessible region at the head of the latter stream in the Petén district of Guatemala. Their language is a dialect of the standard Maya of Yucatan. For a long time they maintained an aggressive resistance to the Spanish power, and still retain a large measure of independence, with many of their ancient customs and religious rites, avoiding contact with the white man so far as possible, although nominally subject to Guatemala. The stories formerly current of large aboriginal cities and great temples still extant in their territory are now known to have been false.

LACAZE-DUTHIERS, lä'käz'-du'tyâr', HENRI DE (1821-1901). A comparative anatomist, author of a series of elaborate and richly illustrated memoirs on mollusks, parasitic crustacea, and the red coral. He was born at Montpezat, May 15, 1821; was appointed in 1865 to the chair of zoology at the Museum of Natural History, and three years later he was called to the Sorbonne. Elected a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1871, he afterwards became its president. He was founder of the marine zoological laboratories of Roscoff and of Banyuls

sur-Mer, on the Mediterranean; also founder and

editor of Archives de la zoologie expérimentale. During the last thirty years of his life he was the animating spirit of French zoology.

LACCADIVES, lǎk'kå-divz (Skt. Laksa Dripa, hundred thousand islands). A group of small coral islands in the Arabian Sea, about 200 miles west of the Malabar coast of Hindustan, aggregating about 750 square miles in area (Map: India, B 6). They are low and flat and mostly barren, and but few of them are inhabited. The population is about 14,500, consisting chiefly of Moplahs, people of mixed Arabian and Hindu

VOL. XI.-43.

descent, professing Mohammedanism. The islands are divided into two groups, the northern belonging to the Madras district of South Kanara, the southern being administered by the Collector of Malabar. The chief product is cocoanuts, whose fibres are almost the only article of export. As the numerous coral reefs make navigation dangerous, the commerce is carried on almost exclusively in native vessels, manned by the daring sailors of the islands.

LACCOLITE, or LACCOLITH (from Gk. Máκkos, lakkos, pit + Moos, lithos, stone). A mass of intrusive rock (see ROCK) having the general shape of a mushroom, and supposed to be formed as the result of molten rock material being forced up from below through a fissure or crevice until, by taking a new direction along more nearly horizontal planes of bedding, it forces the overlying beds upward into a dome. Laccolites constitute a variety of batholite (q.v.) or boss. They were first described from the Henry Mountains of Utah, where the erosive agencies of the atmosphere have removed the inclosing arched roof of sedimentary strata and revealed the igneous core of the laccolite. Laccolites have since been described from many other localities, the best known, however, being in the Western United States. For illustration, see GEOLOGY.

LACE (OF. las, laz, laqs, Fr. lacs, It. laccio, net, from Lat. laqueus, snare, from lacere, to allure). An ornamental fabric of linen, cotton, or silk thread made either by the hands, somewhat after the manner of embroidery, or by machinery. It differs from embroidery in that it is not a decoration of an existing fabric, but a fabric in itself, and has been defined as "an open, perforated material formed by the series of threads of which it is composed being twisted together in such a manner as to form patterns."

HAND-MADE LACE belongs to two general classes: That which is made with a needle, called needlepoint, or simply point lace; and that which is made with bobbins on a pillow, called bobbin or pillow lace. In addition there is the machine lace, which is usually a more or less close imitation of the patterns of both point and pillow lace. The various knitted and crocheted edgings, usually of domestic manufacture, though used for the same ornamental purposes as lace, are not true laces. See KNITTING; also CROCHET.

There is no documentary or other evidence of lace earlier than the fifteenth century, but the process of lace-making was so gradually evolved from the much older art of embroidery that it is difficult to determine just when the first true lace was made. Lace-making was doubtless suggested by embroidery on thin gauzes, nets, and linens. This form of embroidery was developed into embroidery on open grounds by two dif ferent methods: Sometimes the portions of the embroidered cloth in the pattern are cut out and the open space filled in with needlework; sometimes threads are first drawn out of the linen, and the remaining threads interlaced with needlework, as is done in the modern drawnwork, in which the Mexican and Turkish women so much excel. Soon, instead of laboriously pulling out threads, a fabric was invented with the threads already omitted, ready for the needlework. This fabric, of an open, reticulated ground, was called a quintain, after a little village in Brittany, famous for its linens. These

quintains became more and more open in texture until they were mere nets, called lacis. The needlework upon lacis was at first made in a simple darning pattern, the threads being run in and out among the meshes.

POINT LACE. During the sixteenth century was often a difficult matter for ladies to secure patterns for the various forms of embroidery. Often these were drawn on parchment or copied on samplers which were passed from hand to hand. Probably the first printed pattern-book was published by Pierre Quinty, of Cologne, in 1527, and was entitled New and Subtle Book Concerning the Art and Science of Embroidery, Fringes, Tapestry-Making, as Well as Other Crafts Done with the Needle. After this many other pattern-books were published from time to time, and by studying these one is able to trace the transition from white thread embroidery to needle-point lace. Soon we find work called punto in aere, in which the embroidery is edged with Vandyked points which are wholly of needlework, without any foundation of cloth. Another step brings us to work not simply edged, but wholly made in this way; in other words, to the production of actual lace. The development of a true lace was earliest carried to perfection in Venice. At first it was similar in pattern to the cut and drawn work, but toward the end of the sixteenth century these geometrical designs were replaced by elaborate floral and scroll ornaments which culminated in the delicate productions of the eighteenth century. Venetian lace gradually became less bold and effective in design and more delicate in execution, as lace became less worn by men and more by women. This is seen by comparing the earlier laces with the celebrated rose point; the latter is composed of delicate scrolls held together by tiny bars and freely spotted with small blossoms. From Venice the art of lace-making spread into. France, and early in the reign of Louis XIV. his minister Colbert established a lace-making company enjoying exclusive privileges, with a general shop at Paris, the principal centres of lace-making being villages where the

art

was already practiced, notably Alençon. (See Despierres, Histoire du point d'Alençon, Paris, 1886.) At first the laces produced, which were called under the general name of point de France, were mere imitations of Venetian patterns; but gradually distinctly national edges were evolved. The manufacture of needle-point lace also spread to Flanders, where a lace of most delicate quality was made, on account of the superior fineness of Belgian flax.

In general point lace is made by first stitching a thread along the outlines of a pattern on paper, parchment, or cloth, and then covering and connecting the pattern-thread with stitches. Of course in actual practice this method is subject to endless modifications and variations, and certain technical terms are used in describing the various processes and products, the principal of which are the following: The unfigured back ground of lace is called the réseau. The pattern is the motif. Point de velin is lace worked on a parchment pattern. Brides are the simple lines with which the pattern portions are sometimes connected. Modes are elaborate variations of the reseau. Picots are little loops worked on a pattern to add to its effectiveness. Cordonnets are stout threads, sometimes of horsehair, em

ployed to outline a pattern. During later times the term guipure (see guipure later on) was applied to all laces where the design was connected with simple bars or ties, while laces with egular meshed backgrounds (reseaux) were called dentelles.

The process of making point d'Alençon lace can perhaps best be understood by reference to the accompanying plate illustrating various steps in the work. The different classes of work are assigned to different workers successively, and the fabric passes through many hands before it is finally complete. Fig. 1 shows the design, which is drawn on white paper. It is then pricked with a needle on a piece of green parchment on which the grounding is indicated (Fig. 2). A colored design in which the portions to be worked out by the different workers are indicated is next employed and is shown in Fig. 3. The first worker traces out the design on the parchment (la trace) as shown in Fig. 4. The next supplies the coarser groundwork (bride), indicated on the color scheme by yellow and shown in Fig. 5. Next the finer grounding (réseau), which corresponds in the color plan to the green, is worked in and then the design itself is worked in solid buttonhole stitch (rempli). This is indicated by the white on the color plan. Next the fine stars of the openwork (modes) are added, corresponding to the red on the diagram, and the final process consists in working a heavy outline around the design, as is indicated by the black. Fig. 9 shows the finished lace after it has gone through these successive stages.

PILLOW LACE. The invention of pillow lace has been claimed for Barbara Uttmann, who lived at Saint Annaberg, Saxony, about the middle of the sixteenth century. Whether she invented or merely introduced the art cannot now be proved; but certain it is that it soon became established in Saxony, and spread thence to the Netherlands and France. Pillow lace, sometimes called cushion or bobbin lace, is so called from the pillow or cushion being used to work the pattern upon, and the various threads of which the figures are made up each being wound upon a bobbin, usually of an ornamental character, to distinguish one from the other. The pattern on parchment or paper being attached to the pillow or cushion, pins are stuck in at regular intervals in the lines of the pattern, and the threads of the bobbins are twisted or plaited round them so as to form the network arrangement which is characteristic of this class of lace, the patterns or figured portions being worked out by a crossing of threads, which, although actually plaiting, gives the effect of weaving. As many as 1200 bobbins are required for the more elaborate patterns. Many pillowlace patterns are made in strips, and are cleverly united by a stitch called point de raccroc, which consists in finishing off the two outer parallel edges of a strip with a series of half instead of whole meshes, which are subsequently united in a way that defies detection.

The name passement was given to the earliest bobbin laces. Being cheaper and simpler than the point lace, they at once became popular with those who could not afford the latter. Gradually, however, wider and more elaborate pillow laces were made.

In 1768 the manufacture of machine net or tulle was started at Nottingham, England, and