Part 43

KUMASI, or COOMASSIE, the capital of Ashanti, British West Africa, in 6° 34´ 50´´ N., 2° 12´ W., 168 m. by rail N. of Sekondi and 120 m. by road N.N.W. of Cape Coast. Pop. (1906), 6280; including suburbs, over 12,000. Kumasi is situated on a low rocky eminence, from which it extends across a valley to the hill opposite. It lies in a clearing of the dense forest which covers the greater part of Ashanti, and occupies an area about 1½ m. in length and over 3 m. in circumference. The land immediately around the town, once marshy, has been drained. On the north-west is the small river Dah, one of the headstreams of the Prah. The name Kum-asi, more correctly Kum-ase (under the okum tree) was given to the town because of the number of those trees in its streets. The most imposing building in Kumasi is the fort, built in 1896. It is the residence of the chief commissioner and is capable of holding a garrison of several hundred men. There are also officers' quarters and cantonments outside the fort, European and native hospitals, and stations of the Basel and Wesleyan missions. The native houses are built with red clay in the style universal throughout Ashanti. They are somewhat richly ornamented, and those of the better class are enclosed in compounds within which are several separate buildings. Near the railway station are the leading mercantile houses. The principal Ashanti chiefs own large houses, built in European style, and these are leased to strangers.

Before its destruction by the British in 1874 the city presented a handsome appearance and bore many marks of a comparatively high state of culture. The king's palace, built of red sandstone, had been modelled, it is believed, on Dutch buildings at Elmina. It was blown up by Sir Garnet (subsequently Viscount) Wolseley's forces on the 6th of February 1874, and but scanty vestiges of it remain. The town was only partially rebuilt on the withdrawal of the British troops, and it is difficult from the meagre accounts of early travellers to obtain an adequate idea of the capital of the Ashanti kingdom when at the height of its prosperity (middle of the 18th to middle of the 19th century). The streets were numerous, broad and regular; the main avenue was 70 yds. wide. A large market-place existed on the south-east, and behind it in a grove of trees was the Spirit House. This was the place of execution. Of its population before the British occupation there is no trustworthy information. It appears not to have exceeded 20,000 in the first quarter of the 19th century. This is owing partly to the fact that the commercial capital of Ashanti, and the meeting-place of several caravan routes from the north and east, was Kintampo, a town farther north. The decline of Kumasi after 1874 was marked. A new royal palace was built, but it was of clay, not brick, and within the limits of the former town were wide stretches of grass-grown country. In 1896 the town again suffered at the hands of the British, when several of the largest and most ancient houses in the royal and priestly suburb of Bantama were destroyed by fire. In the revolt of 1900 Kumasi was once more injured. The railway from the coast, which passes through the Tarkwa and Obuassi gold-fields, reached Kumasi in September 1903. Many merchants at the Gold Coast ports thereupon opened branches in Kumasi. A marked revival in trade followed, leading to the rapid expansion of the town. By 1906 Kumasi had supplanted the coast towns and had become the distributing centre for the whole of Ashanti.

KUMISHAH, a district and town in the province of Isfahan, Persia. The district, which has a length of 50 and a breadth of 16 m., and contains about 40 villages, produces much grain. The town is situated on the high road from Isfahan to Shiraz, 52 m. S. of the former. It was a flourishing city several miles in circuit when it was destroyed by the Afghans in 1722, but is now a decayed place, with crumbled walls and mouldering towers and a population of barely 15,000. It has post and telegraph offices. South of the city and extending to the village Maksudbeggi, 16 m. away, is a level plain, which in 1835 (February 28) was the scene of a battle in which the army (2000 men, 16 guns) of Mahommed Shah, commanded by Sir H. Lindsay-Bethune, routed the much superior combined forces (6000 men) of the shah's two rebellious uncles, Firman-Firma and Shuja es Saltana.

KUMQUAT (_Citrus japonica_), a much-branched shrub from 8 to 12 ft. high, the branches sometimes bearing small thorns, with dark green glossy leaves and pure white orange-like flowers standing singly or clustered in the leaf-axils. The bright orange-yellow fruit is round or ellipsoidal, about 1 in. in diameter, with a thick minutely tuberculate rind, the inner lining of which is sweet, and a watery acidulous pulp. It has long been cultivated in China and Japan, and was introduced to Europe in 1846 by Mr Fortune, collector for the London Horticultural Society, and shortly after into North America. It is much hardier than most plants of the orange tribe, and succeeds well when grafted on the wild species, _Citrus trifoliata_. It is largely used by the Chinese as a sweetmeat preserved in sugar.

KUMTA, or COOMPTA, a sea-coast town of British India, in the North Kanara district of Bombay, 40 m. S. of Karwar. Pop. (1901), 10,818. It has an open roadstead, with a considerable trade. Carving in sandal-wood is a speciality. The commercial importance of Kumta has declined since the opening of the Southern Mahratta railway system.

KUMYKS, a people of Turkish stock in Caucasia, occupying the Kumyk plateau in north Daghestan and south Terek, and the lands bordering the Caspian. It is supposed that Ptolemy knew them under the name of Kami and Kamaks. Various explorers see in them descendants of the Khazars. A. Vambéry supposes that they settled in their present quarters during the flourishing period of the Khazar kingdom in the 8th century. It is certain that some Kabardians also settled later. The Russians built forts in their territory in 1559 and under Peter I. Having long been more civilized than the surrounding Caucasian mountaineers, the Kumyks have always enjoyed some respect among them. The upper terraces of the Kumyk plateau, which the Kumyks occupy, leaving its lower parts to the Nogai Tatars, are very fertile.

KUNAR, a river and valley of Afghanistan, on the north-west frontier of British India. The Kunar valley (Khoaspes in the classics) is the southern section of that great river system which reaches from the Hindu Kush to the Kabul river near Jalalabad, and which, under the names of Yarkhun, Chitral, Kashkar, &c., is more extensive than the Kabul basin itself. The lower reaches of the Kunar are wide and comparatively shallow, the river meandering in a multitude of channels through a broad and fairly open valley, well cultivated and fertile, with large flourishing villages and a mixed population of Mohmand and other tribes of Afghan origin. Here the hills to the eastward are comparatively low, though they shut in the valley closely. Beyond them are the Bajour uplands. To the west are the great mountains of Kafiristan, called Kashmund, snow-capped, and running to 14,000 ft. of altitude. Amongst them are many wild but beautiful valleys occupied by Kafirs, who are rapidly submitting to Afghan rule. From 20 to 30 miles up the river on its left bank, under the Bajour hills, are thick clusters of villages, amongst which are the ancient towns of Kunar and Pashat. The chief tributary from the Kafiristan hills is the Pechdara, which joins the river close to Chagan Sarai. It is a fine, broad, swift-flowing stream, with an excellent bridge over it (part of Abdur Rahman's military road developments), and has been largely utilized for irrigation. The Pechdara finds its sources in the Kafir hills, amongst forests of pine and deodar and thick tangles of wild vine and ivy, wild figs, pomegranates, olives and oaks, and dense masses of sweet-scented shrubs. Above Chagan Sarai, as far as Arnawai, where the Afghan boundary crosses the river, and above which the valley belongs to Chitral, the river narrows to a swift mountain stream obstructed by boulders and hedged in with steep cliffs and difficult "parris" or slopes of rocky hill-side. Wild almond here sheds its blossoms into the stream, and in the dawn of summer much of the floral beauty of Kashmir is to be found. At Asmar there is a slight widening of the valley, and the opportunity for a large Afghan military encampment, spreading to both sides of the river and connected by a very creditable bridge built on the cantilever system. There are no apparent relics of Buddhism in the Kunar, such as are common about Jalalabad or Chitral, or throughout Swat and Dir. This is probably due to the late occupation of the valley by Kafirs, who spread eastwards into Bajour within comparatively recent historical times, and who still adhere to their fastnesses in the Kashmund hills. The Kunar valley route to Chitral and to Kafiristan is being developed by Afghan engineering. It may possibly extend ultimately unto Badakshan, in which case it will form the most direct connexion between the Oxus and India, and become an important feature in the strategical geography of Asia. (T. H. H.*)

KUNBIS, the great agricultural caste of Western India, corresponding to the Kurmis in the north and the Kapus in the Telugu country. Ethnically they cannot be distinguished from the Mahrattas, though the latter name is sometimes confined to the class who claim higher rank as representing the descendants of Sivaji's soldiers. In some districts of the Deccan they form an actual majority of the population, which is not the case with any other Indian caste. In 1901 the total number of both Kunbis and Mahrattas in all India was returned at nearly 8¾ millions.

KUNDT, AUGUST ADOLPH EDUARD EBERHARD (1839-1894), German physicist, was born at Schwerin in Mecklenburg on the 18th of November 1839. He began his scientific studies at Leipzig, but afterwards went to Berlin. At first he devoted himself to astronomy, but coming under the influence of H. G. Magnus, he turned his attention to physics, and graduated in 1864 with a thesis on the depolarization of light. In 1867 he became _privatdozent_ in Berlin University, and in the following year was chosen professor of physics at the Zürich Polytechnic; then, after a year or two at Würzburg, he was called in 1872 to Strassburg, where he took a great part in the organization of the new university, and was largely concerned in the erection of the Physical Institute. Finally in 1888 he went to Berlin as successor to H. von Helmholtz in the chair of experimental physics and directorship of the Berlin Physical Institute. He died after a protracted illness at Israelsdorf, near Lübeck, on the 21st of May 1894. As an original worker Kundt was especially successful in the domains of sound and light. In the former he developed a valuable method for the investigation of aerial waves within pipes, based on the fact that a finely divided powder--lycopodium, for example--when dusted over the interior of a tube in which is established a vibrating column of air, tends to collect in heaps at the nodes, the distance between which can thus be ascertained. An extension of the method renders possible the determination of the velocity of sound in different gases. In light Kundt's name is widely known for his inquiries in anomalous dispersion, not only in liquids and vapours, but even in metals, which he obtained in very thin films by means of a laborious process of electrolytic deposition upon platinized glass. He also carried out many experiments in magneto-optics, and succeeded in showing, what Faraday had failed to detect, the rotation under the influence of magnetic force of the plane of polarization in certain gases and vapours.

KUNDUZ, a khanate and town of Afghan Turkestan. The khanate is bounded on the E. by Badakshan, on the W. by Tashkurghan, on the N. by the Oxus and on the S. by the Hindu Kush. It is inhabited mainly by Uzbegs. Very little is known about the town, which is the trade centre of a considerable district, including Kataghan, where the best horses in Afghanistan are bred.

KUNENE, formerly known also as Nourse, a river of South-West Africa, with a length of over 700 m., mainly within Portuguese territory, but in its lower course forming the boundary between Angola and German South-West Africa. The upper basin of the river lies on the inner versant of the high plateau region which runs southwards from Bihe parallel to the coast, forming in places ranges of mountains which give rise to many streams running south to swell the Kunene. The main stream rises in 12° 30´ S. and about 160 m. in a direct line from the sea at Benguella, runs generally from north to south through four degrees of latitude, but finally flows west to the sea through a break in the outer highlands. A little south of 16° S. it receives the Kulonga from the east, and in about 16° 50´ the Kakulovar from the west. The Kakulovar has its sources in the Serra da Chella and other ranges of the Humpata district behind Mossamedes, but, though the longest tributary of the Kunene, is but a small river in its lower course, which traverses the arid region comprised within the lower basin of the Kunene. Between the mouths of the Kulonga and Kakulovar the Kunene traverses a swampy plain, inundated during high water, and containing several small lakes at other parts of the year. From this swampy region divergent branches run S.E. They are mainly intermittent, but the Kwamatuo, which leaves the main stream in about 15° 8´ E., 17° 15´ S., flows into a large marsh or lake called Etosha, which occupies a depression in the inner table-land about 3400 ft. above sea-level. From the S.E. end of the Etosha lake streams issue in the direction of the Okavango, to which in times of great flood they contribute some water. From the existence of this divergent system it is conjectured that at one time the Kunene formed part of the Okavango, and thus of the Zambezi basin. (See NGAMI.)

On leaving the swampy region the Kunene turns decidedly to the west, and descends to the coast plain by a number of cataracts, of which the chief (in 17° 25´ S., 14° 20´ E.) has a fall of 330 ft. The river becomes smaller in volume as it passes through an almost desert region with little or no vegetation. The stream is sometimes shallow and fordable, at others confined to a narrow rocky channel. Near the sea the Kunene traverses a region of sand-hills, its mouth being completely blocked at low water. The river enters the Atlantic in 17° 18´ S., 11° 40´ E. There are indications that a former branch of the river once entered a bay to the south.

KUNERSDORF, a village of Prussia, 4 m. E. of Frankfurt-on-Oder, the scene of a great battle, fought on the 12th of August 1759, between the Prussian army commanded by Frederick the Great and the allied Russians under Soltykov and Austrians under Loudon, in which Frederick was defeated with enormous losses and his army temporarily ruined. (See SEVEN YEARS' WAR.)

KUNGRAD, a trading town of Asiatic Russia, in the province of Syr-darya, in the delta of the Amu-darya, 50 m. S. of Lake Aral; altitude 260 ft. It is the centre of caravan routes leading to the Caspian Sea and the Uralsk province.

KUNGUR, a town of eastern Russia, in the government of Perm, on the highway to Siberia, 58 m. S.S.E. of the city of Perm. Pop. (1892), 12,400; (1897), 14,324. Tanneries and the manufacture of boots, gloves, leather, overcoats, iron castings and machinery are the chief industries. It has trade in boots, iron wares, cereals, tallow and linseed exported, and in tea imported direct from China.

KUNKEL (or KUNCKEL) VON LOWENSTJERN, JOHANN (1630-1703), German chemist, was born in 1630 (or 1638), near Rendsburg, his father being alchemist to the court of Holstein. He became chemist and apothecary to the dukes of Lauenburg, and then to the elector of Saxony, Johann Georg II., who put him in charge of the royal laboratory at Dresden. Intrigues engineered against him caused him to resign this position in 1677, and for a time he lectured on chemistry at Annaberg and Wittenberg. Invited to Berlin by Frederick William, in 1679 he became director of the laboratory and glass works of Brandenburg, and in 1688 Charles XI. brought him to Stockholm, giving him the title of Baron von Lowenstjern in 1693 and making him a member of the council of mines. He died on the 20th of March 1703 (others say 1702) at Dreissighufen, his country house near Pernau. Kunkel shares with Boyle the honour of having discovered the secret of the process by which Brand of Hamburg had prepared phosphorus in 1669, and he found how to make artificial ruby (red glass) by the incorporation of purple of Cassius. His work also included observations on putrefaction and fermentation, which he spoke of as sisters, on the nature of salts, and on the preparation of pure metals. Though he lived in an atmosphere of alchemy, he derided the notion of the alkahest or universal solvent, and denounced the deceptions of the adepts who pretended to effect the transmutation of metals; but he believed mercury to be a constituent of all metals and heavy minerals, though he held there was no proof of the presence of "sulphur comburens."

His chief works were _Oeffentliche Zuschrift von dem Phosphor Mirabil_ (1678); _Ars vitriaria experimentalis_ (1689) and _Laboratorium chymicum_ (1716).

KUNLONG, the name of a district and ferry on the Salween, in the northern Shan States of Burma. Both are insignificant, but the place has gained notoriety from being the nominal terminus in British territory of the railway across the northern Shan States to the borders of Yunnan, with its present terminus at Lashio. In point of fact, however, this terminus will be 7 m. below the ferry and outside of Kunlong circle. At present Kunlong ferry is little used, and the village was burnt by Kachins in 1893. It is served by dug-outs, three in number in 1899, and capable of carrying about fifteen men on a trip. Formerly the trade was very considerable, and the Burmese had a customs station on the island, from which the place takes its name; but the rebellion in the great state of Theinni, and the southward movement of the Kachins, as well as the Mahommedan rebellion in Yunnan, diverted the caravans to the northern route to Bhamo, which is still chiefly followed. The Wa, who inhabit the hills immediately overlooking the Nam Ting valley, now make the route dangerous for traders. The great majority of these Wa live in unadministered British territory.

KUNZITE, a transparent lilac-coloured variety of spodumene, used as a gem-stone. It was discovered in 1902 near Pala, in San Diego county, California, not far from the locality which yields the fine specimens of rubellite and lepidolite, well known to mineralogists. The mineral was named by Dr C. Baskerville after Dr George F. Kunz, the gem expert of New York, who first described it. Analysis by R. O. E. Davis showed it to be a spodumene. Kunzite occurs in large crystals, some weighing as much as 1000 grams each, and presents delicate hues from rosy lilac to deep pink. It is strongly dichroic. Near the surface it may lose colour by exposure. Kunzite becomes strongly phosphorescent under the Röntgen rays, or by the action of radium or on exposure to ultra-violet rays. (See SPODUMENE.)

KUOPIO, a province of Finland, which includes northern Karelia, bounded on the N.W. and N. by Uleåborg, on the E. by Olonets, on the S.E. by Viborg, on the S. by St Michel and on the W. by Vasa. Its area covers 16,500 sq. m., and the population (1900) was 313,951, of whom 312,875 were Finnish-speaking. The surface is hilly, reaching from 600 to 800 ft. of altitude in the north (Suomenselkä hills), and from 300 to 400 ft. in the south. It is built up of gneisso-granites, which are covered, especially in the middle and east, with younger granites, and partly of gneisses, quartzite, and talc schists and augitic rocks. The whole is covered with glacial and later lacustrine deposits. The soil is of moderate fertility, but often full of boulders. Large lakes cover 16% of surface, marshes and peat bogs over 29% of the area, and forests occupy 2,672,240 hectares. Steamers ply along the lakes as far as Joensuu. The climate is severe, the average temperature being for the year 36° F., for January 13° and for July 63°. Only 2.3% of the whole surface is under cultivation. Rye, barley, oats and potatoes are the chief crops, and in good years these meet the needs of the population. Dairy farming and cattle breeding are of rapidly increasing importance. Nearly 38,800 tons of iron ore are extracted every year, and nearly 12,000 tons of pig iron and 6420 tons of iron and steel are obtained in ten iron-works. Engineering and chemical works, tanneries, saw-mills, paper-mills and distilleries are the chief industrial establishments. The preparation of carts, sledges and other wooden goods is an important domestic industry. Timber, iron, butter, furs and game are exported. The chief towns of the government are Kuopio (13,519), Joensuu (3954) and Iisalmi (1871).

KUOPIO, capital of the Finnish province of that name, situated on Lake Kalla-vesi, 180 m. by rail from the Kuivola junction of the St Petersburg-Helsingfors main line. Pop. (1904), 13,519. It is picturesquely situated, is the seat of a bishop, and has a cathedral, two lyceums and two gymnasia (both for boys and girls), a commercial and several professional schools. There is an agricultural school at Leväis, close by. Kuopio, in consequence of its steamer communication with middle Finland and the sea (via Saima Canal), is a trading centre of considerable importance.

KUPRILI, spelt also KÖPRILI, KOEPRULU, KEUPRULU, &c., the name of a family of Turkish statesmen.

1. MAHOMMED KUPRILI (c. 1586-1661) was the grandson of an Albanian who had settled at Kupri in Asia Minor. He began life as a scullion in the imperial kitchen, became cook, then purse-bearer to Khosrev Pasha, and so, by wit and favour, rose to be master of the horse, "pasha of two tails," and governor of a series of important cities and sanjaks. In 1656 he was appointed governor of Tripoli; but before he had set out to his new post he was nominated to the grand vizierate at the instance of powerful friends. He accepted office only on condition of being allowed a free hand. He signalized his accession to power by suppressing an _émeute_ of orthodox Mussulman fanatics in Constantinople (Sept. 22), and by putting to death certain favourites of the powerful Valide Sultana, by whose corruption and intrigues the administration had been confused. A little later (January 1657) he suppressed with ruthless severity a rising of the spahis; a certain Sheik Salim, leader of the fanatical mob of the capital, was drowned in the Bosporus; and the Greek Patriarch, who had written to the voivode of Wallachia to announce the approaching downfall of Islam, was hanged. This impartial severity was a foretaste of Kuprili's rule, which was characterized throughout by a vigour which belied the expectations based upon his advanced years, and by a ruthlessness which in time grew to be almost blood-lust. His justification was the new life which he breathed into the decaying bones of the Ottoman empire.