ISEBE 205 ISIS Leidy from remains found by Hayden in Miocene deposits in the "Bad Lands" of Wyoming. It resembles the musk rat, but has closer affinity to the squirrels, and certain resemblances to the beavers. ISEBE (e-zar) , a department in the S. E. of France, round which on the N. and W. flows the river Rhone. It was formed out of the ancient province of Dauphine; area, 3,200 square miles. Mont du Midi, on the S. E. border, rises to 13,088 feet. The chief river, besides the Rhone, is its left-hand tributary, the Isere, which, rising in the Alps at an al- titude of 7,540 feet, flows S. W. to join the Rhone above Valence, after a total course of 180 miles (102 navigable). The products include wheat, wine, stone fruits, medicinal plants, and hemp. Cheese is made; and silkworms are reared. The department is rich in min- eral products; iron, coal, and turf are worked, and to a less extent marble, slates, and gypsum. The industrial ac- tivity is considerable, particularly in the manufacture of iron and steel goods, gloves, silk stuffs, cloth, linen, paper, straw hats, liqueur, etc. Pop. about 560,000. ISERLOHN (i'zer-lon), a manufac- turing town of Prussian Westphalia. The calamine mines are celebrated. In the neighborhood is the Dechen stalactite cave, discovered in 1868. Pop. about 30,- 000. ISHBOSHETH (ish'bo-sheth) , a son and successor of Saul. Abner, Saul's kinsman and general, so managed that Ishbosheth was acknowledged king at Mahanaim by the greatest part of Israel, while David reigned at Hebron over Judah. Involved in a long and unsuc- cessful war against David, and aban- doned by Abner, he was assassinated. ISHIM (e-shem), a town in Siberia, important as a trade center. It is the oldest of Siberian towns. A river and a territory adjacent likewise bear the name. ISHMAEL (ish'ma-el), a son of Abraham, by Hagar, who on the bix'th of Isaac, son of Sarah, was sent forth from his father's house with his mother. After dwelling in the desert for a long time, he became a great hunter and mighty warrior. The Arabs regarded Ishmael as the father of their nation, and the author of their language. He lived 137 years. ISHMAELITES, ISMAELITES, or ISMAELIANS, a Mohammedan sect originating in the 1st century of the Hegira, and deriving its name from Ish- Vol. V- mael or Ismael, one of Ali's descendants. From the 8th to the 12th century they wei-e powerful in the East, and distrib- uted themselves over Irak, Syria, Per- sia, and Egypt. ISHPEMING, a city in Marquette co., Mich., on the Chicago and Northwestern, and the Duluth, South Shore, and At- lantic and the Lake Superior and Ishpeming railroads; 15 miles W. of Marquette. It is the mining trade cen- ter for the great Marquette iron range, one of the most noted in the Lake Su- perior region, and the mining district of Ishpeming contains many of the most productive mines in the State. In the district also are valuable veins of gold, silver, and marble. The general offices of the Lake Superior and Ishpeming rail- road are located here, and besides the mines and iron works there are manu- factories of boilers, wagons and sleighs, machinery, and worked lumber. The city has trolley connection with Negau- nee, a National bank, public library, water supply from Lake Superior, sev- eral weekly periodicals. Pop. (1910) 12,448; (1920) 10,500. ISINGLASS, a very pure form of gelatine, prepared from certain parts of the entrails of several fish. The best is derived from the sturgeon, and is al- most exclusively imported from Russia, twisted up in rolls or formed into cakes, which are afterward torn into shreds or cut into fine shavings. Good isinglass should be free from smell and taste, and perfectly soluble in boiling water. ISIS (I'sis) , in Egyptian mythologj% the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus. She is, however, variously described, and invested with many different characters. By the Greeks she was generally identi- fied with Demeter (Ceres). Among the higher and more philosophical theologians she was made the symbol of Panthe- istic divinity; see especially the remark- able passage at the end of the "Golden Ass" of Apuleius. By the people she was worshiped as the goddess of fecund- ity, and in her honor an annual festival was instituted which lasted seven days. The cow was sacred to her. She was represented variously, though most usually as a woman with the horns of a cow, sometimes suckling Horus, and sometimes with the lotus on her head and the sistrum in her hand. Her priests were bound to observe perpetual chastity; but when her worship passed into foreign countries, her rites became merely a cloak for sacerdotal licentious- ness, which at last reached such a pitch that they were prohibited at Rome. -Cyc— N
