KOTO 370 KBAEATOA 2,000,000) has an area of over 32,000 square miles more than half of which is covered v/itli forests. Hemp and flax are the chief products. The most not- able building in the city is the Cathe- dral of the Assumption, built in 1272. Pop. about 70,000. KOTO, a musical instrument used by the Japanese. It is about six feet long, and in shape is an oblong box, larger at ono end than the other, and with a con- vex top over which 18 silk strings are strung and fastened tightly at each end. KOTOW, the ceremony of prostration, with striking of the forehead on the ground nine times, performed before the Emperor of China. KOTZEBUE, AUGrUST FRIEDRICH FEBDINAND VON (kot'ze-bo), a Ger- man dramatist; born in Weimar, May 3, 1761. Weak in character-drawing, he had a strong' sense for situations. Of about 200 tragedies, comedies, dramas, and farces, the best known now are: "Misanthropy and Repentance" (1789), long popular in England and the United States as "The Stranger"; "The Span- iards in Peru" (1796), adapted by Sheri- dan as "Pizarro." "The Indians in Eng- land" (1790) won gTeat applause. "Ger- man Provincials" was one of his best comedies. His most celebrated novel was "Sorrows of the Ortenberg Family" (1785). The famous "Doctor Bahrdt with the Iron Brow" (1790), published under another's name, contained an at- tack on Goethe, Schiller, etc., who de- clined to admit him to their society. He was long in Russian service; and was once banished to Siberia by the Emperor Paul, who, however, recalled him a year later through being moved by something in one of his plays, gave him a rich es- tate, and made him aulic councilor and director of the court theater at St. Pet- ersburg. He was assassinated in Ger- many as a Russian spy, by a student, in Mannheim, March 23, 1819. KOUMISS (ko'mis), a fermented bev- erage made from mare's milk in the steppes of Russia by the Kirghez, Tar- tars, Kalmuks, etc. The alcohol is de- rived from the milk sugar, which is pres- ent in mare's milk in larger quantity than in the milk of other animals. This fresh milk is diluted with water, and placed in a sack of goat skin or the skin from the entire hind quarter of a horse, the wider end serving for base and the leg portion for the neck. There is gen- erally added some yeast, the sediment irom a previous brewing, to induce fer- mentation. In from 12 to 24 hours fer- mentation is complete, the product be- ing known as "young koumiss," or sau- mal. Fresh milk is added daily, and as the product is concentrated by evapora- tion of water from the surface of the hide the old koumiss is much stronger than the new. Koumiss is an acid liquid of a not unpleasant pungent taste and an ethereal bouquet. It may be made from the milk of any animal. Cow's milk is used in the American factories of koumiss. It is recommended by phy- sicians in cases of extreme debility. KOVNO, capital of government of Kovno, Lithuania, bordering on Poland and reaching nearly to the Baltic, on the Niemen, 58 miles N. W. of Vilna. It consists of an old and new town, and is a first-class fortress. Industries include wire factories and breweries. The town was captured by the Germans under Gen- eral von Eichhorn Aug. 17, 1915, which led to the evacuation of Suwalki and the great Russian retreat. Pop. about 100,000. KOXINGA (ko-shing'a), a Chinese pi- rate, who flourished in the 17th century. He made himself King of Formosa and terrorized the Chinese coast. He was finally killed in a sea fight. KRA, or KRAO, the isthmus connect- ing Siam with the Malay Peninsula, whose minimum breadth is 44 miles. Various projects have been mooted for the construction of a ship canal through this part of the isthmus which would shorten the journey from Ceylon to Hong Kong by 300 miles, and that from Cal- cutta to Hong Kong by 540 miles. KBAAL, a South African native vil- lage or town, usually a collection of huts surrounded by a palisade. Sometimes the term is applied to a single hut. KRAGUYEVATZ, a town in Serbia, 15 miles W. of Yagodina. Has arsenal and manufactures ammunition and ex- plosive powder. In 1915 during the Austrian invasion the town saw much fighting and was in 1916 occupied by both Austrians and Bulgarians. Pop. about 15,000. KRAIN. See Carniola. KRAKATOA (kra-ka-to'a) , a vol- canic island in the Strait of Sunda, be- tween Java and Sumatra; was in 1883 the scene of one of the most tremendous volcanic disturbances on record. The crater walls fell in, together with a part of the ocean bed, carrying with it two' thirds of the island. At the same time a gigantic ocean wave inundated the ad- joining coasts of Java and Sumatra caus- ing a loss of 36,500 lives, and the de-
