a direct line. Pop. (1905) about 10,000. It is situated about 2000 ft. above the sea, at the northern foot of Jebel Kordofan, in 13° 11′ N. and 30° 14′ E. It is an important trade centre, the chief articles of commerce being gum, ivory, cattle and ostrich feathers. A considerable part of the trade of Darfur with Egypt passes through El Obeid.
El Obeid, which appears to be a place of considerable antiquity and the ancient capital of the country, was garrisoned by the Egyptians on their conquest of Kordofan in 1821. In September 1882 the town was assaulted by the troops of the mahdi, who, being repulsed, laid siege to the place, which capitulated on the 17th of January 1883. During the Mahdia the city was destroyed and deserted, and when Kordofan passed, in 1899, into the possession of the Anglo-Egyptian authorities nothing was left of El Obeid but a part of the old government offices. A new town was laid out in squares, the mudiria repaired and barracks built. (See Kordofan, and Sudan: Anglo-Egyptian.)
ELOI [Eligius], SAINT (588–659), apostle of the Belgians and
Frisians, was born at Cadillac, near Limoges, in 588. Having
at an early age shown artistic talent he was placed by his parents
with the master of the mint at Limoges, where he made rapid
progress in goldsmith’s work. He became coiner to Clotaire II.,
king of the Franks, and treasurer to his successor Dagobert.
Both kings entrusted him with important works, among which
were the composition of the bas-reliefs which ornament the tomb
of St Germain, bishop of Paris, and the execution (for Clotaire)
of two chairs of gold, adorned with jewels, which at that time
were reckoned chefs-d’œuvre. Though he was amassing great
wealth, Eloi acquired a distaste for a worldly life, and resolved
to become a priest. At first he retired to a monastery, but in
640 was raised to the bishopric of Noyon. He made frequent
missionary excursions to the pagans of the Low Countries, and
also founded a great many monasteries and churches. He died
on the 1st of December 659. A mass of legend has gathered
round the life of St Eloi, who as the patron saint of goldsmiths
is still very popular.
His life was written by his friend and contemporary St Ouen (Audoenus); French translations of the Vita S. Eligii auctore Audoeno were published by L. de Montigny (Paris, 1626), by C. Barthélemy in Études hist., litt. et art. (ib. 1847), and by Parenty, with notes (2nd ed., ib. 1870). For bibliography see Potthast, Bibliotheca hist. med. aevi (Berlin, 1896), s.v. “Vita S. Eligii Noviomensis,” and Ulysse Chevalier, Rép. des sources hist., Bio-bibl. (Paris, 1894), s. “Eloi.”
ELONGATION, strictly “lengthening”; in astronomy, the
apparent angular distance of a heavenly body from its centre
of motion, as seen from the earth; designating especially
the angular distance of the planet Mercury or Venus from the
sun, or the apparent angle between a satellite and its primary.
The greatest elongation of Venus is about 45°; that of Mercury
generally ranges between 18° and 27°.
EL PASO, a city, port of entry, and the county-seat of El Paso
county, Texas, U.S.A., on the E. bank of the Rio Grande, in the
extreme W. part of the state, at an altitude of 3710 ft. Pop.
(1880) 736; (1890) 10,338; (1900) 15,906, of whom 6309 were
foreign-born and 466 were negroes; (1910 census) 39,279.
Many of the inhabitants are of Mexican descent. El Paso is an
important railway centre and is served by the following railways:
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé, of which it is the S. terminus;
the El Paso & South-Western, which connects with the Chicago,
Rock Island & El Paso (of the Rock Island system); the Galveston,
Harrisburg & San Antonio, of which it is the W. terminus;
the Mexican Central, of which it is the N. terminus; the Texas &
Pacific, of which it is the W. terminus; a branch of the Southern
Pacific, of which it is the E. terminus; and the short Rio Grande,
Sierra Madre & Pacific, of which it is the N. terminus. The city is
regularly laid out on level bottom lands, stretching to the table-lands
and slopes to the N.E. and N.W. of the city. Opposite, on
the W. bank of the river, is the Mexican town of Ciudad Juarez
(until 1885 known as Paso del Norte), with which El Paso is connected
by bridges and by electric railway. The climate is mild,
warm and dry, El Paso being well known as a health resort,
particularly for sufferers from pulmonary complaints. Among
the city’s public buildings are a handsome Federal building, a
county court house, a city hall, a Y.M.C.A. building, a public
library, a sanatorium for consumptives, and the Hotel Dieu, a
hospital maintained by Roman Catholics. El Paso is the seat
of St Joseph’s Academy and of the El Paso Military Institute.
Three miles E. of the city limits is Fort Bliss, a U.S. military
post, with a reservation of about 2 sq. m. El Paso’s situation
on the Mexican frontier gives it a large trade with Mexico; it is
the port of entry of the Paso del Norte customs district, one of the
larger Mexican border districts, and in 1908 its imports were
valued at $2,677,784 and its exports at $5,661,901. Wheat,
boots and shoes, mining machinery, cement, lime, lumber, beer,
and denatured alcohol are among the varied exports; the
principal imports are ore, sugar, cigars, oranges, drawn work and
Mexican curios. El Paso has extensive manufactories, especially
railway car shops, which in 1905 employed 34.5% of the factory
wage-earners. Just outside the city limits are important lead
smelting works, to which are brought ores for treatment from
western Texas, northern Mexico, New Mexico and Arizona.
Among the city’s manufactures are cement, denatured alcohol,
ether, varnish, clothing and canned goods. The value of the
city’s total factory product in 1905 was $2,377,813, 96% greater
than that in 1900. El Paso lies in a fertile agricultural valley,
and in 1908 the erection of an immense dam was begun near
Engle, New Mexico (100 m. above El Paso), by the U.S. government,
to store the flood waters of the Rio Grande for irrigating
this area. Before the Mexican War, following which the first
United States settlement was made, the site of El Paso was known
as Ponce de Leon Ranch, the land being owned by the Ponce de
Leon family. El Paso was first chartered as a city in 1873, and
in 1907 adopted the commission form of government.
ELPHINSTONE, MOUNTSTUART (1779–1859), Indian statesman
and historian, fourth son of the 11th Baron Elphinstone in
the peerage of Scotland, was born in 1779. Having received
an appointment in the civil service of the East India Company,
of which one of his uncles was a director, he reached
Calcutta in the beginning of 1796. After filling several subordinate
posts, he was appointed in 1801 assistant to the
British resident at Poona, at the court of the peshwa, the most
powerful of the Mahratta princes. Here he obtained his first
opportunity of distinction, being attached in the capacity of
diplomatist to the mission of Sir Arthur Wellesley to the
Mahrattas. When, on the failure of negotiations, war broke out,
Elphinstone, though a civilian, acted as virtual aide-de-camp to
General Wellesley. He was present at the battle of Assaye,
and displayed such courage and knowledge of tactics throughout
the whole campaign that Wellesley told him he had mistaken his
profession, and that he ought to have been a soldier. In 1804,
when the war closed, he was appointed British resident at Nagpur.
Here, the times being uneventful and his duties light, he occupied
much of his leisure in reading classical and general literature,
and acquired those studious habits which clung to him throughout
life. In 1808 he was appointed the first British envoy to the court
of Kabul, with the object of securing a friendly alliance with the
Afghans; but this proved of little value, because Shah Shuja
was driven from the throne by his brother before it could be
ratified. The most valuable permanent result of the embassy
was the literary fruit it bore several years afterwards in Elphinstone’s
great work on Kabul. After spending about a year in
Calcutta arranging the report of his mission, Elphinstone was
appointed in 1811 to the important and difficult post of resident
at Poona. The difficulty arose from the general complication
of Mahratta politics, and especially from the weak and treacherous
character of the peshwa, which Elphinstone rightly read from
the first. While the mask of friendship was kept up Elphinstone
carried out the only suitable policy, that of vigilant quiescence,
with admirable tact and patience; when in 1817 the mask was
thrown aside and the peshwa ventured to declare war, the English
resident proved for the second time the truth of Wellesley’s
assertion that he was born a soldier. Though his own account
of his share in the campaign is characteristically modest, one
can gather from it that the success of the British troops was
