among other respects in its mode of nidification, is Aegotheles, which belongs also to the Australian sub-region; and farther to the northward, extending throughout the Malay Archipelago and into India, comes Batrachostomus, wherein we again meet with species having aural tufts somewhat like Lyncornis. The Podarginae are thought by some to be represented in the new world by the genus Nyctibius, of which several species occur from the Antilles and Central America to Brazil. Finally, it may be stated that none of the Caprimulgidae seem to occur in Polynesia or in New Zealand, though there is scarcely any other part of the world suited to their habits in which members of the family are not found. (A. N.)
GOBAT, SAMUEL (1799–1879), bishop of Jerusalem, was born
at Crémine, Bern, Switzerland, on the 26th of January 1799.
After serving in the mission house at Basel from 1823 to 1826,
he went to Paris and London, whence, having acquired some
knowledge of Arabic and Ethiopic, he went out to Abyssinia
under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society. The
unsettled state of the country and his own ill health prevented
his making much headway; he returned to Europe in 1835 and
from 1839 to 1842 lived in Malta, where he supervised an Arabic
translation of the Bible. In 1846 he was consecrated Protestant
bishop of Jerusalem, under the agreement between the British
and Prussian governments (1841) for the establishment of a
joint bishopric for Lutherans and Anglicans in the Holy Land.
He carried on a vigorous mission as bishop for over thirty years,
his diocesan school and orphanage on Mount Zion being specially
noteworthy. He died on the 11th of May 1879.
A record of his life, largely autobiographical, was published at Basel in 1884, and an English translation at London in the same year.
GOBEL, JEAN BAPTISTE JOSEPH (1727–1794), French
ecclesiastic and politician, was born at Thann, in Alsace, on the
1st of September 1727. He studied theology in the German
College at Rome, and then became successively a member of
the chapter of Porrentruy, bishop in partibus of Lydda, and
finally suffragan of Basel for that part of the diocese situated
in French territory. His political life began when he was elected
deputy to the states-general of 1789 by the clergy of the bailliage
of Huningue. The turning-point of his life was his action in
taking the oath of the civil constitution of the clergy (Jan. 3rd,
1791); in favour of which he had declared himself since the 5th
of May 1790. The civil constitution of the clergy gave the
appointment of priests to the electoral assemblies, and since
taking the oath Gobel had become so popular that he was elected
bishop in several dioceses. He chose Paris, and in spite of the
difficulties which he had to encounter before he could enter into
possession, was consecrated on the 27th of March 1791 by eight
bishops, including Talleyrand. On the 8th of November 1792,
Gobel was appointed administrator of Paris. He was careful
to flatter the politicians by professing anti-clerical opinions,
declaring himself, among other things, opposed to the celibacy
of the clergy; and on the 17th Brumaire in the year II. (7th
November 1793), he came before the bar of the Convention, and,
in a famous scene, resigned his episcopal functions, proclaiming
that he did so for love of the people, and through respect for
their wishes. The followers of Hébert, who were then pursuing
their anti-Christian policy, claimed Gobel as one of themselves;
while, on the other hand, Robespierre looked upon him as an
atheist, though apostasy cannot strictly speaking be laid to the
charge of the ex-bishop, nor did he ever make any actual profession
of atheism. Robespierre, however, found him an obstacle
to his religious schemes, and involved him in the fate of the
Hébertists. Gobel was condemned to death, with Chaumette,
Hébert and Anacharsis Cloots, and was guillotined on the 12th
of April 1794.
See E. Charavay, Assemblée électorale de Paris (Paris, 1890); H. Monin, La Chanson et l’Église sous la Révolution (Paris, 1892); A. Aulard, “La Culte de la raison” in the review, La Révolution Française (1891). For a bibliography of documents relating to his episcopate see “Épiscopat de Gobel” in vol. iii. (1900) of M. Tourneux’s Bibliographie de l’histoire de Paris pendant la Rév. Fr.
GOBELIN, the name of a family of dyers, who in all probability
came originally from Reims, and who in the middle of the 15th
century established themselves in the Faubourg Saint Marcel,
Paris, on the banks of the Bièvre. The first head of the firm
was named Jehan (d. 1476). He discovered a peculiar kind of
scarlet dyestuff, and he expended so much money on his
establishment that it was named by the common people la folie
Gobelin. To the dye-works there was added in the 16th century
a manufactory of tapestry (q.v.). So rapidly did the wealth
of the family increase, that in the third or fourth generation
some of them forsook their trade and purchased titles of nobility.
More than one of their number held offices of state, among
others Balthasar, who became successively treasurer general of
artillery, treasurer extraordinary of war, councillor secretary of
the king, chancellor of the exchequer, councillor of state and
president of the chamber of accounts, and who in 1601 received
from Henry IV. the lands and lordship of Briecomte-Robert.
He died in 1603. The name of the Gobelins as dyers cannot be
found later than the end of the 17th century. In 1662 the works
in the Faubourg Saint Marcel, with the adjoining grounds, were
purchased by Colbert on behalf of Louis XIV., and transformed
into a general upholstery manufactory, in which designs both
in tapestry and in all kinds of furniture were executed under the
superintendence of the royal painter, Le Brun. On account of
the pecuniary embarrassments of Louis XIV., the establishment
was closed in 1694, but it was reopened in 1697 for the manufacture
of tapestry, chiefly for royal use and for presentation.
During the Revolution and the reign of Napoleon the manufacture
was suspended, but it was revived by the Bourbons, and in 1826
the manufacture of carpets was added to that of tapestry. In
1871 the building was partly burned by the Communists. The
manufacture is still carried on under the state.
See Lacordaire, Notice historique sur les manufactures impériales de tapisserie des Gobelin et de tapis de la Savonnerie, précédée du catalogue des tapisseries qui y sont exposés (Paris, 1853); Genspach, Répertoire détaillé des tapisseries exécutées aux Gobelins, 1662–1892 (Paris, 1893); Guiffrey, Histoire de la tapisserie en France (Paris, 1878–1885). The two last-named authors were directors of the manufactory.
GOBI (for which alternative Chinese names are Sha-mo, “sand desert,” and Han-hai, “dry sea”), a term which in its widest significance means the long stretch of desert country that extends from the foot of the Pamirs, in about 77° E., eastward to the Great Khingan Mountains, in 116°–118° E., on the border of Manchuria, and from the foothills of the Altai, the Sayan and the Yablonoi Mountains on the N. to the Astin-tagh or Altyn-tagh and the Nan-shan, the northernmost constituent ranges of the Kuen-lun Mountains, on the south. By conventional usage a relatively small area on the east side of the Great Khingan, between the upper waters of the Sungari and the upper waters of the Liao-ho, is also reckoned to belong to the Gobi. On the other hand, geographers and Asiatic explorers prefer to regard the W. extremity of the Gobi region (as defined above), namely, the basin of the Tarim in E. Turkestan, as forming a separate and independent desert, to which they have given the name of Takla-makan. The latter restriction governs the present article, which accordingly excludes the Takla-makan, leaving it for separate treatment. The desert of Gobi as a whole is only very imperfectly known, information being confined to the observations which individual travellers have made from their respective itineraries across the desert. Amongst the explorers to whom we owe such knowledge as we possess about the Gobi, the most important have been Marco Polo (1273–1275), Gerbillon (1688–1698), Ijsbrand Ides (1692–1694), Lange (1727–1728 and 1736), Fuss and Bunge (1830–1831), Fritsche (1868–1873), Pavlinov and Matusovski (1870), Ney Elias (1872–1873), N. M. Przhevalsky (1870–1872 and 1876–1877), Zosnovsky (1875), M. V. Pjevtsov (1878), G. N. Potanin (1877 and 1884–1886), Count Széchenyi and L. von Loczy (1879–1880), the brothers Grum-Grzhimailo (1889–1890), P. K. Kozlov (1893–1894 and 1899–1900), V. I. Roborovsky (1894), V. A. Obruchev (1894–1896), Futterer and Holderer (1896), C. E. Bonin (1896 and 1899), Sven Hedin (1897 and 1900–1901), K. Bogdanovich (1898), Ladyghin (1899–1900) and Katsnakov (1899–1900).
Geographically the Gobi (a Mongol word meaning “desert”)
