it from corruption and mutilation. Priam, guarded by Hermes, went to Achilles and prevailed on him to give back the body, which was buried with great honour. Hector was afterwards worshipped in the Troad by the Boeotian tribe Gephyraei, who offered sacrifices at his grave.
HECUBA (Gr. Ἑκάβη), wife of Priam, daughter of the Phrygian
king Dymas (or of Cisseus, or of the river-god Sangarius).
According to Homer she was the mother of nineteen of Priam’s
fifty sons. When Troy was captured and Priam slain, she was
made prisoner by the Greeks. Her fate is told in various ways,
most of which connect her with the promontory Cynossema,
on the Thracian shore of the Hellespont. According to Euripides
(in the Hecuba), her youngest son Polydorus had been placed
during the siege of Troy under the care of Polymestor, king of
Thrace. When the Greeks reached the Thracian Chersonese
on their way home Hecuba discovered that her son had been
murdered, and in revenge put out the eyes of Polymestor and
murdered his two sons. She was acquitted by Agamemnon;
but, as Polymestor foretold, she was turned into a dog, and her
grave became a mark for ships (Ovid, Metam. xiii. 399-575;
Juvenal x. 271 and Mayor’s note). According to another story,
she fell to the lot of Odysseus, as a slave, and in despair threw
herself into the Hellespont; or, she used such insulting language
towards her captors that they put her to death (Dictys Cretensis
v. 13. 16). It is obvious from the tales of Hecuba’s transformation
and death that she is a form of some goddess
to whom dogs were sacred; and the analogy with Scylla is
striking.
HEDA, WILLEM CLAASZ (c. 1504–c. 1670), Dutch painter,
born at Haarlem, was one of the earliest Dutchmen who devoted
himself exclusively to the painting of still life. He was the
contemporary and comrade of Dirk Hals, with whom he had
in common pictorial touch and technical execution. But Heda
was more careful and finished than Hals, and showed considerable
skill and not a little taste in arranging and colouring
chased cups and beakers and tankards of precious and inferior
metals. Nothing is so appetizing as his “luncheon,” with rare
comestibles set out upon rich plate, oysters—seldom without
the cut lemon—bread, champagne, olives and pastry. Even
the commoner “refection” is also not without charm, as it
comprises a cut ham, bread, walnuts and beer. One of Heda’s
early masterpieces, dated 1623, in the Munich Pinakothek is
as homely as a later one of 1651 in the Liechtenstein Gallery at
Vienna. A more luxurious repast is a “Luncheon in the Augsburg
Gallery,” dated 1644. Most of Heda’s pictures are on the
European continent, notably in the galleries of Paris, Parma,
Ghent, Darmstadt, Gotha, Munich and Vienna. He was a
man of repute in his native city, and filled all the offices of dignity
and trust in the gild of Haarlem. He seems to have had considerable
influence in forming the younger Frans Hals.
HEDDLE, MATTHEW FORSTER (1828–1897), Scottish
mineralogist, was born at Hoy in Orkney on the 28th of April
1828. After receiving his early education at the Edinburgh
academy, he entered as a medical student at the university in
that city, and subsequently studied chemistry and mineralogy
at Klausthal and Freiburg. In 1851 he took his degree of M.D.
at Edinburgh, and for about five years practised there. Medical
work, however, possessed for him little attraction; he became
assistant to Prof. Connell, who held the chair of chemistry at
St Andrews, and in 1862 succeeded him as professor. This post
he held until in 1880 he was invited to report on some gold mines
in South Africa. On his return he devoted himself with great
assiduity to mineralogy, and formed one of the finest collections
by means of personal exploration in almost every part of Scotland.
His specimens are now in the Royal Scottish Museum at
Edinburgh. It had been his intention to publish a comprehensive
work on the mineralogy of Scotland. This he did not live to
complete, but the MSS. fell into able hands, and The Mineralogy
of Scotland, in 2 vols., edited by J. G. Goodchild, was issued
in 1901. Heddle was one of the founders of the Mineralogical
Society, and he contributed many articles on Scottish minerals,
and on the geology of the northern parts of Scotland, to the
Mineralogical Magazine, as well as to the Transactions of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. He died on the 19th of November
1897.
See Dr Heddle and his Geological Work (with portrait), by J. G. Goodchild, Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc. (1898) vii. 317.
HEDGEHOG, or Urchin, a member of the mammalian order
Insectivora, remarkable for its dentition, its armature of spines
and its short tail. The upper jaw is longer than the lower, the
snout is long and flexible, with the nostrils narrow, and the
claws are long but weak. The animal is about 10 in. long,
its eyes are small, and the lower surface covered with hairs of
the ordinary character. The brain is remarkable for its low
development, the cerebral hemispheres being small, and marked
with but one groove, and that a shallow one, on each side. The
hedgehog has the power of rolling itself up into a ball, from
which the spines stand out in every direction. The spines are
sharp, hard and elastic, and form so efficient a defence that
there are few animals able to effect a successful attack on this
creature. The moment it is touched, or even hears the report of
a gun, it rolls itself up by the action of the muscles beneath
the skin, while this contraction effects the erection of the spines.
The most important muscle is the orbicularis panniculi, which
extends over the anterior region of the skull, as far down the body
as the ventral hairy region, and on to the tail, but three other
muscles aid in the contraction.
 |
| The Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus). |
Though insectivorous, the hedgehog is reported to have a liking for mice, while frogs and toads, as well as plants and fruits, all seem to be acceptable. It will also eat snakes, and its fondness for eggs has caused it to meet with the enmity of game-preservers; and there is no doubt it occasionally attacks leverets and game-chicks. In a state of nature it does not emerge from its retreat during daylight, unless urged by hunger or by the necessities of its young. During winter it passes into a state of hibernation, when its temperature falls considerably; having provided itself with a nest of dry leaves, it is well protected from the influences of the rain, and rolling itself up, remains undisturbed till warmer weather returns. In July or August the female brings forth four to eight young, or, according to others, two to four at a somewhat earlier period; at birth the spines, which in the adult are black in the middle, are white and soft, but soon harden, though they do not attain their full size until the succeeding spring.
The hedgehog, which is known scientifically as Erinaceus europaeus, and is the type of the family Erinaceidae, is found in woods and gardens, and extends over nearly the whole of Europe; and has been found at 6000 to 8000 ft. above the level of the sea. The adult is provided with thirty-six teeth; in the upper jaw are 6 incisors, 2 canines and 12 cheek-teeth, and in the lower jaw 4 incisors, 2 canines and 10 cheek-teeth. The genus is represented by about a score of species, ranging over Europe, Asia, except the Malay countries, and Africa. (R. L.*)
HEDGES AND FENCES. The object of the hedge[1] or fence (abbreviation of “defence”) is to mark a boundary or to enclose
- ↑ Hedge is a Teutonic word, cf. Dutch heg, Ger. Hecke; the root appears in other English words, e.g. “haw,” as in “hawthorn.”
