Page:EB1911 - Volume 15.djvu/573

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546
JUJU—JU-JUTSU

plundered. Every Roman was driven out of Numidia, and a disgraceful peace was concluded (109).

By this time the feeling at Rome and in Italy against the corruption and incapacity of the nobles had become so strong that a number of senators were prosecuted and Bestia and Albinus sentenced to exile. The war was now entrusted to Quintus Metellus, an able soldier and stern disciplinarian, and from the year 109 to its close in 106 the contest was carried on with credit to the Roman arms. Jugurtha was defeated on the river Muthul, after an obstinate and skilful resistance. Once again, however, he succeeded in surprising the Roman camp and forcing Metellus into winter quarters. There were fresh negotiations, but Metellus insisted on the surrender of the king’s person, and this Jugurtha refused. Numidia on the whole seemed disposed to assert its independence, and Rome had before her the prospect of a troublesome guerrilla war. Negotiations, reflecting little credit on the Romans, were set on foot with Bocchus (q.v.) who for a time played fast and loose with both parties. In 106, Marius was called on by the vote of the Roman people to supersede Metellus, but it was through the perfidy of Bocchus and the diplomacy of L. Cornelius Sulla, Marius’s quaestor, that the war was ended. Jugurtha fell into an ambush, and was conveyed a prisoner to Rome. Two years afterwards, in 104, he figured with his two sons in Marius’s triumph, and in the subterranean prison beneath the Capitol—“the bath of ice,” as he called it—he was either strangled or starved to death.

Though doubtless for a time regarded by his countrymen as their deliverer from the yoke of Rome, Jugurtha mainly owes his historical importance to the full and minute account of him which we have from the hand of Sallust, himself afterwards governor of Numidia.

See A. H. J. Greenidge, Hist. of Rome (1904); T. Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, book iv. ch. v.; the chief ancient authorities (besides Sallust) are Livy, Epit., lxii.-lxvii.; Plutarch, Marius and Sulla; Velleius Paterculus, ii.; Diod. Sic., Excerpta, xxxiv.; Florus, iii. 1. See also Marius, Sulla, Numidia.


JUJU, a West African word held by some authorities to be a corruption of Mandingo gru-gru, a charm. It is more generally believed to have been adapted by the Mandingos directly from Fr. joujou, a toy or plaything. The word, as used by Europeans on the Guinea coast, was originally applied to the objects which it was supposed the negroes worshipped, and was transferred from the objects themselves to the spirits or gods who dwelt in them, and finally to the whole religious beliefs of the West Africans. It is currently used in each of these senses, and more loosely to indicate all the manners and customs of the negroes of the Guinea coast, particularly the power of interdiction exercised in the name of spirits (see Fetishism and Taboo).


JUJUBE. Under this name the fruits of at least two species of Zizyphus are usually described, namely, Z. vulgaris and Z. Jujuba.[1] The genus is a member of the natural order Anacardiaceae. The species are small trees or shrubs, armed with sharp, straight, or hooked spines, having alternate leaves, and fruits which are in most of the species edible, and have an agreeable acid taste; this is especially the case with those of the two species mentioned above.

Z. vulgaris is a tree about 20 feet high, extensively cultivated in many parts of Southern Europe, also in Western Asia, China and Japan. In India it extends from the Punjab to the north-western frontier, ascending in the Punjab Himalaya to a height of 6500 feet, and is found both in the wild and cultivated state. The plant is grown almost exclusively for the sake of its fruit, which both in size and shape resembles a moderate-sized plum; at first the fruits are green, but as they ripen they become of a reddish-brown colour on the outside and yellow within. They ripen in September, when they are gathered and preserved by storing in a dry place; after a time the pulp becomes much softer and sweeter than when fresh. Jujube fruits when carefully dried will keep for a long time, and retain their refreshing acid flavour, on account of which they are much valued in the countries of the Mediterranean region as a winter dessert fruit; and, besides, they are nutritive and demulcent. At one time a decoction was prepared from them and recommended in pectoral complaints. A kind of thick paste, known as jujube paste, was also made of a composition of gum arabic and sugar dissolved in a decoction of jujube fruit evaporated to the proper consistency.

Z. Jujuba is a tree averaging from 30 to 50 ft. high, found both wild and cultivated in China, the Malay Archipelago, Ceylon, India, tropical Africa and Australia. Many varieties are cultivated by the Chinese, who distinguish them by the shape and size of their fruits, which are not only much valued as dessert fruit in China, but are also occasionally exported to England.

As seen in commerce jujube fruits are about the size of a small filbert, having a reddish-brown, shining, somewhat wrinkled exterior, and a yellow or gingerbread coloured pulp enclosing a hard elongated stone.

The fruits of Zizyphus do not enter into the composition of the lozenges now known as jujubes which are usually made of gum-arabic, gelatin, &c., and variously flavoured.


JU-JUTSU or JIU-JITSU (a Chino-Japanese term, meaning muscle-science), the Japanese method of offence and defence without weapons in personal encounter, upon which is founded the system of physical culture universal in Japan. Some historians assert that it was founded by a Japanese physician who learned its rudiments while studying in China, but most writers maintain that ju-jutsu was in common use in Japan centuries earlier, and that it was known in the 7th century B.C. Originally it was an art practised solely by the nobility, and particularly by the samurai who, possessing the right, denied to commoners, of carrying swords, were thus enabled to show their superiority over common people even when without weapons. It was a secret art, jealously guarded from those not privileged to use it, until the feudal system was abandoned in Japan, and now ju-jutsu is taught in the schools, as well as in public and private gymnasia. In the army, navy and police it receives particular attention. About the beginning of the 20th century, masters of the art began to attract attention in Europe and America, and schools were established in Great Britain and the United States, as well as on the continent of Europe.

Ju-jutsu may be briefly defined as “an application of anatomical knowledge to the purpose of offence and defence. It differs from wrestling in that it does not depend upon muscular strength. It differs from the other forms of attack in that it uses no weapon. Its feat consists in clutching or striking such part of an enemy’s body as will make him numb and incapable of resistance. Its object is not to kill, but to incapacitate one for action for the time being” (Inazo Nitobe, Bushido: the Soul of Japan).

Many writers translate the term ju-jutsu “to conquer by yielding” (Jap. ju, pliant), and this phrase well expresses a salient characteristic of the art, since the weight and strength of the opponent are employed to his own undoing. When, for example, a big man rushes at a smaller opponent, the smaller man, instead of seeking to oppose strength to strength, falls backwards or sidewise, pulling his heavy adversary after him and taking advantage of his loss of balance to gain some lock or hold known to the science. This element of yielding in order to conquer is thus referred to in Lafcadio Hearn’s Out of the East: “In jiu-jitsu there is a sort of counter for every twist, wrench, pull, push or bend: only the jiu-jitsu expert does not oppose such movements. No; he yields to them. But he does much more than that. He aids them with a wicked sleight that causes the assailant to put out his own shoulder, to fracture his own arm, or, in a desperate case, even to break his own neck or back.”

The knowledge of anatomy mentioned by Nitobe is acquired in order that the combatant may know the weak parts of his adversary’s body and attack them. Several of these sensitive places, for instance the partially exposed nerve in the elbow popularly known as the “funny-bone” and the complex of nerves over the stomach called the solar plexus, are familiar to the European, but the ju-jutsu expert is acquainted with many

  1. The med. Lat. jujuba is a much altered form of the Gr. ζίζυφον