word is the Turkish form of the Arabic gismat, from gasama, to divide.
KISS, the act of pressing or touching with the lips, cheek,
hand or lips of another, as a sign or expression of love, affection,
reverence or greeting. Skeat (Etym. Dict., 1898) connects the
Teut. base kussa with Lat. gustus, taste, and with Goth. kustus,
test, from kinsan, to choose, and takes “kiss” as ultimately a
doublet of “choice.”
For the liturgical osculum pacis or “kiss of peace,” see Pax. See further C. Nyrop, The Kiss and its History, trans. by W. F. Harvey (1902); J. J. Claudius, Dissertatio de salulationibus veterum (Utrecht, 1702); and “Baisers d’étiquette” (1689) in Archives curieuses de l’histoire de France (1834–1890, series ii. tom. 12).
KISSAR, or Gytarah Barbaryeh, the ancient Nubian lyre,
still in use in Egypt and Abyssinia. It consists of a body
having instead of the traditional tortoiseshell back a shallow,
round bowl of wood, covered with a sound-board of sheepskin,
in which are three small round sound-holes. The arms, set
through the sound-board at points distant about the third of the
diameter from the circumference, have the familiar fan shape.
Five gut strings, knotted round the bar and raised from the
sound-board by means of a bridge tailpiece similar to that in use
on the modern guitar, are plucked by means of a plectrum by
the right hand for the melody, while the left hand sometimes
twangs some of the strings as a soft drone accompaniment.
KISSINGEN, a town and watering-place of Germany, in the
kingdom of Bavaria, delightfully situated in a broad valley
surrounded by high and well-wooded hills, on the Franconian
Saale, 656 ft. above sea-level, 62 m. E. of Frankfort-on-Main,
and 43 N.E. of Würzburg by rail. Pop. (1900), 4757. Its streets
are regular and its houses attractive. It has an Evangelical, an
English, a Russian and three Roman Catholic churches, a theatre,
and various benevolent institutions, besides all the usual buildings
for the lodging, cure and amusement of the numerous visitors
who are attracted to this, the most popular watering-place in
Bavaria. In the Kurgarten, a tree-shaded expanse between the
Kurhaus and the handsome colonnaded Konversations-Saal, are
the three principal springs, the Rákóczy, the Pandur and the
Maxbrunnen, of which the first two, strongly impregnated
with iron and salt, have a temperature of 51.26° F.; the last
(50.72°) is like Selters or Seltzer water. At short distances
from the town are the intermittent artesian spring Solensprudel,
the Schönbornsprudel and the Theresienquelle; and in the
same valley as Kissingen are the minor spas of Bocklet and
Brückenau. The waters of Kissingen are prescribed for both
internal and external use in a great variety of diseases. They
are all highly charged with salt, and productive government
salt-works were at one time stationed near Kissingen. The
number of persons who visit the place amounts to about 20,000
a year. The manufactures of the town, chiefly carriages and
furniture, are unimportant; there is also a trade in fruit and
wine.
The salt springs were known in the 9th century, and their medicinal properties were recognized in the 16th, but it was only during the 19th century that Kissingen became a popular resort. The town belonged to the counts of Henneberg until 1394, when it was sold to the bishop of Würzburg. With this bishopric it passed later to Bavaria. On the 10th of July 1866 the Prussians defeated the Bavarians with great slaughter near Kissingen. On the 13th of July 1874 the town was the scene of the attempt of the fanatic Kullmann to assassinate Prince Bismarck, to whom a statue has been erected. There are also monuments to Kings Louis I. and Maximilian I. of Bavaria.
See Balling, Die Heilquellen und Bäder zu Kissingen (Kissingen, 1886); A. Sotier, Bad Kissingen (Leipzig, 1883); Werner, Bad Kissingen als Kurort (Berlin, 1904); Leusser, Kissingen für Herzkranke (Würzburg, 1902); Diruf, Kissingen und seine Heilquellen (Würzburg, 1892); and Roth, Bad Kissingen (Würzburg, 1901).
KISTNA, or Krishna, a large river of southern India. It
rises near the Bombay sanatorium of Mahabaleshwar in the
Western Ghats, only about 40 m. from the Arabian Sea, and, as
it discharges into the Bay of Bengal, it thus flows across almost
the entire peninsula from west to east. It has an estimated
basin area of 97,000 sq. m., and its length is 800 m. Its source
is held sacred, and is frequented by pilgrims in large numbers.
From Mahabaleshwar the Kistna runs southward in a rapid
course into the nizam’s dominions, then turns to the east, and
ultimately falls into the sea by two principal mouths, carrying
with it the waters of the Bhima from the north and the Tungabadhra
from the south-west. Along this part of the coast runs
an extensive strip of land which has been entirely formed by the
detritus washed down by the Kistna and Godavari. The river
channel is throughout too rocky and the stream too rapid to
allow navigation even by small native craft. In utility for irrigation
the Kistna is also inferior to its two sister streams, the
Godavari and Cauvery. By far the greatest of its irrigation works
is the Bezwada anicut, begun by Sir Arthur Cotton in 1852.
Bezwada is a small town at the entrance of the gorge by which
the Kistna bursts through the Eastern Ghats and immediately
spreads over the alluvial plain. The channel there is 1300 yds.
wide. During the dry season the depth of water is barely 6 ft.,
but sometimes it rises to as much as 36 ft., the maximum flood
discharge being calculated at 1,188,000 cub. ft. per second. Of
the two main canals connected with the dam, that on the left
bank breaks into two branches, the one running 39 m. to Ellore,
the other 49 m. to Masulipatam. The canal on the right bank
proceeds nearly parallel to the river, and also sends off two
principal branches, to Nizampatam and Comamur. The total
length of the main channels is 372 m. and the total area irrigated
in 1903–1904 was about 700,000 acres.
KISTNA (or Krishna), a district of British India, in the N.E.
of the Madras Presidency. Masulipatam is the district headquarters.
Area, 8490 sq. m. The district is generally a flat
country, but the interior is broken by a few low hills, the highest
being 1857 ft. above sea-level. The principal rivers are the Kistna,
which cuts the district into two portions, and the Munyeru,
Paleru and Naguleru (tributaries of the Gundlakamma and
the Kistna); the last only is navigable. The Kolar lake, which
covers an area of 21 by 14 m., and the Romparu swamp are
natural receptacles for the drainage on the north and south sides
of the Kistna respectively.
In 1901 the population was 2,154,803, showing an increase of 16% in the decade. Subsequently the area of the district was reduced by the formation of the new district of Guntur (q.v.), though Kistna received an accretion of territory from Godavari district. The population in 1901 on the area as reconstituted (5899 sq. m.) was 1,744,138. The Kistna delta system of irrigation canals, which are available also for navigation, connect with the Godavari system. The principal crops are rice, millets, pulse, oil-seeds, cotton, indigo, tobacco and a little sugar-cane. There are several factories for ginning and pressing cotton. The cigars known in England as Lunkas are partly made from tobacco grown on lankas or islands in the Kistna. The manufacture of chintzes at Masulipatam is a decaying industry, but cotton is woven everywhere for domestic use. Salt is evaporated, under government supervision, along the coast. Bezwada, at the head of the delta, is a place of growing importance, as the central junction of the East Coast railway system, which crosses the inland portion of the district in three directions. Some seaborne trade, chiefly coasting, is carried on at the open roadsteads of Masulipatam and Nizampatam, both in the delta. The Church Missionary Society supports a college at Masulipatam.
The early history of Kistna is inseparable from that of the northern Circars. Dharanikota and the adjacent town of Amravati were the seats of early Hindu and Buddhist governments; and the more modern Rajahmundry owed its importance to later dynasties. The Chalukyas here gave place to the Cholas, who in turn were ousted by the Reddi kings, who flourished during the 14th century, and built the forts of Bellamkonda, Kondavi and Kondapalli in the north of the district, while the Gajapati dynasty of Orissa ruled in the north. Afterwards the entire district passed to the Kutb Shahis of Golconda, until annexed to the Mogul empire by Aurangzeb in 1687. Meantime the English had in 1611 established a small factory at Masulipatam, where they traded with varying fortune from 1759, when,
