12 HODNSLOW and more slenderly built than the stag hound, with shorter hair, and the color is white, with larger clouds of black and tan, one on each side of the head, covering the ears, another on each flank, and a third at the root of the tail. Its speed is such that none but a thoroughbred hunter can keep up with it, and its endurance so great that a pack has been known to run for ten hours, tiring out three changes of horses, and severely testing the strength of the sports- men. Breeders differ as to the best size for fox hounds, but from 22 to 24 in. high at the shoul- der is generally considered the most advantage- ous. The best food is thought to be oatmeal and well. boiled horse flesh, attention being paid to their constitution, the season of the year, and 'amount of work to be done. The cry of a pack of hounds, once so cheering and melodious, has lost much of its romantic interest from the change man has effected in the character of these animals ; the other good points of a hound, such as pureness of stock, beauty of form, speed, endurance, and acuteness of smell, are more highly prized in a pack than harmonious voices. The average value of an established pack of fox hounds may be set down at about 1,000, though some have been sold for more than twice that sum; single hounds are often sold as high as 100 guineas. (See BEAGLE, BLOOD- HOUND, DOG, GREYHOUND, and HARBIEB.) HOCNSLOW, a town of Middlesex, England, 10 m. W. S. W. of London ; pop. in 1871 ,*9,294. It consists of a single street, which stretches along the Great Western road from London. On Hounslow heath, which previous to the pres- ent century was frequently the scene of high- way robberies, now stand gunpowder mills. HOUR (Gr. upa ; Lat. hora), a measure of time equal to -^ of a mean solar day, or this proportion of the period between sunrise and sunrise at the time of the equinoxes. Thus applied, it becomes a definite measure ; but as employed by the ancients to designate -fa of the natural day, it was an indefinite period, varying with the times of rising and setting of the sun, times which continually changed with the season, and between increasing ex- tremes as the observations were made in high- er and higher latitudes. Even in the latitude of Rome, the length of the hour on June 25 was about -^ part of 15 hours 6 minutes, as now reckoned, and on December 23 it was only -fz part of 8 hours 54 minutes. At the two equinoxes only would the hour agree with its present measure. Hours thus divided were known as " temporary hours," in reference to their constant change of length. When the day was thus first divided is unknown. Herod- otus states that the Greeks obtained the prac- tice from the Babylonians. Wilkinson, how- ever, says that " there is reason to believe that the day and night were divided, each into 12 hours, by the Egyptians, some centuries before that idea could have been imparted to the Greeks from Babylon." The division of the night as well as the day into 12 equal parts was HOUSELEEK not practised by the Romans until the time of the Punic wars, and the use of equinoctial hours was not adopted till toward the end of the 4th century of our era ; the first calendar known to have been made after this system is the Calendarium Rusticum Farnesianum. Hours are now reckoned in common practice in two series of 12 each, from midnight to midday, and from this to midnight, which cor- responds to the supposed divisions of the an- cient Egyptians. Astronomers count 24 hours from one midday to the next; and the Ital- ians 24 hours from one sunset to the next, changing the commencement of the day with the season. The Chinese divide the day into 12 hours, one of their hours being equal to two of ours. They reckon from an hour (of our time) before midnight. In the use of clocks in the llth century it was the duty of the sacristans of the churches to regulate the horologia each morning. HOUR CIRCLES, or Horary Circles, great circles of the sphere, passing through the poles, and consequently perpendicular to the equator. They are meridians at every f part of the circumference, their planes thus making an- gles of 15 with each other. HOIRIS, the black-eyed damsels of the Mo- hammedan paradise, formed of pure musk, and made by a peculiar creation perpetual virgins. They dwell in green gardens and pearl pavil- ions, among lotus and acacia trees, with fruits in abundance, near flowing streams, reposing on lofty couches adorned with gold and pre- cious stones. Some of the pavilions which they occupy are 60 miles square. The very meanest of the faithful will have 72 houris, be- sides the wives which he married when living. They join in concert with the angel Israfil, the most melodious of God's creatures, and the branches of the trees give an ^Eolian accom- paniment. They may, if they desire, have children, which within an hour shall be con- ceived, born, and grow to maturity. Algaz- zali regards the descriptions of the houris in the Koran as allegorical, and designed to con- vey an impression of the spiritual beatitude of the saints; and the orientalist Hyde affirms that an enlightened belief prevails among the wiser Mohammedans. HOURS, in mythology. See RORJE. HOCSATONIC, a river of New England, which rises in Berkshire co., Mass., flows into Con- necticut, winds through Litchfleld co., forms a part of the boundary between New Haven co. and Fairfield co., and falls into Long Island sound below Milford. Its entire length is about 150 m. Its scenery in general is very picturesque, and on its banks are numerous large mills. The Housatonic railroad follows its course for about 75 m. HOl'SELEEK (sempervivum, Linn.), a genus of plants of the natural order crassulacece, having thick succulent stems and leaves, the former frequently short, with the leaves so closely crowded upon them as to form a dense rosette,
