Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/807

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KEMPTEN KENAIANS 787 passion, and was a great comforter of persons distressed or tempted." He owes his world- wide fume to the book entitled De Imitatione Christi, which has been many times translated into every civilized language, including Greek and Hebrew ; there are upward of 60 different versions in French alone, and 500 different editions of it issued within the present century are found in a library at Cologne. The most remarkable modern edition is one in seven lan- guages, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, German, English, and Greek (Sulzbach, 1837). Its au- thorship has been ascribed to Jean Gerson, chan- cellor of the university of Paris, and to Gersen or Gesen, an Italian abbot; and the question has been debated somewhat with reference to national honor and the interests of ecclesiasti- cal orders. The external evidences in favor of A Kempis are the facts that he is mentioned as the author by three writers nearly his con- temporaries, that copies exist written in his own hand, and that in one ancient copy he is stated to be the author. There is said also to be a striking likeness in style and refined piety between this and the devotional works of which he is certainly the author. The first volume of the Prolegomena of a new edition of De Imitatio Christi, after the autograph of Thomas

i Kempis, by Hirsche (Berlin, 1873), was fol-

lowed in 1874 by the Latin edition itself; and a second volume of the Prolegomena, with fac- similes of documents, is in course of publica- tion. This edition is regarded as finally set- tling the question of the authorship of the work in favor of A Kempis. The only complete edi- tion of the writings of Thomas a Kempis is by the Jesuit Sommalius (3d ed., Antwerp, 1615). There is a German translation of his complete works by Silbert (4 vols., Vienna, 1834). The best biography is that of Mooren, Nachrichten uber Thomas d Kempis (Crefeld, 1855). See also Silbert, Gersen, Gerson oder Kempis ? (Vienna, 1828). (See GEBSON.) KEMPTEJf, a town of Bavaria, in the district of Swabia and Neuburg, on the Iller, 64 m. S. W. of Munich; pop. in 1871, 10,982. It con- sists of the Lutheran Altstadt, which is situated in a valley and was formerly a free imperial town, and the Catholic Neustadt, on a hill. It has a castle, a gymnasium, a Latin school, an agricultural and an industrial school, and man- ufactories of paper and cotton. KEi, Thomas, an English bishop, bom at Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, in July, 1637, died at Longleat, Wiltshire, March 19, 1711. He was educated at Winchester and Oxford, took orders, visited Rome in 1674 in company with his nephew, Izaak Walton, jr., and after his return in 1679 was nominated chaplain to Mary princess of Orange, whom he accompa- nied to Holland. He was chaplain to Lord Dart- mouth during the expedition against Tangier, and in 1684 became chaplain to Charles II., who subsequently made him bishop of Bath and Wells. Ken attended the king in his last illness. Having refused to read in his church the declaration of indulgence issued by the government of James II., he was with the other six recusants committed to the tower. When, however, after the revolution, Ken was required to swear allegiance to the new sov- ereign, rather than do so he suffered himself to be deprived of his bishopric, and retired into obscurity and comparative poverty. Ho was the author of many devotional writings, the most popular of which are his morning and evening hymns. An edition of his works, in 4 vols. 8vo, was published in 1721. See his " Life," by G. L. Duyckinck (New York, 1859). KEMIANS, the name generally given to the division of the great Athabascan family living in Alaska. The name is derived from Kenai, the peninsula between Cook's inlet and Prince William sound, but has been extended from the tribe dwelling there to include all the In- dians N. W. of Copper river and W. of the Rocky mountains, except the Aleuts and the Esqui- maux. They have lost greatly in numbers by wars with the Esquimaux, but as late as 1869 were estimated at 25,000. They resemble the Tartars in the practice of the Shaman religion, scarification, burning the dead, infanticide, caste, &c. As in many other nations, each tribe is divided into clans or families, there being among the Kenaians three, Chitsa, Matesa, and Ateetsa ; no man can marry in his own clan, and his children belong to the mother's clan. They wear leather tunics, or pointed shirts (from which the term Chipeweyan is said to be derived), with trousers and shoes attached. The tunic of the women is rather longer, rounded in front, and trimmed with hyaqua shells. The men paint their faces and wear hyaqua shells in the nose, while the wo- men tattoo lines on the chin. They collect wealth and have a system of barter, using hyaqua shells or beads as money. The men are fewer in number than the women, but bet- ter looking. On arriving at puberty girls are separated from the rest for a year, and wear a peculiar bonnet with fringes over the face. They generally burn their dead, collecting the ashes in a leathern bag, which is suspended on a painted pole, planted in a clear elevated spot ; but some of the tribes now bury the dead or place them on elevated stages. The Kenaians embrace: 1, the Nehaunees, on the Lewis, Tahco, and Pelly, ignorant, barbarous, cow- ardly, and treacherous; including the Chil- kahtena, the Abbatitena, and the Dahotena, the Sicanees of the voyageurs and the Mauvais Monde or Slave at Francis lake ; 2, the Tut- chonekutchin, which means Crow Indians, called also Gens des Foux, Caribous, or Moun- tain Indians, on both sides of the Yukon ; 3, the Ahtena, S. W. of them, on the Atna or Copper river ; 4, the Kenai, called by the Rus- sians TTgalentzi, who use birch canoes, bury their dead, and place wooden tombs over them ; 5, the Hunkutchin, next to the Crows on the Yukon ; 6, the Tukkuthkutchin, south of Por- cupine river; 7, the Vuntakutchin, that is,