TJNIATES. 632 UNIFORMS. ■with Rome, are allowed to retain a number of their traditional local peculiarities in discipline and worship. As a rule they have their own liturgies in the Eastern tongues, not in Latin; they use leavened bread in the Eucharist (with the exception of the Maronites and the Arme- nians) ; their priests are allowed to marrv once; and they have a body of canon law of their own, partly consisting of ancient conciliar decrees and partly of Papal decisions made for their special case. Their government is cared for by a spe- cial committee of the Propaganda super negotiis Orientaliiim organized by Pius IX. in 18G2. The United Greeks may be divided according to the languages employed in their worship. Those with a Greek liturgii' are found principally in Greece, European Turkey, Italy, and Russia, be- sides some 10,000 adherents in the United States. The Melchites (q.v.) employ the Arabic. There are also Rumanians with a vernacular liturgy; the Slavic is employed by the Ruthcnians and Bulgarians. Under the name of Uniates are also comprehended the United Copts, descendants of the ancient Egyptians in Egypt and Abyssinia, the old Patriarchate of Alexandria ; they have been united with Rome since 1732, and number some 30,000. To the Syrian rite belong the Maronites (q.v.), the Syrians proper in Asiatic Turkey, and some Syro-Chaldeans in the same re- gion and in India. There are also Armenians in Turkey, Egypt, Russia, and Galicia ; these re- turned to communion with Rome in the first half of the fourteenth eenturv, and now number 1.50,- 000. UNICORN (OF., Fr. unicorne, from Lat. vtticorniis, one-horned, from tmtis, one + cornu, horn). A fabulous animal mentioned by ancient Greek and Latin authors as a native of India, and described as being of the size of a horse, or larger, the body resembling that of a horse, and with one horn of a cubit and a half or two cubits long on the forehead, the horn straight, its base white, the middle black, the tip red. The body of the animal was also said to be white, its head red, its eyes blue. It was said to be so swift that no horse could overtake it. The unicorn is perhaps best known as a heraldic charge or supporter. Con- sult: Brown, The Unicorn (London, 1881); Gould, Mythical Monsters (London, 1886). UNICORN-FISH. (1) A marine fish (Lophotcs eepedianus), related to the oarfish UNICORN-FISH. and ribbon-fishes (qq.v.) . It has been taken both in the Eastern Atlantic and ofT the coast of Japan, in rather deep water. It is about five feet long and silvery in color, with lighter spots and rosy fins. All the tins are minute except the dorsal, which exleiuls the whole length of the back, and is preceded by the elevation of the crown of the liead into a high crest, surmounted by an exceedingly long and recurved spine, from which the fish receives its name. Its habits are unknown. (2) One of the filefishes (Alutera script a) comijion in the West Indies, and known there as 'lija trompa.' It is two or three feet long, olivaceous in coloi', streaked and spotted with blue and black, and has the snout produced, and a long and slender spine rising from the top of the licad. Consult Giinther, Study of Fislws (Ediiiburgli. ISSO). UNICORN PLANT. See JLiRTYNiA. UNIFORMITARIANISM. In geology the theory which seeks to account for the past his- tory of the earth in the light of the present. It a.ssumes that the great changes which the earth has undergone are the results of slow-working but persistent processes rather than of catastro- phic agencies. The theory was first clearly stated by James Hutton and found its ablest advocate in Sir Charles Lyell : it has had an important influence in the development of geo- logical science. UNIFORMITY, Act of. See Act of Uni- FORMITV. UNIFORMS, MiLiT.iEY AND Naval. A dis- tinguisliing dress or costume (q.v.) appropriate to a certain group or organization, as an army, society, etc. It is necessary to go back to the Crusades to obtain authentic record as to the employment of costume devices. Armor (q.v.), partly because of its expense, but more especially because it was a badge of caste, was the property and privilege of the nobleman. Just as the im- possibility of distinguishing one armored knight from another had compelled the adoption of shields, and what are now known as heraldic devices, mottoes, etc. (see Heraldry), so the difficulty of distinguishing the men-at-arms and followers of a king or nobleman, especially in battle, brought al)Out the introduction of a dis- tinct badge or pattern of dress. In the Second Crusade (twelfth century), for example, the French wore red crosses on the sleeve and the English white. Feathers were first worn in the fifteenth century by the French ; cloaks and tabard of arms by military men over their armor. Later, Henry VIII., with characteristic love of pomp, at the siege of Tli^rouanne. had as a guard six hundred archers wearing white gaberdines and caps, and in 1.526 he arrayed the yeomen of his household in red. the first appearance, it is said, of red as the English national color. In the same reign all the soldiers of the King were ordered to wear a blue uniform trinuned with white and a Saint George's cross upon the sleeve. In 1544 an order required "every soldier to have a coat of blue guarded with red cloth and a pair of hose, the right hose to be all red, the left to be blue with one stripe of three fingers broad of red upon the outside of his leg." The cloaks of the cavalry were red. In 1584 sod green or russet was chosen for the Irish service, and in 1585 the English soldiers wore red coats •luring their service in the Low Countries. During the Civil War uniforms varied according to the colors of the leader under whom the soldier served. Red w-as the color chosen by King
