Yanghies, Yankees). As a term of reproach to the New Englanders (who afterwards adopted it themselves), the word seems first to have been used by the British soldiers about 1775. In the War of the Rebellion the South applied it to the North generally.
YANKEE DOODLE. A national air of the United States, the origin of which is unknown. The words, which were in derision of the ill-assorted provincial troops, are said to have been written in 1755 by Dr. Schuckburgh, who served as surgeon under General Amherst during the French and Indian War. The original title of the song, not the tune, was The Yankee's Return from Camp, and several versions are extant. The tune passed through various changes. Its historical association has modified criticism of the melody, which is shallow and shrill. It has been ascribed to various countries, but is probably of English birth. It occurs in Samuel Arnold's opera of Two to One (London, 1784), under the name of Yankee Doodle. Consult: Johnson, Our Familiar Songs (New York, 1881); Fitz-Gerald, Stories of Famous Songs (London, 1897).
YANK′TON. The county-seat of Yankton County, S. D., 61 miles northwest of Sioux City, Iowa, on the Missouri River, and on the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul, the Chicago and Northwestern, and the Great Northern railroads (Map: South Dakota, H 7). It is the seat of Yankton College (Congregational), opened in 1882, and of the South Dakota Hospital for the Insane. The city derives considerable commercial importance from its situation in an extensive farming and stock-raising section, and is known for its large cement works and flouring mills. There are also grain elevators, brick yards, and breweries. Under the revised charter of 1885, the government is vested in a mayor, chosen annually, and a unicameral council. The water-works are owned and operated by the municipality. Yankton was settled in 1862 and received a city charter in 1883. It was the capital of the Territory of Dakota until 1883. Population, in 1890, 3670; in 1900, 4125.
YAO, you. One of the ‘ancient sovereigns’ of China. The Shu-King or Book of History—the oldest historical record the Chinese possess—begins with the reign of Yao (B.C. 2357), and shows him at the head of an elaborate, well-organized governmental system, carefully searching out able and virtuous men to be placed at the head of the different departments, and appointing astronomers to regulate the seasons. In the sixty-first year of his reign (B.C. 2296) occurred the great inundation commonly known among foreigners as ‘the Chinese Flood,’ whose ‘regulation’ taxed the energy of one engineer for nine years and his successor for thirteen. In the seventieth year of his reign (B.C. 2287), wishing to retire, Yao, passing over his own son, selected Shun, noted for his filial piety, as his colleague and successor. He died in B.C. 2258. Very little more is known regarding him, except that he was the son of one of the kings who had succeeded Hwang-li (q.v.). He is the first of the “ancient kings” of China so much lauded by Confucius for their virtues.
YAPOCK (named from the Oyapok River, between French Guiana and Brazil). An aquatic opossum (Chironectes palmatus) of Central and South America, rather larger than a rat, and differing from the true opossums mainly in its webbed hind feet and aquatic habits, it has capacious cheek-pouches, in which it stows away its food, which consists largely of crustaceans, mollusks, and aquatic insects, until it can retire to a comfortable eating place. Its marsupial pouch is perfect.
YAPON, or YAUPON (Ilex Cassine). An evergreen species of holly native in the coastal States from Virginia to Texas and Arkansas. Generally it is a shrub which forms dense thickets from its suckering roots, but in the Southwest it sometimes becomes arborescent. Its abundant scarlet berries are valued for winter decoration. Popularly it is known as cassena, and South Sea, Carolina, and Appalachian tea.
YAPON
YAPOO, yä′po͞o. A tribe of Tierra del Fuego. See Yahgan.
YAPURÁ, yä′po͞o-ra′, or JAPURÁ. One of the two largest north tributaries of the Amazon, rising in the Colombian Andes, where it is known under the name of Caquetá (Map: America, South, C 3). It flows through the eastern territory of the Colombian Department of Cauca in a southeastern direction and then enters the Brazilian Province of Amazonas, where, after flowing east for some distance, it divides into a large number of arms which join the Amazon at various points, the western and easternmost mouths being five hundred miles apart in a straight line. The central and principal arm enters the Amazon opposite the town of Teffe, about longitude 64° 40′ W. The total length of the Yapurá is estimated at nearly 1500 miles, of which about 600 are navigable. A considerable portion of its course is still unexplored and the country through which it flows is but sparsely inhabited.
YAQUI, yä′kē̇. An important and warlike tribe of Piman stock (q.v.), who have numerous villages along the Yaqui River in central Sonora, Mexico. They are a robust, active people, industrious, enterprising, talented in music, and of most determined bravery. At home the men
