Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/63

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COCHIN 39 COCHIN, a small native state of India, on the S. W. or Malabar coast, connected with the presidency of Madras, inter- sected by numerous rapid streams. Chief products: Timber, rice. Area, 1,361 square miles; pop. about 1,000,000, partly belonging to the Jacobite and Nestorian Churches established here in early times. The capital is Ernakolam. COCHIN CHINA, a country forming part of the peninsula of southeastern Asia, and generally regarded as com- prising the whole of Anam {q. v.) and Lower or French Cochin China. The latter belonged to Anam till, in 1863, a portion of it was ceded to France after a war occasioned by the persecution of French missionaries; another portion being declared French territory in 1867. The territory thus acquired covers about 20,000 square miles. Pop. about 3,- 050,785. It is now organized into four provinces and 21 arrondissements In the low and wet grounds much rice is grown. In the more elevated districts are grown tobacco, sugar-cane, maize, indigo, and betel. Among the other products are tea, gums, cocoanut oil, silk, spices. Industrial arts are as yet limited among the natives. But they excel in the use of wood, of which their temples, pagodas, and tombs are built, being or- namented with elaborate carving. They live in villages adjacent to the rivers, which form the chief means of com- munication. The principal export is rice, mainly to China; cotton and silk are also exported. The majority of the inhabit- ants are Anamese. In their monosylla- bic language, their religious tendencies toward Buddhism or the system of Con- fucius, and in their social customs they much resemble the Chinese. Upper Co- chin China is the name sometimes given to the narrow strip of land on the E. coast of Anam between the mountains and the sea extending from Tonquin on the N. to Champa on the S., or from about 18° to 11° N. In the World War of 1914-1918 Anamite troops fought with the French in the Balkan campaigns. COCHIN, HENRY DENYS BENOIT MARIE. A French author, born in Paris in 1854. He was educated at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand, graduating in lit- erature and law. During the Franco- German war he was a volunteer in the 17th batallion of the Garde Nationale. In 1877 he became attache to the Minis- ter of the Interior; and deputy in 1893, remaining in the Chamber till 1914, when he retired in favor of his son. For four years he was Conseiller General of the North. His works include: "Giulietta et COCKATOO Romdo," "Le Manuscrit de M. Larson- nier," "Boccace," "Un Ami de Pt- trarque," "Le Frere de Petrarque," "La Vita Nuova de Dante traduite et com- nient^e," "Tableaux flamands," "Jubiles d'ltalie," "Lamartine et la Flandre," "Les deux Guerres," "L'CEuvre de guerre du peintre Albert Besnard," this last appearing in 1918. COCHINEAL, a dye-stuff employed in dyeing scarlet and crimson; consists of the bodies of the females of a species of Coccus, called C. cacti, because it feeds upon plants of the Cactus family, par- ticularly on one, therefore designated the cochineal plant. The cochineal insect is a small creature, a pound of Cochineal being calculated to contain 70,000 in a dried state. The male is of a deep red color, and has white wings. The female, which is wingless, is of a deep brownish color. When a plantation of the cochi- neal plant has been formed the culti- vator {nopalero) procures branches laden with cochineal insects and after the eggs are laid places the females with the eggs which they cover in nests of a soft substance upon the cochineal plants, and the young insects, when hatched, soon spread over them. The insects are killed by boiling water, by heating them in ovens, or by exposure to the heat of the sun. They must be speedily killed to prevent them from laying their eggs, which diminishes their value. COCHINEAL FIG, a name given to Opuntia cochinillifera and two other species of cacti, natives of Mexico and the West Indies, the plants on which the cochineal insect lives. COCHLEA (kok'le-a), an important part of the internal ear, so called from its shape, which resembles that of a snail-shell. COCHLEARIA, a genus of cruciferous plants, including the horse-radish and common scurvy-grass. COCKADE, a plume of cock's feathers with which the Croats in the service of the French in the 17th century adorned their caps. A bow of colored ribbon was adopted for the cockade in France, and during the French revolution the tri- colored cockade — red, white, and blue — became the National distinction. Na- tional cockades are now to be found over all Europe. COCKATOO (Plyctolophus) , a genus of birds of the pari'ot family, but distin- guished from true parrots by the greater heights of the bill, and its being curved from the base, and by the lengthened, broad, and rounded tail. A crest of long and pointed feathers can be erected and