Pop. (1901) 3780. It lies on the steep flank of a hill, and consists mainly of one very wide street. The church of St Mary the Virgin, standing on the lower part of the slope, is a fine building of the Decorated and Perpendicular periods, the hexagonal porch and the clerestory being good examples of the later style. The town has woollen and glove factories, breweries and an agricultural trade. It is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 2456 acres. Chipping Norton (Chepyngnorton) was probably of some importance in Saxon times. At the Domesday Survey it was held in chief by Ernulf de Hesding; it was assessed at fifteen hides, and comprised three mills. It returned two members to parliament as a borough in 1302 and 1304–1305, but was not represented after this date, and was not considered to be a borough in 1316. The first and only charter of incorporation was granted by James I., in 1608; it established a common council consisting of 2 bailiffs and 12 burgesses; a common clerk, 2 justices of the peace, and 2 serjeants-at-mace; and a court of record every Monday. In 1205 William Fitz-Alan was granted a four days’ fair at the feast of the Invention of the Cross; and in 1276 Roger, earl of March, was granted a four days’ fair at the feast of St Barnabas. In the reign of Henry VI. the market was held on Wednesday, and a fair was held at the Translation of St Thomas Becket. These continued to be held in the reign of James I., who annulled the former two fairs, and granted fairs at the feasts of St Mark, St Matthew, St Bartholomew, and SS. Simon and Jude.
CHIQUITOS (Span. “very small”), a group of tribes in the province of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, and between the head waters of the rivers Mamoré and Itenez. When their country was first invaded they fled into the forests, and the Spaniards, coming upon their huts, the doorways of which are built excessively low, supposed them to be dwarfs: hence the name. They are in fact well formed and powerful, of middle height and of an olive complexion. They are an agricultural people, but made a gallant resistance to the Spaniards for nearly two centuries. In 1691, however, they made the Jesuit missionaries welcome, and rapidly became civilized. The Chiquito language was adopted as the means of communication among the converts, who soon numbered 50,000, representing nearly fifty tribes. Upon the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767 the Chiquitos became decadent, and now number short of 20,000. Their houses, regularly ranged in streets, are built of adobes thatched with coarse grass. They manufacture copper boilers for making sugar and understand several trades, weave ponchos and hammocks and make straw hats. They are fond of singing and dancing, and are a gentle-mannered and hospitable folk. The group is now divided into forty tribes.
CHIROMANCY (from Gr. χεἰρ, hand, and μαντεία, divination), the art of telling the character or fortune of persons by studying the lines of the palms of the hands (see Palmistry).
CHIRON, or Cheiron, in Greek mythology, one of the Centaurs, the son of Cronus and Philyra, a sea nymph. He dwelt at the foot of Mount Pelion, and was famous for his wisdom and knowledge of the healing art. He offers a remarkable contrast to the other Centaurs in manners and character. Many of the most celebrated heroes of Greece were brought up and instructed by him (Apollodorus iii. 10. 13). Accidentally pierced by a poisoned arrow shot by Heracles, he renounced his immortality in favour of Prometheus, and was placed by Zeus among the stars as the constellation Sagittarius (Apollodorus ii. 5; Ovid, Fasti, v. 414). In a Pompeian wall-painting he is shown teaching Achilles to play the lyre.
See articles in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie and W. H. Roscher’s Lexikon der Mythologie; W. Mannhardt, Wald- und Feldkulte (1904).
CHIROPODIST (an invented word from Gr. χεἰρ, hand, and ποῦς, foot), properly one who treats the ailments of the hands and feet, or is consulted as to keeping them in good condition; the use of the word is now restricted, however, to the care of the toes, “manicurist” having been invented for the corresponding attentions to the fingers. The word was first introduced in 1785, by a “corncutter” in Davies Street, London.
CHIROPTERA (Greek for “hand-wings”), an order of mammals containing the bats, all of which are unique in the class in possessing the power of true flight, and have their fore-limbs specially modified for this purpose.
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| Fig. 1.—Skeleton and Wing-Membranes of the Noctule Bat (Pipistrellus noctula). × 13 | |
| c, Clavicle. h, Humerus. r, Radius. u, Ulna. d1, First digit. d2, d3, d4, d5, Other digits of the fore-limb supporting wm, the wing-membrane. m, m, Metacarpal bones. |
ph1, First phalanx. ph2, Second phalanx. ph3, Third phalanx. am, Antebrachial membrane. f, Femur. t, Tibia. fb, Fibula. c, Calcar supporting im, the inter- femoral membrane. pcl, Post-calcaneal lobe. |
The mammals comprised in this order are at once distinguished by the possession of true wings; this peculiarity being accompanied by other modifications of bodily structure having relation to aerial locomotion. Thus, in direct contrast to all other mammals, in which locomotion is chiefly effected by action from behind, and the hind-limbs consequently greatly preponderate in size over the fore, in the Chiroptera the fore-limbs, being the agents in propelling the body forward during flight, immensely exceed the short and weak hinder extremities. The thorax, giving origin to the great muscles which sustain flight, and containing the proportionately large lungs and heart, is remarkably capacious; and the ribs are flattened and close together; while the shoulder-girdle is greatly developed in comparison with the weak pelvis. The fore-arm (fig. 1) consists of a rudimentary ulna, a long curved radius, and a carpus of six bones supporting a thumb and four elongated fingers, between which, the sides of the body, and the hinder extremities a thin expansion of skin, the wing-membrane, is spread. The knee is directed backwards, owing to the rotation of the hind-limb, outwards by the wing-membrane; an elongated cartilaginous process (the calcar), rarely rudimentary or absent, arising from the inner side of the ankle-joint, is directed inwards, and supports part of the posterior margin of an accessory membrane of flight, extending from the tail or posterior extremity of the body to the hind-limbs, and known as the interfemoral membrane. The penis is pendent; the testes are abdominal or inguinal; the teats, usually two in number, thoracic; the uterus is simple or with more or less long cornua; the placenta discoidal and deciduate; and the smooth cerebral hemispheres do not extend backwards over the cerebellum. The teeth comprise incisors, canines, premolars and molars; and the dental formula never
