Page:EB1911 - Volume 11.djvu/468

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GAMUT—GANDHARVA


against forms of gambling introduced by the Chinese. Under these ordinances the money paid for a lottery ticket is recoverable by law. In the Transvaal betting houses were suppressed by proclamation (No. 33) soon after the annexation. An invention known in France as the pari mutuel, and in Australia as the totalizator, is allowed to be used on race-courses in most of the states (but not in New South Wales). In Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia the state levies a duty on the takings of the machine. In Tasmania the balance of the money retained by the stewards of the course less the tax must be applied solely for improving the course or promoting horse-racing. In Victoria under an act of 1901 the promoters of sports may by advertisement duly posted make betting on the ground illegal.

Egypt.—By law No. 10 of 1905 all lotteries are prohibited with certain exceptions, and it is made illegal to hawk the tickets or offer them for sale or to bring illegal lotteries in any way to the notice of the public. The authorized lotteries are those for charitable purposes, e.g. those of the benevolent societies of the various foreign communities.

United States.—In the United States many of the states make gaming a penal offence when the bet is upon an election, or a horse race, or a game of hazard. Betting contracts and securities given upon a bet are often made void, and this may destroy a gaming note in the hands of an innocent purchaser for value. The subject lies outside of the province of the federal government. By the legislation of some states the loser may recover his money if he sue within a limited time, as he might have done in England under 9 Anne c. 19.

Authorities.—Brandt on Games (1872); Oliphant, Law of Horses, &c. (6th ed. by Lloyd, 1908); Schwabe on the Stock Exchange (1905); Melsheimer on the Stock Exchange (4th ed., 1905); Coldridge and Hawksford, The Law of Gambling (1895); Stutfield, Betting (3rd ed., 1901). (W. F. C.) 


GAMUT (from the Greek letter gamma, used as a musical symbol, and ut, the first syllable of the medieval hymn Sanctus Johannes), a term in music used to mean generally the whole compass or range of notes possessed by an instrument or voice. Historically, however, the sense has developed from its stricter musical meaning of a scale (the recognized musical scale of any period), originating in the medieval “great scale,” of which the invention has usually been ascribed to Guido of Arezzo (q.v.) in the 11th century. The whole question is somewhat obscure, but, in the evolution of musical notation out of the classical alphabetical system, the invention of the medieval gamut is more properly assigned to Hucbald (d. 930). In his system of scales the semitone was always between the 2nd and 3rd of a tetrachord, as G, A ͡♭ B, C, so the ♮ B and ♯ F of the second octave were in false relation to the ♭ B and ♮ F of the first two tetrachords. To this scale of four notes, G, A, ͡♭ B, C, were subsequently added a note below and a note above, which made the hexachord with the semitone between the 3rd and 4th both up and down, as F, G, A, ͡♭ B, C, D. It was at a much later date that the 7th, our leading note, was admitted into a key, and for this the first two letters of the last line of the above-named hymn, “Sanctus Johannes,” would have been used, save for the notion that as the note Mi was at a semitone below Fa, the same vowel should be heard at a semitone below the upper Ut, and the syllable Si was substituted for Sa. Long afterwards the syllable Ut was replaced by Do in Italy, but it is still retained in France; and in these two countries, with whatever others employ their nomenclature, the original Ut and the substituted Do stand for the sound defined by the letter C in English and German terminology. The literal musical alphabet thus accords with the syllabic:

A B C D E F G
La, Si, Ut or Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol.

In Germany a remnant of Greek use survives. A was originally followed in the scale by the semitone above, as the classical Mesē was followed by Paramesē, and this note, namely ♭ B, is still called B in German, English ♮ B (French and Italian Si) being represented by the letter H. The gamut which, whenever instituted, did not pass out of use until the 19th century, regarded the hexachord and not the octachord, employed both letters and syllables, made the former invariable while changing the latter according to key relationship, and acknowledged only the three keys of G, C and F; it took its name from having the Greek letter gamma with Ut for its lowest keynote, though the Latin letters with the corresponding syllables were applied to all the other notes.


GANDAK, a river of northern India. It rises in the Nepal-Himalayas, flows south-west until it reaches British territory, where it forms the boundary between the United Provinces and Bengal for a considerable portion of its course, and falls into the Ganges opposite Patna. It is a snow-fed stream, and the surrounding country in the plains, lying at a lower level than its banks, is endangered by its floods. The river is accordingly enclosed by protective embankments.

The Little Gandak rises in the Nepal hills, enters Gorakhpur district about 8 m. west of the Gandak, and joins the Gogra just within the Saran district of Bengal.

The Burhi (or old) Gandak also rises in the Nepal hills, and follows a course roughly parallel to and east of that of the Gandak, of which it represents an old channel, passing Muzaffarpur, and joining the Ganges nearly opposite to Moughjr. Its principal tributary is the Baghmati, which rises in the hills N. of Kathmandu, flows in a southerly direction through Tirhut, and joins the Burhi Gandak close to Rusera.


GANDAMAK, a village of Afghanistan, 35 m. from Jalalabad on the road to Kabul. On the retreat from Kabul of General Elphinstone’s army in 1842, a hill near Gandamak was the scene of the massacre of the last survivors of the force, twenty officers and forty-five British soldiers. It is also notable for the treaty of Gandamak, which was signed here in 1879 with Yakub Khan. (See Afghanistan.)


GANDERSHEIM, a town of Germany in the duchy of Brunswick, in the deep valley of the Gande, 48 m. S.W. of Brunswick, on the railway Böissum-Holzminden. Pop. (1905) 2847. It has two Protestant churches of which the convent church (Stiftskirche) contains the tombs of famous abbesses, a palace (now used as law courts) and the famous abbey (now occupied by provincial government offices). There are manufactures of linen, cigars, beet-root sugar and beer.

The abbey of Gandersheim was founded by Duke Ludolf of Saxony, who removed here in 856 the nuns who had been shortly before established at Brunshausen. His own daughter Hathumoda was the first abbess, who was succeeded on her death by her sister Gerberga. Under Gerberga’s government Louis III. granted a privilege, by which the office of abbess was to continue in the ducal family of Saxony as long as any member was found competent and willing to accept the same. Otto III. gave the abbey a market, a right of toll and a mint; and after the bishop of Hildesheim and the archbishop of Mainz had long contested with each other about its supervision, Pope Innocent III. declared it altogether independent of both. The abbey was ultimately recognized as holding directly of the Empire, and the abbess had a vote in the imperial diet. The conventual estates were of great extent, and among the feudatories who could be summoned to the court of the abbess were the elector of Hanover and the king of Prussia. Protestantism was introduced in 1568, and Magdalena, the last Roman Catholic abbess, died in 1589; but Protestant abbesses were appointed to the foundation, and continued to enjoy their imperial privileges till 1803, when Gandersheim was incorporated with Brunswick. The last abbess, Augusta Dorothea of Brunswick, was a princess of the ducal house, and kept her rank till her death. The memory of Gandersheim will long be preserved by its literary memorials. Hroswitha, the famous Latin poet, was a member of the sisterhood in the 9th century; and the rhyming chronicle of Eberhard of Gandersheim ranks as in all probability the earliest historical work composed in low German.

The Chronicle, which contains an account of the first period of the monastery, is edited by L. Wieland in the Monumenta Germ. historica (1877), and has been the object of a special study by Paul Hasse (Göttingen, 1872). See also “Agii vita Hathumodae abbatissae Gandershemensis primae,” in J. G. von Eckhart’s Veterum monumentorum quaternio (Leipzig, 1720); and Hase, Mittelalterliche Baudenkmäler Niedersachsens (1870).


GANDHARVA, in Hindu mythology, the term used to denote (1) in the Rig-Veda usually a minor deity; (2) in later writings a class of divine beings. As a unity Gandharva has no special attributes but many duties, and is in close relation with the great gods. Thus he is director of the sun’s horses; he is guardian of