1840–1842); P. P. Pacheco, “La Ketmie potagère ou comestible,”
La Belgique horticole, iv. 63 (1853); Della Sudda, “De l’emploi
à Constantinople de la racine de l’Hibiscus esculentus,” Répert. de
pharm., January 1860, p. 229; E. J. Waring, Pharm. of India, p.
35 (1868); O. Popp, “Über die Aschenbestandteile der Samen von
Acacia nilotica und Hibiscus esculentus in Ägypten,” Arch. der
Pharm. cxcv. p. 140 (1871); Drury, The Useful Plants of India, pp.
1, 2 (2nd ed., 1873); U. C. Dutt, The Mat. Med. of the Hindus, pp.
123, 321 (1877); Lanessan, Hist. des drogues, i. 181-184 (1878);
G. Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products of India (1890).
GUMTI, a river of northern India. It rises in a depression in
the Pilibhit district of the United Provinces, and after a sinuous
but generally south-easterly course of 500 m. past Lucknow and
Jaunpur joins the Ganges in Ghazipar district. At Jaunpur it
is a fine stream, spanned by a 16th-century bridge of sixteen
arches, and is navigable by vessels of 17 tons burden. There
is also a small river of the same name in the Tippera district
of eastern Bengal and Assam.
GUMULJINA, or Gumurdjina, a town of European Turkey,
in the vilayet of Adrianople. Pop. (1905), about 8000, of whom
three-fourths are Turks and the remainder Greeks, Jews or
Armenians. Gumuljina is situated on the river Karaja-Su,
south of the eastern extremity of the Rhodope range of mountains
and 13 m. inland from the Aegean Sea. It has a station on the
railway between Salonica and Dédéagatch. The district produces
wheat, maize, barley and tobacco; sericulture and viticulture
are both practised on a limited scale. A cattle fair is held
annually on Greek Palm Sunday. Copper and antimony are
found in the neighbourhood.
GUMUS, or Gumz, Negroes of the Shangalla group of tribes,
dwelling in the mountainous district of Fazogli on the Sudan-Abyssinian
frontier. They live in independent groups, some
being mountaineers while others are settled on the banks
of the Blue Nile. Gumz in the native tongue signifies
“people,” and the sub-tribes have distinctive names. The Gumus
are nature-worshippers, God and the sun being synonymous.
On ceremonial occasions they carry parasols of honour (see
Shangalla).
GÜMÜSH-KHANEH, the chief town of a sanjak of the same
name in the Trebizond vilayet of Asiatic Turkey, situated on
high ground (4400 ft.) in the valley of the Kharshut Su, about
12 m. to south of the Trebizond-Erzerum chaussée. The silver
mines from which the place takes its name were noted in ancient
times and are mentioned by Marco Polo. Pop. about 3000,
chiefly Greeks, who are in the habit of emigrating to great
distances to work in mines. They practically supply the whole
lead and silver-mining labour in Asiatic Turkey, and in consequence
the Greek bishop of Gümüsh-Khaneh has under his
jurisdiction all the communities engaged in this particular class
of mines.
GUN, a general term for a weapon, tubular in form, from
which a projectile is discharged by means of an explosive.
When applied to artillery the word is confined to those pieces
of ordnance which have a direct as opposed to a high-angle fire,
in which case the terms “howitzer” and “mortar” are used
(see Ordnance and Machine-Gun). “Gun” as applied to
firearms which are carried in the hand and fired from the shoulder,
the old “hand gun,” is now chiefly used of the sporting shot-gun,
with which this article mainly deals; in military usage this type
of weapon, whether rifle, carbine, &c., is known collectively as
“small arms” (see Rifle and Pistol). The origin of the word,
which in Mid. Eng. is gonne or gunne, is obscure, but it has
been suggested by Professor W. W. Skeat that it conceals a
female name, Gunnilde or Gunhilda. The names, e.g. Mons Meg
at Edinburgh Castle and faule Grete (heavy Peg), known to
readers of Carlyle’s Frederick the Great, will be familiar parallelisms.
“Gunne” would be a shortened “pet name” of Gunnhilde.
The New English Dictionary finds support for the suggestion
in the fact that in Old Norwegian gunne and hilde both
mean “war,” and quotes an inventory of war material at
Windsor Castle in 1330–1331, where is mentioned “una magna
balista de cornu quae vocatur Domina Gunilda.” Another
suggestion for the origin of the word is that the word represents
a shortened form, gonne, of a supposed French mangonne, a
mangonel, but the French word is mangonneau.
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| Fig. 1.—Hand Gun. | Fig. 2.—Mounted Man with Hand Gun. |
Firearms are said to have been first used in European warfare in the 14th century. The hand gun (see fig. 1) came into practical use in 1446 and was of very rude construction. It consisted of a simple iron or brass tube with a touch-hole at the top fixed in a straight stock of wood, the end of which passed under the right armpit when the “gonne” was about to be fired. A similar weapon (see fig. 2) was also used by the horse-soldier, with a ring at the end of the stock, by which it was suspended by a cord round the neck; a forked rest, fitted by a ring to the saddlebow, served to steady the gun. This rest, when not in use, hung down in front of the right leg. A match was made of cotton or hemp spun slack, and boiled in a strong solution of saltpetre or in the lees of wine. The touch-hole was first placed on the top of the barrel, but afterwards at the side, with a small pan underneath to hold the priming, and guarded by a cover moving on a pivot.
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| From General Hardÿ de Périnï’s Turenne et Condé 1626–1675. |
| Fig. 3.—Musketeer, 1626. |
An improvement in firearms took place in the first year of the reign of Henry VII., or at the close of Edward IV., by fixing a cock (Fr. serpentine) on the hand gun to hold the match, which was brought down to the priming by a trigger, whence the term matchlock. This weapon is still in use among the Chinese, Tatars, Sikhs, Persians and Turks. An improvement in the stock was also made during this period by forming it with a wide butt end to be placed against the right breast. Subsequently the stock was bent, a German invention, and the arm was called a hackbutt or hagbut, and the smaller variety a demihague. The arquebus and hackbutt were about a yard in length, including barrel and stock, and the demihague was about half the size and weight, the forerunner of the pistol. The arquebus was the standard infantry firearm in Europe from the battle of Pavia to the introduction of the heavier and more powerful musket. It did not as a rule require a rest, as did the musket. The wheel-lock, an improvement on the matchlock, was invented in Nuremberg in 1517; was first used at the siege of Parma in 1521; was brought to England in 1530, and continued in partial use there until the time of Charles II. This wheel-lock consisted of a fluted or grooved steel wheel which protruded into the priming pan, and was connected with a strong spring. The cock, also regulated by a spring, was fitted with a piece of iron pyrites. In order to discharge the gun the
