Page:EB1911 - Volume 15.djvu/441

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414
JIBITOS—JIDDA

with men of all professions and even of the highest ranks in the official world. He became one of the lions of society, the Austrian emperor conferring upon him in 1872 a title of hereditary nobility. But to a mind constituted like his, the social functions of the Austrian metropolis became wearisome, and he gladly exchanged its brilliant circles for the repose of Göttingen, where he became professor in 1872. In this year he had read at Vienna before an admiring audience a lecture, published under the title of Der Kampf um’s Recht (1872; Eng. trans., Battle for Right, 1884). Its success was extraordinary. Within two years it attained twelve editions, and it has been translated into twenty-six languages. This was followed a few years later by Der Zweck im Recht (2 vols., 1877–1883). In these two works is clearly seen Jhering’s individuality. The Kampf um’s Recht shows the firmness of his character, the strength of his sense of justice, and his juristic method and logic: “to assert his rights is the duty that every responsible person owes to himself.” In the Zweck im Recht is perceived the bent of the author’s intellect. But perhaps the happiest combination of all his distinctive characteristics is to be found in his Jurisprudenz des täglichen Lebens (1870; Eng. trans., 1904). A great feature of his lectures was his so-called Praktika, problems in Roman law, and a collection of these with hints for solution was published as early as 1847 under the title Civilrechtsfälle ohne Entscheidungen. In Göttingen he continued to work until his death on the 17th of September 1892. A short time previously he had been the centre of a devoted crowd of friends and former pupils, assembled at Wilhelmshöhe near Cassel to celebrate the jubilee of his doctorate. Almost all countries were worthily represented, and this pilgrimage affords an excellent illustration of the extraordinary fascination and enduring influence that Jhering commanded. In appearance he was of middle stature, his face clean-shaven and of classical mould, lit up with vivacity and beaming with good nature. He was perhaps seen at his best when dispensing hospitality in his own house. With him died the best beloved and the most talented of Roman-law professors of modern times. It was said of him by Professor Adolf Merkel in a memorial address, R. v. Jhering (1893), that he belonged to the happy class of persons to whom Goethe’s lines are applicable: “Was ich in der Jugend gewünscht, das habe ich im Alter die Fülle,” and this may justly be said of him, though he did not live to complete his Geist des römischen Rechts and his Rechtsgeschichte. For this work the span of a single life would have been insufficient, but what he has left to the world is a monument of vigorous intellectual power and stamps Jhering as an original thinker and unrivalled exponent (in his peculiar interpretation) of the spirit of Roman law.

Among others of his works, all of them characteristic of the author and sparkling with wit, may be mentioned the following: Beiträge zur Lehre von Besitz, first published in the Jahrbücher für die Dogmatik des heutigen römischen und deutschen Privat-rechts, and then separately; Der Besitzwille, and an article entitled “Besitz” in the Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften (1891), which aroused at the time much controversy, particularly on account of the opposition manifested to Savigny’s conception of the subject. See also Scherz und Ernst in der Jurisprudenz (1885); Das Schuldmoment im römischen Privat-recht (1867); Das Trinkgeld (1882); and among the papers he left behind him his Vorgeschichte der Indoeuropäer, a fragment, has been published by v. Ehrenberg (1894). See for an account of his life also M. de Jonge, Rudolf v. Jhering (1888); and A. Merkel, Rudolf von Jhering (1893). (P. A. A.) 


JIBITOS, a tribe of South American Indians, first met with by the Franciscans in 1676 in the forest near the Huallaga river, in the Peruvian province of Loreto. After their conversion they settled in villages on the western bank of the river.


JIBUTI (Djibouti), the chief port and capital of French Somaliland, in 11° 35′ N., 43° 10′ E. Jibuti is situated at the entrance to and on the southern shore of the Gulf of Tajura about 150 m. S.W. of Aden. The town is built on a horseshoe-shaped peninsula partly consisting of mud flats, which are spanned by causeways. The chief buildings are the governor’s palace, customs-house, post office, and the terminal station of the railway to Abyssinia. The houses in the European quarter are built of stone, are flat-roofed and provided with verandas. There is a good water supply, drawn from a reservoir about 21/2 m. distant. The harbour is land-locked and capacious. Ocean steamers are able to enter it at all states of wind and tide. Adjoining the mainland is the native town, consisting mostly of roughly made wooden houses with well thatched roofs. In it is held a large market, chiefly for the disposal of live stock, camels, cattle, &c. The port is a regular calling-place and also a coaling station for the steamers of the Messageries Maritimes, and there is a local service to Aden. Trade is confined to coaling passing ships and to importing goods for and exporting goods from southern Abyssinia via Harrar, there being no local industries. (For statistics see Somaliland, French.) The inhabitants are of many races—Somali, Danakil, Gallas, Armenians, Jews, Arabs, Indians, besides Greeks, Italians, French and other Europeans. The population, which in 1900 when the railway was building was about 15,000, had fallen in 1907 to some 5000 or 6000, including 300 Europeans.

Jibuti was founded by the French in 1888 in consequence of its superiority to Obok both in respect to harbour accommodation and in nearness to Harrar. It has been the seat of the governor of the colony since May 1896. Order is maintained by a purely native police force. The port is not fortified.


JICARILLA, a tribe of North American Indians of Athapascan stock. Their former range was in New Mexico, about the headwaters of the Rio Grande and the Pecos, and they are now settled in a reservation on the northern border of New Mexico. Originally a scourge of the district, they are now subdued, but remain uncivilized. They number some 800 and are steadily decreasing. The name is said to be from the Spanish jicara, a basket tray, in reference to their excellent basket-work.


JIDDA (also written Jeddah, Djiddah, Djeddeh), a town in Arabia on the Red Sea coast in 21° 28′ N. and 39° 10′ E. It is of importance mainly as the principal landing place of pilgrims to Mecca, from which it is about 46 m. distant. It is situated in a low sandy plain backed by a range of hills 10 m. to the east, with higher mountains behind. The town extends along the beach for about a mile, and is enclosed by a wall with towers at intervals, the seaward angles being commanded by two forts, in the northern of which are the prison and other public buildings. There are three gates, the Medina gate on the north, the Mecca gate on the east, and the Yemen gate (rarely opened) on the south; there are also three small posterns on the west side, the centre one leading to the quay. In front of the Mecca gate is a rambling suburb with shops, coffee houses, and an open market place; before the Medina gate are the Turkish barracks, and beyond them the holy place of Jidda, the tomb of “our mother Eve,” surrounded by the principal cemetery.

The tomb is a walled enclosure said to represent the dimensions of the body, about 200 paces long and 15 ft. broad. At the head is a small erection where gifts are deposited, and rather more than half-way down a whitewashed dome encloses a small dark chapel within which is the black stone known as El Surrah, the navel. The grave of Eve is mentioned by Edrisi, but except the black stone nothing bears any aspect of antiquity (see Burton’s Pilgrimage, vol. ii.).

The sea face is the best part of the town; the houses there are lofty and well built of the rough coral that crops out all along the shore. The streets are narrow and winding. There are two mosques of considerable size and a number of smaller ones. The outer suburbs are merely collections of brushwood huts. The bazaars are well supplied with food-stuffs imported by sea, and fruit and vegetables from Taif and Wadi Fatima. The water supply is limited and brackish; there are, however, two sweet wells and a spring 71/2 m. from the town, and most of the houses have cisterns for storing rain-water. The climate is hot and damp, but fever is not so prevalent as at Mecca. The harbour though inconvenient of access is well protected by coral reefs; there are, however, no wharves or other dock facilities and cargo is landed in small Arab boats, sambuks.

The governor is a Turkish kaimakam under the vali of Hejaz, and there is a large Turkish garrison; the sharif of Mecca, however, through his agent at Jidda exercises an authority