Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/341

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HUC—HUC
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steppes of the Ortoos. After suffering dreadfully from want of water and fuel they entered Kansu, having recrossed the flooded Hoang-ho, but it was not till January 1845 that they reached Tang-Kiuul on the boundary. Rather than encounter alone the horrors of a four months’ journey to Lhassa they resolved to wait for eight months till the arrival of a Tibetan embassy on its return from Peking. Under an intelligent teacher they meanwhile studied the Tibetan language and Buddhist literature, and during three months of their stay they resided in the famous Kounboum Lamasery, which was reported to accommodate 4000 persons. Towards the end of September they joined the returning embassy, which comprised 2000 men and 3700 animals. Crossing the deserts of Koko-nur, they passed the great lake of that name, with its island of contemplative lamas, and, ascending with difficulty and hardship the tortuous snow-covered mountains of Chuga and Baylen-Bharat, they at last entered Lhassa on the 29th January 1846. Favourably received by the regent, they opened a little chapel, and were in a fair way to establish an important mission, when the Chinese ambassador interfered and had the two missionaries conveyed back to Canton, where they arrived in October of the same year. For nearly three years Huc remained at Canton, but M. Gabet, returning to Europe, proceeded thence, to Rio de Janeiro, and died there shortly afterwards. Huc returned to Europe in shattered health in 1852, visiting India, Egypt, and Palestine on his way, and, after a prolonged residence in Paris, died 31st March 1860. His writings comprise, besides numerous letters and memoirs in the Annales de la Propagation de la foi, the famous Souvenirs d’un Voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet, et la Chine pendant les années 1844–46 (2 vols., Par., 1850; Eng. transl. by W. Hazlitt, 1851, abbreviated by M. Jones, Lond., 1867); its supplement, crowned by the Academy, entitled L’Empire Chinois (2 vols., Par., 1854; Eng. transl., Lond., 1859); and an elaborate historical work, Le Christianisme en Chine, &c. (4 vols., Par., 185758; Eng. transl., Lond., 185758). These works are written in a lucid, racy, picturesque style, which has secured for them an unusual degree of popularity. The narrative of one of the most remarkable feats of modern travel, the Souvenirs contain passages of so singular a character as in the absence of corroborative testimony to stir up a feeling of incredulity. That Huc was suspected unjustly has been amply proved by the later research of Bushnell, David, Prejevalski, Richthofen, and Colonel Montgomerie’s “Pundits.” But although his credibility has been firmly established, and although in his heroic enterprise he gathered a vast amount of novel and curious information, the fact remains that Huc was by no means a practical geographer, and that the record of his travels loses greatly in value from the want of precise scientific data.


See, for information specially relating to the whole subject, the Abbé Desgodin’s Mission du Thibet de 1855 à 1870, Verdun, 1872; and “Account of the Pundit’s Journey in Great Tibet,” in the Royal Geographical Society’s Journal for 1877.

HUCBALD (also called Hugbaldus and Hubaldus) was born in or about 840, if we may believe the statement of his biographers to the effect that he died in 930, aged 90. Of his life little is known; not even the place of his birth can be ascertained, but he was no doubt a Frenchman or a Belgian. It is certain that he studied at the convent of St Amand in French Flanders, where his uncle Milo occupied an important position. Hucbald made rapid progress in the acquirement of various sciences and arts, including that of music; and at an early age composed a hymn in honour of St Andrew, which met with such success as to excite the jealousy of his uncle. It is said that Hucbald in consequence was compelled to leave St Amand, and started an independent school of music and other arts at Nevers. In 860, however, we find him at St Germain d’Auxerre, bent upon completing his studies, and in 872 he is back again at St Amand as the successor in the headmastership of the convent school of his uncle, to whom he had been reconciled in the meantime. Between 883 and 900 Hucbald went on several missions of reforming and reconstructing various schools of music, including that of Rheims, but in the latter year he returned to St Amand, where he remained to the day of his death (June 25, 930, or, according to other chroniclers, June 20, 932), and where his most important works on music were written. Of the character of these works and of the reforms and improvements advocated by them it is not easy to give a correct idea; not even their number is sufficiently certain, for some treatises have been attributed to Hucbald which are obviously not his, and others of which the authorship is at least doubtful. His largest and most authentic work is the Enchiridion Musicce, published with other writings of minor importance in the first volume of Gerber’s Scriptorcs erdesiasiici, and containing a complete system of musical science as well as instructions regarding notation. Hucbald as a musical theorist may be called a precursor of Guido d Arezzo, to whose hexachord system his tetrachorcl, that is, the use of four instead of seven letters, forms a kind of basis. His scales are founded on strictly Greek principles, and cannot be said to mark a decided step in advance; neither is his system of notation much superior to the earlier ones, although here also ho seems in a manner to fore shadow Guido’s use of the lines and spaces of the staff from which the modern method took its rise. Of great importance is the 13th chapter of the Enchiridion, which treats of the diaphony or organum, in other words, of sing ing in parts. Amongst other prescriptions it is curious to find the rule which recommends the use of parallel fifths and fourths, so strictly prohibited by later theorists, while, on the other hand, consecutive thirds, particularly euphonious to the modern ear, are excluded by Hucbald.


A good account of the monk of St Amand and his system will be found in Coussemaker’s Memoire sur Hucbald, Paris, 1841; Hawkins (History, vol. i. p. 153) also gives a short notice of Hucbald, and mentions two epitaphs written in his honour by contemporaries.

HUCHTENBURG. Two brothers of this name prac tised the art of painting in the second half of the 17th century. Both were natives of Haarlem. Jacob, the elder, of whom very little is known, studied under Berghem, and went early to Italy, where he died young about 1667. His pictures are probably confounded with those of his brother. In Copenhagen, where alone they are catalogued, they illustrate the style of a Dutchman who transfers Berghem’s cattle and flocks to Italian landscapes and market-places.

John van Huchtenburg (1646-1733), born at Haarlem it is said in 1646, was first taught by Thomas Wyk, and afterwards induced to visit the chief cities of Italy, where, penetrating as far as Rome, he met and dwelt with his brother Jacob. After the death of the latter he wandered homewards, taking Paris on his way, and served under Van der Meulen, then employed in illustrating for Louis XIV. the campaign of 1667-68 in the Low Countries. In 1670 he settled at Haarlem, where hs married, practised, and kept a dealer’s shop. His style had now merged into an imitation of Philip Wouvermans and Van der Meulen, which could not fail to produce pretty pictures of hunts and robber camps, the faculty of painting horses and men in action and varied dress being the chief point of attrac tion. Later on Huchtenburg ventured on cavalry skirmishes and engagements of regular troops generally, and these were admired by Prince Eugene and William III., who gave the painter sittings, and commissioned him to throw upon canvas the chief incidents of the battles they