furnishes the raw material for the sweetish Kordofan beer or merissa. Cattle are largely bred by the Bagara, and camels by the Kababish; and horses, goats, donkeys, and sheep are kept in small numbers. Since the ostrich has been almost hunted out of the country the chief article of importance for trade is the gum yielded by the many mimosa trees, which along with the hijlij, the tamarisk, and the ṭalḥ tend to relieve the monotony of the steppe. Salt and iron ore exist within the province, but they have not become of any practical value.
KOREÁ, a petty native state in Chutiá Nágpur, Bengal, India, situated between 22° 55′ 50″ and 23° 49′ 15″ N. lat., and between 81° 58′ 15″ and 82° 48′ 15″ E. long., and having an area of 1631 square miles. The state consists of an elevated table-land of coarse sandstone, varying from 2477 to 3370 feet above sea-level. Large forest tracts of sál timber exist. Iron is found throughout the state, and a tribe of Kols, called Agariás from their occupation, are largely engaged in iron-smelting. The field crops consist of rice, wheat, barley, Indian corn, maruá, pulses, oil-seeds, cotton, &c., while the jungle produces stick lac and resin. The population in 1872 was returned at 21,127, viz., 11,093 males and 10,034 females (Hindus, 10,807; Mohammedans, 140; “others,” 10,180). Of aboriginal tribes, the most numerous and influential are the Gonds (4644); next in importance are the Cheros (3009). The chief’s family call themselves Chauhán Rájputs, and claim descent from a chief of that clan, who conquered Koreá six hundred years ago.
KÖRNER, Karl Theodor (1791–1813), German patriot and poet, was born at Dresden, September 23, 1791. His father, a prosperous lawyer, made his house in Dresden a centre of literary, musical, and artistic society, and was an intimate friend of Schiller; and his mother, a daughter of the copper-plate engraver Stock of Leipsic, enjoyed Goethe’s friendship through life, and in her later years claimed it for her son. Theodor Körner was at first so delicate a child that his parents made the paternal vineyard—the same in which
Schiller sat and wrote
Don Carlos a few years before—his summer schoolroom. They prescribed for lessons, gymnastics, riding, swimming, fencing, and the like, till the delicate boy grew into a young athlete, with a joyous, affectionate disposition which won the hearts of all who knew him. Partly at the Kreuzschule in Dresden, but chiefly with private tutors at home, Körner now studied languages, history, and mathematics. He was an adept at various kinds of fine wood-turning, could sketch, and play the guitar; but his happiest hours were spent over the volumes of
Goethe and
Schiller—the household gods; and under their influence the boy began to write verses which his parents forbore to praise, but which displayed, even then, much of the facility and grace of his later poems. At the age of seventeen he went to the school of mines in Freiberg, and worked enthusiastically for two years at mathematics, mineralogy, and chemistry. The poems he wrote during this period were collected and published under the title
Knospen. From Freiberg Körner went to the university of Leipsic, where for some months he studied philosophy, history, and anatomy. He founded there a poetical association, and became a member of the “Macaria” and more than one student club; but he was unfortunately drawn into the hostilities then rife between two parties in the university, and, after fighting several party duels, was at last forced to leave the town to escape the results of a street fray in which he took part. From Leipsic he went to Berlin, and then to Vienna, with letters to his father’s old friends, the Prussian ambassador Von Humboldt and Friedrich Schlegel. Two little pieces which he wrote for the stage,
Die Braut and
Der grüne Domino, were acted at the Vienna Court Theatre in July 1812 with great success; and, with the consent of his parents, he gave up all his former plans, with the hope of being able to make a living by literature alone. His other works followed with astonishing rapidity. In some fifteen months appeared some dozen dramatic pieces and the librettos of a few operas (
Der Fischermädchen,
Der vierjährige Posten, and
Die Bergknappen), besides many short poems. One after the other all his plays were received at the Vienna Theatre with applause.
Zriny, founded on an heroic incident in Hungarian history, was the favourite with the public; but Goethe praised
Die Braut,
Der grüne Domino, and
Die Sühne. In January 1813, at the age of one and twenty, Körner was appointed poet to the court theatre in Vienna. With the preparation of the libretto of an opera,
Die Rückkehr des Ulysses, for Beethoven, and with the writing, printing, and stage preparation of his plays, the young poet’s hands were now full; very busy and very happy he describes himself in his letters. His betrothal to a young Viennese lady, known now only as the “Toni” of his correspondence, was another source of happiness; but this bright career came suddenly to an end. In the early spring of 1813 there was published the
Fatherland’s Call to Arms in the Struggle for Liberation, and Körner was one of the first to answer the summons. He left Vienna in March, and at Breslau joined the Prussian free-corps then forming under the command of Lützow. When the corps was solemnly consecrated in the village church at Rogau a few days later, the service was opened with a chorale, set to Körner’s words, “
Dem Herrn Allein die Ehre”; and almost immediately afterwards, when Petersdorf was sent on a mission to Dresden, to try to unite the Saxons in the common cause, the young poet was sent with him, and on this occasion published his spirited prose
Address to the People of Saxony. Here Körner saw his parents and friends for the last time. In April he was made lieutenant by the vote of his comrades; and a little later, having left the infantry, he was made adjutant to Lützow himself. At Kitzen, near Leipsic, during the three weeks’ armistice, he was severely wounded through the treachery of the enemy, but after several adventures escaped to Carlsbad, where he remained till he was well enough to resume his former post. Lützow’s free corps was in almost daily action when the young adjutant was welcomed back. His cheerful zeal and self-denying helpfulness had endeared him to all his comrades, and it was his wild war songs, sung by many voices to old national melodies round the camp
