ESCRIBED CURVE. 206 ESDRAS. which the exterior ones are the centres of the escribed circles of the triangle. ESCIIII1ED CIRCLE. ESCROW (AF. escrowe, OF. rsrroue, escroe, bond, Fr. icrou, entry in a jail-book, from MDutch schroode, AS. screade, shred, slip of paper. Eng. screed). A sealed instrument, placed in the hands of a third person to be kept by him until certain conditions are satisfied, and tben to be delivered over to the obligee or grantee. While in the hands of the third person, awaiting ful- fillment of the prescribed conditions, the instru- ment is not a perfect deed, and does not operate as an obligation or a. conveyance. As a rule it takes effect from the second delivery. Hence, if it is a deed of property, the ownership passes from the grantor to the grantee as of the date of such delivery. But an exception to this rule is made when justice requires, or when necessary to protect the rights of persons who are not parties to the transaction. For example, if the grantor becomes mentally or legally incapacitated between the delivery i" the third person and the delivery by the latter to the grantee, the deed will lake effect as of the date of its first delivery, in order that it may be rendered valid. This is accomplished by the legal fiction of relation. In order to uphold the deed, the act of final deliv- ery i- viewed as having been done at the time of the conditional delivery— as relating back to that date. See I ; Deuveby. ESCUAGE. See Scutage. ESCTJERZO. Sec Febretbo. ESCUINTLA, es-ken'tla. A town and capital of the department of the same name, Guatemala, 30 miles southwest of the city of Guatemala i Map; Central America, B 3). It is the centre of :i district growing sugai cane, coffee, and ... a ii. I has eon idet ible I ran it I rade owing i. it ion .'ii ' he railr 1 from Guatemala port ' — ; 1 1 j Jose. Escuintla is a noted nted by great numbers of persons Population, in 1893, 12,343. ESCULENT SWALLOW. See Salangane. ESCURIAL. See Escoriai,, ESCUTCHEON (formerly scutcheon, from OF ! r. i from < >F. i scu, • si »'. shield, from Lat. scutum, Bhield I iv (q.v.), Bynonymoua with shield. of prete i ini i utcheon is a small shield placed in the centre of the larger one. and covering a portion of the charges on the latter, in which a man carries the arms of his wife when she is the heiress of her family. It is said to 1"' carried surtout, or over all. Some- times also a shield over all is given as a reward of honor. ES'DRAE'LON, es'dra-e'lon or es-dra 'e-lon (Gk. 'KcrdprjXwv, EsdrclGn, the Greek form of the Hebrew word, rendered as Jezreel in the English Bible, meaning God has sown i . The greatest plain in Palestine, separat- ing the mountain ranges of Galilee from those of Samaria, watered by the Kishon. It may be de- scribed as a triangle, having for its base the high hills — of which Mount Gilboa is the most impor- tant — forming the watershed between the Jordan and the Kishon, extending north and south from Nazareth to Jenin, a distance of about 15 miles. The northern boundary is the hills of Galilee westward from Nazareth about 12 miles to a point where the Kishon breaks through in a narrow pass leading to the seacoast and Acco. On the southwest is the Carmel range, extending from the sea to Jenin. about 20 miles. The plain was allotted to Issachar in the division among the tril.es (Josh. xix. 17-23). It is of great fertility, and has been of much importance in the annals of Palestine. Armies and caravans from all directions must pass through it, and, owing to its level character, it naturally became the field on which were fought the decisive battles for the possession or defense of Palestine and Syria. It was the scene of the triumph of Barak over Sisera (Judges iv.) and of Gideon over the Midian- ites (Judges vii.), as well as the final defeat of Saul by the Philistines (I. Sam. xxxi.) and of Josiahby Pharaoh-Xecho of Egypt (II. Kings xxiii. 29-30). The great contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal took place on its west- ern border (I. Kings xviii. 17 sqq.). It was through the plain that Jehu came riding to Jez- reel (II. Kings ix. 16 sqq.). The armies of As- syria and Egypt met there repeatedly, and in modern times the plain has figured in the wars of Napoleon. To the writer of the Apocalypse tlie plain was the battlefield par excellence, and there he beholds "the kings of the earth and of the whole world" gathered for the battle of the great, day of God (Rev. xvi. 14, 16). Consult George Adam Smith. II ixturicul '•'- I'tinifiliu of the Holy Land (Xew York, 1895). ES'DRAS (Gk.'EffJpoj.Ezra), First and Sec- ond Books of. The name of two works placed among the apocryphal hooks of the Old Testament in modern English Bibles. Considerable confusion exists in regard to the titles of the books ccin- taining the history of Ezra. In the Septuagint there are two honks of Esdras, so called, desig- nated respectively as and 1'.. Fsdras A is the work otherwise known as the First Hook of Es- dras; Esdras B. the translation of the canonical books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Tn the Vulgate there are four books of Esdras, viz.: Esdras I.. the canonical book of Ezra ; Esdras II., the book of Nehemiah; Fsdras 111., the Esdras A of the Septuagint or First Book of Esdras; and Esdras IV . another and later apocrypha] book. In early English Bibles the Vulgate is followed, the ar- il ;ement now used having I n Br I adopted in the Geneva Bible of 1560. The First Book of Ksdras (Esdras A of the Septuagint, Esdras 111.
