KUCHIN. 621 KUFIC WRITING. ligence and inanly qualities. They are great tradiTs, making lonj; voyages up and down the Yukon between the interior trihes and those o£ the coast, skins being tlic ordinary merchandise and shell beads the medium of barter. They sul)sist primarily by hunting and fishing, tak- ing large quantities of salmon in nets, fish- drives, or from boats. Their ordinary dwellings are low, elliptical wikiups of poles covered with skins, sometimes occupied jointly by several families. Their dress is of deer or rabbit skin, ini-liiding caps and mittens, both sexes dressing nearly alike excepting that the shirt of the man is pointed in front and beliind. The men wear nose-rings and the women formerly tattooed. They are very fond of dancing, feasting, and athletic games, such as wrestling, foot-racing, and the 'tug of war,' with a very peculiar amuse- ment in which a man stands upon the inter- section of two ropes fastened diagonally at some distance above the ground and strives to keep his jdace or alight upon his feet when the ropes are jerked. There are three clans, which are com- mon throughout the tribes, those of the same clan being considered relatives wherever found. The dead are usually exposed on scaffolds or sometimes cremated. The widow watches near the grave for a year, when the bones are burned and the ashes placed in a box hung from the top of a pole. A funeral feast is then made, cmling with games and a distribution of pres- ents, after which the widow is free to marry agaiil. They are said to have decreased one- half within living memory, partly from new dis- eases, but largely from the widespread practice of female infanticide, which the women justify on the ground that they wish to save their daughters from the hardshi])s to which they themselves are subjected. KUCKEN, kn'ken. Fhiedricii Wilhelm (1810- 82 ) . A ( ;erman musician, born at Bleckede, near Hanover. He studied music inider Tiihrss, music director at Schwerin. and later with Birnbach in Berlin, Seehter in Vienna, and Halevy in Paris. At first he was a member of the Court orchestra at Schwerin, but upon the success of some of his songs he was appointed nuisic-teacher to the hereditary Grand Duke. In 1830 his opera Die Flucht nach der Schwciz was well received, and in 1849 Der Priitendent followed. Two years later he became one of the two Court kapellmeis- ters at Stuttgart, and subsequently served alone until 1801. He composed sonatas for violin, piano, and 'cello, and quartets for male chorus, but his songs were his masterpieces. They were exceedingly popular, and of those which were translated into English the best known are: "The Maid of .Tudali." The Swallow," and "Trail. Trab." His wiu'k, however, was never well received by musicians. He died at Schwerin. KUDTT, kuo'doo. Another name for the Afri- can antelope, the koodoo (q.v.). KUENEN", ki.i'mn. Abraham (1828-91). . distingviished bililical scholar, and one of the founders of the modern critical school. He was boni at Haarlem. Sc])teml)er 10, 1828; studied at I.eyden. and was made professor of theology- there i)i 18.').'!. He died at Leydcn. Dccend)er 10. 1891. Knenen early distinguished himself by his fear- less application of critical methods in the stud.v of the Old Testament regardless of tradition, or the consequences alleged to result frpm such methods. His publications are marked by great accuracy and keen critical and histo- rical acumen, and he lived to see his methods approved and many of his theories adopted by the majority of scholars in Europe and America. His works include: Liber Geneseos (1851) ; Libri Exodi el Lcvitici Secundum Arabicam Penta- teuchi Samaritatii Versionem ab Abu Saido C'cmscriptam (1854); Historisch-kritisch Onder- zoelc naar het ontstaan en de versameling van de boekcn des Ouden Ycrhonds (1801-65; 2d ed. 188.J-93; Eng. trans, of vol. i.. The fJexateuch, London, 1880) ; De godxdienst van Israel tot den ondergang van den Joodschen Staat (1809-70; trans.. The Religion of Israel, 5 vols., London, 1874-75) : De profeten on de profetie onder Israel (1875; trans., Prophets and Prophecy in Israel, London, 1877) ; National Religions and Vtiiversal Religion (Hibbert Lectures, 1882). From 1867 till his death he was one of the editors of the Theologisch Tijdschrift, and in this journal many of his most important investigations of special points connected with the compositi<m of the Pentateuch and historical books of the Old Testa- ment appeared. A number of his articles in this periodical were collected and published after his death in a German translation by Karl Budde, under the title, Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur Hblischen M'issenschaft (Freiburg. 1894). KUEN-LUN, kween'lijon', or KUN-LTIN. A great mountain system of Central Asia, lying on the northern edge of the plateau of Tibet ( Map : .Vsia, H 5). The ph.ysical relations of the moun- tain ranges in this part of Asia have not been as .vet clearly explained : but most authorities, fol- lowing Richthofen. include under this system the various groups of highlands that stretch in an casterlv direction from the Pamirs to the interior of China. .s thus defined, the Kuen- lun is one of the most important mountain sys- tems of Asia. In the western section, formed by the mountains of Kashgar and the Russian chain, between East Turkestan and India and Tibet, the mountains exceed 20.000 feet in elevation, and carry enormous snow-fields and glaciers. The few passes, which rise to altitudes of 15.000 feet or more, can be crossed only with extreme diffi- culty. The narrow gorge-like valleys of the Yar- kan<l and Karakash are the onl.v notable interrup- tions in tliis part. East of about longitude 89° E. the Kuen-lun system is developed as a series of parallel or slightly diverging chains. The most northern chains — the Alt.vn Tagh and Xan- shan — follow the northern boundary of Tibet toward Northwestern China proper: they attain an extreme elevation of 15.000 to 20,000 feet. The central and southern ranges, including the Marco Polo. Columbus. PrzhevaJski, and others, have a southeasterl.v trend, and are of more broken character. East of the Chinese frontier the system is developed in two lines of high- lan<ls which extend across Northern Cnina almost to the coast. KTJ'FIC WRITING. An ancient form of .rabic characfirs which came into use shortly be- fore Mohammed, and was chiefly current among the inhabitants of Xorthern Arabia, while those of the southwestern parts employed the old Sabsran cliaraeters. called bv the .rabs Mnsnad, akin to the Ethiopie. The Kufic is derived from some form of the Xabatean alphabet as found in the inscriptions in Northern .rabia, the Sinaitic
