LA CALPRENEDE. 667 LACE. i.iid Edouard, roi d'Angletene (lii-lOl. Cossdii- dre, the tirs:, ol his novels, was imblisliod duiiiig tlif years 1040-43, in ten vuliinies. Its jiopu- Unity was sueli that the first volumes were twice
- ej)rinled Iwfore the completion ot' the lust, and
the whole reprinted twice during T-a ('alpreiu"'de's life (1050-54). It was again printed in 1731, and condensed into tlnee vcdunie.-. in 1752. This novel is interesting because it shows that La ('alprcn^de was well acquainted with the ro- mances ol chivalry as well as with Greek novels. Ciissandre was followed by Cleopatre (1647) in twelve volumes (begun in 1647), and this by l'(tni)iii))id: hi&toire de France (begun hi 1601), which La C'alprontde left unfinislied at its seventh volume. I'ive more volumes were added by Pierre de 'aumori6re. All these purport to be histori- cal novels. Faramond has also the interest attaching to the first attempt at a novel of national history. La CalprenMe is the first French novelist who had a conscious and defined plan in writing. Cassandre was rendcre<l into German, Italian, and Dutch. In England CUoixitre was the favorite ; yet three English dramas are based on FiiriiDiond. If priority be taken into account, La Calpren6dc is the most significant, if not the best, of the idealist novelists of the cen- tury. Consult Kijrting, Oeschiclttc dcs frunzosi- ai-u'cn Jlomniis icj XVIlteii Juliiliiindcrt, vol. i. (Oppeln, 1891). LACANDON, lil'kan-don'. A tribe of Mayan slock (q.v. ), formerly occupying a considerable territory upon the Lacandon and Usumacinta rivers of Chiapas (Mexico) and Guatemala, but now confined to the more inaccessible region at the head of the latter stream in the Peten dis- trict of Guatemala. Their language is a dialect of the standard Maya of Yucatan. For a long time they maintained an aggressive resistance to I he Spanish power, and still I'ctain a large measure of independence, with many of their ancient customs and religious rites, avoiding con- tact with the white man so far as ]x)ssible, al- though imminally subject to Guatemala. The sto- ries formerly current of large aboriginal cities and great temides still extant in their territory are ntiw known to have lieen false. L AC AZE-DUTHIEBS, la'kiiz'-du'tyar', Henri de (1S21-1901). A comparative anato- nust, author of a series of elaborate and ricdily illustrated memoirs on mollusks, (larasitic Crus- tacea, and the red coral. He was born at Jlont- jiezat. May 15, 1821; was appointed in 1805 to the chair of zoology at the jluscum of Xaliral History, and three years later he was called to the Sorbonne. Elected a member of the .ca(lcmy of Sciences in 1871, he afterwards became its president. He was fovuider of the marine zoii- logical laboratories of RoscofT and of Hauyuls- sur-Mer, on the Jlediterranean ; also founder and editor of Archivcx dr la :ooloair r.ci)rrinir>italc. During the last thirty years of his life he was the animating spirit of French zoiilogy. LACCADIVES, lak'kA-divz (Skt. Lalsa Di'ipii. hundred thousand islands). A group of small coral islands in the Arabian Sea, about 200 miles west of the ^lalabar coast of Hindu- stan, aggregating about 750 square miles in area (Map: India, R 0). Tlicy are low and Hat and mostly barren, and but few of them are inhabited. The pojmlation is about 14.500. consisting chiefiy of Moplahs, people of mixed Araliian and Hindu Vol.. XI.— 13. descent, professing Mohammedanism. The isl- ands are divided into two groups, the northern belonging to the Madras district of South Ka- nara, the southern being administered by the Collector of Malabar. The chief i>ro<luct is cocoa- nuts, whose fibres are almost the only article of ex|iort. As the numerous coral reefs make navigation daiigerous, the commerce is carried on almost exclusively in native vessels, manned by the daring sailors of the inlands. LACCOLITE, or LACCOLITH (from Gk. XdKKos, /«A7io.s, pit + ldoi, Zi(/io.v, stone) . Amass 01 intrusive rock (see KocKi having the general siiape of a mushroom, and sup|K)sed to be formed as the result of molten rock material being forced up from below through a fissure or crevice until, by taking a new direction along more nearly horizontal planes of bedding, it forces the overlying beds upward into a dome. Lacco- lites constitute a variety of liatholite (q.v.) or boss. They were first described from the Henry Mountains of Utah, where the erosive agencies of the atmosphere have removed the inclosing arched roof of sedimentary strata and revealed the igneous core of the laccolite. Lacco- lites have .since been described from many other localities, the best known, however, being in the Western United States. For illustration, see Geology. LACE (OF. las, laz, lags, Fr. toes. It. toccio, net, from Lat. laqticnx, snare, from lacere, to allure). An ornamental faln'ic of linen, cotton, or silk thread made either by the hands, some- what after the manner of embroidery, or by ma- chinery. It dift'ers from embroidery in that it is not a decoration of an existing fabric, but a fabric in itself, and has been defined as "an open, jKMforated material formed by the series of threads of which it is composed being twisted together in such a manner as to form patterns." H-vno-Made Lace belongs to two general classes: Tliat which is made with a needle, called iiecdlf- lioiiit, or simply point lace: and that which is made with bobbins on a pillow, called hohhiii or pillow lace. In addition there is the machine lace, which is usually a more or less close imita- tion of the patterns of both point and pillow lace. The various knitted and crocheted edgings, usually of domestic manufacture, though used for the same ornamental purposes as lace, are not true laces. See Kxittixo; also Crochet. There is no documentary or other evidence of lace earlier than the fifteenth century, but the ]irocess of lace-making was so gradually evidved from the much older art of emluoidery that it is diflieult to determine just when the first true lace was made. Lace-making was doubtless sug- gested by embroidery on thin gauzes, nets, and linens. This form of embroidery was developed into emliroiderv on open grounds by two dif- ferent methods: Sometimes the portions of the embroidered cloth in the pattern are cut out and the open space filled in with needlework; sometimes threads are first drairn out of the linen, and the remaining threads interlaced with needlework, as is done in the modern drawn- wiirk, in which the Me.ican and Turkish women so much excel. Soon, instead of laboriously pulling out threads, a fabric was invented with the threads already omitted, ready for the needle- work. This fabric, of an open, reticulated ground, was called a qtiinlnin, after a little vil- lage in Brittany, famous for its linens. These
