CIPHER, OF CYPHER. See ARITHMETIC. CIPHER is a kind of enigmatic character, composed of several letters interwoven, which are generally the initial letters of the person's names for whom the ciphers are intended. These are frequently used on seals, coaches, and other moveables. Anciently merchants and tradesmen were not allowed to bear arms; in lieu thereof, they bore their ciphers, or the initial letters of their names, artfully interwoven about a cross; of which we have various instances on tombs, &c. CIPHERS are also certain secret characters used in writing confidential, public, and private letters. De la Guilletiere, in his Lacedæmon, ancient and modern, endeavours to make the ancient Spartans the inventors of the art of writing in cipher. Their scytala, according to him, was the first sketch of this mysterious art; these scytala were two rollers of wood, of equal length and thickness; one of them kept by the ephori, the other by the general of the army sent on any expedition against the enemy. When these magistrates would send any secret orders to the general, they took a slip of parchment, and rolled it very exactly about the scytala which they had reserved; and in this state wrote their intentions, which appeared perfect and consistent while the parchment continued on the roll: when taken off, the writing was maimed, and without connexion but was easily retrieved by the general, upon his applying it to his scytala. Polybius says, that Eneas Tacticus, 2000 years ago, collected together twenty different manners of writing, so as not to be understood by any but those in the secret; part of which were invented by himself, and part used before his time. Trithe mius, Bap. Porta, Vigenere, and P. Niceron, have written expressly on the subject of ciphers. Various obvious modes of arranging a secret correspondence of this kind, will occur to every ingenious person. The Stuarts, in their correspondence with their adherents in this country, since the Revolution, seem to have made the last public use of this mode of transmitting intelligence. Charles I. it is said, had a cipher consisting only of a straight line differently inclined: and there are ways of ciphering by the mere punctuation of a letter, whilst the words shall be non-significants, or sense that leaves no room for suspicion. Those who wish to see a full explanation of ciphering, may consult Bacon in his Advancement of Learning, where they will find a cipher of his own invention; bishop Wilkins' Secret and Swift Messenger; Falconer's Cryptomenysis Patefacta, and Kircher's Steganography. We select as a specimen of this once important art, the following modes: CIPHER BY DIALS. On a piece of square pasteboard ABCD, plate CIRCUMFERENTOR, and CIPHER, fig. 1, 2, draw the circle EFGH, and divide it into twenty-six equal parts, in each of which must be wrote one of the letters of the alphabet. On the inside of this there must be another circle of pasteboard, ILM N, moveable round the centre O, and the extremity of this must be divided into the same number of equal parts as the other. On this also must be written the letters of the alphabet, which, however, need not be disposed in the same order. The person with whom you correspond must have a similar dial, and at the beginning of your letter you must put any two letters that answer to each other when you have fixed the dial. Example. Suppose you would write as follows:-If you will come over to us, you shall have a pension, and you may still make a sham opposition.' You begin with the letters Ma, which show how the dial is fixed; then for If you, you write un juc, and so for the rest, as in fig. 3. The same intention may be answered by a ruler, the upper part of which is fixed and the lower part to slide, but in this case the upper part must contain two alphabets in succession, that some letter of that part may constantly correspond to one in the lower part. The divisions standing directly over each other in a straight line, will be much more obvious than in the circumference of a circle. Or two straight pieces of pasteboard regularly divided, the one containing a single and the other a double alphabet, would answer exactly the same purpose. In this case a blank space may be left at each end of the single alphabet, and one or two weights being placed on both the pieces will keep them steady. CIPHER, MUSICAL. The construction of this cipher is similar to that given above. The circle EFGH, fig. 1, is to be divided into equal parts; in each part must be written one of the letters of the alphabet: and on the anterior circle I'L MN, moveable round the centre O, there is to be the same number of divisions; the circumference of the inner circle must be ruled in the manner of a music paper; and in each division there is to be placed a note, differing either in figure or position. Lastly, within the musical lines place the three keys, and on the outer circle, the figures that are commonly used to denote the time. Then provide a ruled paper, and place one of the keys, as suppose that of ge re sol, against the time two-fourths at the beginning of the paper, which will inform your correspondent how to fix his circle. Then copy the notes that answer to the several letters of the words you intend to write, in the manner expressed in fig. 4. A cipher of this sort may be made more difficult to discover by frequently changing the key, and that will not in the least embarrass the reader. You may likewise add either of the marks (fig. 5) to the note that begins a word, which will make it more easy to read, and at the same time give the music a more natural aspect. This cipher is preferable to that by dials, as it may be enclosed in a letter about common affairs, and pass unsuspected. CIPPUS, in antiquity, a low column, with an inscription, erected on the high roads, or other places, to show the way to travellers; to serve as a boundary; to mark the grave of a deceased person, &c. CIPRIANI (Giovanni Batista), a celebrated modern painter, was born in Tuscany, at Pistoia, in 1727. Receiving the rudiments of his art from an Englishman residing at Florence, under the name of Gabbiani, he went to Rome for three years, in 1750; and came afterwards to England with Sir William Chambers. When the duke of Richmond opened his gallery as a school of arts, he was appointed a visitor. At the foundation of the Royal Academy, in 1769, he made the design for the diploma, and received the present of a silver cup. His best paintings are at Houghton, but he has left many highly valued drawings. Bartolozzi engraved many of his designs. He died at Chelsea in 1785. CIRCEA, enchanter's night shade; a genus of the monogynia order, and diandria class of plants; natural order, forty-eighth, aggregatæ: COR. dipetalous: CAL. diphyllous, superior, with one bilocular seed. There are two species, one of which is a native of Britain, and the other of Germany. They are low herbaceous plants with white flowers, and possessed of no remarkable property. CIRCARS, NORTHERN, a province reaching along the west of the Bay of Bengal, from the fifteenth to the twentieth degree of north latitude, bounded by the sea on the west, by the province of Hyderabad on the south-east, from which a range of small hills and the river Godavery separate it; to the north of that river it is divided from Berar by a continued ridge of almost impassable mountains to the Circars at Goomsur; these then turn to the eastward, and together with the Chilka Lake form a boundary of nearly fifty miles on the north. On the south the small river Gundezama separates this country from Ongole and the Carnatic on the east of the Ghauts. It contains about 17,000 square miles, one-fifth arable land, two-fifths pasture, and the remainder woods, water, towns, barren hills, or the sandy waste that runs along the whole coast, and is about three miles broad on the average. It is divided into five districts, Guntoor, Mortizabad, Condapilly or Mustaphabad, Ellore, Rajamundry, and Cicacole, anciently Calingas. It contains several places of consequence, as Ganjam, Calinga patam, Vizianagram, Bindipatam, Visagapatam, and Masulipatam. Its population amounts to two millions and a half, mostly Hindoos, but in the towns there are many Mahommedans, and a few native Christians. This country is well watered by numerous rivers, which rise in the mountains on the northwest and run through it to the sca. Of these the Godavery is the only one of very great extent, reaching across the peninsula from the Ghauts, a little to the north of Bombay, and falling into the Bay of Bengal almost at the southern extremity of the Circars. The soil is consequently very fruitful, and yields one plentiful crop in the year, producing grain of all kinds, especially rice, tobacco, sugar, and cotton. It abounds also in timber for ship-building. Large ships have been built at Coringa and Narsipore, near the principal mouths of the Godavery, and the coasting trade, it is said, employs not les than 30,000 tons of a smaller description. Al though, however, it possesses so great an extent of coast, it has not a single harbour where a large vessel can anchor, much less ride secure from the storms. Masulipatam is the only port on the coast of Coromandel at which any vessels can ride without the inconvenience of a heary surf. The chief lake is Chilka, about thirty-five miles long by eight broad, separating the northern Circars from the province of Cuttack. Few fruits and vegetables are grown here, especially a the southern parts, it being extremely difficult to raise them, owing probably to the influence of the sea breezes. Here, as indeed over the greater part of southern India, the village system prevails; this is a political arrangement, by which a village in cludes not only the spot that is inhabited, but that part of the adjacent country from which is subsistence is obtained. The employments, except simply the cultivation of the soil, are performed by public servants, who are paid by a portion of land, and a few small gratuities in harvest time. These are the potail or chief, the talia and totie, a kind of police, the boundaryman, the superintendant of the water courses, the brahmin, the schoolmaster, the astrologer, the smith and carpenter, the poet, the musician, and the dancing girl. Under this form these people have for ages retained not only their cus toms but even their name unaltered. The hilly part of the country is in the possession of ze mindars, who let their lands on condition of military service, according to the ancient feudal custom. These hold the chief sway over the rest of the people, being able to bring into the field more than 40,000 troops. Their power was most formidable, and altogether uncontrolled, until the year 1794, when the great zemindar of Vizianagram was punished for his oppression and expulsion of the inferior chieftains; and to this time the administration is not properly fixed on a regular plan, so as to be truly advantageous to the country. Owing to the great influence of the sea air, these provinces are cooler than most other parts of the world in the same latitude. At the ap proach of summer the heat becomes excessive, especially in the tracts of sand near the coast. Among the hills and marshy jungles the pestilential vapors that arise produce a disease called the hill fever, which is sometimes very preva lent. North of the Godavery the rains set in about the middle of June, continuing gentle till the middle of August, this is called the small rain harvest; from this time it is more abundant till November, when it is succeeded by storms and the north-easterly wind; after this a pleasant season ensues, in the middle of which, or early in January, the rice and bajary harvest closes. The harvest for maize and the different sorts of grain, finishes at the vernal equinox; then the hot season commences, which is however moderate in the north, owing to the vicinity of the sea and the mountains Sheep, and the larger species of horned cattle, are found in these countries, and the adjacent sea and its numerous inlets furnish an abundance of fish of every kind known in India. Grain, however, is the chief production of the Circars; in former times it was the granary of the Carnatic during the north-east monsoon, as Tanjore was during the south-west. Rice, paddy, wheat and other grains in use among the natives, are annually exported to Madras, and in the first four months of 1812, when these articles were at a high price there, the quantity sent from this country amounted to the sum of more than a million of sicca rupees. The indigo exported to the same place amounts to 15,000 rupees, and the run from the province of Ganjam, for the use of the navy, to 87,700 rupees. These provinces also send to Madras chillies, fire-wood, coriander seeds, cashew nuts, and other articles used by the natives as drugs and for their religious ceremonies. The imports from Madras consist of coiled cables and cordage for the native vessels, and treasure sent for the purchase of salt, and gocds for the British market. Besides these they receive quantities of Madeira, claret, and port wines, ale, brandy, oilman's stores, glass, stationary, tea, copper of different sorts, steel and every kind of hardware, with various articles from the eastward, as cloves, benjamin, pepper, tin, dammer and borax. Manufactures to a considerable extent are carried on in the Circars. Round Nagpore plain long cloth is fabricated, of which the best prints in Europe are made; some of a coarser sort are made to the north and south of the river Godavery. Cicacole is remarkable for curious muslins, Ellore for carpets, and Berhampore for silks manufactured from the raw material, procured from Bengal and China. Madras is principally supplied with piece goods from the Northern Circars; the thread is spun by the cultivating caste, and the weavers, owing to various regulations made in their favor, are able to live better than the laboring class; but they are generally more dissipated, and squander their wages in gaming and cock-fighting. The females in general prepare the thread and sell it to the weavers, and many who belong to decayed families derive their subsistence from this employment The cotton is chiefly raised in the country; the rest is brought from the states of the Nizam and the Mahrattas. That grown in the country is preferred, being cleaner, but either too much or too little rain will destroy the crop. Colored piece goods are exported from Masulipatam, not only to Madras, but to Bombay and the Persian Gulf. The natives are divided into two nations, the Telinga and Oria or Orissa, formerly separated by the Godavery; but now much intermixed. Their dialects are different, and they have rites and customs perfectly distinguishable; both have the four castes or subdivisions common to India, but the Orias are said to deviate least from the original institutions. The brahmins are the chief; the rachwars, rowwars and velmas, of which the zemindars form a part, follow the manners of the rajpoots and profess to belong to the khetras or warriors; the husband men, cow-herds, weavers, and artificers, are all sudras; the shopkeepers belong to the vaisya or third caste. The history of this country, while under the Hindoo governments, is like that of other parts of India, enveloped in mystery. The Mahommedans invaded it in the fifteenth century, but it was not perfectly reduced till 1571, in the reign of Ibrahim Kootub, shah of Golconda. It fell into the hands of Aurengzebe in 1687, and under the Mogul dynasty it formed a part of the government of the Nizam of the Deccan. In the year 1752-3 it was made over to M. Bussy for the payment of the French auxiliary forces, and from that time continued in their possession till it was conquered by the British in 1759. A formal grant was made of it six years after, from shah Alum the great mogul, to lord Clive; but the brother of the nizam was allowed to retain Guntoor, which had been settled on him, until his death, which took place in 1788, since which time the East India Company have had the entire possession. CIRCASSIA, a considerable country in Asia, including a large portion of territory between the Black Sea and the Caspian. It is bounded, as far as its limits can be defined, by the Black Sea on the west, and the Caspian on the east; on the south by the northern declivity of the great range of Caucasus, and on the north by the rivers Terek and Cuban. The approach to it on the north is very striking, over a vast steppe, or level plain, beyond which, in the distance, is seen, rising abruptly, the great chain of the Caucasian Mountains; four distinct groupes have their summits always covered with snow, and the Elboras, rivaling Mont Blanc in magnitude, raises its lofty head above them all. The intervening ridge, called the Black Mountains, hardly more than half the height of the Elboras, is so precipitous that it has the appearance of a wall. Beneath these ranges the country extends, including many beautiful valleys, feeding vast flocks and herds, and yielding a most abundant crop of maize and millet, the sorts of grain chiefly cultivated here. It lies between thirty-seven and forty-six degrees of east longitude, and forty-one and forty-five of north latitude, but its exact boundaries can hardly be ascertained, the ancient extent having been much contracted by the Russians, who have erected the fortresses of Mozuk and Georgrewsk on the line of the Terek and Cuban, to check the inroads of the semibarbarous native tribes. The name given to the inhabitants of this country is a corruption of the Russian, Teherkess, or Tcherkessians; but these names are not known in the region itself, which is occupied by a number of petty, independent tribes, hostile to each other, and many of them ignorant of each other's language. The principal of these are the Great and Little Kabardines, the Abasses, the Kisti, and the Assetes, but as these, with almost an indefinite number more, all agree in their general character, and are reckoned by the Russians under one name, it is unnecessary to enter into their minute distinctions. They are in a very imperfect state of subjection to Russia; their dependence is indeed acknowleged in documents preserved in the archives of the empire of as early a date as the beginning of the eighteenth century; but they have never regularly submitted to its dominion. They pay no tribute, and render no military service; they are perpetually making inroads on the Russian territory, carrying off booty and cattle in great quantities. At present, such is the state of the country, that travellers cannot safely go a few miles beyond the frontiers. Of course there is no regular government among the Circassians; the power is altogether vested in their chiefs, who have a certain number of vassals under each of them; and there is no country in which the pride of birth prevails to so great a degree. The chiefs, or princes, have uncontrolled authority in their own dominions; the uzdens, or nobles, attend the chiefs in war, but are otherwise independent; these have vassals in entire subjection to them, who cultivate the ground, and are employed as menials. Besides these there is a class of freedmen, who render military service, but are ranked in some degree as nobles. The masters, of whatever class, have the power of life and death over their vassals, and even sell them, but this is not counted honorable. In their marriages no mixture of ranks is ever known; every one marries into his own class. This pride, with respect to rank and birth, appears in contempt of those domestic ties and relations which are most cherished by other nations. The husband visits his wife only in private: it is an insult to name her in his presence. The children are not indebted to their parents for their education. At the age of three or four they are committed to a friend of the family of equal rank, who, from motives of regard, is induced to undertake this task. They continue under his sole care till the youths are fit for martial exercises, and the females to marry. Then it is lawful for the parents to see them. The females are confined, but less strictly than in other countries in the east. Polygamy is lawful, but is not much practised, at least as it respects the number of their wives. The Circassians are remarkable for the elegance of their external appearance: the men are tall, and athletic, though slender; their features are expressive, their air haughty and martial. The beauty of the females has been long celebrated, and Circassian captives are particularly in request for the eastern seraglios. Every care is taken to preserve their beauty in youth, only a moderate portion of food, chiefly milk and pastry, is allowed them; their feet are preserved by wooden clogs, and their hands carefully covered with gloves. It was in this country that the practice of inoculating for the small-pox was first introduced. At the age of ten or eleven a broad leathern girdle is fastenened with silver clasps round the waist: this is allowed to be removed only by the bridegroom after marriage. The Circassians are most commonly employed in expeditions for war against the neighbouring tribes, or in excursions into the Russian territory in pursuit of plunder. At home they are mostly engaged in hunting and feasting. They take great pride in their arms and their horses; large sums, even of four or five hundred pounds, are frequently expended in the former: they are indefatigable in keeping them bright and clean. These consist of bow and quiver, musket, and pistols, steel helmet and arm-plates; they are mostly covered with a coat of mail, composed of polished steel rings. These are richly ornamented with gold and silver, and often set with pearls and precious stones. In their horses they endeavour to attain both usefulness and beauty; the former being considered essential to the light plundering expeditions in which they so much delight. Every great family has a race peculiar to itself, the genealogy of which they carefully preserve. At the birth of the foal, a mark, denoting its pedigree, is branded on the thigh, which it is a capital offence to alter or deface. Pallas thinks, that if the Circassians could be induced to join the Russian standard, they would make excellent light troops; but this is an object which no administration could ever accomplish. Their wars among themselves chiefly arise from the motives of private revenge, so prevalent in all rude societies, and which here are very strong. Notwithstanding this lawless state of things, however, the rights of hospitality are held sacred; when a Circassian has once received a stranger under his roof, he will defend him at all hazards. If he has been allowed to suck a mouthful of milk from the wife's breast, he is from that moment regarded as one of the family. In the last century, they were converted to the Mahommedan faith; but its observances, excepting that of circumcision, are little regarded. Abstinence from brandy, tobacco, and hogs' flesh, and more frequent polygamy, are almost the only effects of the system. There are many remains of paganism among them; but great numbers belong to the Greek church. The Circassians have little of that peace and security so essential to success in industrious pursuits. Men are often seen driving the plough in complete armour, ready at a moment's warning to defend the land which they are cultivating. They manure the ground by burning the herbage; and when it is exhausted by two or three crops, it is left fallow to recover its fertility. The chief grain cultivated by them is millet, with a little barley and maize. Their sheep are valuable, and are the animals chiefly reared for food; the flesh of young horses they are said to be fond of, and mare's milk is a cominon beverage with them. Oxen are employed in the plough and in draught. Bees are reared in great numbers, some having 200 or 300 hives. Wool and wax are exported. CIRCE, in fabulous history, a daughter of Sol and Perseis, celebrated for her knowledge of magic and venomous herbs. She was sister to Etes, king of Colchis, and to Pasiphae, the wife of Minos. She married a Sarmatian prince of Colchis, whom she murdered to obtain the king dom. She was expelled by her subjects, and carried by her father upon the coasts of Italy to an island called æa. Ulysses, at his return from the Trojan war, visited her coasts; and all his companions, who ran headlong into pleasure and voluptuousness, were changed by Circe's potions into swine. Ulysses, who was fortified against all enchantments by an herb called moly, |