Domr�my-la-pucelle

Village, Vosges d�partement, Lorraine r�gion, northeastern France. It lies on the banks of the Meuse River, 38 miles (61 km) southeast of Bar-le-Duc. Domr�my was where St. Joan of Arc (�la Pucelle�) was born about 1412. The village still has several medieval buildings, including St. Joan's birthplace, now a museum. Nearby is the church containing the font at which she was baptized. Pop. (1990) 190.

Priesthood

Throughout the long and varied history of religion, the priesthood has been the official institution that has mediated and maintained a state of equilibrium between the sacred and the profane aspects of human society

Buir Lake

Wade - Giles romanization �Pei-erh Hu, Mongol �Pinyin �Buir Nur, � lake on the border of the Mongolian People's Republic and China. It has an area of 235 square miles (609 square km). It receives the Ha-lo-hsin River from the southeast, and its outlet, the Orchun River, flows into Hu-lun Lake to the north.

North Germanic Languages, Orthography

The five basic vowel symbols of the Latin alphabet are supplemented by a number of special symbols that are used mostly to represent umlauted vowels: thus, there is y (pronounced as German �), � (used in Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese) and the corresponding � (used in Swedish), � (in Danish, Norwegian, and Faroese) and the corresponding � (in Swedish and Icelandic), and

Juvarra, Filippo

Juvarra studied in Rome (1703 - 14) under the architect Carlo Fontana and was commissioned to design scenes for Cardinal Ottoboni's theatre in the Cancelleria Palace. He was also asked to do stage designs for the queen of Poland, Maria

Catechumens, Liturgy Of The

The instructional part of the Christian worship service, consisting of hymns, prayers, scriptural readings, and homilies, which precedes the Eucharist (i.e., the Liturgy of the Faithful). In the early church the catechumens, or hearers who had not yet been baptized, were dismissed at the conclusion of the Liturgy of the Catechumens, and the faithful, or baptized Christians,

Ear, Human, Auditory ossicles

Crossing the middle-ear cavity is the short ossicular chain formed by three tiny bones that link the tympanic membrane with the oval window and inner ear (Figure 2). From the outside inward they are the malleus (hammer), the incus (anvil), and the stapes (stirrup). The malleus more closely resembles a club than a hammer, and the incus looks more like a premolar tooth with uneven

Peru, Westernized arts

The arts have long occupied positions of esteem among Peru's educated minority. Since the late 19th century, most writers have felt a ceaseless duty to analyze their society. Ricardo Palma was among the first to utilize Peruvian themes. Aves sin nido (1889; Birds Without a Nest), by Clorinda Matto de Turner, was the first of many books whose authors exposed the conditions of Indian

Pitta

(genus Pitta)� any of about 23 species of Old World birds constituting the family Pittidae. All are stub tailed, long legged, and short necked. They have a rather stout bill and are 15 - 27 centimetres (6 - 10 1/2 inches) in length. Pittas faintly resemble thrushes and are sometimes known as jewelthrushes. The sexes may be alike or unlike in appearance. Most species are found in the Indo-Malayan region,

Enciclopedia Universal Ilustrada Europeoamericana

Spanish and Spanish-American biography and gazetteer information are especially strong. Major articles - e.g., on countries - are quite long and include lengthy bibliographies of international scope. Although coverage is considered

Maluku

English �Moluccas� propinsi (province) of the Maluccas island group, eastern Indonesia. In 1999 the northern half of Maluku province was made into the separate North Maluku (Maluku Utara) province. The Moluccas group includes about 1,000 islands. The largest of North Maluku province are Halmahera, Morotai, Bacan, Obi, and the main islands of the Sula archipelago; those of Maluku province are Ceram

Zittel, Karl Alfred, Ritter (knight) Von

In 1863 Zittel became an assistant to the royal mineral cabinet of Vienna and professor of mineralogy, geognosy, and paleontology at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic. In 1866 he became professor of geology and paleontology at the University

Chellean Industry

An early Stone Age industry characterized by crudely worked hand axes. The implements from Chelles in France that gave the industry its name are now grouped with the Acheulian industry. The term Chellean, in the sense of earliest hand-ax culture, has been replaced by Abbevillian industry.

Waccho

Waccho assassinated his uncle Tato and usurped the throne about 510, ruling for 30 years. Tato's son and grandson took refuge with the king of a neighbouring people, the Gepidae, making several fruitless attempts to

Vyadhapura

Its site is 120 miles (190 km) from the mouth of the

Norfolk Four-course System

In the Norfolk four-course system, wheat was grown in the first year, turnips in the second, followed

Bridewealth

Also called �Bride-price, or Marriage Payment, � the payment made by the groom or his kin to the kin of the wife in order to ratify a marriage. The practice is common in all parts of the globe in one form or another, but, as an instrument for the legitimation of a marriage, bridewealth is most highly developed in Africa. In many African societies the husband may not assume full rights over the sexual, economic, or procreative

Ring Nebula

(catalog numbers NGC 6720 and M 57), bright nebula in the constellation Lyra, several thousand light-years from the Earth. It was discovered in 1779 by the French astronomer Augustin Darquier. Like other nebulae of its type, called planetary nebulae, it is a sphere of glowing gas thrown off by a central star. Seen from a great distance, such a sphere appears brighter at the edge than

Pietrasanta

Town, centre of a district known as Versilia, Lucca provincia, Toscana (Tuscany) regione, central Italy, at the foot of the Alpi Apuane (mountains) just southeast of Carrara. Its piazza is surrounded by fine buildings including the Cathedral of San Martino and the Church of San Agostino (a baptistery with a medieval font), both dating from the 14th century, and the remains of

Spanish North Africa

Five small areas, in special relationship with the Spanish government, on and off the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. They are Alhucemas, Ceuta, the Chafarinas Islands, Melilla (qq.v.), and Pe��n de V�lez de la Gomera, with a combined area of about 12 square miles (31 square km). Ceuta is administered as part of C�diz province, the rest as part of M�laga province.

Switzerland, Music

Although Switzerland is not a leading musical nation, in the 20th century such composers as Arthur Honegger, Othmar Schoeck, and Frank Martin gained international renown. An annual international music festival, one of many, is held in Lucerne, and numerous country and western, pop, and jazz events, especially the famous festival at Montreux, take place throughout the

Abaiang Atoll

Also spelled �Apaiang, �also called �Apia, �formerly �Charlotte Island, � coral atoll of the Gilbert Islands, part of Kiribati, in the west-central Pacific Ocean. Comprising six islets in the northern Gilberts with a total land area of 6 square miles (16 square km), the atoll has a lagoon (16 by 5 miles [26 by 8 km]) that provides sheltered anchorage. Captain Thomas Gilbert, its European discoverer (1788), named it Matthew's Island, after the owner of his ship, the Charlotte.

Belcher, Sir Edward

The grandson of a governor of Nova Scotia, Belcher entered the navy in 1812. After serving as a surveyor with an expedition to the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Strait in 1825, he commanded a surveying ship along the north and west coasts of Africa (1830 - 33). He

Biblical Literature, II Enoch

Similar in content is II Enoch, or The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, which is preserved only in an Old Slavonic translation. The oldest text does not contain any Christian additions nor any passage from which it could be concluded that the book was written in Greek. Thus, the book could have been written originally in Hebrew or Aramaic, probably in the 1st century CE. The hero