the cut, and thus canne approaches nearer to sabre-play. The cuts are practically identical with those of the single-stick (q.v.), but they are generally given after one or more rapid preliminary flourishes (moulinets, circles) which the lightness of the stick facilitates, and which serve to perplex and disconcert an assailant. The thrusts are similar to those in foil-play, but are often carried out with both hands grasping the stick, giving greater force and enabling it to be used at very close quarters. The canes used in French fencing schools are made of several kinds of tough wood and are about 3 ft. long, tapering towards the point. As very severe blows are exchanged, masks, gloves, padded vests and shin-guards, similar to those used in football, are worn.
See Georges d’Amoric, French Method of the Noble Art of Self-Defence (London, 1898); J. Charlemont, L’Art de la Boxe française et de la Canne (Paris, 1899).
CANEPHORAE (Gr. κάνεον, a basket, and φέρειν, to carry), “basket-bearers,” the title given of old to Athenian maidens of noble family, annually chosen to carry on their heads baskets with sacrificial implements and apparatus at the Panathenaic and other festivals. The term (also in the form Canephori) is applied in architecture to figures of either sex carrying on their heads baskets, containing edibles or material for sacrifices. The term might well be applied to the Caryatide figures of the Erechtheum. Those represented in the Panathenaic frieze of the Parthenon carry vases on their shoulders.
CANES VENATICI (“The Hounds,” or “the Greyhounds”), in astronomy, a constellation of the northern hemisphere named by Hevelius in 1690, who compiled it from the stars between the older asterisms Ursa Major, Boötes and Coma Berenices. Interesting objects in this portion of the heavens are: the famous spiral nebula first described by Lord Rosse; a-Canum Venaticorum, a double star, of magnitudes 3 and 6; this star was named Cor Caroli, or The Heart of Charles II., by Edmund Halley, on the suggestion of Sir Charles Scarborough (1616–1694), the court physician; a cluster of stars of the 11th magnitude and fainter, extremely rich in variables, of the 900 stars examined no less than 132 being regularly variable.
CANGA-ARGUELLES, JOSÉ (1770–1843), Spanish statesman, was born in 1770. He took an active part in the Spanish resistance to Napoleon in a civil capacity and was an energetic member of the cortes of 1812. On the return of the Bourbon line in 1814, Canga-Arguelles was sent into exile in the province of Valencia. On the restoration in 1820 of the constitution of 1812, he was appointed minister of finance. He continued at this post till the spring of 1821, distinguishing himself by the zeal and ability with which he sought to reform the finances of Spain. It was high time; for the annual deficit was greater than the entire revenue itself, and landed and other property was, to an unheard-of extent, monopolized by the priests. The measures he proposed had been only partially enforced, when the action of the king with regard to the ministry, of which he was a member, obliged him to resign. Thereafter, as a member of the Moderate Liberal party, Canga-Arguelles advocated constitutional government and financial reform, till the overthrow of the constitution in 1823, when he fled to England. He did not return to Spain till 1829, and did not again appear in public life, being appointed keeper of the archives at Simancas. He died in 1843. Canga-Arguelles is the author of three works: Elementos de la Ciencia de Hacienda (Elements of the Science of Finance), London, 1825; Diccionario de Hacienda (Dictionary of Finance), London, 1827; and Observaciones sobre la guerra de la Peninsula (Observations on the Peninsular War), in which he endeavoured to show that his countrymen had taken a far more effective part in the national struggle against the French than English historians were willing to admit.
CANGAS DE ONÍS, or Cangas, a town of northern Spain, in the province of Oviedo; situated on the right bank of the river Sella, in a fertile, well-watered, partly wooded, undulating region. Pop. (1900) 8537. The trade of Cangas de Onís is chiefly in live-stock and coal from the neighbouring mines. A Latin inscription on the town-hall records the fact that this place was the residence of the first Spanish kings after the spread of the Moors over the Peninsula. Here early in the 8th century lived King Pelayo, who started the Christian reconquest of Spain. His historic cave of Covadonga is only 8 m. distant (see Asturias). The church of the Assumption, rebuilt in the 19th century, is on the model and site of an older church of the middle ages. Near Cangas are ruins and bridges of the Roman period.
CANGAS DE TINÉO, a town of northern Spain, in the province of Oviedo, and on the river Narcea. Pop. (1900) 22,742. There is no railway and the river is not navigable, but a good road runs through Tinéo, Grado and the adjacent coal-fields, to the ports of Cudillero and Avilés. The inhabitants have thus an easily accessible market for the farm produce of the fertile hills round Cangas de Tinéo, and for the cloth, leather, pottery, &c., manufactured in the town.
CANGUE, or Cang, the European name for the Chinese Kia or Kea, a portable pillory, carried by offenders convicted of petty offences. It consists of a square wooden collar weighing from 20 to 60 ℔., through a hole in which the victim’s head is thrust. It fits tight to the neck and must be worn day and night for the period ordered. The offender is left exposed in the street. Over the parts by which it fastens slips of paper bearing the mandarin’s seal are pasted so that no one can liberate the condemned. The length of the punishment is usually from a fortnight to a month. As the cangue is 3 to 4 ft. across the convict is unable to feed himself or to lie down, and thus, unless fed by friends or passersby, often starves to death. As in the English pillory, the name of the man and the nature of his offence are inscribed on the cangue.
CANINA, LUIGI (1795–1856), Italian archaeologist and architect, was born at Casale in Piedmont. He became professor of architecture at Turin, and his most important works were the excavation of Tusculum in 1829 and of the Appian Way in 1848, the results of which he embodied in a number of works published in a costly form by his patroness, the queen of Sardinia.
CANINI, GIOVANNI AGNOLO (1617–1666), Italian designer and engraver, was born at Rome. He was a pupil of Domenichino and afterwards of Antonio Barbalonga. He painted some altar-pieces at Rome, including two admired pictures for the church of San Martino a’ Monti, representing the martyrdom of St Stephen and of St Bartholomew. Having accompanied Cardinal Chigi to France, he was encouraged by the minister Colbert to carry into execution his project of designing from medals, antique gems and similar sources a series of portraits of the most illustrious characters of antiquity, accompanied with memoirs; but shortly after the commencement of the undertaking Canini died at Rome. The work, however, was prosecuted by his brother Marcantonio, who, with the assistance of Picard and Valet, completed and published it in 1699, under the title of Iconografia di Gio. Ag. Canini. It contains 150 engravings. A reprint in Italian and French appeared at Amsterdam in 1731.
CANIS MAJOR (“Great Dog”), in astronomy, a constellation placed south of the Zodiac, just below and behind the heels of Orion. Canis minor, the “little dog,” is another constellation, also following Orion and separated from Canis major by the Milky Way. Both these constellations, or at least their principal stars, Sirius in the Great Dog and Procyon in the Little Dog, were named in very remote times, being referred to as the “dogs of Orion” or in equivalent terms. Sirius is the brightest star in the heavens; and the name is connected with the adjectives σειρός and σείριος, scorching. It may possibly be related to the Arabic Sirāj, thus meaning the “glittering one.” Hommel has shown that Sirius and Procyon were “the two Si’ray” or glitterers. It is doubtful whether Sirius is referred to in the Old Testament. By some it has been identified with the Hebrew mazzaroth, the Lucifer of the Vulgate; by others with mazzaloth, the duodecim signa of the Vulgate; while Professor M. A. Stern identifies it with the Hebrew kimah, which is rendered variously
