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CAROLINGIANS—CARORA
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or Polynesian peoples, while their wide diffusion, extending as far as Easter Island, within 400 m. of the New World, points to the occupation of the Pacific lands by a prehistoric race which had made some advance in general culture. The Funafuti borings (1897) show almost beyond doubt that Polynesia is an area of comparatively recent subsidence. Hence the land connexions must have formerly been much easier and far more continuous than at present. The dolmen-builders of the New Stone Age are now known to have long occupied both Korea and Japan, from which advanced Asiatic lands they may have found little difficulty in spreading over the Polynesian world, just as in the extreme west they were able to range over Scandinavia, Great Britain and Ireland. To Neolithic man, still perhaps represented by some of the more light-coloured and more regular-featured Polynesian groups, may therefore not unreasonably be attributed these astonishing remains, which assume so many different forms according to the nature of the locality, but seem generally so out of proportion with the present restricted areas on which they stand. With the gradual subsidence of these areas their culture would necessarily degenerate, although echoes of sublime theogonies and philosophies are still heard in the oral traditions and folklore of many Polynesian groups. In the islet of Lele, close to Kusaie, at the eastern extremity of Micronesia, the ruins present the appearance of a citadel with cyclopean ramparts built of large basaltic blocks. There are also numerous canals, and what look like artificial harbours constructed amid the shallow lagoons.

In Ponape the remains are of a somewhat similar character, but on a much larger scale, and with this difference, that while those of Lele all stand on the land, those of Ponape are built in the water. The whole island is strewn with natural basaltic prisms, some of great size: and of this material, brought by boats or rafts from a distance of 30 m. and put together without any mortar, but sustained by their own weight, are built all the massive walls and other structures on the east side of the island. The walls of the main building near the entrance of Metalanim harbour form a massive quadrangle 200 ft. on all sides, with inner courts, vault and raised platform with walls 20 to 40 ft. high and from 8 to 18 ft. thick. Some of the blocks are 25 ft. long and 8 ft. in circumference, and many of them weigh from 3 to 4 tons. There are also numerous canals from 30 to 100 ft. wide, while a large number of islets, mainly artificial, covering an area of 9 sq. m., have all been built up out of the shallow waters of the lagoon round about the entrance of the harbour, with high sea-walls composed of the same huge basaltic prisms. In, some places the walls of this “Pacific Venice” are now submerged to some depth, as if the land had subsided since the construction of these extensive works. Elsewhere huge breakwaters had been constructed, the fragments of which may still be seen stretching away for a distance of from 2 to 3 m. Most observers, such as Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge and Mr. Le Hunte, agree that these structures could not possibly be the work of any of the present Polynesian peoples, and attribute them to a now extinct prehistoric race, the men of the New Stone Age from the Asiatic mainland.

Stone Money.—The inhabitants of Yap are noted for possessing the most extraordinary currency, if it can be so called, in the whole world. Besides the ordinary shell money, there is a sort of stone coinage, consisting of huge calcite or limestone discs or wheels from 6 in. to 12 ft. in diameter, and weighing up to nearly 5 tons. These are all quarried in the Pelew Islands, 200 m. to the south, and are now brought to Yap in European vessels. But some were in the island long before the arrival of the whites, and must consequently have been brought by native vessels or on rafts. The stones, which are rather tokens than money, do not circulate, but are piled up round about the chief’s treasure-house, and appear to be regarded as public property, although it is hard to say what particular use they can serve. They appear to be kept rather for show and ornament than for use.

See F. W. Christian, The Caroline Islands (London, 1899); G. Volkens, “Über die Karolinen Insel Yap,” in Verhandlungen Gesellschaft Erdkunde Berlin., xxviii. (1901); J. S. Kubary, Ethnographische Beiträge zur Kentniss des Karolinen-Archipel (Leiden, 1889–1892); De Abrade, Historia del conflicto de las Carolinas, &c. (Madrid, 1886).


CAROLINGIANS, the name of a family (so called from Charlemagne, its most illustrious member) which gained the throne of France A.D. 751. It appeared in history in 613, its origin being traced to Arnulf (Arnoul), bishop of Metz, and Pippin, long called Pippin of Landen, but more correctly Pippin the Old or Pippin I. Albeit of illustrious descent, the genealogies which represent Arnulf as an Aquitanian noble, and his family as connected—by more or less complicated devices—with the saints honoured in Aquitaine, are worthless, dating from the time of Louis the Pious in the 9th century. Arnulf was one of the Austrasian nobles who appealed to Clotaire II., king of Neustria, against Brunhilda, and it was in reward for his services that he received from Clotaire the bishopric of Metz (613). Pippin, also an Austrasian noble, had taken a prominent part in the revolution of 613. These two men Clotaire took as his counsellors; and when he decided in 623 to confer the kingdom of Austrasia upon his son Dagobert, they were appointed mentors to the Austrasian king, Pippin with the title of mayor of the palace. Before receiving his bishopric, Arnulf had had a son Adalgiselus, afterwards called Anchis; Pippin’s daughter, called Begga in later documents, was married to Arnulf’s son, and of this union was born Pippin II. Towards the end of the 7th century Pippin II., called incorrectly Pippin of Heristal, secured a preponderant authority in Austrasia, marched at the head of the Austrasians against Neustria, and gained a decisive victory at Tertry, near St Quentin (687). From that date he may be said to have been sole master of the Frankish kingdom, which he governed till his death (714). In Neustria Pippin gave the mayoralty of the palace to his son Grimoald, and afterwards to Grimoald’s son Theodebald; the mayoralty in Austrasia he gave to his son Drogo, and subsequently to Drogo’s children, Arnulf and Hugh. Charles Martel, however, a son of Pippin by a concubine Chalpaïda, seized the mayoralty in both kingdoms, and he it was who continued the Carolingian dynasty. Charles Martel governed from 714 to 741, and in 751 his son Pippin III. took the title of king. The Carolingian dynasty reigned in France from 751 to 987, when it was ousted by the Capetian dynasty. In Germany descendants of Pippin reigned till the death of Louis the Child in 911; in Italy the Carolingians maintained their position until the deposition of Charles the Fat in 887. Charles, duke of Lower Lorraine, who was thrown into prison by Hugh Capet in 991, left two sons, the last male descendants of the Carolingians, Otto, who was also duke of Lower Lorraine and died without issue, and Louis, who after the year 1000 vanishes from history.

See P. A. F. Gérard and L. A. Warnkönig, Histoire des Carolingiens (Brussels, 1862); H. E. Bonnell, Anfänge des Karoling. Hauses (Berlin, 1866); J. F. Böhmer and E. Mühlbacher, Regesten d. Kaiserreichs unter d. Karolingern (Innsbruck, 1889 seq.); E. Mühlbacher, Deutsche Gesch. unter d. Karolingern (Stuttgart, 1896); F. Lot, Les Derniers Carolingiens (Paris, 1891).  (C. Pf.) 


CAROLUS-DURAN, the name adopted by the French painter Charles Auguste Emile Durand (1837–  ), who was born at Lille on the 4th of July 1837. He studied at the Lille Academy and then went to Paris, and in 1861 to Italy and Spain for further study, especially devoting himself to the pictures of Velasquez. His subject picture “Murdered,” or “The Assassination” (1866), was one of his first successes, and is now in the Lille museum, but he became best known afterwards as a portrait-painter, and as the head of one of the principal ateliers in Paris, where some of the most brilliant artists of a later generation were his pupils. His “Lady with the Glove” (1869), a portrait of his own wife, was bought for the Luxembourg. In 1889 he was made a commander of the Legion of Honour. He became a member of the Académie des Beaux-arts in 1904, and in the next year was appointed director of the French academy at Rome in succession to Eugène Guillaume.


CARORA, an inland town of the state of Lara, Venezuela, on the Carora, a branch of the Tocuyo river, about 54 m. W. by S. of the city of Barquisimeto, and 1128 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1908 estimate) 6000. The town is comparatively well-built