Hindostan was published. Twenty-six years later Elphinstone’s Caubal was published. During the British occupation of Kabul in 1839–1840 a deputation of Kafirs journeyed there to invite a visit to their country from the Christians whom they assumed to be their kindred. But the Afghans grew furiously jealous, and the deputation was sent coldly away.
After Sir George Robertson’s sojourn in the country and the visit of several Kafirs to India with him in 1892 an increasing intimacy continued, especially with the people of the eastern valleys, until 1895, when by the terms of an agreement entered into between the government of India and the ruler of Afghanistan the whole of the Kafir territory came nominally under the sway of Kabul. The amir Abdur Rahman at once set about enforcing his authority, and the curtain, partially lifted, fell again heavily and in darkness. Nothing but rumours reached the outside world, rumours of successful invasions, of the wholesale deportation of boys to Kabul for instruction in the religion of Islam, of rebellions, of terrible repressions. Finally even rumour ceased. A powerful Asiatic ruler has the means of ensuring a silence which is absolute, and nothing is ever known from Kabul except what the amir wishes to be known. Probably larger numbers of the growing boys and young men of Kafiristan are fanatical Mahommedans, fanatical with the zeal of the recent convert, while the older people and the majority of the population cherish their ancient customs in secret and their degraded religion in fear and trembling—waiting dumbly for a sign.
See Sir G. S. Robertson, Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush (London, 1896). (G. S. R.)
KAGERA, a river of east equatorial Africa, the most remote headstream of the Nile. The sources of its principal upper branch, the Nyavarongo, rise in the hill country immediately east of Lake Kivu. After a course of over 400 m. the Kagera enters Victoria Nyanza on its western shore in 0° 58′ S. It is navigable by steamers for 70 m. from its mouth, being obstructed by rapids above that point. The river was first heard of by J. H. Speke in 1858, and was first seen (by white men) by the same traveller (Jan. 16, 1862) on his journey to discover the Nile source. Speke was well aware that the Kagera was the chief river emptying into the Victoria Nyanza and in that sense the headstream of the Nile. By him the stream was called “Kitangŭlé,” kagera being given as equivalent to “river.” The exploration of the Kagera has been largely the work of German travellers.
See Nile; also Speke’s Discovery of the Source of the Nile (Edinburgh, 1863); R. Kandt’s Caput Nili (Berlin, 1904); and map by P. Sprigade and M. Moisel in Grosser deutscher Kolonialatlas, No. 16 (Berlin, 1906).
KAHLUR, or Bilaspur, a native state of India, within the
Punjab. It is one of the hill states that came under British
protection after the first Sikh war in 1846. The Gurkhas
had overrun the country in the early part of the 19th century,
and expelled the raja, who was, however, reinstated by the
British in 1815. The state occupies part of the basin of the
Sutlej amid the lower slopes of the Himalaya. Area, 448 sq. m.
Pop. (1901), 90,873; estimated gross revenue, £10,000; tribute,
£530. The chief, whose title is raja, is a Chandel Rajput. The
town of Bilaspur is situated on the left bank of the Sutlej,
1465 ft. above sea-level; pop. (1901), 3192.
KAHN, GUSTAVE (1859– ), French poet, was born at
Metz on the 21st of December 1859. He was educated in Paris
at the École des Chartes and the École des langues orientales,
and began to contribute to obscure Parisian reviews. After
four years spent in Africa he returned to Paris in 1885, and
founded in 1886 a weekly review, La Vogue, in which many of
his early poems appeared. In the autumn of the same year he
founded, with Jean Moréas and Paul Adam, a short-lived periodical,
Le Symboliste, in which they preached the nebulous poetic
doctrine of Stéphane Mallarmé; and in 1888 he became one
of the editors of the Revue indépendante. He contributed
poetry and criticism to the French and Belgian reviews favourable
to the extreme symbolists, and, with Catulle Mendès,
he founded at the Odéon, the Théâtre Antoine and the Théâtre
Sarah Bernhardt, matinées for the production of the plays of
the younger poets. He claimed to be the earliest writer of the
vers libre, and explained his methods and the history of the movement
in a preface to his Premiers poèmes (1897). Later books are
Le Livre d’images (1897); Les Fleurs de la passion (1900); some
novels; and a valuable contribution to the history of modern
French verse in Symbolistes et décadents (1902).
KAHNIS, KARL FRIEDRICH AUGUST (1814–1888), German
Lutheran theologian, was born at Greiz on the 22nd of December
1814. He studied at Halle, and in 1850 was appointed professor
ordinarius at Leipzig. Ten years later he was made canon of
Meissen. He retired in 1886, and died on the 20th of June
1888 at Leipzig. Kahnis was at first a neo-Lutheran, blessed
by E. W. Hengstenberg and his pietistic friends. He then
attached himself to the Old Lutheran party, interpreting Lutheranism
in a broad and liberal spirit and showing some appreciation
of rationalism. His Lutherische Dogmatik, historisch-genetisch
dargestellt (3 vols., 1861–1868; 2nd ed. in 2 vols.,
1874–1875), by making concessions to modern criticism, by
spiritualizing and adapting the old dogmas, by attacking the
idea of an infallible canon of Scripture and the conventional
theory of inspiration, by laying stress on the human side of
Scripture and insisting on the progressive character of revelation,
brought him into conflict with his former friends. A. W.
Diekhoff, Franz Delitzsch (Für und wider Kahnis, 1863) and
Hengstenberg (Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, 1862) protested
loudly against the heresy, and Kahnis replied to Hengstenberg
in a vigorous pamphlet, Zeugniss für die Grundwahrheiten des
Protestantismus gegen Dr Hengstenberg (1862).
Other works by Kahnis are Lehre vom Abendmahl (1851), Der innere Gang des deutschen Protestantismus seit Mitte des vorigen Jahrhunderts (1854; 3rd ed. in 2 vols., 1874; Eng. trans., 1856); Christentum und Luthertum (1871); Geschichte der deutschen Reformation, vol. i. (1872); Der Gang der Kirche in Lebensbildern (1881, &c.); and Über das Verhältnis der alten Philosophie zum Christentum (1884).
K’AI-FÊNG FU, the capital of the province of Honan, China. It is situated in 34° 52′ N., 114° 33′ E., on a branch line of the Peking-Hankow railway, and forms also the district city of Siang-fu. A city on the present site was first built by Duke Chwang (774–700 B.C.) to mark off (k’ai) the boundary of his fief (fêng); hence its name. It has, however, passed under several aliases in Chinese history. During the Chow, Suy and T’ang dynasties (557–907) it was known as P’ien-chow. During the Wu-tai, or five dynasties (907–960), it was the Tung-king, or eastern capital. Under the Sung and Kin dynasties (960–1260) it was called P’ien-king. By the Yuan or Mongol dynasty (1260–1368) its name was again changed to P’ien-liang, and on the return of the Chinese to power with the establishment of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), its original name was restored. The city is situated at the point where the last spur of the Kuen-lun mountain system merges in the eastern plain, and a few miles south of the Hwang-ho. Its position, therefore, lays it open to the destructive influences of this river. In 1642 it was totally destroyed by a flood caused by the dikes bursting, and on several prior and subsequent occasions it has suffered injury from the same cause. The city is large and imposing, with broad streets and handsome buildings, the most notable of which are a twelve-storeyed pagoda 600 ft. high, and a watch tower from which, at a height of 200 ft., the inhabitants are able to observe the approach of the yellow waters of the river in times of flood. The city wall forms a substantial protection and is pierced by five gates. The whole neighbourhood, which is the site of one of the earliest settlements of the Chinese in China, is full of historical associations, and it was in this city that the Jews who entered China in A.D. 1163 first established a colony. For many centuries these people held themselves aloof from the natives, and practised the rites of their religion in a temple built and supported by themselves. At last, however, they fell upon evil times, and in 1851, out of the seventy families which constituted the original colony, only seven remained. For fifty years no rabbi
