KOENIG, KARL DIETRICH EBERHARD (1774–1851), German palaeontologist, was born at Brunswick in 1774, and was educated at Göttingen. In 1807 he became assistant keeper, and in 1813 he was appointed keeper, of the department of natural history in the British Museum, and afterwards of geology and mineralogy, retaining the post until the close of his life. He described many fossils in the British Museum in a classic work entitled Icones fossilium sectiles (1820–1825). He died in London on the 6th of September 1851.
KOESFELD, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of
Westphalia, on the Berkel, 38 m. by rail N.N.W. of Dortmund.
Pop. (1905), 8449. It has three Roman Catholic churches, one
of which—the Gymnasial Kirche—is used by the Protestant
community. Here are the ruins of the Ludgeri Castle, formerly
the residence of the bishops of Münster, and also the castle
of Varlar, the residence of the princes of Salm-Horstmar.
The leading industries include the making of linen goods and
machinery.
KOHAT, a town and district of British India, in the Peshawar
division of the North-West Frontier Province. The town is
37 m. south of Peshawar by the Kohat Pass, along which a
military road was opened in 1901. The population in 1901
was 30,762, including 12,670 in the cantonment, which is garrisoned
by artillery, cavalry and infantry. In the Tirah campaign
of 1897–98 Kohat was the starting-point of Sir William
Lockhart’s expedition against the Orakzais and Afridis. It is
the military base for the southern Afridi frontier as Peshawar is
for the northern frontier of the same tribe, and it lies in the heart
of the Pathan country.
The District of Kohat has an area of 2973 sq. m. It consists chiefly of a bare and intricate mountain region east of the Indus, deeply scored with river valleys and ravines, but enclosing a few scattered patches of cultivated lowland. The eastern or Khattak country especially comprises a perfect labyrinth of ranges, which fall, however, into two principal groups, to the north and south of the Teri Toi river. The Miranzai valley, in the extreme west, appears by comparison a rich and fertile tract. In its small but carefully tilled glens, the plane, palm, fig and many orchard trees flourish luxuriantly; while a brushwood of wild olive, mimosa and other thorny bushes clothes the rugged ravines upon the upper slopes. Occasional grassy glades upon their sides form favourite pasture grounds for the Waziri tribes. The Teri Toi, rising on the eastern limit of Upper Miranzai, runs due eastward to the Indus, which it joins 12 m. N. of Makhad, dividing the district into two main portions. The drainage from the northern half flows southward into the Teri Toi itself, and northward into the parallel stream of the Kohat Toi. That of the southern tract falls northwards also into the Teri Toi, and southwards towards the Kurram and the Indus. The frontier mountains, continuations of the Safed Koh system, attain in places a considerable elevation, the two principal peaks, Dupa Sir and Mazi Garh, just beyond the British frontier, being 8260 and 7940 ft. above the sea respectively. The Waziri hills, on the south, extend like a wedge between the boundaries of Bannu and Kohat, with a general elevation of less than 4000 ft. The salt-mines are situated in the low line of hills crossing the valley of the Teri Toi, and extending along both banks of that river. The deposit has a width of a quarter of a mile, with a thickness of 1000 ft.; it sometimes forms hills 200 ft. in height, almost entirely composed of solid rock-salt, and may probably rank as one of the largest veins of its kind in the world. The most extensive exposure occurs at Bahadur Khel, on the south bank of the Teri Toi. The annual output is about 16,000 tons, yielding a revenue of £40,000. Petroleum springs exude from a rock at Panoba, 23 m. east of Kohat; and sulphur abounds in the northern range. In 1901 the population was 217,865, showing an increase of 11% in the decade. The frontier tribes on the Kohat border are the Afridis, Orakzais, Zaimukhts and Turis. All these are described under their separate names. A railway runs from Kushalgarh through Kohat to Thal, and the river Indus has been bridged at Kushalgarh.
KOHAT PASS, a mountain pass in the North-West Frontier
Province of India, connecting Kohat with Peshawar. From
the north side the defile commences at 412 m. S.W. of Fort
Mackeson, whence it is about 12 or 13 m. to the Kohat
entrance. The pass varies from 400 yds. to 114 m. in width,
and its summit is some 600 to 700 ft. above the plain. It is
inhabited by the Adam Khel Afridis, and nearly all British
relations with that tribe have been concerned with this pass,
which is the only connexion between two British districts
without crossing and recrossing the Indus (see Afridi). It is
now traversed by a cart-road.
KOHISTAN, a tract of country on the Peshawar border of
the North-West Frontier Province of India. Kohistan means
the “country of the hills” and corresponds to the English word
highlands; but it is specially applied to a district, which is very
little known, to the south and west of Chilas, between the Kagan
valley and the river Indus. It comprises an area of over
1000 sq. m., and is bounded on the N.W. by the river Indus,
on the N.E. by Chilas, and on the S. by Kagan, the Chor
Glen and Allai. It consists roughly of two main valleys running
east and west, and separated from each other by a mountain
range over 16,000 ft. high. Like the mountains of Chilas, those
in Kohistan are snow-bound and rocky wastes from their crests
downwards to 12,000 ft. Below this the hills are covered with
fine forest and grass to 5000 or 6000 ft., and in the valleys,
especially near the Indus, are fertile basins under cultivation.
The Kohistanis are Mahommedans, but not of Pathan race, and
appear to be closely allied to the Chilasis. They are a well-built,
brave but quiet people who carry on a trade with British
districts, and have never given the government much trouble.
There is little doubt that the Kohistanis are, like the Kafirs of
Kafiristan, the remnants of old races driven by Mahommedan
invasions from the valleys and plains into the higher mountains.
The majority have been converted to Islam within the last 200
years. The total population is about 16,000.
An important district also known as Kohistan lies to the north of Kabul in Afghanistan, extending to the Hindu Kush. The Kohistani Tajiks proved to be the most powerful and the best organized clans that opposed the British occupation of Kabul in 1879–80. Part of their country is highly cultivated, abounding in fruit, and includes many important villages. It is here that the remains of an ancient city have been lately discovered by the amir’s officials, which may prove to be the great city of Alexander’s founding, known to be to the north of Kabul, but which had hitherto escaped identification.
The name of Kohistan is also applied to a tract of barren and hilly country on the east border of Karachi district, Sind.
KOHL. (1) The name of the cosmetic used from the earliest
times in the East by women to darken the eyelids, in order to
increase the lustre of the eyes. It is usually composed of finely
powdered antimony, but smoke black obtained from burnt
almond-shells or frankincense is also used. The Arabic word
koḥl, from which has been derived “alcohol,” is derived from
kaḥala, to stain. (2) “Kohl” or “kohl-rabi” (cole-rape, from
Lat. caulis, cabbage) is a kind of cabbage (q.v.), with a turnip-shaped
top, cultivated chiefly as food for cattle.
KOHLHASE, HANS, a German historical figure about whose
personality some controversy exists. He is chiefly known as
the hero of Heinrich von Kleist’s novel, Michael Kohlhaas. He
was a merchant, and not, as some have supposed, a horsedealer,
and he lived at Kölln in Brandenburg. In October 1532, so the
story runs, whilst proceeding to the fair at Leipzig, he was
attacked and his horses were taken from him by the servants of
a Saxon nobleman, one Günter von Zaschwitz. In consequence
of the delay the merchant suffered some loss of business at the
fair and on his return he refused to pay the small sum which
Zaschwitz demanded as a condition of returning the horses.
Instead Kohlhase asked for a substantial amount of money as
compensation for his loss, and failing to secure this he invoked
the aid of his sovereign, the elector of Brandenburg. Finding
however that it was impossible to recover his horses, he paid
Zaschwitz the sum required for them, but reserved to himself
the right to take further action. Then unable to obtain redress
