Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/622

594 J A S J A S 1875 Jarrow was constituted a municipal borough, with an extent of 851 acres. The population in 1881 was 25,296. Previous to 1875 Jarrow had been a local board district; this had a population in 1871 of 18,115. JASHAR, BOOK OF. See HEBREW LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, vol. xi. p. 598. JASHPUR, a tributary state of Chutia Nagpur, Bengal, between 22 17 5" and 23 15 30" N. lat., and between 83 32 50" and 84 26 15" E. long., with an area of 1947 square miles, is bounded on the N. and W. by the tribu tary state of Sarguja, on the S. by Gangpur and Udaipur, and on the E. by Lohardaga district. The state of Jashpur consists in almost equal proportions of highland and low land areas. On its eastern side the tableland of the Uparghat (2200 feet above the sea) forms an integral part of the plateau of Chutia Nagpur; towards the west it springs abruptly from the Hetghat, with a wall buttressed at places by projecting masses of rock. The lowlands of Hetghat and of Jashpur proper lie to the south in successive steppes, broken by low hills. The plateau of Khuria (3000-3700 feet) occupies the north-west corner of the state. The principal peaks in Jashpur are Ranijula (3527 feet), Kohiar (3393 feet), Bharamurio (3390 feet). The chief river is the Ib, which flows through the state from north to south ; but numerous rapids render it unnavigable. The small rivers to the north are feeders of the Kanhar. Iron and gold are found ; sal, sisu, ebony, and other valuable timber trees abound. Lac, tasar-silk, and bees wax, with cereals, oil-seeds, fibres, and cotton are produced. Jashpur, with the rest of the Sarguja group of states, was ceded to the British by the provisional engagement con cluded with Madhuji Bhonsla (ApA Sahib) in 1818. Although noticed as a separate state, it was at first treated as a fief of Sarguja. It is, however, dealt with as a distinct territory. The chief of Jashpur s annual income is 2000 ; the tribute to Government is 77, 10s. The total population in 1872 was 66,926, comprising 34,648 males and 32,278 females, the Dravidian aborigines numbering 40,935 ; Kolarian aborigines, 14,070 ; semi- Hinduized aborigines, 6374 ; Hindus, 5124 ; Mahometans, 423. The residence of the raja is at Jagdispur or Jashpurnagar. JASMIN, JACQUES (1798-1864), a noted Gascon poet, was born at Agen, March 6, 1798. His childhood was spent in the midst of privations and all the straits of poverty, and he boasted in after. life that he had succeeded in breaking up the traditional chair in which the Jasmins had hitherto been carried to the workhouse in sickness and old age. His father, who was a tailor, had a certain facility for making doggrel verses, which he sang or recited at fairs and such like popular gatherings ; and the younger Jasmin, who used generally to accompany him, was thus early familiarized with the double part which he afterwards so successfully filled himself. When sixteen years of age he found employment at a hairdresser s shop, and subse quently started a similar business of his own on the Gravier at Agen. It is opposite this scene of his ripen ing genius and daily work that a statue has been erected to his memory by public subscription. In 1835 he published his first volume of Papillotos (" Curl Papers "), containing poems in French (a language he used with a certain sense of restraint), and in the familiar Agen patois the popular speech of the working classes in which he was to achieve all his literary triumphs. Many of the pieces in this volume had already been printed and sub mitted to the public. The dialect which Jasmin spoke, though still harmonious and full of picturesque idioms, was now almost exclusively used by illiterate persons, and was greatly modified by a daily contact with French. It was, however, his native speech the one in which he found spontaneous and adequate expression, and he lost no opportunity of making himself complete master of it by intercourse with the rural population in outlying dis tricts where it was spoken with less admixture. He reha bilitated, disencumbered, and in a measure reconstructed his literary medium, and then, fully realizing that his poems needed other exposition than the mere printed text, he began those numerous public recitations which so largely added to his reputation. His real poetic gift, and his flexible voice and action, fitted him admirably for this double role of troubadour and jongleur. In 1835 he recited his " Blind Girl of Castel-Cuill6 " at Bordeaux, in 1836 at Toulouse; and he met with an enthusiastic recep tion in both those important cities. Most of his public recitations were given for benevolent purposes, 1,500,000 francs, the proceeds of his poetical rounds, being contri buted by him to the restoration of the church of Vergt and other good works. Four successive volumes of PapiUotus were published during his lifetime, and contained amongst others the following remarkable poems, quoted in order : " The Charivari," " My Recollections " (supplemented after an interval of many years), "The Blind Girl," " Franc/m- netto," "Martha the Simple," and "The Twin Brothers." With the exception of the " Charivari," these are all touching pictures of humble life, in most cases real episodes, carefully elaborated by the poet till the graphic descriptions, full of light and colour, and the admirably varied and melodious verse, seem too spontaneous and easy to have cost an effort. Jasmin was not a prolific writer, and, in spite of his impetuous nature, would work a long time at one poem, striving to realize every feeling- he wished to describe, and give it its most lucid and natural expression. A verse from his spirited poem, " The Third of May," written in honour of Henry IV., and published in the first volume of Papillotos, is engraved on the base of the statue erected to that king at Nerac. In 1852 Jasmin s works were crowned by the Acacle mie Francaise, and a pension was awarded him. The medal struck on the occasion bore the inscription " An poete moral et populaire." His title of "Maistre es Jeux" is a distinction only conferred by the academy of Toulouse on illustrious writers. Pius IX. sent him the insignia of a knight of St Gregory the Great; and he was made chevalier of the legion of honour. He spent the latter years of his life on a small estate which he had bought near Agen and named " Papillotos," and which he describes in Ma Bigno ("My Vine"). Though invited to represent his native city, he refused to do so, preferring the pleasures and leisure of a country life, and wisely judging that he was no really eligible candidate for electoral honours. He died October 4, 1864. His last poem, an answer to Renan, was placed between his folded hands in his coffin. The linguistic and literary revival in the south of France, which received such lustre from the genius of Jasmin, has now become a well-organized movement, and has extended from Gascony to Languedoc, and to Provence, where it is most marked. JASMINE, or JESSAMINE, botanically<7asm ?<m, a genus of shrubs or climbers constituting the principal part of the natural order Jasminacese, and comprising about sixty species, of which forty or more occur in the gardens of Britain. The plants of the genus are mostly natives of the warmer regions of the Old World, but there are one or two South American species. The leaves are pinnate or ternate, or sometimes apparently simple, consisting of one leaflet, articulated to the petiole. The flowers, usually white or yellow, are arranged in terminal or axillary panicles, and have a tubular 5- or 8-cleft calyx, and a cylindrical corolla- tube, with a spreading limb, two included stamens, and a two-celled ovary. The name is derived from the Persian ydsmin. Linnaeus obtained a fancied etymology from la, violets, and 007117,