Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/83

L U !3 L U S 69 cation between the several districts. This evil, however, has some what abated since the tribal chiefs have been compelled to give hostages as security for their good behaviour. Outwardly Mohammedans of the Shiah sect, the Luri show little veneration either for the Prophet or the Koran. Their religion seems to be a curious mixture of Ali-Ilahism, involving a belief in succes sive incarnations and the worship of the national saint, Baba Buzurg, combined with many mysterious rites, sacrifices, and secret meetings certainly anterior to Islam, and possibly traceable to the ancient rites of Mithras and Anaitis. The chiefs enjoy almost unlimited authority over their subjects, and the tribal organization is strongly marked by the feudal spirit. The total population of Luristan is about 320,000, and the average revenue nearly 40,000 sterling. LUSATIA (German, Lausitz) is a common name applied to two neighbouring districts in Germany, Lusatia Superior and Lusatia Inferior (Oberlausitz and Niederlausitz), belong ing in part to Prussia and in part to Saxony. The country now known as Upper Lusatia was occupied in the 7th century by the Milcieni, a Slavonic tribe. In the 10th century it was annexed to the German kingdom by the margraves of Meissen, and from this time for several centuries it was called Budissin (Bautzen), from the name of the principal fortress. In the llth and 12th centuries Budissin changed hands several times, being connected at different periods with Meissen, Poland, and Bohemia. The emperor Frederick I. granted it in 1158 to King Ladislaus of Bohemia, and under him and his immediate successors it was largely colonized by German immigrants. Between 1253 and 1319 it belonged to Brandenburg, to the margrave of which it was given in pledge by King Ottocar II. of Bohemia; and in 1268 it was divided into an eastern and a western part Budissin proper and Go rlitz. In 1319 Budissin proper was restored to Bohemia, which also recovered Gorlitz in 1346. It was during this period that the fortunes of Budissin were associated with those of the country afterwards called Lower Lusatia, but uriginally Lusatia. It was inhabited fey a Slavonic tribe, the Lusici, and reached in the earliest times from the Black Elster to the Spree. The Lusici were conquered by Margrave Gero in 963, and their land was soon formed into a separate march, sometimes attached to, sometimes independent of, the march of Meissen. In 1303 it passed, as Budissin had done, to Brandenburg, and in 1373, after several changes, it fell into the hands of the emperor Charles IV. as king of Bohemia. During the Huslite wars the people of Lusatia and Budissin remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1467 they recognized as their sovereign King Matthias of Hungary. Twenty-three years later they were again united to Bohemia, but in the meantime they had received from the Hungarian Government the names which they have since retained. In the 16th century the Reformation made way rapidly in Upper Lusatia, and the majority of the people became Protestants. The two countries were conquered in 1620, with the sanction of Ferdinand II,, by the Saxon elector, John George L, to whom they were ceded in 1635, the emperor as king of Bohemia retaining a certain supremacy for the purpose of guarding the rights and privileges of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1815 the whole of Lower Lusatia and the half of Upper Lusatia were transferred from Saxony to Prussia. Lower Lusatia has 395,800 inhabitants, of whom 50,000 are Wends ; the portion of Upper Lusatia belonging to Prussia has 243,500 inhabitants, of whom 32,000 are Wends. There are 300,000 inhabitants, including 50,000 Wends, in Saxon Upper Lusatia. Laws relating to Upper Lusatia, which are passed by the Saxon Parliament, must still be .submitted to the Lusatian diet at Bautzen. LUSHAI OR KUKI HILLS, a wild and imperfectly known tract of country on the north-eastern frontier of India, extending along the southern border of the Assam district of Cachar and the eastern border of the Bengal district of Chittagong. On the east, the Lushai Hills stretch away into the unexplored mountains of Independent Burmah. This extensive region is occupied by a numerous family of tribes known to us indifferently as Lushais or Kukis. All these tribes are nomadic in their habits, and subject to successive waves of migration. It is said that at the present time the entire race of the Lushdis is being forced southwards into British territory under pressure from the Soktis, a tribe advancing upon them from Inde pendent Burmah. The principal characteristic common to all the LusMis, and in which they markedly differ from the other tribes on the Assam frontier, is their feudal organization under hereditary chiefs. Each village is under the military command of a chief, who must come of a certain royal stock. The chief exercises absolute power in the village ; and his dignity and wealth are maintained by a large number of slaves and by fixed contributions of labour from his free subjects. Cultivation is carried on according to the nomadic system of tillage on temporary clearings in the jungle; but the main occupation of the people is hunting and warfare From the earliest times the Lushais have been notorious for their sanguinary raids into British territory, which are said to be instigated by their desire to obtain human heads for use at their funeral ceremonies.- The first of which we have record was in 1777. In 1849 a colony of Lushais settled within Cachar, was attacked by their independent kinsmen, and forced to migrate northwards across the Barak river, where they now live as peaceable British subjects, and are known as "Old Kukis." In 1860 a raid was made upon Tipperah district, in which 186 Bengali villagers were massacred and 100 carried away into captivity. Retributive expeditions, consisting of small forces of sepoys, were repeatedly sent to punish these raids, but, owing to the difficult nature of the country and the fugitive tactics of the enemy, no permanent advantage was gained. At last the disturbed state of the frontier attracted the attention of the supreme government. A military demonstration in 1869 had entirely failed in its object. Relying upon their belief in the impracticable character of their native country, the Lushais made a series of simultaneous attacks in January 1871 upon British villages in Cachar, Sylhet, and Tipperah, as well as on the independent state of Manipur. The outpost of Monierkhal repelled a number of attacks, lasting through two days, made by a second body of Lushais from the eastern tribes, who finally retired with a large amount of plunder, including many coolies and guns. Lord Mayo, the viceroy, resolved to make a vigorous effort to stop those inroads, once and for all. A punitive expedition was organized, composed of two Gurkha battalions, two Punjab and two Bengal native infantry regiments, two companies of sappers and miners, and a detachment of the Peshawar mountain battery. This little army was divided into two columns, one advancing from Cachar and the other from the Chittagong side. Both columns were completely successful. The resistance of the Lnshais, though obstinate in parts, was completely overcome, and the chiefs made their personal submission and accepted the terms offered them. Upwards of one hundred British subjects were liberated from captivity. The actual British loss in fighting was very small, but a large number of soldiers and camp-followers died from cholera. Since this expedition, the Lushais have remained quiet along the entire frontier, and active measures have been taken to open commercial intercourse between them and the people of the plains. Many bdzdrs have been established for this purpose, and trade by barter is now freely carried on. LUSTRATION" is a term that includes all the methods of purification and expiation among the Greeks and Romans. Among the Greeks there are two ideas clearly distinguishable that human nature must purify itself from guilt before it is fit to enter into communion with God or even to associate with men (/ca$cupco, Ka$apo-ts), and that guilt must be expiated voluntarily by certain processes which God has revealed in order to avoid the punishment that must otherwise overtake it (iAao-/xos). It is not possible to make such a distinction among the Latin terms lustratio, piacula, piamcnta, c&rimonix, and even among the Greeks it is not consistently observed. The conception of sin never reached a high moral standard, and tlie

methods of lustration are purely ritualistic. Guilt and