Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/37

F A N F A N 27 illustrating the theory admit of comparison with the list of famines already referred to and the tables extend to the rainfall (as indicated by floods), to frosts, to drought, and to other meteorological phenomena there is no present evidence that such a theory can be up held, even when applied to the famines of India only ; and apparently still less when extended to those of the whole world. As to Mr Jeula s tables of shipwrecks, which appear to follow the eleven years theory, and to which the doctrine of recurrent storms, induced by the meteorological influences already named, lias been applied the explana tion may be traced to other influences, such as mercantile depression, Arc. In remains to be added that to the direct influence of famines we owe our Poor Laws that national system of insurance against starvation. " In the 29th yeare of Queen Elizabeth, about January [1586], Her Majesty observing the general Dcarthe of Come, and other victual, groune partly through the unseasonablenesse of the year then passed, and partly through the uncharitable greediness of the Corne-Masters, but especially through the unlawful and over much transporting of graine in forreine parts ; by the advice of Her most Hon. Privy Council, published a Pro clamation, and a Booke of Orders to be taken by justices for reliefe of the Poore ; notwithstanding all which the ex cessive prices of grain still encreased : so that wheate was sold at London for 8s. the Bushel, and in some other parts of the Rcalme above that price." Penkethman. To the famine in India in 1781-3 was due the institution of the Monei/ur Choultry, or the Indian equivalent to the British Pocr Law ; while in connexion with the Indian famine of 1790-2 was introduced the system of Government relief works, so extensively adopted at the time of the Irish famine of 1846-7 and the Lancashire cotton famine of 1861-5. The first recorded importation of grain into Great Britain took place during the great famine of 1258, when " fifty of shiploads of wheat, barley, and bread were procured from Germany " hence the first incident which, at a later date, gave rise to our Corn Laws ; and in many other ways famines have left their mark upon our history and our in stitutions, (c. w.) FAN (Latin, vannus; French, eventail), a light imple ment used for giving motion to the air. Ventilabrum and flabdlum arc names under which ecclesiastical fans are mentioned in old inventories. Fans for cooling the face have been in use in hot climates from remote ages. A bas-relief in the British Museum represents Sennacherib with female figures carrying feather fans. They were attri butes of royalty along with horse-hair fly-flappers and umbrellas. Examples may be seen in plates of the Egyp tian sculptures at Thebes and other places, and also in the ruins of Persepolis. In the museum of Boulak, near Cairo, a wooden fan handle showing holes for feathers is still preserved. It is from the tomb of Amen-hotep, of the 18th dynasty, 17th century B.C. In India fans were also attributes of men in authority, and sometimes sacred emblems. A heartshaped fan, with an ivory handle, of unknown age, and held in great veneration by the Hindus, was given to the prince of Wales. Large punkahs or screens, moved by a servant who does nothing else, are in common use by Europeans in India at this day. Fans were used in the early Middle Ages to keep flies from the sacred elements during the celebrations of the Christian mysteries. Sometimes they were round, with bells attached of silver, or silver gilt. Notices of such fans in the ancient records of St Paul s, London, Salisbury cathedral, and many other churches, exist still. For these purposes they are no longer used in the Western church, though they are retained in some Oriental rites. The large feather fans, however, are still carried in the state processions of the supremo pontiff in Rome, though not used during the celebration of the mass. The fan of Queen Theodolinda (7th century) is still preserved in the treasury of the cathedral of Monza. Fans made part of the bridal outfit, or munilus muliebris, of ancient Roman ladies. Folding fans had their origin in Japan, and were imported thence to China. They were in the shape still used a segment of a circle of paper pasted on a light radiating frame-work of bamboo, and variously decorated, some in colours, others of white paper on which verses or sentences are written. It is a compliment in China to in vite a friend or distinguished guest to write some sentiment on your fan as a memento of any special occasion, and this practice has continued. A fan that has some celebrity in France was presented by the Chinese ambassador to the Comtesse de Clauzel at the coronation of Napoleon I. in 1804. When a site was given in 1635, on an artificial island, for the settlement of Portuguese merchants in Nippo in Japan, the space was laid out in the form of a fan as emblematic of an object agreeable for general use. Men and women of every rank both in China and Japan carry fans, even artisans using them with one hand while work ing with the other. In China they are often made of carved ivory, the sticks being plates very thin and sometimes carved on both sides, the intervals between the carved parts pierced with astonishing delicacy, and the plates held to gether by a ribbon. The Japanese make the two outer guards of the stick, which cover the others, occasionally of beaten iron, extremely thin and light, damascened with gold and other metals. Fans were used by Portuguese ladies in the 14th century, and were well known in England before the close of the reign of Richard II. In France the inventory of Charles V. at the end of the 14th century mentions a folding ivory fan. They were brought into general use in that country by Catherine de Medici, probably from Italy, then in ad vance of other countries in all matters of personal luxury. The court ladies of Henry VIII. s reign in England were used to handling fans. A lady in the Dance of Death by Holbein holds a fan. Queen Elizabeth is painted with a round feather fan in her portrait at Gorhambury ; and as many as twenty-seven are enumerated in her inventory (1606). Coryat, an English traveller, in 1608 describes them as common in Italy. They also became of general use from that time in Spain. In Italy, France, and Spain fans had special conventional uses, and various actions in handling them grew into a code of signals, by which ladies were supposed to convey hints or signals to admirers or to rivals in society. A paper in the Spectator humorously proposes to establish a regular drill for these purposes. The chief seat of the European manufacture of fans during the 17th century was Paris, where the sticks or frames, whether of wood or ivory, were made, and the deco rations painted on mounts of very carefully prepared vellum (called latterly chicken skin, but not correctly), a material stronger and tougher than paper, which breaks at the folds. Paris makers exported fans unpainted to Madrid and other Spanish cities, where they wero decorated by native artists. Many were exported complete ; of old fans called Spanish a great number were in fact made in France. Louis XIV. issued edict3 at various times to regulate the- manufacture. Besides fans mounted with parchment, Dutch fans of ivory were imported into Paris, and decorated by the heraldic painters in the process called " Vernis Martin," after a famous carriage painter and inventor of colourless lac varnish. Fans of this kind belonging to the Queen and to the late baroness de Rothschild were ex hibited in 1870 at Kensington. A fan of the date of 1660, representing sacred subjects, is attributed to Philippe de Champagne, another to Peter Oliver in England in the-