Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/708

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CHICAGO UNIVERSITY.
614
CHICKAHOMINY.

follows: Divinity school, 192; graduate school, 435; the colleges, 1641; medical school, 271; school of education, 107. In 1892 the attendance at the university was 594, thus showing nearly a fivefold increase within ten years.

The president of the university, holding office since its foundation in 1891, is William Rainey Harper, Ph.D., D.D., LL.D., formerly professor of Semitic and biblical literature in Yale University. The administrative and scholastic methods of the university have been largely molded by Dr. Harper, and a large measure of the university's immediate success is ascribed to his influence.

CHICANEAU, shē̇′kȧnō̇. The judge in Racine's farce Les Plaideurs, whose idée fixe is to hold trials, and who finally turns his own home into a court of inquisition, where his servants and pet animals plead and are convicted.

CHICHÉN-ITZÁ, chī-chā̇n′ē̇-tzä (Maya Itzá, well-mouths). The most important of the ancient ruined cities of Yucatan, Mexico, situated 18 miles southwest of the town of Valladolid, in the northern part of the peninsula. It derives its compound name from its former occupants, the Itzá tribe of the great Mayan stock, and from two remarkable natural pools or wells, still existing, which undoubtedly furnished the water-supply of the ancient inhabitants, and may have determined the original selection of the site. With our present imperfect knowledge of Maya chronology, it is sufficient to state that the evidence indicates this as one of the most ancient cities of the peninsula, and that it continued to be occupied as a native stronghold long after the surrounding districts had yielded to the Spaniards.

The principal ruins, which were described in detail by Stephens in 1843 (Incidents of Travel in Yucatan), cover an area of about one square mile, with smaller edifices scattered about the encircling forest. The general structural type is that of the platform pyramid, ascended by means of broad stairways leading up to vaulted chambers, whose walls are covered with sculptured figures and hieroglyphic inscriptions or vividly colored paintings resembling those of the Aztec codices. The material is the white limestone of the country, cut into shapely blocks and set in ordinary mortar, the thicker walls being sometimes filled in with a composition of mortar and broken stone. Each prominent structure is known to the natives under a distinct name. One of the most interesting is that denominated the ‘Tennis Court’ or ‘Gymnasium.’ It consists of two immense parallel walls, each 274 feet long and 30 feet thick, and standing 120 feet apart. Both walls are covered with sculptures in bas-relief, and projecting from the centre of each, at the height of 20 feet from the ground, is set an immense sculptured ring of stone, representing two entwined serpents. From contemporary Spanish descriptions it is almost certain that this was a courtyard, devoted to the playing of a favorite game, in which the effort was to send the ball through the stone ring fixed in the wall. Another of the important ruins is the ‘Castillo,’ a pyramidal mound 200 feet square at the base, and rising 75 feet to a platform, the approach being by means of a grand staircase with two colossal serpents' heads in sculptured stone at the base. The Palace or Nunnery (Casa de las Monjas) is a rectangular mass more than 100 feet long, and somewhat less in width, with an L-shaped wing on the eastern side, 60 feet long. Resting on this artificial platform, which is over 30 feet high, is a rectangular structure 90 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 18 feet in height; and this, in turn, is crowned by a smaller edifice 30 feet long by 12 feet wide. The L-shaped wing is a specimen of the best Mayan architecture. Minor ruins are the Caracol or Round Tower, the Cluchanchob or Red House, and the Temples of the Tables, the Tigers, and the Cones. Consult Holmes, Archæological Studies in Ancient Cities of Mexico (Chicago, 1895).

CHICHESTER, chĭch′es-tẽr (AS. Cissanceaster, Lat. Cissæ castrum, camp of Cissa). A municipal borough and episcopal city in Sussex, England, 17½ miles east-northeast of Portsmouth (Map: England, F 6). It is well built and has wide streets. The ancient city walls are now utilized as a public promenade. The cathedral, erected in the Twelfth and Thirteenth centuries, is remarkable for its unique features of double aisles and detached campanile. Other notable public buildings are the guildhall, formerly the church of a Franciscan monastery; the Church of Saint Olave, one of the oldest in Chichester; and Saint Mary's Hospital, which was founded as a nunnery in the Twelfth Century. The town has a theological college, and there is an ancient grammar school founded in 1497. The chief trade is in agricultural products and live stock. There are malting, brewing, and tanning establishments, and manufactures of wooden-ware. The harbor, two miles to the southwest of the city, is a deep inlet of the English Channel, about eight square miles in area, and is connected with Chichester by a canal. Chichester was the Roman Regnum. It was taken and partially destroyed, in 491, by the South Saxons. It was soon afterwards rebuilt by Cissa, their King. It was for some time the capital of the Kingdom of Sussex. It was incorporated in 1213. During the Civil War it was taken in succession by Royalists and Parliamentarians. Population, in 1901, 12,200. Consult: Hills, “Chichester Cathedral,” in Archæological Journal, Vol. XX. (London, 1864), and “The City Walls,” in id., Vol. XLII. (London, 1886); Hay, History of Chichester (Chichester, 1804).

CHICHEVACHE, shē̇shvȧsh′. A creature in French fable, represented as a lean cow, which lived upon submissive wives. The name and the conception arose from the corruption of the old French chicheface (ugly face) to chichevache (lean cow). Bicorne, the complement of Chichevache, is a fat beast, nourished on submissive husbands.

CHICHIMECA, chēchē̇mā′kȧ (Aztec, perhaps from chichiltie, red + mecayotl, race). ‘Dog people,’ a term of contempt anciently applied by the more cultured Aztecs to the wild tribes northward of the Valley of Mexico. The name has no ethnic significance whatever.

CHICK, Mrs. Louisa. The sister of Mr. Dombey, in Dickens's Dombey and Son. She is an anæmic copy of her brother, and he is the only person for whom she possesses the slightest semblance of affection.

CHICKADEE. See Titmouse.

CHICKAHOM′INY. A river in Virginia, about 75 miles long, flowing into the James about 40 miles southeast of Richmond. On and near this river occurred, during the Civil War,