Research Results For 'FOREST'

ALOES-WOOD

Aloes-wood, also known as eagle-wood and agila-wood, IS the inner portion of the trunk of Aquilaria ovata and Aquilaria Agallochum, forest trees belonging to the order Aquilariaceae, found in tropical Asia, and yielding a fragrant resinous substance, which, as well as the wood, is burned for its perfume. Another tree, the Aloexylon Agallochum of the order Leguminosae, also produces aloes-wood. This wood is supposed to be the lign-aloes of the Bible.
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BRAHMANISM

Brahmanism is a religious and social system prevalent amongst the Hindus, and so called because it was developed and expounded by the sacerdotal caste known as the Brahmans. Brahmanism is founded on the ancient religious writings known as the Vedas and regarded as sacred revelations, of which the Brahmans as a body became custodians and interpreters, being also the officiating priests and the general directors of sacrifices and religious rites.

As the priestly caste increased in numbers and power they went on elaborating the ceremonies, and added to the Vedas other writings tending to confirm the excessive pretensions of this now predominant caste, and give them the sanction of a revelation. The earliest supplements to the Vedas are the Brahmanas, more fully explaining the functions of the officiating priests. Both together form the revealed Scriptures of the Hindus.

In time the caste of Brahmans came to be accepted as a divine institution, and an elaborate system of rules defining and enforcing by the severest penalties its place as well as that of the inferior castes was promulgated. Other early castes were the Kshattriyas or warriors, and the Vaisyas or cultivators, and it was not without a struggle that the former recognized the superiority of the Brahmans. It was by the Brahmans that the Sanskrit literature was developed;
and they were not only the priests, theologians, and philosophers, but also the poets, men of science, lawgivers, administrators, and statesmen of the Aryans of India.

The sanctity and inviolability of a Brahman are maintained by severe penalties. The murder of one of the order, robbing him, etc, are inexpiable sins; even the killing of his cow can only be expiated by a painful penance. A Brahman should pass through four states: First, as Brahmachari, or novice, he begins the study of the sacred Vedas, and is initiated into the privileges and the duties of his caste. He has a right to alms, to exemption from taxes, and from capital and even corporal punishment. Flesh and eggs he is not allowed to eat. Leather, skins of animals, and most animals themselves are impure and not to be touched by him. When manhood comes he ought to marry, and as Grihastha enter the second state, which requires more numerous and minute observances. When he has begotten a son and trained him up for the holy calling he ought to enter the third state, and as Vanaprastha, or inhabitant of the forest, retire from the world for solitary praying and meditation, with severe penances to purify the spirit; but this and the fourth or last state of a Sannyasi, requiring a cruel degree of asceticism, are now seldom reached, and the whole scheme is to be regarded as representing rather the Brahmanical ideal of life than the actual facts.

The worship represented in the oldest Vedic literature is that of natural objects: the sky, personified in the god Indra; the dawn, in Ushas; the various attributes of the sun, in Vishnu, Surya, Agni, etc. These gods were invoked for assistance in the common affairs of life, and were propitiated by offerings which, at first few and simple, afterwards became more complicated and included animal sacrifices. In the later Vedic hymns a philosophical conception of religion and the problems of being and creation appears struggling into existence; and this tendency is systematically developed by the supplements and commentaries known as the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. In some of the Upanishads the deities of the old Vedic creed are treated as symbolical. Brahma, the supreme soul, is the only reality, the world is regarded as an emanation from him, and the highest good of the soul is to become united with the divine. The necessity for the purification of the soul in order to its reunion with the divine nature gave rise to the doctrine of metempsychosis or transmigration.

This philosophical development of Brahmanism gave rise to a distinct separation between the educated and the vulgar creeds. Whilst from the fifth to the first century BC the higher thinkers amongst the Brahmans were developing a philosophy which recognized that there was but one god, the popular creed had concentrated its ideas of worship round three great deities - Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, who now took the place of the confused old Vedic Pantheon. Brahma, the creator, though considered the most exalted of the three, was too abstract an idea to become a, popular god, and soon sank almost out of notice. Thus the Brahmans became divided between Vishnu, the preserver, and Siva, the destroyer and reproducer, and the worshippers of these two deities now form the two great religious sects of India. Siva, in his philosophical significance, is the deity mostly worshipped by the conventional Brahman, while in his aspect of the Destroyer, or in one of his female manifestations, he is the god of the low castes, and was often worshipped with degrading rites. But the highly cultivated Brahman was still a pure theist, and the educated Hindu in general professes to regard the special deity he chooses for worship as merely a form under which the One First Cause may be approached

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The sharp division of the people of India into 'civilized' Aryans and crude non-Aryans had a great influence upon Brahmanism, and thus the spiritual conceptions of the old Vedic creed were mixed in later Hinduism with superstitions and customs belonging to the so-called aboriginal races. Suttee, for example, or the burning of widows, has no authority in the Veda, but like most of the darker features of Hinduism is the result of a compromise which the Brahmanical teachers had to make with the non-Aryan races in India. The Buddhist religion has also had an important influence on the Brahmanic.

The system of caste originally no doubt represented distinctions of race. The early classification of the people was that of 'twice-born' Aryans (priests, warriors, husbandmen) and once-born non-Aryans (serfs); but intermarriages, giving rise to a mixed progeny, and the variety of employments in later times, profoundly modified this simple classification. Innumerable minor distinctions have grown up, so that amongst the Brahmans alone there are several hundred castes who traditionally cannot intermarry or eat food cooked by each other.

The Brahmans represent the highest culture of India, and as the result of centuries of education and self-restraint have evolved a type of man considered by the West as distinctly superior to the castes around them. They still had great influence at the start of the 20th century, and occupied the highest places at the courts of princes. Many, however, were driven by need or other motives into trades and employments inconsistent with the original character of their caste.
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CHASE

In Norman times, a chase (or chace) was a hunting ground stocked with beasts and under private, rather than royal ownership which was called a forest. A chase was protected only by common law.
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COPPICE

A Coppice, or copse is a wood in which the trees are cut over periodically as they attain a certain size. In Britain many forest trees, and in particular the oak, the chestnut, the ash, the birch, and the maple, are dealt with in this way. The period for cutting varies with the soil and the tree. The oak usually requires from fifteen to twenty-five years' growth, while the willow is cut regularly every year. The term ia also used in a general sense for a wood of small growth, or consisting of underwood and brushwood.
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FAIRLOP OAK

The Fairlop Oak was a 500 year old oak tree with a trunk fourteen metres in circumference in Hainault forest, Essex. Beneath its branches an annual fair was long held on the first Friday in July. It was blown down in 1820.
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FEMGERICHTE

Femgerichte (Fehmgerichte or Vehmgerichte) were criminal courts of Germany in the middle ages, which took the place of the regular administration of justice (then fallen into decay), especially in criminal cases. These courts originated and had their chief jurisdiction in Westphalia, and their proceedings were conducted with the most profound secrecy. They seem to have been a survival of old territorial jurisdictions which, on the general distraction and lawlessness prevalent after the fall of Henry the Lion in 1182, acquired an extensive and tremendous authority. In process of time, however, they degenerated, and no longer confined themselves to law and precedent, so that the secrecy in which they enveloped themselves only served as a cloak to their criminal purposes.

The flagrant abuse of their power brought about their fall. In 1461 various princes and cities of Germany, as well as the Swiss confederates, united in a league against them, but their influence was not entirely destroyed until an amended form of trial and penal judicature was introduced. The last Femgericht was held at Zeil in 1568.

The president of the secret tribunal was called the Freigraf, and was generally a prince or count. His associates, who concurred in and executed the sentence, were called Freischoffen. These were scattered through all the provinces of Germany, and recognized one another by certain signs and watchwords. They acknowledged the emperor as their superior, and for this reason generally made him one of their number at his coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle. The assemblies of the tribunal were open or secret. The former were held by day in the open air; the latter by night, in a forest or in concealed and subterranean places. In these different cases the circumstances of judgment and the process of trial were different. The crimes of which the secret tribunal usurped cognizance were heresy, sorcery, rape, theft, robbery, and murder.

The accusation was made by one of the Freischoffen, who, without further proof, declared upon oath that the accused had committed the crime. The accused was now thrice summoned to appear before the secret tribunal, and the citation was secretly affixed to the door of his dwelling or some neighbouring place; the accuser remained unknown. If, after the third summons, the accused did not appear, he was once more cited in a solemn session of the court, and if still contumacious, was given over to the Freischoffen. The first Freischoffe who met him was bound to execute the decree of the court. A dagger was left by the corpse to show that it was not a murder, but a punishment inflicted by one of the Freischoifen. How many judicial murders were perpetrated in this manner from revenge, interested motives, or malice, may well be imagined.
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FOREST

Forest is a term properly applied to an extensive woodland or to a large tract of mingland woodland and open uncultivated land. In English law, a forest was a territory privileged for game generally belonging to the sovereign and set aside for his recreation.
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GREENPEACE

Greenpeace is an international, non-violent direct action environmental protection organisation which campaigns against and brings to public attention issues affecting the world's environment such as whaling, rain forest destruction, nuclear power and other matters which damage the environment. It is renowned for the bravery of its volunteers who engage in death-defying stunts will no apparent concern for their own safety. So successful have been their campaigns that the French government ordered and sank Greenpeace's chief ship - The Rainbow Warrior - killing some crew members who were asleep on board at the time.
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More information about Greenpeace

HAG KNOTS

Hag knots is the term given in the New Forest to tangles in the manes of wild ponies, and so named from the ancient belief that they were used as stirrups by witches (hags).
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MOUNTAINS

Mountains are often classified according to their mode of formation: Fold
mountains; Block mountains; Residual mountains; Volcanic mountains.

High mountain chains such as the Himalayas, Andes, Alps, and Rockies are known as new fold mountain systems. The term 'fold' is a reference to the way in which such mountains have been formed. Throughout millions of years slow movements of the earth's crust have caused these
mountains to be raised. The movements which have resulted in mountain buildings were not, however, vertical uplifts. They were primarily horizontal movements, the effect of which was to cause the crust of the earth to 'wrinkle', in a similar way to which a tablecloth wrinkles if it is pushed along the table. The arched or upraised parts of the folds are known as anticlines and the troughs as synclines. These folds can vary greatly in size. Mountain building is undoubtedly due to some deep-seated cause. For a long period the most simple explanation was that folding was entirely due to the cooling and contraction of the earth, so that the crust, already cold and shrunken, had to wrinkle to fit itself to the still cooling and contracting 'core'. One of the objections advanced against this theory is that the amount of shrinking necessary to account for the Himalayas, Alps, etc., seems to be greater than the mere contraction of the earth would allow. While the theory of contraction cannot be completely rejected, serious consideration must be given to the more recent explanations of mountain building. For instance, Wegener suggests that mountain building may be due to the 'wrinkles' produced by the drifting of a continental mass, e.g. that the Alps were formed by the northward drift of the African continent towards the more stable blocks of Central Europe. As the African mass drifted slowly northward the zone between it and the European mass became narrower, and the land was raised into high ridges or folds. The raising of the Alps was accompanied by the formation of the deep trough which contains the Mediterranean Sea. The same hypothesis would account for the building of the Himalayas and the depression of the Indo-Gangetic trough by the northward drift of the Deccan mass.

During the physical history of the earth, mountain building appears to have proceeded more actively at some periods than others. Fold mountains are, therefore, not all of the same age. The newest group of fold mountains include the Himalayas, Alps, Rockies, and Andes. During an earlier period of folding (the Carboniferous) the Pennines, Appalachians, the Cape Ranges of South Africa, and the Dividing Range of Australia were uplifted. A still earlier period of folding accounted for the original mountains of Scotland and Norway, of which the present mountains are merely the worn down stumps. The older fold mountains, which have been subjected to the forces of denudation (such as the weather, rivers, glaciers, etc.) for long geological periods, are much lower and less rugged than the newer fold mountains. The term 'new fold' is applied to the mountain ranges which have been folded most recently, but they seem very old when their age in actual years is considered because they were uplifted many millions of years before historic time. Mountain building is a very long and slow process; and in the case of certain mountain chains, such as the Andes and the mountains of Japan, is probably still proceeding.

The new fold mountain systems of the world, except in such instances as the simple low folds of the Weald (South-east England), usually consist of high parallel ranges, the average height being well over 3000 metres. In the Himalayas' the highest peak rises to 8840 metres; in the Andes 7000 metres; in the Rockies 6000 metres; in the Alps to 4600 metres. Vast though these heights appear, the wrinkles of the earth's crust are only slight. The highest mountain in the world (Mount Everest) is about five miles high, so that on a globe of 40 cm, diameter it would protrude only 2.5 mm. Most of the active volcanoes are found in the neighbourhood of fold mountains, where the crust of the earth has been fractured during the process of folding. All around the Pacific Ocean there are many active and extinct volcanoes, as in New Zealand, the East Indies, Japan, and North, Central, and South America. Another belt of active volcanoes is associated with the fold mountains of the West Indies. The mountains of this type are characterised by ruggedness of relief in contrast to the smooth and rounded contours of mountain areas which have been subjected to weathering agents for long periods of time. This is obvious if pictures of the Alps and the Scottish Highlands are compared.

Mountains are effective climatic barriers, and the climates of regions on either side of a high mountain range are very different. For example, the coast lands of British Columbia have an equable climate and a heavy rainfall, while the lands to the east of the Rockies have an extreme climate and light rainfall. Again, the climate of the mountainous areas differs from that of the adjacent lowlands. The great mountain systems of the world are mainly important for their minerals, and, in the temperate zone, for their lumber. In the plateau regions of some mountain systems agriculture has been made possible by irrigation, and above the forests in temperate areas there are valuable alpine pastures. The swift streams of mountains are frequently sources of hydro-electric power, especially in countries which have no coal, such as Switzerland and Norway. In North America, the Western Cordillera provides gold, copper, lead, and silver, especially in the states of Nevada and Montana. The Andes provide tin and copper (Bolivia), gold and platinum
(Colombia), and silver (Peru). The Highlands of East Australia are important for copper and gold. The lumbering industry is specially important in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon (soft woods), the Central American mountainous lands (hard woods), the Himalayan slopes (teak and sal), and the Scandinavian mountains (soft woods).

To provide food for the mining communities in inaccessible mountain areas, agriculture has been developed. There are numerous irrigation schemes in operation in most of the mountain states of the USA, e.g. at Salt Lake City in Utah. Similarly, the Andean states, e.g. Bolivia, grow small quantities of cereals in the plateau areas. Mountain pastures have been utilised most extensively for cattle rearing in Switzerland and Scandinavia. The vast central plateau of Asia is, owing to difficulty of access and climatic extremes, so isolated from other regions that very little development of any kind, on modern lines, has taken place. High mountain ranges are also barriers to communication, and so tend to separate peoples. Traffic across mountains is limited to the passes, which are often so high as to be snowbound in winter. Such ranges as the Alps, Andes, etc. can only be crossed with great difficulty or by expensive tunnelling.

It sometimes happens that movement of the earth's crust occurs along cracks or faults. Where such movement leaves a block of higher land standing between two areas of lower land, the highland is known as a 'Block Mountain' or horst. The Vosges and Black Forest Mountains are examples of such formations These mountains are usually very steep-sided, and often the summit levels are roughly the same.

When an area of highland remains standing above the general level after rivers and other natural agents have lowered the surface of the surrounding area, the name residual mountain is used. Sometimes such highlands are called 'mountains of denudation'. This term can usually be applied to the mountain ridges associated with 'dissected plateaux'. Included in this class are the mountain ridges of the Highlands of Scotland, the Sierras of Central Spain, and the Mesas and Buttes of the western plateau lands of the United States.

Mountains may be formed by volcanic material piled up around a crater, such mountains are popularly known as volcanoes.
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