FRISIANS
308
FROISSART
likely the tassel of the corner thus thrown over Our
Lord's shoulder that the woman with the issue of
blood touched ("behind him"), in the circumstance
recorded in Matt., ix, 20, and Luke, viii, 44. We
should perhaps go back to a very ancient custom,
the significance of which was lost sight of, to account
for the wearing of these ornaments. At any rate, a
new meaning was attached to them by the lawgiver of
Israel.
Of these " fringes", or tassels, nothing more is said in the O. T., than that they should contain "ribands of blue"; more exactly, "a cord, or thread of pur- ple". But the rabbinical literature contains most minute prescriptions with regard to these ornaments. Owing to the difficulty of procuring the purple dye, the custom prevailed of using only white tlireads of wool. They should be four in number, one being con- siderably longer tlian the others, spun expressly for the purpose, passed through an eyelet at the corner of the cloak, twisted a certain number of times, and tied by five knots. According to Deut., the (tfUh were intended to remind the people of the commandments of the Law. We may easily understand, therefore, why the Pharisees were wont to "enlarge their fringes" (Matt., xxiii, 5). This connexion led people to attach to the fiqilh and its various parts mystic significations, and to the statement that the wearing of it is the most important precept of the Law; nay more, is of equal merit with the observance of the whole Law.
The practice of wearing the ftfUh is still scrupu- lously followed by the Jews. The tassels are a part of the large Uillith, or prayer-shawl, used universally during religious services: this garment is worn in such a way that the fi^ith are visible in front. Pious Jews, moreover, devised, since the Dispersion, an article of clothing, the small tdlltth, that would enable them to observe the Law at all times. This tdllith is similar in shape to a large scapular, with the tassels fastened to the four corners, and is worn as an undergarment. Men only are to wear the tdllith and the fifUh.
Talmud of Jerusalem. Treat, gtflth (Venice, 1522-1523; French transl, by Schwab, Paris, 1871-1890): Maimonides, Yad Ha-lkazakah (1st ed. without place or date; 3d ed., Constan- tinople, 1509); BuxTORF, Lexicon Talmudicum, s. v. fi^lh (Basle, 1639; Leipzig, 1869-1875); Idem, Synagoga Judaica, 160-170 (Basle, 1603); Hiller, Dissertatio de vestibus fimbriatis Heb'-aorum in Ugolini, Thesaurus Antiquitaium Sacrarum. XXI (Venice, 1744-1769).
Chaeles L. Souvay.
Frisians, Conversion of the. See Willibrord, Saint.
Fritz, Samuel, a Jesuit missionary of the eighteenth century noted for his exploration of the Amazon River and its basin; b. at Trautenau, Bohemia, in 1654; d. 20 March, 1728. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1673. In 1684 he was sent to Quito as a missionary. For forty-two years Fritz acted in this capacity among the Indians of the Upper Maranon. He succeeded in converting among others the powerful tribe of Omaguas (Omayas) and in concentrating into civi- lized settlements the savages of forty different locali- ties, in the country between the Rivers Napo and Negro. An adept in technical arts and handicraft, he also was endowed with extraordinary linguistic abilities, sup- plemented by the rare gift of knowing intuitively how to treat the Indians. These qualifications enabled him to accomplish prodigious work among them, and merited for him the respect not only of the savages but also of the Spanish Oovernment, to which he ren- dered valuable service in its boundary dispute with the Portuguese. At the instance of the Real Audiencia of Quito he began (1()87) the cartographical delineation of the disputed missionary territory on the Upper Maranon between Peru and Quito. In 1689 he under- took, in a primitive pirogue, a daring expedition down the Amazon to Panl, where he was captured and im- prisoned for two years on the suspicion of being a
Spanish spy. Although only imperfectly equipped
with the necessary instruments, he completed a com-
paratively accurate chart of the river's course. This
was the first approximately correct chart of the Mara-
non territory. He was also the first to follow the
Tunguragua instead of the Gran Pard (Ucayali) and
prove it the real source of the Maranon.
A Protestant, Wappaeus, writes of him in his " Hand- buchder Geographic undStatistik" (Leipzig, 1863-70, 1, pt. Ill, 595) asfollows: "The great respect justly shown at that time by European scientists for the geographical work of the Jesuits led to the admission into their ranks of Father Fritz by acclamation." In 1707 this map was printed at Quito and extensively copied, e. g. in the "Lettres Edifiantes" (Paris, 1781), VIII, 284, and the "N. Welt-Bott" (Augsburg, 1726, I), also in Condamine, "Relation abr^gte d'un voyage fait dans I'int^rieur de TAradrique M6rid. " (Paris, 1745), which contains the revised chart of Father Fritz for compar- ative study. The chart was reprinted in Madrid, in 1892, on the occasion of the fourth centenary of th.e dis- covery of America. There was another reprint in the "Recueil de voyage et de documents pour servir a I'hist. de la g^ogr.", ed. by Sch^fer and Cordier (Paris, 1893). Three of hib letters are incorporated in the "N. Welt-Bott" (Augsburg, 1726), III, nos. 24, 25; according to Condamine an original report of his travels is to be found in the archives of the Jesuit col- lege at Quito.
Platzweg, Lebensbilder deutscher Jesuiten (Paderborn, 1882), 137; HuoNDER, Deutsche Jesuiten Alissiondre im 17, u. 18. Jahr^ hundert (Freiburg, 1889); Borda, Hist, de la C. de J. en la Nueva Granada (Poissy, 1872), I, 72; Chantre y Herrera, Hist, de las Misiones de la C. d. J. en el Maraflon Espaiiol (Mad- rid, 1901), VI. ix, 296 sq.; Wolf, Geogr. y Geologia del Ecuador (Leipzig, 1892), 566; Ulloa, Viage d la Amirica Meritl. (Ma- drid, 1748), I, vi, c. 5. For the linguistic abilities of Fritz, see Adelung, Mythrid. (Berlin, 1806), III, ii, 611.
A. Huonder.
Froissart, Jean, French historian and poet, b. at Valenciennes, about 1337, d. at Chimay early in the fifteenth century. The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown, as well as the family from which he sprang. In 1361, after receiving ecclesiastical tonsure, he went to England to present to Queen Philippa of Hainault an account in verse of the battle of Poitiers. This marked the beginning of the wan- dering life which led him through the whole of Europe and made him the guest of the chief personages of the end of the fourteenth century. His sojourn in Eng- land lasted till 1367. Queen Philippa received him well and inspired him with the idea of writing his chronicles. He travelled through England and visited Scotland where he met David Bruce. In 1367 he ac- companied the Black Prince to Bordeaux, returned to London, and in 1368 accompanied the Duke of Clar- ence to Milan where the duke was to wed the daugh- ter of Galeazzo Visconti. From Italy Froissart re- turned to Valenciennes where he learned of the death of Queen Philippa in 1369. He was tlien successively under the protection of Duke Wenceslaus of Brabant (1369-1381), and Comte Guy de Blois, seigneur of Beaumont, who bestowed on him the parish of Lestin- nes-au-Mont and a canonicate at Chimay (1384). Froissart accompanied Count Guy into Flanders and to Blois. Then, to secure information concerning the Spanish wars, he visited the court of Gaston Ph6bus, Comte de Foix, and quitted it in 1389 in the company of Jeanne de Boulogne, the affianced bride of the Due de Berry. In 1390 and 1391 he wrote his history at Val- enciennes. He was at Paris in 1392, whence lie went again to London, where he offered his poems to Rich- ard II. Having quarrelled with Guy tie Blois he found a new protector in Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Little is known of his latter years, which were possibly passed at Chimay.
Froissart composed many poems of love and ad- venture, such as "I'Epinette Amoureuse", in which
