Whatever may be the conclusion as to the position of Dinophilus
and Histriodrilus, it seems only reasonable to suppose that
Polygordius and Protodrilus, so far from representing a stage in the
phylogeny of the Annelida before setae were developed, have lost
the setae, which are already in a reduced state in Saccocirrus.
Authorities.—Hatschek, “Studien z. Entw. der Anneliden,” Arb. Zool. Inst. Wien, vol. i., 1878; “Protodrilus,” ibid. vol. iii. (1881); Fraipont, “Le Genre Polygordius,” Fauna u. Flora d. Golfes v. Neapel., xiv., 1887; Weldon, “Dinophilus gigas,” Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci. vol. xxvii., 1886; Harmer, “Dinophilus,” Journ. Mar. Biol. N.S. vol. i., 1889; Schimkewitsch, “Entwickl. des Dinophilus,” Zeit. f. wiss. Zool. vol. lix., 1895; Korschelt, “Über Bau u. Entw. des Dinophilus,” Zeit. f. wiss. Zool. vol. xxxvii., 1882; Foettinger, “Histriobdella,” Arch. Biol. vol. v., 1884; Goodrich, “On Saccocirrus,” Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci. vol. xliv., 1901. (E. S. G.)
HAPTARA (lit. conclusion), the Hebrew title given to the
prophetic lessons with which the ancient Synagogue service
concluded. In the time of Christ these prophetic lessons were
already in vogue, and Christ himself read the lessons and discoursed
on them in the synagogues of Galilee. In the modern
synagogue these readings from the prophets are regularly
included in the ritual of Sabbaths, festivals and some other
occasions.
A list of the current lessons is given in the Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. vi. pp. 136-137. (I. A.)
HAPUR, a town of British India in the Meerut district of the
United Provinces, 18 m. S. of Meerut. Pop. (1901) 17,796.
It is said to have been founded in the 10th century, and was
granted by Sindhia to his French general Perron at the end
of the 18th century. Several fine groves surround the town,
but the wall and ditch have fallen out of repair, and only
the names of the five gates remain. Considerable trade is
carried on in sugar, grain, cotton, timber, bamboos and brass
utensils.
HARA-KIRI (Japanese hara, belly, and kiri, cutting), self-disembowelment,
primarily the method of suicide permitted
to offenders of the noble class in feudal Japan, and later the
national form of honourable suicide. Hara-kiri has been often
translated as “the happy dispatch” in confusion with a native
euphemism for the act. More usually the Japanese themselves
speak of hara-kiri by its Chinese synonym, Seppuku. Hara-kiri
is not an aboriginal Japanese custom. It was a growth of
medieval militarism, the act probably at first being prompted
by the desire of the noble to escape the humiliation of falling
into an enemy’s hands. By the end of the 14th century the
custom had become a much valued privilege, being formally
established as such under the Ashi-Kaga dynasty. Hara-kiri
was of two kinds, obligatory and voluntary. The first is the
more ancient. An official or noble, who had broken the law
or been disloyal, received a message from the emperor, couched
always in sympathetic and gracious tones, courteously intimating
that he must die. The mikado usually sent a jewelled dagger
with which the deed might be done. The suicide had so many
days allotted to him by immemorial custom in which to make
dignified preparations for the ceremony, which was attended by
the utmost formality. In his own baronial hall or in a temple
a daïs 3 or 4 in. from the ground was constructed. Upon this
was laid a rug of red felt. The suicide, clothed in his ceremonial
dress as an hereditary noble, and accompanied by his second or
“Kaishaku,” took his place on the mat, the officials and his
friends ranging themselves in a semicircle round the daïs. After
a minute’s prayer the weapon was handed to him with many
obeisances by the mikado’s representative, and he then made a
public confession of his fault. He then stripped to the waist.
Every movement in the grim ceremony was governed by
precedent, and he had to tuck his wide sleeves under his knees
to prevent himself falling backwards, for a Japanese noble
must die falling forward. A moment later he plunged the dagger
into his stomach below the waist on the left side, drew it across
to the right and, turning it, gave a slight cut upward. At the
same moment the Kaishaku who crouched at his friend’s side,
leaping up, brought his sword down on the outstretched neck.
At the conclusion of the ceremony the bloodstained dagger was
taken to the mikado as a proof of the consummation of the heroic
act. The performance of hara-kiri carried with it certain
privileges. If it was by order of the mikado half only of a
traitor’s property was forfeited to the state. If the gnawings
of conscience drove the disloyal noble to voluntary suicide, his
dishonour was wiped out, and his family inherited all his
fortune.
Voluntary hara-kiri was the refuge of men rendered desperate by private misfortunes, or was committed from loyalty to a dead superior, or as a protest against what was deemed a false national policy. This voluntary suicide still survives, a characteristic case being that of Lieutenant Takeyoshi who in 1891 gave himself the “belly-cut” in front of the graves of his ancestors at Tōkyo as a protest against what he considered the criminal lethargy of the government in not taking precautions against possible Russian encroachments to the north of Japan. In the Russo-Japanese War, when faced by defeat at Vladivostok, the officer in command of the troops on the transport “Kinshu Maru” committed hara-kiri. Hara-kiri has not been uncommon among women, but in their case the mode is by cutting the throat. The popularity of this self-immolation is testified to by the fact that for centuries no fewer than 1500 hara-kiris are said to have taken place annually, at least half being entirely voluntary. Stories of amazing heroism are told in connexion with the performance of the act. One noble, barely out of his teens, not content with giving himself the customary cuts, slashed himself thrice horizontally and twice vertically. Then he stabbed himself in the throat until the dirk protruded on the other side with the sharp edge to the front, and with a supreme effort drove the knife forward with both hands through his neck. Obligatory hara-kiri was obsolete in the middle of the 19th century, and was actually abolished in 1868.
See A. B. Mitford, Tales of Old Japan; Basil Hall Chamberlain, Things Japanese (1898).
HARALD, the name of four kings of Norway.
Harald I. (850–933), surnamed Haarfager (of the beautiful hair), first king over Norway, succeeded on the death or his father Halfdan the Black in A.D. 860 to the sovereignty of several small and somewhat scattered kingdoms, which had come into his father’s hands through conquest and inheritance and lay chiefly in south-east Norway (see Norway). The tale goes that the scorn of the daughter of a neighbouring king induced Harald to take a vow not to cut nor comb his hair until he was sole king of Norway, and that ten years later he was justified in trimming it; whereupon he exchanged the epithet “Shockhead” for the one by which he is usually known. In 866 he made the first of a series of conquests over the many petty kingdoms which then composed Norway; and in 872, after a great victory at Hafrsfjord near Stavanger, he found himself king over the whole country. His realm was, however, threatened by dangers from without, as large numbers of his opponents had taken refuge, not only in Iceland, then recently discovered, but also in the Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides and Faeroes, and in Scotland itself; and from these winter quarters sallied forth to harry Norway as well as the rest of northern Europe. Their numbers were increased by malcontents from Norway, who resented Harald’s claim of rights of taxation over lands which the possessors appear to have previously held in absolute ownership. At last Harald was forced to make an expedition to the west to clear the islands and Scottish mainland of Vikings. Numbers of them fled to Iceland, which grew into an independent commonwealth, while the Scottish isles fell under Norwegian rule. The latter part of Harald’s reign was disturbed by the strife of his many sons. He gave them all the royal title and assigned lands to them which they were to govern as his representatives; but this arrangement did not put an end to the discord, which continued into the next reign. When he grew old he handed over the supreme power to his favourite son Erik “Bloody Axe,” whom he intended to be his successor. Harald died in 933, in his eighty-fourth year.
Harald II., surnamed Graafeld, a grandson of Harald I., became, with his brothers, ruler of the western part of Norway in 961; he was murdered in Denmark in 969.
