in German history the Quellenkunde of Dahlmann-Waitz (7th ed.);
for France the Bibliographie de l’histoire de France of G. Monod
(antiquated, 1888), or the Sources de l’histoire de France so ably
begun by A. Molinier’s volumes on the medieval period. Perhaps
the sanest survey of the present scientific movement in history is
the clear summary of Ch. V. Langlois and Ch. Seignobos, Introduction
to the Study of History (trans. with preface by F. York
Powell, London, 1898). Much more ambitious is E. Bernheim’s
Lehrbuch der historischen Methode und der Geschichtsphilosophie mit
Nachweis der wichtigsten Quellen und Hilfsmittel zum Studium der
Geschichte (3rd and 4th ed., Leipzig, 1903). (J. T. S.*)
HIT, a town of Asiatic Turkey, in the vilayet of Bagdad, on the west bank of the Euphrates, 70 m. W.N.W. of Bagdad, in 33° 38′ 8″ N., 42° 52′ 15″ E. It is picturesquely situated on a line of hills, partly natural, but in large part certainly artificial, the accumulation of centuries of former habitation, from 30 to 100 ft. in height, bordering the river. The houses are built of field stones and mud. A striking feature of the town is a lofty and well-proportioned minaret, which leans quite perceptibly. Behind and around Hit is an extensive but utterly barren plain, through which flow several streams of bitter water, coming from mineral springs. Directly behind the town are two bitumen springs, one cold and one hot, within 30 ft. of one another. The gypsum cliffs on the edge of the plain, and the rocks which crop out here and there in the plain, are full of seams of bitumen, and the whole place is redolent of sulphuretted hydrogen. Across the river there are naphtha springs. Indeed, the entire region is one possessing great potential wealth in mineral oils and the like. Hit, with its fringe of palms, is like an oasis in the desert occasioned by the outcrop of these deposits. From time immemorial it has been the chief source of supply of bitumen for Babylonia, the prosperity of the town depending always upon its bitumen fountains, which are still the property of the government, but are rented out to any one who wishes to use them. There is also a shipyard at Hit, where the characteristic Babylonian boats are still made, smeared within and without with bitumen. Hit is the head of navigation on the Euphrates. It is also the point from which the camel-post starts across the desert to Damascus. About 8 m. inland from Hit, on a bitter stream, lies the small town of Kubeitha. Hit is mentioned, under the name of Ist, in the Karnak inscription as paying tribute to Tethmosis (Thothmes) III. In the Bible (Ezra viii. 15) it is called Ahava; the original Babylonian name seems to have been Ihi, which becomes in the Talmud Ihidakira, in Ptolemy Ιδικάρα, and in Zosimus and Ammianus Δακίρα and Diacira.
See Geo. Rawlinson’s Herodotus, i. 179, and note by H. C. Rawlinson; J. P. Peters, Nippur (1897); H. V. Geere, By Nile and Euphrates (1904). (J. P. Pe.)
HITA, GINÉS PEREZ DE (1544?–1605?), Spanish novelist
and poet, was born at Mula (Murcia) about the middle of the 16th
century. He served in the campaign of 1569–1571 against the
Moriscos, and in 1572 wrote a rhymed history of the city of Lorca
which remained unpublished till 1889. He owes his wide celebrity
to the Historia de los bandos de Zegríes y Abencerrajes (1595–1604),
better known as the Guerras civiles de Granada, which
purports to be a chronicle based on an Arabic original ascribed
to a certain Aben-Hamin. Aben-Hamin is a fictitious personage,
and the Guerras de Granada is in reality a historical novel, perhaps
the earliest example of its kind, and certainly the first historical
novel that attained popularity. In the first part the events which
led to the downfall of Granada are related with uncommon
brilliancy, and Hita’s sympathetic transcription of life at the
Emir’s court has clearly suggested the conventional presentation
of the picturesque, chivalrous Moor in the pages of Mlle de
Scudéry, Mme de Lafayette, Châteaubriand and Washington
Irving. The second part is concerned with the author’s personal
experiences, and the treatment is effective; yet, though
Calderón’s play, Amar después de la muerte, is derived from it, the
second part has never enjoyed the vogue or influence of the first.
The exact date of Hita’s death is unknown. His blank verse
rendering of the Crónica Troyana, written in 1596, exists in
manuscript.
HITCHCOCK, EDWARD' (1793–1864), American geologist,
was born of poor parents at Deerfield, Massachusetts, on the
24th of May 1793. He owed his education chiefly to his own
exertions, and was preparing himself to enter Harvard College
when he was compelled to interrupt his studies from a weakness
in his eyesight. In 1815 he became principal of the academy of
his native town; but he resigned this office in 1818 in order
to study for the ministry. Having been ordained in 1821
pastor of the Congregational church of Conway, Mass., he employed
his leisure in making a scientific survey of the western
counties of the state. From 1825 to 1845 he was professor of
chemistry and natural history, from 1845 to 1864 was professor of
natural theology and geology at Amherst College, and from 1845
to 1854 was president; the college owed its early success largely
to his energetic efforts, especially during the period of his presidency.
In 1830 he was appointed state geologist of Massachusetts,
and in 1836 was made geologist of the first district of the state of
New York. In 1840 he received the degree of LL.D. from
Harvard, and in 1846 that of D.D. from Middlebury College,
Vermont. Besides his constant labours in geology, zoology and
botany, Hitchcock took an active interest in agriculture, and in
1850 he was sent by the Massachusetts legislature to examine
into the methods of the agricultural schools of Europe. In
geology he made a detailed examination and exposition of the
fossil footprints from the Triassic sandstones of the Connecticut
valley. His collection is preserved in the Hitchcock Ichnological
Museum of Amherst College, and a description of it was published
in 1858 in his report to the Massachusetts legislature on the
ichnology of New England. The footprints were regarded as
those of reptiles, amphibia and birds (?). In 1857 he undertook,
with the aid of his two sons, the geological survey of Vermont,
which was completed in 1861. As a writer on geological science,
Hitchcock was largely concerned in determining the connexion
between it and religion, and employing its results to explain
and support what he regarded as the truths of revelation. He
died at Amherst, on the 27th of February 1864.
His son, Charles Henry Hitchcock (1836– ), did good service in geology, in Vermont, New Hampshire (1868–1878), and other parts of America, and became professor of geology at Dartmouth in 1868.
The following are Edward Hitchcock’s principal works: Geology of the Connecticut Valley (1823); Catalogue of Plants growing without cultivation in the vicinity of Amherst (1829); Reports on the Geology of Massachusetts (1833–1841); Elementary Geology (1840; ed. 2, 1841; and later ed. with C. H. Hitchcock, 1862); Fossil Footmarks in the United States (1848); Outline of the Geology of the Globe and of the United States in particular (1853); Illustrations of Surface Geology (1856); Ichnology of New England (1858); The Religion of Geology and its Connected Sciences (1851; new ed., 1869); Reminiscences of Amherst College (1863); and various papers in the American Journal of Science, and other periodicals.
HITCHCOCK, GEORGE (1850–), American artist, was born at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1850. He graduated from Brown University in 1872 and from the law school of Harvard University in 1874; then turned his attention to art and became a pupil of Boulanger and Lefebvre in Paris. He attracted notice in the Salon of 1885 with his “Tulip Growing,” a Dutch garden which he painted in Holland. He had for years a studio at Egmond, in the Netherlands. He became a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, France; a member of the Vienna Academy of Arts, the Munich Secession Society, and other art bodies; and is represented in the Dresden gallery; the imperial collection, Vienna; the Chicago Art Institute, and the Detroit Museum of Fine Arts.
HITCHCOCK, ROSWELL DWIGHT (1817–1887), American
divine, was born at East Machias, Maine, on the 15th of August
1817, graduated at Amherst College in 1836, and later studied at
Andover Theological Seminary, Mass. After a visit to Germany
he was a tutor at Amherst in 1839–1842, and was minister of the
First (Congregational) Church, Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1845–1852.
He became professor of natural and revealed religion in
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, in 1852, and in 1855
professor of church history in the Union Theological Seminary
in New York, of which he was president in 1880–1887. He died
at Somerset, Mass., on the 16th of June 1887.
Among his works are: Life of Edward Robinson (1863); Socialism (1879); Carmina Sanctorum (with Z. Eddy and L. W. Mudge, 1885); and Eternal Atonement (1888).
