its doctrines by missionary enterprise. Its tenets at this time were the following: (1) The wide universe is the temple of God. (2) Wisdom is the pure land of pilgrimage. (3) Truth is the everlasting scripture. (4) Faith is the root of all religions. (5) Love is the true spiritual culture. (6) The destruction of selfishness is the true asceticism. In 1866 he delivered an address on “Jesus Christ, Europe and Asia,” which led to the false impression that he was about to embrace Christianity. This helped to call attention to him in Europe, and in 1870 he paid a visit to England. The Hindu preacher was warmly welcomed by almost all denominations, particularly by the Unitarians, with whose creed the new Brahma Samaj had most in common, and it was the committee of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association that organized the welcome soirée at Hanover Square Rooms on the 12th of April. Ministers of ten different denominations were on the platform, and among those who officially bade him welcome were Lord Lawrence and Dean Stanley. He remained for six months in England, visiting most of the chief towns. His eloquence, delivery and command of the language won universal admiration. His own impression of England was somewhat disappointing. Christianity in England appeared to him too sectarian and narrow, too “muscular and hard,” and Christian life in England more materialistic and outward than spiritual and inward. “I came here an Indian, I go back a confirmed Indian; I came here a Theist, I go back a confirmed Theist. I have learnt to love my own country more and more.” These words spoken at the farewell soirée may furnish the key to the change in him which so greatly puzzled many of his English friends. He developed a tendency towards mysticism and a greater leaning to the spiritual teaching of the Indian philosophies, as well as a somewhat despotic attitude towards the Samaj. He gave his child daughter in marriage to the raja of Kuch Behar; he revived the performance of mystical plays, and himself took part in one. These changes alienated many followers, who deserted his standard and founded the Sadhārana (General) Brahma Samaj (1878). Chunder Sen did what he could to reinvigorate his own section by a new infusion of Christian ideas and phrases, e.g. “the New Dispensation,” “the Holy Spirit.” He also instituted a sacramental meal of rice and water. Two lectures delivered between 1881 and 1883 throw a good deal of light on his latest doctrines. They were “The Marvellous Mystery, the Trinity,” and “Asia’s Message to Europe.” This latter is an eloquent plea against the Europeanizing of Asia, as well as a protest against Western sectarianism. During the intervals of his last illness he wrote The New Samhita, or the Sacred Laws of the Aryans of the New Dispensation. He died in January 1884, leaving many bitter enemies and many warm friends.
See the article Brahma Samaj; also P. Mozoomdar, Life and Teachings of Keshub Chunder Sen (1888).
KÉSMÁRK (Ger. Käsmark), a town of Hungary, in the county
of Szepes, 240 m. N.E. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900), 5560.
It is situated on the Poprad, at an altitude of 1950 ft., and is
surrounded on all sides by mountains. Among its buildings are
the Roman Catholic parish church, a Gothic edifice of the 15th
century with fine carved altars; a wooden Protestant church of
the 17th century; and an old town-hall. About 12 m. W. of
Késmárk lies the famous watering-place Tatrafüred (Ger.
Schmecks), at the foot of the Schlagendorfer peak in the Tatra
Mountains. Késmárk is one of the oldest and most important
Saxon settlements in the north of Hungary, and became a royal
free town at the end of the 13th century, In 1440 it became the
seat of the counts of Szepes (Ger., Zips), and in 1464 it was
granted new privileges by King Matthias Corvinus. During the
16th century, together with the other Saxon towns in the
Szepes county, it began to lose both its political and commercial
importance. It remained a royal free town until 1876.
KESTREL (Fr. Cresserelle or Créçerelle, O. Fr. Quercerelle and
Quercelle, in Burgundy Cristel), the English name[1] for one of
the smaller falcons. This bird, though in the form of its bill and
length of its wings one of the true falcons, and by many ornithologists
placed among them under its Linnaean name of Falco
tinnunculus, is by others referred to a distinct genus Tinnunculus
as T. alaudarius—the last being an epithet wholly inappropriate.
We have here a case in which the propriety of the custom which
requires the establishment of a genus on structural characters
may seem open to question. The differences of structure which
separate Tinnunculus from Falco are of the slightest, and, if
insisted upon, must lead to including in the former birds which
obviously differ from kestrels in all but a few characters arbitrarily
chosen; and yet, if structural characters be set aside, the
kestrels form an assemblage readily distinguishable by several
peculiarities from all other Falconidae, and an assemblage
separable from the true Falcons of the genus Falco, with its
subsidiary groups Aesalon, Hypotriorchis, and the rest (see Falcon).
Scarcely any one outside the walls of an ornithological
museum or library would doubt for a moment whether any bird
shown to him was a kestrel or not; and Gurney has stated his
belief (Ibis, 1881, p. 277) that the aggregation of species placed
by Bowdler Sharpe (Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. i. 423–448) under
the generic designation of Cerchneis (which should properly
be Tinnunculus) includes “three natural groups sufficiently
distinct to be treated as at least separate subgenera, bearing the
name of Dissodectes, Tinnunculus and Erythropus.” Of these
the first and last are not kestrels, but are perhaps rather related
to the hobbies (Hypotriorchis).
The ordinary kestrel of Europe, Falco tinnunculus or Tinnunculus alaudarius, is by far the commonest bird of prey in the British Islands. It is almost entirely a summer migrant, coming from the south in early spring and departing in autumn, though examples (which are nearly always found to be birds of the year) occasionally occur in winter, some arriving on the eastern coast in autumn. It is most often observed while hanging in the air for a minute or two in the same spot, by means of short and rapid beats of its wings, as, with head pointing to windward and expanded tail, it is looking out for prey—which consists chiefly of mice, but it will at times take a small bird, and the remains of frogs, insects and even earthworms have been found in its crop. It generally breeds in the deserted nest of a crow or pie, but frequently in rocks, ruins, or even in hollow trees—laying four or five eggs, mottled all over with dark brownish-red, sometimes tinged with orange and at other times with purple. Though it may occasionally snatch up a young partridge or pheasant, the kestrel is the most harmless bird of prey, if it be not, from its destruction of mice and cockchafers, a beneficial species. Its range extends over nearly the whole of Europe from 68° N. lat., and the greater part of Asia—though the form which inhabits Japan and is abundant in north-eastern China has been by some writers deemed distinct and called T. japonicus—it is also found over a great part of Africa, being, however, unknown beyond Guinea on the west and Mombasa on the east coast (Ibis, 1881, p. 457). The southern countries of Europe have also another and smaller species of kestrel, T. tinnunculoides (the T. cenchris and T. naumanni of some writers), which is widely spread in Africa and Asia, though specimens from India and China are distinguished as T. pekinensis.
Three other species are found in Africa—T. rupicola, T. rupicoloides and T. alopex—the first a common bird in the Cape, while the others occur in the interior. Some of the islands of the Ethiopian region have peculiar species of kestrel, as the T. newtoni of Madagascar, T. punctatus of Mauritius and T. gracilis of the Seychelles; while, on the opposite side, the kestrel of the Cape Verde Islands has been separated as T. neglectus.
The T. sparverius, commonly known in Canada and the United States as the “sparrow-hawk,” is a beautiful little bird. Various attempts have been made to recognize several species, more or less in accordance with locality, but the majority of ornithologists seem unable to accept the distinctions which have been elaborated chiefly by Bowdler Sharpe in his Catalogue and R. Ridgway (North American Birds, iii. 150–175), the former of whom recognizes six species, while the latter admits but
- ↑ Other English names are windhover and standgale (the last often corrupted into stonegale and stannell).
