Kurins or Lesghians proper. Komarov[1] gives the total number of the tribes as twenty-seven, all speaking distinct dialects. Despite this, the Lesghian peoples, with the exception of the Udi and Kubatschi, are held to be ethnically identical. The Lesghians are not usually so good-looking as the Circassians or the Chechenzes. They are tall, powerfully built, and their hybrid descent is suggested by the range of colouring, some of the tribes exhibiting quite fair, others quite dark, individuals. Among some there is an obvious mongoloid strain. In disposition they are intelligent, bold and persistent, and capable of reckless bravery, as was proved in their struggle to maintain their independence. They are capable of enduring great physical fatigue. They live a semi-savage life on their mountain slopes, for the most part living by hunting and stock-breeding. Little agriculture is possible. Their industries are mainly restricted to smith-work and cutlery and the making of felt cloaks, and the women weave excellent shawls. They are for the most part fanatical Mahommedans.
See Moritz Wagner, Schamyl (Leipzig, 1854); von Seidlitz, “Ethnographie des Kaukasus,” in Petermann’s Mitteilungen (1880); Ernest Chantre, Recherches anthropologiques dans le Caucase (Lyon, 1885–1887); J. de Morgan, Recherches sur les origines des peuples du Caucase (Paris, 1889).
LESINA (Serbo-Croatian, Hvar), an island in the Adriatic
Sea, forming part of Dalmatia, Austria. Lesina lies between the
islands of Brazza on the north and Curzola on the south; and
is divided from the peninsula of Sabbioncello by the Narenta
channel. Its length is 41 m.; its greatest breadth less than 4 m.
It has a steep rocky coast with a chain of thinly wooded
limestone hills. The climate is mild, and not only the grape and
olive, but dates, figs and the carob or locust-bean flourish.
The cultivation of these fruits, boat-building, fishing and the
preparation of rosemary essence and liqueurs are the principal
resources of the islanders. Lesina (Hvar) and Cittavecchia
(Starigrad) are the principal towns and seaports, having respectively
2138 and 3120 inhabitants. Lesina, the capital, contains
an arsenal, an observatory and some interesting old buildings
of the 16th century. It is a Roman Catholic bishopric, and the
centre of an administrative district, which includes Cittavecchia,
Lissa, and some small neighbouring islands. Pop. (1900) of island
18,091, of district 27,928.
To the primitive “Illyrian” race, whose stone cists and bronze implements have been disinterred from barrows near the capital, may perhaps be attributed the “Cyclopean” walls at Cittavecchia. About 385 B.C., a Greek colony from Paros built a city on the site of the present Lesina, naming it Paros or Pharos. The forms Phara, Pharia (common among Latin writers), and Pityeia, also occur. In 229 B.C. the island was betrayed to the Romans by Demetrius, lieutenant of the Illyrian queen Teuta; but in 219, as Demetrius proved false to Rome also, his capital was razed by Lucius Aemilius Paullus. Neos Pharos, now Cittavecchia, took its place, and flourished until the 6th century, when the island was laid waste by barbarian invaders. Constantine Porphyrogenitus mentions Lesina as a colony of pagan Slavs, in the 10th century. Throughout the middle ages it remained a purely Slavonic community; and its name, which appears in old documents as Lisna, Lesna or Lyesena, “wooded” is almost certainly derived from the Slavonic lyés, “forest,” not from the Italian lesina, “an awl.” But the old form Pharia persisted, as Far or Hvar, with the curious result that the modern Serbo-Croatian name is Greek, and the modern Italian name Slavonic in origin. Lesina became a bishopric in 1145, and received a charter from Venice in 1331. It was sacked by the enemies of Venice in 1354 and 1358; ceded to Hungary in the same year; held by Ragusa from 1413 to 1416; and incorporated in the Venetian dominions in 1420. During the 16th century Lesina city had a considerable maritime trade, and, though sacked and partly burned by the Turks in 1571, it remained the chief naval station of Venice, in these waters, until 1776, when it was superseded by Curzola. Passing to Austria in 1797, and to France in 1805, it withstood a Russian attack in 1807, but was surrendered by the French in 1813, and finally annexed to Austria in 1815.
LESION (through Fr. from Lat. laesio, injury, laedere, to hurt),
an injury, hurt, damage. In Scots law the term is used of
damage suffered by a party in a contract sufficient to enable
him to bring an action for setting it aside. In pathology, the
chief use, the word is applied to any morbid change in the
structure of an organ, whether shown by visible changes or by
disturbance of function.
LESKOVATS (Leskovatz or Leskovac), a town in Servia,
between Nish and Vranya, on the railway line from Nish to
Salonica. Pop. (1901) 13,707. It is the headquarters of the
Servian hemp industry, the extensive plain in which the town
lies growing the best flax and hemp in all the Balkan peninsula.
The plain is not only the most fertile portion of Servia, but also
the best cultivated. Besides flax and hemp, excellent tobacco
is grown. Five valleys converge on the plain from different
directions, and the inhabitants of the villages in these valleys
are all occupied in growing flax and hemp, which they send to
Leskovats to be stored or manufactured into ropes. After
Belgrade and Nish, Leskovats is the most prosperous town in
Servia.
LESLEY, JOHN (1527–1596), Scottish bishop and historian,
was born in 1527. His father was Gavin Lesley, rector of
Kingussie. He was educated at the university of Aberdeen,
where he took the degree of M.A. In 1538 he obtained a dispensation
permitting him to hold a benefice, notwithstanding
his being a natural son, and in June 1546 he was made an acolyte
in the cathedral church of Aberdeen, of which he was afterwards
appointed a canon and prebendary. He also studied at Poitiers,
at Toulouse and at Paris, where he was made doctor of laws
in 1553. In 1558 he took orders and was appointed Official
of Aberdeen, and inducted into the parsonage and prebend of
Oyne. At the Reformation Lesley became a champion of
Catholicism. He was present at the disputation held in Edinburgh
in 1561, when Knox and Willox were his antagonists.
He was one of the commissioners sent the same year to bring
over the young Queen Mary to take the government of
Scotland. He returned in her train, and was appointed a
privy councillor and professor of canon law in King’s College,
Aberdeen, and in 1565 one of the senators of the college of
justice. Shortly afterwards he was made abbot of Lindores,
and in 1565 bishop of Ross, the election to the see being
confirmed in the following year. He was one of the sixteen
commissioners appointed to revise the laws of Scotland, and the
volume of the Actis and Constitutionis of the Realme of Scotland
known as the Black Acts was, chiefly owing to his care, printed
in 1566.
The bishop was one of the most steadfast friends of Queen Mary. After the failure of the royal cause, and whilst Mary was a captive in England, Lesley (who had gone to her at Bolton) continued to exert himself on her behalf. He was one of the commissioners at the conference at York in 1568. He appeared as her ambassador at the court of Elizabeth to complain of the injustice done to her, and when he found he was not listened to, he laid plans for her escape. He also projected a marriage for her with the duke of Norfolk, which ended in the execution of that nobleman. For this he was put under the charge of the bishop of London, and then of the bishop of Ely (in Holborn), and afterwards imprisoned in the Tower of London. During his confinement he collected materials for his history of Scotland, by which his name is now chiefly known. In 1571 he presented the latter portion of this work, written in Scots, to Queen Mary to amuse her in her captivity. He also wrote for her use his Piae Consolationes, and the queen devoted some of the hours of her captivity to translating a portion of it into French verse.
In 1573 he was liberated from prison, but was banished from England. For two years he attempted unsuccessfully to obtain the assistance of Continental princes in favour of Queen Mary. While at Rome in 1578 he published his Latin history De Origine, Moribus, et Rebus Gestis Scotorum. In 1579 he went to France, and was made suffragan and vicar-general of the archbishopric
- ↑ Ethnological Map of Daghestan.
