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may be credited, he had not learnt even Latin. But in middle life he inherited some property, and he was thus able to devote himself to the practice of poetry, in which he was the faithful, and perhaps the most distinguished, disciple of Malherbe. He had known Malherbe when he was a page at the court of Henry IV., and had early contributed to the fashionable albums of the day. In 1625 he published his most important work, Bergefies, a dramatic pastoral in five acts, a part of which, entitled Arthénice, was played in 1618. Racan was also the author of Sept psaumes (1631), Odes sacrées tirées des psaumes de Damki (1651), Derniéres aeuvres et poésies chrétiennes (1660), in all of which he was hampered by his inability to read the sacred writings except in other French paraphrases. He was one of the original members of the French Academy. He died in February 1670.

His Giuvres completes were edited by Tenant de Latour in 1857, and the edition includes a biographical notice. See Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundz.

RACCONIGI, a town of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Cuneo, 24 m. S. of Turin, and 31 m. N. of Cuneo by rail, 837 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 7364 (town); 9077 (commune). It has a royal chateau built in 1570, with a large park laid out in 17 55 by the French gardener Molard from designs by Le Notre, and enlarged in 1835. Since 1901 it has been the summer residence of the king of Italy.

RACCOON (or RACOON), a name borne by the typical representative of a group of American arboreal placental mammals belonging to the order CARNIVORA (q.v.) and the family Procyonidae. The word is a corruption of the North-American Indian “ arrathkune ” or “ arathcone." The Fr. fazfon or raton laveur, Ger. W aschbdr, and other European names are derived from a curious habit the raccoon has of dipping or washing its food in water before eating it. The typical raccoon (Procyon later) is a thickly built animal about the size of a badger, with a coat of long coarse greyish-brown hairs, short ears, and a bushy black-and-white-ringed tail. Its range extends over the whole of the United States, and stretches on the west northwards

The Raccoon (Procyon lotor).

to Alaska and southwards well into Central America, where it attains its maximum size. The following notes on the habits of the raccoon are from Dr C. Hart Merriam's The Mammals of the Adirondacks:-

“ Raccoons are omnivorous beasts and feed upon mice, small birds, birds' eggs, turtles and their eggs, frogs, fish, crayfish, molluscs, insects, nuts, fruits, maize and sometimes poultry. Excepting alone the bats and flying-squirrels, they are the most strictly nocturnal of all our mammals, and yet I have several times seen them abroad on cloudy days. They haunt the banks of ponds and streams, and find much of their food in these places, such as crayfish, mussels and Hsh, although they are unable to dive and pursue the latter under water, like the otter and mink. They are good swimmers and do not hesitate to cross rivers that lie in their path. . . . The raccoon hibernates during the severest part of the winter, retiring to its nest rather early, and appearing again in February or March, according to the earliness or lateness of the season. It makes its home high up in the hollow of some large tree, preferring a dead limb to the trunk itself. It does little in the way of constructing a nest, and from four to six young are commonly born at a time, generally early in April in this region. The young remain with the mother about a year.” The South-American species, P. cancrivorus, the crab-eating raccoon, is very similar to P. lotor, but differs by its shorter fur, larger size, proportionally more powerful teeth and other minor characters. It extends over the whole of South America, as far south as the Rio Negro, and is common in all suitable localities. Its habits are similar to those of the North-American species.

RACCOON-DOG (Nyctereutes procyonoides), a small wild dog, with sharp-pointed muzzle, short rounded ears, bushy tail and long fur, found in China, Tapan and Amurland. The total length is about 32 in., of which the tail measures 4 in. The prevailing hues are black and dusky yellow, the distribution of which varies in different individuals. In habit these dogs are chiefly nocturnal; and they are said to hibernate. In winter they feed on fish, and in summer on mice, forming small packs to hunt their prey.

RACE, an homonymous word of which the principal meanings are (1) a trial or contest of speed; (2) a tribe, breed, a group of individuals descended from a common ancestor. In the first case the word is an adaptation of 0.Nor. rzis, a cognate form in O.E. being raés, rush, onset; while the O.E. descendant reese was frequently used in medieval poetry. The particular use of the word for a swift current of water running through a narrow channel, e. g. the Race of Alderney, and for the water conducted in an artificial channel to a point where its power is to be used, as in “ mill-race, ” may be due to the O.Fr. raz or raze, probably of Breton origin. The second word, an ethnical or national stock, comes from Fr. rase, adapted from Ital. razzo, cf. Span. raza. It has been referred to an O.H.G. reiza, line, mark, cognate with Eng. “ write, ” i.e. the line marking descent.

RACHEL (1821-18 58), French actress, whose real name was Elizabeth Felix, the daughter of poor ]ew pedlars, was born on the 28th of February 1821, at Mumpf, in the canton of Aargau, Switzerland. At Reims she and her elder sister, Sophia, afterwards known as Sarah, joined a troupe of Italian children who made their living by singing in the cafés, Sarah singing and Elizabeth, then only four years of age, collecting the coppers. In 1830 they came to Paris, where they sang in the streets, Rachel giving such patriotic songs as the .Parisienne and the M Marseillaise with a rude but precocious energy which evoked special admiration and an abundant shower of coppers. Etienne Choron, a famous teacher of singing, was so impressed with the talents of the two sisters that he undertook to give them gratuitous instruction, and after his death in 1833 they were received into the Conservatoire. Rachel made her first appearance at the Gymnase in Paul Duport's La Vendéenne on the 4th of April 1837, with only mediocre success. But on the 12th of Tune in the following year she succeeded, after great difficulty, in making a début at the Theatre F rangais, as Camille in Corneille's H office, when her remarkable genius at once received general recognition. In the same year she played Roxane in Racine's Bajazet, winning a complete triumph, but it was in Racine's Phédre, which she first played on the 21st of January 1843, that her peculiar gifts were most strikingly manifested. Her range of characters was limited, but within it she was unsurpassable. She excelled particularly in the impersonation of evil or malignant passion, in her presentation of which there was a majesty and dignity which fascinated while it repelled. By careful training her voice, originally hard and harsh, had become flexible and melodious, and its low and muffled notes under the influence of passion possessed a thrilling and penetrating quality that was irresistible. In plays by contemporary authors she created the characters of Tudith and Cleopatra in the tragedies of Madame de Girardin, but perhaps her most Successful appearance was in 1849 in Scribe and Legouvé's Adrienne Lecouvreur, which was written for her. In 1841 and in 18425 she visited London, where her interpretations of Corneille