OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oscilla

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​OSCILLA, a word applied in Latin usage to small figures, most commonly masks or faces, which were hung up as offerings to various deities, either for propitiation or expiation, and in connexion with festivals and other ceremonies. It is usually taken as the plural of oscillum (dimin. of os), a little face. As the oscilla swung in the wind, oscillare came to mean to swing, hence in English “ oscillation,” the act of swinging backwards and forwards, periodic motion to and fro, hence any variation or fluctuation, actual or figurative. For the scientific problems connected with oscillation see Mechanics and Oscillograph.
Many oscilla or masks, representing the head of Bacchus or of different rustic deities, are still preserved. There is a marble oscillum of Bacchus in the British Museum. Others still in existence are made of earthenware, but it seems probable that wax and wood were the ordinary materials. Small rudely shaped figures of wool, known as pilae, were also hung up in the same way as the oscilla.
The festivals at which the hanging of oscilla took place were: (1) The Sementivae Feriae, or sowing festivals, and the Paganalia, the country festivals of the tutelary deities of the pagi; both took place in January. Here the oscilla were hung on trees, such as the vine and the olive, oak and the pine, and represented the faces of Liber, Bacchus or other deity connected with the cultivation of the soil (Virg. Georg. ii. 382-396). (2) The Feriae Latinae; in this case games were played, among them swinging (oscillatio); cf. the Greek festival of Aeora (see Erigone). Festus (s.v. Oscillum, ed. Müller, p. 194) says that this swinging was called oscillatio because the swingers masked their faces (os celare) out of shame. (3) At the Compitalia, Festus says (Paul. ex Fest. ed. Müller, p. 239) that pilae and effigies viriles et muliebres made of wool were hung at the crossroads to the Lares, the number of pilae equalling that of the slaves of the family, the effigies that of the children; the purpose being to induce the Lares to spare the living, and to be content with the pilae and images. This has led to the generally accepted conclusion that the custom of hanging these oscilla represents an older practice of expiating human sacrifice. There is also no doubt a connexion with lustration by the purifying with air.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oshawa

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​OSHAWA, a manufacturing town and port of entry of Ontario county, Ontario, Canada, on Lake Ontario and the Grand Trunk railway, 30 m. E.N.E. of Toronto. Pop. (1901) 4394. It contains flour, woollen and grist-mills, piano, farm implement and carriage factories, foundries, tanneries, canning factories, &c. There are a ladies’ college and good schools.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oschatz

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​OSCHATZ, a town in the kingdom of Saxony, in the valley of the Döllnitz, 36 m. N.W. of Dresden, on the trunk railway to Leipzig. Pop. (1905) 10,854. One of its three Evangelical churches is the handsome Gothic church of St Aegidius, with twin spires. Sugar, felt, woollens, cloth and leather are manufactured, and there is considerable trade in agricultural produce. Four miles west lies the Kolmberg, the highest eminence in the north of Saxony.
See C. Hoffmann, Historische Beschreibung der Stadt Oschatz (Oschatz, 1873–1874); and Gurlitt, Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler der Amtsmannschaft Oschatz (Dresden, 1905).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Osh

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​OSH, a town of Russian Turkestan, in the government of Ferghana, 31 m. S.E. of Andijan railway terminus, at an altitude of 4030 ft. Pop. (1900) 37,397. It consists of two parts, native and Russian. Here begins a good road up to the Pamirs, practicable for artillery. The trade with China is considerable.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lérida (province)

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​LÉRIDA, a province of northern Spain, formed in 1833 of districts previously included in the ancient province of Catalonia, and bounded on the N. by France and Andorra, E. by Gerona and Barcelona, S. by Tarragona and W. by Saragossa and Huesca. Pop. (1900) 274,590; area 4690 sq. m. The northern half of Lérida belongs entirely to the Mediterranean or eastern section of the Pyrenees, and comprises some of the finest scenery in the whole chain, including the valleys of Aran and La Cerdaña, and large tracts of forest. It is watered by many rivers, the largest of which is the Segre, a left-hand tributary of the Ebro. South of the point at which the Segre is joined on the right by the Noguera Pallaresa, the character of the country completely alters. The Llaños de Urgel, which comprise the greater part of southern Lérida, are extensive plains forming part of the Ebro valley, but redeemed by an elaborate system of canals from the sterility which characterizes so much of that region in Aragon. Lérida is traversed by the main railway from Barcelona to Saragossa, and by a line from Tarragona to the city of Lérida. In 1904 the Spanish government agreed with France to carry another line to the mouth of an international tunnel through the Pyrenees. Industries are in a more backward condition than in any other province of Catalonia, despite the abundance of water-power. There are, however, many saw-mills, flour-mills, and distilleries of alcohol and liqueurs, besides a smaller number of cotton and linen factories, paper-mills, soap-works, and oil and leather factories. Zinc, lignite and common salt are mined, but the output is small and of slight value. There is a thriving trade in wine, oil, wool, timber, cattle, mules, horses and sheep, but agriculture is far less prosperous than in the maritime provinces of Catalonia. Lérida (q.v.) is the capital (pop. 21,432), and the only town with more than 5000 inhabitants. Séo de Urgel, near the headwaters of the Segre, is a fortified city which has been an episcopal see since 840, and has had a close historical connexion with Andorra (q.v.). Solsona, on a small tributary of the Cardoner, which flows through Barcelona to the Mediterranean, is the Setelix of the Romans, and contains in its parish church an image of the Virgin said to possess miraculous powers, and visited every year by many hundreds of pilgrims. Cervera, on a small river of the same name, contains the buildings of a university which Philip V. established here in 1717. This university had originally been founded at Barcelona in the 15th century, and was reopened there in 1842. In character, and especially in their industry, intelligence and keen local patriotism, the inhabitants of Lérida are typical Catalans. (See Catalonia.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lévis

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​LÉVIS (formerly Pointe Levi), the chief town of Lévis county, Quebec, Canada, situated on the precipitous south bank of the St Lawrence, opposite Quebec city. Pop. (1901) 7783. It is on the Intercolonial railway, and is the eastern terminus of the Grand Trunk and Quebec Central railways. It contains the Lorne dock, a Dominion government graving dock, 445 ft. long, 100 ft. wide, with a depth on the sill of 261/2 and 201/2 ft. at high water, spring and neap tides respectively. It is an important centre of the river trade, and is connected by steam ferries with the city of Quebec. It is named after the maréchal duc de Lévis, the last commander of the French troops in Canada.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Löhe, Johann Konrad Wilhelm

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​LÖHE, JOHANN KONRAD WILHELM (1808–1872), German divine and philanthropist, was born on the 21st of February 1808 in Fürth near Nuremberg, and was educated at the universities of Erlangen and Berlin. In 1831 he was appointed vicar at Kirchenlamitz, where his fervent evangelical preaching attracted large congregations and puzzled the ecclesiastical authorities. A similar experience ensued at Nuremberg, where he was assistant pastor of St Egidia. In 1837 he became pastor in Neuendettelsau, a small and unattractive place, where his life’s work was done, and which he transformed into a busy and influential community. He was interested in the spiritual condition of Germans who had emigrated to the United States, and built two training homes for missionaries to them. In 1849 he founded the Lutheran Society of Home Missions and in 1853 an institution of deaconesses. Other institutions were added to these, including a lunatic asylum, a Magdalen refuge, and hospitals for men and women. In theology Löhe was a strict Lutheran, but his piety was of a most attractive kind. Originality of conception, vividness of presentation, fertility of imagination, wide knowledge of Scripture and a happy faculty of applying it, intense spiritual fervour, a striking physique and a powerful voice made him a great pulpit force. He wrote a good deal, amongst his books being Drei Bücher von der Kirche (1845), Samenkörner des Gebetes (over 30 editions) and several volumes of sermons. He died on the 2nd of January 1872.
See his Life, by J. Deinzer (3 vols., Gütersloh, 1873, 3rd ed., 1901).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lössnitz

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​LÖSSNITZ, a district in the kingdom of Saxony, extending for about 5 m. along the right bank of the Elbe, immediately N.W. of Dresden. Pop. (1905) 6929. A line of vine-clad hills shelters it from the north winds, and so warm and healthy is the climate that it has gained for the district the appellation of the “Saxon Nice.” Asparagus, peaches, apricots, strawberries, grapes and roses are largely cultivated and find a ready market in Dresden.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Löcse

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​LÖCSE (Ger. Leutschau), the capital of the county of Szepes, in Hungary, 230 m. N.E. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900) 6845, mostly Germans and Slovaks. The county of Szepes is the highest part of Hungary, and its north-western portion is occupied by the Tátra Mountains. Löcse lies in an elevated position surrounded by mountains, and is one of the oldest towns of Hungary. The church of St James is a Gothic structure of the 13th century, with richly carved altar, several monuments, and a celebrated organ erected in 1623, and long reputed the largest in Hungary. The old town-hall, restored in 1894, contains a Protestant upper gymnasium, founded in 1544, and one of the oldest printing establishments in Hungary, founded in 1585. Bee-keeping and the raising of garden produce are the chief industries.
Founded by Saxon colonists in 1245, Löcse had by the early part of the 16th century attained a position of great relative importance. In 1599 a fire destroyed the greater part of the town, and during the 17th century it suffered repeatedly at the hands of the Transylvanian princes and leaders.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lönnrot, Elias

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​LÖNNROT, ELIAS (1802–1884), Finnish philologist and discoverer of the Kalevala, was born at Nyland in Finland on the 9th of April 1802. He was an apothecary’s assistant, but entered the university of Åbo in 1822, and after taking his successive degrees became a physician in 1832. But before this, as early as 1827, he had begun to publish contributions to the study of the ancient Finnish language, and to collect the national ballads and folk-lore, a field which was at that time uncultivated. In 1833 he settled as a doctor in the country district of Kajana, and began to travel throughout Finland and the adjoining Russian provinces in his leisure time, collecting songs and legends. In this way he was able to put together the great epic of Finland, the Kalevala, the first edition of which he published in 1835; he continued to add to it, and in 1849 issued a larger and completer text. In 1840 Lönnrot issued his important collection of the Kanteletar, or folk-songs of ancient Finland, which he had taken down from oral tradition. The Proverbs of Finland followed in 1842. In 1853, on the death of Castrén, Lönnrot became professor of the Finnish language and literature at the high school of Helsingfors; he retired from this chair in 1862. He died on the 19th of March 1884.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lörrach

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​LÖRRACH, a town in the grand-duchy of Baden, in the valley of the Wiese, 6 m. by rail N.E. of Basel. Pop. (1905) 10,794. It is the seat of considerable industry, its manufactures including calico, shawls, cloth, silk, chocolate, cotton, ribbons, hardware and furniture, and has a trade in wine, fruit and timber. There is a fine view from the neighbouring Schützenhaus, 1085 ft. high. In the neighbourhood also is the castle of Rötteln, formerly the residence of the counts of Hachberg and of the margraves of Baden; this was destroyed by the French in 1678, but was rebuilt in 1867. Lörrach received market rights in 1403, but did not obtain municipal privileges until 1682.
See Höchstetter, Die Stadt Lörrach (Lörrach, 1882).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lötschen Pass

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​LÖTSCHEN PASS, or Lötschberg, an easy glacier pass (8842 ft.) leading from Kandersteg in the Bernese Oberland to the Lötschen valley in the Valais. It is a very old pass, first mentioned distinctly in 1352, but probably crossed previously by the Valaisans who colonized various parts of the Bernese Oberland. In 1384 and again in 1419 battles were fought on it between the Bernese and the Valaisans, while in 1698 a mule path (of which traces still exist) was constructed on the Bernese slope, though not continued beyond owing to the fear of the Valaisans that the Bernese would come over and alter their religion. In 1906 the piercing of a tunnel (81/2 m. long) beneath this pass was begun, starting a little above Kandersteg and ending at Goppenstein near the mouth of the Lötschen valley. Subsidies were granted by both the confederation and the canton of Bern. This pass is to be carefully distinguished from the Lötschenlücke (10,512 ft.), another easy glacier pass which leads from the head of the Lötschen valley to the Great Aletsch glacier. (W. A. B. C.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Löbau

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​LÖBAU, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, on the Löbau water, 12 m. S.E. of the town of Bautzen, on the Dresden-Görlitz railway. Pop. (1905) 10,683. There is a spa, König Albert-Bad, largely frequented during the summer season. The town has agricultural implement, pianoforte, sugar, machine-building and button works, and trade in grain, yarn, linen and stockings. Other industries are spinning, weaving, dyeing, bleaching and brewing.
Löbau is first mentioned as a town in 1221; it received civic rights early in the 14th century and, in 1346, became one of the six allied towns of Lusatia. It suffered severely during the Hussite war and was deprived of its rights in 1547.
See Bergmann, Geschichte der Oberlausitzer Sechsstadt Löbau (Bischofswerda, 1896); and Kretschmer, Die Stadl Löbau (Chemnitz, 1904).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Palingenesis

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​PALINGENESIS (Gr. πάλιν, again, γένεσις, becoming, birth), a term used in philosophy, theology and biology. In philosophy it denotes in its broadest sense the theory (e.g. of the Pythagoreans) that the human soul does not die with the body but is “born again” in new incarnations. It is thus the equivalent of metempsychosis (q.v.). The term has a narrower and more specific use in the system of Schopenhauer, who applies it to his doctrine that the will does not die but manifests itself afresh in new individuals. He thus repudiates the primitive metempsychosis doctrine which maintains the reincarnation of the particular soul. The word “palingenesis” or rather “palingenesia” may be traced back to the Stoics, who used the term for the continual re-creation of the universe by the Demiurgus (Creator) after its absorption into himself. Similarly Philo speaks of Noah and his sons as leaders of a “renovation” or “re-birth” of the earth. Josephus uses the term of the national restoration of the Jews, Plutarch of the transmigration of souls, and Cicero of his own return from exile. In the New Testament the properly theological sense of spiritual regeneration is found, though the word itself occurs only twice; and it is used by the church fathers, e.g. for the rite of baptism or for the state of repentance. In modern biology (e.g. Haeckel and Fritz Müller) ​“palingenesis” has been used for the exact reproduction of ancestral features by inheritance, as opposed to “kenogenesis” (Gr. καινός new), in which the inherited characteristics are modified by environment.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Palladian

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​PALLADIAN, the term given in English architecture to one of the phases of the Italian Renaissance, introduced into England in 1620 by Inigo Jones, a great admirer of the works of Andrea Palladio (q.v.). In 1716, Richard Boyle, 3rd earl of Burlington, who also admired the works of Palladio, copied some of them, the front of old Burlington House being more or less a reproduction of the Palazzo Porto at Vicenza, and the villa at Chiswick a copy of the Villa Capua near Vicenza. It is probably due to Lord Burlington that the title Palladian is the designation for the Italian style as practised in England. In 1862 Sir Gilbert Scott’s Gothic design for the new government offices was rejected and Lord Palmerston selected in preference the Palladian style. In France and America, Barozzi Vignole (1507–1573), another Italian architect, holds a similar position as the chief authority on the Italian Renaissance.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Palla

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​PALLA, Pala, or Impala, the native name of a red South African antelope of the size of a fallow-deer, characterized by the large black lyrate horns of the bucks, and the presence in both sexes of a pair of glands on the back of the hind feet bearing a tuft of black hairs. On the east side the palla (Aepyceros melampus) ranges as far north as the southern Sudan; but in Angola it is replaced by a species or race (Ae. petersi) with a black “blaze” down the face. Pallas associate in large herds on open country in the neighbourhood of water. (See Antelope.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Palk Straits

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​PALK STRAITS, the channel lying between the mainland of India and the island of Ceylon. It is named after Robert Paik, governor of Madras (1755–1763). The straits lie north of the line of reefs called Adam’s Bridge, while the Gulf of Manaar lies south of it. The two channels are connected by the Pamban passage.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pall-Mall

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​PALL-MALL, an obsolete English game of French origin, called in France paille-maille (from palla, ball, and malleus, mallet). Sir Robert Dallington, in his Method for Travel (1598), says: “Among all the exercises of France, I prefer none before the Paille-Maille.” James I., in his Basilikon doron, recommended it as a proper game for Prince Henry, and it was actually introduced into England in the reign of Charles I., or perhaps a few years earlier. Thomas Blount’s Glossographia (ed. 1670) describes it as follows: “Pale Maille, a game wherein a round bowle is with a mallet struck through a high arch of iron (standing at either end of an alley), which he that can do at the fewest blows, or at the number agreed on, wins. This game was heretofore used in the long alley near St James’s, and vulgarly called Pell-Mell.” The pronunciation here described as “vulgar” afterwards became classic. A mallet and balls used in the game were found in 1845 and are now in the British Museum. The mallet resembles that used in croquet, but its head is curved and its ends sloped towards the shaft. The balls are of boxwood and about one foot in circumference. Pepys describes the alley as of hard sand “dressed with powdered cockle-shells.” The length of the alley varied, that at St James’s being about 800 yds. Some alleys had side walls.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Palitana

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​PALITANA, a native state of India in the Kathiawar agency of the Bombay presidency. Area, 289 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 52,856, showing a decrease of 15% in the decade. The chief is a Gohel Rajput, with the title of Thakur Sahib. Gross revenue, £42,000; tribute jointly to the gaekwar of Baroda and the nawab of Junagarh, £700. The capital of the state is Palitana; pop. 12,800. Above the town to the west rises the hill of Satrunja, sacred to the Jains. On this hill, which is truly a city of temples, all the peculiarities of Jain architecture are found in a marked degree. Some of the temples are as old as the 11th century, and they are spread over the intervening period down to the present. The hill is visited by crowds of pilgrims every year.
See J. Burgess, Notes of a Visit to Satrunjaya Hill (Bombay, 1869).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pall

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​PALL, a word the various meanings of which can be traced to the Latin word pallium, that is, a piece of cloth used either as a covering or as a garment. In the last sense the pallium was the ἱμάτιον, the square or oblong-shaped outer garment of the Greeks. In the sense of a garment the English usage of “pall” is confined to the ecclesiastical vestment (see Pallium) and to the supertunica or dalmatic, the pallium regale or imperial mantle, one of the principal coronation vestments of British sovereigns. The heraldic bearing known as a “pall” takes the form of the Y of the ecclesiastical vestment. The chief applications of the word, in the sense of a covering, are to an altar frontal, to a linen cloth used to veil the chalice in the Catholic service of the Eucharist, and to a heavy black, purple or white covering for a coffin or hearse. The livery companies of London possessed sumptuous state palls for the funerals of their members, of which some are still in existence. The Merchant Taylors’ company have two examples of Italian workmanship. The so-called “Walworth pall” of the Fishmongers’ company probably dates from the 16th century. The Vintners’ pall is of cloth of gold and purple velvet, with a figure of St Martin of Tours, the company’s patron saint.
An entirely different word is “to pall,” to become or make stale, insipid or tasteless, hence to cease to interest from constant repetition; this is a shortened form of “appal” (O. Fr. appallir, to become pale; Lat. pallidus).