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common mule ; with a large head, flat forehead growing narrowtoward the nose, eyes of a middle size, the irides of an obscureash colour ; .IS teeth in all, being two in number fewer than in acommon horse ; ears much longer than those of a horse, quiteerect, lined with a thick whitish curling coal; neck slender, com-pressed ; mane upright, short, soft, of a greyish colour ; in'placeof the foretop, a short tuft of dovvn v hair about an inch and three•quarters long. This species inhabits the deserts between the ri-vers Onon and Argun in the most southern part of Siberia , andextends over the vast plains and deserts of western Tartary, andthe celebrated sandy desert of Gobi, which reaches even to India .In Siberia they are seen only in small numbers, as if detachedfrom the numerous herds to the south of the ltussian dominions.r I he>e animals always carry their heads horizontally; but whenthey take to (light, hold them upright, and erect their tail- Theirneigh’iig is deeper and louder than that of a horse. They fight bvbiting and kicking, as usual with the horse: they are tierce andlintameable ; and even those which have been taken young, areso intractable as not to be broken by anv art which the wanderingTartars could use. Its swiftness exceeds that of the antelope ; itis even proverbial ; and the inhabitants of Thibet , from the fameof its rapid speed, mount on it Chammo, their god of fire. TheMongalians despair of ever taking them by the chace ; hut lurkbehind some tomb, or in some ditch, and shoot them when theycome to drink or eat the salt of the desert. They are excessiveiyfearful animals, and provident against danger. A male takes onhim the care of the herd, and is always on the watch. If theysee a hunter, who by creeping along the ground has got near them,the centinel takes a great circuit, and goes round and round him,as discovering somewhat to be apprehended. As soon as the ani-mal is satisfied, it rejoins the herd, which sets off with great pre-cipitation. Sometimes its curiosity costs its life ; for it approachesso near as to give the hunter an opportunity of shooting it. Butit is observed, that in nr.nv or in stormy weather, these animalsseem very dull, and less sensible of the approach of mankind. TheMongalians ami ’I ungtisi, according to I)u Ilalden, kill them forthe sake of their tlcsli, which they prefer to that of horses, and evento that of tlie wild boar, esteeming it equally nourishing and whole-some.

V. E. Quagga, the Quacna, is striped like the zebra on thehead and body, tmt with fewer lines. The flanks arespotted; therump is plain; the ground colour of the head, neck, body, amirump, a bright hay : the belly, thighs, and legs, are white, and freefrom all marks. T his species, till of late, has been supposed tobe the female of the zebra ; but recent observations prove that themale and temale zebra are marked alike. This differs likewise inbeing thicker and stronger made, and in being more tractable.

. A I- E. ^ekra has the figure and gracefulness of the horse,joined to the swiftness of the stag. He is about seven feet long,from the point ot the muzzle to the origin of the tail, and aboutfour teet high. The colour of his skin is beautiful and uniform,consisting ol alternate parallel rings of black amd white, disposed inthe most regular manner, as represented in Plate LXVI. He is ge-nerally less than the horse, and larger than the ass. The zebra isfound no where but in the E. and S. provinces of Africa , fromEthiopia to (he Cape ol Good Hope, and from the Cape of GoodHope to Congo. 1 he Dutch have been at great pains to tameand me then) for domestic purposes, but with little success. Thezr lira is hard-mouthed, and kicks when any person attempts toom.h or come near him. lie is restless and obstinate as a mule:'ut perhaps the wild horse is naturally as untractahle as the zebra -

a punne omcer among tnc ancient tjw ime business was to preside over and direct the alms and provi-sions -tpade for the poor.

EILaN I IIEMUM, a genus of the monogynia order, and dian-ua class of plants. Corolla qninquefid, with the tube filiform ;authera? without the tube; stigma simple. It has five species,lieriis or undershrubs, natives of the Cape of Good Hope ,i |*-'':ASMl , S, Desidriuus, born at Rotterdam in 1467. Heout lus tather and mother at 14 years of age ; and was committed°. . l' : can> °f guardians, who forced him to be an ecclesiastic,winch he refused lor a long time. However he was obliged to as-

sume the religious habit among the canons regular in the monas-tery of Stein near Tergon ; but afterwards obtained a dispensationfrom his vows. He was the most learned man of the age in whichhe lived ; and contributed, by his example and his writings, tothe restoration of learning in the several countries in which he oc-casionally resided, viz. Italy, Switzerland, Holland, France , andEngland. With the last he was most satisfied ; aud found thegreatest encouragement from Henry VIII, Sir Thomas More , andall the learned Englishmen of those days. He published manybooks ; and died at Basil in 1536. He was buried honourably,and his memory is still held In veneration. He had, however,many enemies; and as he did not embrace the reformation, andyet censured many things in popery, he has been treated inju-riously both by Catholics and Protestants. The works of Eras-mus in 10 vols. folio, were published at Leyden in 1706, in avery handsome manner, under the care of M. Le Clerc. Dr. Jor-tin published his life in one vol. 4to. 1758.

ERASSED. See Couped.

ERASTIANS, a religious sect which arose in England duringthe time of the civil wars in 1647, thus called from their leaderThomas Erastus , whose distinguishing doctrine it was, that thechurch had no right to discipline, that is, no regular power to ex-communicate, exclude, censure, absolve, decree, or the like.

ERATO , [from «=«« I love,] in mythology, the Muse whopresided over love poetry. There was also a Nereid of this name.

ERATOSTHENES, a Cyrenean philosopher , historian, andpoet ; stiled for his learning Plato Minor. lie was keeper of thefamous library at Alexandria : and was greatly in favour with Pto-lemy Euergetes , by whose order he wrote a history of the The-ban kings of Egypt , which succession had been entirely omittedby Manetho. He thus fixed the Egyptian chronology, and his au-thority is by man v preferred to that of Manetho . He wrote manyother things, a catalogue of which is to be seen in Fabricius,Vossius, Ac. but his only piece now remaining entire is a descrip-tion and fabulous account of the stars. lie starved himself in oldage through grief for the dimness of his sight, about the IOth or12th year of Ptolemy Epiphanes , B. C. 194.

ERBACI1, a mountainous county of Germany , in the circleof Franconia, 21 miles long, and IS broad; containing mines ofsilver, copper, lead, iron, and mercury ; and producing wheat,oats, wood, &c.

Erbach, the. capital of the county, 16 miles N. N. E. of Hei-delberg .

EREBUS, [Ejiffo;, from 3*ty, night,] in mythology, a term de-noting darkness. According to Hesiod , Erebus was the son ofChaos and Nox, or Night, and the father of Dies, or Day.

Erebus was also part of the infernal regions among the ancients.They had a peculiar expiation for those who were detained inErebus. It was properly the gloomy region, and distinguishedboth from Tartarus, the place of torment, and Elysium, the re-gion of bliss. ■

KR FORT, or ERFURT, a town of Germany in the late circleof Upper Saxony, die capital of Thuringia , and subject to theelector of Mentz. Lon. 11. 23. E. Lat, 51.0. N.

KRGASTULUM, in Roman antiquity, a prison, work-house,or house of correction, where slaves by the private authority oftheir masters were confined and kept for their offences to hard la-bour. The Greeks had a place of confinement of this sort, called

luc^aovir’^or.

ERICA, Heath: in botany, a genus of the monogynia order,and oc.tandria class of plants ; natural order, Bicornes. Calyxtetraphyllous ; corolla quadrifid ; filaments inserted into the re-ceptacle ; antherse bifid ; capsule quadrilocular. It has eighty-four species.

ERIDANUS, in ancient geography, a river of Attica, fallinginto the Ilissus .

Eridanus, the ancient name of the Padus or Po, an appellationascribed by Pliny to the Greeks ; followed in this by Virgil.

Eridanus, in astronomy, a constellation of the southern hemi-sphere , in form of a river.

ERIE, an extensive lake of N. America , near 300 miles long,and 40 broad, at its broadest part. Its form is elliptical, but apoint of land projects into it from the N. side for several miles to-wards the S. E. It receives its waters on the W. by 'he Detroit from Lakes Superior, Michigan , and Huron; and on the N. E.

communicates