O T II

176

OTR

the natives Tiarrabou, or O-Taheitee-Nue ; the smaller oneOpoureonou, or O-Taheitee-Ete. The circumference of bothislands is about 40 leagues; the larger kingdom being divided into43 districts. The country has a delightful romantic appearance;The coast, viewed.from the sea, presents a most beautiful pros-pect, being elevated like an amphitheatre. The island is skirtedwith a reef of rocks, and towards the sea is level, being coveredwith fruit-trees of various kinds, particularly the cocoa-nut.About three miles from the shore, the country rises into lofty hillsterminated in peaks, covered with wood to the summits, fromwhich large rivers are precipitated into the sea. The stones every-where appear to have been burnt. The air is extremely healthyand pleasant; the heat is not troublesome; and fresh meat willkeep very well for two days. The winds do not blow constantlyfrom the east, but generally a little breeze, from E. to S. S. E.The tide rises very little ; and, being governed by the winds, isvery uncertain. These islanders, who inhabit huts exposed to allthe winds, and hardly coyer the earth, which serves them forabed, with a layer of leaves, are remarkably healthy and vigorous,and live to old age without enduring any of its intirmities; theirsenses are acute, and they retain their beautiful teeth to the last.There are, however, several sorts of leprous complaints, whichappear in cutaneous eruptions of the scaly kind; some were seenthat had ulcers upon different parts of their bodies: yet theyseemed little regarded bv those who were afflicted with them, andno application whatever was used to them, not so much as to keepoff the flies. But the excellency of their climate, and the simpli-city of their vegetable food, prevent almost all dangerous anddeadly disorders. T hey are sometimes afflicted with the colic,and coughs are not unknown among them; and the chiefs, whofare more sumptuously, are sometimes attacked with a disordersimilar to the gout, in which the legs are swelled and excessivelypainful. M. de Bougainville’s surgeon had seen many with marksof the small pox. The usual method employed here to restorethe sick to health, is by pronouncing a set form of words; afterwhich the exorcist applies the leaves of the cocoa-tree plaited tothe lingers and toes of the sick ; so that nature is left to conliictwith the disease, without being assisted w ith any salutary applica-tion of art. The venereal disease was entailed upon these peopleby the crew of M. Bougainville’s slflps, who visited this island ashort time after Captain Wallis lihd left it. The natives distin-guished it by a name of the same import with rottenness. How-ever they had found a specific cure for it, as none were seen onwhom it had made a great progress, when Captain Cook wasthere, m L769. The soil is a rich fat earth, of a blackish colour,it produces spontaneously, or with very slight culture, a greatvariety of the most excellent fruits; such as breied-fruit, cocoa-nuts, bananas of 13 sorts, plantains, potatoes, yams, sugar-canes,ginger, turmeric ; a fruit that grows in a pod like a large kidnev-bean ; a tree called wharra, which produce a fruit something likethe pine-apple, and which in the East Indies Is called pandanes ; aspecies of lern ; and the Chinese paper-mulberry, of the bark ofwhich they makellieir cloth; the Ava-Ava, the Barringlonia, withmany other rare plants, of which no description can be given suf-ficient to convey a just idea of them. The domestic poultry re-semble those of Europe ; there also wild ilucks, green turtle-doves, large pigeons, small paroquets, with beautiful, red, blue,and green feathers, kings-ftsiiers, large cuckoos, and blue herons.There were no quadrupeds but dogs, bogs, and rats. No frogs,toads, scorpions, centipedes, or any hind'of serpent, have beenfound here: there are ants, however, but not numerous. Thereis a great variety of excellent fish.

OTAEOOTA1A, an island in the S. Pacific Ocean, three milesin circumference, discovered by Capt. Cook , in 1777. The chieftrees were cocoa-palms; among which were seen cuckoos, cur-lews, herons, and great number of noddies. Lon. 178. 23. \V.Lat. 19. 51. S.

OTCIIAKOV, a strong fortified cisy of Russia , iii Ekaieri-uoslaf, 200 miles E. of Jussi, and 376 N. N. if. of Constantino-ple . Eon. 32. 34. E. Lat. 40. 44. N.

O i’ll ERA, m botany, a genus of the tetrandria nionogyniaclass and order. Calyx four-parted ; petals four, ovate, flat ;stigma sessile ; capsule. There is but one species, viz. O.japo-iiica,' a native of Japan , with a shrubby stem, and round, striated,'purple branches.

II OTIIO, M. Salvius, the eighth emperor of Rome , born A.l!D. 32, ofa family descended from the ancient kings of Etruria .Ij He was among tile number of Nero ’s favourites, was raised to the|i highest offices of the state, and made governor of Pannonia by thej interest of Seneca, who wished to remove him from Rome , lesti Nero’s love for Popprea should prove his ruin. After Nero ’sl death, Otlio conciliated the favour of Galba the new emperor ;

| but when Galba refused to adopt him as his successor, he procuredI his assassination, and made himself emperor. lie was acknov-j (edged by the senate, but the sudden revolt of Vitellius in Ger-I many rendered bis situation very precarious. Otlio obtained threej victories, but in a genera) engagement near Brixellum his forces\ were defeated, and iie stabbed himself when all hopes of success1 had vanished, in the 37th year of his age, after a reign of aboutthree months.

OTHONNA, African Ragwort; in botany, a genus of thesyiigenesia polygamia necessaria class and order. Natural order,Compositor DUcnidetc. Calyx one-leafed, multiiid, subcylin-drica! ; down almost none ; receptacle naked. There are twenty-seven species.

OTHRYADES, one of the 300 Spartans who fought against300 Argives, when tiiose two nations disputed their respectiveright to Thyreata. Two Argives , Alcinor and Cronins, andOthryades, survived the battle. The Argives went borne to carrythe news of their victory ; but Othryades, who had been reckonedamong the number of the slain on account of his wounds, re-covered himself, and carried some of the spoils of which he hadstripped the Argives into the camp of his countrymen ; and afterhe had raised a trophy, and had written the word with his ownblood, vici on his shield, he killed himself,unwilling to survive thedeath of his countrymen.

OTI1UYS, a mountain, or chain of mountains, in Thessaly;said to have been the residence of the Centaurs.

OTHUMA, a town of Arabia, in Yemen , 80 miles N. N. E.of Mocha. Lon. 43. 57. E. Lat. 14. 32. N.

OTHUS and EPIUALTES, in the mythology, two giants,sons of Neptune by lphimedia, the wife of the giant Aloetis.

OTIS, in ornithology, a genus of birds of the order, Gallinse.Rill somewhat convex; nostrils oval and open ; tongue bilid andpointed ; legs long, and naked above the knee ; only three toes!Gmelin mentions eleven species, and Latham nine.

O. Tarda, the Bustard, is the largest of the British land-fowls ; the male at a medium weighing 251b.; there are instancesof some very old ones weighing 27 : the breadth nine feet ; thej length near tour. Besides the size and dillerence ot colour, thel male is distinguished from the female by a tuft of feathers aboutlive inches long on each side of the lower mandible. Its head and! neck are ash-coloured ; the back is barred transversely with blacklaud blight rust-colour : the greater quill-feathers are black: thebelly white : the tail is marked with broad red ami black liars,and consists of20 feathers: the legs are dusky. These birds in-habit most of the open countries of the S. and E. parts of Eng-land, from Dorsetshire, as far as the Wolds in Yorkshire . Theyare exceedingly shy, and difficult to he shot; run very fast, andwhen on the wing can tly, though slowly, many miles withoutresting. They take flight with ditVicullv, and are sometimes rundown with greyhounds. They keep near their old haunts, seldomwandering above 20 or 30 miles. Their food is corn and othervegetables, and tiiose large earth-worms that appear in great quan-tities on the Down before sun-rising in the summer. These arei replete with moisture, answer the purpose ol liquids, and enablethem to live long without drinking, on tiiose extensive and drytracts. See Blate CNN.

OTLEY, a town in the W. Riding of Yorkshire , 25 miles W.of York, and 202 N. N. W. of London . Lon. 1. 48. W. Lat 1 .53. 54. N.

OTODINI, OTTAUINI, orOTTODINF, a nation of an-cient Britons, seated on the N. E. of the Brigantcs, in the coun-tries now called Northumberland , Merse, and the Eothians.

OTOGAMIEH, a nation of N. American Indians, .who residein the North-Western Territory, between the Mississippi and theLake of the Woods .

OTOQUE, an island of S. America, in Panama Bay. Lon. 81.10. W. Lat. 7.50. N.

OTRANTO, or TEIIRA D’OTRANTO, a province of Na-

' pies;

9