Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) mysteries, in Greek and Roman religion, some important secret cults. The conventional religions of both Greeks and Romans were alike in consisting principally of propitiation and prayers for the good ...

(Encyclopedia) mesquite mĭskētˈ, mĕsˈkēt [key], any plant of the genus Prosopis, leguminous spiny trees or shrubs of the family Leguminosae (pulse family), native to tropical and subtropical regions. The seed ...

(Encyclopedia) Western Cape, province (2011 pop. 5,822,734), 49,986 sq mi (129,462 sq km), SW South Africa, on the Atlantic and Indian oceans. In 1994, under South Africa's post-apartheid constitution, Western Cape ...

(Encyclopedia) Powys, John Cowper pōˈĭs [key], 1872–1963, British author and lecturer. In addition to his widely admired novels Wolf Solent (1929), and A Glastonbury Romance (1932), Powys also wrote poetry and ...

(Encyclopedia) duiker dīˈkər, dāˈ– [key], name for members of a group of small, light antelopes, found in thick brush and forest over most of Africa. All stand under 25 in. (64 cm) high at the shoulder. They ...

(Encyclopedia) Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), former U.S. government agency established (1933) in the Dept. of Agriculture under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 as part of Franklin Delano Roos...

(Encyclopedia) caviar or caviare kăvˈēär [key], the roe (eggs) of various species of sturgeon prepared as a piquant table delicacy. The ovaries of the fish are beaten to loosen the eggs, which are then freed fro...

(Encyclopedia) Intracoastal Waterway, c.3,000 mi (4,827 km) long, partly natural, partly artificial, providing sheltered passage for commercial and leisure boats along the U.S. Atlantic coast from Boston, Mass. to K...

(Encyclopedia) Cyrenaics sīrĭnāˈĭks, sĭ– [key], one of the minor schools of Greek philosophy, flourishing in the late 4th and early 3d cent. b.c. Cyrenaic philosophy taught that present individual pleasure i...

(Encyclopedia) Fish, Stanley Eugene, 1938–, American literary critic and educator, b. Providence, R.I.; grad. Univ. of Pennsylvania (B.A., 1959), Yale Univ. (M.A., 1960; Ph.D., 1962). Fish has taught at the Univ. ...