Y.
The letter Y is called the letter of Pythagoras because that philosopher made it the symbol of life. The foot of the letter, he said, represented infancy, and as man gradually rises to the age of reason, he finds two paths set before him, the one leading to good, the other to evil, portrayed by two forks of the letter. The illustration is the device of Jean de Morvilliers (+ 1577), Chancellor of France; the harrow tied to the Pythagorean Υ, a rebus on his name Mort-vie-liers—“Death and life united.” The harrow is the symbol of Death, which makes all things equal. (Fig. [701].)
Fig. 701. Device of Morvilliers. (The Pythagorean Y.)
Yacca. An ornamental Jamaica wood used for cabinet-making.
Yard (from the Saxon geard or gyrd, from gyrdan, to enclose). Originally estimated to measure the girth of a man’s body; until Henry I. decreed that it should be the length of his arm.
Yataghan. A Turkish dagger or scimitar.
Yawl. A man-of-war’s boat, rowed with six oars.
Ychma, Peruv. The name for wild cinnabar among the ancient Peruvians; it was employed by them for painting the body and drawing figures on the face and arms.
Yellow. One of the three primary colours; producing with green, blue; and with red, orange. The principal yellow pigments are gamboge (bluish), gold ochre (reddish), yellow ochre, Naples yellow, chrome yellow, lemon yellow, Indian yellow, gall-stone, Roman ochre, Mars yellow, terra di Siena, Italian pink, cadmium yellow, &c.
Yellow, in Christian art, or gold, was the symbol of the sun; of the goodness of God, initiation or marriage, faith or fruitfulness. In a bad sense yellow signifies inconstancy, jealousy, deceit; in this sense it is given to the traitor Judas, who is generally habited in dirty yellow.
Yellow Arsenic. (See Yellow Orpiment.)
Yellow Flag. Denoting sickness on board of a ship or quarantine.
Yellow Lake. A bright pigment, very susceptible to the action of light or metal. (See Pinks.)
Yellow Metal. A composition, two-thirds copper and one-third zinc.
Yellow Ochre. An argillaceous earth, coloured by admixture of iron. (See Ochre.)
Yellow Orpiment (auripigmentum). A bright and pure yellow pigment, but not durable, and dries very slowly; called also Yellow Arsenic.
Yeoman of the Guard. A beef-eater; one of the British sovereign’s state body-guard; below the gentleman-at-arms. Instituted at the coronation of Henry VII. in 1485.
Yew. Taxus baccata. The word is largely used in cabinet-making. The excellence of the wood for making bows led to the trees being planted in churchyards, to preserve them.
Ymaigier. (See Imagier.)
Ymaigerie, Imagery, Med. (1) Illuminated borders on missals and manuscripts executed by the miniaturists of the Middle Ages. (2) Bas-reliefs and sculptures on wood and stone.
Fig. 702. Yoke. Device of Pope Leo X.
Yoke. A symbolical device assumed by Pope Leo X. in allusion to the text “My yoke is easy,” expressed in the one word of the motto “Suave.” (See Jugum.) Fig. [702].
York Collar. Her. Was formed of alternate Suns and Roses.
York Herald. One of the six Heralds of the College of Arms. (See Heralds.)
York Rose. Her. The white rose of the family of York. (See Fig. [589].)
Yorkshire Grit. A stone used for polishing marble and engravers’ copper plates.
Ypres Lace is the finest and most costly kind of Valenciennes.
Yu, Chinese. (1) A hard and heavy stone, supposed to be a kind of agate which was used for the ancient musical instrument KING, which was a kind of harmonicon made of slabs of sonorous stone of different sizes. (2) An ancient name for a curious wind instrument of high antiquity, which is still in use and is now called cheng. It consists of a number of tubes placed in a calabash, or bowl, and blown into through a long curved tube.
Yucatan. A province of Mexico remarkable for its architectural monuments of a forgotten civilization, described by Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan. (See Mexican Architecture.)
Yufts. A kind of Russia leather, red and soft, with a pleasant smell.
Yule, O. E. Christmas time.