Electoral Bonnet, Her. A cap of crimson velvet guarded with ermine, borne over the inescutcheon of the arms of Hanover from 1801 to 1816.
Electrotint. A method of preparing engraved copper plates for the printing-press by the electrotype process. (See Art Journal, 1850.)
Electrotype. The process whereby works in relief are produced by the agency of electricity, through which certain metals, such as gold, silver, and copper, are precipitated from their solutions upon moulds in so fine a state of division as to form a coherent mass of pure metal, equal in toughness and flexibility to the hammered metals. (Fairholt.) At the present day electrotypes are generally taken from engravings on wood for printing from.
Electrum (ἤλεκτρον). In Homer and Hesiod this word means amber. Pliny says that when gold contains a fifth part of silver, it is called electrum. Its colour was whiter and more luminous than that of gold, and the metal was supposed to betray the presence of poison. Specimens are rare. A beautiful vase of electrum is preserved in the St. Petersburg Museum. Some coins in electrum were struck by the kings of Bosporus, and by Syracuse and some Greek states.
Elements, Chr. The bread and the wine in the Lord’s Supper. In the Eastern liturgies the unconsecrated elements are called “the Mysteries,” and the bread alone the Seal (σφραγὶς), from its being divided by lines in the form of a cross. The interesting subject of the composition and form of the elements in the early churches is fully discussed in the “Dictionary of Christian Antiquities” (Smith and Cheetham).
Elemine. A crystallized resin used to give consistency to the varnish which forms part of the composition of lacquer.
Elenchus, R. (ἔλεγχος). (1) A pear-shaped pearl highly esteemed by the Roman ladies, who wore such pearls mounted as drops or pendants to brooches and rings. (See the illustration to Crotalium.) (2) An index to a book.
Elephant. In mediæval heraldry this animal is a symbol of piety, from an ancient legend, mentioned by Ælian, Pliny, and others, that it has in religious reverence, with a kind of devotion, not only the stars and planets, but also the sun and moon.
Elephant Paper. Drawing-paper manufactured in sheets, measuring 28 inches by 23. Double Elephant Paper measures 40 inches by 26¾.
Eleusinian Mysteries. The holiest and most venerated of the Greek festivals. The Lesser Eleusinia, held at Agræ in the month Anthesterion, were a preparation for the Greater, which were celebrated at Athens and Eleusis. The Mystæ were the initiated at the Lesser, of which the principal rite was the sacrifice of a sow, previously purified by washing in the Cantharus. The Greater were celebrated every year in the month Boedromion, and lasted nine days. On the first day the Mystæ assembled at Athens; on the second they went through a ceremony of purification at the sea-coast; the third was a day of fasting; on the fourth there was a procession of a waggon drawn by oxen, followed by women who had small mystic cases in their hands; on the fifth, or torch day, the Mystæ went in the evening with torches to the temple of Demeter, where they passed the night; on the sixth, which was the most solemn of all, a statue of Iacchos, the son of Demeter, was borne in procession to Eleusis, and the Mystæ were there initiated in the last mysteries during the following night. There was something in the secrets of this part of the ceremony which excited greatly the imagination of the ancient writers, especially Christians, who describe them “in an awful and horrible manner.” Each of the initiated was dismissed by the mystagogus with the words κόγξ, ὄμπαξ. On the next day they returned to Athens, and resting on the bridge of Cephisus engaged in a contest of ridicule with the passers-by: the eighth and ninth days were unimportant.