CHEVRON (Fr. from chévre, a goat), in architecture, the beams or rafters in the roofs of a building, meeting in an angle with a fancied resemblance to the horns of a butting goat; in heraldry a bent bar on a shield, used also as a distinguishing badge of rank on the sleeves of non-commissioned officers in most armies and navies and by police and other organized bodies wearing uniform, and as a mark of good conduct in the army and navy. Chevron is also an architectural term for an inflected ornament, called also “zig-zag,” found largely in romanesque architecture in France, England and Sicily. It is one of the most common decorations found in the voussoirs of the Norman arch, and was employed also on shafts, as in the cloisters of Monreale near Palermo, those of St Paul outside Rome, and many churches in Germany. Its earliest appearance was in the tomb of Agamemnon at Mycenae, where the shafts flanking the entrance doorway have nine decorative chevron bands; in this case there is no doubt it was derived from the metal casing of the early wood columns.
CHEVROTAIN, a name taken from the French to designate the various representatives of the mammalian ungulate family Tragulidae. These tiny animals, commonly known as mouse-deer, are in no wise nearly related to the true deer, but constitute by themselves a special section of artiodactyle ungulates known as Tragulina, for the characteristics of which see [Artiodactyla]. The typical genus Tragulus, which is Asiatic, contains the smallest representatives of the family, the animals having more of the general aspects and habits of some rodents, such as the agoutis, than of other ruminants. The longest-known species are T. javanicus, T. napu, T. kanchil, T. stanleyanus and T. memmina; but a number of other forms, best regarded for the most part as races, have been named. Of those mentioned, the first four are from the Malay Peninsula or the islands of the Indo-Malay Archipelago, the last from Ceylon and India. Kanchil and napu (or napoh) are the Malay names of the species with those specific titles. The second genus, Dorcatherium (or Hyomoschus), is African, and distinguished chiefly by the feet being stouter and shorter, the outer toes better developed, and the two middle metacarpals not welded together. Its dental formula (as that of Tragulus) is i.0/3, c.1/1, p.8/3, m.3/3=34. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 13, L. 6, S. 5, Ca. 12-13. The only existing species, D. aquaticum (fig.), in type is rather larger than any of the Asiatic chevrotains, which it otherwise much resembles, but is said to frequent the banks of streams, and have much the habits of pigs. It is of a rich brown colour, with back and sides spotted and striped with white; and it is evidently the survivor of an ancient form, as remains of a species only differing in size (D. crassum) have been found in the Miocene deposits of France. For long this species was supposed to be restricted to West Africa, but it has recently been obtained in East Central Africa, where it is represented by a local race.
(R. L.*)
African Water Chevrotain (Dorcatherium aquaticum).
CHEYENNE (Sioux for “of alien speech”), a tribe of North American Indians of Algonquian stock. They formerly lived on the Cheyenne river, North Dakota. Driven west by the Dakotas, they were found by early explorers at the eastern base of the Black Hills, South Dakota. Part of them later moved south and allied themselves with the Arapahoes. Their whole history has been one of war with their red and white neighbours. They are a powerful athletic race, mentally superior to the average American Indian. They are divided into eleven subdivisions and formerly had a council of chiefs. They number some 3000, and are divided into northern and southern Cheyennes; the former being on a reservation in Montana, the latter in Oklahoma. In 1878-79 a band of the former revolted, and some seventy-five of them were killed.
See Handbook of American Indians (Washington, 1907); also [Indians, North American].