EBONY (Gr. ἔβενος), the wood of various species of trees of the genus Diospyros (natural order Ebenaceae), widely distributed in the tropical parts of the world. The best kinds are very heavy, are of a deep black, and consist of heart-wood only. On account of its colour, durability, hardness and susceptibility of polish, ebony is much used for cabinet work and inlaying, and for the manufacture of pianoforte-keys, knife-handles and turned articles. The best Indian and Ceylon ebony is furnished by D. Ebenum, a native of southern India and Ceylon, which grows in great abundance throughout the flat country west of Trincomalee. The tree is distinguished from others by the inferior width of its trunk, and its jet-black, charred-looking bark, beneath which the wood is perfectly white until the heart is reached. The wood is stated to excel that obtained from D. reticulata of the Mauritius and all other varieties of ebony in the fineness and intensity of its dark colour. Although the centre of the tree alone is employed, reduced logs 1 to 3 ft. in diameter can readily be procured. Much of the East Indian ebony is yielded by the species D. Melanoxylon (Coromandel ebony), a large tree attaining a height of 60 to 80 ft., and 8 to 10 ft. in circumference, with irregular rigid branches, and oblong or oblong-lanceolate leaves. The bark of the tree is astringent, and mixed with pepper is used in dysentery by the natives of India. The wood of D. tomentosa, a native of north Bengal, is black, hard and of great weight. D. montana, another Indian species, produces a yellowish-grey soft but durable wood. D. quaesita is the tree from which is obtained the wood known in Ceylon by the name Calamander, derived by Pridham from the Sinhalee kalumindrie, black-flowing. Its closeness of grain, great hardness and fine hazel-brown colour, mottled and striped with black, render it a valuable material for veneering and furniture making. D. Dendo, a native of Angola, is a valuable timber tree, 25 to 35 ft. high, with a trunk 1 to 2 ft. in diameter. The heart-wood is very black and hard and is known as black ebony, also as billet-wood, and Gabun, Lagos, Calabar or Niger ebony. What is termed Jamaica or West Indian ebony, and also the green ebony of commerce, are produced by Brya Ebenus, a leguminous tree or shrub, having a trunk rarely more than 4 in. in diameter, flexible spiny branches, and orange-yellow, sweet-scented flowers. The heart-wood is rich dark brown in colour, heavier than water, exceedingly hard and capable of receiving a high polish.
From the book of Ezekiel (xxvii. 15) we learn that ebony was among the articles of merchandise brought to Tyre; and Herodotus states (iii. 97) that the Ethiopians every three years sent a tribute of 200 logs of it to Persia. Ebony was known to Virgil as a product of India (Georg. ii. 116), and was displayed by Pompey the Great in his Mithradatic triumph at Rome. By the ancients it was esteemed of equal value for durability with the cypress and cedar (see Pliny, Nat. Hist. xii. 9, xvi. 79). According to Solinus (Polyhistor, cap. lv. p. 353, Paris, 1621), it was employed by the kings of India for sceptres and images, also, on account of its supposed antagonism to poison, for drinking-cups. The hardness and black colour of the wood appear to have given rise to the tradition related by Pausanias, and alluded to by Southey in Thalaba, i. 22, that the ebony tree produced neither leaves nor fruit, and was never seen exposed to the sun.
EBRARD, JOHANNES HEINRICH AUGUST (1818-1888), German theologian, was born at Erlangen on the 18th of January 1818. He was educated in his native town and at Berlin, and after teaching in a private family became Privatdocent at Erlangen (1841) and then professor of theology at Zürich (1844). In 1847 he was appointed professor of theology at Erlangen, a chair which he resigned in 1861; in 1875 he became pastor of the French reformed church in the same city. As a critic Ebrard occupied a very moderate standpoint; as a writer his chief works were Christliche Dogmatik (2 vols., 1851), Vorlesungen über praktische Theologie (1864), Apologetik (1874-1875, Eng. trans. 1886). He also edited and completed H. Olshausen’s commentary, himself writing the volumes on the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Johannine Epistles, and Revelation. In the department of belles-lettres he wrote a good deal under such pseudonyms as Christian Deutsch, Gottfried Flammberg and Sigmund Sturm. He died at Erlangen on the 23rd of July 1888.
EBRO (anc. Iberus or Hiberus), the only one of the five great rivers of the Iberian Peninsula (Tagus, Douro, Ebro, Guadalquivir, Guadiana) which flows into the Mediterranean. The Ebro rises at Fuentibre, a hamlet among the Cantabrian Mountains, in the province of Santander; at Reinosa, 4 m. east, it is joined on the right by the Hijar, and thus gains considerably in volume. It flows generally east by south through a tortuous valley as far as Miranda de Ebro, passing through the celebrated Roman bridge known as La Horadada (“the perforated”), near Oña in Burgos. From Miranda it winds south-eastward through the wide basin enclosed on the right by the highlands of Old Castile and western Aragon, and on the left by the Pyrenees. The chief cities on its banks are Logroño, Calahorra, Tudela, Saragossa and Caspe. Near Mora in Catalonia it forces a way through the coastal mountains, and, passing Tortosa, falls into the Mediterranean about 80 m. south-west of Barcelona, after forming by its delta a conspicuous projection on the otherwise regular coast line. In its length, approximately 465 m., the Ebro is inferior to the Tagus, Guadiana and Douro; it drains an area of nearly 32,000 sq. m. Its principal tributaries are—from the right hand the Jalon with its affluent the Jiloca, the Huerva, Aguas, Martin, Guadalope and Matarraña; from the left the Ega, Aragon, Arba, Gallego, and the Segre with its intricate system of confluent rivers. The Ebro and its tributaries have been utilized for irrigation since the Moorish conquest; the main stream becomes navigable by small boats about Tudela; but its value as a means of communication is almost neutralized by the obstacles in its channel, and seafaring vessels cannot proceed farther up than Tortosa. The great Imperial Canal, begun under the emperor Charles V. (1500-1558), proceeds along the right bank of the river from a point about 3 m. below Tudela, to El Burgo de Ebro, 5 m. below Saragossa; the irrigation canal of Tauste skirts the opposite bank for a shorter distance; and the San Carlos or New Canal affords direct communication between Amposta at the head of the delta and the harbour of Los Alfaques. From Miranda to Mora the Bilbao-Tarragona railway follows the course of the Ebro along the right bank.
EBROÏN (d. 681), Frankish “mayor of the palace,” was a Neustrian, and wished to impose the authority of Neustria over Burgundy and Austrasia. In 656, at the moment of his accession to power, Sigebert III., the king of Austrasia, had just died, and the Austrasian mayor of the palace, Grimoald, was attempting to usurp the authority. The great nobles, however, appealed to the king of Neustria, Clovis II., and unity was re-established. But in spite of a very firm policy Ebroïn was unable to maintain this unity, and while Clotaire III., son of Clovis II., reigned in Neustria and Burgundy, he was obliged in 660 to give the Austrasians a special king, Childeric II., brother of Clotaire III., and a special mayor of the palace, Wulfoald. He endeavoured to maintain at any rate the union of Neustria and Burgundy, but the great Burgundian nobles wished to remain independent, and rose under St Leger (Leodegar), bishop of Autun, defeated Ebroïn, and interned him in the monastery of Luxeuil (670). A proclamation was then issued to the effect that each kingdom should keep its own laws and customs, that there should be no further interchange of functionaries between the kingdoms, and that no one should again set up a tyranny like that of Ebroïn. Soon, however, Leger was defeated by Wulfoald and the Austrasians, and was himself confined at Luxeuil in 673. In the same year, taking advantage of the general anarchy, Ebroïn and Leger left the cloister and soon found themselves once more face to face. Each looked for support to a different Merovingian king, Ebroïn even proclaiming a false Merovingian as sovereign. In this struggle Leger was vanquished; he was besieged in Autun, was forced to surrender and had his eyes put out, and, on the 12th of October 678, he was put to death after undergoing prolonged tortures. The church honours him as a saint. After his death Ebroïn became sole and absolute ruler of the Franks, imposing his authority over Burgundy and subduing the Austrasians, whom he defeated in 678 at Bois-du-Fay, near Laon. His triumph, however, was short-lived; he was assassinated in 681, the victim of a combined attack of his numerous enemies. He was a man of great energy, but all his actions seem to have been dictated by no higher motives than ambition and lust of power.
See Liber historiae Francorum, edited by B. Krusch, in Mon. Germ. hist. script. rer. Merov. vol. ii.; Vita sancti Leodegarii, by Ursinus, a monk of St Maixent (Migne, Patr. Latina, vol. xcvi.); “Vita metrica” in Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, vol. iii. (Mon. Germ. hist.); J.B. Pitra, Histoire de Saint Léger (Paris, 1846); and J. Friedrich, “Zur Gesch. des Hausmeiers Ebroïn,” in the Proceedings of the Academy of Munich (1887, pp. 42-61).