See Mary H. Kingsley, West African Studies (1901); Rev. Robt. H. Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa (1904); C. Partridge, Cross River Natives (1905).
EGEDE, HANS (1686-1758), Norwegian missionary, was born in the vogtship of Senjen, Norway, on the 31st of January 1686. He studied at the university of Copenhagen, and in 1706 became pastor at Vaagen in the Lofoten islands, but the study of the chronicles of the northmen having awakened in him the desire to visit the colony of Northmen in Greenland, and to convert them to Christianity, he resigned his charge in 1717; and having, after great difficulty, obtained the sanction and help of the Danish government in his enterprise, he set sail with three ships from Bergen on the 3rd of May 1721, accompanied by his wife and children. He landed on the west coast of Greenland on the 3rd of July, but found to his dismay that the Northmen were entirely superseded by the Eskimo, in whom he had no particular interest, and whose language he would be able to master, if at all, only after years of study. But, though compelled to endure for some years great privations, and at one time to see the result of his labours almost annihilated by the ravages of small-pox, he remained resolutely at his post. He founded the colony of Godthaab, and soon gained the affections of the people. He converted many of them to Christianity, and established a considerable commerce with Denmark. Ill-health compelling him to return home in 1736, he was made principal of a seminary at Copenhagen, in which workers were trained for the Greenland mission; and from 1740 to 1747 he was superintendent of the mission. He died on the 5th of November 1758. He is the author of a book on the natural history of Greenland.
His work in Greenland was continued, on his retirement, by his son Paul Egede (1708-1789), who afterwards returned to Denmark and succeeded his father as superintendent of the Greenland mission. Paul Egede also became professor of theology in the mission seminary. He published a Greenland-Danish-Latin dictionary (1750), Greenland grammar (1760) and Greenland catechism (1756). In 1766 he completed the translation begun by his father of the New Testament into the Greenland tongue; and in 1787 he translated Thomas à Kempis. In 1789 he published a journal of his life in Greenland.
EGER, AQIBA (1761-1837), Jewish scholar, was for the last twenty-five years of his life rabbi of Posen. He was a rigorous casuist of the old school, and his chief works were legal notes on the Talmud and the code of Qaro (q.v.). He believed that religious education was enough, and thus opposed the party which favoured secular schools. He was a determined foe of the reform movement, which began to make itself felt in his time.
EGER (Czech, Cheb), a town of Bohemia, Austria, 148 m. W.N.W. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900) 23,665. It is situated on the river Eger, at the foot of one of the spurs of the Fichtelgebirge, and lies in the centre of a German district of about 40,000 inhabitants, who are distinguished from the surrounding population by their costumes, language, manners and customs. On the rock, to the N.W. of the town, lies the Burg or Castle, built probably in the 12th century, and now in ruins. It possesses a massive black tower, built of blocks of lava, and in the courtyard is an interesting chapel, in Romanesque style with fantastic ornamentations, which was finished in the 13th century. In the banquet-room of this castle Wallenstein’s officers Terzky, Kinsky, Illo and Neumann were assassinated a few hours before Wallenstein himself was murdered by Captain Devereux. The murder took place on the 25th of February 1634 in the town-house, which was at that time the burgomaster’s house. The rooms occupied by Wallenstein have been transformed since 1872 into a museum, which contains many historical relics and antiquities of the town of Eger. The handsome and imposing St Nicholas church was built in the 13th century and restored in 1892. There is a considerable textile industry, together with the manufacture of shoes, machinery and milling. Eger was the birthplace of the novelist and playwright Braun von Braunthal (1802-1866). About 3 m. N.W. of Eger is the well-known watering place of Franzensbad (q.v.).
The district of Eger was in 870 included in the new margraviate of East Franconia, which belonged at first to the Babenbergs, but from 906 to the counts of Vohburg, who took the title of margraves of Eger. By the marriage, in 1149, of Adela of Vohburg with the emperor Frederick I., Eger came into the possession of the house of Swabia, and remained in the hands of the emperors until the 13th century. In 1265 it was taken by Ottakar II. of Bohemia, who retained it for eleven years. After being repeatedly transferred from the one power to the other, according to the preponderance of Bohemia or the empire, the town and territory were finally incorporated with Bohemia in 1350, after the Bohemian king became the emperor Charles IV. Several imperial privileges, however, continued to be enjoyed by the town till 1849. It suffered severely during the Hussite war, during the Swedish invasion in 1631 and 1647, and in the War of the Austrian Succession in 1742.
See Drivok, Ältere Geschichte der deutschen Reichstadt Eger und des Reichsgebietes Egerland (Leipzig, 1875).