Next Astrapotherium may be provisionally placed the genus Homalodontotherium, of which the teeth have much lower crowns, and are of a less decidedly rhinocerotic type than in Astrapotherium, and the whole dentition forms an even and unbroken series. The bodies of the cervical vertebrae are short, with flattened articular surfaces, the humerus has an enormous deltoid crest, suggestive of fossorial powers, and the femur is flattened, with a third trochanter. According to the Argentine palaeontologists, the carpus is of the alternating type, and the terminal phalanges of the pentedactyle feet are bifid, and very like those of Edentata. Indeed, this type of foot shows many edentate resemblances. The astragalus is square and flattened, articulating directly with the navicular, although not with the cuboid, and having a slightly convex facet for the tibia. From the structure of the above-mentioned type of foot, which is stated to have been found in association with the skull, it has been suggested that Homalodontotherium should be placed in the Ancylopoda (q.v.), but, to say nothing of the different form of the cheek-teeth, all the other South American Santa Cruz ungulates are so distinct from those of other countries that this seems unlikely. It may be suggested that we have rather to deal with an instance of parallelism—a view supported by the parallelism to the Equidae presented by certain members of the Proterotheriidae.
(R. L.*)
LITOTES (Gr. λιτότης, plainness, λιτός, plain, simple, smooth), a rhetorical figure in which emphasis is secured for a statement by turning it into a denial of the contrary, e.g. “a citizen of no mean city,” i.e. a citizen of a famous city, “A. is not a man to be neglected.” Litotes is sometimes used for what should be more strictly called “meiosis” (Gr. μείωσις, lessening, diminution, μείων, lesser), where the expressions used apparently are weak or understated, but the effect is to intensify.
LITTER (through O. Fr. litere or litiere, mod. litière from Med. Lat. lectaria, classical lectica, lectus, bed, couch), a word used of a portable couch, shut in by curtains and borne on poles by bearers, and of a bed of straw or other suitable substance for animals; hence applied to the number of young produced by an animal at one birth, and also to any disordered heap of waste material, rubbish, &c. In ancient Greece, prior to the influence of Asiatic luxury after the Macedonian conquest, the litter (φορεῖον) was only used by invalids or by women. The Romans, when the lectica was introduced, probably about the latter half of the 2nd century B.C. (Gellius x. 3), used it only for travelling purposes. Like the Greek or Asiatic litter, it had a roof of skin (pellis) and side curtains (vela, plagae). Juvenal (iv. 20) speaks of transparent sides (latis specularibus). The slaves who bore the litter on their shoulders (succollare) were termed lecticarii, and it was a sign of luxury and wealth to employ six or even eight bearers. Under the Empire the litter began to be used in the streets of Rome, and its use was restricted and granted as a privilege (Suet. Claudius). The travelling lectica must be distinguished from the much earlier lectica funebris or feretrum, the funeral bier on which the dead were carried to their burial-place.
LITTLE FALLS, a city and the county-seat of Morrison county, Minnesota, U.S.A., on both banks of the Mississippi river, about 88 m. N.W. of Minneapolis. Pop. (1890) 2354; (1900) 5774, of whom 1559 were foreign-born, chiefly Germans and Swedes; (1905) 5856; (1910) 6078. It is served by the Northern Pacific railway. The city is situated in a prosperous farming region, and has excellent water-power and various manufactures. Little Falls was settled about 1850, was chartered as a city in 1889 and adopted a new charter in 1902. Here was buried the Chippewa chief, Hole-in-the-Day (c. 1827-1868), or Bagwunagijik, who succeeded his father, also named Hole-in-the-Day, as head chief of the Chippewas in 1846. Like his father, the younger Hole-in-the-Day led his tribe against the Sioux, and he is said to have prevented the Chippewas from joining the Sioux rising in 1862. His body was subsequently removed by his relatives.
LITTLE FALLS, a city of Herkimer county, New York, U.S.A., on the Mohawk river, 21 m. E.S.E. of Utica. Pop. (1890) 8783; (1900) 10,381, of whom 1915 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 12,273. It is served by the New York Central & Hudson River, the West Shore, the Utica & Mohawk Valley (electric), and the Little Falls & Dolgeville railways (the last named being 13 m. long and running only to Salisbury Center and by the Erie canal). The Mohawk river falls here by a series of rapids 45 ft. in less than a mile, furnishing water power. Among the manufactures are cotton yarn, hosiery and knit goods, leather, &c. In 1905 the city’s factory products were valued at $4,471,080. The city has one of the largest cheese-markets in the United States. The manufacture of flour and grist-mill products was formerly an important industry; a mill burned in 1782 by Tories and Indians had supplied almost the entire Mohawk Valley, and particularly Forts Herkimer and Dayton. Near the city is the grave of General Nicholas Herkimer, to whom a monument was erected in 1896. Little Falls was settled by Germans in 1782, and was almost immediately destroyed by Indians and Tories. It was resettled in 1790, and was incorporated as a village in 1811 and as a city in 1895.