Orange River

The high valleys of the Orange River's headwaters are uninhabited, though the adjacent plateaus are used by the southern Sotho (Basuto) people for grazing land. Between the Lesotho border and the town of Aliwal North, corn (maize) is cultivated, and this region is also used as pasturage for cattle and sheep. The dry shrub country farther downstream is in general suitable

Main Range

Also called  Central Range , or  Buffalo Range  mountain range in West Malaysia, the most prominent mountain group on the Malay Peninsula. Composed of granite with some patches of altered stratified rocks, the range extends southward for 300 miles (480 km) from the Thai border, with elevations rarely less than 3,000 feet (900 m) and some peaks exceeding 7,000 feet (2,100 m; high point Mount Korbu [Kerbau], or Buffalo Mountain, 7,162 feet [2,183 m]). The heavily forested

Neo-paganism

Any of several spiritual movements that attempt to revive the ancient polytheistic religions of Europe and the Middle East. These movements have a close relationship to ritual magic and modern witchcraft. Neo-Paganism differs from them, however, in striving to revive authentic pantheons and rituals of ancient cultures, though often in deliberately eclectic

Baptist Missionary Association Of America

Association of independent, conservative Baptist churches, organized as the North American Baptist Association in Little Rock, Ark., in 1950, in protest against the American Baptist Association's policy of seating messengers at meetings who were not members of the churches that elected them. The present name was adopted in 1968. These churches cooperate in missions and

Terhune, Mary Virginia Hawes

Mary Hawes grew up in her hometown of Dennisville, Virginia, and from 1844 in nearby Richmond. She was well educated by private tutors and in her father's library. Writing under the pseudonym Marion Harland, she

Belafonte, Harry

Belafonte's parents were emigrants from the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Jamaica, and he lived with his mother during her 1935–40 return to Jamaica. He left high school to serve in the U.S. Navy in the mid-1940s; after returning to New York City he studied

Brac

Italian  Brazza,   rugged, mountainous island in the Adriatic Sea that is part of Croatia. With an area of 149 square miles (395 square km), Brac is one of the larger islands in the Adriatic; it lies southeast of the mainland city of Split. Its maximum elevation, 2,559 feet (780 m), is reached at Vidova Mountain, the highest point in the Adriatic islands. The main occupations of the inhabitants are fishing and agriculture;

Local Group

In astronomy, the group of more than 20 galaxies to which the Milky Way Galaxy belongs. About half are elliptical galaxies, with the remainder being of the spiral or irregular type. As in other clusters of galaxies, members are probably kept from separating by their mutual gravitational attraction. The Milky Way system is near one end of the volume of space occupied by

Melanin

A dark biological pigment (biochrome) found in skin, hair, feathers, scales, eyes, and some internal membranes; it is also found in the peritoneum of many animals (e.g., frogs), but its role there is not understood. Formed as an end product during metabolism of the amino acid tyrosine, melanins are conspicuous in dark skin moles of humans; in the black dermal melanocytes (pigment

Bing, Sir Rudolf Franz Joseph

British operatic impresario (b. Jan. 9, 1902, Vienna, Austria--d. Sept. 2, 1997, New York, N.Y.), directed the Metropolitan Opera through one of its most turbulent periods (1950-72). The son of a Viennese industrialist, Bing grew up in a musical household. Although he studied voice in his teens, he soon started working for a bookstore that expanded its business into concert and opera management. He moved

Hevesy, Georg Charles Von

Educated at the Technische

Lord

In the British Isles, a general title for a prince or sovereign or for a feudal superior (especially a feudal tenant who holds directly from the king, i.e., a baron). In the United Kingdom the title today denotes a peer of the realm, whether or not he sits in Parliament as a member of the House of Lords. Before the Hanoverian succession, before the use of “prince” became settled

Rush

Any of several flowering plants distinguished by cylindrical stalks or hollow, stemlike leaves. They are found in temperate regions and particularly in moist or shady locations. The rush family (Juncaceae) includes Juncus, the common rushes, and Luzula, the woodrushes. Common rushes are used in many parts of the world for weaving into chair bottoms,

Hoorn

Gemeente (commune), Noord-Holland provincie, northwestern Netherlands, on the IJsselmeer (lake). Founded about 1300 and chartered in 1357, it was the capital of medieval West Friesland. Its horn-shaped harbour (for which it is named) was one of the principal ports of the Netherlands until the Zuiderzee silted up in the 18th century. The first great net for herring fishing was made in