Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 6, CHI-Crystallization

C I P f 15S ] C I P
great hall on his right hand j to be exempted from fub-
fidies and other aids •, their heirs to be free from per-
fonal wardlhip, notwithftanding any tenure to be
impleaded in their own towns, and not elfewhere j not
to be liable to tolls, &c.
The Cinque-ports give the following titles : Ra¬
ftings, a barony to the ancient family of Huntington :
Romney, to the Marlhams : Dover, new barony, to a
branch of the York family j formerly a dukedom (now
extinct) to the Queenfberry family : Sandwich, an
earldom to a branch of the Montagues.
C1NTRA, a cape and mountain of Portugal, in the
province of Eftremadura, ufually called the Rock of Lif-
bon. It lies on the north fid£ of the entrance of the
river Tajo j and there is a town of the fame name litu-
ated thereon. W. Long. 10. 15. N. Lat. 59. O.
CINUS, or Cynus, a famous civilian of Piftoia in
the 14th century. His commentary on the Code was
finilhed in 1313 ; he alfo wrote on fome parts of the
Digeft. He was no lef* famous for his Italian poems,
and is ranked among thofe who firft gave graces to the
Tufcan lyric poetry.
CINYRA, in the Jewilh antiquities, a mufical in-
ftrument. This, and the Hebrew crV/nor, which is ge¬
nerally tranflated cither a, /yra, or pfallenum, are the
lame. It was made of wood, and was played on in the
temple of Jerufalem. Jofephus fays that the cimjra of
the temple had ten firings, and that it was touched
with a bow. In another place he fays that Solomon
made a great number of them with a precious kind of
metal called eleflrum, wherein he contradicts the Scrip¬
tures, which inform us that Solomon’s cinnors were
made of wood.
CINYRAS, in fabulous hiftory, a king of Cyprus,
fon of Paphus. He married Cenchreis, by whom he
had a daughter called Myrrha. Myrrha fell in love
with her father, and in the abfence of her mother fhe
introduced herfelf into his bed by means of her nurfe.
Cinyras had by her a fon called Adonis ; and when he
knew the inceft he had, committed, he attempted to
ftab his daughter, who efcaped his purfuit and fled to
Arabia, where, after fhe had brought forth, fhe was
changed into a tree which ftill bears her name. .Ciny¬
ras, according to fome, ftabbed himfelf.
CION, or Cyon, in Gardening, a young fhoot,
fprout, or fprig, put forth by a tree. Grafting is per¬
formed by the application of the cion of one plant up¬
on the flock of another. To produce a flock of cions
for grafting, planting, &c. the gardeners fometimes
cutoff the bodies of trees a little above the ground,
and only leave a flump or root Handing : the redun¬
dant fap will not fail next fpring to put forth a great
niimber of fhoots. In drefling dwarf-trees, a great many
cions are to be cut off.
CIOTAT, a fea-port town of Provence in France ^
famous for Mufcadine wine. It is feated on the bay of
Laquea, between Marfeilles and Toulon ; and the har¬
bour is defended by a ftrong fort. E. Long. 5. go.
N. Lat. 43. 10.
CIPHER, or Cypher, one of the Arabic charac¬
ters or figures ufed in computation, formed thus, o.
See Arithmetic.
Cipher is alfo a kind of enigmatic chara£ler com-
pofed of feveral letters interwoven, which are general¬
ly the initial letters of the perfons names for whom
4
the ciphers are intended. Thefe are frequently ufed Cipher,
on feals, coaches, and other moveables.—Anciently, —v—»
merchants and tradefmen were not allowed to bear
arms : in lieu thereof, they bore their ciphers, or the
initial letters of their names, artfully interwoven about
a crofs, of which we have divers inltances on tombs,
&c. See Device.
CIPHER, denotes likewife certain fecret charadlers
difgutfed and varied, ufed in writing letters that con¬
tain fome fecret, not to be underitood but by thofe be¬
tween whom the cipher is agreed on.
De la Guilletiere, in his Lacedaemon ancient and mo¬
dern, endeavours to make the ancient Spartans the in¬
ventors of the art of writing in cipher. Their fcylala,
according to him, was the firft iketch of this myfteri-
ous art: thefe fcytalae were two rollers of wood, of
equal length and thicknefs j one of them kept by the
ephori, the other by the general of the army fent on
any expedition againft the enemy. Whenfoever thofe
magillrates would lend any fecret orders to the general,
they took a flip of parchment, and rolled it very juftly
about the fey tala which they had referved, and in this
ftate wrote their intentions, which appeared perfedl and
confiftent while the parchment continued on the roll :
when taken off, the writing was maimed, and without
connexion, but was eafily retrieved by the general, up¬
on his applying it to his fey tala.
Polybius fays, that AE.neas Ta&itus, 2000 years ago,
colle£ted together 20 different manners of writing fo
as not to be underftood by any but thofe in the fecret j
part whereof were invented by himfelf, and part ufed
before his time.—Trithemius, Cap. Porta, Vigenere,
and P. Niceron, have written exprefsly on the iubjtdl
of ciphers.
As the writing of cipher is become an art, fo is the
reading or unravelling thereof, called deciphering.—The
rules of deciphering are different in different languages.
By obferving the following, you will foon make out
any common cipher written in Englifli.
1. Ooferve the letters or characters that moft fre¬
quently occur, and fet them down for the fix vowels,
including y, and of thefe the moft frequent will gene¬
rally be e, and the leaft frequent u.
2. The vowels that moft frequently come together
are ea and ou.
3. The confonant moft common at the end of words
is j, and the next frequent r and t.
. .4. When two fimilar characters come together, they
are moft likely to be the confonants^ /, or s, or the
vowels e or 0.
.5. The letter that precedes or follows two fimilar
cbaraClers is either a vowel, or /, m, n, or r.
6. In deciphering, begin with the words that confift
of a fingle letter, which will be either o, /, 0, or &.
7. Then take the words of two letters, one of which
will be a vowel. Of thefe words the moft frequent are,
an, to, be, by,, of, on, or, no,Jo, as, at, if, in, is, it, he,
me, my, us, we, am.
8. In word-* of three letters there are moft common¬
ly two confonants. Of thefe words the moft frequent
are, the, and, not, but, yet, for, tho"1 ,-how, why, all, you,
fhe, his, her, our, who, may, can, did, was, are, has, had,
let, one, two, fix, ten, skfe.—Some of thefe, or thofe of
two letters, will be found in every fentence.
9. The moft common words of four letters are, this,
that.