RIESENGEBIRGE (i. e.  Giant Mountains), a range dividing Bohemia from Silesia; Schneekoppe (5260 ft.) is the highest peak; is a famous summer resort for Germans.

RIFACIMENTO, a literary work recast to adapt it to a change in the circumstances of the time.

RIFF, the name given to the N. coast-lands of Morocco from Tangiers to Algeria; is a mountainous and woody region, with a rugged foreshore, inhabited by lawless Berbers.

RIGA (182), the third seaport of Russia and capital of Livonia, on the Dwina, 7 m. from its entrance into the Gulf of Riga (a spacious inlet on the E. side of the Baltic); has some fine mediaeval buildings; is the seat of an archbishop, and is a busy and growing commercial and manufacturing town, exporting grain, timber, flax, linseed, wool, &c.

RIGDUM FUNNIDOS, Scott’s nickname for JOHN BALLANTYNE (q. v.).

RIGHTS, DECLARATION OF, a declaration of the fundamental principles of the constitution drawn up by the Parliament of England and submitted to William and Mary on their being called to the throne, and afterwards enacted in Parliament when they became king and queen.  It secures to the people their rights as free-born citizens and to the Commons as their representatives, while it binds the sovereign to respect these rights as sacred.

RIGI, an isolated mountain, 5900 ft. high, in the Swiss canton of Schwyz, with a superb view from the summit, on which hotels have been built for the convenience of the many who visit it; is reached by two toothed railways with a gradient of 1 ft. in 4.

RIGVEDA, the first of the four sections into which the VEDAS (q. v.) are divided, and which includes the body of the hymns or verses of invocation and praises; believed to have issued from a narrow circle of priests, and subsequently recast many of them.

RIMINI (11, with suburbs 20), a walled city of N. Italy, of much historic interest both in ancient and mediaeval times, on the small river Marecchia, spanned by a fine Roman bridge close to its entrance into the Adriatic, 69 m.  SE. of Bologna; has a 15th-century Renaissance cathedral, an ancient castle, and other mediaeval buildings, a Roman triumphal arch, &c.; manufactures silks and sail-cloth.

RIMMON, name of a Syrian god who had a temple at Damascus called the house of Rimmon, a symbol of the sun, or of the fertilising power of nature.

RINALDO, one of Charlemagne’s paladins, of a violent, headstrong, and unscrupulous character, who fell into disgrace, but after adventures in the Holy Land was reconciled to the Emperor; Angelica, an infidel princess, fell violently in love with him, but he turned a deaf ear to her addresses, while others would have given kingdoms for her hand.

RINDERPEST or CATTLE PLAGUE, a fever of a malignant and contagious type; the occurrence of it in Britain is due to the importation of infected cattle from the Asiatic steppes.

RING AND THE BOOK, a poem by Browning of 20,000 lines, giving different versions of a story agreeably to and as an exhibition of the personalities of the different narrators.