CORYAT, THOMAS, an English traveller and wit, who, in his “Crudities,” quaintly describes his travels through France and Italy (1577-1617).

CORYBANTES, priests of CYBELE (q. v.), whose religious rites were accompanied with wild dances and the clashing of cymbals.

CORYDON, a shepherd in Virgil, name for a lovesick swain.

CORYPHAEUS, originally the leader of the chorus in a Greek drama, now a leader in any dramatic company, or indeed in any art.

COS (10), an island in the AEgean Sea, birthplace of Hippocrates and Apelles.

COSENZA (18), a town in Calabria, in a deep valley, where Alaric died.

COSIN, JOHN, a learned English prelate, Dean of Peterborough, deposed by the Puritans for his ritualistic tendencies; exiled for 10 years in Paris; returned at the Restoration, and was made Bishop of Durham, where he proved himself a Bishop indeed, and a devoted supporter of the Church which he adorned by his piety (1594-1672).

COSMAS, ST., Arabian physician and patron of surgeons, brother of St. Damian; suffered martyrdom in 303.  Festival, Sept. 27.

COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES (i. e. voyager to India), an Egyptian monk of the 6th century, born in Alexandria, singular for his theory of the system of the world, which, in opposition to the Ptolemaic system, he viewed as in shape like that of the Jewish Tabernacle, with Eden outside, and encircled by the ocean, a theory he advanced as in conformity with Scripture.

COSMO I., Grand-duke of Tuscany, head of the Republic of Florence, of which he made himself absolute master, a post he held in defiance of all opposition, in order to secure the independence of the state he governed, as well as its internal prosperity (1519-1574).

COSMOGRAPHY, any theory which attempts to trace the system of things back to its first principle or primordial element or elements.

COSQUIN, EMMANUEL, a French folk-lorist, and author of “Popular Tales of Lorraine,” in the introduction to which he argues for the theory that the development as well as the origin of such tales is historically traceable to India; b. 1841.

COSSACKS, a military people of mixed origin, chiefly Tartar and Slav, who fought on horseback, in their own interest as well as that of Russia, defending its interests in particular for centuries past in many a struggle, and forming an important division of the Russian army.

COSTA RICA (262), a small republic of Central America; it is mostly tableland; contains many volcanoes; is chiefly agricultural, though rich in minerals.

COSTARD, a clown in “Love’s Labour Lost,” who apes the affected court-wits of the time in a misappropriate style.

COSTELLO, LOUISA STUART, an English authoress; her descriptive powers were considerable, and her novels had a historical groundwork (1799-1870).

COSTER, alias LAURENS JANSZOON, born at Haarlem, to whom his countrymen, as against the claims of Gutenberg, ascribe the invention of printing (1370-1440).