ELEUSIS, a town in ancient Attica, NW. of Athens, with a temple for the worship of Demeter, the largest in Greece; designed by the architect of the PARTHENON (q. v.).

ELEUTHERIA, the goddess of liberty, as worshipped in ancient Greece.

ELF-ARROWS, arrow-heads of flint used in hunting and war by the aborigines of the British Isles and of Europe generally, as they still are among savages elsewhere; derived their name from the superstitious belief that they were used by the fairies to kill cattle and sometimes human beings in their mischief-joy; they were sometimes worn as talismans, occasionally set in silver, as a charm against witchcraft.

ELGIN or MORAY (43), a northern Scottish county, fronting the Moray Firth and lying between Banff and Nairn, mountainous in the S. but flat to the N., watered by the Spey, Lossie, and Findhorn; agriculture, stone-quarrying, distilling, and fishing are the staple industries; has some imposing ruins and interesting antiquities.

ELGIN (8), the county town of above, on the Lossie; created a royal burgh by David I.; has ruins of a fine Gothic cathedral and royal castle.

ELGIN (17), a city in Illinois, on the Fox, 35 m.  NW. of Chicago; watchmaking the chief industry.

ELGIN, JAMES BRUCE, 8TH EARL OF, statesman and diplomatist, born in London; governor of Jamaica and Canada; negotiated important treaties with China and Japan; rendered opportune assistance at the Indian Mutiny by diverting to the succour of Lord Canning an expedition that was proceeding to China under his command; after holding office as Postmaster-General he became Viceroy of India (1861), where he died; his Journal and Letters are published (1811-1863).

ELGIN MARBLES, a collection of ancient sculptured marbles brought from Athens by the Earl of Elgin in 1812, and now deposited in the British Museum, after purchase of them by the Government for L35,000; these sculptures adorned certain public buildings in the Acropolis, and consist of portions of statues, of which that of Theseus is the chief, of alto-reliefs representing the struggle of the Centaurs and Lapithae, and of a large section of a frieze.

ELIA, the nom de plume adopted by Charles Lamb in connection with his Essays.

ELIAS, MOUNT, a mountain in NW. coast of N. America; conspicuous far off at sea, being about 18,000 ft. or 31/2 m. above it.

ELIJAH, a Jewish prophet, born at Tishbe, in Gilead, near the desert; prophesied in the reign of Ahab, king of Israel, in the 10th century B.C.; revealed himself as the deadly enemy of the worship of Baal, 400 of whose priests he is said to have slain with his own hand; his zeal provoked persecution at the hands of the king and his consort Jezebel, but the Lord protected him, and he was translated from the earth in a chariot of fire, “went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”  See PROPHETS, THE.