ETHICS OF DUST, THE, “a book by Ruskin about crystallography, but it twists symbolically in the strangest way all its geology into morality, theology, Egyptian mythology, with fiery cuts at political economy, pretending not to know whether the forces and destinies and behaviour of crystals are not very like those of a man.”

ETHIOPIA, a term loosely used in ancient times to indicate the territory inhabited by black or dark-coloured people; latterly applied to an undefined tract of land stretching S. of Egypt to the Gulf of Aden, which constituted the kingdom of the Ethiopians, a people of Semitic origin and speaking a Semitic language called Ge’ez, who were successively conquered by the Egyptians, Persians, and Romans; are known in the Bible; their first king is supposed to have been Menilehek, son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba; their literature consists mostly of translations and collections of saws and riddles; the language is no longer spoken.

ETHNOLOGY, a science which treats of the human race as grouped in tribes or nations, but limits itself to tracing the origin and distribution of races, and investigating the physical and mental peculiarities and differences exhibited by men over all parts of the globe; the chief problem of the science is to decide between the monogenous and polygenous theories of the origin of the race, and investigation inclines to favour the former view.  The polygenous argument, based on the diversity of languages, has been discarded, as, if valid, necessitating about a thousand different origins, while the monogenous position is strengthened by the ascertained facts that the different racial groups are fruitful amongst themselves, and present points of mental and physical similarity which accord well with this theory.  Ethnologists now divide the human race into three main groups:  the Ethiopian or negro, the Mongolic or yellow, and the Caucasic or white.

ETIENNE, ST., (133), an important French town, capital of the dep. of the Loire, on the Furens, 35 m.  SW. of Lyons; chief seat of the iron-works of France; also has noted ribbon factories.

ETIVE, a sea-loch in Argyllshire, Scotland, is an inland extension of the Firth of Lorne, about 20 m. in length, and varying in breadth from 2 to 1/4 m.; the mountain scenery along the shores grandly picturesque; the river which bears the same name rises in Rannoch Moor, and joins the loch after a SW. course of 15 m.; both loch and river afford salmon-fishing.

ETNA, a volcanic mountain on the E. coast of Sicily, 10,840 ft. high; a striking feature is the immense ravine, the Val del Bove, splitting the eastern side of the mountain, and about 5 m. in diameter; on the flanks are many smaller cones.  Etna is celebrated for its many and destructive eruptions; was active in 1892; its observatory, built in 1880, at an elevation of 9075 ft. above sea-level, is the highest inhabited dwelling in Europe.