HAM, a son of Noah, and the Biblical ancestor of the southern dark races of the world as known to the ancients.

HAM, a town in the dep. of Somme, France, 70 m.  NE. of Paris, with a fortress, used in recent times as a State prison, in which Louis Napoleon was confined from 1840 to 1846.

HAMADAN (30), an ancient Persian town, at the foot of Mount Elwend, 160 m.  SW. of Teheran, is an important entrepot of Persian trade, and has flourishing tanneries; it is believed to stand on the site of ECBATANA (q. v.).

HAMADRYAD, a wood-nymph identified with a particular tree that was born with it and that died with it.

HAMAH (45), the Hamath of the Bible, an ancient city of Syria, on the Orontes, 110 m.  NE. of Damascus; manufactures silk, cotton, and woollen fabrics; is one of the oldest cities of the world; has some trade with the Bedouins in woollen stuffs; during the Macedonian dynasty it was known as Epiphania; in 1812 Burckhardt discovered stones in it with Hittite inscriptions.

HAMAN, an enemy of the Jews in Persia, who persuaded the king to decree the destruction of them against a particular day, but whose purpose was defeated by the reversal of the sentence of doom.

HAMANN, JOHANN GEORG, a German thinker, born at Koenigsberg; a man of genius, whose ideas were appreciated by such a man as Goethe, and whose writings deeply influenced the views of Herder (1730-1788).

HAMBURG, a small German State (623) which includes the free city of Hamburg (323; suburbs, 245), Bergedorf, and Cuxhaven; the city, the chief emporium of German commerce, is situated on the Elbe, 75 m.  E. of the North Sea and 177 NW. of Berlin; was founded by Charlemagne in 808, and is to-day the fifth commercial city of the world; the old town is intersected by canals, while the new portion, built since 1842, is spaciously laid out; the town library, a fine building, contains 400,000 volumes; its principal manufactures embrace cigar-making, distilling, brewing, sugar-refining, &c.

HAMELN (14), a quaint old Prussian town and fortress in the province of Hanover, situated at the junction of the Hamel with the Weser, 25 m.  SW. of Hanover city; associated with the legend of the Pied Piper; a fine chain bridge spans the Weser; there are prosperous iron, paper, and leather works, breweries, &c.

HAeMERKIN or HAeMMERLEIN, the paternal name of THOMAS A
KEMPIS (q. v.).

HAMERLING, ROBERT, Austrian poet, born at Kirchberg in the Forest, Lower Austria; his health gave way while teaching at Trieste, and while for upwards of 30 years an invalid in bed, he devoted himself to poetical composition; his fame rests chiefly on his satirical epics and lyric compositions, among the former “The King of Iron,” “The Seven Deadly Sins,” and “Cupid and Psyche,” and among the latter “Venus in Exile” (1830-1889).

HAMERTON, PHILIP GILBERT, English critic, particularly of art; edited the Portfolio, an art magazine; author of a story of life in France entitled “Marmorne,” and of a volume of essays entitled “The Intellectual Life” (1834-1894).