KUBERA or KUVERA, the Hindu Plutus, or god of riches, represented as deformed and mounted on a car drawn by hobgoblins.

KUBLAI KHAN was a great Mongol emperor of the 13th century; built up an empire which included all the continent of Asia (except India, Arabia, and Asia Minor) and Russia, the most extensive that ever existed; he was an enlightened prince, adopted Chinese civilisation, promoted learning, and established Buddhism throughout his domains.

KUENEN, ABRAHAM, a Dutch Biblical critic, born at Haarlem; studied at Leyden, and became professor there; distinguished for his researches on the lines of the so-called higher criticism bearing upon the literary history of the books of the Old Testament, beginning with that of the Pentateuch (1828-1891).

KUEN-LUN, N. of Thibet, a great snow-clad mountain range, 18,000 to 25,000 ft. high; stretches for 700 m., with a breadth of 100 m.  It was explored by General Prjevalski, a Russian, 1876-88.

KULM, a Bohemian village on the left bank of the Elbe, 50 m.  NW. of Prague, where the French under Vandamme surrendered to the Russians and Prussians in 1813.

KUNERSDORF, a village near Frankfort-on-Oder, where Frederick the Great was defeated by Russians and Austrians in 1759.

KURDISTAN (2,250), a stretch of plateau and mountain land in Turkish, Persian, and Russian Trans-Caucasian territory, consisting of grassy plains and lofty ranges through which rivers like the Zabs, Batman-su, and Euphrates force their way; is inhabited by a partly nomad, partly agricultural people of ancient stock, who export wool, gum, and hides; the Kurds retain their old customs and organisation, are subject to their own chiefs, impatient of the rule of the Porte and the Shah; predatory by instinct, but brave and chivalrous; they are Moslems and Nestorians.

KURILE ISLANDS, a chain of 26 islands, being a continuation of the peninsula of Kamchatka, enclosing the sea of Okhotsk; very sparsely inhabited.

KURRACHEE (105), the chief port of the Punjab; situated on the delta of the Indus, with an extensive harbour and trade.

KURTZ, HEINRICH, German theologian, professor at Dorpat; author, among other works, of a “Handbook of Church History”; b. 1809.

KURUMAN, in Bechuanaland, 140 m.  NW. of Kimberley; is the place where Livingstone and Moffat laboured.

KYD, THOMAS, Elizabethan dramatist, born in London, and trained a scrivener, but won fame as a writer of tragedies, of which the best was “The Spanish Tragedy” (1557-1595).

KYOTO (298), from 784 to 1868 the capital of Japan, on the Kamo River, inland, 190 m.  W. of Yedo; is still the centre of Japanese Buddhism, and is noted for its pottery, bronze-work, crapes, and velvets.

KYRIE ELEISON, means “Lord have mercy upon us,” and with CHRISTE ELEISON, “Christ have mercy upon us,” occurs in all Greek liturgies, in the Roman Mass, and in the English Prayer Book, where it forms the “lesser litany.”