Cinque Ports

(sin gk põrtz.) [Fr. cinq ports, five harbors.] (Eng. Hist.) The 5 anc. ports on the coast of England, opposite to France: viz., Dover, Hastings, Hythe, Romney, and Sandwich; to which were afterwards added as appendages, Win chelsea, Seaford, and Rye. Before the time of Henry VIII., there being no regular navy, the C. P. furnished nearly always the whole number of ve els required by the State for war purposes. They po e certain privileges, and are within the jurisdiction of the Constable of Dover Castle, who is called Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. Cintra, (sin'trah,) a town of Portugal, p. Estremadura, 15 m. W.N.W. of Lisbon. At this place was concluded, 1808, the convention between the French and English, by which the former agreed to retire from Portugal. Pop. 4,500. Cintre, (sin'tr.) (Arch.) The timber framework built up in openings between piers, for the support of vou oirs, or arches, in the construction of a bridge, . See CENTRING. Ciotat, (seo-tah,) a small seaport of France, on an inlet of the Mediterranean, dep. Bouches-de-Rhône, 15 m. S. E. of Marseille. Pop. 5,978. Cipher, or Cypher, (si'fer.) (From Heb. sap hor, to number.] (Arith.) One of the Arabic characters used in computation, formed thus, 0. A cipher standing by itself signifies nothing; but when placed at the right hand side of a digit in the integer's place, it increases the value of the digit tenfold; thus 500 is ten times greater than 50. But, placed at the left-hand of a digit in the decimal's place, it decreases its value tenfold; thus, 005 is ten times le than 05.- (Cryptography.) A secret or disguised manner of writing, in which certain characters arbitrarily invented and agreed on by two or more persons, are made to stand for letters or words. Cippus, (sip'pūs.) [L.] (Antiq.) A low column, either round or rectangular, erected on the high roads, or in other places, to show the way to travellers, to serve as abound ary mark, or as a monument over a grave. Circars, NORTHERN, (sür kārz.) [Hind. cir car, a territory.] The name given to a former div. of the Madras pres.,Hindostan, lying along the E. peninsula, bet. Lat. 15°40′ and 20° 17′ N., and Lon. 79° 12′ and 85° 20′ E.; area, 17,000 sq. m. It is intersected by a central range of mountains, having between it and the seaboard a fertile plain. Prod. Sugar, cotton, indigo, and spices. C. Masu lip at am. Pop. 3,000,000. This prov. was conquered and annexed by the British in 1765. (sir-kāsh'yah,) or TCHERKESSIA, a country of W. Asia, forming part of the Cis-Caucasian prov. of the Ru ian empire, and occupying a large part of the territory between the Black and Caspian Seas, W. and E. Its surface is mountainous, with intervening fertile valleys, which produce wheat, grapes, and other fruits. The people are mostly of pastoral habits, remarkable for the fine forms of their men and the beauty of their women. The Circa ians maintained for many years, under their heroic chieftain Schamyl, a vigorous war against Ru ia, which ended, in 1859, in his surrender and the extinction of the country's independence. Pop. abt. 400,000. [s. 190]