EISTEDDFOD

(Welsh, from eistedd, to sit.) The a emblies or se ions of the Welsh bards were so termed. ( Sec Bard. ) They were held, according to Pennant ( Tour in Wales), at different places for the minstrels of their respective neighbourhoods; at Caerwys, at Aberfraw in Anglcsea, and Math ravel in Powys. The judges were appointed by commi ions from the Welsh princes, and after the Conquest from the English kings. The last was i ued in I0G8. But the Gwynnedigion and Cam brian Societies have lately revived the old custom; and annual meetings for the recitation of prize poems, and for performances on the harp, are now held under the name of Eisteddfod. EJECTMENT, in Law, is a personal action in the form of trespa , in which a tenant for years claims damages for his expulsion from land demised to him; and it has become the usual form of trying questions of right to real property by a singular fiction. The party claimmg land or its appurtenances not in his po e ion is the real plaintiff, through the means of a fictitious tenant (the celebrated John Doe), who complains of being ejected from his farm by the defendant. The defendant justifies by disputing the plaintiff's title to let the land; and if the plaintiff succeeds, he recovers not only nominal damages for his ejectment, but also the land itself for the term of Doe's supposed demise, and in fact for the term of his own right. ELiEAGNACEiE. (Elaeagnus, one of the genera.) A natural order of shrubby arborescent Exogens inhabiting the entire northern hemisphere down to the equator,, having leprous leaves, superior fruit, tubular calyx, and apetalous flowers. They are distinguished from ThymelacecB by the ovule being erect, from Proteacece by the valvate calyx and the dehiscent fruit of the latter, and from Santalacece by the superior ovary. The berries of Bome species are eaten in Persia and Nipal. EL^ [s. 398]