CHORLU

chorlu, tchorlau or schorlau, a town of european turkey, in the vilayet of adrianople; on the left bank of the chorlu, a small left-hand tributary of the ergene, 20 m. n.e. of rodosto. pop. (1905) about 12,000, of whom one-half are greeks, one-third turks, and the remainder armenians and jews. chorlu has a station on the constantinople-adrianople branch of the oriental railways. it manufactures woollen cloth (_shayak_) and native carpets, and exports cereals, oil-cloth, carpets, cattle, poultry, fresh meat, game, fruits, wine, alcohol, hides and bones. chorography. (1) (from the gr. [greek: chora], a tract of country, and [greek: graphein], to write), a description or delineation on a map of a district or tract of country; it is to be distinguished from "geography" and "topography," which treat of the earth as a whole and of particular places respectively. the word is common in old geographical treatises, but is now superseded by the wider use of "topography." (2) (from the gr. [greek: choros], dance), the art of dancing, or a system of notation to indicate the steps and movements in dancing. chorum, the chief town of a sanjak of the angora vilayet in asia minor, altitude 2300 ft., situated on the edge of a wide plain, almost equidistant from amasia and yuzgat. pop. about 12,500, including a few christians. its importance is largely due to its situation on the great trade-route from kaisarieh (caesarea) by yuzgat and marzivan to samsun on the black sea. it corresponds to the ancient _euchaita_, which lay 15 m. e. euchaiti was attacked by the huns a.d. 508, and became a bishopric at an early period and a centre of religious enthusiasm, as containing the tomb of the revered st theodore, who slew a dragon in the vicinity and became one of the great warrior saints of the greek church. something of the old enthusiasm seems to have passed to the inhabitants of chorum, whom most travellers have found bigoted and fanatical mahommedans (see j.g.c. anderson, _studia pontica_, pp. 6 ff.). chorus (gr. [greek: choros]) properly a dance, and especially the sacred dance, accompanied by song, of ancient greece at the festivals of the gods. the word [greek: choros] seems originally to have referred to a dance in an enclosure, and is therefore usually connected with the root appearing in gr. [greek: chortos], hedge, enclosure, lat. _hortus_, garden, and in the eng. "yard," "garden" and "garth." of choral dances in ancient greece other than those in honour of dionysus we know of the dance of the crane at delos, celebrating the escape of theseus from the labyrinth, one telling of the struggle of apollo and the python at delphi, and one in crete recounting the saving of the new-born zeus by the curetes. in the chorus sung in honour of dionysus the ancient greek drama had its birth. from that of the winter festival, consisting of the [greek komos] or band of revellers, chanting the "phallic songs," with ribald dialogue between the leader and his band, sprang "comedy," while from the dithyrambic chorus of the spring festival came "tragedy." for the history of the chorus in greek drama, with the gradual subordination of the lyrical to the dramatic side in tragedy and its total disappearance in the middle and new comedy, see drama: _greek drama_. the chorus as a factor in drama survived only in the various imitations or revivals of the ancient greek theatre in other languages. a chorus is found in milton's _samson agonistes_. the elizabethan dramatists applied the name to a single character employed for the recitation of prologues or epilogues. apart from the uses of the term in drama, the word "chorus" has been employed chiefly in music. it is used of any organized body of singers, in opera, oratorio, cantata, &c., and, in the form "choir," of the trained body of singers of the musical portions of a religious service in a cathedral or church. as applied to musical compositions, a "chorus" is a composition written in parts, each to be sung by groups of voices in a large body of singers, and differs from "glee" (q.v.), where each part is for a single voice. the word is also used of that part of a song repeated at the close of each verse, in which the audience or a body of singers may join with the soloist. in the early middle ages the name _chorus_ was given to a primitive bagpipe without a drone. the instrument is best known by the latin description contained in the apocryphal letter of st jerome, _ad dardanum_: "chorus quoque simplex, pellis cum duabus cicutis aereis, et per primam inspiratur per secundam vocem emittit." several illuminated mss.[1] from the 9th to the 11th century give fanciful drawings, accompanied by descriptions in barbarous latin, evidently meant to illustrate those described in the letter to dardanus. the original ms., probably an illustrated transcript of this letter, which served as a copy for the others, was apparently produced at a time when the roman bagpipe (_tibia utricularia_) had fallen into disuse in common with other musical instruments, and was unknown except to the few. the latin description given above is correct and quite unmistakable to any one who knows the primitive form of bagpipe; the illustrations must therefore represent the effort of an artist to depict an unknown instrument from a description. virdung, luscinius and praetorius seem to have had access to a ms. of the dardanus letter now lost, and to have reproduced the drawings without understanding them. in a ms. of the 14th century at the british museum,[2] containing a chronicle of the world's history to the death of king edward i., the chorus is mentioned and described in similar words to those quoted above; in the margin is an elementary sketch of a primitive bagpipe with blowpipe and chaunter with three holes, but no drone. bagpipes with drones abound on sculptured monuments and in miniatures of that century. gerbert gives illustrations of the fanciful chorus from the dardanus letter and of two other instruments of later date; one of these represents a musician playing the _platerspiel_, the other the bagpipe known as _chevrette_, in which the whole skin of the animal (a kid or pig), with head and feet, has been used for the bag. edward buhle,[3] in his admirable work on the musical instruments in the illuminated mss. of the middle ages, points out that gerbert,[4] who gives the dates of his two mss. as "6th and 9th centuries," has a singular method of reckoning the date of a ms.; he refers to the age of a ms. at the time of writing (18th century), not to the date at which it was produced. the ms. containing the two figures of musicians mentioned above, instead of being ascribed to the 6th century, was six centuries old when gerbert wrote in 1774, and dates therefore from the 12th century. it is interesting to note that giraldus cambrensis[5] mentions the chorus as one of the three instruments of wales and scotland, ascribing superior musical skill to the latter. historians record that king james i. of scotland was renowned for his skill as a performer on various musical instruments, one of which was the chorus.[6] this bears out the traditional belief that the bagpipe had been a scottish attribute from the earliest times. the word "chorus" occurs once or twice in french medieval poems with other instruments, but without indication as to the kind of instrument thus designated. the word was probably the french equivalent for the _platerspiel_. see also g. kastner, _danses des morts_ (pp. 200 to 202, pl. xv., no. 103); and dom pedro cerone, _el melopeo y maestro_ (naples, 1613), p. 248. (k. s.) footnotes: [1] the mss. are a psalterium, 9th century, bibl. publique, angers, fol. 13a; boulogne _psalterium glossatum_ c. a.d. 1000, ms. no. 20, bibl. publique. for reproduction of musical instruments see _annales archeologiques_, tome iv. (1846), p. 38; cotton ms., tiberius c. vi., 10th to 11th century, fol. 16b, british museum, illustrated in strutt's _horda angel-cynnan_, vol. ii. pls. xx. and xxi.; ms. psalter of st emmeran, now in munich staatsbibliothek, clm. 14523, fol. 51b, 10th century, illustrated by gerbert, _de cantu et mus. sacra_, tome ii. pi. xxiii.; paris, bibl. nat. fonds latin, 7211, 1oth century, fol. 150 and 151a. [2] cotton ms., nero d. ii. f. 15a, _chronicon ab orbe condito ad obitum regis edwardi i., 1307_. [3] _die musikalischen instrumente in den miniaturen des fruhen mittelalters_, part i. "die blasinstrumente" (leipzig, 1903), p. 7, note 1. [4] op. cit. (1774), tome ii. pl. xxv. no. 13, pp. 130, 151, 152, and pl. xxxi. no. 12. [5] _topographia hiberniae_, cap. xi. [6] _scotichronicon_ (fordun and bower), xvi. 28; and dalyell, _musical memoirs of scotland_, p. 47, pls. x. and xi. chose (fr. for "thing"), a term used in english law in different senses. _chose local_ is a thing annexed to a place, as a mill. a _chose transitory_ is that which is movable, and can be carried from place to place. but the use of the word "chose" in these senses is practically obsolete, and it is now used only in the phrases _chose in action_ and _chose in possession_. a "chose in action," sometimes called a chose in suspense, in its more limited meaning, denotes the right of enforcing by legal proceedings the payment of a debt, or the obtaining money by way of damages for breach of contract, or as a recompense for a wrong. less accurately, the money itself which could be recovered is frequently termed a chose in action, as is also sometimes the document evidencing a title to a chose in action, such as a bond or a policy of insurance, though strictly it is only the right to recover the money which can be so termed. choses in action were, before the judicature acts, either _legal_ or _equitable_. where the chose could be recovered only by an action at law, as a debt (whether arising from contract or tort), it was termed a legal chose in action; where the chose was recoverable only by a suit in equity, as a legacy or money held upon a trust, it was termed an equitable chose in action. before the judicature act, a legal chose in action was not assignable, i.e. the assignee could not sue at law in his own name. to this rule there were two exceptions:--(1) the crown has always been able to assign choses in action that are certain, such as an ascertained debt, but not those that are uncertain; (2) assignments valid by operation of law, e.g. on marriage, death or bankruptcy. on the other hand, however, by the law merchant, which is part of the law of england, and which disregards the rules of common law, bills of exchange were freely assignable. the consequence was that, with these and certain statutory exceptions (e.g. actions on policies of insurance), an action on an assigned chose in action must have been brought at law in the name of the assignor, though the sum recovered belonged in equity to the assignee. all choses in action being in equity assignable, except those which are altogether incapable of being assigned, in equity the assignee might have sued in his own name, making the assignor a party as co-plaintiff or as defendant. the judicature acts made the distinction between legal and equitable choses in action of no importance. the judicature act of 1873, s. 25 (6), enacted that the legal right to a debt or other legal chose in action could be passed by absolute assignment in writing under the hand of the assignor. "chose in possession" is opposed to chose in action, and denotes not only the right to enjoy or possess a thing, but also the actual or constructive enjoyment of it. the possession may be absolute or qualified. it is absolute when the person is fully and completely the proprietor or owner of the thing; it is qualified when he "has not an exclusive right, or not a permanent right, but a right which may sometimes subsist and at other times not subsist," as in the case of animals _ferae naturae_. a chose in possession is freely transferable by delivery. previously to the married women's property act 1882, a wife's choses in possession vested in her husband immediately on her marriage, while her choses in action did not belong to the husband until he had reduced them into possession, but this difference is now practically obsolete.