e northern and the southern.

HEMP. _Cannabis sativa._ A manufactorial plant of equal antiquity with
flax. The produce of hemp in fibre varies from three to six hundred
weight per acre, and forms the best of all cordage and ropes. It is
mixed with opium in the preparation of those rich drugs called
_hashishe_ in Cairo and Constantinople. Those who were in the constant
use of them were called _hashishin_ (herb-eaters); and being often by
their stimulative properties excited almost to frenzy and to murder, the
word "assassin" is said to have been derived by the crusaders from this
source. While the French army was in Egypt, Napoleon I. was obliged to
prohibit, under the severest penalties, the sale and use of these
pernicious substances.

HENDECAGON. A right-lined figure with eleven sides; if it be regular,
the sides and angles are all equal.

HEN-FRIGATE. A ship wherein the captain's wife interfered in the duty or
regulations.

HEN'S-WARE. A name of the edible sea-weed _Fucus esculentus_.

HEP-PAH, OR HIPPA. A New Zealand fort, or space surrounded with stout
palisades; these rude defences have given our soldiers and sailors much
trouble to reduce. (_See_ PAH.)

HEPTAGON. A right-lined figure with seven sides; if it be regular, the
sides and angles are all equal.

HERCULES. The large mass of iron by the blows of which anchors are
welded.

HERE-AWAY. A term when a look-out man announces a rhumb or bearing of
any object in this quarter.

HERE-FARE [Anglo-Saxon]. An expedition; going to warfare.

HERISSON. A balanced barrier to a passage in a fort, of the nature of a
turnstile.

HERLING. A congener of the salmon species found in Scotland; it is
small, and shaped like a sea-trout.

HERMAPHRODITE OR BRIG SCHOONER, is square-rigged, but without a top
forward, and schooner-rigged abaft; carrying only fore-and-aft sails on
the main-mast; in other phrase, she is a vessel with a brig's fore-mast
and a schooner's main-mast.

HERMIT-CRAB. A name applied to a group of crabs (family _Paguridae_), of
which the hinder part of the body is soft, and which habitually lodge
themselves in the empty shell of some mollusc. Also called
_soldier-crabs_.

HERMO. A Mediterranean term for the meteor called _corpo santo_.

HERNE. A bight or corner, as Herne Bay, so called from lying in an
angle.

HERNSHAW AND HERNE. Old words for the heron.

HERON. A large bird of the genus _Ardea_, which feeds on fish.

HERRING. A common fis