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THOMAS BALTZAR (c. 1630-1663)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 291 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THOMAS See also:BALTZAR (c. 1630-1663)  , See also:German violinist, was See also:born at See also:Lubeck . He visited See also:England in 1656 and made a See also:great impression on See also:Evelyn and See also:Anthony See also:Wood . In 1661 he was appointed See also:leader of the See also:king's famous See also:band of twenty-four violins, but his intemperate habits cut See also:short his career within two years . Nothing like his See also:violin-playing had ever been heard in England before, and in all See also:probability the instrumental See also:music of See also:Henry See also:Purcell owes much to its See also:influence . BA-LUBA, a See also:Bantu See also:negroid See also:race with several subdivisions; one of the most important and cultivated peoples of Central See also:Africa . They are distributed over eight degrees of See also:longitude between Lakes See also:Tanganyika, See also:Mweru and See also:Bangweulu in the See also:east, and the See also:Kasai in the See also:west . In the east, where they are found in the greatest racial purity, they founded the states of See also:Katanga, Urua and Uguha; in the west they have intermixed to some extent with the Ba-Kete See also:aborigines, whom they have partially dispossessed, dividing them into two portions, one to the See also:north, the other to the See also:south . To the western Ba-Luba the name Ba-Shilange has been given . With the Ba-Luba are connected the founders of the great Lunda See also:empire—now divided between Belgian See also:Congo and See also:Angola—ruled by a monarch entitled Muata Yanvo (Jamvo) . The westward See also:movement of the Ba-Luba took See also:place in comparatively See also:recent times, the end of the x8th See also:century or the beginning of the 19th . Shortly afterwards a See also:chief named Kalamba Mukenge founded a large See also:state . There followed in 187o a remarkable politico-religious revolution, the result of which was the See also:establishment of a cult of See also:hemp-smoking, connected with a See also:secret society termed Bena Riamba; the members of this abandoned their old fetish See also:worship and adopted a See also:form of See also:communism of which the central See also:idea was the See also:blood-brotherhood of all the members .

Towards the east hemp-smoking becomes less See also:

common . The Ba-Luba practise See also:circumcision and scar-See also:tattooing is common; tooth-filing is very frequent in the east, though in the west it is comparatively rare; the See also:fashion of dressing the See also:hair is very varied and often extremely fantastic . Their houses, which are built by the See also:women, are rectangular; on the Lulua, however, See also:pile-houses, square in shape, are found . They are an agricultural See also:people, but See also:work in the See also:fields is relegated to the women and slaves; the men are admirable craftsmen and are renowned for their wood-See also:carving, See also:cloth-See also:weaving and See also:iron-work . In the west, bows and arrows are the chief weapons, in the east spears principally are used . The old form of See also:religion still obtains in the east, which was untouched by the communistic movement mentioned, and charms of all sorts, as well as carved anthropomorphic figures, are extremely common . The Ba-Luba are a See also:fine race physically and seem very prosperous, though in the extreme west considerable deterioration, See also:physical, moral and cultural, has taken place .

End of Article: THOMAS BALTZAR (c. 1630-1663)
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