K.A.RKOR level ground' ; Kap : - -J Kcip; Alex. Kaptcd; omitted in the Vulgate), a place on the east side of the Jordan to which Zeba and Zal munna fled with their army when defeated by Gideon ( Judg. viii. ro). Its situation is not described, but we read that when Gideon pursued them, he ' went up (front the ford at Succoth) by the way of them that dwell in tents, on the east of 'Sabah and Jog behah ' (ver. II). It must therefore have been somewhere on the level plateau of Mishor, near the eastern border of Moab UOGBEHAH]. Euse bius and Jerome mention it as in their day a castle (ippoi5p;00 a day's journey distant from Petra (Ono mast., s.v. Carear). The site is now unknown ; but that assigned to it by Eusebius seems too far south.—J. L. P.
KARPAS (0..],n) occurs in the book of Esther (i. 6), in the description of the hangings ` in the court of the garden of the king's palace,' at the time of the great feast given in the city Shushan, or Susan, by Ahasuerus, who ` reigned from India even unto Ethiopia.' We are told that there were white, green (karpas), and blue hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble. Karpas is translated green in our version, on the authority, it is said, of the , Chaldee paraphrase,' where it is interpreted leek men. Rosenmiiller and others derive the Hebrew word from the Arabic kurnts, which signifies garden-parsley,' apium petroselinum, as if it alluded to the green colour of this plant ; at the same time arguing that as the word karpas is placed between two other words which undoubtedly denote colours, viz., the white and the purple-blue, it probably also does the same.' But if two of the words denote colours, it would appear a good reason why the third should refer to the substance which was coloured. This, there is little doubt, is what was intended. If we consider that the occurrences related took place at the Persian court at a time when it held sway even unto India, and that the account is by some supposed to have been originally written in the ancient language of Persia, we may suppose that some foreign words may have been introduced to indicate even an already well known substance : but more especially so if the substance itself was then first made known to the Hebrews.
The Hebrew karpas is very- similar to the Sans crit karpasum, karpasa, or karpase, signifying the cotton-plant. Celsius (llierobot. i. 159) states that the Arabs and Persians have karphas and kirbas as names for cotton. These must no doubt be derived from the Sanscrit, while the word Impas is now applied throughout India to cotton with the seed, and may even be seen in English prices-current.
Kciprao-os occurs in the Periplus of Arrian, who states that the region about the Gulf of Barygaze, in India, was productive of earpasus, and of the fine Indian muslins made of it. The word is no doubt derived from the Sanscrit karpasa, and though it has been transktted fine musAM by Dr. Vincent, it may mean cotton cloths, or calico in general. Mr. Yates, in his valuable work, Tex trinum Antiquorum, states that the earliest notice of this Oriental name in any classical author which he has met with, is the line Carbasina, molochina, ampelina' of Cmeilius Statius, who died B C. 169. Mr. Yates infers that as this poet translated from the Greek, so the Greeks must have made use of muslins or calicoes, etc., which were brought from India as early as 200 years B. C. See his work, as well as that of Celsius, for numerous quotations from classical authors, where earbasus occurs ; proving that not only the word, but the substance which it indicated, was known to the ancients subsequent to this period. It might, indeed must, have been known long before to the Persians, as constant communication took place by- caravans between the north of India and Persia, as has been clearly shewn by Heeren. Cotton was known to Ctesias, who lived so long, at the Persian court.
Nothing can be more suitable than cotton, white and blue, in the above passage of Esther, as the writer of this article long since (1837) remarked in a note in his Essay on the Antiquity of Hina'oo Mea'i eine, p. : Hanging curtains made with calico, usually in stripes of different colours and padded with cotton, called purdahs, are employed throughout India as a substitute for doors.' They mav be seen used for the very purposes mentioned in the text ir the court of the King of Delhi's palace, where, on a paved mosaic terrace, rows of splendid pillars sup port a light roof, from which hang by rings im mense padded and striped curtains, which may be rolled up or removed at pleasure. These either increase light or ventilation, and form, in fact, a kind of movable wall to the building„ which is used as one of the halls of audience. This kind of structure was probably introduced by the Persian conquerors of India, and therefore may serve to explain the object of the colonnade in front of the palace in the ruins of Persepolis [CorroN].— J. F. R.