HERMIT (Gr. eremites), a solitary as cetic, who with a view to more complete free dom from the cares, temptations and business of the world took up his abode in a natural cavern or a rudely formed hut in a desert, forest, mountain or other solitary place. Her mits began to appear in the Christian Church in the 3d century. The advocates of asceticism (q.v.) were the first to set the example of re tiring from cities to rural districts and villages. But the hermits sought to withdraw altogether from mankind, that they might give themselves up to holy contemplation. The earliest hermit is said to have been Paul of the Thebaid (Egypt), who during the Decian persecution fled to the desert (250) •, there he lived for the rest of his life, dying, 113 years old, about 342. The fame of his sanctity quickly incited others to imitate his mode of life. The most famous amongst these successors was Saint Anthony (q.v.). At the time of his death (365) hermit cells existed in considerable numbers in the deserts of Egypt, Syria and Palestine. The fame of their sanctity drew many to visit these hermits partly out of curiosity to get ghostly counsel from them, partly also in the belief that diseases were cured by their blessing. Some times they returned for a short time to the midst of their fellow-men to deliver warnings, instruction or encouragement, and were received as if they had been inspired prophets or angels from heaven. But the number of hermits gradually diminished as the cenobite life of convents grew into fashion. Indeed the institu tion at no time secured the same footing in the Western Church that it did in the Eastern; and perhaps the reason may in part be found in the difference of climate,. which renders a manner of life impossible in most parts of Europe that could be pursued in Egypt or Syria. Partial revivals of the practice con tinued to be made, however, during some cen turies, Saint Cuthbert (q.v.) being a case in
point. (See MoNAcis is 1a1). Consult Charles Kingsley's (Hermits> (1869).
crabs that shelter themselves in spiral sea-shells, for the protec tion of the soft-skinned and unsymmetrical abdomen. They are members of the Macrura (see DECAPODA ), and have very large and gen erally unequal claws, one being used to close the entrance of the shell into which the hermit can wholly retract himself. The abdominal appendages are practically aborted, with the ex ception of those at the tip of the tail, which hold firmly to the spire of the inhabited shell. The hermit-crabs belong to three families, namely: Pagurids, or common marine hermit crabs; Parapagurider, or deep-sea hermit-crabs; and Cenotrstieke, or terrestrial hermit-crabs. Two species are numerous on the American Atlantic coast running actively about in rock pools and shallows. The little hermit-crab (Eupagurus longicarpus) generally inhabits the shells of dog-whelks (ilyanassa),, while the larger species (E. pollicaris) occupies those of Lunatia or sometimes of the wrinkles and conchs. As they grow they must move to larger and larger shells; and the search for new tenements and dangerous change of abodes in the presence of enemies makes the life of one of these animals more than ordinarily exciting. The habits of these and other hermit-crabs are of great interest, generally,• and especially on account of the various hydroids, anemones and molluscs which associate with them as com mensals. The palm or robber-crab (q.v.) of the East Indies, and the land-crabs of the West Indies, are good examples of terrestrial hermit crabs. Consult Henderson, J. R., 'Challenger Report on Anomura'; Verrill, (Invertebrates of Vineyard Sound' (1875); Arnold, 'Sea Beath at Ebb-tide (1901). See CommeNsAusu;