them are red, two white, two blue, two black ; the rest are of a golden hue, or a yellowish-brown. The other two peculiarities are regulated by them with equal pre- cision, and according to a system of decrement, from Rishahhn, the first Jina, who was 500 poles in stature, and lived 8,400,000 great years, down to Mahavira, the twenty-fourth, who had degenerated to the size of a man, and was no more than forty years on earth — the age of his predecessor, Pw/swowai'/ia, not exceeding 100 years. The present worship is almost restricted to the last two Tirthakaras ; and, as the stature and years of these personages have a reasonable possibility, H. T. Colebrooke inferred that they alone are to be consider- ed as historical personages. As, moreover, amongst the disciples of Mahavira there is one, Indrabhuti, who is called Gautama, and as Gautama is also a name of the fomider of the Buddha faith, the same distinguished scholar concluded that, if the identity between these names could be assumed, it would lead to the further surmise that both these sects are branches of the same stock. But against this view, which woidd assign to the Jaina reUgion an antiquity even higher than 543 B.C. (the date which is commonly ascribed to the apo- theosis of Gautama Buddha), several reasons are alleged by professor Wilson. As to the real date, however, of the origin of the Jaina faith, as the same scholar jiit-tly observes, it is immersed in the same obsciu^itj' Avhicli in- vests all remote history amongst the Hindus. We can only infer from the existing Jaina literature, and from the doctrines it inculcates, that it came later into exist- ence than the Buddhist sect." See Colebrooke, Miscdla- neous Essays ; AVilson, Works, i (Lond. 1862) ; Trevor, In- dia, its Natives ami Missions, p. 109 sq. ; Chambers, Cy- dojjcedia, s. v. Comp. India ; Hinduism.
Ja'ir (Hebrew Ya'ir', *"'!!t^, enliyhtener; Sept. 'latp, 'lae'ip ; but in 1 Chron. ii, 22, some copies 'Atip ; in Esth. ii, 5, 'latpog ; compare 'Ic'uipoc, Mark v, 22 ; Jose- phus. War, vi, 1, 8), the name of three men, also of one other of ditferent form in the Hebrew.
1. The son of Segub, which latter was of the tribe of Manasseh on his mother's side [see Adoption], but of Judah on his father's (1 Chron. ii, 22) ; but Jair is reck- oned as belonging to Manasseh (Numb, xxxii, 41 ; Dcut. iii, 14; 1 Kings iv, 13), probably on account of his ex- ploits and possessions in Gilead, where he appears to have been brought up with his mother (comp. 1 Chron. ii, 21), being perhaps an illegitimate child (see Raumer in Tholuck's Liter. Anz. 1836, p. 11), or, at all events, her heir (Schwarz, Palest, p. 185), although his possessions might strictly be claimed as an appanage to the tribe of Judah (Josh, xix, 34). See Judaii upon Jordan. He distinguished himself in an expedition against the kingdom of Bashan, the time of which is disputed, but may probably be referred to the last j'car of the life of Moses (B.C. 1618), and which seems to have formed part of the operations connected with the conquest of the coun- try east of the Jordan (1 Chron. iii, 23 ; Numb, xxxlii, 41 ; Deut. iii, 14). He settled in the part of Argob bordering on Gilead, where we find the small towns thus taken (retaken) by him named collectively Havoth- jair, or "Jair's villages" (Numb, xxxii, 41; Deut. iii, 14 ; Josh, xiii, 30 ; 1 Kings iv, 13 ; 1 Chron. ii, 22). See Havoth-jair. These are variously stated to have been twenty-three (1 Chron. ii, 22),' tliii-ty (Judg. x, 4), and sixty in number (1 Chron. ii, 23 ; Josh, xiii, 30 ; I Kings iv, 13, in which last passage they are said to have been " great cities, with walls and brazen bars"). The discrepancy may easily be reconciled by the sup- position (warranted by Numb, xxxii, 39, 40) that al- though Jair, in conjunction with his relatives, captured the whole sixty cities composing the Gileadite district of the kingdom of Og in Bashan (Deut. iii, 4), only twenty-three of these were specially assigned to him ; whereas, at a later date, his portion maj- have received some accessions; or the number attributed to his de- scendant of the same name may be only a round or ap- proximate estimate, as being about one half the entire
JAIRITE
751
JAMAICA
number. (For other methods of adjustment, see Wi- ner's Reahvorterbuch, s. v. Jair.)
2. The eighth judge of Israel, a native of Gilead, in Manasseh (Josephus, Ant.\, 7, 6, 'lafipj;c), beyond tlie Jordan, and therefore probably descencleil from the pre- ceding, vvitli whom, indeed, he is sometimes confound- ed. He nded twenty-two years (li.C. 1-29(5-1274), and his opulence is indicated in a manner cliaracteristic of the age in which he lived ;" " He had thirty sons, that rode on thirty ass-colts (Q'^'n^S'), and they had thirty cities (Q"''^'^?. again), which are called Havoth-jair, in the land ofVilead" (Judg. x, 3, 4). A young ass was the most valuable beast for riding then known to the Hebrews; and that Jair had so many of them, and was able to assign a village to every one of his thirty sons, is very striking evidence of his wealth (see Kitto's Dai- ly Bible Illustrat. or Judg. v, 6-10). The twenty-three villages of the more ancient Jair were probably among the thirty which this Jair possessed. His burial-place was Camon, doubtless in the same region (Judg. x, 5). It is probably one of his descendants (so numerous) that is called a Jairite (Heb. Ya'iri', '^'^'^ISl^, Sept. 'lapi, 2 Sam. XX, 20). Possibly, however, the genuine reading was ''"in"', the Jathrite. See Ira.