Litter (vehicle)
The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of persons. Examples of litter vehicles include lectica (ancient Rome), kiệu [轎] (Vietnam), sedan chair (Britain), litera (Spain), palanquin (France, India, Ghana), jiao (China), liteira (Portugal), wo (วอ, Chinese style known as kiao เกี้ยว) (Thailand), gama (Korea), koshi, ren and kago [駕籠] (Japan) and tahtırevan (Turkey).
Smaller litters may take the form of open chairs or beds carried by two or more carriers, some being enclosed for protection from the elements. Larger litters, for example those of the Chinese emperors, may resemble small rooms upon a platform borne upon the shoulders of a dozen or more people. To most efficiently carry a litter, porters will attempt to transfer the load to their shoulders, either by placing the carrying poles upon their shoulders, or the use of a yoke to transfer the load from the carrying poles to the shoulder.
Definitions
A simple litter, often called a king carrier, consists of a sling attached along its length to poles or stretched inside a frame. The poles or frame are carried by porters in front and behind. Such simple litters are common on battlefields and emergency situations, where terrain prohibits wheeled vehicles from carrying away the dead and wounded.
Gama
Gama has multiple meanings:
People
Places
Other
Gamma
Gamma (uppercase Γ, lowercase γ; Greek: Γάμμα Gámma) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Gimel 
. Letters that arose from gamma include the Roman C and G and the Cyrillic letters Г and Ґ.
Uses
Greek
In Ancient Greek, gamma represented a voiced velar stop /ɡ/. In Modern Greek, it represents a voiced fricative. It is realized either as a palatal /ʝ/ (before a front vowel, /e, i/), or as a velar /ɣ/ (in all other environments).
Both in Ancient and in Modern Greek, before other velars (κ, χ, ξ k, kh, ks), gamma represents a velar nasal /ŋ/. A double gamma γγ represents the sequence /ŋɡ/ (phonetically varying [ŋɡ~ɡ]) or /ŋɣ/.
International Phonetic Alphabet
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, lowercase gamma (ɣ) represents the voiced velar fricative. A lowercase gamma that lies above the baseline rather than crossing it (ɤ) represents the close-mid back unrounded vowel.
Mathematics and science
Jurōjin
In Japan, Jurōjin (寿老人) is one of the Seven Gods of Fortune or Shichifukujin, according to Taoist beliefs. He is the God of longevity. Jurōjin originated from the Chinese Taoist god, the Old Man of the South Pole. He is known as the immortal of the Northern Song dynasty (960 – 1127), and may have been a historical figure of the period. Jurōjin is identified as the personification of the Southern Polar Star. While paintings and statues of Jurōjin are considered auspicious, he never developed a following independent of the other deities Seven Gods of Fortune.
Jurōjin is often identified with Fukurokuju, another of the Several Gods of Fortune. In some accounts, the two are said to inhabit the same body. As such, the two are often confused.
Jurōjin walks with a staff and a fan. He is depicted as an old man of slight stature, and by tradition, less than 3 shaku (approximately 90 centimetres (35 in)). He is depicted with a long white beard and often a very tall, bald head. He has a scroll tied to his staff, on which is written the lifespan of all living things. The scroll is sometimes identified as a Buddhist sutra. The deer, a symbol of longevity, usually (but not always) accompanies him as a messenger, as do other long-lived animals such as the crane and the tortoise.
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