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The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Atrebates to Bedlis

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Title: The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Atrebates to Bedlis

Author: Various


        
Release date: October 15, 2010 [eBook #34075]
                Most recently updated: January 7, 2021

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34075

Credits: Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Keith Edkins and the Online
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW GRESHAM ENCYCLOPEDIA. ATREBATES TO BEDLIS ***




Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Keith Edkins and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net





Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they
are listed at the end of the text.

       *       *       *       *       *


Transcriber's note: In the pronunciation guides [=e] signifies "e macron";
[)e] "e breve"; [a:] "a with diaeresis below"; [.a] "a with dot above";
[n.] "n with dot below"; [:a] "a with diaeresis"; and so forth.

THE

NEW . GRESHAM

ENCYCLOPEDIA

VOLUME . I . PART . 3

[Illustration]

_The_ GRESHAM . PUBLISHING
COMPANY . _Limited_

66 CHANDOS STREET . STRAND
LONDON W.C.2.
1922

       *       *       *       *       *







LIST OF PLATES AND MAPS

       *       *       *       *       *

VOLUME I PART 3

       *       *       *       *       *

PLATES

                                                                  Page

  BACTERIA                                                        348

MAPS IN COLOUR


  AUSTRALIA                                                       316

       *       *       *       *       *







KEY TO PRONUNCIATION

       *       *       *       *       *

The method of marking pronunciations here employed is either (1) by marking
the syllable on which the accent falls, or (2) by a simple system of
transliteration, to which the following is the Key:--

VOWELS

[=a], as in f_a_te, or in b_a_re.

[:a], as in _a_lms, Fr. _a_me, Ger. B_a_hn = a of Indian names.

[.a], the same sound short or medium, as in Fr. b_a_l, Ger. M_a_nn.

a, as in f_a_t.

[a:], as in f_a_ll.

_a_, obscure, as in rur_a_l, similar to _u_ in b_u_t, [.e] in h_e_r: common
in Indian names.

[=e], as in m_e_ = _i_ in mach_i_ne.

e, as in m_e_t.

[.e], as in h_e_r.

[=i], as in p_i_ne, or as _ei_ in Ger. m_ei_n.

i, as in p_i_n, also used for the short sound corresponding to [=e], as in
French and Italian words.

_eu_, a long sound as in Fr. j_eu_ne = Ger. long _oe_, as in S_oe_hne,
G_oe_the (Goethe).

eu, corresponding sound short or medium, as in Fr. p_eu_ = Ger. _oe_ short.

[=o], as in n_o_te, m_oa_n.

o, as in n_o_t, s_o_ft--that is, short or medium.

[:o], as in m_o_ve, tw_o_.

[=u] as in t_u_be.

u, as in t_u_b: similar to [.e] and also to a.

[u:], as in b_u_ll.

[:u], as in Sc. ab_u_ne = Fr. _u_ as in d_u_, Ger. _[:u]_ long as in
gr_ue_n, B_ue_hne.

[.u], the corresponding short or medium sound, as in Fr. b_u_t, Ger.
M_ue_ller.

oi, as in _oi_l.

ou, as in p_ou_nd; or as _au_ in Ger. H_au_s.

CONSONANTS

Of the _consonants_, B, D, F, H, J, K, L, M, N, NG, P, SH, T, V, Z, always
have their common English sounds, when used to transliterate foreign words.
The letter C is not used by itself in re-writing for pronunciation, S or K
being used instead. The only consonantal symbols, therefore, that require
explanation are the following:--

ch is always as in ri_ch_.

_d_, nearly as _th_ in _th_is = Sp. _d_ in Ma_d_ri_d_, &c.

g is always hard, as in _g_o.

_h_ represents the guttural in Scotch lo_ch_, Ger. na_ch_, also other
similar gutturals.

[n.], Fr. nasal _n_ as in bo_n_.

r represents both English _r_, and _r_ in foreign words, which is generally
much more strongly trilled.

s, always as in _s_o.

th, as _th_ in _th_in.

_th_, as _th_ in _th_is.

w always consonantal, as in _w_e.

x = ks, which are used instead.

y always consonantal, as in _y_ea (Fr. _ligne_ would be re-written
l[=e]ny).

zh, as _s_ in plea_s_ure = Fr. _j_.

       *       *       *       *       *

ATREB'ATES, ancient inhabitants of that part of Gallia Belgica, afterwards
called _Artois_. A colony of them settled in Britain, in a part of
Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

AT'REK, a river of Asia, forming the boundary between Persia and the
Russian Transcaspian territory, and flowing into the Caspian; length 250
miles.

ATREUS (at'r[=u]s), in Greek mythology, a son of Pelops and Hippodam[=i]a,
and grandson of Tant[)a]lus. Atreus was the father of Agamemnon, according
to Homer; other writers call him Agamemnon's grandfather. He succeeded
Eurystheus, his father-in-law, as King of Myc[=e]nae, and in revenge for
the seduction of his wife by his brother Thyestes gave a banquet at which
the latter partook of the flesh of his own sons. Atreus was killed by
Aegisthus, a son of Thyestes. The tragic events connected with this family
furnished materials to some of the great Greek dramatists.

ATRI (ancient, HADRIA), an episcopal city in the province of Teramo, Italy,
8 miles from the Adriatic. It has an old (thirteenth century) Gothic
cathedral, ruins of ancient Roman walls and buildings, and a palace of the
Agraviva family, who were Dukes of Atri from 1398 to 1775. Pop. 14,043.

AT'RIPLEX. See _Orache_.

A'TRIUM, the entrance-hall and most important apartment of a Roman house,
generally ornamented with statues, pictures, and _imagines_ or ancestral
likenesses, which were portrait masks in wax kept in cases. The _atrium_
formed the reception-room for visitors and clients. It was lighted by the
_compluvium_, an opening in the roof, towards which the roof sloped so as
to throw the rainwater into a cistern in the floor called the _impluvium_.

In zoology the term is applied to the large chamber or 'cloaca' into which
the intestine opens in the Tunicata.

AT'ROPA, the nightshade genus of plants. See _Belladonna_.

AT'ROPHY, a wasting of the flesh due to some interference with the
nutritive processes. It may arise from a variety of causes, such as
permanent, oppressive, and exhausting passions, organic disease, a want of
proper food or of pure air, suppurations in important organs, copious
evacuations of blood, saliva, semen, &c., and it is also sometimes produced
by poisons, for example arsenic, mercury, lead, in miners, painters,
gilders, &c. In old age the whole frame except the heart undergoes atrophic
change, and it is of frequent occurrence in infancy as a consequence of
improper, unwholesome food, exposure to cold, damp, or impure air, &c.
Single organs or parts of the body may be affected irrespective of the
general state of nutrition; thus local atrophy may be superinduced by
palsies, the pressure of tumours upon the nerves of the limbs, or by
artificial pressure, as in the feet of Chinese ladies.

AT'ROPIN, or AT'ROPINE, a crystalline alkaloid obtained from the deadly
nightshade (_Atr[)o]pa Belladonna_). It is very poisonous, and produces
persistent dilation of the pupil.

AT'ROPOS, the eldest of the three Fates (the others being Clotho and
Lach[)e]sis), who cuts the thread of life with her shears.

ATTACHE (at'a-sh[=a]), a junior member of the diplomatic services attached
to an embassy or legation.

ATTACH'MENT, in English law, a taking of the person, goods, or estate by
virtue of a writ or precept. It is distinguished from an _arrest_ by
proceeding out of a higher court by precept or writ, whereas the latter
proceeds out of an inferior court by precept only. An arrest lies only
against the body of a man, whereas an attachment lies often against the
goods only, and sometimes against the body and goods. It differs from a
_distress_ in that an attachment does not extend to lands, while a distress
cannot touch the body.--_Foreign attachment_ answers to what in Scotland is
termed arrestment, by means of which a creditor may obtain the security of
the goods or other personal property of his debtor in the hands of a third
person for the purpose of enforcing the appearance of the debtor to answer
to an action, and afterwards, upon his continued default, of obtaining the
property absolutely in satisfaction of the demand.

ATTACK', the opening act of hostility by a force seeking to dislodge an
enemy from its position. It is considered more advantageous to offer than
to await attack, even in a defensive war. The historic forms of attack are:
(1) the parallel; (2) the form in which both wings attack and the centre is
kept back; (3) the form in which the centre is pushed forward and the wings
kept back; (4) the famous oblique mode, dating at least from Epaminondas,
and employed by Frederick the Great, where one wing advances to engage,
whilst the other is kept back, and occupies the attention of the enemy by
pretending an attack. Napoleon preferred to mass heavy columns against an
enemy's centre. The forms of attack have changed with the weapons used. In
the days of the pike heavy masses were the rule, but the use of the musket
led to an extended battle-front to give effect to the fire. The advance in
long and slender lines which grew out of this has been not less famous in
the annals of British attack than the square formation in those of defence.
In the European War (1914-18) the Germans often attacked in mass-formation;
but British attacks were usually carried out by successive _waves_; one
wave secured its objective and consolidated it while another wave passed
through to attack a more advanced objective. Artillery preparation became
of increasingly great importance; it broke down the enemy's wire,
counteracted his artillery-fire, and made his infantry keep under cover. In
trench-to-trench attacks machine-guns and trench-mortars were of great
value, and many casualties were avoided by the skilful use of tanks in the
attack. But it is still a fundamental principle of tactics that the
infantry is the chief factor in the attack, and that no attack can be
considered overwhelmingly successful without the use of the bayonet.

ATTAIN'DER, the legal consequences of a sentence of death or outlawry
pronounced against a person for treason or felony, the person being said to
be _attainted_. It resulted in forfeiture of estate and 'corruption of
blood', rendering the party incapable of inheriting property or
transmitting it to heirs; but these results now no longer follow. Formerly
persons were often subjected to attainder by a special Bill or Act passed
in Parliament called _Bills of Attainder_, the last being passed in 1798,
in the case of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, one of the Irish rebel leaders.

ATTAINT', a writ at common law against a jury for a false verdict, finally
abolished in England in 1825.

ATTALE'A, a genus of American palms, comprising the piassava palm, which
produces coquilla-nuts.

ATT'ALUS, the names of three kings of ancient Pergamus (241-133 B.C.), the
last of whom bequeathed his kingdom to the Romans. They were all patrons of
art and literature.

AT'TAR, in the East Indies, a general term for a perfume from flowers; in
Europe generally used only of the _attar_ or _otto of roses_, an essential
oil made from _Rosa centifolia_, the hundred-leaved or cabbage-rose, _R.
damasc[=e]na_, or damask-rose, _R. mosch[=a]ta_, or musk-rose, &c., 100,000
roses yielding only 180 grains of attar. Cashmere, Shiraz, and Damascus are
celebrated for its manufacture, and there are extensive rose farms in the
valley of Kezanlik in Roumelia and at Ghazipur in Benares. The oil is at
first greenish, but afterwards it presents various tints of green, yellow,
and red. It is concrete at all ordinary temperatures, but becomes liquid
about 84deg F. It consists of two substances, a hydrocarbon and an
oxygenated oil, and is frequently adulterated with the oils of rhodium,
sandal-wood, and geranium, with the addition of camphor or spermaceti.

AT'TERBURY, Francis, an English prelate, born in 1662, and educated at
Westminster and Oxford. In 1687 he took his degree of M.A., and appeared as
a controversialist in a defence of the character of Luther, entitled,
_Considerations on the Spirit of Martin Luther_, &c. He also assisted his
pupil, the Hon. Charles Boyle, in his famous controversy with Bentley on
the _Epistles of Phalaris_. Having taken orders in 1691 he settled in
London, became chaplain to William and Mary, preacher of Bridewell, and
lecturer of St. Bride's. Controversy was congenial to him, and in 1706 he
commenced one with Dr. Wake, which lasted four years, on the rights,
privileges, and powers of convocations. For this service he received the
thanks of the lower house of convocation and the degree of Doctor of
Divinity from Oxford. Soon after the accession of Queen Anne he was made
Dean of Carlisle, aided in the defence of the famous Sacheverell, and wrote
_A Representation of the Present State of Religion_. In 1712 he was made
Dean of Christ Church, and in 1713 Bishop of Rochester and Dean of
Westminster. After the death of the queen in 1714 he distinguished himself
by his opposition to George I; and, having entered into a correspondence
with the Pretender's party, was apprehended in Aug., 1722, and committed to
the Tower. Being banished the kingdom, he settled in Paris, where he
chiefly occupied himself in study and in correspondence with men of
letters. But even here, in 1725, he was actively engaged in fomenting
discontent in the Scottish Highlands. He died in 1731, and his body was
privately interred in Westminster Abbey. His sermons and letters are marked
by ease and grace; but as a critic and a controversialist he is rather
dexterous and popular than accurate and profound.

ATTERCLIFFE, a parliamentary division of the borough of Sheffield.

ATTIC, an architectural term variously used. An _Attic base_ is a peculiar
kind of base, used by the ancient architects in the Ionic order and by
Palladio and some others in the Doric. An _Attic story_ is a low story in
the upper part of a house rising above the main portion of the building. In
ordinary language an attic is an apartment lighted by a window in the roof.

AT'TICA, a State of ancient Greece, the capital of which is Athens. The
territory was triangular in shape, with Cape Sunium (Colonna) as its apex
and the ranges of Mounts Cithaeron and Parnes as its base. On the north
these ranges separated it from Boeotia; on the west it was bounded by
Megaris and the Saronic Gulf; on the east by the Aegean. Its most marked
physical divisions consisted of the highlands, midland district, and coast
district, with the two famous plains of Eleusis and of Athens. The
Cephissus and Ilissus, though small, were its chief streams; its principal
hills, Cithaeron, Parnes, Hymettus, Pentelicus, and Laurium. Its soil has
probably undergone considerable deterioration, but produced good fruit,
especially olives and figs. These are still cultivated, as well as the vine
and cereals, but Attica is better suited for pasture than tillage.
According to tradition the earliest inhabitants of Attica lived in a savage
manner until the time of Cecrops, who came, 1550 B.C., with a colony from
Egypt, taught them all the essentials of civilization, and founded Athens.
One of Cecrops' descendants founded eleven other cities in the regions
round, and there followed a period of mutual hostility. To Theseus is
assigned the honour of uniting these cities in a confederacy, with Athens
as the capital, thus forming the Attic State. After the death of Codrus,
1068 B.C., the monarchy was abolished, and the government vested in archons
elected by the nobility, at first for life, in 752 B.C. for ten years, and
in 683 B.C. for one year only. The severe constitution of Draco was
succeeded in 594 by the milder code of Solon, the democratic elements of
which, after the brief tyranny of the Pisistratids, were emphasized and
developed by Clisthenes. He divided the people into ten classes, and made
the Senate consist of 500 persons, establishing as the Government an
oligarchy modified by popular control. Then came the splendid era of the
Persian War, which elevated Athens to the summit of fame. Miltiades at
Marathon, and Themistocles at Salamis, conquered the Persians by land and
by sea. The chief external danger being removed, the rights of the people
were enlarged; the archons and other magistrates were chosen from all
classes without distinction. The period from the Persian War to the time of
Alexander (500 to 336 B.C.) was most remarkable for the development of the
Athenian constitution. Attica appears to have contained a territory of
nearly 850 sq. miles, with some 500,000 inhabitants, 360,000 of whom were
slaves, while the inhabitants of the city numbered 180,000. Cimon and
Pericles (444 B.C.) raised Athens to its point of greatest splendour,
though under the latter began the Peloponnesian War, which ended with the
conquest of Athens by the Lacedaemonians. The succeeding tyranny of the
Thirty, under the protection of a Spartan garrison, was overthrown by
Thrasybulus, with a temporary partial restoration of the power of Athens;
but the battle of Cheronaea (338 B.C.) made Attica, in common with the rest
of Greece, a dependency of Macedon. The attempts at revolt after the death
of Alexander were crushed, and in 260 B.C. Attica was still under the sway
of Antigonus Gonatas, the Macedonian king. A period of freedom under the
shelter of the Achaean League then ensued, but their support of Mithridates
led, in 146 B.C., to the subjugation of the Grecian States by Rome. After
the division of the Roman Empire, Attica belonged to the Empire of the East
until, in A.D. 396, it was conquered by Alaric the Goth and the country
devastated. Attica and Boeotia now form a nome or province of the kingdom
of Greece, with a population of 407,063.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sir J. G. Frazer,
_Pausanias's Description of Greece_, vols. ii and v; C. Wordsworth, _Athens
and Attica_.

AT'TICUS, Titus Pomponius, a Roman of great wealth and culture, born 109
B.C., and died 32 B.C. On the death of his father he removed to Athens to
avoid participation in the civil war, to which his brother Sulpicius had
fallen a victim. There he so identified himself with Greek life and
literature as to receive the surname Atticus. It was his principle never to
mix in politics, and he lived undisturbed amid the strife of factions.
Sulla and the Marian party, Caesar and Pompey, Brutus and Antony, were
alike friendly to him, and he was in favour with Augustus. Of his close
friendship with Cicero proof is given in the series of letters addressed to
him by Cicero. He married at the age of fifty-three, and had one daughter,
Pomponia, named by Cicero Atticula and Attica. He reached the age of
seventy-seven years without sickness, but, being then attacked by an
incurable disease, ended his life by voluntary starvation. He was a type of
the refined Epicurean, and an author of some contemporary repute, though
none of his works have reached us.--The name Atticus was given to Addison
by Pope, in a well-known passage (Prologue to the _Satires_, addressed to
Dr. Arbuthnot).

AT'TILA (in Ger. _Etzel_), the famous leader of the Huns, was the son of
Mundzuk, and the successor, in conjunction with his brother Bleda, of his
uncle Roua. The rule of the two leaders extended over a great part of
Northern Asia and Europe, and they threatened the Eastern Empire, and twice
compelled the weak Theodosius II to purchase an inglorious peace. Attila
caused his brother Bleda to be murdered (444), and in a short time extended
his dominion over all the peoples of Germany and exacted tribute from the
Eastern and Western emperors. The Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Gepidae, and
a part of the Franks united under his banners, and he speedily formed a
pretext for leading them against the Empire of the East. He laid waste all
the countries from the Black to the Adriatic Sea, and in three encounters
defeated the Emperor Theodosius, but could not take Constantinople. Thrace,
Macedonia, and Greece all submitted to the invader, who destroyed seventy
flourishing cities; and Theodosius was obliged to purchase a peace. Turning
to the west, the 'scourge of God', as his defeated enemies termed him,
crossed with an immense army the Rhine, the Moselle, and the Seine, came to
the Loire, and laid siege to Orleans. The inhabitants of this city repelled
the first attack, and the united forces of the Romans under Aetius, and of
the Visigoths under their king, Theodoric, compelled Attila to raise the
siege. He retreated to Champagne, and waited for the enemy in the plains of
Chalons. In apparent opposition to the prophecies of the soothsayers the
ranks of the Romans and Goths were broken; but when the victory of Attila
seemed assured, the Gothic prince Thorismond, the son of Theodoric, poured
down from the neighbouring height upon the Huns, who were defeated with
great slaughter. Rather irritated than discouraged, he sought in the
following year a new opportunity to seize upon Italy, and demanded Honoria,
the sister of Valentinian III, in marriage, with half the kingdom as a
dowry. When this demand was refused he conquered and destroyed Aquileia,
Padua, Vicenza, Verona, and Bergamo, laid waste the plains of Lombardy, and
was marching on Rome when Pope Leo I went with the Roman ambassadors to his
camp and succeeded in obtaining a peace. Attila went back to Hungary, and
died on the night of his marriage with Hilda or Ildico (453), either from
the bursting of a blood-vessel or by her hand. The description that
Jordanes (or Jornandes) has left us of him is in keeping with his
Kalmuck-Tartar origin. He had a large head, a flat nose, broad shoulders,
and a short and ill-formed body; but his eyes were brilliant, his walk
stately, and his voice strong and well-toned.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Thierry,
_Koenig Attila und seine Zeit_; E. Hutton, _Attila and the Huns_.

ATTILLY, a village in France. See _Scarpe, Battle of the_.

ATTLEBOROUGH, a manufacturing town of the United States, in Massachusetts.
Pop. 19,731.

AT'TOCK, a town and fort in Rawal Pindi district, Punjab, overhanging the
Indus at the point where it is joined by the Kabul River. It is at the head
of the steam navigation of the Indus, and is connected with Lahore by
railway. It is an important post on the military road to the frontier. Pop.
2822.

ATTOR'NEY, a person appointed to do something for and in the stead and name
of another. An attorney may have _general_ powers to act for another; or
his power may be _special_, and limited to a particular act or acts. A
special attorney is appointed by a deed called a _power_ or _letter of
attorney_, specifying the acts which he is authorized to do. An _attorney
at law_ is a person qualified to appear for another before a court of law
to prosecute or defend any action on behalf of his client. The term in
England was formerly applied especially to those practising before the
supreme courts of common law at Westminster, and corresponded to the term
_solicitor_ used in courts of Chancery; but this distinction was abolished
in 1873, and _solicitor_ is now the regular term for all such legal agents.
In the United States the term is in common use, and is wide enough to
include what in England would be called barristers (or counsel), in
Scotland advocates, having indeed the general sense of lawyer. In America
women are admitted as attorneys.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL, in England and Ireland, the first law-officer and legal
adviser of the Crown, acting on its behalf in its revenue and criminal
proceedings, carrying on prosecutions in crimes that have a public
character, guarding the interests of charitable endowments, and granting
patents. He is _ex officio_ the leader of the bar, and, as a member of
Parliament, has charge of all Government measures on legal questions. The
Solicitor-General holds a similar position, and may act in his place. In
Scotland the Attorney-General is called Lord-Advocate. There are also
Attorneys-General in the colonies. In the United States he is head of the
Department of Justice. The individual States have also an Attorney-General.

ATTRAC'TION, the tendency of all material bodies, whether masses or
particles, to approach each other, to unite, and to remain united. Newton
was the first to adopt the theory of a universal attractive force, and to
determine its laws. When bodies tend to come together from sensible
distances the tendency is termed either the attraction of _gravitation_,
_magnetism_, or _electricity_, according to circumstances; when the
attraction operates at insensible distances it is known as _adhesion_ with
respect to surfaces, as _cohesion_ with respect to the particles of a body,
and as _affinity_ when the particles of different bodies tend together. It
is by the attraction of gravitation that all bodies fall to the earth when
unsupported.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Newton, _Principia_; Thomson and Tait, _Natural
Philosophy_; Laplace, _Mecanique Celeste_; Poynting, _The Mean Density of
the Earth_.

ATTREK. See _Atrek_.

AT'TRIBUTE, in philosophy, a quality or property of a substance, as
whiteness or hardness. A substance is known to us only as a congeries of
attributes.

In the fine arts an attribute is a symbol regularly accompanying and
marking out some personage. Thus the caduceus, purse, winged hat, and
sandals are attributes of Mercury, the trampled dragon that of St. George.

ATTWOOD, George, F.R.S., an English mathematician, born 1746, died 1807,
best known by his invention, called after him _Attwood's Machine_, for
verifying the laws of falling bodies. It consists essentially of a
freely-moving pulley over which runs a fine cord with two equal weights
suspended from the ends. A small additional weight is laid upon one of
them, causing it to descend with uniform acceleration. Means are provided
by which the added weight can be removed at any point of the descent, thus
allowing the motion to continue from this point onward with uniform
velocity. See _Gravitation_.

ATYS, or ATTIS (at'is), in classical mythology, the shepherd lover of
Cyb[)e]le, who, having broken the vow of chastity which he made her,
castrated himself. In Asia Minor Atys seems to have been a deity, with
somewhat of the same character as Adonis. Catullus has written a celebrated
poem (Carmen 63) on the subject of Attis.

AUBAGNE ([=o]-b[.a]n-y[.e]), a town in France, department of
Bouches-du-Rhone, with manufactures of cottons, pottery, cloth. Pop. 8800.

AUBAINE, DROIT D' (drwae d[=o]-b[=a]n). See _Droit d'Aubaine_.

AUBE ([=o]b), a north-eastern French department; area 2326 sq. miles; pop.
227,745. The surface is undulating, and watered by the Aube, &c. The N. and
N.W. districts are bleak and infertile, the southern districts remarkably
fertile. A large extent of ground is under forests and vineyards, and the
soil is admirable for grain, pulse, and hemp. The chief manufactures are
worsted and hosiery. Troyes is the capital.--The River Aube, which gives
name to the department, rises in Haute-Marne, flows N.W., and after a
course of 113 miles joins the Seine.

AUBENAS ([=o]b-nae), a town of France, department Ardeche, with a trade in
coal, silk, &c. Pop. 7206.

AUBER ([=o]-b[=a]r), Daniel Francois Esprit, a French operatic composer,
born 1782, at Caen, in Normandy, died at Paris 1871. He was originally
intended for a mercantile career, but devoted himself to music, studying
under Cherubini. His first great success was his opera _La Bergere
Chatelaine_, produced in 1820. In 1822 he had associated himself with
Scribe as librettist, and other operas now followed in quick succession.
Chief among them were _Masaniello_ or _La Muette de Portici_ (1828), _Fra
Diavolo_ (1830), _Lestocq_ (1834), _L'Ambassadrice_ (1836), _Le Domino
Noir_ (1837), _Les Diamants de la Couronne_ (1841), _Marco Spada_ (1853),
_La Fiancee du Roi de Garbe_ (1864). Despite his success in _Masaniello_,
his peculiar field was comic opera, in which his charming melodies, bearing
strongly the stamp of the French national character, his uniform grace and
piquancy, won him a high place.

AUBERGINE ([=o]'b[.e]r-zh[=e]n), the fruit of the eggplant (q.v.).

AUBERVILLIERS ([=o]-b[=a]r-v[=e]l-y[=a]), a suburban locality of Paris,
with a fort belonging to the defensive works of the city. Pop. 37,558.

AUBIGNE, Merle d'. See _Merle d'Aubigne_.

AUBIN ([=o]-ba[n.]), a town of Southern France, department of Aveyron, 20
miles N.E. of Villefranche; mining district: coal, sulphur, alum, and iron.
Pop. 9574.

AU'BREY, John, F.R.S., an English antiquary, born in Wiltshire in 1625 or
1626, died about 1700. He was educated at Oxford; collected materials for
the _Monasticon Anglicanum_, and afforded important assistance to Wood, the
antiquary. He left large collections of manuscripts, which have been used
by subsequent writers. His _Miscellanies_ (London, 1696) contain much
curious information, but display credulity and superstition. His _Survey of
Surrey_ was incorporated in Rawlinson's _Natural History and Antiquities of
the County of Surrey_, which was published in 1719.

AU'BURN, the name of many places in America, the chief being a handsome
city of New York State, at the north end of Owasco Lake. It is chiefly
famous for its State prison, large enough to receive 1000 prisoners. In the
town or vicinity various manufactures are carried on. Pop. 36,142.--Another
Auburn is in Maine, on the Androscoggin River, a manufacturing town. Pop.
(1920), 16,985.

AUBUSSON ([=o]-b[.u]-s[=o]n), a town of the interior of France, department
Creuse, celebrated for its carpets. Pop. 7211.

AUBUSSON ([=o]-b[.u]-s[=o]n), Pierre d', grand-master of the knights of St.
John of Jerusalem, born in 1423 of a noble French family, served in early
life against the Turks, then entered the order of St. John, obtained a
commandery, was made grand-prior, and in 1476 succeeded the Grand-master
Orsini. In 1480 the Island of Rhodes, the head-quarters of the order, was
invaded by a Turkish army of 100,000 men. The town was besieged for two
months and then assaulted, but the Turks were obliged to retire with great
loss. He died at Rhodes in 1503.

AUCH ([=o]sh), a town in S.W. France, capital of department Gers; the seat
of an archbishop, with one of the finest Gothic cathedrals in France;
manufactures linens, leather, &c. Pop. 13,638.

AUCHENIA ([a:]-k[=e]'ni-a). See _Llama_.

AUCHTERAR'DER, a town, Perthshire, Scotland, with manufactures of tweeds,
tartans, &c. The opposition to the presentee to the church of Auchterarder
(1839) originated the struggle which ended in the formation of the Free
Church of Scotland. Pop. (1921), 3151.

AUCK'LAND, a town of New Zealand, in the North Island, founded in 1840, and
situated on Waitemata Harbour, one of the finest harbours of New Zealand,
where the island is only 6 miles across, there being another harbour
(Manukau) on the opposite side of the isthmus. At dead low water there is
sufficient depth in the harbour for the largest steamers. The working ship
channel has an average depth of 36 feet, and varies in width from 1 to 2
miles. The harbour has two good entrances, with a lighthouse; and is
defended by batteries. There are numerous wharves and jetties, and two
graving-docks, one of which--the Calliope Dock, opened in 1887--is one of
the largest in the whole of the Southern Seas. Its site is picturesque, the
streets are spacious, and the public buildings--churches, educational
establishments, including a university college--are numerous and handsome.
It has a large and increasing trade, there being connection with the chief
places on the island by rail, and regular communication with the other
ports of the colony, Australia, and Fiji by steam. It was formerly the
capital of the colony. Pop. (including suburbs) 157,750.--The provincial
district of Auckland forms the northern part of North Island, with an area
of 25,364 sq. miles. Pop. 308,766. The surface is very diversified;
volcanic phenomena are common, including geysers, hot lakes, &c.; rivers
are numerous; wool, timber, kauri-gum, &c., are exported. Much gold has
been obtained in the Thames Valley and elsewhere.

AUCKLAND, William Eden, Lord, an English statesman, born 1744; educated at
Eton and Oxford, called to the bar 1768, Under-Secretary of State 1772, and
in 1776 a lord of the Board of Trade. In 1778 he was nominated in
conjunction with Lord Howe and others to act as mediator between Britain
and the insurgent American colonies. He was afterwards Secretary of State
for Ireland, Ambassador Extraordinary to France, Ambassador Extraordinary
to the Netherlands, &c. He was raised to the peerage in 1788, and died in
1814.

AUCKLAND ISLANDS, a group of islands about 180 miles S. of New Zealand,
discovered in 1806, and belonging to Britain. They are of volcanic origin
and fertile; and the largest, which is 30 miles by 15, has two good
harbours. There are no settled inhabitants.

AUCTION is a public sale to the party offering the best price where the
buyers bid against each other, or to the bidder who first accepts the terms
offered by the vendor where he sells by reducing his terms until someone
accepts them. The latter form is known as a _Dutch Auction_. A sale by
auction must be conducted in the most open and public manner possible; and
there must be no collusion on the part of the buyers. Puffing, or mock
bidding, to raise the value by apparent competition, is illegal.

AUCTIONEER', a person who conducts sales by auction. It is his duty to
state the conditions of sale, to declare the respective biddings, and to
terminate the sale by _knocking down_ the thing sold to the highest bidder.
In Britain an auctioneer must have a licence (for which he pays L10),
renewable annually. Verbal declarations by an auctioneer are not suffered
to control the printed conditions of sale. The Auctioneers' Institute of
the United Kingdom was founded in 1886.

AU'CUBA, a genus of plants, ord. Cornaceae, one species of which, _A.
japonica_, a laurel-like shrub with spotted leaves, a native of Japan and
China, is now common in ornamental grounds in Europe. The flowers are
dioecious and inconspicuous. For a long time only the female plant,
introduced into Britain from Japan in 1783, was cultivated, but in 1850 the
male was introduced, and the fruit, which consists of beautiful coral-red
berries, is now frequently developed, and adds greatly to the
attractiveness of the plant. _A. himalaica_, also brought to Europe, is
less hardy.

AUDE ([=o]d), a maritime department in the S. of France; area 2448 sq.
miles, mainly covered by hills belonging to the Pyrenees or the Cevennes,
and traversed W. to E. by a valley drained by the Aude. The loftier
districts are bleak and unproductive; the others tolerably fertile,
yielding good crops of grain. The wines, especially the white wines, are
famous; olives and other fruits are also cultivated. The manufactures are
varied; the trade is facilitated by the Canal du Midi. Carcassonne is the
capital; other towns are Narbonne and Castelnaudary. Pop. 286,552. The
River Aude rises in the Eastern Pyrenees, and, flowing nearly parallel to
the Canal du Midi, falls into the Mediterranean after a course of 130
miles.

AUDEBERT ([=o]d-b[=a]r), Jean Baptiste, French engraver and naturalist,
born in 1759, died in 1800; published _Histoire Naturelle des Singes, des
Makis, et des Galeopitheques_; _Histoire des Colibris_, &c.; and began
_Histoire des Grimpereaux et des Oiseaux de Paradis_, finished by
Desray--all finely-illustrated works.

AU'DENSHAW, a town of England, in Lancashire, 4 miles E. of Manchester,
with cotton-mills, engineering-works, &c. Pop. (1921), 7878.

AUDIOMETER, an instrument for the measurement of hearing, invented by
Professor D. E. Hughes, of London, in 1879.

AU'DIPHONE, an acoustic instrument by means of which deaf persons are
enabled to hear. It consists essentially of a fan-shaped plate of hardened
caoutchouc, which is bent to a greater or less degree by strings, and is
very sensitive to sound-waves. When used, the up edge is pressed against
the upper front teeth, with the convexity outward, and the sounds being
collected are conveyed from the teeth to the auditory nerve without passing
through the external ear.

AU'DIT, an examination into accounts or dealings with money or property,
along with vouchers or other documents connected therewith, especially by
proper officers, or persons appointed for the purpose. Also the occasion of
receiving the rents from the tenants on an estate.

AU'DITOR, a person appointed to examine accounts, public or private, to see
whether they are correct and in accordance with vouchers. In Britain the
public accounts are audited by the Exchequer and Audit Department, Somerset
House, at the head of it being a comptroller and auditor-general, and an
assistant-comptroller and auditor, with a large staff of clerks. In
Scotland there is an auditor attached to the Court of Session appointed to
tax costs in litigation.

AUDITORY NERVES. See _Ear_.

AUDLEY, a town (urban district) of England, in Staffordshire, to the
north-west of the district of The Potteries, with coal and iron mines. Pop.
(1921), 14,751.

AUDRAN ([=o]-draen), Gerard, a celebrated French engraver, born 1640;
studied at Rome; was appointed engraver to Louis XIV; died at Paris 1703.
He engraved Le Brun's _Battles of Alexander_, two of Raphael's cartoons,
Poussin's _Coriolanus_, &c., and takes a first place among historical
engravers. Other members of the family were successful in the same
profession: Benoit, 1661-1721; Claude _pere_, 1592-1677; Claude _fils_,
1640-84; Germain, 1631-1710; Jean, 1667-1756.

AU'DUBON, John James, an American naturalist of French extraction, born
near New Orleans in 1775, was educated in France, and studied painting
under David. In 1798 he settled in Pennsylvania, but having a great love
for ornithology he set out in 1810 with his wife and child, descended the
Ohio, and for many years roamed the forests in every direction, drawing the
birds which he shot. In 1826 he came to England, exhibited his drawings in
Liverpool, Manchester, and Edinburgh, and finally published them in an
unrivalled work of double-folio size, with 435 coloured plates of birds the
size of life (_The Birds of America_, 4 vols., 1827-39), with an
accompanying text (_Ornithological Biography_, 5 vols., 8vo, partly written
by Professor Macgillivray). On his final return to America he laboured with
Dr. Bachman on a finely-illustrated work entitled _The Quadrupeds of
America_ (1843-50, 3 vols.). He died at New York in 1851.

AUERBACH, a manufacturing town of Germany, in Saxony. Pop. 2200.

AUERBACH (ou'[.e]r-bae_h_), Berthold, a distinguished German author of
Jewish extraction, born 1812, died 1882. He abandoned the study of Jewish
theology in favour of philosophy, publishing in 1836 his _Judaism and
Modern Literature_, and a translation of the works of Spinoza with critical
biography (5 vols., 1841). His later works were tales or novels, and his
_Village Tales of the Black Forest_ (_Schwarzwaelder Dorfgeschichten_), as
well as others of his writings, have been translated into several
languages. Other works: _Barfuessele_, _Joseph im Schnee_, _Edelweiss_,
_Auf der Hoehe_, _Das Landhaus am Rhein_, _Waldfried_, _Brigitta_.

AUERSTAEDT (ou'[.e]r-stet), battle at, 14th Oct., 1806. See _Jena_.

AUGEAS ([a:]-j[=e]'as), a fabulous king of Elis, in Greece, whose stable
contained 3000 oxen, and had not been cleaned for thirty years. Hercules
undertook to clear away the filth in one day in return for a tenth part of
the cattle, and executed the task by turning the River Alph[=e]us through
it. Augeas, having broken the bargain, was deposed and slain by Hercules.

AUGER ([a:]'g[.e]r), an instrument for boring holes considerably larger
than those bored by a gimlet, used by carpenters and joiners, ship-wrights,
&c.

AUGEREAU ([=o]zh-r[=o]), Pierre Francois Charles, Duke of Castiglione,
Marshal of France, son of a mason, born at Paris 1757. He adopted the life
of a soldier, and by 1796 had reached the rank of general of division in
the army of Italy. At Casale, Lodi, Castiglione, and Arcole he highly
distinguished himself. In 1797 he was at Paris, and was the instrument of
the _coup d'etat_ of the 18th of Fructidor (4th Sept.). In 1799 he was
chosen a member of the Council of Five Hundred. He then obtained the
command of the army in Holland, and fought till the end of the campaign. In
1803 he was appointed to lead the army collected at Bayonne against
Portugal. In 1804 he was named marshal of the empire, and grand officer of
the Legion of Honour. He subsequently took part in the battles of Jena and
Eylau, held a command in Spain, and in July, 1813, led the army in Bavaria
against Saxony, taking part in the battle of Leipzig. On Napoleon's
abdication he submitted to Louis XVIII, who named him a peer. He died 1816.

AUGHRIM, a village in Co. Galway, Ireland, memorable for the decisive
victory gained in the neighbourhood, 12th July, 1691, by the forces of
William of Orange, under Ginkel, over the Irish and French troops, under
St. Ruth. The total English casualties were about 1700, while the Irish
lost at least 7000 men as well as all their war material. This battle
caused the complete submission of the country.

AUGIER ([=o]-zhi-[=a]), Emile, noted French dramatist, born 1820, came
young to Paris, entered a lawyer's office, but relinquished law for
literature; elected an academician in 1857, in 1868 a commander of the
Legion of Honour. His first and one of his best dramas was the comedy _La
Cigue_ (1844); among his other works are _L'Aventuriere_, _Gabrielle_,
_Paul Forestier_, _Le Mariage d'Olympe_, _Le Gendre de M. Poirier_, _Les
Effrontes_, _Le Fils de Giboyer_, _Les Lions et les Renards_, _Maitre
Guerin_, _Les Fourchambault_, &c. He died in 1889.

AUGITE ([a:]'j[=i]t) is the commonest member of the pyroxene group of
minerals; a constituent of many igneous rocks, such as basalt, gabbro, &c.
It crystallizes in short almost rectangular prisms of the monoclinic
system, modifying planes causing cross-sections to be eight-sided. Its
specific gravity is about 3.2; lustre vitreous; hardness sufficient to
scratch glass; colour usually dark. It is a silicate of calcium, magnesium,
iron, and aluminium, and alters in geological time by slow
recrystallization into hornblende, possibly with some loss of calcium. It
may be imitated by the artificial fusion of its constituents. A
transparent, green, non-aluminous variety found at Zillertal, in Tyrol, is
used in jewellery.

AUGSBURG (ougz'b[u:]r_h_; Lat. _Augusta Vindelicorum_), a city of Bavaria,
at the junction of the Wertach and Lech, antique in appearance, but with
some fine streets, squares, and handsome or interesting buildings,
including a splendid town hall, a lofty belfry (Perlach Tower), cathedral,
with paintings by Domenichino, Holbein, &c.; St. Ulrich's Church; the
bishop's palace, where the Augsburg Confession was presented to the Diet,
afterwards a royal residence; the Fugger Palace, or mansion of the
celebrated Fugger family; the public library; the theatre; the Academy of
Arts; and the Fuggerei, a separate quarter of the city, consisting of
fifty-three small houses, tenanted at a merely nominal rent by indigent
Roman Catholics. Augsburg was a renowned commercial centre in the Middle
Ages, and is still an important emporium of South German and Italian trade;
industries: cotton spinning and weaving, dyeing, woollen manufacture,
machinery and metal goods, books and printing, chemicals, &c. The Emperor
Augustus established a colony here about 12 B.C. In 1276 it became a free
city, and, besides being a great mart for the commerce between the north
and south of Europe, it was a great centre of German art in the Middle
Ages. It early took a conspicuous part in the Reformation. (See next
article.) In 1806 it was incorporated in Bavaria. Pop. (1919), 154,555.

AUGSBURG CONFESSION, a document which was presented by the Protestants at
the Diet of Augsburg, 1530, to the Emperor Charles V and the Diet, and
being signed by the Protestant States was adopted as their creed. Luther
made the original draft; but as its style appeared too violent it was given
to Melanchthon for amendment. The original is to be found in the imperial
Austrian archives. Afterwards Melanchthon arbitrarily altered some of the
articles, and there arose a division between those who held the original
and those who held the altered Augsburg Confession. The former is received
by the Lutherans, the latter by the German Reformed.

AU'GURS, a board or college of diviners who, amongst the Romans, predicted
future events and announced the will of the gods from the occurrence of
certain signs. These consisted of signs in the sky, especially thunder and
lightning; signs from the flight and cries of birds; from the feeding of
the sacred chickens; from the course taken or sounds uttered by various
quadrupeds or by serpents; from accidents or occurrences, such as spilling
the salt, sneezing, &c. The answers of the augurs as well as the signs by
which they were governed were called _auguries_, but bird-predictions were
properly termed _auspices_. Nothing of consequence could be undertaken
without consulting the augurs, and by the mere utterance of the words _alio
die_ ('meet on another day') they could dissolve the assembly of the people
and annul all decrees passed at the meeting.

AU'GUST, the eighth month from January. It was the sixth of the Roman year,
and hence was called _Sext[=i]lis_ till the Emperor Augustus affixed to it
his own name.

AUGUS'TA, the name of many ancient places, as Augusta Trevirorum, now
_Treves_; Augusta Taurinorum, now _Turin_; Augusta Vindelicorum, now
_Augsburg_; &c.

AUGUSTA (ou-g[u:]s't[.a]), or AGOS'TA, a seaport in the south-east of
Sicily, 12 miles north of Syracuse. It exports salt, oil, honey, &c. Pop.
17,250.

AUGUS'TA, capital of Maine, United States, on the River Kennebec, which is
crossed by a bridge and is navigable for small vessels 43 miles from its
mouth, while a dam enables steamboats to ply for 20 miles farther up and
furnishes immense water-power. Pop. (1920), 14,144.

AUGUSTA, the capital of Richmond county, Georgia, United States, on the
left bank of the Savannah River, 231 miles from its mouth; well built, and
connected with the river by high-level canals; an important manufacturing
centre, having cotton-mills, machine-shops, and railroad works, &c. Pop.
(1920), 52,548.

AU'GUSTINE (Aurelius Augustinus), ST., a renowned father of the Christian
Church, was born at Tagaste, in Africa, in 354, his mother Monica being a
Christian, his father Patricius a pagan. His parents sent him to Carthage
to complete his education, but he disappointed their expectations by his
neglect of serious study and his devotion to pleasure. A lost book of
Cicero's, called _Hortensius_, led him to the study of philosophy; but
dissatisfied with this he went over to the Manichaeans. He was one of their
disciples for nine years, but left them, went to Rome, and thence to Milan,
where he announced himself as a teacher of rhetoric. St. Ambrose, the
bishop of this city, converted him to the faith of his boyhood, and the
reading of Paul's _Epistles_ wrought an entire change in his life and
character. He retired into solitude, and prepared himself for baptism,
which he received in his thirty-third year from the hands of Ambrose.
Returning to Africa, he sold his estate and gave the proceeds to the poor,
retaining only enough to support him. At the desire of the people of Hippo,
Augustine became the assistant of the bishop of that town, preached with
extraordinary success, and in 395 succeeded to the see. He entered into a
warm controversy with Pelagius concerning the doctrines of free-will,
grace, and predestination, and wrote treatises concerning them, but of his
various works his _Confessions_ is most secure of immortality. He died 28th
Aug., 430, while Hippo was besieged by the Vandals. He was a man of great
enthusiasm, self-devotion, zeal for truth, and powerful intellect, and
though there have been fathers of the Church more learned, none have
wielded a more powerful influence. His doctrine of grace, which was an
important contribution to Christian thought, triumphed at last in the
Reformation and evangelical religion. His writings are partly
autobiographical, as the _Confessions_, partly polemical, homiletic, or
exegetical. The greatest is the _City of God_ (_De Civitate Dei_), a
vindication of Christianity.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Joseph McCabe, _St. Augustine
and his Age_; Nourrisson, _La Philosophie de St. Augustin_.

AU'GUSTINE, or AUSTIN, ST., the _Apostle of the English_, first Archbishop
of Canterbury, flourished at the close of the sixth century, was sent, in
596, with forty monks by Pope Gregory I to introduce Christianity into
Saxon England, and was kindly received by Ethelbert, King of Kent, whom he
converted, baptising 10,000 of his subjects in one day. In acknowledgment
of his tact and success Augustine received the archiepiscopal pall from the
Pope, with instructions to establish twelve sees in his province, but he
could not persuade the British bishops in Wales to unite with the new
English Church. He died in 604 or 605. Cf. Sir H. H. Howorth, _St.
Augustine of Canterbury_.

AU'GUSTINS, or AUGUSTINES, members of several monastic fraternities who
follow rules framed by the great St. Augustine, or deduced from his
writings, of which the chief are the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, or
Austin Canons, and the Begging Hermits or Austin Friars. The Austin Canons
were introduced into Britain about 1100, and had about 170 houses in
England and about twenty-five in Scotland. They took the vows of chastity
and poverty, and their habit was a long black cassock with a white rochet
over it, having over that a black cloak and hood. The Austin Friars,
originally hermits, were a much more austere body, went barefooted, and
formed one of the four orders of mendicants. An order of nuns had also the
name of Augustines. Their garments, at first black, were afterwards violet.

AUGUSTO'VO, a town of Poland, formerly in Russia, in the government of
Suwalki, founded in 1557 by Sigismund II. Pop. 11,797. The battle of
Augustovo was fought between the Russians and the Germans between 14th Sept
and 3rd Oct., 1914.

AUGUS'TULUS, Romulus, the last of the Western Roman emperors; reigned for
one year (475-6), when he was overthrown by Odoacer and banished.

AUGUS'TUS, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (originally called Gaius
Octavius), Roman emperor, was the son of Gaius Octavius and Atia, a
daughter of Julia, the sister of Julius Caesar. He was born 63 B.C., and
died A.D. 14. Octavius was at Apollonia, in Epirus, when he received news
of the death of his uncle (44 B.C.), who had previously adopted him as his
son. He returned to Rome to claim Caesar's property and avenge his death,
and now took, according to usage, his uncle's name with the surname
Octavianus. He was aiming secretly at the chief power, but at first he
joined the republican party, and assisted at the defeat of Antony at
Mutina. He got himself chosen consul in 43. Soon after the second
triumvirate was formed between him and Antony and Lepidus, and this was
followed by the conscription and assassination of three hundred Senators
and two thousand knights of the party opposed to the triumvirate. Next year
Octavianus and Antony defeated the republican army under Brutus and Cassius
at Philippi. The victors now divided the Roman world between them,
Octavianus getting the West, Antony the East, and Lepidus Africa. Sextus
Pompeius, who had made himself formidable at sea, had now to be put down;
and Lepidus, who had hitherto retained an appearance of power, was deprived
of all authority (36 B.C.) and retired into private life. Antony and
Octavianus now shared the Empire between them; but while the former, in the
East, gave himself up to a life of luxury, and alienated the Romans by his
alliance with Cleopatra and his adoption of Oriental manners, Octavianus
skilfully cultivated popularity, and soon declared war ostensibly against
the Queen of Egypt. The naval victory of Actium, in which the fleet of
Antony and Cleopatra was defeated, made Octavianus master of the world, 31
B.C. He returned to Rome, 29 B.C., celebrated a splendid triumph, and
caused the temple of Janus to be closed in token of peace being restored.
Gradually all the highest offices of State, civil and religious, were
united in his hands, and the new title of Augustus was also assumed by him,
being formally conferred by the Senate in 27 B.C. Great as was the power
given to him, he exercised it with wise moderation, and kept up the show of
a republican form of government. Under him successful wars were carried on
in Africa and Asia (against the Parthians), in Gaul and Spain, in Pannonia,
Dalmatia, &c.; but the defeat of Varus by the Germans under Arminius with
the loss of three legions, A.D. 9, was a great blow to him in his old age.
Many useful decrees proceeded from him, and various abuses were abolished.
He gave a new form to the Senate, employed himself in improving the morals
of the people, enacted laws for the suppression of luxury, introduced
discipline into the armies, and order into the games of the circus. He
adorned Rome in such a manner that it was said: "He found it of brick, and
left it of marble". The people erected altars to him, and, by a decree of
the Senate, the month Sextilis was called _Augustus_ (our August). He was a
patron of literature; Virgil and Horace were befriended by him, and their
works and those of their contemporaries are the glory of the _Augustan
Age_. His death, which took place at Nola, plunged the Empire into the
greatest grief. He was thrice married, but had no son, and was succeeded by
his stepson Tiberius, whose mother Livia he had married after prevailing on
her husband to divorce her.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. B. Firth, _Augustus Caesar_
(in Heroes of the Nations series); E. S. Shuckburgh, _Augustus_.

AUGUSTUS II (or FREDERICK AUGUSTUS I), Elector of Saxony and King of
Poland, second son of John George III, Elector of Saxony, was born at
Dresden in 1670, died at Warsaw 1733. He succeeded his brother in the
Electorate in 1694, and the Polish throne having become vacant, in 1696, by
the death of John Sobieski, Augustus presented himself as a candidate for
it and was successful. He joined with Peter the Great in the war against
Charles XII of Sweden, invaded Livonia, but was defeated by Charles near
Riga, and at Clissow, between Warsaw and Cracow. In 1704 he was deposed,
and two years later formally resigned the crown to Stanislaus I, now
devoting himself to his Saxon dominions. In 1709, after the defeat of
Charles at Poltava, the Poles recalled Augustus, who united himself anew
with Peter. The two monarchs, in alliance with Denmark, sent troops into
Pomerania, but the Swedish general Steinbock defeated the allies at
Gadebusch, 20th Dec., 1712. The death of Charles XII put an end to the war,
and Augustus concluded a peace with Sweden. A confederation was now formed
in Poland against the Saxon troops, but through the mediation of Peter an
arrangement was concluded by which the Saxon troops were removed from the
kingdom. Augustus now gave himself up to voluptuousness and a life of
pleasure. His Court was one of the most splendid and polished in Europe.
The Poles yielded but too readily to the example of their king, and the
last years of his reign were characterized by boundless luxury and
corruption of manners. His wife left him one son. The Countess of
Koenigsmark bore him the celebrated commander Marshal Saxe (Maurice of
Saxony).

AUGUSTUS III (or FREDERICK AUGUSTUS II), Elector of Saxony and King of
Poland, son of Augustus II, born at Dresden 1696, succeeded his father as
Elector in 1733, and was chosen King of Poland through the influence of
Austria and Russia. He closely followed the example of his father,
distinguishing himself by the splendour of his feasts and the extravagance
of his Court. He preferred Dresden to Warsaw, and through his long absence
from Poland the government sank into entire inactivity. During the first
Silesian war he formed a secret alliance with Austria. The consequence was
that during the second Silesian war Frederick the Great of Prussia pushed
on into Saxony, and occupied the capital, from which Augustus fled. By the
peace of Dresden, 25th Dec., 1745, he was reinstated in the possession of
Saxony. In 1756 he was involved anew in a war against Prussia. When
Frederick declined his proposal of neutrality he left Dresden, and entered
the camp at Pirna, where 17,000 Saxon troops were assembled. Frederick
surrounded the Saxons, who were obliged to surrender, and Augustus fled to
Poland. On the threat of invasion by Russia he returned to Dresden, where
he died in 1763. His son, Frederick Christian, succeeded him as Elector of
Saxony, and Stanislaus Poniatowski as King of Poland.

[Illustration: Razor-bill (_Alca torda_)]

AUK, a name of certain swimming birds, family Alcidae, including the great
auk, the little auk, the puffin, &c. The genus Alca, or auks proper,
contains only two species, the great auk (_Alca impennis_), and the
razor-bill (_Alca torda_). The great auk or gair-fowl, a bird about 3 feet
in length, used to be plentiful in northerly regions, and also visited the
British shores, but has become extinct. Some seventy skins, about as many
eggs, with bones representing perhaps a hundred individuals, are preserved
in various museums. Though the largest species of the family, the wings
were only 6 inches from the carpal joint to the tip, totally useless for
flight, but employed as fins in swimming, especially under water. The tail
was about 3 inches long; the beak was high, short, and compressed; the
head, neck, and upper parts were blackish; a large spot under each eye, and
most of the under parts white. Its legs were placed so far back as to cause
it to sit nearly upright. The razor-bill is about 15 inches in length, and
its wings are sufficiently developed to be used for flight. It is found in
numbers on some parts of the British shores, as the Isle of Man.

AULAP'OLAY, or ALLEPPI, a seaport on the south-west coast of Hindustan,
Travancore, between the sea and a lagoon, with a safe roadstead all the
year round; exports timber, coir, coconuts, &c. Pop. 24,918.

AULD LICHTS. See _Presbyterianism_.

AULIC (Lat. _aula_, a court or hall), an epithet given to a council (the
_Reichshofrath_) in the old German Empire, one of the two supreme courts of
the German Empire, the other being the court of the imperial chamber
(_Reichskammergericht_). It had not only concurrent jurisdiction with the
latter court, but in many cases exclusive jurisdiction, in all feudal
processes, and in criminal affairs, over the immediate feudatories of the
Emperor and in affairs which concerned the imperial Government.

AU'LIS, in ancient Greece, a seaport in Boeotia, on the strait called
Euripus, between Boeotia and Euboea. See _Iphigenia_.

AULLAGAS (ou-lyae'gaes), a salt lake of Bolivia, which receives the surplus
waters of Lake Titicaca through the Rio Desaguadero, and has only one
perceptible insignificant outlet, so that what becomes of its superfluous
water is still a matter of uncertainty.

AULNOY ([=o]-nwae), Countess d', French writer, born 1650, died 1705, was
the author of _Contes des Fees_ (_Fairy Tales_), many of which, such as
_The White Cat_, _The Yellow Dwarf_, &c., have been translated into
English. She also wrote a number of novels, historical memoirs, &c.

AUMALE ([=o]-mael), a small French town, department of Seine Inferieure, 35
miles N.E. of Rouen, which has given titles to several notables in French
history.--Jean d'Arcourt, Eighth Count d'Aumale, fought at Agincourt, and
defeated the English at Gravelle (1423).--Claude II, Duc d'Aumale, one of
the chief instigators of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, was killed
1573.--Charles de Lorraine, Duc d'Aumale, was an ardent partisan of the
League in the politico-religious French wars of the sixteenth
century.--Henri-Eugene-Philippe Louis d'Orleans, Duc d'Aumale, son of Louis
Philippe, king of the French, was born in 1822. In 1847 he succeeded
Marshal Bugeaud as Governor-General of Algeria, where he had distinguished
himself in the war against Abd-el-Kader. After the revolution of 1848 he
retired to England; but he returned to France in 1871, and was elected a
member of the Assembly; became Inspector-General of the army in 1879, and
was expelled along with the other royal princes in 1886, but was allowed to
return. Author of a _History of the House of Conde_, &c. He died in 1897.

AUN'GERVILLE, Richard, known as Richard de Bury (from his birthplace Bury
St. Edmund's), English statesman, bibliographer, and correspondent of
Petrarch, born 1281, died 1345. He entered the order of Benedictine monks,
and became tutor to the Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward III. Promoted to
several offices of dignity, he ultimately became Bishop of Durham, and Lord
Chancellor of England. During his frequent embassies to the Continent he
made the acquaintance of many of the eminent men of the day. He was a
diligent collector of books, and formed a library at Oxford. Author of
_Philobiblon_, printed at Cologne in 1473; _Epistoloe Familiarium_,
including letters to Petrarch, &c.

AURANGABAD', a town of India, in the territory of the Nizam of Hyderabad,
175 miles from Bombay. It contains a ruined palace of Aurangzib and a
mausoleum erected to the memory of his favourite wife. It was formerly a
considerable trading centre, but its commercial importance decreased when
Hyderabad became the capital of the Nizam. Pop. 34,000.

AURANGZIB ('ornament of the throne'), one of the greatest of the Mogul
emperors of Hindustan, born in Oct. 1618 or 1619. When he was nine years
old his weak and unfortunate father, Shah Jehan, succeeded to the throne.
Aurangzib was distinguished, when a youth, for his serious look, his
frequent prayers, his love of solitude, his profound hypocrisy, and his
deep plans. In his twentieth year he raised a body of troops by his address
and good fortune, and obtained the government of the Deccan. He stirred up
dissensions between his brothers, made use of the assistance of one against
the other, and finally shut his father up in his harem, where he kept him
prisoner. He then murdered his relatives one after the other, and in 1659
ascended the throne. Notwithstanding the means by which he had got
possession of power, he governed with much wisdom. Two of his sons, who
endeavoured to form a party in their own favour, he caused to be arrested
and put to death by slow poison. He carried on many wars, conquered
Golconda and Bijapur, and drove out, by degrees, the Mahrattas from their
country. After his death, on 4th March, 1707, the Mogul Empire declined.

AURANTIA'CEAE, the orange tribe, a nat. ord. of plants, polypetalous
dicotyledons, with leaves containing a fragrant essential oil in
transparent dots, and a superior pulpy fruit, originally natives of India;
examples comprise the orange, lemon, lime, citron, and shaddock.

AURAY ([=o]-r[=a]), a seaport of North-West France, department Morbihan,
with a deaf and dumb institute, and within 2 miles of St. Anne of Auray, a
famous place of pilgrimage. Pop. 6653.

AURE'LIAN, Lucius Domitius Aurelianus, Emperor of Rome, of humble origin,
was born about A.D. 212, rose to the highest rank in the army, and on the
death of Claudius II (270) was chosen emperor. He delivered Italy from the
barbarians (Alemanni and Marcomanni), and conquered the famous Zenobia,
Queen of Palmyra. He followed up his victories by the reformation of
abuses, and the restoration throughout the Empire of order and regularity.
He lost his life, A.D. 275, by assassination, when heading an expedition
against the Persians.

AURE'LIUS ANTONI'NUS, Marcus, often called simply MARCUS AURELIUS, Roman
emperor and philosopher, son-in-law, adopted son, and successor of
Antoninus Pius, born A.D. 121, succeeded to the throne 161, died 180. His
name originally was Marcus Annius Verus. He voluntarily shared the
government with Lucius Verus, whom Antoninus Pius had also adopted. Brought
up and instructed by Plutarch's nephew, Sextus, the orator Herodes Atticus,
and L. Volusius Mecianus, the jurist, he had become acquainted with learned
men, and formed a particular love for the Stoic philosophy. A war with
Parthia broke out in the year of his accession, and did not terminate till
166. A confederacy of the northern tribes now threatened Italy, while a
frightful pestilence, brought from the East with the army, raged in Rome
itself. Both emperors set out in person against the rebellious tribes. In
169 Verus died, and the sole command of the war devolved on Marcus
Aurelius, who prosecuted it with the utmost rigour, and nearly exterminated
the Marcomanni. His victory over the Quadi (174) is connected with a famous
legend. Dion Cassius tells us that the twelfth legion of the Roman army was
shut up in a defile, and reduced to great straits for want of water, when a
body of Christians enrolled in the legion prayed for relief. Not only was
rain sent, which enabled the Romans to quench their thirst, but a fierce
storm of hail beat upon the enemy, accompanied by thunder and lightning,
which so terrified them that a complete victory was obtained, and the
legion was ever after called _The Thundering Legion_ (_Legio Fulminatrix_).
After this victory the Marcomanni, the Quadi, as well as the rest of the
barbarians, sued for peace. The sedition of the Syrian governor Avidius
Cassius, with whom Faustina, the empress, was in treasonable communication,
called off the emperor from his conquests, but before he reached Asia the
rebel was assassinated. Aurelius returned to Rome, after visiting Egypt and
Greece, but soon new incursions of the Marcomanni compelled him once more
to take the field. He defeated the enemy several times, but was taken sick
at Sirmium, and died at Vindobona (Vienna) in 180. His only extant work is
the _Meditations_, written in Greek. It has been translated into most
modern languages (into English first by George Long in 1862, and by J.
Jackson in 1906). This may be regarded as a manual of practical morality,
in which wisdom, gentleness, and benevolence are combined in the most
fascinating manner. Many believe it to have been intended for the
instruction of his son Commodus. Aurelius was one of the best emperors Rome
ever saw, although his philosophy and the magnanimity of his character did
not restrain him from the persecution of the Christians, whose religious
doctrines he was led to believe were subversive of good government, and
whom he charged, therefore, with obstinacy, the greatest social crime in
the eyes of Roman authority. Marcus Aurelius was not so much a philosopher
as a seeker after righteousness.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: P. B. Watson, _M. Aurelius
Antoninus_; Sir Samuel Dill, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_;
Translations of the _Meditations_ by G. H. Kendall, and J. Jackson.

AURENGZEBE. See _Aurangzib_.

AURE'OLA, or AU'REOLE, in paintings, an illumination surrounding the whole
figure of a holy person, as Christ, a saint, or a martyr, intended to
represent a luminous cloud or haze emanating from him. It is generally of
an oval shape, or may be nearly or quite circular, and is of similar
character with the nimbus surrounding the heads of sacred personages.

AU'R[)E]US, the first gold coin which was coined at Rome, 207 B.C. Its
value varied at different times, from about 12s. to L1, 4_s_. See
_Numismatics_.

AURICH (ou'r[=e]_h_), a German town, province of Hanover. Pop. 6070.

AU'RICLE. See _Heart_.

AURIC'ULA, a garden flower derived from the yellow _Prim[)u]la
Auric[)u]la_, found native in the Swiss Alps, and sometimes called
bear's-ear from the shape of its leaves. It has for over three centuries
been an object of cultivation by florists, who have succeeded in raising
from seed a great number of beautiful varieties. Its leaves are obovate,
entire or serrated, and fleshy, varying, however, in form in the numerous
varieties. The flowers are borne on an erect umbel and central scape with
involucre. The original colours of the corolla are yellow, purple, and
variegated, and there is a mealy covering on the surface. There are
auricula clubs and societies in the north of England.

AURICULAR CONFESSION. See _Confession_.

AU'RIFABER, the Latinized name of Johann Goldschmidt, one of Luther's
companions, born 1519, became pastor at Erfurt in 1566, died there in 1579.
He collected the unpublished MSS. of Luther, and edited the _Epistolae_ and
the _Table-talk_.

AURIFLAMME. See _Oriflamme_.

AURI'GA, in astronomy, the _Waggoner_, a constellation of the northern
hemisphere, containing Capella, a star of the first magnitude. _Nova
Aurigae,_ a temporary star, appeared in the constellation in 1892.

AURILLAC ([=o]-r[=e]-y[.a]k), a town of France, capital of the department
Cantal, in a valley watered by the Jordanne, about 270 miles S. of Paris;
well built, with wide streets; copper-works, paper-works, manufactures of
lace, tapestry, leather, &c. Pop. 18,036.

AUROCHS ([a:]'roks), a species of wild bull or buffalo, the _urus_ of
Caesar, _bison_ of Pliny, the European bison, _Bos_ or _Bonassus Bison_ of
modern naturalists. The animal was once abundant in Europe, but were it not
for the protection afforded by the late Emperor of Russia to a few herds
which inhabit the forests of Lithuania it would before this have been
extinct.

AURO'RA, an American city, of Kane county, Illinois, on Fox River, 40 miles
W. by S. of Chicago; it has flourishing manufactures, railway-works, and a
considerable trade. Pop. (1920), 36,265.

AURO'RA (Gr. _E[=o]s_), in classical mythology, the goddess of the dawn,
daughter of Hyperion and Theia, and sister of Helios and Sel[=e]n[=e] (Sun
and Moon). She was represented as a charming figure, 'rosy-fingered', clad
in a yellow robe, rising at dawn from the ocean and driving her chariot
through the heavens. Among the mortals whose beauty captivated the goddess,
poets mentioned Orion, Tith[=o]nus, and Ceph[)a]lus.

AURO'RA, one of the New Hebrides Islands, S. Pacific Ocean, about 30 miles
long by 5 wide. It rises to a considerable elevation, and is covered with a
luxuriant vegetation.

[Illustration: Aurora Borealis]

AURO'RA BOREA'LIS, a luminous meteoric phenomenon appearing in the north,
most frequently in high latitudes, the corresponding phenomenon in the
southern hemisphere being called _Aurora Australis_, and both being also
called _Polar Light_, _Streamers_, &c. The northern aurora has been far the
most observed and studied. It usually manifests itself by streams of light
ascending towards the zenith from a dusky line of cloud or haze a few
degrees above the horizon, and stretching from the north towards the west
and east, so as to form an arc with its ends on the horizon, and its
different parts and rays are constantly in motion. Sometimes it appears in
detached places; at other times it almost covers the whole sky. It assumes
many shapes and a variety of colours, from a pale red or yellow to a deep
red or blood colour; and in far northern latitudes serves to illuminate the
earth and cheer the gloom of the long winter nights. The appearance of the
aurora borealis so exactly resembles the effects of experimental electrical
phenomena that there is every reason to believe that their causes are
similar. When electricity passes through rarefied air it exhibits a
diffused luminous stream which has all the characteristic appearances of
the aurora, and hence it is highly probable that this natural phenomenon is
occasioned by the passage of electricity through the upper regions of the
atmosphere. The synchronism of auroral display with disturbances of the
magnetic needle is an ascertained fact, and the connection between aurorae
and magnetism is further evident from the fact that the beams or
coruscations issuing from a point in the horizon west of north are
frequently observed to run in the magnetic meridian. What are known as
magnetic storms are invariably connected with exhibitions of the aurora,
and with spontaneous galvanic currents in the ordinary telegraph wires; and
this connection is found to be so certain that, upon remarking the display
of one of the three classes of phenomena, we can at once assert that the
other two are also present. In recent years it has been established that
aurorae wax and wane in frequency _pari passu_ with sun-spots in an 11-year
cycle, and that they often manifest themselves about the time of transit of
a conspicuous spot across the sun's central meridian. Also they frequently
recur at successive intervals of about 27 days, which is the period of a
solar rotation relative to the earth. It is therefore inferred that aurorae
are largely excited by influences proceeding from the sun, and it is
suggested that they are the result of the impinging upon our upper
atmosphere of streams of electric corpuscles expelled from the solar orb,
these streams when approaching our planet being mainly directed to its
higher latitudes as a consequence of its magnetic polarity. The aurora
borealis is said to be frequently accompanied by sound, which is variously
described as resembling the rustling of pieces of silk against each other,
or the sound of wind against the flame of a candle. The aurora of the
southern hemisphere is quite a similar phenomenon to that of the
north.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Angot, _Les Aurores Polaires_; Captain H. P.
Dawson, _Observations of the International Polar Expeditions, 1882-3, Fort
Rae_.

AURUNGABAD. See _Aurangabad_.

AURUNGZEBE. See _Aurangzib_.

AUSCULTA'TION, a method of distinguishing the state of the internal parts
of the body, particularly of the thorax and abdomen, by observing the
sounds arising in the part either through the immediate application of the
ear to its surface (immediate auscultation), or by applying the stethoscope
to the part, and listening through it (mediate auscultation). Auscultation
may be used with more or less advantage in all cases where morbid sounds
are produced, but its general applications are: the _auscultation_ of
respiration, the _auscultation_ of the voice; _auscultation_ of coughs;
_auscultation_ of sounds foreign to all these, but sometimes accompanying
them; _auscultation_ of the actions of the heart; obstetric _auscultation_.
The parts when struck also give different sounds in health and disease.

AUSO'NIA, an ancient poetical name of Italy.

AUSO'NIUS, Decimus Magnus (_c._ A.D. 310-395), Roman poet, born at
Burdigala (Bordeaux). Valentinian entrusted to him the education of his son
Gratian, and appointed him afterwards quaestor and pretorian prefect.
Gratian appointed him consul in Gaul, and after this emperor's death he
lived upon an estate at Bordeaux, devoted to literary pursuits. He wrote
epigrams, idyls, eclogues, letters in verse, &c., still extant, and was
probably a Christian. He was rather a man of letters than a poet, and his
poems are devoid of inspiration.

AUS'PICES, among the ancient Romans strictly omens or auguries derived from
birds, though the term was also used in a wider sense. Nothing of
importance was done without taking the auspices, which, however, simply
showed whether the enterprise was likely to result successfully or not,
without supplying any further information. Magistrates possessed the right
of taking the auspices, in which they were usually assisted by an augur.
Before a war or campaign a Roman general always took the auspices, and
hence the operations were said to be carried out 'under his auspices'. See
_Augur_.

AUS'SIG, a town in Bohemia, in the republic of Czecho-Slovakia, formerly in
Austria, near the junction of the Bila with the Elbe, 42 miles N.N.W. of
Prague; has large manufactures of woollens, chemicals, &c. The town is now
known as Ousti nad Labem. Pop. 40,000.

AUS'TEN, Jane, English novelist, born 1775, at Steventon, in Hants, of
which parish her father was rector. Her principal novels are, _Sense and
Sensibility; Pride and Prejudice_, which Disraeli is said to have read
seventeen times; _Mansfield Park_; and _Emma_. Two more were published
after her death, entitled _Northanger Abbey_ and _Persuasion_, which were,
however, her most early attempts. Her novels are marked by ease, humour,
and a complete knowledge of the domestic life of the English middle classes
of her time. She died in 1817.

AUSTENITE, a constituent of high-carbon steel (q.v.).

AUS'TERLITZ, a town with 3703 inhabitants, in Moravia, 10 miles E. of
Bruenn, famous for the battle of 2nd Dec., 1805, fought between the French
(70,000 in number) and the allied Austrian and Russian armies (95,000). The
decisive victory of the French led to the Peace of Pressburg between France
and Austria.

AUS'TIN, capital of the State of Texas, on the Colorado, about 200 miles
from its mouth, and accessible to steamboats during certain seasons. There
is a State university and other institutions, and a splendid capitol built
of red granite. Pop. (1920), 34,876.

AUSTIN, Alfred, English poet, born at Hedingley, near Leeds, in 1835,
educated at Stonyhurst and St. Mary's College, Oscott; took the degree of
B.A. at London in 1853, was called to the bar and practised, but gave up
law for literature in 1861. He published, in 1861, a satire called _The
Season_, followed by many poems, including _The Human Tragedy_, _The Golden
Age_, _Savonarola_ (a tragedy), _English Lyrics_, _Fortunatus the
Pessimist_, _Lyrical Poems_, _Narrative Poems_, _Prince Lucifer_, _Alfred
the Great_, _A Tale of True Love_, _Flodden Field_ (a tragedy), &c. His
works in prose include _The Garden that I love_, _In Veronica's Garden_,
_Spring and Autumn in Ireland_, _Haunts of Ancient Peace_, _The Bridling of
Pegasus_, &c. He was made Poet Laureate in 1896, about four years after the
death of Tennyson. He died in 1913.

AUS'TIN, John, an English writer on jurisprudence, born 1790, died 1859.
From 1826 to 1835 he filled the chair of jurisprudence at London
University. He served on several royal commissions, one of which took him
to Malta; lived for some years on the Continent, and finally settled at
Weybridge, in Surrey. His fame rests solely on his great works: _The
Province of Jurisprudence Determined_, published in 1832; and his _Lectures
on Jurisprudence_, published by his widow between 1861 and 1863.--His wife,
Sarah, one of the Taylors of Norwich, produced translations of German
works, and other books bearing on Germany or its literature; also,
_Considerations on National Education_, &c. Born 1793, died 1867. Her
daughter, Lady Duff Gordon, translated Meinhold's _Mary Schweidler, the
Amber Witch_, and other German works.

AUSTIN, ST. See _Augustine_.

AUSTIN FRIARS. See _Augustins_.

AUSTRALASIA, a division of the globe usually regarded as comprehending the
Islands of Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, New Caledonia, the New
Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, New Ireland, New Britain, the Admiralty
Islands, New Guinea, and the Arru Islands, besides numerous other islands
and island groups; estimated area, 3,400,000 sq. miles; pop. 6,000,000. It
forms one of the three portions into which some geographers have divided
Oceania, the other two being Malaysia and Polynesia. The British
territories in Australasia comprise the Commonwealth of Australia, the
Australian dependencies of Papua and Northern Territory, New Zealand and
adjacent islands, and the crown colony of Fiji.

[Illustration]

AUSTRALIA (older name, NEW HOLLAND), the largest island in the world, a
sea-girt continent, lying between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, S.E. of
Asia; between lat. 10deg 39' and 39deg 11' S.; long. 113deg 5' and 153deg
16' E.; greatest length, from W. to E., 2400 miles; greatest breadth, from
N. to S., 1700 to 1900 miles. It is separated from New Guinea on the north
by Torres Strait, from Tasmania on the south by Bass Strait. It is divided
into two unequal parts by the Tropic of Capricorn, and consequently belongs
partly to the South Temperate, partly to the Torrid Zone. It is occupied by
five British colonies, namely, New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland in
the east; South Australia in the middle, stretching from sea to sea; and
Western Australia in the west, which, with the Island of Tasmania, form the
Commonwealth of Australia. Their area and population are as follows:--

                      Area in         Pop.
                       sq. m.        in 1920
  New South Wales     309,432      2,091,115
  Victoria             87,884      1,528,151
  Queensland          670,500        752,245
  South Australia     380,070        491,177
  Western Australia   975,920        330,819
  Tasmania             26,215        212,847
  Northern Territory  523,620          3,992
  Federal Territory       940          1,972

Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth are the chief towns. The
population of the Commonwealth of Australia was 4,895,894 in 1917 and
5,412,318 in 1920.

Although there are numerous spacious harbours on the coasts, there are few
remarkable indentations, the principal being the Gulf of Carpentaria, on
the N., the Great Australian Bight, and Spencer's Gulf, on the S. The chief
projections are Cape York Peninsula and Arnhem Land in the north. Parallel
to the N.E. coast runs the Great Barrier Reef for 1000 miles. In great part
the E. coast is bold and rocky, and is fringed with many small islands.
Part of the S. coast is low and sandy, and part presents cliffs of several
hundred feet high. The N. and W. coasts are generally low, with some
elevations at intervals.

The interior, so far as explored, is largely composed of rocky tracts and
barren plains with little or no water. The whole continent forms an immense
plateau, highest in the east, low in the centre, and with a narrow tract of
land usually intervening between the elevated area and the sea. The base of
the table-land is granite, which forms the surface-rock in a great part of
the south-west, and is common in the higher grounds along the east side.
Secondary (cretaceous) and tertiary rocks are largely developed in the
interior. Silurian rocks occupy a large area in South Australia, on both
sides of Spencer Gulf. The mountainous region in the south-east and east is
mainly composed of volcanic, Silurian, carbonaceous, and carboniferous
rocks yielding good coal. No active volcano is known to exist, but in the
south-east there are some craters only recently extinct. The highest and
most extensive mountain-system is a belt about 150 miles wide skirting the
whole eastern and south-eastern border of the continent, and often called,
in whole or in part, the Great Dividing Range, from forming the great
water-shed of Australia. A part of it, called the Australian Alps, in the
south-east, contains the highest summits in Australia, Mount Kosciusko
(7175 feet), Mount Clarke (7256 feet), and Mount Townshend (7353 feet).
West of the Dividing Range are extensive plains or downs admirably adapted
for pastoral purposes. The deserts and scrubs, which occupy large areas of
the interior, are a characteristic feature of Australia. The former are
destitute of vegetation, or are covered only with a coarse, spiny grass
that affords no sustenance to cattle or horses; the latter are composed of
a dense growth of shrubs and low trees, often impenetrable till the
traveller has cleared a track with his axe.

[Illustration: COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Geological]

The rivers of Australia are nearly all subject to great irregularities in
volume, many of them at one time showing a channel in which there is merely
a series of pools, while at another they inundate the whole adjacent
country. The chief is the Murray, which, with its affluents the
Murrumbidgee, Lachlan, and Darling, drains a great part of the interior
west of the Dividing Range, and falls into the sea on the south coast
(after entering Lake Alexandrina). Its greatest tributary is the Darling,
which may even be regarded as the main stream. On the east coast are the
Hunter, Clarence, Brisbane, Fitzroy, and Burdekin; on the west, the Swan,
Murchison, Gascoyne, Ashburton, and De Grey; on the north, the Fitzroy,
Victoria, Flinders, and Mitchell. The Australian rivers are of little
service in facilitating internal communication. Many of them lose
themselves in swamps or sandy wastes of the interior. A considerable river
of the interior is Cooper's Creek, or the Barcoo, which falls into Lake
Eyre, one of a group of lakes on the south side of the continent having no
outlet, and accordingly salt. The principal of these are Lakes Eyre,
Torrens, and Gairdner, all of which vary in size and saltness according to
the season. Another large salt lake of little depth, Lake Amadeus, lies a
little west of the centre of Australia. Various others of less magnitude
are scattered over the interior.

The climate of Australia is generally hot and dry, but very healthy. In the
tropical portions there are heavy rains, and in most of the coast districts
there is a sufficiency of moisture, but in the interior the heat and
drought are extreme. Considerable portions now devoted to pasturage are
liable at times to suffer from drought. At Melbourne the mean temperature
is about 56deg, at Sydney about 63deg. The south-eastern settled districts
are at times subject to excessively hot winds from the interior, which
cause great discomfort, and are often followed by a violent cold wind from
the south ('southerly bursters'). In the mountainous and more temperate
parts snow-storms are common in winter (June, July, and August).

Australia is a region containing a vast quantity of mineral wealth.
Foremost come its rich and extensive deposits of gold, which, since the
precious metal was first discovered in 1851, have produced a total of
nearly L600,000,000. The greatest quantity has been obtained in Victoria,
but New South Wales and Queensland have also yielded a considerable amount,
and now Western Australia stands first in respect of annual output.
Australia also possesses silver, copper, tin, lead, zinc, antimony,
mercury, plumbago, &c., besides coal (now worked to a considerable extent
in New South Wales) and iron. Various precious stones are found, as the
garnet, ruby, topaz, sapphire, and even the diamond. Of building-stone
there are granite, limestone, marble, and sandstone.

[Illustration: COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Mean Annual Rainfall and
Temperature]

The Australian flora presents peculiarities which mark it off by itself in
a very decided manner. Many of its most striking features have an
unmistakable relation to the general dryness of the climate. The trees and
bushes have for the most part a scanty foliage, presenting little surface
for evaporation, or thick leathery leaves well fitted to retain moisture.
The most widely-spread types of Australian vegetation are the various kinds
of gum tree (_Eucalyptus_), the shea-oak (_Casuar[=i]na_), the acacia or
wattle, the grass tree (_Xanthorrhoea_), many varieties of Proteaceae, and
a great number of ferns and tree-ferns. Of the gum tree there are found
upwards of 150 species, many of which are of great value. Individual
specimens of the 'peppermint' (_E. amygdal[)i]na_) have been found to
measure from 480 to 500 feet in height. As timber trees the most valuable
members of this genus are the _E. rostr[=a]ta_ (or red gum), _E.
leucox[)y]lon_, and _E. margin[=a]ta_ (jarrah), the timber of which is
hard, and almost indestructible. A number of the gum trees have deciduous
bark. The wattle or acacia includes about 300 species, some of them of
considerable economic value, yielding good timber or bark for tanning. The
most beautiful and most useful is that known as the golden wattle (_A.
dealb[=a]ta_) which in spring is adorned with rich masses of fragrant
yellow blossom. Palms--of which there are twenty-four species, all except
the coco-palm peculiar to Australia--are confined to the north and east
coasts. In the 'scrubs' already mentioned hosts of densely-intertwisted
bushes occupy extensive areas. The _mallee_ scrub is formed by a species of
dwarf eucalyptus, the _mulga_ scrub by a species of thorny acacia. A plant
which covers large areas in the arid regions is the _spinifex_ or porcupine
grass, a hard, coarse, and excessively spiny plant, which renders
travelling difficult, wounds the feet of horses, and is utterly uneatable
by any animal. Other large tracts are occupied by herbs or bushes of a more
valuable kind, from their affording fodder. Foremost among those stands the
salt-bush (_Atriplex nummularia_, ord. Chenopodiaceae). Beautiful flowering
plants are numerous. Australia also possesses great numbers of turf-forming
grasses, such as the kangaroo-grass (_Anthistiria austr[=a]lis_), which
survives even a tolerably-protracted drought. The native fruit trees are
few and unimportant, and the same may be said of the plants yielding roots
used as food; but exotic fruits and vegetables may now be had in the
different colonies in great abundance and of excellent quality. The vine,
the olive, and mulberry thrive well, and quantities of wine are now
produced. The cereals of Europe and maize are extensively cultivated, and
large tracts of country, particularly in Queensland, are under the
sugar-cane.

The Australian fauna is almost unique in its character. Its great feature
is the nearly total absence of all the forms of mammalia which abound in
the rest of the world, their place being supplied by a great variety of
marsupials--these animals being nowhere else found, except in the opossums
of America. There are about 110 kinds of marsupials (of which the kangaroo,
wombat, bandicoot, and phalangers or opossums, are the best-known
varieties), over twenty kinds of bats, a wild dog (the dingo), and a number
of rats and mice. Two extraordinary animals, the platypus, or water-mole of
the colonist (Ornithorhynchus), and the porcupine ant-eater (Echidna)
constitute the lowest order of mammals (Monotremata), and are confined to
Australia. Their young are produced from eggs. Australia now possesses a
large stock of the domestic animals of Britain, which thrive there
remarkably well. The breed of horses is excellent. Horned cattle and sheep
are largely bred, the first attaining a great size, while the sheep improve
in fleece and their flesh in flavour. There are upwards of 650 different
species of birds, the largest being the emu, or Australian ostrich, and a
species of cassowary. Peculiar to the country are the black swan, the
honey-sucker, the lyre-bird, the brush-turkey, and other mound-building
birds, the bower-birds, &c. The parrot tribe preponderates over most other
groups of birds in the continent. There are many reptiles, the largest
being the alligator, found in some of the northern rivers. There are
upwards of sixty different species of snakes, some of which are very
venomous. Lizards, frogs, and insects are also numerous in various parts.
The seas, rivers, and lagoons abound in fish of numerous varieties, and
other aquatic animals, many of them peculiar. Whales and seals frequent the
coasts. On the northern coasts are extensive fisheries of trepang, much
visited by native traders from the Indian Archipelago. Some animals of
European origin, such as the rabbit and the sparrow, have developed into
real pests in several of the colonies.

[Illustration: COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Surface Features]

The natives belong to the Australian negro stock, and are sometimes
considered the lowest as regards intelligence in the whole human family,
though this is doubtful. At the census of 1891 they were believed to number
about 60,000, exclusive of those in the unexplored parts. They are of a
dark-brown or black colour, with jet-black curly but not woolly hair, of
medium size, but inferior muscular development. In the settled parts of the
continent they are inoffensive, and rapidly dying out. They have no fixed
habitations; in the summer they live almost entirely in the open air, and
in the more inclement weather they shelter themselves with bark erections
of the rudest construction. They have no cultivation and no domestic
animals. Their food consists of such animals as they can kill, and no kind
of living creature seems to be rejected, snakes, lizards, frogs, and even
insects being eaten, often half raw. They are ignorant of the potter's art.
In their natural condition they wear little or no clothing. They speak a
number of different languages or dialects. The women are regarded merely as
slaves, and are frequently maltreated. They have no religion; they practise
polygamy, and are said sometimes to resort to cannibalism, but only in
exceptional circumstances. They are occasionally employed by the settlers
in light kinds of work, and as horse-breakers; but they dislike continuous
occupation, and soon give it up. The weapons of all the tribes are
generally similar, consisting of spears, shields, boomerangs, wooden axes,
clubs, and stone hatchets. Of these the boomerang is the most singular,
being an invention confined to the Australians.

The five colonies, independently of each other, having declared their
desire for a federal union, the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed. A
Convention, which sat at Adelaide in 1897-8, drafted a Constitution Bill,
and on 9th July, 1900, the British Parliament passed the Act to constitute
the Commonwealth. There is now a Governor-General and Central or Federal
Parliament, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives, while
each State has also (as before) a Governor, an administration, and a
Parliament of its own. Each Parliament consists of two Houses corresponding
to the British House of Lords and House of Commons, but both Houses are
elected by popular vote. Altogether the machinery of government very much
resembles that of the home country. The aggregate annual revenue of the
colonies is over L30,000,000. The public debt on 30th June, 1917, was
L372,517,623. The former militia and volunteer units have been gradually
merged into the new Citizen Army started by the Australian Government in
1911. The Government also agreed in the same year to furnish an Australian
fleet unit, upon which King George conferred the title of 'Royal Australian
Navy'. There is no established Church in the colonies. The denomination
which numbers most adherents is the English or Anglican Church, next to
which come the Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, and Methodists. Education is
well provided for, instruction in the primary schools being in some cases
free and compulsory, and the higher education being more and more attended
to. There are flourishing universities in Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide.
Newspapers are exceedingly numerous, and periodicals of all kinds are
abundant. There is as yet no native literature of any distinctive type, but
names of Australian writers of ability both in prose and poetry are
beginning to be known beyond their own country.

Pastoral and agricultural pursuits and mining are the chief occupations of
the people, though manufactures and handicrafts also employ large numbers.
The total land area under cultivation was calculated at 13,298,576 acres in
1919-20. For sheep-rearing and the growth of wool the Australian colonies
are unrivalled, and while the production of gold has considerably
decreased, that of wool is constantly on the increase. The great bulk of
the wool exported goes to Britain, which receives over 300,000,000 pounds
from the Australian colonies annually (L37,256,915 in 1919-20). The
commerce is rapidly extending, and becoming every year more important to
Britain, whence the colonists derive their chief supplies of manufactured
goods in return for wool, gold, and other produce. Next to wool come gold,
tin, copper, wheat, preserved meat, and tallow, hides and skins, cotton,
tobacco, sugar, and wine as the most important items of export. The chief
imports consist of textile fabrics, haberdashery, and clothing, machinery
and metal goods. The aggregate imports in 1920 amounted to about
L97,456,899 in value, the exports to L148,564,523. There are upwards of
23,000 miles of railway in actual use or in course of construction, and
about 133,000 miles of telegraph. In 1912 the building of the
Trans-Australian railway from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie was commenced. The
longest telegraph line is that running northwards across the continent from
Adelaide. The two chief routes for mails between Britain and the Australian
colonies are by way of the Suez Canal, and by San Francisco across the
American continent. The coinage is the same as in the mother country. Banks
and banking offices are numerous, including post office or other savings
banks for the reception of small sums.

It is doubtful when Australia was first discovered by Europeans. Between
1531 and 1542 the Portuguese published the existence of a land which they
called Great Java, and which corresponded to Australia, and probably the
first discovery of the country was made by them early in the sixteenth
century. The first authenticated discovery is said to have been made in
1601 by a Portuguese named Manoel Godinho de Eredia. In 1606 Torres, a
Spaniard, passed through the strait that now bears his name, between New
Guinea and Australia. Between this period and 1628 a large portion of the
coastline of Australia had been surveyed by various Dutch navigators. In
1664 the continent was named New Holland by the Dutch Government. In 1688
Dampier coasted along part of Australia, and about 1700 explored a part of
the W. and N.W. coasts. In 1770 Cook carefully surveyed the E. coast, named
a number of localities, and took possession of the country for Britain. He
was followed by Bligh in 1789, who carried on a series of observations on
the N.E. coast, adding largely to the knowledge already obtained of this
new world. Colonists had now arrived on the soil, and a penal settlement
was formed (1788) at Port Jackson. In this way was laid the foundation of
the future colony of New South Wales. The Moreton Bay district (Queensland)
was settled in 1825; in 1835 the Port Phillip district. In 1851 the latter
district was erected into a separate colony under the name of Victoria.
Previous to this time the colonies both of Western Australia and of South
Australia had been founded--the former in 1829, the latter in 1836. The
latest of the colonies is Queensland, which dates from 1859. The discovery
of gold in abundance took place in 1851 and caused an immense excitement
and great influx of immigrants. The population was then only about 350,000,
and was slowly increasing; but the discovery of the precious metal started
the country on that career of prosperity which has since been almost
uninterrupted. Convicts were long sent to Australia from the mother
country, but transportation to New South Wales practically ceased in 1840,
and the last convict vessel to W. Australia arrived in 1868. Altogether
about 70,000 convicts were landed in Australia (besides almost as many in
Tasmania).

The record of interior exploration forms an interesting part of Australian
history. This has been going on since early last century, and is as yet far
from complete. There is still a large area of the continent of which little
or nothing is known, comprising especially a vast territory belonging to
Western Australia, and a portion of South Australia. Among the men who have
won fame in the field of Australian exploration are Oxley (1817-23), who
partly explored the Lachlan and Macquarie, discovered the Brisbane, &c.;
Hume and Hovell (1824), who crossed what is now the colony of Victoria from
north to south; Cunningham (1827), who discovered the Darling Downs; Sturt
(1828-9), who examined the Macquarie, part of the Darling, and the
Murrumbidgee, which he traced to the Murray, sailing down the latter to
Lake Alexandrina; in 1844 he penetrated to near the middle of the continent
from the south; Mitchell (1831-6) made extensive explorations in New South
Wales and Victoria; McMillan (1839) explored and traversed Gippsland; Eyre
(1840) travelled by the coast from Adelaide to King George's Sound;
Leichhardt in 1844-5 travelled from Brisbane to Port Essington, discovering
fine tracts of territory and the numerous rivers flowing into the Gulf of
Carpentaria; in 1848 he was lost in the northern interior, in attempting to
cross Australia from east to west, and nothing further regarding his fate
has been discovered; Kennedy (1848) was killed in exploring Cape York
Peninsula; A. C. Gregory (1855-6) explored part of North-Western Australia,
and crossed from that to the Brisbane district, an important exploring
journey; McDouall Stuart (1859-60-2) crossed the continent from south to
north and back again nearly in the line of the present overland telegraph;
Burke, Wills, Gray, and King (1860-1) crossed from Melbourne to the Gulf of
Carpentaria, but Burke, Wills, and Gray perished on the return journey;
F. T. Gregory (1861) explored the region of the Ashburton, Fortescue, and
other rivers of North-West Australia; Warburton (1873) travelled with
camels from the centre of the continent to the north-west coast; J. Forrest
(1874) made an important journey in Western Australia; Giles (1874-6)
explored Central Western Australia; Favenc (1878-9) travelled from Brisbane
to Port Darwin; A. Forrest (1879) explored part of Northern Australia;
Mills (1883) traversed with camels a considerable stretch of new ground in
Western Australia; Winnicke (1883-4), also with camels, explored and mapped
about 40,000 sq. miles of the unknown interior; Lindsay (1885-6) travelled
north-west from Lake Eyre, and then north-east to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Among subsequent explorations mention may be made of Carnegie's eight
months' journeyings in W. Australia (1896-7). (See articles on the separate
colonies.)--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Wall, _Physical Geography of Australia_; Aflalo,
_Natural History of Australia_; T. A. Coghlan, _A Statistical Account of
the Seven Colonies of Australasia_ (Sydney); G. W. Rusden, _History of
Australia_.

AUSTRA'LIOIDS, one of the five groups into which Professor Huxley
classifies man, comprising the indigenous non-Aryan inhabitants of Central
and Southern India, the ancient Egyptians and their descendants, and the
modern Fellahs.

AUSTRIA, or GERMAN AUSTRIA, a republic formed out of the fragments of the
old Austro-Hungarian Empire. The republic was proclaimed on 12th Nov.,
1918, and the government was taken in hand by the National Constitutional
Assembly. The new republic, the frontiers of which were provisionally
defined by the treaty of St. Germain (q.v.), includes Upper Austria, Lower
Austria, Salzburg, and parts of Styria, Carinthia, Tyrol, and Vorarlberg,
some districts having been assigned to Yugo-Slavia and Italy. German
Austria now has an area of 30,716 sq. miles, and a pop. of 6,130,197.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY (in Ger. _Oesterreich_, that is, Eastern Empire), previous
to the changes resulting from the European War (1914-18), a Central
European monarchy, inhabited by several nationalities, and consisting of
the Austrian Empire, the Hungarian monarchy, and the territory of Bosnia
and Herzegovina annexed by Austria on 5th Oct., 1908. The States had
together a total area of about 261,242 sq. miles, and were bounded S. by
Turkey, the Adriatic, and Italy; W. by Switzerland, Bavaria, and Saxony; N.
by Prussia and Russian Poland; and E. by Russia and Roumania. On 12th Nov.,
1918, the German-Austrian Republic was proclaimed, and the government was
taken in hand by the National Constitutional Assembly. The account given in
the following pages applies to the countries only as they existed before
the end of the European War.

The population of Austria proper in 1913 was estimated at 29,193,293.

The prevailing character of the Austrian dominions is mountainous or hilly,
the plains not occupying more than a fifth part of the whole surface. The
loftiest ranges belong to the Alps, and are found in Styria, Salzburg, and
Carinthia, the highest summits being the Ortlerspitzen (12,814 feet) on the
western boundary of Tyrol, and the Grossglockner (12,300 feet) on the
borders of Salzburg, Tyrol, and Carinthia. Another great range is that of
the Carpathians. The chief rivers are the Danube, with its tributaries, and
the Dniester. The Danube is navigable for pretty large vessels; the
tributaries also are largely navigable. The lakes are numerous and often
picturesque, the chief being Lake Balaton or the Plattensee. The climate is
exceedingly varied, but generally good. The principal products of the north
are wheat, barley, oats, and rye; in the centre vines and maize are added;
and in the south olives and various fruits. The cereals grow to perfection,
other crops being hops, tobacco, flax, and hemp. Sheep and cattle are
largely reared.--Wild deer, wild swine, chamois, foxes, lynxes, and a
species of small black bear are found in many districts, the fox and lynx
being particularly abundant.--In mineral productions Austria is very rich,
possessing, with the exception of platinum, all the useful metals, the
total annual value of the mineral products of Austria being estimated at
upwards of L15,000,000, the principal being coal, salt, and iron.

Before the European War, manufactures were in the most flourishing
condition in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Lower Austria; less so in the
eastern provinces, and insignificant in Dalmatia, Bukowina, Herzegovina,
&c. Among the most important manufactures were those of machinery and metal
goods, Austria holding a high place for the manufacture of musical and
scientific instruments, gold and silver plate and jewellery; of stone and
china-ware and of glass, which is one of the oldest and most
highly-developed industries in Austria; of chemicals; of sugar from beet;
of beer, spirits, &c.; and especially the manufactures of wool, cotton,
hemp, and flax.

In addition to the general import and export trade, Austria carried on a
very considerable amount of business in the transit of goods through her
territory. In 1914 the total value of imports into Austria-Hungary was
L114,716,000, of exports L83,996,000; the value of imports in 1913 was
L141,433,000, the exports L115,129,000. Among imports were cotton and other
fibres, textile goods and yarn, metals, machinery, drugs, chemicals, oils,
fats, hides, skins, &c. The chief exports were cereals, animals, metallic
goods, woven fabrics, pottery and glass manufactures. Nearly two-thirds of
the commerce are with Germany, next in importance being the trade with
Roumania, Italy, and Russia. The exports direct to the United Kingdom in
1913 were L7,705,949; the imports of British produce direct, L4,480,760;
but these amounts do not include indirect exports and imports through other
countries. The staple exports to the United Kingdom were corn and flour.
The chief imports from it were cotton manufactures, machinery and metals,
woollen goods, fish, &c. In 1913 the mercantile navy of Austria had a total
burden of about 471,252 tons. The principal ports were Trieste, in Austria,
and Fiume, in Hungary.

None of the European States, except Russia, exhibited such a diversity of
race and language as the former dual monarchy. The Slavs--who differ
greatly, however, amongst themselves in language and civilization--amounted
to above 20,000,000, or 46 per cent of the total population, and formed the
great mass of the population of Bohemia, Moravia, Carniola, Galicia,
Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia, and Northern Hungary, and half the
population of Silesia and Bukowina. The Germans, about 9,950,266, formed
almost the sole population of the archduchy of Austria, Salzburg, the
greatest portion of Styria and Carinthia, almost the whole of Tyrol and
Vorarlberg, large portions of Bohemia and Moravia, the whole of West
Silesia, &c.; and they were also numerous in Hungary and Transylvania. The
Magyars or Hungarians (10,061,549) formed nearly half of the inhabitants of
the former Kingdom of Hungary and the connected provinces.

The State religion of the former dual monarchy was the Roman Catholic. In
1910 there were in the Austrian portion of the monarchy 22,530,000 Roman
Catholics, 3,417,000 Greek Catholics united to the Roman Church, 689,000
non-united, 589,000 Protestants, and 1,314,000 Jews.

The intellectual culture of the people was highest in the German provinces,
but in some of the other provinces the percentage of uneducated was very
high. Attendance at the elementary schools was compulsory on all children
from their sixth to the end of their fourteenth year in most of the
Austrian provinces; to at least the twelfth year in the whole empire. There
were numerous gymnasia and 'real schools', the gymnasia being intended
chiefly to prepare pupils for the universities, while in the real schools a
more practical end was kept in view, and modern languages and physical
science formed the groundwork of the educational course. The technical high
schools in Austria were very important institutions, and there are many
other special schools where the students received training in mining,
agriculture, industries of all kinds, art, music, commerce, &c. In 1917
there were eight universities maintained by the State, viz. in Vienna,
Prague (2), Gratz, Cracow, Lemberg, Innsbruck, and Czernowitz. Most of
these have four faculties--Catholic theology, law and politics, medicine,
and philosophy.

Before the revolution of 1918 the ruler of the dual monarchy had the title
of emperor in his Austrian dominions, but he was only king of Hungary. The
Parliament of the Austrian division of the empire was known as the
Reichsrath, or council of the realm, consisting of an Upper House
(Herrenhaus), composed of princes of the imperial family, nobles with the
hereditary right to sit, archbishops, and life-members nominated by the
Emperor; and a Lower House (Abgeordnetenhaus) of 516 deputies elected on
the basis of universal suffrage. There were seventeen provincial Diets or
Assemblies, each provincial division having one. In the Hungarian division
of the Empire the legislature was a Parliament consisting of an Upper House
or House of Magnates and of a Lower House or House of Representatives, the
latter elected by all citizens of full age paying a small amount in taxes,
or otherwise qualified. Its powers corresponded to those of the Austrian
Parliament or Reichsrath. All matters affecting the joint interests of the
two divisions of the monarchy, such as foreign affairs, war, and finance,
were dealt with by the Parliaments of the two States. There were three
Budgets, viz. one for common affairs, one for Austria, and one for Hungary.
The Budget estimates for the former Austrian kingdom in 1913 were
L130,716,773 (the revenue balancing the expenditure). In 1918 the estimates
were: expenditure 24,321,140,000 crowns, revenue 4,854,789 crowns.
Austria's special debt in Feb., 1918, was placed at 54,081,765,681 crowns,
of which 29,274,603,300 crowns were war debt. On 20th Nov., 1918, the
Provisional Government of the Austrian Republic passed a law adopting the
Budget of 1918-9, and empowering the Minister of Finance to make good the
difference between revenue and expenditure.

Military service was compulsory and universal throughout the dual monarchy.
The old Austro-Hungarian army numbered about 820,000 men on a peace
footing.

_History._--In 791 Charlemagne drove the Avars from the territory between
the Ens and the Raab, and united it to his empire under the name of _the
Eastern Mark_ (that is, March or boundary land); and from the establishment
by him of a margraviate in this new province the former Austrian Empire
took its rise. On the invasion of Germany by the Hungarians it became
subject to them from 900 till 955, when Otho I, by the victory of Augsburg,
reunited a great part of this province to the German Empire, which by 1043
had extended its limits to the Leitha. The margraviate of Austria was
hereditary in the family of the Counts of Babenberg (Bamberg) from 982 till
1156, in which year the boundaries of Austria were extended so as to
include the territory above the Ens, and the whole was created a duchy. The
territory was still further increased in 1192 by the gift of the duchy of
Styria as a fief from the Emperor Henry VI, Vienna being by this time the
capital. The male line of the House of Bamberg became extinct in 1246, and
the Emperor Frederick II declared Austria and Styria a vacant fief, the
hereditary property of the German emperors. In 1282 the Emperor Rudolph
granted Austria, Styria, and Carinthia to his two sons, Albert and Rudolph.
The former became sole ruler (duke), and since then, until 12th Nov., 1918,
Austria remained under the House of Habsburg. Albert, who was an energetic
ruler, was elected emperor in 1298, but was assassinated in 1308. The first
of his successors whom we need specially mention was Albert V, son-in-law
of the Emperor Sigismund. He assisted Sigismund in the Hussite wars, and
was elected, after his death, King of Hungary and of Bohemia, and German
emperor (1438). Ladislaus, his posthumous son, was the last of the Austrian
line proper, and its possessions devolved upon the collateral Styrian line
in 1457; since which time the House of Austria furnished an unbroken
succession of German emperors.

In 1453 the Emperor Frederick III, a member of this House, had conferred
upon the country the rank of an archduchy before he himself became ruler of
all Austria. His son Maximilian I, by his marriage with Mary, the surviving
daughter of Charles the Bold, united the Netherlands to the Austrian
dominions. After the death of his father, in 1493, Maximilian was made
Emperor of Germany, and transferred to his son Philip the government of the
Netherlands. He also added to his paternal inheritance Tyrol, with several
other territories, particularly some belonging to Bavaria, and acquired for
his family new claims to Hungary and Bohemia. The marriage of his son
Philip to Joanna of Spain raised the House of Habsburg to the throne of
Spain. Philip, however, died in 1506, and the death of Maximilian, in 1519,
was followed by the union of Spain and Austria, his grandson (the eldest
son of Philip), Charles I, King of Spain, being elected Emperor of Germany
as Charles V. Charles thus became the greatest monarch in Europe, but in
1521 he ceded to his brother Ferdinand all his dominions in Germany.
Ferdinand I, by his marriage with Anna, the sister of Louis II, King of
Hungary, acquired the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, with Moravia,
Silesia, and Lusatia, the appendages of Bohemia. To oppose him the woywode
of Transylvania, John Zapolya, sought the help of the Sultan, Soliman II,
who appeared in 1529 at the gates of Vienna, but was compelled to retreat.
In 1535 a treaty was made by which John Zapolya was allowed to retain the
royal title and half of Hungary, but after his death new disputes arose,
and Ferdinand maintained the possession of Lower Hungary only by paying
Soliman the sum of 30,000 ducats annually (1562). In 1556 Ferdinand
obtained the imperial crown, when his brother Charles laid by the sceptre
for a cowl. He died in 1564, leaving his territories to be divided amongst
his three sons.

Maximilian II, the eldest, succeeded his father as emperor, obtaining
Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia; Ferdinand, the second son, received Tyrol
and Lower Austria; and Charles, the youngest, obtained Styria, Carinthia,
Carniola, and Goerz. Maximilian died in 1576, and was succeeded on the
imperial throne by his eldest son Rudolph II, who had already been crowned
King of Hungary in 1572, and King of Bohemia in 1575. Rudolph's reign was
distinguished by the war against Turkey and Transylvania; the persecutions
of the Protestants, who were driven from his dominions; the cession of
Hungary in 1608; and in 1611 of Bohemia and his hereditary estates in
Austria to his brother Matthias. Matthias, who succeeded Maximilian on the
imperial throne, concluded a peace with the Turks, but was disturbed by the
Protestant Bohemians, who took up arms in defence of their religious
rights, thus commencing the Thirty Years' War. After his death in 1619 the
Bohemians refused to acknowledge his successor, Ferdinand II, until after
the battle of Prague in 1620, when Bohemia had to submit, and was deprived
of the right of choosing her king. Lutheranism was strictly forbidden in
all the Austrian dominions. Hungary, which revolted under Bethlem Gabor,
Prince of Transylvania, was, after a long struggle, subdued. During the
reign of Ferdinand III (1637-57), successor of Ferdinand II, Austria was
continually the theatre of war; Lusatia was ceded to Saxony in 1635; and
Alsace to France in 1648, when peace was restored in Germany by the Treaty
of Westphalia.

The Emperor Leopold I, son and successor of Ferdinand III, was victorious
through the talents of Prince Eugene in two wars with Turkey; and Vienna
was delivered by Sobieski and the Germans from the attacks of Kara Mustapha
in 1683. In 1687 he united Hungary to Transylvania, and in 1699 restored to
Hungary the country lying between the Danube and the Theiss. It was the
chief aim of Leopold to secure to Charles, his second son, the inheritance
of the Spanish monarchy, and in 1701, upon the victory of French diplomacy
in the appointment of the grandson of Louis XIV, the War of the Spanish
Succession commenced. Leopold died in 1705, but Joseph I, his eldest son,
continued the war. As he died without children in 1711, his brother Charles
was elected emperor, but was obliged to accede in 1714 to the Peace of
Utrecht, by which Austria received the Netherlands, Milan, Mantua, Naples,
and Sardinia. In 1720 Sicily was given to Austria in exchange for Sardinia.
This monarchy now embraced over 190,000 sq. miles; but its power was
weakened by new wars with Spain and France. In the peace concluded at
Vienna (1735 and 1738) Charles VI was forced to cede Naples and Sicily to
Spain and part of Milan to the King of Sardinia; and in 1739, by the Peace
of Belgrade, he was obliged to transfer to the Porte Belgrade, Serbia, &c.,
partly in order to secure the succession to his daughter, Maria Theresa, by
the Pragmatic Sanction. He died in 1740.

On Maria Theresa's marriage to Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine (the
dynasty henceforth being that of Habsburg-Lorraine), and her accession to
the Austrian throne, the Empire was threatened with dismemberment.
Frederick II of Prussia subdued Silesia; the Elector of Bavaria was crowned
in Lintz and Prague, and in 1742 chosen emperor under the name of Charles
VII; Hungary alone supported the heroic and beautiful queen. Charles,
however, died in 1745, and the husband of Theresa was crowned Emperor of
Germany as Francis I; but a treaty concluded in 1745 confirmed to Frederick
the possession of Silesia, and by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748,
Austria was obliged to cede the duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla
to Philip, Infant of Spain, and several districts of Milan and Sardinia. To
recover Silesia, Maria Theresa formed an alliance with France, Russia,
Saxony, and Sweden, and entered upon the Seven Years' War; but by the Peace
of Hubertsberg, 1763, Silesia was recognized as Prussian territory. On the
death of Francis I, in 1765, Joseph II, his eldest son, was appointed to
assist his mother in the government and elected Emperor of Germany. The
partition of Poland (1772) gave Galicia and Lodomeria to Austria, which
also obtained Bukowina from the Porte in 1777. At the death of the Empress
in 1780 Austria contained 235,000 sq. miles, with a pop. estimated at
24,000,000.

The liberal home administration of the Empress was continued and extended
by her successor, Joseph II, who did much to further the spread of
religious tolerance, education, and the industrial arts. The Low Countries,
however, revolted, and he was unsuccessful in the war of 1788 against the
Porte. His death took place in 1790. He was succeeded by his eldest
brother, Leopold II, under whom peace was restored in the Netherlands, and
in Hungary, and also with the Porte. On the death of his sister and her
husband Louis XVI of France he formed an alliance with Prussia, but died in
1792, before the French revolutionary war broke out.

His son, Francis II, succeeded, and was elected German Emperor, by which
time France had declared war against him as King of Hungary and Bohemia. In
1795, in the third partition of Poland, West Galicia fell to Austria, and
by the Peace of Campo-Formio (1797) she received the largest part of the
Venetian territory as compensation for her loss of Lombardy and the
Netherlands. In 1799 Francis, in alliance with Russia, renewed the war with
France until 1801, when the Peace of Luneville was concluded. In 1804
Francis declared himself hereditary Emperor of Austria as Francis I, and
united all his States under the name of the Empire of Austria, immediately
taking up arms once more with his allies Russia and Great Britain against
France. The war of 1805 was terminated by the Peace of Pressburg (26th
Dec.), by which Francis had to cede to France the remaining provinces of
Italy, as well as to give up portions of territory to Bavaria, Wuertemberg,
and Baden, receiving in return Salzburg and Berchtesgaden. After the
formation of the Confederation of the Rhine (12th July, 1806) Francis was
forced to resign his dignity as Emperor of Germany, which had been in his
family more than 500 years. A new war with France in 1809 cost the monarchy
42,380 sq. miles of territory and 3,500,000 subjects. Napoleon married
Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor, and in 1812 concluded an alliance
with him against Russia. But in 1813 Francis again declared war against
France, and formed an alliance with Britain, Prussia, and Sweden against
his son-in-law. By the Congress of Vienna (1815) Austria gained Lombardy
and Venetia, and recovered, together with Dalmatia, the hereditary
territories which it had been obliged to cede.

In the troubled period following the French revolution of 1830
insurrections took place in Modena, Parma, and the Papal States (1831-2),
but were suppressed without much difficulty; and though professedly neutral
during the Polish insurrections Austria clearly showed herself on the side
of Russia, with whom her relations became more intimate as those between
Great Britain and France grew more cordial. The death of Francis I (1835)
and accession of his son, Ferdinand I, made little change in the Austrian
system of government, and much discontent was the consequence. In 1846 the
failure of the Polish insurrection led to the incorporation of Cracow with
Austria. In Italy the declarations of Pio Nono in favour of reform
increased the difficulties of Austria, and in Hungary the opposition under
Kossuth and others assumed the form of a great constitutional movement. In
1848, when the expulsion of Louis Philippe shook all Europe, Metternich
found it impossible any longer to guide the helm of the State, and the
Government was compelled to admit a free press and the right of citizens to
arms. Apart from the popular attitude in Italy and in Hungary, where the
Diet declared itself permanent under the presidency of Kossuth, the
insurrection made equal progress in Vienna itself, and the royal family, no
longer in safety, removed to Innsbruck. After various ministerial changes
the Emperor abdicated in favour of his nephew, Francis Joseph; more
vigorous measures were adopted; and Austria, aided by Russia, reduced
Hungary to submission.

The year 1855 is memorable for the Concordat with the Pope, which put the
educational and ecclesiastical affairs of the Empire entirely into the
hands of the Papal see. In 1859 the hostile intentions of France and
Sardinia against the possessions of Austria in Italy became so evident that
she declared war by sending an army across the Ticino; but after disastrous
defeats at Magenta and Solferino she was compelled to cede Milan and the
north-west portion of Lombardy to Sardinia. In 1864 she joined with the
German States in the war against Denmark, but a dispute about
Schleswig-Holstein involved her in a war with her allies (1866), while at
the same time Italy renewed her attempts for the recovery of Venice. The
Italians were defeated at Custozza and driven back across the Mincio; but
the Prussians, victorious at Koeniggraetz (or Sadowa), threatened Vienna.
Peace was concluded with Prussia on 23rd Aug. and with Italy on 3rd Oct.,
the result of the war being the cession of Venetia through France to Italy
and the withdrawal of Austria from all interference in the affairs of
Germany.

For nearly half a century (from 1866 to 1914) the internal affairs of
Austria-Hungary gave much occupation to statesmen of the dual monarchy.
Hungarian demands for self-government were finally agreed to, and the
Empire was divided into the two parts already mentioned--Austria and
Hungary. This settlement was consummated by the coronation of the Emperor
Francis Joseph I, at Budapest, as King of Hungary, on 8th June, 1867. In
the same year the Concordat of 1855 came up for discussion, and measures
were passed for the re-establishment of civil marriage, the emancipation of
schools from the domination of the Church, and the placing of different
creeds on a footing of equality. The fact of the Austro-Hungarian dominions
comprising so many different nationalities gave the central Government much
trouble, both in regard to internal and to external affairs. In regard to
the 'Eastern Question', for instance, the action of Austria was hampered by
the sympathies shown by the Magyars for their blood relations, the Turks,
while the Slavs were naturally more favourable to Russia. During the war
between Russia and Turkey in 1877-8 Austria remained neutral; but at its
close it was decided at the Congress of Berlin that Bosnia and Herzegovina
should in future be administered by Austria instead of Turkey. In 1908,
taking advantage of the condition of Turkey, Austria formally annexed these
provinces. By the middle of Oct., 1918, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy began
to break up into independent national States. Four States of some size laid
claim to independence, viz. German-Austria, Czecho-Slovakia (recognized by
the Allies), Hungary, and Yugo-Slavia. On 13th Oct., 1921, German Austria
signed with Hungary the Burgenland pact, agreeing to a plebiscite in
several districts. For recent history of Austria, see _Francis Joseph;
European War._--Cf. S. Whitman, _Austria_ (in Story of the Nations Series);
H. W. Steed, _The Hapsburg Monarchy._

AUTEUIL ([=o]-t[.e]-y[.e]), formerly a suburban village of Paris, but now
enclosed within the fortifications.

AUTOBIOG'RAPHY, a department of literature of which, as a definite branch
or form at least, we have no very ancient examples, though many
autobiographical details are contained, for instance, in Cicero's and
Pliny's letters, while St. Augustine has left a fragmentary autobiography
in his _Confessions_. Various writers of note, without claiming or perhaps
intending to write a formal autobiography, have left similar materials in
the form of their own memoirs or reminiscences, or, for a portion of their
lives, in diaries. The chief English diarists are Pepys and Evelyn, while
Crabb Robinson is an admirable modern example. Brief autobiographies were
written by Gibbon, Hume, and Sir Walter Scott (of his early life only), and
among other writers who have given us autobiographies or kindred works are
Fanny Burney, Cobbett, Haydon, Miss Mitford, Harriet Martineau, Leigh Hunt,
Hugh Miller (in _My Schools and Schoolmasters_), John Stuart Mill, Anthony
Trollope, Sir Henry Taylor, Miss F. P. Cobbe, Carlyle, Ruskin, Herbert
Spencer, Alexander Bain, and Alfred Russel Wallace. Lord Roberts's
_Forty-one Years in India_ and General Grant's _Personal Memoirs_ are most
interesting autobiographical works by men of action. One of the most famous
of autobiographies is that of the Italian Benvenuto Cellini. See
_Biography_.

AUTOCHROME. See _Photography_.

AUTOCHTHONES ([a:]-tok'tho-n[=e]z), the Greek name for the aboriginal
inhabitants of a country. See _Aborigines_.

AU'TOCLAVE (derived from the Gr. _autos_, self, and Lat. _clavis_, key) is
a strong steam-tight vessel in which hydrolysis of liquids can be carried
out, under pressure, at temperatures considerably higher than their normal
boiling-points. The vessels may be of copper, iron, or other suitable
material, are sometimes enamelled within, or may have renewable refractory
linings when used for corrosive liquids. Some types have mechanical
agitators. Used in the manufacture of candles, coal-tar colours, &c. May be
heated by high-pressure steam or in baths of oil or molten lead. See
_Papin_.

AU'TOCRAT (Gr. _autos_, self, _kratos_, rule), an absolute or uncontrolled
ruler; the head of a State who is not controlled by any constitutional
limitations, such as the Tsars of Russia till 1917.

AUTO-DE-FE (Sp.); AUTO-DA-FE (Pg.), literally, 'act of faith'. See
_Inquisition_.

AU'TOGRAPH, a person's own handwriting; an original manuscript or
signature, as opposed to a copy. The practice of collecting autographs or
signatures originated in Germany and the Low Countries, chiefly among
members of the universities, and dates at least from the sixteenth century.
Among the earliest collections known are those of John Cotton and Hans
Sloane in the British Museum, and of Philippe de Bethune, brother of Sully,
and Lomenie de Brienne at the Bibliotheque Nationale. The most celebrated
collection formed in England in recent years is that of Alfred Morrison.

AUTOMATIC WRITING. See _Psychical Research_; _Spiritualism_.

AUTOM'ATISM, the confinement of activity in men or animals within a purely
mechanical limit, resulting from injury to or partial removal of the brain.

AUTOM'ATON (Gr. _automatos_, spontaneous), a self-moving machine performing
actions like those of a living being, and often shaped like one. The
walking statues of Daedalus, the flying dove of Archytas, the brazen head
of Friar Bacon, the iron fly of Regiomontanus, the door-opening figure of
Albertus Magnus, the parading knights of the clock presented to Charlemagne
by Harun al Rashid, the toy carriage and attendants constructed by Camus
for Louis XIV, the flute-player, tambour-player, and duck of Vaucanson, and
the writing child of the brothers Droz are among the more noteworthy of
traditional automata. See _Conjuring_.

AUTOMOBILE. See _Motor Vehicles_.

AUTON'OMY, the power of a State, institution, &c., to legislate for itself.

AUTOPH'AGI (-j[=i]), birds which feed themselves as soon as hatched.

AU'TOPLASTY, the operation by which wounds and diseased parts are repaired
with healthy tissues taken from other parts of the same person's body.

AUTOPLATE. See _Printing_.

AUTOP'SY, literally, personal observation or inspection, commonly
restricted to post-mortem examination. See _Coroner_.

AU'TOTYPE, a species of photographic print. A thin sheet of gelatine on
paper is rendered sensitive to light by treatment with bichromate of
potash, and then exposed under an ordinary photographic negative. The
portions of gelatine affected by the light become insoluble, the remainder
of the gelatine is then washed away, and the picture remains reproduced in
the gelatine, there being slight elevations and depressions corresponding
with the distribution of light and shade. This may be printed from, but it
is more often made use of to obtain electrotypes or other reverses, from
which impressions can more easily be taken.

AUTUMN, the season between summer and winter, in the northern hemisphere
often regarded as embracing August, September, and October, or three months
about that time. The beginning of the astronomical autumn is 22nd Sept.,
the autumnal equinox; and the end is 21st Dec., the shortest day. The
autumn of the southern hemisphere takes place at the time of the northern
spring.

AUTUN ([=o]-t[.u]n; ancient, BIBRACTE, later, AUGUSTODUNUM), a town,
South-Eastern France, department of Saone-et-Loire. It has two Roman gates
of exquisite workmanship, the ruins of an amphitheatre and of several
temples, the cathedral of St. Lazare, a fine Gothic structure of the
twelfth century with chapels added in the fifteenth; manufactures of
carpets, woollens, cotton, velvet, hosiery, &c. Pop. 15,498.

AUTUNITE, a hydrous phosphate of uranium and calcium, crystallizing in the
rhombic system in yellow plates. Like other minerals of the uranium series
it shows radio-activity.

AUVERGNE ([=o]-v[=a]r-ny[.e]), a province, Central France, now merged into
departments Cantal and Puy-de-Dome, and an arrondissement of Haute-Loire.
The Auvergne Mountains, separating the basins of the Allier, Cher, and
Creuse from those of the Lot and Dordogne, contain the highest points of
Central France: Mount Dor, 6188 feet; Cantal, 6093 feet, and Puy-de-Dome,
4806 feet. The number of extinct volcanoes and general geologic formation
make the district one of great scientific interest. The minerals include
iron, copper, and lead, and there are warm and cold mineral springs.
Auvergne contributes a large supply to the labour markets of Paris and
Belgium, there being in Paris alone some 50,000 Auvergnats.

AUXERRE ([=o]-s[=a]r), a town, France, department of Yonne, 110 miles S.E.
of Paris. Principal edifices: a fine Gothic cathedral, unfinished; the
abbey of St. Germain, with curious crypts; and an old episcopal palace, now
the Hotel de Prefecture; it manufactures woollens, hats, casks, leather,
earthenware, violin strings, &c.; trade, chiefly in wood and wines, of
which the best known is white Chablis. Pop. 21,930.

AUXOM'ETER, an instrument to measure the magnifying powers of an optical
apparatus.

AUXONNE ([=o]-son; ancient, AUSSONA), a town, France, department of
Cote-d'Or (Burgundy), on the Saone; a fortified place, with some
manufactures. Pop. 6300.

A'VA, a town in Asia, formerly the capital of Burma, on the Irawadi, now
almost wholly in ruins.

AVA-AVA, ARVA, KAVA, or YAVA (_Macropiper methysticum_), a plant of the
nat. ord. Piperaceae (pepper family), so called by the inhabitants of
Polynesia, who make an intoxicating drink out of it. Its leaves are chewed
with betel, in South-Eastern Asia.

AVAD'AVAT. See _Amadavat_.

AV'ALANCHES, large masses of snow or ice precipitated from the mountains,
and distinguished as _wind_ or _dust avalanches_ when they consist of
fresh-fallen snow whirled like a dust-storm into the valleys; as _sliding
avalanches_ when they consist of great masses of snow sliding down a slope
by their own weight; and as _glacier_ or _summer avalanches_ when
ice-masses are detached by heat from the high glaciers.

AVAL ISLANDS. Same as _Bahrein Islands_.

AVALLON ([.a]-v[.a]-l[=o]n), a town of Central France, department Yonne.
Pop. 5900.

AV'ALON, a sort of fairyland or elysium mentioned in connection with the
legends of King Arthur, being his abode after disappearing from the haunts
of men: called also _Avilion_. The name is also identified with
Glastonbury; and has been given to a peninsula of Newfoundland.

AVAN'TURINE, or AVEN'TURINE, a variety of quartz containing glittering
spangles of mica through it; also a sort of artificial gem of similar
appearance.

AV'ARS, a nation, probably of Turanian origin, who at an early period may
have migrated from the region east of the Tobol in Siberia to that about
the Don, the Caspian Sea, and the Volga. A part advanced to the Danube in
A.D. 555, and settled in Dacia. They served in Justinian's army, aided the
Lombards in destroying the kingdom of the Gepidae, and in the sixth century
conquered under their Khan Bajan the region of Pannonia. They then won
Dalmatia, pressed into Thuringia and Italy against the Franks and Lombards,
and subdued the Slavs dwelling on the Danube, as well as the Bulgarians on
the Black Sea. But they were ultimately limited to Pannonia, where they
were overcome by Charlemagne, and nearly extirpated by the Slavs of
Moravia. After 827 they disappear from history. Traces of their fortified
settlements are found, and known as Avarian rings. See _Lesghians_.

AVATAR', more properly AVATARA, in Hindu mythology, an incarnation of the
Deity. Of the innumerable avatars the chief are the ten incarnations of
Vishnu, who appeared successively as a fish, a tortoise, a boar, a
man-lion, a dwarf, &c.

AVATCH'A, a volcano and bay in Kamchatka. The volcano, which is 9000 feet
high, was last active in 1855. The town of Petropavlovsk lies in the bay.

AVEBURY ([=a]v'be-ri), a village of England, in Wiltshire, occupying the
site of a so-called Druidical temple, which originally consisted of a large
outer circle of 100 stones, from 15 to 17 feet in height, and about 40 feet
in circumference, surrounded by a broad ditch and lofty rampart, and
enclosing two smaller circles. Few traces now remain of the structure. On
the neighbouring downs are numerous barrows or tumuli, one of which, called
Silbury Hill, rises to the height of 130 feet, with a circumference of 2027
feet at the base, covering fully 5 acres.

AVEBURY, John Lubbock, first Baron. See _Lubbock_.

AVEIRO ([.a]-v[=a]'i-r[u:]), a coast town in Portugal, province of Douro,
with a cathedral, an active fishery, and a thriving trade. Pop. 11,523.

AVELLINO ([.a]-vel-l[=e]'n[=o]), a town in Southern Italy, capital of the
province of Avellino, 29 miles east of Naples, the seat of a bishop.
Avellino nuts were celebrated under the Romans. Pop. 24,620. Area of the
province, 1165 sq. miles; pop. 411,813.

A'VE MARI'A ('Hail, Mary'), the first two words of the angel Gabriel's
salutation (_Luke_, i, 28), and the beginning of the very common Latin
prayer to the Virgin in the Roman Catholic Church. Its lay use was
sanctioned at the end of the twelfth century, and a papal edict of 1326
ordains the repetition of the prayer thrice each morning, noon, and
evening, the hour being indicated by sound of bells called the Ave Maria or
Angelus Domini. The prayers are counted upon the small beads of the rosary,
as the pater-nosters are upon the large ones.

AVE'NA. See _Oat_.

AV'ENS, the English name of two rosaceous plants of the genus Geum. Common
avens, or herb-bennet, _G. urb[=a]num_, possesses astringent properties,
and was formerly used in medicine. The mountain avens, _Dryas octopetala_,
belongs to the same nat. ord.

AV'ENTAILE, the movable face-guard of the helmet, through which the wearer
breathed.

AV'ENTINE, one of the seven hills of Rome, east of the Tiber. It was
included in the city by Servius Tullius.

AVEN'TURINE. See _Avanturine_.

AV'ERAGE, in maritime law, any charge or expense over and above the freight
of goods, and payable by their owner.--_General average_ is the sum falling
to be paid by the owners of ship, cargo, and freight, in proportion to
their several interests, to make good any loss or expense intentionally
incurred for the general safety of ship and cargo, e.g. throwing goods
overboard, cutting away masts, port dues in cases of distress,
&c.--_Particular average_ is the sum falling to be paid for unavoidable
loss when the general safety is not in question, and therefore chargeable
on the individual owner of the property lost. A policy of insurance
generally covers both general and particular average, unless specially
excepted.--_Averaging_, in Stock Exchange language, denotes the operation
of a speculator in increasing transactions at a higher or lower price when
the price is moving against him, so that the average price of the whole
will be higher or lower than his original purchase or sale.

AVER'NUS, a lake, now called LAGO D'AVERNO, in Campania, Italy, between the
ancient Cumae and Puteoli, about 8 miles from Naples. It is the crater of
an old volcano, and is in some places 180 feet deep. Formerly the gloom of
its forest surroundings and its mephitic exhalations caused it to be
regarded as the entrance to the infernal regions. It was the fabled abode
of the Cimmerians, and especially dedicated to Proserpine.

AVERROES (a-ver'o-es; corrupted from IBN ROSHD), the most renowned Arabian
philosopher, born at Cordova, in Spain, 1126, died at Morocco 1198. His
ability procured him the succession to his father's office of chief
magistrate, and the King of Morocco appointed him at the same time cadi in
the province of Mauretania. Accused of being an infidel, he was, however,
deprived of his offices, and banished to Spain; but, being persecuted there
also, he fled to Fez, where he was condemned to recant and undergo public
penance. Upon this he went back to his own country, where the Caliph
Almansur finally restored him to his dignities. Averroes regarded Aristotle
as the greatest of all philosophers, and devoted himself so largely to the
exposition of his works as to be called among the Arabians _The
Interpreter_. He wrote a compendium of medicine, and treatises on theology,
philosophy, jurisprudence, &c. His commentaries upon Aristotle appeared
before 1250 in a Latin translation attributed to Michael Scott, the reputed
wizard (1194-1250), and others. Averroes was at once a philosopher, a
theologian, and a theosophist.

AVERRUNCA'TOR, a garden implement for pruning trees without a ladder,
consisting of two blades similar to stout shears, one fixed rigidly to a
long handle, and the other moved by a lever to which a cord passing over a
pulley is attached.

AVER'SA, a well-built town of Southern Italy, 7 miles N. of Naples, in a
beautiful vine and orange district, the seat of a bishop, with a cathedral
and various religious institutions, and a large lunatic asylum. Andreas of
Hungary, husband of Queen Joanna I, was strangled in a convent here, 18th
Sept., 1345. Pop. 23,203.

AVESNES ([.a]-v[=a]n), a town of France, department Nord. Pop. 5829.

AVESTA. See _Zendavesta_.

AVEYRON ([.a]-v[=a]-r[=o][n.]), a department occupying the southern
extremity of the central plateau of France, traversed by mountains
belonging to the Cevennes and the Cantal ranges; principal rivers: Aveyron,
Lot, and Tarn, the Lot alone being navigable. The climate is cold, and
agriculture is in a backward state, but considerable attention is paid to
sheep-breeding. It is noted for its 'Roquefort cheese'. It has coal, iron,
and copper mines, besides other minerals. Area, 3385 sq. miles; capital,
Rhodez. Pop. (1921), 332,940.

AVEZZANO ([.a]-vet-zae'n[=o]), a town of S. Italy, province Aquila. Pop.
11,279.

AV'IARY, a building or enclosure for keeping, breeding, and rearing birds.
Aviaries appear to have been used by the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, and
are highly prized in China. In England they were in use at least as early
as 1577, when William Harrison refers to "our costlie and curious
aviaries". An aviary may be simply a kind of very large cage, or a series
of enclosures.

AVIATIK, a German type of biplane. It was originally built at Mulhausen in
Alsace.

AVIATION. See _Aeronautics_.

AVICEN'NA, or EBN-SINA, an Arabian philosopher and physician, born at
Kharmaithen, in the province of Bokhara, A.D. 980. After practising as a
physician he quitted Bokhara at the age of twenty-two, and for a number of
years led a wandering life, settling at last at Hamadan, subsequently as
vizier of the Emir. On the death of his patron he lived in retirement at
Hamadan, but having secretly offered his services to the Sultan of Ispahan
he was imprisoned by the new Emir. Escaping, he fled to Ispahan, was
received with great honour by the Sultan, and passed there in quietness the
last fourteen years of his life, writing upon medicine, logic, metaphysics,
astronomy, and geometry. His philosophy was Aristotelianism mingled with
neo-Platonism, and his influence is most marked in Dante and the Mystics.
He died at Hamadan, in Northern Persia, 1037, leaving many writings, mostly
commentaries on Aristotle. Of his 100 treatises the best known is the
_Canon Medicinae_, which was still in use as a textbook at Louvain and
Montpellier in the middle of the seventeenth century. His _Philosophia
Orientalis_, mentioned by Roger Bacon, is lost.

AVIE'NUS, Rufus Festus, a Latin descriptive poet, who flourished about the
end of the fourth century A.D., and wrote _Descriptio Orbis Terrae_, a
general description of the earth; _Ora Maritima_, an account of the
Mediterranean coasts, &c.

AVIFAU'NA, a collective term for the birds of any region.

AVIGLIANO ([.a]-v[=e]l-yae'n[=o]), a town of S. Italy, province Potenza.
Pop. 17,413.

AVIGNON ([.a]-v[=e]-ny[=o]n; ancient, AVENIO), an old town of S.E. France,
capital of department Vaucluse, on the left bank of the Rhone; enclosed by
lofty battlemented and turreted walls, well built, but with rather narrow
streets. It is an archbishop's see since 1475, and has a large and ancient
cathedral on a rock overlooking the town, the immense palace in which the
Popes resided (used as a barracks and prison for a long time), and other
old buildings. The industries of the city are numerous and varied, the
principal being connected with silk. The silk manufacture and the breeding
of silk-worms are the principal employments in the district. Here Petrarch
lived several years, and made the acquaintance of Laura, whose tomb is in
the Franciscan church. From 1309 to 1377 seven Popes in succession, from
Clement V to Gregory XI, resided in this city. After its purchase by Pope
Clement VI, in 1348, Avignon and its district continued, with a few
interruptions, under the rule of a vice-legate of the Pope's till 1791,
when it was formally united to the French Republic. Pop. 49,304.

AVIGNON BERRIES. See _French Berries_.

AVILA (ae'v[=e]-l[.a]), a town of Spain, capital of province of Avila, a
modern division of Old Castile. It is the see of the Bishop suffragan of
Santiago, with fine cathedral. Once one of the richest towns of Spain.
Principal employment in the town, spinning; in the province, breeding sheep
and cattle. Pop., town, 12,060; province, 214,008.

AVILA, Gil Gonzalez d', a Spanish antiquary and biographer, 1577-1658; made
historiographer of Castile in 1612, and of the Indies in 1641. Most
valuable works: _Teatro de las Grandezas de Madrid_, 1623, and _Teatro
Ecclesiastico_, 1645-53.

AVILA Y ZUNIGA (ae'v[=e]-l[.a] [=e] thoe-ny[=e]'g[.a]), Don Luis d',
Spanish general, diplomatist, and historian; a favourite of Charles V; born
about 1490, died about 1560. His chief work, printed in 1548 and translated
into five languages, was on the war of Charles V in Germany.

AVILES ([.a]-v[=e]'les), a town of Northern Spain, province Oviedo, with a
good harbour. Pop. 13,660.

AVIZ, an order of knighthood in Portugal, instituted by Sancho, its first
king, and having as its original object the subjection of the Moors.

AVIZAN'DUM, in Scots law, private consideration. To make _avizandum_ is to
remove a cause from the public court to the private consideration of the
judge.

AVLO'NA (Ital. _Valona_), a seaport of Albania on the Adriatic, with a
considerable trade. It was occupied and made a naval and military base by
the Italians during the European War. Pop. 6500.

AVO'CA, or OVOCA, a river and valley in Ireland, County Wicklow, celebrated
as the scene and subject of one of Moore's _Irish Melodies_. The river is
formed by the union of the Avonbeg and Avonmore, and below the junction
receives the Aughrim, the name in Celtic signifying 'the meeting of the
waters'. After a course of about 9 miles it falls into the sea about a mile
below Arklow. The scenery here is singularly beautiful, and attracts many
visitors.

AVOCA'DO-PEAR. See _Alligator-pear_.

AVOGAD'RO'S LAW, in physics, asserts that equal volumes of different gases
at the same pressure and temperature contain an equal number of molecules.

AVOIRDUPOIS (a-v[.e]r'd[u:]-pois; from old French, literally, 'goods of
weight'), a system of weights used for all goods except precious metals,
gems, and medicines, and in which a pound contains 16 ounces, or 7000
grains, while a pound troy contains 12 ounces, or 5760 grains. A
hundredweight contains 112 pounds avoirdupois; a _cental_ of 100 pounds is
common in America, and is a legal British weight. See _Weights and
Measures_.

AV'OLA, a seaport on the east of Sicily, with a trade in almonds, sugar,
&c. Pop. 17,711.

A'VON, the name of several rivers in England, of which the principal are:
1. The Upper Avon, rising in Leicestershire, and flowing S.W. into the
Severn at Tewkesbury. Stratford-on-Avon lies on this river. 2. The Lower
Avon, rising in Gloucestershire, and falling into the Severn N.W. of
Bristol; navigable as far as Bath. 3. In Monmouthshire. 4. In Wiltshire and
Hampshire, entering the English Channel at Christchurch Bay. There are also
streams of this name in Wales and Scotland.

AVONMOUTH, a place at the mouth of the River Avon, 6 miles from Bristol,
and connected with it by rail and river, with large docks belonging to the
Bristol corporation, and forming part of the shipping accommodation of that
city.

[Illustration: Avoset (_Recurvirostra avosetta_)]

AV'OSET, a bird about the size of a lapwing, of the genus Recurvirostra
(_R. avosetta_), family Scolopacidae (snipes), ord. Grallatores. The bill
is long, slender, elastic, and bent upward toward the tip, the legs long,
the feet webbed, and the plumage variegated with black and white. The bird
feeds on worms and other small animals, which it scoops up from the mud of
the marshes and fens that it frequents. It is found in Europe, Asia,
Africa, and America; but the American species is slightly different from
the others.

AVRANCHES ([.a]-vrae[n.]sh; ancient, ABRINCAE), a town, France, department
La Manche, about 3 miles from the Atlantic. It formerly had a fine
cathedral, destroyed during the first French revolution. Manufactures:
lace, thread, and candles. Pop. 7174.

AWE ([a:]), a Scottish loch in Argyllshire, about 28 miles long and 2
broad, and communicating by the Awe with Loch Etive. Ben Cruachan stands at
its northern extremity. It has many islands and beautiful scenery, and
abounds in trout, salmon, &c.

AXE, or AX, a well-known tool for cutting or chipping wood, consisting of
an iron head with an arched cutting edge of steel, which is in line with
the wooden handle of the tool, and not at right angles to it as in the
adze.

AXEL. See _Absalon_.

AXE-STONE. See _Jade_.

AXHOLME ISLE (aks'[=o]m), a sort of island in England formed by the Rivers
Trent, Idle, and Don, in the north-west angle of Lincolnshire, 17 miles
long, 4-1/2 broad.

[Illustration: Leaf and stem of Horse-chestnut, showing axil]

AXIL, or AXILLA, in botany, the angle between the upper side of a leaf and
the stem or branch from which it springs. Buds usually appear in the axils,
and flowers or flower-stalks growing in this way are called _axillary_.

AX'IM, a town of W. Africa, on the Gold Coast.

AX'INITE, a mineral, silicate of alumina, lime, &c., with boracic acid,
deriving its name from the form of the crystals, the edges of which bear
some resemblance to the edge of an axe.

AXIN'OMANCY, an ancient method of divination by the movements of an axe
(Gr. _axin[=e]_) balanced on a stake, or of an agate placed on a red-hot
axe. The names of suspected persons being uttered, the movements at a
particular name indicated the criminal.

AX'IOM, a universal proposition, which the understanding must perceive to
be true as soon as it perceives the meaning of the words, and therefore
called a _self-evident truth_: e.g. _A_ is _A_. In mathematics, axioms are
those propositions which are assumed without proof, as being in themselves
independent of proof, and which are made the basis of all the subsequent
reasoning; as, 'The whole is greater than its part'; 'Things that are equal
to the same thing are equal to one another'. See _Geometry_.

AXIS, the straight line, real or imaginary, passing through a body or
magnitude, on which it revolves, or may be supposed to revolve; especially
a straight line with regard to which the different parts of a magnitude, or
several magnitudes, are symmetrically arranged; e.g. the _axis of the
world_, the imaginary line drawn through its two poles.

In _botany_ the word is also used, the stem being termed the _ascending
axis_, the root the _descending axis_.

In _anatomy_ the name is given to the second vertebra from the head, that
on which the _atlas_ moves. See _Atlas_.

AXIS (_Cervus axis_), a species of Indian deer, also known as the Spotted
Hog-deer, of a rich fawn colour, nearly black along the back, with white
spots, and under parts white. Breeds freely in many parks in Europe.

AX'MINSTER, a market town, England, county Devon, on the Axe, at one time
celebrated for its woollen cloth and carpet manufactures, and giving name
to an expensive variety of carpet having a thick soft pile, and also to a
cheaper variety. Pop. (1921), 2049.

AX'OLOTL (_Amblyst[)o]ma macul[=a]tum_), a curious Mexican amphibian, not
unlike a newt, from 8 to 10 inches in length, with gills formed of three
long ramified or branch-like processes floating on each side of the neck.
It reproduces by laying eggs, and was for some time regarded as a perfect
animal with permanent gills. It is said, however, that they frequently lose
their gills like the other members of the genus, though some authorities
maintain that the true axolotl never loses its gills, and that merely
confusion with _A. tigr[=i]num_ has led to the belief, as this species
sometimes retains its branchiae, though usually it loses them. The axolotl
is esteemed a luxury by the Mexicans. There are a number of species of
Amblystoma in North America.

AX'UM, or AKSUM, a town in Tigre, a division of Abyssinia, once the capital
of an important kingdom, and at one time the great depot of the ivory trade
in the Red Sea. It is the seat of an _abuna_ or Patriarch, and has a pop.
of 5000. The site of the town still exhibits many remains of its former
greatness.

AYACUCHO (ae-y[.a]-koe'ch[=o]), the name of a department of Peru, and of
its capital. The department has an area of 18,185 sq. miles; a pop. of
302,469. The town (formerly Guamanga or Huamanga) has a cathedral and a
university, and a pop. of 20,000.

AYALA ([.a]-yae'l[.a]), Pedro Lopez de, Spanish historian and poet,
Chancellor of Castile in the second half of the fourteenth century, and the
author of a history of Castile from 1350 to 1396. He took an active part in
the struggle between Henry II and Pedro the Cruel, and was taken prisoner
by the English in 1367. During his English captivity he wrote part of his
chief poetical work, _A Book in Rhyme concerning Court Life_. Died 1407.

AYAMONTE ([.a]-y[.a]-mon't[=a]), a seaport town, Spain, province of Huelva,
2 miles from the mouth of the Guadiana. Pop. 6000.

AYASS'OLUK. See _Ephesus_.

[Illustration: Aye-aye (_Cheir[)o]mys madagascariensis_)]

AYE-AYE ([=i]-[=i]; _Cheir[)o]mys madagascariensis_), an animal of
Madagascar, so called from its cry; now referred to the lemur family. It is
about the size of a hare, has large flat ears and a bushy tail; large eyes;
long sprawling fingers, the third so slender as to appear shrivelled;
colour, musk-brown, mixed with black and grey ash; feeds on grubs, fruits,
&c.; habits, nocturnal. See _Primates_, _Lemurs_.

AYESHA (a-yesh'a), daughter of Abu-Bekr and favourite wife of Mahomet,
though she bore him no child, born in 610 or 611. After his death she
opposed the succession of Ali, but was defeated and taken prisoner. She
died at Medina in 677 or 678 (A.H. 58).

AYLESBURY ([=a]lz'be-ri), county town of Buckinghamshire, England, with a
fine old parish church; chief industries, silk-throwing, printing, making
condensed milk, and poultry-rearing for the London market. The Aylesbury
duck, also called 'white English', is famous. Previous to 1885 it and its
hundred sent two members to Parliament, and it still gives its name to a
parliamentary division. Pop. (1921), 12,114.

AY'LOFFE, Sir Joseph, an English antiquary, born about 1708, died 1781;
member of the first council of the Society of Antiquaries, a commissioner
for the preservation of State papers, the author and editor of several
works, of which the best known is his _Calendars of the Auntient Charters_,
&c.

AYMARAS ([=i]'m[.a]-r[.a]z), an Indian race of Bolivia and Peru, speaking a
language akin to the Quichua.

AY'MON, the surname of four brothers, Alard, Richard, Guiscard, and Renaud,
who hold a first place among the heroes of the Charlemagne cycle of
romance. Their exploits were the subject of a romance, _Les Quatre Fils
d'Aymon_, by Huon de Villeneuve, a trouvere of the thirteenth century, and
Renaud is a leading figure in Ariosto's _Orlando_.

AYR ([=a]r), a town of Scotland, a royal and parliamentary burgh, and
capital of Ayrshire, at the mouth of the River Ayr, on the Firth of Clyde.
It was the site of a Roman station. William the Lion built a castle there
in 1197 and constituted it a royal burgh in 1202; and the Parliament which
confirmed Robert Bruce's title to the crown sat in Ayr. It is picturesquely
situated, and has excellent public and other buildings. Two bridges connect
Ayr proper with the suburbs of Newton and Wallacetown, a third stands
farther up the river. The 'New Brig' of Burns's 'Brigs of Ayr' (built in
1788) had to be replaced by a new structure in 1879, while the 'Auld Brig'
(built in 1252) still stands, after being repaired. Carpets, lace goods,
leather, iron goods, &c., are manufactured. The harbour accommodation is
good, and in particular coals are largely exported. The house in which
Burns was born stands within 1-1/2 miles of the town, and near 'Alloway's
auld haunted kirk', and a monument to him is near. Ayr unites with
Ardrossan, Irvine, Prestwick, Saltcoats, and Troon in sending a member to
Parliament. Pop. 32,986.--The county has an area of 724,523 acres. It is
divided into the districts of Carrick in the south, Kyle in the middle, and
Cunningham in the north. The surface is irregular, and a large portion of
it hilly, but much of it is fertile. The principal streams are the Ayr,
Stinchar, Girvan, Doon, Irvine, and Garnock. Coal and iron are abundant;
and there are numerous collieries and ironworks. Limestone and freestone
are also abundant. Agriculture is in a flourishing state, the principal
crops being oats, turnips, and early potatoes, while dairy husbandry is
extensively practised; the Ayrshire cows, referred to in the eighteenth
century as the Cunningham, are celebrated as milkers, and Ayrshire cheese
('Dunlop' and 'Cheddar') has a high reputation. Woollen manufactures are
extensive, particularly carpets and bonnets; lace goods are largely made;
Kilmarnock is a centre of engineering and of dairying education. Goods made
include explosives, boots and shoes, chemicals, and leather. Chief towns,
Ayr, Kilmarnock, Irvine, Ardrossan, Saltcoats, Stevenston, Maybole. Ayr and
Buteshire send three members to Parliament. Pop. 267,600 (1918).

AYRER ([=i]'rer), Jacob, a German dramatist of the sixteenth century, who
almost rivalled Hans Sachs in copiousness and importance. He was a citizen
and legal official of Nuremberg, and died in 1605. His works, published at
Nuremberg in 1618, under the title _Opus Theatricum_, include thirty
comedies and tragedies and thirty-six humorous pieces.

AYRTON, William Edward, English physicist and electrical engineer, born in
1847. From 1873 to 1879 he was professor of natural philosophy and
telegraphy in the Imperial College of Engineering at Tokio. In 1879 he was
appointed professor of applied physics in the City and Guilds of London
Institute. He invented an ammeter, voltmeter, &c., in conjunction with
Professor Perry. He died in 1908. He published _Practical Electricity_, and
many papers on scientific subjects.

AYTOUN ([=a]'tun), Sir Robert, poet, born in Fifeshire, Scotland, 1570,
died 1638. After studying at St. Andrews he lived for some time in France,
whence, in 1603, he addressed a panegyric in Latin verse to King James on
his accession to the crown of England. By the grateful monarch he was
appointed one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber, and private secretary to
the queen, receiving also the honour of knighthood. At a later period of
his life he was secretary to Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I. His poems
are few in number, but are distinguished by elegance of diction. Several of
his Latin poems are preserved in the work called _Delitiae Poetarum
Scotorum_, published at Amsterdam in 1637 at the expense of Sir John Scot
of Scotstarvet.

AYTOUN, William Edmonstoune, poet and prose writer, born at Edinburgh in
1813, died at Blackhills, Elgin, 1865. He studied at the University of
Edinburgh, became a writer to the signet in 1835, and passed as advocate in
1840. He issued a volume of poems in 1832, by 1836 was a contributor to
_Blackwood's Magazine_, and in 1840 he published the _Life and Times of
Richard 1_. In 1848 he published a collection of ballads entitled _Lays of
the Scottish Cavaliers_, which has proved the most popular of all his
works. It was followed in 1854 by _Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy_
(intended to ridicule certain popular writers); the _Bon Gaultier Ballads_
(parodies and other humorous pieces, in conjunction with Theodore Martin),
1855; in 1856 the poem _Bothwell_; and in subsequent years by _Norman
Sinclair_, _The Glenmutchkin Railway_, and other stories. In 1858 he edited
a critical and annotated collection of the _Ballads of Scotland_. A
translation of the poems and ballads of Goethe was executed by him in
conjunction with Theodore Martin. In 1845 he became professor of rhetoric
and English literature in the University of Edinburgh--a position which he
held till his death. In 1852 he was appointed Sheriff of Orkney and
Shetland.

AYUNTAMIENTO ([.a]-y[u:]n-t[.a]-m[=e]-en't[=o]), the name given to the town
and village councils in Spain and Spanish America.

AYU'THIA, the ancient capital of Siam, on the Menam, now a scene of
splendid ruin.

AZA'LEA, a genus of plants, nat. ord. Ericaceae, or heaths, remarkable for
the beauty and fragrance of their flowers, and distinguished from the
rhododendrons chiefly by the flowers having five stamens instead of ten.
Many beautiful rhododendrons with deciduous leaves are known under the name
of _azalea_ in gardens. The azaleas are common in North America, and two
species of these--_A. visc[=o]sa_ and _A. nudifl[=o]ra_--are well known in
Britain. An Asiatic species, _A. pontica_, famous for the stupefying effect
which its honey is said to have produced on Xenophon's army (cf.
_Anabasis_, book iv, chap. 8), is also common in British gardens and
shrubberies; and another, _A. indica_, is a brilliant greenhouse plant.

AZAMGARH, or AZIMGARH, a town of India, United Provinces, capital of
district of same name. Pop. 18,835.--The district has an area of 2418 sq.
miles; a pop. of 1,530,000.

AZEGLIO ([.a]d-zel'y[=o]), Massimo Taparelli, Marquis d', an Italian
'admirable Crichton', artist, novelist, publicist, statesman, and soldier,
born at Turin in 1798, died 1866. After gaining some reputation in Rome as
a painter, he married the daughter of Manzoni, and achieved success in
literature by his novels _Ettore Fieramosca_ (1833) and _Niccolo dei Lapi_
(1841). These embodied much of the patriotic spirit, and in a short time he
devoted himself exclusively to fostering the national sentiment by personal
action and by his writings. Many of the reforms of Pius IX were due to him.
He commanded a legion in the Italian struggle of 1848, and was severely
wounded at Vincenza. Chosen a member of the Sardinian Chamber of Deputies,
he was, after the battle of Novara, made president of the cabinet, and in
1859 appointed to the military post of general and
commissioner-extraordinary for the Roman States.

AZERBAIJAN ([.a]-zer-b[=i]-jaen'), a province of North-Western Persia;
area, 40,000 sq. miles; pop. estimated at 2,000,000. It consists generally
of lofty mountain ranges, some of which rise to a height of between 12,000
and 13,000 feet. Principal rivers: the Aras or Araxes, and the Kizil-Uzen,
which enter the Caspian; smaller streams discharge themselves within the
province into the great salt lake of Urumiyah. Agricultural products:
wheat, barley, maize, fruit, cotton, tobacco, and grapes. Horses, cattle,
sheep, and camels are reared in considerable numbers. Chief minerals: iron,
lead, copper, salt, saltpetre, and marble. Tabriz is the capital; pop.
200,000.

AZERBAIJAN, a new republic proclaimed in 1918, after the Russian
revolution. It consists of the former Russian province of Baku on the coast
of the Caspian Sea. In 1920 the Bolshevist party overthrew the Government
and broke off relations with the Entente. See _Russia_.

AZ'IMUTH of a heavenly body, the arc of the horizon comprehended between
the meridian of the observer and a vertical circle passing through the
centre of the body. The azimuth and altitude give the exact position of the
body with reference to the horizon.

AZINCOURT. See _Agincourt_.

AZO COMPOUNDS, a class of substances which belong to the benzene series and
contain carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. All azo compounds are highly
coloured, and in some cases they are direct cotton dyes. The simplest azo
compound is _azobenzene_, the chemical formula of which is
C_6H_5--N = N--C_6H_5. It is prepared from nitrobenzene by reducing it with
stannous chloride and sodium hydroxide. Azobenzene is a highly-coloured
crystalline substance, but it is not a dye; it forms, however, the basis of
the dyes known as _azodyes_. The azodyes form one of the largest groups of
dyes, and derive their name from the presence of the characteristic
chemical group --N = N--, known as the _azo_ group. Azo compounds may
become exceedingly complicated in structure. They are divided into mon-azo,
di-azo, tri-azo compounds according to the number of azo groups present.
The well-known dyes Congo Red and Bismarck Brown are azo compounds of
complicated structure. Azo dyes were discovered by Griess in 1856, but as a
class did not come on the market until about 1876.

AZOF. See _Azov_.

AZO'IC. See _Pre-Cambrian_.

AZOIMIDE, or HYDRAZOIC ACID, N_3H, is an acid liquid of disagreeable odour,
producing headache if inhaled. The acid itself and its salts, with the
exception of the alkali salts, are exceedingly explosive and dangerous to
handle. Lead hydrazoate, PbN_6, is one of the most stable of these salts.
It is a more powerful explosive than mercury fulminate, and has been used
instead, in the manufacture of detonators.

AZORES (a-z[=o]rz' or a-z[=o]'res), or WESTERN ISLANDS, a group belonging
to and 900 miles west of Portugal, in the North Atlantic Ocean. They are
nine in number, and form three distinct groups--a N.W., consisting of
Flores and Corvo; a central, consisting of Terceira, Sao Jorge, Pico,
Fayal, and Graciosa; and a S.E., consisting of Sao Miguel (or St. Michael)
and Santa Maria. The total area is 922 sq. miles; Sao Miguel (containing
the capital Ponta Delgada), Pico, and Terceira are the largest. The
islands, which are volcanic and subject to earthquakes, are of
comparatively recent origin, and are conical, lofty, precipitous, and
picturesque. The most remarkable summit is the peak of Pico, about 7600
feet high. There are numerous hot springs. They are covered with luxuriant
vegetation, and diversified with woods, corn-fields, vineyards, lemon and
orange groves, and rich, open pastures. The mild and somewhat humid
climate, combined with the natural fertility of the soil, brings all kinds
of vegetable products rapidly to perfection, among the most important being
grain, oranges, pine-apples, bananas, potatoes, yams, beans, coffee, and
tobacco. The inhabitants are mainly of Portuguese descent, indolent and
devoid of enterprise. Principal exports: wine and brandy, oranges, maize,
beans, pineapples, cattle. The climate is recommended as suitable for
consumptive patients. The Azores were discovered by Cabral about 1431,
shortly after which date they were taken possession of and colonized by the
Portuguese. When first visited they were uninhabited, and had scarcely any
other animals except birds, particularly hawks, to which, called in
Portuguese _acores_, the islands owe their name. Pop. 242,613 (1911).

AZ'OTE, a name formerly given to nitrogen; hence substances containing
nitrogen and forming part of the structure of plants and animals are known
as _azotized_ bodies. Such are albumen, fibrine, caseine, gelatine, urea,
kreatine, &c. See _Nitrogen_.

A'ZOV, or ASOV, a town in the Russian government of Ekaterinoslav, upon an
island at the mouth of the Don, where it flows into the Sea of Azov;
formerly a place of extensive trade, but its harbour has become almost
sanded up. Pop. 31,111.

AZOV, SEA OF (ancient, PALUS MOE[=O]TIS), an arm of the Black Sea, with
which it is united by the Straits of Kertch or Kaffa; length about 170
miles, breadth about 80 miles; greatest depth not more than 8 fathoms. The
W. part, called the Putrid Sea, is separated from the main expanse by a
long sandy belt called Arabat, along which runs a military road. The sea
teems with fish. The Don and other rivers enter it, and its waters are very
fresh.

AZPEITIA ([.a]th-p[=a]'i-ti-[.a]), a town of N.E. Spain, province
Guipuzcoa. Near it is the convent of Loyola, a large edifice, now a museum.
Pop. 6692.

AZ'RAEL. See _As'rael_.

AZ'TECS (from _Aztatl_ (heron), and _Flacatl_ (man), 'people of the
heron'), a race of people who settled in Mexico early in the fourteenth
century, ultimately extended their dominion over a large territory, and
were still extending their supremacy at the time of the arrival of the
Spaniards, by whom they were speedily subjugated. Their political
organization, termed by the Spanish writers an absolute monarchy, consisted
of a military chief exercising important, but not unlimited, power in civil
affairs, in which the council of chiefs and periodic assemblies of the
judges had also a voice. Their most celebrated ruler was Montezuma, who was
reigning when the Spaniards arrived, about the middle of the fifteenth
century. It is inferred that considerable numbers of them lived in large
communal residences, and that land was held and cultivated upon the
communal principle. Slavery and polygamy were both legitimate, but the
children of slaves were regarded as free. Although ignorant of the horse,
ox, &c., they had a considerable knowledge of agriculture, maize and the
agave being the chief produce. Silver, lead, tin, and copper were obtained
from mines, and gold from the surface and river beds, but iron was unknown
to them, their tools being of bronze and obsidian. Metal coins were not in
use. In metal-work, feather-work, weaving, and pottery they possessed a
high degree of skill. To record events they used picture-writing, and their
lunar calendars were of unusual accuracy. Two special deities claimed their
reverence: Huitzilo-pochtli, the god of war, propitiated with human
sacrifices; and Quetzalcoatl, the beneficent god of light and air, with
whom at first the Aztecs were disposed to identify Cortez. Their temples,
with large terraced pyramidal bases, were in the charge of an exceedingly
large priesthood, to whom the education of the young was entrusted. As a
civilization of apparently independent origin, yet closely resembling in
many features the archaic Oriental civilizations, the Aztec civilization is
of the first interest, but in most accounts of it a large speculative
element has to be discounted.

AZ'ULINE, or AZ'URINE, blue dyes belonging to the coal-tar class.

A'ZURE, the heraldic term for the colour blue, represented in engraving by
horizontal lines.

AZ'URINE (_Leuciscus caerul[)e]us_), a fresh-water fish of the same genus
as the roach, chub, and minnow, found in some parts of Europe, but rare in
Britain; called also _Blue Roach_.

AZ'URITE, a blue mineral, a carbonate of copper, often occurring in
crystals. Its formula is 2CuCO_3.Cu(OH)_2, and it is also called _Blue
Malachite_. Also a name of lazulite.

AZYMITE. See _Eucharist_.

       *       *       *       *       *


B

B is the second letter and the first consonant in the English and most
other alphabets. It is a mute and labial, pronounced solely by the lips,
and is distinguished from _p_ by being sonant, that is, produced by the
utterance of voice as distinguished from breath.

B, in _music_, the seventh note of the model diatonic scale or scale of C.
It is called the leading note, as there is always a feeling of suspense
when it is sounded until the keynote is heard.

BAADER, Franz Xaver von (fr[.a]nts-zae'fer fon bae'der), German philosopher
and theologian, born in Munich, 1765, died 1841. He studied engineering,
became superintendent of mines, and was ennobled for services. He was
deeply interested in the religious speculations of Eckhart, St. Martin, and
Boehme, and in 1826 was appointed professor of philosophy and speculative
theology in the University of Munich. During the last three years of his
life he was interdicted from lecturing for opposing the interference in
civil matters of the Roman Catholic Church.

BA'AL, or BEL, a Semitic word, which primarily signified lord or
proprietor, and was afterwards applied to many different divinities, or,
with qualifying epithets, to the same divinity regarded in different
aspects, describing him as an occupier of some physical object or locality,
or as a possessor of some attribute. Thus in _Hos._ ii, 16 it is applied to
Jehovah himself, while _Baal-berith_ (the Covenant-lord) was the god of the
Shechemites, and _Baal-zebub_ (the Fly-god) the idol of the Philistines at
Ekron. Baal was the sacred title applied to the Sun as the principal male
deity of the Phoenicians and their descendants, the Carthaginians, as well
as of the ancient Canaanitish nations, and was worshipped as the supreme
ruler and vivifier of nature. The word enters into the composition of many
Hebrew, Phoenician, and Carthaginian names of persons and places; thus,
_Jerubaal_, _Hasdrubal_ (help of Baal), _Hannibal_ (grace of Baal), and
_Baal-Hammon_, _Baal-Thamar_, &c.

BAALBEK' (ancient, HELIOP[)O]LIS, 'city of the sun'), a place in Syria, in
a fertile valley at the foot of Antilibanus, 40 miles from Damascus, famous
for its magnificent ruins. Of these the chief is the Temple of the Sun,
built either by Antoninus Pius or by Septimius Severus. Some of the blocks
used in its construction are 60 feet long by 12 thick; and its fifty-four
columns, of which six are still standing, were 72 feet high and 22 in
circumference. Near it is a temple of Jupiter, of smaller size though
larger than the Parthenon at Athens, and there are other structures of an
elaborately ornate type. Originally a centre of Sun-worship, it became a
Roman colony under Julius Caesar, was garrisoned by Augustus, and acquired
increasing renown under Trajan as the seat of an oracle. Under Constantine
its temples became churches, but after being sacked by the Arabs in 748,
and more completely pillaged by Tamerlane in 1401, it sank into hopeless
decay. The work of destruction was completed by an earthquake in 1759.

BAAL-ZEBUB. See _Beelzebub_.

BABA, a cape near the north-west point of Asia Minor.

BABADAGH (b[.a]-b[.a]-daeg'), a town of Roumania, capital of the Dobrudsha,
carrying on a considerable Black Sea trade; it was bombarded by the
Russians in 1854. Pop. 10,000.

BAB'BAGE, Charles, English mathematician and inventor of the
calculating-machine, born 1792, died 1871. He graduated at Cambridge in
1814, and occupied the Lucasian chair of mathematics at Cambridge for
eleven years, but delivered no lectures. As early as 1812 he conceived the
idea of calculating numerical tables by machinery, and in 1823 he received
a grant from Government for the construction of such a machine. After a
series of experiments lasting eight years, and an expenditure of L17,000
(L6000 of which was sunk by himself, the balance voted by Government),
Babbage abandoned the undertaking in favour of a much more enlarged work,
an analytical engine, worked with cards like the jacquard-loom; but the
project was never completed. The incompleted machine is now in the South
Kensington Museum. Among the many treatises he published on subjects
connected with mathematics and mechanics few can be regarded as finished
performances. Babbage was instrumental in founding the Astronomical and
Statistical Societies (1820 and 1834).

BABBIT-METAL, a soft metal resulting from alloying together certain
proportions of copper, tin, and zinc or antimony, used with the view of as
far as possible obviating friction in the bearings of journals, cranks,
axles, &c., invented by Isaac Babbit (1799-1862), a goldsmith of Taunton,
Massachusetts.

BA'BEL. See _Babylon_.

BA'BEL, TOWER OF, according to the 11th chapter of _Genesis_, a structure
in the Plain of Shinar, Mesopotamia, commenced by the descendants of Noah
subsequent to the deluge, but which was not allowed to proceed to
completion. It has commonly been identified with the great temple of Belus,
or Bel, that was one of the chief edifices in Babylon, and the huge mound
called Birs Nimrud is generally regarded as its site, though another mound,
which to this day bears the name of Babil, has been assigned by some as its
site. Babel means literally 'gate of God'. The meaning 'confusion' assigned
to it in the Bible really belongs to a word of similar form. See _Babylon_.

BAB-EL-MANDEB ('gate of tears', from being dangerous to small craft), a
strait, 15 miles wide, between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, formed by
projecting points of Arabia in Asia, and Abyssinia in Africa. The Island of
Perim is here.

BA'BER, first Grand Mogul, the founder of the Mogul dynasty in Hindustan,
born in 1483, died 1530. He was a grandson of the great Tartar prince,
Timur or Tamerlane, and was sovereign of Cabul. He invaded Hindustan, and
in 1525 overthrew and killed Sultan Ibrahim, the last Hindu emperor of the
Pathan or Afghan race. He made many improvements, social and political, in
his empire, and left a valuable autobiography (English translation, 1826).

BABEUF (b[.a]-beuf), Francois Noel, a French political agitator, born in
1764; started a democratic journal in Paris, called _Le Tribun du Peuple,
par 'Gracchus' Babeuf_, and wrote with great severity against the Jacobins.
After the fall of Robespierre, to which he powerfully contributed, he
openly attacked the terrorists, and advocated the most democratic
principles. He was accused of a conspiracy against the directorial
Government, condemned to death, and guillotined in 1797. He was one of the
pioneers of Socialism in France.

BAB'INGTON, Anthony, a Catholic gentleman of Derbyshire, born 1561. He
associated with others of his own persuasion to assassinate Queen
Elizabeth, and deliver Mary, Queen of Scots. The plot being discovered, the
conspirators were executed in 1586.

BABIROUSSA. See _Babyroussa_.

BAB'ISM, the doctrines of a Mohammedan sect whose head-quarters is Persia,
founded by Seyd Ali Mohammed in 1844. He took the name of Bab-ed-din, 'the
gate of the faith', and afterwards that of Nokteh, 'the point', as not
merely the recipient of a new divine revelation, but the focus in which all
preceding dispensations would converge. One of his most successful
disciples was a highly-gifted woman, Gurred-ul-Ayn, 'consolation of the
eyes', who perished with many others during a persecution in 1852. The Bab
himself had been executed about two years before this, and was succeeded by
a noble youth, Mirza Yahya. The sect holds that all individual existence is
an emanation from the supreme deity, by whom it will be ultimately
reabsorbed. The morality of the sect is pure and cheerful, and it shows
great advancement in the treatment of woman. Moses, Christ, and Mohammed
are acknowledged as prophets, though only mere precursors of the Bab. A
schism divided the followers of Babism into two sects, Bahais and Ezelis.
The former have carried on an active propaganda in America.

BA'BOO, or BABU, a Hindu title of respect equivalent to _sir_ or _master_,
usually given to wealthy and educated native gentlemen, especially when of
the mercantile class.

[Illustration: Family of Common Baboons (_Cynoceph[)a]lus babouin_)]

BABOON', a common name applied to a division of old-world quadrumana (apes
and monkeys), comprehending the genera Cynoceph[)a]lus and Papio. They have
elongated abrupt muzzles like a dog, strong tusks or canine teeth, usually
short tails, cheek-pouches, small deep eyes with large eyebrows, and naked
callosities on the buttocks. Their hind and fore feet are well
proportioned, so that they run easily on all fours, but they do not
maintain themselves in an upright posture with facility. They are generally
of the size of a moderately large dog, but the largest, the mandrill, is,
when erect, nearly of the height of a man. They are almost all African,
ugly, sullen, fierce, lascivious, and gregarious, defending themselves by
throwing stones, dirt, &c. They live on fruits and roots, eggs and insects.
They include the chacma, drill, common baboon, and mandrill. The chacma or
pig-tailed baboon (_Cynoceph[)a]lus porcarius_) is found in considerable
numbers in parts of the S. African colonies, where the inhabitants wage war
against them on account of the ravages they commit in the fields and
gardens. The common baboon (_C. babouin_) inhabits a large part of Africa
farther to the north. It is of a brownish-yellow colour, while the chacma
is greyish-black, or in parts black. The hamadryas (_C. hamadryas_) of
Abyssinia is characterized by long hair, forming a sort of shoulder-cape.
The black baboon (_C. niger_) is found in Celebes.

BABOUR (bae'b[u:]r). See _Baber_.

BAB'RIUS, a Greek poet who flourished during the second or third century of
the Christian era, and wrote a number of Aesopian fables. Several versions
of these made during the Middle Ages have come down to us as _Aesop's
Fables_. In 1840 a manuscript containing 120 fables by Babrius, previously
unknown, was discovered on Mount Athos.

BABUYA'NES ISLANDS, a group in the Pacific Ocean, between Luzon and
Formosa, belonging to United States. Pop. 12,000.

BABY-FARMING. The law relating to the protection of children and young
persons has been subjected to amendment and consolidation by the Children
Act of 1908, which wholly repealed the Infant Life Protection Act of 1897
dealing with baby-farming and infant life protection.

The Act of 1908 (Part I) deals with baby-farming, and requires that notice
shall be given to the Local Authority (in Scotland the Parish Council) by
the person undertaking for reward the nursing and maintenance of any infant
or infants under seven years of age apart from their parents, within
forty-eight hours after reception, unless the period for which it is
received be only forty-eight hours or less. The notice requires the name,
sex, date and place of birth of the child to be stated, where it is to be
kept, and from whom it is received. The Act also provides that such a
person shall notify any change in his residence or the removal or death of
the infant to the Local Authority within forty-eight hours. In regard to
all these matters the Act is retrospective, and necessitates persons who
had undertaken nursing and maintenance of such infants before its coming
into operation to comply with its provisions within a month after the
commencement thereof. But it exempts any person who may have given the
similar notice required by the Infant Life Protection Act of 1897, although
it does not exempt any person whose duty it was to have given notice
thereunder from any liability which such a person may have incurred
thereunder.

A duty is imposed upon Local Authorities to inquire regarding persons
willing to undertake the nursing and maintenance of infants, to appoint
infant-protection visitors of either sex in so far as it provides for
infant life protection and gives powers to such Local Authorities and
visitors for fulfilling the requirements of the Act. It is an offence for
the person undertaking the nursing to refuse to allow such visitors access
to the infant or the premises in which it is kept; and, if need be,
application may be made to the court for a warrant to enter the house in
which an infant is farmed out, and where there is reason to believe that
the Act is being contravened. It is an offence for any infant to be kept
(1) by any person from whose care an infant has been removed under the Act
or the Infant Life Protection Act, or (2) by any person convicted of any
offence under Part II of the Children Act of 1908 or the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children Act, 1904.

The Local Authority may fix the number of infants under the age of seven
years which may be kept in any dwelling, and it is an offence to keep more.
Provision is also made for the removal of an infant from overcrowded,
dangerous, or insanitary premises, or from the custody of a person unfit to
take charge of the child; and an application may be made by a visitor to a
magistrate for a removal order enforceable by the visitor or a constable.
Should the infant die, notice of the fact must be given by the person with
whom it is farmed out to the Procurator-fiscal of the district, if in
Scotland, and, if in England, to the Coroner of the district, within
twenty-four hours. He shall hold an inquest unless a certificate by a
medical practitioner specifying the cause of death shall be forwarded.
Failure to give such notice is punishable under the Act.

A person nursing an infant for reward shall have no interest in the life of
the child for the purposes of life assurance. It is not permissible for
such a person or insurance company to insure the life of such a child. To
do so renders both the person and the insurance company liable to
prosecution.

Any person knowingly or wilfully making any false statement in any notice
required to be given under the Act commits an offence under the Act.

Imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or a fine not exceeding
L25, may be imposed upon any person found guilty upon summary conviction of
an offence against Part I of the Children Act, 1908; in addition the court
may order the removal of the infant to a place of safety. All fines are
payable to the Local Authority for the purposes of the Act.

Legal guardians of an infant, as well as institutions established for the
protection and care of infants, are exempted from the provisions of Part I
of the Children Act, 1908.

BAB'YLON, the capital of Babylonia, on the left of the Euphrates, one of
the largest and most splendid cities of the ancient world, now a scene of
ruins, and earth-mounds containing them. Babylon was a royal city sixteen
hundred years before the Christian era; but the old city was almost
entirely destroyed in 683 B.C. A new city was built by Nebuchadnezzar
nearly a century later. This was in the form of a square, each side 15
miles long, with walls of such immense height and thickness as to
constitute one of the wonders of the world. It contained splendid edifices,
large gardens and pleasure-grounds, especially the 'hanging-gardens', a
sort of lofty terraced structure supporting earth enough for trees to grow,
and the celebrated Tower of Babel or Temple of Belus, rising by stages to
the height of 625 feet. (See _Babel, Tower of_.) After the city was taken
by Cyrus in 538 B.C., and Babylonia made a Persian province, it began to
decline, and had suffered severely by the time of Alexander the Great. He
intended to restore it, but was prevented by his death, which took place
here in 323 B.C., from which time its decay was rapid. Interesting
discoveries have been made on its site, more especially of numerous and
valuable inscriptions in the cuneiform or arrow-head character. The modern
town of Hillah is believed to represent the ancient city, and the plain
here for miles round is studded with vast mounds of earth and brick and
imposing ruins. The greatest mound is Birs Nimrud, about 6 miles from
Hillah. It rises nearly 200 feet, is crowned by a ruined tower, and is
commonly believed to be the remains of the ancient Temple of Belus. Another
great ruin-mound, called Mujellibeh, has also been assigned as its site.

BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA. These ancient seats of Mesopotamian civilization lay
across the western Asian trade-routes, Babylonia being in the south and
Assyria in the north. The area, in which they flourished is embraced by the
Rivers Tigris and Euphrates, and extends from the head of the Persian Gulf
to the frontiers of Armenia and Northern Syria, is bordered on the east by
Persia and on the west by the Syro-Arabian desert. 'Mesopotamia' is a term
borrowed by the ancient Greeks from the Semites, and was first applied to
the north-western region. There was a Roman province of that name. The
northern area of the Tigro-Euphrates valley is partly mountainous and
partly steppe land, with wide stretches of elevated grazing-lands and
fertile districts on the banks of rivers. Assyria, derived from A-usar
('the river-bank region'), had origin in north-eastern Mesopotamia. Its
most ancient capital, Asshur (modern Kal'at Sherkat), was situated on the
western bank of the River Tigris, between the tributaries the Upper Zab and
the Lower Zab. Nineveh, the last capital of all, lay farther north on the
eastern bank of the Tigris, and right opposite modern Mosul. The Assyrians
called themselves Asshurai, and their national god was Ashur (earlier
Ashir), written A-Shur, but confused in time with Ash-Shur, the name of the
capital. The southern area of Mesopotamia, below Bagdad, where the Tigris
and Euphrates come within 35 miles of one another, is a flat alluvial
plain. Babylonia proper is that fish-shaped region between the rivers,
which broadens out to about 100 miles and gradually narrows to the point at
Kurnah where the rivers meet and form the Shatt-el-Arab. From Kurnah to the
head of the Persian Gulf is the ancient area of Chaldea, which means
'Sea-land'. The inhabitants called themselves Kaldu (Sea-landers) and were
known to the Hebrews as the Kasdim, and to the Greeks as the Chaldaioi.
Babylonia, and the rest of the alluvial plain, is the 'gift' of the rivers
which rise in flood each year when the snow melts on the Armenian
mountains. Both the Tigris and the Euphrates bring down enormous quantities
of sediment--indeed five times as much as does the Egyptian Nile--and they
have withal more destructive tendencies. The accumulating silt tends to
divert the flow of the rivers in the south, and a process of land-making
which began at the close of the Ice Age is still in progress, thrusting
back the head of the Persian Gulf. At one time the Tigris and Euphrates
entered the gulf by separate mouths, and Chaldea was then a narrow fringe
of steppe land, plain, and marshes. The River Tigris is about 1146 miles
long, and begins to rise early in March, reaching its height in May, and
subsiding before the end of June. The Euphrates is a slower river, about
1780 miles in length. It begins to rise a fortnight later than the Tigris,
is longer in flood, and does not reach its lowest level until September. As
there is a drop of only 120 feet between Bagdad and the sea, a distance, as
the crow flies, of about 300 miles, the ancient Babylonians did their
utmost to conserve the water which came down in such abundance and was
rapidly drained away, after doing much damage. Near Bagdad the Tigris is on
a higher level than the Euphrates, and could be run into it through a
canal; farther south the Euphrates, being on the higher level, could be run
by canal into the Tigris. The ancient engineers cut these and other canals;
indeed, they covered the whole valley with a network of them. To store the
Euphrates water for the season of drought and great heat, they formed
canals which carried the roaring flood into two depressions in the western
desert between the modern towns of Kerbela and Ram[.a]di. These depressions
are utilized for the British irrigation scheme. The Babylonians did their
utmost to control the Tigris by erecting earthen dams so as to hold up as
much of the water as possible. Earthen dykes were also erected to raise its
banks. The right bank protected the farms from disastrous flooding. These
ancient irrigation works made Babylonia the greatest grain-yielding area in
the ancient world. Its vast surplus of food stimulated trade and brought
Babylonia immense wealth, while its strategic situation made it very
powerful. Its cultural influence flowed along the trade routes, eastward
across Persia and the Iranian plateau, northward through Assyria to Armenia
(ancient Urartu) and beyond, and north-westward along the Euphrates banks
into Syria and Palestine, and into Asia Minor, the land of the Hittites,
and then along the highway to Europe, called later by the Persians 'the
royal road'. The road to Egypt ran southward from North Syria through
Palestine, skirting the maritime valley by 'the way of the Philistines'.
The merchants of many nations met in the city of Babylon, the London of the
ancient western Asian world, and in the trading centres of North Syria,
including Carchemish.

[Illustration: Assyrian Soldiers]

The earliest agriculturists and traders of Babylonia were the Sumerians, a
non-Semitic people, who built a number of cities in the irrigated valley
and founded colonies in Assyria. No trace has been found of a Neolithic Age
in Babylonia. Its civilization, so far as our knowledge goes, began after
copper was introduced. At an early period Semites filtered into the valley.
They absorbed Sumerian civilization, and ultimately became politically
predominant in the northern part of the valley, which was called Akkad (the
biblical Accad). The southern part was then known as Sumer or Sumeria (the
biblical 'Plain of Shinar'). Akkad embraced the city States of Agade,
Babylon, Borsippa, Sippar, Kish, Opis, and Kutha. The Sumerian city States
included Eridu, Ur (later 'of the Chaldees' and the birthplace of Abraham),
Lagash, Shuruppak, Erech, Umma, and Adab. Inter-state wars resulted time
and again in the formation of confederacies which were more of political
than racial character, and the predominance of one city or another.
Religious ideas were fused, and local pantheons appear to have reflected
local politics. The chief seat of early Sumerian civilization was the city
of Eridu, a name signifying 'on the seashore'. Its site is marked by modern
Abu-Shahrein on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, and south-east of Ur,
modern Mukayyar. Eridu was originally a seaport on the Persian Gulf, from
which it is now separated by about 125 miles of land formed by river silt.
The chief god of Eridu was Ea, a name also rendered Ae and Aa, and
apparently meaning 'waters' or 'house (region) of waters'. That the term
'waters' had a special significance for the inhabitants of a water-formed
land is evident by the fact that the Semitic equivalent of Ea is Enki,
which means 'lord of earth'. Other titles of the god were 'lord of Heaven
and Earth', 'ruler of the land', 'the deep', 'god of the abyss', and 'king
of the river'. He was withal the 'Creator', water having created Sumeria,
and Nadimmud, 'lord of everything', as the Egyptian Osiris in his character
of god of the Nile was 'Neb-er-Zer', also 'lord of everything'. Ea had a
ship with a crew including his son Marduk (Merodach or Marad, the Ni-marad
or Nimrod of legend) and In-ab, 'the pilot of Eridu'. The ship was hailed,
in religious literature, as the bringer of fertility and joy. Evidently the
beginning of Sumerian civilization had some connection with ancient
seafarers. Of special interest in this connection are the references made
by the Greek writer Berosus to Oannes, a sea-dweller who came daily from
the Persian Gulf to instruct the early Babylonians how to irrigate the
land, grow crops, erect houses, make laws, write, calculate and measure,
and engage in trade. Texts have been discovered which tend to identify
Oannes with the god Ea. As the early Sumerians bore a strong physical
resemblance to the ancient Egyptians, and there were links between the
early religious beliefs and customs of the two peoples, it is suspected
that they represented two branches of the same ancient stock. Some think
Sumerian civilization was founded by colonists from Egypt, while others
believe that Egyptian civilization was stimulated by settlers from Sumeria.
The question as to who first invented ships has an important bearing in
this connection. When we turn to Sumero-Babylonian religious myths we find
that some reflect local natural phenomena. In one the Euphrates is hailed
as the River (god) "who didst create all things". Another, referring to the
creation of man, says that Marduk (earlier the god Gilimma) "tied reeds on
the face of the waters, he formed dust and poured it out beside the reeds
... he formed mankind". Another version is that man was created from the
god's blood and bone, or, as Berosus has it, from the god's blood and
earth. The oldest Sumerian creation myth states that all things came from
primeval water. Then many deities were created by the pre-existing triad of
gods, Anu (the sky-god), Enlil ('the elder Bel', the earth-god, and 'lord
of grain'), and Ea, who was associated with the goddess Ninkharsagga. Ea
had several other wives, including Ninshar or Ninkurra, Ninella, Nintu, and
Damkina. These goddesses were ultimately all absorbed by Ishtar, the
Semitic name of the love and mother goddess. In the later Babylonian 'Seven
Tablets' version of the creation myth a conflict is introduced. The female
chaos-dragon Tiamat is slain by Marduk, the chief god of Babylon, 'the
later Bel', who cuts up her body and uses part to form the sky and part to
keep the waters in their place. After a time a deluge took place. In the
Sumerian myth a priest-king called Ziusudu (earlier named Tatug or Uttu)
corresponds both to Adam and to Noah, and builds a large vessel, having
been warned by Ea of the approaching disaster. The Gilgamesh Epic refers to
the hero as Ut-na-pishtim (or Pir-na-pishtim). He and his wife afterwards
become immortal, and they are visited on their island by Gilgamesh (the
Babylonian Hercules), when, smitten by disease, he searches for the Plant
of Life, which he finds and afterwards loses. Ishtar, the goddess who plays
a part in this epic, is also the heroine of the poetic legend which tells
of her descent to Hades in quest of Tammuz, whose story resembles somewhat
that of Adonis and has Osirian characteristics. The Babylonian Persephone
was Eresh-ki-gal with whom Tammuz dwelt in her underworld for part of the
year. Associated with her was Nergal, chief god of Kutha, whose planet was
Mars. He conquered Hades. He and other city gods appear to have been
developed from attributes vaguely shared by the earlier triad Anu,
Bel-Enlil, and Ea. The moon-god of Ur was Sin (Sumerian Nannara), whose
name clings to the desert of Sinai. Shamash was the Semitic name of the
sun-god of Sippar, the Sumerian being Utu; Gishnu, the Light, and
Ma-banda-anna, 'the boat of heaven' (like the Egyptian Ra), and Mitra were
among his other non-Semitic names. Dagan, the god of the Euphrates, is
regarded as a form of Ea, and as probably the same deity as Dagon of the
Philistines. In later times the astrologers coloured with their doctrines
the religious beliefs of Babylonia.

Among the early empire-builders of Babylonia were Lugal-zaggisi of Sumerian
Erech,

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