Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 7

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Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 7 - "Arundel, Thomas" to "Athens"
Author: Various
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 7 - "Arundel, Thomas" to "Athens"" ***

Transcriber's notes:

(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally
printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an
underscore, like C_n.

(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.

(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
paragraphs.

(4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not
inserted.

(5) The following typographical error has been corrected:

ARTICLE ATARGATIS: "... but the home of the goddess was
unquestionably not Palestine, but Syria proper, especially at
Hierapolis (q.v.), where she had a great temple". 'especially'
amended from 'expecially'.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA

A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
AND GENERAL INFORMATION

ELEVENTH EDITION

VOLUME II, SLICE VII

Arundel, Thomas to Athens

ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:

ARUNDEL, THOMAS ASSAB
ARUNDEL (town) ASSAM
ARUNDELL OF WARDOUR ASSAMESE
ARUSIANUS MESSIUS ASSAROTTI, OTTAVIO GIOVANNI BATTISTA
ARVAL BROTHERS ASSARY
ARVALS ASSASSIN
ARVERNI ASSAULT
ARYAN ASSAYE
ARYA SAMAJ ASSAYING
ARYTENOID ASSEGAI
ARZAMAS ASSELIJN, HANS
AS ASSEMANI
ASA ASSEMBLY, UNLAWFUL
ASAFETIDA ASSEN
ASAF-UD-DOWLAH ASSER
ASAPH ASSESSMENT
ASBESTOS ASSESSOR
ASBJÖRNSEN, PETER CHRISTEN ASSETS
ASBURY, FRANCIS ASSIDEANS
ASBURY PARK ASSIGNATS
ASCALON ASSIGNMENT
ASCANIUS ASSINIBOIA
ASCENSION ASSINIBOIN
ASCENSION, FEAST OF THE ASSISE
ASCETICISM ASSISI
ASCHAFFENBURG ASSIUT
ASCHAM, ROGER ASSIZE
ASCHERSLEBEN ASSMANNSHAUSEN
ASCIANO ASSOCIATE
ASCITANS ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS
ASCITES ASSONANCE
ASCLEPIADES (Greek physician) ASSUAN
ASCLEPIADES (of Samos) ASSUMPSIT
ASCLEPIODOTUS ASSUMPTION, FEAST OF
ASCOLI, GRAZIADIO ISAIA ASSUR (land of Assyria)
ASCOLI PICENO ASSUR (capital of Assyria)
ASCONIUS PEDIANUS, QUINTUS ASSUR (god of Assyria)
ASCOT ASSUR-BANI-PAL
ASCUS ASSUS
ASELLI, GASPARO ASSYRIA
ASGILL, JOHN AST, GEORG ANTON FRIEDRICH
ASH ASTARA
A'SHA ASTARABAD
ASHANTI ASTARTE
ASH'ARI ASTELL, MARY
ASHBOURNE ASTER
ASHBURNHAM, JOHN ASTERIA
ASHBURTON, ALEXANDER BARING ASTERID
ASHBURTON, JOHN DUNNING ASTERISK
ASHBURTON (river) ASTERIUS (of Cappadocia)
ASHBURTON (town) ASTERIUS (bishop of Amasia)
ASHBY, TURNER ASTHMA
ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH ASTI
A-SHE-HO ASTLEY, JACOB ASTLEY
ASHER ASTLEY, SIR JOHN DUGDALE
'ASHER BEN-YEHIEL ASTON, ANTHONY
ASHEVILLE ASTON MANOR
ASHFORD ASTOR, JOHN JACOB
'ASHI ASTORGA, EMANUELE D'
ASHINGTON ASTORGA (city)
'ASHKENAZI, SEBI ASTORIA
ASHLAND (Kentucky, U.S.A.) ASTRAEA
ASHLAND (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.) ASTRAGAL
ASHLAND (Virginia, U.S.A.) ASTRAKHAN (government of Russia)
ASHLAND (Wisconsin, U.S.A.) ASTRAKHAN (town of Russia)
ASHLAR ASTROLABE
ASHLEY, WILLIAM JAMES ASTROLOGY
ASHMOLE, ELIAS ASTRONOMY
ASHRAF ASTROPALIA
ASHREF ASTROPHYSICS
ASHTABULA ASTRUC, JEAN
ASHTON-IN-MAKERFIELD ASTURA
ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE ASTURIAS
ASH WEDNESDAY ASTYAGES
ASHWELL, LENA ASTYLAR
ASIA (continent) ASUNCIÓN
ASIA (Roman province) ASVINS
ASIA MINOR ASYLUM
ASIENTO ASYLUM, RIGHT OF
ASIR ATACAMA
ASISIUM ATACAMA, DESERT OF
ASKABAD ATACAMITE
ASKAULES ATAHUALLPA
ASKE, ROBERT ATALANTA
ASKEW, ANNE ATARGATIS
ASMA'I ATAULPHUS
ASMARA ATAVISM
ASMODEUS ATBARA
ASMONEUS ATCHISON
ASNIÈRES ATE
ASOKA ATELLA
ASOLO ATELLANAE FABULAE
ASOR ATESTE
ASP ATH
ASPARAGINE ATHABASCA
ASPARAGUS ATHALARIC
ASPASIA ATHALIAH
ASPASIUS ATHAMAS
ASPEN ATHANAGILD
ASPENDUS ATHANARIC
ASPER, AEMILIUS ATHANASIUS
ASPER, HANS ATHAPASCAN
ASPERGES ATHARVA VEDA
ASPERN-ESSLING ATHEISM
ASPHALT ATHELM
ASPHODEL ATHELNEY
ASPHYXIA ATHENA
ASPIC ATHENAEUM
ASPIDISTRA ATHENAEUS
ASPIROTRICHACEAE ATHENAGORAS
ASPIROZ, MANUEL DE ATHENODORUS
ASPROMONTE ATHENRY
ASQUITH, HERBERT HENRY ATHENS (Greece)
ASS ATHENS (Georgia, U.S.A.)
ASS, FEAST OF THE ATHENS (Ohio, U.S.A.)

ARUNDEL, THOMAS (1353-1414), archbishop of Canterbury, was the third son
of Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel and Warenne, by his second wife,
Eleanor, daughter of Henry Plantagenet, earl of Lancaster. His family
was an old and influential one, and when Thomas entered the church his
preferment was rapid. In 1373 he became archdeacon of Taunton, and in
April 1374 was consecrated bishop of Ely. During the early years of the
reign of King Richard II. he was associated with the party led by
Thomas, duke of Gloucester, Henry, earl of Derby, afterwards King Henry
IV., and his own brother Richard, earl of Arundel, and in 1386 he was
sent with Gloucester to Eltham to persuade Richard to return to
parliament. This mission was successful, and Arundel was made lord
chancellor in place of Michael de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, and assisted
to make peace between the king and the supporters of the commission of
regency. In April 1388 he was made archbishop of York, and, when Richard
declared himself of age in 1389, he gave up the office of chancellor, to
which, however, he returned in 1391. During his second tenure of this
office he removed the courts of justice from London to York, but they
were soon brought back to the metropolis. In September 1396 he was
translated from York to Canterbury, and again resigned the office of
chancellor. He began his new rule by a vigorous attempt to assert his
rights, warned the citizens of London not to withhold tithes, and
decided appeals from the judgments of his suffragans during a thorough
visitation of his province. In November 1396 he had officiated at the
marriage of Richard and Isabella, daughter of Charles VI., king of
France, and his fall was the sequel of the king's sudden attack upon the
lords appellant in 1397. After the arrest of Gloucester, Warwick and
Arundel, the archbishop was impeached by the Commons with the king's
consent, although Richard, who had not yet revealed his hostility, held
out hopes of safety to him. He was charged with assisting to procure the
commission of regency in derogation of the royal authority, and sentence
of banishment was passed, forty days being given him during which to
leave the realm. Towards the end of 1397 he started for Rome, and Pope
Boniface IX., at the urgent request of the king, translated him to the
see of St Andrews, a step which the pope afterwards confessed he
repented bitterly. This translation virtually deprived Arundel of all
authority, as St Andrews did not acknowledge Boniface. He then became
associated with Henry of Lancaster, but did not return to England before
1399, and the account which Froissart gives telling how he was sent by
the Londoners to urge Henry to come and assume the crown is thought to
refer to his nephew and namesake, Thomas, earl of Arundel. Landing with
Henry at Ravenspur, he accompanied him to the west. He took his place at
once as archbishop of Canterbury, witnessed the abdication of Richard in
the Tower of London, led the new king, Henry IV., to his throne in
presence of the peers, and crowned him on the 13th of October 1399.

The main work of his later years was the defence of the church, and the
suppression of heresy. To put down the Lollards, he called a meeting of
the clergy, pressed on the statute _de haeretico comburendo_, and passed
sentence of degradation upon William Sawtrey. He resisted the attempt of
the parliament of 1404 to disendow the church, but failed to induce
Henry to pardon Archbishop Scrope in 1405. In 1407 he became chancellor
for the fourth time, and in 1408 summoned a council at Oxford, which
drew up constitutions against the Lollards. These he published in
January 1409, and among them was one forbidding the translation of the
Bible into English without the consent of the bishop of the diocese, or
of a provincial synod. In 1411 he went on an embassy abroad, and in 1412
became chancellor again, his return to power being accompanied by a
change in the foreign policy of Henry IV. In 1397 he had sought to
vindicate his right of visitation over the university of Oxford, but the
dispute remained unsettled until 1411 when a bull was issued by Pope
John XXIII. recalling one issued by Pope Boniface IX., which had
exempted the university from the archbishop's authority. In 1413 he took
a leading part in the proceedings against Sir John Oldcastle, Lord
Cobham, and in the following year he died on the 19th of February, and
was buried at Canterbury. A legend of a later age tells how, just before
his death, he was struck dumb for preventing the preaching of the word
of God.

The chief authorities are T. Walsingham, _Historia Anglicana_, ed. by
H.T. Riley (London, 1863-1864); _Eulogium historiarum sive temporis_,
ed. by F.S. Haydon (London, 1858-1863); the Monk of Evesham, _Historia
vitae et regni Ricardi II._, ed. by T. Hearne (Oxford, 1729); W.F.
Hook, _Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury_, vol. iv. (London,
1860-1876).

ARUNDEL, a market town and municipal borough in the Chichester
parliamentary division of Sussex, England, 58 m. S.S.W. from London by
the London, Brighton & South Coast railway. Pop. (1901) 2739. It is
pleasantly situated on the slope of a hill above the river Arun, which
is navigable for small vessels to Littlehampton at the mouth, 6 m.
south. From the summit of the hill rises Arundel Castle, which guarded
the passage along the river through the hills. For its connexion with
the title of earl of Arundel see ARUNDEL, EARLDOM OF. A castle existed
in the time of King Alfred, and at the time of the Conquest it was
rebuilt by Roger de Montgomerie, but it was taken from his son, who
rebelled against the reigning monarch, Henry I. In 1397 it was the scene
of a conspiracy organized by the earl of Arundel, archbishop of
Canterbury and duke of Gloucester, to dethrone Richard II. and murder
the lords of his council, a plot which was discovered before it could be
carried into execution. During the civil wars of the 17th century, the
stronghold was frequently assaulted by the contending parties, and
consequently greatly damaged; but it was restored by Charles, 11th duke
of Norfolk (d. 1815), who made it what it now is, one of the most
splendid baronial mansions in England. Extensive reconstruction, in the
style of the 13th century, was undertaken towards the close of the 19th
century. The town, according to the whimsical etymology shown on the
corporation seal, takes its name from _hirondelle_ (a swallow). The town
hall is a castellated building, presented to the corporation by the duke
of Norfolk. The church of St Nicholas, founded about 1375, is
Perpendicular with a low tower rising from the centre. In the north
aisle of the chancel there are several ancient monuments of the earls of
Arundel. The church is otherwise remarkable for its reredos and iron
work. The chancel is the property of the duke of Norfolk and is screened
from the rest of the building, although in 1880 this exercise of right
by the owner was made the subject of an action at law and subsequent
appeal. The Roman Catholic church of St Philip Neri was built by the
duke of Norfolk (1873). Some remains of a _Maison Dieu_, or hospital,
erected in the time of Richard II., still exist. The borough is under a
mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 2053 acres.

The first mention of Arundel (Harundell) comes as early as 877, when
it was left by King Alfred in his will to his nephew Æthelm. In the
time of Edward the Confessor the town seems to have consisted of the
mill and a fortification or earthwork which was probably thrown up by
Alfred as a defence against the Danes; but it had increased in
importance before the Conquest, and appears in Domesday as a thriving
borough and port. It was granted by the Conqueror to Roger de
Montgomery, who built the castle on the site of the ancient earthwork.
From very early times markets were held within the borough on Thursday
and Saturday, and in 1285 Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, obtained
a grant of two annual fairs on the 14th of May and the 17th of
December. The borough returned two members to parliament from 1302 to
1832 when the Reform Act reduced the membership to one; in 1868 it was
disfranchised altogether. There are no early charters extant, but in
1586 Elizabeth acknowledged the right of the mayor and burgesses to be
a body corporate and to hold a court for pleas under forty shillings,
two weekly markets and four annual fairs--which rights they claimed to
have exercised from time immemorial. James II. confirmed in 1688 a
charter given two years before, and incorporated the borough under the
title of a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 burgesses. The town was half
destroyed by fire in 1338, but was soon rebuilt. Arundel was formerly
a thriving seaport, and in 1813 was connected by canal with London.

See M.A. Tierney, _The History and Antiquities of the Castle and Town
of Arundel_ (London, 1834); _Victoria County History--Sussex._

ARUNDELL OF WARDOUR, THOMAS ARUNDELL, 1ST BARON (c. 1562-1639), son of
Sir Mathew Arundell of Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, a member of the
ancient family of Arundells of Lanherne in Cornwall, and of Margaret,
daughter of Sir Henry Willoughby, was born about 1562. In 1579 he was
personally recommended by Queen Elizabeth to the emperor Rudolph II. He
greatly distinguished himself while serving with the imperial troops
against the Turks in Hungary, and at the siege of Gran or Esztergom on
the 13th of August 1595, he captured the enemy's banner with his own
hand. He was created by Rudolph II. a count of the Holy Roman Empire in
December 1595, and returned to England after suffering shipwreck and
barely preserving his life in January 1596. His assumption of the
foreign title created great jealousy among the English peers, who were
wont to give a precedence by courtesy to foreign nobles, and he incurred
the resentment of his father, who objected to his superior rank and
promptly disinherited him. The queen, moreover, was seriously
displeased, declared that "as chaste wives should have no glances but
for their own spouses, so should faithful subjects keep their eyes at
home and not gaze upon foreign crowns," and committed him to the Fleet
immediately on his arrival, while she addressed a long letter of
remonstrance on the subject to the emperor. Arundell remained under
arrest till April, when he was liberated after an examination. In April
1597, however, he was again confined, but declared innocent of any
charge save that of "practising to contrive the justification of his
vain title with Ministers beyond the seas." In December he was liberated
and placed under the care of his father, but next year he was again
arrested and accused of a conspiracy against the government. His
petitions for a licence to undertake an expedition by sea, wherein he
declared "his end was honour which some base minds call ambition," were
refused, but in 1599 he was apparently again restored to favour. On the
4th of May 1605 he was created by James I. Baron Arundell of Wardour,
but fell again under temporary suspicion at the time of the Gunpowder
Plot. In 1623 he once more got into trouble by championing the cause of
the recusants, of whom he was himself one, on the occasion of the visit
of the Spanish envoys, and he was committed to custody, and in 1625 all
the arms were removed by the government from Wardour Castle. After the
accession of Charles I. he was pardoned, and attended the sittings of
the House of Lords. He was indicted in the king's bench about the year
1627 for not paying some contribution, and in 1632 he was accused of
harbouring a priest. In 1637 he was declared exempt from the recusancy
laws by the king's order, but in 1639 he again petitioned for relief.
The same year he paid £500 in lieu of attending the king at York. He
died on the 7th of November 1639. Arundell was an earnest Roman
Catholic, but the suspicions of the government as to his loyalty were
probably unfounded and stifled a career destined by nature for
successful adventure. He married (1) Mary, daughter of Henry
Wriothesley, 2nd earl of Southampton, by whom besides other children he
had Thomas, who succeeded him as 2nd baron; and (2) Anne, daughter of
Miles Philipson, by whom he had several daughters.

HENRY ARUNDELL, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour (c. 1607-1694), son of
Thomas, 2nd baron, and of Blanche, daughter of Edward, earl of
Worcester, was born on the 21st of July 1607, and succeeded on his
father's death in 1643 to the family title and estates. A strong
royalist and Roman Catholic, he supported the king's cause, and
distinguished himself in 1644 by the recapture of his castle at Wardour
from the parliamentarians, who had taken it in the previous year in
spite of his mother's brave defence of the place. In 1648 he was one of
the delinquents exempted from pardon in the proposals sent to Charles in
the Isle of Wight. His estates had been confiscated, but he was
permitted about 1653 to compound for them in the sum of £35,000. In
1652, in consequence of his being second at a duel in which one of the
combatants was killed, he was arrested, and tried in 1653; he pleaded
his peerage, but the privilege was disallowed as the House of Lords had
been abolished. At the Restoration he regained possession of the family
estates, and in 1663 was made master of the horse to Henrietta Maria. He
was one of the few admitted to the king's confidence concerning the
projects for the restoration of the Roman Catholic religion and the
alliance with France. In 1669 he took part in the secret council
assembled by Charles II., and in October was sent to France, ostensibly
for the funeral of Henrietta Maria, but in reality to negotiate with
Louis XIV. the agreement which took shape in 1670 in the treaties of
Dover (see CHARLES II.). In 1676 he was privy to James's negotiations
with Rome through Coleman. He was accused in 1678 by Titus Oates of
participation in the popish plot, and was one of the five Roman Catholic
peers arrested and imprisoned in the Tower in October, found guilty by
the Middlesex grand jury of high treason, and impeached subsequently by
the parliament. Lord Stafford was found guilty and executed in December
1680, but after the perpetration of this injustice the proceedings were
interrupted, and the three surviving peers were released on bail on the
12th of February 1684. On the 22nd of May 1685, after James II.'s
accession, the charge was annulled, and on the 1st of June 1685 they
obtained their full liberty. In February 1686, with other Roman
Catholics, Arundell urged upon the king the removal of his mistress,
Lady Dorchester, on account of her strong Protestantism. In spite of his
religion he was made a privy councillor in August 1686, and keeper of
the privy seal in 1687, being excused from taking the oaths by the
king's dispensation. He presented the thanks of the Roman Catholics to
James in June 1687 for the declaration of indulgence. His public career
ended with the abdication of the king, and he retired to Breamore, the
family residence since the destruction of Wardour Castle. He died on the
28th of December 1694. He was the author of five religious poems said to
be composed during his confinement in the Tower in 1679, published the
same year and reprinted in _A Collection of Eighty-six Loyal Poems_ in
1685. His piety and benevolence to his unfortunate co-religionists were
conspicuous. Evelyn calls him "very good company" and he was a noted
sportsman, the Quorn pack being descended from his pack of hounds at
Breamore. He married Cecily, daughter of Sir Henry Compton, by whom
besides other children he had Thomas, who succeeded him as 4th baron.

The barony is still held in the Arundell family, which has never ceased
to be Roman Catholic. The 14th baron (b. 1859) was a direct descendent
of the 6th.

ARUSIANUS MESSIUS, or MESSUS, Latin grammarian, flourished in the 4th
century A.D. He was the author of a small extant work _Exempla
Elocutionum_, dedicated to Olybrius and Probinus, consuls for the year
395. It contains an alphabetical list, chiefly of verbs admitting more
than one construction, with examples from each of the four writers,
Virgil, Sallust, Terence and Cicero. Cassiodorus, the only writer who
mentions Arusianus, refers to it by the term Quadriga.

See Keil, _Grammatici Latini_, vii.; Suringar, _Historia Critica
Scholiastarum Latinorum_ (1834-1835); Van der Hoeven, _Specimen
Literarium_ (1845).

ARVAL BROTHERS (Fratres Arvales), in Roman antiquities, a college or
priesthood, consisting of twelve members, elected for life from the
highest ranks in Rome, and always apparently, during the empire,
including the emperor. Their chief duty was to offer annually public
sacrifice for the fertility of the fields (Varro, _L. L_. v. 85). It is
generally held that the college was founded by Romulus (see ACCA
LARENTIA). This legend probably arose from the connexion of Acca
Larentia, as _mater Larum_, with the Lares who had a part in the
religious ceremonies of the Arvales. But apart from this, there is proof
of the high antiquity of the college, which was said to have been older
than Rome itself, in the verbal forms of the song with which, down to
late times, a part of the ceremonies was accompanied, and which is still
preserved. It is clear also that, while the members were themselves
always persons of distinction, the duties of their office were held in
high respect. And yet it is singular that no mention of them occurs in
Cicero or Livy, and that altogether literary allusions to them are very
scarce. On the other hand, we possess a long series of the _acta_ or
minutes of their proceedings, drawn up by themselves, and inscribed on
stone. Excavations, commenced in the 16th century and continued to the
19th, in the grove of the Dea Dia about 5 m. from Rome, have yielded 96
of these records from A.D. 14 to 241. The brotherhood appears to have
languished in obscurity during the republic, and to have been revived by
Augustus. In his time the college consisted of a master (_magister_), a
vice-master (_promagister_), a _flamen_, and a _praetor_, with eight
ordinary members, attended by various servants, and in particular by
four chorus boys, sons of senators, having both parents alive. Each wore
a wreath of corn, a white fillet and the praetexta. The election of
members was by co-optation on the motion of the president, who, with a
flamen, was himself elected for one year. The great annual festival
which they had to conduct was held in honour of the anonymous Dea Dia,
who was probably identical with Ceres. It occupied three days in May.
The ceremony of the first day took place in Rome itself, in the house of
the magister or his deputy, or on the Palatine in the temple of the
emperors, where at sunrise fruits and incense were offered to the
goddess. A sumptuous banquet took place, followed by a distribution of
doles and garlands. On the second and principal day of the festival the
ceremonies were conducted in the grove of the Dea Dia. They included a
dance in the temple of the goddess, at which the song of the brotherhood
was sung, in language so antiquated that it was hardly intelligible (see
the text and translation in Mommsen, _Hist, of Rome_, bk. i. ch. xv.)
even to Romans of the time of Augustus, who regarded it as the oldest
existing document in their mother-tongue. Especial mention should be
made of the ceremony of purifying the grove, which was held to be
defiled by the felling of trees, the breaking of a bough or the presence
of any iron tools, such as those used by the lapidary who engraved the
records of the proceedings on stone. The song and dance were followed by
the election of officers for the next year, a banquet and races. On the
third day the sacrifice took place in Rome, and was of the same nature
as that offered on the first day. The Arvales also offered sacrifice and
solemn vows on behalf of the imperial family on the 3rd of January and
on other extraordinary occasions. The brotherhood is said to have lasted
till the time of Theodosius. The British Museum contains a bust of
Marcus Aurelius in the dress of a Frater Arvalis.

Marini, _Atti e Monumenti de' Fratri Arvali_ (1795); Hoffmann, _Die
A._ (1858): Oldenberg, _De Sacris Fratrum A_. (1875); Bergk, _Das Lied
der Arvalbrüder_ (1856); Bréal, "Le Chant des Arvals" in _Mém. de la
Soc. de Linguistique_ (1881); Edon, _Nouvelle Étude sur le Chant
Lémural_ (1884); _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vi. 2023-2119;
Henzen, _Acta Fratrum Arvalium_ (1874).

ARVALS, ARVELS or ARTHELS (O. Norse _Arfr_, inheritance, and _öl_, A.S.
Ale, a banquet), primarily the funeral dinner, and later, especially in
the north of England, a thin, light, sweet cake, spiced with cinnamon
and nutmeg, served to the poor at such feasts. The funeral meal was
called the Arvel-dinner. The custom seems to have been to hold on such
occasions an informal inquest, when the corpse was publicly exposed, to
exculpate the heir and those entitled to the property of the dead from
all accusations of foul play.

ARVERNI, the name of an ancient Gaulish tribe in the Auvergne, which
still bears its name. It resisted Caesar longer than most of Gaul; when
once vanquished it adopted Roman civilization readily. Its tribal deity,
the god of the mountain, the Puy de Dôme, rechristened in Roman phrase
Mercurius Dumias, was famous far beyond its territory. Part of his
temple has been excavated recently.

ARYAN, a term which has been used in a confusing variety of
significations by different philologists. By Max Müller especially it
was employed as a convenient short term for the whole body of languages
more commonly known as Indo-European (q.v.) or Indo-Germanic. In the
same way Max Müller used Aryas as a general term for the speakers of
such languages, as in his book published in 1888, _Biographies of Words
and the Home of the Aryas_. "Aryas are those who speak Aryan languages,
whatever their colour, whatever their blood. In calling them Aryas we
predicate nothing of them except that the grammar of their language is
Aryan" (p. 245). It is to be observed, therefore, that Max Müller is
careful to avoid any ethnological signification. The Aryas are those who
speak Aryan without regard to the question whether Aryan is their
_hereditary_ language or not. As he says still more definitely elsewhere
in the same work (p. 120), "I have declared again and again that if I
say Aryas, I mean neither blood nor bones, nor hair nor skull; I mean
simply those who speak an Aryan language. The same applies to Hindus,
Greeks, Romans Germans, Celts and Slaves. When I speak of them I commit
myself to no anatomical characteristics. The blue-eyed and fair-haired
Scandinavians may have been conquerors or conquered, they may have
adopted the language of their darker lords or their subjects, or vice
versa. I assert nothing beyond their language when I call them Hindus,
Greeks, Romans, Germans, Celts and Slaves; and in that sense, and in
that sense only, do I say that even the blackest Hindus represent an
earlier stage of Aryan speech and thought than the fairest
Scandinavians.... To me an ethnologist who speaks of Aryan race, Aryan
blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a linguist who
speaks of a dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar."

From the popularity of Max Müller's works on comparative philology this
is the use of the word which is most familiar to the general public. The
arguments in support of this use are set forth by him in the latter part
of lecture vi. of the _Lectures on the Science of Language_ (first
series) and as an appendix to chap. vii. of the final edition (i. pp. 291
ff.). The Sanskrit usage of the word is fully illustrated by him from the
early Sanskrit writings in the article "Aryan" in the ninth edition of
this encyclopaedia. From the earliest occurrences of the word it is clear
that it was used as a national name not only in India but also in Bactria
and Persia (in Sanskrit _árya_- and _arya_, in Zend _airya_-, in Old
Persian _ariya_-). That it is in any way connected with a Sanskrit word
for earth, _ira_, as Max Müller asserts, is far from certain. As Spiegel
remarks (_Die arische Periode_, p. 105), though it is easy enough to
connect the word with a root _ar_-, there are several roots of that form
which have different meanings, and there is no certain criterion whereby
to decide to which of them it is related. Nor are the other connexions
for the word outside this group free from doubt. It is, however, certain
that the connexion with _Erin_ (Ireland), which Pictet in his article
"Iren and Arier" (Kuhn and Schleicher's _Beiträge_, i. 1858, pp. 81 ff.)
sought to establish, is impossible (Whitley Stokes in Max Müller's
_Lectures_, 1891, i. pp. 299 f.), though the word may have the same
origin as the _Ario_- of names like _Ariovistus_, which is found in both
Celtic and Germanic words (Uhlenbeck, _Kurzgefasstes etymologisches
Wörterbuch der altindischen Sprache_, s.v.). The name of Armenia (Old
Persian _Armina_-), which has often been connected, is of uncertain
origin. Within Sanskrit itself probably two words have to be
distinguished: (1) _árya_, the origin of Aryan, from which the usual term
_arya_ is a derivative; (2) _aryá_, which frequently appears in the _Rig
Veda_ as an epithet of deities. In many passages, however, _aryás_ may
equally well be the genitive of _arí_, which is explained as "active,
devoted, pious." Even in this word probably two originally separate words
have to be distinguished, for the further meanings which Grassmann in his
dictionary to the _Rig Veda_ attaches to it, viz. "greedy" (for treasure
and for battle), "godless," "enemy," seem more appropriately to be
derived from the same source as the Greek [Greek: eri-s], "strife." The
word _árya_- is not found as a national name in the _Rig Veda_, but
appears in the _Vajasaneyi-sainhita_, where it is explained by Mahidhara
as _Vaisya_-, a cultivator or a man of the third among the original four
classes of the population. So in the _Atharva Veda_ (iv. 20. 4; xix. 62.
1) it is contrasted with the Sudra or fourth class (Spiegel, _Arische
Periode_, p. 102). In the _Avesta, airya_- is found both as adjective and
substantive in the sense of Aryan, but no light is thrown upon the
history of the word. Darius describes himself in an inscription as of
Aryan stock, _Daraya[h]va[h]us ariya[h]civ[r]a[h]_. In the _Avesta_ the
derivative _airyana_- is also found in the sense of Aryan. In both India
and Persia a word is found (Skt. _aryaman_-; Zend _airyahman_-) which is
apparently of the same origin. In both Sanskrit and Zend it means
something like "comrade" or "bosom friend," but in Zend is used of the
priestly or highest class. In Sanskrit, besides this use in which it is
contrasted with the _Dasa_ or _Dasyu_, the enemies, the earlier
inhabitants, the word is often used for the bridegroom's spokesman, and
in both languages is also employed as the name of a divine being. In the
_Rig Veda, Aryaman_- as a deity is most frequently coupled with Mitra and
Varuna (Grassmann, _Wörterbuch_, s.v.); in Zend, according to Bartholomae
(_Altiranisches Wörterbuch_, s.v.), from the earliest literature, the
Gathas, there is nothing definite to be learnt regarding _Airyaman_.

Whatever the origin of _arya_-, however, it is clear that it is a word
with dignified associations, by which the peoples belonging to the
Eastern section of the Indo-Europeans were proud to call themselves. It
is now used uniformly by scholars to indicate the Eastern branch as a
whole, a compound, _Indo-Aryan_, being employed for that part of the
Eastern branch which settled in India to distinguish them from the
Iranians (_Iran_ is of the same origin), who remained in Bactria and
Persia, while _Aryo-Indian_ is sometimes employed to distinguish the
Indian people of this stock from the Dravidian and other stocks which
also inhabit parts of the Indian peninsula. Of the stages in the
occupation of the Iranian table-land by the Aryan people nothing is
known, the people themselves having apparently no tradition of a time
when they did not hold these territories (Spiegel, _Arische Periode_, p.
319). Though the Hindus have no tradition of their invasion of India, it
is certain that they are not an indigenous people, and, if they are not,
it is clear that they could have come in no other direction save from
the other side of the Hindu Kush. At the period of their earliest
literature, which may be assigned roughly to about 1000 B.C., they were
still settled in the valley of the Indus, and at this time the
separation probably had not long taken place, the Eastern portion of the
stock having pushed their way along the Kabul valley into the open
country of the Indus. According to Professor E.W. Hopkins (_India Old
and New_, 1901, p. 31) the _Rig Veda_ was composed in the district about
Umballa. He argues that the people must have been then to the west of
the great rivers, otherwise the dawn could not be addressed as one who
"in shining light, before the wind arises, comes gleaming over the
waters, making good paths." The vocabulary is still largely the same;
whole sentences can be transliterated from one language to the other
merely by making regular phonetic changes and without the variation of a
single word (for examples see Bartholomae, _Handbuch der altiranischen
Dialekte_, 1883, p. v.; Williams Jackson, _Avesta Grammar_, 1892, pp.
xxxi. f.; _Grundriss der iranischen Philologie_, 1895, i. p. 1). It is
noteworthy that it is those who remain behind whose language has
undergone most change.

By four well-marked characteristics the Aryan group is easily
distinguishable from the other Indo-European languages. (1) By the
confusion of original _e_ and _o_, both long and short, with the
original long and short _a_ sound; (2) the short schwa-sound [schwa] is
represented here, and in this group only, by _i_ (_pita_, "father," as
compared with [Greek: pataer], &c.); (3) original _s_ after _i_, _u_ and
some consonants becomes s; (4) the genitive plural of stems ending in a
vowel has a suffix-_nam_ borrowed by analogy from the stems ending in
_-n_ (Skt. _ásvanam_, "of horses"; Zend _aspanam_; Old Persian
_aspanam_). The distinctions between Sanskrit and Iranian are also
clear, (1) The Aryan voiced aspirates _gh, dh, bh_, which survive in
Sanskrit, are confused in Iranian with original _g, d, b_, and further
changes take place in the language of the later parts of the Avesta; (2)
the Aryan breathed aspirates _kh, th, ph_, except in combination with
certain consonants, become spirants in Iranian; (3) Aryan _s_ becomes
_h_ initially before vowels in Iranian and also in certain cases
medially, Iranian in these respects resembling Greek (cf. Skt. _saptá_;
Zend _hapta_; Gr. [Greek: hepta], "seven"); (4) in Zend there are many
vowel changes which it does not share with Old Persian. Some of these
arise from the umlaut or epenthesis which is so prevalent, and which we
have already seen in _airya_- as compared with the Skt. _árya_. In other
respects the languages are remarkably alike, the only striking
difference being in the numeral "one"--Skt. _eka_-; Zend _aeva_-; Old
Persian _aiva_-, where the Iranian group has the same stem as that seen
in the Greek [Greek: oi(f)o-s], "alone."

For the subdivisions of the two groups see the articles on PERSIA:
_Language_, and INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES. Dr Grierson has shown in his
monograph on "The Pisaca Languages of North-Western India" (Royal
Asiatic Society, 1906) that there is good reason for regarding various
dialects of the north-western frontier (Kafiristan, Chitral, Gilgit,
Dardistan) as a separate group descended from Aryan but independent of
either Sanskrit or Iranian.

The history of the separation of the Aryan from the other Indo-European
languages is not yet clear (see INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES). Various
attempts have been made, with little success, to identify fragments of
unknown languages in cuneiform inscriptions with members of this group.
The investigation has entered a new and more favourable stage as the
result of the discoveries made by German excavators at Boghaz Keui (said
to be identical with Herodotus' Pteria in Cappadocia), where treaties
between the king of the Hittites and the king of Mitanni, in the
beginning of the 14th century B.C., seem almost certainly to contain the
names of the gods Mitra, Varuna and Indra, which belong to the early
Aryan mythology (H. Winckler, _Mitteilungen der deutschen
Orientgesellschaft_, No. 35; E. Meyer, _Sitzungsberichte der Berliner
Akademie_, 1908, pp. 14 ff.; _Zeitschrift für vergleichende
Sprachforschung_, 42, 1908, pp. 24 ff.). Still further light is to be
expected when the vast collections of the German expedition to Turfan
(Turkestan) have been sifted. Up to 1909 only a preliminary account had
been given of Tocharish, a hitherto unknown Indo-European language,
which is reported to be in some respects more akin to the Western groups
than to Aryan. But further investigation is still required (see E. Sieg
and W. Siegling, "Tocharisch, die Sprache der Indoskythen," in
_Sitzungsberichte der Berl. Akad._ (July 1908, pp. 915 ff.). (P. Gi.)

ARYA SAMAJ, a Hindu religious association with reforming tendencies,
which was founded by a Guzerati Brahman named Dayanand Saraswati. This
man was born of a Saivite family about 1825, but in early manhood grew
dissatisfied with idol-worship. He undertook many pilgrim-ages and
studied the Vedic philosophy in the hope of solving the old problem of
the Buddha,--how to alleviate human misery and attain final liberation.
About 1866, when he had begun to teach and to gather disciples, he first
saw the Christian scriptures, which he vehemently assailed, and the _Rig
Veda_, which he correspondingly exalted, though in the conception which
he ultimately formed of God the former was much more influential than
the latter. Dayanand's treatment of the Vedas was peculiar, and
consisted of reading into them his own beliefs and modern scientific
discoveries. Thus he explains the _Yajna_ (sacrificial cult) as "the
entertainment of the learned in proportion to their worth, the business
of manufacture, the experiment and application of chemistry, physics and
the arts of peace; the instruction of the people, the purification of
the air, the nourishment of vegetables by the employment of the
principles of meteorology, called _Agni-Notri_ in Sanskrit." He denied
that the _Vedas_ warranted the caste system, but wished to retain the
four grades as orders of learning to which admission should be won by
examination.

These views naturally met with scanty acceptance among the Brahmans to
whom he introduced them, and Dayanand turned to the masses and
established _Samajes_ in various parts of India, the first being at
Bombay in 1875. He chose the epithet Arya as being more dignified than
the slightly contemptuous term Hindu. After a successful series of
tours, during which he debated publicly with orthodox pundits and with
Christian missionaries, he died at Ajmere in 1883.

The Arya Samaj is not an eclectic system like the Brahma Samaj, which
strives to find the common basis underlying all the great religions, and
its narrower scope and corresponding intensity of conviction have won it
a greater strength. It seemed to meet the feeling of many educated
natives whose faith in current Hinduism was undermined, but who were
predisposed against any foreign religious influence. Their patriotic
ardour gladly seized on "a view of the original faith of India that
seemed to harmonize with all the discoveries of modern science and the
ethics of European civilization," and they cheerfully supported their
leader's strange polemic with the agnostic and rationalist literature of
Europe. By 1890 their numbers had increased to 40,000, by 1900 to over
92,000. Divisions had, however, set in, especially a cleavage into the
_Ghasi_ or vegetarian, and the _Mansi_ or flesh-eating sections. To the
latter belong those Rajputs who though generally in sympathy with the
movement declined to adhere to the tenet of the _Samaj_ which forbade
the destruction of animal life and the consumption of animal food. The
age of admission to the Samaj is eighteen, and members are expected to
contribute to its funds at least 1% of their income.

The ten articles of their creed may be summarized thus:--

1. The source of all true knowledge is God.
2. God is "all truth, all knowledge, all bliss, boundless, almighty,
just, merciful, unbegotten, without a beginning, incomparable,
the support and Lord of all, all-pervading, omniscient,
imperishable, immortal, eternal, holy, and the cause of the
universe; worship is due to him alone."
3. The medium of true knowledge is the _Vedas_.
4. and 5. The truth is to be accepted and to become the guiding
principle.
6. The object of the Samaj is to benefit the world by improving
its physical, social, intellectual and moral conditions.
7. Love and justice are the right guides of conduct.
8. Knowledge must be spread.
9. The good of others must be sought.
10. In general interests members must subordinate themselves to
the good of others; in personal interests they should retain
independence.

The sixth clause comprehends a wide programme of reform, including
abstinence from spirituous liquors and animal food, physical cleanliness
and exercise, marriage reform, the promotion of female education, the
abolition of caste and of idolatry.

ARYTENOID (or _arytaenoid_; from Gr. [Greek: arytaina], a funnel or
pitcher), a term, meaning funnel-shaped, applied to cartilages such as
those of the larynx.

ARZAMAS, a town of Russia, in the government of, and 76 m. by rail S. of
the town of, Nizhniy-Novgorod, on the Tesha river, at its junction with
the Arsha. It is an important centre of trade, and has tanneries, oil,
flour, tallow, dye, soap and iron works; knitting is an important
domestic industry. Sheepskins and sail-cloth are articles of trade. The
town has several churches. Pop. (1897) 10,591.

AS, the Roman unit of weight and measure, divided into 12 _unciae_
(whence both "ounce" and "inch"); its fractions being deunx 11/12,
dextrans 5/6, dodrans ¾, bes 2/3, septunx 7/12, semis ½, quincunx 5/12,
triens 1/3, quadrans ¼, sextans 1/6, sescuncia 1/8, uncia 1/12. _As_
really denoted any integer or whole; whence the English word "ace." The
unit or _as_ of weight was the _libra_ (pound: = about 11-4/5 oz.
avoirdupois); of length, _pes_ (foot: = about 11-3/5 in.); of surface,
_jugerum_ ( = about 2/3 acre); of measure, liquid _amphora_ (about 5-3/5
gal.), dry _modius_ (about 9/10 peck). In the same way _as_ signified a
whole inheritance; whence _heres ex asse_, the heir to the whole estate,
_heres ex semisse_, heir to half the estate. It was also used in the
calculation of rates of interest.

_As_ was also the name of a Roman coin, which was of different weight
and value at different periods (see NUMISMATICS, § _Roman_). The first
introduction of coined money is ascribed to Servius Tullius. The old
_as_ was composed of the mixed metal _aes_, an alloy of copper, tin and
lead, and was called _as libralis_, because it nominally weighed 1 lb.
or 12 ounces (actually 10). Its original shape seems to have been an
irregular oblong bar, which was stamped with the figure of a sheep, ox
or sow. This, as well as the word _pecunia_ for money (_pecus_, cattle),
indicates the fact of cattle having been the earliest Italian medium of
exchange. The value was indicated by little points or globules, or other
marks. After the round shape was introduced, the one side was always
inscribed with the figure of a ship's prow, and the other with the
double head of Janus. The subdivisions of the _as_ had also the ship's
prow on one side, and on the other the head of some deity. The First
Punic War having exhausted the treasury, the _as_ was reduced to 2 oz.
In the Second Punic War it was again reduced to half this weight, viz.
to 1 oz. And lastly, by the Papirian law (89 B.C.) it was further
reduced to the diminutive weight of half an ounce. It appears to have
been still more reduced under Octavian, Lepidus and Antony, when its
value was 1/3 of an ounce. Before silver coinage was introduced (269
B.C.) the value of the _as_ was about 6d., in the time of Cicero less
than a halfpenny. In the time of the emperor Severus it was again
lowered to about 5/24 of an ounce. During the commonwealth and empire
_aes grave_ was used to denote the old as in contradistinction to the
existing depreciated coin; while _aes rude_ was applied to the original
oblong coinage of primitive times.

ASA, in the Bible, son (or, perhaps, rather brother) of Abijah, the son
of Rehoboam and king of Judah (1 Kings xv. 9-24). Of his long reign,
during which he was a contemporary of Baasha, Zimri and Omri of Israel,
little is recorded with the exception of some religious reforms and
conflicts with the first-named. Baasha succeeded in fortifying Ramah
(_er-Ram_), 5 m. north of Jerusalem, and Asa was compelled to use the
residue of the temple-funds (cf. 1 Kings xiv. 26) to bribe the king of
Damascus to renounce his league with Baasha and attack Israel. Galilee
was invaded and Baasha was forced to return; the building material which
he had collected at Ramah being used by Asa to fortify Geba, and Mizpah
to the immediate north of Jerusalem. The Book of Chronicles relates a
story of a sensational defeat of Zerah the "Cushite," and a great
religious revival in which Judah and Israel took part (2 Chron. xiv.-xv.
15) (see CHRONICLES). Asa was succeeded by his son Jehoshaphat.

"Cushite" may designate an Ethiopian or, more probably, an Arabian
(Cush, the "father" of the Sabaeans, Gen. x. 7). "If by Zerah the
Ethiopian or Sabaean prince be meant, the only real difficulty of the
narrative is removed. No king Zerah of Ethiopia is known at this period,
nor does there seem to be room for such a person." (W.E. Barnes,
_Cambridge Bible_, Chronicles, p. xxxi.). The identification with
Osorkon I. or II. is scarcely tenable considering Asa's weakness; but
inroads by desert hordes frequently troubled Judah, and if the tradition
be correct in locating the battle at Mareshah it is probable that the
invaders were in league with the Philistine towns. Similar situations
recur in the reigns of Ahaz and Jehoram.

See also Wellhausen, _Prolegomena_, 208; S.A. Cook, _Expositor_ (June
1906), p. 540 sq. (S. A. C.)

ASAFETIDA (_asa_, Lat. form of Persian _aza_ = mastic, and fetidus,
stinking, so called in distinction to _asa dulcis_, which was a drug
highly esteemed among the ancients as _laser cyrenaicum_, and is
supposed to have been a gummy exudation from _Thapsis garganica_), a
gum-resin obtained principally from the root of _Ferula fetida_, and
probably also from one or two other closely allied species of
umbelliferous plants. It is produced in eastern Persia and Afghanistan,
Herat and Kandahar being centres of the trade. _Ferula fetida_ grows to
a height of from 5 to 6 ft., and when the plant has attained the age of
four years it is ready for yielding asafetida. The stems are cut down
close to the root, and the juice flows out, at first of a milky
appearance, but quickly setting into a solid resinous mass. Fresh
incisions are made as long as the sap continues to flow, a period which
varies according to the size and strength of the plant. A
freshly-exposed surface of asafetida has a translucent, pearly-white
appearance, but it soon darkens in the air, becoming first pink and
finally reddish-brown. In taste it is acrid and bitter; but what
peculiarly characterizes it is the strong alliaceous odour it emits,
from which it has obtained the name asafetida, as well as its German
name _Teufelsdreck_ (devil's dung). Its odour is due to the presence of
organic sulphur compounds. Asafetida is found in commerce in "lump" or
in "tear," the latter being the purer form. Medicinally, asafetida is
given in doses of 5 to 15 grains and acts as a stimulant to the
intestinal and respiratory tracts and to the nervous system. An enema
containing it is useful in relieving flatus. It is sometimes useful in
hysteria, which is essentially a lack of inhibitory power, as its nasty
properties induce sufficient inhibitory power to render its
readministration superfluous. It may also be used in an effervescing
draught in cases of malingering, the drug "repeating" in the mouth and
making the malingering not worth while. The gum-resin is relished as a
condiment in India and Persia, and is in demand in France for use in
cookery. In the regions of its growth the whole plant is used as a fresh
vegetable, the inner portion of the full-grown stem being regarded as a
luxury.

ASAF-UD-DOWLAH, nawab wazir of Oudh from 1775 to 1797, was the son of
Shuja-ud-Dowlah, his mother and grandmother being the begums of Oudh,
whose spoliation formed one of the chief counts in the charges against
Warren Hastings. When Shuja-ud-Dowlah died he left two million pounds
sterling buried in the vaults of the zenana. The widow and mother of the
deceased prince claimed the whole of this treasure under the terms of a
will which was never produced. When Warren Hastings pressed the nawab
for the payment of debt due to the Company, he obtained from his mother
a loan of 26 lakhs of rupees, for which he gave her a _jagir_ of four
times the value; he subsequently obtained 30 lakhs more in return for a
full acquittal, and the recognition of her _jagirs_ without interference
for life by the Company. These _jagirs_ were afterwards confiscated on
the ground of the begum's complicity in the rising of Chai Singh, which
was attested by documentary evidence. The evidence now available seems
to show that Warren Hastings did his best throughout to rescue the nawab
from his own incapacity, and was inclined to be lenient to the begums.

See _The Administration of Warren Hastings, 1772-1785_, by G.W.
Forrest (1892).

ASAPH, the eponym of the Asaphite gild of singers, one of the hereditary
choirs that superintended the musical services of the temple at
Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The names occur in the titles of certain
Psalms, and the writer of the Book of Chronicles makes Asaph a seer (2
Chron. xxix. 30), contemporary with David and Solomon, and chief of the
singers of his time.

ASBESTOS, a fibrous mineral from Gr. [Greek: asbestos], unquenchable, by
transference, incombustible, in allusion to its power of resisting the
action of fire. The word was applied by Dioscorides and other Greek
authors to quicklime, but Pliny evidently used it in its modern sense.
It was occasionally woven by the ancients into handkerchiefs, and, it
has been said, into shrouds which were used in cremation to prevent the
ashes of the corpse from mingling with the wood-ashes of the pyre.

In different varieties of asbestos the fibres vary greatly in character.
When silky and flexible they are sometimes known as mountain flax. The
finer kinds are often termed amianthus (q.v.). When the fibres are
naturally interwoven, so as to form a felted mass, the mineral passes
under such trivial names as mountain leather, mountain cork, mountain
paper, &c. The asbestos formerly used in the arts was generally a
fibrous form of some kind of amphibole, like tremolite, or
anthophyllite, though occasionally perhaps a pyroxene. In recent years,
however, most of the asbestos in the market is a fibrous variety of
serpentine, known mineralogically as chrysotile, and probably some of
the ancient asbestos was of this character (see AMIANTHUS). Both
minerals possess similar properties, so far as resistance to heat is
concerned. The amphibole-asbestos, or hornblende-asbestos, is usually
white or grey in colour, and may present great length of fibre, some of
the Italian asbestos reaching exceptionally a length of 5 or 6 ft., but
it is often harsh and brittle. The serpentine-asbestos occurs in narrow
veins, yielding fibres of only 2 or 3 in. in length, but of great
tensile strength: they are usually of a delicate silky lustre, very
flexible and elastic, and of yellowish or greenish colour.

The Canadian asbestos, which of all kinds is at present the most
important industrially, occurs in a small belt of serpentine in the
province of Quebec, principally near Black Lake and Thetford, where it
was first recognized as commercially valuable about 1877. The rock is
generally quarried, cobbed by hand, dried if necessary, crushed in
rock-breakers, and then passed between rollers; it is reduced to a finer
state of division by so-called fiberizers, and graded on a shaking
screen, where the loosened fibres are sorted. The process varies in
different mills.

In the United States asbestos is worked only to a very limited extent.
An amphibole-asbestos is obtained from Sall Mountain, Georgia; and
asbestos has also been worked in the serpentine of Vermont. It occurs
also in South Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts, Arizona and elsewhere.
Dr G.P. Merrill has shown that some asbestos results from a process of
shearing in the rocks.

Formerly asbestos was obtained almost exclusively from Italy and
Corsica, and a large quantity is still yielded by Italian workings. This
is mostly an amphibole. It is in some cases associated with nodules of
green garnet known as "seeds"--_Semenze dell' amianto._ Asbestos is
widely distributed, but only in a few localities does it occur in
sufficient abundance and purity to be worked commercially; it is found,
for example, to a limited extent, at many localities in Tirol, Hungary
and Russia; Queensland, New South Wales and New Zealand. In the British
Isles it is not unknown, being found among the old rocks of North Wales
and in parts of Ireland. Byssolite or asbestoid is a blue or green
fibrous amphibole from Dauphiny.

The Asbestos Mountains in Griqualand West, Cape Colony, yield a blue
fibrous mineral which is worked under the name of Cape asbestos. This is
referable to the variety of amphibole called crocidolite (q.v.). It
occurs in veins in slaty rocks, associated with jaspers and quartzites
rich in magnetite and brown iron-ore. Their geological position is in
the Griqua Town series, belonging to what are known in South Africa as
the Pre-Cape rocks.

Asbestos was formerly spun and woven into fabrics as a rare curiosity.
Charlemagne is said to have possessed a tablecloth of this material,
which when soiled was purified by being thrown into the fire. At a
meeting of the Royal Society in 1676 a merchant from China exhibited a
handkerchief of "salamander's wool," or _linum asbesti._ By the Eskimos
of Labrador asbestos has been used as a lamp-wick, and it received a
similar application in some of the sacred lamps of antiquity. In recent
times asbestos has been applied to a great variety of uses in the
industrial arts, and its applications are constantly increasing. Its
economic value depends not only on its power of withstanding a high
temperature, but also on its low thermal conductivity and its partial
resistance to the attack of acids: hence it is used for jacketing
boilers and steam-pipes, and as a filtering medium for corrosive
liquids. It has also come into use as an electric insulator. It is made
into yarn, felt, millboard, &c., and is largely employed as packing for
joints, glands and stopcocks in machinery. Fire-proof sheathing and felt
are used for flooring and roofing; fire-proof curtains have been made
for the stage, and even clothing for firemen. Asbestos enters into the
composition of fire-proof cements, plasters and paints: it is used for
packing safes; and is made into balls with fire-clay for gas-stoves.
Various preparations of asbestos with other materials pass in trade
under such names as uralite, salamandrite, asbestolith, gypsine, &c.
"Asbestic" is the name given to a Canadian product formed by crushing
the serpentine rock containing thin seams of asbestos, and mixing the
result with lime so as to form a plaster.

REFERENCES.--Fritz Cirkel, _Asbestos, its Occurrence, Exploitation and
Uses_ (Ottawa, 1905); J.H. Pratt and J.S. Diller in Annual Reports on
Mineral Resources, U.S. Geol. Survey; G.P. Merrill, _The Non-metallic
Minerals_ (New York, 1904); R.H. Jones, _Asbestos and Asbestic_
(London, 1897). (F. W. R.*)

ASBJÖRNSEN, PETER CHRISTEN (1812-1885), and MOE, JÖRGEN ENGEBRETSEN
(1813-1882), collectors of Norwegian folklore, so closely united in
their life's work that it is unusual to name them apart. Asbjörnsen was
born in Christiania on the 15th of January 1812; he belonged to an
ancient family of the Gudbrandsdal, which is believed to have died with
him. He became a student at the university in 1833, but as early as
1832, in his twentieth year, he had begun to collect and write down all
the fairy stories and legends which he could meet with. Later he began
to wander on foot through the length and breadth of Norway, adding to
his stores. Moe, who was born at Mo i Hole parsonage, in Sigdal
Ringerike, on the 22nd of April 1813, met Asbjörnsen first when he was
fourteen years of age. A close friendship began between them, and lasted
to the end of their lives. In 1834 Asbjörnsen discovered that Moe had
started independently on a search for the relics of national folklore;
the friends eagerly compared results, and determined for the future to
work in concert. By this time, Asbjörnsen had become by profession a
zoologist, and with the aid of the university made a series of
investigating voyages along the coasts of Norway, particularly in the
Hardanger fjord. Moe, meanwhile, having left Christiania University in
1839, had devoted himself to the study of theology, and was making a
living as a tutor in Christiania. In his holidays he wandered through
the mountains, in the most remote districts, collecting stories. In
1842-1843 appeared the first instalment of the great work of the two
friends, under the title of _Norwegian Popular Stories (Norske
Folkeeventyr)_, which was received at once all over Europe as a most
valuable contribution to comparative mythology as well as literature. A
second volume was published in 1844, and a new collection in 1871. Many
of the _Folkeeventyr_ were translated into English by Sir George Dasent
in 1859. In 1845 Asbjörnsen published, without help from Moe, a
collection of Norwegian fairy tales (_huldreeventyr og folkesagn_). In
1856 the attention of Asbjörnsen was called to the deforestation of
Norway, and he induced the government to take up this important
question. He was appointed forest-master, and was sent by Norway to
examine in various countries of the north of Europe the methods observed
for the preservation of timber. From these duties, in 1876, he withdrew
with a pension; he died in Christiania on the 6th of January 1885. From
1841 to 1852 Moe travelled almost every summer through the southern
parts of Norway, collecting traditions in the mountains. In 1845 he was
appointed professor of theology in the Military School of Norway. He
had, however, long intended to take holy orders, and in 1853 he did so,
becoming for ten years a resident chaplain in Sigdal, and then (1863)
parish priest of Bragernes. He was moved in 1870 to the parish of Vestre
Aker, near Christiania, and in 1875 he was appointed bishop of
Christiansand. In January 1882 he resigned his diocese on account of
failing health, and died on the following 27th of March. Moe has a
special claim on critical attention in regard to his lyrical poems, of
which a small collection appeared in 1850. He wrote little original
verse, but in his slender volume are to be found many pieces of
exquisite delicacy and freshness. Moe also published a delightful
collection of prose stories for children, _In the Well and the Churn (_I
Bronde og i Kjærnet), 1851; and _A Little Christmas Present (En liden
Juleegave)_, 1860. Asbjörnsen and Moe had the advantage of an admirable
style in narrative prose. It was usually said that the vigour came from
Asbjörnsen and the charm from Moe, but the fact seems to be that from
the long habit of writing in unison they had come to adopt almost
precisely identical modes of literary expression. (E. G.)

ASBURY, FRANCIS (1745-1816), American clergyman, was born at Hamstead
Bridge in the parish of Handsworth, near Birmingham, in Staffordshire,
England, on the 20th of August 1745. His parents were poor, and after a
brief period of study in the village school of Barre, he was apprenticed
at the age of fourteen to a maker of "buckle chapes," or tongues. It
seems probable that his parents were among the early converts of Wesley;
at any rate, Francis became converted to Methodism in his thirteenth
year, and at sixteen became a local preacher. He was a simple, fluent
speaker, and was so successful that in 1767 he was enrolled, by John
Wesley himself, as a regular itinerant minister. In 1771 he volunteered
for missionary work in the American colonies. When he landed in
Philadelphia in October 1771, the converts to Methodism, which had been
introduced into the colonies only three years before, numbered scarcely
300. Asbury infused new life into the movement, and within a year the
membership of the several congregations was more than doubled. In 1772
he was appointed by Wesley "general assistant" in charge of the work in
America, and although superseded by an older preacher, Thomas Rankin
(1738-1810), in 1773, he remained practically in control. After the
outbreak of the War of Independence, the Methodists, who then numbered
several thousands, fell, unjustly, under suspicion of Loyalism,
principally because of their refusal to take the prescribed oath; and
many of their ministers, including Rankin, returned to England. Asbury,
however, feeling his sympathies and duties to be with the colonies,
remained at his post, and although often threatened, and once arrested,
continued his itinerant preaching. The hostility of the Maryland
authorities, however, eventually drove him into exile in Delaware, where
he remained quietly, but not in idleness, for two years. In 1782 he was
reappointed to supervise the affairs of the Methodist congregations in
America. In 1784 John Wesley, in disregard of the authority of the
Established Church, took the radical step of appointing the Rev. Thomas
Coke (1747-1814) and Francis Asbury superintendents or "bishops" of the
church in the United States. Dr Coke was ordained at Bristol, England,
in September, and in the following December, in a conference of the
churches in America at Baltimore, he ordained and consecrated Asbury,
who refused to accept the position until Wesley's choice had been
ratified by the conference. From this conference dates the actual
beginning of the "Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States of
America." To the upbuilding of this church Asbury gave the rest of his
life, working with tireless devotion and wonderful energy. In 1785, at
Abingdon, Maryland, he laid the corner-stone of Cokesbury College, the
project of Dr Coke and the first Methodist Episcopal college in America;
the college building was burned in 1795, and the college was then
removed to Baltimore, where in 1796, after another fire, it closed, and
in 1816 was succeeded by Asbury College, which lived for about fifteen
years. Every year Asbury traversed a large area, mostly on horseback.
The greatest testimony to the work that earned for him the title of the
"Father of American Methodism" was the growth of the denomination from a
few scattered bands of about 300 converts and 4 preachers in 1771, to a
thoroughly organized church of 214,000 members and more than 2000
ministers at his death, which occurred at Spottsylvania, Virginia, on
the 31st of March 1816.

His _Journals_ (3 vols., New York, 1852), apart from their importance
as a history of his life work, constitute a valuable commentary on the
social and industrial history of the United States during the first
forty years of their existence. Consult also F.W. Briggs, _Bishop
Asbury_ (London, 1874); W.P. Strickland, _The Pioneer Bishop; or, The
Life and Times of Francis Asbury_ (New York, 1858); J.B. Wakeley,
_Heroes of Methodism_ (New York, 1856): W.C. Larrabee, _Asbury and His
Co-Laborers_ (2 vols., Cincinnati, 1853); H.M. Du Bose, _Francis
Asbury_ (Nashville, Tenn., 1909); see also under METHODISM.

ASBURY PARK, a city of Monmouth county, New Jersey, U.S.A., on the
Atlantic Ocean, about 35 m. S. of New York City (50 m. by rail). Pop.
(1900) 4148; (1905) 4526; (1910) 10,150. It is served by the Central of
New Jersey and the Pennsylvania railways, and by electric railway lines
connecting it with other New Jersey coast resorts both north and south.
Fresh-water lakes, one of which, Deal Lake, extends for some distance
into the wooded country, form the northern and southern boundaries. It
is one of the most popular seaside resorts on the Atlantic coast, its
numerous hotels and cottages accommodating a summer population that
approximates 50,000, and a large transient population in the autumn and
winter months. There is an excellent beach, along which extends a
board-walk about 1 m. long; the beach is owned and controlled by the
municipality. The municipality owns and operates its water-works, water
being obtained from artesian wells. Asbury Park was founded in 1869, was
named in honour of the Rev. Francis Asbury, was incorporated as a
borough in 1874, and was chartered as a city in 1897. In 1906 territory
to the west with a population estimated at 6000 was annexed.

ASCALON, now 'ASKALAN, one of the five chief cities of the Philistines,
on the coast of the Mediterranean, 12 m. N. of Gaza. The place is
mentioned several times in the Tell el-Amarna correspondence. It
revolted from Egypt on two occasions, but was reconquered, and a
sculpture at Thebes depicts the storming of the city. Ascalon was a
well-fortified town, and the seat of the worship of the fish-goddess
Derketo. Though situated in the nominal territory of the tribe of Judah,
it was never for any length of time in the possession of the Israelites.
The only incident in its history recorded in the Bible (the spoliation
by Samson, Judg. xiv. 19) may possibly have actually occurred at another
place of the same name, in the hill country of Judaea. Sennacherib took
it in 701 B.C. The conquest of Alexander hellenized its civilization,
and after his time it became tributary alternately to Syria and Egypt.
Herod the Great was a native of the city, and added greatly to its
beauty; but it suffered severely in the later wars of the Romans and
Jews. In the 4th century it again rose to importance; and till the 7th
century, when it was conquered by the Moslems, it was the seat of a
bishopric and a centre of learning. During the first crusade a signal
victory was gained by the Christians in the neighbouring plain on the
15th of August 1099; but the city remained in the hands of the caliphs
till 1157, when it was taken by Baldwin III., king of Jerusalem, after a
siege of five months. By Baldwin IV. it was given to his sister Sibylla,
on her marriage with William of Montferrat in 1178. When Saladin (1187)
had almost annihilated the Christian army in the plain of Tiberias,
Ascalon offered but a feeble resistance to the victor. At first he
repaired and strengthened its fortifications, but afterwards, alarmed at
the capture of St Jean d'Acre (Acre) by Richard Coeur de Lion in 1191,
he caused it to be dismantled. It was restored in the following year by
the English king, but only to be again abandoned. From this time Ascalon
lost much of its importance, and at length, in 1270, its fortifications
were almost totally destroyed by Sultan Bibars, and its port was filled
up with stones. The place is now a desolate heap of ruins, with remains
of its walls and fragments of granite pillars. The surrounding country
is well watered and very fertile.

See a paper by Guthe, "Die Ruinen Ascalons," in the _Zeitschrift_ of
the Deutsche Palastina-Verein, ii. 164 (translated in Palestine
Exploration Fund _Quarterly Statement_, 1880, p. 182). See also C.R.
Conder in the latter journal, 1875, p. 152. (R. A. S. M.)

ASCANIUS, in Roman legend, the son of Aeneas by Creüsa or Lavinia. From
Livy it would appear that tradition recognized two sons of Aeneas called
by this name, the one the son of his Trojan, the other of his Latin
wife. According to the usual account, he accompanied his father to Italy
on his flight from Troy. On the death of Aeneas, the government of
Latium was left in the hands of Lavinia, Ascanius being too young to
undertake it. After thirty years he left Lavinium, and founded Alba
Longa. Ascanius was also called Ilus and Iulus, and the Julian gens
claimed to be descended from him. Several more or less contradictory
traditions may be found in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo and other
writers.

Virg. _Aen_. ii. 666; Livy i. 3; see also Klausen. _Aeneas und die
Penaten_ (1840).

ASCENSION, an island in the Atlantic Ocean, between 7° 53' and 8° S.,
and 14° 18' and 14° 26' W., 800 m. N.W. of St Helena, about 7½ m. in
length and 6 in breadth, with an area of 38 sq. m. and a circumference
of about 22 m. The island lies within the immediate influence of the
south-east trade-wind. The lee side of the island is subject to the
visitation of "rollers," which break on the shore with very great
violence. Ascension is a volcanic mass erected on a submarine platform.
Numerous cones exist. Green Mountain, the principal elevation, is a huge
elliptical crater, rising 2820 ft. above the sea, while the plains or
table-lands surrounding it vary in height from 1200 to 2000 ft. On the
north side they sweep gradually down towards the shore, but on the south
they terminate in bold and lofty precipices. Steep and rugged ravines
intersect the plains, opening into small bays or coves on the shore,
fenced with masses of compact and cellular lava; and all over the island
are found products of volcanic action. Ascension was originally
destitute of vegetation save on the summit of Green Mountain, which owes
its verdure to the mists which frequently enshroud it, but the lower
hills have been planted with grasses and shrubs. The air is clear and
light, and the climate remarkably healthy, notwithstanding the high
temperature--the average day temperature on the shore being 85° F., on
Green Mountain 75° F. The average rainfall is about 20 in., March and
April being the rainy months. Ascension is noted for the number of
turtles and turtle eggs found on its shores, the season lasting from
December to May or June. The turtles are caught and kept in large ponds.
The coasts abound with a variety of fish of excellent quality, of which
the most important are the rock-cod, the cavalli, the conger-eel and the
"soldier." Numbers of sheep are bred on the island, and there are a few
cattle and deer, besides goats and wild cats. Feathered game is
abundant. Like St Helena, the island does not possess any indigenous
vertebrate land fauna. The "wideawake" birds frequent the island in
large numbers, and their eggs are collected and eaten. Beetles and
land-shells are well represented. Flies, ants, mosquitoes, scorpions,
centipedes and crickets abound. The flora includes purslane, rock roses
and several species of ferns and mosses.

The island was discovered by the Portuguese navigator, João da Nova, on
Ascension Day 1501, and was occasionally visited thereafter by ships. In
1701 William Dampier was wrecked on its coast, and during his detention
discovered the only spring of fresh water the island contains. Ascension
remained uninhabited till after the arrival of Napoleon at St Helena
(1815), when it was taken possession of by the British government, who
sent a small garrison thither. A settlement, named George Town (locally
known as Garrison), was made on the north-west coast, water being
obtained from "Dampier's" springs in the Green Mountain, 6 m. distant.
The island is under the rule of the admiralty, and was likened by Darwin
to "a huge ship kept in first-rate order." It is governed by a naval
captain borne on the books of the flagship of the admiral superintendent
at Gibraltar. A depot of stores for the navy is maintained, but the
island is used chiefly as a sanatorium. Ascension is connected by cable
with Europe and Africa, and is visited once a month by mail steamers
from the Cape. Formerly letters were left by passing ships in a crevice
in one of the rocks. The population, about 300, consists of seamen,
marines, and Krumen from Liberia.

See _Africa Pilot_, part ii., 5th ed. (London, 1901); C. Darwin,
_Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands visited during the
Voyage of H.M.S. "Beagle"_ (London, 1844); _Report of the Scientific
Results of the Voyage of the "Challenger,"_ vol. i. part 2 (London,
1885); and _Six Months in Ascension_, by Mrs Gill (London, 1878), an
excellent sketch of the island and its inhabitants. It was at
Ascension that Mr, afterwards Sir, David Gill determined, in 1877, the
solar parallax.

ASCENSION, FEAST OF THE, one of the oecumenical festivals of the
Christian Church, ranking in solemnity with those of Christmas, of
Easter and of Pentecost. It is held forty days after Easter, or ten days
before Whitsunday, in celebration of Christ's ascension into heaven
forty days after the resurrection. It always falls on a Thursday, and
the day is known as Ascension Day, or Holy Thursday. The festival is of
great antiquity; and though there is no discoverable trace of it before
the middle of the 4th century, subsequent references to it assume its
long establishment. Thus St Augustine (_Ep. 54 ad Januar._) mentions it
as having been kept from time immemorial and as probably instituted by
the apostles. Chrysostom, in his homily on the ascension, mentions a
celebration of the festival in the church of Romanesia outside Antioch,
and Socrates (_Hist. eccles._ vii. 26) records that in the year 390 the
people of Constantinople "of old custom" ([Greek: ex ethous]) celebrated
the feast in a suburb of the city. As these two references suggest, the
festival was associated with a professional pilgrimage, in commemoration
of the passing of Christ and his apostles to the Mount of Olives; such a
procession is described by Adamnan, abbot of Iona, as taking place at
Jerusalem in the 7th century, when the feast was celebrated in the
church on Mount Olivet (_de loc. sanct._ i. 22). The _Peregrinatio_ of
Etheria (Silvia), which dates from c. A.D. 385, says that the festival
was held in the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem (Duchesne, _Chr.
Worship_, p. 515). In the West, however, in the middle ages, the
procession with candles and banners outside the church was taken as
symbolical of Christ's triumphant entry into heaven.

In the East the festival is known as the [Greek: analaepsis], "taking
up," or [Greek: episozomenae], a term first used in the Cappadocian
church, and of which the meaning has been disputed, but which probably
signifies the feast "of completed salvation." The word _ascensio_,
adopted in the West, implies the ascension of Christ by his own power,
in contradistinction to the _assumptio_, or taking up into heaven of the
Virgin Mary by the power of God.

In the Roman Catholic Church the most characteristic ritual feature of
the festival is now the solemn extinction of the paschal candle after
the Gospel at high mass. This candle, lighted at every mass for the
forty days after Easter, symbolizes the presence of Christ with his
disciples, and its extinction his parting from them. The custom dates
from 1263, and was formerly confined to the Franciscans; it was
prescribed for the universal church by the Congregation of Rites on the
19th of May 1697. Other customs, now obsolete, were formerly associated
with the liturgy of this feast; e.g. the blessing of the new beans after
the Commemoration of the Dead in the canon of the mass (Duchesne, p.
183). In some churches, during the middle ages, an image of Christ was
raised from the altar through a hole in the roof, through which a
burning straw figure representing Satan was immediately thrown down.

In the Anglican Church Ascension Day and its octave continue to be
observed as a great festival, for which a special preface to the
consecration prayer in the communion service is provided, as in the case
of Christmas, Easter, Whitsunday, and Trinity Sunday. The celebration of
the Feast of the Ascension was also retained in the Lutheran churches as
warranted by Holy Scripture.

See Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_ (1900), s. _"Himmelfahrtsfest"_;
L. Duchesne, _Christian Worship_ (2nd Eng. ed., London, 1904); _The
Catholic Encyclopaedia_ (London and New York, 1907).

ASCETICISM, the theory and practice of bodily abstinence and
self-mortification, generally religious. The word is derived from the
Gr. verb [Greek: askeo], "I practise," whence the noun [Greek: askaesis]
and the adjective [Greek: askaetikos]; and it embodies a metaphor taken
from the ancient wrestling-place or palaestra, where victory rewarded
those who had best trained their bodies. Not a few other technical terms
of Greek philosophic asceticism, used in the first instance by Cynics
and Neo-pythagoreans, and then continued among the Greek Jews and
Christians, were metaphors taken from athletic contests--but only
metaphors, for all asceticism, worthy of the name, has a moral purport,
and is based on the eternal contrast of the proposition, "This is
right," with the proposition, "That is pleasant." The ascetic instinct
is probably as old as humanity, yet we must not forget that early
religious practices are apt to be deficient in lofty spiritual meaning,
many things being esteemed holy that are from a modern point of view
trifling and even obscene. We may therefore expect in primitive
asceticism to find many abstentions and much self-torture apparently
valueless for the training of character and discipline of the feelings,
which are the essence of any healthy asceticism. Nevertheless these
non-moral _taboos_ or restraints may have played a part in building up
in us that faculty of preferring the larger good to the impulse of the
moment which is the note of real civilization. Aristotle in his _Ethics_
defines, as the barbarian's ideal of life, "the living as one likes."
Yet nothing is less true; for the savage, more than the civilized man,
is tied down at every step with superstitious scruples and restrictions
barely traceable in higher civilizations except as primitive survivals.
It is not that savages are devoid of the ascetic instinct. It is on the
contrary over-developed in them, but ill-informed and working in ways
unessential or even morally harmful. It is the note of every great
religious reformer, Moses, Buddha, Paul, Mani, Mahomet, St Francis,
Luther, to enlighten and direct it to higher aims, substituting a true
personal holiness for a ritual purity or _taboo_, which at the best was
viewed as a kind of physical condition and contagion, inherent as well
in things and animals as in man.

It is useful, therefore, in a summary sketch of asceticism, to begin
with the facts as they can be observed among less advanced races, or as
mere survivals among people who have reached the level of genuine moral
reflection; and from this basis to proceed to a consideration of
self-denial consciously pursued as a method of ethical perfection. The
latter is as a rule less cruel and rigorous than primitive forms of
asceticism. Under this head fall the following:--Fasting, or abstention
from certain meats and drinks; denial of sexual instinct; subjection of
the body to physical discomforts, such as nakedness, vigils, sleeping on
the bare ground, tattooing, deformation of skull, teeth, feet, &c., vows
of silence to be observed throughout life or during pilgrimages,
avoidance of baths, of hair-cutting and of clean raiment, living in a
cave; actual self-infliction of pain, by scourging, branding, cutting
with knives, wearing of hair shirts, fire-walking, burial alive, hanging
up of oneself by hooks plunged into the skin, suspension of weights by
such hooks to the tenderer parts of the body, self-mutilation and
numerous other, often ingenious, modes of torture. Such customs repose
on various superstitions; for example, the self-mutilation of the Galli
or priests of Cybele was probably a magical ceremony intended to
fertilize the soil and stimulate the crops. Others of the practices
enumerated, probably the greater part of them, spring from demonological
beliefs.

Fasting (q.v.) is used in primitive asceticism for a variety of reasons,
among which the following deserve notice. Certain animals and vegetables
are _taboo_, i.e. too holy, or--what among Semites and others was the
same thing--too defiling and unclean, to be eaten. Thus in Leviticus xi.
the Jews are forbidden to eat animals other than cloven-footed
ruminants; thus the camel, coney, hare and swine were forbidden; so also
any water organisms that had not fins and scales, and a large choice of
birds, including swan, pelican, stork, heron and hoopoe. All winged
creeping things that have four feet were equally abominable. Lastly, the
weasel, mouse and most lizards were _taboo_. All or nearly all of these
were at one time totem animals among one or another of the Semitic
tribes, and were not eaten because primitive men will not eat animals
between which and themselves and their gods they believe a peculiar tie
of kinship to exist. Men do not eat an animal for which they have a
reverential dread, or if they eat it at all, it is only in a sacramental
feast and in order to absorb into themselves its life and holy
properties. Such abstinences as the above, though based on _taboo_, that
is, on a reluctance to eat the totem or sacred animal, are yet ascetic
in so far as they involve much self-denial. No flesh is more wholesome
or succulent than beef, yet the Egyptians and Phoenicians, says Porphyry
(_de Abst._ ii. 11), would rather eat human flesh than that of the cow,
and so would two hundred and fifty millions of modern Hindus. The
privation involved in abstention from the flesh of the swine, a _taboo_
hardly less widespread, is obvious.

Similar prohibitions are common in Africa, where fetish priests are
often reduced to a diet of herbs and roots. That such dietary
restrictions were merely ceremonial and superstitious, and not intended
to prevent the consumption of meats which would revolt modern tastes, is
certain from the fact that the Levitical law freely allowed the eating
of locusts, grasshoppers, crickets and cockroaches, while forbidding the
consumption of rabbits, hares, storks, swine, &c. The Pythagoreans were
forbidden to eat beans.

Another widespread reason for avoiding flesh diet altogether was the
fear of absorbing the irrational soul of the animal, which especially
resided in the blood. Hence the rule not to eat meats strangled, except
in sacramental meals when the god inherent in the animal was partaken
of. It is equally a soul or spirit in wine which inspires the
intoxicated; the old Egyptian kings avoided wine at table and in
libations, because it was the blood of rebels who had fought with the
gods, and out of whose rotting bodies grew the vines; to drink the blood
was to imbibe the soul of these rebels, and the frenzy of intoxication
which followed was held to be possession by their spirits. The medieval
Jews also held that there is a cardiac demon in wine which takes
possession of drunken men; and the Mahommedan prohibition of
wine-drinking is based on a similar superstition. The avoidance of wine,
therefore, by Rechabites, Nazirites, Arab dervishes and Pythagoreans,
and also of leaven in bread, is parallel to and explicable in the same
way as abstention from flesh. Porphyry (_de Abst._ i. 19) acquaints us
with another widespread scruple against flesh diet. It was this, that
the souls of men transmigrated into animals, so that if you ate these,
you might consume your own kind, cannibal-wise. Contemporary meat-eaters
set themselves to combat this prejudice, and argued that it was a pious
duty to kill animals and so release the human souls imprisoned. In the
same tract Porphyry relates (ii. 48) how wizards acquired the mantic
powers of certain birds, such as ravens and hawks, by swallowing their
hearts. The soul of the bird, he explains, enters them with its flesh,
and endows them with power of divination. The lover of wisdom, who is
priest of the universal God, rather than risk the taking into himself of
inferior souls and polluting demons, will abstain from eating animals.
Such is Porphyry's argument.

The same fear of imbibing the irrational soul of animals, and thereby
reinforcing the lower appetites and instincts of the human being,
inspired the vegetarianism of Apollonius of Tyana and of the Jewish
Therapeutae, who in their sacred meals were careful to have a table free
from blood-containing meats; and the fear of absorbing the animal's
psychic qualities equally motived the Jewish and early Christian rule
against eating things strangled. It was an early belief, which long
survived among the Manichaean sects, that fish, being born in and of the
waters, and without any sexual connexion on the part of other fishes are
free from the taint which pollutes all animals _quae copulatione
generantur_. Fish, therefore, unlike flesh, could be safely eaten. Here
we have the origin of the Catholic rule of fasting, seldom understood by
those who observe it. The same scruple against flesh-eating is conveyed
in the beautiful confession, in the _Cretans_ of Euripides, of one who
had been initiated in the mysteries of Orpheus and became a "Bacchos."
The last lines of this, as rendered by Dr Gilbert Murray, are as
follows:--

"Robed in pure white, I have borne me clean
From man's vile birth and coffined clay,
And exiled from my lips alway
Touch of all meat where life hath been."

This Orphic fast from meat was only broken by an annual sacramental
banquet, originally, perhaps, of human, but later of raw bovine flesh.

The Manichaeans held that in every act of begetting, human or otherwise,
a soul is condemned afresh to a cycle of misery by imprisonment in
flesh--a thoroughly Indian notion, under the influence of which their
perfect or elect ones scrupulously abstained from flesh. The prohibition
of taking life, which they took over from the Farther East, in itself
entailed fasting from flesh. A fully initiated Manichaean would not even
cut his own salad, but employed a catechumen to commit on his behalf
this act of murder, for which he subsequently shrived him.

We come to a third widespread reason for fasting, common among savages.
Famished persons are liable to morbid excitement, and fall into
imaginative ecstasies, in the course of which they see visions and
spectres, converse with gods and angels, and are the recipients of
supernatural revelations. Accordingly King Saul "ate no bread all the
day nor all the night" in which the witch of Endor revealed to him the
ghost of Samuel. Weak and famished, he hardly wanted to eat the fatted
calf when the vision was over. Among the North American Indians ecstatic
fasting is regularly practised. A faster writes down his visions and
revelations for a whole season. They are then examined by the elders of
the tribe, and if events have verified them, he is recognized as a
supernaturally gifted being, and rewarded with chieftaincy. All over the
world fasting is a recognized mode of evoking, consulting and also of
overcoming the spirit world. This is why the Zulus and other primitive
races distrust a medicine man who is not an ascetic and lean with
fasting. In the Semitic East it is an old belief that a successful fast
in the wilderness of forty days and nights gives power over the Djinns.
The Indian _yogi_ fasts till he sees face to face all the gods of his
Pantheon; the Indian magician fasts twelve days before producing rain or
working any cure. The Bogomils fasted till they saw the Trinity face to
face. From the first, fasting was practised in the church for similar
reason. In the _Shepherd of Hermas_ a vision of the church rewards
frequent fasts and prayer; and it is related in extra-canonical sources
that James the Less vowed that he would fast until he too was vouchsafed
a vision of the risen Lord. After a long and rigorous fast the Lord
appeared to him. Not a few saints were rewarded for their fasting by
glimpses of the beatific vision. Dr Tylor writes on this point as
follows (_Prim. Cult._ ii. 415): "Bread and meat would have robbed the
ascetic of many an angel's visit: the opening of the refectory door must
many a time have closed the gates of heaven to his gaze."

Among the Semites and Tatars worshippers lacerate themselves before the
god. So in I Kings xviii. 28 the priests of Baal engaged in a
rain-making ceremony, gashed themselves with knives and lances till the
blood gushed out upon them. The Syriac word _ethkashshaph_, which means
literally to "cut oneself," is the regular equivalent of to "make
supplication." Among Greeks and Arabs, mourners also cut themselves with
knives and scratched their faces; the Hebrew law forbade such mourning,
and we find the prohibition repeated in many canons of the Eastern
churches. At first sight these rites seem intended to call down the pity
of heaven on man, but as Robertson Smith points out, their real import
was by shedding blood on a holy stone or in a holy place to tie or renew
a blood-bond between the God and his faithful ones. We have no clear
information about the mind of the Flagellants, who in 1259, and again in
1349, swarmed through the streets of European cities, naked and
thrashing themselves, till the blood ran, with leather thongs and iron
whips. They were penitents, and no doubt imbued with the ancient belief
that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.

Asceticism then in its origin was usually not ascetic in a modern sense,
that is, not ethical. It was rather of the nature of the savage _taboo_
(q.v.), the outcome of totemistic beliefs or a mode of averting the
contaminating presence of djinns and demons. Above all, fasting was a
mode of preparing oneself for the sacramental eating of a sacred animal,
and as such often assisted by use of purgatives and aperients. It was
essential in the old Greek rites of averting the _Kêres_ or djinns, the
ill regulated ghosts who return to earth and molest the living, to
abstain from flesh. The Pythagoreans and Orphic _mystae_ so abstained
all their life long, and Porphyry eloquently insists on such a
discipline for all who "are not content merely to talk about Reason, but
are really intent on casting aside the body and living through Reason
with Truth. Naked and without the tunic of the flesh these will enter
the arena and strive in the Olympic contest of the soul."

It is time to pass on to Buddhist asceticism, in its essence a more
ethical and philosophical product than some of the forms so far
considered. The keynote of Buddhist asceticism is deliverance from life
and its inevitable suffering. Once at a village where he rested the
Blessed One (Buddha) addressed his brethren and said: "It is through not
understanding and grasping four Noble Truths, O brethren, that we have
had to run so long, to wander so long in this weary path of
transmigration, both you and I." These noble truths were about sorrow,
its cause, its cessation and the path which leads to that cessation.
Once they are grasped the craving for existence is rooted out, that
which leads to renewed existence is destroyed, and there is no more
birth. The Buddha believed he had a way of Truth, which if an elect
disciple possessed he might say of himself, "Hell is destroyed for me,
and rebirth as an animal, or a ghost, or in any place of woe. I am
converted, I am no longer liable to be reborn in a state of suffering,
and am assured of final salvation."

Suffering, said the sage in his great sermon at Benares, is inseparable
from birth and old age. Sickness is suffering, so is death, so is union
with the unloved, and separation from the loved; not to obtain what one
desires is suffering; the entire fivefold clinging to the earthly is
suffering. Its origin is the thirst for being which leads from birth to
birth, together with lust and desire, which find gratification here and
there; the thirst for pleasures, for being, for power. This thirst must
be extinguished by complete annihilation of desire, by letting it go,
expelling it, separating oneself from it, giving it no room. This
extinction is achieved in eight ways, namely rectitude of faith,
resolve, speech, action, living, effort, thought, self-concentration.

In this gospel we must be done with the outer world, participation in
which is not the self, yet means for the self birth and death,
appetites, longings, emotions, change and suffering, pleasure and pain.
He that has put off all lust and desire, all hope and fear, all will to
exist as a sinful, because a sentient, being, has won to the heaven of
extinction or Nirvana. He may still tread the earth, but he is a saint
or Brahman, is in heaven, has quitted the transient and enjoys eternity.

Such was the Buddha's gospel, as his most ancient scriptures enunciate
it. Nirvana is constantly defined in them as supreme happiness. It is
not even clear how far, if we interpret it strictly, this philosophy
leaves any self to be happy. However this be, its practical expression
is the life of the monk who has separated himself from the world. Five
commandments must be observed by him who would even approach the higher
life of saint and ascetic. They are these: to kill no living thing; not
to lay hands on another's property; not to touch another's wife; not to
speak what is untrue; not to drink intoxicating drinks.

Though couched in the negative, these rules must be interpreted in the
amplest and widest sense by all believers. The Order, however, which the
would-be ascetic can enter by regular initiation, when he is twenty
years of age, entails a discipline much more severe. He has gone forth
from home into homelessness, and has not where to lay his head. He must
eat only the morsels he gets by begging; must dress in such rags as he
can pick up; must sleep under trees. Mendicancy is his recognized way of
life. Furthermore, he must abstain all his life from sexual intercourse;
he may not take even a blade of grass without permission of the owner;
he must not kill even a worm or ant; he must not boast of his
perfection. In practice the lives of Buddhist monks are not so squalid
as these rules would lead us to suppose. Thanks to the reverent charity
of the laymen, they do not live much worse than Benedictine monks; and
the prohibition to live in houses does not extend to caves. Everywhere
in India and Ceylon they hollowed out cells and churches in the cliffs
and rocks, which are the wonder of the European tourist.

But long before the advent of Buddhism, the hermit, or wandering beggar,
was a familiar figure in India. No formal initiation was imposed on the
would-be ascetic, save (in the case of young men) the duty to live at
first in his teacher's house. One who had thus fulfilled the duties of
the student order must "go forth remaining chaste," says the
_Apastamba_, ii. 9. 8. He shall then "live without a fire, without a
house, without pleasures, without protection; remaining silent and
uttering speech only on the occasion of the daily recitation of the
Veda; begging so much food only in the village as will sustain his life,
he shall wander about, neither caring for this world nor for heaven. He
shall only wear clothes thrown away by others. Some declare that he
shall even go naked. Abandoning truth and falsehood, pleasure and pain,
the Vedas, this world and the next, he shall seek the Universal Soul, in
knowledge of which standeth eternal salvation."

Such a life was specially recommended for one who has lived the life of
a householder, and, having begotten sons according to the sacred law and
offered sacrifices, desires in his old age to abandon worldly objects
and direct his mind to final liberation. He leaves his wife, if she will
not accompany him, and goes forth into the forest, committing her and
his house to his sons. He must indeed take with him the sacred fire and
implements for domestic sacrifice, but until death overtakes him he must
wander silent, alone, possessing no hearth nor dwelling, begging his
food in the villages, firm of purpose, with a potsherd for an alms bowl,
the roots of trees for a dwelling, and clad in coarse worn out garments.
"Let him not desire to die, let him not desire to live; let him wait for
his appointed time, as a servant waits for the payment of his wages. Let
him drink water purified by straining with a cloth, let him utter speech
purified by truth, let him keep his heart pure. Let him patiently bear
hard words, let him not insult anybody, let him not become any one's
enemy for the sake of this perishable body.... Let him reflect on the
transmigrations of men, caused by their sinful deeds, on their falling
into hell, and on their torments in the world of Yama.... A twice-born
man who becomes an ascetic thus shakes off sin here below and reaches
the highest Brahman" (_Laws of Manu_, by G. Bühler, vi. 85).

This old-world wisdom of the Hindus, a thousand years before our era, is
worthily to be paralleled from the Manichaeism of about the year 400.
Augustine has preserved (_contra Faustum_, v. 1) the portraiture of a
Manichaean elect as drawn by himself:--

"I have given up father and mother, wife, children and all else that
the gospel bids us, and do you ask if I accept the gospel? Are you
then still ignorant of what the word gospel means? It is nothing else
than the preaching and precept of Christ. I have cast away gold and
silver, and have ceased to carry even copper in my belt, being content
with my daily bread, nor caring for the morrow, nor anxious how my
belly shall be filled or my body clothed; and do you ask me if I
accept the gospel? You behold in me those beatitudes of Christ which
make up the gospel, and you ask me if I accept it. You behold me
gentle, a peacemaker, pure of heart, a mourner, hungering, thirsting,
bearing persecutions and hatreds for righteousness' sake, and do you
doubt whether I accept the gospel.... All that was mine I have given
up, father, mother, wife, children, gold, silver, eating, drinking,
delights, pleasures. Deem this a sufficient answer to your question
and deem yourself on the way to be blessed, if you have not been
scandalized in me."

The Greek Cynics (see CYNICS) played a great part in the history of
Asceticism, and they were so much the precursors of the Christian
hermits that descriptions of them in profane literature have been
mistaken for pictures of early monasticism. In striving to imitate the
rugged strength and independence of their master Socrates, they went to
such extremes as rather to caricature him. They affected to live like
beggars, bearing staff and wallet, owning nothing, renouncing pleasures,
riches, honours. For older thinkers like Plato and Aristotle the perfect
life was that of the citizen and householder; but the Cynics were
individualists, citizens of the world without loyalty or respect for the
ancient city state, the decay of which was coincident with their rise.
Their zeal for renunciation often extended not to pleasures, marriage
and property alone, but to cleanliness, knowledge and good manners as
well, and in this respect also they were the forerunners of later monks.

Philo (20 B.C.-A.D. 40) has left us many pictures of the life which to
his mind impersonated the highest wisdom, and they are all inspired by
the more respectable sort of cynicism, which had taken deep root among
Greek Jews of the day. One such picture merits citation from his tract
_On Change of Names_ (vol. i. 583, ed. Mangey): "All this company of the
good and wise have of their own free will divested themselves of too
copious wealth; nay, have spurned the things dear to the flesh. For of
good habit and lusty are athletes, since they have fortified against
the soul the body which should be its servant; but the disciples of
wisdom are pale and wasted, and in a manner reduced to skeletons,
because they have sacrificed the whole of their bodily strength to the
faculties of the soul."

His own favourite ascetics, the Therapeutae, whose chief centre was in
Egypt, had renounced property and all its temptations, and fled,
irrevocably abandoning brothers, children, wives, parents, throngs of
kinsmen, intimacy of friends, the fatherlands where they were born and
bred (see THERAPEUTAE). Here we have the ideal of early Christian
renunciation at work, but apart from the influence of Jesus. In the
pages of Epictetus the same ideal is constantly held up to us.

In the Christian Church there was from the earliest age a leaning to
excessive asceticism, and it needed a severe struggle on the part of
Paul, and of the Catholic teachers who followed him, to secure for the
baptized the right to be married, to own property, to engage in war and
commerce, or to assume public office. One and all of the permanent
institutions of society were condemned by the early enthusiasts,
especially by those who looked forward to a speedy advent of the
millennium, as alien to the kingdom of God and as impediments to the
life of grace.

Marriage and property had already been eschewed in the Jewish Essene and
Therapeutic sects, and in Christianity the name of Encratite was given
to those who repudiated marriage and the use of wine. They did not form
a sect, but represented an impulse felt everywhere. In early and popular
apocryphal histories the apostles are represented as insisting that
their converts should either not contract wedlock or should dissolve the
tie if already formed. This is the plot of the _Acts of Thecla_, a story
which probably goes back to the first century. Repudiation of the tie by
fervent women, betrothed or already wives, occasioned much domestic
friction and popular persecution. In the Syriac churches, even as late
as the 4th century, the married state seems to have been regarded as
incompatible with the perfection of the initiated. Renunciation of the
state of wedlock was anyhow imposed on the faithful during the lengthy,
often lifelong, terms of penance imposed upon them for sins committed;
and later, when monkery took the place, in a church become worldly,
partly of the primitive baptism and partly of that rigorous penance
which was the rebaptism and medicine of the lapsed, celibacy and
virginity were held essential thereto, no less than renunciation of
property and money-making.

Together with the rage for virginity went the institution of _virgines
subintroductae_, or of spiritual wives; for it was often assumed that
the grace of baptism restored the original purity of life led by Adam
and Eve in common before the Fall. Such rigours are encouraged in the
_Shepherd of Hermas_, a book which emanated from Rome and up to the 4th
century was read in church. They were common in the African churches,
where they led to abuses which taxed the energy even of a Cyprian. They
were still rife in Antioch in 260. We detect them in the Celtic church
of St Patrick, and, as late as the 7th century, among the Celtic elders
of the north of France. In the Syriac church as late as 340, such
relations prevailed between the "Sons and daughters of the
Resurrection." It continued among the Albigenses and other dissident
sects of the middle ages, among whom it served a double purpose; for
their elders were thus not only able to prove their own chastity, but to
elude the inquisitors, who were less inclined to suspect a man of the
catharism which regarded marriage as the "greater adultery" (_maius
adulterium_) if they found him cohabiting (in appearance at least) with
a woman. There was hardly an early council, great or small, that did not
condemn this custom, as well as the other one, still more painful to
think of, of self-emasculation. In the Catholic church, however, common
sense prevailed, and those who desired to follow the Encratite ideal
repaired to the monasteries.

AUTHORITIES.--E.B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_ (London, 1903);
Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_ (London, 1901); J.E.
Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_; F. Max Müller,
_The Sacred Books of the East_; Victor Henry, _La Magie dans l'Inde
antique_; J.G. Frazer, _The Golden Bough_ (London, 1900), and _Adonis,
Attis, Osiris_ (London, 1906); Georges Lafay, _Culte des divinitês
d'Alexandrie_ (Paris, 1884); Döllinger, _Sectengeschichte des
Mittelalters_ (Munich, 1890); Fr. Cumont, _Mysteries of Mithra_
(Chicago, 1903); Zöckler, _Gesch. der Ascese_ (1863). See also under
PURIFICATION. Goldziher, "De l'ascetisme aux premiers temps de
l'Islam," in _Revue de l'histoire des religions_ (1898), p. 314;
Muratori, _De Synisactis et Agapetis_ (Pavia, 1709); Jas. Martineau,
_Types of Ethical Theory_ (Oxford, 1885); T.H. Green, _Prolegomena to
Ethics_ (Oxford, 1883); Franz Cumont, _Les Religions orientales dans
le paganisme romain_ (Paris, 1907); Porphyrius, _De Abstinentia_;
Plutarchus, _De Carnium Esu_. (F. C. C.)

ASCHAFFENBURG, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, on the
right bank of the Main, at its confluence with the Aschaff, near the
foot of the Spessart, 26 m. by rail S.E. of Frankfort-On-Main. Pop.
(1900) 18,091; (1905) 25,275. Its chief buildings are the Johannisburg,
built (1605-1614) by Archbishop Schweikard of Cronberg, which contains a
library with a number of _incunabula_, a collection of engravings and
paintings; the _Stiftskirche_, or cathedral, founded in 980 by Otto of
Bavaria, but dating in the main from the early 12th and the 13th
centuries, in which are preserved various monuments by the Vischers, and
a sarcophagus, with the relics of St Margaret (1540); the Capuchin
hospital; a theatre, which was formerly the house of the Teutonic order;
and several mansions of the German nobility. The town, which has been
remarkable for its educational establishments since the 10th century,
has a gymnasium, lyceum, seminarium and other schools. There is an
archaeological museum in the old abbey buildings. The graves of Klemens
Brentano and his brother Christian (d. 1851) are in the churchyard; and
Wilhelm Heinse is buried in the town. Coloured and white paper,
ready-made clothing, cellulose, tobacco, lime and liqueurs are the chief
manufactures, while a considerable export trade is done down the Main in
wood, cattle and wine.

Aschaffenburg, called in the middle ages Aschafaburg and also Askenburg,
was originally a Roman settlement. The 10th and 23rd Roman legions had
their station here, and on the ruins of their _castrum_ the Frankish
mayors of the palace built a castle. Bonifacius erected a chapel to St
Martin, and founded a Benedictine monastery. A stone bridge over the
Main was built by Archbishop Willigis in 989. Adalbert increased the
importance of the town in various ways about 1122. In 1292 a synod was
held here, and in 1474 an imperial diet, preliminary to that of Vienna,
in which the concordat was decided which has therefore been sometimes
called the _Aschaffenburg Concordat_.

The town suffered greatly during the Thirty Years' War, being held in
turn by the various belligerents. In 1842-1849, King Louis built himself
to the west of the town a country house, called the _Pompeianum_, from
its being an imitation of the house of Castor and Pollux at Pompeii. In
1866 the Prussians inflicted a severe defeat on the Austrians in the
neighbourhood.

The principality of Aschaffenburg, deriving its name from the city,
comprehended an area of 654 English sq. m. It formed part of the
electorate of Mainz, and in 1803 was made over to the archchancellor,
Archbishop Charles of Dalberg. In 1806 it was annexed to the grand-duchy
of Frankfort; and in 1814 was transferred to Bavaria, in virtue of a
treaty concluded on the 19th of June between that power and Austria.
With lower Franconia, it now forms a district of the kingdom of Bavaria.

ASCHAM, ROGER (c. 1515-1568), English scholar and writer, was born at
Kirby Wiske, a village in the North Riding of Yorkshire, near
Northallerton, about the year 1515. His name would be more properly
spelt Askham, being derived, doubtless, from Askham in the West Riding.
He was the third son of John Ascham, steward to Lord Scrope of Bolton.
The family name of his mother Margaret is unknown, but she is said to
have been well connected. The authority for this statement, as for most
others concerning Ascham's early life, is Edward Grant, headmaster of
Westminster, who collected and edited his letters and delivered a
panegyrical oration on his life in 1576.

Ascham was educated not at school, but in the house of Sir Humphry
Wingfield, a barrister, and in 1533 speaker of the House of Commons, as
Ascham himself tells us, in the _Toxophilus_, p. 120 (not, as by a
mistake which originated with Grant and has been repeated ever since,
Sir Anthony Wingfield, who was nephew of the speaker). Sir Humphry
"ever loved and used to have many children brought up in his house,"
where they were under a tutor named R. Bond. Their sport was archery,
and Sir Humphry "himself would at term times bring down from London both
bows and shafts and go with them himself to the field and see them
shoot." Hence Ascham's earliest English work, the _Toxophilus_, the
importance which he attributed to archery in educational establishments,
and probably the provision for archery in the statutes of St Albans,
Harrow and other Elizabethan schools. From this private tuition Ascham
was sent "about 1530," at the age, it is said, of fifteen, to St John's
College, Cambridge, then the largest and most learned college in either
university. Here he fell under the influence of John Cheke, who was
admitted a fellow in Ascham's first year, and Sir Thomas Smith. His
guide and friend was Robert Pember, "a man of the greatest learning and
with an admirable facility in the Greek tongue." On his advice he
practised seriously the precept embodied in the saying, "I know nothing
about the subject, I have not even lectured on it," and "to learn Greek
more quickly, while still a boy, taught Greek to boys." In Latin he
specially studied Cicero and Caesar. He became B.A. on the 18th of
February 1534/5. Dr Nicholas Metcalfe was then master of the college, "a
papist, indeed, and yet if any young man given to the new learning as
they termed it, went beyond his fellows," he "lacked neither open
praise, nor private exhibition." He procured Ascham's election to a
fellowship, "though being a new bachelor of arts, I chanced among my
companions to speak against the Pope ... after grievous rebuke and some
punishment, open warning was given to all the fellows, none to be so
hardy, as to give me his voice at that election." The day of election
Ascham regarded as his "birthday," and "the whole foundation of the poor
learning I have and of all the furtherance that hitherto elsewhere I
have obtained." He took his M.A. degree on the 3rd of July 1537. He
stayed for some time at Cambridge taking pupils, among whom was William
Grindal, who in 1544 became tutor to Princess Elizabeth. Ascham himself
cultivated music, acquired fame for a beautiful handwriting, and
lectured on mathematics. Before 1540, when the Regius professorship of
Greek was established, Ascham "was paid a handsome salary to profess the
Greek tongue in public," and held also lectures in St John's College. He
obtained from Edward Lee, then archbishop of York, a pension of £2 a
year, in return for which Ascham translated Oecumenius' Commentaries on
the Pauline Epistles. But the archbishop, scenting heresy in some
passage relating to the marriage of the clergy, sent it back to him,
with a present indeed, but with something like a reprimand, to which
Ascham answered with an assurance that he was "no seeker after
novelties," as his lectures showed. He was on safer ground in writing in
1542-1543 a book, which he told Sir William Paget in the summer of 1544
was in the press, "on the art of Shooting." This was no doubt suggested
partly by the act of parliament 33 Henry VIII. c. 9, "an acte for
mayntenaunce of Artyllarie and debarringe of unlawful games," requiring
every one under sixty, of good health, the clergy, judges, &c.,
excepted, "to use shooting in the long bow," and fixing the price at
which bows were to be sold. Under the title of _Toxophilus_ he presented
it to Henry VIII. at Greenwich soon after his triumphant return from the
capture of Boulogne, and promptly received a grant of a pension of £10 a
year, equal to some £200 a year of our money. A novelty of the book was
that the author had "written this Englishe matter in the Englishe tongue
for Englishe men," though he thought it necessary to defend himself by
the argument that what "the best of the realm think it honest to use" he
"ought not to suppose it vile for him to write." It is a Platonic
dialogue between Toxophilus and Philologus, and nowadays its chief
interest lies in its incidental remarks. It may probably claim to have
been the model for Izaak Walton's _Compleat Angler._

From 1541, or earlier, Ascham acted as letter-writer to the university
and also to his college. Perhaps the best specimen of his skill was the
letter written to the protector Somerset in 1548 on behalf of Sedbergh
school, which was attached to St John's College by the founder, Dr
Lupton, in 1525, and the endowment of which had been confiscated under
the Chantries Act. In 1546 Ascham was elected public orator by the
university on Sir John Cheke's retirement.

Shortly after the beginning of the reign of Edward VI., Ascham made
public profession of Protestant opinions in a disputation on the
doctrine of the Mass, begun in his own college and then removed for
greater publicity to the public schools of the university, where it was
stopped by the vice-chancellor. Thereon Ascham wrote a letter of
complaint to Sir William Cecil. This stood him in good stead. In January
1548, Grindal, the princess Elizabeth's tutor, died. Ascham had already
corresponded with the princess, and in one of his letters says that he
returns her pen which he has mended. Through Cecil and at the princess's
own wish he was selected as her tutor against another candidate pressed
by Admiral Seymour and Queen Katherine. Ascham taught Elizabeth--then
sixteen years old--for two years, chiefly at Cheshunt. In a letter to
Sturm, the Strassburg schoolmaster, he praises her "beauty, stature,
wisdom and industry. She talks French and Italian as well as English:
she has often talked to me readily and well in Latin and moderately so
in Greek. When she writes Greek and Latin nothing is more beautiful than
her handwriting ... she read with me almost all Cicero and great part of
Titus Livius: for she drew all her knowledge of Latin from those two
authors. She used to give the morning to the Greek Testament and
afterwards read select orations of Isocrates and the tragedies of
Sophocles. To these I added St Cyprian and Melanchthon's Commonplaces."
In 1550 Ascham quarrelled with Elizabeth's steward and returned to
Cambridge. Cheke then procured him the secretaryship to Sir Richard
Morrison (Moryson), appointed ambassador to Charles V. It was on his way
to join Morrison that he paid his celebrated morning call on Lady Jane
Grey at Bradgate, where he found her reading Plato's _Phaedo_, while
every one else was out hunting.

The embassy went to Louvain, where he found the university very inferior
to Cambridge, then to Innsbruck and Venice. Ascham read Greek with the
ambassador four or five days a week. His letters during the embassy,
which was recalled on Mary's accession, were published in English in
1553, as a "Report" on Germany. Through Bishop Gardiner he was appointed
Latin secretary to Queen Mary with a pension of £20 a year. His
Protestantism he must have quietly sunk, though he told Sturm that "some
endeavoured to hinder the flow of Gardiner's benevolence on account of
his religion." Probably his never having been in orders tended to his
safety. On the 1st of June 1554 he married Margaret Howe, whom he
described as niece of Sir R. (? J., certainly not, as has been said,
Henry) Wallop. By her he had two sons. From his frequent complaints of
his poverty then and later, he seems to have lived beyond his income,
though, like most courtiers, he obtained divers lucrative leases of
ecclesiastical and crown property. In 1555 he resumed his studies with
Princess Elizabeth, reading in Greek the orations of Aeschines and
Demosthenes' _De Corona_. Soon after Elizabeth's accession, on the 5th
of October 1559, he was given, though a layman, the canonry and prebend
of Wetwang in York minster. In 1563 he began the work which has made him
famous, _The Scholemaster_. The occasion of it was, he tells us (though
he is perhaps merely imitating Boccaccio), that during the "great
plague" at London in 1563 the court was at Windsor, and there on the
10th of December he was dining with Sir William Cecil, secretary of
state, and other ministers. Cecil said he had "strange news; that divers
scholars of Eaton be run away from the schole for fear of beating"; and
expressed his wish that "more discretion was used by schoolmasters in
correction than commonly is." A debate took place, the party being
pretty evenly divided between floggers and anti-floggers, with Ascham as
the champion of the latter. Afterwards Sir Richard Sackville, the
treasurer, came up to Ascham and told him that "a fond schoolmaster"
had, by his brutality, made him hate learning, much to his loss, and as
he had now a young son, whom he wished to be learned, he offered, if
Ascham would name a tutor, to pay for the education of their respective
sons under Ascham's orders, and invited Ascham to write a treatise on
"the right order of teaching." _The Scholemaster_ was the result. It is
not, as might be supposed, a general treatise on educational method, but
"a plaine and perfite way of teachyng children to understand, write and
speake in Latin tong"; and it was not intended for schools, but
"specially prepared for the private brynging up of youth in gentlemen
and noblemens houses." The perfect way simply consisted in "the double
translation of a model book"; the book recommended by this professional
letter-writer being "Sturmius' _Select Letters of Cicero_." As a method
of learning a language by a single pupil, this method might be useful;
as a method of education in school nothing more deadening could be
conceived. The method itself seems to have been taken from Cicero. Nor
was the famous plea for the substitution of gentleness and persuasion
for coercion and flogging in schools, which has been one of the main
attractions of the book, novel. It was being practised and preached at
that very time by Christopher Jonson (c. 1536-1597) at Winchester; it
had been enforced at length by Wolsey in his statutes for his Ipswich
College in 1528, following Robert Sherborne, bishop of Chichester, in
founding Rolleston school; and had been repeatedly urged by Erasmus and
others, to say nothing of William of Wykeham himself in the statutes of
Winchester College in 1400. But Ascham's was the first definite
demonstration in favour of humanity in the vulgar tongue and in an easy
style by a well-known "educationist," though not one who had any actual
experience as a schoolmaster. What largely contributed to its fame was
its picture of Lady Jane Grey, whose love of learning was due to her
finding her tutor a refuge from pinching, ear-boxing and bullying
parents; some exceedingly good criticisms of various authors, and a
spirited defence of English as a vehicle of thought and literature, of
which it was itself an excellent example. The book was not published
till after Ascham's death, which took place on the 23rd of December
1568, owing to a chill caught by sitting up all night to finish a New
Year's poem to the queen.

His letters were collected and published in 1576, and went through
several editions, the latest at Nuremberg in 1611; they were re-edited
by William Elstob in 1703. His English works were edited by James
Bennett with a life by Dr Johnson in 1771, reprinted in 8vo in 1815.
Dr Giles in 1864-1865 published in 4 vols. select letters with the
_Toxophilus_ and _Scholemaster_ and the life by Edward Grant. _The
Scholemaster_ was reprinted in 1571 and 1589. It was edited by the
Rev. J. Upton in 1711 and in 1743, by Prof. J.E.B. Mayor in 1863, and
by Prof. Edward Arber in 1870. The _Toxophilus_ was republished in
1571, 1589 and 1788, and by Prof. Edward Arber in 1868 and 1902.
(A. F. L.)

ASCHERSLEBEN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Saxony, 36
m. by rail N.W. from Halle, and at the junction of lines to Cothen and
Nienhagen. Pop. (1900) 27,245; (1905) 27,876. It contains one Roman
Catholic and four Protestant churches, a synagogue, a fine town-hall
dating from the 16th century, and several schools. The discovery of coal
in the neighbourhood stimulated and altered its industries. In addition
to the manufacture of woollen wares, for which it has long been known,
there is now extensive production of vinegar, paraffin, potash and
especially beetroot-sugar; while the surrounding district, which was
formerly devoted in great part to market-gardening, is now turned almost
entirely into beetroot fields. There are also iron, zinc and chemical
manufactures, and the cultivation of agricultural seeds is carried on.
In the neighbourhood are brine springs and a spa (Wilhelmsbad).
Aschersleben was probably founded in the 11th century by Count Esico of
Ballenstedt, the ancestor of the house of Anhalt, whose grandson, Otto,
called himself count of Ascania and Aschersleben, deriving the former
part of the title from his castle in the neighbourhood of the town. On
the death of Otto III. (1315) Aschersleben passed into the hands of the
bishop of Halberstadt, and at the peace of 1648 was, with the bishopric,
united to Brandenburg.

ASCIANO, a town of Tuscany, in the province of Siena, 19 m. S.E. of the
town of Siena by rail. Pop. (1901) 7618. It is surrounded by walls built
by the Sienese in 1351, and has some 14th-century churches with
paintings of the same period. Six miles to the south is the large
Benedictine monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, founded in 1320, famous
for the frescoes by Luca Signorelli (1497-1498) and Antonio Bazzi,
called Sodoma (1505), in the cloister, illustrating scenes from the
legend of St Benedict; the latter master's work is perhaps nowhere
better represented than here. The church contains fine inlaid choir
stalls by Fra Giovanni da Verona. The buildings, which are mostly of red
brick, are conspicuous against the gray clayey and sandy soil. The
monastery is described by Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II.) in
his _Commentaria_. Remains of Roman baths, with a fine mosaic pavement,
were found within the town in 1898 (G. Pellegrini in _Notizie degli
scavi_, 1899, 6).

ASCITANS (or ASCITAE; from [Greek: askos], the Greek for a wine-skin), a
peculiar sect of 2nd-century Christians (Montanists), who introduced the
practice of dancing round a wine-skin at their meetings.

ASCITES, ([Greek: askitaes] dropsical, from [Greek: askosaskos] _sc_.
[Greek: nosos] disease), the term in medicine applied to an effusion of
non-inflammatory fluid within the peritoneum. It is not a disease in
itself, but is one of the manifestations of disease elsewhere--usually
in the kidneys, heart, or in connexion with the liver (portal
obstruction). Portal obstruction is the commonest cause of well-marked
ascites. It is produced by (1) diseases within the liver, as cirrhosis
(usually alcoholic) and cancer; (2) diseases outside the liver, as
cancer of stomach, duodenum or pancreas, causing pressure on the portal
vein, or enlarged glands in the fissure of the liver producing the same
effect. Ascites is one of the late symptoms in the disease, and precedes
dropsy of the leg, which may come on later, due to pressure on the large
veins in the abdominal cavity by the ascitic fluid. In ascites due to
heart disease, the dropsy of the feet and legs precedes the ascites, and
there will be a history of palpitation, shortness of breath, and perhaps
cough. In the ascites of kidney troubles there will be a history of
general oedema--puffiness of face and eyes on rising in the morning
probably having attracted the attention of the patient or his friends
previously. Other less common causes of ascites are chronic peritonitis,
either tuberculous in the young, or due to cancer in the aged, and more
rarely still pernicious anaemia.

ASCLEPIADES, Greek physician, was born at Prusa in Bithynia in 124 B.C.,
and flourished at Rome in the end of the 2nd century B.C. He travelled
much when young, and seems at first to have settled at Rome as a
rhetorician. In that profession he did not succeed, but he acquired
great reputation as a physician. He founded his medical practice on a
modification of the atomic or corpuscular theory, according to which
disease results from an irregular or inharmonious motion of the
corpuscles of the body. His remedies were, therefore, directed to the
restoration of harmony, and he trusted much to changes of diet,
accompanied by friction, bathing and exercise, though he also employed
emetics and bleeding. He recommended the use of wine, and in every way
strove to render himself as agreeable as possible to his patients. His
pupils were very numerous, and the school formed by them was called the
Methodical. Asclepiades died at an advanced age.

ASCLEPIADES, of Samos, epigrammatist and lyric poet, friend of
Theocritus, flourished about 270 B.C. He was the earliest and most
important of the convivial and erotic epigrammatists. Only a few of his
compositions are actual "inscriptions"; others sing the praises of the
poets whom he specially admired, but the majority of them are
love-songs. It is doubtful whether he is the author of all the epigrams
(some 40 in number) which bear his name in the Greek Anthology. He
possibly gave his name to the Asclepiadean metre.

ASCLEPIODOTUS, Greek military writer, flourished in the 1st century B.C.
Nothing is known of him except that he was a pupil of Poseidonius the
Stoic (d. 51 B.C.). He is the supposed author of a treatise on
Graeco-Macedonian tactics ([Greek: Taktiká Kephálaia]), which, however,
is probably not his own work, but the skeleton outline of the lectures
delivered by his master, who is known to have written a work on the
subject.

ASCOLI, GRAZIADIO ISAIA (1820-1907), Italian philologist; of Jewish
family, was born at Görz at an early age showed a marked linguistic
talent. In 1854 he published his _Studii orientali e linguistici_, and
in 1860 was appointed professor of philology at Milan. He made various
learned contributions to the study of Indo-European and Semitic
languages, and also of the gipsy language, but his special field was the
Italian dialects. He founded the _Archivio glottologico italiano_ in
1873, publishing in it his _Saggi Ladini_, and making it in succeeding
years the great organ of original scholarship on this subject. He was
universally recognized as the greatest authority on Italian linguistics,
and his article in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ (9th ed., revised for
this edition) became the classic exposition in English. (See ITALY:
_Language_.)

ASCOLI PICENO[1] (anc. _Ausculum_) a town and episcopal see of the
Marches, Italy, the capital of the province of Ascoli Piceno, 17 m. W.
of Porto d' Ascoli (a station on the coast railway, 56 m. S.S.E. of
Ancona), and 53 m. S. of Ancona direct, situated on the S. bank of the
Tronto (anc. _Truentus_) at its confluence with the Castellano, 500 ft.
above sea-level, and surrounded by lofty mountains. Pop. (1901) town,
12,256; commune, 28,608. The Porta Romana is a double-arched Roman gate;
adjacent are remains of the massive ancient city walls, in rectangular
blocks of stone 2 ft. in height, and remains of still earlier
fortifications have been found at this point (F. Barnabei in _Notizie
degli scavi_, 1887, 252). The church of S. Gregorio is built into a
Roman tetrastyle Corinthian temple, two columns of which and the _cella_
are still preserved; the site of the Roman theatre can be distinguished;
and the church and convent of the Annunziata (with two fine cloisters
and a good fresco by Cola d' Amatrice in the refectory) are erected upon
large Roman substructures of concrete, which must have supported some
considerable building. Higher up is the castle, which now shows no
traces of fortifications older than medieval; it commands a fine view of
the town and of the mountains which encircle it. The town has many good
pre-Renaissance buildings; the picturesque colonnaded market-place
contains the fine Gothic church of S. Francesco and the original Palazzo
del Comune, now the prefecture (Gothic with Renaissance additions). The
cathedral is in origin Romanesque,[2] but has been much altered, and was
stored in 1888 by Count Giuseppe Sacconi (1855-1905). The frescoes in
the dome, of the same date, are by Cesare Mariani. The cope presented to
the cathedral treasury by Pope Nicholas IV. was stolen in 1904, and sold
to Mr J. Pierpont Morgan, who generously returned it to the Italian
government, and it was then placed for greater safety in the Galleria
Corsini at Rome. The baptistery still preserves its ancient character;
and the churches of S. Vittore and SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio are also
good Romanesque buildings. The fortress of the Malatesta, constructed in
1349, has been in the main destroyed; the part of it which remains is
now a prison. The present Palazzo Comunale, a Renaissance edifice,
contains a fine museum, chiefly remarkable for the contents of
prehistoric tombs found in the district (including good bronze fibulae,
necklaces, amulets, &c., often decorated with amber), and a large
collection of acorn-shaped lead missiles (_glandes_) used by slingers,
belonging to the time of the siege of Asculum during the Social War (89
B.C.). There is also a picture gallery containing works by local
masters, Pietro Alamanni, Cola d' Amatrice, Carlo Crivelli, &c. The
bridges across the ravines which defend the town are of considerable
importance; the Ponte di Porta Cappucina is a very fine Roman bridge,
with a single arch of 71 ft. span. The Ponte di Cecco (so named from
Cecco d' Ascoli), with two arches, is also Roman and belongs to the Via
Salaria; the Ponte Maggiore and the Ponte Cartaro are, on the other
hand, medieval, though the latter perhaps preserves some traces of Roman
work. Near Ascoli is Castel Trosino, where an extensive Lombard
necropolis of the 7th century was discovered in 1895; the contents of
the tombs are now exhibited in the Museo Nazionale delle Terme at Rome
(_Notizie degli scavi_, 1895, 35).

The ancient Asculum was the capital of Picenum, and it occupied a strong
position in the centre of difficult country. It was taken in 268 B.C. by
the Romans, and the Via Salaria was no doubt prolonged thus far at this
period; the distance from Rome is 120 m. It took a prominent part in the
Social War against Rome, the proconsul Q. Servilius and all the Roman
citizens within its walls being massacred by the inhabitants in 90 B.C.
It was captured after a long siege by Pompeius Strabo in 89 B.C. The
leader, Judacilius, committed suicide, the principal citizens were put
to death, and the rest exiled. The Roman general celebrated his triumph
on the 25th of December of that year. Caesar occupied it, however, as a
strong position after crossing the Rubicon; and it received a Roman
colony, perhaps under the triumvirs, and became a place of some
importance. In A.D. 301 it became the capital of Picenum Suburbicarium.
In 545 it was taken by Totila, but is spoken of by Paulus Diaconus as
the chief city of Picenum shortly afterwards. From the time of
Charlemagne it was under the rule of its bishops, who had the title of
prince and the right to coin money, until 1185, when it became a free
republic. It had many struggles with Fermo, and in the 15th century came
more directly under the papal sway.

See N. Persichetti in _Romische Mitteilungen_ (1903), 295 seq. (T.
As.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The epithet distinguishes it from Ascoli Satriano (anc.
_Ausculum_), which lies 19 m. S. of Foggia by rail.

[2] It contains a fine polyptych by Carlo Crivelli (1473).

ASCONIUS PEDIANUS, QUINTUS (9 B.C.-A.D. 76; or A.D. 3-88), Roman
grammarian and historian, was probably a native of Patavium (Padua). In
his later years he resided at Rome, where he died, after having been
blind for twelve years, at the age of eighty-five. During the reigns of
Claudius and Nero he compiled for his sons, from various sources--e.g.
the Gazette (_Acta Publica_), shorthand reports or "skeletons"
(_commentarii_) of Cicero's unpublished speeches, Tiro's life of Cicero,
speeches and letters of Cicero's contemporaries, various historical
writers, e.g. Varro, Atticus, Antias, Tuditanus and Fenestella (a
contemporary of Livy whom he often criticizes)--historical commentaries
on Cicero's speeches, of which only five, viz. _in Pisonem_, _pro
Scauro_, _pro Milone_, _pro Cornelio_ and _in toga Candida_, in a very
mutilated condition, are preserved. In a note upon the speech _pro
Scauro_, he speaks of Longus Caecina (d. A.D. 57) as still living, while
his words imply that Claudius (d. 54) was not alive. This statement,
therefore, must have been written between A.D. 54 and 57. These valuable
notes, written in good Latin, relate chiefly to legal, historical and
antiquarian matters. A commentary, of inferior Latinity and mainly of a
grammatical character, on Cicero's Verrine orations, is universally
regarded as spurious. Both works were found by Poggio in a MS. at St
Gallen in 1416. This MS. is lost, but three transcripts were made by
Poggio, Zomini (Sozomenus) of Pistoia and Bartolommeo da Montpulciano.
That of Poggio is now at Madrid (Matritensis x. 81), and that of Zomini
is in the Forteguerri library at Pistoia (No. 37). A copy of
Bartolommeo's transcript exists in Florence (Laur. liv. 5). The later
MSS. are derived from Poggio's copy. Other works attributed to Asconius
were: a life of Sallust, a defence of Virgil against his detractors, and
a treatise (perhaps a symposium in imitation of Plato) on health and
long life.

Editions by Kiessling-Schöll (1875), and A.C. Clark (Oxford, 1906),
which contains a previously unpublished collation of Poggio's
transcript. See also Madvig, _De Asconio Pediano_ (1828).

ASCOT, a village in the Wokingham parliamentary division of Berkshire,
England, famous for its race-meetings. Pop. of parish of Ascot Heath
(1901), 1927. The station on the Southwestern railway, 29 m. W.S.W. of
London, is called Ascot and Sunninghill; the second name belonging to an
adjacent township with a population (civil parish) of 4719. The
race-course is on Ascot Heath, and was laid out by order of Queen Anne
in 1711, and on the 11th of August in that year the first meeting was
held and attended by the queen. The course is almost exactly 2 m. in
circumference, and the meetings are held in June. The principal race is
that for the Ascot Gold Cup, instituted in 1807. The meeting is one of
the most fashionable in England, and is commonly attended by members of
the royal family. The royal procession, for which the meeting is
peculiarly famous, was initiated by George IV. in 1820.

See R. Herod, _Royal Ascot_ (London, 1900).

ASCUS (Gr. [Greek: askos], a bag), a botanical term for the membranous
sacs containing the reproductive spores in certain lichens and fungi.
Various compounds of the word are used, e.g. _ascophorous_, producing
asci; _ascospore_, the spore (or sporule) developed in the ascus;
_ascogonium_, the organ producing it, &c.

ASELLI [ASELLIUS, or ASELLIO], GASPARO (1581-1626), Italian physician,
was born at Cremona about 1581, became professor of anatomy and surgery
at Pavia, and practised at Milan, where he died in 1626. To him is due
the discovery of the lacteal vessels, published in _De Lactibus_ (Milan,
1627).

ASGILL, JOHN (1659-1738), English writer, was born at Hanley Castle, in
Worcestershire, in 1659. He was bred to the law, and gained considerable
reputation in his profession, increased by two pamphlets--the first
(1696) advocating the establishment of some currency other than the
usual gold and silver, the second (1698) on a registry for titles of
lands. In 1699, when a commission was appointed to settle disputed
claims in Ireland, he set out for that country, attracted by the hopes
of practice. Before leaving London he put in the hands of the printer a
tract, entitled _An Argument proving that, according to the Covenant of
Eternal Life revealed in the Scripture, Man may be translated from hence
into that Eternal Life without passing through Death_ (1700). Coleridge
has highly praised the "genuine Saxon English," the "irony" and "humour"
of this extraordinary pamphlet, which interpreted the relation between
God and man by the technical rules of law, and insisted that, Christ
having wiped out Adam's sin, the penalty of death must consequently be
illegal for those who claim exemption. How far it was meant seriously
was doubted at the time, and may be doubted now. But its fame preceded
the author to Ireland, and was of material service in securing his
professional success, so that he amassed money, purchased an estate, and
married a daughter of the second Lord Kenmare. He was returned both to
the Irish and English parliaments, but was expelled from both on account
of his "blasphemous" pamphlet. He was also involved in money
difficulties, and litigation about his Irish estate, and these
circumstances may have had something to do with his trouble in
parliament. In 1707 he was arrested for debt, and the remainder of his
life was spent in the Fleet prison, or within the rules of the king's
bench. He died in 1738. Asgill also wrote in 1714-1715 some pamphlets
defending the Hanoverian succession against the claims of the Pretender.

ASH[1] (Ger. _Esche_), a common name (Fr. _fréne_) given to certain
trees. The common ash (_Fraxinus excelsior_) belongs to the natural
order Oleaceae, the olive family, an order of trees and shrubs which
includes lilac, privet and jasmine. The Hebrew word _Oren_, translated
"ash" in Isaiah xliv. 14, cannot refer to an ash tree, as that is not a
native of Palestine, but probably refers to the Aleppo pine (_Pinus
halepensis_). The ash is a native of Great Britain and the greater part
of Europe, and also extends to Asia. The tree is distinguished for its
height and contour, as well as for its graceful foliage. It attains a
height of from 50 to 80 ft., and flowers in March and April, before the
leaves are developed. The reddish flowers grow in clusters, but are not
showy. They are naked, that is without sepals or petals, and generally
imperfect, wanting either stamens or pistil. The large leaves, which are
late in appearing, are pinnately compound, bearing four to seven pairs
of gracefully tapering toothed leaflets on a slender stalk. The dry
winged fruits, the so-called keys, are a characteristic feature and
often remain hanging in bunches long after the leaves have fallen in
autumn. The leaves fall early, but the greyish twigs and black buds
render the tree conspicuous in winter and especially in early spring.

The ash is in Britain next in value to the oak as a timber-tree. It
requires a good deep loam with gravelly subsoil, and a situation
naturally sheltered, such as the steep banks of glens, rivers or lakes;
in cold and wet clay it does not succeed. As the value of the timber
depends chiefly on its toughness and elasticity, it is best grown in
masses where the soil is good; the trunk is thus drawn up free from
large side-branches. The tree is easily propagated from seeds; it throws
up strong root shoots. The ash requires much light, but grows rapidly,
and its terminal shoots pierce easily through thickets of beech, with
which it is often associated. Unmixed ash plantations are seldom
satisfactory, because the foliage does not sufficiently cover the
ground; but when mixed with beech it grows well, and attains great
height and girth. Owing to the dense mass of roots which it sends out
horizontally a little beneath the surface of the ground, the ash does
much harm to vegetation beneath its shade, and is therefore obnoxious as
a hedgerow tree. Coppice shoots yield excellent hop-poles, crates,
hoops, whip-handles, &c. The timber is much used for agricultural
implements, and by coach-builders and wheelwrights.

A variety of the common species, known as var. _heterophylla_, has
simple leaves. It occurs wild in woods in Europe and England. Another
variety of ash (_pendula_) is met with in which the branches are
pendulous and weeping. Sometimes this variety is grafted on the tall
stem of the common ash, so as to produce a pleasing effect. It is said
that the weeping variety was first observed at Gamlingay, in
Cambridgeshire. A variety (_crispa_) occurs with curled leaves, and
another with warty stems and branches, called _verrucosa_. _F. Ornus_ is
the manna ash (see MANNA), a handsome tree with greenish-white flowers
and native in south Europe. In southern Europe there is a small-leaved
ash, called _Fraxinus parvifolia_. _F. floribunda_, a large tree with
terminal panicles of white flowers, is a native of the Himalayas. In
America there are several species--such as _Fraxinus americana_, the
white ash; _F. pubescens_, the red ash; and _F. sambucifolia_, the black
ash.

The "mountain ash" belongs to a totally different family from the common
ash. It is called _Pyrus Aucuparia_, and belongs to the natural order
Rosaceae, and the tribe _Pomeae_, which includes also apples, pears, &c.
Its common name is probably due to its resemblance to the true ash, in
its smooth grey bark, graceful ascending branches, and especially the
form of the leaf, which is also pinnately compound but smaller than in
the true ash. Its common name in Scotland is the rowan tree; it is well
known by its clusters of white blossoms and succulent scarlet fruit. The
name of poison ash is given to _Rhus venenata_, the North American
poison elder or sumach, belonging to the Anacardiaceae (Cashew family).
The bitter ash of the West Indies is _Simaruba excelsa_, which belongs
to the natural order Simarubaceae. The Cape ash is _Ekebergia capensis_,
belonging to the natural order Meliaceae, a large tree, a native of the
Cape of Good Hope. The prickly ash, _Xanthoxylon Clava-Herculis_ (nat.
ord. Xanthoxyleae), a native of the south-eastern United States, is a
small tree, the trunk of which is studded with corky tubercles, while
the branches are armed with stout, sharp, brown prickles.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The homonym, ash or (pl.) ashes, the residue (of a body, &c.)
after burning, is a common Teutonic word, Ger. _Asche_, connected
with the root found in Lat. _ardere_, to burn.

A'SHA [MAIMUN IBN QAIS], Arabian poet, was born before Mahomet, and
lived long enough to accept the mission of the prophet. He was born in
Manfuha, a village of al-Yemama in the centre of Arabia, and became a
wandering singer, passing through all Arabia from Hadramut in the south
to al-Hira in the north, and naturally frequenting the annual fair at
Okaz (Ukaz). His love poems are devoted to the praise of Huraira, a
black female slave. Even before the time of Mahomet he is said to have
believed in the resurrection and last judgment, and to have been a
monotheist. These beliefs may have been due to his intercourse with the
bishop of Nejran (Najran) and the `Ibadites (Christians) of al-Hira. His
poems were praised for their descriptions of the wild ass, for the
praise of wine, for their skill in praise and satire, and for the
varieties of metre employed. His best-known poem is that in praise of
Mahomet.

His poems have been collected from various sources in L. Cheikho's
_Les Poètes arabes chrétiens_ (Jesuit press, Beirut, 1890), pp.
357-399. His eulogy of Mahomet has been edited by H. Thorbecke, _Al
Asa's Lobgedicht auf Muhammad_ (Leipzig, 1875). (G. W. T.)

ASHANTI, a British possession in West Africa, bounded W. by the (French)
Ivory Coast colony, N. by the British Protectorate known as Northern
Territories of the Gold Coast (see GOLD COAST), and E. by the river
Volta (which separates it from the German colony of Togoland); the
southern frontier is conterminous with the northern frontier of the
(British) Gold Coast colony. It forms an irregular oblong, with a
triangular projection (the country of the Adansi) southward. It has an
area of 23,000 sq. m., and a population estimated (1907) at 500,000.

_Physical Features; Flora and Fauna._--A great part of Ashanti is
covered with primeval and almost impenetrable forest.[1] Many of the
trees, chiefly silk-cotton and hardwood, attain splendid proportions,
the bombax reaching a height of over 200 ft., but the monotony is
oppressive, and is seldom relieved by the sight of flowers, birds or
beasts. Ferns are abundant, and the mimosa rises to heights of from 30
to 60 ft. All over the forest spread lianas, or monkey-ropes, their
usual position being that of immense festoons hanging from tree to tree.
To these lianas (species of which yield one kind of the rubber of
commerce) is due largely the weird aspect of the forest. The country
round the towns, however, is cultivated with care, the fields yielding
in abundance grain, yams, vegetables and fruits. In the north-eastern
districts the primeval forest gives place to park-like country,
consisting of plains covered with high coarse grass, and dotted with
occasional baobabs, as well as with wild plum, shea-butter, dwarf date,
fan palms, and other small trees. Among the wild animals are the
elephant (comparatively rare), the leopard, varieties of antelope, many
kinds of monkeys and numerous venomous snakes. Crocodiles and two kinds
of hippopotami, the ordinary and a pygmy variety, are found in the
rivers. Of birds, parrots are the most characteristic. Insect life is
abundant.

About 25 m. south-east of Kumasi is Lake Busumchwi, the sacred lake of
the Ashanti. It is surrounded by forest-clad hills some 800 ft. high, is
nearly circular and has a maximum diameter of 6 m. The Black Volta, and
lower down the Volta (q.v.), form the northern frontier, and various
tributaries of the Volta, running generally in a northerly direction,
traverse the eastern portion of the country. In the central parts are
the upper courses of the Ofin and of some tributaries of the Prah.
Farther west are the Tano and Bia rivers, which empty their waters into
the Assini lagoon. In their course through Ashanti, the rivers, apart
from the Volta, are navigable by canoes only. The elevation of the
country is generally below 2000 ft., but it rises towards the north.

_Climate._--The climate, although unsuited to the prolonged residence of
Europeans, is less unhealthy than that of the coast towns of West
Africa. The water-supply is good and abundant. The rainy season lasts
from the end of May until October; storms are frequent and violent. The
mean temperature at Kumasi is 76° F., the mean annual rainfall 40 ins.

_Inhabitants._--The most probable tradition represents the Ashanti as
deriving their origin from bands of fugitives, who in the 16th or 17th
century were driven before the Moslem tribes migrating southward from
the countries on the Niger and Senegal. Having obtained possession of a
region of impenetrable forest, they defended themselves with a valour
which, becoming part of their national character, raised them to the
rank of a powerful and conquering nation. They are of the pure negro
type, and are supposed to be originally of the same race as the Fanti,
nearer the coast, and speak the same language. The separation of Fanti
and Ashanti has been ascribed to a famine which drove the former south,
and led them to live on _fan_, or herbs, while the latter subsisted on
_san_, or Indian corn, &c., whence the names Fanti and Santi. The
Ashanti are divided into a large number of tribes, of whom a dozen may
be distinguished, namely, the Bekwai, Adansi, Juabin, Kokofu, Kumasi,
Mampon, Nsuta, Nkwanta, Dadiassi, Daniassi, Ofinsu and Adjisu. Each
tribe has its own king, but from the beginning of the 18th century the
king of Kumasi was recognized as king paramount, and was spoken of as
the king of Ashanti. As paramount king he succeeded to the "golden
stool," the symbol of authority among the Ashanti. After the deposition
of Prempeh (1896) no king of Kumasi was chosen; Prempeh himself was
never "enstooled." The government of Ashanti was formerly a mixture of
monarchy and military aristocracy. The confederate tribes were
originally organized for purposes of war into six great divisions or
clans, this organization developing into the main social fabric of the
state. The chiefs of the clans, with a few sub-chiefs having hereditary
rights, formed the King's Council, and the king, unless of exceptionally
strong character, often exercised less power than the council of chiefs,
each of whom kept his little court, making a profuse display of barbaric
pomp. Land is held in common by the tribes, lands unallotted being
attached to the office of head chief or king and called "stool lands."
Polygamy is practised by all who can afford it. It is stated by the
early chroniclers that the king of Ashanti was bound to maintain the
"fetish" number of 3333 wives; many of these, however, were employed in
menial services. The crown descended to the king's brother, or his
sister's son, not to his own offspring. The queen mother exercised
considerable authority in the state, but the king's wives had no power.
The system of human sacrifices, practised among the Ashanti until the
closing years of the 19th century, was founded on a sentiment of piety
towards parents and other connexions--the chiefs believing that the rank
of their dead relatives in the future world would be measured by the
number of attendants sent after them. There were two periods, called the
great Adai and little Adai, at which human victims, chiefly prisoners of
war or condemned criminals, were immolated. There is reason to believe
that the extent of this practice was not so great as was currently
reported.

There are a few Mahommedans in Ashanti, most of them traders from other
countries, and the Basel and Wesleyan missionaries have obtained some
converts to Christianity; but the great bulk of the people are
spirit-worshippers. Unlike many West African races, the Ashanti in
general show a repugnance to the doctrines of Islam.

_Towns and Trade._--Besides the capital, Kumasi (q.v.), with a
population of some 6000, there are few important towns in Ashanti.
Obuassi, in the south-west, is the centre of the gold-mining industry.
Wam is on the western border, Nkoranza, Atabubu and Kintampo in the
north. Kintampo is a town of some size and is about 130 m. north-east of
Kumasi. It is the meeting-place of traders from the Niger countries and
from the coast. Formerly one of the great slave and ivory marts of West
Africa, it is now a centre of the kola-nut commerce and a depot for
government stores. The Ashanti are skilful in several species of
manufacture, particularly in weaving cotton. Their pottery and works in
gold also show considerable skill. A large quantity of silver-plate and
goldsmiths' work of great value and considerable artistic elaboration
was found in 1874 in the king's palace at Kumasi, not the least
remarkable objects being masks of beaten gold. The influence of Moorish
art is perceptible.

The vegetable products do not differ greatly from those found on the
Gold Coast; the most important commercially is the rubber tree
(_Funtumia elastica_). The nut of the kola tree is in great demand, and
since 1905 many cocoa plantations have been established, especially in
the eastern districts. Tobacco is cultivated in the northern regions.
Gum copal is exported. Part of the trade of Ashanti had been diverted to
the French port of Assini in consequence of the wars waged between
England and the Ashanti, but on the suppression of the revolt of 1900
measures were taken to improve trade between Kumasi and Cape Coast.
Kumasi is the distributing centre for the whole of Ashanti and the
hinterland. Gold exists in the western districts of the country, and
several companies were formed to work the mines in the period 1895-1901.
Most of the gold exported from the Gold Coast in 1902 and following
years came from the Obuassi mines. The gold output from Ashanti amounted
in 1905 to 68,259 oz., valued at £254,790. The railway to Kumasi from
Sekondi, which was completed in 1903, passes through the auriferous
region. As far as the trade goes through British territory southward,
the figures are included in those of the Gold Coast; but Ashanti does
also a considerable trade with its French and German neighbours, and
northwards with the Niger countries. Its revenue and expenditure are
included in those of the Gold Coast. Revenue is obtained principally
from caravan taxes, liquor licences, rents from government land and
contributions from the gold-mining companies.

_Communications._--The railway to Kumasi, cut through one of the densest
forest regions, is described under GOLD COAST. The usual means of
communication is by tortuous paths through the forest, too narrow to
admit any wheeled vehicle. A wide road, 141 m. long, has been cut
through the bush from Cape Coast to Kumasi, and from Kumasi ancient
caravan routes go to the chief trading centres farther inland. Where
rivers and swamps have to be crossed, ferries are maintained. A
favourite mode of travelling in the bush is in a palanquin borne on the
heads of four carriers. Telegraph lines connect Kumasi with the coast
towns and with the towns in the Northern Territories. There is a
well-organized postal service.

Early relations with the British.

_History._--The Ashanti first came under the notice of Europeans early
in the 18th century, through their successful wars with the kingdoms
bordering the maritime territory. Osai Tutu may be considered as the
real founder of the Ashanti power. He either built or greatly extended
Kumasi; he subdued the neighbouring state of Denkera (1719) and the
Mahommedan countries of Gaman (Jaman) and Banna, and extended the empire
by conquests both on the east and west. At last he was defeated and
slain (1731); but his successor, Osai Apoko, made further acquisitions
towards the coast. In 1800, Osai Tutu Quamina, an enterprising and
ambitious man, who appears early to have formed the desire of opening a
communication with white nations, became king. About 1807, two chiefs of
the Assin, whom he had defeated in battle, sought refuge among the
Fanti, the ruling people on the coast. On the refusal of the Fanti to
deliver up the fugitives, Osai Tutu invaded their country, defeated them
and drove them towards the sea. The Ashanti reached the coast near
Anamabo, where there was then a British fort. The governor exhorted the
townsmen to come to terms and offered to mediate; but they resolved to
abide the contest. The result was the destruction of the town, and the
slaughter of 8000 of the inhabitants. The Ashanti, who lost over 2000
men, failed, however, to storm the English fort, though the garrison was
reduced from twenty-four to eight men. A truce was agreed to, and the
king refusing to treat except with the governor of Cape Coast, Colonel
G. Torrane (governor 1805-1807) repaired to Anamabo, where he was
received with great pomp. Torrane determined to surrender the fugitive
Assin chiefs, but one succeeded in escaping; the other, on being given
up, was put to death by the Ashanti. Torrane concluded an agreement with
the Ashanti, acknowledging their conquest of Fantiland, and delivering
up to them half the fugitives in Anamabo fort (most of the remainder
were sold by Torrane and the members of his council as slaves). The
governor also agreed to pay rent to the Ashanti for Anamabo fort and
Cape Coast castle. The character of this man, who died on the coast in
1808, is indicated by Osai Tutu's eulogy of him. "From the hour Governor
Torrane delivered up Tchibbu [one of the Assin fugitives] I took the
English for my friends," said the king of Ashanti, "because I saw their
object was trade only and they did not care for the people. Torrane was
a man of sense and he pleased me much."

In consequence of repeated invasions of Fantiland by the Ashanti, the
British in 1817 sent Frederick James, commandant of Accra fort, T.E.
Bowdich and W. Hutchinson on a mission to Kumasi. After one or two
harmonious interviews, the king advanced a claim for the payment of the
quit rents for Anamabo fort and Cape Coast castle, rents the major part
of which the Fanti had induced the British to pay to them, leaving only
a nominal sum for transmission to Kumasi. Mr James, the head of the
mission, volunteered no satisfactory explanation, whereupon the king
broke into uncontrollable rage, calling the emissaries cheats and liars.
Bowdich and Hutchinson, thinking that British interests and the safety
of the mission were endangered, took the negotiation into their own
hands. Mr James was recalled, and a treaty was concluded, by which the
king's demands were satisfied, and the right of the British to control
the natives in the coast towns recognized.

Sir Charles M'Carthy's fate.

The government at home, though they demurred somewhat to the course that
had been pursued, saw the wisdom of cultivating intercourse with this
powerful African kingdom. They sent out, therefore, to Kumasi, as
consul, Mr Joseph Dupuis, formerly consul at Mogador, who arrived at
Cape Coast in January 1819. By that time fresh difficulties had arisen
between the coast natives, who were supported by the British, and the
Ashanti. Dupuis set out on the 9th of February 1820, and on the 28th
arrived at Kumasi. After several meetings with the king, a treaty was
drawn up, which acknowledged the sovereignty of Ashanti over the
territory of the Fanti, and left the natives of Cape Coast to the mercy
of their enemies. Mr J. Hope Smith, the governor of Cape Coast, disowned
the treaty, as betraying the interests of the natives under British
protection. Mr Hope Smith was supported by the government in London,
which in 1821 assumed direct control of the British settlements. Sir
Charles M'Carthy, the first governor appointed by the crown, espoused
the cause of the Fanti, but was defeated in battle by the Ashanti, the
21st of January 1824, at a place beyond the Prah called Essamako. The
Ashanti had 10,000 men to Sir Charles's 500. Sir Charles and eight other
Europeans were killed. The skull of the governor was afterwards used at
Kumasi as a royal drinking-cup. It was asserted that Sir Charles lost
the battle through his ordnance-keeper bringing up kegs filled with
vermicelli instead of ammunition. The fact is that the mistake, if made,
only hastened the inevitable catastrophe. On the very day of this defeat
Osai Tutu Quamina died and was succeeded by Osai Okoto. A state of
chronic warfare ensued, until the Ashanti sustained a signal defeat at
Dodowah on the 7th of August 1826. From this time the power of the
Ashanti over the coast tribes waned, and in 1831 the king was obliged to
purchase peace from Mr George Maclean, then administrator of the Gold
Coast, at the price of 600 oz. of gold, and to send his son as a hostage
to Cape Coast. The payment of ground rent for the forts held by the
British had ceased after the battle of Dodowah, and by the treaty
concluded by Maclean the river Prah was fixed as the boundary of the
Ashanti kingdom, all the tribes south of it being under British
protection.

The king (Kwaka Dua I.), who had succeeded Osai Okoto in 1838, was a
peace-loving monarch who encouraged trade, but in 1852 the Ashanti tried
to reassert authority over the Fanti in the Gold Coast protectorate, and
in 1863 a war was caused by the refusal of the king's demand for the
surrender by the British of a fugitive chief and a runaway slave-boy.
The Ashanti were victorious in two battles and retired unmolested. The
governor, Mr Richard Pine, urged the advisability of an advance on
Kumasi, but this the British government would not allow. No further
fighting followed, but the prestige of the Ashanti greatly increased.
"The white men" (said Kwaka Dua) "bring many cannon to the bush, but the
bush is stronger than the cannon." In April 1867 Kwaka Dua died, and
after an interval of civil war was succeeded by Kofi Karikari, who on
being enstooled swore, "My business shall be war." Thereafter
preparations were made throughout Ashanti to attack the Fanti tribes,
and the result was the war of 1873-74.

The war of 1873-1874.

Two distinct events were the immediate cause of the war. The principal
was the transference of Elmina fort from the Dutch to the British, which
took place on the 2nd of April 1872. The Elmina were regarded by the
Ashanti as their subjects, and the king of Ashanti held the Elmina
"custom-note,"--that is, he received from the Dutch an annual payment,
in its origin a ground rent for the fort, but looked upon by the Dutch
as a present for trade purposes. The Ashanti greatly resented the
occupation by Britain of what they considered Ashanti territory. Another
but minor cause of the war was the holding in captivity by the Ashanti
of four Europeans. An Ashanti force invaded Krepi, a territory beyond
the Volta, and in June 1869 captured Mr Fritz A. Ramseyer, his wife and
infant son (the child died of privation shortly afterwards), and Mr J.
Kühne, members of the Basel mission. Monsieur M.J. Bonnat, a French
trader, was also captured at another place. The captives were taken to
Kumasi. Negotiations for their release were begun, but the Europeans
were still prisoners when the sale of Elmina occurred. The Ashanti
delayed war until their preparations were complete, whilst the Gold
Coast officials appear to have thought the risk of hostilities remote.
However, on the 22nd of January 1873 an Ashanti force crossed the Prah
and invaded the British protectorate. They defeated the Fanti, stirred
up disputes at Elmina, and encamped at Mampon near Cape Coast, to the
great alarm of the inhabitants. Measures were taken for the defence of
the territory and the punishment of the assailants, which culminated in
the despatch of Sir Garnet (afterwards Viscount) Wolseley as British
administrator, £800,000 being voted by parliament for the expenses of
the expedition. On landing (October 2) at Cape Coast, Wolseley found the
Ashanti, who had been decimated by smallpox and fever, preparing to
return home. He determined, however, to march to Kumasi, whilst Captain
(afterwards Sir) John Glover, R.N., administrator of Lagos, was with a
force of native levies to co-operate from the east and take the Ashanti
in rear. Meanwhile the enemy broke up camp, and, although harassed by
native levies raised by the British, effected an orderly retreat. The
Ashanti army re-entered Kumasi on the 22nd of December. Wolseley asked
for the help of white troops, and the 2nd battalion Rifle Brigade, the
23rd Fusiliers and 42nd Highlanders were despatched. Seeing the
preparations made by his enemy, Kofi Karikari endeavoured to make peace,
and in response to General Wolseley's demands the European captives were
released (January 1874). Sir Garnet determined that peace must be signed
in Kumasi and continued his advance. On the 20th of January the river
Prah was crossed by the European troops; on the 24th the Adansi hills
were reached; on the 31st there was severe fighting at Amoaful; on the
1st of February Bekwai was captured; and on the evening of the 4th the
victorious army was in Kumasi, after seven hours' fighting. The king,
who had led his army, fled into the bush when he saw the day was lost.
As the 42nd Highlanders pushed forward to Kumasi, the town was found
full of Ashanti soldiers, but not a shot was fired at the invaders. Sir
Garnet Wolseley sent messengers to the king, but Kofi Karikari refused
to surrender. As his force was small, provisions scarce, and the rainy
season setting in, and as he was encumbered with many sick and wounded,
the British general decided to retire. On the 6th, therefore, the
homeward march was commenced, the city being left behind in flames. In
the meantime Captain Glover's force had crossed the Prah on the 15th of
January, and the Ashanti opposition weakening after the capture of
Kumasi, Glover was able to push forward. On the 11th of February,
Captain (later General) R.W. Sartorius, who had been sent ahead with
twenty Hausa only, found Kumasi still deserted. Captain Sartorius and
his twenty men marched 50 m. through the heart of the enemy's country.
On the 12th Glover and his force of natives entered the Ashanti capital.
The news of Glover's approach induced the king, who feared also the
return of the white troops, to sue for peace. On the 9th of February a
messenger from Kofi Karikari overtook Sir Garnet, who on the 13th at
Fomana received the Ashanti envoys. A treaty was concluded whereby the
king agreed, among other conditions, to pay 50,000 oz. of gold, to
renounce all claim to homage from certain neighbouring kings, and all
pretensions of supremacy over any part of the former Dutch protectorate,
to promote freedom of trade, to keep open a road from Kumasi to the
Prah, and to do his best to check the practice of human sacrifice.
Besides coloured troops, there were employed in this campaign about 2400
Europeans, who suffered severely from fever and otherwise, though the
mortality among the men was slight. Seventy-one per cent of the troops
were on the sick list, and more than forty officers died--only six from
wounds. The success of the expedition was facilitated by the exertions
of Captain (afterwards General Sir William) Butler and Captain
(afterwards General W. L.) Dalrymple, who effected diversions with very
inadequate resources.

A British protectorate established.

Prempeh deposed.

One result of the war of 1873-74 was that several states dependent on
Ashanti declared themselves independent, and sought British protection.
This was refused, and the inaction of the colonial office contributed to
the reconsolidation of the Ashanti power.[2] Shortly after the war the
Ashanti deposed Kofi Karikari, and placed on the golden stool--the
symbol of sovereignty--his brother Mensa. This monarch broke almost
every article of the Fomana treaty, and even the payment of the
indemnity was not demanded. (In all, only 4000 oz. of gold, out of the
50,000 stipulated for, were paid.) Mensa's rule was tyrannous and
stained with repeated human sacrifices. In 1883 a revolution displaced
that monarch, who was succeeded by Kwaka Dua II.--a young man who died
(June 1884) within a few months of his election. In the same month died
the ex-king Kofi Karikari, and disruption threatened Ashanti. At length,
after a desolating civil war, Prince Prempeh--who took the name of Kwaka
Dua III.--was chosen king (March 26, 1888), the colonial government
having been forced to intervene in the dispute owing to the troubles it
occasioned in the Gold Coast. The election of Prempeh took place in the
presence and with the sanction of an officer of the Gold Coast
government. Prempeh defeated his enemies, and for a time peace and
prosperity returned to Ashanti. However in 1893 there was fresh trouble
between Ashanti and the tribes of the protectorate, and the roads were
closed to traders by Prempeh's orders. The British government was forced
to interfere, more especially as the country, by international
agreement, had been included in the British sphere of influence. A
mission was despatched to Prempeh, calling upon him to fulfil the terms
of the 1874 treaty, and further, to accept a British protectorate and
receive a resident at Kumasi. The king declined to treat with the
governor of the Gold Coast, and despatched informal agents to England,
whom the secretary of state refused to receive. To the demands of the
British mission relative to the acceptance of a protectorate and other
matters, Prempeh made no reply in the three weeks' grace allowed, which
expired on the 31st of October 1895. To enforce the British demands, to
put an end to the misgovernment and barbarities carried on at Kumasi,
and to establish law, order and security for trade, an expedition was at
length decided upon. The force, placed under Colonel Sir Francis Scott,
consisted of the 2nd West Yorkshire regiment, a "special service corps,"
made up of detachments from various regiments in the United Kingdom,
under specially selected officers, the 2nd West India regiment, and the
Gold Coast and Lagos Hausa. The composition of the special service corps
was much criticized at the time; but as it was not called upon for
fighting purposes, no inferences as to its efficiency are possible. The
details of the expedition were carefully organized. Before the arrival
of the staff and contingent from England (December 1895) the native
forces were employed in improving the road from Cape Coast to Prahsu (70
m.), and in establishing road stations to serve as standing camps for
the troops. About 12,000 carriers were collected, the load allotted to
each being 50 lb. In addition, a force of native scouts, which
ultimately reached a total of 860 men, was organized in eighteen
companies, and partly armed with Snider rifles, to cover the advance of
the main column, which started on the 27th of December, and to improve
the road. The king of Bekwai having asked for British protection, a
small force was pressed forward and occupied this native town, about 25
m. from Kumasi, on the 4th of January 1896. The advance continued, and
at Ordahsu a mission arrived from King Prempeh offering unconditional
submission. On the 17th of January Kumasi was occupied, and Colonel Sir
F. Scott received the king. Effective measures were taken to prevent
his escape, and on the 20th Prempeh made submission to Mr (afterwards
Sir W. E.) Maxwell, the governor of Cape Coast, in native fashion. After
this act of public humiliation, the king and the queen mother with the
principal chiefs were arrested and taken as prisoners to Cape Coast,
where they were embarked on board H.M.S. "Racoon" for Elmina. The fetish
buildings at Bantama were burned, and on the 22nd of January Bokro, a
village 5 m. from Kumasi, and Maheer, the king's summer palace, were
visited by the native scouts and found deserted. On the same day,
leaving the Hausa at Kumasi, the expedition began the return march of
150 m. to Cape Coast. The complete success of the expedition was due to
the excellent organization of the supply and transport services, while
the promptitude with which the operations were carried out probably
accounts in great measure for the absence of resistance. Although no
fighting occurred, a heavy strain was thrown upon all ranks, and fever
claimed many victims, among whom was Prince Henry of Battenberg, who had
volunteered for the post of military secretary to Colonel Sir F. Scott.

Siege and relief of Kumasi.

After the deportation of Prempeh no successor was appointed to the
throne of Ashanti. A British resident, Captain Donald W. Stewart, was
installed at Kumasi, and whilst the other states of the confederacy
retained their king and tribal system the affairs of the Kumasi were
administered by chiefs under British guidance. Mr and Mrs Ramseyer (two
of the missionaries imprisoned by King Kofi Karikari for four and a half
years) returned to Kumasi, and other missionaries followed. A fort was
built in Kumasi and garrisoned with Gold Coast constabulary. Though
outwardly submissive, the Kumasi chiefs were far from reconciled to
British rule, and in 1900 a serious rebellion broke out. The tribes
involved were the Kumasi, Adansi and Kokofu; the other tribes of the
Ashanti confederation remained loyal. The rebels were, however, able to
command a force reported to number 40,000. On the 28th of March, before
the rebellion had declared itself, the governor of the Gold Coast, Sir
F. Hodgson, in a public palaver at Kumasi, announced that the Ashanti
chiefs would have to pay the British government 4000 oz. of gold yearly,
and he reproached the chiefs with not having brought to him the golden
stool, which the Kumasi had kept hidden since 1896. Three days
afterwards the Kumasi warriors attacked a party of Hausa sent with the
chief object of discovering the golden stool. (In the previous January a
secret attempt to seize the stool had failed.) The Kumasi, who were
longing to wipe out the dishonour of having let Prempeh be deported
without fighting, next threatened the fort of Kumasi. Mr Ramseyer and
the other Basel missionaries, and Sir F. and Lady Hodgson, took refuge
in the fort, and reinforcements were urgently asked for. On the 18th of
April 100 Gold Coast constabulary arrived. On the 29th the Kumasi
attacked in force, but were repulsed. The same day a party of 250 Lagos
constabulary reached Kumasi. They had fought their way up, and came in
with little ammunition. On the 15th of May Major A. Morris arrived from
the British territory north of Ashanti, also with 250 men. The garrison
now numbered 700. The 29 Europeans in the fort included four women.
Outside the fort were gathered 3000 native refugees. Famine and disease
soon began to tell their tale. Sir F. Hodgson sent out a message on the
4th of June (it reached the relieving force on the 12th of June), saying
that they could only hold out to the 11th of June. However, it was not
till the 23rd of June that the governor and all the Europeans save
three, together with 600 Hausa of all ranks, sallied out of the fort.
Avoiding the main road, held by the enemy in force, they attacked a
weakly held stockade, and succeeded in cutting their way through, with a
loss of two British officers mortally wounded, 39 Hausa killed, and
double that number wounded or missing. The governor's party reached Cape
Coast safely on the 10th of July.

A force of 100 Hausa, with three white men (Captain Bishop, Mr Ralph and
Dr Hay), was left behind in Kumasi fort with rations to last three
weeks. Meantime a relief expedition had been organized at Cape Coast by
Colonel James Willcocks. This officer reached Cape Coast from Nigeria on
the 26th of May. The difficulties before him were appalling. Carriers
could scarcely be obtained, there were no local food supplies, the rainy
season was at its height, all the roads were deep mire, the bush was
almost impenetrable, and the enemy were both brave and cunning, fighting
behind concealed stockades. It was not until the 2nd of July that
Colonel Willcocks was able to advance to Fumsu. On the next day he heard
of the escape of the governor and of the straits of the garrison left at
Kumasi. He determined to relieve the fort in time, and on the 9th of
July reached Bekwai, the king of which place had remained loyal. Making
his final dispositions, the colonel spread a report that on the 13th he
would attack Kokofu, east of Bekwai, and this drew off several thousands
of the enemy from Kumasi. After feinting to attack Kokofu, Colonel
Willcocks suddenly marched west. There was smart fighting on the 14th,
and at 4.30 P.M. on the 15th, after a march since daybreak through roads
"in indescribably bad condition," the main rebel stockade was
encountered. It was carried at the point of the bayonet by the Yoruba
troops, who proved themselves fully equal to the Hausa. "The charge
could not have been beaten in _élan_ by any soldiers." Kumasi was
entered the same evening, a bugler of the war-worn garrison of the fort
sounding the "general salute" as the relieving column came in view. Most
of the defenders were too weak to stand. Outside the fort nothing was to
be seen but burnt-down houses and putrid bodies. The relieving force
that marched into Kumasi consisted of 1000 fighting men (all West
Africans), with 60 white officers and non-commissioned officers, two
75-millimetre guns, four seven-pounder guns and six Maxims.

Kumasi relieved, there remained the task of crushing the rebellion.
Colonel Willcocks's force was increased by Yaos and a few Sikhs from
Central Africa to a total of 3368 natives, with 134 British officers and
35 British non-commissioned officers. In addition there were Ashanti
levies. On the 30th of September the Kumasi were completely beaten at
Obassa. Thereafter many of the rebel chiefs surrendered, and the only
two remaining in the field were captured on the 28th of December. Thus
1901 opened with peace restored. The total number of casualties during
the campaign (including those who died of disease) was 1007. Nine
British officers were killed in action, forty-three were wounded, and
six died of disease. The commander, Colonel Willcocks, was promoted and
created a K.C.M.G.

Progress under British administration.

By an order in council, dated the 26th of September 1901, Ashanti was
formally annexed to the British dominions, and given a separate
administration under the control of the governor of the Gold Coast. A
chief commissioner represents the governor in his absence, and is
assisted by a staff of four commissioners and four assistant
commissioners. A battalion of the Gold Coast regiment is stationed in
the country with headquarters at Kumasi. The order in council mentioned,
which may be described as the first constitution granted Ashanti by its
British owners, provides that the governor, in issuing ordinances
respecting the administration of justice, the raising of revenue, or any
other matter, shall respect any native laws by which the civil relations
of any chiefs, tribes or populations are regulated, "except so far as
they may be incompatible with British sovereignty or clearly injurious
to the welfare of the natives themselves." After the annexation of the
country in 1901 the relations between the governing power and the
governed steadily improved. Mr F.C. Fuller, who succeeded Sir Donald
Stewart as chief commissioner early in 1905, was able to report in the
following year that among the Ashanti suspicion of the "white man's"
ulterior motives was speedily losing ground. The marked preference shown
by the natives to resort to the civil and criminal courts established by
the British demonstrated their faith in the impartial treatment awarded
therein. Moreover, the maintenance of the tribal system and the support
given to the lawful chiefs did much to win the confidence and respect of
a people naturally suspicious, and mindful of their exiled king.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--For a general survey of the country, see _Travels_ _in
Ashanti and Jaman_, by R.A. Freeman (London, 1898); _Historical
Geography of the British Colonies_, vol. iii. "West Africa," by C.P.
Lucas (Oxford, 1900); and the _Annual Reports, Ashanti_, issued from
1906 onward by the Colonial Office, London. _The Tshi-speaking Peoples
of the Gold Coast_, by Col. A.B. Ellis (London, 1887), deals with
ethnology. Of early works on the country the most valuable are _A
Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee_, by T.E. Bowdich (London,
1819); and _Journal of a Residence in Ashantee_ (London, 1824), by J.
Dupuis. For history generally, see _A History of the Gold Coast of
West Africa_, by Col. A.B. Ellis (London, 1893); and _History of the
Gold Coast and Asante ... from about 1500 to 1860_, by C.C. Reindorf,
a native pastor of the Basel mission (Basel, 1895).

For the British military campaigns, in addition to the official
blue-books, consult: _Narrative of the Ashantee War_, 2 vols., by
(Sir) Henry Brackenbury (London, 1874); _The Story of a Soldier's
Life_ by Viscount Wolseley, vol. ii. chs. xliii.-l. (London, 1903);
_Coomassie_, by (Sir) H.M. Stanley, being the story of the 1873-74
expedition (new ed., London, 1896); _Life of Sir John Hawley Glover_,
by Lady Glover, chs. iii.-x. (London, 1897); _The Downfall of
Prempeh_, by (General) R.S.S. Baden-Powell, an account of the 1895-96
expedition (London, 1896); _From Kabul to Kumassi_ (chs. xv. to end),
by Sir James Willcocks, (London, 1904); _The Ashanti Campaign of
1900_, by Capt. C.H. Armitage and Lieut.-Col. A.F. Montanaro (London,
1901); _The Relief of Kumasi_, by Capt. H.C.J. Biss (London, 1901).
The two bocks following are by besieged residents in Kumasi: _The
Siege of Kumasi_, by Lady Hodgson (London, 1901); _Dark and Stormy
Days at Kumasi_, 1900, from the diary of the Rev. Fritz Ramseyer
(London, 1901). Many of the works quoted under GOLD COAST deal also
with Ashanti. (F. R. C.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The exact area of dense forest land is unknown, but is estimated
at fully 12,000 sq. m.

[2] An attempt was made late in 1875, by the despatch of Dr V.S.
Gouldsbury on a mission to Eastern Akim, Juabin and Kumasi, to repair
the effects of the previous inaction of the colonial government, but
without success.

ASH'ARI [Abu-l Hasan 'Ali ibn Isma'il ul-Ash'ari], (873-935), Arabian
theologian, was born of pure Arab stock at Basra, but spent the greater
part of his life at Bagdad. Although belonging to an orthodox family, he
became a pupil of the great Mu'tazalite teacher al-Jubba'i, and himself
remained a Mu'tazalite until his fortieth year. In 912 he returned to
the faith of his fathers and became its most distinguished champion,
using the philosophical methods he had learned in the school of heresy.
His theology, which occupied a mediate position between the extreme
views on most points, became dominant among the Shafi'ites. He is said
to have written over a hundred works, of which only four or five are
known to be extant.

See W. Spitta, _Zur Geschichte Abu 'l-Hasan al As'ari's_ (Leipzig,
1876); A.F. Mehren, _Exposé de la reforme de l'Islamisme commencée par
Abou. 'l-Hasan Ali el-Ash'ari_ (Leiden, 1878); and D.B. Macdonald's
_Muslim Theology_ (London, 1903), especially the creed of Ash'ari in
Appendix iii. (G. W. T.)

ASHBOURNE, a market-town in the western parliamentary division of
Derbyshire, England, 13 m. W.N.W. of Derby, on the London &
North-Western and the North Staffordshire railways. Pop. of urban
district (1901) 4039. It is pleasantly situated on rising ground between
two small valleys opening into that of the Dove, and the most beautiful
scenery of Dovedale is not far distant. The church of St Oswald is
cruciform, Early English and later; a fine building with a central tower
and lofty octagonal spire. Its monuments and brasses are of much
interest. The town has a large agricultural trade and a manufacture of
corsets. The streams in the neighbourhood are in favour with trout
fishermen. Ashbourne Hall, an ancient mansion, has associations with
"Prince Charlie," who occupied it both before and after his advance on
Derby in 1745. There are also many connexions with Dr Johnson, a
frequent visitor here to his friend Dr Taylor, who occupied a house
opposite the grammar school.

ASHBURNHAM, JOHN (c. 1603-1671), English Royalist, was the son of Sir
John Ashburnham of Ashburnham in Sussex. He early entered the king's
service. In 1627 he was sent to Paris by his relative the duke of
Buckingham to make overtures for peace, and in 1628 he prepared to join
the expedition to Rochelle interrupted by the duke's assassination. The
same year he was made groom of the bedchamber and elected member of
parliament for Hastings, which borough he also represented in the Long
Parliament of 1640. In this capacity he rendered services by reporting
proceedings to the king. He made a considerable fortune and recovered
the Ashburnham estates alienated by his father. He became one of the
king's chief advisers and had his full confidence. He attended Charles
at York on the outbreak of the war with Scotland. In the Civil War he
was made treasurer of the royal army, in which capacity he aroused
Hyde's jealousy and remonstrances by infringing on his province as
chancellor of the exchequer. In 1644 he was a commissioner at Uxbridge.
He accompanied Charles in his flight from Oxford in April 1646 to the
Scots, and subsequently escaped abroad, joining the queen at Paris,
residing afterwards at Rouen and being sent to the Hague to obtain aid
from the prince of Orange. After the seizure of Charles by the army,
Ashburnham joined him at Hampton Court in 1647, where he had several
conferences with Cromwell and other army officers. When Charles escaped
from Hampton Court on the 11th of November, he followed Ashburnham's
advice in opposition to that of Sir John Berkeley, who urged the king to
go abroad, and took refuge in the Isle of Wight, being placed by
Ashburnham in the hands of Robert Hammond, the governor. "Oh, Jack," the
king exclaimed when he understood the situation, "thou hast undone me!"
when Ashburnham, "falling into a great passion of weeping, offered to go
and kill Hammond." By this fatal step Ashburnham incurred the unmerited
charge of treachery and disloyalty. Clarendon, however, who censures his
conduct, absolves him from any crime except that of folly and excessive
self-confidence, and he was acquitted both by Charles I. and Charles II.
He was separated with Berkeley from Charles on the 1st of January 1648,
waited on the mainland in expectation of Charles's escape, and was
afterwards taken and imprisoned at Windsor, and exchanged during the
second Civil War for Sir W. Masham and other prisoners. He was one of
the delinquents specially exempted from pardon in the treaty of Newport.
In November he was allowed to compound for his estates, and declared
himself willing to take the covenant. After the king's death he remained
in England, an object of suspicion to all parties, corresponded with
Charles II., and underwent several terms of imprisonment in the Tower
and in Guernsey. At the Restoration he was reinstated in his former
place of groom of the bedchamber and was compensated for his losses. He
represented Sussex in parliament from 1661 till the 22nd of November
1667, when he was expelled the House for taking a bribe of £500 from
French merchants for landing their wines. He died on the 15th of June
1671.

He had eight children, the eldest of whom, William, left a son John
(1656-1710), who in 1689 was created Baron Ashburnham. John's second
son, John (1687-1737), who became 3rd Baron Ashburnham on his brother's
death in 1710, was created Viscount St Asaph and earl of Ashburnham in
1730. The 5th earl (b. 1840) was his direct descendant. Bertram
(1797-1878), the 4th earl, was the collector of the famous Ashburnham
library, which was dispersed in 1883 and 1884.

_A Letter from Mr Ashburnham to a Friend_, defending John Ashburnham's
conduct with regard to the king, was published in 1648. His longer
_Narrative_ was published in 1830 by George, 3rd earl of Ashburnham
(the latter's championship of his ancestor, however, being entirely
uncritical and unconvincing); _A Letter to W. Lenthall_ (1647)
repudiates the charge brought against the king of violating his parole
(_Thomason Tracts_, Brit. Museum, E 418 [4]).

ASHBURTON, ALEXANDER BARING, 1ST BARON[1] (1774-1848), English
politician and financier, 2nd son of Sir Francis Baring (the founder of
the house of Baring Brothers & Co.) and of Harriet, daughter of William
Herring, was born on the 27th of October 1774, and was brought up in his
father's business. He was sent by the latter to the United States;
married Anne, daughter of William Bingham, of Philadelphia, and formed
wide connexions with American houses. In 1810, by his father's death, he
became head of the firm. He sat in parliament for Taunton (1806-1826),
Callington (1826-1831), Thetford (1831-1832), North Essex (1832-1835).
He regarded politics from the point of view of the business man, opposed
the orders in council, and the restrictions on trade with the United
States in 1812, and in 1826 the act for the suppression of small
bank-notes. He was a strong antagonist of Reform. He accepted the post
of chancellor of the exchequer in the duke of Wellington's projected
ministry of 1832; but afterwards, alarmed at the scene in parliament,
declared "he would face a thousand devils rather than such a House of
Commons," and advised the recall of Lord Grey. In 1834 he was president
of the board of trade and master of the mint in Sir Robert Peel's
government, and on the latter's retirement was created Baron Ashburton
on the 10th of April 1835, taking the title previously held by John
Dunning, his aunt's husband. In 1842 he was despatched to America, and
the same year concluded the Ashburton or Webster-Ashburton treaty. A
compromise was settled concerning the north-east boundary of Maine, the
extradition of certain criminals was arranged, each state agreed to
maintain a squadron of at least eighty guns on the coast of Africa for
the suppression of the slave trade, and the two governments agreed to
unite in an effort to persuade other powers to close all slave markets
within their territories. Despite his earlier attitude, Lord Ashburton
disapproved of Peel's free-trade projects, and opposed the Bank Charter
Act of 1844. He was a trustee of the British Museum and of the National
Gallery, a privy councillor and D.C.L. of Oxford. He published, besides
several speeches, _An Enquiry into the Causes and Consequences of the
Orders in Council_ (1808), and _The Financial and Commercial Crisis
Considered_ (1847). He died on the 13th of May 1848, leaving a large
family, his eldest son becoming 2nd baron. The 5th baron (b. 1866)
succeeded to the title in 1889.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] i.e. in the existing line; see below for the earlier creation.

ASHBURTON, JOHN DUNNING, 1ST BARON[1] (1731-1783), English lawyer, the
second son of John Dunning of Ashburton, Devonshire, an attorney, was
born at Ashburton on the 18th of October 1731, and was educated at the
free grammar school of his native place. At first articled to his
father, he was admitted, at the age of nineteen, to the Middle Temple,
and called to the bar in 1756, where he came very slowly into practice.
He went the western circuit for several years without receiving a single
brief. In 1762 he was employed to draw up a defence of the British East
India Company against the Dutch East India Company, which had
memorialized the crown on certain grievances, and the masterly style
which characterized the document procured him at once reputation and
emolument. In 1763 he distinguished himself as counsel on the side of
Wilkes, whose cause he conducted throughout. His powerful argument
against the validity of general warrants in the case of _Leach v. Money_
(June 18, 1763) established his reputation, and his practice from that
period gradually increased to such an extent that in 1776 he is said to
have been in the receipt of nearly £10,000 per annum. In 1766 he was
chosen recorder of Bristol, and in December 1767 he was appointed
solicitor-general. The latter appointment he held till May 1770, when he
retired with his friend Lord Shelburne. In 1771 he was presented with
the freedom of the city of London. From this period he was considered as
a regular member of the opposition, and distinguished himself by many
able speeches in parliament. He was first chosen member for Calne in
1768, and continued to represent that borough until he was promoted to
the peerage. In 1780 he brought forward a motion that the "influence of
the crown had increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished,"
which he carried by a majority of eighteen. He strongly opposed the
system of sinecure officers and pensions; but his probity was not strong
enough to prevent his taking advantage of it himself. In 1782, when the
marquis of Rockingham became prime minister, Dunning was appointed
chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, a rich sinecure; and about the
same time he was advanced to the peerage, with the title of Lord
Ashburton. Under Lord Shelburne's administration he accepted a pension
of £4000 a year. He died at Exmouth on the 18th of August 1783. Though
possessed of an insignificant person, an awkward manner and a provincial
accent, Lord Ashburton was one of the most fluent and persuasive orators
of his time. He had married Elizabeth Baring, and was succeeded as 2nd
baron by his son Richard, at whose death in 1823 the title became
extinct, being revived in 1835 by Alexander Baring.

Besides the answer to the Dutch memorial, Lord Ashburton is supposed
to have assisted in writing a pamphlet on the law of libel, and to
have been the author of _A Letter to the Proprietors of East India
Stock, on the subject of Lord Clive's Jaghire, occasioned by his
Lordship's Letter on that Subject_ (1764, 8vo). He was at one time
suspected of being the author of the _Letters of Junius_.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] i.e. of the first creation; for the present title see above.

ASHBURTON, a river of Western Australia, rising in the mountains west of
the Great Sandy Desert, and following a course north-westward for 400
m., into Exmouth Gulf. In its upper reaches it flows through a rich
gold-bearing district to which it gives name, and nearer its mouth it
traverses a vast tract of fine pastoral country. The outlet for both
these districts is the port of Onslow, at the mouth of the river, near
which there are several pearl-fishing stations. The river is not
navigable.

ASHBURTON, a market-town in the Ashburton parliamentary division of
Devonshire, England, 24 m. N.W. by W. of Plymouth, on a branch of the
Great Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 2628. It lies in a
valley surrounded by hills, at a short distance from the river Dart; the
scenery, towards Dartmoor and in the neighbourhood of Buckland and Holne
Chase, being unsurpassed in the county. The church of St. Andrew is
cruciform with a lofty tower. It was built early in the 15th century,
and contains a fine old oak roof over the north aisle, and a tablet in
memory of John Dunning, solicitor-general and 1st Baron Ashburton
(1731-1783). The inscription is by Dr Johnson. Lord Ashburton was
educated at the grammar school, which was founded as a chantry in 1314.
Serge is manufactured in Ashburton, and there are breweries, paint
factories and saw-mills. A large deposit of umber is worked in the
neighbourhood. Slate quarries and copper and tin mines were formerly
valuable. A neighbouring centre of the serge industry is the urban
district of BUCKFASTLEIGH (pop. 2520), 3 m. S S.W. Between the two towns
is Buckfast Abbey, said to have been, before the Conquest, a Benedictine
house, and refounded for Cistercians in 1137. It was restored to use in
1882 by a French Benedictine community, the fine Perpendicular abbot's
tower remaining, while other parts have been rebuilt on the original
lines.

Ashburton (Essebretona, Asperton, Ashperton) is a borough by
prescription and an ancient stannary town. It was governed by a
portreeve and bailiff, elected annually at the court leet held by the
lord of the manor. According to Domesday, Ashburton was held in chief
by Osbern, bishop of Exeter, and rendered geld for six hides. In 1552,
as the two manors of Ashburton Borough and Ashburton Foreign, it was
sold by the bishop, and subsequently became crown property. Finally,
it was acquired in moieties by the Clinton family, and the present
Lord Clinton is joint lord of the manor with Sir Robert Jardine. In
1298 and 1407 Ashburton returned two members, from 1407 until 1640 one
member only, and then again two members, until deprived of one by the
Reform Act of 1832 and of the other by the Reform Act of 1885. In the
reign of Edward II. Bishop Stapledon obtained a Saturday market, and
two annual fairs lasting three days at the feasts of St Laurence
(August 10) and St Martin in winter (November 11). In 1672 John Ford
was granted a Tuesday market for the sale of wool and woollen goods
made from English yarn, and in 1705 Andrew Quicke obtained two annual
fairs, on the first Thursdays in March and June, for the sale of
cattle, corn and merchandise.

ASHBY, TURNER (1824-1862), American cavalry leader in the Confederate
army, was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, in 1824. Before the Civil
War he was a planter in Markham, Fauquier county, and a local
politician. When hostilities began he raised a regiment of cavalry,
which he led with conspicuous success in the Valley campaigns of
1861-62, under Joseph Johnston and Stonewall Jackson. He was promoted a
brigadier-general shortly before his death, which took place in a
cavalry skirmish at Harrisonburg, Va., on the 6th of June 1862. By his
early death the Confederates lost one of the best cavalry officers in
their service.

ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH, a market-town in the Bosworth parliamentary division
of Leicestershire, England; 118 m. N.W. by N. from London by the Midland
railway, on the Leicester-Burton branch. Pop. of urban district (1901)
4726. The church of St Helen is a fine Perpendicular building, restored
and enlarged (1880); it contains monuments of the Huntingdon family, and
an old finger-pillory for the punishment of misbehaviour in church. The
Ivanhoe baths, erected in 1826, are frequented for their saline waters,
which, as containing bromine, are found useful in scrofulous and
rheumatic complaints. The springs are at Moira, 3 m. west. There is a
Queen Eleanor cross commemorating the countess of Loudoun, by Sir
Gilbert Scott. To the south of the town are the extensive remains of
Ashby Castle. There are extensive coal-mines in the neighbouring
district, as at Moira, whence the Ashby-de-la-Zouch canal runs south to
the Coventry canal.

At the time of the Domesday survey Ashby-de-la-Zouch formed part of
the estates of Hugh de Grentmaisnel. Soon after it was held by Robert
Beaumeis, from whom it passed by female descent to the family of la
Zouch, whence it derived the adjunct to its name, having been hitherto
known as Ashby or Essebi. The earliest record of a grant of market
rights is in 1219, when Roger la Zouch obtained a grant of a weekly
market and a two days' fair at the feast of St Helen, in consideration
of a fine of one palfrey. In the 15th century the manor was held by
James Butler, earl of Ormond, after whose attainder it was granted in
1461 to Lord Hastings, who in 1474 obtained royal licence to empark
3000 acres and to build and fortify a castle. At this castle Mary
queen of Scots was detained in 1569 under the custody of the earls of
Huntingdon and Shrewsbury. During the Civil War Colonel Henry Hastings
fortified and held it for the king, and it was visited by Charles in
1645. In 1648, at the close of the war, it was dismantled by order of
parliament. It plays a great part in Sir Walter Scott's _Ivanhoe_. In
the 18th century Ashby was celebrated as one of the best markets for
horses in England, and had besides prosperous factories for woollen
and cotton stockings and for hats.

See _Victoria County History--Leicestershire; History of
Ashby-de-la-Zouch_ (Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 1852).

A-SHE-HO (Manch. _Alchuku_), a town of Manchuria, China, 125 m. N.E. of
Kirin, and 30 m. S. of the Sungari. It is governed by a mandarin of the
second class. Pop. about 60,000.

ASHER, a tribe of Israel, called after the son of Jacob and Zilpah,
Leah's maid. The name is taken by the narrator of Gen. xxx. 12 seq. (J)
to mean happy or propitious, possibly an allusion to the fertility of
the tribe's territory (with which cf. Gen. xlix. 20, Deut. xxxiii. 24);
on the other hand, like Gad, it may have been originally a divine title.
The district held by this tribe bordered upon Naphtali, and lay to the
north of Issachar and Zebulun, and to the south of Dan. But the
boundaries are not definite and the references to its territory are
obscure. Asher is blamed for taking no part in the fight against Sisera
(Judg. v. 17), and although it shares with Zebulun and Naphtali in
Gideon's defeat of the Midianites (Judg. vi. 35, vii. 23), the narrative
in question is not the older of the two accounts of the event, and the
incorporation of the name is probably due to a late redactor. Lying as
it did in the closest proximity to Phoenicians and Aramaeans, its
population must have been exceptionally mixed, and the description of
the occupation of Palestine in Judg. i. 31 seq. shows that it contained
a strong Canaanite element. In the Blessing of Moses it is bidden to
defend itself--evidently against invasion (Deut. xxxiii. 25).

Even in the time of Seti I. and Rameses II. (latter half of 14th cent.
B.C.) the district to the west of Galilee appears to have been known to
the Egyptians as Aser(u), so that it is possible to infer either (a)
that Asher was an Israelite tribe which, if it ever went down into
Egypt, separated itself from its brethren in Egypt and migrated north,
"an example which was probably followed by some of the other tribes as
well" (Hommel, _Ancient Hebrew Tradition_, p. 228); or (b) it was a
district which, if never closely bound to Israel, was at least regarded
as part of the national kingdom, and treated as Israelite by the
genealogical device of making it a "son" of Jacob. It is possible that
some of its Israelite population had followed the example of Dan and
moved from an earlier home in the south. Two of the clans of Asher,
Heber and Malchiel, have been associated with Milk-ili and Habiri, the
names of a hostile chief and people in the Amarna Tablets (Jastrow,
_Journal Bibl. Lit._ xi. pp. 118 seq., xii. pp. 61 seq., Hommel), but it
is scarcely probable that events of about 1400 B.C. should have survived
only in this form. This applies also to the suggestion that the name
Asher has been derived from a famous Abd-ashirta of the same period
(Barton, _ib._ xv. p. 174). Some connexion with the goddess Ashir(t)a,
however, is not unlikely.

See further H.W. Hogg, _Ency. Bibl._ col. 327 seq.; E. Meyer,
_Israeliten_, pp. 540 sqq. (S. A. C.)

'ASHER BEN-YEHIEL (known as _Rosh_), Jewish rabbi and codifier, was born
in the Rhine district c. 1250, and died in Toledo 1327. Endangered by
the persecutions inflicted on the German Jews in the 13th century,
'Asher fled to Spain, where he was made rabbi of Toledo. His enforced
exile impoverished him, and from this date begins an important change in
the status of medieval rabbis. Before the 14th century, rabbis had
obtained a livelihood by the exercise of some secular profession,
particularly medicine, and received no salary for performing the
rabbinic function. This was now changed. A disciple of Meir of
Rothenburg, 'Asher's sole interest was in the Talmud. He was a man of
austere piety, profound and narrow. He was a determined opponent of the
study of philosophy, and thus was antipathetic to the Spanish spirit.
The Jews of Spain continued, nevertheless, devotees of secular sciences
as well as of rabbinical lore. 'Asher was the first of the German rabbis
to display strong talent for systematization, and his chief work partook
of the nature of a compendium of the Talmud. Compiled between 1307 and
1314, 'Asher's _Compendium_ resembled, and to a large extent superseded,
the work of 'Al-phasi (q.v.). 'Asher's _Compendium_ is printed in most
editions of the Talmud, and it differed from previous Compendia in
greater simplicity and in the deference shown to German authorities.
'Asher's son Jacob, who died at Toledo before 1340, was the author of
the four _Turim_, a very profound and popular codification of rabbinical
law. This work was the standard code until Joseph Qaro directly based on
it his widely accepted Code of Jewish law, the _Shulhan 'Arukh_.
(I. A.)

ASHEVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Buncombe county, North
Carolina, U.S.A., in the mountainous Blue Ridge region in the west part
of the state, about 210 m. W. of Raleigh. Pop. (1890) 10,235; (1900)
14,692, of whom 4724 were negroes; (1910, census) 18,762. Asheville is
situated at the junction of three branches of the Southern railway, on a
high terrace on the east bank of the French Broad river, at the mouth of
the Swannanoa, about 2300 ft. above the sea. The city is best known as
one of the most popular health and pleasure resorts in the south, being
a summer resort for southerners and a winter resort for northerners. It
has a dry and equable climate and beautiful scenery. Among its social
clubs are the Albemarle, the Asheville, the Elks, the Tahkeeostee and
the Swannanoa Country clubs. An extensive system of city and suburban
parks, connected by a series of beautiful drives, adds to the city's
attractiveness. There are great forests in the vicinity. Among the
public buildings are the city hall, the court house, the Federal
building, the public library and an auditorium. In or near Asheville are
a normal and collegiate institute for young women (1892), and, occupying
the same campus, a home industrial school (1887) for girls, both under
the control of the Woman's Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian
Church; the Asheville farm school for boys, an industrial school for
negroes; the Asheville school for boys (5 m. west of Asheville); and the
Bingham school (1793), founded at Pittsboro, N.C., by William Bingham
(d. 1826), and removed to its present site (3 m. north-west of
Asheville) in 1891. About 2 m. south-east of the city is Biltmore, the
estate of George W. Vanderbilt, its 125,000 acres constituting what is
probably the finest country place in the United States. The central
feature of the estate is a château (375 × 150 ft.) of French Renaissance
design, after the famous château at Blois, France. In the neighbourhood
is a model village, with an elementary school, an industrial school for
whites, a hospital and a church, maintained by Mr Vanderbilt. Both the
château and the village were designed by Richard M. Hunt; the landscape
gardening was done by Frederick Law Olmsted. A collection of woody
plants, one of the largest and finest in the world, and a broad forest
and hunting preserve, known as Pisgah Forest (100,000 acres), are also
maintained by the owner. Asheville is a market for live-stock, dairy
products, lumber and fruits, and has various manufactories (in which a
good water-power is utilized), including tanneries, cotton mills, brick
and tile factories, and a wood-working and veneer plant. The value of
the city's factory products increased from $1,300,698 in 1900 to
$1,918,362 in 1905, or 47.5%. The city was named in honour of Samuel
Ashe (1725-1813), chief-justice of North Carolina from 1777 to 1796, and
John Ashe (1720-1781), a North Carolina soldier who distinguished
himself in the War of Independence, was settled about 1790, and was
incorporated in 1835. The city's boundaries were enlarged in 1905.

ASHFORD, a market-town in the Southern or Ashford parliamentary division
of Kent, England, 56 m. S.E. of London by the South-Eastern & Chatham
railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 12,808. It is pleasantly situated
on a gentle eminence near the confluence of the upper branches of the
river Stour. It has a fine Perpendicular church dedicated to St Mary,
with a lofty, well-proportioned tower and many interesting monuments.
The grammar school was founded by Sir Norman Knatchbull in the reign of
Charles I. Ashford has agricultural implement works and breweries; and
the large locomotive and carriage works of the South-Eastern & Chatham
railway are here. At Bethersden, between Ashford and Tenterden, marble
quarries were formerly worked extensively, supplying material to the
cathedrals of Canterbury and Rochester, and to many local churches. At
Charing, north-west of Ashford, the archbishops of Canterbury had a
residence from pre-Conquest times, and ruins of a palace, mainly of the
Decorated period, remain. On the south-eastern outskirts of Ashford is
the populous village of Willesborough (3602).

Ashford (Esselesford, Asshatisforde, Essheford) was held at the time
of the Domesday survey by Hugh de Montfort, who came to England with
William the Conqueror. A Saturday market and an annual fair were
granted to the lord of the manor by Henry III. in 1243. Further annual
fairs were granted by Edward III. in 1349 and by Edward IV. in 1466.
In 1672 Charles II. granted a market on every second Tuesday, with a
court of pie-powder. James I. in 1607, at the petition of the
inhabitants of Ashford, gave Sir John Smith, Kt., the right of holding
a court of record in the town on every third Tuesday. The fertility of
the pasture-land in Romney Marsh to the south and east of Ashford
caused the cattle trade to increase in the latter half of the 18th
century, and led to the establishment of a stock market in 1784. The
town has never been incorporated.

See Edward Hasted, _History and Survey of Kent_ (Canterbury,
1778-1799, 2nd ed. 1797-1801); _Victoria County History--Kent_.

'ASHI (352-427), Jewish _'amora_, the first editor of the Talmud, was
born at Babylon. He was head of the Sura Academy, and there began the
Babylonian Talmud, spending thirty years of his life at it. He left the
work incomplete, and it was finished by his disciple Rabina just before
the year 500 A.D. (See TALMUD.)

ASHINGTON, an urban district in the Wansbeck parliamentary division of
Northumberland, England, 4 m. E. of Morpeth, on the Newbiggin branch of
the North Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 13,956. The district, especially
along the river Wansbeck, is not without beauty, but there are numerous
collieries, from the existence of which springs the modern growth of
Ashington. At Bothal on the river (from which parish that of Ashington
was formed) is the castle originally belonging to the Bertram family, of
which Roger Bertram probably built the gatehouse, the only habitable
portion remaining, in the reign of Edward III. The ruins of the castle
are fragmentary, but of considerable extent. The church of St Andrew
here has interesting details from Early English to Perpendicular date,
and in the neighbouring woods is a ruined chapel of St Mary. The mining
centre of Ashington lies 2 m. north-east, on the high ground north of
the Wansbeck.

'ASHKENAZI, SEBI (1656-1718), known as Hakham Sebi, for some time rabbi
of Amsterdam, was a resolute opponent of the followers of the
pseudo-Messiah, Sabbatai Sebi (q.v.). He had a chequered career, owing
to his independence of character. He visited many lands, including
England, where he wielded much influence. His _Responsa_, are held in
high esteem.

ASHLAND, a city of Boyd county, Kentucky, U.S.A., on the Ohio river,
about 130 m. E. by N. of Frankfort. Pop. (1890) 4195; (1900) 6800 (489
negroes); (1910) 8688. It is served by the Chesapeake & Ohio (being a
terminal of the Lexington and Big Sandy Divisions) and the Norfolk &
Western railways, and is connected with Huntington, West Virginia, by an
electric line. The city has a fine natural park (Central Park) of about
30 acres; and Clyffeside Park (maintained by a private corporation), of
about 75 acres, just east of the city, is a pleasure resort and a
meeting-ground (with a casino seating 3000 people) for the Tri-State
"Chautauqua" (for certain parts of Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia).
The surrounding country abounds in coal, iron ore, oil, clay, stone and
timber, for which the city is a distributing centre. Ashland has
considerable river traffic, and various manufactures, including pig
iron, nails, wire rods, steel billets, sheet steel, dressed lumber
(especially poplar), furniture, fire brick and leather. Ashland was
settled in 1854, and was chartered as a city in 1870.

ASHLAND, a borough of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., about 50
m. N.E. of Harrisburg and about 100 m. N.W. of Philadelphia. Pop. (1890)
7346; (1900) 6438 (969 foreign-born); (1910) 6855. It is served by the
Lehigh Valley and the Philadelphia & Reading railways, and by the
electric lines of the Schuylkill Railway Company and the Shamokin &
Mount Carmel Transit Company. The borough is built on the slope of
Locust Mountain, about 885 ft. above sea-level. Its chief industry is
the mining of anthracite coal at several collieries in the vicinity; and
at Fountain Springs, 1 m. south-east, is a state hospital for injured
persons of the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania, opened in 1883.
The municipality owns and operates the waterworks. Ashland was laid out
as a town in 1847, and was named in honour of Henry Clay's home at
Lexington, Ky.; in 1857 it was incorporated.

ASHLAND, a village of Hanover county, Virginia, U.S.A., 17 m. N.W. of
Richmond. Pop. (1900) 1147; (1910) 1324. It is served by the Richmond,
Fredericksburg & Potomac railway, and is a favourite resort from
Richmond. Here is situated the Randolph-Macon College (Methodist
Episcopal, South), one of the oldest Methodist Episcopal colleges in the
United States. In 1832, two years after receiving its charter, it opened
near Boydton, Mecklenburg county, Virginia, and in 1868 was removed to
Ashland. The college in 1907-1908 had 150 students and a faculty of 16;
it publishes an endowed historical series called _The John P. Branch
Historical Papers of Randolph-Macon College_; and it is a part of the
"Randolph-Macon System of Colleges and Academies," which includes,
besides, Randolph-Macon Academy (1890) at Bedford City, Virginia, and
Randolph-Macon Academy (1892) at Front Royal, Virginia, both for boys;
Randolph-Macon Woman's College (1893) at Lynchburg, Virginia, which in
1907-1908 had an enrolment of 390; and Randolph-Macon Institute, for
girls, Danville, Virginia, which was admitted into the "System" in 1897.
These five institutions are under the control of a single board of
trustees; the work of the preparatory schools is thus correlated with
that of the colleges. About 7 m. out of Ashland is the birthplace of
Henry Clay, and about 15 m. distant is the birthplace of Patrick Henry.
Ashland was settled in 1845 and was incorporated in 1856.

ASHLAND, a city and the county-seat of Ashland county, Wisconsin,
U.S.A., situated about 315 m. N.W. of Milwaukee, and about 70 m. E. of
Superior and Duluth, in the N. part of the state, at the head of
Chequamegon Bay, an arm of Lake Superior. Pop. (1890) 9956; (1900)
13,074, of whom 4417 were foreign-born; (1910, census) 11,594. It is
served by the Chicago & North-Western, the Northern Pacific, the
Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha, and the Wisconsin Central
railways, and by several steamboat lines on the Great Lakes. The city is
attractively situated, has a dry, healthful climate, and is a summer
resort. It has a fine Federal building, one of the best high-school
buildings in Wisconsin, the Vaughn public library (1895), a Roman
Catholic hospital, and the Rinehart hospital, and is the seat of the
Northland College and Academy (Congregational). Ashland has an excellent
harbour, has large iron-ore and coal docks, and is the principal port
for the shipment of iron ore from the rich Gogebic Range, the annual ore
shipment approximating 3,500,000 tons, valued at $12,000,000, and it has
also an extensive export trade in lumber. Brownstone quarried in the
vicinity is also an important export. The lake trade amounts to more
than $35,000,000 annually. Ashland has large saw-mills, iron and steel
rolling mills, foundries and machine shops, railway repair shops (of the
Chicago & North-Western railway), knitting works, and manufactories of
dynamite, sulphite fibre, charcoal and wood-alcohol. In 1905 its total
factory product was valued at $4,210,265. Settled about 1854, Ashland
was incorporated as a village in 1863 and received a city charter in
1887.

ASHLAR, also written ASHLER, ASHELERE, &c. (probably from Lat. _axilla_,
diminutive of _axis_, an axle), hewn or squared stone, generally applied
to that used for facing walls. In a contract of date 1398 we
read--"Murus erit exterius de puro lapide vocato _achilar_, plane
incisso, interius vero de lapide fracto vocato _roghwall_." "Clene hewen
ashler" often occurs in medieval documents; this no doubt means tooled
or finely worked, in contradistinction to rough-axed faces.

An "ashlar piece" in building is an upright piece of timber framed
between the common rafters and the wall plate.

ASHLEY, WILLIAM JAMES (1860- ), English economist, was born in London
on the 25th of February 1860. He was educated at St Olave's grammar
school and Balliol College, Oxford, and became a fellow of Lincoln
College. In 1888 he was appointed professor of political economy and
constitutional history in Toronto University, a post which he resigned
in 1892, in order to become professor of economic history at Harvard
University. In 1901 he was appointed professor of commerce and finance
in Birmingham University and in 1902 dean of the faculty of commerce.
Professor Ashley became well known for his work on the early history of
English industry, and for his prominence among those English economists
who supported Mr Chamberlain's tariff reform movement. His most
important works are _Early History of the English Woollen Industry_
(1887); _Introduction to English Economic History and Theory_ (2 parts,
1888-1893); _Surveys, Historic and Economic_ (1900); _Adjustment of
Wages_ (1903); the _Tariff Problem_ (2nd ed. 1904); _Progress of the
German Working Classes_ (1904).

ASHMOLE, ELIAS (1617-1692), English antiquarian, and founder of the
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, was born at Lichfield on the 23rd of May
1617, the son of a saddler. In 1638 he became a solicitor, and in 1644
was appointed commissioner of excise. At Oxford, whither this brought
him when the Royalist Parliament was sitting there, he made friends with
Captain (afterwards Sir) George Wharton, through whose influence he
obtained the king's commission as captain of horse and comptroller of
the ordnance. In 1646 he was initiated as a Freemason--the first
gentleman, or amateur, to be "accepted." In 1649 he married Lady
Mainwaring, some twenty years his senior and a relative of his first
wife who had died eight years before. This marriage placed him in a
position of affluence that enabled him to devote his whole time to his
favourite studies. His interest in astrology, aroused by Wharton, and by
William Lilly,--whom with other astrologers he met in London in
1646,--seems, in the following years, to have subsided in favour of
heraldry and antiquarian research. In 1657 his wife petitioned for a
separation, but failing to gain her case returned to live with him.
Between this crisis in his domestic life and the time of her death in
1668, Ashmole was in high favour at court. He was made successively
Windsor herald, commissioner, comptroller and accountant-general of
excise, commissioner for Surinam and comptroller of the White Office. He
afterwards refused the office of Garter king-at-arms in favour of Sir
William Dugdale, whose daughter he had married in 1668. In 1672 he
published his _Institutions, Laws and Ceremonies of the Order of the
Garter_, a work which was practically exhaustive, and is an example of
his diligence and years of patient antiquarian research. Five years
later he presented the Ashmolean Museum, the first public museum of
curiosities in the kingdom, the larger part of which he had inherited
from a friend, John Tradescant, to the university of Oxford. He made it
a condition that a suitable building should be erected for its
reception, and the collection was not finally installed until 1683.
Subsequently he made the further gift to the university of his library.
He died on the 18th of May 1692.

ASHRAF (SHUREFA, SHERIFS), a small scattered tribe of African "Arabs"
settled near Tokar, in the valleys of the Gash and Baraka, and in the
Amarar country north of Suakin. They call themselves Beni Hashin, and
claim descent from Mahomet; hence their name, _sherif_ (plural _ashraf_)
being the title applied to descendants of the prophet. In the time of
the khalifa Abdulla (1885-1898), Ashraf was the name by which the family
and adherents of his late master the mahdi were known, the mahdi's
family claiming to be Ashraf. The Ashraf of Tokar remained loyal to
Egypt during the Sudan troubles.

See _Anglo-Egyptian Sudan_, edited by Count Gleichen (London, 1905);
_Fire and Sword in the Sudan_, by Slatin Pasha (London, 1896); for the
Ashraf or Sherifs in Arabia, see ARABIA: _Geography_.

ASHREF, a town of Persia in the province of Mazandaran, about 50 m. W.
of Astarabad and 5 m. inland from the Caspian Sea, in 36° 42' N. and 53°
32' E. The population is about 6000, comprising descendants of some
Georgians introduced by Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629) and a number of
Gudars, a peculiar pariah race, probably of Indian origin. The place was
without importance until 1612, when Shah Abbas began building and laying
out the palaces and gardens in the neighbourhood now collectively known
as Bagh i Shah (the garden of the shah). The palaces, completed in 1627,
are now in ruins, but the gardens with their luxuriant vegetation and
gigantic cypress and orange trees ate well worth a visit. There were
originally six separate gardens, all contained within one large wall but
separated one from another by high walls. The principal palace was the
Chehel Situn (forty pillars), destroyed by the Afghans in 1723, and,
although rebuilt by Nadir Shah in 1731, already in ruins in 1743. About
¾ m. north of the town is the Safi-abad garden, with a palace built by
Shah Safi (1629-1642) for his daughter. It is situated on a lovely
wooded hill, and was repaired and in part renovated about 1870 by
Násiru'd-Din Shah.

ASHTABULA, a city of Ashtabula county, Ohio, U.S.A., in Ashtabula
township, on the Ashtabula river and Lake Erie, and 54 m. N.E. of
Cleveland. Pop. (1890) 8338; (1900) 12,949, of whom 3688 were
foreign-born; (1910, census) 18,266. There is a large Finnish-born
population in the city and in Ashtabula county, and the _Amerikan
Sanomat_, established here in 1897, is one of the most widely read
Finnish weeklies in the country. Ashtabula is served by the
Pennsylvania, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, and the New York,
Chicago & St Louis railways, and by inter-urban electric lines. The city
is built on the high bank of the river about 75 ft. above the lake, and
commands good views of diversified scenery. There is a public library.
Ashtabula has an excellent harbour, to and from which large quantities
of iron ore and coal are shipped. More iron ore is received at this port
annually than at any other port in the country, or, probably, in the
world; the ore is shipped thence by rail to Pittsburg, Youngstown and
other iron manufacturing centres. In 1907 the port received 7,542,149
gross tons of iron ore, and shipped 2,632,027 net tons of soft coal.
Among the city's manufactures are leather, worsted goods, agricultural
implements, and foundry and machine shop products; in 1905 the total
value of the factory product was $1,895,454, an increase of 114.3% in
five years. There are large green-houses in and near Ashtabula, and
quantities of lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes are raised under glass and
shipped to Pittsburg and other large cities. The first settlement here
was made about 1801. Ashtabula township was created in 1808, and from it
the townships of Kingsville, Plymouth and Sheffield have subsequently
been formed. The village of Ashtabula was incorporated in 1831, and
received a city charter in 1891. The name _Ashtabula_ is an Indian word
first applied to the river and said to mean "fish river."

ASHTON-IN-MAKERFIELD, an urban district in the Newton parliamentary
division of Lancashire, England, 4 m. S. of Wigan, on the Great Central
railway. Pop. (1901) 18,687. The district is rich in minerals, and has
large collieries, and a colliery company's institute; iron goods are
manufactured.

ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE, a market-town and municipal and parliamentary borough
of Lancashire, England, on the river Tame, a tributary of the Mersey,
185 m. N. W. by N. from London and 6½ E. from Manchester. Area, 1346
acres. Pop. (1891) 40,486; (1901) 43,890. It is served by the London &
North-Western and the Lancashire & Yorkshire railways (Charlestown
station), and by the Great Central (Park Parade station). The church of
St Michael is Perpendicular, but almost wholly rebuilt. In the vicinity
are barracks. The Old Hall, or manor house of the Asshetons, remains in
an altered form, with an ancient prison adjoining, and the name of
Gallows Meadow, still preserved, recalls the summary execution of
justice by the lords of the manor. In the vicinity of Ashton a few
picturesque old houses remain among the numerous modern residences.
Stamford Park, presented by Lord Stamford, is shared by the towns of
Ashton and Stalybridge, which extends across the Tame into Cheshire. A
technical school, school of art and free library, and several hospitals
are maintained. Chief among industries are cotton-spinning, hat-making
and iron-founding and machinery works; and there are large collieries in
the neighbourhood. The parliamentary borough, which returns one member,
extends into Cheshire. The corporation consists of a mayor, 8 aldermen
and 24 councillors.

The derivation from the Saxon _aesc_ (ash) and _tun_ (an enclosed place)
accounts for the earliest orthography Estun. The addition _subtus
lineam_ is found in ancient deeds and is due to the position of the
place below the line or boundary of Cheshire, which once formed the
frontier between the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia. The manor was
granted to Roger de Poictou by William I., but before the end of his
reign came to the Greslets as part of the barony of Manchester. It was
held by the Asshetons from 1335 to 1515, when it passed by marriage to
the Booths of Dunham Massey, and is now held by the earl of Stamford,
the representative of that family. The lord of the manor still holds the
ancient court-leet and court-baron half-yearly in May and November, in
which cognizance is taken of breaches of agreement among the tenants,
especially concerning the repair of roads and cultivation of lands. The
place had long enjoyed the name of borough, but it was not till 1847
that a charter of incorporation was granted. Under the Reform Act (1832)
it returns one member. One of the markets dates back to 1436. The
ancient industry was woollen, but soon after the invention of the
spinning frame the cotton trade was introduced, and as early as 1769 the
weaving of ginghams, nankeens and calicoes was carried on, and the
weaving of cotton yarn by machinery soon became the staple industry. A
chapel or church existed here as early as 1261-1262.

ASH WEDNESDAY, in the Western Church, the first day of Lent (q.v.), so
called from the ceremonial use of ashes, as a symbol of penitence, in
the service prescribed for the day. The custom, which is ultimately
based on the penance of "sackcloth and ashes" spoken of by the prophets
of the Old Testament, has been dropped in those of the reformed Churches
which still observe the fast; but it is retained in the Roman Catholic
Church, the day being known as _dies cinerum_ (day of ashes) or _dies
cineris et cilicii_ (day of ash and sackcloth). The ashes, obtained by
burning the palms or their substitutes used in the ceremonial of the
previous Palm Sunday, are placed in a vessel on the altar before High
Mass. The priest, vested in a violet cope, prays that God may send His
angel to hallow the ash, that it become a _remedium salubre_ for all
penitents. After another prayer the ashes are thrice sprinkled with holy
water and thrice censed. Then the priest invites those present to
approach and, dipping his thumb in the ashes, marks them as they kneel
with the sign of the cross on the forehead (or in the case of clerics on
the place of tonsure), with the words: _Memento, homo, quid pulvis es et
in pulverem reverteris_ (Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust
thou shall return). The celebrant himself either sprinkles the ash on
his own head in silence, or receives it from the priest of highest
dignity present.

This ceremony is derived from the custom of public penance in the early
Church, when the sinner to be reconciled had to appear in the
congregation clad in sackcloth and covered with ashes (cf. Tertullian,
_De Pudicitia_, 13). At what date this use was extended to the whole
congregation is not known. The phrase _dies cinerum_ appears in the
earliest extant copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary, and it is probable
that the custom was already established by the 8th century. The
Anglo-Saxon homilist Aelfric, in his _Lives of the Saints_ (996 or 997),
refers to it as in common use; but the earliest evidence of its
authoritative prescription is a decree of the synod of Beneventum in
1091.

Of the reformed Churches the Anglican Church alone marks the day by any
special service. This is known as the Commination service, its
distinctive element being the solemn reading of "the general sentences
of God's cursing against sinners, gathered out of the seven and
twentieth chapter of Deuteronomy, and other places of Scripture." The
lections for the day are the same as in the Roman Church (Joel ii. 12,
&c., and Matt. vi. 16, &c.). In the American Prayer Book the office of
Commination is omitted, with the exception of the three concluding
prayers, which are derived from the prayers and anthems said or sung
during the blessing and distribution of the ashes according to the Sarum
Missal. The ceremonial of the ashes was not proscribed in England at the
Reformation; it was indeed enjoined by a proclamation of Henry VIII.
(February 26, 1538) and again in 1550 under Edward VI.; but it had
fallen into complete disuse by the beginning of the 17th century.

See Wetzer and Welte, _Kirchenlexikon_, and Herzog-Hauck,
_Realencyklopädie_ (3rd ed.), s. "_Aschermittuoch_"; L. Duchesne,
_Christian Worship_, trans. by M.L. McClure (London, 1904).

ASHWELL, LENA (1872- ), English actress, was the daughter of Commander
Pocock, R.N. In 1896 she married the actor Arthur Playfair, whom she
divorced in 1908; later in the latter year she married Dr Simson. In
1895 she played Elaine in Sir Henry Irving's production of _King Arthur_
at the Lyceum, and again acted with him in 1903 in _Dante_. She made her
first striking success, however, on the London stage in _Mrs Dane's
Defence_ with Sir Charles Wyndham in 1900, and a few years later her
acting in _Leah Kleschna_ confirmed her position as one of the leading
actresses in London. In 1907 she started under her own management at the
Kingsway theatre.

ASIA, the name of one of the great continents into which the earth's
surface is divided, embracing the north-eastern portion of the great
mass of land which constitutes what is generally known as the Old World,
of which Europe forms the north-western and Africa the south-western
region.

Much doubt attaches to the origin of the name. Some of the earliest
Greek geographers divided their known world into two portions only,
Europe and Asia, in which last Libya (the Greek name for Africa) was
included. Herodotus, who ranks Libya as one of the chief divisions of
the world, separating it from Asia, repudiates as fables the ordinary
explanations assigned to the names Europe and Asia, but confesses his
inability to say whence they came. It would appear probable, however,
that the former of these words was derived from an Assyrian or Hebrew
root, which signifies the west or setting sun, and the latter from a
corresponding root meaning the east or rising sun, and that they were
used at one time to imply the west and the east. There is ground also
for supposing that they may at first have been used with a specific or
restricted local application, a more extended signification having
eventually been given to them. After the word Asia had acquired its
larger sense, it was still specially used by the Greeks to designate the
country around Ephesus. The idea of Asia as originally formed was
necessarily indefinite, and long continued to be so; and the area to
which the name was finally applied, as geographical knowledge increased,
was to a great extent determined by arbitrary and not very precise
conceptions, rather than on the basis of natural relations and
differences subsisting between it and the surrounding regions.

GEOGRAPHY

Boundaries.

The northern boundary of Asia is formed by the Arctic Ocean; the
coast-line falls between 70° and 75° N., and so lies within the Arctic
circle, having its extreme northern point in Cape Sivero-Vostochnyi
(i.e. north-east) or Chelyuskin, in 78° N. On the south the coast-line
is far more irregular, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the China
Sea reaching about to the northern tropic at the mouths of the Indus, of
the Ganges and of the Canton river; while the great peninsulas of
Arabia, Hindostan and Cambodia descend to about 10° N., and the Malay
peninsula extends within a degree and a half of the equator. On the west
the extreme point of Asia is found on the shore of the Mediterranean, at
Cape Baba, in 26° E., nor far from the Dardanelles. Thence the boundary
passes in the one direction through the Mediterranean, and down the Red
Sea to the southern point of Arabia, at the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, in
45° E.; and in the other through the Black Sea, and along the range of
Caucasus, following approximately 40° N. to the Caspian, whence it turns
to the north on a line not far from the 60th meridian, along the Ural
Mountains, and meets the Arctic Ocean nearly opposite the island of
Novaya Zemlya. The most easterly point of Asia is East Cape (Vostochnyi,
i.e. east, or Dezhnev), in 190° E., at the entrance of Bering Strait.
The boundary between this point and the extremity of the Malay Peninsula
follows the coast of the Northern Pacific and the China Sea, on a line
deeply broken by the projection of the peninsulas of Kamchatka and
Korea, and the recession of the Sea of Okhotsk, the Yellow Sea, and the
Gulfs of Tongking and Siam.

Islands.

On the east and south-east of Asia are several important groups of
islands, the more southern of which link this continent to Australia,
and to the islands of the Pacific. The Kurile islands, the Japanese
group, Luchu, Formosa and the Philippines, may be regarded as
unquestionable outliers of Asia. Between the islands of the Malay
archipelago from Sumatra to New Guinea, and the neighbouring Asiatic
continent, no definite relations appear ever to have existed, and no
distinctly marked boundary for Asia has been established by the old
geographers in this quarter. Modern science, however, has indicated a
line of physical separation along the channel between Borneo and
Celebes, called the Straits of Macassar, which follows approximately
120° E., to the west of which the flora and fauna are essentially
Asiatic in their type, while to the south and east the Australian
element begins to be distinctly marked, soon to become predominant. To
this boundary has been given the name of Wallace's line, after the
eminent naturalist, A.R. Wallace, who first indicated its existence.

Form of continent.

Owing to the great extent of Asia, it is not easy to obtain a correct
conception of the actual form of its outline from ordinary maps, the
distortions which accompany projections of large spherical areas on a
flat surface being necessarily great and misleading. Turning, therefore,
to a globe, Asia, viewed as a whole, will be seen to have the form of a
great isosceles spherical triangle, having its north-eastern apex at
East Cape (Vostochnyi), in Bering Strait; its two equal sides, in length
about a quadrant of the sphere, or 6500 m., extending on the west to the
southern point of Arabia, and on the east to the extremity of the Malay
peninsula; and the base between these points occupying about 60° of a
great circle, or 4500 m., and being deeply indented by the Arabian Sea
and the Bay of Bengal on either side of the Indian peninsula. A great
circle, drawn through East Cape and the southern point of Arabia, passes
nearly along the coast-line of the Arctic Ocean, over the Ural
Mountains, through the western part of the Caspian, and nearly along the
boundary between Persia and Asiatic Turkey. Asia Minor and the
north-western half of Arabia lie outside such a great circle, which
otherwise indicates, with fair accuracy, the north-western boundary of
Asia. In like manner a great circle drawn through East Cape and the
extremity of the Malay peninsula, passes nearly over the coasts of
Manchuria, China and Cochin-China, and departs comparatively little from
the eastern boundary.

General physiography.

Asia is divided laterally along the parallel of 40° north by a
depression which, beginning on the east of the desert of Gobi, extends
westwards through Mongolia to Chinese Turkestan. To the west of
Kashgar the central depression is limited by the meridional range of
Sarikol and the great elevation of the Pamir, of which the Sarikol is
the eastern face. The level of this depression (once a vast inland
sea) between the mountains which enclose the sources of the Hwang-ho
and the Sarikol range probably never exceeds 2000 ft. above sea, and
modern researches tend to prove that in the central portions of the
Gobi (about Lop Nor) it may be actually below sea-level. A vast
proportion of the continent north of this central line is but a few
hundred feet in altitude. Shelving gradually upward from the low flats
of Siberia the general continental level rises to a great central
water-parting, or divide, which stretches from the Black Sea through
the Elburz and the Hindu Kush to the Tian-shan mountains in the Pamir
region, and hence to Bering Strait on the extreme north-east. This
great divide is not always marked by well-defined ranges facing
steeply either to the north or south. There are considerable spaces
where the strike, or axis, of the main ranges is transverse to the
water-parting, which is then represented by intermediate highlands
forming lacustrine regions with an indefinite watershed. Only a part
of this great continental divide (including such ranges as the Hindu
Kush, Tian-shan, Altai or Khangai) rises to any great height, a
considerable portion of it being below 5000 ft. in altitude. South of
the divide the level at once drops to the central depression of Gobi,
which forms a vast interior, almost waterless space, where the local
drainage is lost in deserts or swamps. South of this enclosed
depression is another great hydrographic barrier which parts it from
the low plains of the Amur, of China, Siam and India, bordered by the
shallows of the Yellow Sea and the shoals which enclose the islands of
Japan and Formosa, all of them once an integral part of the continent.
This second barrier is one of the most mighty upheavals in the world,
by reason both of its extent and its altitude. Starting from the Amur
river and reaching along the eastern margin of the Gobi desert towards
the sources of the Hwang-ho, it merges into the Altyn-tagh and the
Kuen-lun, forming the northern face of the vast Tibetan highlands
which are bounded on the south by the Himalaya. The Pamir highlands
between the base of the Tian-shan mountains and the eastern buttresses
of the Hindu Kush unite these two great divides, enclosing the Gobi
depression on the west; and they would again be united on the east but
for the transverse valley of the Amur, which parts the Khingan
mountains from the Yablonoi system to the east of Lake Baikal.

If we consider the whole continent to be divided into three sections,
viz. a northern section with an average altitude of less than 5000 ft.
above sea, where all the main rivers flow northward to the
Mediterranean, the Arctic Sea, or the Caspian; a central section of
depression, where the drainage is lost in swamps or _hamuns_, and of
which the average level probably does not exceed 2000 ft. above sea;
and a southern section divided between highly elevated table-lands
from 15,000 to 16,000 ft. in altitude, and lowlands of the Arabian,
Indian, Siamese and Chinese peninsulas, with an ocean outlet for its
drainage; we find that there is only one direct connexion between
northern and southern sections which involves no mountain passes, and
no formidable barrier of altitudes. That one is afforded by the narrow
valley of the Hari Rud to the west of Herat. From the Caspian to
Karachi it is possible to pass without encountering any orographic
obstacle greater than the divide which separates the valley of the
Hari Rud from the Helmund _hamun_ basin, which may be represented by
an altitude of about 4000 ft. above sea-level. This fact possesses
great significance in connexion with the development of Asiatic
railways.

Hydrography.

If we examine the hydrographic basins of the three divisions of Asia
thus indicated we find that the northern division, including the
drainage falling into the Arctic Sea, the Aralo-Caspian depression, or
the Mediterranean, embraces an area of about 6,394,500 sq. m., as
follows:--

Sq. m.
Area of Arctic river basins 4,367,000
" Aralo-Caspian basin 1,759,000
" Mediterranean 268,500
---------
Total 6,394,500

The southern division is nearly equal in extent--

Sq. m.
Pacific drainage 3,641,000
Indian Ocean 2,873,000
---------
Total 6,514,000

The interior or inland basins, including the lacustrine regions south
of the Arctic watershed, the Gobi depression, Tibetan plateau, the
Iranian (or Perso-Afghan) uplands, the Syro-Arabian inland basin, and
that of Asia Minor, amount to 3,141,500 sq. m. or about half the
extent of the other two.

By far the largest Asiatic river basin is that of the Ob, which
exceeds 1,000,000 sq. m. in extent. On the east and south the Amur
embraces no less than 776,000 sq. m., the Yang-tsze-kiang including
685,000, the Ganges 409,500, and the Indus 370,000 sq. m.[1]

The lakes of Asia are innumerable, and vary in size from an inland sea
(such as Lakes Baikal and Balkash) to a highland loch, or the
indefinitely extended swamps of Persia. Many of them are at high
elevations (Lake Victoria, 13,400 ft., being probably the most
elevated), and are undoubted vestiges of an ancient period of
glaciation. Such lakes, as a rule, show indications of a gradual
decrease in size. Others are relics of an earlier geological period,
when land areas recently upheaved from the sea were spread at low
levels with alternate inundations of salt and fresh water. Of these
Lop Nor and the Helmund _hamuns_ are typical. Such lakes (in common
with all the plateau _hamuns_ of south-west Baluchistan and Persia)
change their form and extent from season to season, and many of them
are impregnated with saline deposits from the underlying strata. The
_kavirs_, or salt depressions, of the Persian desert are more
frequently widespread deposits of mud and salt than water-covered
areas.

Political divisions.

Although for the purposes of geographical nomenclature, boundaries
formed by a coast-line--that is, by depressions of the earth's solid
crust _below_ the ocean level--are most easily recognized and are of
special convenience; and although such boundaries, from following
lines on which the continuity of the land is interrupted, often
necessarily indicate important differences in the conditions of
adjoining countries, and of their political and physical relations,
yet variations of the elevation of the surface _above_ the sea-level
frequently produce effects not less marked. The changes of temperature
and climate caused by difference of elevation are quite comparable in
their magnitude and effect on all organized creatures with those due
to differences of latitude; and the relative position of the high and
low lands on the earth's surface, by modifying the direction of the
winds, the fall of rain, and other atmospheric phenomena, produce
effects in no sense less important than those due to the relative
distribution of the land and sea. Hence the study of the mountain
ranges of a continent is, for a proper apprehension of its physical
conditions and characteristics, as essential as the examination of its
extent and position in relation to the equator and poles, and the
configuration of its coasts.

Himalayan boundary.

From such causes the physical conditions of a large part of Asia, and
the history of its population, have been very greatly influenced by
the occurrence of the mass of mountain above described, which includes
the Himalaya and the whole elevated area having true physical
connexion with that range, and occupies an area about 2000 m. in
length and varying from 100 to 500 m. in width, between 65° and 100°
east and between 28° and 35° north. These mountains, which include the
highest peaks in the world, rise, along their entire length, far above
the line of perpetual snow, and few of the passes across the main
ridges are at a less altitude than 15,000 or 16,000 ft. above the sea.
Peaks of 20,000 ft. abound along the whole chain, and the points that
exceed that elevation are numerous. A mountain range such as this,
attaining altitudes at which vegetable life ceases, and the support of
animal life is extremely difficult, constitutes an almost impassable
barrier against the spread of all forms of living creatures. The
mountain mass, moreover, is not less important in causing a complete
separation between the atmospheric conditions on its opposite flanks,
by reason of the extent to which it penetrates that stratum of the
atmosphere which is in contact with the earth's surface and is
effective in determining climate. The highest summits create serious
obstructions to the movements of nearly three-fourths of the mass of
the air resting on this part of the earth, and of nearly the whole of
the moisture it contains; the average height of the entire chain is
such as to make it an almost absolute barrier to one-half of the air
and three-fourths of the moisture; while the lower ranges also produce
important atmospheric effects, one-fourth of the air and one-half of
the watery vapour it carries with it lying below 9000 ft.

This great mass of mountain, constituting as it does a complete
natural line of division across a large part of the continent, will
form a convenient basis from which to work, in proceeding, as will now
be done, to give a general view of the principal countries contained
in Asia.

Tibet.

The summit of the great mountain mass is occupied by Tibet, a country
known by its inhabitants under the name of _Bod_ or _Bodyul_. Tibet is
a rugged table-land, narrow as compared with its length, broken up by
a succession of mountain ranges, which follow as a rule the direction
of the length of the table-land, and commonly rise into the regions of
perpetual snow; between the flanks of these lie valleys, closely
hemmed in, usually narrow, having a very moderate inclination, but at
intervals opening out into wide plains, and occupied either by rivers,
or frequently by lakes from which there is no outflow and the waters
of which are salt. The eastern termination of Tibet is in the line of
snowy mountains which flanks China on the west, between the 27th and
35th parallels of latitude, and about 103° east. On the west the
table-land is prolonged beyond the political limits of Tibet, though
with much the same physical features, to about 70° east, beyond which
it terminates; and the ranges which are covered with perpetual snow as
far west as Samarkand, thence rapidly diminish in height, and
terminate in low hills north of Bokhara.

The mean elevation of Tibet may be taken as 15,000 ft. above the sea.
The broad mountainous slope by which it is connected with the lower
levels of Hindostan contains the ranges known as the Himalaya; the
name Kuen-lun is generally applied to the northern slope that descends
to the central plains of the Gobi, though these mountains are not
locally known under those names, Kuen-lun being apparently a Chinese
designation.

The extreme rigour of the climate of Tibet, which combines great cold
with great drought, makes the country essentially very poor, and the
chief portion of it little better than desert. The vegetation is
everywhere most scanty, and scarcely anything deserving the name of a
tree is to be found unless in the more sheltered spots, and then
artificially planted. The population in the lower and warmer valleys
live in houses, and follow agriculture; in the higher regions they are
nomadic shepherds, thinly scattered over a large area.

China.

China lies between the eastern flank of the Tibetan plateau and the
North Pacific, having its northern and southern limits about on 40°
and 20° N. respectively. The country, though generally broken up with
mountains of moderate elevation, possesses none of very great
importance apart from those of its western border. It is well watered,
populous, and, as a rule, highly cultivated, fertile, and well wooded;
the climate is analogous to that of southern Europe, with hot summers,
and winters everywhere cold and in the north decidedly severe.

Indo-Chinese region.

From the eastern extremity of the Tibetan mountains, between the 95th
and 100th meridians, high ranges extend from about 35° N. in a
southerly direction, which, spreading outwards as they go south, reach
the sea at various points in Cochin-China, the Malay peninsula, and
the east flank of Bengal. Between these ranges, which are probably
permanently snowy to about 27° N., flow the great rivers of the
Indo-Chinese peninsula, the Mekong, the Menam, the Salween, and the
Irrawaddy, the valleys of which form the main portions of the states
of Cochin-China (including Tongking and Cambodia), of Siam (including
Laos) and of Burma. The people of Cochin-China are called Anam; it is
probably from a corruption of their name for the capital of Tongking,
Kechao, that the Portuguese Cochin has been derived. All these
countries are well watered, populous and fertile, with a climate very
similar to that of eastern Bengal. The geography of the region in
which the mountains of Cochin-China and Siam join Tibet is still
imperfectly known, but there is no ground left for doubting that the
great river of eastern Tibet, the Tsanpo, supplies the main stream of
the Brahmaputra. The two great rivers of China, the Hwang-ho and the
Yang-tsze-kiang take their rise from the eastern face of Tibet, the
former from the north-east angle, the latter from the south-east. The
main stream of this last is called Dichu in Tibet, and its chief
feeder is the Ya-lung-kiang, which rises not far from the Hwang-ho,
and is considered the territorial boundary between China and Tibet.

British India.

British India comprises approximately the area between the 95th and
70th meridians, and between the Tibetan table-land and the Indian
Ocean. The Indian peninsula from 25° N. southwards is a table-land,
having its greatest elevation on the west, where the highest points
rise to over 8000 ft., though the ordinary altitude of the higher
hills hardly exceeds 4000 ft.; the general level of the table-land
lies between 3000 ft. as a maximum and 1000 ft.

From the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra on the east to that of
the Indus on the west, and intervening between the table-land of the
peninsula and the foot of the Himalayan slope of the Tibetan plateau,
lies the great plain of northern India, which rises at its highest
point to about 1000 ft., and includes altogether, with its
prolongation up the valley of Assam, an area of about 500,000 sq. m.,
comprising the richest, the most populous and most civilized districts
of India. The great plain extends, with an almost unbroken surface,
from the most western to the most eastern extremity of British India,
and is composed of deposits so finely comminuted, that it is no
exaggeration to say that it is possible to go from the Bay of Bengal
up the Ganges, through the Punjab, and down the Indus again to the
sea, over a distance of 2000 m. and more, without finding a pebble,
however small.

The great rivers of northern India--the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and
the Indus--all derive their waters from the Tibetan mountain mass; and
it is a remarkable circumstance that the northern water-parting of
India should lie to the north of the Himalaya in the regions of
central Tibet.

The population of India is very large, some of its districts being
among the most densely peopled in the world. The country is generally
well cleared, and forests are, as a rule, found only along the flanks
of the mountains, where the fall of rain is most abundant. The more
open parts are highly cultivated, and large cities abound. The climate
is generally such as to secure the population the necessaries of life
without severe labour; the extremes of heat and drought are such as to
render the land unsuitable for pasture, and the people everywhere
subsist by cultivation of the soil or commerce, and live in settled
villages or towns.

The island of Ceylon is distinguished from the neighbouring parts of
British India by little more than its separate administration and the
Buddhistic religion of its population. The highest point in Ceylon
rises to about 9000 ft. above the sea, and the mountain slopes are
densely covered with forest. The lower levels are in climate and
cultivation quite similar to the regions in the same latitude on the
Malay peninsula.

Of the islands in the Bay of Bengal the Nicobar and Andaman groups are
alone worth notice. They are placed on a line joining the north end of
Sumatra and Cape Negrais, the south-western extremity of Burma. They
possibly owe their existence to the volcanic agencies which are known
to extend from Sumatra across this part of the Indian Ocean.

[Illustration: map of Asia.]

The Laccadives and Maldives are groups of small coral islands,
situated along the 73rd meridian at no great distance from the
Indian peninsula on which they have a political dependency.

The Nearer East.

The portion of Asia west of British India excluding Arabia and Syria
forms another extensive plateau covering an area as large as that of
Tibet though at a much lower altitude. Its southern border runs along
the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Tigris and thence westward to
the north-east angle of the Levant, on the north the high land follows
nearly 36° N. to the southern shore of the Caspian and thence to the
Black Sea and Sea of Marmora. Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Iran or
Persia, Armenia and the provinces of Asia Minor occupy this high
region with which they are nearly conterminous. The eastern flank of
this table-land follows a line of hills drawn a short distance from
the Indus between the mouth of that river and the Himalaya, about on
the 72nd meridian, these hills do not generally exceed 4000 or 5000
ft. in elevation but a few of the summits reach 10,000 ft. or more.
The southern and south western face follows the coast closely up the
Persian Gulf from the mouth of the Indus, and is formed farther west
by the mountain scarp, which, rising in many points to 10,000 ft.
flanks the Tigris and the Mesopotamian plains, and extends along
Kurdistan and Armenia nearly to the 40th meridian, beyond which it
turns along the Taurus range, and the north eastern angle of the
Mediterranean. The north eastern portion of the Afghan table-land
abuts on the Himalaya and Tibet, with which it forms a continuous mass
of mountain between the 71st and 72nd meridians and 34° and 36° N.
From the point of intersection of the 71st meridian with the 36th
parallel of latitude, an unbroken range of mountain stretches on one
side towards the north east, up to the crest of the northern slope of
the Tibetan plateau, and on the other nearly due west as far as the
Caspian. The north eastern portion of this range is of great altitude,
and separates the headwaters of the Oxus, which run off to the Aral
Sea, from those of the Indus and its Kabul tributary, which, uniting
below Peshawar are thence discharged southward into the Arabian Sea.
The western part of the range, which received the name of Paropamisus
Mons from the ancients, diminishes in height west of the 65th meridian
and constitutes the northern face of the Afghan and Persian plateau
rising abruptly from the plains of the Turkoman desert which lies
between the Oxus and the Caspian. These mountains at some points
attain a height of 10,000 or 12,000 ft. Along the south coast of the
Caspian this line of elevation is prolonged as the Elburz range (not
to be confused with the Elburz of the Caucasus), and has its
culminating point in Demavend, which rises to 19,400 ft. above the sea
thence it extends to the north west to Ararat, which rises to upwards
of 17,000 ft. from the vicinity of which the Euphrates flows off to
the south west across the high lands of Armenia. Below the north east
declivity of this range lies Georgia, on the other side of which
province rises the Caucasus, the boundary of Asia and Europe between
the Caspian and Black Seas, the highest points of which reach an
elevation of nearly 19,000 ft. West of Ararat high hills extend along
the Black Sea between which and the Taurus range lies the plateau of
Asia Minor reaching to the Aegean Sea, the mountains along the Black
Sea, on which are the Olympus and Ida of the ancients rise to 6000 or
7000 ft., the Taurus is more lofty--reaching 8000 and 10,000 ft.--both
ranges decline in altitude as they approach the Mediterranean.

This great plateau extending from the Mediterranean to the Indus has a
length of about 2500 m. from east to west, and a breadth of upwards of
600 m. on the west and nowhere of less than 250 m. It lies generally
at altitudes between 2000 ft. and 8000 ft. above the sea level. Viewed
as a whole the eastern half of this region, comprising Persia,
Afghanistan and Baluchistan, is poor and unproductive. The climate is
very severe in the winter and extremely hot in summer. The rainfall is
very scanty, and running waters are hardly known excepting among the
mountains which form the scarps of the elevated country. The
population is sparse, frequently nomadic, and addicted to plunder,
progress in the arts and habits of civilization is small. The western
part of the area falls within the Turkish empire. Its climate is less
hot and and its natural productiveness much greater and its population
more settled and on the whole more advanced.

Arabia.

The peninsula of Arabia with Syria, its continuation to the
north-west, has some of the characteristics of the hottest and driest
parts Persia and Baluchistan. Excepting the northern part of this
tract which is conterminous with the plain of Mesopotamia (which at
its highest point reaches an elevation of about 700 ft. above the sea)
the country is covered with low mountains, rising to 3000 or 4000 ft.
in altitude having among them narrow valleys in which the vegetation
is scanty with exceptional regions of greater fertility in the
neighbourhood of the coasts where the rainfall is greatest. In
northern Syria the mountains of Lebanon rise to about 10,000 ft. and
with a more copious water supply the country becomes more productive.
The whole tract, excepting south eastern Arabia is nominally subject
to Turkey but the people are to no small extent practically
independent living a nomadic pastoral and freebooting life under petty
chiefs in the more arid districts, but settled in towns in the more
fertile tracts where agriculture becomes more profitable and external
commerce is established.

Trans-Caspian region and central Asia.

The area between the northern border of the Persian high lands and the
Caspian and Aral Seas is a nearly desert low lying plain, extending to
the foot of the north-western extremity of the great Tibeto-Himalayan
mountains and prolonged eastward up the valleys of the Oxus (Amu
Darya) and Jaxartes (Syr-Darya), and northward across the country of
the Kirghiz to the south western border of Siberia. It includes
Bokhara, Khiva and Turkestan proper in which the Uzbeg Turks are
dominant, and for the most part is inhabited by nomadic tribes, who
are marauders, enjoying the reputation of being the worst among a race
of professed robbers. The tribes to the north, subject to Russia, are
naturally more peaceable, and have been brought into some degree of
discipline. In this tract the rainfall is nowhere sufficient for the
purposes of agriculture, which is only possible by help of irrigation,
and the fixed population (which contains a non-Turkish element) is
comparatively small, and restricted to the towns and the districts
near the rivers.

The north-western extremity of the elevated Tibeto-Himalayan mountain
plateau is situated about on 73° E. and 39° N. This region is known as
Pamir, it has all the characteristics of the highest regions of Tibet,
and so far fitly receives the Russian designation of steppe, but it
seems to have no special peculiarities, and the reason of its having
been so long regarded as a geographical enigma is not obvious. From it
the Oxus, or Amu, flows off to the west, and the Jaxartes, or Syr, to
the north, through the Turki state of Khokand, while to the east the
waters run down past Kashgar to the central desert of the Gobi,
uniting with the streams from the northern slope of the Tibetan
plateau that traverse the principalities of Yarkand and Khotan, which
are also Turki. Here the Tibetan mountains unite with the line of
elevation which stretches across the continent from the Pacific, and
which separates Siberia from the region commonly spoken of under the
name of central Asia.

Manchuria.

A range of mountains, called Stanovor, rising to heights of 4000 or
5000 ft., follows the southern coast of the eastern extremity of Asia
from Kamchatka to the borders of Manchuria, as far as the 135th
meridian, in lat. 55° N. Thence the Yablonoi range, continuing in the
same direction, divides the waters of the river Lena, which flows
through Siberia into the Arctic Sea, from those of the river Amur,
which falls into the North Pacific, the basin of this river, with its
affluents, constitutes Manchuria. From the north of Manchuria the
Khingan range stretches southward to the Chinese frontier near Peking,
east of which the drainage falls into the Amur and the Yellow Sea,
while to the west is an almost rainless region, the inclination of
which is towards the central area of the continent, Mongolia.

Mongolia.

From the western end of the Yablonoi range, on the 115th meridian, a
mountainous belt extends along a somewhat irregular line to the
extremity of Pamir, known under various names in its different parts,
and broken up into several branches, enclosing among them many
isolated drainage areas, from which there is no outflow, and within
which numerous lakes are formed. The most important of these ranges is
the Tian-shan or Celestial Mountains, which form the northern boundary
of the Gobi desert, they lie between 40° and 43° N., and between 75°
and 95° E., and some of the summits are said to exceed 20,000 ft. in
altitude, along the foot of this range are the principal cultivated
districts of central Asia, and here too are situated the few towns
which have sprung up in this barren and thinly peopled region. Next
may be named the Ala-tau, on the prolongation of the Tian-shan,
flanking the Syr on the north, and rising to 14,000 or 15,000 ft. It
forms the barrier between the Issyk-kul and Balkash lakes, the
elevation of which is about 5000 ft. Last is the Altai, near the 50th
parallel, rising to 10,000 or 12,000 ft., which separates the waters
of the great rivers of western Siberia from those that collect into
the lakes of north-west Mongolia, Dzungaria and Kalka. A line of
elevation is continued west of the Altai to the Ural Mountains, not
rising to considerable altitudes; this divides the drainage of
south-west Siberia from the great plains lying north east of the Aral
Sea.

The central area bounded on the north and north-west by the Yablonoi
Mountains and their western extension in the Tian-shan, on the south
by the northern face of the Tibetan plateau and on the east by the
Khingan range before alluded to, forms the great desert of central
Asia, known as the Gobi. Its eastern part is nearly conterminous with
south Mongolia, its western forms Chinese or eastern Turkestan. It
appears likely that no part of this great central Asiatic desert is
less than 2000 ft. above the sea level. The elevation of the plain
about Kashgar and Yarkand is from 4000 to 6000 ft. The more northern
parts of Mongolia are between 4000 and 6000 ft., and no portion of the
route across the desert between the Chinese frontier and Kiakhta is
below 3000 ft. The precise positions of the mountain ridges that
traverse this central area are not properly known, their elevation is
everywhere considerable, and many points are known to exceed 10,000 or
12,000 ft.

In Mongolia the population is essentially nomadic, its wealth
consisting in herds of horned cattle, sheep, horses and camels. The
Turki tribes, occupying western Mongolia, are among the least
civilized of human beings, and it is chiefly to their extreme
barbarity and cruelty that our ignorance of central Asia is due. The
climate is very severe, with great extremes of heat and cold. The
drought is very great, rain falls rarely and in small quantities. The
surface is for the most part a hard stony desert, areas of blown sand
occurring but exceptionally. There are few towns or settled villages,
except along the slopes of the higher mountains, on which the rain
falls more abundantly, or the melting snow supplies streams for
irrigation. It is only in such situations that cultivated lands are
found, and beyond them trees are hardly to be seen.

Siberia.

The portion of Asia which lies between the Arctic Ocean and the
mountainous belt bounding Manchuria, Mongolia and Turkestan on the
north is Siberia. It includes an immense high and broken plateau which
spreads from south-west to north-east, losing in width and altitude as
it advances north-east. It is fringed on either side by high border
ridges, which subside on the north-west into a stretch of high plains,
1500 to 2000 ft. high, finally dropping to lowlands a few hundred feet
above sea-level. The extremes of heat and cold are very great. The
rainfall, though not heavy, is sufficient to maintain such vegetation
as is compatible with the conditions of temperature, and the surface
is often swampy or peaty. The mountain-sides are commonly clothed with
pine forests, and the plains with grasses or shrubs. The population is
very scanty; the cultivated tracts are comparatively small in extent
and restricted to the more settled districts. The towns are entirely
Russian. The indigenous races are nomadic Mongols, of a peaceful
character, but in a very backward state of civilization. The Ural
Mountains do not exceed 2000 or 3000 ft. in average altitude, the
highest summits not exceeding 6000 ft., and one of the passes being as
low as 1400 ft. In the southern half of the range are the chief mining
districts of Russia. The Ob, Yenisei and Lena, which traverse Siberia,
are among the largest rivers in the world.

Malay Archipelago.

The southern group of the Malay Archipelago, from Sumatra to Java and
Timor, extends in the arc of a circle between 95° and 127° E., and
from 5° to 10° S. The central part of the group is a volcanic region,
many of the volcanoes being still active, the summits frequently
rising to 10,000 ft. or more.

Sumatra, the largest of the islands, is but thinly peopled; the
greater part of the surface is covered with dense forest, the
cultivated area being comparatively small, confined to the low lands,
and chiefly in the volcanic region near the centre of the island. Java
is the most thickly peopled, best cultivated and most advanced island
of the whole Eastern archipelago. It has attained a high degree of
wealth and prosperity under the Dutch government. The people are
peaceful and industrious, and chiefly occupied with agriculture. The
highest of the volcanic peaks rises to 12,000 ft. above the sea. The
eastern islands of this group are less productive and less advanced.

Borneo, the most western and the largest of the northern group of
islands which extends between 110° and 150° E., as far as New Guinea
or Papua, is but little known. The population is small, rude and
uncivilized; and the surface is rough and mountainous and generally
covered with forest except near the coast, to the alluvial lands on
which settlers have been attracted from various surrounding countries.
The highest mountain rises to nearly 14,000 ft., but the ordinary
elevations do not exceed 4000 or 5000 ft.

Of Celebes less is known than of Borneo, which it resembles in
condition and natural characteristics. The highest known peaks rise to
8000 ft., some of them being volcanic.

Pacific Islands.

New Guinea extends almost to the same meridian as the eastern coast of
Australia, from the north point of which it is separated by Torres
Straits. Very little is known of the interior. The mountains are said
to rise to 20,000 ft., having the appearance of being permanently
covered with snow; the surface seems generally to be clothed with
thick wood. The inhabitants are of the Negrito type, with curly or
crisp and bushy hair; those of the west coast have come more into
communication with the traders of other islands and are fairly
civilized. Eastward, many of the tribes are barbarous savages.

The Philippine Islands lie between 5° and 20° N., between Borneo and
southern China. The highest land does not rise to a greater height
than 10,250 ft.; the climate is well suited for agriculture, and the
islands generally are fertile and fairly cultivated, though not coming
up to the standard of Java either in wealth or population.

Formosa, which is situated under the northern tropic, near the coast
of China, is traversed by a high range of mountains, reaching nearly
13,000 ft. in elevation. On its western side, which is occupied by an
immigrant Chinese population, are open and well-cultivated plains; on
the east it is mountainous, and occupied by independent indigenous
tribes in a less advanced state.

The islands of Japan, not including Sakhalin, of which half is
Japanese, lie between the 30th and 45th parallels. The whole group is
traversed by a line of volcanic mountains, some of which are in
activity, the highest point being about 13,000 ft. above the sea. The
country is generally well watered, fertile and well cultivated. The
Japanese people have added to their ancient civilization and their
remarkable artistic faculty, an adaptation of Western methods, and a
capacity for progress in war and commerce, which single them out among
Eastern races as a great modern world-force.

EXPLORATION

The progress of geodetic surveys in Russia had long ago extended
across the European half of the great empire, St Petersburg being
connected with Tiflis on the southern slopes of the Caucasus by a
direct system of triangulation carried out with the highest scientific
precision. St Petersburg, again, is connected with Greenwich by
European systems of triangulation; and the Greenwich meridian is
adopted by Russia as the zero for all her longitude values. But beyond
the eastern shores of the Caspian no system of direct geodetic
measurements by first-class triangulation has been possible, and the
surveys of Asiatic Russia are separated from those of Europe by the
width of that inland sea. The arid nature of the trans-Caspian deserts
has proved an insuperable obstacle to those rigorous methods of
geodetic survey which distinguish Russian methods in Europe, so that
Russian geography in central Asia is dependent on other means than
that of direct measurement for the co-ordinate values in latitude and
longitude for any given point. The astronomical observatory at
Tashkent is adopted for the initial starting-point of the
trans-Caspian triangulation of Russia; the triangulation ranks as
second-class only, and now extends to the Pamir frontier beyond Osh.
The longitude of the Tashkent observatory has been determined by
telegraph differentially with Pulkova as follows:--

H. M. S.
In 1875 via Ekaterinburg and Omsk 2 35 52.151
" 1891 " Saratov " Orenburg 2 35 52.228
" 1895 " Kiev " Baku 2 35 51.997

With these three independent values, all falling within a range of
0^S.25, it is improbable that the mean value has an error as large as
0^S.10.

Extent of exact surveys in Asia.

Exact surveys in Russia, based upon triangulation, extend as far east
as Chinese Turkestan in longitude about 75° E. of Greenwich. In India
geodetic triangulation furnishes the basis for exact surveys as far
east as the eastern boundaries of Burma in longitude about 100° E.

The close of the 19th century witnessed the forging of the final links
in the great geodetic triangulation of India, so far as the peninsula
is concerned. Further geodetic connexion with the European systems
remains to be accomplished. Since 1890 further and more rigorous
application of the telegraphic method of determining longitudes
differentially with Greenwich has resulted in a slight correction
(amounting to about 2" of arc) to the previous determination by the
same method through Suez. This last determination was effected through
four arcs as follows:--

I. Greenwich--Potsdam.
II. Potsdam--Teheran.
III. Teheran--Bushire.
IV. Bushire--Karachi.

Each arc was measured with every precaution and a multitude of
observations. The only element of uncertainty was caused by the
retardation of the current, which between Potsdam and Teheran (3000
m.) took 0^S.20 to travel; but it is probable that the final value can
be accepted as correct to within 0^S.05.

The final result of this latest determination is to place the Madras
observatory 2' 27" to the west of the position adopted for it on the
strength of absolute astronomical determinations.

Connexion between Russian and Indian surveys.

But while we have yet to wait for that expansion of principal
triangulation which will bring Asia into connexion with Europe by the
direct process of earth measurement, a topographical connexion has
been effected between Russian and Indian surveys which sufficiently
proves that the deductive methods employed by both countries for the
determination of the co-ordinate values of fixed points so far agree
that, for all practical purposes of future Asiatic cartography, no
difficulty in adjustment between Indian and Russian mapping need be
apprehended.

Extension of geographical surveys.

In connexion with the Indian triangulation minor extensions carried
out on systems involving more or less irregularity have been pushed
outwards on all sides. They reach through Afghanistan and Baluchistan
to the eastern districts of Persia, and along the coast of Makran to
that of Arabia. They have long ago included the farther mountain peaks
of Nepal, and they now branch outwards towards western China and into
Siam. These far extensions furnish the basis for a vast amount of
exploratory survey of a strictly geographical character, and they have
contributed largely towards raising the standard of accuracy in
Asiatic geographical surveys to a level which was deemed unattainable
fifty years ago. There is yet a vast field open in Asia for this class
of surveys. While at the close of the 19th century western Asia
(exclusive of Arabia) may be said to have been freed from all
geographical perplexity, China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia still
include enormous areas of which geographical knowledge is in a
primitive stage of nebulous uncertainty.

Indian explorers.

Of scientific geographical exploration in Asia (beyond the limits of
actual surveys) the modern period has been so prolific that it is only
possible to refer in barest outline to some of the principal
expeditions, most of which have been directed either to the great
elevated table-land of Tibet or to the central depression which exists
to the north of it. In southern Tibet the trans-Himalayan explorations
of the native surveyors attached to the Indian survey, notably Pundits
Nain Singh and Krishna, added largely to our knowledge of the great
plateau. Nain Singh explored the sources of the Indus and of the Upper
Brahmaputra in the years 1865-1867; and in 1874-1875 he followed a
line from the eastern frontiers of Kashmir to the Tengri Nor lake and
thence to Lhasa, in which city he remained for some months. Krishna's
remarkable journey in 1879-1882 extended from Lhasa northwards through
Tsaidam to Sachu, or Saitu, in Mongolia. He subsequently passed
through eastern Tibet to the town of Darchendo, or Tachienlu, on the
high road between Lhasa and Peking, and on the borders of China.
Failing to reach India through Upper Assam he returned to the
neighbourhood of Lhasa, and crossed the Himalayas by a more westerly
route. Both these explorers visited Lhasa.

Russian explorers.

In 1871-1873 the great Russian explorer, Nicolai Prjevalsky, crossed
the Gobi desert from the north to Kansu in western China. He first
defined the geography of Tsaidam, and mapped the hydrography of that
remarkable region, from which emanate the great rivers of China, Siam
and Burma. He penetrated southwards to within a month's march of
Lhasa. In 1876 he visited the Lop Nor and discovered the Altyn Tagh
range. In 1879 he followed up the Urangi river to the Altai Mountains,
and demonstrated to the world the extraordinary physical changes which
have passed over the heart of the Asiatic continent since Jenghiz Khan
massed his vast armies in those provinces. He crossed, and named, the
Dzungarian extension of the Gobi desert, and then traversed the Gobi
itself from Hami to Sachu, which became a point of junction between
his journeys and those of Krishna. He visited the sources of the
Hwang-ho (Yellow river) and the Salween, and then returned to Russia.
His fourth journey in 1883-1885 was to Sining (the great trade centre
of the Chinese borderland), and thence through northern Tibet
(crossing the Altyn Tagh to Lop Nor), and by the Cherchen-Keriya trade
route to Khotan. From Khotan he followed the Tarim to Aksu.

Following Prjevalsky the Russian explorers, Pevtsov and Roborovski, in
1889-1890 (and again in 1894), added greatly to our knowledge of the
topography of western Chinese Turkestan and the northern borders of
Tibet; all these Russian expeditions being conducted on scientific
principles and yielding results of the highest value. Among other
distinguished Russian explorers in Asia, the names of Lessar,
Annentkov (who bridged the Trans-Caspian deserts by a railway), P.K.
Kozlov and Potanin are conspicuous during the 19th century.

Other explorations in central Asia.

Although the establishment of a lucrative trade between India and
central Asia had been the dream of many successive Indian viceroys,
and much had been done towards improving the approaches to Simla from
the north, very little was really known of the highlands of the
Pamirs, or of the regions of the great central depression, before the
mission of Sir Douglas Forsyth to Yarkand in 1870. Robert Barkley Shaw
and George Hayward were the European pioneers of geography into the
central dominion of Kashgar, arriving at Yarkand within a few weeks of
each other in 1868. Shaw subsequently accompanied Forsyth's mission in
1870, when Henry Trotter made the first maps of Chinese Turkestan. The
next great accession to our knowledge of central Asiatic geography was
gained with the Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission of 1884-1886, when
Afghan Turkestan and the Oxus regions were mapped by Colonel Sir T.H.
Holdich, Colonel St George Gore and Sir Adelbert Talbot; and when Ney
Elias crossed from China through the Pamirs and Badakshan to the camp
of the commission, identifying the great "Dragon Lake," Rangkul, on
his way. About the same time a mission, under Captain (afterwards Sir
Willaim) Lockhart, crossed the Hindu Kush into Wakhan, and returned to
India by the Bashgol valley of Kafiristan. This was Colonel
Woodthorpe's opportunity, and he was then enabled to verify the
results of W.W. M'Nair's previous explorations, and to determine the
conformation of the Hindu Kush. In 1885 Arthur Douglas Carey and
Andrew Dalgleish, following more or less the tracks of Prjevalsky,
contributed much that was new to the map of Asia; and in 1886 Captain
(afterwards Sir Francis) Younghusband completed a most adventurous
journey across the heart of the continent by crossing the Muztagh, the
great mountain barrier between China and Kashmir.

Tibetan explorations.

It was in 1886-1887 that Pierre G. Bonvalot, accompanied by Prince
Henri d'Orleans, crossed the Tibetan plateau from north to south but
failed to enter Lhasa. In 1889-1891 the American traveller, W.W.
Rockhill, commenced his Tibetan journeys, and also attempted to reach
Lhasa, without success. By his writings, as much as by his
explorations, Rockhill has made his name great in the annals of
Asiatic research. In 1891 Hamilton Bower made his famous journey from
Leh to Peking. He, too, failed to penetrate the jealously-guarded
portals of Lhasa; but he secured (with the assistance of a native
surveyor) a splendid addition to our previous Tibetan mapping. In
1891-1892-1893 the gallant French explorer, Dutreuil de Rhins, was in
the field of Tibet, where he finally sacrificed his life to his work;
and the same years saw George N. (afterwards Lord) Curzon in the
Pamirs, and St George Littledale on his first great Tibetan journey,
accompanied by his wife. Littledale's first journey ended at Peking;
his second, in 1894-1895, took him almost within sight of the sacred
walls of Lhasa, but he failed to pass inside. Greatest among modern
Asiatic explorers (if we except Prjevalsky) is the brave Swede,
Professor Sven Hedin, whose travels through the deserts of Takla Makan
and Tibet, and whose investigations in the glacial regions of the
Sarikol mountains, occupied him from 1894 to 1896. His is a truly
monumental record. From 1896 to 1898 we find two British cavalry
officers taking the front position in the list of Tibetan
travellers-Captain M.S. Wellby of the 18th Hussars and Captain H.
Deasy of the 16th Lancers, each striking out a new line, and rendering
most valuable service to geography. The latter continued the Pamir
triangulation, which had been carried across the Hindu Kush by
Colonels Sir T.H. Holdich and R.A. Wahab during the Pamir Boundary
Commission of 1895, into the plains of Kashgar and to the sources of
the Zarafshan.

Since the beginning of the century the work of Deasy in western Tibet
has been well extended by Dr M.A. Stein and Captain C. G. Rawling, who
have increased our knowledge of ancient fields of industry and
commerce in Turkestan and Tibet. Ellsworth Huntington threw new light
on the Tian-shan plateau and the Alai range by his explorations of
1903; and Sven Hedin, between 1899 and 1902, was collecting material
in Turkestan and Tibetan fields, and resumed his journeys in
1905-1908, the result being to revolutionize our knowledge of the
region north of the upper Tsanpo (see TIBET). The mission of Sir
Francis Younghusband to Lhasa in 1904 resulted in an extension of the
Indian system of triangulation which finally determined the
geographical position of that city, and in a most valuable
reconnaissance of the valleys of the Upper Brahmaputra and Indus by
Captains C.H.D. Ryder and C.G. Rawling.

Chinese explorations.

Meanwhile, in the Farther East so rapid has been the progress of
geographical research since the first beginnings of investigation into
the route connexion between Burma and China in 1874 (when the brave
Augustus Margary lost his life), that a gradually increasing tide of
exploration, setting from east to west and back again, has culminated
in a flood of inquiring experts intent on economic and commercial
development in China, essaying to unlock those doors to trade which
are hereafter to be propped open for the benefit of humanity. Captain
William Gill, of the Indian survey, first made his way across China to
eastern Tibet and Burma, and subsequently delighted the world with his
story of the _River of Golden Sand_. Then followed another charming
writer, E.C. Baber, who, in 1877-1878, unravelled the geographic
mysteries of the western provinces of the Celestial empire. Mark Bell
crossed the continent in 1887 and illustrated its ancient trade
routes, following the steps of Archibald Colquhoun, who wandered from
Peking to Talifu in 1881. Meanwhile, the acquisition of Burma and the
demarcation of boundaries had opened the way to the extension of
geographical surveys in directions hitherto untraversed. Woodthorpe
was followed into Burmese fields by many others; and amongst the
earliest travellers to those mysterious mountains which hide the
sources of the Irrawaddy, the Salween and the Mekong, was Prince Henri
d'Orleans. Burma was rapidly brought under survey; Siam was already in
the map-making hands of James M'Carthy, whilst Curzon and Warrington
Smyth added much to our knowledge of its picturesque coast districts.
No more valuable contribution to the illustration of western Chinese
configuration has been given to the public than that of C.C. Manifold
who explored and mapped the upper basin of the Yang-tsze river between
the years 1900 and 1904, whilst our knowledge of the geography of the
Russo-Chinese borderland on the north-east has been largely advanced
by the operations attending the Russo-Japanese war which terminated in
1905.

Indian frontiers--Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Persia.

Turning our attention westwards, no advance in the progress of
scientific geography is more remarkable than that recorded on the
northern and north-western frontiers of India. Here there is little
matter of exploration. It has rather been a wide extension of
scientific geographical mapping. Afghan war of 1878-80; the
Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission of 1884-1885; the occupation of
Gilgit and Chitral; the extension of boundaries east and north of
Afghanistan, and again, between Baluchistan and Persia--these, added
to the opportunities afforded by the systematic survey of Baluchistan
which has been steadily progressing since 1880--combined to produce a
series of geographical maps which extend from the Oxus to the Indus,
and from the Indus to the Euphrates.

In these professional labours the Indian surveyors have been assisted
by such scientific geographers as General Sir A. Houtum Schindler,
Captain H.B. Vaughan and Major Percy M. Sykes in Persia, and by Sir
George Robertson and Cockerill in Kafiristan and the Hindu Kush.

Arabia.

In still more western fields of research much additional light has
been thrown since 1875 on the physiography of the great deserts and
oases of Arabia. The labours of Charles Doughty and Wilfrid S. Blunt
in northern Arabia in 1877-1878 were followed by those of G.
Schweinfurth and E. Glaser in the south-west about ten years later. In
1884-1885 Colonel S.B. Miles made his adventurous journey through
Oman, while Theodore Bent threw searchlights backwards into ancient
Semitic history by his investigations in the Bahrein Islands in 1888
and in Hadramut in 1894-1895.

Northern Asia, Siberia, &c.

In northern Asia it is impossible to follow in detail the results of
the organized Russian surveys. The vast steppes and forest-clad
mountain regions of Siberia have assumed a new geographical aspect in
the light of these revelations, and already promise a new world of
economic resources to Russian enterprise in the near future. A
remarkable expedition by Baron Toll in 1892 through the regions
watered by the Lena, resulted in the collection of material which
will greatly help to elucidate some of the problems which beset the
geological history of the world, proving _inter alia_ the primeval
existence of a boreal zone of the Jurassic sea round the North Pole.

General results of investigation.

In no other period of the world's history, of equal length of time,
has so much scientific enterprise been directed towards the field of
Asiatic inquiry. The first great result of recent geographical
research has been to modify pre-existing ideas of the orography of the
vast central region represented by Tibet and Mongolia. The great
highland plateau which stretches from the Himalaya northwards to
Chinese Turkestan, and from the frontier of Kashmir eastwards to
China, has now been defined with comparative geographical exactness.
The position of Sachu (or Saitu) in Mongolia may be taken as an
obligatory point in modern map construction. The longitude value now
adopted is 94° 54' E. of Greenwich, which is the revised value given
by Prjevalsky in the map accompanying the account of his fourth
exploration into central Asia. Other values are as follows:--

Prjevalsky, by his second and third explorations 94° 26'
Krishna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94° 23'
Carey and Dalgleish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94° 48'
Littledale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94° 49'
Kreitner (with Szecheny's expedition) . . . . . 94° 58'

The longitude of Darchendo, or Tachienlu, on the extreme east, may be
accepted as another obligatory point. The adopted value by the Royal
Geographical Society is 102° 12". Krishna gives 102° 15", Kreitner
102° 5", Baber 102° 18".

South and west the bounding territories are well fixed in geographical
position by the Indian survey determinations of the value of Himalayan
peaks. On the north the Chinese Turkestan explorations are now brought
into survey connexion with Kashmir and India.

No longer do we regard the Kuen-lun mountains, which extend from the
frontiers of Kashmir, north of Leh, almost due east to the Chinese
province of Kansu, as the southern limit of the Gobi or Turkestan
depression. This very remarkable longitudinal chain is undoubtedly the
northern limit of the Chang Tang, the elevated highland steppes of
Tibet; but from it there branches a minor system to the north-east
from a point in about 83° E. longitude, which culminates in the Altyn
Tagh, and extends eastwards in a continuous water-divide to the Nan
Shan mountains, north of the Koko Nor basin. Thus between Tibet and
the low-lying sands of Gobi we have, thrust in, a system of elevated
valleys (Tsaidam), 8000 to 9000 ft. above sea-level, forming an
intermediate steppe between the highest regions and the lowest, east
of Lop Nor. All this is comparatively new geography, and it goes far
to explain why the great trade routes from Peking to the west were
pushed so far to the north.

Russo-Chinese boundary.

On the western edge of the Kashgar plains, the political boundary
between Russia and China is defined by the meridional range of
Sarikol. This range (known to the ancients as Taurus and in medieval
times as Bolor) like many others of the most important great natural
mountain divisions of the world, consists of two parallel chains, of
which the western is the water-divide of the Pamirs, and the eastern
(which has been known as the Kashgar or Kandar range) is split at
intervals by lateral gorges to allow of the passage of the main
drainage from the eastern Pamir slopes.

Indian frontiers--Afghanistan, &c.

In western Asia we have learned the exact value of the mountain
barrier which lies between Merv and Herat, and have mapped its
connexion with the Elburz of Persia. We can now fully appreciate the
factor in practical politics which that definite but somewhat
irregular mountain system represents which connects the water-divide
north of Herat with the southern abutment of the Hindu Kush, near
Bamian. Every pass of importance is known and recorded; every route of
significance has been explored and mapped; Afghanistan has assumed a
new political entity by the demarcation of a boundary; the value of
Herat and of the Pamirs as bases of aggression has been assessed, and
the whole intervening space of mountain and plain thoroughly examined.

Persia.

Although within the limits of western Asiatic states, still under
Asiatic government and beyond the active influence of European
interests, the material progress of the Eastern world has appeared to
remain stationary, yet large accessions to geographical knowledge have
at least been made, and in some instances a deeper knowledge of the
surface of the country and modern conditions of life has led to the
straightening of many crooked paths in history, and a better
appreciation of the slow processes of advancing civilization. The
steady advance of scientific inquiry into every corner of Persia,
backed by the unceasing efforts of a new school of geographical
explorers, has left nothing unexamined that can be subjected to
superficial observation. The geographical map of the country is fairly
complete, and with it much detailed information is now accessible
regarding the coast and harbours of the Persian Gulf, the routes and
passes of the interior, and the possibilities of commercial
development by the construction of trade roads uniting the Caspian,
the Karun, the Persian Gulf, and India, via Seistan. Persia has
assumed a comprehensible position as a factor in future Eastern
politics.

Arabia.

In Arabia progress has been slower, although the surveys carried out
by Colonel Wahab in connexion with the boundary determined in the Aden
hinterland added more exact geographical knowledge within a limited
area. Little more is known of the wide spaces of interior desert than
has already been given to the world in the works of Sir Richard F.
Burton, Wm. Gifford Palgrave and Sir Lewis Pelly amongst Englishmen,
and Karsten Niebuhr, John Lewis Burckhardt, Visconte, Joseph Halévy
and others, amongst foreign travellers. Charles Doughty and Wilfrid S.
Blunt have visited and illustrated the district of Nejd, and described
the waning glories of the Wahabi empire. But extended geographical
knowledge does not point to any great practical issue. Commercial
relations with Arabia remain much as they were in 1875.

Asia Minor, &c.

In Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia there is little to record of
progress in material development beyond the promises held out by the
Euphrates Valley railway concession to a German company. The exact
information obtained by the researches of English surveyors in
Palestine and beyond Jordan, or by the efforts of explorers in the
regions that lie between the Mediterranean and the Caspian, have so
far led rather to the elucidation of history than to fresh commercial
enterprise or the possible increase of material wealth.

Russia in Asia.

Asiatic Russia, especially eastern Siberia and Mongolia, have been
brought within the sphere of Russian exploration, with results so
surprising as to form an epoch in the history of Asia. Here there has
been a development of the resources of the Old World which parallels
the best records of the New.

Chinese Turkestan and Oxus basin.

The great central depression of the continent which reaches from the
foot of the Pamir plateau on the west through the Tarim desert to Lop
Nor and the Gobi has yielded up many interesting secrets. The
remarkable phenomenon of the periodic shifting of the Lop Nor system
has been revealed by the researches of Sven Hedin, and the former
existence of highly civilized centres of Buddhist art and industry in
the now sand-strewn wastes of the Turkestan desert has been clearly
demonstrated by the same great explorer and by Dr M.A. Stein. The
depression westward of the Caspian and Aral basins, and the original
connexion of these seas, have also come under the close investigation
of Russian scientists, with the result that the theory of an ancient
connexion between the Oxus and the Caspian has been displaced by the
more recent hypothesis of an extension of the Caspian Sea eastwards
into Trans-Caspian territory within the post-Pleiocene age. The
discovery of shells (now living in the Caspian) at a distance of about
100 m. inland, at an altitude of 140 to 280 ft. above the present
level of the Caspian, gives support to this hypothesis, which is
further advanced by the ascertained nature of the Kara-kum sands,
which appear to be a purely marine formation exhibiting no traces of
fluviatile deposits which might be considered as delta deposits of the
Oxus.

In the discussion of this problem we find the names of Baron A.
Kaulbars, Annentkov, P.M. Lessar, and A.M. Konshin prominent. Further
matter of interest in connexion with the Oxus basin was elucidated by
the researches of L. Griesbach in connexion with the Russo-Afghan
Boundary Commission. He reported the gradual formation of an
anticlinal or ridge extending longitudinally through the great Balkh
plain of Afghan Turkestan, which effectually shuts off the northern
affluents of that basin from actual junction with the river. This
evidence of a gradual process of upheaval still in action may throw
some light on the physical (especially the climatic) changes which
must have passed over that part of Asia since Balkh was the "mother of
cities," the great trade centre of Asia, and the plains of Balkh were
green with cultivation. In the restoration of the outlines of ancient
and medieval geography in Asia Sven Hedin's discoveries of the actual
remains of cities which have long been buried under the advancing
waves of sand in the Takla Makan desert, cities which flourished in
the comparatively recent period of Buddhist ascendancy in High Asia,
is of the very highest interest, filling up a blank in the
identification of sites mentioned by early geographers and
illustrating more fully the course of old pilgrim routes.

Baluchistan and Makran.

With the completion of the surveys of Baluchistan and Makran much
light has also been thrown on the ancient connexion between east and
west; and the final settlement of the southern boundaries of
Afghanistan has led to the reopening of one at least of the old trade
routes between Seistan and India.

Burma and China.

Farther east no part of Asia has been brought under more careful
investigation than the hydrography of the strange mountain wilderness
that divides Tibet and Burma from China. In this field the researches
of travellers already mentioned, combined with the more exact
reconnaissance of native surveyors and of those exploring parties
which have recently been working in the interests of commercial
projects, have left little to future inquiry. We know now for certain
that the great Tsanpo of Tibet and the Brahmaputra are one and the
same river; that north of the point where the great countermarch of
that river from east to west is effected are to be found the sources
of the Salween, the Mekong, the Yang-tsze-kiang and the Hwang-ho, or
Yellow river, in order, from west to east; and that south of it,
thrust in between the extreme eastern edge of the Brahmaputra basin
and the Salween, rise the dual sources of the Irrawaddy. From the
water-divide which separates the most eastern affluent of the
Brahmaputra, eastwards to the deep gorges which enclose the most
westerly branch of the upper Yang-tsze-kiang (here running from north
to south), is a short space of 100 m.; and within that space two
mighty rivers, the Salween and the Mekong, send down their torrents to
Burma and Siam. These three rivers flow parallel to each other for
some 300 m., deep hidden in narrow and precipitous troughs, amidst
some of the grandest scenery of Asia; spreading apart where the
Yank-tsze takes its course eastwards, not far north of the parallel of
25°.

The comparatively restricted area which still remains for close
investigation includes the most easterly sources of the Brahmaputra,
the most northerly sources of the Irrawaddy, and some 300 m. of the
course of the upper Salween.

_Modern Boundary Demarcation._--The period from about 1880 has been an
era of boundary-making in Asia, of defining the politico-geographical
limits of empire, and of determining the responsibilities of
government. Russia, Persia, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, India and China
have all revised their borders, and with the revision the political
relations between these countries have acquired a new and more assured
basis. See also the articles on the different countries. We are not
here concerned with understandings as to "spheres of influence," or
with arrangements such as the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907
concerning Persia.

Southern boundary of Russia in Asia.

The advance of Russia to the Turkoman deserts and the Oxus demanded a
definite boundary between her trans-Caspian conquests and the kingdom
of Afghanistan. This was determined on the north-west by the
Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission of 1884-1886. A boundary was then
fixed between the Hari Rud (the river of Herat) and the Oxus, which is
almost entirely artificial in its construction. Zulfikar, where the
boundary leaves the Hari Rud, is about 70 m. south of Sarakhs, and the
most southerly point of the boundary (where it crosses the Kushk) is
about 60 m. north of Herat. From the junction of the boundary with the
Oxus at Khamiab about 150 m. above the crossing-point of the Russian
Trans-Caspian railway at Charjui, the main channel of the Oxus river
becomes the northern boundary of Afghanistan, separating that country
from Russia, and so continues to its source in Victoria Lake of the
Great Pamir. Beyond this point the Anglo-Russian Commission of 1895
demarcated a line to the snowfields and glaciers which overlook the
Chinese border. Between the Russian Pamirs and Chinese Turkestan the
rugged line of the Sarikol range intervenes, the actual dividing line
being still indefinite. Beyond Kashgar the southern boundary of
Siberia follows an irregular course to the north-east, partly defined
by the Tian-shan and Alatau mountains, till it attains a northerly
point in about 53° N. lat. marked by the Sayan range to the west of
Irkutsk. It then deflects south-east till it touches the Kerulen
affluent of the Amur river at a point which is shown in unofficial
maps as about 117° 30' E. long, and 49° 20' N. lat. From here it
follows this affluent to its junction with the Amur river, and the
Amur river to its junction with the Usuri. It follows the Usuri to its
head (its direction now being a little west of south), and finally
strikes the Pacific coast on about 42° 30' N. lat. at the mouth of the
Tumen river 100 m. south of the Amur bay, at the head of which lies
the Russian port of Vladivostok. At two points the Russian boundary
nearly approaches that of provinces which are directly under British
suzerainty. Where the Oxus river takes its great bend to the north
from Ishkashim, the breadth of the Afghan territory intervening
between that river and the main water-divide of the Hindu Kush is not
more than 10 or 12 m.; and east of the Pamir extension of Afghanistan,
where the Beyik Pass crosses the Sarikol range and drops into the
Taghdumbash Pamir, there is but the narrow width of the Karachukar
valley between the Sarikol and the Muztagh. Here, however, the
boundary is again undefined. Eastwards of this the great Kashgar
depression, which includes the Tarim desert, separates Russia from the
vast sterile highlands of Tibet; and a continuous series of desert
spaces of low elevation, marking the limits of a primeval inland sea
from the Sarikol meridional watershed to the Khingan mountains on the
western borders of Manchuria, divide her from the northern provinces
of China. From the Khingan ranges to the Pacific, south of the Amur,
stretch the rich districts of Manchuria, a province which connects
Russia with the Korea by a series of valleys formed by the Sungari and
its affluents--a land of hill and plain, forest and swamp, possessing
a delightful climate, and vast undeveloped agricultural resources.
Throughout this land of promise Russian influence was destroyed by
Japan in the war of 1904. The possession of Port Arthur, and direct
political control over Korea, place Japan in the dominant position as
regards Manchuria.

Afghan political boundaries.

Coincident with the demarcation of Russian boundaries in Turkestan was
that of northern Afghanistan. From the Hari Rud on the west to the
Sarikol mountains on the east her northern limits were set by the
Boundary Commissions of 1884-1886 and of 1895 respectively. Her
southern and eastern boundaries were further defined by a series of
minor commissions, working on the basis of the Kabul agreement of
1893, which lasted for nearly four years, terminating with the Mohmand
settlement at the close of an expedition in 1897.

The Pamir extension of Afghan territory to the north-east reaches to a
point a little short of 75° E., from whence it follows the
water-divide to the head of the Taghdumbash Pamir, and is
thenceforward defined by the water-parting of the Hindu Kush. It
leaves the Hindu Kush near the Dorah Pass at the head of one of the
minor Chitral affluents, and passing south-west divides Kafiristan
from Chitral and Bajour, separates the sections of the Mohmands who
are within the respective spheres of Afghan and British sovereignty,
and crosses the Peshawar-Kabul route at Lundi-Khana. It thus places a
broad width of independent territory between the boundaries of British
India (which have remained practically, though not absolutely,
untouched) and Afghanistan; and this independent belt includes Swat,
Bajour and a part of the Mohmand territory north of the Kabul river.
The same principle of maintaining an intervening width of neutral
territory between the two countries is definitely established
throughout the eastern borders of Afghanistan, along the full length
of which a definite boundary has been demarcated to the point where it
touches the northern limits of Baluchistan on the Gomal river. From
the Gomal Baluchistan itself becomes an intervening state between
British India and Afghanistan, and the dividing line between
Baluchistan and Afghanistan is laid down with all the precision
employed on the more northerly sections of the demarcation.

Baluchistan.

Baluchistan can no longer be regarded as a distinct entity amongst
Asiatic nations, such as Afghanistan undoubtedly is. Baluchistan
independence demands qualification. There is British Baluchistan _par
excellence_, and there is the rest of Baluchistan which exists in
various degrees of independence, but is everywhere subject to British
control. British Baluchistan officially includes the districts of
Peshin, Sibi and of Thal-Chotiali. As these districts had originally
been Afghan, they were transferred to British authority by the treaty
of Gandamak in 1879, although nominally they had been handed over to
Kalat forty years previously. Now they form an official province of
British Baluchistan within the Baluchistan Agency; and the agency
extends from the Gomal to the Arabian Sea and the Persian frontier.
Within this agency there are districts as independent as any in
Afghanistan, but the political status of the province as a whole is
almost precisely that of the native states of the Indian peninsula.
The agent to the governor-general of India, with a staff of political
assistants, practically exercises supreme control.

Kirman.

The increase of Russian influence on the northern Persian border and
its extension southwards towards Seistan led to the appointment of a
British consul at Kirman, the dominating town of southern Khorasan,
directly connected with Meshed on the north; and the acquisition of
rights of administration of the Nushki district secured to Great
Britain the trade between Seistan and Quetta by the new Helmund desert
route.

Boundary between French territory and India.

While British India has so far avoided actual geographical contact
with one great European power in Asia on the north and west, she has
touched another on the east. The Mekong river which limits British
interests in Burma limits also those of France in Tongking. The
eastern boundaries of Burma are not yet fully demarcated on the
Chinese frontier. At a point level in latitude with Mogaung, near the
northern termination of the Burmese railway system, this boundary is
defined by the eastern watershed of the Nmaikha, the eastern of the
two great northern affluents of the Irrawaddy. Then it follows an
irregular course southwards to a position south-east of Bhamo in lat.
24°. It next defines the northern edge of the Shan States, and finally
strikes the Mekong river in lat. 21° 45' (approximately). From that
point southwards the river becomes the boundary between the Shan
States and Tongking for some 200 m., the channel of the river defining
the limits of occupation (though not entirely of interest) between
French and British subjects. Approximately on the parallel of 20° N.
lat. the Burmese boundary leaves the Mekong to run westwards towards
the Salween, and thereafter following the eastern watershed of the
Salween basin it divides the Lower Burma provinces from Siam.

Area and political division.

The following table shows the areas of territories in Asia
(continental and insular) dependent on the various extra-Asiatic
powers, and of those which are independent or nominally so:--

Territory. Sq. m.
Russian . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,495,970
British . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,998,220
Dutch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586,980
French . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247,580
U.S.A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114,370
German . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Turkish . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681,980
Chinese . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,299,600
Japanese . . . . . . . . . . . . 161,110
Other independent territories . 2,232,270

The total area of Asia, continental and insular, is therefore somewhat
over 16,819,000 sq. m. (but various authorities differ considerably in
their detailed estimates). The population may be set down roughly as
823,000,000, of which 330,000,000 inhabit Chinese territory,
302,000,000 British, and 25,000,000 Russian. (T. H. H.*)

[Illustration: Geological map of Asia]

GEOLOGY

The geology of Asia is so complex and over wide areas so little known
that it is difficult to give a connected account of either the
structure or the development of the continent, and only the broader
features can be dealt with here.

In the south, in Syria, Arabia and the peninsula of India, none but
the oldest rocks are folded, and the Upper Palaeozoic, the Mesozoic
and the Tertiary beds lie almost horizontally upon them. It is a
region of quiescence or of faulting, but not of folding. North of this
lies a broad belt in which the Mesozoic deposits and even the lower
divisions of the Tertiary system are thrown into folds which extend in
a series of arcs from west to east and now form the principal mountain
ranges of central Asia. This belt includes Asia Minor, Persia,
Afghanistan, Baluchistan, the Himalayas, the Tian-shan, and, although
they are very different in direction, the Burmese ranges. The
Kuen-lun, Nan-shan and the mountain ranges of southern China are,
perhaps, of earlier date, but nevertheless they be in the same belt.
It is not true that throughout the whole width of this zone the beds
are folded. There are considerable tracts which are but little
disturbed, but these tracts are enclosed within the arcs formed by the
folds, and the zone taken as a whole is distinctly one of crumpling.
North of the folded belt, and including the greater part of Siberia,
Mongolia and northern China, lies another area which is, in general,
free from any important folding of Mesozoic or Tertiary age. There
are, it is true, mountain ranges which are formed of folded beds; but
in many cases the direction of the chains is different from that of
the folds, so that the ranges must owe their elevation to other
causes; and the folds, moreover, are of ancient date, for the most
part Archaean or Palaeozoic. The configuration of the region is
largely due to faulting, trough-like or tray-like depressions being
formed, and the intervening strips, which have not been depressed,
standing up as mountain ridges. Over a large part of Siberia and in
the north of China, even the Cambrian beds still lie as horizontally
as they were first laid down. In the extreme north, in the Verkhoyansk
range and in the mountains of the Taimyr peninsula, there are
indications of another zone of folding of Mesozoic or later date, but
our information concerning these ranges is very scanty. Besides the
three chief regions into which the mainland is thus seen to be
divided, attention should be drawn to the festoons of islands which
border the eastern side of the continent, and which are undoubtedly
due to causes similar to those which produced the folds of the folded
belt.

Of all the Asiatic ranges the Himalayan is, geologically, the best
known; and the evidence which it affords shows clearly that the folds
to which it owes its elevation were produced by an overthrust from
the north. It is, indeed, as if the high land of central Asia had been
pushed southward against and over the unyielding mass formed by the
old rocks of the Indian peninsula, and in the process the edges of the
over-riding strata had been crumpled and folded. Overlooking all
smaller details, we may consider Asia to consist of a northern mass
and a southern mass, too rigid to crumple, but not too strong to
fracture, and an intermediate belt of softer rock which was capable of
folding. If then by the contraction of the earth's interior the outer
crust were forced to accommodate itself to a smaller nucleus, the
central softer belt would yield by crumpling, the more rigid masses to
the north and south, if they gave way at all, would yield by faulting.
It is interesting to observe, as will be shown later, that during the
Mesozoic era there was a land mass in the north of Asia and another in
the south, and between them lay the sea in which ordinary marine
sediments were deposited. The belt of folding does not precisely
coincide with this central sea, but the correspondence is fairly
close.

The present outline of the eastern coast and the nearly enclosed seas
which lie between the islands and the mainland, are attributed by
Richthofen chiefly to simple faulting.

Little is known of the early geological history of Asia beyond the
fact that a large part of the continent was covered by the sea during
the Cambrian and Ordovician periods. But there is positive evidence
that much of the north and east of Asia has been land since the
Palaeozoic era, and it has been conclusively proved that the peninsula
of India has never been beneath the sea since the Carboniferous period
at least. Between these ancient land masses lies an area in which
marine deposits of Mesozoic age are well developed and which was
evidently beneath the sea during the greater part of the Mesozoic era.
The northern land mass has been named Angaraland by E. Suess; the
southern, of which the Indian peninsula is but a fragment, is called
Gondwanaland by Neumayr, Suess and others, while the intervening sea
is the central Mediterranean sea of Neumayr and the Tethys of Suess.
The greater part of western Asia, including the basin of the Obi, the
drainage area of the Aral Sea, together with Afghanistan, Baluchistan,
Persia and Arabia, was covered by the sea during the later stages of
the Cretaceous period, but a considerable part of this region was
probably dry land in Jurassic times.

The northern land mass begins in the north with the area which lies
between the Yenisei and the Lena. Here the folded Archean rocks are
overlaid by Cambrian and Ordovician beds, which still lie for the most
part flat and undisturbed. Upon these rest patches of freshwater
deposits containing numerous remains of plants. They consist chiefly
of sandstone and conglomerate, but include workable seams of coal.
Some of the deposits appear to be of Permian age, but others are
probably Jurassic, and they are all included under the general name of
the Angara series. Excepting in the extreme north, where marine
Jurassic and Cretaceous fossils have been found, there is no evidence
that this part of Siberia has been beneath the sea since the early
part of the Palaeozoic era. Besides the plant beds extensive outflows
of basic lava rest directly upon the Cambrian and Ordovician strata.
The date of these eruptions is still uncertain, but they probably
continued to a very recent period.

South and east of the Palaeozoic plateau is an extensive area
consisting chiefly of Archean rocks, and including the greater part of
Mongolia north of the Tian-shan. Here again there are no marine beds
of Mesozoic or Tertiary age, while plant-bearing deposits belonging to
the Angara series are known. Structurally, the folds of this region
are of ancient date, but the area is crossed by a series of
depressions formed by faults, and the intervening strips, which have
not been depressed to the same extent, now stand up as mountain
ranges. Farther south, in the Chinese provinces of Shansi and Shensi,
the geological succession is similar in some respects to that of the
Siberian Palaeozoic plateau, but the sequence is more complete. There
is again a floor of folded Archean rocks overlaid by nearly horizontal
strata of Lower Palaeozoic age, but these are followed by marine beds
belonging to the Carboniferous period. From the Upper Carboniferous
onward, however, no marine deposits are known; and, as in Siberia,
plant bearing beds are met with. Southern China is very different in
structure, consisting largely of folded mountain chains; but the
geological succession is very similar, and excepting near the Tibetan
and Burmese borders, there are no marine deposits of Mesozoic or
Tertiary age.

Thus it appears that from the Arctic Ocean there stretches a broad
area as far as the south of China, in which no marine deposits of
later date than Carboniferous have yet been found, except in the
extreme north. Freshwater and terrestrial deposits of Mesozoic age
occur in many places, and the conclusion is irresistible that the
greater part of this area has been land since the close of the
Palaeozoic era. The Triassic deposits of the Verkhoyansk Range show
that this land did not extend to the Bering Sea, while the marine
Mesozoic deposits of Japan on the east, the western Tian-shan on the
west and Tibet on the south give us some idea of its limits in other
directions.

In the same way the entire absence of any marine fossils in the
peninsula of India, excepting near its borders, and the presence of
the terrestrial and freshwater deposits of the Gondwana series,
representing the whole of the geological scale from the top of the
Carboniferous to the top of the Jurassic, show that this region also
has been land since the Carboniferous period. It was a portion of a
great land mass which probably extended across the Indian Ocean and
was at one time united with the south of Africa.

But these two land masses were not connected. Between India and China
there is a broad belt in which marine deposits of Mesozoic and
Tertiary age are well developed. Marine Tertiary beds occur in Burma;
in the Himalayas and in south Tibet there is a nearly complete series
of marine deposits from the Carboniferous to the Eocene; in
Afghanistan the Mesozoic beds are in part marine and in part
fluviatile. The sea in which these strata were deposited seems to have
attained its greatest extension in Upper Cretaceous times when its
waters spread over the whole of western Asia and even encroached
slightly upon the Indian land. The Eocene sea however cannot have been
much inferior in extent.

It was after the Eocene period that the main part of the elevation of
the Himalayas took place, as is shown by the occurrence of nummulitic
limestone at a height of 20,000 ft. The formation of this and of the
other great mountain chains of central Asia resulted in the isolation
of portions of the former central sea, and the same forces finally led
to the elevation of the whole region and the union of the old
continents of Angara and Gondwana. Gondwanaland, however, did not long
survive, and the portion which lay between India and South Africa sank
beneath the waves in Tertiary times.

Leaving out of consideration all evidence of more ancient volcanic
activity, each of the three regions into which, as we have seen, the
continent may be divided has been, during or since the Cretaceous
period, the seat of great volcanic eruptions. In the southern region
of unfolded beds are found the lavas of the "harras" of Arabia, and in
India the extensive flows of the Deccan Trap. In the central folded
belt lie the great volcanoes, now mostly extinct, of Asia Minor,
Armenia, Persia and Baluchistan. In Burma also there is at least one
extinct volcano. In the northern unfolded region great flows of basic
lava lie directly upon the Cambrian and Ordovician beds of Siberia,
but are certainly in part of Tertiary age. Similar flows on a smaller
scale occur in Manchuria, Korea and northern China.

In all these cases, however, the eruptions have now almost ceased, and
the great volcanoes of the present day lie in the islands off the
eastern and south eastern coasts.

REFERENCES--E. Suess, _Das Antlitz der Erde_ (see, especially, vol.
iii. part 1.); F.V. Richthofen, "Ueber Gestalt und Gliederung einer
Grundlinie in der Morphologie Ost-Asiens," _Sitz. k. preuss. Akad.
Wiss._ (Berlin, 1900), pp. 888-925, and Geomorphologische Studien aus
Ostasien, _ibid._, 1901, pp. 782-808, 1902, pp. 944-975, 1903, pp.
867-918. (P. La.)

CLIMATE.

Temperature.

Among the places on the globe where the temperature falls lowest are
some in northern Asia; and among those where it rises highest are some
in southern Asia. The mean temperature of the north coast of eastern
Siberia is but a few degrees above the zero of Fahrenheit; the lowest
mean temperature anywhere observed is about 4° Fahr., at Melville
Island, north of the American continent. The isothermals of mean
annual temperature lie over northern Asia on curves tolerably regular
in their outline, having their western branches in a somewhat higher
latitude than their eastern; a reduction of 1° of latitude corresponds
approximately--and irrespective of modifications due to elevation--to
a rise of ½° Fahr., as far say as 30° N, where the mean temperature is
about 75° Fahr. Farther south the increase is slower, and the highest
mean temperature anywhere attained in southern Asia is not much above
82° Fahr.

The variations of temperature are very great in Siberia, amounting
near the coast to more than 100° Fahr., between the mean of the
hottest and coldest months, and to still more between the extreme
temperatures of those months. In southern Asia, and particularly near
the sea, the variation between the hottest and coldest monthly means
is very much less, and under the equator it is reduced to about 5°. In
Siberia the difference between the means of the hottest and coldest
months is hardly anywhere less than 60° Fahr. On the Sea of Aral it is
80° Fahr., and at Astrakhan, on the Caspian, more than 50°. At Tiflis
it is 45°. In northern China, at Peking, it is 55°, reduced to 30° at
Canton, and to 20° at Manila. In northern India the greatest
difference does not exceed 40°, and it falls off to about 15° at
Calcutta and to about 10° or 12° at Bombay and Madras. The
temperatures at the head of the Persian Gulf approximate to those of
northern India, and those of Aden to Madras. At Singapore the range is
less than 5°, and at Batavia in Java, and Galle in Ceylon, it is about
the same. The extreme temperatures in Siberia may be considered to lie
between 80° and 90° Fahr. for maxima, and between -40° and -70° Fahr.
for minima. The extreme of heat near the Caspian and Aral Seas rises
to nearly 100° Fahr., while that of cold falls to -20° Fahr. or lower.
Compared with these figures, we find in southern Asia 110° or 112°
Fahr. as a maximum hardly ever exceeded. The absolute minimum in
northern India, in lat. 30°, hardly goes below 32°; at Calcutta it is
about 40°, though the thermometer seldom falls to 50°. At Madras it
rarely falls as low as 65°, or at Bombay below 60°. At Singapore and
Batavia the thermometer very rarely falls below 70°, or rises above
90°. At Aden the minimum is a few degrees below 70°, the maximum not
much exceeding 90°.

These figures sufficiently indicate the main characteristics of the
air temperatures of Asia. Throughout its northern portion the winter
is long and of extreme severity; and even down to the circle of 35° N.
lat., the minimum temperature is almost as low as zero of Fahrenheit.
The summers are hot, though short in the northern latitudes, the
maximum of summer heat being comparatively little less than that
observed in the tropical countries farther south. The moderating
effect of the proximity of the ocean is felt in an important degree
along the southern and eastern parts of Asia, where the land is broken
up into islands or peninsulas. The great elevations above the
sea-level of the central part of Asia, and of the table-lands of
Afghanistan and Persia, tend to exaggerate the winter cold; while the
sterility of the surface, due to the small rainfall over the same
region, operates powerfully in the opposite direction in increasing
the summer heat. In the summer a great accumulation of solar heat
takes place on the dry surface soil, from which it cannot be released
upwards by evaporation, as might be the case were the soil moist or
covered with vegetation, nor can it be readily conveyed away downwards
as happens on the ocean. In the winter similar consequences ensue, in
a negative direction, from the prolonged loss of heat by radiation in
the long and clear nights--an effect which is intensified wherever the
surface is covered with snow, or the air little charged with vapour.
In illustration of the very slow diffusion of heat in the solid crust
of the earth, and as affording a further indication of the climate of
northern Asia, reference may here be made to the frozen soil of
Siberia, in the vicinity of Yakutsk. In this region the earth is
frozen permanently to a depth of more than 380 ft. at which the
temperature is still 5° or 6° Fahr. below the freezing point of water,
the summer heat merely thawing the surface to a depth of about 3 ft.
At a depth of 50 ft. the temperature is about 15 Fahr. below the
freezing point. Under such conditions of the soil, the land,
nevertheless, produces crops of wheat and other grain from fifteen to
forty fold.

The very high summer temperatures of the area north of the tropic of
Cancer are sufficiently accounted for, when compared with those
observed south of the tropic, by the increased length of the day in
the higher latitude, which more than compensates for the loss of heat
due to the smaller mid-day altitude of the sun. The difference between
the heating power of the sun's rays at noon on the 21st of June, in
latitude 20° and in latitude 45°, is only about 2%; while the
accumulated heat received during the day, which is lengthened to 15½
hours in the higher latitude, is greater by about 11% than in the
lower latitude, where the day consists only of 13¼ hours.

Although the foregoing account of the temperatures of Asia supplies
the main outline of the observed phenomena, a very important modifying
cause, of which more will be said hereafter, comes into operation over
the whole of the tropical region, namely, the periodical summer rains.
These tend very greatly to arrest the increase of the summer heat over
the area where they prevail, and otherwise give it altogether peculiar
characteristics.

Pressure and Winds.

The great summer heat, by expanding the air upwards, disturbs the
level of the planes of equal pressure, and causes an outflow of the
upper strata from the heated area. The winter cold produces an effect
of just an opposite nature, and causes an accumulation of air over the
cold area. The diminution of barometric pressure which takes place all
over Asia during the summer months, and the increase in the winter,
are hence, no doubt, the results of the alternate heating and cooling
of the air over the continent.

The necessary and immediate results of such periodical changes of
pressure are winds, which, speaking generally, blow from the area of
greatest to that of least pressure--subject, however, to certain
modifications of direction, arising from the absolute motion of the
whole body of the air due to the revolution of the earth on its axis
from west to east. The south-westerly winds which prevail north of the
equator during the hot half of the year, to which navigators have
given the name of the south-west monsoon (the latter word being a
corruption of the Indian name for season), arise from the great
diminution of atmospheric pressure over Asia, which begins to be
strongly marked with the great rise of temperature in April and May,
and the simultaneous relatively higher pressure over the equator and
the regions south of it. This diminution of pressure, which continues
as the heat increases till it reaches its maximum in July soon after
the solstice, is followed by the corresponding development of the
south-west monsoon; and as the barometric pressure is gradually
restored, and becomes equalized within the tropics soon after the
equinox in October, with the general fall of temperature north of the
equator, the south-west winds fall off, and are succeeded by a
north-east monsoon, which is developed during the winter months by the
relatively greater atmospheric pressure which then occurs over Asia,
as compared with the equatorial region.

Although the succession of the periodical winds follows the progress
of the seasons as just described, the changes in the wind's direction
everywhere take place under the operation of special local influences
which often disguise the more general law, and make it difficult to
trace. Thus the south-west monsoon begins in the Arabian Sea with west
and north-westerly winds, which draw round as the year advances to
south-west and fall back again in the autumn by north-west to north.
In the Bay of Bengal the strength of the south-west monsoon is rather
from the south and south-east, being succeeded by north-east winds
after October, which give place to northerly and north-westerly winds
as the year advances. Among the islands of the Malay Archipelago the
force of the monsoons is much interrupted, and the position of this
region on the equator otherwise modifies the directions of the
prevailing winds. The southerly summer winds of the Asiatic seas
between the equator and the tropic do not extend to the coasts of
Java, and the south-easterly trade winds are there developed in the
usual manner. The China Sea is fully exposed to both monsoons, the
normal directions of which nearly coincide with the centre of the
channel between the continent of Asia and the eastern islands.

The south-west monsoon does not generally extend, in its character of
a south-west wind, over the land. The current of air flowing in from
over the sea is gradually diverted towards the area of least pressure,
and at the same time is dissipated and loses much of its original
force. The winds which pass northward over India blow as
south-easterly and easterly winds over the north-eastern part of the
Gangetic plain, and as south winds up the Indus. They seem almost
entirely to have exhausted their northward velocity by the time they
have reached the northern extremity of the great Indian plain; they
are not felt on the table-lands of Afghanistan, and hardly penetrate
into the Indus basin or the ranges of the Himalaya, by which
mountains, and those which branch off from them into the Malay
peninsula, they are prevented from continuing their progress in the
direction originally imparted to them.

Among the more remarkable phenomena of the hotter seas of Asia must be
noticed the revolving storms or cyclones, which are of frequent
occurrence in the hot months in the Indian Ocean and China Sea, in
which last they are known under the name of typhoon. The cyclones of
the Bay of Bengal appear to originate over the Andaman and Nicobar
islands, and are commonly propagated in a north-westward direction,
striking the east coast of the Indian peninsula at various points, and
then often advancing with an easterly tendency over the land, and
passing with extreme violence across the delta of the Ganges. They
occur in all the hot months, from June to October, and more rarely in
November, and appear to be originated by adverse currents from the
north meeting those of the south-west monsoon. The cyclones of the
China Sea also occur in the hot months of the year, but they advance
from north-east to south-west, though occasionally from east to west;
they originate near the island of Formosa, and extend to about the
10th degree of N. lat. They are thus developed in nearly the same
latitudes and in the same months as those of the Indian Sea, though
their progress is in a different direction. In both cases, however,
the storms appear to advance towards the area of greatest heat. In
these storms the wind invariably circulates from north by west through
south to east.

Rainfall.

The heated body of air carried from the Indian Ocean over southern
Asia by the south-west monsoon comes up highly charged with watery
vapour, and hence in a condition to release a large body of water as
rain upon the land, whenever it is brought into circumstances which
reduce its temperature in a notable degree. Such a reduction of
temperature is brought about along the greater part of the coasts of
India and of the Burmo-Siamese peninsula by the interruption of the
wind current by continuous ranges of mountains, which force the mass
of air to rise over them, whereby the air being rarefied, its specific
capacity for heat is increased and its temperature falls, with a
corresponding condensation of the vapour originally held in
suspension.

This explanation of the principal efficient cause of the summer rains
of south Asia is immediately based on an analysis of the complicated
phenomena actually observed, and it serves to account for many
apparent anomalies. The heaviest falls of rain occur along lines of
mountain of some extent directly facing the vapour-bearing winds, as
on the Western Ghats of India and the west coast of the Malay
peninsula. The same results are found along the mountains at a
distance from the sea, the heaviest rainfall known to occur anywhere
in the world (not less than 600 in. in the year) being recorded on the
Khasi range about 100 m. north-east of Calcutta, which presents an
abrupt front to the progress of the moist winds flowing up from the
Bay of Bengal. The cessation of the rains on the southern border of
Baluchistan, west of Karachi, obviously arises from the projection of
the south-east coast of Arabia, which limits the breadth of the
south-west monsoon air current and the length of the coast-line
directly exposed to it. The very small and irregular rainfall in Sind
and along the Indus is to be accounted for by the want of any obstacle
in the path of the vapour-bearing winds, which, therefore, carry the
uncondensed rain up to the Punjab, where it falls on the outer ranges
of the western Himalaya and of Afghanistan.

The diurnal mountain winds are very strongly marked on the Himalaya,
where they probably are the most active agents in determining the
precipitation of rain along the chain--the monsoon currents, as before
stated, not penetrating among the mountains. The formation of dense
banks of cloud in the afternoon, when the up wind is strongest, along
the southern face of the snowy ranges of the Himalaya, is a regular
daily phenomenon during the hotter months of the year, and heavy rain,
accompanied by electrical discharges, is the frequent result of such
condensation.

Too little is known of the greater part of Asia to admit of any more
being said with reference to this part of the subject, than to
mention a few facts bearing on the rainfall. In northern Asia there
is a generally equal rainfall of 19 to 29 in. between the Volga and
the Lena in Manchuria and northern China, rather more considerable
increase in Korea, Siam and Japan. At Tiflis the yearly fall is 22
in.; on the Caspian about 7 or 8 in.; on the Sea of Aral 5 or 6 in. In
south-western Siberia it is 12 or 14 in., diminishing as we proceed
eastward to 6 or 7 in. at Barnaul, and to 5 or 6 in. at Urga in
northern Mongolia. In eastern Siberia it is about 15 to 20 in. In
China we find about 23 in. to be the fall at Peking; while at Canton,
which lies nearly on the northern tropic and the region of the
south-west monsoon is entered, the quantity is increased to 78 in. At
Batavia in Java the fall is about 78 in.; at Singapore it is nearly
100 in. The quantity increases considerably on that part of the coast
of the Malay peninsula which is not sheltered from the south-west by
Sumatra. On the Tenasserim and Burmese coast falls of more than 200
in. are registered, and the quantity is here nowhere less than 75 or
80 in., which is about the average of the eastern part of the delta of
the Ganges, Calcutta standing at about 64 in. On the hills that flank
Bengal on the east the fall is very great. On the Khasi hills, at an
elevation of about 4500 ft., the average of ten years is more than 550
in. As much as 150 in. has been measured in one month, and 610 in. in
one year. On the west coast of the Indian peninsula the fall at the
sea-level varies from about 75 to 100 in., and at certain elevations
on the mountains more than 250 in. is commonly registered, with
intermediate quantities at intervening localities. On the east coast
the fall is far less, nowhere rising to 50 in., and towards the
southern apex of the peninsula being reduced to 25 or 30 in. Ceylon
shows from 60 to 80 in. As we recede from the coast the fall
diminishes, till it is reduced to about 25 or 30 in. at the head of
the Gangetic plain. The tract along the Indus to within 60 or 80 m. of
the Himalaya is almost rainless, 6 or 8 in. being the fall in the
southern portion of the Punjab. On the outer ranges of the Himalaya
the yearly fall amounts to about 200 in. on the east in Sikkim, and
gradually diminishes on the west, where north of the Punjab it is
about 70 or 80 in. In the interior of the chain the rain is far less,
and the quantity of precipitation is so small in Tibet that it can be
hardly measured. It is to the greatly reduced fall of snow on the
northern faces of the highest ranges of the Himalaya that is to be
attributed the higher level of the snow-line, a phenomenon which was
long a cause of discussion.

In Afghanistan, Persia, Asia Minor and Syria, winter and spring appear
to be the chief seasons of condensation. In other parts of Asia the
principal part of the rain falls between May and September, that is,
in the hottest half of the year. In the islands under the equator the
heaviest fall is between October and February. (R. S.)

FLORA AND FAUNA

The general assemblage of animals and plants found over northern Asia
resembles greatly that found in the parts of Europe which are adjacent
and have a similar climate. Siberia, north of the 50th parallel, has a
climate not much differing from a similarly situated portion of
Europe, though the winters are more severe and the summers hotter. The
rainfall, though moderate, is still sufficient to maintain the supply
of water in the great rivers that traverse the country to the Arctic
Sea, and to support an abundant vegetation. A similar affinity exists
between the life of the southern parts of Europe and that in the zone
of Asia extending from the Mediterranean across to the Himalaya and
northern China. This belt, which embraces Asia Minor, northern Persia,
Afghanistan, and the southern slopes of the Himalaya, from its
elevation has a temperate climate, and throughout it the rainfall is
sufficient to maintain a vigorous vegetation, while the summers,
though hot. and the winters, though severe, are not extreme. The
plants and animals along it are found to have a marked similarity of
character to those of south Europe, with which region the zone is
virtually continuous.

The extremely dry and hot tracts which constitute an almost unbroken
desert from Arabia, through south Persia and Baluchistan, to Sind, are
characterized by considerable uniformity in the types of life, which
closely approach to those of the neighbouring hot and dry regions of
Africa. The region of the heavy periodical summer rains and high
temperature, which comprises India, the Indo-Chinese peninsula, and
southern China, as well as the western part of the Malay Archipelago,
is also marked by much similarity in the plants and animals throughout
its extent. The area between the southern border of Siberia and the
margin of the temperate alpine zone of the Himalaya and north China,
comprising what are commonly called central Asia, Turkestan, Mongolia
and western Manchuria, is an almost rainless region, having winters of
extreme severity and summers of intense heat. Its animals and plants
have a special character suited to the peculiar climatal conditions,
more closely allied to those of the adjacent northern Siberian tract
than of the other bordering regions. The south-eastern parts of the
Malay Archipelago have much in common with the Australian continent,
to which they adjoin, though their affinities are chiefly Indian.
North China and Japan also have many forms of life in common. Much
still remains to be done in the exploration of China and eastern Asia;
but it is known that many of the special forms of this region extend
to the Himalaya, while others clearly indicate a connexion with North
America.

The foregoing brief review of the principal territorial divisions
according to which the forms of life are distributed in Asia,
indicates how close is the dependence of this distribution on climatic
conditions, and this will be made more apparent by a somewhat fuller
account of the main features of the flora and fauna.

Northern Asia.

_Flora._--The flora of the whole of northern Asia is in essentials the
same as that of northern Europe, the differences being due rather to
variations of species than of genera. The absence of the oak and of
all heaths east of the Ural may be noticed. Pines, larch, birch are
the principal trees on the mountains; willow, alders and poplars on
the lower ground. The northern limit of the pine in Siberia is about
70° N.

Along the warm temperate zone, from the Mediterranean to the Himalaya,
extends a flora essentially European in character. Many European
species reach the central Himalaya, though few are known in its
eastern parts. The genera common to the Himalaya and Europe are much
more abundant, and extend throughout the chain, and to all elevations.
There is also a corresponding diffusion of Japanese and Chinese forms
along this zone, these being most numerous in the eastern Himalaya,
and less frequent in the west.

The truly tropical flora of the hotter and wetter regions of eastern
India is continuous with that of the Malayan peninsula and islands,
and extends along the lower ranges of the Himalaya, gradually becoming
less marked and rising to lower elevations as we go westward, where
the rainfall diminishes and the winter cold increases.

The vegetation of the higher and therefore cooler and less rainy
ranges of the Himalaya has greater uniformity of character along the
whole chain, and a closer general approach to European forms is
maintained; an increased number of species is actually identical,
among these being found, at the greatest elevations, many alpine
plants believed to be identical with species of the north Arctic
regions. On reaching the Tibetan plateau, with the increased dryness
the flora assumes many features of the Siberian type. Many true
Siberian species are found, and more Siberian genera. Some of the
Siberian forms, thus brought into proximity with the Indian flora,
extend to the rainy parts of the mountains, and even to the plains of
upper India. Assemblages of marine plants form another remarkable
feature of Tibet, these being frequently met with growing at
elevations of 14,000 to 15,000 ft. above the sea, more especially in
the vicinity of the many salt lakes of those regions.

The vegetation of the hot and dry region of the south-west of the
continent consists largely of plants which are diffused over Africa,
Baluchistan and Sind; many of these extend into the hotter parts of
India, and not a few common Egyptian plants are to be met with in the
Indian peninsula.

Indian region.

The whole number of species of plants indigenous in the region of
south-eastern Asia, which includes India and the Malayan peninsula and
islands, from about the 65th to the 105th meridian, was estimated by
Sir J.D. Hooker at 12,000 to 15,000. The principal orders, arranged
according to their numerical importance, are as follows:--Leguminosae,
Rubiaceae, Orchidaceae, Compositae, Gramineae, Euphorbiaceae,
Acanthaceae, Cyperaceae and Labiatae. But within this region there is
a very great variation between the vegetation of the more humid and
the more arid regions, while the characteristics of the flora on the
higher mountain ranges differ wholly from those of the plains. In
short, we have a somewhat heterogeneous assemblage of tropical,
temperate and alpine plants, as has been already briefly indicated, of
which, however, the tropical are so far dominant as to give their
character to the flora viewed as a whole. The Indian flora contains a
more general and complete illustration of almost all the chief natural
families of all parts of the world than any other country. Compositae
are comparatively rare; so also Gramineae and Cyperaceae are in some
places deficient, and Labiatae, Leguminosae and ferns in others.
Euphorbiaceae and Scrophulariaceae and Orchidaceae are universally
present, the last in specially large proportions.

The perennially humid regions of the Malayan peninsula and western
portion of the archipelago are everywhere covered with dense forest,
rendered difficult to traverse by the thorny cane, a palm of the genus
_Calamus_, which has its greatest development in this part of Asia.
The chief trees belong to the orders of Terebinthaceae, Sapindaceae,
Meliaceae, Clusiaceae, Dipterocarpaceae, Ternstroemiaceae,
Leguminosae, laurels, oaks and figs, with Dilleniaceae, Sapotaceae and
nutmegs. Bamboos and palms, with _Pandanus_ and _Dracaena_, are also
abundant. A similar forest flora extends along the mountains of
eastern India to the Himalaya, where it ascends to elevations varying
from 6000 to 7000 ft. on the east to 3000 or 4000 ft. on the west.

The arboreous forms which least require the humid and equable heat of
the more truly tropical and equatorial climates, and are best able to
resist the high temperatures and excessive drought of the northern
Indian hot months from April to June, are certain Leguminosae,.
_Bauhinia, Acacia, Butea_ and _Dalbergia, Bombax, Skorea, Nauclea,
Lagerstroemia_, and _Bignonia_, a few bamboos and palms, with others
which extend far beyond the tropic, and give a tropical aspect to the
forest to the extreme northern border of the Indian plain.

Of the herbaceous vegetation of the more rainy regions may be noted
the Orchidaceae, Orontiaceae, Scitamineae, with ferns and other
Cryptogams, besides Gramineae and Cyperaceae. Among these some forms,
as among the trees, extend much beyond the tropic and ascend into the
temperate zones on the mountains, of which may be mentioned _Begonia,
Osbeckia_, various Cyrtandraceae, Scitamineae, and a few epiphytical
orchids.

Of the orders most largely developed in south India, and more
sparingly elsewhere, may be named Aurantiaceae, Dipterocarpaceae,
Balsaminaceae, Ebenaceae, Jasmineae, and Cyrtandraceae; but of these
few contain as many as 100 peculiar Indian species. _Nepenthes_ may be
mentioned as a genus specially developed in the Malayan area, and
extending from New Caledonia to Madagascar; it is found as far north
as the Khasi hills, and in Ceylon, but does not appear on the Himalaya
or in the peninsula of India. The Balsaminaceae may be named as being
rare in the eastern region and very abundant in the peninsula. A
distinct connexion between the flora of the peninsula and Ceylon and
that of eastern tropical Africa is observable not only in the great
similarity of many of the more truly tropical forms, and the identity
of families and genera found in both regions, but in a more remarkable
manner in the likeness of the mountain flora of this part of Africa to
that of the peninsula, in which several species occur believed to be
identical with Abyssinian forms. This connexion is further established
by the absence from both areas of oaks, conifers and cycads, which, as
regards the first two families, is a remarkable feature of the flora
of the peninsula and Ceylon, as the mountains rise to elevations in
which both of them are abundant to the north and east. With these
facts it has to be noticed that many of the principal forms of the
eastern flora are absent or comparatively rare in the peninsula and
Ceylon.

The general physiognomy of the Indian flora is mainly determined by
the conditions of humidity of climate. The impenetrable shady forests
of the Malay peninsula and eastern Bengal, of the west coast of the
Indian peninsula, and of Ceylon, offer a strong contrast to the more
loosely-timbered districts of the drier regions of central India and
the north-western Himalaya. The forest areas of India include the
dense vegetation and luxuriant growth of the Tarai jungles at the foot
of the eastern Himalaya, and wide stretches of loosely-timbered
country which are a prevailing feature in the Central Provinces and
parts of Madras. Where the lowlands are highly cultivated they are
adorned with planted wood, and where they are cut off from rain they
are nearly completely desert.

The higher mountains rise abruptly from the plains; on their slopes,
clothed below almost exclusively with the more tropical forms, a
vegetation of a warm temperate character, chiefly evergreen, soon
begins to prevail, comprising Magnoliaceae, Ternstroemiaccae,
subtropical Rosaceae, rhododendron, oak, _Ilex, Symplocos_, Lauraceae,
_Pinus longifolia_, with mountain forms of truly tropical orders,
palms, _Pandanus, Musa, Vitis, Vernonia_, and many others. On the east
the vegetation of the Himalaya is most abundant and varied. The forest
extends, with great luxuriance, to an elevation of 12,000 ft., above
which the sub-alpine region may be said to begin, in which
rhododendron scrub often covers the ground up to 13,000 or 14,000 ft.
Only one pine is found below 8000 ft., above which several other
Coniferae occur. Plantains, tree-ferns, bamboos, several _Calami_, and
other palms, and _Pandanus_, are abundant at the lower levels. Between
4000 and 8000 ft. epiphytal orchids are very frequent, and reach even
to 10,000 ft. Vegetation ascends on the drier and less snowy mountain
slopes of Tibet to above 18,000 ft. On the west, with the drier
climate, the forest is less luxuriant and dense, and the hill-sides
and the valleys better cultivated. The warm mountain slopes are
covered with _Pinus longifolia_, or with oaks and rhododendron, and
the forest is not commonly dense below 8000 ft., excepting in some of
the more secluded valleys at a low elevation. From 8000 to 12,000 ft.,
a thick forest of deciduous trees is almost universal, above which a
sub-alpine region is reached, and vegetation as on the east continues
up to 18,000 ft. or more. The more tropical forms of the east, such as
the tree-ferns, do not reach west of Nepal. The cedar or deodar is
hardly indigenous east of the sources of the Ganges, and at about the
same point the forms of the west begin to be more abundant, increasing
in number as we advance towards Afghanistan.

The cultivated plants of the Indian region include wheat, barley, rice
and maize; various millets, _Sorghum, Penicillaria, Panicum_ and
_Eleusine_; many pulses, peas and beans; mustard and rape; ginger and
turmeric; pepper and capsicum; several Cucurbitaceae; tobacco,
_Sesamum_, poppy, _Crotolaria_ and _Cannabis_; cotton, indigo and
sugar; coffee and tea; oranges, lemons of many sorts; pomegranate,
mango, figs, peaches, vines and plantains. The more common palms are
_Cocos, Phoenix_ and _Borassus_, supplying cocoa-nut and toddy. Indian
agriculture combines the harvests of the tropical and temperate zones.
North of the tropic the winter cold is sufficient to admit of the
cultivation of almost all the cereals and vegetables of Europe, wheat
being sown in November and reaped early in April. In this same region
the summer heat and rain provide a thoroughly tropical climate, in
which rice and other tropical cereals are freely raised, being as a
rule sown early in July and reaped in September or October. In
southern India, and the other parts of Asia and of the islands having
a similar climate, the difference of the winter and summer half-years
is not sufficient to admit of the proper cultivation of wheat or
barley. The other cereals may be seen occasionally, where artificial
irrigation is practised, in all stages of progress at all seasons of
the year, though the operations of agriculture are, as a general rule,
limited to the rainy months, when alone is the requisite supply of
water commonly forthcoming.

The trees of India producing economically useful timber are
comparatively few, owing to the want of durability of the wood, in the
extremely hot and moist climate. The teak, _Tectona grandis_, supplies
the finest timber. It is found in greatest perfection in the forests
of the west coasts of Burma and the Indian peninsula, where the
rainfall is heaviest, growing to a height of 100 or 150 ft., mixed
with other trees and bamboos. The sal, _Shorea robusta_, a very
durable wood, is most abundant along the skirts of the Himalaya from
Assam to the Punjab, and is found in central India, to which the teak
also extends. The sal grows to a large size, and is more gregarious
than the teak. Of other useful woods found in the plains may be named
the babool, _Acacia_; toon, _Cedrela_; and sissoo, _Dalbergia_. The
only timber in ordinary use obtained from the Himalaya proper is the
deodar, _Cedrus deodara_. Besides these are the sandalwood,
_Santalum_, of southern India, and many sorts of bamboo found in all
parts of the country. The cinchona has recently been introduced with
complete success; and the mahogany of America reaches a large size,
and gives promise of being grown for use as timber.

Western Asia.

The flora of the rainless region of south-western Asia is continuous
with the desert flora of northern and eastern Africa, and extends from
the coast of Senegal to the meridian of 75° E., or from the great
African desert to the border of the rainless tract along the Indus and
the southern parts of the Punjab. It includes the peninsula of Arabia,
the shores of the Persian Gulf, south Persia, and Afghanistan and
Baluchistan. On the west its limit is in the Cape Verde Islands, and
it is partially represented in Abyssinia.

The more common plants in the most characteristic part of this region
in southern Arabia are Capparidaceae, Euphorbiaceae, and a few
Leguminosae, a _Reseda_ and _Dipterygium_; palms, Polygonaceae, ferns,
and other cryptogams, are rare. The number of families relative to the
area is very small, and the number of genera and species equally
restricted, in very many cases a single species being the only
representative of an order. The aspect of the vegetation is very
peculiar, and is commonly determined by the predominance of some four
or five species, the rest being either local or sparingly scattered
over the area. The absence of the ordinary bright green colours of
vegetation is another peculiarity of this flora, almost all the plants
having glaucous or whitened stems. Foliage is reduced to a minimum,
the moisture of the plant being stored up in massive or fleshy stems
against the long-continued drought. Aridity has favoured the
production of spines as a defence from external attack, sharp thorns
are frequent, and asperities of various sorts predominate. Many
species produce gums and resins, their stems being encrusted with the
exudations, and pungency and aromatic odour is an almost universal
quality of the plants of desert regions.

The cultivated plants of Arabia are much the same as those of northern
India--wheat, barley, and the common _Sorghum_, with dates and lemons,
cotton and indigo. To these must be added coffee, which is restricted
to the slopes of the western hills. Among the more mountainous regions
of the south-western part of Arabia, known as Arabia Felix, the
summits of which rise to 6000 or 7000 ft., the rainfall is sufficient
to develop a more luxuriant vegetation, and the valleys have a flora
like that of similarly situated parts of southern Persia, and the less
elevated parts of Afghanistan and Baluchistan, partaking of the
characters of that of the hotter Mediterranean region. In these
countries aromatic shrubs are abundant. Trees are rare, and almost
restricted to _Pistacia, Celtis_ and _Dodonaea_, with poplars, and the
date palm. Prickly forms of _Statice_ and _Astragalus_ cover the dry
hills. In the spring there is an abundant herbaceous vegetation,
including many bulbous plants, with genera, if not species, identical
with those of the Syrian region, some of which extend to the Himalaya.

The flora of the northern part of Afghanistan approximates to that of
the contiguous western Himalaya. _Quercus Ilex_, the evergreen oak of
southern Europe, is found in forests as far east as the Sutlej,
accompanied with other European forms. In the higher parts of
Afghanistan and Persia Boraginaceae and thistles abound; gigantic
Umbelliferae, such as _Ferula, Galbanum, Dorema, Bubon, Peucedanum,
Prangos_, and others, also characterize the same districts, and some
of them extend into Tibet.

The flora of Asia Minor and northern Persia differs but little from
that of the southern parts of Europe. The mountains are clothed, where
the fall of rain is abundant, with forests of _Quercus, Fagus, Ulmus,
Acer, Carpinus_ and _Corylus_, and various Coniferae. Of these the
only genus that is not found on the Himalaya is _Fagus_. Fruit trees
of the plum tribe abound. The cultivated plants are those of southern
Europe.

Eastern Asia.

The vegetation of the Malayan Islands is for the most part that of the
wetter and hotter region of India; but the greater uniformity of the
temperature and humidity leads to the predominance of certain tropical
forms not so conspicuous in India, while the proximity of the
Australian continent has permitted the partial diffusion of Australian
types which are not seen in India. The liquidambar and nutmeg may be
noticed among the former, the first is one of the most conspicuous
trees in java, on the mountains of the eastern part of which the
casuarina, one of the characteristic forms of Australia, is also
abundant. Rhododendrons occur in Borneo and Sumatra, descending to the
level of the sea. On the mountains of Java there appears to be no
truly alpine flora, _Saxifraga_ is not found. In Borneo some of the
temperate forms of Australia appear on the higher mountains. On the
other islands similar characteristics are to be observed, Australian
genera extending to the Philippines, and even to southern China.

The analysis of the Hong Kong flora indicates that about three-fifths
of the species are common to the Indian region, and nearly all the
remainder are either Chinese or local forms. The number of species
common to southern China, Japan and northern Asia is small. The
cultivated plants of China are, with a few exceptions, the same as
those of India South China, therefore seems, botanically hardly
distinct from the great Indian region, into which many Chinese forms
penetrate, as before noticed. The flora of north China, which is akin
to that of Japan, shows manifest relation to that of the neighbouring
American continent, from which many temperate forms extend, reaching
to the Himalaya, almost as far as Kashmir. Very little is known of the
plants of the interior of northern China, but it seems probable that a
complete botanical connexion is established between it and the
temperate region of the Himalaya.

Central Asia.

The vegetation of the dry region of central Asia is remarkable for the
great relative number of Chenopodiaceae, _Salicornia_ and other salt
plants being common; Polygonaceae also are abundant, leafless forms
being of frequent occurrence, which gives the vegetation a very
remarkable aspect. Peculiar forms of Leguminosae also prevail, and
these with many of the other plants of the southern and drier regions
of Siberia, or of the colder regions of the desert tracts of Persia
and Afghanistan, extend into Tibet, where the extreme drought and the
hot (nearly vertical) sun combine to produce a summer climate not
greatly differing from that of the plains of central Asia.

Zoological Regions.

_Fauna._--The zoological provinces of Asia correspond very closely
with the botanical. The northern portion of Asia, as far south as the
Himalaya, is not zoologically distinct from Europe, and these two
areas, with the strip of Africa north of the Atlas, constitute the
Palaearctic region of Dr. Sclater, whose zoological primary divisions
of the earth have met with the general approval of naturalists. The
south-eastern portion of Asia with the adjacent islands of Sumatra,
Java, Borneo and the Philippines, form his Indian region. The extreme
south-west part of the continent constitutes a separate zoological
district, comprising Arabia, Palestine and southern Persia, and
reaching, like the hot desert botanical tract, to Baluchistan and
Sind, it belongs to what Dr. Sclater calls the Ethiopian region, which
extends over Africa, south of the Atlas. Celebes, Papua, and the other
islands east of Java beyond Wallace's line fall within the Australian
region.

Mammals and birds.

Nearly all the mammals of Europe also occur in northern Asia, where
however, the Palaearctic fauna is enriched by numerous additional
species. The characteristic groups belong mostly to forms which are
restricted to cold and temperate regions. Consequently the Quadrumana,
or monkeys, are nearly unrepresented, a single species occurring in
Japan, and one or two others in northern China and Tibet.
Insectivorous bats are numerous, but the frugivorous division of this
order is only represented by a single species in Japan. Carnivora are
also numerous, particularly the frequenters of cold climates, such as
bears, weasels, wolves and foxes. Of the Insectivora, numerous forms
of moles, shrews and hedgehogs prevail. The Rodents are also well
represented by various squirrels, mice, and hares. Characteristic
forms ot this order in northern Asia are the marmots (_Arctomys_) and
the pikas or tailless hares (_Lagomys_). The great order of Ungulata
is represented by various forms of sheep, as many as ten or twelve
wild species of _Ovis_ being met with in the mountain chains of Asia,
and more sparingly by several peculiar forms of antelope, such as the
saiga (_Saiga tatarica_) and the _Gazella gutturosa_, or yellow sheep.
Coming to the deer, we also meet with characteristic forms in northern
Asia, especially those belonging to the typical genus _Cervus_. The
musk deer (_Moschus_) is also quite restricted to northern Asia, and
is one of its most peculiar types.

The ornithology ot northern Asia is even more closely allied to that
of Europe than the mammal fauna. Nearly three fourths of the
well-known species of Europe extend through Siberia into the islands
of the Japanese empire. Here again, we have an absence of all tropical
forms, and a great development of groups characteristic of cold and
temperate regions. One of the most peculiar of these is the genus
_Phasianus_, of which splendid birds all the species are restricted in
their wild state to northern Asia. The still more magnificently clad
gold pheasants (_Thaumalea_), and the eared pheasants (_Crossoptilon_)
are also confined to certain districts in the mountains of north
eastern Asia. Amongst the _Passeres_, such forms as the larks, stone
chats, finches, linnets, and grosbeaks are well developed and exhibit
many species.

The mammal fauna of the Indian region of Asia is much more highly
developed than that of the Palaearctic. The Quadrumana are represented
by several peculiar genera, amongst which are _Semnopithecus_,
_Hylobates_ and _Simia_. Two peculiar forms of the Lemurine group are
also met with. Both the insectivorous and frugivorous divisions of the
bats are well represented. Amongst the Insectivora very peculiar forms
are found, such as _Gymnura_ and _Tupaia_. The _Carnivora_ are
likewise numerous, and this region may be considered as the true home
of the tiger, though this animal has wandered far north into the
Palaearctic division of Asia. Other characteristic Carnivora are
civets, various ichneumons, and the benturong (_Arctictis_). Two
species of bears are likewise restricted to the Indian region. In the
order of Rodents squirrels are very numerous and porcupines of two
genera are met with. The Indian region is the home of the Indian
elephant--one of the two sole remaining representatives of the order
Proboscidea. Of the Ungulates, four species of rhinoceros and one of
tapir are met with, besides several peculiar forms of the swine
family. The Bovidae or hollow-horned ruminants, are represented by
several genera of antelopes, and by species of true _Bos_--such as _B.
sondaicus_, _B. frontalis_ and _B. bubalus_. Deer are likewise
numerous, and the peculiar group of chevrotains (_Tragulus_) is
characteristic of the Indian region. Finally, this region affords us
representatives of the order Edentata, in the shape of several species
of _Manis_, or scaly ant-eater.

The assemblage of birds of the Indian region is one of the richest and
most varied in the world, being surpassed only by that of tropical
America. Nearly every order, except that of the Struthiones or
ostriches, is well represented, and there are many peculiar genera not
found elsewhere, such as _Buceros_, _Harpactes_, _Lophophorus_,
_Euplocamus_, _Pajo_ and _Ceriornis_. The _Phasianidae_ (exclusive of
true _Phasianus_) are highly characteristic ot this region, as are
likewise certain genera of barbets (_Megalaema_), parrots
(_Palaeornis_), and crows (_Dendrocitta_, _Urocissa_ and _Cissa_). The
family _Eurylaemidae_ is entirely confined to this part of Asia.

The Ethiopian fauna plays but a subordinate part in Asia, intruding
only into the south-western corner, and occupying the desert districts
of Arabia and Syria, although some of the characteristic species reach
still farther into Persia and Sind, and even into western India. The
lion and the hunting leopard, which may be considered as in this epoch
at least, Ethiopian types extend thus far, besides various species of
jerboa and other desert-loving forms.

In the birds, the Ethiopian type is shown by the prevalence of larks
and stone chats, and by the complete absence of the many peculiar
genera of the Indian region.

The occurrence of mammals of the Marsupial order in the Molucca
Islands and Celebes, while none have been found in the adjacent
islands of Java and Borneo, lying on the west of Wallace's line, or in
the Indian region, shows that the margin of the Australian region has
here been reached. The same conclusion is indicated by the absence
from the Moluccas and Celebes of various other Mammals, Quadrumana,
Carnivora, Insectivora and Ruminants, which abound in the western part
of the Archipelago. Deer do not extend into New Guinea, in which
island the genus _Sus_ appears to have its eastern limit. A peculiar
form of baboon, _Cynopithecus_, and the singular ruminant, _Anoa_,
found in Celebes, seem to have no relation to Asiatic animals, and
rather to be allied to those in Africa.

The birds of these islands present similar peculiarities. Those of the
Indian region abruptly disappear at, and many Australian forms reach
but do not pass, the line above spoken of. Species of birds akin to
those of Africa also occur in Celebes.

Of the marine orders of Sirenia and Cetacea the Dugong, _Halicore_, is
exclusively found in the Indian Ocean and a dolphin, _Platanista_,
peculiar to the Ganges, ascends that river to a great distance from
the sea.

Fishes.

Of the sea fishes of Asia, among the Acanthopterygii, or spiny-rayed
fishes, the _Percidae_, or perches, are largely represented, the genus
_Serranus_, which has only one species in Europe, is very numerous in
Asia, and the forms are very large. Other allied genera are abundant
and extend from the Indian seas to eastern Africa. The Squamipennes,
or scaly-finned fishes, are principally found in the seas of southern
Asia, and especially near coral reefs. The _Mullidae_ or red mullets
are largely represented by genera differing from those of Europe. The
_Polynemidae_, which range from the Atlantic through the Indian Ocean
to the Pacific, supply animals from which isinglass is prepared; one
of them, the mango fish, esteemed a great delicacy, inhabits the seas
from the Bay of Bengal to Siam. The _Sciaenidae_ extend from the Bay
of Bengal to China, but are not known to the westward. The
_Stromateidae_, or pomfrets, resemble the dory, a Mediterranean form,
and extend to China and the Pacific. The sword fishes _Xiphidae_, the
lancet fishes, _Acanthuridae_, and the scabbard fishes, _Trichuridae_,
are distributed through the seas of south Asia. Mackerels of various
genera abound, as well as gobies, blenniesm and mullets.

Among the Anacanthim, the cod family so well known in Europe shows but
one or two species in the seas of south Asia, though the soles and
allied fishes are numerous along the coasts. Of the Physostomi, the
siluroids are abundant in the estuaries and muddy waters; the habits
of some of these fishes are remarkable, such as that of the males
carrying the ova in their mouths till the young are hatched. The small
family of _Scopelidae_ affords the gelatinous _Harpodon_, or bumalo.
The gar-fish and flying fishes are numerous, extending into the seas
of Europe. The _Clupeidae_ or herrings, are most abundant, and
anchovies, or sardines, are found in shoals, but at irregular and
uncertain intervals. The marine eels, _Muraenidae_, are more numerous
towards the Malay Archipelago than in the Indian seas. Forms of
sea-horses (_Hippocampus_), pipe-fishes (_Syngnathus_), fife-fishes
(_Sclerodermus_), and sun-fish, globe-fish, and other allied forms of
_Gymnodontes_, are not uncommon.

Of the cartilaginous fishes, Chondropterygii, the true sharks and
hammer-headed sharks, are numerous. The dog-fish also is found, one
species extending from the Indian seas to the Cape of Good Hope. The
saw-fishes, _Pristidae_, the electrical rays, _Torpedinae_, and
ordinary rays and skates, are also found in considerable numbers.

The fresh waters of southern Asia are deficient in the typical forms
of the Acanthopterygii, and are chiefly inhabited by carp, siluroids,
simple or spined eels, and the walking and climbing fishes. The
_Siluridae_ attain their chief development in tropical regions. Only
one _Silurus_ is found in Europe, and the same species extends to
southern Asia and Africa. The _Salmonidae_ are entirely absent from
the waters of southern Asia, though they exist in the rivers that flow
into the Arctic Ocean and the neighbouring parts of the northern
Pacific, extending perhaps to Formosa; and trout, though unknown in
Indian rivers, are found beyond the watershed of the Indus, in the
streams flowing into the Caspian. The _Cyprinidae_, or carp, are
largely represented in southern Asia, and there grow to a size unknown
in Europe; a _Barbus_ in the Tigris has been taken of the weight of
300 lb. The chief development of this family, both as to size and
number of forms, is in the mountain regions with a temperate climate;
the smaller species are found in the hotter regions and in the
low-lying rivers. Of the _Clupeidae_, or herrings, numerous forms
occur in Asiatic waters, ascending the rivers many hundred miles; one
of the best-known of Indian fishes, the hilsa, is of this family. The
sturgeons, which abound in the Black Sea and Caspian, and ascend the
rivers that fall into them, are also found in Asiatic Russia, and an
allied form extends to southern China. The walking or climbing fishes,
which are peculiar to south-eastern Asia and Africa, are organized so
as to be able to breathe when out of the water, and they are thus
fitted to exist under conditions which would be fatal to other fishes,
being suited to live in the regions of periodical drought and rain in
which they are found.

Insects.

The insects of all southern Asia, including India south of the
Himalaya, China, Siam and the Malayan Islands, belong to one group;
not only the genera, but even the species are often the same on the
opposite sides of the Bay of Bengal. The connexion with Africa is
marked by the occurrence of many genera common to Africa and India,
and confined to those two regions, and similarities of form are not
uncommon there in cases in which the genera are not peculiar. Of
Coleopterous insects known to inhabit east Siberia, nearly one-third
are found in western Europe. The European forms seem to extend to
about 30° N., south of which the Indo-Malayan types are met with,
Japan being of the Europeo-Asiatic group. The northern forms extend
generally along the south coast of the Mediterranean up to the border
of the great desert, and from the Levant to the Caspian.

Domesticated animals.

Of the domesticated animals of Asia may first be mentioned the
elephant. It does not breed in captivity, and is not found wild west
of the Jumna river in northern India. The horse is produced, in the
highest perfection in Arabia and the hot and dry countries of western
Asia. Ponies are most esteemed from the wetter regions of the east,
and the hilly tracts. Asses are abundant in most places, and two wild
species occur. The horned cattle include the humped oxen and buffaloes
of India, and the yak of Tibet. A hybrid between the yak and Indian
cattle, called zo, is commonly reared in Tibet and the Himalaya. Sheep
abound in the more temperate regions, and goats are universally met
with; both of these animals are used as beasts of burden in the
mountains of Tibet. The reindeer of northern Siberia call also for
special notice; they are used for the saddle as well as for draught.
(R. S.)

ETHNOLOGY

Racial types.

Asia, including its outlying islands, has become the dwelling-place of
all the great families into which the races of men have been divided.
By far the largest area is occupied by the Mongolian group. These have
yellow-brown skins, black eyes and hair, flat noses and oblique eyes.
They are short in stature, with little hair on the body and face. In
general terms they extend, with modifications of character probably
due to admixture with other types and to varying conditions of life,
over the whole of northern Asia as far south as the plains bordering
the Caspian Sea, including Tibet and China, and also over the
Indo-Malayan peninsula and Archipelago, excepting Papua and some of
the more eastern islands.

Next in numerical importance to the Mongolians are the races which
have been called by Professor Huxley _Melanochroic_ and
_Xanthochroic_. The former includes the dark-haired people of southern
Europe, and extends over North Africa, Asia Minor, Syria to
south-western Asia, and through Arabia and Persia to India. The latter
race includes the fair-haired people of northern Europe, and extends
over nearly the same area as the Melanochroi, with which race it is
greatly intermixed. The Xanthochroi have fair skins, blue eyes and
light hair; and others have dark skins, eyes and hair, and are of a
slighter frame. Together they constitute what were once called the
Caucasian races. The Melanochroi are not considered by Huxley to be
one of the primitive modifications of mankind, but rather to be the
result of the admixture of the Xanthochroi with the Australoid type,
next to be mentioned.

The third group is that of the Australoid type. Their hair is dark,
generally soft, never woolly. The eyes and skin are dark, the beard
often well developed, the nose broad and flat, the lips coarse, and
jaws heavy. This race is believed to form the basis of the people of
the Indian peninsula, and of some of the hill tribes of central India,
to whom the name Dravidian has been given, and by its admixture with
the Melanochroic group to have given rise to the ordinary population
of the Indian provinces. It is also probable that the Australoid
family extends into south Arabia and Egypt.

The last group, the Negroid, is represented by the races to which has
been given the name of _Negrito_, from the small size of some of them.
They are closely akin to the negroes of South Africa, and possess the
characteristic dark skins, woolly but scanty beard and body hair,
broad flat noses, and projecting lips of the African; and are diffused
over the Andaman Islands, a part of the Malay peninsula, the
Philippines, Papua, and some of the neighbouring islands. The Negritos
appear to be derived from a mixture of the true Negro with the
Australoid type.

Mongolians.

The distribution of the Mongolian group in Asia offers no particular
difficulty. There is complete present, and probably previous
long-existing, geographical continuity in the area over which they are
found. There is also considerable similarity of climate and other
conditions throughout the northern half of Asia which they occupy. The
extension of modified forms of the Mongolian type over the whole
American continent may be mentioned as a remarkable circumstance
connected with this branch of the human race.

The Mongolians of the northern half of Asia are almost entirely
nomadic, hunters and shepherds or herdsmen. The least advanced of
these, but far the most peaceful, are those that occupy Siberia.
Farther south the best-known tribes are the Manchus, the Mongols
proper, the Moguls and the Turks, all known under the name of Tatars,
and to the ancients as Scythians, occupying from east to west the zone
of Asia comprised between the 40th and 50th circles of N. lat. The
Turks are Mahommedans; their tribes extend up the Oxus to the borders
of Afghanistan and Persia, and to the Caspian, and under the name of
Kirghiz into Russia, and their language is spoken over a large part of
western Asia. Their letters are those of Persia. The Manchus and
Mongols are chiefly Buddhist, with letters derived from the ancient
Syriac. The Manchus are now said to be gradually falling under the
influence of Chinese civilization, and to be losing their old nomadic
habits, and even their peculiar language. The predatory habits of the
Turkish, Mongolian and Manchu population of northern Asia, and their
irruptions into other parts of the continent and into Europe, have
produced very remarkable results in the history of the world.

The Chinese branch of the Mongolian family are a thoroughly settled
people of agriculturists and traders. They are partially Buddhist, and
have a peculiar monosyllabic, uninflected language, with writing
consisting of symbols, which represent words, not letters.

The countries lying between India and the Mongolian are occupied by
populations chiefly of the Mongolian and Chinese type, having
languages fundamentally monosyllabic, but using letters derived from
India, and adopting their religion, which is almost everywhere
Buddhist, from the Indians. Of these may be named the Tibetans, the
Burmese and the Siamese. Cochin-China is more nearly Chinese in all
respects. It is known that to the Tibeto-Chinese modifications of the
pure Mongolian type all the eastern Burmese tribes--Chins, Kachins,
Shans, &c.--belong (as indeed do the Burmese themselves), and that a
cognate race occupies the Himalaya to the eastern limits of Kashmir.

Some light has been thrown on the connexion between the Tibetan race
and certain tribes of central India, the Bhils and Kols; and it seems
more probable that these tribes are the remnants of a Mongolian race
which first displaced a yet earlier Negroid population, and was then
itself shouldered out by a Caucasian irruption, than that they entered
India by any of the northern passages within historic times. Mongolian
settlements have lately been found very much farther extended into the
border countries of north-west India than has been hitherto
recognized. The Mingals, who, conjointly with the Brahuis, occupy the
hills south of Kalat to the limits of the Rajput province of Las Bela,
claim Mongolian descent, and traces of a Mongolian colony have been
found in Makran.

Malays.

The Malays, who occupy the peninsula and most of the islands of the
Archipelago called after them, are Mongols apparently modified by
their very different climate, and by the maritime life forced upon
them by the physical conditions of the region they inhabit. As they
are now known to us, they have undergone a process of partial
civilization, first at the hands of the Brahminical Indians, from whom
they borrowed a religion, and to some extent literature and an
alphabet, and subsequently from intercourse with the Arabs, which has
led to the adoption of Mahommedanism by most of them.

Aryans.

The name of Aryan has been given to the races speaking languages
derived from, or akin to, the ancient form of Sanskrit, who now occupy
the temperate zone extending from the Mediterranean, across the
highlands of Asia Minor, Persia and Afghanistan, to India. The races
speaking the languages akin to the ancient Assyrian, which are now
mainly represented by Arabic, have been called Semitic, and occupy the
countries south-west of Persia, including Syria and Arabia, besides
extending into North Africa. Though the languages of these races are
very different they cannot be regarded as physically distinct, and
they are both without doubt branches of the Melanochroi, modified by
admixture with the neighbouring races, the Mongols, the Australoids
and the Xanthochroi.

The Aryans of India are probably the most settled and civilized of all
Asiatic races. This type is found in its purest form in the north and
north-west, while the mixed races and the population referred to the
Australoid type predominate in the peninsula and southern India. The
spoken languages of northern India are very various, differing one
from another in the sort of degree that English differs from German,
though all are thoroughly Sanskritic in their vocables, but with an
absence of Sanskrit grammar that has given rise to considerable
discussion. The languages of the south are Dravidian, not Sanskritic.
The letters of both classes of languages, which also vary
considerably, are all modifications of the ancient Pali, and probably
derived from the Dravidians, not from the Aryans. They are written
from left to right, exception being made of Urdu or Hindostani, the
mixed language of the Mahommedan conquerors of northern India, the
character used for writing which is the Persian. From the river Sutlej
and the borders of the Sind desert, as far as Burma and to Ceylon, the
religion of the great bulk of the people of India is Hindu or
Brahminical, though the Mahommedans are often numerous, and in some
places even in a majority. West of the Sutlej the population of Asia
may be said to be wholly Mahommedan with the exception of certain
relatively small areas in Asia Minor and Syria, where Christians
predominate. The language of the Punjab does not differ very
materially from that of Upper India. West of the Indus the dialects
approach more to Persian, which language meets Arabic and Turki west
of the Tigris, and along the Turkoman desert and the Caspian. Through
the whole of this tract the letters are used which are common to
Persian, Arabic and Turkish, written from right to left.

Racial distribution.

Considerable progress has been made in the classification of the
various races which occupy the continent to the west of the great
Mongolian region. The ancient Sacae, or Scyths, are recognized in the
Aryan population, who may be found in great numbers and in their
purest form in the more inaccessible mountains and glens of the
central highlands. These Tajiks (as they are usually called) form the
underlying population of Persia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan and
Badakshan, and their language (in the central districts of Asia) is
found to contain words of Aryan or Sanskrit derivation which are not
known in Persian. They have been for the most part dispossessed of
their country by Turkish immigration and conquests, but they still
retain their original intellectual superiority over the Turkish and
other mixed tribes by which they are surrounded. Uzbegs and Kirghiz
have but small affinity with the Mongol element of Asia. They are the
representatives of those countless Turkish irruptions which have taken
place through all history. Of the two divisions (Kara Kirghiz and
Kassak Kirghiz) into which the Kirghiz tribes are divided by Russian
authorities, the Kassak Kirghiz is the more closely allied to the
Mongol type; the Kara Kirghiz, who are found principally in the
valleys of the Tian-shan and Altai mountains, being unmistakably
Turkish. The Kipchaks are only a Kirghiz clan. The language of the
Kirghiz is Turki and their religion that of Mahomet. As a nomadic
people they have great contempt for the Sarts, who represent the town
dwellers of the tribe. The Kalmucks are a Buddhist and Mongolian
people who originated in a confederacy of tribes dwelling in
Dzungaria, migrated to Siberia, and settled on the Lower Volga. From
thence they returned late in the 18th century to the reoccupation of
their old ground in Kulja under the Chinese. The Turkoman is the
purest form of the Turk element, and his language is the purest form
of the Turkish tongue, which is represented at Constantinople by a
comparatively mongrel, or mixed, dialect. Ethnographers have traced a
connexion between the Turkoman of central Asia and the Teutonic races
of Europe, based on a similarity of national customs and immemorial
usage. Evidence of an original affinity between Turkoman and Rajput
has also been found in the mutual possession by these races of a ruddy
skin, so that as ethnographical inquiry advances the Turk appears to
recede from his Mongolian affinities and to approach the Caucasian.
Turks and Mongols alike were doubtless included under the term Scyth
by the ancients, and as Tatars by more modern writers, insomuch that
the Turkish dynasty at Delhi, founded by Baber, is usually termed the
Mogul dynasty, although there can be no distinction traced between the
terms Mogul and Mongol. The general results of recent inquiry into the
ethnography of Afghanistan is to support the general correctness of
Bellew's theories of the origin of the Afghan races. The claim of the
Durani Afghan to be a true Ben-i-Israel is certainly in no way
weakened by any recent investigation. The influence of Greek culture
in northern India is fully recognized, and the distribution of Greek
colonies previous to Alexander's time is attested by practical
knowledge of the districts they were said to occupy. The _habitat_ of
the Nysaeana, and the identity of certain tribes of Kafiristan with
the descendants of these pre-Alexandrian colonists from the west, are
also well established. To this day hymns are unwittingly sung to
Bacchus in the dales and glens of Kafiristan. The ethnographical
status of the mixed tribes of the mountains that lie between Chitral
and the Peshawar plains has been fairly well fixed by John Biddulph,
and much patient inquiry in the vast fields of Baluchistan by Major
Mockler, G.P. Tate and others has resulted in quite a new appreciation
of the tribal origin of the great conglomeration of Baluch peoples.

The result of trans-border surveys to the north and west of India has
been to establish the important geographical fact that it is by two
gateways only, one on the north-west and one on the west of India,
that the central Asiatic tides of immigration have flowed into the
peninsula. The Kabul valley indicates the north-western entrance, and
Makran indicates that on the west. By the Kabul valley route, which
includes at its head the group of passes across the Hindu Kush which
extend from the Khawak to the Kaoshan, all those central Asian hordes,
be they Sacae, Yue-chi, Jats, Goths or Huns, who were driven towards
the rich plains of the south, entered the Punjab. Some of them
migrated from districts which belong to eastern Asia, but none of them
penetrated into India by eastern passes. Such tides as set towards the
Himalaya broke against their farther buttresses, leaving an
interesting ethnographical flotsam in the northern valleys; but they
never overflowed the Himalayan barrier. Later most of the historic
invasions of India from central Asia followed the route which leads
directly from Kabul to Peshawar and Delhi.

By the western gates of Makran prehistoric irruptions from Mesopotamia
broke into the plains of Lower Sind, and either passed on towards the
central provinces of India or were absorbed in the highlands south of
Kalat. In later centuries the Arabs from the west reached the valley
of the Indus by their western route, and there established a dynasty
which lasted for 300 years. The identification of existing peoples
with the various Scythic, Persian and Arab races who have passed from
High Asia into the Indian borderland, has opened up a vast field of
ethnographical inquiry which has hardly yet found adequate workers for
its investigation. To such fields may be added the yet more
complicated problems of those reflex waves which flowed backwards from
India into the border highlands. (T. H. H.*)

HISTORY

1. The borders assigned to Asia on the west are somewhat arbitrary. The
Urals indicate no real division of races, and in both Greek and Turkish
times Asia Minor has been connected with the opposite shores of Europe
rather than with the lands lying to the east. A juster view of early
history is probably obtained by thinking of the countries round the
Mediterranean as interacting on one another than by separating Palestine
and Asia Minor as Asiatic.

Asiatic characteristics.

2. The words "Asiatic" and "Oriental" are often used as if they denoted
a definite and homogeneous type, but Russians resemble Asiatics in many
ways, and Turks, Hindus, Chinese, &c., differ in so many important
points that the common substratum is small. It amounts to this, that
Asiatics stand on a higher level than the natives of Africa or America,
but do not possess the special material civilization of western Europe.
As far as any common mental characteristic can be assigned it is also
somewhat negative, namely, that Asiatics have not the same sentiment of
independence and freedom as Europeans. Individuals are thought of as
members of a family, state or religion, rather than as entities with a
destiny and rights of their own. This leads to autocracy in politics,
fatalism in religion and conservatism in both. Hence, too, Asiatic
history has large and simple outlines. Though longer chronologically
than the annals of Europe, it is less eventful, less diversified and
offers fewer personalities of interest. But the same conditions which
render individual eminence difficult procure for it when once attained a
more ready recognition, and the conquerors and prophets of Asia have had
more power and authority than their parallels in Europe. Jenghiz Khan
and Timur covered more ground than Napoleon, and no European has had
such an effect on the world as Mahomet.

Religion and civilisation.

3. Attention has often been called to the religious character of Asia.
Not only the great religions of the world--Buddhism, Christianity,
Islam--but those of secondary importance, such as Judaism, Parseeism,
Taoism, are all Asiatic. No European race left to itself has developed
any thing more than an unsystematic paganism. It is true that Greek
philosophy advanced far beyond this stage, but it produced nothing
sufficiently popular to be called a religion. On the other hand
Christianity, though Asiatic in its origin and essential ideas, has to a
large extent taken its present form on European soil, and some of its
most important manifestations--notably the Roman Church--are European
reconstructions in which little of the Asiatic element remains.
Christianity has made little way farther east then Asia Minor. Modern
missions have made no great conquests there, and in earlier times the
Nestorians and Jacobites who penetrated to central Asia, China and
India, received respectful hearing, but never had anything like the
success which attended Buddhism and Islam. Yet Buddhism has never made
much impression west of India; and Islam is clearly repugnant to
Europeans, for even when under Moslem rule (as in Turkey) they refuse to
accept it in a far larger proportion than did the Hindus in similar
circumstances. Hence there is clearly a deep-seated difference between
the religious feelings of the two continents.

Since Asiatic records go back much farther than those of Europe, it is
natural that Asia should be thought the birthplace of civilization. But
this originality cannot be absolute, for, whatever may have been the
relations of Babylonia and the Aryans, the latter brought civilization
to India from the west, and it is not always clear whether similarity of
government and institutions is the result of borrowing or of parallel
development. Both in Europe and in Asia small feudal or aristocratic
states tended to consolidate themselves into monarchies, but whereas in
Europe from the early days of Rome onwards royalty has often been driven
out and replaced temporarily or permanently by popular government, this
change seems not to occur in Asia, where revolution means only a change
of dynasty. The few cases where the government is not monarchical, as
Arabia, seem to represent the persistence of very ancient conditions.

The contemplation of Asia suggests that progress is most rapid when
accompanied by the migration of races or the transplantation of ideas
and institutions. Thus Greece excelled the Eastern countries from whom
she may have derived her civilization, and Buddhism had a far more
brilliant career outside India than in it.

General historical outlines.

4. In many parts of southern Asia are found semi-barbarous races
representing the earliest known stratum of population, such as the
Veddahs of Ceylon, and various tribes in China and the Malay
Archipelago. Some of them offer analogies to the Australians. This
connexion, if true, must be very ancient, since it apparently goes back
to a time when the distribution of land and water was other than at
present. In northern Asia are found other aborigines, such as the Ainus
of Japan and the so-called hyperborean races (Chukchis, &c.), but no
materials are at present forthcoming for their history. There is some
record of the migrations of the later races superimposed on these
aborigines. The Chinese came from the west, though how far west is
unknown: the Hindus and Persians from the north-west: the Burmese and
Siamese from the north. We do not know if the Mongols, Turks, &c., had
any earlier home than central Asia, but their extensive movements from
that region are historical.

The antiquity of Asiatic history is often exaggerated. With the
exception of Babylonia and Assyria, we can hardly even conjecture what
was the condition of this continent much before 1500 B.C. At that period
the Chinese were advancing along the Hwang-ho, and the Aryans were
entering India from the north-west. Both were in conflict with earlier
races. The influence of Babylonian civilization was probably widespread.
Some connexion between Babylonia and China is generally admitted, and
all Indian alphabets seem traceable to a Semitic original borrowed in
the course of commerce from the Persian Gulf.

Apart from European conquests, the internal history of Asia in the last
2000 years is the result of the interaction of four main influences: (a)
Chinese, (b) Indian, (c) Mahommedan, (d) Central Asian. Of these the
first three represent different types of civilization: the fourth has
little originality, but has been of great importance in affecting the
distribution of races and political power.

(a) China has moulded the civilization of the eastern mainland and
Japan, without much affecting the Malay Archipelago. In the sphere of
direct influence fall Korea, Japan and Annam; in the outer sphere are
Mongolia, Tibet, Siam, Cambodia and Burma, where Indian and Chinese
influence are combined, the Indian being often the stronger. These
countries, except Japan, have all been at some time at least nominal
tributaries of China. Where Chinese influence had full play it
introduced Confucianism, a special style in art and the Chinese system
of writing. After the Christian era it was accompanied by Chinese
Buddhism. The cumbrous Chinese script maintains itself in the Far East,
but has not advanced west of China proper and Annam.

(b) Indian influence may be defined as Buddhism, if it is understood
that Buddhism is not at all periods clearly distinguishable from
Hinduism. Its sphere includes Indo-China, much of the Malay Archipelago,
Tibet and Mongolia, Moreover, China and Japan themselves may be said to
fall within this sphere, in view of the part which Buddhism has played
in their development. The Buddhist influence is not merely religious,
for it is always accompanied by Indian art and literature, and often by
an Indian alphabet. Much of this art is Greek in origin, being derived
from the Perso-Greek states on the north-west frontiers of India. Indian
alphabets have spread to Tibet, Cambodia, Java and Korea. The history of
Indian civilization in Indo-China and the Archipelago is still obscure,
in spite of the existence of gigantic ruins, but it would appear that in
some parts at least two periods must be distinguished, first the
introduction of Hinduism (or mixed Hinduism and Buddhism), perhaps under
Indian princes, and secondly a later and more purely ecclesiastical
introduction of Sinhalese Buddhism, with its literature and art.

(c) Mahommedanism or Islam is perhaps the greatest transforming force
which the world has seen. It has profoundly affected and to a large
extent subjugated all western Asia including India, all eastern and
northern Africa as well as Spain, and all eastern Europe. Its open
advocacy of force attracts warlike races, and the intensity of its
influence is increased by the fusion of secular and religious power, so
that the Moslem Church is a Moslem state characterized by slavery,
polygamy, and, subject to the autocracy of the ruler, by the theoretical
equality of Moslems, who in political status are superior to
non-Moslems. Thus, whenever the population of a Moslem country is of
mixed belief, a ruling caste of Moslems is formed, as in Turkey at the
present day and India under the Moguls. Islam is paramount in Turkey,
Persia, Arabia and Afghanistan. India is the dividing line: Islam is
strong in northern and central India, weaker in the south. But only
one-fifth of the whole population is Moslem. Beyond India it has spread
to Malacca and the Malay Archipelago, where it overwhelmed Hindu
civilization, and reached the southern Philippines. But it made no
progress in Indo-China or Japan; and though there is a large Moslem
population in China the Chinese influence has been stronger, for alone
of all Asiatics the Chinese have succeeded in forcing Islam to accept
the ordinary limitations of a religion and to take its place as a creed
parallel to Buddhism or any other.

Even more than Buddhism Islam has carried with it a special style of art
and civilization. It is usually accompanied by the use of the Arabic
alphabet, and in the languages of Moslem nations (notably Turkish,
Persian, Hindustani and Malay) a large proportion of the vocabulary is
borrowed from Arabic. Hindi and Hindustani, two forms of the same
language as spoken by Hindus and Mahommedans respectively, are a curious
example of how deeply religion may affect culture.

(d) The great part which central Asian tribes have played in history is
obscured by the absence of any common name for them. Linguistically they
can be divided into several groups such as Turks, Mongols and Huns, but
they were from time to time united into states representing more than
one group, and their armies were recruited, like the Janissaries, from
all the military races in the neighbourhood. Soon after the Christian
era central Asia began to boil over, and at least seven great invasions
and more or less complete conquests can be ascribed to these tribes
without counting minor movements, (i.) The early invasions of Europe by
the Avars, Huns and Bulgarians. (ii.) The invasion and temporary
subjection of Russia by the Mongols, who penetrated as far west as
Silesia, (iii.) The conquests of Timur. (iv.) The conquest of Asia Minor
and eastern Europe by the Turks. (v.) The conquest of India by the
Moguls. (vi.) The conquest of China by the Mongols under Kublai. (vii.)
The later conquest of China by the Manchus. To these may be added
numerous lesser invasions of India, China and Persia.

These tribes have a genius for warfare rather than for government, art
or literature, and with few exceptions (e.g. the Moguls in India) have
proved poor administrators. Apart from conquest their most important
function has been to keep up communications in central Asia, and to
transport religions and civilizations from one region to another. Thus
they are mainly responsible for the introduction of Islam with its
Arabic or Persian civilization into India and Europe, and in earlier
times their movements facilitated the infiltration of Graeco-Bactrian
civilization into India, besides maintaining communication between China
and the West.

5. _Babylonia and Assyria._--The movements mentioned above have been the
chief factors of relatively modern Asiatic history, but in early times
the centre of activity and culture lay farther west, in Babylonia and
Assyria. These ancient states began to decline in the 7th century B.C.,
and on their ruins rose the Persian empire, which with various political
metamorphoses continued to be an important power till the 7th century
A.D., after which all western Asia was overwhelmed by the Moslem wave,
and old landmarks and kingdoms were obliterated.

The materials for the study of their institutions and population are
abundant, but lend themselves to discussion rather than to a summary of
admitted facts. In the early history of south-western Asia the Semites
form the most important ethnic group, which is primarily linguistic but
also shares other remarkable characteristics. Two of the greatest
religions of the world, Christianity and Islam, are Semitic in origin,
as well as Judaism. In politics these races have been less successful in
modern times, but the Semitic states of Babylonia and Assyria were once
the principal centres for the development and distribution of
civilization. It is generally agreed that this civilization can be
traced back to an earlier race, the Sumero-Akkadians, whose language
seems allied to the agglutinative idioms of central Asia. If this
ancient civilized race was really allied to the ancestors of the Turks
and Huns, it is a remarkable instance of how civilization thrives best
by being transplanted at a certain period of growth. Still less is known
of the early non-Aryan races of Asia Minor such as the Hittites and
Alorodians. One hypothesis supposes that the shores of the Mediterranean
were originally inhabited by a homogeneous race neither Aryan nor
Semitic.

The earliest Sumerian records seem to be anterior to 4000 B.C. Shortly
after that period Babylonia was invaded by Semites, who became the
ruling race. The city of Babylon came to the fore as metropolis about
2285 B.C. under Khammurabi. Assyria was an offshoot of Babylonia lying
to the north-west, and apparently colonized before the second
millennium. While using the same language as the Babylonians, the
Assyrians had an individuality which showed itself in art and religion.
In the 9th and 8th centuries B.C. they became the chief power within
their sphere and the suzerain of their parent Babylon. But they
succumbed before the advance of the Medo-Persian power in 606 B.C.,
whereas it was not till 555 that Cyrus took Babylon. Assyria, being
essentially a military power, disappeared with the destruction of
Nineveh, but Babylon continued to exercise an influence on culture and
religion for many centuries after the Persian conquest.

6. _China._--This is the oldest of existing states, though its authentic
history does not go back much beyond 1000 B.C. It is generally admitted
that there was some connexion between the ancient civilizations of China
and Babylonia, but its precise nature is still uncertain. It is clear,
however, that the Chinese came from the west, and entered their present
territory along the course of the Hwang-ho at an unknown period,
possibly about 3000 B.C. In early historical times China consisted of a
shifting confederacy of feudal states, but about 220 B.C. the state of
Tsin or Chin (whence the name China) came into prominence, and succeeded
in forming a homogeneous empire, which advanced considerably towards the
south. The subsequent history of China is mainly a record of struggles
with various tribes, commonly, but not very correctly, called Tatars.
The empire was frequently broken up by successful incursions, or divided
between rival dynasties, but at least twice became a great Asiatic
power: under the Han dynasty (about 200 B.C.-A.D. 220), and the T'ang
(A.D. 618-906). The dominions of the latter extended across central Asia
to northern India, but were dismembered by the attacks of the Kitans,
whence the name Cathay. China proper, minus these external provinces,
was again united under the Sung dynasty (960-1127), but split into the
northern (Tatar) and southern (Chinese) kingdoms. In the 13th century
arose the Mongol power, and Kublai Khan conquered China. The Mongol
dynasty lasted less than a century, but the Ming, the native Chinese
dynasty which succeeded it, reigned for nearly 300 years and despatched
expeditions which reached India, Ceylon and East Africa. In 1644 the
Ming succumbed to the attacks of the Manchus, a northern tribe who
captured Peking and founded the present imperial house.

Until the advent of Europeans, the Chinese were always in contact with
inferior races. Whether they expanded at the expense of weak aboriginal
tribes or were conquered by more robust invaders, Chinese civilization
prevailed and assimilated alike the conquered and the conquerors. It is
largely to this that we must ascribe the national conservatism and
contempt for foreigners. The spirit of the Chinese polity is
self-contained, anti-military and anti-sacerdotal. Rank is nominally
determined by merit, as tested by competitive examinations. Society is
conceived as regulated by mutual obligations, of which the duties of
parents and children are the most important. The emperor is head of the
state and the high priest, who sacrifices to Heaven on behalf of his
people, but he can be deposed, and no divine right is inherent in
certain families as in Japan and Turkey. On the contrary there have been
20 dynasties since the Christian era.

The most conspicuous figure in Chinese literature is Confucius (551-475
B.C.). Though he laid no claim to originality and merely sought to
collect and systematize the traditions of antiquity, his influence in
the Far East has been unbounded, and he must be pronounced one of the
most powerful advocates of peace and humanity that have ever existed.
Confucianism is an ethical rather than a religious system, and hence was
able to co-exist, though not on very friendly terms, with Buddhism,
which reached China about the 1st century A.D. and was the chief source
of Chinese religious ideas, except the older ancestor worship. But they
are not a religious people, and like many Europeans regard the church as
a department of the state.

7. _Japan_ appears to have been formerly inhabited by the Ainus, who
have traditions of an older but unknown population, but was invaded in
prehistoric times by a race akin to the Koreans, which was possibly
mingled with Malay elements after occupying the southern part of the
islands. Authentic history does not begin till about the 6th century
A.D., when Chinese civilization and Buddhism were introduced. The
government was originally autocratic, but as early as the 7th century
the most characteristic feature of Japanese politics--the power of great
families who overshadowed the throne--makes its appearance. We hear
first of the Fujiwara family, and then of the rivalry between the houses
of Taira and Minamoto. The latter prevailed, and in 1192 established the
dual system of government under which the emperor or Mikado ruled only
in name, and the real power was in the hands of a hereditary military
chief called Shogun. Japan has never been invaded in historical times,
but an attempt made by Kublai Khan to conquer it was successfully
repulsed. The chief power then passed to the Ashikaga dynasty of
Shoguns, who retained it for about 200 years and were distinguished for
their patronage of the arts. The second half of the 16th century was a
period of ferment and anarchy, marked by the arrival of the Portuguese
and the rise of some remarkable adventurers, one of whom, Hideyoshi,
conquered Korea and apparently meditated the invasion of China. His
plans were interrupted by his death, and his successor, Ieyasu, who
shaped the social and political life of Japan for nearly 300 years
(1603-1868), definitely decided on a policy of seclusion and isolation.
All ideas of external conquest were abandoned, Christianity was
forbidden, and Japan closed to foreigners, only the Dutch being allowed
a strictly limited commerce. In 1854-1859 the Christian powers,
beginning with the United States, successfully asserted their right to
trade with Japan. The influx of new ideas provoked civil war, in which
the already decadent Shogunate was abolished and the authority of the
Mikado restored. Recognizing that their only chance of competing with
Europeans was to fight them with their own weapons, the Japanese set
themselves deliberately to assimilate the material civilization and to
some extent the institutions of Europe, such as constitutional
government. Their progress and success are without parallel. In 1895
they defeated the Chinese and ten years later the Russians. Their
exceptional status among Asiatic nations has been recognized by treaties
which, contrary to the general practice in non-Christian countries,
place all foreigners in Japan under Japanese law.

This sudden development of the Japanese is perhaps the most important
event of the second half of the 19th century, since it marks the rise of
an Asiatic power capable of competing with Europe on equal terms. Their
history is so different from that of the rest of Asia that it is not
surprising if the result is different. The nation hardly came into
existence till China and India had passed their prime, and remained
secluded and free from the continual struggle against barbarian
invaders, which drained the energies of its neighbours. It was left
untouched by Mahommedanism, and for an unprecedentedly long period kept
Europeans at bay without wasting its strength in hostilities. The
military spirit was evolved, not in raids and massacres of the usual
Asiatic type which create little but intense racial hatred, but in feuds
between families and factions of the same race, which restrained
ferocity and tended to create a temper like that of the feudal chivalry
of Europe. On the other hand it is noticeable that the Japanese have
little which is original in the way of religion, literature or
philosophy. Unlike the Chinese and Indians, they have hitherto not had
the smallest influence on the intellectual development of Asia, and
though they have in the past sometimes shown themselves intensely
nationalist and conservative, they have, compared with India and China,
so little which is really their own that their assimilation of foreign
ideas is explicable.

8. _Korea_ received its civilization and religion from China, but
differs in language, and to some extent in customs. An alphabet derived
from Indian sources is in use as well as Chinese writing. The country
was at most periods independent though nominally tributary to China. In
the 16th century the Japanese occupied it for a short period, and in
1894 they went to war with China on account of her claims to suzerainty.
In 1895 Korea was declared independent.

9. _India._--The population of India comprises at least three strata:
firstly, uncivilized aborigines, such as the Kols and Santhals, and
secondly, the Dravidians (Tamils, Kanarese, &c.), who perhaps represent
the earliest northern invaders, and appear to have attained some degree
of culture on their own account. The most recent authorities are of
opinion that the Kolarians and Dravidians represent a single physical
type; but, whatever the historical explanation may be, they certainly
have different languages and show different stages of civilization. In
prehistoric times they were spread over the whole of India, but were
driven to the centre and south of the peninsula by the third stratum of
Aryans, and perhaps also by invasions of so-called Mongolian races from
the north-west. No historical record has been preserved of these latter,
but they appear to have profoundly affected the population of Bengal,
which is believed to be Mongolo-Dravidian in composition. The Aryans
appear to have been settled to the north of the Hindu Kush, and to have
migrated south-eastwards about 1500 B.C. Their original home has been a
subject of much discussion, but the view now prevalent is that they
arose in southern Russia or Asia Minor, whence a section spread
eastwards and divided into two closely related branches--the Hindus and
Iranians. There were probably two successive Aryan immigrations, and the
tradition of a struggle between them may be preserved in the
_Mahabharata_. The life of the ancient Aryans, as portrayed in their
sacred songs, the _Rig Veda_, was quasi-nomadic and in many ways
democratic, but by the 6th century B.C. settled states had been formed
in the Ganges valley. They were absolute monarchies, but the power of
the king was tempered by the extraordinary influence possessed by the
hereditary sacerdotal class or Brahmans. The position of this class,
which has remained till the present day, is connected with the
institution of caste, a division of the population into groups founded
partly on racial distinctions. The peaceful progress of Brahmanism was
hindered by the doctrine of the Indian prince Gotama, called the Buddha,
which grew into one of the greatest religions of the world. For many
centuries the culture and development of the Hindus depended mainly on
the interaction of the old Brahmanical religion and Buddhism. The latter
was finally absorbed, and disappeared in India itself, but has spread
Indian influence over the whole of eastern Asia, where it still
flourishes.

In 326 B.C. Alexander invaded the Punjab. The immediate result was
small, but the establishment of Perso-Greek kingdoms in central Asia had
a powerful influence on Indian art and culture. It may also have helped
to familiarize the Hindu mind with the idea of an empire, which appeared
among them later than in other Asiatic countries. The first empire,
called Maurya, reached its greatest extent in the time of Asoka (264-227
B.C.), who ruled from Afghanistan to Madras. He was a zealous Buddhist
and gave the first example of a missionary religion, for by his
exertions the faith was spread over all India and Ceylon. No Hindu
empires have lasted long, and the Maurya dominions broke up fifty years
after his death.

In the next period (c. 150 B.C.-A.D. 300) India was invaded from the
north by tribes partly of Parthian and partly of Turki (Yue-chi, &c.)
origin. Owing to the absence of dated records, the chronology of these
invasions has not yet been set beyond dispute, but the most important
was that of the Kushans, whose king Kanishka founded a state which
comprised northern India and Kashmir. They were Buddhists, and it is
probable that the Mahayana or northern form of Buddhism was due to an
amalgamation of Gotama's doctrines with the ideas (largely Greek and
Persian) which they brought with them. Much of Sivaism has probably the
same origin. Another native empire, known as Gupta, rose on the ruins of
the Kushan kingdom, and embraced nearly the whole peninsula, but it
broke up in the 5th century, partly owing to the attacks of new northern
invaders, the Huns. The Malava dynasty maintained Hindu civilization in
the 6th century, and from 606 to 646 Harsha established a brief but
brilliant empire in the north with its capital at Kanauj. This epoch is
marked by the renaissance of Sanskrit literature and the gradual revival
of Hinduism at the expense of Buddhism. But after Harsha Hindu history
is lost in a maze of small and transitory states, incapable of resisting
the ever advancing Mahommedan peril. As early as 712 the Arabs conquered
Sind, and by the end of the 11th century the whole of northern India was
in Moslem hands. Two periods may be distinguished, namely the Turki
(1200-1526) and the Mogul empire. The former comprised several dynasties
of mixed Turki and Iranian race, but was wanting in coherency. In the
neighbourhood of the Moslem capitals, Islam spread rapidly, but in such
districts as Rajputana and specially Vijayanagar (Mysore) Hindu
civilization and religion maintained themselves.

In 1526 the Moguls descended on India from Transoxiana and seized the
throne of Delhi. They never subjugated the south, but the empire which
they founded in the north was for about two centuries, under such rulers
as Akbar and Shah Jehan, one of the most brilliant which Asia has seen.
After 1707 it began to decline: the governors became independent: a
powerful Mahratta confederacy arose in central India; Nadir Shah of
Persia sacked Delhi; and Ahmed Shah made repeated invasions. A still
more formidable danger, the power of the French and English, continued
to increase. Amidst such confusion the authority of the Mogul empire
rapidly disappeared, but it lasted as a name till the Mutiny (1857).

Indian history until Mahommedan times is marked by the unusual
prominence of religious ideas, and is a record of intellectual
development rather than of political events. Whatever national unity the
Hindu peoples possessed came from the persistent and penetrating
influence of the Brahman caste. Kings held a secondary position, and
were generally regarded as adventitious tyrants, rather than as the
heads and representatives of the nation. Even the great dynasties have
left few traces, and it is with difficulty that the patient historian
disinters the minor kingdoms from obscurity, but Indian religion,
literature and art have influenced all Asia from Persia to Japan.

10._Persia._-- The Persians, with whom are often coupled the Medes,
appear to be pure Aryans in origin, and the earliest form of their
language and religion offers remarkable analogies to the Vedas. It is
reasonable to suppose that their ancestors and those of the Hindus at
one time formed a single tribe somewhere in central Asia. The religion
was remodelled by Zoroaster, who seems to be a historical character and
to have lived about the 7th century B.C. About the same time they shook
off the domination of Assyria. From the 6th century onwards their
empire, then known as Median, began to expand at the expense of the
surrounding states. They destroyed Nineveh in alliance with the
Babylonians, and half a century later Cyrus took Babylon and founded the
great dynasty of the Achaemenidae. The substitution of the Persian for
the Median power, which took place with the advent of Cyrus, seems to
indicate merely the pre-eminence of a particular tribe and not conquest
by another race. The power of the Achaemenidae, when at its maximum,
extended from the Oxus and Indus in the east to Thrace in the west and
Egypt in the south, but fell before Greece, after lasting for rather
more than 200 years. Darius and Xerxes were repulsed in their efforts to
subjugate the Greek Peninsula, and Alexander the Great conquered their
successor Darius III. in 329. But the greater part of the empire
continued to exist under new masters, the Seleucids, as a Hellenistic
power which was of great importance for the dissemination of Greek
culture in the East. Bactria soon became independent under an Indo-Greek
dynasty, and the blending of Greek, Persian, central Asiatic and Hindu
influences had an important effect on the art and religion of India, and
through India on all eastern Asia. About the same period (250 B.C.-A.D.
227) the Parthian empire arose under the Arsacids in Khorasan and the
adjacent districts. The Parthians appear to have been a Turanian tribe
who had adopted many Persian customs. They successfully withstood the
Romans, and at one time their power extended from India to Syria. They
succumbed to the Persian dynasty of the Sassanids, who ruled
successfully for about four centuries, established the Zoroastrian faith
as their state religion, and maintained a creditable conflict with the
East Roman empire. But in the 7th century they were defeated by
Heraclius, and shortly afterwards were annihilated before the first
impetus of the Mahommedan conquest, which established Islam in Persia
and the neighbouring lands, sweeping away old civilizations and
boundaries. During the greater part of the Mahommedan period Persia has
been ruled by troubled and short-lived dynasties. It attained a certain
dignity and unity under Abbas Shah (1585-1628), but in later times was
distracted and disorganized by Afghan invasions. The present dynasty,
which is of Turkoman origin, dates from 1789.

The achievements of the Persians in art, literature and religion are by
no means contemptible, but somewhat mixed and cosmopolitan. Owing to its
position, the Persian state, when it from time to time became a
conquering empire, overlapped Asia Minor, Babylon and India, and hence
acted as an intermediary for transmitting art and ideas, sending for
instance Greek sculpture to India and the cult of Mithra to western
Europe. It is perhaps on account of this intermediate flavour that the
literature of Persia--for instance the adaptations of Omar Khayyam--is
more appreciated in Europe than that of other Oriental nations. On the
other hand, the wars between Persia and Greece were recognized both at
the time and afterwards as a struggle between Europe and Asia; the fact
that both combatants were Aryans was not felt, and has no importance
compared to the difference of continent.

11. _Jews._--The Israelites appear to have been originally a nomadic
tribe akin to the Arabs, whom they resemble in their want of political
instinct and in their extraordinary religious genius. Among many
remarkable qualities they have been distinguished from the earliest
times by a species of commensalism, or power of living among other
nations without becoming either socially merged or politically distinct.
Their traditional history represents them as migrating to the borders of
Egypt and living there for some centuries. After the exodus, which
perhaps took place about 1300 B.C., they moved northwards again and
founded a state of modest dimensions, which attained a short-lived unity
under Solomon, but succumbed to internal dissensions and to the attacks
of Assyria and Babylon. Shalmanezer destroyed the northern kingdom or
Israel in 720, and following the practice of the times deported the
majority of the population, whose traces became lost to history. There
is no reason why their descendants should not be found to-day in various
tribes, but the physical type commonly called Jewish is characteristic
not so much of Israel as of western Asia generally. In 588
Nebuchadnezzar carried off the Jews in captivity, but after the Persian
conquest of Babylonia they were allowed to return to Palestine in 538.
Their institutions and ideas were probably considerably modified during
this period. Babylon long continued to be a Jewish centre whence the
Jews radiated to other countries. The restored state of Jerusalem lived
for about six centuries in partial independence under Persian, Egyptian,
Syrian and Roman rule, often showing an aggressively heroic attachment
to its national customs, which brought it into collision with its
suzerains, until the temple was destroyed by Titus in A.D. 70, and the
country laid waste in the succeeding years. But long before this period
the Jews of the Dispersion had become as important as the inhabitants of
Palestine. From choice or compulsion large numbers settled in Egypt in
the time of the Ptolemies, and added an appreciable element to
Alexandrine culture, while gradual voluntary emigration established
Jewish communities in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece and Italy, who
facilitated the first spread of Christianity. In spite of chronic
unpopularity and recurring persecutions they have spread over nearly all
Europe. At the end of the 13th century they were expelled from Spain and
many of the exiles moved eastwards. At present the largest numbers are
to be found in the eastern parts of Europe. It is remarkable that though
the Jews live in relative peace with Asiatics, the great majority of
them prefer Europe as a residence.

12. _Arabs._--The Arabs have hardly any history before the rise of
Islam, although their name is mentioned by surrounding nations from the
9th century B.C. onwards. They appear to have had few states or kings,
but rather tribes and chiefs. Their relationship to the Babylonians and
Jews is indicated by linguistic and ethnological data. The language and
writing of the Semites who, at an unknown period, settled in what is now
Abyssinia, show affinities with those of South Arabia, and these Semites
may have been immigrants into Africa from that region. It is plain from
early Moslem literature that Persian, Christian and especially Jewish
ideas had penetrated into Arabia.

With the rise of Mahommedanism occurred a sudden effervescence of the
Arabs, who during some centuries threatened to impose not only their
political authority but their civilization and new religion on the whole
known world. They successfully invaded India and central Asia in the
east, Spain and Morocco in the west. The Caliphate under the Omayyads of
Damascus, and then the Abbasids of Bagdad, became the principal power in
the nearer East. It had not, however, a sufficiently coherent
organization for permanence; parts of it became independent, others
were first protected and then absorbed by the Turks. The Arab rule in
Spain, which once threatened to overwhelm Europe and was turned back
near Tours by Charles Martel, was distinguished by its tolerance and
civilization, and lingered on till the 15th century.

The collapse of the political power of the Arabs was singularly
complete. The Caliphate, though Arabian, was always geographically
outside Arabia, and on its fall Arabia remained as it was before Islam,
isolated and inaccessible. It is still one of the least known parts of
the globe, and has hardly any political link with the outside, for the
Arabs of northern Africa form separate states. But in spite of this
total political collapse, Arabic religion and literature are still one
of the greatest forces working in the western half of Asia, in northern
Africa and to some extent in eastern Europe.

13. _Ceylon_, though geographically an annex of India, has not followed
its fortunes historically. According to tradition it was invaded by an
Aryan-speaking colony from the valley of the Ganges in the 6th century
B.C. It received Buddhism from north India in the time of Asoka, and has
had considerable importance as a centre of religious culture which has
influenced Burma and Siam. Its medieval history consists of struggles
between the native sovereigns and Tamil invaders. A powerful native
dynasty reigned in the 12th century, but in 1408 the island was attacked
by Chinese, and from 1505 onwards it was distracted by the attacks and
squabbles of Europeans. It was partially subjugated, first by the
Portuguese and then by the Dutch. In 1796 the Dutch were expelled by the
English.

14. _Indo-China._--This is an appropriate name for Burma, Siam,
Cambodia, Annam, &c., for both in position and in civilization they lie
between India and China. Indian influence is predominant as far as
Cambodia (though with a Chinese tinge), Indian alphabets being employed
and the Buddhism being of the Sinhalese type, but in Annam and Tongking
the Chinese script and many Chinese institutions are in use. The
population belongs to various races, and also comprises little-known
wild tribes, (i.) Languages of the group known as Mon-Annam are spoken
in Annam and in Pegu, an ancient kingdom originally distinct from Burma
though now confounded with it. This distribution seems to indicate that
they once spread over the whole region, and were divided by the later
advance of the Siamese and others. Until Annam was taken by the French,
its history consisted of a struggle with the Chinese, who alternately
asserted and lost their sovereignty. The Annamese are, however, a
distinct race. Cochin China was once the seat of a kingdom called
Champa, which appears to have had a hinduized Malay civilization and to
have been subsequently absorbed by Annam. (ii.) The Burmese are
linguistically allied to the Tibetans, and probably entered Burma from
the north-west. The early history consists largely of conflicts between
the Burmese and Talaings. The kingdom which was annexed by Britain in
1885 was founded about 1750 by Alompra, who united his countrymen and
broke the power of the Talaings. He also invaded Siam. (iii.) The Khmers
or Cambodians, whose languages appear to belong to the Mon-Annam group,
form a relatively ancient kingdom, much reduced in the last few
centuries by the advance of the Siamese and new a French protectorate.
Remarkable ruins dating from perhaps A.D. 800 to 1000 attest the former
prevalence of strong Hindu influence, (iv.) The Siamese or Thai, who
speak a monosyllabic language of the Chinese type, but written in an
Indian alphabet, represent a late invasion from southern China, whence
they descended about the 13th century.

15. _Malays._--This widely-scattered race has no political union and its
distribution is a puzzle for ethnography. At present it occupies the
extremity of the Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Philippines
and other islands of the Malay Archipelago as well as Madagascar, while
the inhabitants of most islands in the South Seas, including New Zealand
and Hawaii, speak languages which if not Malay have at least undergone a
strong Malay influence. It would seem from this distribution that the
Malays are not continental, but a seafaring race with exceptional powers
of dispersal, who have spread over the ocean from some island
centre--perhaps Java. The latest theory, however, is that there is a
great linguistic group (which may or may not prove to correspond to an
ethnic unity) comprising the Munda, Monkhmer, Malay, Polynesian and
Micronesian languages, and that the stream of immigration which
distributed them started from the extreme west. Three periods can be
traced in the history of the Asiatic Malays. In the first (in which such
tribes as the Dyaks have remained) they were semi-barbarous. In the
second, Hindu civilization reached the Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra
and other islands. The presence of Hindu ruins, as well as of numerous
Indian words and customs, testifies to the strength of this influence.
It was, however, superseded by Islam, which spread to the Malay
Archipelago and Peninsula before the 16th century. At the present time
the Arabic alphabet is used on the mainland, but Indian alphabets in
Java, Sumatra, &c.

16. _Tibet._--This remote and mountainous country has a peculiar
civilization. It has entirely escaped Islam, and though it is a nominal
vassal of China, direct Chinese influence has not been strong. The most
striking feature is the religion, a corrupt form of late Indian
Buddhism, known as Lamaism, which, largely in consequence of the favour
shown by Jenghiz Khan and his successors, has attained temporal power
and developed into an ecclesiastical state curiously like the papacy.

17. _Mongols._--Such civilization as the Mongols possess is a mixture of
Chinese and Indian, the latter derived chiefly through Tibet, but their
alphabet is a curious instance of transplantation. It is an adaptation
of the Syriac writing introduced by the early Nestorian missionaries.

Literature, art, science.

18. Almost all Asiatic countries have a literature, but it is often not
indigenous and consists of foreign works, chiefly religious, read either
in translations or the original. Thus with the exception of a little
folklore the literature of Indo-China, Tibet, Mongolia, Korea and
Manchuria is mainly Indian or Chinese. The chief original literatures
are Chinese, Sanskrit, Pali, Arabic and Persian. The Japanese have
produced few books of importance, and their compositions are chiefly
remarkable as being lighter and more secular than is usual in Asia, but
the older Chinese works take high rank both for their merits and the
effect they have had. The extensive Sanskrit literature, which has
reached in translations China, Japan and Java, is chiefly theological
and poetical, history being conspicuously absent. India has also a
considerable medieval and modern literature in various languages. Pali,
though only a form of Hindu literature, has a separate history, for it
died in India and was preserved in Ceylon, whence it was imported to
Burma and Siam as the language of religion. The Pali versions of
Buddha's discourses are among the most remarkable products of Asia. The
literatures of all Moslem peoples are largely inspired by Arabic, which
has produced a voluminous collection of works in prose and poetry.
Persian, after being itself transformed by Arabic, has in its turn
largely influenced all west Asiatic Moslem literature from Hindustani to
Turkish.

If one excepts the Old Testament, which is a product of the extreme west
of Asia, it is remarkable how small has been the influence of Asiatic
literature on Europe. Though Greek and Slavonic almost ceased to be
written languages under Turkish rule, Europeans showed no disposition to
replace them by Ottoman or Arabic literature.

Without counting subdivisions there would seem to be three main schools
of art in Asia at present--Chinese, Indian and Moslem. The first
contains many original elements. It is feeblest in architecture and
strongest in the branches demanding skill and care in a limited compass,
such as painting, porcelain and enamel. It is the main inspiration of
Japanese art, which, however, shows great originality in its treatment
of borrowed themes. Both China and Japan have felt through Buddhism the
influence of Indian art, which contains at least two elements--one
indigenous and the other Greco-Persian. Unlike Chinese art it has a
genius for architecture and sculpture rather than painting. Mahommedan
art is also largely architectural and has affected nearly all Moslem
countries. Except that the use of Arabic inscriptions is one of its
principal methods of decoration, it owes little to Arabia and much to
Byzantium. The Persian variety of this art is more ornate, and less
averse to representations of living beings. Both Moslem and Chinese art
are closely connected with calligraphy, but Hindus rarely use writing
for ornament.

In both art and literature modern Asia is inferior to the past more
conspicuously than Europe.

As for science, astronomy was cultivated by the Babylonians at an early
period, and it is probably from them that a knowledge of the heavenly
bodies and their movements spread over Asia. Grammar and prosody were
studied in India with a marvellous accuracy and minuteness several
centuries before Christ. Mathematics were cultivated by the Chinese,
Indians and Arabs, but nearly all the sciences based on the observation
of nature, including medicine, have remained in a very backward
condition. Much the same, however, might have been said of Europe until
two centuries ago, and the scientific knowledge of the Arabs under the
earlier Caliphates was equal or superior to that of any of their
contemporaries. Histories and accounts of travels have been composed
both in Arabic and Chinese.

Influence of Asia on other continents.

19. It is only natural that Europe should have chiefly felt the
influence of western Asia. Though Europeans may be indebted to China for
some mechanical inventions, she was too distant to produce much direct
effect, and the influence of India has been mainly directed towards the
East. The resemblances between primitive Christianity and Buddhism
appear to be coincidences, and though both early Greek philosophy and
later Alexandrine ideas suggest Indian affinities, there is no clear
connexion such as there is between certain aspects of Chinese thought
and India.

Any general statement as to the debt owed by early European
civilizations to western Asia would at present be premature, for though
important discoveries have been made in Crete and Babylonia the best
authorities are chary of positive conclusions as to the relations of
Cretan civilization to Egypt and Babylonia. Egyptian influence within
the Aegean area seems certain, and the theory that Greek writing and
systems for reckoning time are Babylonian in origin has not been
disproved, though the history of the alphabet is more complex than was
supposed.

In historic times Asia has attempted to assert her influence over Europe
by a series of invasions, most of which have been repulsed. Such were
the Persian wars of Greece, and perhaps one may add Hannibal's invasion
of Italy, if the Carthaginians were Phoenicians transplanted to Africa.
The Roman empire kept back the Persians and Parthians, but could not
prevent a series of incursions by Avars, Huns, Bulgarians, and later by
Mongols and Turks. Islam has twice obtained a footing in Europe, under
the Arabs in Spain and under the Turks at Constantinople. The earlier
Asiatic invasions were conducted by armies operating at a distance from
their bases, and had little result, for the soldiery retired after a
time (like Alexander from India), or more rarely (e.g. the Bulgarians)
settled down without keeping up any connexion with Asia. The Turks, and
to some extent the Arabs in Spain, were successful because they first
conquered the parts of Asia and Africa adjoining Europe, so that the
final invaders were in touch with Asiatic settlements. Though the Turks
have profoundly affected the whole of eastern Europe, the result of
their conquests has been not so much to plant Asiatic culture in Europe
as to arrest development entirely, the countries under their rule
remaining in much the same condition as under the moribund Byzantine
empire.

In general, Europe has in historic times shown itself decidedly hostile
to Asiatic institutions and modes of thought. It is only of recent years
that the writings of Schopenhauer and the researches of many
distinguished orientalists have awakened some interest in Asiatic
philosophy.

The influence of Asia on Africa has been considerable, and until the
middle of the 10th century greater than that of Europe. Some authorities
hold that Egyptian civilization came from Babylonia, and that the
so-called Hamitic languages are older and less specialized members of
the Semitic family. The connexion between Carthage and Phoenicia is more
certain, and the ancient Abyssinian kingdom was founded by Semites from
south Arabia. The traditions of the Somalis derive them from the same
region. The theory that the ruins in Mashonaland were built by
immigrants from south Arabia is now discredited, but there was certainly
a continuous stream of Arab migration to East Africa which probably
began in pre-Moslem times and founded a series of cities on the coast.
The whole of the north of Africa from Egypt to Morocco has been
mahommedanized, and Mahommedan influence is general and fairly strong
from Timbuktu to Lake Chad and Wadai. South of the equator, Arab
slave-dealers penetrated from Zanzibar to the great lakes and the Congo
during the second and third quarters of the 19th century, but their
power, though formidable, has disappeared without leaving any permanent
traces.

The relation to Asia of the pre-European civilizations of America is
another of those questions which admit of no definite answer at present,
though many facts support the theory that the semi-civilized inhabitants
of Mexico and Central America crossed from Asia by Bering Straits and
descended the west coast. Some authorities hold that Peruvian
civilization had no connexion with the north and was an entirely
indigenous product, but Kechua is in structure not unlike the
agglutinative languages of central and northern Asia.

Influence of Europe on Asia.

20. European influence on Asia has been specially strong at two epochs,
firstly after the conquests of Alexander the Great, and secondly from
the 16th century onwards. Alexander's conquests resulted in the
foundation of Perso-Greek kingdoms in Asia, which not only hellenized
their own area but influenced the art and religion of India and to some
extent of China. Then follows a long period in which eastern Europe was
mainly occupied in combating Asiatic invasions, and had little
opportunity of Europeanizing the East. Somewhat later the Crusades kept
up communication with the Levant, and established there the power of the
Roman Church, somewhat to the detriment of oriental Christianity, but
intercourse with farther Asia was limited to the voyages of a few
travellers. Looking at eastern Europe and western Asia only, one must
say that Asiatic influences have on the whole prevailed hitherto (though
perhaps the tide is turning), for Islam is paramount in this region and
European culture at a low ebb. But the case is quite different if one
looks at the two continents as a whole, for improvement in means of
communication has brought about strange vicissitudes, and western Europe
has asserted her power in middle and eastern Asia.

In the 16th century a new era began with the discovery by the Portuguese
of the route to India round the Cape, and the naval powers of Europe
started one after another on careers of oriental conquest. The movement
was maritime and affected the nations in the extreme west of Europe
rather than those nearer Asia, who were under the Turkish yoke. Also the
parts of Asia affected were chiefly India and the extreme East. The
countries west of India, being less exposed to naval invasion, remained
comparatively untouched. It will thus be seen that European (excluding
Russian) power in Asia is based almost entirely on improved navigation.
There was no attempt to overwhelm whole empires by pouring into them
masses of troops, but commerce was combined with territorial
acquisition, and a continuity of European interest secured by the
presence of merchants and settlers. The course of oriental conquest
followed the events of European politics, and the possessions of
European powers in the East generally changed hands according to the
fortunes of their masters at home. Portugal was first on the scene, and
in the 16th century established a considerable littoral empire on the
coasts of East Africa, India and China, fragments of which still remain,
especially Goa, where Portuguese influence on the natives was
considerable. Before the century was out the Dutch appeared as the
successful rivals of the Portuguese, but the real struggle for supremacy
in southern Asia took place between France and England about 1740-1783.
Both entered India as commercial companies, but the disorganized
condition of the Mogul empire necessitated the use of military force to
protect their interests, and allured them to conquest. The companies
gradually undertook the financial control of the districts where they
traded and were recognized by the natives as political powers. The
ultimate victory of England seems due less to any particular aptitude
for dealing with oriental problems than to a better command of the seas
and to considerations of European politics. At the end of the Napoleonic
wars Portugal had Macao and Goa, Holland Java, Sumatra and other
islands, France some odds and ends in India, while England emerged with
Hong Kong, Singapore, Ceylon and a free hand in India. Guided by such
administrators as Warren Hastings, the East India Company had assumed
more and more definitely the functions of government for a great part of
India. In 1809 its exclusive trading rights were taken away by
Parliament, but its administrative status was thus made clearer, and
when after the mutiny of 1857 it was desirable to define British
authority in India there seemed nothing unnatural in declaring it to be
a possession of the crown.

Another category of European possessions in Asia comprises those
acquired towards the end of the 19th century, such as Indo-China
(France), Burma and Wei-Hai-Wei (Britain), and Kiao-Chow (Germany).
Whereas the earlier conquests were mostly the results of large
half-conscious national movements working out their destinies in the
East, these later ones were annexations deliberately planned by European
cabinets. It seemed to be assumed that Asia was to be divided among the
powers of Europe, and each was anxious to get its share or more.

The advance of Russia in Asia is entirely different from that of the
other powers, since it has taken place by land and not by sea. Though
the geographical extent of Russian territory and influence is enormous,
she has always moved along the line of least resistance. She is a
moderately strong empire lying to the north of the great Moslem states,
and having for neighbours a series of very weak principalities or
semi-civilized tribes. The conquest of Siberia and central Asia
presented no real difficulties: Persia and Constantinople were left on
one side, and Russia was defeated as soon as she was opposed by a
vigorous power in the Far East. As the Russian possessions in Asia are
continuous with European Russia, it is only natural that they should
have been russified far more thoroughly than the British possessions
have been anglicized.

There has been great difference of opinion as to the extent to which
Alexander's conquests influenced Asia, and it is equally hard to say
what is the effect now being produced by Europe. Clearly such
alterations as the construction of railways in nearly all parts of the
continent, and the establishment of peace over formerly disturbed areas
like India, are of enormous importance, and must change the life of the
people. But the mental constitution of Asiatics is less easily modified
than their institutions, and even Japan has assimilated European methods
rather than European ideas. (C. El.)

AUTHORITIES.--The modern bibliography of Asia, including the works of
travellers and explorers since 1880, is voluminous. It is impossible
to refer to all that has been written in the Survey Reports and
Gazetteers of the government of India, or in the records of the Royal
Asiatic Society, or the Asiatic Society, Bengal; but amongst the more
important popular works are the following:--Richthofen, "China, Japan,
and Korea," vol. iv. _Jour. R.G.S._, _China_ (Berlin, 1877); Regel,
"Upper Oxus," vol. i. _Proc. R.G.S._, 1879; Dr Bellew, _Afghanistan
and the Afghans_ (London, 1879); Nicolas Prjevalski, "Explorations in
Asia," see vols. i., ii., v., ix. and xi. of the _Proc. R.G.S._,
1879-1889; W. Blunt, "A Visit to Jebel Shammar," vol ii. _Proc.
R.G.S._, 1880; Captain W Gill, _The River of Golden Sand_ (London,
1880); Sir R. Temple, "Central Plateau of Asia," vol. iv. _Proc.
R.G.S._ 1882; Baker, "A Journey of Exploration in Western Ssu-Chuan,"
vol. i. _Supplementary Papers R.G.S._, 1882-1885; Sir C. Wilson,
"Notes on Physical and Historical Geography of Asia Minor," vol. vi.
_Proc. R.G.S._, 1884; General J.T. Walker, "Asiatic Explorers of the
Indian Survey," vol. viii. _Proc. R.G.S._, 1885; Samuel Beal,
_Buddhist Records of the Western World_ (Boston, 1885); Charles
Doughty, _Travels in Northern Arabia_ (Cambridge, 1886); _Travels in
Arabia Deserta_ (Cambridge, 1888); Venukoff, "Explorations," vol.
viii. _Proc. G.R.S._, 1886; Ney Elias, "Explorations in Central Asia,"
see vols. viii. and ix. _Proc. R.G.S._, 1886-1887; Arthur Carey,
"Explorations in Turkestan," see vol. ix. _Proc. R.G.S._, 1887; Henry
Lansdell, _Through Central Asia_ (London, 1887); Archibald Colquhoun,
_Report on Railway Connexion between Burma and China_ (London, 1887);
Major C. Yate, _Northern Afghanistan_ (Edinburgh, 1888); Captain F.
Younghusband, _The Heart of a Continent_ (London, 1893); _A Journey
through Manchuria, &c._ (Lahore, 1888); also see vol. x. _Proc.
R.G.S._, and vol. v. _Jour. R.G.S._; Dutreuil de Rhins, _L'Asie
Centrale_ (Paris, 1889); Pierre Bonvalot, _Through the Heart of Asia_,
trans. Pitman (London, 1889); _From Paris to Tonkin_, trans. Pitman
(London, 1891); Roborovski, translation from Russian _Invalide_,
October 1889, vol. xii. _Proc. R.G.S._; "Central Asia," vol. viii.
_Jour. R.G.S._, 1896; Colonel Mark Bell, "Trade Routes of Asia," vol.
xii. _Proc. R.G.S._, 1890; W.W. Rockhill, "An American in Tibet,"
_Century Magazine_, November 1890; _The Land of the Lamas_ (London,
1891); Theodore Bent, "Hadramut," vol. iv. _Jour. R.G.S._, 1894;
"Southern Arabia," vol. vi. _Jour. R.G.S._, 1896; "Bahrein Islands,"
vol. xii. _Proc. R.G.S._, 1890; Grombcherski, "Explorations in Kuen
Lun," vol. xii. _Proc. R.G.S._, 1890; Lydekker, "The Geology of the
Kashmir Valley and Chamba Territories," vols. xiii. and xiv.
_Geological Survey of India_; Max Müller, _The Sacred Books of the
East_ (Oxford, 1890-1894); Elisée Reclus, _The Earth and its
Inhabitants_ (series, 1890); G.W. Leitner, _Dardistan_; H.F. Blanford,
_Elementary Geography of India, Burma, and Ceylon_ (London, 1890);
_Guide to the Climate and Weather of India_ (London, 1889); Lord
Dunmore, _The Pamirs_ (London, 1892); A. Tissandier, _Voyage au tour
du monde_ (Paris, 1892); Lord Curzon, _Persia and the Persian
Question_ (London, 1892); _Russia and the Anglo-Russian Question_
(London, 1889); _Problems of the Far East_ (London, 1894); Captain
Hamilton Bower, _Diary of a Journey across Tibet_ (Calcutta, 1893);
Szechenyi, _Die wissenschaftlichen Ergebnisse der Reise des Grafen
Béla Szechenyi in Ostasien_ (Wien, 1893); R.D. Oldham, "Evolution of
Indian Geology," vol. iii. _Jour. R.G.S._, 1894; Baron Toll,
"Siberia," vol. iii. _Jour. R.G.S._, 1894; Delmar Morgan, "The
Mountain Systems of Central Asia," _Scottish Geological Magazine_, No.
10, of 1894; Sir Frederick Goldsmid, "Persian Geography," vol. vi.
_Jour. R.G.S._, 1895; Warrington Smyth, "Siam," vol. vi. _Jour.
R.G.S._, 1895; "Siamese East Coast," vol xi. _Jour._ 1898; Prince
Kropotkin, "Siberian Railway," vol. v. _R.G.S. Jour._, 1895; W.R.
Lawrence, _The Vale of Kashmir_ (Oxford, 1895); Captain Vaughan,
"Persia," vol. viii. _Jour. R.G.S._, 1896; Prince H. d'Orleans, "Yunan
to India," vol. vii. _Jour. R.G.S._, 1896; "Tonkin to Talifu," vol.
viii. _Jour. R.G.S._, 1896; Sir T. Holdich, "Ancient and Medieval
Makran," vol. vii. _Jour. R.G.S._, 1896; _The Indian Borderland_
(London, 1901); India (Oxford, 1904); Colonel Woodthorpe, "Shan
States," vol. vii. _Jour. R.G.S._, 1896; _Report of the Pamir Boundary
Commission_ (Calcutta, 1896); St George Littledale, "Journey Across
the Pamirs from North to South," vol. iii. _Jour. R.G.S._, 1894, and
vol. vii. _Jour. R.G.S._, 1896; Sir G. Robertson, _The Kafirs of the
Hindu Kush_ (London, 1896); Captain Stiffe, "Persian Gulf Trading
Centres," vols. viii., ix. and x. _Jour. R.G.S._, 1897; Ney Elias and
Ross, _A History of the Moghuls of Central Asia, from the
Tarskh-i-Rastisdi of Mirza Haidar_ (London, 1898); Grenard, _Mission
scientifique sur la Haute Asie_ (Paris, 1898); Dr Sven Hedin, _Through
Asia_ (London, 1898); Central Asia and Tibet (1903); _Geographie des
Hochlandes van Pamir_ (Berlin, 1894); Captain M.S. Wellby, "Through
Tibet," _R.G.S. Jour._, September 1898; Captain P.M. Sykes, "Persian
Explorations," vol. x. _Jour. R.G.S._, 1898; _Ten Thousand Miles in
Persia_ (1902); Kronshin, "Old Beds of the Oxus," _Jour. R.G.S._,
September 1898; Sir W. Hunter, _History of British India_, vol. i.
(London, 1898); Captain H. Deasy, "Western Tibet," vol. ix. _Jour.
R.G.S._; In Tibet and Chinese Turkestan (London, 1901); A. Little,
_The Far East_ (Oxford, 1905); Captain Rawling, _The Great Plateau_
(London, 1905); _Journal of the Royal Geogl. Society_, vols. xv. to
xxv. (1900-1905); Colonel A. Durand, _The Making of a Frontier_
(London, 1899); R. Cobbold, _Innermost Asia_ (London, 1900).
(T. H. H.*)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Authorities differ in their methods and results of computation of
these and other similar measurements.

ASIA, in a restricted sense, the name of the first Roman province east
of the Aegean, formed (133 B.C.) out of the kingdom left to the Romans
by the will of Attalus III. Philometor, king of Pergamum. It included
Mysia, Lydia, Caria and Phrygia, and therefore, of course, Aeolis, Ionia
and the Troad. In 84 B.C., on the close of the Mithradatic War, Sulla
reorganized the province, forming 40 _regiones_ for fiscal purposes, and
it was later divided into _conventus_. From 80 to 50 B.C. the upper
Maeander valley and all Phrygia, except the extreme north, were detached
and added to Cilicia. In 27 B.C. Asia was made a senatorial province
under a pro-consul. As the wealthiest of Roman provinces it had most to
gain by the _pax Romana_, and therefore welcomed the empire, and
established and maintained the most devout cult of Augustus by means of
the organization known as the _Koinon_ or Commune, a representative
council, meeting in the various _metropoleis_. In this cult the emperor
came to be associated with the common worship of the Ephesian Artemis.
By the reorganization of Diocletian, A.D. 297, Asia was broken up into
several small provinces, and one of these, of which the capital was
Ephesus, retained the name of the original province (see ASIA MINOR).

ASIA MINOR, the general geographical name for the peninsula, forming
part of the empire of Turkey, on the extreme west of the continent of
Asia, bounded on the N. by the Black Sea, on the W. by the Aegean, and
on the S. by the Mediterranean, and at its N.W. extremity only parted
from Europe by the narrow straits of the Bosporus and Dardanelles. On
the east, no natural boundary separates it from the Armenian plateau;
but, for descriptive purposes, it will suffice to take a line drawn from
the southern extremity of the Giaour Dagh, east of the Gulf of
Alexandretta along the crest of that chain, then along that of the
eastern Taurus to the Euphrates near Malatia, then up the river, keeping
to the western arm till Erzingan is reached, and finally bending north
to the Black Sea along the course of the Churuk Su, which flows out west
of Batum. This makes the Euphrates the main eastern limit, with radii to
the north-east angle of the Levant and the south-east angle of the Black
Sea, and roughly agrees with the popular conception of Asia Minor as a
geographical region. But it must be remembered that this term was not
used by classical geographers (it is first found in Orosius in the 5th
century A.D.), and is not in local or official use now. It probably
arose in the first instance from a vague popular distinction between the
continent itself and the Roman province of "Asia" (q.v.), which at one
time included most of the peninsula west of the central salt desert
(_Axylon_). The name _Anatolia_, in the form _Anadol_, is used by
natives for the western part of the peninsula (_cis Halym_) and not as
including ancient Cappadocia and Pontus. Before the reconstitution of
the provinces as _vilayets_ it was the official title of the principal
_eyalet_ of Asia Minor, and was also used more generally to include all
the peninsular provinces over which the beylerbey of Anadoli, whose seat
was at Kutaiah, had the same paramount military jurisdiction which the
beylerbey of "Rumili" enjoyed in the peninsular provinces of Europe. The
term "Anatolia" appears first in the work of Constantine Porphyrogenitus
(10th century).

The greatest length of Asia Minor, as popularly understood, is along
its north edge, 720 m. Along the south it is about 650 m. The greatest
breadth is 420 m. from _C. Kerembé_ to _C. Anamur_; but at the waist
of the peninsula, between the head of the Gulf of Alexandretta and the
southernmost bight of the Black Sea (at Ordu), it is not quite 300 m.
The greater portion of Asia Minor consists of a plateau rising
gradually from east to west, 2500 ft. to 4500 ft.; east of the Kizil
Irmak (Halys), the ground rises more sharply to the highlands of
Armenia (q.v.). On the south the plateau is buttressed by the Taurus
range, which stretches in a broken irregular line from the Aegean to
the Persian frontier. On the north the plateau is supported by a range
of varying altitude, which follows the southern coast of the Black Sea
and has no distinctive name. On the west the edge of the plateau is
broken by broad valleys, and the deeply indented coast-line throws out
long rocky promontories towards Europe. On the north, excepting the
deltas formed by the Kizil and Yeshil Irmaks, there are no
considerable coast plains, no good harbours except Sinope and Vona,
and no islands. On the west there are narrow coast plains of limited
extent, deep gulfs, which offer facilities for trade and commerce, and
a fringe of protecting islands. On the south are the isolated plains
of Pamphylia and Cilicia, the almost land-locked harbours of
Marmarice, Makri and Kekova, the broad bay of Adalia, the deep-seated
gulf of Alexandretta (Iskanderun), and the islands of Rhodes with
dependencies, Castelorizo and Cyprus.

_Mountains._--The Taurus range, perhaps the most important feature in
Asia Minor, runs the whole length of the peninsula on the south,
springing east of Euphrates in the Armeno-Kurdish highlands, and being
prolonged into the Aegean Sea by rocky promontories and islands. It
attains in Lycia an altitude of 10,500 ft., and in the Bulgar Dagh
(Cilicia) of over 10,000 ft. The average elevation is about 7000 ft.
East of the Bulgar Dagh the range is pierced by the Sihun and Jihun
rivers, and their tributaries, but its continuity is not broken. The
principal passes across the range are those over which Roman or
Byzantine roads ran:--(1) from Laodicea to Adalia (Attalia), by way of
the Khonas pass and the valley of the Istanoz Chai; (2) from Apamea or
from Pisidian Antioch to Adalia, by Isbarta and Sagalassus; (3) from
Laranda, by Coropissus and the upper valley of the southern
Calycadnus, to Germanicopolis and thence to Anemourium or Kelenderis;
(4) from Laranda, by the lower Calycadnus, to Claudiopolis and thence
to Kelenderis or Seleucia; (5) from Iconium or Caesarea Mazaca,
through the Cilician Gates (Gulek Boghaz, 3300 ft.) to Tarsus; (6)
from Caesarea to the valley of the Sarus and thence to Flaviopolis on
the Cilician Plain; (7) from Caesarea over Anti-Taurus by the Kuru
Chai to Cocvsus (Geuksun) and thence to Germanicia (Marash). Large
districts on the southern slopes of the Taurus chain are covered with
forests of oak and fir, and there are numerous _yailas_ or grassy
"alps," with abundant water, to which villagers and nomads move with
their flocks during the summer months.

Anti-Taurus is a term of rather vague and doubtful application, (a)
Some have regarded it as meaning the more or less continuous range
which buttresses up the central plateau on the north, parallel to the
Taurus, (b) Others take it to mean the line of heights and mountain
peaks which separates the waters running to the Black Sea and the
Anatolian plateau from those falling to the Persian Gulf and the
Mediterranean. This has its origin in the high land, near the source
of the Kizil Irmak, and thence runs south-west towards the volcanic
district of Mt. Argaeus, which, however, can hardly be regarded as
orographically one with it. After a low interval it springs up again
at its southern extremity in the lofty sharp-peaked ridge of Ala Dagh
(11,000 ft.), and finally joins Taurus. (c) South of Sivas a line of
bare hills connects this chain with another range of high forest-clad
mountains, which loses itself southwards in the main mass of Taurus,
and is held to be the true Anti-Taurus by geographers. It throws off,
in the latitude of Kaisarieh, a subsidiary range, the Binboa Dagh,
which separates the waters of the Sihun from those of the Jihun. The
principal passes are those followed by the old roads:--(1) from
Sebasteia to Tephrike and the upper valley of the western Euphrates;
(2) from Sebasteia to Melitene, by way of the pass of Delikli Tash and
the basin of the Tokhma Su; (3) from Caesarea to Arabissus, by the
Kuru Chai and the valley of Cocysus (Geuksun). The range of Amanus
(Giaour Dagh) is separated from the mass of Taurus by the deep gorge
of the Jihun, whence it runs south-south-west to Ras el-Khanzir,
forming the limit between Cilicia and Syria, various parts bearing
different names, as Elma Dagh above Alexandretta. It attains its
greatest altitude in Kaya Duldul (6500 ft.), which rises abruptly from
the bed of the Jihun, and it is crossed by two celebrated passes:--(1)
the Amanides Pylae (Baghche Pass), through which ran the road from the
Cilician Plain to Apamea-Zeugma, on the Euphrates; (2) the Pylae
Syriae or "Syrian Gates" (Beilan Pass), through which passed the great
Roman highway from Tarsus to Syria. On the western edge of the plateau
several short ranges, running approximately east and west, rise above
the general level:--Sultan Dagh (6500 ft.); Salbacus-Cadmus (8000
ft.); Messogis (3600 ft.); Latmus (6000 ft.); Tmolus (5000 ft.);
Dindymus (8200 ft.); Ida (5800 ft.); and the Mysian Olympus (7600
ft.). The valleys of the Maeander, Hermus and Caicus facilitate
communication between the plateau and the Aegean, and the descent to
the Sea of Marmora along the valleys of the Tembris and Sangarius
presents no difficulties. The northern border range, though not
continuous, rises steadily from the west to its culmination in the
Galatian Olympus (Ilkaz Dagh), south of Kastamuni. East of the Kizil
Irmak there is no single mountain chain, but there are several short
ranges with elevations sometimes exceeding 9000 ft. The best routes
from the plateau to the Black Sea were followed by the Roman roads
from Tavium and Sebasteia to Sinope and Amisus, and those from
Sebasteia to Cotyora and Cerasus-Pharnacia, which at first ascend the
upper Halys. Several minor ranges rise above the level of the eastern
plateau, and in the south groups of volcanic peaks and cones extend
for about 150 m. from Kaisarieh (Caesarea) to Karaman. The most
important are Mt. Argaeus (Erjish Dagh, 13,100 ft.) above Kaisarieh
itself, the highest peak in Asia Minor; Ali Dagh (6200 ft.); Hassan
Dagh (8000 ft.); Karaja Dagh; and Kara Dagh (7500 ft.). On the west of
the plateau evidences of volcanic activity are to be seen in the
district of Kula (Katakekaumene), coated with recent erupted matter,
and in the numerous hot springs of the Lycus, Maeander, and other
valleys. Earthquakes are frequent all over the peninsula, but
especially in the south-east and west, where the Maeander valley and
the Gulf of Smyrna are notorious seismic foci. The centre of the
plateau is occupied by a vast treeless plain, the _Axylon_ of the
Greeks, in which lies a large salt lake, Tuz Geul. The plain is
fertile where cultivated, fairly supplied with deep wells, and in many
places covered with good pasture. Enclosed between the Taurus and
Amanus ranges and the sea are the fertile plains of Cilicia Pedias,
consisting in great part of a rich, stoneless loam, out of which rise
rocky crags that are crowned with the ruins of Greco-Roman and
Armenian strongholds, and of Pamphylia, partly alluvial soil, partly
travertine, deposited by the Taurus rivers.

_Rivers._--The rivers of Asia Minor are of no great importance. Some
do not flow directly to the sea; others find their way to the coast
through deep rocky gorges, or are mere torrents; and a few only are
navigable for boats for short distances from their mouths. They cut so
deep into the limestone formation of the plateau as to over-drain it,
and often they disappear into swallow holes (_duden_) to reappear
lower down. The most important rivers which flow to the Black Sea are
the following:--the Boas (Churuk Su) which rises near Baiburt, and
flows out near Batum; the Iris (Yeshil Irmak), with its tributaries
the Lycus (Kelkit Irmak), which rises on the Armenian plateau, the
Chekerek Irmak, which has its source near Yuzgat, and the Tersakan Su;
the Halys (Kizil Irmak) is the longest river in Asia Minor, with its
tributaries the Delije Irmak (Cappadox), which flows through the
eastern part of Galatia, and the Geuk Irmak, which has its sources in
the mountains above Kastamuni. With the exception of Sivas, no town
of importance lies in the valley of the Kizil Irmak throughout its
course of over 600 m. The Sangarius (Sakaria) rises in the Phrygian
mountains and, after many changes of direction, falls into the Black
Sea, about 80 m. east of the Bosporus. Its tributaries are the Pursak
Su (Tembris), which has its source in the Murad Dagh (Dindymus), and,
after running north to Eski-shehr, flows almost due east to the
Sakaria, and the Enguri Su, which joins the Sakaria a little below the
junction of the Pursak. To the Black Sea, about 40 m. east of Eregli,
also flows the Billaeus (Filiyas Chai). Into the Sea of Marmora run
the Rhyndacus (Edrenos Chai) and the Macestus (Susurlu Chai), which
unite about 12 m. from the sea. The most celebrated streams of the
Troad are the Granicus (Bigha Chai) and the Scamander (Menderes Su),
both rising in Mt. Ida (Kaz Dagh). The former flows to the Sea of
Marmora; the latter to the Dardanelles. The most northerly of the
rivers that flow to the Aegean is the Caicus (Bakir Chai), which runs
past Soma, and near Pergamum, to the Gulf of Chanderli. The Hermus
(Gediz Chai) has its principal sources in the Murad Dagh, and,
receiving several streams on its way, runs through the volcanic
district of Katakekaumene to the broad fertile valley through which it
flows past Manisa to the sea, near Lefke. So recently as about 1880 it
discharged into the Gulf of Smyrna, but the shoals formed by its
silt-laden waters were so obstructive to navigation that it was turned
back into its old bed. Its principal tributaries are--the Phrygius
(Kum Chai), which receives the waters of the Lycus (Gürduk Chai), and
the Cogamus (Kuzu Chai), which in its upper course is separated from
the valley of the Maeander by hills that were crossed by the Roman
road from Pergamum to Laodicea. The Caystrus (Kuchuk Menderes) flows
through a fertile valley between Mt. Tmolus and Messogis to the sea
near Ephesus, where its silt has filled up the port. The Maeander
(Menderes Chai) takes its rise in a celebrated group of springs near
Dineir, and after a winding course enters the broad valley, through
which it "meanders" to the sea. Its deposits have long since filled up
the harbours of Miletus, and converted the islands which protected
them into mounds in a swampy plain. Its principal tributaries are the
Glaucus, the Senarus (Banaz Chai), and the Hippurius, on the right
bank. On the left bank are the Lycus (Churuk Su), which flows
westwards by Colossae through a broad open valley that affords the
only natural approach to the eleated plateau, the Harpasus (Ak Chai),
and the Marsyas (China Chai). The rivers that flow to the
Mediterranean, with two exceptions, rise in Mt. Taurus, and have short
courses, but in winter and spring they bring down large bodies of
water. In Lycia are the Indus (Gereniz Chai), and the Xanthus (Eshen
Chai). The Pamphylian plain is traversed by the Cestrus (Ak Su), the
Eurymedon (Keupri Su), and the Melas (Menavgat Chai), which, where it
enters the sea, is a broad, deep stream, navigable for about 6 m. The
Calycadnus (Geuk Su) has two main branches which join near Mut and
flow south-east, and enter the sea, a deep rapid river, about 12 m.
below Selefke. The Cydnus (Tersous or Tarsus Chai) is formed by the
junction of three streams that rise in Mt. Taurus, and one of these
flows through the narrow gorge known as the Cilician Gates. After
passing Tarsus, the river enters a marsh which occupies the site of
the ancient harbour. The Cydnus is liable to floods, and its deposits
have covered Roman Tarsus to a depth of 20 ft. The Sarus (Sihun) is
formed by the junction of the Karmalas (Zamanti Su), which rises in
Uzun Yaila, and the Sarus (Saris), which has its sources in the hills
to the south of the same plateau. The first, after entering Mt.
Taurus, flows through a deep chasm walled in by lofty precipices, and
is joined in the heart of the range by the Saris. Before reaching the
Cilician Plain the river receives the waters of the Kerkhun Su, which
cuts through the Bulgar Dagh, and opens a way for the roads from the
Cilician Gates to Konia and Kaisarieh. After passing Adana, to which
point small craft ascend, the Sihun runs south-west to the sea. There
are, however, indications that at one period it flowed south-east to
join the Pyramus. The Pyramus (Jihun) has its principal source in a
group of large springs near Albistan; but before it enters Mt. Taurus
it is joined by the Sogutli Irmak, the Khurman Su and the Geuk Su. The
river emerges from Taurus, about 7 m. west of Marash, and here it is
joined by the Ak Su, which rises in some small lakes south of Taurus.
The Jihun now enters a remarkable defile which separates Taurus from
the Giaour Dagh, and reaches the Cilician Plain near Budrun. From this
point it flows west, and then south-west past Missis, until it makes a
bend to discharge its waters south of Ayas Bay. The river is navigable
as far as Missis. The only considerable tributary of the Euphrates
which comes within our region is the Tokhma Su, which rises in Uzun
Yaila and flows south-east to the main river not far from Malatia. In
the central and southern portions of the plateau the streams either
flow into salt lakes, where their waters pass off by evaporation, or
into freshwater lakes, which have no visible outlets. In the latter
cases the waters find their way beneath Taurus in subterranean
channels, and reappear as the sources of rivers flowing to the coast.
Thus the Ak Geul supplies the Cydnus, and the Beishehr, Egirdir and
Kestel lakes feed the rivers of the Pamphylian plain.

_Lakes._--The salt lakes are Tuz Geul (anc. _Tatta_), which lies in
the great central plain, and is about 60 m. long and 10 to 30 m. broad
in winter, but in the dry season it is hardly more than a saline
marsh; Buldur Geul, 2900 ft. above sea-level; and Aji-tuz Geul, 2600
ft. The freshwater lakes are Beishehr Geul (anc. _Karalis_), 3770 ft.,
a fine sheet of water 30 m. long, which discharges south-east to the
Soghla Geul; Egirdir Geul (probably anc. _Limnae_, a name which
included the two bays of Hoiran and Egirdir, forming the lake), 2850
ft., which is 30 m. long, but less broad than Beishehr and noted for
the abundance and variety of its fish. In the north-west portion of
Asia Minor are Isnik Geul (L. Ascania), Abulliont Geul (L. Apollonia),
and Maniyas Geul (L. Miletopolis).

_Springs._--Asia Minor is remarkable for the number of its thermal and
mineral springs. The most important are:--Yalova, in the Ismid sanjak;
Brusa, Chitli, Terje and Eskishehr, in the Brusa vilayet; Tuzla, in
the Karasi; Cheshme, Ilija, Hierapolis (with enormous alum deposits),
and Alashehr, in the Aidin; Terzili Hammam and Iskelib in the Angora;
Boli in the Kastamuni; and Khavsa, in the Sivas. Many of these were
famous in antiquity and occur in a list given by Strabo. The Maeander
valley is especially noted for its hot springs.

_Geology._--The central plateau of Asia Minor consists of nearly
horizontal strata, while the surrounding mountain chains form a
complex system, in which the beds are intensely folded. Around the
coast flat-lying deposits of Tertiary age are found, and these often
extend high up into the mountain region. The deposits of the central,
or Lycaonian, plateau consist of freshwater marls and limestones of
late Tertiary or Neogene age. Along the south-eastern margin, in front
of the Taurus, stands a line of great volcanoes, stretching from
Kara-Dagh to Argaeus. They are now extinct, but were probably active
till the close of the Tertiary period. On its southern side the
plateau is bounded by the high chains of the Taurus and the
Anti-Taurus, which form a crescent with its convexity facing
southwards. Devonian and Carboniferous fossils have been found in
several places in the Anti-Taurus. Limestones of Eocene or Cretaceous
age form a large part of the Taurus, but the interior zone probably
includes rocks of earlier periods. The folding of the Anti-Taurus
affects the Eocene but not the Miocene, while in the Taurus the
Miocene beds have been elevated, but without much folding, to great
heights. North of the Lycaonian plateau lies another zone of folding
which may be divided into the East Pontian and West Pontian arcs. In
the east a well-defined mountain system runs nearly parallel to the
Black Sea coast from Batum to Sinope, forming a gentle curve with its
convexity facing southwards. Cretaceous limestones and serpentine take
a large part in the formation of these mountains, while even the
Oligocene is involved in the folds. West of Sinope Cretaceous beds
form a long strip parallel to the shore line. Carboniferous rocks
occur at Eregli (Heraclea Pontica), where they have been worked for
coal. Devonian fossils have been found near the Bosporus and
Carboniferous fossils at Balia Maden in Mysia. Triassic, Jurassic and
Cretaceous beds form a band south of the Sea of Marmora, probably the
continuation of the Mesozoic band of the Black Sea coast. Farther
south there are zones of serpentine, and of crystalline and schistose
rocks, some of which are probably Palaeozoic. The direction of the
folds of this region is from west to east, but on the borders of
Phrygia and Mysia they meet the north-westerly extension of the Taurus
folds and bend around the ancient mass of Lydia. Marine Eocene beds
occur near the Dardanelles, but the Tertiary deposits of this part of
Asia Minor are mostly freshwater and belong to the upper part of the
system. In western Mysia they are much disturbed, but in eastern Mysia
they are nearly horizontal. They are often accompanied by volcanic
rocks, which are mainly andesitic, and they commonly lie unconformably
upon the older beds. In the western part of Asia Minor there are
several areas of ancient rocks about which very little is known. The
Taurus folds here meet another system which enters the region from the
Aegean Sea.

_Climate._--The climate is varied, but systematic observations are
wanting. On the plateau the winter is long and cold, and in the
northern districts there is much snow. The summer is very hot, but the
nights are usually cool. On the north coast the winter is cold, and
the winds, sweeping across the Black Sea from the steppes of Russia,
are accompanied by torrents of rain and heavy falls of snow. East of
Samsun, where the coast is partially protected by the Caucasus, the
climate is more moderate. In summer the heat is damp and enervating,
and, as Trebizond is approached, the vegetation becomes almost
subtropical. On the south coast the winter is mild, with occasional
frosts and heavy rain; the summer heat is very great. On the west
coast the climate is moderate, but the influence of the cold north
winds is felt as far south as Smyrna, and the winter at that place is
colder than in corresponding latitudes in Europe. A great feature of
summer is the _inbat_ or north wind, which blows almost daily, often
with the force of a gale, off the sea from noon till near sunset.

_Products, &c._--The mineral wealth of Asia Minor is very great, but
few mines have yet been opened. The minerals known to exist are--alum,
antimony, arsenic, asbestos, boracide, chrome, coal, copper, emery,
fuller's earth, gold, iron, kaolin, lead, lignite, magnetic iron,
manganese, meerschaum, mercury, nickel, rock-salt, silver, sulphur and
zinc. The vegetation varies with the climate, soil and elevation. The
mountains on the north coast are clothed with dense forests of pine,
fir, cedar, oak, beech, &c. On the Taurus range the forests are
smaller, and there is a larger proportion of pine. On the west coast
the ilex, plane, oak, valonia oak, and pine predominate. On the
plateau willows, poplars and chestnut trees grow near the streams,
but nine-tenths of the country is treeless, except for scrub. On the
south and west coasts the fig and olive are largely cultivated. The
vine yields rich produce everywhere, except in the higher districts.
The apple, pear, cherry and plum thrive well in the north; the orange,
lemon, citron and sugar-cane in the south; styrax and mastic in the
south-west; and the wheat lands of the Sivas vilayet can hardly be
surpassed. The most important vegetable productions are--cereals,
cotton, gum tragacanth, liquorice, olive oil, opium, rice, saffron,
salep, tobacco and yellow berries. Silk is produced in large
quantities in the vicinity of Brusa and Amasia, and mohair from the
Angora goat all over the plateau. The wild animals include bear, boar,
chamois, fallow red and roe deer, gazelle, hyena, ibex, jackal,
leopard, lynx, moufflon, panther, wild sheep and wolf. The native
reports of a maneless lion in Lycia (_arslan_) are probably based on
the existence of large panthers. Amongst the domestic animals are the
buffalo, the Syrian camel, and a mule camel, bred from a Bactrian sire
and Syrian mother. Large numbers of sheep and Angora goats are reared
on the plateau, and fair horses are bred on the Uzun Yaila; but no
effort is made to improve the quality of the wool and mohair or the
breed of horses. Good mules can be obtained in several districts, and
small hardy oxen are largely bred for ploughing and transport. The
larger birds are the bittern, great and small bustard, eagle,
francolin, goose; giant, grey and red-legged partridge, sand grouse,
pelican, pheasant, stork and swan. The rivers and lakes are well
supplied with fish, and the mountain streams abound with small trout.

The principal manufactures are:--Carpets, rugs, cotton, tobacco,
mohair and silk stuffs, soap, wine and leather. The exports
are:--Cereal, cotton, cotton seed, dried fruits, drugs, fruit, gall
nuts, gum tragacanth, liquorice root, maize, nuts, olive oil, opium,
rice, sesame, sponges, storax, timber, tobacco, valonia, walnut wood,
wine, yellow berries, carpets, cotton yarn, cocoons, hides, leather,
mohair, silk, silk stuffs, rugs, wax, wool, leeches, live stock,
minerals, &c. The imports are:--Coffee, cotton cloths, cotton goods,
crockery, dry-salteries, fezzes, glass-ware, haberdashery, hardware,
henna, ironware, jute, linen goods, manufactured goods, matches,
petroleum, salt, sugar, woollen goods, yarns, &c.

_Communications._--There are few metalled roads, and those that exist
are in bad repair, but on the plateau light carts can pass nearly
everywhere. The lines of railway now open are:--(1) From Haidar Pasha
to Ismid, Eski-shehr and Angora; (2) from Mudania to Brusa; (3) from
Eski-shehr to Afium-Kara-hissar, Konia and Bulgurli, east of Eregli
(the first section of the Bagdad railway). These lines are worked by
the German _Gesellschaft der anatolischen Eisenbahnen_. (4) From
Smyrna to Manisa, Ala-shehr and Afium-Kara-hissar, with a branch line
from Manisa to Soma. This line is worked by a French company. (5) From
Smyrna to Aidin and Dineir, with branches to Odemish, Tireh, Sokia,
Denizli, Ishekli, Seidi Keui and Bouja, constructed and worked by an
English company. (6) From Mersina to Tarsus and Adana, an English line
under a control mainly French. There are two competing routes for the
eastern trade--one running inland from Constantinople (Haidar Pasha),
the other from Smyrna. The first is connected by ferry with the
European railway system; the second with the great sea routes from
Smyrna to Trieste, Marseilles and Liverpool. The right to construct
all railways in Armenia and north-eastern Asia Minor has been conceded
to Russia, and the Germans have a virtual monopoly of the central
plateau.

_Ethnology._--None of the conquering races that invaded Asia Minor,
whether from the east or from the west, wholly expelled or exterminated
the race in possession. The vanquished retired to the hills or absorbed
the victors. In the course of ages race distinction has been almost
obliterated by fusion of blood; by the complete Hellenization of the
country, which followed the introduction of Christianity; by the later
acceptance of Islam; and by migrations due to the occupation of
cultivated lands by the nomads. It will be convenient here to adopt the
modern division into Moslems, Christians and Jews:--(a) _Moslems._ The
Turks never established themselves in such numbers as to form the
predominant element in the population. Where the land was unsuitable for
nomad occupation the agricultural population remained, and it still
retains some of its original characteristics. Thus in Cappadocia the
facial type of the non-Aryan race is common, and in Galatia there are
traces of Gallic blood. The Zeibeks of the west and south-west are
apparently representatives of the Carians and Lycians; and the peasants
of the Black Sea coast range of the people of Bithynia, Paphlagonia and
Pontus. Wherever the people accepted Islam they called themselves Turks,
and a majority of the so-called "Turks" belong by blood to the races
that occupied Asia Minor before the Seljuk invasion. Turkish and
Zaza-speaking Kurds (see KURDISTAN) are found in the Angora and Sivas
vilayets. There are many large colonies of Circassians and smaller ones
of Noghai (Nogais), Tatars, Georgians, Lazis, Cossacks, Albanians and
Pomaks. East of Boghaz Keui there is a compact population of Kizilbash,
who are partly descendants of Shia Turks transplanted from Persia and
partly of the indigenous race. In the Cilician plain there are large
settlements of Nosairis who have migrated from the Syrian mountains (see
SYRIA). The nomads and semi-nomads are, for the most part,
representatives of the Turks, Mongols and Tatars who poured into the
country during the 350 years that followed the defeat of Romanus.
Turkomans are found in the Angora and Adana vilayets; Avshars, a tribe
of Turkish origin, in the valleys of Anti-Taurus; and Tatars in the
Angora and Brusa vilayets; Yuruks are most numerous in the Konia
vilayet. They speak Turkish and profess to be Moslems, but have no
mosques or imams. The Turkomans have villages in which they spend the
winter, wandering over the great plains of the interior with their
flocks and herds during the summer. The Yuruks on the contrary are a
truly nomad race. Their tents are made of black goats' hair and their
principal covering is a cloak of the same material. They are not limited
to the milder districts of the interior, but when the harvest is over,
descend into the rich plains and valleys near the coast. The Chepmi and
Takhtaji, who live chiefly in the Aidin vilayet, appear to be derived
from one of the early races. (b) _Christians._ The Greeks are in places
the descendants of colonists from Greece, many of whom, e.g. in
Pamphylia and the Smyrna district, are of very recent importation; but
most of them belong by blood to the indigenous races. These people
became "Greeks" as being subjects of the Byzantine empire and members of
the Eastern Church. On the west coast, in Pontus and to some extent of
late in Cappadocia, and in the mining villages, peopled from the
Trebizond Greeks, the language is Romaic; on the south coast and in many
inland villages (e.g. in Cappadocia) it is either Turkish, which is
written in Greek characters, or a Greco-Turkish jargon. In and near
Smyrna there are large colonies of Hellenes. Armenians are most numerous
in the eastern districts, where they have been settled since the great
migration that preceded and followed the Seljuk invasion. There are,
however, Armenians in every large town. In central and western Asia
Minor they are the descendants of colonists from Persia and Armenia (see
ARMENIA), (c) The _Jews_ live chiefly on the Bosporus; and in Smyrna,
Rhodes, Brusa and other western towns. _Gypsies_--some Moslem, some
Christian--are also numerous, especially in the south.

_History._--Asia Minor owes the peculiar interest of its history to its
geographical position. "Planted like a bridge between Asia and Europe,"
it has been from the earliest period a battleground between the East and
the West. The central plateau (2500 to 4500 ft.), with no navigable
river and few natural approaches, with its monotonous scenery and severe
climate, is a continuation of central Asia. The west coast, with its
alternation of sea and promontory, of rugged mountains and fertile
valleys, its bright and varied scenery, and its fine climate, is almost
a part of Europe. These conditions are unfavourable to permanence, and
the history of Asia Minor is that of the march of hostile armies, and
rise and fall of small states, rather than that of a united state under
an independent sovereign. At a very early period Asia Minor appears to
have been occupied by non-Aryan tribes or races which differed little
from each other in religion, language and social system. During the past
generation much light has been thrown upon one of these races--the
"Hittites" or "Syro-Cappadocians," who, after their rule had passed
away, were known to Herodotus as "White Syrians," and whose descendants
can still be recognised in the villages of Cappadocia.[1] The centre of
their power is supposed to have been Boghaz Keui (see PTERIA), east of
the Halys, whence roads radiated to harbours on the Aegean, to Sinope,
to northern Syria and to the Cilician plain. Their strange sculptures
and inscriptions have been found at Pteria, Euyuk, Fraktin, Kiz Hissar
(Tyana), Ivriz, Bulgar, Muden and other places between Smyrna and the
Euphrates (see HITTITES). When the great Aryan immigration from Europe
commenced is unknown, but it was dying out in the 11th and 10th
centuries B.C. In Phrygia the Aryans founded a kingdom, of which traces
remain in various rock tombs, forts and towns, and in legends preserved
by the Greeks. The Phrygian power was broken in the 9th or 8th century
B.C. by the Cimmerii, who entered Asia Minor through Armenia; and on its
decline rose the kingdom of Lydia, with its centre at Sardis. A second
Cimmerian invasion almost destroyed the rising kingdom, but the invaders
were expelled at last by Alyattes, 617 B.C. (see SCYTHIA). The last
king, Croesus (? 560-546 B.C.) carried the boundaries of Lydia to the
Halys, and subdued the Greek colonies on the coast. The date of the
foundation of these colonies cannot be fixed; but at an early period
they formed a chain of settlements from Trebizond to Rhodes, and by the
8th century B.C. some of them rivalled the splendour of Tyre and Sidon.
Too jealous of each other to combine, and too demoralized by luxury to
resist, they fell an easy prey to Lydia; and when the Lydian kingdom
ended with the capture of Sardis by Cyrus, 546 B.C. they passed, almost
without resistance, to Persia. Under Persian rule Asia Minor was divided
into four satrapies, but the Greek cities were governed by Greeks, and
several of the tribes in the interior retained their native princes and
priest-dynasts. An attempt of the Greeks to regain their freedom was
crushed, 500-494 B.C., but later the tide turned and the cities were
combined with European Greeks into a league for defence against the
Persians. The weakness of Persian rule was disclosed by the expedition
of Cyrus and the Ten Thousand Greeks, 402 B.C.; and in the following
century Asia Minor was invaded by Alexander the Great (q.v.), 334 B.C.
(See GREECE; PERSIA; IONIA.)

The wars which followed the death of Alexander eventually gave Asia
Minor to Seleucus, but none of the Seleucid kings was able to establish
his rule over the whole peninsula. Rhodes became a great maritime
republic, and much of the south and west coast belonged at one time or
another to the Ptolemies of Egypt. An independent kingdom was founded at
Pergamum, 283 B.C., which lasted until Attalus III., 133 B.C., made the
Romans his heirs. Bithynia became an independent monarchy, and
Cappadocia and Paphlagonia tributary provinces under native princes. In
southern Asia Minor the Seleucids founded Antioch, Apamea, Attalia, the
Laodiceas and Seleuceias, and other cities as centres of commerce, some
of which afterwards played an important part in the Hellenization (see
HELLENISM) of the country, and in the spread of Christianity. During the
3rd century, 278-277 B.C., certain Gallic tribes crossed the Bosporus
and Hellespont, and established a Celtic power in central Asia Minor.
They were confined by the victories of Attalus I. of Pergamum, c. 232
B.C., to a district on the Sangarius and Halys to which the name Galatia
was applied; and after their defeat by Manlius, 189 B.C., they were
subjected to the suzerainty of Pergamum (see GALATIA).

The defeat of Antiochus the Great at Magnesia, 190 B.C., placed Asia
Minor at the mercy of Rome; but it was not until 133 that the first
Roman province, Asia, was formed to include only western Anatolia,
without Bithynia. Errors in policy and in government facilitated the
rise of Pontus into a formidable power under Mithradates, who was
finally driven out of the country by Pompey, and died 63 B.C. Under the
settlement of Asia Minor by Pompey, Bithynia-Pontus and Cilicia became
provinces, whilst Galatia and Cappadocia were allowed to retain nominal
independence for over half a century more under native kings, and Lycia
continued an autonomous League. A long period of tranquillity followed,
during which the Roman dominion grew, and all Asia Minor was divided
into two provinces. The boundaries were often changed; and about A.D.
297, in Diocletian's reorganization of the empire, the power of the
great military commands was broken, and the provinces were made smaller
and united in groups called dioceses. A great change followed the
introduction of Christianity, which spread first along the main roads
that ran north and west from the Cilician Gates, and especially along
the great trade route to Ephesus. In some districts it spread rapidly,
in others slowly. With its advance the native languages and old
religions gradually disappeared, and at last the whole country was
thoroughly Hellenized, and the people united by identity of language and
religion.

At the close of the 6th century Asia Minor had become wealthy and
prosperous; but centuries of peace and over-centralization had affected
the _moral_ of the people and weakened the central government. During
the 7th century the provincial system broke down, and the country was
divided into _themes_ or military districts. From 616 to 626 Persian
armies swept unimpeded over the land, and Chosroes (Khosrau) II. pitched
his camp on the shore of the Bosporus. The victories of Heraclius forced
Chosroes to retire; but the Persians were followed by the Arabs, who,
advancing with equal ease, laid siege to Constantinople, A.D. 668. It
almost appeared as if Asia Minor would be annexed to the dominion of the
Caliph. But the tide of conquest was stemmed by the iconoclast emperors,
and the Arab expeditions, excepting those of Harun al-Rashid, 781 and
806, and of el-Motasim, 838, became simply predatory raids. In the 10th
century the Arabs were expelled. They never held more than the districts
along the main roads, and in the intervals of peace the country rapidly
recovered itself. But a more dangerous enemy was soon to appear on the
eastern border.

In 1067 the Seljuk Turks ravaged Cappadocia and Cilicia; in 1071 they
defeated and captured the emperor Romanus Diogenes, and in 1080 they
took Nicaea. One branch of the Seljuks founded the empire of Rum, with
its capital first at Nicaea and then at Iconium. The empire, which at
one time included nearly the whole of Asia Minor, with portions of
Armenia and Syria, passed to the Mongols when they defeated the sultan
of Rum in 1243, and the sultans became vassals of the Great Khan. The
Seljuk sultans were liberal patrons of art, literature and science, and
the remains of their public buildings and tombs are amongst the most
beautiful and most interesting in the country. The marches of the
Crusaders across Asia Minor left no permanent impression. But the
support given by the Latin princes to the Armenians in Cilicia
facilitated the growth of the small warlike state of Lesser Armenia,
which fell in 1375 with the defeat and capture of Leo VI. by the
Mameluke sultan of Egypt. The Mongols were too weak to govern the
country they had conquered, and the vassalage of the last sultan of Rum,
who died in 1307, was only nominal. On his death the Turkoman governors
of his western provinces drove out the Mongols and asserted their
independence. A contest for supremacy followed, which eventually ended
in favour of the Osmanli Turks of Brusa. In 1400 Sultan Bayezid I. held
all Asia Minor west of the Euphrates; but in 1402 he was defeated and
made prisoner by Timur, who swept through the country to the shores of
the Aegean. On the death of Timur Osmanli supremacy was re-established
after a prolonged straggle, which ended with the annexation by Mahommed
II. (1451-1481) of Karamania and Trebizond, and the abandonment of the
last of the Italian trading settlements which had studded the coast
during the 13th and 14th centuries. The later history of Asia Minor is
that of the Turkish empire. The most important event was the advance
(1832-1833) of an Egyptian army, under Ibrahim Pasha, through the
Cilician Gates to Konia and Kutaiah.

The defeat of the emperor Romanus (1071) initiated a change in the
condition of Asia Minor which was to be complete and lasting. A long
succession of nomad Turkish tribes, pressing forward from central Asia,
wandered over the rich country in search of fresh pastures for their
flocks and herds. They did not plunder or ill-treat the people, but they
cared nothing for town life or for agricultural pursuits, and as they
passed onward they left the country bare. Large districts passed out of
cultivation and were abandoned to the nomads, who replaced wheeled
traffic by the pack horse and the camel. The peasants either became
nomads themselves or took refuge in the towns or the mountains. The
Mongols, as they advanced, sacked towns and laid waste the agricultural
lands. Timur conducted his campaigns with a ruthless disregard of life
and property. Entire Christian communities were massacred, flourishing
towns were completely destroyed, and all Asia Minor was ravaged. From
these disasters the country never recovered, and the last traces of
Western civilization disappeared with the enforced use of the Turkish
language and the wholesale conversions to Islam under the earliest
Osmanli sultans. The recent large increase of the Greek population in
the western districts, the construction of railways, and the growing
interests of Germany and Russia on the plateau seem, however, to
indicate that the tide is again turning in favour of the West.

[Illustration: Asia Minor map.]

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--1. GENERAL AUTHORITIES:--C. Texier, _Asie Mineure_
(1843); P. Tchihatcheff, _Asie Mineure_ (1853-1860); C. Ritter,
_Erdkunde_, vols. xviii. xix. (1858-1859); W.J. Hamilton, _Researches
in Asia Minor_ (1843); E. Reclus. _Nouv. Géog. Univ._ vol. ix. (1884);
V. Cuinet, _La Turquie d'Asie_ (1890); W.M. Ramsay, _Hist. Geog. of A.
M._ (1890); Murray's _Handbook for A. M. &c._, ed. by Sir C. Wilson
(1895). For GEOLOGY see Tchihatcheff, _Asie Mineure, Géologie_ (Paris,
1867-1869); Schaffer, _Cilicia, Peterm. Mitt. Ergänzungsheft_, 141
(1903); Philippson, _Sitz. k. preuss. Akad. Wiss._ (1903), pp.
112-124; English, _Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc._ (London, 1904), pp.
243-295; see also Suess, _Das Antlitz der Erde_, vol. iii. pp.
402-412, and the accompanying references.

2. A. _Western Asia Minor._--J. Spon and G. Wheler, _Voyage du Levant_
(1679); P. de Tournefort, _Voyage du Levant_ (1718); F. Beaufort,
_Ionian Antiquities_ (1811); R. Chandler, _Travels_ (1817); W.M.
Leake, _Journal of a Tour in A. M._ (1820); F.V.J. Arundell, _Visit to
the Seven Churches_ (1828), and _Discoveries, &c._ (1834); C. Fellows,
_Excursion in A. M._ (1839); C.T. Newton, _Travels_ (1867), and
_Discoveries at Halicarnassus, &c._ (1863); Dilettanti Society,
_Ionian Antiquities_ (1769-1840); J.R.S. Sterrett, _Epigr. Journey_
and _Wolfe Exped._ (Papers, Amer. Arch. Inst. ii. iii.) (1888); J.H.
Skene, _Anadol_ (1853); G. Radet, _Lydie_ (1893); O. Rayet and A.
Thomas, _Milet et le Golfe Latmique_ (1872); K. Buresch, _Aus Lydien_
(1898); W.M. Ramsay, _Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia_ (1895), and
_Impressions of Turkey_ (1898).

B. _Eastern Asia Minor._--W.F. Ainsworth, _Travels in A. M._ (1842);
G. Perrot and E. Guillaume, _Expl. arch, de la Galatie_ (1862-1872);
E.J. Davis, _Anatolica_ (1874); H.F. Tozer, _Turkish Armenia_ (1881);
H.J. v. Lennep, _Travels_ (1870); D.G. Hogarth, _Wandering Scholar_
(1896); Lord Warkworth, _Notes of a Diary, &c._ (1898); E. Sarre,
_Reise_ (1896); D.G. Hogarth and J.A.R. Munro, _Mod. and Anc. Roads_
(R.G.S. Supp. Papers iii.) (1893); H.C. Barkley, _A Ride through A. M.
and Armenia_ (1891); M. Sykes, _Dar ul-Islam_ (1904); E. Chantre,
_Mission en Cappadocie_ (1898).

C. _Southern Asia Minor._--F. Beaufort, _Karamania_ (1817); C.
Fellows, _Discoveries in Lycia_ (1841); T.A.B. Spratt and E. Forbes,
_Travels in Lycia_ (1847); V. Langlois, _Voy. dans la Cilicie_ (1861);
E.J. Davis, _Life in Asiatic Turkey_ (1879); O. Benndorf and E.
Niemann, _Lykien_ (1884); C. Lanckoronski, _Villes de la Pamphylie et
de la Pisidie_ (1890); F. v. Luschan, _Reisen in S.W. Kleinasien_
(1888); E. Petersen and F. v. Luschan, _Lykien_ (1889); K. Humann and
O. Puchstein, _Reisen in Kleinasien und Nordsyrien_ (1890).

D. _Northern Asia Minor._--J.M. Kinneir, _Journey through A. M._
(1818); J.G.C. Anderson and F. Cumont, _Studia Pontica_ (1903); E.
Naumann, _Vom Goldenen Horn, &c._ (1893).

See also G. Perrot and C. Chipiez, _Hist. de l'art dans l'antiquité_,
vols. iv. v. (1886-1890); J. Strzygowski, _Kleinasien, &c._ (1903).
Also numerous articles in all leading archaeological periodicals, the
_Geographical Journal_, _Deutsche Rundschau_, _Petermann's Geog.
Mitteilungen_, &c. &c.

3. MAPS.--H. Kiepert, _Nouv. carte gén. des prov. asiat. de l'Emp.
ottoman_ (1894), and _Spezialkarte v. Westkleinasien_ (1890); W. von
Diest, _Karte des Nordwestkleinasien_ (1901); R. Kiepert, _Karte von
Kleinasien_ (1901); E. Friederich, _Handels- und Produktenkarte von
Kleinasien_ (1898); J.G.C. Anderson, _Asia Minor_ (Murray's Handy
Class. Maps) (1903). (C. W. W.; D. G. H.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The people, Moslem and Christian, are physically one and appear
to be closely related to the modern Armenians. This relationship is
noticeable in other districts, and the whole original population of
Asia Minor has been characterized as Proto-Armenian or Armenoid.

ASIENTO, or ASSIENTO (from the verb _asentar_, to place, or establish),
a Spanish word meaning a farm of the taxes, or contract. The farmer or
contractor is called an _asentista_. The word acquired a considerable
notoriety in English and American history, on account of the "Asiento
Treaty" of 1713. Until 1702 the Spanish government had given the
contract for the supply of negroes to its colonies in America to the
Genoese. But after the establishment of the Bourbon dynasty in 1700, a
French company was formed which received the exclusive privilege of the
Spanish-American slave trade for ten years--from September 1702 to 1712.
When the peace of Utrecht was signed the British government insisted
that the monopoly should be given to its own subjects. By the terms of
the Asiento treaty signed on the 16th of March 1713, it was provided
that British subjects should be authorized to introduce 144,000 slaves
in the course of thirty years, at the rate of 4800 per annum. The
privilege was to expire on the 1st of May 1743. British subjects were
also authorized to send one ship of 500 tons per annum, laden with
manufactured goods, to the fairs of Porto Bello and La Vera Cruz. Import
duties were to be paid for the slaves and goods. This privilege was
conveyed by the British government to the South Sea Company, formed to
work it. The privilege, to which an exaggerated value was attached,
formed the solid basis of the notorious fit of speculative fever called
the South Sea Bubble. Until 1739 the trade in blacks went on without
interruption, but amid increasingly angry disputes between the Spanish
and the British governments. The right to send a single trading ship to
the fairs of Porto Bello or La Vera Cruz was abused. Under pretence of
renewing her provisions she was followed by tenders which in fact
carried goods. Thus there arose what was in fact a vast contraband
trade. The Spanish government established a service of revenue boats
(_guarda costas_) which insisted on searching all English vessels
approaching the shores of the Spanish colonies. There can be no doubt
that the smugglers were guilty of many piratical excesses, and that the
_guarda costas_ often acted with violence on mere suspicion. After many
disputes, in which the claims of the British government were met by
Spanish counterclaims, war ensued in 1739. When peace was made at
Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 Spain undertook to allow the asiento to be
renewed for the four years which were to run when war broke out in 1739.
But the renewal for so short a period was not considered advantageous,
and by the treaty of El Retiro of 1750, the British government agreed to
the recession of the Asiento treaty altogether on the payment by Spain
of £100,000.

A very convenient account of the Asiento Treaty, and of the trade
which arose under it, will be found in Malachy Postlethwayt's
_Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce_ (London, 1751), s.v.

ASIR, a district in western Arabia, lying between 17° 30' and 21° N.,
and 40° 30' and 45° E.; bounded N. by Hejaz, E. by Nejd, S. by Yemen and
W. by the Red Sea. Like Yemen, it consists of a lowland zone some 20 or
30 m. in width along the coast, and of a mountainous tract, falling
steeply on the west and merging into a highland plateau which slopes
gradually to the N.E. towards the Nejd steppes. Its length along the
coast is about 230 m., and its breadth from the coast to El Besha about
180. The lowland, or Tehama, is hot and barren; the principal places in
it are Kanfuda, the chief port of the district, Marsa Hali and El Itwad,
smaller ports farther south. The mountainous tract has probably an
average altitude of between 6000 and 7000 ft., with a temperate climate
and regular rainfall, and is fertile and populous. The valleys are well
watered and produce excellent crops of cereals and dates. The best-known
are the Wadi Taraba and the W. Besha, both running north-east towards
the W. Dawasir in Nejd. Taraba, according to John Lewis Burckhardt, is a
considerable town, surrounded by palm groves and gardens, and watered by
numerous rivulets, and tamous for its long resistance to Mehemet Ali's
forces in 1815. Five or six days' journey to the south-east is the
district of Besha, the most important position between Sana and Taif.
Here Mehemet Ali's army, amounting to 12,000 men, found sufficient
provisions to supply it during a fortnight's halt. The Wadi Besha is a
broad valley abounding with streams containing numerous hamlets
scattered over a tract some six or eight hours' journey in length. Its
principal affluent, the W. Shahran, rises 120 m. to the south and runs
through the fertile district of Khamis Mishet, the highest in Asir. The
Zahran district lies four days west of Besha on the crest of the main
range: the principal place is Makhwa, a large town and market, from
which grain is exported in considerable quantities to Mecca. Farther
south is the district of Shamran. Throughout the mountainous country the
valleys are well watered and cultivated, with fortified villages perched
on the surrounding heights. Juniper forests are said to exist on the
higher mountains. Three or four days' journey east and south-east of
Besha are the encampments of the Bani Kahtan, one of the most ancient
tribes of Arabia; their pastures extend into the adjoining district of
Nejd, where they breed camels in large numbers, as well as a few horses.

The inhabitants are a brave and warlike race of mountaineers, and aided
by the natural strength of their country they have hitherto preserved
their independence. Since the beginning of the 19th century they have
been bigoted Wahhabis, though previously regarded by their neighbours as
very lax Mahommedans; during Mehemet Ali's occupation of Nejd their
constant raids on the Egyptian communications compelled him to send
several punitive expeditions into the district, which, however, met with
little success. Since the reconquest of Yemen by the Turks, they have
made repeated attempts to subjugate Asir, but beyond occupying Kanfuda,
and holding one or two isolated points in the interior, of which Ibha
and Manadir are the principal, they have effected nothing.

The chief sources of information regarding Asir are the notes made by
J.L. Burckhardt at Taif in 1814 and those of the French officers with
the Egyptian expeditions into the country from 1814 to 1837. No part of
Arabia would better repay exploration.

AUTHORITIES.--J.L. Burckhardt, _Travels in Arabia_ (London, 1829); F.
Mengin, _Histoire de l'Égypte_, &c. (Paris, 1823); M.O. Tamisier,
_Voyage en Arabie_ (Paris, 1840). (R. A. W.)

ASISIUM (mod. _Assisi_), an ancient town of Umbria, in a lofty situation
about 15 m. E.S.E. of Perusia. As an independent community it had
already begun to use Latin as well as Umbrian in its inscriptions (for
one of these recording the chief magistrates--_marones_--see _C.I.L._
xi. 5390). It became a _municipium_ in 90 B.C., but, though numerous
inscriptions (_C.I.L._ xi. 5371-5606) testify to its importance in the
Imperial period, it is hardly mentioned by our classical authorities.
Scanty traces of the ancient city walls may be seen; within the town the
best-preserved building is the so-called temple of Minerva, with six
Corinthian columns of travertine, now converted into a church, erected
by Gaius and Titus Caesius in the Augustan era. It fronted on to the
ancient forum, part of the pavement of which, with a base for the
equestrian statues of Castor and Pollux (as the inscription upon it
records) has been laid bare beneath the present Piazza Vittorio
Emanuele. The remains of the amphitheatre, in _opus reticulatum_, may be
seen in the north-east corner of the town; and other ancient buildings
have been discovered. Asisium was probably the birthplace of Propertius.
(T. As.)

ASKABAD, or ASKHABAD, a town of Russian central Asia, capital of the
Transcaspian province, 345 m. by rail S.E. of Krasnovodsk and 594 from
Samarkand, situated in a small oasis at the N. foot of the Kopet-dagh
range. It has a public library and a technical railway school; also
cotton-cleaning works, tanneries, brick-works, and a mineral-water
factory. The trade is valued at £250,000 a year. The population, 2500 in
1881, when the Russians seized it, was 19,428 in 1897, one-third
Persians, many of them belonging to the Babi sect.

ASKAULES (Gr. [Greek: askaulaes] [?] from [Greek: askos], bag, [Greek:
aulos], pipe), probably the Greek word for bag-piper, although there is
no documentary authority for its use. Neither it nor [Greek: askaulos]
(which would naturally mean the bag-pipe) has been found in Greek
classical authors, though J.J. Reiske--in a note on Dio Chrysostom,
_Orat._ lxxi. _ad fin._, where an unmistakable description of the
bag-pipe occurs ("and they say that he is skilled to write, to work as
an artist, and to play the pipe with his mouth, on the bag placed under
his arm-pits")--says that [Greek: askaulaes] was the Greek word for
bag-piper. The only actual corroboration of this is the use of
_ascaules_ for the pure Latin _utricularius_ in Martial x. 3. 8. Dio
Chrysostom flourished about A.D. 100; it is therefore only an assumption
that the bag-pipe was known to the classical Greeks by the name of
[Greek: askaulos]. It need not, however, be a matter of surprise that
among the highly cultured Greeks such an instrument as the bag-pipe
should exist without finding a place in literature. It is significant
that it is not mentioned by Pollux (_Onomast._ iv. 74) and Athenaeus
(_Deipnos._ iv. 76) in their lists of the various kinds of pipes.

See articles AULOS and BAG-PIPE; art. "Askaules" in Pauly-Wissowa,
_Realencyclopadie_.

ASKE, ROBERT (d. 1537), English rebel, was a country gentleman who
belonged to an ancient family long settled in Yorkshire, his mother
being a daughter of John, Lord Clifford. When in 1536 the insurrection
called the "Pilgrimage of Grace" broke out in Yorkshire, Aske was made
leader; and marching with the banner of St Cuthbert and with the badge
of the "five wounds," he occupied York on the 16th of October and on the
20th captured Pontefract Castle, with Lord Darcy and the archbishop of
York, who took the oath of the rebels. He caused the monks and nuns to
be reinstated, and refused to allow the king's herald to read the royal
proclamation, announcing his intention of marching to London to declare
the grievances of the commons to the sovereign himself, secure the
expulsion of counsellors of low birth, and obtain restitution for the
church. The whole country was soon in the hands of the rebels, a
military organization with posts from Newcastle to Hull was established,
and Hull was provided with cannon. Subsequently Aske, followed by 30,000
or 40,000 men, proceeded towards Doncaster, where lay the duke of
Norfolk with the royal forces, which, inferior in numbers, would
probably have been overwhelmed had not Aske persuaded his followers to
accept the king's pardon, and the promise of a parliament at York and to
disband. Soon afterwards he received a letter from the king desiring him
to come secretly to London to inform him of the causes of the rebellion.
Aske went under the guarantee of a safe-conduct and was well received by
Henry. He put in writing a full account of the rising and of his own
share in it; and, fully persuaded of the king's good intentions,
returned home on the 8th of January 1537, bringing with him promises of
a visit from the king to Yorkshire, of the holding of a parliament at
York, and of free elections. Shortly afterwards he wrote to the king
warning him of the still unquiet state not only of the north but of the
midlands, and stating his fear that more bloodshed was impending. The
same month he received the king's thanks for his action in pacifying Sir
Francis Bigod's rising. But his position was now a difficult and a
perilous one, and a few weeks later the attitude of the government
towards him was suddenly changed. The new rising had given the court an
excuse for breaking off the treaty and sending another army under
Norfolk into Yorkshire. Possibly in these fresh circumstances Aske may
have given cause for further suspicions of his loyalty, and in his last
confession he acknowledged that communications to obtain aid had been
opened with the imperial ambassador and were contemplated with Flanders.
But it is more probable that the government had from the first
treacherously affected to treat him with confidence to secure the
secrets of the rebels and to effect his destruction. In March Norfolk
congratulated Cromwell on the successful accomplishment of his task,
having persuaded Aske to go to London on false assurances of security.
He was arrested in April, tried before a commission at Westminster, and
sentenced to death for high treason on the 17th of May; and on the 28th
of June he was taken back to Yorkshire, being paraded in the towns and
country through which he passed. He was hanged at York in July,
expressing repentance for breaking the king's laws, but declaring that
he had promise of pardon both from Cromwell and from Henry. It is
related that his servant, Robert Wall, died of grief at the thought of
his master's approaching execution. Aske was a real leader, who gained
the affection and confidence of his followers; and his sudden rise to
greatness and his choice by the people point to abilities that have not
been recorded.

See _Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries_, by F.A. Gasquet (1906);
_Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII._, vols. xi. and xii.;
_English Histor. Review_, v. 330, 550 (account of the rebellion,
examination and answers to interrogations); _Chronicle of Henry
VIII._, tr. by M.A.S. Hume (1889); Whitaker's _Richmondshire_, i. 116
(pedigree of the Askes).

ASKEW, or ASCUE, ANNE (1521?-1546), English Protestant martyr, born at
Stallingborough about 1521, was the second daughter of Sir William Askew
(d. 1540) of South Kelsey, Lincoln, by his first wife Elizabeth,
daughter of Thomas Wrottesley. Her elder sister, Martha, was betrothed
by her parents to Thomas Kyme, a Lincolnshire justice of the peace, but
she died before marriage, and Anne was induced or compelled to take her
place. She is said to have had two children by Kyme, but religious
differences and incompatibility of temperament soon estranged the
couple. Kyme was apparently an unimaginative man of the world, while
Anne took to Bible-reading with zeal, became convinced of the falsity of
the doctrine of transubstantiation, and created some stir in Lincoln by
her disputations. According to Bale and Foxe her husband turned her out
of doors, but in the privy council register she is said to have "refused
Kyme to be her husband without any honest allegation." She had as good a
reason for repudiating her husband as Henry VIII. for repudiating Anne
of Cleves. In any case, she came to London and made friends with Joan
Bocher, who was already known for heterodoxy, and other Protestants. She
was examined for heresy in March 1545 by the lord mayor, and was
committed to the Counter prison. Then she was examined by Bonner, the
bishop of London, who drew up a form of recantation which he entered in
his register. This fact led Parsons and other Catholic historians to
state that she actually recanted but she refused to sign Bonner's form
without qualification. Two months later, on the 24th of May, the privy
council ordered her arrest. On the 13th of June 1545, she was arraigned
as a sacramentarian under the Six Articles at the Guildhall; but no
witness appeared against her; she was declared not guilty by the jury
and discharged after paying her fees.

The reactionary party, which, owing to the absence of Hertford and Lisle
and to the presence of Gardiner, gained the upper hand in the council in
the summer of 1546, were not satisfied with this repulse; they probably
aimed at the leaders of the reforming party, such as Hertford and
possibly Queen Catherine Parr, who were suspected of favouring Anne, and
on the 18th of June 1546 Anne was again arraigned before a commission
including the lord mayor, the duke of Norfolk, St John, Bonner and
Heath. No jury was empanelled and no witnesses were called; she was
condemned, simply on her confession, to be burnt. On the same day she
was called before the privy council with her husband. Kyme was sent home
into Lincolnshire, but Anne was committed to Newgate, "for that she was
very obstinate and heady in reasoning of matters of religion." On the
following day she was taken to the Tower and racked; according to Anne's
own statement, as recorded by Bale, the lord chancellor, Wriothesley,
and the solicitor-general, Rich, worked the rack themselves; but she
"would not convert for all the pain" (Wriothesley, _Chronicle_ i. 168).
Her torture, disputed by Jardine, Lingard and others, is substantiated
not only by her own narrative, but by two contemporary chronicles, and
by a contemporary letter (_ibid._; _Narratives of the Reformation_, p.
305; Ellis, _Original Letters_, 2nd Ser. ii. 177). For four weeks she
was left in prison, and at length on the 16th of July, she was burnt at
Smithfield in the presence of the same persecuting dignitaries who had
condemned her to death.

AUTHORITIES.--Bale's two tracts, printed at Marburg in November 1546
and January 1547, are the basis of Foxe's account. See also _Acts of
the Privy Council_ (1542-1547), pp. 424-462; Wriothesley's _Chron._
i. 155, 167-169; _Narratives of the Reformation_, passim; Gough's
_Index to Parker Soc. Publications_; Burnet's _Hist. of the
Reformation_; Dixon's _Hist. of the Church of England; Dict. Nat.
Biogr._ (A. F. P.)

ASMA'I [Abu Sa'id 'Abd ul-Malik ibn Quraib] (c. 739-831), Arabian
scholar, was born of pure Arab stock in Basra and was a pupil there of
Abu 'Amr ibn ul-'Ala. He seems to have been a poor man until by the
influence of the governor of Basra he was brought to the notice of Harun
al-Rashid, who enjoyed his conversation at court and made him tutor of
his son. He became wealthy and acquired property in Basra, where he
again settled for a time; but returned later to Bagdad, where he died in
831. Asma'i was one of the greatest scholars of his age. From his youth
he stored up in his memory the sacred words of the Koran, the traditions
of the Prophet, the verses of the old poets and the stories of the
ancient wars of the Arabs. He was also a student of language and a
critic. It was as a critic that he was the great rival of Abu 'Ubaida
(q.v.). While the latter followed (or led) the Shu'ubite movement and
declared for the excellence of all things not Arabian, Asma'i was the
pious Moslem and avowed supporter of the superiority of the Arabs over
all peoples, and of the freedom of their language and literature from
all foreign influence. Some of his scholars attained high rank as
literary men. Of Asma'i's many works mentioned in the catalogue known as
the _Fihrist_, only about half a dozen are extant. Of these the _Book of
Distinction_ has been edited by D.H. Müller (Vienna, 1876); the _Book of
the Wild Animals_ by R. Geyer (Vienna, 1887); the _Book of the Horse_,
by A. Haffner (Vienna, 1895); the _Book of the Sheep_, by A. Haffner
(Vienna, 1896).

For life of Asma'i, see Ibn Khallikan, _Biographical Dictionary_,
translated from the Arabic by McG. de Slane (Paris and London, 1842),
vol. ii. pp. 123-127. For his work as a grammarian, G. Flügel, _Die
grammatischen Schulen der Araber_ (Leipzig, 1862), pp. 72-80.
(G. W. T.)

ASMARA, the capital of the Italian colony of Eritrea, N.E. Africa. It is
built on the Hamasen plateau, near its eastern edge, at an elevation of
7800 ft., and is some 40 m. W.S.W. in a direct line of the seaport of
Massawa. Pop. (1904) about 9000, including the garrison of 300 Italian
soldiers, and some 1000 native troops. The European civil population
numbers over 500; the rest of the inhabitants are chiefly Abyssinians.
There is a small Mahommedan colony. The town is strongly fortified. The
European quarter contains several fine public buildings, including the
residence of the governor, club house, barracks and hospital. Fort
Baldissera is built on a hill to the south-west of the town and is
considered impregnable.

Asmara, an Amharic word signifying "good pasture place," is a town of
considerable antiquity. It was included in the maritime province of
northern Abyssinia, which was governed by a viceroy who bore the title
of Bahar-nagash (ruler of the sea). By the Abyssinians the Hamasen
plateau was known as the plain of the thousand villages. Asmara appears
to have been one of the most prosperous of these villages, and to have
attained commercial importance through being on the high road from Axum
to Massawa. When Werner Munzinger (q.v.) became French consul at
Massawa, he entered into a scheme for annexing the Hamasen (of which
Asmara was then the capital) to France, but the outbreak of the war with
Germany in 1870 brought the project to nought (cf. A.B. Wylde, _Modern
Abyssinia_, 1901). In 1872 Munzinger, now in Egyptian service, annexed
Asmara to the khedivial dominions, but in 1884, owing to the rise of the
mahdi, Egypt evacuated her Abyssinian provinces and Asmara was chosen by
Ras Alula, the representative of the negus Johannes (King John), as his
headquarters. Shortly afterwards the Italians occupied Massawa, and in
1889 Asmara (see ABYSSINIA: _History_). In 1900 the seat of government
was transferred from Massawa to Asmara, which in its modern form is the
creation of the Italians. It is surrounded by rich agricultural lands,
cultivated in part by Italian immigrants, and is a busy trading centre.
A railway from Massawa to Asmara was completed as far as Ghinda, at the
foot of the plateau, in 1904. At Medrizien, 6 m. north of Asmara, are
gold-mines which have been partially worked.

See G. Dainelli, _In Africa. Lettere dall' Eritrea_ (Bergamo, 1908);
R. Perini, _Di qua dal Mareb_ (Florence, 1905).

ASMODEUS, or ASHMEDAI, an evil demon who appears in later Jewish
tradition as "king of demons." He is sometimes identified with Beelzebub
or Apollyon (Rev. ix. 11). In the Talmud he plays a great part in the
legends concerning Solomon. In the apocryphal book of Tobit (iii. 8)
occurs the well-known story of his love for Sara, the beautiful daughter
of Raguel, whose seven husbands were slain in succession by him on their
respective bridal nights. At last Tobias, by burning the heart and liver
of a fish, drove off the demon, who fled to Egypt. From the part played
by Asmodeus in this story, he has been often familiarly called the
genius of matrimonial unhappiness or jealousy, and as such may be
compared with Lilith. Le Sage makes him the principal character in his
novel _Le Diable boiteux_. Both the word and the conception seem to have
been derived originally from the Persian. The name has been taken to
mean "covetous." It is in any case no doubt identical with the demon
Aeshma of the Zend-Avesta and the Pahlavi texts. But the meaning is not
certain. It is generally agreed that the second part of the name
Asmodeus is the same as the Zend _daewa, dew_, "demon." The first part
may be equivalent to Aeshma, the impersonation of anger. But W.
Baudissin (Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_) prefers to derive it from
_ish_, to drive, set in motion; whence _ish-min_, driving, impetuous.

The legend of Asmodeus is given fully in the _Jewish Encyclopaedia_,
s.v. See also the articles in the _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, Hastings'
_Dictionary of the Bible_, and Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_.

ASMONEUS, or ASAMONAEUS (so Josephus), great-grandfather of Mattathias,
the father of Judas Maccabaeus. Nothing more is known of him, and the
name is only given by Josephus (not in 1 Macc. ii. 1). But the dynasty
was known to Josephus and the Mishna (once) as "the sons (race) of the
Asamonaeans (of A.)"; and the Targum of 1 Sam. ii. 4 has "the house of
the Hashmoneans who were weak, signs were wrought for them and
strength." If not the founder, Asmoneus was probably the home of the
family (cf. Heshmon, Jos. xv. 27).

See Schurer, _Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes_, i. 248 N; art.
"Maccabees," § 2, in _Ency. Biblica_. (J. H. A. H.)

ASNIÈRES, a town of northern France, in the department of Seine, on the
left bank of the Seine, about 1½ m. N.N.W. of the fortifications of
Paris. Pop. (1906) 35,883. The town, which has grown rapidly in recent
years, is a favourite boating centre for the Parisians. The industries
include boat-building and the manufacture of colours and perfumery.

ASOKA, a famous Buddhist emperor of India who reigned from 264 to 228 or
227 B.C. Thirty-five of his inscriptions on rocks or pillars or in caves
still exist (see INSCRIPTIONS: _Indian_), and they are among the most
remarkable and interesting of Buddhist monuments (see BUDDHISM). Asoka
was the grandson of Chandragupta, the founder of the Maurya (Peacock)
dynasty, who had wrested the Indian provinces of Alexander the Great
from the hands of Seleucus, and he was the son of Bindusara, who
succeeded his father Chandragupta, by a lady from Champa. The Greeks do
not mention him and the Brahmin books ignore him, but the Buddhist
chronicles and legends tell us much about him. The inscriptions, which
contain altogether about five thousand words, are entirely of religious
import, and their references to worldly affairs are incidental. They
begin in the thirteenth year of his reign, and tell us that in the ninth
year he had invaded Kalinga, and had been so deeply impressed by the
horrors involved in warfare that he had then given up the desire for
conquest, and devoted himself to conquest by "religion." What the
religion was is explained in the edicts. It is purely ethical,
independent alike of theology and ritual, and is the code of morals as
laid down in the Buddhist sacred books for laymen. He further tells us
that in the ninth year of his reign he formally joined the Buddhist
community as a layman, in the eleventh year he became a member of the
order, and in the thirteenth he "set out for the Great Wisdom" (the
_Sambodhi_), which is the Buddhist technical term for entering upon the
well-known, eightfold path to Nirvana. One of the edicts is addressed to
the order, and urges upon its members and the laity alike the learning
and rehearsal of passages from the Buddhist scriptures. Two others are
proclamations commemorating visits paid by the king, one to the dome
erected over the ashes of Konagamana, the Buddha, another to the
birthplace of Gotama, the Buddha (q.v.). Three very short ones are
dedications of caves to the use of an order of recluses. The rest either
enunciate the religion as explained above, or describe the means adopted
by the king for propagating it, or acting in accordance with it. These
means are such as the digging of wells, planting medicinal herbs, and
trees for shade, sending out of missionaries, appointment of special
officers to supervise charities, and so on. The missionaries were sent
to Kashmir, to the Himalayas, to the border lands on the Indus, to the
coast of Burma, to south India and to Ceylon. And the king claims that
missions sent by him to certain Greek kingdoms that he names had
resulted in the folk there conforming themselves to his religion. The
extent of Asoka's dominion included all India from the thirteenth degree
of latitude up to the Himalayas, Nepal, Kashmir, the Swat valley,
Afghanistan as far as the Hindu Kush, Sind and Baluchistan. It was thus
as large as, or perhaps somewhat larger than, British India before the
conquest of Burma. He was undoubtedly the most powerful sovereign of his
time and the most remarkable and imposing of the native rulers of India.
"If a man's fame," says Köppen, "can be measured by the number of hearts
who revere his memory, by the number of lips who have mentioned, and
still mention him with honour, Asoka is more famous than Charlemagne or
Caesar." At the same time it is probable that, like Constantine's
patronage of Christianity, his patronage of Buddhism, then the most
rising and influential faith in India, was not unalloyed with political
motives, and it is certain that his vast benefactions to the Buddhist
cause were at least one of the causes that led to its decline.

See also _Asoka_, by Vincent Smith (Oxford, 1901); _Inscriptions de
Piyadasi_, by E. Senart (Paris, 1891); chapters on Asoka in T.W. Rhys
Davids's _Buddhism_ (20th ed., London, 1903), and _Buddhist India_
(London, 1903); V.A. Smith, _Edicts of Asoka_ (1909). (T. W. R. D.)

ASOLO (anc. _Acelum_), a town of Venetia, Italy, in the province of
Treviso, about 19 m. N.W. direct from the town of Treviso, and some 10
m. E. of Bassanoby road. Pop. (1901) 5847. It is well situated on a
hill, 690 ft. above sea-level. Remains of Roman baths and of a theatre
have been discovered in the course of excavation (_Notizie degli scavi_,
1877, 235; 1881, 205; 1882, 289), and the town was probably a
_municipium_. It became an episcopal see in the 6th century. It was to
Asolo that Catherine Cornaro, queen of Cyprus, retired on her
abdication. Here she was visited by Pietro Bembo, who conceived here his
_Dialoghi degli Asolani_, and by Andrea Navagero (Naugerius). Paulus
Manutius was born here. The village of Maser is 4½ m. to the E., and
near it is the Villa Giacomelli, erected by Palladio, containing
frescoes by Paolo Veronese, executed in 1566-1568 for Marcantonio
Barbaro of Venice, and ranking among his best works.

ASOR (Hebr. for "ten"), an instrument "of ten strings" mentioned in the
Bible, about which authors are not agreed. The word occurs only three
times in the Bible, and has not been traced elsewhere. In Psalm xxxiii.
2 the reference is to "kinnor, nebel and asor"; in Psalm xcii. 3, to
"nebel and asor"; in Psalm cxliv. to "nebel-asor." In the English
version _asor_ is translated "an instrument of ten strings," with a
marginal note "omit" applied to "instrument." In the Septuagint, the
word being derived from a root signifying "ten," the Greek is [Greek: en
dekachordo] or [Greek: psaltaerion dekachordon], in the Vulgate _in
decachordo psalterio_. Each time the word _asor_ is used it follows the
word _nebel_ (see PSALTERY), and probably merely indicates a variant of
the nebel, having ten strings instead of the customary twelve assigned
to it by Josephus (_Antiquities_, vii. 12. 3).

See also Mendel and Reissmann, _Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon_,
vol. i. (Berlin, 1881); Sir John Stainer, _The Music of the Bible_,
pp. 35-37; Forkel, _Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik_, Bd. i. p. 133
(Leipzig, 1788). (K. S.)

ASP (_Vipera aspis_), a species of venomous snake, closely allied to the
common adder of Great Britain, which it represents throughout the
southern parts of Europe, being specially abundant in the region of the
Alps. It differs from the adder in having the head entirely covered with
scales, shields being absent, and in having the snout somewhat turned
up. The term "Asp" [Greek: aspis] seems to have been employed by Greek
and Roman writers, and by writers generally down to comparatively recent
times, to designate more than one species of serpent; thus the asp, by
means of which Cleopatra is said to have ended her life, and so avoided
the disgrace of entering Rome a captive, is now generally supposed to
have been the cerastes, or horned viper (_Cerastes cornutus_), of
northern Africa and Arabia, a snake about 15 in. long, exceedingly
venomous, and provided with curious horn-like protuberances over each
eye, which give it a decidedly sinister appearance. The snake, however,
to which the word "asp" has been most commonly applied is undoubtedly
the haje of Egypt, the _spy-slange_ or spitting snake of the Boers
(_Naja haje_), one of the very poisonous _Elarinae_, from 3 to 4 ft.
long, with the skin of its neck loose, so as to render it dilatable at
the will of the animal, as in the cobra of India, a species from which
it differs only in the absence of the spectacle-like mark on the back of
the neck. Like the cobra, also, the haje has its fangs extracted by the
jugglers of the country, who afterwards train it to perform various
tricks. The asp (_Pethen_, [Hebrew: pethen]) is mentioned in various
parts of the Old Testament. This name is twice translated "adder," but
as nothing is told of it beyond its poisonous character and the
intractability of its disposition, it is impossible accurately to
determine the species.

ASPARAGINE, C4H3N2O3, a naturally occurring base, found in plants
belonging to the natural orders Leguminosae and Cruciferae. It occurs
in two optically active forms, namely, as laevo-asparagine and
dextro-asparagine. Laevo-asparagine was isolated in 1805 by L.N.
Vauquelin. A. Piutti (_Gazz. chim. Ital._, 1887, 17, p. 126; 1888, 18,
p. 457) synthesized the asparagines from the monomethyl ester of
inactive aspartic acid by heating it with alcoholic ammonia. In this way
a mixture of the two asparagines was obtained, which were separated by
picking out the hemihedral crystals.

HOOC·CH·NH2CH2·COOC2H5 + NH3 = C2H5OH + HOOC·CH·NH2·CH2·CONH2.

Laevo-asparagine is slightly soluble in cold water and readily soluble
in hot water. It crystallizes in prisms, containing one molecule of
water of crystallization, the anhydrous form melting at 234-235° C.
Nitrous acid converts it into malic acid, HOOC·CHOH·CH2·COOH. It is
laevo-rotatory in aqueous or in alkaline solution, and dextro-rotatory
in acid solution (L. Pasteur, _Ann. Chim. Phys._, 1851 [2], 31, p. 67).
Dextro-asparagine was first found in 1886 in the shoots of the vetch
(Piutti). It forms rhombic crystals possessing a sweet taste. It is
dextro-rotatory in aqueous or alkaline solution, and laevo-rotatory in
acid solution.

Hydrolysis by means of acids or alkalis converts the asparagines into
aspartic acid; whilst on heating with water in a sealed tube they are
converted into ammonium aspartate. The constitution of the asparagines
has been determined by A. Piutti (_Gazz. chim. Ital._, 1888, 18, p.
457).

ASPARAGUS, a genus of plants (nat. ord. Liliaceae) containing more than
100 species, and widely distributed in the temperate and warmer parts of
the Old World; it was introduced from Europe into America with the early
settlers. The name is derived from the Greek [Greek: asparagos] or
[Greek: aspharagos], the origin of which is obscure. _Sperage_ or
_sparage_ was the form in use from the 16th to 18th centuries, cf. the
modern Italian _sparagio_. The vulgar corruption _sparrow-grass_ or
_sparagrass_ was in accepted popular use during the 18th century,
"asparagus" being considered pedantic. The plants have a short,
creeping, underground stem from which spring slender, branched, aerial
shoots. The leaves are reduced to minute scales bearing in their axils
tufts of green, needle-like branches (the so-called _cladodes_), which
simulate, and perform the functions of, leaves. In one section of the
genus, sometimes regarded as a distinct genus _Myrsiphyllum_, the
cladodes are flattened. The plants often climb or scramble, in which
they are helped by the development of the scale-leaves into persistent
spines. The flowers are small, whitish and pendulous; the fruit is a
berry.

Several of the climbing species are grown in greenhouses for their
delicate, often feathery branches, which are also valuable for cutting;
the South African _Asparagus plumosus_ is an especially elegant species.
The so-called smilax, much used for decoration, is a species of the
_Myrsiphyllum_ section, _A. medeoloides_, also known as _Myrsiphyllum
asparagoides_. The young shoots of _Asparagus officinalis_ have from
very remote times been in high repute as a culinary vegetable, owing to
their delicate flavour and diuretic virtues. The plant, which is a
native of the north temperate zone of the Old World, grows wild on the
south coast of England; and on the waste steppes of Russia it is so
abundant that it is eaten by cattle like grass. In common with the
marsh-mallow and some other plants, it contains asparagine or aspartic
acidamide. The roots of asparagus were formerly used as an aperient
medicine, and the fruits were likewise employed as a diuretic. Under the
name of Prussian asparagus, the spikes of an allied plant, _Ornithogalum
pyrenaicum_, are used in some places. The diuretic action is extremely
feeble, and neither the plant nor asparagine is now used medicinally.

Asparagus is grown extensively in private gardens as well as for market.
The asparagus prefers a loose, light, deep, sandy soil; the depth should
be 3 ft., the soil being well trenched, and all surplus water got away.
A considerable quantity of well-rotted dung or of recent seaweed should
be laid in the bottom of the trench, and another top-dressing of manure
should be dug in preparatory to planting or sowing. The beds should be 3
ft. or 5 ft. wide, with intervening alleys of 2 ft., the narrower beds
taking two rows of plants, the wider ones three rows. The beds should
run east and west, so that the sun's rays may strike against the side of
the bed. In some cases the plants are grown in equidistant rows 3 to 4
ft. apart. Where the beds are made with plants already prepared, either
one-year-old or two-year-old plants may be used, for which a trench
should be cut sufficient to afford room for spreading out the roots, the
crowns being all kept at about 2 in. below the surface. Planting is best
done in April, after the plants have started into growth. To prevent
injury to the roots, it is, however, perhaps the better plan to sow the
seeds in the beds where the plants are to remain. To experience the
finest flavour of asparagus, it should be eaten immediately after having
been gathered; if kept longer than one day, or set into water, its finer
flavour is altogether lost. If properly treated, asparagus beds will
continue to bear well for many years. The asparagus grown at Argenteuil,
near Paris, has acquired much notoriety for its large size and excellent
quality. The French growers plant in trenches instead of raised beds.
The most common method of forcing asparagus is to prepare, early in the
year, a moderate hot-bed of stable litter with a bottom heat of 70°, and
to cover it with a common frame. After the heat of fermentation has
somewhat subsided, the surface of the bed is covered with a layer of
light earth or exhausted tan-bark, and in this the roots of strong
mature plants are closely placed. The crowns of the roots are then
covered with 3 to 6 in. of soil. A common three-light frame may hold 500
or 600 plants, and will afford a supply for several weeks. After
planting, linings are applied when necessary to keep up the heat, but
care must be taken not to scorch the roots; air must be occasionally
admitted. Where there are pits heated by hot water or by the tank
system, they may be advantageously applied to this purpose. A succession
of crops must be maintained by annually sowing or planting new beds.

The "asparagus-beetle" is the popular name for two beetles, the "common
asparagus beetle" (_Crioceris asparagi_) and the "twelve-spotted" (_C.
duodecimpunctata_), which feed on the asparagus plant. _C. asparagi_ has
been known in Europe since early times, and was introduced into America
about 1856; the rarer _C. duodecimpunctata_ (sometimes called the "red"
to distinguish it from the "blue" species) was detected in America in
1881. For an admirable account of these pests see F.H. Chittenden,
_Circular 102 of the U.S. Dep. of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology_,
May 1908.

The "asparagus-stone" is a form of apatite, simulating asparagus in
colour.

ASPASIA, an Athenian courtesan of the 5th century B.C., was born either
at Miletus or at Megara, and settled in Athens, where her beauty and her
accomplishments gained for her a great reputation. Pericles, who had
divorced his wife (445), made her his mistress, and, after the death of
his two legitimate sons, procured the passing of a law under which his
son by her was recognized as legitimate. It was the fashion, especially
among the comic poets, to regard her as the adviser of Pericles in all
his political actions, and she is even charged with having caused the
Samian and Peloponnesian wars (Aristoph. _Acharn_. 497). Shortly before
the latter war, she was accused of impiety, and nothing but the tears
and entreaties of Pericles procured her acquittal. On the death of
Pericles she is said to have become the mistress of one Lysicles, whom,
though of ignoble birth, she raised to a high position in the state;
but, as Lysicles died a year after Pericles (428), the story is
unconvincing. She was the chief figure in the dialogue _Aspasia_ by
Aeschines the Socratic, in which she was represented as criticizing the
manners and training of the women of her time (for an attempted
reconstruction of the dialogue see P. Natorp in _Philologus_, li. p.
489, 1892); in the _Menexenus_ (generally ascribed to Plato) she is a
teacher of rhetoric, the instructress of Socrates and Pericles, and a
funeral oration in honour of those Athenians who had given their lives
for their country (the authorship of which is attributed to Aspasia) is
repeated by Socrates; Xenophon (_Oecon._ lii. 14) also speaks of her in
favourable terms, but she is not mentioned by Thucydides. In opposition
to this view, Wilamowitz-Möllendorff (_Hermes_, xxxv. 1900) regards her
simply as a courtesan, whose personality would readily become the
subject of rumour, favourable or unfavourable. There is a bust bearing
her name in the Pio Clementino Museum in the Vatican.

See Le Conte de Bièvre, _Les Deux Aspasies_ (1736); J.B. Capefigue,
_Aspasie et le siècle de Périclès_ (1862); L. Becq de Fouquières.
_Aspasie de Milet_ (1872); H. Houssaye, _Aspasie, Cléopâtre, Théodora_
(1899); R. Hamerling, _Aspasia_ (a romance; Eng. trans. by M.J.
Safford, New York, 1882); J. Donaldson, _Woman_ (1907). Also PERICLES.

ASPASIUS, a Greek peripatetic philosopher, and a prolific commentator on
Aristotle. He flourished probably towards the close of the 1st century
A.D., or perhaps during the reign of Antoninus Pius. His commentaries on
the _Categories, De Interpretatione, De Sensu_, and other works of
Aristotle are frequently referred to by later writers, but have not come
down to us. Commentaries on Plato, mentioned by Porphyry in his life of
Plotinus, have also been lost. Commentaries on books 1-4, 7 (in part),
and 8 of the _Nicomachean Ethics_ are preserved; that on book 8 was
printed with those of Eustratius and others by Aldus Manutius at Venice
in 1536. They were partly (2-4) translated into Latin by Felicianus in
1541, and have frequently been republished, but their authenticity has
been disputed. The most recent edition is by G. Heylbut in _Commentaria
in Aristotelem Graeca_, xix. 1 (Berlin, 1889).

Another ASPASIUS, in the 3rd century A.D., was a Roman sophist and
rhetorician, son or pupil of the rhetorician Demetrianus. He taught
rhetoric in Rome, and filled the chair of rhetoric founded by Vespasian.
He was secretary to the emperor Maximin. His orations, which are praised
for their style, are lost.

ASPEN, an important section of the poplar genus (_Populus_) of which the
common aspen of Europe, _P. tremula_, may be taken as the type,--a tall
fast-growing tree with rather slender trunk, and grey bark becoming
rugged when old. The roundish leaves, toothed on the margin, are
slightly downy when young, but afterwards smooth, dark green on the
upper and greyish green on the lower surface; the long slender petioles,
much flattened towards the outer end, allow of free lateral motion by
the lightest breeze, giving the foliage its well-known tremulous
character. By their friction on each other the leaves give rise to a
rustling sound. It is supposed that the mulberry trees (_Becaim_)
mentioned in 1 Chronicles xiv. 14, 15 were really aspen trees. The
flowers, which appear in March and April, are borne on pendulous hairy
catkins, 2-3 in. long; male and female catkins are, as in the other
species of the genus, on distinct trees.

The aspen is found in moist places, sometimes at a considerable
elevation, 1600 ft. or more, in Scotland. It is an abundant tree in the
northern parts of Britain, even as far as Sutherland, and is
occasionally found in the coppices of the southern counties, but in
these latter habitats seldom reaches any large size; throughout northern
Europe it abounds in the forests,--in Lapland flourishing even in 70° N.
lat., while in Siberia its range extends to the Arctic Circle; in Norway
its upper limit is said to coincide with that of the pine; trees exist
near the western coast having stems 15 ft. in circumference. The wood of
the aspen is very light and soft, though tough; it is employed by
coopers, chiefly for pails and herring-casks; it is also made into
butchers' trays, pack-saddles, and various articles for which its
lightness recommends it; sabots are also made of it in France, and in
medieval days it was valued for arrows, especially for those used in
target practice; the bark is used for tanning in northern countries;
cattle and deer browse greedily on the young shoots and abundant
suckers. Aspen wood makes but indifferent fuel, but charcoal prepared
from it is light and friable, and has been employed in gunpowder
manufacture. The powdered bark is sometimes given to horses as a
vermifuge; it possesses likewise tonic and febrifugal properties,
containing a considerable amount of salicin. The aspen is readily
propagated either by cuttings or suckers, but has been but little
planted of late years in Britain. _P. trepida_, or _tremuloides_. is
closely allied to the European aspen, being chiefly distinguished by its
more pointed leaves; it is a native of most parts of Canada and the
United States, extending northwards as far as Great Slave Lake. The wood
is soft and neither strong nor durable; it burns better in the green
state than that of most trees, and is often used by the hunters of the
North-West as fuel; split into thin layers, it was formerly employed in
the United States for bonnet and hat making. It is largely manufactured
into wood-pulp for paper-making. The bark is of some value as a tonic
and febrifuge. _P. grandidentata_, the large-leaved American aspen, has
ovate or roundish leaves deeply and irregularly serrated on the margin.
The wood is light, soft and close-grained, but not strong. In northern
New England and Canada it is largely manufactured into wood-pulp; it is
occasionally used in turnery and for wooden-ware.

ASPENDUS (mod. _Balkis Kalé_, or, more anciently in the native language,
ESTVEDYS (whence the adjective _Estvedijys_ on coins), an ancient city
of Pamphylia, very strongly situated on an isolated hill on the right
bank of the Eurymedon at the point where the river issues from the
Taurus. The sea is now about 7 m. distant, and the river is navigable
only for about 2 m. from the mouth; but in the time of Thucydides ships
could anchor off Aspendus. Really of pre-Hellenic date, the place
claimed to be an Argive colony. It derived wealth from great _salines_
and from a trade in oil and wool, to which the wide range of its
admirable coinage bears witness from the 5th century B.C. onwards. There
Alcibiades met the satrap Tissaphernes in 411 B.C., and thence succeeded
in getting the Phoenician fleet, intended to co-operate with Sparta,
sent back home. The Athenian, Thrasybulus, after obtaining contributions
from Aspendus in 389, was murdered by the inhabitants. The city bought
off Alexander in 333, but, not keeping faith, was forcibly occupied by
the conqueror. In due course it passed from Pergamene to Roman dominion,
and according to Cicero, was plundered of many artistic treasures by
Verres. It was ranked by Philostratus the third city of Pamphylia, and
in Byzantine times seems to have been known as Primopolis, under which
name its bishop signed at Ephesus in A.D. 431. In medieval times it was
evidently still a strong place, but it has now sunk, in the general
decay of Pamphylia, to a wretched hamlet.

The ruins still extant are very remarkable, and, with the noble Roman
theatre, the finest in the world, have earned for the place (as is the
case with certain other great monuments) a legendary connexion with
Solomon's Sheban queen. On the summit of the hillock, surrounded by a
wall with three gates, lie the remains of the city. The public buildings
round the forum can all be traced, and parts of them are standing to a
considerable height. They consist of a fine nympheum on the north with a
covered theatre behind it, covered market halls on the west, and a
peristyle hall and a basilica on the east. In the plain below are large
thermae, and ruins of a splendid aqueduct. But all else seems
insignificant beside the huge theatre, half hollowed out of the
north-east flank of the hill. This was first published by C.F.M. Texier
in 1849, and has now been completely planned, &c., by Count
Lanckoronski's expedition in 1884. It is built of local conglomerate and
is in marvellous preservation. Erected to the honour of the emperors
Marcus Aurelius and L. Verus by the architect Zeno, for the heirs of a
local Roman citizen (as an inscription repeated over both portals
attests), its auditorium has a circuit of 313.17 feet. There are forty
tiers of seating, divided by one _diazoma_, and crowned by an arched
gallery of rather later date, repaired in places with brick. This
auditorium held 7500 spectators. The seats are not perfect, but so
nearly so as to appear practically intact. The wooden stage has, of
course, perished, but all its supporting structures are in place, and
the great scena wall stands to its full height, and produces a
magnificent impression whether from within or from without. Inwardly it
was decorated with two orders of columns one above the other, with rich
entablatures, much of which survives. In the _tympanum_ is a relief of
Bacchus (wrongly supposed to be of a female, and called the Bal-Kis,
i.e. "Honey Girl"). The position of the sounding board above the stage
is apparent. Under the forepart of the auditorium, built out from the
hill, are immense vaults. The whole structure was enclosed within one
great wall, pierced with numerous windows. This structure was probably
put to some ecclesiastical Byzantine use, as certain mutilated heads of
saints appear upon it; and later it became a fortress and received
certain additions. It is now under the care of the local _aghá_ and not
allowed to be plundered for building stone.

See C. Lanckoronski, _Villes de la Pamphylie et de la Pisidie_, i.
(1890). (D. G. H.)

ASPER, AEMILIUS, Latin grammarian, possibly lived in the 2nd century
A.D. He wrote commentaries on Terence, Sallust and Virgil. Numerous
fragments of the last show that as both critic and commentator he
possessed good judgment and taste. They are printed in Keil, _Probi in
Vergilii Bucolica Commentarius_ (1848); see also Suringar, _Historia
Critica Scholiastarum Latinorum_ (1834); Gräfenhan, _Geschichte der
klassischen Philologie im Alterthum._ iv. (1843-1850). Two short
grammatical treatises, extant under the name of Asper, and of very
little value, have nothing to do with the commentator, but belong to a
much later date--the time of Priscian (6th century). Both are printed in
Keil, _Grammatici Latini_. See also Schanz, _Geschichte der römischen
Litteratur_, § 598.

ASPER, HANS (1499-1571), Swiss painter, was born and died at Zürich. He
wrought in a great variety of styles, but excelled chiefly in flower and
fruit pieces, and in portrait-painting. Many of his pictures have
perished, but his style may be judged from the illustrations to
Gessner's _Historia Animalium_, for which he is said to have furnished
the designs, and from portraits of Zwingli and his daughter Regula
Gwalter, which are preserved in the public library of Zürich. It has
been usual to class Asper among the pupils and imitators of Holbein, but
an inspection of his works is sufficient to show that this is a mistake.
Though Asper was held in high reputation by his fellow-citizens, who
elected him a member of the Great Council, and had a medal struck in his
honour, he seems to have died in poverty.

ASPERGES ("thou wilt sprinkle," from the Latin verb _aspergere_), the
ceremony of sprinkling the people with holy water before High Mass in
the Roman Catholic Church, so called from the first word of the verse
(Ps. iv. 9) _Asperges me, Domini, hyssopo et mundabor_, with which the
priest begins the ceremony. The brush used for sprinkling is an
aspergill (_aspergillum_), or aspersoir, and the vessel for this water
an _aspersorium_. The act of sprinkling the water is called _aspersion_.

ASPERN-ESSLING, BATTLE OF (1809), a battle fought on the 21st and 22nd
of May 1809 between the French and their allies under Napoleon and the
Austrians commanded by the archduke Charles (see NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS).
At the time of the battle Napoleon was in possession of Vienna, the
bridges over the Danube had been broken, and the archduke's army was on
and about the Bisamberg, a mountain near Korneuburg, on the left bank of
the river. The first task of the French was the crossing of the Danube.
Lobau, one of the numerous islands which divide the river into minor
channels, was selected as the point of crossing, careful preparations
were made, and on the night of the 19th-20th of May the French bridged
all the channels from the right bank to Lobau and occupied the island.
By the evening of the 20th great masses of men had been collected there
and the last arm of the Danube, between Lobau and the left bank,
bridged. Massena's corps at once crossed to the left bank and dislodged
the Austrian outposts. Undeterred by the news of heavy attacks on his
rear from Tirol and from Bohemia, Napoleon hurried all available troops
to the bridges, and by daybreak on the 21st, 40,000 men were collected
on the Marchfeld, the broad open plain of the left bank, which was also
to be the scene of the battle of Wagram. The archduke did not resist the
passage; it was his intention, as soon as a large enough force had
crossed, to attack it before the rest of the French army could come to
its assistance. Napoleon had, of course, accepted the risk of such an
attack, but he sought at the same time to minimize it by summoning every
available battalion to the scene. His forces on the Marchfeld were drawn
up in front of the bridges facing north, with their left in the village
of Aspern (Gross-Aspern) and their right in Essling (or Esslingen). Both
places lay close to the Danube and could not therefore be turned;
Aspern, indeed, is actually on the bank of one of the river channels.
But the French had to fill the gap between the villages, and also to
move forward to give room for the supports to form up. Whilst they were
thus engaged the archduke moved to the attack with his whole army in
five columns. Three under Hiller, Bellegarde and Hohenzollern were to
converge upon Aspern, the other two, under Rosenberg, to attack Essling.
The Austrian cavalry was in the centre, ready to move out against any
French cavalry which should attack the heads of the columns. During the
21st the bridges became more and more unsafe, owing to the violence of
the current, but the French crossed without intermission all day and
during the night.

The battle began at Aspern; Hiller carried the village at the first
rush, but Masséna recaptured it, and held his ground with the same
tenacity as he had shown at Genoa in 1800. The French infantry, indeed,
fought on this day with the old stubborn bravery which it had failed to
show in the earlier battles of the year. The three Austrian columns
fighting their hardest through the day were unable to capture more than
half the village; the rest was still held by Masséna when night fell. In
the meanwhile nearly all the French infantry posted between the two
villages and in front of the bridges had been drawn into the fight on
either flank. Napoleon therefore, to create a diversion, sent forward
his centre, now consisting only of cavalry, to charge the enemy's
artillery, which was deployed in a long line and firing into Aspern. The
first charge of the French was repulsed, but the second attempt, made by
heavy masses of cuirassiers, was more serious. The French horsemen,
gallantly led, drove off the guns, rode round Hohenzollern's infantry
squares, and routed the cavalry of Lichtenstein, but they were unable to
do more, and in the end they retired to their old position. In the
meanwhile Essling had been the scene of fighting almost as desperate as
that of Aspern. The French cuirassiers made repeated charges on the
flank of Rosenberg's force, and for long delayed the assault, and in the
villages Lannes with a single division made a heroic and successful
resistance, till night ended the battle. The two armies bivouacked on
their ground, and in Aspern the French and Austrians lay within pistol
shot of each other. The latter had fought fully as hard as their
opponents, and Napoleon realized that they were no longer the
professional soldiers of former campaigns. The spirit of the nation was
in them and they fought to kill, not for the honour of their arms. The
emperor was not discouraged, but on the contrary renewed his efforts to
bring up every available man. All through the night more and more French
troops were put across.

At the earliest dawn of the 22nd the battle was resumed. Masséna swiftly
cleared Aspern of the enemy, but at the same time Rosenberg stormed
Essling at last. Lannes, however, resisted desperately, and reinforced
by St Hilaire's division, drove Rosenberg out. In Aspern Masséna had
been less fortunate, the counter-attack of Hiller and Bellegarde being
as completely successful as that of Lannes and St Hilaire. Meantime
Napoleon had launched a great attack on the Austrian centre. The whole
of the French centre, with Lannes on the right and the cavalry in
reserve, moved forward. The Austrian line was broken through, between
Rosenberg's right and Hohenzollern's left, and the French squadrons
poured into the gap. Victory was almost won when the archduke brought up
his last reserve, himself leading on his soldiers with a colour in his
hand. Lannes was checked, and with his repulse the impetus of the attack
died out all along the line. Aspern had been lost, and graver news
reached Napoleon at the critical moment. The Danube bridges, which had
broken down once already, had at last been cut by heavy barges, which
had been set adrift down stream for the purpose by the Austrians.
Napoleon at once suspended the attack. Essling now fell to another
assault of Rosenberg, and though again the French, this time part of the
Guard, drove him out, the Austrian general then directed his efforts on
the flank of the French centre, slowly retiring on the bridges. The
retirement was terribly costly, and but for the steadiness of Lannes the
French must have been driven into the Danube, for the archduke's last
effort to break down their resistance was made with the utmost fury.
Only the complete exhaustion of both sides put an end to the fighting.
The French lost 44,000 out of 90,000 successively engaged, and amongst
the killed were Lannes and St Hilaire. The Austrians, 75,000 strong,
lost 23,360. Even this, the first great defeat of Napoleon, did not
shake his resolution. The beaten forces were at last withdrawn safely
into the island. On the night of the 22nd the great bridge was repaired,
and the army awaited the arrival of reinforcements, not in Vienna, but
in Lobau.

See sketch map in article WAGRAM.

ASPHALT, or ASPHALTUM. The solid or semi-solid kinds of bitumen (q.v.)
were termed [Greek: asphaltos] by the Greeks; and by some ancient
classical writers the name of _pissasphaltum_ ([Greek: pissa], pitch)
was also sometimes employed. The asphalt of the Dead Sea (known as
_Lacus Asphaltites_) received considerable notice from early travellers,
and Diodorus the historian states that the inhabitants of the
surrounding parts were accustomed to collect it for use in Egypt for
embalming. In common with other forms of bitumen, asphalt is very widely
distributed geographically and occurs in greater or less quantity in
rocks of all ages. There is some divergence in the views expressed as to
the precise manner of its production, but it may certainly be said that
the principal asphalt deposits are merely the result of the evaporation
and oxidation of liquid petroleum which has escaped from outcropping
strata. The celebrated Pitch Lake of Trinidad was long regarded as the
largest deposit of asphalt in existence, but it is said to be exceeded
in area, if not in depth also, by one in Venezuela. The Trinidad "Lake"
has an area of 99.3 acres, and is sufficiently firm in places to support
a team of horses. The deposit is worked with picks to a depth of a foot
or two, and the excavations soon become filled up by the plastic
material flowing in from below and hardening. The depth of the deposit
is not accurately known. The surface is not level but is composed of
irregularly tumescent masses of various sizes, each said to be subject
to independent motion, whereby the interior of each rises and flows
centrifugally towards the edges. As the spaces between them are always
filled with water, these masses are prevented from coalescing. The
softer parts of the lake constantly evolve gas, which is stated to
consist largely of carbon dioxide and sulphuretted hydrogen, and the
pitch, which is honeycombed with gas-cavities, continues to exhibit this
action for some time after its removal from the lake. The working of the
deposit is in the hands of the New Trinidad Asphalt Company, who hold
the concession up to the year 1930 on payment to the government of a
minimum royalty of £10,000 a year. A circular line of tramway, supported
on palm-leaves, has been laid on the lake to facilitate the removal of
the asphalt. Very large quantities are exported for paving and other
purposes, the annual shipments amounting to about 130,000 tons from the
lake and about 30,000 tons from other properties. The amount of asphalt
in the lake has been estimated at 158,400 tons for each foot of depth,
and if the average depth be taken at 20 ft. this would give a total of
3,168,000 tons; but in 1908, though 1,885,600 tons had been removed in
the previous thirty-five years, there was but little evidence of
reduction in the quantity. The Venezuelan deposit already referred to is
in the state of Bermudez, and the area of it is reported to be more than
1000 acres. The asphalt of Cuba is a well-known article of commerce, of
which 7252 tons was exported to the United States in 1902. The principal
deposits are near the harbour of Cardenas (70 ft. thick), in the Pinar
del Rio, near Havana (18 ft. thick), at Canas Tomasita (105 ft. thick);
and a specially pure variety near Vuelta.

The comparative composition of Trinidad and Cuba asphalt is given in the
following table:--

+---------------------+---------+------------+------------+
| | Refined | Refined | Refined |
| |Trinidad,|Cuba (soft),|Cuba (hard),|
| | Melting | Melting | Melting |
| | point | point | point |
| | 185° F. | 115° F. | 160° F. |
+---------------------+---------+------------+------------+
| Water. | 0.17 | 0.13 | 0.11 |
| Volatile bitumen. | 51.81 | 64.03 | 8.34 |
| Sulphur. | 10.00 | 8.35 | 8.92 |
| Ash (earthy matter).| 28.30 | 19.51 | 16.60 |
| Fixed carbon. | 9.72 | 7.98 | 66.03 |
| +---------+------------+------------+
| | 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 |
+---------------------+---------+------------+------------+

The chemical composition of Trinidad asphalt has been given as:--

+-------+------+------+------+-------+
| C. | H. | N. | O. | S. |
+-------+------+------+------+-------+
| 80.32 | 6.30 | 0.50 | 1.40 | 11.48 |
+-------+------+------+------+-------+

The following is a comparison of Trinidad and Venezuela (Bermudez)
asphalt:--

Refined Refined
Trinidad. Bermudez.
Specific gravity at 60° F. 1.373 1.071
Bitumen soluble in carbon bisulphide. 61.507 % 92.22 %
Mineral matter (ash). 34.51 " 1.50 "
Non-bituminous organic matter. 3.983 " 1.28 "
Portion of total bitumen soluble in alcohol. 8.24 " 11.66 "
Portion of total bitumen soluble in ether. 80.01 " 81.63 "
Loss at 212° F. 0.65 " 1.37 "
Loss at 400° F. in ten hours. 7.98 " 17.80 "
Loss at 400° on total bitumen. 12.811 " 18.308 "
Evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen at 410° F. none at 437° F.
Softening-point. 160° F. " 113° F.
Flowing-point. 192° F. " 150° F.

Asphalt in its purest forms is generally black or blackish brown in
colour, and is frequently brittle at ordinary temperatures. Apart from
its principal use in the manufacture of paving materials, it is largely
employed in building as a "damp-course" and as a water-excluding coating
for concrete floors, as well as in the manufacture of roofing-felt. It
also enters largely into the composition of black varnish. The material
chiefly used in the construction of asphalt roadways is an asphaltic or
bituminous limestone found in the Val de Travers, canton of Neuchâtel;
in the neighbourhood of Seyssel, department of Ain; at Limmer, near the
city of Hanover; and elsewhere. The proportion of bitumen present in
asphalt rock usually ranges from 7 to 20%, but it is found that rock
containing more than 11% cannot be satisfactorily used for street
pavements, and it is accordingly customary to mix the richer and poorer
varieties in fine powder in such respective quantities that the
proportion of bitumen present is from 9 to 10%. The richer rock is
utilized as a source of asphalt "mastic," which is employed for
footpaths, floors, roofs, &c. Excellent foundations for steam-hammers,
dynamos and high-speed engines are made of asphaltic concrete.
(B. R.)

ASPHODEL (_Asphodelus_), a genus of the lily order (Liliaceae),
containing seven species in the Mediterranean region. The plants are
hardy herbaceous perennials with narrow tufted radical leaves and an
elongated stem bearing a handsome spike of white or yellow flowers.
_Asphodelus albus_ and _A. fistulosus_ have white flowers and grow from
1½ to 2 ft. high; _A. ramosus_ is a larger plant, the large white
flowers of which have a reddish-brown line in the middle of each
segment. Bog-asphodel (_Narthecium ossifragum_), a member of the same
family, is a small herb common in boggy places in Britain, with rigid
narrow radical leaves and a stem bearing a raceme of small golden yellow
flowers.

In Greek legend the asphodel is the most famous of the plants connected
with the dead and the underworld. Homer describes it as covering the
great meadow ([Greek: asphodelos leimon]), the haunt of the dead (_Od._
xi. 539, 573; xxiv. 13). It was planted on graves, and is often
connected with Persephone, who appears crowned with a garland of
asphodels. Its general connexion with death is due no doubt to the
greyish colour of its leaves and its yellowish flowers, which suggest
the gloom of the underworld and the pallor of death. The roots were
eaten by the poorer Greeks; hence such food was thought good enough for
the shades (cf. Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 41; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxi.
17 [68]; Lucian, _De luctu_, 19). The asphodel was also supposed to be a
remedy for poisonous snake-bites and a specific against sorcery; it was
fatal to mice, but preserved pigs from disease. The Libyan nomads made
their huts of asphodel stalks (cf. Herod. iv. 190).

No satisfactory derivation of the word is suggested. The English word
"daffodil" is a perversion of "asphodel," formerly written "affodil."
The d may come from the French _fleur d'affodille_. It is no part of the
word philologically.

See Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopädie_, s.v.; H.O. Lenz, _Botanik der
alten Griechen und Römer_ (1859); J. Murr, _Die Pflanzenwelt in der
griechischen Mythologie_ (1890).

ASPHYXIA (Gr. [Greek: a-] priv., [Greek: sphaexis], a pulse), a term in
medicine, literally signifying loss of pulsation, which is applied to
describe the arrestment of the function of respiration from some
hindrance to the entrance of air into the lungs. (See RESPIRATORY
SYSTEM: _Pathology_.)

ASPIC (French, from Lat. _aspis_), an asp or viper found in Egypt whose
bite is supposed to cause a swift and easy death, hence poetically a
term for any venomous snake. From association, perhaps, with the
coldness of the aspic (as in the French proverb, _froid comme un
aspic_), the word is used for a savoury jelly containing meat, fish or
eggs, &c. It is also the botanical name of the _Lavandula spica_, or
spikenard, from which a white, aromatic and highly inflammable oil is
distilled, called _huile d'aspic_.

ASPIDISTRA, a small genus of the lily order (Liliaceae), native of the
Himalayas, China and Japan. _Aspidistra lurida_ is a favourite
pot-plant, bearing large green or white-striped leaves on an underground
stem, and small dark purplish, cup-shaped flowers close to the ground.

ASPIROTRICHACEAE (O. Bütschli), an order of Ciliate Infusoria,
characterized by an investment, general or partial, of nearly uniform
cilia, without any distinct adoral wreath, and one or two adoral endoral
undulating membranes. With the Gymnostomaceae it formed the Holotricha
of Stein.

ASPIROZ, MANUEL DE (1836-1905), Mexican statesman and diplomatist, was
born at Puebla, and educated at the university of Mexico, where he took
his degree in 1855. He took part in the war against the emperor
Maximilian, and in 1867, on the establishment of the republic, was
appointed assistant secretary of state for foreign affairs. In 1873 he
became Mexican consul at San Francisco, where he remained till his
election to the Senate in 1875. He was professor of jurisprudence at the
college of Puebla from 1883 to 1890, when he was again appointed
assistant secretary of foreign affairs. From 1899 till he died in 1905
he was Mexican ambassador to the United States. Among his writings may
be mentioned; _Código de extranjeria de los Estados-Unidos Mexicanos_
(1876), and _La liberdad civil como base del derecho internacional
privado_ (1896).

ASPROMONTE, a mountain of Calabria, Italy, rising behind Reggio di
Calabria, the west extremity of the Sila range. The highest point is
6420 ft. and the slopes are clad with forest. Here Garibaldi was wounded
and taken prisoner by the Italian troops under Pallavicini in 1862.

ASQUITH, HERBERT HENRY (1852- ), English statesman, son of Joseph
Dixon Asquith, was born at Morley, Yorkshire, on the 12th of September
1852. He came of a middle-class Yorkshire family of pronounced Liberal
and Nonconformist views, and was educated under Dr Edwin Abbott at the
City of London school, from which he went as a scholar to Balliol,
Oxford; there he had a distinguished career, taking a first-class in
classics, winning the Craven scholarship and being elected a fellow of
his college. He was president of the Union, and impressed all his
contemporaries with his intellectual ability, Dr Jowett himself
confidently predicting his signal success in any career he adopted. On
leaving Oxford he went to the bar, and as early as 1890 became a K.C. In
1887 he unsuccessfully defended Mr R.B. Cunninghame Graham and Mr John
Burns for their share in the riot in Trafalgar Square; and in 1889 he
was junior to Sir Charles (afterwards Lord) Russell as counsel for the
Irish Nationalists before the Parnell Commission--an association
afterwards bitterly commented upon by Mr T. Healy in the House of
Commons (March 30, 1908). But though he attained a fair practice at the
bar, and was recognized as a lawyer of unusual mental distinction and
clarity, his forensic success was not nearly so conspicuous as that of
some of his contemporaries. His ambitions lay rather in the direction of
the House of Commons. He had taken a prominent part in politics as a
Liberal since his university days, especially in work for the Eighty
Club, and in 1886 was elected member of parliament for East Fife, a seat
which he retained in subsequent elections. Mr Gladstone was attracted by
his vigorous ability as a speaker, and his evidence of sound political
judgment; and in August 1892, though comparatively unknown to the
general public, he was selected to move the vote of want of confidence
which overthrew Lord Salisbury's government, and was made home secretary
in the new Liberal ministry. At the Home Office he proved his capacity
as an administrator; he was the first to appoint women as factory
inspectors, and he was responsible for opening Trafalgar Square to
Labour demonstrations; but he firmly refused to sanction the proposed
amnesty for the dynamiters, and he was violently abused by extremists on
account of the shooting of two men by the military at the strike riot at
Featherstone in August 1893. It was he who coined the phrase
(Birmingham, 1894) as to the government's "ploughing the sands" in their
endeavour to pass Liberal legislation with a hostile House of Lords. His
Employers' Liability Bill 1893 was lost because the government refused
to accept the Lords' amendment as to "contracting-out." His suspensory
bill, with a view to the disestablishment of the church in Wales, was
abortive (1895), but it served to recommend him to the Welsh
Nationalists as well as to the disestablishment party in England and
Scotland. During his three years of office he more than confirmed the
high opinion formed of his abilities.

The Liberal defeat in 1895 left him out of office for eleven years. He
had married Miss Helen Melland in 1877, and was left with a family when
she died in 1891; in 1894, however, he had married again, his second
wife being the accomplished Miss Margaret ("Margot") Tennant, daughter
of the wealthy ironmaster, Sir Charles Tennant, Bart., a lady well known
in London society as a member of the coterie known as "Souls," and
commonly identified as the original of Mr E.F. Benson's _Dodo_ (1893).
On leaving the Home Office in 1895, Mr Asquith decided to return to his
work at the bar, a course which excited much comment, since it was
unprecedented that a minister who had exercised judicial functions in
that capacity should take up again the position of an advocate; but it
was obvious that to maintain the tradition was difficult in the case of
a man who had no sufficient independent means. During the years of
Unionist ascendancy Mr Asquith divided his energies between his legal
work and politics; but his adhesion to Lord Rosebery (q.v.) as a Liberal
Imperialist at the time of the Boer War, while it strengthened his
position in the eyes of the public, put him in some difficulty with his
own party, led as it was by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (q.v.), who was
identified with the "pro-Boer" policy. He was one of the founders of the
Liberal League, and his courageous definiteness of view and intellectual
vigour marked him out as Lord Rosebery's chief lieutenant if that
statesman should ever return to power. He thus became identified with
the Roseberyite attitude towards Irish Home Rule; and, while he
continued to uphold the Gladstonian policy in theory, in practice the
Irish Nationalists felt that very little could be expected from his
advocacy. In spite of his Imperialist views, however, he did much to
smooth over the party difficulties, and when the tariff-reform movement
began in 1903, he seized the opportunity for rallying the Liberals to
the banner of free-trade and championing the "orthodox" English
political economy, on which indeed he had been a lecturer in his younger
days. During the critical years of Mr Chamberlain's crusade (1903-1906)
he made himself the chief spokesman of the Liberal party, delivering a
series of speeches in answer to those of the tariff-reform leader; and
his persistent following and answering of Mr Chamberlain had undoubted
effect. He also made useful party capital out of the necessity for
financial retrenchment, owing to the large increase in public
expenditure, maintained by the Unionist government even after the Boer
War was over; and his mastery of statistical detail and argument made
his appointment as chancellor of the exchequer part of the natural order
of things when in December 1905 Mr Balfour resigned and Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman (q.v.) became prime minister.

During Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's premiership, Mr Asquith gradually
rose in political importance, and in 1907 the prime minister's
ill-health resulted in much of the leadership in the Commons devolving
on the chancellor of the exchequer. At first the party as a whole had
regarded him somewhat coldly. And his unbending common-sense, and
sobriety of criticism in matters which deeply interested the less
academic Radicals who were enthusiasts for extreme courses, would have
made the parliamentary situation difficult but for the exceptional
popularity of the prime minister. In the autumn of 1907, however, as the
latter's retention of office became more and more improbable, it became
evident that no other possible successor had equal qualifications. The
session of 1908 opened with Mr Asquith acting avowedly as the prime
minister's deputy, and the course of business was itself of a nature to
emphasize his claims. After two rather humdrum budgets he was pledged to
inaugurate a system of old-age pensions (forming the chief feature of
the budget of 1908, personally introduced by him at the beginning of
May), and his speech in April on the Licensing Bill was a triumph of
clear exposition, though later in the year, after passing the Commons,
it was thrown out by the Lords. On the 5th of April it was announced
that Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman had resigned and Mr Asquith been sent
for by the king. As the latter was staying at Biarritz, the
unprecedented course was followed of Mr Asquith journeying there for the
purpose, and on the 8th he resigned the chancellorship of the exchequer
and kissed hands as prime minister. The names of the new cabinet were
announced on the 13th. The new appointments were: Lord Tweedmouth as
lord president of the council (instead of the admiralty); Lord Crewe as
colonial secretary (instead of lord president of the council); Mr D.
Lloyd George, chancellor of the exchequer (transferred from the Board of
Trade); Mr R. McKenna, first lord of the admiralty (instead of minister
of education); Mr Winston Churchill, president of the Board of Trade;
and Mr Walter Runciman, minister of education. Lord Elgin ceased to be
colonial secretary, but Lord Loreburn (lord chancellor), Lord Ripon
(lord privy seal), Mr H. Gladstone (Home Office), Sir E. Grey (foreign
affairs), Mr Haldane (War Office), Mr Sinclair (secretary for Scotland;
created in 1909 Lord Pentland), Mr Burns (Local Government Board), Lord
Carrington (Board of Agriculture), Mr Birrell (Irish secretary), Mr S.
Buxton (postmaster-general), Mr L. Harcourt (commissioner of works), Mr
John Morley (India) and Sir Henry Fowler (duchy of Lancaster) retained
their offices, the two latter being created peers. The Budget (see LLOYD
GEORGE) was the sole feature of political interest in 1909, and its
rejection in December by the Lords led to the general election of
January 1910, which left the Liberals and Unionists practically equal,
with the Labour and Irish parties dominating the situation (L. 275, U.
273, Lab. 40, I. 82). Mr Asquith was in a difficult position, but the
ministry remained in office; and he had developed a concentration of
forces with a view to attacking the veto of the House of Lords (see
PARLIAMENT), when the death of the king in May caused a suspension of
hostilities. A conference between the leaders on both sides was
arranged, to discuss whether any compromise was possible, and
controversy was postponed to an autumn session. (H. Ch.)

ASS (O.E. _assa_; Lat. _asinus_), a common name (the synonym "donkey" is
supposed to be derived either by analogy from "monkey," or from the
Christian name Duncan; cf. Neddy, Jack, Dicky, &c.) for different
varieties of the sub-genus _Asinus_, belonging to the horse tribe, and
especially for the domestic ass; it differs from the horse in its
smaller size, long ears, the character of its tail, fur and markings,
and its proverbial dulness and obstinacy. The ancient Egyptians
symbolized an ignorant person by the head and ears of an ass, and the
Romans thought it a bad omen to meet one. In the middle ages the Germans
of Westphalia made the ass the symbol of St Thomas, the incredulous
apostle; the boy who was last to enter school on St Thomas' day was
called the "Ass Thomas" (Gubernatis's _Zoological Mythology_, i. 362).
The foolishness and obstinacy of the ass has caused the name to be
transferred metaphorically to human beings; and the fifth proposition of
Book i. of Euclid is known as the _Pons Asinorum_, bridge of asses.

ASS, FEAST OF THE, formerly a festival in northern France, primarily in
commemoration of the biblical flight into Egypt, and usually held on the
14th of January. A girl with a baby at her breast and seated on an ass
splendidly caparisoned was led through the town to the church, and there
placed at the gospel side of the altar while mass was said. The ceremony
degenerated into a burlesque in which the ass of the flight became
confused with Balaam's ass. So scandalous became the popular revels
associated with it, that the celebration was prohibited by the church in
the 15th century. (See FOOLS, FEAST OF.)

ASSAB, a bay and port on the African shore of the Red Sea, 60 m. N. of
the strait of Bab-el Mandeb. Assab Bay was the first territory acquired
by Italy in Africa. Bought from the sultan of Raheita in 1870, it was
not occupied until 1880. (See ERITREA, and ITALY: _History_.)

ASSAM, a former province of British India, which was amalgamated in 1905
with "Eastern Bengal and Assam" (q.v.). Area 56,243 sq. m.; pop. (1901)
6,126,343. The province of Assam lies on the N.E. border of Bengal, on
the extreme frontier of the Indian empire, with Bhutan and Tibet beyond
it on the N., and Burma and Manipur on the E. It comprises the valleys
of the Brahmaputra and Surma rivers, together with the mountainous
watershed which intervenes between them. It is situated between 24° 0'
and 28° 17' N. lat., and between 89° 46' and 97° 5' E. long. It is
bounded on the N. by the eastern section of the great Himalayan range,
the frontier tribes from west to east being successively Bhutias, Akas,
Daphlas, Miris, Abors and Mishmis; on the N.E. by the Mishmi hills,
which sweep round the head of the Brahmaputra valley; on the E. by the
unexplored mountains that mark the frontier of Burma, by the hills
occupied by the independent Naga tribes and by the state of Manipur; on
the S. by the Lushai hills, the state of Hill Tippera, and the Bengal
district of Tippera; and on the W. by the Bengal districts of Mymensingh
and Rangpur, the state of Kuch Behar and Jalpaiguri district.

_Natural Divisions._--Assam is naturally divided into three distinct
tracts, the Brahmaputra valley, the Surma valley and the hill ranges
between the two. The Brahmaputra valley is an alluvial plain, about 450
m. in length, with an average breadth of 50 m., lying almost east and
west. To the north is the main chain of the Himalayas, the lower ranges
of which rise abruptly from the plain; to the south is the great
elevated plateau or succession of plateaus known as the Assam range. The
various portions of this range are called by the names of the tribes who
inhabit them--the Garo, the Khasi, the Jaintia, the North Cachar and the
Naga hills. The range as a whole is joined at its eastern extremity by
the Patkai to the Himalayan system, and by the mountains of Manipur to
the Arakan Yoma. The highest points in the range are Nokrek peak (4600
ft.) in the Garo hills, Shillong peak (6450 ft.) in the Khasi-Jaintia
hills, and Japva peak (nearly 10,000 ft.) in the Naga hills. South of
the range comes the third division of the province, the Surma valley,
comprising the two districts of Cachar and Sylhet. The Surma valley is
much smaller than the Brahmaputra valley, covering only 7506 against
24,283 sq. m.; its mean elevation is much lower and its rivers are more
sluggish.

_Physical Aspects._--Assam is a fertile series of valleys, with the
great channel of the Brahmaputra (literally, the _Son of Brahma_)
flowing down its middle, and an infinite number of tributaries and
watercourses pouring into it from the mountains on either side. The
Brahmaputra spreads out in a sheet of water several miles broad during
the rainy season, and in its course through Assam forms a number of
islands in its bed. Rising in the Tibetan plateau, far to the north of
the Himalayas, and skirting round their eastern passes not far from
the Yang-tsze-kiang and the great river of Cambodia, it enters Assam
by a series of waterfalls and rapids, amid vast boulders and
accumulations of rocks. The gorge, situated in Lakhimpur district,
through which the southernmost branch of the Brahmaputra enters, has
from time immemorial been held in reverence by the Hindus. It is
called the Brahmakunda or Parasuramkunda; and although the journey to
it is both difficult and dangerous, it is annually visited by
thousands of devotees. After a rapid course westwards down the whole
length of the Assam valley, the Brahmaputra turns sharply to the
south, spreading itself over the alluvial districts of the Bengal
delta, and, after several changes of name, ends its course of 1800 m.
in the Bay of Bengal. Its first tributaries in Assam, after crossing
the frontier, are the Kundil and the Digaru, flowing from the Mishmi
hills on the north, and the Tengapani and Dihing, which take their
rise on the Singpho hills to the south-east. Shortly afterwards it
receives the Dihang, flowing from the north-east; but its principal
confluent is the Dihong, which, deriving its origin, under the name of
the Tsangpo, from a spot in the vicinity of the source of the Sutlej,
flows in a direction precisely opposite to that river, and traversing
the table-land of Tibet, at the back of the great Himalaya range,
falls into the Brahmaputra in 27° 48' N. lat., 95° 26' E. long., after
a course of nearly 1000 m. Doubts were long entertained whether the
Dihong could be justly regarded as the continuation of the Tsangpo,
but these were practically set at rest by the voyage of F.J. Needham
in 1886. Below the confluence, the united stream flows in a
south-westerly direction, forming the boundary between the districts
of Lakhimpur and Darrang, situated on its northern bank, and those of
Sibsagar and Nowgong on the south; and finally bisecting Kamrup, it
crosses over the frontier of the province and passes into Bengal. In
its course it receives on the left side the Dihing, a river having its
rise at the south-eastern angle of the province; and lower down, on
the opposite side, it parts with a considerable offset termed the Buri
Lohir, which, however, reunites with the Brahmaputra 60 m. below the
point of divergence, bearing with it the additional waters of the
Subansiri, flowing from Tibet. A second offset, under the name of the
Kalang river, rejoins the parent stream a short distance above the
town of Gauhati. The remaining rivers are too numerous to be
particularized. The streams of the south are not rapid, and have no
considerable current until May or June. Among the islands formed by
the intersection and confluence of the rivers is Majuli, or the Great
Island, as it is called by way of pre-eminence. This island extends 55
m. in length by about 10 in breadth, and is formed by the Brahmaputra
on the south-east and the Buri Lohit river on the north-west. In the
upper part of the valley, towards the gorge where the Brahmaputra
enters, the country is varied and picturesque, walled in on the north
and east by the Himalayas, and thickly wooded from the base to the
snow-line. On either bank of the Brahmaputra a long narrow strip of
plain rises almost imperceptibly to the foot of the hills. Gigantic
reeds and grasses occupy the low lands near the banks of the great
river; expanses of fertile rice-land come next; a little higher up,
dotted with villages encircled by groves of bamboos and fruit trees of
great size and beauty, the dark forests succeed, covering the interior
table-land and mountains. The country in the vicinity of the large
rivers is flat, and impenetrable from dense tangled jungle, with the
exception of some very low-lying tracts which are either permanent
marshes or are covered with water during the rains. Jungle will not
grow on these depressions, and they are covered either with water,
reeds, high grasses or rice cultivation. On or near such open spaces
are collected all the villages. As the traveller proceeds farther down
the valley, the country gradually opens out into wide plains. In the
western district of Kamrup the country forms one great expanse, with a
few elevated tracts here and there, varying from 200 to 800 ft. in
height.

_Soils._--The soil is exceedingly rich and well adapted to all kinds
of agricultural purposes, and for the most part is composed of a rich
black loam reposing on a grey sandy clay, though occasionally it
exhibits a light yellow clayey texture. The land may be divided into
three great classes. The first division is composed of hills, the
largest group within the valley being that of the Mikir Mountains,
which stand out upon the plain. Another set of hills project into the
valley at Gauhati. But these latter are rather prolongations of spurs
from the Khasi chain than isolated groups belonging to the plains. The
other hills are all isolated and of small extent. The second division
of the lands is the well-raised part of the valley whose level lies
above the ordinary inundations of the Brahmaputra. The channels of
some of the hill streams, however, are of so little depth that the
highest lands in their neighbourhood are liable to sudden floods. On
the north bank of the great river, lands of this sort run down the
whole length of the valley, except where they are interrupted by the
beds of the hill streams. The breadth of these plains is in some
places very trifling, whilst in others they comprise a tract of many
miles, according to the number and the height of the rocks or hills
that protect them from the aberrations of the river. The alluvial
deposits of the Brahmaputra and of its tributary streams may be
considered as the third general division of lands in Assam. These
lands are very extensive, and present every degree of fertility and
elevation, from the vast _chars_ of pure sand, subject to annual
inundations, to the firm islands, so raised by drift-sand and the
accumulated remains of rank vegetable matter, as no longer to be
liable to flood. The rapidity with which wastes, composed entirely of
sand newly washed forward by the current during floods, become
converted into rich pasture is astonishing. As the freshets begin to
lessen and retire into the deeper channels, the currents form natural
embankments on their edges, preventing the return of a small portion
of water which is thus left stagnant on the sands, and exposed to the
action of the sun's rays. It slowly evaporates, leaving a thin crust
of animal and vegetable matter. This is soon impregnated with the
seeds of the _Saccharum spontaneum_ and other grasses that have been
partly brought by the winds and partly deposited by the water. Such
places are frequented by numerous flocks of aquatic birds, which
resort thither in search of fish and mollusca. As vegetation begins to
appear, herds of wild elephants and buffaloes are attracted by the
supply of food and the solitude of the newly-formed land, and in their
turn contribute to manure the soil.

_Geology._--Geographically the Assam hills lie in the angle between
the Himalayas and the Burmese ranges, but geologically they belong to
neither. The older rocks are like those of Bengal, and the newer beds
show no sign of either the Himalayan or the Burmese folding--on the
top of the plateau they are nearly horizontal, but along the southern
margin they are bent sharply downwards in a simple monoclinal fold.
The greater part of the mass is composed of gneiss and schists. The
Sylhet traps near the southern margin are correlated with the Rajmahal
traps of Bengal. The older rocks are overlaid unconformably by
Cretaceous beds, consisting chiefly of sandstones with seams of coal,
the whole series thinning rapidly towards the north and thus
indicating the neighbourhood of the old shore-line. The fossils are
very similar to those of the South Indian Cretaceous, but very
different from those of the corresponding beds in the Nerbudda valley.
The overlying Tertiary series includes nummulitic beds and valuable
seams of coal.

The border ranges of the east and south of Assam belong to the Burmese
system of mountain chains (see BURMA), and consist largely of Tertiary
beds, including the great coal seams of Upper Assam. The Assam valley
is covered by the alluvial deposits of the Brahmaputra.

Of the mineral productions by far the most valuable is coal. Compared
with the Gondwana coal of the peninsula of India the Tertiary coal
seams of Assam are remarkable for their purity and their extraordinary
thickness. The "Thick Seam" of Margherita, in Upper Assam, averages 50
ft., and in some places reaches as much as 80 ft. The average
percentage of ash in 27 assays of Assam coal was 3.8 as against 16.3
in 17 assays of Raniganj coal. The coal seams are commonly associated
with petroleum springs. Gold is found in the alluvial deposits, but
the results of exploration have not been very promising.

_Earthquakes_.--Assam is liable to earthquakes. There was a severe
earthquake in Cachar on the 10th of January 1869, a severe shock in
Shillong and Gauhati in September 1875, and one in Silchar in October
1882; but by far the severest shock known is that which occurred on
the evening of 12th June 1897. The area of this seismic disturbance
extended over north-eastern India, from Manipur to Sikkim; but the
focus was in the Khasi and Garo hills. In the station of Shillong
every masonry building was levelled to the ground. Throughout the
country bridges were shattered, roads were broken up like ploughed
fields, and the beds of rivers were dislocated. In the hills there
were terrible landslips, which wrecked the little Cherrapunji railway
and caused 600 deaths. The total mortality recorded was 1542,
including two Europeans at Shillong. The levels of the country were so
affected that the towns of Goalpara and Barpeta became almost
uninhabitable during the rains.

_Fauna._--The zoology of Assam presents some interesting features.
Wild elephants abound and commit many depredations, entering villages
in large herds, and consuming everything suitable to their tastes.
Many are caught by means of female elephants previously tamed, and
trained to decoy males into the snares prepared for subjecting them to
captivity. A considerable number are tamed and exported from Assam
every year. Many are killed every year in the forests for the sake of
the ivory which they furnish. The government _keddah_ establishment
from Dacca captures large numbers of elephants in the province, and
the right of hunting is also sold by auction to private bidders. The
annual catch of the latter averages about two hundred. The rhinoceros
is found in the denser parts of the forests and generally in swampy
places. This animal is hunted and killed for its skin and its horn.
The skin affords the material for the best shields. The horn is sacred
in the eyes of the natives. Contrary to the usual belief, it is stated
that, if caught young, the rhinoceros is easily tamed and becomes
strongly attached to his keeper. Tigers abound, and though many are
annually destroyed for the sake of the government reward, their
numbers seem scarcely, if at all, to diminish. Leopards and bears are
numerous; and the sand-badger, the _Arctonyx collaris_ of Cuvier, a
small animal somewhat resembling a bear, but having the snout, eyes
and tail of a hog, is found. Among the most formidable animals known
is the wild buffalo or _gaur_ which is of great size, strength and
fierceness. The fox and the jackal exist, and the wild hog is very
abundant. Goats, deer of various kinds, hares, and two or three
species of antelope are found, as are monkeys in great variety. The
porcupine, the squirrel, the civet cat, the ichneumon and the otter
are common. The birds are too various to admit of enumeration. Wild
game is plentiful; pheasants, partridges, snipe and water-fowl of many
descriptions make the country a tempting field for the sportsman.
Vultures and other birds of prey are met with. Crocodiles (commonly
called alligators) swarm in all parts of the Brahmaputra, and are very
destructive to the fish, of which hundreds of varieties are found, and
which supply a valuable article of food. The most destructive of the
_ferae naturae_, as regards human life, are, however, the snakes. Of
these, several poisonous species exist, including the cobra and karait
(_Naja tripudians_ and _Bungarus caeruleus_). The bite of a
fairly-grown healthy serpent of either of these species is deadly; and
it is ascertained that more deaths occur from snake-bite than from all
the other wild beasts put together. Among the non-poisonous serpents
the python ranks first. This is an enormous boa-constrictor of great
length and weight, which drops upon his prey from the branch of a
tree, or steals upon it in the thick grass. He kills his victim by
rolling himself round the body till he breaks its ribs, or suffocates
it by one irresistible convolution round its throat. He seldom or
never attacks human beings unless in self-defence, and loss of life
from this cause is scarcely ever reported.

_Agriculture._--The principal and almost the only food-grain of the
plains portion of the province is rice. The production of this staple
is carried on generally under the same conditions as in Bengal; but
the times of sowing and reaping and the names given to the several
crops vary much in different parts of the province. In 1901-1902 out
of a total cultivated area of 1,736,000 acres, there were 1,194,000
acres under rice. In addition jute is grown to a considerable extent
in Goalpara and Sylhet; cotton is grown in large quantities along the
slopes of the Assam range. Rubber is grown in government plantations
and is also brought in by the hill tribes; while lac, mustard and
potatoes are also produced.

_Tea Plantations._--The most important article of commerce produced in
Assam is tea. The rice crop covers a very great proportion of the
cultivated land, but it is used for local consumption, and the
Brahmaputra valley does not produce enough for its own consumption,
large quantities being imported for the coolies. The tea plantations
are the one great source of wealth to the province, and the
necessities of tea cultivation are the chief stimulants to the
development of Assam. The plant was discovered in 1823 by Mr Robert
Bruce, who had proceeded thither on a mercantile exploration. The
country, however, then formed part of the Burmese dominions. But war
with this monarchy shortly afterwards broke out, and a brother of the
first discoverer, happening to be appointed to the command of a
division of gunboats employed in some part of the operations, followed
up the pursuit of the subject, and obtained several hundred plants and
a considerable quantity of seed. Some specimens were ultimately
forwarded to the superintendent of the botanic garden at Calcutta. In
1832 Captain F. Jenkins was deputed by the governor-general of India,
Lord William Bentinck, to report upon the resources of the country,
and the tea plant was brought to his especial notice by Mr Bruce; in
1834 a minute was recorded by the governor-general on the subject, in
which it is stated that his attention had been called to it in 1827
before his departure from England. In accordance with the views of
that minute, a committee was appointed to prosecute inquiries, and to
promote the cultivation of the plant. Communications were opened with
China with a view to obtain fresh plants and seeds, and a deputation,
composed of gentlemen versed in botanical studies, was despatched to
Assam. Some seeds were obtained from China; but they proved to be of
small importance, as it was clearly ascertained by the members of the
Assam deputation that both the black and the green tea plants were
indigenous here, and might be multiplied to any extent; another result
of the Chinese mission, that of procuring persons skilled in the
cultivation and manufacture of black tea, was of more material
benefit. Subsequently, under Lord Auckland, a further supply of
Chinese cultivators and manufacturers was obtained--men well
acquainted with the processes necessary for the production of green
tea, as the former set were with those requisite for black. In 1838
the first twelve chests of tea from Assam were received in England.
They had been injured in some degree on the passage, but on samples
being submitted to brokers, and others of long experience and tried
judgment, the reports were highly favourable. It was never, however,
the intention of government to carry on the trade, but to resign it to
private adventure as soon as the experimental course could be fairly
completed. Mercantile associations for the culture and manufacture of
tea in Assam began to be formed as early as 1839; and in 1849 the
government disposed of their establishment, and relinquished the
manufacture to the ordinary operation of commercial enterprise. In
1851 the crop of the principal company was estimated to produce
280,000 lb. Since then the enterprise has rapidly developed. Tea is
now cultivated in all the plains district of the provinces. When the
industry was first established, the land which was supposed to be best
for the plant was hill or undulating ground; but now it has been found
in the Surma valley that with good drainage the heaviest crops of tea
can be raised from low-lying land, even such as formerly supported
rice cultivation. At the close of the year 1905 there were 942 gardens
in all, with 422,335 acres, and employing 464,912 coolies. The
majority of gardens are owned by Europeans, 405,486 acres belonging to
them as against 16,849 to Indians. The total out-turn for the province
in 1905 was 193,556,047 lb. Between 1893 and 1898 there was a great
extension of tea cultivation, with the result that the industry began
to suffer from the congestion that follows over-production. Also to
meet the requirements of the industry, an enormous number of coolies
had to be brought into the province from other parts of India, and in
recent years the supply of labour has begun to fall off, causing a
rise in the cost of production. For these reasons there was a crisis
in the tea industry of Assam, which was relieved to some extent by the
reduction of the English duty on tea in 1906.

_Tea-Garden Coolies._--The labour required on the tea gardens is
almost entirely imported, as the natives of the province are too
prosperous to do such work. During the decade 1891-1901, 596,856
coolies were imported, or about a tenth of the total population of the
province. The importation of coolies is controlled by an elaborate
system of legislation, which provides for the registration of
contracts, the medical inspection of coolies during the journey, and
supervision over rates of pay, &c., on the gardens. The first labour
act was passed in 1863, and since then the law on the subject has been
changed by successive enactments. The measure now in force is called
Act VI. of 1901. Under this act the maximum term of the labour
contract is fixed at four years, and a minimum monthly wage is laid
down, the payment of which, however, is contingent on the completion
of a daily task by the labourer. Labourers under contract deserting
are liable to fine and imprisonment, and, subject to certain
restrictions, may be arrested without warrant by their employers. In
addition to the labourers engaged under this act, a large number are
employed under contract enforceable by Act XIII, of 1859, which
provides penalties for breach of the contract, but does not allow of
the arrest of deserters without warrant. Neither does this act
regulate in any way the terms of the contract, nor contain any special
provisions for the protection of the labourer. Many labourers on the
conclusion of their first engagement under Act VI. of 1901 enter into
renewed contracts under Act XIII. of 1859. In 1905 there were in all
664,296 labourers, and 24,209 fresh importations, of whom 62% chose
the old act.

_Railways._--The Assam-Bengal railway runs from the seaport of
Chittagong to the Surma valley, and thence across the hills to
Dibrugarh, at the head of the Brahmaputra valley, with a branch to
Gauhati lower down the Brahmaputra. The hill section of this line was
found exceedingly difficult of construction, and extensive damage was
done by the earthquake of 1897; but it is now complete. This railway
is financed by the government, though worked by a company, and
therefore ranks as a state line. At the end of 1904 its open mileage
was 576 m. There are several short lines of light railway or tramway
in the province. The most important is the Dibru-Sadiya railway, at
the head of the Brahmaputra valley, with a branch to the coal-fields.

_Trade_.-The external trade of Assam is conducted partly by steamer,
partly by native boat, and to a small extent by rail. In the
Brahmaputra valley steamers carry as much as 86% of the exports, and
94% of the imports. In the Surma valley native boats carry about 43%
of both. In 1904-1905 the total exports were valued at 726 lakhs of
rupees. The chief items were tea, rice in the husk, oil-seeds,
tea-seed, timber, coal and jute. The imports were valued at 457 lakhs
of rupees. The chief items were cotton piece-goods, rice not in the
husk, sugar, grain and pulse, salt, iron and steel, tobacco, cotton
twist and yarn, and brass and copper. No less than two-thirds of the
total trade is conducted with Calcutta. The trans-frontier trade is
insignificant; and most of it is conducted with the Bengal state of
Hill Tippera. The trade through Chittagong is increasing owing to the
opening of the hill-section of the Assam-Bengal railway, which gives
direct communication between the districts of Upper Assam and the port
of Chittagong, and the incorporation of that port in the new province
of Eastern Bengal and Assam.

_Inhabitants._--The total population of Assam, according to the census
of 1901, was 6,126,343, of whom 3,429,099 were Hindus, 1,581,317
Mahommedans and 1,068,334 Animists. The number of foreigners in the
population due to immigration by the tea-garden coolies was 775,844. But
in spite of this immigration the rate of increase in the population was
only 5.9% in the decade, and with the immigrants deducted 1.36%. Amongst
native-born Assamese during the decade there was a serious decrease in
Nowgong and some other districts, due to _kalaazar_ and other diseases.
The Assamese are an interesting race, of distinct origin from the
neighbouring Bengalis. A large proportion of them derive their origin
from tribes who came from the Himalayan ranges, from Burma or from the
Chinese frontier. The most important of these are the Ahoms or Ahams, an
offshoot of the Shan race of northern Burma. They were the last
conquerors of Assam before the Burmese, and they long preserved their
ancient traditions, habits and institutions. Hinduism first made its
encroachments among their kings and nobility. Several generations ago
they gave up eating beef, and they are now completely Hinduized, except
in a few remote recesses of Assam. Hinduism has also impressed its
language upon the province, and the vernacular Assamese possesses a
close affinity to Bengali, with the substitution of _s_ for the Bengali
_ch_, of a guttural _h_ for the Bengali _h_ or _sh_, and a few other
dialectic changes. Indeed, so close was the resemblance that for a time
Bengali was used as the court and official language of the province
under British rule. But with the development of the country the Assamese
tongue asserted its claims to be treated as a distinct vernacular, and a
resolution of government (1873) re-established it as the language of
official life and public business.

The Assam peasant, living in a half-populated province, and surrounded
by surplus land, is indolent, good-natured and, on the whole,
prosperous. He raises sufficient food for his wants with very little
labour, and, with the exception of a few religious ceremonies, he has no
demand made upon him for money, saving the light rental of his fields.
Under the peaceful influences of British rule, he has completely lost
his ancient warlike instincts, and forgotten his predatory habits. In
complexion he is a shade or two fairer than the Bengali. His person is
in general short and robust, but devoid of the grace and flexibility of
the Hindu. A flat face, with high cheek-bones, presents a physiognomy
resembling the Chinese, and suggests no idea of beauty. His hair is
abundant, black, lank and coarse, but the beard is scanty, and usually
plucked out, which gives him an effeminate appearance. The women form a
striking contrast to the men; there is more of feminine beauty in them
than is commonly seen in the women of Bengal, with a form and feature
somewhat approaching the European. The habits of life of the Assamese
peasantry are pre-eminently domestic. Great respect is paid to old age;
when parents are no longer capable of labour they are supported by their
children, and scarcely any one is allowed to become a burden to the
public. They have also in general a very tender regard for their
offspring, and are generous and kind to their relations. They are
hospitable to people of their own caste, but to no others. The use of
opium is very general.

_Hill Tribes._--The hill and frontier tribes of Assam include the Nagas,
Singphos, Daphlas, Miris, Khamtis, Mishmis, Abors, &c., nearly all of
whom, excepting the Nagas, are found near the frontiers of Lakhimpur
district. The principal of these, in point of numbers, are the Nagas,
who inhabit the hills and forests along the eastern and south-eastern
frontier of Assam. They reside partly in the British district of the
Naga hills and partly in independent territory under the political
control of the deputy-commissioner of the adjoining districts. They
cultivate rice, cotton, yams and Indian corn, and prepare salt from the
brine springs in their hills. The different tribes of Nagas are
independent of and unconnected with one another, and are often at war
with each other. The Singphos are another of the main population of the
same race, who occupy in force the hilly country between the Patkai and
Chindwin rivers, and are nominally subject to Burma. The Akas, Daphlas,
Miris, Abors, Mishmis and Khamtis are described under separate headings.
Under regulation V. of 1873, an inner line has been laid down in certain
districts, up to which the protection of British authority is
guaranteed, and beyond which, except by special permission, it is not
lawful for British subjects to go. This inner line has been laid down in
Darrang towards the Bhutias, Akas and Daphlas; in Lakhimper towards the
Daphlas, Miris, Abors, Mishmis, Khamtis, Singphos and Nagas; and in
Sibsagar towards the Nagas. The inner line formerly maintained along the
Lushai border has since 1895 been allowed to fall into desuetude, but
Lushais visiting Cachar are required to take out passes from the
superintendent of the Lushai hills. The line is marked at intervals by
frontier posts held by military police and commanding the roads of
access to the tract beyond; and any person from the plains who has
received permission to cross the line has to present his pass at these
posts.

_History._--Assam was the province of Bengal which remained most
stubbornly outside the limits of the Mogul empire and of the Mahommedan
polity in India. Indeed, although frequently overrun by Mussulman
armies, and its western districts annexed to the Mahommedan vice-royalty
of Bengal, the province maintained an uncertain independence till its
invasion by the Burmese towards the end of the 18th century, and its
final cession to the British in 1826. It seems to have been originally
included, along with the greater part of north-eastern Bengal, in the
old Hindu territory of Kamrup. Its early legends point to great
religious revolutions between the rival rites of Krishna and Siva as a
source of dynastic changes. Its roll of kings extends deep into
prehistoric times, but the first rajah capable of indentification
flourished about the year 76 A.D. Kamrup, the Pragjotishpur of the
ancient Hindus, was the capital of a legendary king Narak, whose son
Bhagadatta distinguished himself in the great war of the _Mahabharata_.

When Hsüan Tsang visited the country in A.D. 640, a prince named Kumar
Bhaskara Barman was on the throne. The people are described as being of
small stature with dark yellow complexions; they were fierce in
appearance, but upright and studious. Hinduism was the state religion,
and the number of Buddhists was very small. The soil was deep and
fertile, and the towns were surrounded by moats with water brought from
rivers or banked-up lakes. Subsequently we read of Pal rulers in Assam.
It is supposed that these kings were Buddhist and belonged to the Pal
dynasty of Bengal. Although the whole of Kamrup appears from time to
time to have been united into one kingdom under some unusually powerful
monarch, it was more often split up into numerous petty states; and for
several centuries the Koch, the Ahom and the Chutia powers contested for
the Assam valley. In the early part of the 13th century the Ahoms or
Ahams, from northern Burma and the Chinese frontiers, poured into the
eastern districts of Assam, founded a kingdom, and held it firmly for
several centuries. The Ahoms were Shans from the ancient Shan kingdom of
Pong. Their manners, customs, religion and language were, and for a long
time continued to be, different from those of the Hindus; but they found
themselves compelled to respect the superior civilization of this race,
and slowly adopted its customs and language. The conversion of their
king Chuchengpha to Hinduism took place in the year A.D. 1655, and all
the Ahoms of Assam gradually followed his example. In medieval history,
the Assamese were known to the Mussulman population as a warlike,
predatory race, who sailed down the Brahmaputra in fleets of innumerable
canoes, plundered the rich districts of the delta, and retired in safety
to their forests and swamps. As the Mahommedan power consolidated itself
in Bengal, repeated expeditions were sent out against these river
pirates of the north-east. The physical difficulties which an invading
force had to contend with in Assam, however, prevented anything like a
regular subjugation of the country; and after repeated efforts, the
Mussulmans contented themselves with occupying the western districts at
the mouth of the Assam valley. The following details will suffice for
the history of a struggle in which no great political object was
attained, and which left the Assamese still the same wild and piratical
people as when their fleets of canoes first sallied forth against the
Bengal delta. In 1638, during the reign of the emperor Shah Jahan, the
Assamese descended the Brahmaputra, and pillaged the country round the
city of Dacca; they were expelled by the governor of Bengal, who
retaliated upon the plunderers by ravaging Assam. During the civil wars
between the sons of Shah Jahan, the king of Assam renewed his predatory
incursions into Bengal; upon the termination of the contest, Aurangzeb
determined to avenge these repeated insults, and despatched a
considerable force for the regular invasion of the Assamese territory
(1660-1662). His general, Mir Jumla, defeated the rajah, who fled to the
mountains, and most of the chiefs made their submission to the
conqueror. But the rains set in with unusual violence, and Mir Jumla's
army was almost annihilated by famine and sickness. Thus terminated the
last expedition against Assam by the Mahommedans, whose fortunes in this
country were never prosperous. A writer of the Mahommedan faith
says:--"Whenever an invading army has entered their territories, the
Assamese have sheltered themselves in strong posts, and have distressed
the enemy by stratagems, surprises and alarms, and by cutting off their
provisions. If these means failed, they have declined a battle in the
field, but have carried the peasants into the mountains, burned the
grain and left the country desert. But when the rainy season has set in
upon the advancing enemy, they have watched their opportunity to make
excursions and vent their rage; the famished invaders have either become
their prisoners or been put to death. In this manner powerful and
numerous armies have been sunk in that whirlpool of destruction, and not
a soul has escaped." The same writer states that the country was
spacious, populous and hard to be penetrated; that it abounded in
dangers; that the paths and roads were beset with difficulties; and that
the obstacles to conquest were more than could be expressed. The
inhabitants, he says, were enterprising, well-armed and always prepared
for battle. Moreover, they had lofty forts, numerously garrisoned and
plentifully provided with warlike stores; and the approach to them was
opposed by thick and dangerous jungles, and broad and boisterous rivers.
The difficulties in the way of successful invasion are of course not
understated, as it was the object of the writer to exalt the prowess and
perseverance of the faithful. He accounts for their temporary success by
recording that "the Mussulman hordes experienced the comfort of fighting
for their religion, and the blessings of it reverted to the sovereignty
of his just and pious majesty." The short-lived triumph of the
Mussulmans might, however, have warranted a less ambitious tone. About
the middle of the 17th century the chief became a convert to Hinduism.
By what mode the conversion was effected does not clearly appear, but
whatever were the means employed, it seems that the decline of the
country commenced about the same period. Internal dissensions, invasion
and disturbances of every kind convulsed the province, and neither
prince nor people enjoyed security. Late in the 18th century some
interference took place on the part of the British government, then
conducted by Lord Cornwallis; but the successor of that nobleman, Sir
John Shore, adopting the non-intervention policy, withdrew the British
force, and abandoned the country to its fate. Its condition encouraged
the Burmese to depose the rajah, and to make Assam a dependency of Ava.
The extension of their encroachments on a portion of the territory of
the East India Company compelled the British government to take decisive
steps for its own protection. Hence arose the series of hostilities with
Ava known in Indian history as the first Burmese War, on the termination
of which by treaty in February 1826, Assam remained a British
possession. In 1832 that portion of the province denominated Upper Assam
was formed into an independent native state, and conferred upon
Purandhar Singh, the ex-rajah of the country; but the administration of
this chief proved unsatisfactory, and in 1838 his principality was
reunited with the British dominions. After a period of successful
administration and internal development, under the lieutenant-governor
of Bengal, it was erected into a separate chief-commissionership in
1874.

In 1886 the eastern Dwars were annexed from Bhutan; and in 1874 the
district of Goalpara, the eastern Dwars and the Garo hills were
incorporated in Assam. In 1898 the southern Lushai hills were
transferred from Bengal to Assam, and the north and south Lushai hills
were amalgamated as a district of Assam, and placed under the
superintendent of the Lushai hills. Frontier troubles occasionally occur
with the Akas, Daphlas, Abors and Mishmis along the northern border,
arising out of raids from the independent territory into British
districts. In October 1905 the whole province of Assam was incorporated
in the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam.

See E.A. Gait, _The History of Assam_ (1906).

ASSAMESE, the Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Assam valley. In 1901
the number of its speakers was 1,350,846. It is closely related to
Bengali and Oriya, forming with them and with Bihari the Eastern Group
of the Indo-Aryan vernaculars. For further particulars see BENGALI.

ASSAROTTI, OTTAVIO GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1753-1829), the founder of schools
for the education of deaf-mutes in Italy, was born at Genoa in 1753.
After qualifying himself for the church, he entered the society of the
Pietists, "Scuole Pie," who devoted themselves to the training of the
young. His superior learning caused him to be appointed to lecture on
theology to the students of the order. In 1801 he heard of the Abbé
Sicard's training of deaf-mutes in Paris, and resolved to try something
similar in Italy. He began with one pupil, and had by degrees collected
a small number round him, when, in 1805, Napoleon, hearing of his
endeavours, ordered a convent to be given him for a school-house, and
funds for supporting twelve scholars to be taken from the convent
revenues. This order was scarcely attended to till 1811, when it was
renewed, and in the following year Assarotti, with a considerable number
of pupils, took possession of the new school. Here he continued, with
the exception of a short interval in 1814, till his death in 1829. A
pension, which had been awarded him by the king of Sardinia, he
bequeathed to his scholars.

ASSARY, or ASSARION, a Roman copper coin, the "farthing" of Matthew x.
29.

ASSASSIN (properly _Hashishin_, from _Hashish_, the opiate made from the
juice of hemp leaves), a general term for a secret murderer, originally
the name of a branch of the Shiite sect (see SHIITES), known as
Isma'ilites, founded by Hassan (ibn) Sabbah at the end of the 11th
century, and from that time active in Syria and Persia until crushed in
the 13th century by the Mongols under Hulaku (Hulagu) in Persia, and by
the Mameluke Bibars in Syria. The father of Hassan Sabbah, a native of
Khorasan, and a Shiite, had been frequently compelled to profess Sunnite
orthodoxy, and from prudential motives had sent his son to study under
an orthodox doctor at Nishapur. Here Hassan made the acquaintance of
Nizam-ul-Mulk, afterwards vizier of the sultan Malik-Shah (see SELJUKS).
During the reign of Alp-Arslan he remained in obscurity, and then
appeared at the court of Malik-Shah, where he was at first kindly
received by his old friend the vizier. Hassan, who was a man of great
ability, tried to supplant him in the favour of the sultan, but was
outwitted and compelled to take his departure from Persia. He went to
Egypt (1078-79), and, on account of his high reputation, was received
with great honour by the lodge at Cairo. He soon stood so high in the
caliph Mostansir's favour as to excite against him the jealousy of the
chief general, and a cause of open enmity soon arose. The caliph had
nominated first one and then another of his sons as his successor, and
in consequence a party division took place among the leading men.
Hassan, who adopted the cause of Nizar, the eldest son, found his
enemies too strong for him, and was forced to leave Egypt. After many
adventures he reached Aleppo and Damascus, and after a sojourn there,
settled near Kuhistan (Kohistan). He gradually spread his peculiar
modification of Isma'ilite doctrine, and, having collected a
considerable number of followers, formed them into a secret society. In
1090 he obtained, by stratagem, the strong mountain fortress of Alamut
in Persia, and, removing there with his followers, settled as chief of
the famous society afterwards called the Assassins.

The speculative principles of this body were identical with those of the
Isma'ilites, but their external policy was marked by one peculiar and
distinctive feature--the employment of secret "assassination" against
all enemies. This practice was introduced by Hassan, and formed the
essential characteristic of the sect. In organization they closely
resembled the western lodge at Cairo. At the head was the supreme ruler,
the _Sheik-al-Jabal_ (_Jebel_), i.e. Chief, or, as it is commonly
translated, Old Man of the Mountains. Under him were three
_Da'i-al-Kirbal_, or, as they may be called, grand priors, who ruled the
three provinces over which the sheik's power extended. Next came the
body of _Da'is_, or priors, who were fully initiated into all the secret
doctrines, and were the emissaries of the faith. Fourth were the
_Refiqs_, associates or fellows, who were in process of initiation, and
who ultimately advanced to the dignity of _da'is_. Fifth came the most
distinctive class, the _Fedais_ (i.e. the devoted ones), who were the
guards or assassins proper. These were all young men, and from their
ranks were selected the agents for any deed of blood. They were kept
uninitiated, and the blindest obedience was exacted from and yielded by
them. When the sheik required the services of any of them, the selected
_fedais_ were intoxicated with the _hashish_. When in this state they
were introduced into the splendid gardens of the sheik, and surrounded
with every sensual pleasure. Such a foretaste of paradise, only to be
granted by their supreme ruler, made them eager to obey his slightest
command; their lives they counted as nothing, and would resign them at a
word from him. Finally, the sixth and seventh orders were the _Lasiqs_,
or novices, and the common people. Hassan well knew the efficacy of
established law and custom in securing the obedience of a mass of
people; accordingly, upon all but the initiated, the observances of
Islam were rigidly enforced. As for the initiated, they knew the
worthlessness of positive religion and morality; they believed in
nothing, and scoffed at the practices of the faithful.

The Assassins soon began to make their power felt. One of their first
victims was Hassan's former friend, Nizam-ul-Mulk, whose son also died
under the dagger of a secret murderer. The death by poison of the sultan
Malik-Shah was likewise ascribed to this dreaded society, and
contributed to increase their evil fame. Sultan Sinjar, his successor,
made war upon them, but he was soon glad to come to terms with enemies
against whose operations no precaution seemed available. After a long
and prosperous rule Hassan died at an advanced age in 1124. He had
previously slain both his sons, one on suspicion of having been
concerned in the murder of a _da'i_ at Kuhistan, the other for drinking
wine, and he was therefore compelled to name as his successor his chief
_da'i_, Kia-Busurg-Omid.

During the fourteen years' reign of this second leader, the Assassins
were frequently unfortunate in the open field, and their castles were
taken and plundered; but they acquired a stronghold in Syria, while
their numerous murders made them an object of dread to the neighbouring
princes, and spread abroad their evil renown. A long series of
distinguished men perished under the daggers of the _fedais_; even the
most sacred dignity was not spared. The caliph Mostarshid was
assassinated in his tent, and not long after, the caliph Rashid suffered
a similar fate. Busurg-Omid was succeeded by his son Mahommed I., who,
during the long period of twenty-five years, ruthlessly carried out his
predecessor's principles. In his time Massiat became the chief seat of
the Syrian branch of the society. Mahommed's abilities were not great,
and the affections of the people were drawn towards his son Hassan, a
youth of great learning, skilled in all the wisdom of the initiated, and
popularly believed to be the promised Imam become visible on earth. The
old sheik prevented any attempt at insurrection by slaying 250 of
Hassan's adherents, and the son was glad to make submission. When,
however, he attained the throne, he began to put his views into effect.
On the 17th of the month Ramadan, 1164, he assembled the people and
disclosed to them the secret doctrines of the initiated; he announced
that the doctrines of Islam were now abolished, that the people might
give themselves up to feasting and joy. Soon after, he announced that he
was the promised Imam, the caliph of God upon earth. To substantiate
these claims he gave out that he was not the son of Mahommed, but was
descended from Nizar, son of the Egyptian caliph Mostansir, and a lineal
descendant of Isma'il. After a short reign of four years Hassan was
assassinated by his brother-in-law, and his son Mahommed II. succeeded.
One of his first acts was to slay his father's murderer, with all his
family and relatives; and his long rule, extending over a period of
forty-six years, was marked by many similar deeds of cruelty. He had to
contend with many powerful enemies, especially with the great Atabeg
sultan Nureddin, and his more celebrated successor, Saladin, who had
gained possession of Egypt after the death of the last Fatimite caliph,
and against whom even secret assassination seemed powerless. During his
reign, also, the Syrian branch of the society, under their _da'i_,
Sinan, made themselves independent, and remained so ever afterwards. It
was with this Syrian branch that the Crusaders made acquaintance; and it
appears to have been their emissaries who slew Count Raymund of Tripoli
and Conrad of Montferrat.

Mahommed II. died from the effects of poison, administered, it is
believed, by his son, Jelaleddin Hassan III., who succeeded. He restored
the old form of doctrine--secret principles for the initiated, and Islam
for the people--and his general piety and orthodoxy procured for him the
name of the new Mussulman. During his reign of twelve years no
assassinations occurred, and he obtained a high reputation among the
neighbouring princes. Like his father, he was removed by poison, and his
son, 'Ala-ed-din Mahommed III., a child of nine years of age, weak in
mind and body, was placed on the throne. Under his rule the mild
principles of his father were deserted, and a fresh course of
assassination entered on. In 1255, after a reign of thirty years,
'Ala-ed-din was slain, with the connivance of his son, Rukneddin, the
last ruler of the Assassins. In the following year Hulaku (Hulagu),
brother of the Tatar, Mangu Khan, invaded the hill country of Persia,
took Alamut and many other castles, and captured Rukneddin (see
MONGOLS). He treated him kindly, and, at his own request, sent him under
escort to Mangu. On the way, Rukneddin treacherously incited the
inhabitants of Kirdkuh to resist the Tatars. This breach of good faith
was severely punished by the khan, who ordered Rukneddin to be put to
death, and sent a messenger to Hulaku (Hulagu) commanding him to slay
all his captives. About 12,000 of the Assassins were massacred, and
their power in Persia was completely broken. The Syrian branch
flourished for some years longer, till Bibars, the Mameluke sultan of
Egypt, ravaged their country and nearly extirpated them. Small bodies of
them lingered about the mountains of Syria, and are believed still to
exist there. Doctrines somewhat similar to theirs are still to be met
with in north Syria.

See J. von Hammer, _Geschichte der Assassinen_ (1818); S. de Sacy,
_Mémoires de l'lnstitut_, iv. (1818), who discusses the etymology
fully; _Calcutta Review_, vols. lv., lvi.; A. Jourdain in Michaud's
_Histoire des Croisades_, ii. pp. 465-484, and trans. of the Persian
historian Mirkhond in _Notices et extraits des manuscrits_, xiii. pp.
143 sq.; cf. R. Dozy, _Essai sur l'histoire de l'Islamisme_ (Leiden
and Paris, 1879); ch. ix. (G. W. T.)

ASSAULT (from Lat. _ad_, to or on, and _saltare_, to leap), in English
law, "an attempt or offer with force or violence to do corporal hurt to
another, as by striking at another with a stick or other weapon, or
without a weapon, though the party misses his aim." Notwithstanding
ancient opinions to the contrary, it is now settled that mere words, be
they ever so provoking, will not constitute an assault. Coupled with the
attempt or threat to inflict corporal injury, there must in all cases be
the means of carrying the threat into effect. A _battery_ is more than a
threat or attempt to injure the person of another; the injury must have
been inflicted, but it makes no difference however small it may be, as
the law does not "draw the line between degrees of violence," but
"totally prohibits the first and lowest stage of it." Every battery
includes an assault. A common assault is a misdemeanour, and is
punishable by imprisonment with or without hard labour to the extent of
one year, and if it occasions bodily harm, with penal servitude for
three years, or imprisonment to the extent of two years, with or without
hard labour. There are various different kinds of assaults which are
provided against by particular enactments of parliament, such as the
Offences against the Person Act 1861, the Prevention of Crimes Act 1871,
&c.; and there are also certain aggravated assaults for which the
punishment is severer than for common assault, as an assault with intent
to murder, with intent to commit a rape, &c. In certain cases an assault
and battery is sometimes justifiable, as in the case where a person in
authority, as a parent or schoolmaster, inflicts moderate punishment
upon a child, or in certain cases of self-defence, or in defence of
one's goods and chattels. An assault may be both a tort and a crime,
giving a civil action for damages to the person injured, as well as
being the subject of a criminal prosecution.

_United States._--The general principles applicable throughout the
United States are the same as in England. Riding a horse threateningly
near a person; or riding a bicycle against another (_Mercer v. Corbin_,
117 Indiana Rep. 450); waking one from sleep to present a milk bill
(_Richmond v. Fiske_, 160 Mass. 34), are assaults. A minor is liable for
damages for an assault (_Hildreth v. Hancock_, 156 Illinois Rep. 618).
In Texas it has been held that an assault with a knife is not
necessarily an aggravated assault (_Warren v. State_, 3 S.W. 240), and
an axe is not necessarily a "deadly weapon" with which to assault
(_Gladney v. State_, 12 S.W. 868), and the State must prove that it
would be likely to produce death or serious bodily injury (_Melton v.
State_, 17 S.W. 257). Neither a pistol nor brass knuckles are
necessarily deadly weapons; the State must show their size or manner of
use in making the assault (_Ballard v. State_, 13 S.W. 674; _Miles v.
State_, 5 S.W. 250). But in 1903 a pistol was held by the Texas Supreme
Court to be a deadly weapon if not used simply as a club (_Lockland v.
State_, 73 S.W. 1054), and the same court held in 1904 that a pistol is
a deadly weapon (_Pace v. State_, 79 S.W. 531), and so the assault was
an aggravated assault. In North Carolina it has been held that an axe is
_ex vi termini_ a "deadly weapon" (_State v. Shields_, 110 N.C. 49).

ASSAYE, a village of Hyderabad or the Nizam's Dominions, in southern
India, just beyond the Berar frontier. The place is celebrated as the
site of a battle fought on the 23rd of September 1803 between the
combined Mahratta forces Under Sindhia and the rajah of Berar and the
British under Major-General Wellesley, afterwards the duke of
Wellington. The Mahratta force consisted of 50,000 men, supported by 100
pieces of cannon served by French artillerymen, and entrenched in a
strong position. Against this the English had but a force of 4500 men,
which, however, after a severe struggle, gained the most complete
victory that ever crowned British valour in India. Of the enemy 12,000
were killed and wounded; and General Wellesley lost 1657--one-third of
his little force--killed and wounded. Assaye is 261 m. north-west of
Hyderabad.

ASSAYING. To "assay" (or "essay"; Fr. _essayer_) is in general to try,
or attempt, so to make trial or test. In a restricted sense the term
assaying is applied in metallurgy to the determination of the amount of
gold or silver in ores or alloys; in this article, however, it will be
used in a wider technical signification, and will include a description
of the methods for the quantitative determination of those elements in
ores which affect their value in metallurgical operations. It would be
impossible to give in detail here all the precautions necessary for the
successful use of the methods, and the descriptions will therefore be
confined to the principles involved and the general manner in which they
are applied to secure the desired results.

_Gold and Silver._--Ores containing gold or silver are almost invariably
assayed in the dry way; that is, by fusion with appropriate fluxes and
ultimate separation of the elements in the metallic form. One of the
customs which has grown out of our peculiar system of weights is the
form of statement of the results of such an assay. Instead of expressing
the amounts of gold and silver in percentages of the weight of ore, they
are expressed in ounces to the ton, the ounce being the troy ounce and
the ton that of 2000 avoirdupois pounds. To simplify calculation and to
enable the assayer to use the metric system of weights employed in all
chemical calculations, the "assay ton" ("A.T." = 29.166 grammes) has
been devised, which bears the same relation to the ton of 2000 lb.
avoirdupois that one milligram does to the troy ounce; when one assay
ton of ore is used, each milligram of gold or silver found represents
one ounce to the ton.

The assay of an ore for gold or silver consists of two operations. In
the first the gold or silver is made to combine or alloy with metallic
lead, the other constituents of the ore being separated from the lead as
slag. In the second, the lead button containing the gold or silver is
cupelled and the resulting gold or silver button is weighed. The first
is conducted in one of two ways, known respectively as the crucible
method and the scorification method. The crucible method is generally
used for ores containing gold in small amounts and for certain classes
of silver ores. The amount of ore taken for assay is generally one-half
"A.T.," but in very low-grade ores one, two, and sometimes even four
"A.T.s" are used. In the scorification method one-tenth of an "A.T." is
the amount commonly taken. While in both methods the same result is
sought, the means employed are quite different. In the scorification
method the ore is mixed in the scorifier (a shallow dish of burned clay)
with from ten to twenty times its weight of granulated metallic lead
(test lead) and a little borax glass, and heated in a muffle, the front
of which is at first closed. When the lead melts and begins to oxidize,
the lead oxide, or so-called litharge, combines with or dissolves the
non-metallic and readily oxidizable constituents of the ore, while the
gold and silver alloy with the lead. As the slag thus formed flows off
to the sides of the scorifier, the assay clears and the melted metallic
lead forms an "eye" in the middle. The door of the muffle is then opened
and the current of air which is drawn over the scorifier rapidly
oxidizes the lead, while the melted litharge gradually closes over the
metal. When the "eye" has quite disappeared the door is closed and the
temperature raised to make the slag very liquid. The scorifier is taken
from the muffle in a pair of tongs and the contents poured into a mould,
the lead forming a button in the bottom while the slag floats on top.
When cold, the contents of the mould are taken out and the lead button
hammered into the form of a cube, the slag, which is glassy and brittle,
separating readily from the metal, which is then ready for cupellation.
In the crucible method the ore is mixed with from once to twice its
weight of flux, which varies in composition, but of which the following
may be taken as a type:--

Sodium bicarbonate . . . 8 parts.
Potassium carbonate . . . 3 "
Powdered borax . . . . . 4 "
Flour . . . . . . . . . . 1 "
Litharge . . . . . . . . 9 "

The mixture is charged into a round clay crucible from 100 mm. to 125
mm. high, and heated either in a muffle or in a crucible furnace at a
gradually increasing heat for forty or fifty minutes. At the expiration
of this time, when the charge should be perfectly liquid and in a
tranquil state of fusion, the crucible is removed from the furnace and
the contents are poured into a mould. The resulting lead button hammered
into shape and carefully cleansed from slag is ready for the cupel. If
the button is too large for cupellation, or if it is hard, it may be
scorified either alone or mixed with test lead before cupellation. The
character and amount of the flux necessarily depend upon the character
of the ore, the object being to concentrate in the lead button all the
gold and silver while dissolving and carrying off in the slag the other
constituents of the ore. Under the most favourable conditions there is a
slight loss of gold and silver in the fusion, the scorification and the
cupellation, both by absorption in the slag and by actual volatilization
and absorption in the cupel. In ores containing much copper, this metal
is largely concentrated in the lead button, making it hard, and
necessitating repeated scorifications and, in some cases, a preliminary
removal of the copper by solution of the ore in nitric acid. This leaves
the gold in the insoluble residue, which is filtered off, and the silver
in the solution is thrown down by hydrochloric acid. The resulting
precipitate of silver chloride is filtered, and the residue and the
precipitate are scorified together. Ores containing much arsenic or
sulphur are generally roasted at a low heat and the assay is made on the
roasted material.

The process of cupellation is briefly as follows:--The gold alloy is
fused with a quantity of lead, and a little silver if silver is already
present. The resulting alloy, which is called the _lead button_, is then
submitted to fusion on a very porous support, made of bone-ash, and
called a _cupel_. The fusion being effected in a current of air, the
lead oxidizes. The heat is sufficient to keep the resulting lead oxide
fused, and the porous cupel has the property of absorbing melted lead
oxide without taking up any of the metallic globule, exactly in the same
way that blotting-paper will absorb water whilst it will not touch a
globule of mercury. The heat being continued, and the current of air
always passing over the surface of the melted lead button, and the lead
oxide being sucked up by the cupel as fast as it is formed, the metallic
globule rapidly diminishes in size until at last all the lead has been
got rid of. Now, if this were the only action, little good would have
been gained, for we should simply have put lead into the gold alloy, and
then taken it out again; but another action goes on whilst the lead is
oxidizing in the current of air. Other metals, except the silver and
gold, also oxidize, and are carried by the melted litharge into the
cupel. If the lead is therefore rightly proportioned to the standard of
alloy, the resulting button will consist of only gold and silver, and
these are separated by the operation of _parting_, which consists in
boiling the alloy (after rolling it to a thin plate) in strong nitric
acid, which dissolves the silver and leaves the gold as a coherent
sponge. To effect this parting properly, the proportion of silver to
gold should be as 3 to 1. The operation by which the alloy is brought to
this standard is termed _quartation_ or _inquartation_, and consists in
fusing the alloy in a cupel with lead and the quantity of fine silver or
fine gold necessary to bring it to the desired composition.

_Lead._--The "dry" or fire assay for lead is largely used for the
valuation of lead ores, although it is being gradually replaced by
volumetric methods. One part of the ore is mixed with from three to five
parts of a flux of the following composition:--

Potassium carbonate . . . . . 40.6 %
Sodium bicarbonate . . . . . 31.3 "
Borax . . . . . . . . . 15.6 "
Flour . . . . . . . . . 12.5 "

The mixture is charged into a clay crucible and heated for twenty
minutes at a good red heat. When the mixture has been in a tranquil
state of fusion for a few minutes it is poured into a mould. When cold,
the button is hammered, cleaned carefully from slag, and weighed. The
proportion is calculated from the amount of ore used, and the result is
expressed in parts in a hundred or percentage of the ore. Various
impurities, such as copper, antimony and sulphur, go into the lead
button, so that the result is generally too high. The most accurate
method for the determination of lead in ores is the gravimetric method,
in which it is weighed as lead sulphate after the various impurities
have been separated. Nearly all lead ores contain more or less sulphur;
and as in the process of solution in nitric acid this is oxidized to
sulphuric acid which unites with the lead to form the very insoluble
lead sulphate, it is simpler to add sulphuric acid to convert all the
lead into sulphate and then evaporate until the nitric acid is expelled.
The salts of iron, copper, &c., are then dissolved in water and filtered
from the insoluble silica, lead sulphate, and calcium sulphate, which
are washed with dilute sulphuric acid. The insoluble matter is treated
with a hot solution of alkaline ammonium acetate, which dissolves the
lead sulphate, the other materials being separated by filtration. The
lead sulphate, re-precipitated in the filtrate by an excess of sulphuric
acid and alcohol, is then filtered on an asbestos felt in a Gooch
crucible, washed with dilute sulphuric acid and alcohol, ignited, and
weighed. Lead sulphate contains 68.30% of metallic lead.

There are several volumetric methods for assaying lead ores, but the
best known is that based on the precipitation of lead by ammonium
molybdate in an acetic acid solution. The lead sulphate, obtained as
described above and dissolved in ammonium acetate, is acidulated with
acetic acid diluted with hot water and heated to boiling-point. A
standardized solution of ammonium molybdate is then added from a
burette. As long as the solution contains lead, the addition of the
molybdate solution causes a precipitation of white lead molybdate. An
excess of the precipitant is shown by a drop of the solution imparting a
yellow colour to a solution of tannin, prepared by dissolving one part
of tannin in 300 of water; drops of this solution are placed on a white
porcelain plate, and as the precipitant is added to the lead solution a
drop of the latter is removed from time to time on a glass stirring-rod
and added to one of the drops on the porcelain plate. The appearance of
a yellow colour shows that all the lead has been precipitated and that
the solution contains an excess of molybdate. From the reading of the
burette the lead is calculated. The molybdate solution should be of such
a strength that 1 cc. will precipitate 0.01 gramme of lead. It is
standardized by dissolving a weighed amount of lead sulphate in ammonium
acetate and proceeding as described above.

_Zinc._--Chemically the ores of zinc consist of the silicates,
carbonates, oxides, and sulphides of zinc associated with other metals,
some of which complicate the methods of assay. The most modern and the
most generally accepted method is volumetric, and is based on the
reaction between zinc chloride and potassium ferrocyanide, by which
insoluble zinc ferrocyanide and soluble potassium chloride are formed;
the presence of the slightest excess of potassium ferrocyanide is shown
by a brownish tint being imparted by the solution to a drop of uranium
nitrate. The ore (0.5 gramme) is digested with a mixture of potassium
nitrate and nitric acid. A saturated solution of potassium chlorate in
strong nitric acid is added, and the mass evaporated to dryness. It is
then heated with a mixture of ammonium chloride and ammonia, filtered
and washed with a hot dilute solution of the same mixture. The filtrate
diluted to 200 cc. is carefully neutralized with hydrochloric acid, and
excess of 6 cc. of the strong acid is added, and the solution saturated
with hydrogen sulphide, which precipitates the copper and cadmium,
metals which would otherwise interfere. Without filtering, the standard
solution is added from a burette, and from time to time a drop of the
solution is removed on the glass stirring-rod and added to a drop or two
of a strong solution of uranium nitrate, previously placed on a white
porcelain plate. The appearance of a brown tint in one of these tests
shows the end of the reaction. When cadmium is not present the copper
may be precipitated by boiling the acidulated ammoniacal solution with
test lead and titrating, as before described, without removing the lead
and copper from the solution. The ferrocyanide solution is standardized
by dissolving 1 gramme of pure zinc in 6 cc. of hydrochloric acid,
adding ammonium chloride, and titrating as before. This method is
modified in practice by the character of the ores, carbonates and
silicates free from sulphides being decomposed by hydrochloric acid,
with the addition of a little nitric acid.

_Copper._--The fire assay for copper ores was abandoned years ago and
the electrolytic method took its place; this in turn is now largely
replaced by volumetric methods. In the electrolytic method from 0.5 to 5
grammes of ore are treated in a flask or beaker, with a mixture of 10
cc. of nitric and 10 cc. of sulphuric acid, until thoroughly decomposed.
When this liquid is cold it is diluted with cold water, heated until all
the soluble salts are dissolved, transferred to a tall, narrow beaker,
and diluted to about 150 cc. The electrodes are attached to a frame
connected with the battery and the beaker is placed on a stool, which
can be raised so that the electrodes are immersed in the liquid and
reach the bottom of the beaker. The electrodes consist of two cylinders
of platinum (placed one inside the other) about 75 mm. high, the smaller
of the two 37 mm. and the larger 50 mm. in diameter, both pierced with
10 to 12 holes 5 mm. in diameter, evenly distributed over the surfaces
to facilitate diffusion of the liquids. The surfaces of the cylinders
are roughened with a sand blast to increase the areas and make the
deposited metals adhere more firmly. Each cylinder has a platinum wire
fused to the upper circumference to connect with a clamp from which a
wire leads to the proper pole of the battery. The smaller cylinder is
generally the negative electrode on which the copper is deposited. The
framework carrying the clamps is arranged so that a number of
determinations may be made at one time, the wires from the clamps
running from a rheostat, so arranged that currents of any strength may
be used simultaneously. The cylinder, having been carefully weighed, is
placed in position, the beaker containing the solution is adjusted, and
the current passed until all the copper is precipitated. This generally
requires from two to twelve hours. The cylinders are then removed from
the solution and washed with distilled water, the one holding the
deposited copper being washed with alcohol, dried and weighed; the
increase in weight represents the copper contents of the ore. The
deposited copper should be firmly adherent and bright rosy red in
colour. Silver, arsenic and cadmium, if present, are precipitated with
the copper and affect the accuracy of the results; they should be
removed by special methods.

Volumetric methods are more expeditious and require less apparatus. The
potassium cyanide method is based on the fact that, when potassium
cyanide is added to an ammoniacal solution of a salt of copper, the
insoluble copper cyanide is formed, the end of the reaction being
indicated by the disappearance of the blue colour of the solution. One
gramme of the ore is treated in a flask with a mixture of nitric and
sulphuric acids and evaporated until all the nitric acid is expelled.
After cooling a little, water is added, and then a few grammes of
aluminium foil free from copper. On this foil the copper in the solution
is all precipitated by electrolytic action in a few minutes, and the
aluminium is dissolved by the addition of an excess of sulphuric acid.
Water is added, and as soon as the gangue and copper particles have
settled the clear solution is decanted, and the residue washed several
times in the same way. The copper is then dissolved in 5 cc. of nitric
acid; if silver is present a drop or two of hydrochloric acid is added,
the solution diluted to about 50 cc., and filtered. To the filtrate (or,
if no silver is present, to the diluted nitric acid solution) 10 cc. of
ammonia are added, and a standard solution of potassium cyanide is run
in from a burette until the blue colour has nearly disappeared. The
solution is filtered to get rid of the precipitate, and the titration is
finished in the nearly clear nitrate, which should be always about 200
cc. in volume. The titration is complete when the blue colour is so
faint that it is almost imperceptible after the flask has been
vigorously shaken. The potassium cyanide solution is standardized by
dissolving 0.5 gramme of pure copper in 5 cc. of nitric acid, diluting,
adding 10 cc. of ammonia, and titrating exactly as described above.

When potassium iodide is added to a solution of cupric acetate, the
reaction Cu(C2H3O2)2 + 2KI = CuI + 2K(C2H3O2) + I takes place; that is,
for each atom of copper one atom of iodine is liberated. If a solution
of sodium thiosulphate (hyposulphite) is added to this solution,
hydriodic acid, sodium iodide and tetrathionate are formed; and if a
little starch solution has been added, the end of the reaction is
indicated by the disappearance of the blue colour, due to the iodide of
starch. The amount of iodine liberated is therefore a measure of the
copper in the solution, and when the sodium thiosulphate has been
carefully standardized the method is extremely accurate. The ore is
treated as described in the cyanide method until the copper precipitated
by the aluminium foil has been washed and dissolved in 5 cc. of nitric
acid; then 0.25 gramme of potassium chlorate is added, and the solution
boiled nearly dry to oxidize any arsenic present to arsenic acid. The
solution is cooled, 50 cc. water added, then 5 cc. ammonia, and the
solution is boiled for five minutes. Next 5 cc. of glacial acetic acid
are added, the solution cooled, and 5 cc. of a solution of potassium
iodide (300 grammes to the litre) and the standard solution of sodium
thiosulphate run in from a burette until the brown colour has nearly
disappeared. A few drops of starch solution are then added, and when the
blue colour has nearly vanished a drop or two of methyl orange makes the
end reaction very sharp. The thiosulphate solution is standardized by
dissolving 0.3 to 0.5 gramme of pure copper in 3 cc. of nitric acid,
adding 50 cc. of water and 5 cc. of ammonia, and titrating as above
after the addition of 5 cc. of glacial acetic acid and 5 cc. of the
potassium iodide solution.

_Iron._--The methods used in the assay for iron are volumetric, and are
all based on the property possessed by certain reagents of oxidizing
iron from the ferrous to the ferric state. Two salts are in common use
for this purpose, potassium permanganate and potassium bichromate. It is
necessary in the first place, after the ore is in solution, to reduce
all the iron to the ferrous condition; then the carefully standardized
solution of the oxidizing reagent is added until all the iron is in the
ferric state, the volume of the standard solution used being the measure
of the iron contained in the ore. The end of the reaction when potassium
permanganate is employed is known by the change in colour of the
solution. As the solution of potassium permanganate, which is deep red
in colour, is dropped into the colourless iron solution, it is quickly
decolorized while the iron solution gradually assumes a yellowish tinge,
the first drop of the permanganate solution in excess giving it a pink
tint. With potassium bichromate solution, which is yellow, the iron
solution becomes green from the chromium chloride or sulphate formed,
and the end of the reaction is determined by removing a drop of the
solution on the stirring-rod and adding it to a drop of a dilute
solution of potassium ferricyanide on a white tile. So long as the
solution contains a ferrous salt, the drop on the tile changes to blue;
hence the absence of a blue coloration indicates the complete oxidation
of all the ferrous salt and the end of the reaction. One gramme of ore
is usually taken for assay and treated in a small flask or beaker with
10 cc. of hydrochloric acid. All the iron in the ore generally dissolves
upon heating, and a white residue is left. Occasionally this residue
contains a small amount of iron in a difficultly soluble form; in that
case the solution is slightly diluted with water and filtered into a
larger flask. The residue in the filter is ignited and fused with a
little sodium carbonate and nitrate, or with sodium peroxide. The
product is treated with water, filtered, and the residue dissolved in
hydrochloric acid and added to the main solution. This solution, which
should not exceed 50 cc. or 75 cc. in volume, contains the iron in the
ferric state and is ready for reduction.

In the reduction by metallic zinc, about 3 grammes of granulated or
foliated zinc are placed in the flask, which is closed with a small
funnel; when the iron is reduced, add 10 cc. of sulphuric acid, and as
soon as all the zinc is dissolved the solution is ready for titration.
In the reduction by stannous chloride the solution of the ore in the
flask is heated to boiling, and a strong solution of stannous chloride
is added until the solution is completely decolorized; then 60 cc. of a
solution of mercuric chloride (50 grammes to the litre) are run in and
the contents of the flask poured into a dish containing 600 cc. of water
and 60 cc. of a solution containing 200 grammes of manganous sulphate, 1
litre of phosphoric acid (1.3 sp. gr.), 400 cc. of sulphuric acid, and
1600 cc. of water. The solution is then ready for titration with the
standard permanganate solution.

The permanganate or bichromate solution is standardized by dissolving
0.5 of a gramme of pure iron wire in a flask, in hydrochloric acid,
oxidizing it with a little potassium chlorate, boiling off all traces of
chlorine, deoxidizing by one of the methods described above, and
titrating with the solution. As the wire always contains impurities, the
absolute amount of iron in the wire must be determined and the
correction made accordingly. Pure oxalic acid may also be used, which,
in the presence of sulphuric acid, is oxidized by the standard solution
according to the reaction:--

5(H2C2O42H2O) + 3H2SO4 + 2KMnO4 = 10CO2 + 2MnSO4 + K2SO4 + 18H2O.

The reaction in case of ferrous sulphate is:--

10FeSO4 + 2KMnO4 + 8H2SO4 = 5Fe2(SO4)3 + K2SO4 + 2MnSO4 + 8H2O;

that is, the same amount of potassium permanganate is required to
oxidize 5 molecules of oxalic acid that is necessary to oxidize 10
molecules of iron in the form of ferrous sulphate to ferric sulphate, or
63 parts by weight of oxalic acid equal 56 parts by weight of metallic
iron. Ammonium ferrous sulphate may also be used; it contains
one-seventh of its weight of iron. (A. A. B.)

ASSEGAI, or ASSAGAI (from Berber-Arab _as-zahayah_, through Portuguese
_azagaia_), a weapon for throwing or hurling, a light spear or javelin
made of wood and pointed with iron, particularly the spear used by the
Zulu and other Kaffir tribes of South Africa. In addition to the
long-handled assegai there is a shorter weapon for use at close
quarters.

ASSELIJN, HANS (1610-1660), Dutch painter, was born at Diepen, near
Amsterdam. He received instruction from Esaias Vandevelde (1587-1630),
and distinguished himself particularly in landscape and animal painting,
though his historical works and battle pieces are also admired. He
travelled much in France and Italy, and modelled his style greatly after
Bamboccio (Peter Laer). He was one of the first Dutch painters who
introduced a fresh and clear manner of painting landscapes in the style
of Claude Lorraine, and his example was speedily followed by other
artists. Asselijn's pictures were in high estimation at Amsterdam, and
several of them are in the museums of that city. Twenty-four, painted in
Italy, were engraved.

ASSEMANI, the name of a Syrian Maronite family of famous Orientalists.

1. JOSEPH SIMON, a Maronite of Mount Lebanon, was born in 1687. When
very young he was sent to the Maronite college in Rome, and was
transferred thence to the Vatican library. In 1717 he was sent to Egypt
and Syria to search for valuable MSS., and returned with about 150 very
choice ones. The success of this expedition induced the pope to send him
again to the East in 1735, and he returned with a still more valuable
collection. On his return he was made titular archbishop of Tyre and
librarian of the Vatican library. He instantly began to carry into
execution most extensive plans for editing and publishing the most
valuable MS. treasures of the Vatican. His two great works are the
_Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana rec. manuscr. codd. Syr.,
Arab., Pers., Turc., Hebr., Samarit., Armen., Aethiop., Graec., Aegypt.,
Iber., et Malab., jussu et munif. Clem. XI._ (Rome, 1719-1728), 9 vols.
folio, and _Ephraemi Syri opera omnia quae extant, Gr., Syr., et Lat._,
6 vols. folio (Rome, 1737-1746). Of the _Bibliotheca_ the first three
vols. only were completed. The work was to have been in four parts--(1)
Syrian and allied MSS., orthodox, Nestorian and Jacobite; (2) Arabian
MSS., Christian and Mahommedan; (3) Coptic, Aethiopic, Persian and
Turkish MSS.; and (4) Syrian and Arabian MSS. not distinctively
theological; only the first part was completed, but extensive
preparations were made for the others. There is a German abridgment by
A.F. Pfeiffer.

2. JOSEPH ALOYSIUS, brother of Joseph Simon, and professor of Oriental
languages at Rome. He died in 1782. Besides aiding his brother in his
literary labours, he published, in 1749-1760, _Codex Liturgicus
Ecclesiae Universae in xv. libris_ (this is incomplete), and _Comment.
de Catholicis sive Patriarchis Chaldaeorum et Nestorianorum_ (Rome,
1775).

3. STEPHEN EVODIUS, nephew of Joseph Simon and Joseph Aloysius, was the
chief assistant of his uncle Joseph Simon in his work in the Vatican
library. He was titular archbishop of Apamea in Syria, and held several
rich prebends in Italy. His literary labours were very extensive. His
two most important works were a description of certain valuable MSS. in
his _Bibliotheae Mediceo-Laurentianae et Palatinae codd. manuscr.
Orientalium Catalogus_ (Flor. 1742), fol., and his _Acta SS. Martyrum
Orientalium._ He made several translations from the Syrian, and in
conjunction with his uncle he began the _Bibliothecae Apostol. Vatic.
codd. manusc. Catal., in tres partes distributus._ Only three vols. were
published, and the fire in the Vatican library in 1768 consumed the
manuscript collections which had been prepared for the continuation of
the work.

4. SIMON, grandnephew of Joseph Simon, was born at Tripoli in 1752, and
was professor of Oriental languages in Padua. He died in 1820. He is
best known by his masterly detection of the literary imposture of Vella,
which claimed to be a history of the Saracens in Syria.

ASSEMBLY, UNLAWFUL, the term used in English law for an assembly of
three or more persons with intent to commit a crime by force, or to
carry out a common purpose (whether lawful or unlawful), in such a
manner or in such circumstances as would in the opinion of firm and
rational men endanger the public peace or create fear of immediate
danger to the tranquillity of the neighbourhood. In the Year Book of the
third year of Henry VII.'s reign assemblies were referred to as not
punishable unless _in terrorem populi domini regis_. It has been
suggested (Criminal Code Commission, 1879) that legislation first became
necessary at a time when it was usual for those landed proprietors who
were on bad terms with one another to go to market at the head of bands
of armed retainers (Statute of Northampton, 1328, 2 Edw. III. c. 3). An
assembly, otherwise lawful, is not made unlawful if those who take part
in it know beforehand that there will probably be organized opposition
to it, and that it may cause a breach of the peace (_Beatty v.
Gillbanks_, 1882, 9 Q.B.D. 308). All persons may, and must if called
upon to do so, assist in dispersing an unlawful assembly (_Redford v.
Birley_, 1822, 1 St. Tr. n.s. 1215; _R. v. Pinney_, 1831, 3 St. Tr. n.s.
11). An assembly which is lawful cannot be rendered unlawful by
proclamation unless the proclamation is one authorized by statute (_R.
v. Fursey_, 1833, 3 St. Tr. n.s. 543, 567; _R. v. O'Connell_, 1831, 2
St. Tr. n.s. 629, 656; see also the Prevention of Crimes [Ireland] Act
1887). Meetings for training or drilling, or military movements, are
unlawful assemblies unless held under lawful authority from the crown,
the lord-lieutenant, or two justices of the peace (Unlawful Drilling Act
1820, s. 11).

An unlawful assembly which has made a motion towards its common purpose
is termed a _rout_, and if the unlawful assembly should proceed to carry
out its purpose, e.g. begin to demolish a particular enclosure, it
becomes a riot (q.v.). All three offences are misdemeanours in English
law, punishable by fine and imprisonment. The common law as to unlawful
assembly extends to Ireland, subject to the special legislation referred
to under the title RIOT. The law of Scotland includes unlawful assembly
under the same head as rioting.

_British Dominions Abroad._--The law of the British colonies as a
general rule as to unlawful assemblies follows the common law of
England. The definitions in the Criminal Codes of Canada (1892, s. 79)
and Queensland (1899, s. 61) are substantially the same as the
common-law definition above given. Under the Indian Penal Code (s. 141)
an assembly of five or more persons is designated an unlawful assembly
if the common object of the persons composing that assembly is--(1) to
overawe by criminal force, or show of criminal force, the legislative or
executive government of India, or the government of any presidency or
any lieutenant-governor, or any public servant in the exercise of the
lawful power of such public servant; (2) to resist the execution of any
law or of any legal process; (3) to commit any mischief or "criminal
trespass" or other offence; (4) by means of criminal force or show of
criminal force to any person, to take or obtain possession of any
property, or to deprive any person of the enjoyment of a right of way,
or of the use of water, or other corporeal right of which he is in
possession or enjoyment, or to enforce any right or supposed right; or
(5) by means of criminal force or show of criminal force, to compel any
person to do what he is not legally bound to do, or to omit to do what
he is legally entitled to do (see Mayne, _Ind. Cr. Law_, ed. 1896, p.
480). In South Africa and Mauritius the law on this subject is derived
from the Roman Dutch and French law (see RIOT.)

_United States._--The common-law definition of unlawful assembly is
accepted in the United States subject to the special legislation of the
constituent states. The New York Penal Code (s. 451) declares that
whenever three or more persons being assembled attempt or threaten any
act tending towards a breach of the peace or injury to person or
property, or any unlawful act, such assembly is unlawful (see Bishop,
_Amer. Crim. Law_, 8th ed., 1892, vol. i. s. 534, vol. ii. s. 1256).

ASSEN, the capital of the province of Drente, Holland, 16 m. by rail S.
of Groningen, at the junction of the two canals which run north and
south to Groningen and Meppel respectively. Pop. (1900) 11,329. It is
partly surrounded by a small forest belonging to the state. Assen
possesses schools (a gymnasium and burgher school), a chamber of
commerce, a museum of antiquities and a court-house. Peat-cutting forms
a considerable industry. Many prehistoric remains found in the
neighbourhood are in the museum at Leiden. Until the 19th century Assen
was a small place built round the convent in which Otto II. (of Lippe),
bishop of Utrecht, was murdered after being taken prisoner at Koevorden
in 1237.

ASSER, or ASSERIUS MENEVENSIS (d. c. 910), English bishop, and author
of a life of Alfred the Great, was a native of the western part of
Wales, and was related to Nobis, bishop of St David's. He became a monk
at St David's, and having acquired some reputation for learning, he was
invited by King Alfred to his court. The king met the monk at Denu
(probably East or West Dean, near Seaford in Sussex), but Asser did not
at once accept the invitation of Alfred, and returned to Wales to
consult his colleagues. He then agreed to spend six months of each year
with the king and six months in his own land; but his first stay at the
royal court extended to eight months, and it is probable that the
annual visit to Wales was curtailed if not altogether discontinued. It
is difficult to fix the date of Asser's arrival in England, but it was
probably about 885. He assisted the king in his studies, received from
him the monasteries of Congresbury and Banwell, and sometime later
"Exeter and its diocese in Saxonland and Cornwall." He became bishop of
Sherborne before 900, and his death is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle under the date 910, although it is possible that it occurred a
year or two earlier. The scanty details of Asser's life are taken from
his biography of Alfred, from which it is inferred that he was
acquainted with one or two Frankish biographies, and possibly had
visited the continent of Europe.

Asser's work, _Annales rerum gestarum Alfredi magni_, was written about
893, and consists of a chronicle of English history from 849 to 887, and
an account of Alfred's life, largely drawn from personal knowledge, down
to 887. The only manuscript of which there is any record dates from
about 1000, and was destroyed by fire in 1731. From this manuscript an
edition was printed in 1574 under the direction of Matthew Parker,
archbishop of Canterbury; but this contained many interpolations and
alterations which were copied by subsequent editors. The text has since
been the subject of careful study, and the edition edited by W.H.
Stevenson (Oxford, 1904) distinguishes between the original work of
Asser and the later additions. Some doubt has been cast upon the
authenticity of the work, especially by T. Wright in the _Biographia
Britannica literaria_ (London, 1842), who ascribes the life to a monk of
St Neots; but the latest scholarship regards it as the work of Asser,
although all the difficulties which surround the authorship have not
been removed. The life was largely used by subsequent chroniclers, among
others by Florence of Worcester, Simeon of Durham, Roger of Hoveden, and
William of Malmesbury.

See W.H. Stevenson, Introduction to Asser's _Life of King Alfred_
(Oxford, 1904); R. Pauli, Introduction to _König Aelfred_ (Berlin,
1851).

ASSESSMENT, (from Lat. _assessare_, to sit beside, to judge), a term
expressing either an official valuation of income or property for
purposes of taxation, or the amount so determined (see TAXATION and
VALUATION). It is also applied to the amount of damages fixed by a jury
in a court of law (see DAMAGES).

An _assessment committee_ is a statutory committee appointed under the
Union Assessment Acts 1862, 1880, for the purpose of making out the
valuation lists upon which the poor-law rate is based.

An _assessment policy_, in life insurance, is a policy issued at a fixed
premium, the excess of which over the portion necessary to meet current
claims and expenses goes to form a reserve fund which is devoted to
various forms of benefit for the policy-holders. See INSURANCE and
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

ASSESSOR (Lat. _assessare_, _assidere_, to sit by), a Roman term
originally applied to a trained lawyer who sat beside a governor of a
province or other magistrate, to instruct him in the administration of
the laws (see Roll, _De assessoribus magistratuum Romanorum_, Leipzig,
1872). The system is still exemplified in Scotland, where it is usual in
the larger towns for municipal magistrates, in the administration of
their civil jurisdiction, to have the aid of professional assessors. In
England, by the Judicature Act 1873, the court of appeal and the High
Court may in any cause or matter call in the aid of assessors. The
Patents Act 1907 makes special provision for assessors in patent and
trade-mark cases. By the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1891 the House
of Lords may, in appeals in admiralty actions, call in the aid of
assessors, while in the admiralty division of the High Court it is usual
for the Elder Brethren of Trinity House to assist as nautical assessors.
In admiralty cases in the county courts, too, the judge is frequently
assisted by assessors of "nautical skill and experience" (County Court
Admiralty Jurisdiction Act 1868). In the ecclesiastical courts assessors
assist the bishop in proceedings under the Church Discipline Act 1840,
s. 11, while under the Clergy Discipline Act 1892, s. 2, they assist the
chancellor in determining questions of fact. By the Appellate
Jurisdiction Act 1876, s. 14, the king in council may make rules for the
attendance of archbishops and bishops as assessors in the hearing of
ecclesiastical cases by the judicial committee of the privy council.

The term "assessor" is also very generally applied to persons appointed
to ascertain and fix the value of rates, taxes, &c., and in this sense
the word is used in the United States.

In France and in all European countries where the civil law system
prevails, the term _assesseur_ is applied to those assistant judges who,
with a president, compose a judicial court.

In Germany an _Assessor_, or _Beisitzer_, is a member of the legal
profession who has passed four years in actual practice and become
qualified for the position of a judge.

ASSETS (from the O. Nor. Fr. _assetz_, mod. Fr. _assez_, "enough"), in
English law, strictly the property of a debtor in the hands of his
representative sufficient for the satisfaction of his creditors or
legatees. Thus the property of a bankrupt is termed his assets and is
the fund out of which his liabilities must be paid. All property of the
debtor is assets, and it is not necessary that it should have been
reduced into possession by him.

The creditors of a debtor are either secured or unsecured. A secured
creditor, e.g. a mortgagee, has a prior claim to be paid his debt out of
his security. If on realization of the security there is a balance after
paying the debt, such balance becomes assets for the unsecured
creditors; if there is a deficit, then the creditor becomes an unsecured
creditor for such deficit. The unsecured creditors were formerly divided
into creditors by specialty and by simple contract, the first being
creditors secured by instrument under seal who ranked in priority to
simple contract creditors. But by Hinde Palmer's Act [the Executors Act]
1869 all unsecured creditors rank alike.

Assets are divisible into legal assets and equitable assets, and the
former class is again divisible into assets real and personal. These
distinctions, though formerly of great importance, have now lost most of
their meaning, but it is necessary briefly to describe the nature of
these divisions and their consequences. The distinction between assets
legal and equitable depends entirely upon the remedy open to the
creditor to recover his debt and in no way upon the nature of the
property from which the debt is sought to be recovered. If the creditor
had to sue the executor of a debtor at law to obtain payment out of the
property, that property was legal assets; but if the only remedy open to
the creditor to get at the property was to bring an action in chancery
for the administration of the estate, then the assets were equitable.

Legal assets, as has been said, were divided into real and personal
assets. The personal assets were those which devolved _virtute officii_
on the executor or administrator; such assets are since Hinde Palmer's
Act available equally for specialty and simple contract creditors. The
real assets consisted of those descending to the heir or devised to a
devisee, and were at law only liable for specialty debts. However, by
the Land Transfer Act 1897 it is provided that the real estate of a
deceased shall devolve upon the executor and "shall be administered in
the same manner ... and with the same incidents as if it were personal
estate." The distinction, therefore, between assets real and personal
has practically ceased to exist, and only continues in regard to such
property as is not included in the act, the most important of which is
land held in copyhold.

The equitable assets were treated otherwise. In the eyes of equity all
unsecured creditors stand upon the same footing, and a creditor suing
for administration of the estate sued on behalf of himself and all other
creditors of the estate, and the distinction between specialty and
simple contract creditors was ignored. Land was not at law liable to
satisfy simple contract creditors; but if a testator expressly charged
it with payment of his debts or devised it to his executors upon trust
to pay his debts, equity treated it as equitable assets and so made it
available to satisfy simple contract creditors; and finally by an act of
1833 it was provided that real estate should in all cases be assets to
be administered by equity for the benefit of simple contract creditors
as well as creditors by specialty. It will be seen therefore that,
generally speaking, all creditors have now the same remedies against the
executors either at law or in equity. The only property as to which
these distinctions at all survive is that not touched by the Land
Transfer Act 1897.

The act of 1833 just mentioned does not, however, deal with legacies,
which continue to be payable only out of personalty unless they are
expressly charged upon the realty by the testator; it has been contended
that the effect of the Land Transfer Act 1897 has been to alter this and
make the realty assets for the purpose of paying legacies, but this view
is believed to be unsound.

It is necessary for the representative so to distribute the assets that
any fund primarily liable shall bear its proper burden, and that as far
as possible all debts and legacies may be paid; this is said to be
"marshalling the assets," and a few examples of the principal cases of
marshalling will make this clear. If the personalty is exhausted in
satisfying the creditors the legatees are left without a fund from which
to be paid. But inasmuch as the creditor could have got paid out of the
realty, as well as the personalty, it is not fair that the legatee
should suffer by the creditor's choice, and he will therefore get
payment from the real estate. So again if one legacy is charged upon the
real estate and another is not, then if the former be paid out of the
personalty the latter will stand in its place and be paid from the real
estate.

Finally it shall be noticed that an insolvent estate may be administered
in bankruptcy. In such a case the law of bankruptcy regulates the order
in which the assets are divided among the creditors (see BANKRUPTCY),
but by the Judicature Act 1875, it is provided that an insolvent estate
may be administered in the chancery division, and in such a case "the
same rules shall prevail and be observed as to the respective rights of
secured and unsecured creditors and as to the debts and liabilities
provable and as to the valuation of annuities and future and contingent
liabilities respectively as may be in force for the time being under the
law of bankruptcy." This clause must be construed strictly, and it is
only in the three cases specifically mentioned that the rules of
bankruptcy will be imported into the administration of an insolvent
estate by the chancery division.

In a less strict sense, the term "assets," or "an asset," is used
derivatively as a synonym for any property, or as opposed to
"liabilities." Cecil Rhodes once spoke of the British flag as a "great
commercial asset" in South Africa, meaning merely that the imperial
connexion was a source of strength and credit.

ASSIDEANS (the Anglicized form, derived through the Greek, of the Hebrew
_Hasidim_, "the pious"), the name of a party or sect which stood out
against the Hellenization of the Jews in the 2nd century B.C. After the
massacre of those who fled from the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes and
would not resist on the sabbath, Mattathias (or Judas) decided to set
aside the law and was joined by a company of Assideans, brave men of
Israel every one, who offered themselves willingly for the law (1 Macc.
ii. 42, cf. 2 Macc. viii. 1). On the appointment of Alcimus (162 B.C.),
"a descendant of Aaron" as high-priest, "the Assideans were the first
who sought peace" (1 Macc. vii. 13 f.); but the treacherous murder of
sixty of them (ib. 16) threw them back into the arms of Judas. According
to 2 Macc. xiv., Alcimus identified them with the whole party of the
rebels, of which they were only one, though the most important, section.

See Schurer, _Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes_, i. 203; art. in
_Jewish Encyclopaedia_, s.v. "Hasidim" (S.M. Dubnow). (J. H. A. H.)

ASSIGNATS (from Lat. _assignatus_, assigned), a form of paper-money
issued in France from 1789 to 1796. Assignats were so termed, as
representing land _assigned_ to the holders.

The financial strait of the French government in 1789 was extreme. Coin
was scarce, loans were not taken up, taxes had ceased to be productive,
and the country was threatened with imminent bankruptcy. In this
emergency assignats were issued to provide a substitute for a metallic
currency. They were originally of the nature of mortgage bonds on the
national lands. These lands consisted of the church property
confiscated, on the motion of Mirabeau, by the Constituent Assembly on
the 2nd of November 1789, and the crown lands, which had been taken over
by the nation on the 7th of October (see FRENCH REVOLUTION).

The assignats were first to be paid to the creditors of the state. With
these the creditors could purchase national land, the assignats having,
for this purpose, the preference over other forms of money. If the
creditor did not care to purchase land, it was supposed that he could
obtain the face-value for them from those who desired land. Those
assignats which were returned to the state as purchase-money were to be
cancelled, and the whole issue, it was argued, would consequently
disappear as the national lands were distributed.

A first issue was made of 400,000,000 francs' worth of assignats, each
note being of 100 francs' value and bearing interest daily at a rate of
5%. They were to be redeemed by the product of the sales, and from
certain other sources, at the rate of 120,000,000 francs in 1791,
100,000,000 francs in 1792, 80,000,000 francs in 1793 and 1794, and the
surplus in 1795. The success of the issue was undoubted, and, possibly,
if the assignats had been restricted, as Mirabeau at first desired, to
the extent of one-half the value of the lands sold, they would not have
shared the usual fate of inconvertible paper money. Mirabeau was a
strenuous advocate of the assignats. "They represent," he said, "real
property, the most secure of all possessions, the soil on which we
tread." "There cannot be a greater error than the fear so generally
prevalent as to the over-issue of assignats ... reabsorbed progressively
in the purchase of the national domains, this paper-money can never
become redundant."

In 1790 the interest was reduced to 3%, and as the treasury had again
become exhausted, a further issue was decided upon; it was also decreed
that the assignats were to be accepted as legal tender, all public
departments being instructed to receive them as the equivalent of
metallic money. This second issue amounted to 800,000,000 francs and
carried no interest. It was solemnly declared in the decree authorizing
the issue that the maximum issue was never to exceed twelve hundred
millions. This pledge, however, was soon broken, and further issues
brought the total up to 3,750,000,000 francs. The consequence of these
further issues was instant depreciation, and the note of 100 francs
nominal value sank to less than 20 francs coin. Recourse was then had to
protective legislation. The first step was to decree the penalty of six
years' imprisonment against any person who should sell specie for a more
considerable quantity of assignats, or who should stipulate a different
price for commodities according as the payment was to be made in specie
or in assignats. For the second offence the penalty was to be twenty
years' imprisonment (August 1, 1793), for which the death penalty was
ultimately substituted (May 10, 1794). This severe provision was,
however, repealed after the fall of Robespierre. Notwithstanding these
precautions, the value of assignats still declined, till the proportion
to specie had become that of six to one. Then came the passing by the
Convention on the 3rd of May 1793 of the absurd "maximum." The decree
required all farmers and corn-dealers to declare the quantity of corn in
their possession and to sell it only in recognized markets. No person
was to be allowed to lay in more than one month's supply. A maximum
price was fixed, above which no one was to buy or sell under severe
penalties. These measures were soon stultified by further issues, and by
June 1794 the total number of assignats aggregated nearly 8,000,000,000,
of which only 2,464,000,000 had returned to the treasury and been
destroyed. The extension of the "maximum" to all commodities only
increased the confusion. Trade was paralysed and all manufacturing
establishments were closed down. Attempts by the Convention to increase
the value of the assignats were of no avail. Too many causes operated in
favour of their depreciation: the enormous issue, the uncertainty as to
their value if the Revolution should fail, the relation they bore to
both specie and commodities, which retained their value and refused to
be exchanged for a money of constantly diminishing purchasing power.
Even between the assignats themselves there were differences. The royal
assignats, which had been issued under Louis XVI., had depreciated less
than the republican ones. They were worth from 8 to 15% more, a fact due
to the hope that in case of a counter-revolution they would be less
likely to be discredited.

The Directory was guilty of even greater abuses in dealing with the
assignats. By 1796 the issues had reached the enormous figure of
45,500,000,000 francs, and even this gigantic total was swollen still
more by the numerous counterfeits introduced into France from the
neighbouring countries. The assignats had now become totally
valueless--the abolition of the "maximum" the previous year (1795) had
produced no effect, and, though, by various payments into the treasury,
the total number had been reduced to about 24,000,000,000 francs, their
face-value was about 30 to 1 of coin. At this value they were converted
into 800,000,000 francs of land-warrants, or _mandats territoriaux_,
which were to constitute a mortgage on all the lands of the republic.
These _mandats_ were no more successful than the assignats, and even on
the day of their issue were at a discount of 82%. They had an existence
of six months, and were finally received back by the state at about the
seventieth part of their face-value in coin.

AUTHORITIES.--L.A. Thiers, _Histoire de la révolution française_,
gives a full and graphic account of the assignats, the causes of their
depreciation, &c.; J. Garnier, _Traité des Finances_ (1862); J.
Bresson, _Histoire financière de la France_ (1829); R. Stourm, _Les
Finances de l'ancien régime et de la révolution_ (1885); F.A. Walker,
_Money_ (1891); Henry Higgs, in the _Cambridge Modern History_, vol.
viii. (1904). (T. A. I.)

ASSIGNMENT, ASSIGNATION, ASSIGNEE (from Lat. _assignare_, to mark out),
terms which, as derivatives of the verb "to assign," are of frequent
technical use in law. To assign is to make over, and the term is
generally used to express a transference by writing, in
contradistinction to a transference by actual delivery. In England the
usual expression is assignment, in Scotland it is assignation. The
person making over is called the _assignor_ or _cedent_; the recipient,
the _assign_ or _assignee_. An assignee may be such either _by deed_, as
when a lessee assigns his lease to another, or _in law_, as when
property devolves upon an executor. The law as to assignment in
connexion with each particular subject, as the assignment of a chose in
action, assignment in contract, of dower, of errors, of a lease, &c.,
will be found under the respective headings. In a colloquial sense,
"assignation" means a secretly contrived meeting between lovers.

ASSINIBOIA, a name formerly applied to two districts of Canada, but not
now held by any. (1) A district formed in 1835 by the Hudson's Bay
Company, having in it Fort Garry at the junction of the Red and
Assiniboine rivers in Rupert's Land, North America. It extended over a
circular area, with a radius of 50 m. from Fort Garry. It was governed
by a local council nominated by the Hudson's Bay Company. It ceased to
exist when Rupert's Land was transferred to Canada in 1870. (2) A
district of the North-west Territories, which was given definite
existence by an act of the Dominion parliament in 1875. Assiniboia
extended from the western boundary of Manitoba (99° W. in 1875, and 101°
25' W. in 1881) to 111° W., and from 49° N. to 52° N. The name was a
misnomer, as it barely touched the Assiniboine river. To the north of
the district lay the district of Saskatchewan, so that when the two were
united by the Dominion act of 1905, they were somewhat changed in
boundaries and the name Saskatchewan was given to the new province. The
derivation of Assiniboia is from two Ojibway words, _assini_ meaning a
stone, and the termination "to cook by roasting"; from these came a name
first applied to a Dakota or Sioux tribe living on the Upper Red river;
afterwards when this tribe separated from the Dakotas, its name was
given to the branch of the Red river which the tribe visited, the river
being known as the Assiniboine and the tribe as Assiniboin.

ASSINIBOIN ("Stone-Cookers"), a tribe of North American Indians of
Siouan stock. Their name (see above) is said to refer to their method of
boiling water by dropping red-hot stones into it. Their former range was
between the Missouri and the middle Saskatchewan on both sides of the
Canadian frontier. In 1904 there were 1234 in the United States, all on
reservations in Montana; and in 1902 there were 1371 in Canada.

See _Handbook of American Indians_, ed. F.W. Hodge (Washington, 1907).

ASSISE (from the Fr., derived from Lat. _assidere_, to sit beside), a
geological term for two or more beds of rock united by the occurrence of
the same characteristic species or genera.

ASSISI (anc. _Asisium_), a town and episcopal see of Umbria, Italy, in
the province of Perugia, 15 m. E.S.E. by rail from the town of Perugia.
Pop. (1901) town, 5338; commune, 17,240. The town occupies a fine
position on a mountain (1345 ft. above sea-level) with a view over the
valleys of the Tiber and Topino. It is mainly famous in connexion with
St Francis, who was born here in 1182, and returned to die in 1226. The
Franciscan monastery and the lower and upper church of St Francis were
begun immediately after his canonization in 1228, and completed in 1253,
being fine specimens of Gothic architecture. The crypt was added in
1818, when the sarcophagus containing his remains was discovered. The
lower church contains frescoes by Cimabue, Giotto and others, the most
famous of which are those over the high altar by Giotto, illustrating
the vows of the Franciscan order; while the upper church has frescoes
representing scenes from the life of St Francis (probably by Giotto and
his contemporaries) on the lower portion of the walls of the nave, and
scenes from Old and New Testament history by pupils of Cimabue on the
upper. The church of Santa Chiara (St Clare), the foundress of the Poor
Clares, with its massive lateral buttresses, fine rose-window, and
simple Gothic interior, was begun in 1257, four years after her death.
It contains the tomb of the saint and 13th-century frescoes and
pictures. Santa Maria Maggiore is also a good Gothic church. The
cathedral (San Rufino) has a fine façade with three rose-windows of
1140; the interior was modernized in 1572. The town is dominated by the
medieval castle (1655 ft.), built by Cardinal Albornoz (1367) and added
to by Popes Pius II. and Paul III. Two miles to the east in a ravine
below Monte Subasio is the hermitage _delle Carceri_ (2300 ft.), partly
built, partly cut out of the solid rock, given to St Francis by
Benedictine monks as a place of retirement. Below the town to the
south-west, close to the station, is the large pilgrimage church of
Santa Maria degli Angeli, begun in 1569 by Pope Pius V., with Vignola as
architect; but not completed until 1640. It contains the original
oratory of St Francis and the cell in which he died. Adjacent is the
garden in which the saint's thornless roses bloom in May. Half a mile
outside the town to the south-east is the convent of San Damiano,
erected by St Francis, of which St Clare was first abbess.

In the early middle ages Assisi was subject to the dukes of Spoleto; but
in the 11th century it seems to have been independent. It became
involved, however, in the disputes of Guelphs and Ghibellines, and was
frequently at war with Perugia. It was sacked by Perugia and the papal
troops in 1442, and even after that continued to be the prey of
factions. The place is now famous as a resort of pilgrims, and is also
important for the history of Italian art. The poet Metastasio was born
here in 1698.

See L. Duff-Gordon, _Assisi_ ("Mediaeval Towns" series, London, 1900).
For ancient history see ASISIUM. (T. As.)

ASSIUT, or SIUT, capital of a province of Upper Egypt of the same name,
and the largest and best-built town in the Nile Valley south of Cairo,
from which it is distant 248 m. by rail. The population rose from 32,000
in 1882 to 42,000 in 1900. Assiut stands near the west bank of the Nile
across which, just below the town, is a barrage, completed in 1902,
consisting of an open weir, 2733 ft. long, and over 100 bays or sluices,
each 16½ ft. wide, which can be opened or closed at will. At the western
end of the barrage begins the Ibrahimia canal, the feeder of the Bahr
Yusuf, the largest irrigation canal of Egypt. The Ibrahimia canal is
skirted by a magnificent embankment planted with shady trees leading
from the river to the town. There are several bazaars, baths and
handsome mosques, one noted for its lofty minaret, and here the American
Presbyterian mission has established a college for both sexes. Assiut is
famous for its red and black pottery and for ornamental wood and ivory
work, which find a ready market all over Egypt. It is one of the chief
centres of the Copts. Here also is the northern terminus of the caravan
route across the desert, which, passing through the Kharga oasis, goes
south-west to Darfur. It is known as the Arbain, or forty days road,
from the time occupied on the journey. Assiut (properly Asyut) is the
successor of the ancient Lycopolis (Eg. Siöout), capital of the 13th
nome of Upper Egypt. Here were worshipped two canine gods (see ANUBIS),
Ophoïs (Wepwoi) being the principal god of the city, while Anubis
apparently presided over the necropolis. No ruins are visible, the
mounds of the old city being for the most part hidden under modern
buildings; but the slopes of the limestone hills behind it are pierced
with an infinity of rock-cut tombs, some of which were large and
decorated with sculptures, paintings and long inscriptions. The
archaeological commission of the _Description de l'Égypte_ visited them
in 1799, when the walls of many of the large tombs were still almost
intact; in the first half of the 19th century (and to some extent later)
an immense amount of destruction was caused by blasting for stone. Three
of the tombs illustrate one of the darkest periods in Egypt's history,
when the princes of Siut played a leading part in the struggle between
Heracleopolis and Thebes (Dyns. IX.-XI.); another, of the XIIth Dynasty,
contains a remarkable inscription detailing the contracts made by the
nomarch with the priests of the temples of Ophoïs and Anubis for
perpetual services at his tomb (see Breasted, _Ancient Records of Egypt,
Historical Documents_, vol. i. pp. 179, 258). Remains of the mummies of
dogs and similar animals sacred to these deities are scattered among the
débris on the hillside in abundance. Lycopolis was the birthplace of
Plotinus, the founder of Neo-Platonism (A.D. 205-270). From the 4th
century onwards its grottoes were the dwellings of Christian hermits,
amongst whom John of Lycopolis was the most celebrated. (F. Ll. G.)

ASSIZE, or ASSISE (Lat. _assidere_, to sit beside; O. Fr. _assire_, to
sit, _assis_, seated), a legal term, meaning literally a "session," but
in fact, as Littleton has styled it, a _nomen aequivocum_, meaning
sometimes a jury, sometimes the sittings of a court, and sometimes the
ordinances of a court or assembly.

It originally signified the form of trial by a jury of sixteen persons,
which eventually superseded the barbarous judicial combat; this jury was
named the grand assize and was sworn to determine the right of seisin of
land (see EVIDENCE). The grand assize was abolished in 1833; but the
term assize is still applicable to the jury in criminal causes in
Scotland.

In the only sense in which the word is not now almost obsolete, assize
means the periodical session of the judges of the High Court of Justice,
held in the various counties of England, chiefly for the purposes of
gaol delivery and trying causes at _nisi prius_. Previous to Magna Carta
(1215) writs of assize had all to be tried at Westminster, or to await
trial in the locality in which they had originated at the septennial
circuit of the justices in eyre; but, by way of remedy for the great
consequent delay and inconvenience, it was provided by this celebrated
act that the assizes of _mort d'ancestor_ and _novel disseisin_ should
be tried annually by the judges in every county. By successive
enactments, the civil jurisdiction of the justices of assize was
extended, and the number of their sittings increased, till at last the
necessity of repairing to Westminster for judgment in civil actions was
almost obviated to country litigants by an act, passed in the reign of
Edward I., which provided that the writ summoning the jury to
Westminster should also appoint a time and place for hearing such causes
within the county of their origin. The date of the alternative summons
to Westminster was always subsequent to the former date, and so timed as
to fall in the vacation preceding the Westminster term, and thus
"_Unless before_," or _nisi prius_, issues came to be dealt with by the
judges of assize before the summons to Westminster could take effect.
The _nisi prius_ clause, however, was not then introduced for the first
time. It occurs occasionally in writs of the reign of Henry III. The
royal commissions to hold the assizes are--(1) general, (2) special. The
general commission is issued twice a year to the judges of the High
Court of Justice, and two judges are generally sent on each circuit. It
covers commissions--(1) of oyer and terminer, by which they are
empowered to deal with treasons, murders, felonies, &c. This is their
largest commission; (2) of _nisi prius_ (q.v.) (3) of gaol delivery,
which requires them to try every prisoner in gaol, for whatsoever
offence committed; (4) of the peace, by which all justices must be
present at their county assizes, or else suffer a fine. Special
commissions are granted for inquest in certain causes and crimes. See
also the articles CIRCUIT; JURY.

Assizes, in the sense of ordinances or enactments of a court or council
of state, as the "assize of bread and ale," the "assize of Clarendon,"
the "assize of arms," are important in early economic history. As early
as the reign of John the observance of the _assisae venalium_ was
enforced, and for a period of 500 years thereafter it was considered no
unimportant part of the duties of the legislature to regulate by fixed
prices, for the protection of the lieges, the sale of bread, ale, fuel,
&c. (see ADULTERATION). Sometimes in city charters the right to assize
such articles is specially conceded. Regulations of this description
were beneficial in the repression of fraud and adulteration. Assizes are
sometimes used in a wider legislative connexion by early chroniclers and
historians--the "assisae of the realme," e.g. occasionally meaning the
organic laws of the country. For the "assizes of Jerusalem" see
CRUSADES.

The term assize, originally applying to an assembly or court, became
transferred to actions before the court or the writs by which they were
instituted. The following are the more important.

_Assize of darrien presentment_, or last presentation, was a writ
directed to the sheriff to summon an assize or jury to enquire who was
the last patron that presented to a church then vacant, of which the
plaintiff complained that he was deforced or unlawfully deprived by the
defendant. It was abolished in 1833 and the action of _quare impedit_
(q.v.) substituted. But by the Common Law Procedure Act 1860, no _quare
impedit_ can be brought, so that an action in the king's bench of the
High Court was substituted for it.

Assize of _mort d'ancestor_ was a writ which lay where a plaintiff
complained of an "abatement" or entry upon his freehold, effected by a
stranger on the death of the plaintiff's father, mother, brother,
sister, uncle, aunt, &c. It was abolished in 1833.

Assize of _novel disseisin_ was an action to recover lands of which the
plaintiff had been "disseised" or dispossessed. It was abolished in
1833. See Pollock and Maitland, _Hist. Eng. Law._

_Assize, clerk of_, an officer "who writes all things judicially done by
the justices of assizes in their circuits." He has charge of the
commission, and takes recognizances, records, judgments and sentences,
grants certificates of conviction, draws up orders, &c. By the Clerks of
Assize Act 1869 he must either have been for three years a barrister or
solicitor in actual practice, or have acted for three years in the
capacity of subordinate officer of a clerk of assize on circuit.

_United States._--There are no assize courts in the United States; it is
not the custom for supreme court judges of the states to go on circuit,
but the judges of the United States Supreme Court do sit as members of
the United States circuit courts in the several states periodically
throughout the year. These courts are not assize courts, but are federal
as distinguished from state courts, and have a special and limited
jurisdiction. In the several states the highest court is divided into
departments, in each of which there are courts presided over by supreme
court judges residing in that department, thus avoiding the assize court
or circuit-going system.

ASSMANNSHAUSEN, a village of Germany, in the Prussian province of
Hesse-Nassau, on the right bank of the Rhine and the railway from
Frankfort-on-Main to Niederlahnstein. Pop. 1100. It has a lithium
spring, baths and a _Kurhaus_, and is famed for its red wine
(Assmannshäuser), which resembles light Burgundy. From here a railway
ascends the Niederwald.

ASSOCIATE (Lat. _associatus_, from _ad_, to, and _sociare_ to join). one
who is united with another, and so generally a companion--in particular
a subordinate member of an institution or society, as an associate of
the Royal Academy, or one holding a degree in a learned society lower
than that of fellow. In English law the associates are officers of the
supreme court, whose duties are to draw up the list of causes, enter
verdicts, hand the records to the parties, &c., and generally to conduct
the business of trials. By the Judicature (Officers) Act 1879 they were
styled masters of the supreme court, but the office is now amalgamated
with the crown office department, of which they are clerks.

ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS, or MENTAL ASSOCIATION, a term used in psychology
to express the conditions under which representations arise in
consciousness, and also for a principle put forward by an important
historical school of thinkers to account generally for the facts of
mental life. Modern physiological psychology has so altered the approach
to this subject that much of the older discussion has become antiquated,
but it may be recapitulated here for historical purposes.

_Earlier Theory._--In the long and erudite Note D**, appended by Sir
W. Hamilton to his edition of Reid's Works, many anticipations of
modern statements on association are cited from the works of ancient
or medieval thinkers; and for Aristotle, in particular, the glory is
claimed of having at once originated the doctrine and practically
brought it to perfection.[1] As translated by Hamilton, but without
his interpolations, the classical passage from the _De Memoria et
Reminiscentia_ runs as follows:--

"When, therefore, we accomplish an act of reminiscence, we pass
through a certain series of precursive movements, until we arrive at a
movement on which the one we are in quest of is habitually consequent.
Hence, too, it is that we hunt through the mental train, excogitating
from the present or some other, and from similar or contrary or
coadjacent. Through this process reminiscence takes place. For the
movements are, in these cases, sometimes at the same time, sometimes
parts of the same whole, so that the subsequent movement is already
more than half accomplished."

The passage is obscure, but it does at all events indicate the various
principles commonly termed contiguity, similarity and contrast.
Similar principles are stated by Zeno the Stoic, by Epicurus (see
Diog. Laert. vii. § 52, x. § 32), and by St Augustine (_Confessions_,
x. e. 19). Aristotle's doctrine received a more or less intelligent
expansion and illustration from the ancient commentators and the
schoolmen, and in the still later period of transition from the age of
scholasticism to the time of modern philosophy, prolonged in the works
of some writers far into the 17th century, Hamilton adduced not a few
philosophical authorities who gave prominence to the general fact of
mental association--the Spaniard Ludovicus Vives (1492-1540)
especially being most exhaustive in his account of memory.

In Hobbes's psychology much importance is assigned to what he called,
variously, the succession, sequence, series, consequence, coherence,
train of imaginations or thoughts in mental discourse. But not before
Hume is there express question as to what are the distinct principles
of association. John Locke had, meanwhile, introduced the phrase
"Association of Ideas" as the title of a supplementary chapter
incorporated with the fourth edition of his _Essay_, meaning it,
however, only as the name of a principle accounting for the mental
peculiarities of individuals, with little or no suggestion of its
general psychological import. Of this last Hume had the strongest
impression; he reduced the principles of association to
three--Resemblance, Contiguity in time and place, Cause and (or)
Effect. Dugald Stewart put forward Resemblance, Contrariety, and
Vicinity in time and place, though he added, as another obvious
principle, accidental coincidence in the sounds of words, and further
noted three other cases of relation, namely, Cause and Effect, Means
and End, Premisses and Conclusion, as holding among the trains of
thought under circumstances of special attention. Reid, preceding
Stewart, was rather disposed to make light of the subject of
association, vaguely remarking that it seems to require no other
original quality of mind but the power of habit to explain the
spontaneous recurrence of trains of thinking, when become familiar by
frequent repetition (_Intellectual Powers_, p. 387).

Hamilton's own theory of mental reproduction, suggestion or
association is a development, greatly modified, of the doctrine
expounded in his _Lectures on Metaphysics_ (vol. ii. p. 223, seq.),
which reduced the principles of association first to two--Simultaneity
and Affinity, and these further to one supreme principle of
Redintegration or Totality. In the ultimate scheme he posits no less
than four general laws of mental succession concerned in reproduction:
(1) _Associability_ or possible co-suggestion (all thoughts of the
same mental subject are associable or capable of suggesting each
other); (2) _Repetition_ or direct remembrance (thoughts coidentical
in modification, but differing in time, tend to suggest each other);
(3) _Redintegration_, direct remembrance or reminiscence (thoughts
once coidentical in time, are, however, different as mental modes,
again suggestive of each other, and that in the mutual order which
they originally held); (4) _Preference_ (thoughts are suggested not
merely by force of the general subjective relation subsisting between
themselves, they are also suggested in proportion to the relation of
interest, from whatever source, in which they stand to the individual
mind). Upon these follow, as special laws:--A, Primary--modes of the
laws of Repetition and Redintegration--(1) law of Similars (Analogy,
Affinity); (2) law of Contrast; (3) law of Coadjacency (Cause and
Effect, &c.); B, Secondary--modes of the law of Preference, under the
law of Possibility--(1) laws of Immediacy and Homogeneity; (2) law of
Facility.

_The Associationist School._--This name is given to the English
psychologists who aimed at explaining all mental acquisitions, and the
more complex mental processes generally under laws not other than
those which have just been set out as determining simple reproduction.
Hamilton, though professing to deal with reproduction only, formulates
a number of still more general laws of mental succession--law of
Succession, law of Variation, law of Dependence, law of Relativity or
Integration (involving law of Conditioned), and, finally, law of
Intrinsic or Objective Relativity--as the highest to which human
consciousness is subject; but it is in a sense quite different that
the psychologists of the so-called Associationist School intend their
appropriation of the principle or principles commonly signalized. As
far as can be judged from imperfect records, they were anticipated to
some extent by the experientialists of ancient times, both Stoic and
Epicurean (cf. Diogenes Laertius, as above). In the modern period,
Hobbes is the first thinker of permanent note to whom this doctrine
may be traced. Though, in point of fact, he took anything but an
exhaustive view of the phenomena of mental succession, yet, after
dealing with trains of imagination, or what he called mental
discourse, he sought in the higher departments of intellect to explain
reasoning as a discourse in words, dependent upon an arbitrary system
of marks, each associated with, or standing for, a variety of
imaginations; and, save for a general assertion that reasoning is a
reckoning--otherwise, a compounding and resolving--he had no other
account of knowledge to give. The whole emotional side of mind, or, in
his language, the passions, he, in like manner, resolved into an
expectation of consequences, based on past experience of pleasures and
pains of sense. Thus, though he made no serious attempt to justify his
analysis in detail, he is undoubtedly to be classed with the
associationists of the next century. They, however, were wont to trace
their psychological theory no further back than to Locke's _Essay_.
Bishop Berkeley was driven to posit expressly a principle of
suggestion or association in these terms:--"That one idea may suggest
another to the mind, it will suffice that they have been observed to
go together, without any demonstration of the necessity of their
coexistence, or so much as knowing what it is that makes them so to
coexist" (_New Theory of Vision_, § 25); and to support the obvious
application of the principle to the case of the sensations of sight
and touch before him, he constantly urged that association of sound
and sense of language which the later school has always put in the
foreground, whether as illustrating the principle in general or in
explanation of the supreme importance of language for knowledge. It
was natural, then, that Hume, coming after Berkeley, and assuming
Berkeley's results, though he reverted to the larger inquiry of Locke,
should be more explicit in his reference to association; but he was
original also, when he spoke of it as a "kind of attraction which in
the mental world will be found to have as extraordinary effects as in
the natural, and to show itself in as many and as various forms"
(_Human Nature_, i. 1, § 4). Other inquirers about the same time
conceived of association with this breadth of view, and set themselves
to track, as psychologists, its effects in detail.

David Hartley in his _Observations on Man_, published in 1749 (eleven
years after the _Human Nature_, and one year after the better-known
_Inquiry_, of Hume), opened the path for all the investigations of
like nature that have been so characteristic of English psychology. A
physician by profession, he sought to combine with an elaborate theory
of mental association a minutely detailed hypothesis as to the
corresponding action of the nervous system, based upon the suggestion
of a vibratory motion within the nerves thrown out by Newton in the
last paragraph of the _Principia_. So far, however, from promoting the
acceptance of the psychological theory, this physical hypothesis
proved to have rather the opposite effect, and it began to be dropped
by Hartley's followers (as F. Priestley, in his abridged edition of
the _Observations_, 1775) before it was seriously impugned from
without. When it is studied in the original, and not taken upon the
report of hostile critics, who would not, or could not understand it,
no little importance must still be accorded to the first attempt, not
seldom a curiously felicitous one, to carry through that parallelism
of the physical and psychical, which since then has come to count for
more and more in the science of mind. Nor should it be forgotten that
Hartley himself, for all his paternal interest in the doctrine of
vibrations, was careful to keep separate from its fortunes the cause
of his other doctrine of mental association. Of this the point lay in
no mere restatement, with new precision, of a principle of coherence
among "ideas," but in its being taken as a clue by which to follow
the progressive development of the mind's powers. Holding that mental
states could be scientifically understood only as they were analysed,
Hartley sought for a principle of synthesis to explain the complexity
exhibited not only in trains of representative images, but alike in
the most involved combinations of reasonings and (as Berkeley had
seen) in the apparently simple phenomena of objective perception, as
well as in the varied play of the emotions, or, again, in the manifold
conscious adjustments of the motor system. One principle appeared to
him sufficient for all, running, as enunciated for the simplest case,
thus: "Any sensations A, B, C, &c., by being associated with one
another a sufficient number of times, get such a power over the
corresponding ideas (called by Hartley also vestiges, types, images)
_a, b, c_, &c., that any one of the sensations A, when impressed
alone, shall be able to excite in the mind _b, c_, &c., the ideas of
the rest." To render the principle applicable in the cases where the
associated elements are neither sensations nor simple ideas of
sensations, Hartley's first care was to determine the conditions under
which states other than these simplest ones have their rise in the
mind, becoming the matter of ever higher and higher combinations. The
principle itself supplied the key to the difficulty, when coupled with
the notion, already implied in Berkeley's investigations, of a
coalescence of simple ideas of sensation into one complex idea, which
may cease to bear any obvious relation to its constituents. So far
from being content, like Hobbes, to make a rough generalization to all
mind from the phenomena of developed memory, as if these might be
straightway assumed, Hartley made a point of referring them, in a
subordinate place of their own, to his universal principle of mental
synthesis. He expressly put forward the law of association, endued
with such scope, as supplying what was wanting to Locke's doctrine in
its more strictly psychological aspect, and thus marks by his work a
distinct advance on the line of development of the experiential
philosophy.

The new doctrine received warm support from some, as Law and
Priestley, who both, like Hume and Hartley himself, took the principle
of association as having the like import for the science of mind that
gravitation had acquired for the science of matter. The principle
began also, if not always with direct reference to Hartley, yet,
doubtless, owing to his impressive advocacy of it, to be applied
systematically in special directions, as by Abraham Tucker (1768) to
morals, and by Archibald Alison (1790) to aesthetics. Thomas Brown (d.
1820) subjected anew to discussion the question of theory. Hardly less
unjust to Hartley than Reid or Stewart had been, and forward to
proclaim all that was different in his own position, Brown must yet be
ranked with the associationists before and after him for the
prominence he assigned to the associative principle in
sense-perception (what he called external affections of mind), and for
his reference of all other mental states (internal affections) to the
two generic capacities or susceptibilities of Simple and Relative
Suggestion. He preferred the word Suggestion to Association, which
seemed to him to imply some prior connecting process, whereof there
was no evidence in many of the most important cases of suggestion, nor
even, strictly speaking, in the case of contiguity in time where the
term seemed least inapplicable. According to him, all that could be
assumed was a general constitutional tendency of the mind to exist
successively in states that have certain relations to each other, of
itself only, and without any external cause or any influence previous
to that operating at the moment of the suggestion. Brown's chief
contribution to the general doctrine of mental association, besides
what he did for the theory of perception, was, perhaps, his analysis
of voluntary reminiscence and constructive imagination--faculties that
appear at first sight to lie altogether beyond the explanatory range
of the principle. In James Mill's _Analysis of the Phenomena of the
Human Mind_ (1829), the principle, much as Hartley had conceived it,
was carried out, with characteristic consequence, over the
psychological field. With a much enlarged and more varied conception
of association, Alexander Bain re-executed the general psychological
task, while Herbert Spencer revised the doctrine from the new point of
view of the evolution-hypothesis. John Stuart Mill made only
occasional excursions into the region of psychology proper, but
sought, in his _System of Logic_ (1843), to determine the conditions
of objective truth from the point of view of the associationist
theory, and, thus or otherwise being drawn into general philosophical
discussion, spread wider than any one before him its repute.

The Associationist School has been composed chiefly of British
thinkers, but in France also it has had distinguished representatives.
Of these it will suffice to mention Condillac, who professed to
explain all knowledge from the single principle of association
(_liaison_) of ideas, operating through a previous association with
signs, verbal or other. In Germany, before the time of Kant, mental
association was generally treated in the traditional manner, as by
Wolff. Kant's inquiry into the foundations of knowledge, agreeing in
its general purport with Locke's, however it differed in its critical
procedure, brought him face to face with the newer doctrine that had
been grafted on Locke's philosophy; and to account for the fact of
synthesis in cognition, in express opposition to associationism, as
represented by Hume, was, in truth, his prime object, starting, as he
did, from the assumption that there was that in knowledge which no
mere association of experiences could explain. To the extent,
therefore, that his influence prevailed, all inquiries made by the
English associationists were discounted in Germany. Notwithstanding,
under the very shadow of his authority a corresponding, if not
related, movement was initiated by J.F. Herbart. Peculiar, and widely
different from anything conceived by the associationists, as Herbart's
metaphysical opinions were, he was at one with them, and at variance
with Kant, in assigning fundamental importance to the psychological
investigation of the development of consciousness, nor was his
conception of the laws determining the interaction and flow of mental
presentations and representations, when taken in its bare
psychological import, essentially different from theirs. In F.E.
Beneke's psychology also, and in more recent inquiries conducted
mainly by physiologists, mental association has been understood in its
wider scope, as a general principle of explanation.

The associationists differ not a little among themselves in the
statement of their principle, or, when they adduce several principles,
in their conception of the relative importance of these. Hartley took
account only of Contiguity, or the repetition of impressions
synchronous or immediately successive; the like is true of James Mill,
though, incidentally, he made an express attempt to resolve the
received principle of Similarity, and through this the other principle
of Contrast, into his fundamental law--law of Frequency, as he
sometimes called it, because upon frequency, in conjunction with
vividness of impressions, the strength of association, in his view,
depended. In a sense of his own, Brown also, while accepting the
common Aristotelian enumeration of principles, inclined to the opinion
that "all suggestion may be found to depend on prior coexistence, or
at least on such proximity as is itself very probably a modification
of coexistence," provided account be taken of "the influence of
emotions and other feelings that are very different from ideas, as
when an analogous object suggests an analogous object by the influence
of an emotion which each separately may have produced before, and
which is, therefore, common to both." To the contrary effect, Spencer
maintained that the fundamental law of all mental association is that
presentations aggregate or cohere with their like in past experience,
and that, besides this law, there is in strictness no other, all
further phenomena of association being incidental. Thus in particular,
he would have explained association by Contiguity as due to the
circumstance of imperfect assimilation of the present to the past in
consciousness. A. Bain regarded Contiguity and Similarity logically,
as perfectly distinct principles, though in actual psychological
occurrence blending intimately with each other, contiguous trains
being started by a first (it may be, implicit) representation through
Similarity, while the express assimilation of present to past in
consciousness is always, or tends to be, followed by the revival of
what was presented in contiguity with that past.

The highest, philosophical interest, as distinguished from that which
is more strictly psychological, attaches to the mode of mental
association called Inseparable. The coalescence of mental states noted
by Hartley, as it had been assumed by Berkeley, was farther formulated
by James Mill in these terms:--

"Some ideas are by frequency and strength of association so closely
combined that they cannot be separated; if one exists, the other
exists along with it in spite of whatever effort we make to disjoin
them."--(_Analysis of the Human Mind_, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 93.)

J.S. Mill's statement is more guarded and particular:--

"When two phenomena have been very often experienced in conjunction,
and have not, in any single instance, occurred separately either in
experience or in thought, there is produced between them what has been
called inseparable, or, less correctly, indissoluble, association; by
which is not meant that the association must inevitably last to the
end of life--that no subsequent experience or process of thought can
possibly avail to dissolve it; but only that as long as no such
experience or process of thought has taken place, the association is
irresistible; it is impossible for us to think the one thing disjoined
from the other."--(_Examination of Hamilton's Philosophy_, 2nd ed. p.
191.)

It is chiefly by J.S. Mill that the philosophical application of the
principle has been made. The first and most obvious application is to
so-called necessary truths--such, namely, as are not merely analytic
judgments but involve a synthesis of distinct notions. Again, the same
thinker sought to prove Inseparable Association the ground of belief
in an external objective world. The former application, especially, is
facilitated, when the experience through which the association is
supposed to be constituted is understood as cumulative in the race,
and transmissible as original endowment to individuals--endowment that
may be expressed either, subjectively, as latent intelligence, or,
objectively, as fixed nervous connexions. Spencer, as before
suggested, is the author of this extended view of mental association.

_Modern Criticism._--Of recent years the associationist theory has
been subjected to searching criticism, and it has been maintained by
many writers that the laws are both unsatisfactorily expressed and
insufficient to explain the facts. Among the most vigorous and
comprehensive of these investigations is that of F.H. Bradley in his
_Principles of Logic_ (1883). Having admitted the psychological fact
of mental association, he attacks the theories of Mill and Bain
primarily on the ground that they purport to give an account of mental
life as a whole, a metaphysical doctrine of existence. According to
this doctrine, mental activity is ultimately reducible to particular
feelings, impressions, ideas, which are disparate and unconnected,
until chance Association brings them together. On this assumption the
laws of Association naturally emerge in the following form:--(1) The
_law of Contiguity._--"Actions, sensations and states of feeling,
occurring together or in close connexion, tend to grow together, or
cohere, in such a way that, when any one of them is afterwards
presented to the mind, the others are apt to be brought up in idea"
(A. Bain, _Senses and Intellect_, p. 327). (2) The _law of
Similarity._--"Present actions, sensation, thoughts or emotions tend
to revive their like among previous impressions or states" (A. Bain,
_ibid._ 457. Compare J.S. Mill, _Logic_, ii. p. 440, 9th ed.). The
fundamental objection to (1) is that ideas and impressions once
experienced do not recur; they are particular existences, and, as
such, do not persevere to recur or be presented. So Mill is wrong in
speaking of two impressions being "frequently experienced." Bradley
claims thus to reduce the law to "When we have experienced (or even
thought of) several pairs of impressions (simultaneous or successive),
which pairs are like one another; then whenever an idea occurs which
is like all the impressions on one side of these pairs, it tends to
excite an idea which is like all the impressions on the other side."
This statement is destructive of the title of the law, because it
appears that what were contiguous (the impressions) are not
associated, and what are associated (the ideas) were not contiguous;
in other words, the association is not due to contiguity at all.

Proceeding to the law of Similarity (which in Mill's view is at the
back of association by contiguity), and having made a similar
criticism of its phrasing, Bradley maintains that it involves an even
greater absurdity; if two ideas are to be recognized as similar, they
must both be present in the mind; if one is to call up the other, one
must be absent. To the obvious reply that the similarity is recognized
_ex post facto_, and not while the former idea is being called up,
Bradley replies simply that such a view reduces the law to the mere
statement of a phenomenon and deprives it of any explanatory value,
though he hardly makes it clear in what sense this necessarily
invalidates the law from a psychological point of view. He further
points out with greater force that in point of fact mere similarity is
not the basis of ordinary cases of mental reproduction, inasmuch as in
any given instance there is more difference than similarity between
the ideas associated.

Bradley himself bases association on identity plus contiguity:--"Any
part of a single state of mind tends, if reproduced, to re-instate the
remainder," or "any element tends to reproduce those elements with
which it has formed one state of mind." This law he calls by the name
"redintegration," understood, of course, in a sense different from
that in which Hamilton used it. The radical difference between this
law and those of Mill and Bain is that it deals not with particular
units of thoughts but with universals or identity between individuals.
In any example of such reproduction the universal appears in a
particular form which is more or less different from that in which it
originally existed.

_Psychophysical Researches._--Bradley's discussion deals with the
subject purely from the metaphysical side, and the total result
practically is that association occurs only between universals. From
the point of view of empirical psychologists Bradley's results are
open to the charge which he made against those who impugned his view
of the law of similarity, namely that they are merely a statement--not
in any real sense an explanation. The relation between the mental and
the physical phenomena of association has occupied the attention of
all the leading psychologists (see PSYCHOLOGY). William James holds
that association is of "objects" not of "ideas," is between "things
thought of"--so far as the word stands for an effect. "So far as it
stands for a cause it is between processes in the brain." Dealing with
the law of Contiguity he says that the "most natural way of accounting
for it is to conceive it as a result of the laws of habit in the
nervous system; in other words to ascribe it to a physiological
cause." Association is thus due to the fact that when a nerve current
has once passed by a given way, it will pass more easily by that way
in future; and this fact is a physical fact. He further seeks to
maintain the important deduction that the only primary or ultimate law
of association is that of neural habit.

The objections to the associationist theory are summed up by G.F.
Stout (_Analytic Psychol._, vol. ii. pp. 47 seq.) under three heads.
Of these the first is that the theory as stated, e.g. by Bain, lays
far too much stress on the mere connexion of elements hitherto
entirely separate; whereas, in fact, every new mental state or
synthesis consists in the development or modification of a
pre-existing state or psychic whole. Secondly, it is quite false to
regard an association as merely an aggregate of disparate units; in
fact, the _form_ of the new idea is quite as important as the elements
which it comprises. Thirdly, the phraseology used by the
associationists seems to assume that the parts that go to form the
whole retain their identity unimpaired; in fact, each part or element
is _ipso facto_ modified by the very fact of its entering into such
combination.

The experimental methods now in vogue have to a large extent removed
the discussion of the whole subject of association of ideas, depending
in the case of the older writers on introspection, into a new sphere.
In such a work as E.B. Titchener's _Experimental Psychology_ (1905),
association is treated as a branch of the study of mental reactions,
of which association reactions are one division.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--See PSYCHOLOGY; and the works of Bradley, Stout, and
James, above quoted, and general works on psychology: articles in
_Mind_ (passim); A. Bain, _Senses and Intellect_ (4th ed., 1894), and
in _Mind_, xii. (1887) pp. 237-249; John Watson, _An Outline of
Philosophy_ (1898); H. Höffding, _Hist. of Mod. Philos._ (Eng. trans.,
Lond., 1900), _Psychologie in Umrissen auf Grundlage der Erfahrung_
(2nd ed., Leipzig, 1893); Jas. Sully, _The Human Mind_ (1892), and
_Outlines of Psych._ (Lond., 1892); E.B. Titchener, _Outline of
Psych._ (New York, 1896), and in his trans. of O. Külpe's _Outlines of
Psych._ (New York, 1895,); Jas. Ward in _Mind_, viii. (1883), xii.
(1887), new series ii. (1893), iii. (1894); G.T. Ladd, _Psychology,
Descriptive and Explanatory_ (Lond., 1894); C.L.C. Morgan, _Introd. to
Comparative Psych._ (Lond., 1894); W. Wundt, _Princip. of Physiol.
Psych._ (Eng. trans., 1904), _Human and Animal Psych._ (Eng. trans.,
1894), pp. 282-307; _Outlines of Psych._ (Eng. trans., 1897); E.
Claparède, _L'Association des idées_ (1903). For associationism in
Greek philosophy see J.I. Beare, _Greek Theories of Elementary
Cognition_ (Oxford, 1906), part iii. §§ 14, 43 seq.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] There are, however, distinct anticipations of the theory in Plato
(_Phaedo_), as part of the doctrine of [Greek: anamnaesis]; thus we
find the idea of Simmias recalled by the picture of Simmias
(similarity), and that of a friend by the sight of the lyre on which
he played (contiguity).

ASSONANCE (from Lat. _adsonare_ or _assonare_, to sound to or answer
to), a term defined, in its prosodical sense, as "the corresponding or
riming of one word with another in the accented vowel and those which
follow it, but not in the consonants" (_New English Dictionary_,
Oxford). In other words, assonance is an improper or imperfect form of
rhyme, in which the ear is satisfied with the incomplete identity of
sound which the vowel gives without the aid of consonants. Much rustic
or popular verse in England is satisfied with assonance, as in such
cases as

"And pray who gave thee that jolly red _nose_?
Cinnamon, Ginger, Nutmeg and _Cloves_,"

where the agreement between the two _o's_ permits the ear to neglect the
discord between _s_ and _v_. But in English these instances are the
result of carelessness or blunted ear. It is not so in several
literatures, such as in Spanish, where assonance is systematically
cultivated as a literary ornament. It is an error to confound
alliteration,--which results from the close juxtaposition of words
beginning with the same sound or letter,--and assonance, which is the
repetition of the same vowel-sound in a syllable at points where the ear
expects a rhyme. The latter is a more complicated and less primitive
employment of artifice than the former, although they have often been
used to intensify the effect of each other in a single couplet.
Assonance appears, nevertheless, to have preceded rhyme in several of
the European languages, and to have led the way towards it. It is
particularly observable in the French poetry which was composed before
the 12th century, and it reached its highest point in the "Chanson de
Roland," where the sections are distinguished by the fact that all the
lines in a _laisse_ or stanza close with the same vowel-sound. When the
ear of the French became more delicate, and pure rhyme was introduced,
about the year 1120, assonance almost immediately retired before it and
was employed no more, until recent years, when several French poets have
re-introduced assonance in order to widen the scope of their effects of
sound. It held its place longer in Provençal and some other Romance
literatures, while in Spanish it has retained its absolute authority
over rhyme to the present day. It has been observed that in the Romance
languages the ear prefers the correspondence of vowels, while in the
Teutonic languages the preference is given to consonants. This
distinction is felt most strongly in Spanish, where the satisfaction in
_rimas asonantes_ is expressed no less in the most elaborate works of
the poets and dramatists than in the rough ballads of the people. The
nature of the language here permits the full value of the corresponding
vowel-sounds to be appreciated, whereas in English--and even in German,
where, however, a great deal of assonant poetry exists--the divergence
of the consonants easily veils or blunts the similarity of sound.
Various German poets of high merit, and in particular Tieck and Heine,
have endeavoured to obviate this difficulty, but without complete
success. Occasionally they endeavour, as English rhymers have done, to
mix pure rhyme with assonance, but the result of this in almost all
cases is that the assonances, &c., which make a less strenuous appeal to
the ear, are drowned and lost in the stress of the pure rhymes. Like
alliteration, assonance is a very frequent and very effective ornament
of prose style, but such correspondence in vowel-sound is usually
accidental and involuntary, an instinctive employment of the skill of
the writer. To introduce it with a purpose, as of course must be done in
poetry, has always been held to be a most dangerous practice in prose.
Assonance as a conscious art, in fact, is scarcely recognized as
legitimate in English literature. (E. G.)

ASSUAN, or ASWAN, a town of Upper Egypt on the east bank of the Nile,
facing Elephantine Island below the First Cataract, and 590 m. S. of
Cairo by rail. It is the capital of a province of the same name--the
southernmost province of Egypt. Population (1907) 16,128. The principal
buildings are along the river front, where a broad embankment has been
built. Popular among Europeans as a winter health resort and tourist
centre, Assuan is provided with large modern hotels (one situated on
Elephantine Island), and there is an English church. South-east of the
railway station are the ruins of a temple built by Ptolemy Euergetes,
and still farther south are the famous granite quarries of Syene. On
Elephantine Island are an ancient nilometer and other remains, including
a granite gateway built under Alexander the Great at the temple of the
local ram-headed god Chnubis or Chnumis (Eg. Khnum), perhaps on account
of his connexion with Ammon (q.v.); two small but very beautiful temples
of the XVIIIth Dynasty were destroyed there about 1820. In the hill on
the opposite side of the river are tombs of the VIth to XIIth dynasties,
opened by Lord Grenfell in 1885-1886. The inscriptions show that they
belonged to frontier-prefects whose expeditions into Nubia, &c., are
recorded in them. Three and a half miles above the town, at the
beginning of the Cataract, the Assuan Dam stretches across the Nile.
This great engineering work was finished in December 1902 (see
IRRIGATION: _Egypt_; and NILE). Above the dam the Nile presents the
appearance of a vast lake. Consequent on the rise of the water-level
several islands have been wholly and others partly submerged, among the
latter Philae (q.v.). On the east bank opposite Philae is the village of
Shellal, southern terminus of the Egyptian railway system and the
starting point of steamers for the Sudan.

In ancient times the chief city, called Yeb, capital of the frontier
nome, the first of the Upper Country, was on the island of Elephantine,
guarding the entrance to Egypt. But, owing to the cataract, the main
route for traffic with the south was by land along the eastern shore.
Here, near the granite quarries--whence was obtained the material for
many magnificent monuments--there grew up another city, at first
dependent on and afterwards successor to the island town. This city was
called _Swan_, the Mart, whence came the Greek _Syene_ and Arabic
_Aswan_. Syene is twice mentioned (as Seveneh) in the prophecies of
Ezekiel, and papyri, discovered on the island, and dated in the reigns
of Artaxerxes and Darius II, (464-404 B.C.), reveal the existence of a
colony of Jews, with a temple to Yahu (Yahweh, Jehovah), which had been
founded at some time before the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses in 523
B.C. They also mention the great frontier garrison against the
Ethiopians, referred to by Herodotus. Syene was one of the bases used by
Eratosthenes in his calculations for the measurement of the earth. In
Roman times Syene was strongly garrisoned to resist the attacks of the
desert tribes. Thither, in virtual banishment, Juvenal was sent as
prefect by Domitian. In the early days of Christianity the town became
the seat of a bishopric, and numerous ruins of Coptic convents are in
the neighbourhood. Syene appears also to have flourished under its first
Arab rulers, but in the 12th century was raided and ruined by Bedouin
and Nubian tribes. On the conquest of Egypt by the Turks in the 16th
century, Selim I. placed a garrison here, from whom, in part, the
present townsmen descend. As the southern frontier town of Egypt proper,
Assuan in times of peace was the entrepôt of a considerable trade with
the Sudan and Abyssinia, and in 1880 its trade was valued at £2,000,000
annually. During the Mahdia (1884-1898) Assuan was strongly garrisoned
by Egyptian and British troops. Since the defeat of the khalifa at
Omdurman and the fixing (1899) of the Egyptian frontier farther south,
the military value of Assuan has declined.

For the Jewish colony see A.H. Sayce and A.E. Cowley, _Aramaic Papyri
discovered at Assuan_ (Oxford, 1906); E. Sachau, _Drei Aramaische
papyrus-Urkunden aus Elephantine_ (Berlin, 1907). For the dam see W.
Willcocks, _The Nile Reservoir Dam at Assuan_ (London, 1901).
(F. Ll. G.)

ASSUMPSIT ("he has undertaken," from Lat. _assumere_), a word applied to
an action for the recovery of damages by reason of the breach or
non-performance of a simple contract, either express or implied, and
whether made orally or in writing. _Assumpsit_ was the word always used
in pleadings by the plaintiff to set forth the defendant's undertaking
or promise, hence the name of the action. Claims in actions of
_assumpsit_ were ordinarily divided into (a) common or _indebitatus
assumpsit_, brought usually on an implied promise, and (b) special
_assumpsit_, founded on an express promise. _Assumpsit_ as a form of
action became obsolete after the passing of the Judicature Acts 1873 and
1875. (See further CONTRACT; PLEADING and TORT.)

ASSUMPTION, FEAST OF. The feast of the "Assumption of the blessed Virgin
Mary" (Lat. _festum assumptionis, dormitionis, depositionis, pausationis
B. V. M._; Gr. [Greek: koimaesis] or [Greek: analaephis taes theotokou])
is a festival of the Christian Church celebrated on the 15th of August,
in commemoration of the miraculous ascent into heaven of the mother of
Christ. The belief on which this festival rests has its origin in
apocryphal sources, such as the [Greek: eis taen koimaesin taes
uperagias despoinaes] ascribed to the Apostle John, and the _de transitu
Mariae_, assigned to Melito, bishop of Sardis, but actually written
about A.D. 400. Pope Gelasius I. (492-496) included them in the list of
apocryphal books condemned by the _Decretum de libris recipiendis et non
recipiendis_; but they were accepted as authentic by the
pseudo-Dionysius (_de nominbus divinis c. 3_), whose writings date
probably from the 5th century, and by Gregory of Tours (d. 593 or 594).
The latter in his _De gloria martyrum_ (i. 4) gives the following
account of the miracle: As all the Apostles were watching round the
dying Mary, Jesus appeared with His angels and committed the soul of His
Mother to the Archangel Michael. Next day, as they were carrying the
body to the grave, Christ again appeared and carried it with Him in a
cloud to heaven, where it was reunited with the soul. This story is much
amplified in the account given by St John of Damascus in the homilies
_In dormitionem Mariae_, which are still read in the Roman Church as the
lesson during the octave of the feast. According to this the patriarchs
and Adam and Eve also appear at the death-bed, to praise their daughter,
through whom they had been rescued from the curse of God; a Jew who
touches the body loses both his hands, which are restored to him by the
Apostles; and the body lies three days in the grave without corruption
before it is taken up into heaven.

The festival is first mentioned by St Andrew of Crete (c. 650), and,
according to the Byzantine historian Nicephorus Callistus (_Hist.
Eccles._ xvii. 28), was first instituted by the Emperor Maurice in A.D.
582. From the East it was borrowed by Rome, where there is evidence of
its existence so early as the 7th century. In the Gallican Church it was
only adopted at the same time as the Roman liturgy. But though the
festival thus became incorporated in the regular usage of the Western
Church, the belief in the resurrection and bodily assumption of the
Virgin has never been defined as a dogma and remains a "pious opinion,"
which the faithful may reject without imperilling their immortal souls,
though not apparently--to quote Melchior Cano (_De Locis Theolog._ xii.
10)--without "insolent temerity," since such rejection would be contrary
to the common agreement of the Church. By the reformed Churches,
including the Church of England, the festival is not observed, having
been rejected at the Reformation as being neither primitive nor founded
upon any "certain warrant of Holy Scripture."

See Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_ (ed. 3), s. "Maria"; Mgr. L.
Duchesne, _Christian Worship_ (Eng. trans., London, 1904); Wetzer and
Welte, _Kirchenlexikon_, s. "Marienfeste"; The _Catholic
Encyclopaedia_ (London and New York, 1907, &c.), s. "Apocrypha,"
"Assumption."

ASSUR (Auth. Vers. _Asshur_), a Hebrew name, occurring in many passages
of the Old Testament, for the land and dominion of Assyria.[1] The
_country_ of Assyria, which in the Assyro-Babylonian literature is known
as _mat Assur_ (_ki_), "land of Assur," took its name from the ancient
city of _Assur_, situated at the southern extremity of Assyria proper,
whose territory, soon after the first Assyrian settlement, was bounded
on the N. by the Zagros mountain range in what is now Kurdistan and on
the S. by the lower Zab river. The kingdom of Assyria, which was the
outgrowth of the primitive settlement on the site of the city of Assur,
was developed by a probably gradual process of colonization in the rich
vales of the middle Tigris region, a district watered by the Tigris
itself and also by several tributary streams, the chief of which was the
lower Zab.[2]

It seems quite evident that the _city_ of Assur was originally founded
by Semites from Babylonia at quite an early, but as yet undetermined
date. In the prologue to the law-code of the great Babylonian monarch
Khammurabi (c. 2250 B.C.), the cities of Nineveh and Assur are both
mentioned as coming under that king's beneficent influence. Assur is
there called _A-usar_ (_ki_),[3] in which combination the ending _-ki_
("land territory") proves that even at that early period there was a
province of Assur more extensive than the city proper. It is probable
that this non-Semitic form _A-usar_ means "well watered region,"[4] a
most appropriate designation for the river settlements of Assyria. The
problem as to the meaning of the name Assur is rendered all the more
confusing by the fact that the city and land are also called _Assur_ (as
well as _A-usar_), both by the Khammurabi records[5] and generally in
the later Assyrian literature. Furthermore, the god- and country-name
_Assur_ also occurs at a late date in Assyrian literature in the forms
_An-sar, An-sar_ (_ki_), which form[6] was presumably read _Assur_. In
the Creation tablet, the heavens personified collectively were indicated
by this term _An-sar_, "host of heaven," in contradistinction to the
earth = _Ki-sar_, "host of earth." In view of this fact, it seems highly
probable that the late writing _An-sar_ for _Assur_ was a more or less
conscious attempt on the part of the Assyrian scribes to identify the
peculiarly Assyrian deity _Asur_ (see ASSUR, the god, below) with the
Creation deity An-sar. On the other hand, there is an epithet _Asir_ or
Ashir ("overseer") applied to several gods and particularly to the deity
_Asur_, a fact which introduced a third element of confusion into the
discussion of the name _Assur_. It is probable then that there is a
triple popular etymology in the various forms of writing the name
_Assur_; viz. _A-usar_,[7] _An-sar_ and the stem _asaru_, all of which
is quite in harmony with the methods followed by the ancient
Assyro-Babylonian philologists.[8]

See also A.H. Layard, _Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and
Babylon_ (1853); G. Smith, _Assyrian Discoveries_ (1875); R.W. Rogers,
_History of Babylonia and Assyria_, i. 297; ii. 13; ii. 30, 76, 102;
J.F. M'Curdy, _History, Prophecy and the Monuments_, §§ 74, 171 f.,
247, 258, 283; 57, 59 f. (on the god). (J. D. Pr.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The name Assur is not connected with the Asshur of 1 Chron. ii.
24; ii. 45. Note that it is customary to spell the god-name _Asur_
and the country-name _Assur_.

[2] Cf. Rassam, _Asshur and the Land of Nimrod_, 250-251, and many
other works.

[3] Robert Harper, _Code of Hammurabi_, pp. 6-7, lines 55-58.

[4] Thus already Delitzsch, _Wo lag das Paradies?_ p. 252. The
element _a_ means "water," and in _u-sar_ it is probable that _u_
also means "water," while _sar_ is "park, district." See Prince,
_Materials for a Sumerian Lexicon_, s.v. _usar_.

[5] The name appears as _As-sur_ (_ki_) and _As-su-ur_ (_ki_). See
King, _Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi_, iv. p. 23, obv. 27;
and Nägel, _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_, iv. p. 404; also _Cun. Texts
from Bab. Tablets_, vi. pl. 19, line 7.

[6] Meissner-Rost, _Bauinschrift Sanheribs_, K. 5413a; K. 1306, rev.
16.

[7] See on this entire subject, Morris Jastrow, Jr., _Journal Amer.
Orient. Soc._, xxiv. pp. 282-311; also _Die Religion Bab. u. Assyr._,
pp. 207 ff.

[8] On the philological methods of the ancient Babylonian priesthood,
see Prince, _Materials for a Sumerian Lexicon_, Introduction.

ASSUR, the primitive capital of Assyria, now represented by the mounds
of Kaleh Sherghat (Qal'at Shergat) on the west bank of the Tigris,
nearly midway between the Upper and Lower Zab. It is still doubtful (see
discussion on the name in the preceding article) whether the national
god of Assyria took his name from that of the city or whether the
converse was the case. It is most probable, however, that it was the
city which was deified (see Sayce, _Religion of Ancient Egypt and
Babylonia_, 1902, pp. 366, 367). Sir A.H. Layard, through his assistant
Hormuzd Rassam, devoted two or three days to excavating on the site, but
owing to the want of pasturage and the fear of Bedouin attacks he left
the spot after finding a broken clay cylinder containing the annals of
Tiglath-Pileser I., and for many years no subsequent efforts were made
to explore it. In 1904, however, a German expedition under Dr W. Andrae
began systematic excavations, which have led to important results. The
city originally grew up round the great temple of the god Assur, the
foundation of which was ascribed to the High-priest Uspia. For many
centuries Assur and the surrounding district, which came accordingly to
be called the land of Assur (_Assyria_), were governed by high-priests
under the suzerainty of Babylonia. With the decay of the Babylonian
power the high-priests succeeded in making themselves independent kings,
and Assur became the capital of an important kingdom. It was already
surrounded by a wall of crude brick, which rested on stone foundations
and was strengthened at certain points by courses of burnt brick. A deep
moat was dug outside it by Tukulti-Inaristi or Tukulti-Masu (about 1270
B.C.), and it was further defended on the land side by a _salkhu_ or
outwork. In the 15th century B.C. it was considerably extended to the
south in order to include a "new town" which had grown up there. The
wall was pierced by "the gate of Assur," "the gate of the Sun-god," "the
gate of the Tigris," &c., and on the river side was a quay of burnt
brick and limestone cemented with bitumen. The temples were in the
northern part of the city, together with their lofty towers, one of
which has been excavated. Besides the temple of Assur there was another
great temple dedicated to Anu and Hadad, as well as the smaller
sanctuaries of Bel, Ishtar, Merodach and other deities. After the rise
of the kingdom, palaces were erected separate from the temples; the
sites of those of Hadad-nirari I., Shalmaneser I., and Assur-nazir-pal
have been discovered by the German excavators, and about a dozen more
are referred to in the inscriptions. Even after the rise of Nineveh as
the capital of the kingdom and the seat of the civil power, Assur
continued to be the religious centre of the country, where the king was
called on to reside when performing his priestly functions. The city
survived the fall of Assyria, and extensive buildings as well as tombs
of the Parthian age have been found upon the site.

See _Mitteilungen der deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft_ (1904-1906).
(A. H. S.)

ASSUR, ASUR, or ASHUR, the chief god of Assyria, was originally the
patron deity of the city of Assur on the Tigris, the ancient capital of
Assyria from which as a centre the authority of the _patesis_ (as the
rulers were at first called) spread in various directions. The history
of Assyria (q.v.) can now be traced back approximately to 2500 B.C.,
though it does not rise to political prominence until c. 2000 B.C. The
name of the god is identical with that of the city, though an older form
A-shir, signifying "leader," suggests that a differentiation between the
god and the city was at one time attempted. Though the origin of the
form Ashur (or Assur) is not certain, it is probable that the name of
the god is older than that of the city (see discussion on the name
above).

The title _Ashir_ was given to various gods in the south, as Marduk and
Nebo, and there is every reason to believe that it represents a direct
transfer with the intent to emphasize that Assur is the "leader" or head
of the pantheon of the north. He is in fact to all intents and purposes
of the north. Originally like Marduk a solar deity with the winged
disk--the disk always typifying the sun--as his symbol, he becomes as
Assyria develops into a military power a god of war, indicated by the
attachment of the figure of a man with a bow to the winged disk.[1]
While the cult of the other great gods and goddesses of Babylonia was
transferred to Assyria, the worship of Assur so overshadowed that of the
rest as to give the impression of a decided tendency towards the
absorption of all divine powers by the one god. Indeed, the other gods,
Sin, Shamash (Samas), Adad, Ninib and Nergal, and even Ea, take on the
warlike traits of Assur in the epithets and descriptions given of them
in the annals and votive inscriptions of Assyrian rulers to such an
extent as to make them appear like little Assurs by the side of the
great one. Marduk alone retains a large measure of his independence as a
concession on the part of the Assyrians to the traditions of the south,
for which they always manifested a profound respect. Even during the
period that the Assyrian monarchs exercised complete sway over the
south, they rested their claims to the control of Babylonia on the
approval of Marduk, and they or their representatives never failed to
perform the ceremony of "taking the hand" of Marduk, which was the
formal method of assuming the throne in Babylonia. Apart from this
concession, it is Assur who pre-eminently presides over the fortunes of
Assyria.[2] In his name, and with his approval as indicated by
favourable omens, the Assyrian armies march to battle. His symbol is
carried into the thick of the fray, so that the god is actually present
to grant assistance in the crisis, and the victory is with becoming
humility invariably ascribed by the kings "to the help of Assur." With
the fall of Assyria the rule of Assur also comes to an end, whereas it
is significant that the cult of the gods of Babylonia--more particularly
of Marduk--survives for several centuries the loss of political
independence through Cyrus' capture of Babylonia in 539 B.C. The name of
Assur's temple at Assur, represented by the mounds of Kaleh Sherghat,
was known as E-khar-sag-gal-kur-kurra, i.e. "House of the great mountain
of the lands." Its exact site has been determined by excavations
conducted at Kaleh Sherghat since 1903 by the German Oriental Society.
The name indicates the existence of the same conception regarding sacred
edifices in Assyria as in Babylonia, where we find such names as E-Kur
("mountain house") for the temple of Bel (q.v.) at Nippur, and E-Saggila
("lofty house") for Marduk's (q.v.) temple at Babylon and that of Ea
(q.v.) at Eridu, and in view of the general dependence of Assyrian
religious beliefs as of Assyrian culture in general, there is little
reason to doubt that the name of Assur's temple represents a direct
adaptation of such a name as E-Kur, further embellished by epithets
intended to emphasize the supreme control of the god to whom the edifice
was dedicated. The foundation of the edifice can be traced back to Uspia
(Ushpia), c. 2000 B.C., and may turn out to be even older. Besides the
chief temple, the capital contained temples and chapels to Anu, Adad,
Ishtar, Marduk, Gula, Sin, Shamash, so that we are to assume the
existence of a sacred precinct in Assur precisely as in the religious
centres of the south. On the removal of the seat of residence of the
Assyrian kings to Calah (c. 1300 B.C.), and then in the 8th century to
Nineveh, the centre of the Assur cult was likewise transferred, though
the sanctity of the old seat at Assur continued to be recognized. At
Nineveh, which remained the capital till the fall of the Assyrian empire
in 606 B.C., Assur had as his rival Ishtar, who was the real patron
deity of the place, but a reconciliation was brought about by making
Ishtar the consort of the chief god. The combination was, however, of an
artificial character, and the consciousness that Ishtar was in reality
an independent goddess never entirely died out. She too, like Assur, was
viewed as a war deity, and to such an extent was this the case that at
times it would appear that she, rather than Assur, presided over the
fortunes of the Assyrian armies. (M. Ja.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Prince, _Journ. Bibl. Lit._, xxii. 35.

[2] As essentially a _national_ god, he is almost identical in
character with the early Yahweh of Israel. See Sayce, Hibbert
Lectures, _Religion of Ancient Babylonia_, p. 129.

ASSUR-BANI-PAL ("Assur creates a son"), the _grand monarque_ of Assyria,
was the prototype of the Greek Sardanapalus, and appears probably in the
corrupted form of Asnapper in Ezra iv. 10. He had been publicly
nominated king of Assyria (on the 12th of Iyyar) by his father
Esar-haddon, some time before the latter's death, Babylonia being
assigned to his twin-brother Samas-sum-yukin, in the hope of gratifying
the national feeling of the Babylonians. After Esar-haddon's death in
668 B.C. the first task of Assur-bani-pal was to finish the Egyptian
campaign. Tirhakah, who had reoccupied Egypt, fled to Ethiopia, and the
Assyrian army spent forty days in ascending the Nile from Memphis to
Thebes. Shortly afterwards Necho, the satrap of Sais, and two others
were detected intriguing with Tirhakah; Necho and one of his companions
were sent in chains to Nineveh, but were there pardoned and restored to
their principalities. Tirhakah died 667 B.C., and his successor Tandaman
(Tanuat-Amon) entered Upper Egypt, where a general revolt against
Assyria took place, headed by Thebes. Memphis was taken by assault and
the Assyrian troops driven out of the country. Tyre seems to have
revolted at the same time. Assur-bani-pal, however, lost no time in
pouring fresh forces into the revolted province. Once more the Assyrian
army made its way up the Nile, Thebes was plundered, and its temples
destroyed, two obelisks being carried to Nineveh as trophies (see Nahum
iii. 8). Meanwhile the siege of insular Tyre was closely pressed; its
water-supply was cut off, and it was compelled to surrender.
Assur-bani-pal was now at the height of his power. The land of the Manna
(Minni), south-east of Ararat, had been wasted, its capital captured by
the Assyrians, and its king reduced to vassalage. A war with Teumman of
Elam had resulted in the overthrow of the Elamite army; the head of
Teumman was sent to Nineveh, and another king, Umman-igas, appointed by
the Assyrians. The kings of Cilicia and the Tabal offered their
daughters to the harem of Assur-bani-pal; embassies came from Ararat,
and even Gyges of Lydia despatched envoys to "the great king" in the
hope of obtaining help against the Cimmerians. Suddenly the mighty
empire began to totter. The Lydian king, finding that Nineveh was
helpless to assist him, turned instead to Egypt and furnished the
mercenaries with whose help Psammetichus drove the Assyrians out of the
country and suppressed his brother satraps. Egypt was thus lost to
Assyria for ever (660 B.C.). In Babylonia, moreover, discontent was
arising, and finally Samas-sum-yukin put himself at the head of the
national party and declared war upon his brother. Elamite aid was
readily forthcoming, especially when stimulated by bribes, and the Arab
tribes joined in the revolt. The resources of the Assyrian empire were
strained to their utmost. But thanks in some measure to the intestine
troubles in Elam, the Babylonian army and its allies were defeated and
driven into Babylon, Sippara, Borsippa and Cutha. One by one the cities
fell, Babylon being finally starved into surrender (648 B.C.) after
Samas-sum-yukin had burnt himself in his palace to avoid falling into
the conqueror's hands. It was now the turn of the Arabs, some of whom
had been in Babylon during the siege, while others had occupied
themselves in plundering Edom, Moab and the Hauran. Northern Arabia was
traversed by the Assyrian forces, the Nabataeans were almost
exterminated, and the desert tribes terrorized into order. Elam was
alone left to be dealt with, and the last resources of the empire were
therefore expended in preventing it from ever being again a thorn in the
Assyrian side.

But the effort had exhausted Assyria. Drained of men and resources it
was no longer able to make head against the Cimmerian and Scythian
hordes who now poured over western Asia. The Cimmerian Dugdamme
(Lygdamis in Strabo i. 3, 16), whom Assur-bani-pal calls "a limb of
Satan," after sacking Sardis, had been slain in Cilicia, but other
Scythian invaders came to take his place. When Assur-bani-pal died in
626 (?) B.C. his empire was already in decay, and within a few years the
end came. He was luxurious and indolent, entrusting the command of his
armies to others whose successes he appropriated, cruel and
superstitious, but a magnificent patron of art and literature. The great
library of Nineveh was to a considerable extent his creation, and
scribes were kept constantly employed in it copying the older tablets of
Babylonia, though unfortunately their patron's tastes inclined rather to
omens and astrology than to subjects of more modern interest. The
library was contained in the palace that he built on the northern side
of the mound of Kuyunjik and lined with sculptured slabs which display
Assyrian art at its best. Whether Kandalanu (Kinela-danos), who became
viceroy of Babylonia after the suppression of the revolt, was
Assur-bani-pal under another name, or a different personage, is still
doubtful (see SARDANAPALUS).

AUTHORITIES.--George Smith, _History of Assurbanipal_ (1871); S.A.
Smith, _Die Keilschrifttexte Asurbanipals_ (1887-1889); P. Jensen in
E. Schrader's _Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek_, ii. (1889); J.A.
Knudtzon, _Assyrische Gebete an den Sonnengott_ (1893); C. Lehmann,
_Schamashschumukin_ (1892). (A. H. S.)

ASSUS [mod. _Behram_], an ancient Greek city of the Troad, on the
Adramyttian Gulf. The situation is one of the most magnificent in all
the Greek lands. The natural cleavage of the trachyte into joint planes
had already scarped out shelves which it was comparatively easy for
human labour to shape; and so, high up this cone of trachyte, the Greek
town of Assus was built, tier above tier, the summit of the crag being
crowned with a Doric temple of Athena. The view from the summit is very
beautiful and of great historical interest. In front is Lesbos, one of
whose towns, Methymna, is said to have sent forth the founders of Assus,
as early, perhaps, as 1000 or 900 B.C. The whole south coast-line of the
Troad is seen, and in the south-east the ancient territory of Pergamum,
from whose masters the possession of Assus passed to Rome by the bequest
of Attalus III. (133 B.C.). The great heights of Ida rise in the east.
Northward the Tuzla is seen winding through a rich valley. This valley
was traversed by the road which St Paul must have followed when he came
overland from Alexandria Troas to Assus, leaving his fellow-travellers
to proceed by sea. The north-west gateway, to which this road led, is
still flanked by two massive towers, of Hellenic work. On the shore
below, the ancient mole can still be traced by large blocks under the
clear water. Assus affords the only harbour on the 50 m. of coast
between Cape Lectum and the east end of the Adramyttian Gulf; hence it
must always have been the chief shipping-place for the exports of the
southern Troad. The great natural strength of the site protected it
against petty assailants; but, like other towns in that region, it has
known many masters--Lydians, Persians, the kings of Pergamum, Romans and
Ottoman Turks. From the Persian wars to about 350 B.C. Assus enjoyed at
least partial independence. It was about 348-345 B.C. that Aristotle
spent three years at Assus with Hermeas, an ex-slave who had succeeded
his former master Eubulus as despot of Assus and Atarneus. Aristotle has
left some verses from an invocation to Arete (Virtue), commemorating the
worth of Hermeas, who had been seized by Persian treachery and put to
death.

Under its Turkish name of Behram, Assus is still the commercial port of
the southern Troad, being the place to which loads of valonia are
conveyed by camels from all parts of the country. Explorations were
conducted at Assus in 1881-1883 by Mr J.T. Clarke for the Archaeological
Institute of America. The main object was to clear the Doric temple of
Athena, built about 470 B.C. This temple is remarkable for a sculptured
architrave which took the place of the ordinary frieze. The scenes are
partly mythological (labours of Heracles), partly purely heraldic.
Eighteen panels were transported to the Louvre in 1838; other fragments
rewarded the Americans, and a scientific ground-plan was drawn. The
well-preserved Hellenistic walls were also studied.

See J.T. Clarke, _Assos_, 2 vols., 1882 and 1898 (Papers of Arch.
Inst. of America, i. ii.); and authorities under TROAD. (D. G. H.)

ASSYRIA. The two great empires, Assyria and Babylon, which grew up on
the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, can be separated as little
historically as geographically. From the beginning their history is
closely intertwined; and the power of the one is a measure of the
weakness of the other. This interdependence of Assyrian and Babylonian
history was recognized by ancient writers, and has been confirmed by
modern discovery. But whereas Assyria takes the first place in the
classical accounts to the exclusion of Babylonia, the decipherment of
the inscriptions has proved that the converse was really the case, and
that, with the exception of some seven or eight centuries, Assyria might
be described as a province or dependency of Babylon. Not only was
Babylonia the mother country, as the tenth chapter of Genesis explicitly
states, but the religion and culture, the literature and the characters
in which it was contained, the arts and the sciences of the Assyrians
were derived from their southern neighbours. They were similar in race
and language. (See BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.)

AST, GEORG ANTON FRIEDRICH (1778-1841), German philosopher and
philologist, was born at Gotha. Educated there and at the university of
Jena, he became privat-docent at Jena in 1802. In 1805 he became
professor of classical literature in the university of Landshut, where
he remained till 1826, when it was transferred to Munich. There he lived
till his death on the 31st of October 1841. In recognition of his work
he was made an aulic councillor and a member of the Bavarian Academy of
Sciences. He is known principally for his work during the last
twenty-five years of his life on the dialogues of Plato. His _Platon's
Leben und Schriften_ (1816) was the first of those critical inquiries
into the life and works of Plato which originated in the _Introductions_
of Schleiermacher and the historical scepticism of Niebuhr and Wolf.
Distrusting tradition, he took a few of the finest dialogues as his
standard, and from internal evidence denounced as spurious not only
those which are generally admitted to be so (_Epinomis, Minos, Theages,
Arastae, Clitophon, Hipparchus, Eryxias, Letters and Definitions_), but
also the _Meno, Euthydemus, Charmides, Lysis, Laches, First and Second
Alcibiades, Hippias Major and Minor, Ion, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito_,
and even (against Aristotle's explicit assertion) _The Laws_. The
genuine dialogues he divides into three series:--(1) the earliest,
marked chiefly by the poetical and dramatic element, i.e. _Protagoras,
Phaedrus, Gorgias, Phaedo_; (2) the second, marked by dialectic
subtlety, i.e. _Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman, Parmenides, Cratylus_;
(3) the third group, combining both qualities harmoniously, i.e. the
_Philebus, Symposium, Republic, Timaeus, Critias_. The work was followed
by a complete edition of Plato's works (11 vols., 1819-1832) with a
Latin translation and commentary. His last work was the _Lexicon
Platonicum_ (3 vols., 1834-1839), which is both valuable and
comprehensive. In his works on aesthetics he combined the views of
Schelling with those of Winckelmann, Lessing, Kant, Herder, Schiller and
others. His histories of philosophy are marked more by critical
scholarship than by originality of thought, though they are interesting
as asserting the now familiar principle that the history of philosophy
is not the history of opinions, but of reason as a whole; he was among
the first to attempt to formulate a principle of the development of
thought. Beside his works on Plato, he wrote, on aesthetics, _System der
Kunstlehre_ (1805) and _Grundriss der Aesthetik_ (1807); on the history
of philosophy, _Grundlinien der Philosophie_ (1807, republished 1809,
but soon forgotten), _Grundriss einer Geschichte der Philosophie_ (1807
and 1825), and _Hauptmomente der Geschichte der Philosophie_ (1829); in
philology, _Grundlinien der Philologie_ (1808), and _Grundlinien der
Grammatik, Hermeneutik und Kritik_ (1808).

ASTARA, a port of Russian Transcaucasia, government of Baku, on the
Caspian, in 38° 27' N. lat. and 48° 53' E. long., on the river of the
same name, which forms the frontier between Persia and Russia. Russian
merchandize is landed there and forwarded to Azerbáiján and Tabriz via
Ardebil.

ASTARABAD, a province of Persia bounded N. by the Caspian Sea and
Russian Transcaspian, S. by the Elburz Mountains, W. by Mazandaran, and
E. by Khorasan. The country, mountainous in its southern portion,
possesses extensive forests, fertile valleys, producing rice, wheat and
other grains in abundance, and rich pasturages. The soil, even with
little culture, is exceedingly productive, owing to the abundance of
water which irrigates and fertilizes it. But while the province in many
parts presents a landscape of luxuriant beauty, it is a prey to the
ravages of disease, principally malarial fevers due to the extensive
swamps formed by waters stagnating in the forests, and to the frequent
incursions of the Goklan and Yomut Turkomans, who have their
camping-grounds in the northern part of the province, and until about
1890 plundered caravans sometimes at the very gates of Astarabad city,
and carried people off into slavery and bondage. The province has a
population of about 100,000 and pays a yearly revenue of about £30,000.
The inhabitants, notwithstanding the unhealthiness of their climate, are
a strong and athletic race, belying their yellow and sickly appearance.
The province has the following bulúk (administrative divisions):--(1)
Astarabad town; (2) Astarabad rustak (villages); (3) Sadan rustak; (4).
Anazan; (5) Katúl; (6) Findarisk, with Kuhsar and Nodeh; (7) Shahkuh
Sávar.

ASTARABAD, the capital of the province, is situated on the Astar, a
small tributary of the Kara Su (Black river), which flows into the
Caspian Sea 20 m. W. of the city, and about 18 m. S. of the Gurgan
river, in 36° 51' N. lat. and 54° 26' E. long. It is surrounded by a mud
wall about 30 ft. in height and about 3½ m. in circuit, but much of the
enclosed space is occupied by gardens, mounds of refuse, and ruins. At
one time of greater size, it was reduced by Nadir Shah within its
present limits. Astarabad owes its origin to Yazid ibn Mohallab, who
occupied the province early in the 8th century for Suleiman, the seventh
of the Omayyad caliphs (715-717), and was destroyed by Timur (Tamerlane)
in 1384. Jonas Hanway, the philanthropist (d. 1786), visited the place
in 1744, and attempted to open a direct trade through it between Europe
and central Asia. Owing to the noxious exhalations of the surrounding
forests the town is so extremely unhealthy during the hot weather as to
have acquired the title of the "Abode of the Plague." It has post and
telegraph offices, and a population of about 10,000. Since 1890 the
Turkomans who impeded trade by their perpetual raids have been kept more
in check, and with the decrease of insecurity the commercial activity of
Astarabad has increased considerably.

ASTARTE, a Semitic goddess whose name appears in the Bible as
Ashtoreth.[1] She is everywhere the great female principle, answering to
the Baal of the Canaanites and Phoenicians[2] and to the Dagon of the
Philistines. She had temples at Sidon and at Tyre (whence her worship
was transplanted to Carthage), and the Philistines probably venerated
her at Ascalon (1 Sam. xxxi. 10). Solomon built a high-place for her at
Jerusalem which lasted until the days of King Josiah (1 Kings xi. 5; 2
Kings xxiii. 13), and the extent of her cult among the Israelites is
proved as much by the numerous biblical references as by the frequent
representations of the deity turned up on Palestinian soil.[3] The
Moabites formed a compound deity, Ashtar-Chemosh (see MOAB), and the
absence of the feminine termination occurs similarly in the Babylonian
and Assyrian prototype Ishtar. The old South Arabian phonetic equivalent
'Athtar is, however, a male deity. Another compound, properly of mixed
sex, appears in the Aramaean Atargatis ('At[t]ar-'athe), worn down to
Derketo, who is specifically associated with sacred pools and fish
(Ascalon, Hierapolis-Mabog). (See ATARGATIS.)

The derivation of the name Ishtar is uncertain, and the original
attributes of the goddess are consequently unknown. She assumes various
local forms in the old Semitic world, and this has led to consequent
fusion and identification with the deities of other nations. As the
great nature-goddess, the attributes of fertility and reproduction are
characteristically hers, as also the accompanying immorality which
originally, perhaps, was often nothing more than primitive magic. As
patroness of the hunt, later identification with Artemis was inevitable.
Hence the consequent fusion with Aphrodite, Artemis, Diana, Juno and
Venus, and the action and reaction of one upon the other in myth and
legend. Her star was the planet Venus, and classical writers give her
the epithet Caelestis and Urania. Whether Astarte was also a lunar
goddess has been questioned. As the female counterpart of the Phoenician
Baal (viewed as a sun-god), and on the testimony of late writers
(Lucian, Herodian) that she was represented with horns, the place-name
Ashteroth-Karnaim in Gilead ("Ashteroth of the horns") has been
considered ample proof in favour of the theory. But it is probable that
the horns were primarily ram's horns,[4] and that Astarte the
moon-goddess is due to the influence of the Egyptian Isis and Hathor.
Robertson Smith, too, argues that Astarte was originally a
sheep-goddess, and points to the interesting use of "Astartes of the
flocks" (Deut. vii. 13, see the comm.) to denote the offspring. To
nomads, Astarte may well have been a sheep-goddess, but this, if her
earliest, was not her only type, as is clear from the sacred fish of
Atargatis, the doves of Ascalon (and of the Phoenician sanctuary of
Eryx), and the gazelle or antelope of the goddess of love (associated
also with the Arabian Athtar).

The literature is vast; see G.A. Barton, _Amer. Journ. of Sem. Lang._
vols. ix. x., and his _Semitic Origins_; Driver, Hastings' _Dict.
Bible_, i. pp. 167-171; Zimmern, _Keilinschr. und das alte Test.³_
pp. 420 sqq.; Lagrange, _Études d. Relig. Sem._ pp. 123-140; and the
articles ADONIS, APHRODITE, ARTEMIS, BAAL. (S. A. C.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The vocalization suggests the Heb. bosheth, "shame"; see BAAL.

[2] Add also the Hittites; for Sutekh, the Egyptian equivalent of the
male partner, see W.M. Müller, _Mitt. d. vorderasiat. Gesell._
(1902), v. pp. 11, 38. Astarte was introduced also into Egypt and had
her temple at Memphis. See also S.A. Cook, _Religion of Ancient
Palestine, Index_, s.v.

[3] Such figurines are in a sense the prototypes of the Venus of
Medici. On the influence of her cult upon that of the Virgin Mary,
see Rösch, _Studien u. Krit._ (1888), pp. 265 sqq.

[4] A model of an Astarte with ram's horns was unearthed by R.A.S.
Macalister at Gezer (_Pal. Explor. Fund, Quart. Statement_, 1903, p.
227 with figure facing).

ASTELL, MARY (1668-1731), English author, was born at
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She was instructed by her uncle, a clergyman, in
Latin and French, logic, mathematics and natural philosophy. In her
twentieth year she went to London, where she continued her studies. She
published, in 1697, a work entitled _A Serious Proposal to the Ladies,
wherein a Method is offered for the Improvement of their Minds_. With
the same end in view she elaborated a scheme for a ladies' college,
which was favourably entertained by Queen Anne, and would have been
carried out had not Bishop Burnet interfered. The most important of her
other works was _The Christian Religion, as professed by a Daughter of
the Church of England_, published in 1705.

ASTER (Gr. [Greek: astaer], a star), the name of a genus of plants,
given from the fact of the flowers having a radiated or star-like
appearance (see below). The Greek word also provides many derivatives:
e.g. _asterism_ (Gr. [Greek: asterismos]), a constellation (q.v.);
_asteroid_ (Gr. [Greek: astero-eidaes], star-like), an alternative name
for planetoids or minor planets (see PLANET).

The genus of composite plants named aster (natural order _Compositae_)
is found largely in North America, and scattered sparingly over Asia,
Europe and South America. They are usually herbaceous perennials; their
flowers arranged in numerous heads (_capitula_) recall those of the
daisy, whence they are popularly known in England as Michaelmas daisies,
since many are in bloom about that time. They are valuable plants in a
garden, the various species flowering from late summer right on to
November or December. The only British species is _Aster Tripolium_,
found abundantly in saline marshes near the sea. One of the species,
_Aster alpinus_, grows at a considerable height on the mountains of
Europe. Some of them, such as _Aster spectabilis_ of North America, are
very showy. They are mostly easy to cultivate in ordinary garden soil,
and are readily propagated by dividing the roots in early spring. The
following are some of the better known forms:--_A. alpinus_, barely 1
ft. high, and _A. Amellus_, 1½ ft., with its var. _bessarabicus_, have
broadish blunt leaves and large starry bluish flowers; _A. longifolius_
var. _formosus_, 2 ft., bright rosy lilac; _A. acris_, 2 to 3 ft., with
blue flowers in August; _A. ericoides_, 3 ft., with heath-like leaves
and masses of small white flowers; _A. puniceus_, 4 to 6 ft., blue or
rosy-lilac; _A. turbinellus_, 2 to 3 ft., mauve-coloured, are showy
border plants; and _A. Novae-Angliae_, 5 to 6 ft., rosy-violet; _A.
Novi-Belgii_, 3 to 6 ft., pale blue; _A. laevis_, 2 to 6 ft.,
blue-lilac; and _A. grandiflorus_, 3 ft., violet, are especially useful
from their late-flowering habit.

The China aster (_Callistephus chinensis_) is also a member of the order
_Compositae_. It is a hardy annual, a native of China, which by
cultivation has yielded a great variety of forms. Some of the best for
ornamental gardening are the chrysanthemum-flowered, the
paeony-flowered, the crown or cockade, the comet, and the globe-quilled.
Crown asters have a white centre, and dark crimson or purple
circumference, and are very beautiful. The colours range from white and
blush through pink and rose to crimson, and from lilac through blue to
purple, in various shades. They should be sown early in March in pans,
in a gentle heat, the young plants being quickly transferred to a cool
pit, and there pricked out in rich soil as soon as large enough, and
eventually planted out in the garden in May or June, in soil which has
been well worked and copiously manured, where they grow from 8 to 18
in. high, and flower towards the end of summer. They also make handsome
pot plants for the conservatory.

ASTERIA, or STAR-STONE (from Gr. [Greek: astaer], star), a name applied
to such ornamental stones as exhibit when cut _en cabochon_ a luminous
star. The typical asteria is the star-sapphire, generally a bluish-grey
corundum, milky or opalescent, with a star of six rays. (See SAPPHIRE.)
In red corundum the stellate reflexion is less common, and hence the
star-ruby occasionally found with the star-sapphire in Ceylon is among
the most valued of "fancy stones." When the radiation is shown by yellow
corundum, the stone is called star-topaz. Cymophane, or chatoyant
chrysoberyl, may also be asteriated. In all these cases the asterism is
due to the reflexion of light from twin-lamellae or from fine tubular
cavities or thin enclosures definitely arranged in the stone. The
_astrion_ of Pliny is believed to have been our moonstone, since it is
described as a colourless stone from India having within it the
appearance of a star shining with the light of the moon. All star-stones
were formerly regarded with much superstition.

ASTERID, a group of starfish. They are the starfish proper, and have the
typical genus _Asterias_ (see STARFISH).

ASTERISK (from Gr. [Greek: asteriskos], a little star), the sign * used
in typography. The word is also used in its literal meaning in old
writers, and as a description of an ornamental form (star-shaped) in one
of the utensils in the Greek Church.

ASTERIUS, of Cappadocia, sophist and teacher of rhetoric in Galatia, was
converted to Christianity about the year 300, and became the disciple of
Lucian, the founder of the school of Antioch. During the persecution
under Maximian (304) he relapsed into paganism, and thus, though
received again into the church by Lucian and supported by the Eusebian
party, never attained to ecclesiastical office. He is best known as an
able defender of the semi-Arian position, and was styled by Athanasius
the "advocate" of the Arians. His chief work was the _Syntagmation_, but
he wrote many others, including commentaries on the Gospels, the Psalms,
and Romans. He attended many synods, and we last hear of him at the
synod of Antioch in 341.

ASTERIUS, bishop of Amasia, in Pontus, c. 400. He was partly
contemporary with the emperor Julian (d. 363) and lived to a great age.
His fame rests chiefly on his _Homilies_, which were much esteemed in
the Eastern Church. Most of these have been lost, but twenty-one are
given in full by Migne (_Patrol. Ser. Gr._ xl. 164-477), and there are
fragments of others in Photius (_Cod._ 271). Asterius was a man of much
culture, and his works are a valuable contribution to our knowledge of
the history of preaching.

ASTHMA (Gr. [Greek: asthma], gasping, whence [Greek: asthmaino], I gasp
for breath), a disorder of respiration characterized by severe paroxysms
of difficult breathing (_dyspnoea_) usually followed by a period of
complete relief, with recurrence of the attacks at more or less frequent
intervals. The term is often loosely employed in reference to states of
embarrassed respiration, which are plainly due to permanent organic
disease of the respiratory organs (see RESPIRATORY SYSTEM: _Pathology_).

The attacks occur quite suddenly, and in some patients at regular, in
others at irregular intervals. They are characterized by extreme
difficulty both in inspiration and expiration, but especially in the
latter, the chest becoming distended and the diaphragm immobile. In the
case of "pure," "idiopathic" or "nervous" asthma, there is no fever or
other sign of inflammation. But where the asthma is secondary to disease
of some organ of the body, the symptoms will depend largely on that
organ and the disease present. Such secondary forms may be bronchitic,
cardiac, renal, peptic or thymic.

The mode of onset differs very markedly in different cases. In some the
attack begins quite suddenly and without warning, but in others various
sensations well known to the patient announce that an attack is
imminent. According to the late Dr Hyde Salter the commonest warning is
that of an intense desire for sleep, so overpowering that though the
patient knows his only chance of warding off the attack is to keep
awake, he is yet utterly unable to fight against his drowsiness. Among
other patients, however, a condition of unwonted mental excitement
presages the attack. Again the secondary forms of the disease may be
ushered in by flatulence, constipation and loss of appetite, and a
symptom which often attends the onset, though it is not strictly
premonitory, is a profuse diuresis, the urine being watery and nearly
colourless, as in the condition of hysterical diuresis. In the majority
of instances the attack begins during the night, sometimes abruptly but
often by degrees. The patient may or may not be aware that his asthma is
threatening. A few hours after midnight he is aroused from sleep by a
sense of difficult breathing. In some cases this is a slowly increasing
condition, not becoming acute for some hour or more. But in others the
attack is so sudden, so severe, that the patient springs from his bed
and makes his way at once to an open window, apparently struggling for
breath. Most asthmatics have some favourite attitude which best enables
them to use all the auxiliary muscles of respiration in their struggle
for breath, and this attitude they immediately assume, and guard fixedly
until the attack begins to subside. The picture is characteristic and a
very painful one to watch. The face is pale, anxious, and it may be
livid. The veins of the forehead stand out, the eyes bulge, and
perspiration bedews the face. The head is fixed in position, and
likewise the powerful muscles of the back to aid the attempt at
respiration. The breath is whistling and wheezing, and if it becomes
necessary for the patient to speak, the words are uttered with great
difficulty. If the chest be watched it is seen to be almost motionless,
and the respirations may become extraordinarily slowed. Inspiration is
difficult as the chest is already over-distended, but expiration is an
even far greater struggle. The attack may last any time from an hour to
several days, and between the attacks the patient is usually quite at
ease. But notwithstanding the intensely distressing character of the
attacks, asthma is not one of the diseases that shorten life.

In the child, asthma is usually periodic in its recurrence, but as he
ages it tends to become more erratic in both its manifestations and time
of appearance. Also, though at first it may be strictly "pure" asthma,
later in life it becomes attended by chronic bronchitis, which in its
turn gives rise to emphysema.

As to the underlying cause of the disease, one has only to read the many
utterly different theories put forward to account for it, to see how
little is really known. But it has now been clearly shown that in the
asthmatic state the respiratory centre is in an unstable and excitable
condition, and that there is a morbid connexion between this and some
part of the nasal apparatus. Dr Alexander Francis has shown, however,
that the disease is not directly due to any mechanical obstruction of
the nasal passages, and that the nose comparatively rarely supplies the
immediate exciting cause of the asthmatic attack. Paroxysmal sneezing is
another form in which asthma may show itself, and, curiously enough,
this form occurs more frequently in women, asthma of the more recognized
type in men. In infants and young children paroxysmal bronchitis is
another form of the same disease. Dr James Goodhart notes the connexion
between asthma and certain skin troubles, giving cases of the
alternation of asthma and psoriasis, and also of asthma and eczema. The
disease occurs in families with a well-marked neurotic inheritance, and
twice as frequently in men as in women. The immediate cause of an attack
may be anything or nothing. Dr Hyde Salter notes that 80% of cases in
the young date from an attack of whooping cough, bronchitis or measles.

In the general treatment of asthma there are two methods of dealing with
the patient, either that of hardening the individual, widening his range
of accommodation, and thus making him less susceptible, or that of
modifying and adapting the environment to the patient. These two methods
correspond to the two methods of drug treatment, tonic or sedative.
During the last few years the method of treatment first used by Dr
Alexander Francis has come into prominence. His plan is to restore the
stability of the respiratory centre, by cauterizing the septal mucous
membrane, and combining with this general hygienic measures. In his own
words the operation, which is entirely painless and insignificant, is
performed as follows:--"After painting one side of the septum nasi with
a few drops of cocaine and resorcin, I draw a line with a
galvano-cautery point from a spot opposite the middle turbinated body,
forwards and slightly downwards for a distance of rather less than half
an inch. In about one week's time I repeat the operation on the other
side." In his monograph on the subject, he classifies a large number of
cases treated in this manner, most of which resulted in complete relief,
some in very great improvement, and a very few in slight or no relief.

ASTI (anc. _Hasta_), a town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, in the
province of Alessandria, situated on the Tanaro; it is 22 m. W. by rail
from Alessandria. Pop. (1901) town, 19,787; commune, 41,047. Asti has
still numerous medieval towers, a fine Gothic cathedral of the 14th
century, the remains of a Christian basilica of the 6th century, and the
octagonal baptistery of S. Pietro (11th century). It was the birthplace
of the poet Vittorio Alfieri. In ancient times it manufactured pottery.
It is now famous for its sparkling wine (_Asti spumante_), and is a
considerable centre of trade.

ASTLEY, JACOB ASTLEY, BARON (1570-1652), royalist commander in the
English Civil War, came of a Norfolk family. In 1598 he joined Counts
Maurice and Henry of Orange in the Netherlands, where he served with
distinction, and afterwards fought under the elector palatine Frederick
V. and Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years' War. He was evidently
thought highly of by the states-general, for when he was absent, serving
under the king of Denmark, his company in the Dutch army was kept open
for him. Returning to England with a well-deserved reputation, he was in
the employment of Charles I. in various military capacities. As
"sergeant-major," or general of the infantry, he went north in 1639 to
organize the defence against the expected Scottish invasion. Here his
duties were as much diplomatic as military, as the discontent which
ended in the Civil War was now coming to a head. In the ill-starred
"Bishops' War," Astley did good service to the cause of the king, and he
was involved in the so-called "Army Plot." At the outbreak of the Great
Rebellion (1642) he at once joined Charles, and was made major-general
of the foot. His characteristic battle-prayer at Edgebill has become
famous: "O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget
Thee, do not forget me. March on, boys!" At Gloucester he commanded a
division, and at the first battle of Newbury he led the infantry of the
royal army. With Hopton, in 1644, he served at Arundel and Cheriton. At
the second battle of Newbury he made a gallant and memorable defence of
Shaw House. He was made a baron by the king, and at Naseby he once more
commanded the main body of the foot. He afterwards served in the west,
and with 1500 men fought stubbornly but vainly the last battle for the
king at Stow-on-the-Wold (March 1646). His remark to his captors has
become as famous as his words at Edgehill, "You have now done your work
and may go play, unless you will fall out amongst yourselves." His
scrupulous honour forbade him to take any part in the Second Civil War,
as he had given his parole at Stow-on-the-Wold; but he had to undergo
his share of the discomforts that were the lot of the vanquished
royalists. He died in February 1651/2. The barony became extinct in
1668.

ASTLEY, SIR JOHN DUGDALE, Bart. (1828-1894), English soldier and
sportsman, was a descendant of Lord Astley, and son of the 2nd baronet
(cr. 1821). From 1848 to 1859 he was in the army, serving in the Crimean
War and retiring as lieutenant-colonel. He married an heiress in 1858,
and thenceforth devoted himself to horse-racing, pugilism and sport in
general. He succeeded to the baronetcy in 1873, and from 1874 to 1880
was Conservative M.P. for North Lincolnshire. He was a popular figure on
the turf, being familiarly known as "the Mate," and won and lost large
sums of money. Just before his death, on the 10th of October 1894, he
published some entertaining reminiscences, under the title of _Fifty
Years of my Life_.

ASTON, ANTHONY (fl. 1712-1731), English actor and dramatist, began to be
known on the London stage in the early years of the 18th century. He had
tried the law and other professions, which he finally abandoned for the
theatre. He had some success as a dramatic author, writing _Love in a
Hurry_, performed in Dublin about 1709, and _Pastora, or the Coy
Shepherdess_, an opera (1712). For many years he toured the English
provinces with his wife and son, producing pieces which he himself
wrote, or medleys from various plays fitted together with songs and
dialogues of his own.

ASTON MANOR, a municipal and parliamentary borough of Warwickshire,
England, adjoining Birmingham on the north-east. Pop. (1901) 77,326.
There are extensive manufactures, including those of motors and cycles
with their accessories, also paper-mills, breweries, &c., and the
population is largely industrial. Aston Hall, erected by Sir Thomas
Holte in 1618-1635, is an admirable architectural example of its period,
built of red brick. It stands in a large park, the whole property being
acquired by the corporation of Birmingham in 1864, when the mansion
became a museum and art gallery. It contains the panelling of a room
from the house of Edmund Hector, which formerly stood in Old Square,
Birmingham, where Dr Samuel Johnson was a frequent visitor. Aston Lower
Grounds, adjoining the park, contain an assembly hall, and the playing
field of the Aston Villa Football Club, where the more important games
are witnessed by many thousands of spectators. Aston Manor was
incorporated in 1903. The parliamentary borough returns one member. The
corporation consists of a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area,
960 acres.

ASTOR, JOHN JACOB (1763-1848), American merchant, was born at the
village of Walldorf, near Heidelberg, Germany, on the 17th of July 1763.
Until he was sixteen he worked in the shop of his father, a butcher; he
then joined an elder brother in London, and there for four years was
employed in the piano and flute factory of an uncle, of the firm of
Astor & Broadwood. In 1783 he emigrated to America, and settled in New
York, whither one of his brothers had previously gone. On the voyage he
became acquainted with a fur-trader, by whose advice he devoted himself
to the same business, buying furs directly from the Indians, preparing
them at first with his own hands for the market, and selling them in
London and elsewhere at a great profit. He was also the agent in New
York of the firm of Astor & Broadwood. By his energy, industry and sound
judgment he gradually enlarged his operations, did business in all the
fur markets of the world, and amassed an enormous fortune,--the largest
up to that time made by any American. He devoted many years to carrying
out a project for organizing the fur trade from the Great Lakes to the
Pacific Ocean, and thence by way of the Hawaiian Islands to China and
India. In 1811 he founded at the mouth of the Columbia river a
settlement named after him Astoria, which was intended to serve as the
central depot; but two years later the settlement was seized and
occupied by the English. The incidents of this undertaking are the theme
of Washington Irving's _Astoria_. A series of disasters frustrated the
gigantic scheme. Astor made vast additions to his wealth by investments
in real estate in New York City, and erected many buildings there,
including the hotel known as the Astor House. The last twenty-five years
of his life were spent in retirement in New York City, where he died on
the 29th of March 1848, his fortune then being estimated at about
$30,000,000. He made various charitable bequests by his will, and among
them a gift of $50,000 to found an institution, opened as the "Astor
House" in 1854, for the education of poor children and the relief of the
aged and the destitute in his native village in Germany. His chief
benefaction, however, was a bequest of $400,000 for the foundation and
endowment of a public library in New York City, since known as the Astor
library, and since 1895 part of the New York public library.

See Parton's _Life of John Jacob Astor_ (New York, 1865).

His eldest son, WILLIAM BACKHOUSE ASTOR (1792-1875), inherited the
greater part of his father's fortune, and chiefly by judicious
investments in real estate greatly increased it. He was sometimes known
as the "Landlord of New York." Under his direction the building for the
Astor library was erected, and to the library he gave about $550,000,
including a bequest of $200,000. His son, JOHN JACOB ASTOR (1822-1890),
was also well known as a capitalist and philanthropist, giving liberally
to the Astor library.

The son of the last named, WILLIAM WALDORF ASTOR (1848- ), served in
the New York assembly in 1877, and in the state senate in 1880-81. He
was United States minister to Italy from 1882 to 1885. He published two
romances, _Valentine_ (1885) and _Sforza_ (1889). His wealth, arising
from property in New York, where also he built the New Netherland hotel
and the Waldorf hotel, was enormous. In 1890 he removed to England, and
in 1899 was naturalized. In 1893 he became proprietor of the _Pall Mall
Gazette_, and afterwards started the _Pall Mall Magazine_.

ASTORGA, EMANUELE D' (1681-1736), Italian musical composer, was born at
Naples on the 11th of December 1681. No authentic account of Astorga's
life can be successfully constructed from the obscure and confusing
evidence that has been until now handed down, although historians have
not failed to indulge many pleasant conjectures. According to some of
these, his father, a baron of Sicily, took an active part in the attempt
to throw off the Spanish yoke, but was betrayed by his own soldiers and
publicly executed. His wife and son were compelled to be spectators of
his fate; and such was the effect upon them that his mother died on the
spot, and Emanuele fell into a state of gloomy despondency, which
threatened to deprive him of reason. By the kindness of the princess
Ursini, the unfortunate young man was placed in a convent at Astorga, in
Leon, where he completed a musical education which is said to have been
begun in Palermo under Francesco Scarlatti. Here he recovered his
health, and his admirable musical talents were cultivated under the best
masters. On the details of this account no reliance can safely be
placed, nor is there any certainty that in 1703 he entered the service
of the duke of Parma. Equally untrustworthy is the story that the duke,
suspecting an attachment between hi? niece Elizabeth Farnese and
Astorga, dismissed the musician. The established facts concerning
Astorga are indeed few enough. They are: that the opera _Dafne_ was
written and conducted by the composer in Barcelona in 1709; that he
visited London, where he wrote his _Stabat Mater_, possibly for the
society of "Antient Musick"; that it was performed in Oxford in 1713;
that in 1712 he was in Vienna, and that he retired at an uncertain date
to Bohemia, where he died on the 21st of August 1736, in a castle which
had been given to him in the domains of Prince Lobkowitz, in Raudnitz.
Astorga deserves remembrance for his dignified and pathetic _Stabat
Mater_, and for his numerous chamber-cantatas for one or two voices. He
was probably the last composer to carry on the traditions of this form
of chamber-music as perfected by Alessandro Scarlatti.

ASTORGA, a city of N.W. Spain, in the province of Leon; situated near
the right bank of the river Tuerto, and at the junction of the
Salamanca-Corunna and Leon-Astorga railways. Pop. (1900) 5573. Astorga
was the Roman Asturica Augusta, a provincial capital, and the
meeting-place of four military roads. Though sacked by the Goths in the
5th century, and later by the Moors, it is still surrounded by massive
walls of Roman origin. A ruined castle, near the city, recalls its
strategic importance in the 8th century, when Asturias, Galicia and Leon
were the headquarters of resistance to the Moors. Astorga has been the
see of a bishop since the 3rd century, and was formerly known as the
City of Priests, from the number of ecclesiastics resident within its
walls. Its Gothic cathedral dates from the 15th century. The city
confers the title of marquis on the Osorio family, the ruins of whose
palace, sacked in 1810 by the French, are still an object of interest.

For the history, especially the ecclesiastical history, of Astorga,
see the anonymous _Historia de la ciudad de Astorga_ (Valladolid,
1840); with _Fundación de la ... iglesia ... de Astorga_, by P.A.
Ezpeleta (Madrid, 1634); and _Fundación, nombre y armas de ...
Astorga_, by P. Junco (Pamplona, 1635).

ASTORIA, a city, port of entry, and the county-seat of Clatsop county,
Oregon, U.S.A., on the Columbia river, 8 m. from its mouth. Pop. (1890)
6184; (1900) 8381, of whom 3779 were foreign-born (many being Finns,--a
Finnish weekly was established here in 1905), and 601 were Chinese;
(1910, census) 9599. It is served by the Astoria & Columbia River
railroad (Northern Pacific System), and by several coastwise and foreign
steamship lines (including that of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Co.).
The river here is about 6 m. wide, and the city has a water-front of
about 5 m. and a deep, spacious and placid harbour. By dredging and the
construction of jetties the Federal government has since 1885 greatly
improved the channel at the mouth of the river. The business portion of
the city occupies the low ground of the river bottom; the residence
portion is on the hillsides overlooking the harbour. Astoria is the port
of entry for the Oregon Customs District, Oregon; in 1907 its imports
were valued at $21,262, and its exports at $329,103. The city is
especially important as a salmon fishing and packing centre (cod,
halibut and smaller fish also being abundant); it has also an extensive
lumber trade, important lumber manufactories, pressed brick and
terra-cotta factories, and dairy interests. In 1905 the value of the
factory product was $3,092,628 (of which $1,759,871 was the value of
preserved and canned fish), being an increase of 41.8% in five years.
Astoria is the oldest American settlement in the Columbia Valley. It was
founded in 1811, as a depot for the fur trade, by John Jacob Astor, in
whose honour it was named. It was seized by the British in 1813, but was
restored in 1818. In 1821, while occupied by the North-West Fur Company,
it was burned and practically abandoned, only a few settlers remaining.
It was chartered as a city in 1876.

See Washington Irving's _Astoria; or Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond
the Rocky Mountains_ (Philadelphia, 1836).

ASTRAEA, in Greek legend, the "star maiden," daughter of Zeus and
Themis, or of Astraeus the Titan and Eos, in which case she is
identified with Dike. During the golden age she remained among men
distributing blessings, but when the iron (or bronze) age came on, she
was forced to withdraw, being the last of the goddesses to quit the
earth. In the heavens she is amongst the signs of the zodiac as the
constellation Virgo. She is usually represented with a pair of scales
and a crown of stars.

Ov. _Met._ i. 150; Juv. vi. 19; Aratus, _Phaenomena_, 96.

ASTRAGAL (from the Gr. [Greek: astragalos], the ankle-joint), an
architectural term for a convex moulding. This term is generally applied
to small mouldings, "torus" (q.v.) to large ones of the same form. The
Lesbian astragal referred to by Vitruvius, bk. iv. ch. vi., was in all
probability an astragal carved with a bead and reel enrichment.

ASTRAKHAN, a government of S.E. Russia, on the lower Volga, bounded N.
by the governments of Samara and Saratov, W. by Saratov and the
government of the Don Cossacks, S. by Stavropol and Terek, and E. by the
Caspian Sea and the government of the Urals. Area, 91,327 sq. m., of
which 6730 sq. m. belong to the delta of the Volga and its brackish
lagoons, and 62,290 sq. m. are covered by the Kalmuck and Kirghiz
Steppes. The surface is a low-lying plain, except that in the west the
Ergeni Hills (500-575 ft.) form the water-parting between the Volga
basin and that of the Don. The climate is very hot and dry, the average
temperature for the year being 50° Fahr., for January 21°, and for July
78°, rainfall 7.3 in., but often there is no rain at all in the summer.
Pop. (1897) 1,005,460, of whom 132,383 were urban. The Kalmucks (138,580
in 1897) and Kirghiz (260,000) are semi-nomads. In addition to them the
population includes nearly 44,000 Tatars, 4270 Armenians, with Poles and
Jews. Fishing off the mouth of the Volga gives occupation to 50,000
persons; the fish, chiefly herrings and sturgeon, together with the
caviare prepared from the latter, are sold for the most part at
Nizhniy-Novgorod. Over 300,000 tons of salt are extracted annually from
the lakes, principally those of Baskunchak and Elton. Cattle-breeding is
an important industry. Market-gardening (mustard, water-melons, fruit)
is on the increase; but pure agriculture is relatively not much
developed. The government is divided into five districts, the chief
towns of which are Astrakhan, Enotayevsk (pop. 2810 in 1897),
Krasnyi-yar (4680), Chernyi-yar (5140), and Tsarev (8900). The
Kalmucks and Kirghiz have their own local administrations, and so have
the Astrakhan Cossacks (25,600).

ASTRAKHAN, a town of E. Russia, capital of the government of Astrakhan,
on the left bank of the main channel of the Volga, 50 m. from the
Caspian Sea, in 46° 21' N. lat. and 48° 5' E. long. Since the growth of
the petroleum industry of Baku and the construction of the Transcaspian
railway, Astrakhan has become an important commercial centre, exporting
fish, caviare, sugar, metals, naphtha, cottons and woollens, and
importing grain, cotton, fruit and timber, to the aggregate value of
£8,250,000 with foreign countries and of £14,500,000 with the interior
of Russia. The town gives its name to the "fur" called "astrakhan," the
skin of the new-born Persian lamb, and so to an imitation in rough
woollen cloth. There is some tanning, shipbuilding and brewing, and
making of soap, tar and machinery. Astrakhan is the chief port on the
Caspian Sea and the headquarters of the Russian Caspian fleet. The city
consists of (1) the _kreml_ or citadel (1550), crowning a hill, on which
stand also the spacious brick cathedral containing the tombs of two
Georgian princes, the archbishop's palace and the monastery of the
Trinity; (2) the Byelogorod or White Town, containing the administrative
offices and the bazaars; and (3) the suburbs, where most of the
population resides. The buildings in the first two quarters are of
stone, in the third of wood, irregularly arranged along unpaved, dirty
streets. The city is the see of a Greek Catholic archbishop and of an
Armenian archbishop, and contains a Lamaist monastery, as well as
technical schools, an ichthyological museum, the Peter museum, with
ethnographical, archaeological and natural history collections, a
botanical garden, an ecclesiastical seminary, and good squares and
public gardens, one of which is adorned with a statue (1884) of
Alexander II. Vineyards surround the city. Astrakhan was anciently the
capital of a Tatar state, and stood some 7 m. farther north. After this
was destroyed by the Mongol prince Timur the Great in 1395, the existing
city was built. The Tatars were expelled about 1554 by Ivan IV. of
Russia. In 1569 the city was besieged by the Turks, but they were
defeated with great slaughter by the Russians. In 1670 it was seized by
the rebel Stenka Razin; early in the following century Peter the Great
constructed here a shipbuilding yard and made Astrakhan the base for his
hostilities against Persia, and later in the same century Catherine II.
accorded the city important industrial privileges. In 1702, 1718 and
1767, it suffered severely from fires; in 1719 was plundered by the
Persians; and in 1830 the cholera swept away a large number of its
people. In the middle ages the city was known also as Jitarkhan and
Ginterkhan. Pop. (1867) 47,839; (1900) 121,580. Eight miles above
Astrakhan, on the right bank of the Volga, are the ruins of two ancient
cities superimposed one upon the other. In the upper, which may
represent the city of Balanjar (Balansar, Belenjer), have been found
gold and silver coins struck by Mongol rulers, as well as ornaments in
the same metals. The older and scantier underlying ruins are supposed to
be those of the once large and prosperous city of Itil or Atel (Etel,
Idl) of the Arab geographers, a residence of the khan of the Khazars,
destroyed by the Russians in 969. (P. A. K.)

ASTROLABE (from Gr. [Greek: astron], star, and [Greek: labein], to
take), an instrument used not only for stellar, but for solar and lunar
altitude-taking. The principle of the astrolabe is explained in fig. 2.
There were two kinds,--spherical and planispheric. The earliest forms
were "armillae" and spherical. Gradually, from Eratosthenes to Tycho,
Hipparchus playing the most important part among ancient astronomers,
the complex astrolabe was evolved, large specimens being among the chief
observatory instruments of the 15th, 16th and even 17th centuries; while
small ones were in use among travellers and learned men, not only for
astronomical, but for astrological and topographical purposes. Nearly
every one of the modern instruments used for the observations of
physical astronomy is a part of the perfected astrolabe. A collection of
circles such as is the armillary sphere, if each circle were fitted with
a view-tube, might be considered a complete astrolabe. Tycho's armillae
were astrolabes. In fact the modern equatorial, and the altitude and
azimuth circle are astrolabes in the strictest and oldest meaning of the
term; and Tycho in one of his astrolabes came so near the modern
equatorial that it may be taken as the first of the kind.

[Illustration: PLATE.

FIG. 1.--PERSIAN ASTROLABE (c. 1712) INSCRIBED IN ARABIC.

FRONT, showing the _Rete_ or _Spider_, a network of star pointers.
Beneath the _Rete_, in a hollow, are four thin brass discs, called
Tables or Climates, engraved with projections of the sphere for
different latitudes.

BACK, showing graduations, parallelogram for measuring heights; and
other tables, together with the _Rule_ with sights (A) held by a
moveable pin (B), known as the _Horse_ or _Wedge_.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Principle of the Astrolabe. If a solid circle be
fixed in any one position and a tube be pivoted on its centre so as to
move; and if the line C D be drawn upon the circle pointing towards any
object Q in the heavens which lies in the plane of the circle, by
turning the tube A B towards any other object P in the plane of the
circle, the angle BOD will be the angle subtended by the two objects P
and Q at the eye.]

[Illustration: From _Exercises_, by T. Blundeville.

FIG. 3.--Mariner's Astrolabe, A.D. 1594. Made of brass, or of heavy
wood: it varied in size from a few inches to 1 ft. in diameter.]

The two forms of the planispheric astrolabe most widely known and used
in the 15th, 16th and even 17th centuries were: (1) the _portable
astrolabe_ shown in fig. 1 (Plate). This originated in the East, and was
in early use in India, Persia and Arabia, and was introduced into Europe
by the Arabs, who had perfected it--perhaps as early as A.D. 700. It
combines the planisphere and armillae of Hipparchus and others, and the
theodolite of Theon, and was usually of brass, varying in diameter from
a couple of inches to a foot or more. It was used for taking the
altitudes of sun, moon and stars; for calculating latitude; for
determining the points of the compass, and time; for ascertaining
heights of mountains, &c.; and for construction of horoscopes. The
instrument was a marvel of convenience and ingenuity, and was called
"the mathematical jewel." Nevertheless it passed out of use, because
incapable of any great precision.

(2) The _mariner's astrolabe_, fig. 3, was adapted from that of
astronomers by Martin Behaim, c. 1480. This was the instrument used by
Columbus. With the tables of the sun's declination then available, he
could calculate his latitude by meridian altitudes of the sun taken with
his astrolabe. The mariner's astrolabe was superseded by John Hadley's
quadrant of 1731.

AUTHORITIES.--Chaucer, _Treatise on the Astrolabe_ (Skeat's edition of
Chaucer); J.J. Stöffler, _Elucidatio Fabrice ususque Astrolabii_, &c.;
Thomas Blundeville, _His Exercises_ (1594); F. Ritter, _Astrolabium_;
W.H. Morley, _Description of Astrolabe of Shah Husain_; M.L. Huggins,
"The Astrolabe" (_Astrophysical Journal_, 1894); _Penny Cyclopaedia_,
article "Astrolabe;" R. Grant, _History of Physical Astronomy_.
(M. L. H.)

ASTROLOGY, the ancient art or science of divining the fate and future of
human beings from indications given by the positions of the stars (sun,
moon and planets). The belief in a connexion between the heavenly bodies
and the life of man has played an important part in human history. For
long ages astronomy and astrology (which might be called astromancy, on
the same principle as "chiromancy") were identified; and a distinction
is made between "natural astrology," which predicts the motions of the
heavenly bodies, eclipses, &c., and "judicial astrology," which studies
the influence of the stars on human destiny. Isidore of Seville (d. 636)
is one of the first to distinguish between astronomy and astrology; nor
did astronomy begin to rid itself of astrology till the 16th century,
when, with the system of Copernicus, the conviction that the earth
itself is one of the heavenly bodies was finally established. The study
of astromancy and the belief in it, as part of astronomy, is found in a
developed form among the ancient Babylonians, and directly or indirectly
through the Babylonians spread to other nations. It came to Greece about
the middle of the 4th century B.C., and reached Rome before the opening
of the Christian era. In India and China astronomy and astrology are
largely reflections of Greek theories and speculations; and similarly
with the introduction of Greek culture into Egypt, both astronomy and
astrology were actively cultivated in the region of the Nile during the
Hellenistic and Roman periods. Astrology was further developed by the
Arabs from the 7th to the 13th century, and in the Europe of the 14th
and 15th centuries astrologers were dominating influences at court.

Even up to the present day men of intellectual eminence like Dr Richard
Garnett have convinced themselves that astromancy has a foundation of
truth, just as there are still believers in chiromancy or other forms of
divination. Dr Garnett ("A.G. Trent") insisted indeed that it was a
mistake to confuse astrology with fortune-telling, and maintained that
it was a "physical science just as much as geology," depending like them
on ascertained facts, and grossly misrepresented by being connected with
magic. Dr Garnett himself looked upon the study of biography in relation
to the casting of horoscopes as an empirical investigation, but it is
difficult in practice to keep the distinction clear, to judge by
present-day text-books such as those of Dr Wilde (_Primer of Astrology_,
&c.). Dr Wilde insists on there being "nothing incongruous with the laws
of nature in the theory that the sun, moon and stars influence men's
physical bodies and conditions, seeing that man is made up of a physical
part of the earth." There is an obvious tendency, however, for
astromancy to be employed, like palmistry, as a means of imposing on the
ignorant and credulous. How far the more serious claim is likely to be
revived in connexion with the renewal of research into the "occult"
sciences generally, it is still too early to speculate; and it has to be
recognized that such a point of view is opposed to the generally
established belief that astrology is either mere superstition or
absolute imposture, and that its former vogue was due either to
deception or to the tyranny of an unscientific environment. But if the
progress of physical science has not prevented the rehabilitation of
much of ancient alchemy by the later researches into chemical change,
and if psychology now finds a place for explanations of spiritualism and
witchcraft which involve the admission of the empirical facts under a
new theory (as in the case of the divining-rod, &c.), it is at least
conceivable that some new synthesis might once more justify part at all
events of ancient and medieval astromancy, to the extent of admitting
the empirical facts where provable, and substituting for the supposed
influence of the stars as such, some deeper theory which would be
consistent with an application to other forms of prophecy, and thus
might reconcile the possibility of dipping into futurity with certain
interrelations of the universe, different indeed from those assumed by
astrological theory, but underlying and explaining it. If this is ever
accomplished it will need the patient investigation of a number of
empirical observations by competent students unbiassed by any _parti
pris_--a difficult set of conditions to obtain; and even then no
definite results may be achieved.

The history of astrology can now be traced back to ancient Babylonia,
and indeed to the earliest phases of Babylonian history, i.e. to about
3000 B.C. In Babylonia as well as in Assyria as a direct offshoot of
Babylonian culture (or as we might also term it "Euphratean" culture),
astrology takes its place in the official cult as one of the two chief
means at the disposal of the priests (who were called _bare_ or
"inspectors") for ascertaining the will and intention of the gods, the
other being through the inspection of the liver of the sacrificial
animal (see OMEN). Just as this latter method of divination rested on a
well-defined theory, to wit, that the liver was the seat of the soul of
the animal and that the deity in accepting the sacrifice identified
himself with the animal, whose "soul" was thus placed in complete accord
with that of the god and therefore reflected the mind and will of the
god, so astrology is based on a theory of divine government of the
world, which in contrast to "liver" divination assumes at the start a
more scientific or pseudo-scientific aspect. This theory must be taken
into consideration as a factor in accounting for the persistent hold
which even at the present day astrology still maintains on many minds.
Starting with the indisputable fact that man's life and happiness are
largely dependent upon phenomena in the heavens, that the fertility of
the soil is dependent upon the sun shining in the heavens as well as
upon the rains that come from heaven, that on the other hand the
mischief and damage done by storms and inundations, to both of which the
Euphratean Valley was almost regularly subject, were to be traced
likewise to the heavens, the conclusion was drawn that all the great
gods had their seats in the heavens. In that early age of culture known
as the "nomadic" stage, which under normal conditions precedes the
"agricultural" stage, the moon cult is even more prominent than sun
worship, and with the moon and sun cults thus furnished by the "popular"
faith it was a natural step for the priests, who correspond to the
"scientists" of a later day, to perfect a theory of a complete accord
between phenomena observed in the heavens and occurrences on earth.

If moon and sun, whose regular movements conveyed to the more intelligent
minds the conception of the reign of law and order in the universe as
against the more popular notion of chance and caprice, were divine
powers, the same held good of the planets, whose movements, though more
difficult to follow, yet in the course of time came to be at least
partially understood. Of the planets five were recognized--Jupiter,
Venus, Saturn, Mercury and Mars--to name them in the order in which they
appear in the older cuneiform literature; in later texts Mercury and
Saturn change places. These five planets were identified with the great
gods of the pantheon as follows:--Jupiter with Marduk (q.v.), Venus with
the goddess Ishtar (q.v.), Saturn with Ninib (q.v.), Mercury with Nebo
(q.v.), and Mars with Nergal (q.v.). The movements of the sun, moon and
five planets were regarded as representing the activity of the five gods
in question, together with the moon-god Sin (q.v.) and the sun-god
Shamash (q.v.), in preparing the occurrences on earth. If, therefore, one
could correctly read and interpret the activity of these powers, one knew
what the gods were aiming to bring about. The Babylonian priests
accordingly applied themselves to the task of perfecting a system of
interpretation of the phenomena to be observed in the heavens, and it was
natural that the system was extended from the moon, sun and five planets
to the more prominent and recognizable fixed stars. That system involved
not merely the movements of the moon, sun and planets, but the
observation of their relative position to one another and to all kinds of
peculiarities noted at any point in the course of their movements: in the
case of the moon, for instance, the exact appearance of the new crescent,
its position in the heavens, the conditions at conjunction and
opposition, the appearance of the horns, the halo frequently seen with
the new moon, which was compared to a "cap," the ring round the full
moon, which was called a "stall" (i.e. "enclosure"), and more of the
like. To all these phenomena some significance was attached, and this
significance was naturally intensified in the case of such a striking
phenomenon as an eclipse of the moon. Applying the same method of careful
observation to the sun and planets, and later to some of the
constellations and to many of the fixed stars, it will be apparent that
the body of observations noted must have grown in the course of time to
large and indeed to enormous proportions, and correspondingly the
interpretations assigned to the nearly endless variations in the
phenomena thus observed. The interpretations themselves were based (as in
the case of divination through the liver) chiefly on two factors:--(1) on
the recollection or on written records of what in the past had taken
place when the phenomenon or phenomena in question had been observed, and
(2) association of ideas--involving sometimes merely a play upon
words--in connexion with the phenomenon or phenomena observed. Thus if on
a certain occasion the rise of the new moon in a cloudy sky was followed
by victory over an enemy or by abundant rain, the sign in question was
thus proved to be a favourable one and its recurrence would be regarded
as a good omen, though the prognostication would not necessarily be
limited to the one or the other of those occurrences, but might be
extended to apply to other circumstances. On the other hand, the
appearance of the new moon earlier than was expected was regarded as an
unfavourable omen--prognosticating in one case defeat, in another death
among cattle, in a third bad crops--not necessarily because these events
actually took place after such a phenomenon, but by an application of the
general principle resting upon association of ideas whereby anything
premature would suggest an unfavourable occurrence. A thin halo seen
above the new moon was pictured as a cap, and the association between
this and the symbol of royalty, which was a conical-shaped cap, led to
interpreting the phenomenon as an indication that the ruler would have a
successful reign. In this way a mass of traditional interpretation of all
kinds of observed phenomena was gathered, and once gathered became a
guide to the priests for all times.

Astrology in this its earliest stage is, however, marked by two
characteristic limitations. In the first place, the movements and
position of the heavenly bodies point to such occurrences as are of
public import and affect the general welfare. The individual's interests
are not in any way involved, and we must descend many centuries and pass
beyond the confines of Babylonia and Assyria before we reach that phase
which in medieval and modern astrology is almost exclusively dwelt
upon--genethliology or the individual horoscope. In Babylonia and
Assyria the cult centred largely and indeed almost exclusively in the
public welfare and the person of the king, because upon his well-being
and favour with the gods the fortunes of the country were dependent in
accordance with the ancient conception of kingship (see J.G. Frazer,
_The Early History of Kingship_). To some extent, the individual came in
for his share in the incantations and in the purification ritual through
which one might hope to rid oneself of the power of the demons and of
other evil spirits, but outside of this the important aim of the priests
was to secure for the general benefit the favour of the gods, or, as a
means of preparing oneself for what the future had in store, to
ascertain in time whether that favour would be granted in any particular
instance or would be continued in the future. Hence in "liver"
divination, as in astrology, the interpretations of the signs noted all
have reference to public affairs and events and not to the individual's
needs or desires. In the second place, the astronomical knowledge
presupposed and accompanying early Babylonian astrology is essentially
of an empirical character. While in a general way the reign of law and
order in the movements of the heavenly bodies was recognized, and indeed
must have exercised an influence at an early period in leading to the
rise of a methodical divination that was certainly of a much higher
order than the examination of an animal's liver, yet the importance that
was laid upon the endless variations in the form of the phenomena and
the equally numerous apparent deviations from what were regarded as
normal conditions, prevented for a long time the rise of any serious
study of astronomy beyond what was needed for the purely practical
purposes that the priests as "inspectors" of the heavens (as they were
also the "inspectors" of the sacrificial livers) had in mind. True, we
have, probably as early as the days of Khammurabi, i.e. c. 2000 B.C.,
the combinations of prominent groups of stars with outlines of pictures
fantastically put together, but there is no evidence that prior to 700
B.C. more than a number of the constellations of our zodiac had become
part of the current astronomy. The theory of the ecliptic as
representing the course of the sun through the year, divided among
twelve constellations with a measurement of 30° to each division, is
also of Babylonian origin, as has now been definitely proved; but it
does not appear to have been perfected until after the fall of the
Babylonian empire in 539 B.C. Similarly, the other accomplishments of
Babylonian astronomers, such as their system or rather systems of moon
calculations and the drawing up of planetary tablets, belong to this
late period, so that the golden age of Babylonian astronomy belongs not
to the remote past, as was until recently supposed, but to the Seleucid
period, i.e. after the advent of the Greeks in the Euphrates Valley.
From certain expressions used in astrological texts that are earlier
than the 7th century B.C. it would appear, indeed, that the beginnings
at least of the calculation of sun and moon eclipses belong to the
earlier period, but here, too, the chief work accomplished was after 400
B.C., and the defectiveness of early Babylonian astronomy may be
gathered from the fact that as late as the 6th century B.C. an error of
almost an entire month was made by the Babylonian astronomers in the
attempt to determine through calculation the beginning of a certain
year.

The researches of Bouché-Leclercq, Cumont and Boll have enabled us to
fix with a considerable degree of definiteness the middle of the 4th
century B.C. as the period when Babylonian astrology began its triumphal
march to the west, invading the domain of Greek and Roman culture and
destined to exercise a strong hold on all nations and groups--more
particularly in Egypt--that came within the sphere of Greek and Roman
influence. It is rather significant that this spread of astrology should
have been concomitant with the intellectual impulse that led to the rise
of a genuine scientific phase of astronomy in Babylonia itself, which
must have weakened to some extent the hold that astrology had on the
priests and the people. The advent of the Persians, bringing with them a
conception of religion of a far higher order than Babylonian-Assyrian
polytheism (see ZOROASTER), must also have acted as a disintegrating
factor in leading to the decline of the old faith in the Euphrates
Valley, and we thus have the interesting though not entirely exceptional
phenomenon of a great civilization bequeathing as a legacy to posterity
a superstition instead of a real achievement. "Chaldaean wisdom" became
among Greeks and Romans the synonym of divination through the planets
and stars, and it is not surprising that in the course of time to be
known as a "Chaldaean" carried with it frequently the suspicion of
charlatanry and of more or less wilful deception. The spread of
astrology beyond Babylonia is thus concomitant with the rise of a truly
scientific astronomy in Babylonia itself, which in turn is due to the
intellectual impulse afforded by the contact with new forms of culture
from both the East and the West.

In the hands of the Greeks and of the later Egyptians both astrology and
astronomy were carried far beyond the limits attained by the
Babylonians, and it is indeed a matter of surprise to observe the
harmonious combination of the two fields--a harmony that seems to grow
more complete with each age, and that is not broken until we reach the
threshold of modern science in the 16th century. To the Greek astronomer
Hipparchus belongs the credit of the discovery (c. 130 B.C.) of the
theory of the precession of the equinoxes, for a knowledge of which
among the Babylonians we find no definite proof; but such a signal
advance in pure science did not prevent the Greeks from developing in a
most elaborate manner the theory of the influence of the planets upon
the fate of the individual. The endeavour to trace the horoscope of the
individual from the position of the planets and stars at the time of
birth (or, as was attempted by other astrologers, at the time of
conception) represents the most significant contribution of the Greeks
to astrology. The system was carried to such a degree of perfection that
later ages made but few additions of an essential character to the
genethliology or drawing up of the individual horoscope by the Greek
astrologers. The system was taken up almost bodily by the Arab
astronomers, it was embodied in the Kabbalistic lore of Jews and
Christians, and through these and other channels came to be the
substance of the astrology of the middle ages, forming, as already
pointed out, under the designation of "judicial astrology," a
pseudo-science which was placed on a perfect footing of equality with
"natural astrology" or the more genuine science of the study of the
motions and phenomena of the heavenly bodies.

Partly in further development of views unfolded in Babylonia, but
chiefly under Greek influences, the scope of astrology was enlarged
until it was brought into connexion with practically all of the known
sciences, botany, chemistry, zoology, mineralogy, anatomy and medicine.
Colours, metals, stones, plants, drugs and animal life of all kinds were
associated with the planets and placed under their tutelage. In the
system that passes under the name of Ptolemy, Saturn is associated with
grey, Jupiter with white, Mars with red, Venus with yellow, while
Mercury, occupying a peculiar place in Greek as it did in Babylonian
astrology (where it was at one time designated as _the_ planet _par
excellence_), was supposed to vary its colour according to changing
circumstances. The sun was associated with gold, the moon with silver,
Jupiter with electrum, Saturn with lead, Venus with copper, and so on,
while the continued influence of astrological motives is to be seen in
the association of quicksilver, upon its discovery at a comparatively
late period, with Mercury, because of its changeable character as a
solid and a liquid. In the same way stones were connected with both the
planets and the months; plants, by diverse association of ideas, were
connected with the planets, and animals likewise were placed under the
guidance and protection of one or other of the heavenly bodies. By this
curious process of combination the entire realm of the natural sciences
was translated into the language of astrology with the single avowed
purpose of seeing in all phenomena signs indicative of what the future
had in store. The fate of the individual, as that feature of the future
which had a supreme interest, led to the association of the planets with
parts of the body. Here, too, we find various systems devised, in part
representing the views of different schools, in part reflecting
advancing conceptions regarding the functions of the organs in man and
animals. In one system the seat of Mercury, representing divine
intelligence as the source of all knowledge--a view that reverts to
Babylonia where Nebo (corresponding to Mercury) was regarded as the
divine power to whom all wisdom is due--was placed in the liver as the
primeval seat of the soul (see OMEN), whereas in other systems this
distinction was assigned to Jupiter or to Venus. Saturn, taking in Greek
astrology the place at the head of the planets which among the
Babylonians was accorded to Jupiter-Marduk, was given a place in the
brain, which in later times was looked upon as the centre of soul-life;
Venus, as the planet of the passion of love, was supposed to reign
supreme over the genital organs, the belly and the lower limbs; Mars, as
the violent planet, is associated with the bile, as well as with the
blood and kidneys. Again, the right ear is associated with Saturn, the
left ear with Mars, the right eye in the case of the male with the sun
and the left eye with the moon, while in the case of the female it was
just the reverse. From the planets the same association of ideas was
applied to the constellations of the zodiac, which in later phases of
astrology are placed on a par with the planets themselves, so far as
their importance for the individual horoscope is concerned. The fate of
the individual in this combination of planets with the zodiac was made
dependent not merely upon the planet which happened to be rising at the
time of birth or of conception, but also upon its local relationship to
a special sign or to certain signs of the zodiac. The zodiac was
regarded as the prototype of the human body, the different parts of
which all had their corresponding section in the zodiac itself. The head
was placed in the first sign of the zodiac--the Ram; and the feet in the
last sign--the Fishes. Between these two extremes the other parts and
organs of the body were distributed among the remaining signs of the
zodiac, the neck being assigned to the Bull, the shoulders and arms to
the Gemini (or twins), the breast to Cancer, the flanks to Leo, the
bladder to Virgo, the buttocks to the Balance, the pubis to the
Scorpion, the thighs to Sagittarius, the knees to Capricorn, and the
limbs to Aquarius. Not content with this, we find the late Egyptian
astrologers setting up a correspondence between the thirty-six _decani_
recognized by them and the human body, which is thus divided into
thirty-six parts; to each part a god was assigned as a controlling
force. With human anatomy thus connected with the planets, with
constellations, and with single stars, medicine became an integral part
of astrology, or, as we might also put it, astrology became the handmaid
of medicine. Diseases and disturbances of the ordinary functions of the
organs were attributed to the influence of planets or explained as due
to conditions observed in a constellation or in the position of a star;
and an interesting survival of this bond between astrology and medicine
is to be seen in the use up to the present time of the sign of Jupiter,
which still heads medicinal prescriptions, while, on the other hand, the
influence of planetary lore appears in the assignment of the days of the
week to the planets, beginning with Sunday, assigned to the sun, and
ending with Saturday, the day of Saturn. Passing on into still later
periods, Saturn's day was associated with the Jewish sabbath, Sunday
with the Lord's Day, Tuesday with Tiw, the god of war, corresponding to
Mars of the Romans and to the Nergal of the Babylonians. Wednesday was
assigned to the planet Mercury, the equivalent of the Germanic god
Woden; Thursday to Jupiter, the equivalent of Thor; and Friday to Friga,
the goddess of love, who is represented by Venus among the Romans and
among the Babylonians by Ishtar. Astrological considerations likewise
already regulated in ancient Babylonia the distinction of lucky and
unlucky days, which passing down to the Greeks and Romans (_dies fasti_
and _nefasti_) found a striking expression in Hesiod's _Works and Days_.
Among the Arabs similar associations of lucky and unlucky days directly
connected with the influence of the planets prevailed through all times,
Tuesday and Wednesday, for instance, being regarded as the days for
blood-letting, because Tuesday was connected with Mars, the lord of war
and blood, and Wednesday with Mercury, the planet of humours. Even in
modern times travellers relate how, when an auspicious day has been
proclaimed by the astrologers, the streets of Bagdad may be seen running
with blood from the barbers' shops.

It is unnecessary here to give a detailed analysis of the methods of
judicial astrology as an art, or directions for the casting of a
horoscope, or "nativity," i.e. a map of the heavens at the hour of
birth, showing, according to the Ephemeris, the position of the heavenly
bodies, from which their influence may be deduced. Each of the twelve
signs of the zodiac (q.v.) is credited with its own characteristics and
influence, and is the controlling sign of its "house of life." The sign
exactly rising at the moment of birth is called the ascendant. The
benevolent or malignant influence of each planet, together with the sun
and moon, is modified by the sign it inhabits at the nativity; thus
Jupiter in one house may indicate riches, fame in another, beauty in
another, and Saturn similarly poverty, obscurity or deformity. The
calculation is affected by the "aspects," i.e. according as the planets
are near or far as regards one another (in conjunction, in semi-sextile,
semi-square, sextile, quintile, square, trine, sesqui-quadrate,
bi-quintile, opposition or parallel acclination). Disastrous signs
predominate over auspicious, and the various effects are combined in a
very elaborate and complicated manner.

Judicial astrology, as a form of divination, is a concomitant of natural
astrology, in its purer astronomical aspect, but mingled with what is
now considered an unscientific and superstitious view of world-forces.
In the _Janua aurea reserata quatuor linguarum_ (1643) of J.A. Comenius
we find the following definition:--"_Astronomus siderum meatus seu motus
considerat: Astrologus eorundem efficaciam, influxum, et effectum_."
Kepler was more cautious in his opinion; he spoke of astronomy as the
wise mother, and astrology as the foolish daughter, but he added that
the existence of the daughter was necessary to the life of the mother.
Tycho Brahe and Gassendi both began with astrology, and it was only
after pursuing the false science, and finding it wanting, that Gassendi
devoted himself to astronomy. In their numerous allusions to the subtle
mercury, which the one makes when treating of a means of measuring time
by the efflux of the metal, and the other in a treatise on the transit
of the planet, we see traces of the school in which they served their
first apprenticeship. Huygens, moreover, in his great posthumous work,
_Cosmotheoros, seu de terris coelestibus_, shows himself a more exact
observer of astrological symbols than Kircher himself in his _Iter
exstaticum_. Huygens contends that between the inhabitants of different
planets there need not be any greater difference than exists between men
of different types on the earth. "There are on the earth," continues
this rational interpreter of the astrologers and chiromancers, "men of
cold temperament who would thrive in Saturn, which is the farthest
planet from the sun, and there are other spirits warm and ardent enough
to live in Venus."

Those were indeed strange times, according to modern ideas, when
astrologers were dominant by the terror they inspired, and sometimes by
the martydom they endured when their predictions were either too true or
too false. Faith, to borrow their own language, was banished to Virgo,
and rarely shed her influence on men. Cardan (1501-1576), for instance,
hated Luther, and so changed his birthday in order to give him an
unfavourable horoscope. In Cardan's times, as in those of Augustus, it
was a common practice for men to conceal the day and hour of their
birth, till, like Augustus, they found a complaisant astrologer. But, as
a general rule, medieval and Renaissance astrologers did not give
themselves the trouble of reading the stars, but contented themselves
with telling fortunes by faces. They practised chiromancy (see
PALMISTRY), and relied on afterwards drawing a horoscope to suit. As
physiognomists (see PHYSIOGNOMY) their talent was undoubted, and
according to Vanini there was no need to mount to the house-top to cast
a nativity. "Yes," he says, "I can read his face; by his hair and his
forehead it is easy to guess that the sun at his birth was in the sign
of Libra and near Venus. Nay, his complexion shows that Venus touches
Libra. By the rules of astrology he could not lie."

A few salient facts may be added concerning the astrologers and their
predictions, remarkable either for their fulfilment or for the ruin and
confusion they brought upon their authors. We may begin with one taken
from Bacon's _Essay of Prophecies_:--"When I was in France, I heard from
one Dr Pena, that the queen mother, who was given to curious arts,
caused the king her husband's nativitie to be calculated, under a false
name; and the astrologer gave a judgment, that he should be killed in a
duell; at which the queene laughed, thinking her husband to be above
challenges and duels; but he was slaine, upon a course at tilt, the
splinters of the staffe of Mongomery going in at his bever." A favourite
topic of the astrologers of all countries has been the immediate end of
the world. As early as 1186 the earth had escaped one threatened
cataclysm of the astrologers. This did not prevent Stöffler from
predicting a universal deluge for the year 1524--a year, as it turned
out, distinguished for drought. His aspect of the heavens told him that
in that year three planets would meet in the aqueous sign of Pisces. The
prediction was believed far and wide, and President Aurial, at Toulouse,
built himself a Noah's ark--a curious realization, in fact, of Chaucer's
merry invention in the _Miller's Tale_.

Tycho Brahe was from his fifteenth year devoted to astrology, and
adjoining his observatory at Uranienburg the astronomer-royal of Denmark
had a laboratory built in order to study alchemy, and it was only a few
years before his death that he finally abandoned astrology. We may here
notice one very remarkable prediction of the master of Kepler. That he
had carefully studied the comet of 1577 as an astronomer, we may gather
from his adducing the very small parallax of this comet as disproving
the assertion of the Aristotelians that a solid sphere enveloped the
heavens. But besides this, we find him in his character of astrologer
drawing a singular prediction from the appearance of this comet. It
announced, he tells us, that in the north, in Finland, there should be
born a prince who should lay waste Germany and vanish in 1632. Gustavus
Adolphus, it is well known, was born in Finland, overran Germany, and
died in 1632. The fulfilment of the details of this prophecy suggests
that Tycho Brahe had some basis of reason for his prediction. Born in
Denmark of a noble Swedish family, a politician, as were all his
contemporaries of distinction, Tycho, though no conjuror, could foresee
the advent of some great northern hero. Moreover, he was doubtless well
acquainted with a very ancient tradition, that heroes generally came
from the northern frontiers of their native land, where they are
hardened and tempered by the threefold struggle they wage with soil,
climate and barbarian neighbours.

Kepler explained the double movement of the earth by the rotation of the
sun. At one time the sun presented its friendly side, which attracted
one planet, sometimes its adverse side, which repelled it. He also
peopled the planets with souls and genii. He was led to his three great
laws by musical analogies, just as William Herschel afterwards passed
from music to astronomy. Kepler, who in his youth made almanacs, and
once prophesied a hard winter, which came to pass, could not help
putting an astrological interpretation on the disappearance of the
brilliant star of 1572, which Tycho had observed. Theodore Beza thought
that this star, which in December 1573 equalled Jupiter in brilliancy,
predicted the second coming of Christ. Astronomers were only then
beginning to study variable and periodic stars, and disturbances in that
part of the heavens, which had till then, on the authority of Aristotle,
been regarded as incorruptible, combined with the troubles of the times,
must have given a new stimulus to belief in the signs in heaven.
Montaigne (_Essais_, lib. i. chap, x.) relates a singular episode in the
history of astrology. Charles V. and Francis I., who both bid for the
friendship of the infamous Aretino, surnamed the divine, both likewise
engaged astrologers to fight their battles. In Italy those who
prophesied the ruin of France were sure to be listened to. These
prophecies affected the public funds much as telegrams do nowadays. "At
Rome," Montaigne tells us, "a large sum of money was lost on the Change
by this prognostication of our ruin." The marquis of Saluces,
notwithstanding his gratitude to Francis I. for the many favours he had
received, including his marquisate, of which the brother was despoiled
for his benefit, was led in 1536 to betray his country, being scared by
the glorious prophecies of the ultimate success of Charles V. which were
then rife. The influence of the Medici made astrologers popular in
France. Richelieu, on whose council was Jacques Gaffarel (1601-1681),
the last of the Kabbalists, did not despise astrology as an engine of
government. At the birth of Louis XIV. a certain Morin de Villefranche
was placed behind a curtain to cast the nativity of the future autocrat.
A generation back the astrologer would not have been hidden behind a
curtain, but have taken precedence of the doctor. La Bruyère dares not
pronounce against such beliefs, "for there are perplexing facts affirmed
by grave men who were eye-witnesses." In England William Lilly and
Robert Fludd were both dressed in a little brief authority. The latter
gives us elaborate rules for the detection of a thief, and tells us that
he has had personal experience of their efficacy. "If the lord of the
sixth house is found in the second house, or in company with the lord of
the second house, the thief is one of the family. If Mercury is in the
sign of the Scorpion he will be bald, &c." Francis Bacon abuses the
astrologers of his day no less than the alchemists, but he does so
because he has visions of a reformed astrology and a reformed alchemy.
Sir Thomas Browne, too, while he denies the capacity of the astrologers
of his day, does not venture to dispute the reality of the science. The
idea of the souls of men passing at death to the stars, the blessedness
of their particular sphere being assigned them according to their
deserts (the metempsychosis of J. Reynaud), may be regarded as a
survival of religious astrology, which, even as late as Descartes's day,
assigned to the angels the task of moving the planets and the stars.
Joseph de Maistre believed in comets as messengers of divine justice,
and in animated planets, and declared that divination by astrology is
not an absolutely chimerical science. Lastly, we may mention a few
distinguished men who ran counter to their age in denying stellar
influences. Aristarchus of Samos, Martianus Capella (the precursor of
Copernicus), Cicero, Favorinus, Sextus Empiricus, Juvenal, and in a
later age Savonarola and Pico della Mirandola, and La Fontaine, a
contemporary of the neutral La Bruyère, were all pronounced opponents of
astrology.

In England Swift may fairly claim the credit of having given the
death-blow to astrology by his famous squib, entitled _Prediction for
the Year 1708, by Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq._ He begins, by professing
profound belief in the art, and next points out the vagueness and the
absurdities of the philomaths. He then, in the happiest vein of parody,
proceeds to show them a more excellent way:--"My first prediction is but
a trifle, yet I mention it to show how ignorant these sottish pretenders
to astrology are in their own concerns: it refers to Partridge the
almanac-maker. I have consulted the star of his nativity by my own
rules, and find he will infallibly die upon the 29th of March next about
eleven at night of a raging fever. Therefore I advise him to consider of
it and settle his affairs in time." Then followed a letter to a person
of quality giving a full and particular account of the death of
Partridge on the very day and nearly at the hour mentioned. In vain the
wretched astrologer protested that he was alive, got a literary friend
to write a pamphlet to prove it, and published his almanac for 1709.
Swift, in his reply, abused him for his want of manners in giving a
gentleman the lie, answered his arguments _seriatim_, and declared that
the evidence of the publication of another almanac was wholly
irrelevant, "for Gadbury, Poor Robin, Dove and Way do yearly publish
their almanacs, though several of them have been dead since before the
Revolution." Nevertheless a field is found even to this day for almanacs
of a similar type, and for popular belief in them.

To astrological politics we owe the theory of heaven-sent rulers,
instruments in the hands of Providence, and saviours of society.
Napoleon, as well as Wallenstein, believed in his star. Many passages in
the older English poets are unintelligible without some knowledge of
astrology. Chaucer wrote a treatise on the astrolabe; Milton constantly
refers to planetary influences; in Shakespeare's _King Lear_, Gloucester
and Edmund represent respectively the old and the new faith. We still
_contemplate_ and consider; we still speak of men as _jovial_,
_saturnine_ or _mercurial_; we still talk of the _ascendancy_ of genius,
or a _disastrous_ defeat. In French _heur_, _malheur_, _heureux_,
_malheureux_, are all derived from the Latin _augurium_; the expression
_né sous une mauvaise étoile_, born under an evil star, corresponds
(with the change of _étoile_ into _astre_) to the word _malôtru_, in
Provençal _malastrue_; and _son étoile pâlit_, his star grows pale,
belongs to the same class of illusions. The Latia _ex augurio_ appears
in the Italian _sciagura_, _sciagurato_, softened into _sciaura_,
_sciaurato_, wretchedness, wretched. The influence of a particular
planet has also left traces in various languages; but the French and
English _jovial_ and the English _saturnine_ correspond rather to the
gods who served as types in chiromancy than to the planets which bear
the same names. In the case of the expressions _bien_ or _mal luné_,
well or ill mooned, _avoir un quartier de lune dans la tetê_, to have
the quarter of the moon in one's head, the German _mondsüchtig_ and the
English _moonstruck_ or _lunatic_, the fundamental idea lies in the
strange opinions formerly held about the moon.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--For the history of astrology with its affinities to
astronomy on the one hand, and to other forms of popular belief on the
other, the following works out of a large number that might be
mentioned are specially recommended:--A. Bouché-Leclercq,
_L'Astrologie grecque_ (Paris, 1899), with a full bibliography; Franz
Boll, _Sphaera_ (Leipzig, 1903); Franz Cumont, _Catalogus Codicum
Astrologorum Graecorum_ (Brussels, 1898; 7 parts published up to
1909); Franz Boll, "Die Erforschung der antiken Astrologie" (in _Neue
Jahrbucher fur das klassische Altertum_, Band xxi. Heft 2, pp.
103-126); Franz Cumont, _Les Religions orientates dans le paganisme
romain_ (Paris, 1907) (ch. vii. "L'Astrologie et la magie"); Alfred
Maury, _La Magie et l'astrologie à l'antiquité et au moyen âge_ (4th
ed., Paris, 1877); R.C. Thompson, _Reports of the Magicians and
Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon_ (2 vols., London, 1900); F.X.
Kugler, _Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel_ (Freiburg, 1907;--to be
completed in 4 vols.); Ch. Virolleaud, _L'Astrologie chaldéenne_
(Paris, 1905--to be completed in 8 parts--transliteration and
translations of cuneiform texts); Jastrow, _Religion Babyloniens und
Assyriens_ (Parts 13 and 14); also certain sections in
Bouché-Leclercq, _Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquité_ (Paris,
1879), vol. i. pp. 205-257; in Marcellin Berthelot, _Les Origines de
l'alchimie_ (Paris, 1885), pp. 1-56; Ferd. Höfer, _Histoire de
l'astronomie_ (Paris, 1846), pp. 1-90; in Rudolf Wolf, _Geschichte der
Astronomie_ (Munich, 1877), ch. i. See also the article by Ernst Riess
on Astrology in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopädie der klassischen
Altertumswissenschaft_, vol. ii. (Stuttgart, 1896). For modern and
practical astrology the following works may be found useful in
different ways: E.M. Bennett, _Astrology_ (New York, 1894); J.M.
Pfaff, _Astrologie_ (Bamberg, 1816); G. Wilde, _Chaldaean Astrology up
to date_ (1901); R. Garnett ("A.G. Trent"), "The Soul and the Stars,"
in the _University Magazine_, 1880 (reprinted in Dobson and Wilde,
_Natal Astrology_, 1893); Abel Haatan, _Traité d'astrologie
judiciaire_ (Paris, 1825); Fomalhaut, _Manuel d'astrologie sphérique
el judiciaire_ (Paris, 1897). (M. Ja.)

ASTRONOMY (from Gr. [Greek: astron], a star, and [Greek: nemein], to
classify or arrange). The subject matter of astronomical science,
considered in its widest range, comprehends all the matter of the
universe which lies outside the limit of the earth's atmosphere. The
seeming anomaly of classifying as a single branch of science all that we
know in a field so wide, while subdividing our knowledge of things on
our own planet into an indefinite number of separate sciences, finds its
explanation in the impossibility of subjecting the matter of the heavens
to that experimental scrutiny which yields such rich results when
applied to matter which we can handle at will. Astronomy is of necessity
a science of observation in the pursuit of which experiment can directly
play no part. It is the most ancient of the sciences because, before the
era of experiment, it was the branch of knowledge which could be most
easily systematized, while the relations of its phenomena to day and
night, times and seasons, made some knowledge of the subject a necessity
of social life. In recent times it is among the more progressive of the
sciences, because the new and improved methods of research now at
command have found in its cultivation a field of practically unlimited
extent, in which the lines of research may ultimately lead to a
comprehension of the universe impossible of attainment before our time.

The field we have defined is divisible into at least two parts, that of
Astronomy proper, or "Astrometry," which treats of the motions, mutual
relations and dimensions of the heavenly bodies; and that of
Astrophysics (q.v.), which treats of their physical constitution. While
it is true that the instruments and methods of research in these two
branches are quite different in their details, there is so much in
common in the fundamental principles which underlie their application,
that it is unprofitable to consider them as completely distinct
sciences.

Speaking in the most comprehensive way, and making an exception of the
ethereal medium (see AETHER), which, being capable of experimental
study, is not included in the subject of astronomy, we may say that the
great masses of matter which make up the universe are of two kinds:--(1)
incandescent bodies, made visible to us by their own light; (2) dark
bodies, revolving round them or round each other. These dark bodies are
known to us in two ways: (a) by becoming visible through reflecting the
light from incandescent bodies in their neighbourhood, (b) by their
attraction upon such bodies.

The incandescent bodies are of two classes: stars and nebulae. Among the
stars our sun is to be included, as it has no properties which
distinguish it from the great mass of stars except our proximity to it.
The stars are supposed to be generally spherical, like the sun, in form,
and to have fairly well-defined boundaries; while the nebulae are
generally irregular in outline and have no well-defined limits. It is,
however, probable that the one class runs into the other by
imperceptible gradations. In the relation of the universe to us there is
yet another separation of its bodies into two classes, one comprising
the solar system, the other the remainder of the universe. The former
consists of the sun and the bodies which move round it. Considered as a
part of the universe, our solar system is insignificant in extent,
though, for obvious reasons, great in practical importance to us, and in
the facility with which we may gain knowledge relating to it.

Referring to special articles, SOLAR SYSTEM, STAR, SUN, MOON, &c. for a
description of the various parts of the universe, we confine ourselves,
at present, to setting forth a few of the most general modern
conceptions of the universe. As to extent, it may be said, in a general
way, that while no definite limits can be set to the possible extent of
the universe, or the distance of its farthest bodies, it seems probable,
for reasons which will be given under STAR, that the system to which the
stars that we see belong, is of finite extent.

As the incandescent bodies of the universe are visible by their own
light, the problem of ascertaining their existence and position is
mainly one of seeing, and our facilities for attacking it have
constantly increased with the improvement of our optical appliances. But
such is not the case with the dark bodies. Such a body can be made known
to us only when in the neighbourhood of an incandescent body; and even
then, unless its mass or its dimensions are considerable, it will evade
all the scrutiny of our science. The question of the possible number and
magnitude of such bodies is therefore one that does not admit of
accurate investigation. We can do no more than balance vague estimates
of probability. What we do know is that these bodies vary widely in
size. Those known to be revolving round certain of the stars are far
larger in proportion to their central bodies than our planets are in
respect to the sun; for were it otherwise we should never be able to
detect their existence. At the other extreme we know that innumerable
swarms of minute bodies, probably little more than particles, move round
the sun in orbits of every degree of eccentricity, making themselves
known to us only in the exceptional cases when they strike the earth's
atmosphere. They then appear to us as "shooting stars" (see METEOR).

A general idea of the relation of the solar system to the universe may
be gained by reflecting that the average distance between any two
neighbouring stars is several thousand times the extent of the solar
system. Between the orbit of Neptune and the nearest star known to us is
an immense void in which no bodies are yet known to exist, except
comets. But although these sometimes wander to distances considerably
beyond the orbit of Neptune, it is probable that the extent of the void
which separates our system from the nearest star is hundreds of times
the distance of the farthest point to which a comet ever recedes.

We may conclude this brief characterization of astronomy with a
statement and classification of the principal lines on which
astronomical researches are now pursued. The most comprehensive problem
before the investigator is that of the constitution of the universe. It
is known that, while infinite diversity is found among the bodies of the
universe, there are also common characteristics throughout its whole
extent. In a certain sense we may say that the universe now presents
itself to the thinking astronomer, not as a heterogeneous collection of
bodies, but as a unified whole. The number of stars is so vast that
statistical methods can be applied to many of the characters which they
exhibit--their spectra, their apparent and absolute luminosity, and
their arrangement in space. Thus has arisen in recent times what we may
regard as a third branch of astronomical science, known as _Stellar
Statistics_. The development of this branch has infused life and
interest into what might a few years ago have been regarded as the most
lifeless mass of figures possible, expressing merely the positions and
motions of innumerable individual stars, as determined by generations of
astronomical observers. The development of this new branch requires
great additions to this mass, the product of perhaps centuries of work
on the older lines of the science. To the statistician of the stars,
catalogues of spectra, magnitude, position and proper motions are of the
same importance that census tables are to the student of humanity. The
measurement of the speed with which the individual stars are moving
towards or from our system is a work of such magnitude that what has yet
been done is scarcely more than a beginning. The discovery by improved
optical means, and especially by photography, of new bodies of our
system so small that they evaded all scrutiny in former times, is still
going on, but does not at present promise any important generalization,
unless we regard as such the conclusion that our solar system is a more
complex organism than was formerly supposed.

One characteristic of astronomy which tends to make its progress slow
and continuous arises out of the general fact that, except in the case
of motions to or from us, which can be determined by a single
observation with the spectroscope, the motion of a heavenly body can be
determined only by comparing its position at two different epochs. The
interval required between these two epochs depends upon the speed of the
motion. In the case of the greater number of the fixed stars this is so
slow that centuries may have to elapse before motion can be deduced.
Even in the case of the planets, the variations in the form and position
of the orbits are so slow that long periods of observation are required
for their correct determination.

The process of development is also made slow and difficult by the great
amount of labour involved in deriving the results of astronomical
observations. When an astronomer has made an observation, it still has
to be "reduced," and this commonly requires more labour than that
involved in making it. But even this labour may be small compared with
that of the theoretical astronomer, who, in the future, is to use the
result as the raw material of his work. The computations required in
such work are of extreme complexity, and the labour required is still
further increased by the fact that cases are rather exceptional in which
the results reached by one generation will not have to be revised and
reconstructed by another; processes which may involve the repetition of
the entire work. We may, in fact, regard the fabric of astronomical
science as a building in the construction of which no stone can be added
without a readjustment of some of the stones on which it has to rest.
Thus it comes about that the observer, the computer, and the
mathematician have in astronomical science a practically unlimited field
for the exercise of their powers.

In treating so comprehensive a subject we may naturally distinguish
between what we know of the universe and the methods and processes by
which that knowledge is acquired. The former may be termed general, and
the latter practical, astronomy. When we descend more minutely into
details we find these two branches of the subject to be connected by
certain principles, the application of which relates to both subjects.
Considering as general or descriptive astronomy a description of the
universe as we now understand it, the other branches of the subject
generally recognized are as follows:--

_Geometrical_ or _Spherical Astronomy_, by the principles of which the
positions and the motions of the heavenly bodies are defined.

_Theoretical Astronomy_, which may be considered as an extension of
geometrical astronomy and includes the determination of the positions
and motions of the heavenly bodies by combining mathematical theory with
observation. Modern theoretical astronomy, taken in the most limited
sense, is based upon _Celestial Mechanics_, the science by which, using
purely deductive mechanical methods, the laws of motion of the heavenly
bodies are derived by deductive methods from their mutual gravitation
towards each other.

_Practical Astronomy_, which comprises a description of the instruments
used in astronomical observation, and of the principles and methods
underlying their application.

_Spherical or Geometrical Astronomy._

In astronomy, as in analytical geometry, the position of a point is
defined by stating its distance and its direction from a point of
reference taken as known. The numerical quantities by which the distance
and direction, and therefore the position, are defined, are termed
_co-ordinates_ of the point. The latter are measured or defined with
regard to a fixed system of lines and planes, which form the basis of
the system.

The following are the fundamental concepts of such a system.

(a) An origin or point of reference. The points most generally taken
for this purpose in astronomical practice are the following:--

(1) The position of a point of observation on the earth's surface. We
conceive its position to be that occupied by an observer. The position
of a heavenly body is then defined by its direction and distance from
the supposed observer.

(2) The centre of the earth. This point, though it can never be
occupied by an observer, is used because the positions of the heavenly
bodies in relation to it are more readily computed than they can be
from a point on the earth's surface.

(3) The centre of the sun.

(4) In addition to these three most usual points, we may, of course,
take the centre of a planet or that of a star in order to define the
position of bodies in their respective neighbourhoods.

Co-ordinates referred to a point of observation as the origin are
termed "apparent," those referred to the centre of the earth are
"geocentric," those referred to the centre of the sun, "heliocentric."

(b) The next concept of the system is a fundamental plane, regarded as
fixed, passing through the origin. In connexion with it is an axis
perpendicular to it, also passing through the origin. We may consider
the axis and the plane as a single concept, the axis determining the
plane, or the plane the axis. The fundamental concepts of this class
most in use are:--

(1) When a point on the earth's surface is taken as the origin, the
fundamental axis may be the direction of gravity at that point. This
direction defines the vertical line. The fundamental plane which it
determines is horizontal and is termed the plane of the horizon. Such
a plane is realized in the surface of a liquid, a basin of
quicksilver, for example.

(2) When the centre of the earth is taken as origin, the most natural
fundamental axis is that of the earth's rotation. This axis cuts the
earth's surface at the North and South Poles. The fundamental plane
perpendicular to it is the plane of the equator. This plane intersects
the earth's surface in the terrestrial equator. Co-ordinates referred
to this system are termed equatorial. A system of equatorial
co-ordinates may also be used when the origin is on the earth's
surface. The fundamental axis, instead of being the earth's axis
itself, is then a line parallel to it, and the fundamental plane is
the plane passing through the point, and parallel to the plane of the
equator.

(3) In the system of heliocentric co-ordinates, the plane in which the
earth moves round the sun, which is the plane of the ecliptic, is
taken as the fundamental one. The axis of the ecliptic is a line
perpendicular to this plane.

(c) The third concept necessary to complete the system is a fixed line
passing through the origin, and lying in the fundamental plane. This
line defines an initial direction from which other directions are
counted.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.]

The geometrical concepts just defined are shown in fig. 1. Here O is
the origin, whatever point it may be; OZ is the fundamental axis
passing through it. In order to represent in the figure the position
of the fundamental plane, we conceive a circle to be drawn round O,
lying in that plane. This circle, projected in perspective as an
ellipse, is shown in the figure. OX is the fixed initial line by which
directions are to be defined.

Now let P be any point in space, say the centre of a heavenly body.
Conceive a perpendicular PQ to be dropped from this point on the
fundamental plane, meeting the latter in the point Q; PQ will then be
parallel to OZ. The co-ordinates of P will then be the following three
quantities:--

(1) The length of the line OP, or the distance of the body from the
origin, which distance is called the radius vector of the body.

(2) The angle XOQ which the projection of the radius vector upon the
fundamental plane makes with the initial line OX. This angle is called
the Longitude, Right Ascension or Azimuth of the body, in the various
systems of co-ordinates. We may term it in a general way the
longitudinal co-ordinate.

(3) The angle QOP, which the radius vector makes with the fundamental
plane. This we may call the latitudinal co-ordinate. Instead of it is
frequently used the complementary angle ZOP, known as the polar
distance of the body. Since ZOQ is a right angle, it follows that the
sum of the polar distance and the latitudinal co-ordinates is always
90°. Either may be used for astronomical purposes.

It is readily seen that the position of a heavenly body is completely
defined when these co-ordinates are given.

One of the systems of co-ordinates is familiar to every one, and may
be used as a general illustration of the method. It is our system of
defining the position of a point on the earth's surface by its
latitude and longitude. Regarding O (fig. 1) as the centre of the
earth, and P as a point on the earth's surface, a city for example, it
will be seen that OZ being the earth's axis, the circle MN will be the
equator. The initial line OX then passes through the foot of the
perpendicular dropped from Greenwich upon the plane of the equator,
and meets the surface at N. The angle QOP is the latitude of the place
and the angle NOQ its longitude. The longitudes and latitudes thus
defined are geocentric, and the latitude is slightly different from
that in ordinary use for geographic purposes. The difference arises
from the oblateness of the earth, and need not be considered here.

The conception of the co-ordinates we have defined is facilitated by
introducing that of the celestial sphere. This conception is embodied
in our idea of the vault of heaven, or of the sky. Taking as origin
the position of an observer, the direction of a heavenly body is
defined by the point in which he sees it in the sky; that is to say,
on the celestial sphere. Imagining, as we may well do, that the radius
of this sphere is infinite--then every direction, whatever the origin,
may be represented by a point on its surface. Take for example the
vertical line which is embodied in the direction of the plumb line.
This line, extended upwards, meets the celestial sphere in the zenith.
The earth's axis, continued indefinitely upwards, meets the sphere in
a point called the Celestial Pole. This point in our middle latitudes
is between the zenith and the north horizon, near a certain star of
the second magnitude familiarly known as the Pole Star. As the earth
revolves from west to east the celestial sphere appears to us to
revolve in the opposite direction, turning on the line joining the
Celestial Poles as on a pivot.

As we conceive of the sky, it does not consist of an entire sphere but
only as a hemisphere bounded by the horizon. But we have no difficulty
in extending the conception below the horizon, so that the earth with
everything upon it is in the centre of a complete sphere. The two
parts of this sphere are the visible hemisphere, which is above the
horizon, and the invisible, which is below it. Then the plumb line not
only defines the zenith as already shown, but in a downward direction
it defines the nadir, which is the point of the sphere directly below
our feet. On the side of this sphere opposite to the North Celestial
is the South Pole, invisible in the Northern Terrestrial Hemisphere
but visible in the Southern one.

The relation of geocentric to apparent co-ordinates depends upon the
latitude of the observer. The changes which the aspect of the heaven
undergoes, as we travel North and South, are so well known that they
need not be described in detail here; but a general statement of them
will give a luminous idea of the geometrical co-ordinates we have
described. Imagine an observer starting from the North Pole to travel
towards the equator, carrying his zenith with him. When at the pole
his zenith coincides with the celestial pole, and as the earth
revolves on its axis, the heavenly bodies perform their apparent
diurnal revolutions in horizontal circles round the zenith. As he
travels South, his zenith moves along the celestial sphere, and the
circles of diurnal rotation become oblique to the horizon. The
obliquity continually increases until the observer reaches the
equator. His zenith is then in the equator and the celestial poles are
in the North and South horizon respectively. The circles in which the
heavenly bodies appear to revolve are then vertical. Continuing his
journey towards the south, the north celestial pole sinks below the
horizon; the south celestial pole rises above it; or to speak more
exactly, the zenith of the observer approaches that pole. The circles
of diurnal revolution again become oblique. Finally, at the south pole
the circles of diurnal revolution are again apparently horizontal, but
are described in a direction apparently (but not really) the reverse
of that near the north pole. The reader who will trace out these
successive concepts and study the results of his changing positions
will readily acquire the notions which it is our subject to define.

We have next to point out the relation of the co-ordinates we have
described to the annual motion of the earth around the sun. In
consequence of this motion the sun appears to us to describe annually
a great circle, called the ecliptic, round the celestial sphere, among
the stars, with a nearly uniform motion, of somewhat less than 1° in a
day. Were the stars visible in the daytime in the immediate
neighbourhood of the sun, this motion could be traced from day to day.
The ecliptic intersects the celestial equator at two opposite points,
the equinoxes, at an angle of 23° 27'. The vernal equinox is taken as
the initial point on the sphere from which co-ordinates are measured
in the equatorial and ecliptic systems. Referring to fig. 1, the
initial line OX is defined as directed toward the vernal equinox, at
which point it intersects the celestial sphere.

The following is an enumeration of the co-ordinates which we have
described in the three systems:--

APPARENT SYSTEM.

Latitudinal Co-ordinate; Altitude or Zenith Distance.
Longitudinal " Azimuth.

EQUATORIAL SYSTEM.

Latitudinal Co-ordinate; Declination or Polar Distance.
Longitudinal " Right Ascension.

ECLIPTIC SYSTEM.

Latitudinal Co-ordinate; Latitude or Ecliptic Polar Distance.
Longitudinal " Longitude.

_Relation of the Diurnal Motion to Spherical Co-ordinates._--The
vertical line at any place being the fundamental axis of the apparent
system of co-ordinates, this system rotates with the earth, and so
seems to us as fixed. The other two systems, including the vernal
equinox, are fixed on the celestial sphere, and so seem to us to
perform a diurnal revolution from east towards west. Regarding the
period of the revolution as 24 hours, the apparent motion goes on at
the rate of 15° per hour. Here we have to make a distinction of
fundamental importance between the diurnal motions of the sun and of
the stars. Owing to the unceasing apparent motion of the sun toward
the east, the interval between two passages of the same star over the
meridian is nearly four minutes less than the interval between
consecutive passages of the sun. The latter is the measure of the day
as used in civil life. In astronomical practice is introduced a day,
termed "sidereal," determined, not by the diurnal revolution of the
sun, but of the stars. The year, which comprises 365.25 solar days,
contains 366.25 sidereal days. The latter are divided into sidereal
hours, minutes and seconds as the solar day is. The conception of a
revolution through 360° in 24 hours is applicable to each case. The
sun apparently moves at the rate of 15° in a solar hour; the stars at
the rate of 15° in a sidereal hour. The latter motion leads to the
use, in astronomical practice, of time instead of angle, as the unit
in which the right ascensions are to be expressed. Considering the
position of the vernal equinox, and also of a star on the celestial
sphere, it will be seen that the interval between the transits of
these two points across the meridian may be used to measure the right
ascension of a star, since the latter amounts to 15° for every
sidereal hour of this interval. For example, if the right ascension of
a star is exactly 15°, it will pass the meridian one sidereal hour
after the vernal equinox. For the relations thus arising, and their
practical applications, see TIME, MEASUREMENT OF.

_Theoretical Astronomy._

Theoretical Astronomy is that branch of the science which, making use of
the results of astronomical observations as they are supplied by the
practical astronomer, investigates the motions of the heavenly bodies.
In its most important features it is an offshoot of celestial mechanics,
between which and theoretical astronomy no sharp dividing line can be
drawn. While it is true that the one is concerned altogether with
general theories, it is also true that these theories require
developments and modifications to apply them to the numberless problems
of astronomy, which we may place in either class.

Among the problems of theoretical astronomy we may assign the first
place to the determination of orbits (q.v.), which is auxiliary to the
prediction of the apparent motions of a planet, satellite or star. The
computations involved in the process, while simple in some cases, are
extremely complex in others. The orbit of a newly-discovered planet or
comet may be computed from three complete observations by well-known
methods in a single day. From the resulting elements of the orbit the
positions of the body from day to day may be computed and tabulated in
an ephemeris for the use of observers. But when definitive results as
to the orbits are required, it is necessary to compute the
perturbations produced by such of the major planets as have affected
the motions of the body. With this complicated process is associated
that of combining numerous observations with a view of obtaining the
best definitive result. Speaking in a general way, we may say that
computations pertaining to the orbital revolutions of double stars, as
well as the bodies of our solar system, are to a greater or less
extent of the classes we have described. The principal modification is
that, up to the present time, stellar astronomy has not advanced so
far that a computation of the perturbations in each case of a system
of stars is either necessary or possible, except in exceptional cases.

_Celestial Mechanics_.

Celestial Mechanics is, strictly speaking, that branch of applied
mathematics which, by deductive processes, derives the laws of motion of
the heavenly bodies from their gravitation towards each other, or from
the mutual action of the parts which form them. The science had its
origin in the demonstration by Sir Isaac Newton that Kepler's three laws
of planetary motion, and the law of gravitation, in the case of two
bodies, could be mutually derived from each other. A body can move round
the sun in an elliptic orbit having the sun in its focus, and describing
equal areas in equal times, only under the influence of a force directed
towards the sun, and varying inversely as the square of the distance
from it. Conversely, assuming this law of attraction, it can be shown
that the planets will move according to Kepler's laws.

Thus celestial mechanics may be said to have begun with Newton's
_Principia_. The development of the science by the successors of Newton,
especially Laplace and Lagrange, may be classed among the most striking
achievements of the human intellect. The precision with which the path
of an eclipse is laid down years in advance cannot but imbue the minds
of men with a high sense of the perfection reached by astronomical
theories; and the discovery, by purely mathematical processes, of the
changes which the orbits and motions of the planets are to undergo
through future ages is more impressive the more fully one apprehends the
nature of the problem. The purpose of the present article is to convey a
general idea of the methods by which the results of celestial mechanics
are reached, without entering into those technical details which can be
followed only by a trained mathematician. It must be admitted that any
intelligent comprehension of the subject requires at least a grasp of
the fundamental conceptions of analytical geometry and the infinitesimal
calculus, such as only one with some training in these subjects can be
expected to have. This being assumed, the hope of the writer is that the
exposition will afford the student an insight into the theory which may
facilitate his orientation, and convey to the general reader with a
certain amount of mathematical training a clear idea of the methods by
which conclusions relating to it are drawn. The non-mathematical reader
may possibly be able to gain some general idea, though vague, of the
significance of the subject.

The fundamental hypothesis of the science assumes a system of bodies
in motion, of which the sun and planets may be taken as examples, and
of which each separate body is attracted toward all the others
according to the law of Newton. The motion of each body is then
expressed in the first place by Newton's three laws of motion (see
MOTION, LAWS OF, and MECHANICS). The first step in the process shows
in a striking way the perfection of the analytic method. The
conception of force is, so to speak, eliminated from the conditions of
the problem, which is reduced to one of pure kinematics. At the
outset, the position of each body, considered as a material particle,
is defined by reference to a system of co-ordinate axes, and not by
any verbal description. Differential equations which express the
changes of the co-ordinates are then constructed. The process of
discovering the laws of motion of the particle then consists in the
integration of these equations. Such equations can be formed for a
system of any number of bodies, but the process of integration in a
rigorous form is possible only to a limited extent or in special
cases.

The problems to be treated are of two classes. In one, the bodies are
regarded as material particles, no account being taken of their
dimensions. The earth, for example, may be regarded as a particle
attracted by another more massive particle, the sun. In the other
class of problems, the relative motion of the different parts of the
separate bodies is considered; for example, the rotation of the earth
on its axis, and the consequences of the fact that those parts of a
body which are nearer to another body are more strongly attracted by
it. Beginning with the first branch of the subject, the fundamental
ideas which it is our purpose to convey are embodied in the simple
case of only two bodies, which we may call the sun and a planet. In
this case the two bodies really revolve round their common centre of
gravity; but a very slight modification of the equations of motion
reduces them to the relative motion of the planet round the sun,
regarding the moving centre of the latter as the origin of
co-ordinates. The motion of this centre, which arises from the
attraction of the planet on the sun, need not be considered.

In the actual problems of celestial mechanics three co-ordinates
necessarily enter, leading to three differential equations and six
equations of solution. But the general principles of the problem are
completely exemplified with only two bodies, in which case the motion
takes place in a fixed plane. By taking this plane, which is that of
the orbit in which the planet performs its revolution, as the plane of
xy, we have only two co-ordinates to consider. Let us use the
following notation:

x, y, the co-ordinates of the planet relative to the sun as the origin.

M, m, the masses of the attracting bodies, sun and planet.

r, the distance apart of the two bodies, or the radius vector of m
relative to M. This last quantity is analytically defined by the
equation--

r² = x² + y²

t, the time, reckoned from any epoch we choose.

The differential equations which completely determine the changes in
the co-ordinates x and y, or the motion of m relative to M, are:--

d²x (M + m)x
--- = - --------
dt² r³

d²y (M + m)y
--- = - --------
dt² r³

These formulae are worthy of special attention. They are the
expression in the language of mathematics of Newton's first two laws
of motion. Their statement in this language may be regarded as
perfect, because it completely and unambiguously expresses the naked
phenomena of the motion. The equations do this without expressing any
conception, such as that of force, not associated with the actual
phenomena. Moreover, as a third advantage, these expressions are
entirely free from those difficulties and ambiguities which are met
with in every attempt to express the laws of motion in ordinary
language. They afford yet another great advantage in that the
derivation of the results requires only the analytic operations of the
infinitesimal calculus.

The power and spirit of the analytic method will be appreciated by
showing how it expresses the relations of motion as they were
conceived geometrically by Newton and Kepler. It is quite evident that
Kepler's laws do not in themselves enable us to determine the actual
motion of the planets. We must have, in addition, in the case of each
special planet, certain specific facts, viz. the axes and eccentricity
of the ellipse, and the position of the plane in which it lies.
Besides these, we must have given the position of the planet in the
orbit at some specified moment. Having these data, the position of the
planet at any other time may be geometrically constructed by Kepler's
laws. The third law enables us to compute the time taken by the radius
vector to sweep over the entire area of the orbit, which is identical
with the time of revolution. The problem of constructing successive
radii vectores, the angles of which are measured off from the radius
vector of the body at the original given position, is then a geometric
one, known as Kepler's problem.

In the analytic process these specific data, called elements of the
orbit, appear as arbitrary constants, introduced by the process of
integration. In a case like the present one, where there are two
differential equations of the second order, there will be four such
constants. The result of the integration is that the co-ordinates x
and y and their derivatives as to the time, which express the
position, direction of motion and speed of the planet at any moment,
are found as functions of the four constants and of the time. Putting

a, b, c, d,

for the constants, the general form of the solution will be

x = f1(a, b, c, d, t)
y = f2(a, b, c, d, t) (2)

From these may be derived by differentiation as to t the velocities

dx/dt = f'1(a, b, c, d, t) = x'
dy/dt = f'2(a, b, c, d, t) = y' (3)

The symbols x' and y' are used for brevity to mean the velocities
expressed by the differential coefficients. The arbitrary constants,
a, b, c and d, are the elements of the orbit, or any quantities from
which these elements can be obtained. We note that, in the actual
process of integration, no geometric construction need enter.

[Illustration: fig. 2.]

Let us next consider the problem in another form. Conceive that
instead of the orbit of the planet, there is given a position P (fig.
2), through which the planet passed at an assigned moment, with a
given velocity, and in a given direction, represented by the
arrowhead. Logically these data completely determine the orbit in
which the planet shall move, because there is only one such orbit
passing through P, a planet moving in which would have the given
speed. It follows that the elements of the orbit admit of
determination when the co-ordinates of the planet at an assigned
moment and their derivatives as to time are given. Analytically the
elements are determined from these data by solving the four equations
just given, regarding a, b, c and d as unknown quantities, and x, y,
x', y' and t as given quantities. The solution of these equations
would lead to expressions of the form

a = [phi]1(x, y, x', y', t)
b = [phi]2(x, y, x', y', t) (4)
&c. &c.

one for each of the elements.

The general equations expressing the motion of a planet considered as
a material particle round a centre of attraction lead to theorems the
more interesting of which will now be enunciated.

(1) The motion of such a planet may take place not only in an ellipse
but in any curve of the second order; an ellipse, hyperbola, or
parabola, the latter being the bounding curve between the other two. A
body moving in a parabola or hyperbola would recede indefinitely from
its centre of motion and never return to it. The ellipse is therefore
the only closed orbit.

(2) The motion takes place in accord with Kepler's laws, enunciated
elsewhere.

(3) _Whewell's theorem_: if a point R be taken at a distance from the
sun equal to the major axis of the orbit of a planet and, therefore,
at double the mean distance of the planet, the speed of the latter at
any point is equal to the speed which a body would acquire by falling
from the point R to the actual position of the planet. The speed of
the latter may, therefore, be expressed as a function of its radius
vector at the moment and of the major axis of its orbit without
introducing any other elements into the expression. Another corollary
is that in the case of a body moving in a parabolic orbit the velocity
at any moment is that which would be acquired by the body in falling
from an infinite distance to the place it occupies at the moment.

(4) If a number of bodies are projected from any point in space with
the same velocity, but in various directions, and subjected only to
the attraction of the sun, they will all return to the point of
projection at the same moment, although the orbits in which they move
may be ever so different.

(5) At each distance from the sun there is a certain velocity which a
body would have if it moved in a circular orbit at that distance. If
projected with this velocity in any direction the point of projection
will be at the end of the minor axis of the orbit, because this is the
only point of an ellipse of which the distance from the focus is equal
to the semi-major axis of the curve, and therefore the only point at
which the distance of the body from the sun is equal to its mean
distance.

(6) The relation between the periodic time of a planet and its mean
distance, approximately expressed by Kepler's third law, follows very
simply from the laws of centrifugal force. It is an elementary
principle of mechanics that this force varies directly as the product
of the distance of the moving body from the centre of motion into the
square of its angular velocity. When bodies revolve at different
distances around a centre, their velocities must be such that the
centrifugal force of each shall be balanced by the attraction of the
central mass, and therefore vary inversely as the square of the
distance. If M is the central mass, n the angular velocity, and a the
distance, the balance of the two forces is expressed by the equation

an² = M/a²,

whence a³n² = M, a constant.

The periodic time varying inversely as n, this equation expresses
Kepler's third law. This reasoning tacitly supposes the orbit to be a
circle of radius a, and the mass of the planet to be negligible. The
rigorous relation is expressed by a slight modification of the law.
Putting M and m for the respective masses of the sun and planet, a for
the semi-major axis of the orbit, and n for the mean angular motion in
unit of time, the relation then is

a³n² = M + m.

What is noteworthy in this theorem is that this relation depends only
on the sum of the masses. It follows, therefore, that were any portion
of the mass of the sun taken from it, and added to the planet, the
relation would be unchanged. Kepler's third law therefore expresses
the fact that the mass of the sun is the same for all the planets, and
deviates from the truth only to the extent that the masses of the
latter differ from each other by quantities which are only a small
fraction of the mass of the sun.

_Problem of Three Bodies._--As soon as the general law of gravitation
was fully apprehended, it became evident that, owing to the attraction
of each planet upon all the others, the actual motion of the planets
must deviate from their motion in an ellipse according to Kepler's
laws. In the _Principia_ Newton made several investigations to
determine the effects of these actions; but the geometrical method
which he employed could lead only to rude approximations. When the
subject was taken up by the continental mathematicians, using the
analytical method, the question naturally arose whether the motions of
three bodies under their mutual attraction could not be determined
with a degree of rigour approximating to that with which Newton had
solved the problem of two bodies. Thus arose the celebrated "problem
of three bodies." Investigation soon showed that certain integrals
expressing relations between the motions not only of three but of any
number of bodies could be found. These were:--

First, the law of the conservation of the centre of gravity. This
expresses the general fact that whatever be the number of the bodies
which act upon each other, their motions are so related that the
centre of gravity of the entire system moves in a straight line with a
constant velocity. This is expressed in three equations, one for each
of the three rectangular co-ordinates.

Secondly, the law of conservation of areas. This is an extension of
Kepler's second law. Taking as the radius vector of each body the line
from the body to the common centre of gravity of all, the sum of the
products formed by multiplying each area described, by the mass of the
body, remains a constant. In the language of theoretical mechanics,
the moment of momentum of the entire system is a constant quantity.
This law is also expressed in three equations, one for each of the
three planes on which the areas are projected.

Thirdly, the entire _vis viva_ of the system or, as it is now called,
the energy, which is obtained by multiplying the mass of each body
into half the square of its velocity, is equal to the sum of the
quotients formed by dividing the product of every pair of the masses,
taken two and two, by their distance apart, with the addition of a
constant depending on the original conditions of the system. In the
language of algebra putting m1, m2, m3, &c. for the masses of the
bodies, r_1.2, r_1.3, r_2.3, &c. for their mutual distances apart;
v1, v2, v3, &c., for the velocities with which they are moving at any
moment; these quantities will continually satisfy the equation

m1m2 m1m3 m2m3
½(m1v²1 + m2v²2 + ...) = ----- + ----- + ----- + ... + a constant.
r_1.2 r_1.3 r_2.3

The theorems of motion just cited are expressed by seven integrals, or
equations expressing a law that certain functions of the variables and
of the time remain constant. It is remarkable that although the seven
integrals were found almost from the beginning of the investigation,
no others have since been added; and indeed it has recently been shown
that no others exist that can be expressed in an algebraic form. In
the case of three bodies these do not suffice completely to define the
motion. In this case, the problem can be attacked only by methods of
approximation, devised so as to meet the special conditions of each
case. The special conditions which obtain in the solar system are such
as to make the necessary approximation theoretically possible however
complex the process may be. These conditions are:--(1) The smallness
of the masses of the planets in comparison with that of the sun, in
consequence of which the orbit of each planet deviates but slightly
from an ellipse during any one revolution; (2) the fact that the
orbits of the planets are nearly circular, and the planes of their
orbits but slightly inclined to each other. The result of these
conditions is that all the quantities required admit of development in
series proceeding according to the powers of the eccentricities and
inclinations of the orbits, and the ratio of the masses of the several
planets to the mass of the sun.

_Perturbations of the Planets._--Kepler's laws do not completely
express the motion of a planet around a central body, except when no
force but the mutual attraction of the two bodies comes into play.
When one or more other bodies form a part of the system, their action
produces deviations from the elliptic motion, which are called
_perturbations_. The problem of determining the perturbations of the
heavenly bodies is perhaps the most complicated with which the
mathematical astronomer has to grapple; and the forms under which it
has to be studied are so numerous that they cannot be easily arranged
under any one head. But there is one conception of perturbations of
such generality and elegance that it forms the common base of all
those methods of determining these deviations which have high
scientific interest. This conception is embodied in the method of
"variation of elements," originally due to J.L. Lagrange. The simplest
method of presenting it starts with the second view of the elliptic
motion already set forth.

We have shown that, when the position of a planet and the direction
and speed of its motion at a certain instant are given, the elements
of the orbit can be determined. We have supposed this to be done at a
certain point P of the orbit, the direction and speed being expressed
by the variables x, y, x' and y'. Now, consider the values of these
same variables expressing the position of the planet at a second point
Q, and the speed with which it passes that point. With this position
and speed the elements of the orbit can again be determined. Since the
orbit is unchanged so long as no disturbing force acts, it follows
that the elements determined by means of the two sets of values of the
variables are in this case the same. In a word, although the position
and speed of the planet and the direction of its motion are constantly
changing, the values of the elements determined from these variables
remain constant. This fact is fully expressed by the equations (4)
where we have constants on one side of the equation equal to functions
of the variables on the other. Functions of the variables possessing
this property of remaining constant are termed _integrals_.

Now let the planet be subjected to any force additional to that of the
sun's attraction,--say to the attraction of another planet. To fix the
ideas let us suppose that the additional attraction is only an impulse
received at the moment of passing the point P. The first effect will
evidently be to change either the velocity or the direction in which
the planet is moving at the moment, or both. If, with the changed
velocity we again compute the elements they will be different from the
former elements. But, if the impulse is not repeated, these new
elements will again remain invariable. If repeated, the second impulse
will again change the elements, and so on indefinitely. It follows
that, if we go on computing the elements a, b, c, d from the actual
values of x, y, x' and y', at each moment when the planet is subject
to the attraction of another body, they will no longer be invariable,
but will slowly vary from day to day and year to year. These ever
varying elements represent an ever varying elliptic orbit,--not an
orbit which the planet actually describes through its whole course,
but an ideal one in which it is moving at each instant, and which
continually adjusts itself to the actual motion of the planet at the
instant. This is called the _osculating_ orbit.

The essential principle of Lagrange's elegant method consists in
determining the variations of this osculating ellipse, the
co-ordinates and velocities of the planet being ignored in the
determination. This may be done because, since the elements and
co-ordinates completely determine each other, we may concentrate our
attention on either, ignoring the other. The reason for taking the
elements as the variables is that they vary very slowly, a property
which facilitates their determination, since the variations may be
treated as small quantities, of which the squares and products may be
neglected in a first solution. In a second solution the squares and
products may be taken account of, and so on as far as necessary.

If the problem is viewed from a synthetic point of view, the stages of
its solution are as follows. We first conceive of the planets as
moving in invariable elliptic orbits, and thus obtain approximate
expressions for their positions at any moment. With these expressions
we express their mutual action, or their pull upon each other at any
and every moment. This pull determines the variations of the ideal
elements. Knowing these variations it becomes possible to represent by
integration the value of the elements as algebraic expressions
containing the time, and the elements with which we started. But the
variations thus determined will not be rigorously exact, because the
pull from which they arise has been determined on the supposition that
the planets are moving in unvarying orbits, whereas the actual pull
depends on the actual position of the planets. Another approximation
is, therefore, to be made, when necessary, by correcting the
expression of the pull through taking account of the variations of the
elements already determined, which will give a yet nearer
approximation to the truth. In theory these successive approximations
may be carried as far as we please, but in practice the labour of
executing each approximation is so great that we are obliged to stop
when the solution is so near the truth that the outstanding error is
less than that of the best observations. Even this degree of precision
may be impracticable in the more complex cases.

The results which are required to compare with observations are not
merely the elements, but the co-ordinates. When the varying elements
are known these are computed by the equations (2) because, from the
nature of the algebraic relations, the slowly varying elements are
continuously determined by the equations (4), which express the same
relations between the elements and the variables as do the equations
(2) and (3). This method is, therefore, in form at least, completely
rigorous. There are some cases in which it may be applied unchanged.
But commonly it proves to be extremely long and cumbrous, and
modifications have to be resorted to. Of these modifications the most
valuable is one conceived by P.A. Hansen. A certain mean elliptic
orbit, as near as possible to the actual varying orbit of the planet,
is taken. In this orbit a certain fictitious planet is supposed to
move according to the law of elliptic motion. Comparing the longitudes
of the actual and the fictitious planet the former will sometimes be
ahead of the latter and sometimes behind it. But in every case, if at
a certain time t, the actual planet has a certain longitude, it is
certain that at a very short interval dt before or after t, the
fictitious planet will have this same longitude. What Hansen's method
does is to determine a correction dt such that, being applied to the
actual time t, the longitude of the fictitious planet computed for the
time t + dt, will give the longitude of the true planet at the time t.
By a number of ingenious devices Hansen developed methods by which dt
could be determined. The computations are, as a general rule, simpler,
and the algebraic expressions less complex, than when the computations
of the longitude itself are calculated. Although the longitude of the
fictitious planet at the fictitious time is then equal to that of the
true planet at the true time, their radii vectores will not be
strictly equal. Hansen, therefore, shows how the radius vector is
corrected so as to give that of the true planet.

In all that precedes we have considered only two variables as
determining the position of the planet, the latter being supposed to
move in a plane. Although this is true when there are any number of
bodies moving in the same plane, the fact is that the planets move in
slightly different planes. Hence the position of the plane of the
orbit of each planet is continually changing in consequence of their
mutual action. The problem of determining the changes is, however,
simpler than others in perturbations. The method is again that of the
variation of elements. The position and velocity being given in all
three co-ordinates, a certain osculating plane is determined for each
instant in which the planet is moving at that instant. This plane
remains invariable so long as no third body acts; when it does act the
position of the plane changes very slowly, continually rotating round
the radius vector of the planet as an instantaneous axis of rotation.

_Secular and Periodic Variations._--When, following the preceding
method, the variations of the elements are expressed in terms of the
time, they are found to be of two classes, _periodic_ and _secular_.
The first depend on the mean longitudes of the planets, and always
tend back to their original values when the planets return to their
original positions in their orbits. The others are, at least through
long periods of time, continually progressive.

A luminous idea of the nature of these two classes of variation may be
gained by conceiving of the motion of a ship, floating on an ocean
affected by a long ground swell. In consequence of the swell, the ship
is continually pitching in a somewhat irregular way, the oscillations
up and down being sometimes great and sometimes small. An observer on
board of her would notice no motion except this. But, suppose the tide
to be rising. Then, by continued observation, extended over an hour or
more, it will be found that, in the general average, the ship is
gradually rising, so that two different kinds of motion are
superimposed on each other. The effect of the rising tide is in the
nature of a secular variation, while the pitching is periodic.

But the analogy does not end here. If the progressive rise of the ship
be watched for six hours or more, it will be found gradually to cease
and reverse its direction. That is to say, making abstraction of the
pitching, the ship is slowly rising and falling in a total period of
nearly twelve hours, while superimposed upon this slow motion is a
more rapid motion due to the waves. It is thus with the motions of the
planets going through their revolutions. Each orbit continually
changes its form and position, sometimes in one direction and
sometimes in another. But when these changes are averaged through
years and centuries it is found that the average orbit has a secular
variation which, for a number of centuries, may appear as a very slow
progressive change in one direction only. But when this change is more
fully investigated, it is found to be really periodic, so that after
thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of years, its
direction will be reversed and so on continually, like the rising and
falling tide. The orbits thus present themselves to us in the words of
a distinguished writer as "Great clocks of eternity which beat ages as
ours beat seconds."

The periodic variations can be represented algebraically as the
resultant of a series of harmonic motions in the following way: Let L
be an angle which is increasing uniformly with the time, and let n be
its rate of increase. We put L0 for its value at the moment from which
the time is reckoned. The general expression for the angle will then
be

L = nt + L0.

Such an angle continually goes through the round of 360° in a definite
period. For example, if the daily motion is 5°, and we take the day as
the unit of time, the round will be completed in 72 days, and the
angle will continually go through the value which it had 72 days
before. Let us now consider an equation of the form

U = a sin (nt + L0).

The value of U will continually oscillate between the extreme values
+a and -a, going through a series of changes in the same period in
which the angle nt + L0 goes through a revolution. In this case the
variation will be simply periodic.

The value of any element of the planet's motion will generally be
represented by the sum of an infinite series of such periodic
quantities, having different periods. For example

U = a sin (nt + L0) + b sin (mt + L1) + c sin (kt + L2) &c.

In this case the motion of U, while still periodic, is seemingly
irregular, being much like that of a pitching ship, which has no one
unvarying period.

In the problems of celestial mechanics the angles within the
parentheses are represented by sums or differences of multiples of the
mean longitudes of the planets as they move round their orbits. If l
be the mean longitude of the planet whose motion we are considering,
and l' that of the attracting planet affecting it, the periodic
inequalities of the elements as well as of the co-ordinates of the
attracted planet, may be represented by an infinite series of terms
like the following:--

a sin (l' - l) + b sin (2l' - l) + c sin (l' - 2l) + &c.

Here the coefficients of l and l' may separately take all integral
values, though as a general rule the coefficients a, b, c, &c.
diminish rapidly when these coefficients become large, so that only
small values have to be considered.

[Illustration: Fig. 3.]

The most interesting kind of periodic inequalities are those known as
"terms of long period." A general idea both of their nature and of
their cause will be gained by taking as a special case one celebrated
in the history of the subject--the great inequality between Jupiter
and Saturn. We begin by showing what the actual fact is in the case of
these two planets. Let fig. 3 represent the two orbits, the sun being
at C. We know that the period of Jupiter is nearly twelve years, and
that of Saturn a little less than thirty years. It will be seen that
these numbers are nearly in the ratio of 2 to 5. It follows that the
motions of the mean longitudes are nearly in the same proportion
reversed. The annual motion of Jupiter is nearly 30°, that of Saturn a
little more than 12°. Let us now consider the effect of this relation
upon the configurations and relations of the two planets. Let the line
CJ represent the common direction of the two planets from the sun when
they are in conjunction, and let us follow the motions until they
again come into conjunction. This will occur along a line CR1, making
an angle of nearly 240° with CJ. At this point Saturn will have moved
240° and Jupiter an entire revolution + 240°, making 600°. These two
motions, it will be seen, are in the proportion 5:2. The next
conjunction will take place along CS1, and the third after the initial
one will again take place near the original position JQ, Jupiter
having made five revolutions and Saturn two.

The result of these repetitions is that, during a number of
revolutions, the special mutual actions of the two planets at these
three points of their orbits repeat themselves, while the actions
corresponding to the three intermediate arcs are wanting. Thus it
happens that if the mutual actions are balanced through a period of a
few revolutions only there is a small residuum of forces corresponding
to the three regions in question, which repeats itself in the same
way, and which, if it continued indefinitely, would entirely change
the forms of the two orbits. But the actual mean motions deviate
slightly from the ratio 2:5, and we have next to show how this
deviation results in an ultimate balancing of the forces. The annual
mean motions, with the corresponding combinations, are as follows:--

Jupiter:--n = 30°.349043
Saturn:--n' = 12°.221133
2n = 60°.69809
5n' = 61°.10567
5n' - 2n = 0°.40758

If we make a more accurate computation of the conjunctions from these
data, we shall find that, in the general mean, the consecutive
conjunctions take place when each planet has moved through an entire
number of revolutions + 242.7°. It follows that the third conjunction
instead of occurring exactly along the line CQ1 occurs along CQ2,
making an angle of nearly 8° with CQ1. The successive conjunctions
following will be along CR2, CS2, CQ3, &c., the law of progression
being obvious.

The balancing of the series of forces will not be complete until the
respective triplets of conjunctions have filled up the entire space
between them. This will occur when the angle whose annual motion is
5n' - 2n has gone through 360°. From the preceding value of 5n' - 2n
we see that this will require a little more than 883 years. The result
of the continued action of the two planets upon each other is that
during half of this period the motion of one planet is constantly
retarded and of the other constantly accelerated, while during the
other half the effects are reversed. There is thus in the case of each
planet an oscillation of the mean longitude which increases it and
then diminishes it to its original value at the end of the period of
883 years.

The longitudes, latitudes and radii vectores of a planet, being
algebraically expressed as the sum of an infinite periodic series of
the kind we have been describing, it follows that the problem of
finding their co-ordinates at any moment is solved by computing these
expressions. This is facilitated by the construction of tables by
means of which the co-ordinates can be computed at any time. Such
tables are used in the offices of the national Ephemerides to
construct ephemerides of the several planets, showing their exact
positions in the sky from day to day.

We pass now to the second branch of celestial mechanics viz. that in
which the planets are no longer considered as particles, but as
rotating bodies of which the dimensions are to be taken into account.
Such a body, in free space, not acted on by any force except the
attraction of its several parts, will go on rotating for ever in an
invariable direction. But, in consequence of the centrifugal force
generated by the rotation, it assumes a spheroidal form, the
equatorial regions bulging out. Such a form we all know to be that of
the earth and of the planets rotating on their axes. Let us study the
effect of this deviation from the spherical form upon the attraction
exercised by a distant body.

[Illustration: Fig. 4.]

We begin with the special case of the earth as acted upon by the sun
and moon. Let fig. 4 represent a section of the earth through its axis
AB, ECQ being a diameter of the equator. Let the dotted lines show the
direction of the distant attracting body. The point E, being more
distant than C, will be attracted with less force, while Q will be
attracted with a greater force than will the centre C. Were the force
equal on every point of the earth it would have no influence on its
rotation, but would simply draw its whole mass toward the attracting
body. It is therefore only the _difference_ of the forces on different
parts of the earth that affects the rotation.

Let us, therefore, divide the attracting forces at each point into two
parts, one the average force, which we may call F, and which for our
purpose may be regarded as equal to the force acting at C; the others
the residual forces which we must superimpose upon the average force F
in order that the combination may be equal to the actual force. It is
clear that at Q this residual force as represented by the arrow will
be in the same direction as the actual force. But at E, since the
actual force is less than F, the residual force must tend to diminish
F, and must, therefore, act toward the right, as shown by the arrow.
These residual forces tend to make the whole earth turn round the
centre C in a clockwise direction. If nothing modified this tendency
the result would be to bring the points E and Q into the dotted lines
of the attraction. In other words the equator would be drawn into
coincidence with the ecliptic. Here, however, the same action comes
into play, which keeps a rotating top from falling over. (See
GYROSCOPE and MECHANICS.) For the same reason as in the case of the
gyroscope the actual motion of the earth's axis is at right angles to
the line joining the earth and the attracting centre, and without
going into the details of the mathematical processes involved, we may
say that the ultimate mean effect will be to cause the pole P of the
earth to move at right angles to the circle joining it to the pole of
the ecliptic. Were the position of the latter invariable, the
celestial pole would move round it in a circle. Actually the curve in
which it moves is nearly a circle; but the distance varies slightly
owing to the minute secular variation in the position of the ecliptic,
caused by the action of the planets. This motion of the celestial pole
results in a corresponding revolution of the equinox around the
celestial sphere. The rate of motion is slightly variable from century
to century owing to the secular motion of the plane of the ecliptic.
Its period, with the present rate of motion, would be about 26,000
years, but the actual period is slightly indeterminate from the cause
just mentioned.

The residual force just described is not limited to the case of an
ellipsoidal body. It will be seen that the reasoning applies to the
case of any one body or system of bodies, the dimensions of which are
not regarded as infinitely small compared with the distance of the
attracting body. In all such cases the residual forces virtually tend
to draw those portions of the body nearest the attracting centre
toward the latter, and those opposite the attracting centre away from
it. Thus we have a tide-producing force tending to deform the body,
the action of which is of the same nature as the force producing
precession. It is of interest to note that, very approximately, this
deforming force varies inversely as the cube of the distance of the
attracting body.

The action of the sun upon the satellites of the several planets and
the effects of this action are of the same general nature. For the
same reason that the residual forces virtually act in opposite
directions upon the nearer and more distant portions of a planet they
will virtually act in the case of a satellite. When the latter is
between its primary and the sun, the attraction of the latter tends to
draw the satellite away from the primary. When the satellite is in the
opposite direction from the sun, the same action tends to draw the
primary away from the satellite. In both cases, relative to the
primary, the action is the same. When the satellite is in quadrature
the convergence of the lines of attraction toward the centre of the
sun tends to bring the two bodies together. When the orbit of the
satellite is inclined to that of the primary planet round the sun, the
action brings about a change in the plane of the orbit represented by
a rotation round an axis perpendicular to the plane of the orbit of
the primary. If we conceive a pole to each of these orbits, determined
by the points in which lines perpendicular to their planes intersect
the celestial sphere, the pole of the satellite orbit will revolve
around the pole of the planetary orbit precisely as the pole of the
earth does around the pole of the ecliptic, the inclination of the two
orbits remaining unchanged.

If a planet rotates on its axis so rapidly as to have a considerable
ellipticity, and if it has satellites revolving very near the plane of
the equator, the combined actions of the sun and of the equatorial
protuberances may be such that the whole system will rotate almost as
if the planes of revolution of the satellites were solidly fixed to
the plane of the equator. This is the case with the seven inner
satellites of Saturn. The orbits of these bodies have a large
inclination, nearly 27°, to the plane of the planet's orbit. The
action of the sun alone would completely throw them out of these
planes as each satellite orbit would rotate independently; but the
effect of the mutual action is to keep all of the planes in close
coincidence with the plane of the planet's equator.

_Literature._--The modern methods of celestial mechanics may be
considered to begin with Joseph Louis Lagrange, whose theory of the
variation of elements is developed in his _Mécanique analytique_. The
practical methods of computing perturbations of the planets and
satellites were first exhaustively developed by Pierre Simon Laplace
in his _Mécanique céleste_. The only attempt since the publication of
this great work to develop the various theories involved on a uniform
plan and mould them into a consistent whole is that of de Pontécoulant
in _Théorie analytique du système du monde_ (1829-46, Paris). An
approximation to such an attempt is that of F.F. Tisserand in his
_Traité de mécanique céleste_ (4 vols., Paris). This work contains a
clear and excellent résumé of the methods which have been devised by
the leading investigators from the time of Lagrange until the present,
and thus forms the most encyclopaedic treatise to which the student
can refer.

Works less comprehensive than this are necessarily confined to the
elements of the subject, to the development of fundamental principles
and general methods, or to details of special branches. An elementary
treatise on the subject is F.R. Moulton's _Introduction to Celestial
Mechanics_ (London, 1902). Other works with the same general object
are H.A. Resal, _Mécanique céleste_; and O.F. Dziobek, _Theorie der
Planetenbewegungen_. The most complete and systematic development of
the general principles of the subject, from the point of view of the
modern mathematician, is found in J.H. Poincaré, _Les Méthodes
nouvelles de la mécanique céleste_ (3 vols., Paris, 1899, 1892, 1893).
Of another work of Poincaré, _Leçons de mécanique céleste_, the first
volume appeared in 1905.

_Practical Astronomy._

Practical Astronomy, taken in its widest sense, treats of the
instruments by which our knowledge of the heavenly bodies is acquired,
the principles underlying their use, and the methods by which these
principles are practically applied. Our knowledge of these bodies is of
necessity derived through the medium of the light which they emit; and
it is the development and applications of the laws of light which have
made possible the additions to our stock of such knowledge since the
middle of the 19th century.

At the base of every system of astronomical observation is the law
that, in the voids of space, a ray of light moves in a right line. The
fundamental problem of practical astronomy is that of determining by
measurement the co-ordinates of the heavenly bodies as already
defined. Of the three co-ordinates, the radius vector does not admit
of direct measurement, and must be inferred by a combination of
indirect measurements and physical theories. The other two
co-ordinates, which define the direction of a body, admit of direct
measurement on principles applied in the construction and use of
astronomical instruments.

In the first system of co-ordinates already described the fundamental
axis is the vertical line or direction of gravity at the point of
observation. This is not the direction of gravity proper, or of the
earth's attraction, but the resultant of this attraction combined with
the centrifugal force due to the earth's rotation on its axis. The
most obvious method of realizing this direction is by the plumb-line.
In our time, however, this appliance is replaced by either of two
others, which admit of much more precise application. These are the
basin of mercury and the spirit-level. The surface of a liquid at rest
is necessarily perpendicular to the direction of gravity, and
therefore horizontal. Considered as a curved surface, concentric with
the earth, a tangent plane to such a surface is the plane of the
horizon. The problem of measuring from an axis perpendicular to this
plane is solved on the principle that the incident and reflected rays
of light make equal angles with the perpendicular to a reflecting
surface. It follows that if PO (fig. 5) is the direction of a ray,
either from a heavenly body or from a terrestrial point, impinging at
O upon the surface of quicksilver, and reflected in the direction OR,
the vertical line is the bisector OZ, of the angle POR. If the point P
is so adjusted over the quicksilver that the ray is reflected back on
its own path, P and R lying on the same line above O, then we know
that the line PO is truly vertical. The zenith-distance of an object
is the angle which the ray of light from it makes with the vertical
direction thus defined.

[Illustration: FIG. 5.]

[Illustration: FIG. 6.]

To show the principle involved in the spirit-level let MN (fig. 6) be
the tube of such a level, fixed to an axis OZ on which it may revolve.
If this axis is so adjusted that in the course of a revolution around
it the bubble of the level undergoes no change of position, we know
that the axis is truly vertical. Any slight deviation from verticality
is shown by the motion of the bubble during the revolution, which can
be measured and allowed for. The level may not be actually attached to
an axis, a revolution of 180° being effected round an imaginary
vertical axis by turning the level end for end. The motion of the
bubble then measures double the inclination of this imaginary axis, or
the deviation of a cylinder on which the level may rest from
horizontality.

[Illustration: FIG. 7.]

[Illustration: FIG. 8.]

The problem of determining the zenith distance of a celestial object
now reduces itself to that of measuring the angle between the
direction of the object and the direction of the vertical line
realized in one of these ways. This measurement is effected by a
combination of two instruments, the telescope and the graduated
circle. Let OF (fig. 7) be a section of the telescope, MN being its
object glass. Let the parallel dotted lines represent rays of light
emanating from the object to be observed, which, for our purpose, we
regard as infinitely distant, a star for example. These rays come to a
focus at a point F lying in the focal plane of the telescope. In this
plane are a pair of cross threads or spider lines which, as the
observer looks into the telescope, are seen as AB and CD (fig. 8). If
the telescope is so pointed that the image of the star is seen in
coincidence with the cross threads, as represented in fig. 8, then we
know that the star is exactly in the line of sight of the telescope,
defined as the line joining the centre of the object glass, and the
point of intersection of the cross threads. If the telescope is moved
around so that the images of two distant points are successively
brought into coincidence with the cross threads, we know that the
angle between the directions of these points is equal to that through
which the telescope has been turned. This angle is measured by means
of a graduated circle, rigidly attached to the tube of the telescope
in a plane parallel to the line of sight. When the telescope is turned
in this plane, the angular motion of the line of sight is equal to
that through which the circle has turned.

Stripped of all unnecessary adjuncts, and reduced to a geometric form,
the ideal method by which the zenith distance of a heavenly body is
determined by the combination which we have described is as
follows:--Let OP (fig. 9) be the direction of a celestial body at
which a telescope, supplied with a graduating circle, is pointed. Let
OZ be an axis, as nearly vertical as it can easily be set, round which
the entire instrument may revolve through 180°. After the image of
the body is brought into coincidence with the cross threads, the
instrument is turned through 180° on the axis, which results in the
line of sight of the telescope pointing in a certain direction OQ,
determined by the condition QOZ = ZOP. The telescope is then a second
time pointed at the object by being moved through the angle QOP.
Either of the angles QOZ and ZOP is then one half that through which
the telescope has been turned, which may be measured by a graduated
circle, and which is the zenith distance of the object measured from
the direction of the axis OZ. This axis may not be exactly vertical.
Its deviation from the vertical line is determined by the motion of
the bubble of a spirit-level rigidly attached either to the axis, or
to the telescope. Applying this deviation to the measured arc, the
true zenith distance of the body is found.

[Illustration: FIG. 9.]

When the basin of quicksilver is used, the telescope, either before or
after being directed toward P, is pointed directly downwards, so that
the observer mounting above it looks through it into the reflecting
surface. He then adjusts the instrument so that the cross threads
coincide with their images reflected from the surface of the
quicksilver. The angular motion of the telescope in passing from this
position to that when the celestial object is in the line of sight is
the distance (ND) of the body from the nadir. Subtracting 90° from
(ND) gives the altitude; and subtracting (ND) from 180° gives the
zenith distance.

In the measurement of equatorial co-ordinates, the polar distance is
determined in an analogous way. We determine the apparent position of
an object near the pole on the celestial sphere at any moment, and
again at another moment, twelve hours later, when, by the diurnal
motion, it has made half a revolution. The angle through the celestial
pole, between these two positions, is double the polar distance. The
pole is the point midway between them. This being ascertained by one
or more stars near it, may be used to determine by direct measurements
the polar distances of other bodies.

The preceding methods apply mainly to the latitudinal co-ordinate. To
measure the difference between the longitudinal co-ordinates of two
objects by means of a graduated circle the instruments must turn on an
axis parallel to the principal axis of the system of co-ordinates, and
the plane of the graduated circle must be at right angles to that
axis, and, therefore, parallel to the principal co-ordinate plane. The
telescope, in order that it may be pointed in any direction, must
admit of two motions, one round the principal axis, and the other
round an axis at right angles to it. By these two motions the
instrument may be pointed first at one of the objects and then at the
other. The motion of the graduated circle in passing from one pointing
to the other is the measure of the difference between the longitudinal
co-ordinates of the two objects.

In the equatorial system this co-ordinate (the right ascension) is
measured in a different way, by making the rotating earth perform the
function of a graduated circle. The unceasing diurnal motion of the
image of any heavenly body relative to the cross threads of a
telescope makes a direct accurate measure of any co-ordinate except
the declination almost impossible. Before the position of a star can
be noted, it has passed away from the cross threads. This troublesome
result is utilized and made a means of measurement. Right ascensions
are now determined, not by measuring the angle between one star and
another, but, by noting the time between the transits of successive
stars over the meridian. The difference between these times, when
reduced to an angle, is the difference of the right ascensions of the
stars. The principle is the same as that by which the distance between
two stations may be determined by the time required for a train moving
at a uniform known speed to pass from one station to the other. The
uniform speed of the diurnal motion is 15° per hour. We have already
mentioned that in astronomical practice right ascensions are expressed
in time, so that no multiplication by 15 is necessary.

Measures made on the various systems which we have described give the
apparent direction of a celestial object as seen by the observer. But
this is not the true direction, because the ray of light from the
object undergoes refraction in passing through the atmosphere. It is
therefore necessary to correct the observation for this effect. This
is one of the most troublesome problems in astronomy because, owing to
the ever varying density of the atmosphere, arising from differences
of temperature, and owing to the impossibility of determining the
temperature with entire precision at any other point than that
occupied by the observer, the amount of refraction must always be more
or less uncertain. The complexity of the problem will be seen by
reflecting that the temperature of the air inside the telescope is not
without its effect. This temperature may be and commonly is somewhat
different from that of the observing room, which, again, is commonly
higher than the temperature of the air outside. The uncertainty thus
arising in the amount of the refraction is least near the zenith, but
increases more and more as the horizon is approached.

The result of astronomical observations which is ordinarily wanted is
not the direction of an object from the observer, but from the centre
of the earth. Thus a reduction for parallax is required. Having
effected this reduction, and computed the correction to be applied to
the observation in order to eliminate all known errors to which the
instrument is liable, the work of the practical astronomer is
completed.

The instruments used in astronomical research are described under
their several names. The following are those most used in
astrometry:--

The equatorial telescope (q.v.) is an instrument which can be directed
to any point in the sky, and which derives its appellation from its
being mounted on an axis parallel to that of the earth. By revolving
on this axis it follows a star in its diurnal motion, so that the star
is kept in the field of view notwithstanding that motion.

Next in extent of use are the transit instrument and the meridian
circle, which are commonly united in a single instrument, the transit
circle (q.v.), known also as the meridian circle. This instrument
moves only in the plane of the meridian on a horizontal east and west
axis, and is used to determine the right ascensions and declinations
of stars. These two instruments or combinations are a necessary part
of the outfit of every important observatory. An adjunct of prime
importance, which is necessary to their use, is an accurate clock,
beating seconds.

_Use of Photography._--Before the development of photography, there
was no possible way of making observations upon the heavenly bodies
except by the eye. Since the middle of the 19th century the system of
photographing the heavenly bodies has been introduced, step by step,
so that it bids fair to supersede eye observations in many of the
determinations of astronomy. (See PHOTOGRAPHY: _Celestial_.)

The field of practical astronomy includes an extension which may be
regarded as making astronomical science in a certain sense universal.
The science is concerned with the heavenly bodies. The earth on which
we live is, to all intents and purposes, one of these bodies, and, so
far as its relations to the heavens are concerned, must be included in
astronomy. The processes of measuring great portions of the earth, and
of determining geographical positions, require both astronomical
observations proper, and determinations made with instruments similar
to those of astronomy. Hence geodesy may be regarded as a branch of
practical astronomy. (S. N.)

_History of Astronomy._

Origin of the science.

A practical acquaintance with the elements of astronomy is indispensable
to the conduct of human life. Hence it is most widely diffused among
uncivilized peoples, whose existence depends upon immediate and
unvarying submission to the dictates of external nature. Having no
clocks, they regard instead the face of the sky; the stars serve them
for almanacs; they hunt and fish, they sow and reap in correspondence
with the recurrent order of celestial appearances. But these, to the
untutored imagination, present a mystical, as well as a mechanical
aspect; and barbaric familiarity with the heavens developed at an early
age, through the promptings of superstition, into a fixed system of
observation. In China, Egypt and Babylonia, strength and continuity were
lent to this native tendency by the influence of a centralized
authority; considerable proficiency was attained in the arts of
observation; and from millennial stores of accumulated data, empirical
rules were deduced by which the scope of prediction was widened and its
accuracy enhanced. But no genuine science of astronomy was founded until
the Greeks sublimed experience into theory.

Chinese astronomy.

Already, in the third millennium B.C., equinoxes and solstices were
determined in China by means of culminating stars. This is known from
the orders promulgated by the emperor Yao about 2300 B.C., as recorded
in the _Shu Chung_, a collection of documents antique in the time of
Confucius (550-478 B.C.). And Yao was merely the renovator of a system
long previously established. The _Shu Chung_ further relates the tragic
fate of the official astronomers, Hsi and Ho, put to death for
neglecting to perform the rites customary during an eclipse of the sun,
identified by Professor S.E. Russell[1] with a partial obscuration
visible in northern China 2136 B.C. The date cannot be far wrong, and it
is by far the earliest assignable to an event of the kind. There is,
however, no certainty that the Chinese were then capable of predicting
eclipses. They were, on the other hand, probably acquainted, a couple
of millenniums before Meton gave it his name, with the nineteen-year
cycle, by which solar and lunar years were harmonized;[2] they
immemorially made observations in the meridian; regulated time by
water-clocks, and used measuring instruments of the nature of armillary
spheres and quadrants. In or near 1100 B.C., Chou Kung, an able
mathematician, determined with surprising accuracy the obliquity of the
ecliptic; but his attempts to estimate the sun's distance failed
hopelessly as being grounded on belief in the flatness of the earth.
From of old, in China, circles were divided into 365¼ parts, so that the
sun described daily one Chinese degree; and the equator began to be
employed as a line of reference, concurrently with the ecliptic,
probably in the second century B.C. Both circles, too, were marked by
star-groups more or less clearly designated and defined. Cometary
records of a vague kind go back in China to 2296 B.C.; they are
intelligible and trustworthy from 611 B.C. onward. Two instruments
constructed at the time of Kublai Khan's accession in 1280 were still
extant at Peking in 1881. They were provided with large graduated
circles adapted for measurements of declination and right ascension, and
prove the Chinese to have anticipated by at least three centuries some
of Tycho Brahe's most important inventions.[3] The native astronomy was
finally superseded in the 17th century by the scientific teachings of
Jesuit missionaries from Europe.

Egyptian astronomy.

Astrolatry was, in Egypt, the prelude to astronomy. The stars were
observed that they might be duly worshipped. The importance of their
heliacal risings, or first visible appearances at dawn, for the purposes
both of practical life and of ritual observance, caused them to be
systematically noted; the length of the year was accurately fixed in
connexion with the annually recurring Nile-flood; while the curiously
precise orientation of the Pyramids affords a lasting demonstration of
the high degree of technical skill in watching the heavens attained in
the third millennium B.C. The constellational system in vogue among the
Egyptians appears to have been essentially of native origin; but they
contributed little or nothing to the genuine progress of astronomy.

Babylonian astronomy.

With the Babylonians the case was different, although their science
lacked the vital principle of growth imparted to it by their successors.
From them the Greeks derived their first notions of astronomy. They
copied the Babylonian asterisms, appropriated Babylonian knowledge of
the planets and their courses, and learned to predict eclipses by means
of the "Saros." This is a cycle of 18 years 11 days, or 223 lunations,
discovered at an unknown epoch in Chaldaea, at the end of which the moon
very nearly returns to her original position with regard as well to the
sun as to her own nodes and perigee. There is no getting back to the
beginning of astronomy by the shores of the Euphrates. Records dating
from the reign of Sargon of Akkad (3800 B.C.) imply that even then the
varying aspects of the sky had been long under expert observation. Thus
early, there is reason to suppose, the star-groups with which we are now
familiar began to be formed. They took shape most likely, not through
one stroke of invention, but incidentally, as legends developed and
astrological persuasions became defined.[4] The zodiacal series in
particular seem to have been reformed and reconstructed at wide
intervals of time (see ZODIAC). Virgo, for example, is referred by P.
Jensen, on the ground of its harvesting associations, to the fourth
millennium B.C., while Aries (according to F.K. Ginzel) was interpolated
at a comparatively recent time. In the main, however, the constellations
transmitted to the West from Babylonia by Aratus and Eudoxus must have
been arranged very much in their present order about 2800 B.C. E.W.
Maunder's argument to this effect is unanswerable.[5] For the space of
the southern sky left blank of stellar emblazonments was necessarily
centred on the pole; and since the pole shifts among the stars through
the effects of precession by a known annual amount, the ascertainment of
any former place for it virtually fixes the epoch. It may then be taken
as certain that the heavens described by Aratus in 270 B.C. represented
approximately observations made some 2500 years earlier in or near north
latitude 40°.

In the course of ages, Babylonian astronomy, purified from the
astrological taint, adapted itself to meet the most refined needs of
civil life. The decipherment and interpretation by the learned Jesuits,
Fathers Epping and Strassmeier, of a number of clay tablets preserved in
the British Museum, have supplied detailed knowledge of the methods
practised in Mesopotamia in the 2nd century B.C.[6] They show no trace
of Greek influence, and were doubtless the improved outcome of an
unbroken tradition. How protracted it had been, can be in a measure
estimated from the length of the revolutionary cycles found for the
planets. The Babylonian computers were not only aware that Venus returns
in almost exactly eight years to a given starting-point in the sky, but
they had established similar periodic relations in 46, 59, 70 and 83
years severally for Mercury, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter. They were
accordingly able to fix in advance the approximate positions of these
objects with reference to ecliptical stars which served as fiducial
points for their determination. In the Ephemerides published year by
year, the times of new moon were given, together with the calculated
intervals to the first visibility of the crescent, from which the
beginning of each month was reckoned; the dates and circumstances of
solar and lunar eclipses were predicted; and due information was
supplied as to the forthcoming heliacal risings and settings,
conjunctions and oppositions of the planets. The Babylonians knew of the
inequality in the daily motion of the sun, but misplaced by 10° the
perigee of his orbit. Their sidereal year was 4½^m too long,[7] and they
kept the ecliptic stationary among the stars, making no allowance for
the shifting of the equinoxes. The striking discovery, on the other
hand, has been made by the Rev. F.X. Kugler[8] that the various periods
underlying their lunar predictions were identical with those heretofore
believed to have been independently arrived at by Hipparchus, who
accordingly must be held to have borrowed from Chaldaea the lengths of
the synodic, sidereal, anomalistic and draconitic months.

Greek astronomy. Thales.

Pythagoras.

Heraclides.

A steady flow of knowledge from East to West began in the 7th century
B.C. A Babylonian sage named Berossus founded a school about 640 B.C. in
the island of Cos, and perhaps counted Thales of Miletus (c. 639-548)
among his pupils. The famous "eclipse of Thales" in 585 B.C. has not, it
is true, been authenticated by modern research;[9] yet the story told by
Herodotus appears to intimate that a knowledge of the Saros, and of the
forecasting facilities connected with it, was possessed by the Ionian
sage. Pythagoras of Samos (fl. 540-510 B.C.) learned on his travels in
Egypt and the East to identify the morning and evening stars, to
recognize the obliquity of the ecliptic, and to regard the earth as a
sphere freely poised in space. The tenet of its axial movement was held
by many of his followers--in an obscure form by Philolaus of Crotona
after the middle of the 5th century B.C., and more explicitly by
Ecphantus and Hicetas of Syracuse (4th century B.C.), and by Heraclides
of Pontus. Heraclides, who became a disciple of Plato in 360 B.C.,
taught in addition that the sun, while circulating round the earth, was
the centre of revolution to Venus and Mercury.[10] A genuine
heliocentric system, developed by Aristarchus of Samos (fl. 280-264
B.C.), was described by Archimedes in his _Arenarius_, only to be set
aside with disapproval. The long-lived conception of a series of
crystal spheres, acting as the vehicles of the heavenly bodies, and
attuned to divine harmonies, seems to have originated with Pythagoras
himself.

Eudoxus.

The first mathematical theory of celestial appearances was devised by
Eudoxus of Cnidus (408-355 B.C.).[11] The problem he attempted to solve
was so to combine uniform circular movements as to produce the resultant
effects actually observed. The sun and moon and the five planets were,
with this end in view, accommodated each with a set of variously
revolving spheres, to the total number of 27. The Eudoxian or
"homocentric" system, after it had been further elaborated by Callippus
and Aristotle, was modified by Apollonius of Perga (fl. 250-220 B.C.)
into the hypothesis of deferents and epicycles, which held the field for
1800 years as the characteristic embodiment of Greek ideas in astronomy.
Eudoxus further wrote two works descriptive of the heavens, the
_Enoptron_ and _Phaenomena_, which, substantially preserved in the
_Phaenomena_ of Aratus (fl. 270 B.C.), provided all the leading features
of modern stellar nomenclature.

School of Alexandria.

Aristarchus.

Greek astronomy culminated in the school of Alexandria. It was, soon
after its foundation, illustrated by the labours of Aristyllus and
Timocharis (c. 320-260 B.C.), who constructed the first catalogue giving
star-positions as measured from a reference-point in the sky. This
fundamental advance rendered inevitable the detection of precessional
effects. Aristarchus of Samos observed at Alexandria 280-264 B.C. His
treatise on the magnitudes and distances of the sun and moon, edited by
John Wallis in 1688, describes a theoretically valid method for
determining the relative distances of the sun and moon by measuring the
angle between their centres when half the lunar disk is illuminated; but
the time of dichotomy being widely indeterminate, no useful result was
thus obtainable. Aristarchus in fact concluded the sun to be not more
than twenty times, while it is really four hundred times farther off
than our satellite. His general conception of the universe was
comprehensive beyond that of any of his predecessors.

Eratosthenes.

Eratosthenes (276-196 B.C.), a native of Cyrene, was summoned from
Athens to Alexandria by Ptolemy Euergetes to take charge of the royal
library. He invented, or improved armillary spheres, the chief
implements of ancient astrometry, determined the obliquity of the
ecliptic at 23° 51' (a value 5' too great), and introduced an effective
mode of arc-measurement. Knowing Alexandria and Syene to be situated
5000 stadia apart on the same meridian, he found the sun to be 7° 12'
south of the zenith at the northern extremity of this arc when it was
vertically overhead at the southern extremity, and he hence inferred a
value of 252,000 stadia for the entire circumference of the globe. This
is a very close approximation to the truth, if the length of the unit
employed has been correctly assigned.[12]

Hipparchus

Among the astronomers of antiquity, two great men stand out with
unchallenged pre-eminence. Hipparchus and Ptolemy entertained the same
large organic designs; they worked on similar methods; and, as the
outcome, their performances fitted so accurately together that between
them they re-made celestial science. Hipparchus fixed the chief data of
astronomy--the lengths of the tropical and sidereal years, of the
various months, and of the synodic periods of the five planets;
determined the obliquity of the ecliptic and of the moon's path, the
place of the sun's apogee, the eccentricity of his orbit, and the moon's
horizontal parallax; all with approximate accuracy. His loans from
Chaldaean experts appear, indeed, to have been numerous; but were
doubtless independently verified. His supreme merit, however, consisted
in the establishment of astronomy on a sound geometrical basis. His
acquaintance with trigonometry, a branch of science initiated by him,
together with his invention of the planisphere, enabled him to solve a
number of elementary problems; and he was thus led to bestow especial
attention upon the position of the equinox, as being the common point of
origin for measures both in right ascension and longitude. Its steady
retrogression among the stars became manifest to him in 130 B.C., on
comparing his own observations with those made by Timocharis a century
and a half earlier; and he estimated at not less than 36" (the true
value being 50") the annual amount of "precession."

The choice made by Hipparchus of the geocentric theory of the universe
decided the future of Greek astronomy. He further elaborated it by the
introduction of "eccentrics," which accounted for the changes in orbital
velocity of the sun and moon by a displacement of the earth, to a
corresponding extent, from the centre of the circles they were assumed
to describe. This gave the elliptic inequality known as the "equation of
the centre," and no other was at that time obvious. He attempted no
detailed discussion of planetary theory; but his catalogue of 1080
stars, divided into six classes of brightness, or "magnitudes," is one
of the finest monuments of antique astronomy. It is substantially
embodied in Ptolemy's _Almagest_ (see PTOLEMY).

Ptolemy.

An interval of 250 years elapsed before the constructive labours of
Hipparchus obtained completion at Alexandria. His observations were
largely, and somewhat arbitrarily, employed by Ptolemy. Professor
Newcomb, who has compiled an instructive table of the equinoxes
severally observed by Hipparchus and Ptolemy, with their errors deduced
from Leverrier's solar tables, finds palpable evidence that the
discrepancies between the two series were artificially reconciled on the
basis of a year 6^m too long, adopted by Ptolemy on trust from his
predecessor. He nevertheless holds the process to have been one that
implied no fraudulent intention.

Arab astronomers.

The Ptolemaic system was, in a geometrical sense, defensible; it
harmonized fairly well with appearances, and physical reasonings had not
then been extended to the heavens. To the ignorant it was recommended by
its conformity to crude common sense; to the learned, by the wealth of
ingenuity expended in bringing it to perfection. The _Almagest_ was the
consummation of Greek astronomy. Ptolemy had no successor; he found only
commentators, among the more noteworthy of whom were Theon of Alexandria
(fl. A.D. 400) and his daughter Hypatia (370-415). With the capture of
Alexandria by Omar in 641, the last glimmer of its scientific light
became extinct, to be rekindled, a century and a half later, on the
banks of the Tigris. The first Arabic translation of the _Almagest_ was
made by order of Harun al-Rashid about the year 800; others followed,
and the Caliph al-Mamun built in 829 a grand observatory at Bagdad. Here
Albumazar (805-885) watched the skies and cast horoscopes; here Tobit
ben Korra (836-901) developed his long unquestioned, yet misleading
theory of the "trepidation" of the equinoxes; Abd-ar-rahman al-Suf
(903-986) revised at first hand the catalogue of Ptolemy;[13] and
Abulwefa (939-998), like al-Sufi, a native of Persia, made continuous
planetary observations, but did not (as alleged by L. Sédillot)
anticipate Tycho Brahe's discovery of the moon's variation. Ibn Junis
(c. 950-1008), although the scene of his activity was in Egypt, falls
into line with the astronomers of Bagdad. He compiled the Hakimite
Tables of the planets, and observed at Cairo, in 977 and 978, two solar
eclipses which, as being the first recorded with scientific
accuracy,[14] were made available in fixing the amount of lunar
acceleration. Nasir ud-din (1201-1274) drew up the Ilkhanic Tables, and
determined the constant of precession at 51". He directed an observatory
established by Hulagu Khan (d. 1265) at Maraga in Persia, and equipped
with a mural quadrant of 12 ft. radius, besides altitude and azimuth
instruments. Ulugh Beg (1394-1449), a grandson of Tamerlane, was the
illustrious personification of Tatar astronomy. He founded about 1420 a
splendid observatory at Samarkand, in which he re-determined nearly all
Ptolemy's stars, while the Tables published by him held the primacy for
two centuries.[15]

Moorish Astronomy.

European Astronomy.

Purbach.

Walther.

Arab astronomy, transported by the Moors to Spain, flourished
temporarily at Cordova and Toledo. From the latter city the Toletan
Tables, drawn up by Arzachel in 1080, took their name; and there also
the Alfonsine Tables, published in 1252, were prepared under the
authority of Alphonso X. of Castile. Their appearance signalized the
dawn of European science, and was nearly coincident with that of the
_Sphaera Mundi_, a text-book of spherical astronomy, written by a
Yorkshireman, John Holywood, known as Sacro Bosco (d. 1256). It had an
immense vogue, perpetuated by the printing-press in fifty-nine editions.
In Germany, during the 15th century, a brilliant attempt was made to
patch up the flaws in Ptolemaic doctrine. George Purbach (1423-1461)
introduced into Europe the method of determining time by altitudes
employed by Ibn Junis. He lectured with applause at Vienna from 1450;
was joined there in 1452 by Regiomontanus (q.v.); and was on the point
of starting for Rome to inspect a manuscript of the _Almagest_ when he
died suddenly at the age of thirty-eight. His teachings bore fruit in
the work of Regiomontanus, and of Bernhard Walther of Nuremberg
(1430-1504), who fitted up an observatory with clocks driven by weights,
and developed many improvements in practical astronomy.

Copernicus.

Meantime, a radical reform was being prepared in Italy. Under the
searchlights of the new learning, the dictatorship of Ptolemy appeared
no more inevitable than that of Aristotle; advanced thinkers like
Domenico Maria Novara (1454-1504) promulgated _sub rosa_ what were
called Pythagorean opinions; and they were eagerly and fully
appropriated by Nicolaus Copernicus during his student-years (1496-1505)
at Bologna and Padua. He laid the groundwork of his heliocentric theory
between 1506 and 1512, and brought it to completion in _De
Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium_ (1543). The colossal task of remaking
astronomy on an inverted design was, in this treatise, virtually
accomplished. Its reasonings were solidly founded on the principle of
the relativity of motion. A continuous shifting of the standpoint was in
large measure substituted for the displacements of the objects viewed,
which thus acquired a regularity and consistency heretofore lacking to
them. In the new system, the sphere of the fixed stars no longer
revolved diurnally, the earth rotating instead on an axis directed
towards the celestial pole. The sun too remained stationary, while the
planets, including our own globe, circulated round him. By this means,
the planetary "retrogradations" were explained as simple perspective
effects due to the combination of the earth's revolutions with those of
her sister orbs. The retention, however, by Copernicus of the antique
postulate of uniform circular motion impaired the perfection of his
plan, since it involved a partial survival of the epicyclical machinery.
Nor was it feasible, on this showing, to place the sun at the true
centre of any of the planetary orbits; so that his ruling position in
the midst of them was illusory. The reformed scheme was then by no means
perfect. Its simplicity was only comparative; many outstanding anomalies
compromised its harmonious working. Moreover, the absence of sensible
parallaxes in the stellar heavens seemed inconsistent with its validity;
and a mobile earth outraged deep-rooted prepossessions. Under these
disadvantageous circumstances, it is scarcely surprising that the
heliocentric theory, while admired as a daring speculation, won its way
slowly to acceptance as a truth.

Observatory of Cassel.

The _Tabulae Prutenicae_, calculated on Copernican principles by Erasmus
Reinhold (1511-1553), appeared in 1551. Although they represented
celestial movements far better than the Alfonsine Tables, large
discrepancies were still apparent, and the desirability of testing the
novel hypothesis upon which they were based by more refined observations
prompted a reform of methods, undertaken almost simultaneously by the
landgrave William IV. of Hesse-Cassel (1532-1592), and by Tycho Brahe.
The landgrave built at Cassel in 1561 the first observatory with a
revolving dome, and worked for some years at a star-catalogue finally
left incomplete. Christoph Rothmann and Joost Bürgi (1552-1632) became
his assistants in 1577 and 1579 respectively; and through the skill of
Bürgi, time-determinations were made available for measuring right
ascensions. At Cassel, too, the altitude and azimuth instrument is
believed to have made its first appearance in Europe.[16]

Tycho Brahe.

Tycho's labours were both more strenuous and more effective. He
perfected the art of pre-telescopic observation. His instruments were on
a scale and of a type unknown since the days of Nasir ud-din. At
Augsburg, in 1569, he ordered the construction of a 19-ft. quadrant, and
of a celestial globe 5 ft. in diameter; he substituted equatorial for
zodiacal armillae, thus definitively establishing the system of
measurements in right ascension and declination; and improved the
graduation of circular arcs by adopting the method of "transversals." By
these means, employed with consummate skill, he attained an
unprecedented degree of accuracy, and as an incidental though valuable
result, demonstrated the unreality of the supposed trepidation of the
equinoxes.

Kepler.

No more congruous arrangement could have been devised than the
inheritance by Johann Kepler of the wealth of materials amassed by Tycho
Brahe. The younger man's genius supplied what was wanting to his
predecessor. Tycho's endowments were of the practical order; yet he had
never designed his observations to be an end in themselves. He thought
of them as means towards the end of ascertaining the true form of the
universe. His range of ideas was, however, restricted; and the attempt
embodied in his ground-plan of the solar system to revive the ephemeral
theory of Heraclides failed to influence the development of thought.
Kepler, on the contrary, was endowed with unlimited powers of
speculation, but had no mechanical faculty. He found in Tycho's ample
legacy of first-class data precisely what enabled him to try, by the
touchstone of fact, the successive hypotheses that he imagined; and his
untiring patience in comparing and calculating the observations at his
disposal was rewarded by a series of unique discoveries. He long adhered
to the traditional belief that all celestial revolutions must be
performed equably in circles; but a laborious computation of seven
recorded oppositions of Mars at last persuaded him that the planet
travelled in an ellipse, one focus of which was occupied by the sun.
Pursuing the inquiry, he found that its velocity was uniform with
respect to no single point within the orbit, but that the areas
described, in equal times, by a line drawn from the sun to the planet
were strictly equal. These two principles he extended, by direct proof,
to the motion of the earth; and, by analogy, to that of the other
planets. They were published in 1609 in _De Motibus Stellae Martis_. The
announcement of the third of "Kepler's Laws" was made ten years later,
in _De Harmonice Mundi_. It states that the squares of the periods of
circulation round the sun of the several planets are in the same ratio
as the cubes of their mean distances. This numerical proportion, as
being a necessary consequence of the law of gravitation, must prevail in
every system under its sway. It does in fact prevail among the
satellite-families of our acquaintance, and presumably in stellar
combinations as well. Kepler's ineradicable belief in the existence of
some such congruity was derived from the Pythagorean idea of an
underlying harmony in nature; but his arduous efforts for its
realization took a devious and fantastic course which seemed to give
little promise of their surprising ultimate success. The outcome of his
discoveries was, not only to perfect the geometrical plan of the solar
system, but to enhance very materially the predicting power of
astronomy. The Rudolphine Tables (Ulm, 1627), computed by him from
elliptic elements, retained authority for a century, and have in
principle never been superseded. He was deterred from research into the
orbital relations of comets, by his conviction of their perishable
nature. He supposed their tails to result from the action of solar rays,
which, in traversing their mass, bore off with them some of their
subtler particles to form trains directed away from the sun. And through
the process of waste thus set on foot, they finally dissolved into the
aether, and expired "like spinning insects." (_De Cometis; Opera_, ed.
Frisch, t. vii. p. 110.) This remarkable anticipation of the modern
theory of light-pressure was suggested to him by his observations of the
great comets of 1618.

The formal astronomy of the ancients left Kepler unsatisfied. He aimed
at finding out the cause as well as the mode of the planetary
revolutions; and his demonstration that the planes in which they are
described all pass through the sun was an important preliminary to a
physical explanation of them. But his efforts to supply such an
explanation were rendered futile by his imperfect apprehension of what
motion is in itself. He had, it is true, a distinct conception of a
force analogous to that of gravity, by which cognate bodies tended
towards union. Misled, however, into identifying it with magnetism, he
imagined circulation in the solar system to be maintained through the
material compulsion of fibrous emanations from the sun, carried round by
his axial rotation. Ignorance regarding the inertia of matter drove him
to this expedient. The persistence of movement seemed to him to imply
the persistence of a moving power. He did not recognize that motion and
rest are equally natural, in the sense of requiring force for their
alteration. Yet his rationale of the tides in _De Motibus Stellae_ is
not only memorable as an astonishing forecast of the principle of
reciprocal attraction in the proportion of mass, but for its bold
extension to the earth of the lunar sphere of influence.

Galileo Galilei, Kepler's most eminent contemporary, took a foremost
part in dissipating the obscurity that still hung over the very
foundations of mechanical science. He had, indeed, precursors and
co-operators. Michel Varo of Geneva wrote correctly in 1584 on the
composition of forces; Simon Stevin of Bruges (1548-1620) independently
demonstrated the principle; and G.B. Benedetti expounded in his
_Speculationum Liber_ (Turin, 1585) perfectly clear ideas as to the
nature of accelerated motion, some years in advance of Galileo's
dramatic experiments at Pisa. Yet they were never assimilated by Kepler;
while, on the other hand, the laws of planetary circulation he had
enounced were strangely ignored by Galileo. The two lines of inquiry
remained for some time apart. Had they at once been made to coalesce,
the true nature of the force controlling celestial movements should have
been quickly recognized. As it was, the importance of Kepler's
generalizations was not fully appreciated until Sir Isaac Newton made
them the corner-stone of his new cosmic edifice.

Galileo.

Galileo's contributions to astronomy were of a different quality from
Kepler's. They were easily intelligible to the general public: in a
sense, they were obvious, since they could be verified by every
possessor of one of the Dutch perspective-instruments, just then in
course of wide and rapid distribution. And similar results to his were
in fact independently obtained in various parts of Europe by Christopher
Scheiner at Ingolstadt, by Johann Fabricius at Osteel in Friesland, and
by Thomas Harriot at Syon House, Isleworth. Galileo was nevertheless by
far the ablest and most versatile of these early telescopic observers.
His gifts of exposition were on a par with his gifts of discernment.
What he saw, he rendered conspicuous to the world. His sagacity was
indeed sometimes at fault. He maintained with full conviction to the end
of his life a grossly erroneous hypothesis of the tides, early adopted
from Andrea Caesalpino; the "triplicate" appearance of Saturn always
remained an enigma to him; and in regarding comets as atmospheric
emanations he lagged far behind Tycho Brahe. Yet he unquestionably ranks
as the true founder of descriptive astronomy; while his splendid
presentment of the laws of projectiles in his dialogue of the "New
Sciences" (Leiden, 1638) lent potent aid to the solid establishment of
celestial mechanics.

Gravitational Astronomy.

Bacon.

Descartes.

Newton.

Euler, Clairault, D'Alembert.

The accumulation of facts does not in itself constitute science.
Empirical knowledge scarcely deserves the name. _Vere scire est per
causas scire._ Francis Bacon's prescient dream, however, of a living
astronomy by which the physical laws governing terrestrial relations
should be extended the highest heavens, had long to wait for
realization. Kepler divined its possibility; but his thoughts, derailed
(so to speak) by the false analogy of magnetism, brought him no farther
than to the rough draft of the scheme of vortices expounded in detail by
René Descartes in his _Principia Philosophiae_ (1644). And this was a
Descartes _cul-de-sac._ The only practicable road struck aside from it.
The true foundations of a mechanical theory of the heavens were laid by
Kepler's discoveries, and by Galileo's dynamical demonstrations; its
construction was facilitated by the development of mathematical methods.
The invention of logarithms, the rise of analytical geometry, and the
evolution of B. Cavalieri's "indivisibles" into the infinitesimal
calculus, all accomplished during the 17th century, immeasurably widened
the scope of exact astronomy. Gradually, too, the nature of the problem
awaiting solution came to be apprehended. Jeremiah Horrocks had some
intuition, previously to 1639, that the motion of the moon was
controlled by the earth's gravity, and disturbed by the action of the
sun. Ismael Bouillaud (1605-1694) stated in 1645 the fact of planetary
circulation under the sway of a sun-force decreasing as the inverse
square of the distance; and the inevitableness of this same "duplicate
ratio" was separately perceived by Robert Hooke, Edmund Halley and Sir
Christopher Wren before Newton's discovery had yet been made public. He
was the only man of his generation who both recognized the law, and had
power to demonstrate its validity. And this was only a beginning. His
complete achievement had a twofold aspect. It consisted, first, in the
identification, by strict numerical comparisons, of terrestrial gravity
with the mutual attraction of the heavenly bodies; secondly, in the
following out of its mechanical consequences throughout the solar
system. Gravitation was thus shown to be the sole influence governing
the movements of planets and satellites; the figure of the rotating
earth was successfully explained by its action on the minuter particles
of matter; tides and the procession of the equinoxes proved amenable to
reasonings based on the same principle; and it satisfactorily accounted
as well for some of the chief lunar and planetary inequalities. Newton's
investigations, however, were very far from being exhaustive. Colossal
though his powers were, they had limits; and his work could not but
remain unterminated, since it was by its nature interminable. Nor was it
possible to provide it with what could properly be called a sequel. The
synthetic method employed by him was too unwieldy for common use. Yet no
other was just then at hand. Mathematical analysis needed half a century
of cultivation before it was fully available for the arduous tasks
reserved for it. They were accordingly taken up anew by a band of
continental inquirers, primarily by three men of untiring energy and
vivid genius, Leonhard Euler, Alexis Clairault, and Jean le Rond
d'Alembert. The first of the outstanding gravitational problems with
which they grappled was the unaccountably rapid advance of the lunar
perigee. But the apparent anomaly disappeared under Euler's powerful
treatment in 1749, and his result was shortly afterwards still further
assured by Clairault. The subject of planetary perturbations was next
attacked. Euler devised in 1753 a new method, that of the "variation of
parameters," for their investigation, and applied it to unravel some of
the earth's irregularities in a memoir crowned by the French Academy in
1756; while in 1757, Clairault estimated the masses of the moon and
Venus by their respective disturbing effects upon terrestrial movements.
But the most striking incident in the history of the verification of
Newton's law was the return of Halley's comet to perihelion, on the 12th
of March 1759, in approximate accordance with Clairault's calculation of
the delays due to the action of Jupiter and Saturn. Visual proof was
thus, it might be said, afforded of the harmonious working of a single
principle to the uttermost boundaries of the sun's dominion.

Lagrange.

These successes paved the way for the higher triumphs of Joseph Louis
Lagrange and of Pierre Simon Laplace. The subject of the lunar
librations was treated by Lagrange with great originality in an essay
crowned by the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1764; and he filled up the
lacunae in his theory of them in a memoir communicated to the Berlin
Academy in 1780. He again won the prize of the Paris Academy in 1766
with an analytical discussion of the movements of Jupiter's satellites
(_Miscellanea_, Turin Acad. t. iv.); and in the same year expanded
Euler's adumbrated method of the variation of parameters into a highly
effective engine of perturbational research. It was especially adapted
to the tracing out of "secular inequalities," or those depending upon
changes in the orbital elements of the bodies affected by them, and
hence progressing indefinitely with time; and by its means, accordingly,
the mechanical stability of the solar system was splendidly demonstrated
through the successive efforts of Lagrange and Laplace. The proper share
of each in bringing about this memorable result is not easy to
apportion, since they freely imparted and profited by one another's
advances and improvements; it need only be said that the fundamental
proposition of the invariability of the planetary major axes laid down
with restrictions by Laplace in 1773, was finally established by
Lagrange in 1776; while Laplace in 1784 proved the subsistence of such a
relation between the eccentricities of the planetary orbits on the one
hand, and their inclinations on the other, that an increase of either
element could, in any single case, proceed only to a very small extent.
The system was thus shown, apart from unknown agencies of subversion, to
be constructed for indefinite permanence. The prize of the Berlin
Academy was, in 1780, adjudged to Lagrange for a treatise on the
perturbations of comets, and he contributed to the Berlin Memoirs,
1781-1784, a set of five elaborate papers, embodying and unifying his
perfected methods and their results.

Laplace.

The crowning trophies of gravitational astronomy in the 18th century
were Laplace's explanations of the "great inequality" of Jupiter and
Saturn in 1784, and of the "secular acceleration" of the moon in 1787.
Both irregularities had been noted, a century earlier, by Edmund Halley;
both had, since that time, vainly exercised the ingenuity of the ablest
mathematicians; both now almost simultaneously yielded their secret to
the same fortunate inquirer. Johann Heinrich Lambert pointed out in 1773
that the motion of Saturn, from being retarded, had become accelerated.
A periodic character was thus indicated for the disturbance; and Laplace
assigned its true cause in the near approach to commensurability in the
periods of the two planets, the cycle of disturbance completing itself
in about 900 (more accurately 929½) years. The lunar acceleration, too,
obtains ultimate compensation, though only after a vastly protracted
term of years. The discovery, just one hundred years after the
publication of Newton's _Principia_, of its dependence upon the slowly
varying eccentricity of the earth's orbit signalized the removal of the
last conspicuous obstacle to admitting the unqualified validity of the
law of gravitation. Laplace's calculations, it is true, were inexact. An
error, corrected by J.C. Adams in 1853, nearly doubled the value of the
acceleration deducible from them; and served to conceal a discrepancy
with observation which has since given occasion to much profound
research (see MOON).

The _Mécanique céleste_, in which Laplace welded into a whole the items
of knowledge accumulated by the labours of a century, has been termed
the "Almagest of the 18th century" (Fourier). But imposing and complete
though the monument appeared, it did not long hold possession of the
field. Further developments ensued. The "method of least squares," by
which the most probable result can be educed from a body of
observational data, was published by Adrien Marie Legendre in 1806, by
Carl Friedrich Gauss in his _Theoria Motus_ (1809), which described also
a mode of calculating the orbit of a planet from three complete
observations, afterwards turned to important account for the recapture
of Ceres, the first discovered asteroid (see PLANETS, MINOR). Researches
into rotational movement were facilitated by S.D. Poisson's application
to them in 1809 of Lagrange's theory of the variation of constants;
Philippe de Pontécoulant successfully used in 1829, for the prediction
of the impending return of Halley's comet, a system of "mechanical
quadratures" published by Lagrange in the Berlin Memoirs for 1778; and
in his _Théorie analytique du système du monde_ (1846) he modified and
refined general theories of the lunar and planetary revolutions. P.A.
Hansen in 1829 (_Astr. Nach._ Nos. 166-168, 179) left the beaten track
by choosing time as the sole variable, the orbital elements remaining
constant. A.L. Cauchy published in 1842-1845 a method similarly
conceived, though otherwise developed; and the scope of analysis in
determining the movements of the heavenly bodies has since been
perseveringly widened by the labours of Urbain J.J. Leverrier, J.C.
Adams, S. Newcomb, G.W. Hill, E.W. Brown, H. Gyldén, Charles Delaunay,
F. Tisserand, H. Poincaré and others too numerous to mention. Nor were
these abstract investigations unaccompanied by concrete results. Sir
George Airy detected in 1831 an inequality, periodic in 240 years,
between Venus and the earth. Leverrier undertook in 1839, and concluded
in 1876, the formidable task of revising all the planetary theories and
constructing from them improved tables. Not less comprehensive has been
the work carried out by Professor Newcomb of raising to a higher grade
of perfection, and reducing to a uniform standard, all the theories and
constants of the solar system. His inquiries afford the assurance of a
nearly exact conformity among its members to strict gravitational law,
only the moon and Mercury showing some slight, but so far unexplained,
anomalies of movement. The discovery of Neptune in 1846 by Adams and
Leverrier marked the first solution of the "inverse problem" of
perturbations. That is to say, ascertained or ascertainable effects were
made the starting-point instead of the goal of research.

Descriptive and practical astronomy.

Bayer.

Gassendi.

Horrocks.

Huygens.

Gascoigne.

Hevelius.

Observational astronomy, meanwhile, was advancing to some extent
independently. The descriptive branch found its principle of development
in the growing powers of the telescope, and had little to do with
mathematical theory; which, on the contrary, was closely allied, by
relations of mutual helpfulness, with practical astronomy, or
"astrometry." Meanwhile, the elementary requirement of making visual
acquaintance with the stellar heavens was met, as regards the unknown
southern skies, when Johann Bayer published at Nuremberg in 1603 a
celestial atlas depicting twelve new constellations formed from the rude
observations of navigators across the line. In the same work, the
current mode of star-nomenclature by the letters of the Greek alphabet
made its appearance. On the 7th of November 1631 Pierre Gassendi watched
at Paris the passage of Mercury across the sun. This was the first
planetary transit observed. The next was that of Venus on the 24th of
November (O.S.) 1639, of which Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree
were the sole spectators. The improvement of telescopes was prosecuted
by Christiaan Huygens from 1655, and promptly led to his discoveries of
the sixth Saturnian moon, of the true shape of the Saturnian appendages,
and of the multiple character of the "trapezium" of stars in the Orion
nebula. William Gascoigne's invention of the filar micrometer and of the
adaptation of telescopes to graduated instruments remained submerged for
a quarter of a century in consequence of his untimely death at Marston
Moor (1644). The latter combination had also been ineffectually proposed
in 1634 by Jean Baptiste Morin (1583-1656); and both devices were
recontrived at Paris about 1667, the micrometer by Adrien Auzout (d.
1691), telescopic sights (so-called) by Jean Picard (1620-1682), who
simultaneously introduced the astronomical use of pendulum-clocks,
constructed by Huygens eleven years previously. These improvements were
ignored or rejected by Johann Hevelius of Danzig, the author of the last
important star-catalogue based solely upon naked-eye determinations.
He, nevertheless, used telescopes to good purpose in his studies of
lunar topography, and his designations for the chief mountain-chains and
"seas" of the moon have never been superseded. He, moreover, threw out
the suggestion (in his _Cometographia_, 1668) that comets move round the
sun in orbits of a parabolic form.

The Paris observatory.

G.D. Cassini

Römer.

The establishment, in 1671 and 1676 respectively, of the French and
English national observatories at once typified and stimulated progress.
The Paris institution, it is true, lacked unity of direction. No
authoritative chief was assigned to it until 1771. G.D. Cassini, his son
and his grandson were only _primi inter pares_. Claude Perrault's
stately edifice was equally accessible to all the more eminent members
of the Academy of Sciences; and researches were, more or less
independently, carried on there by (among others) Philippe de la Hire
(1640-1718), G.F. Maraldi (1665-1729), and his nephew, J.D. Maraldi,
Jean Picard, Huygens, Olaus Römer and Nicolas de Lacaille. Some of the
best instruments then extant were mounted at the Paris observatory. G.D.
Cassini brought from Rome a 17-ft. telescope by G. Campani, with which
he discovered in 1671 Iapetus, the ninth in distance of Saturn's family
of satellites; Rhea was detected in 1672 with a glass by the same maker
of 34-ft. focus; the duplicity of the ring showed in 1675; and, in 1684,
two additional satellites were disclosed by a Campani telescope of 100
ft. Cassini, moreover, set up an altazimuth in 1678, and employed from
about 1682 a "parallactic machine," provided with clockwork to enable it
to follow the diurnal motion. Both inventions have been ascribed to
Olaus Römer, who used but did not claim them, and must have become
familiar with their principles during the nine years (1672-1681) spent
by him at the Paris observatory. Römer, on the other hand, deserves full
credit for originating the transit-circle and the prime vertical
instrument; and he earned undying fame by his discovery of the finite
velocity of light, made at Paris in 1675 by comparing his observations
of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites at the conjunctions and
oppositions of the planet.

Flamsteed.

The organization of the Greenwich observatory differed widely from that
adopted at Paris. There a fundamental scheme of practical amelioration
was initiated by John Flamsteed, the first astronomer royal, and has
never since been lost sight of. Its purpose is the attainment of so
complete a power of prediction that the places of the sun, moon and
planets may be assigned without noticeable error for an indefinite
future time. Sidereal inquiries, as such, made no part of the original
programme in which the stars figured merely as points of reference. But
these points are not stationary. They have an apparent precessional
movement, the exact amount of which can be arrived at only by prolonged
and toilsome enquiries. They have besides "proper motions," detected in
1718 by E. Halley in a few cases, and since found to prevail
universally. Further, James Bradley discovered in 1728 the annual
shifting of the stars due to the aberration of light (see ABERRATION),
and in 1748, the complicating effects upon precession of the "nutation"
of the earth's axis. Hence, the preparation of a catalogue recording the
"mean" positions of a number of stars for a given epoch involves
considerable preliminary labour; nor do those positions long continue to
satisfy observation. They need, after a time, to be corrected, not only
systematically for precession, but also empirically for proper motion.
Before the stars can safely be employed as route-marks in the sky, their
movements must accordingly be tabulated, and research into the method of
such movements inevitably follows. We perceive then that the fundamental
problems of sidereal science are closely linked up with the elementary
and indispensable procedures of celestial measurement.

The history of the Greenwich observatory is one of strenuous efforts for
refinement, stimulated by the growing stringency of theoretical
necessities. Improved practice, again, reacted upon theory by bringing
to notice residual errors, demanding the correction of formulae, or
intimating neglected disturbances. Each increase of mechanical skill
claims a corresponding gain in the subtlety of analysis; and vice versa.
And this kind of interaction has gone on ever since Flamsteed
reluctantly furnished the "places of the moon," which enabled Newton to
lay the foundations of lunar theory.

Halley.

Bradley.

Bliss.

Maskelyne.

Pond.

Airy.

Edmund Halley, the second astronomer royal, devoted most of his official
attention to the moon. But his plan of attack was not happily chosen; he
carried it out with deficient instrumental means; and his administration
(1720-1742) remained comparatively barren. That of his successor, though
shorter, was vastly more productive. James Bradley chose the most
appropriate tasks, and executed them supremely well, with the
indispensable aid of John Bird (1700-1776), who constructed for him an
8-ft. quadrant of unsurpassed quality. Bradley's store of observations
has accordingly proved invaluable. Those of 3222 stars, reduced by F.W.
Bessel in 1818, and again with masterly insight by Dr A. Auwers in 1882,
form the true basis of exact astronomy, and of our knowledge of proper
motions. Those relating to the moon and planets, corrected by Sir George
Airy, 1840-1846, form part of the standard materials for discussing
theories of movement in the solar system. The fourth astronomer royal,
Nathaniel Bliss, provided in two years a sequel of some value to
Bradley's performance. Nevil Maskelyne, who succeeded him in 1764, set
on foot, in 1767, the publication of the _Nautical Almanac_, and about
the same time had an achromatic telescope fitted to the Greenwich mural
quadrant. The invention, perfected by John Dollond in 1757, was long
debarred from becoming effective by difficulties in the manufacture of
glass, aggravated in England by a heavy excise duty levied until 1845.
More immediately efficacious was the innovation made by John Pond
(astronomer royal, 1811-1836) of substituting entire circles for
quadrants. He further introduced, in 1821, the method of duplicate
observations by direct vision and by reflection, and by these means
obtained results of very high precision. During Sir George Airy's long
term of office (1836-1881) exact astronomy and the traditional purposes
of the royal observatory were promoted with increased vigour, while the
scope of research was at the same time memorably widened. Magnetic,
meteorological, and spectroscopic departments were added to the
establishment; electricity was employed, through the medium of the
chronograph, for the registration of transits; and photography was
resorted to for the daily automatic record of the sun's condition.

Wargentin.

Lacaille.

Tobias Mayer.

Lalande.

Meanwhile, advances were being made in various parts of the continent of
Europe. Peter Wargentin (1717-1783), secretary to the Swedish Academy of
Sciences, made a special study of the Jovian system. James Bradley had
described to the Royal Society on the 2nd of July 1719 the curious
cyclical relations of the three inner satellites; and their period of
437 days was independently discovered by Wargentin, who based upon it in
1746 a set of tables, superseded only by those of J.B.J. Delambre in
1792. Among the fruits of the strenuous career of Nicolas Louis de
Lacaille were tables of the sun, in which terms depending upon planetary
perturbations were, for the first time, introduced (1758); an extended
acquaintance with the southern heavens; and a determination of the
moon's parallax from observations made at opposite extremities of an arc
of the meridian 85° in length. Tobias Mayer of Göttingen (1723-1762)
originated the mode of adjusting transit-instruments still in vogue;
drew up a catalogue of nearly a thousand zodiacal stars (published
posthumously in 1775); and deduced the proper motions of eighty stars
from a comparison of their places as given by Olaus Romer in 1706 with
those obtained by himself in 1756. He executed besides a chart and forty
drawings of the moon (published at Göttingen in 1881), and calculated
lunar tables from a skilful development of Euler's theory, for which a
reward of £3000 was in 1765 paid to his widow by the British government.
They were published by the Board of Longitude, together with his solar
tables, in 1770. The material interests of navigation were in these
works primarily regarded; but the imaginative side of knowledge had
also potent representatives during the latter half of the 18th century.
In France, especially, the versatile activity of J.J. Lalande
popularized the acquisitions of astronomy, and enforced its demands; and
he had a German counterpart in J.E. Bode.

Distance of the sun.

Between the time of Aristarchus and the opposition of Mars in 1672, no
serious attempt was made to solve the problem of the sun's distance. In
that year, however, Jean Richer at Cayenne and G.D. Cassini at Paris
made combined observations of the planet, which yielded a parallax for
the sun of 9.5", corresponding to a mean radius for the terrestrial
orbit of 87,000,000 m. This result, though widely inaccurate, came much
nearer to the truth than any previously obtained; and it instructively
illustrated the feasibility of concerted astronomical operations at
distant parts of the earth. The way was thus prepared for availing to
the full of the opportunities for a celestial survey offered by the
transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769. They had been signalized by E.
Halley in 1716; they were later insisted upon by Lalande; an enthusiasm
for co-operation was evoked, and the globe, from Siberia to Otaheite,
was studded with observing parties. The outcome, nevertheless,
disappointed expectation. The instants of contact between the limbs of
the sun and planet defied precise determination. Optical complications
fatally impeded sharpness of vision, and the phenomena took place in a
debateable borderland of uncertainty. J.F. Encke, it is true, derived
from them in 1822-1824 what seemed an authentic parallax of 8.57",
implying a distance of 95,370,000 m.; but the confidence it inspired was
finally overthrown in 1854 by P.A. Hansen's announcement of its
incompatibility with lunar theory. An appeal then lay to the 19th
century pair of transits in 1874 and 1882; but no peremptory decision
ensued; observations were marred by the same optical evils as before.
Their upshot, however, had lost its essential importance; for a fresh
series of investigations based on a variety of principles had already
been started. Leverrier, in 1858, calculated a value of 8.95" for the
solar parallax (equivalent to a distance of 91,000,000 m.) from the
"parallactic inequality" of the moon; Professor Newcomb, using other
forms of the gravitational method, derived in 1895 a parallax of 8.76".
Again, since the constant of aberration defines the ratio between the
velocity of light and the earth's orbital speed, the span of the
terrestrial circuit, in other words, the distance of the sun, is
immediately deducible from known values of the first two quantities. The
rate of light-transmission was accordingly made the subject of an
elaborate set of experiments by Professor Newcomb in 1880-1882; and the
result, taken in connexion with the aberration-constant as determined at
Pulkowa, yielded a solar parallax of 8.79", or a distance (in round
numbers) of 93,000,000 m. But the direct or geometrical mode of attack
has still the preference over any of the indirect plans. Sir David Gill
derived a highly satisfactory value of 8.78" for the long-sought
constant from the opposition of Mars in 1877, and from combined
heliometer observations at five observatories in 1888-1889 of the minor
planets Iris, Victoria and Sappho, the apparently definitive value of
8.80" (equivalent distance, 92,874,000 m.). But an unlooked-for fresh
opportunity was afforded by the discovery in 1898 of the singularly
circumstanced minor planet Eros, which occasionally approaches the earth
more nearly than any other heavenly body except the moon. The opposition
of November 1900, though only moderately favourable, could not be
neglected; an international photographic campaign was organized at Paris
with the aid of 58 observatories; and the voluminous collected data
imply, so far as they have been discussed, a parallax for the sun a
little greater than 8.8". (See also PARALLAX.)

Reflecting telescopes.

William Herschel.

Sir John Herschel.

Lord Rosse.

The first specimen of a reflecting telescope was constructed by Isaac
Newton in 1668. It was of what is still called "Newtonian" design, and
had a speculum 2 in. in diameter. Through the skill of John Hadley
(1682-1743) and James Short of Edinburgh (1710-1768) the instrument
unfolded, in the ensuing century, some of its capabilities, which the
labours of William Herschel enormously enhanced. Between 1774 and 1789
he built scores of specula of continually augmented size, up to a
diameter of 4 ft., the optical excellence of which approved itself by a
crowd of discoveries. Uranus (q.v.) was recognized by its disk on the
13th of March 1781; two of its satellites, Oberon and Titania, disclosed
themselves on the 11th of January 1787; while with the giant 48-in.
mirror, used on the "front-view" plan, Mimas and Enceladus, the
innermost Saturnian moons, were brought to view on the 28th of August
and the 17th of September 1789. These were incidental trophies;
Herschel's main object was the exploration of the sidereal heavens. The
task, though novel and formidable, was executed with almost incredible
success. Charles Messier (1730-1817) had catalogued in 1781 103 nebulae;
Herschel discovered 2500, laid down the lines of their classification,
divined the laws of their distribution, and assigned their place in a
scheme of development. The proof supplied by him in 1802 that coupled
stars mutually circulate threw open a boundless field of research; and
he originated experimental inquiries into the construction of the
heavens by systematically collecting and sifting stellar statistics. He,
moreover, definitively established, in 1783, the fact and general
direction of the sun's movement in space, and thus introduced an element
of order into the maze of stellar proper motions. Sir John Herschel
continued in the northern, and extended to the southern hemisphere, his
father's work. The third earl of Rosse mounted, at Parsonstown in 1845,
a speculum 6 ft. in diameter, which afforded the first indications of
the spiral structure shown in recent photographs to be the most
prevalent characteristic of nebulae. Down to near the close of the 19th
century, both the use and the improvement of reflectors were left mainly
in British hands; but the gift of the "Crossley" instrument in 1895, to
the Lick observatory, and its splendid subsequent performances in
nebular photography, brought similar tools of research into extensive
use among American astronomers; and they are now, for many of the
various purposes of astrophysics, strongly preferred to refractors.

Giuseppe Piazzi.

Max Wolf.

Acquaintance with the asteroidal family began as the 19th century
opened. On the 1st of January 1801 Giuseppe Piazzi (1746-1826)
discovered Ceres, at Palermo, while engaged in collecting materials for
his star-catalogues. A prolonged succession of similar events followed.
But in the mode of detecting these swarming bodies, a typical change was
made on the 22nd of December 1891, when Dr Max Wolf of Heidelberg
photographically captured No. 323. Repetitions of the feat are now
counted by the score.

Lassell.

Bond.

Hall.

Barnard.

Perrine.

W.H. Pickering.

Practical astronomy was only secondarily concerned with the addition of
Neptune, on the 23rd of September 1846, to the company of known planets;
but William Lassell's discovery of its satellite, on the 10th of October
following, was a consequence of the perfect figure and high polish of
his 2-ft. speculum. With the same instrument, he further detected, on
the 19th of September 1848, Hyperion, the seventh of Saturn's
attendants, and, on the 24th of October 1851, Ariel and Umbriel, the
interior moons of Uranus. Simultaneously with Lassell, on the opposite
shore of the Atlantic, W.C. Bond identified Hyperion; and he perceived,
on the 15th of November 1850, Saturn's dusky ring, independently
observed, a fortnight later, by W.R. Dawes, at Wateringbury in Kent.
With the Washington 26-in. refractor, on the 11th of August 1877,
Professor Asaph Hall descried the moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos; and
a minute light-speck, noticed by Professor E.E. Barnard in the close
neighbourhood of Jupiter on the 9th of September 1892, proved
representative of a small inner satellite, invisible with less perfect
and powerful instruments than the Lick 36-in. achromatic. The Jovian
system has been reinforced by three remote and extremely faint members,
two photographed by Professor C.D. Perrine with the Crossley reflector
in 1904-1905, and the third at Greenwich in 1908; and a pair of
Saturnian moons, designated Phoebe and Themis, were tracked out by
Professor W.H. Pickering, in 1898 and 1905 respectively, amid the
thicket of stars imprinted on negatives taken at Arequipa with the Bruce
24-in. doublet lens. This raises to 26 the number of discovered
satellites in the solar system.

Comets.

Meteors.

Cometary science has ramified in unexpected ways during the last hundred
years. The establishment of a class of "short-period" comets by the
computations of J.F. Encke in 1819, and of Wilhelm von Biela in 1826,
led to the theory of their "capture" by the great planets, for which a
solid mathematical basis was provided by H. Newton, F. Tisserand and O.
Callandreau. An argument for the aboriginal connexion of comets with the
solar system, founded by R.C. Carrington in 1860 upon their
participation in its translatory movement, was more fully developed by
L. Fabry in 1893; and the close orbital relationships of cometary
groups, accentuated by the pursuit of each other along nearly the same
track by the comets of 1843, 1880 and 1882, singularly illustrated the
probable vicissitudes of their careers. The most remarkable event,
however, in the recent history of cometary astronomy was its
assimilation to that of meteors, which took unquestionable cosmical rank
as a consequence of the Leonid tempest of November 1833. The affinity of
the two classes of objects became known in 1866 through G.V.
Schiaparelli's announcement that the orbit of the bright comet of 1862
agreed strictly with the elliptic ring formed by the circulating Perseid
meteors; and three other cases of close coincidence were soon afterwards
brought to light. Tebbutt's comet in 1881 was the first to be
satisfactorily photographed. The study of such objects is now carried on
mainly through the agency of the sensitive plate. The photographic
registration of meteor-trails, too, has been lately attempted with
partial success. The full realization of the method will doubtless
provide adequate data for the detailed investigation of meteoric paths.

Sidereal astronomy.

Star catalogues.

The progress of science during the 19th century had no more distinctive
feature than the rapid growth of sidereal astronomy (see STAR). Its
scope, wide as the universe, can be compassed no otherwise than by
statistical means, and the collection of materials for this purpose
involves most arduous preliminary labour. The multitudinous enrolment of
stars was the first requisite. Only one "catalogue of precision"--Nevil
Maskelyne's of 36 fundamental stars--was available in 1800. J.J.
Lalande, however, published in 1801, in his _Histoire céleste_, the
approximate places of 47,390 from a re-observation of which the great
Paris catalogue (1887-1892) has been compiled. A valuable catalogue of
about 7600 stars was issued by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1814; Stephen
Groombridge determined 4239 at Blackheath in 1806-1816; while through
the joint and successive work of F.W. Bessel and W.A. Argelander, exact
acquaintance was made with 90,000, a more general acquaintance with the
324,000 stars recorded in the _Bonn Durchmusterung_ (1859-1862). The
southern hemisphere was subsequently reviewed on a similar duplicate
plan by E. Schönfeld (1828-1891) at Bonn, by B.A. Gould and J.M. Thome
at Córdoba. Moreover, the imposing catalogue set on foot in 1865 at
thirteen observatories by the German astronomical society has recently
been completed; and adjuncts to it have, from time to time, been
provided in the publications of the royal observatories at Greenwich and
the Cape of Good Hope, and of national, imperial and private
establishments in the United States and on the continent of Europe. But
in the execution of these protracted undertakings, the human eye has
been, to a large and increasing extent, superseded by the camera.
Photographic star-charting was begun by Sir David Gill in 1885, and the
third and concluding volume of the _Cape Photographic Durchmusterung_
appeared in 1900. It gives the co-ordinates of above 450,000 stars,
measured by Professor J.C. Kapteyn at Groningen on plates taken by C.
Ray Woods at the Cape observatory. And this comprehensive work was
merely preparatory to the International Catalogue and Chart, the
production of which was initiated by the resolutions of the Paris
Photographic Congress of 1887. Eighteen observatories scattered north
and south of the equator divided the sky among them; and the outcome of
their combined operations aimed at the production of a catalogue of at
least 2,000,000 strictly determined stars, together with a colossal map
in 22,000 sheets, showing stars to the fourteenth magnitude, in numbers
difficult to estimate. (Sea PHOTOGRAPHY, CELESTIAL.)

Photometric catalogues.

The arrangement of the stars in space can be usefully discussed only in
connexion with their apparent light-power, or "magnitude." Photometric
catalogues, accordingly, form an indispensable part of stellar
statistics; and their construction has been zealously prosecuted. The
_Harvard Photometry_ of 4260 lucid stars was issued by Professor E.C.
Pickering in 1884, the _Uranometria Nova Oxoniensis_, giving the
relative lustre of 2784 stars, by C. Pritchard in 1885. The instrument
used at Harvard was a "meridian photometer," constructed on the
principle of polarization; while the "method of extinctions," by means
of a wedge of neutral-tinted glass, served for the Oxford
determinations. At Potsdam, some 17,000 stars have been measured by
C.H.G. Müller and P.F.F. Kempf with a polarizing photometer; but by far
the most comprehensive work of the kind is the Harvard _Photometric
Durchmusterung_ (1901-1903), embracing all stars to 7.5 magnitude, and
extended to the southern pole by measurements executed at Arequipa. The
embarrassing subject of photographic photometry has also been attacked
by Professor Pickering. The need is urgent of fixing a scale, and
defining standards of actinic brightness; but it has not yet been
successfully met.

Double stars.

The investigation of double stars was carried on from 1819 to 1850 with
singular persistence and ability at Dorpat and Pulkowa by F.G.W. Struve,
and by his son and successor, O.W. Struve. The high excellence of the
data collected by them was a combined result of their skill, and of the
vast improvement in refracting telescopes due to the genius of Joseph
Fraunhofer (1787-1826). Among the inheritors of his renown were Alvan
Clark and Alvan G. Clark of Cambridgeport, Massachusetts; and the superb
definition of their great achromatics rendered practicable the division
of what might have been deemed impossibly close star-pairs. These
facilities were remarkably illustrated by Professor S.W. Burnham's
record of discovery, which roused fresh enthusiasm for this line of
inquiry by compelling recognition of the extraordinary profusion
throughout the heavens of compound objects. Discoveries with the
spectroscope have ratified and extended this conclusion.

Stellar parallax.

Only spurious star-parallaxes had claimed the attention of astronomers
until F.W. Bessel announced, in December 1838, the perspective yearly
shifting of 61 Cygni in an ellipse with a mean radius of about one-third
of a second. Thomas Henderson (1798-1844) had indeed measured the larger
displacements of [alpha] Centauri at the Cape in 1832-1833, but delayed
until 1839 to publish his result. Out of several hundred stars since
then examined, seventy or eighty have yielded fairly accurate, though
very small parallaxes. But this amount of knowledge, however valuable in
itself, is utterly inadequate to the needs of sidereal research; and
various attempts have accordingly been made, chiefly by Professors J.C.
Kapteyn and Simon Newcomb, to estimate, through the analysis of their
proper motions, the "mean parallax" of stars assorted by magnitude. And
the data thus arrived at are reassuringly self-consistent. A wide
photographic survey, by which parallaxes might be secured wholesale, has
further been recommended by Kapteyn; but is unlikely to be undertaken in
the immediate future.

Proper motions.

The exhaustive ascertainment of stellar parallaxes, combined with the
visible facts of stellar distribution, would enable us to build a
perfect plan of the universe in three dimensions. Its perfection would,
nevertheless, be undermined by the mobility of all its constituent
parts. Their configuration at a given instant supplies no information as
to their configuration hereafter unless the mode and laws of their
movements have been determined. Hence, one of the leading inducements
to the construction of exact and comprehensive catalogues has been to
elicit, by comparisons of those for widely separated epochs, the proper
motions of the stars enumerated in them. Little was known on the subject
at the beginning of the 19th century. William Herschel founded his
determination in 1783 of the sun's route in space upon the movements of
thirteen stars; and he took into account those of only six in his second
solution of the problem in 1805. But in 1837 Argelander employed 390
proper motions as materials for the treatment of the same subject; and
L. Struve had at his disposal, in 1887, no less than 2800. From the
re-observation of Lalande's stars, after the lapse of not far from a
century, J. Bossert was enabled to deduce 2675 proper motions, published
at Paris in four successive memoirs, 1887-1902; and the sum-total of
those ascertained probably now exceeds 6000. Yet this number, although
it represents a portentous expenditure of labour, is insignificant
compared with the multitude of the stellar throng; nor had any general
tendency been discerned to regulate what seemed casual flittings until
Professor Kapteyn, in 1904, adverted to the prevalence among all the
brighter stars of opposite stream-flows towards two "vertices" situated
in the Milky Way (see STAR). The assured general fact as regards the
direction of stellar movements was that they included a common
parallactic element due to the sun's translation. And it is by the
consideration of this partial accordance in motion that the advance
through space of the solar system has been ascertained.

Astrophysics.

Spectrum analysis.

The apex of the sun's way was fixed by Professor Newcomb in 1898 at a
point about 4° S. of the brilliant star Vega; but was shifted nearly 7°
to the S.W. by J.C. Kapteyn's inquiry in 1901; so that the range of
uncertainty as to its position continues unsatisfactorily wide. The
speed with which our system progresses is, on the other hand, fairly
well known. It cannot differ much from 12½ m. a second, the rate
assigned to it by Professor W.W. Campbell in 1902. He employed in his
discussion the radial velocities of 280 stars, spectroscopically
determined; and the upshot signally exemplified the community of
interests between the rising science of astrophysics and the ancient
science of astrometry. Their characteristic purposes are, nevertheless,
entirely different. The positions of the heavenly bodies in space, and
the changes of those positions with time, constitute the primary subject
of investigation by the elder school; while the new astronomy concerns
itself chiefly with the individual peculiarities of suns and planets,
with their chemistry, physical habitudes and modes of luminosity. Its
distinctive method is spectrum analysis, the invention and development
of which in the 19th century have fundamentally altered the purpose and
prospects of celestial inquiries.

Wollaston.

Fraunhofer.

Kirchhoff.

Chemistry of the sun.

A beam of sunlight admitted into a darkened room through a narrow
aperture, and there dispersed into a vario-tinted band by the
interposition of a prism, is not absolutely continuous. Dr W.H.
Wollaston made the experiment in 1802, and perceived the spaces of
colour to be interrupted by seven obscure gaps, which took the shape of
lines owing to his use of rectangular slit. He thus caught a preliminary
glimpse of the "Fraunhofer lines," so called because Joseph Fraunhofer
brought them into prominent notice by the diligence and insight of his
labours upon them in 1814-1815. He mapped 324, chose out nine, which he
designated by the letters of the alphabet, to be standards of
measurement for the rest, and ascertained the coincidence in position
between the double yellow ray derived from the flame of burning sodium
and the pair of dark lines named by him "D" in the solar spectrum. There
ensued forty-five years of groping for a law which should clear up the
enigma of the solar reversals. Partial anticipations abounded. The vital
heart of the matter was barely missed by W.A. Miller in 1845, by L.
Foucault in 1849, by A.J. Ångström in 1853, by Balfour Stewart in 1858;
while Sir George Stokes held the solution of the problem in the hollow
of his hand from 1852 onward. But it was the synthetic genius of Gustav
Kirchhoff which first gave unity to the scattered phenomena, and finally
reconciled what was elicited in the laboratory with what was observed in
the sun. On the 15th of December 1859 he communicated to the Berlin
Academy of Sciences the principle which bears his name. Its purport is
that glowing vapours similarly circumstanced absorb the identical
radiations which they emit. That is to say, they stop out just those
sections of white light transmitted through them which form their own
special luminous badges. Moreover, if the white light come from a source
at a higher temperature than theirs, the sections, or lines, absorbed by
them show dark against a continuous background. And this is precisely
the case with the sun. Kirchhoff's principle, accordingly, not only
afforded a simple explanation of the Fraunhofer lines, but availed to
found a far-reaching science of celestial chemistry. Thousands of the
dark lines in the solar spectrum agree absolutely in wave-length with
the bright rays artificially obtained from known substances, and
appertaining to them individually. These substances must then exist near
the sun. They are in fact suspended in a state of vapour between our
eyes and the photosphere, the dazzling prismatic radiance of which they,
to a minute extent, intercept, thus writing their signatures on the
coloured scroll of dispersed sunshine. By persistent research,
powerfully aided by the photographic camera and by the concave gratings
invented by H.A. Rowland (1848-1901) in 1882, about forty terrestrial
elements have been identified in the sun. Among them, iron, sodium,
magnesium, calcium and hydrogen are conspicuous; but it would be rash to
assert that any of the seventy forms of matter provisionally enumerated
in text-books are wholly absent from his composition.

Solar eclipses.

Solar physics has profited enormously by the abolition of glare during
total eclipses. That of the 8th of July 1842 was the first to be
efficiently observed; and the luminous appendages to the sun disclosed
by it were such as to excite startled attention. Their investigation has
since been diligently prosecuted. The corona was photographed at
Königsberg during the totality of the 28th of July 1851; similar records
of the red prominences, successively obtained by Father Angelo Secchi
and Warren de la Rue, as the shadow-track crossed Spain on the 18th of
July 1860, finally demonstrated their solar status. The Indian eclipse
of the 18th of August 1868 supplied knowledge of their spectrum, found
to include the yellow ray of an exotic gas named by Sir Norman Lockyer
"helium." It further suggested, to Lockyer and P. Janssen separately,
the spectroscopic method of observing these objects in daylight. Under
cover of an eclipse visible in North America on the 7th of August 1869,
the bright green line of the corona was discerned; and Professor C.A.
Young caught the "flash spectrum" of the reversing layer, at the moment
of second contact, at Xerez de la Frontera in Spain, on the 22nd of
December 1870. This significant but evanescent phenomenon, which
represents the direct emissions of a low-lying solar envelope, was
photographed by William Shackleton on the occasion of an eclipse in
Novaya Zemlya on the 9th of August 1896; and it has since been
abundantly registered by exposures made during the obscurations of 1898,
1900, 1901 and 1905. A singular and unlooked-for result of eclipse-work
has been to include the corona within the scope of solar periodicity.
Heinrich Schwabe established, in 1851, the cyclical variation, in eleven
years, of spot-frequency; terrestrial magnetic disturbances manifestly
obeyed the same law; and the peculiar winged aspect of the corona
disclosed by the eclipse of the 29th of July 1878, at an epoch of
minimum sun-spots, intimated to A.C. Ranyard a theory of coronal types,
changing concurrently with the fluctuations of spot-activity. This was
amply verified at subsequent eclipses.

Prominence photography.

The photography of prominences was, after some preliminary trials by
C.A. Young and others, fully realized in 1891 by Professor George E.
Hale at Chicago, and independently by Henri Deslandres at Paris. The
pictures were taken, in both cases, with only one quality of light; the
violet ray of calcium, the remaining superfluous beams being eliminated
by the agency of a double slit. The last-named expedient had been
described by Janssen in 1867. Hale devised on the same principle the
"spectroheliograph," an instrument by which the sun's disk can be
photographed in calcium-light by imparting a rapid movement to its image
relatively to the sensitive plate; and the method has proved in many
ways fruitful.

Stellar spectroscopy.

The likeness of the sun to the stars has been shown by the spectroscope
to be profound and inherent. Yet the general agreement of solar and
stellar chemistry does not exclude important diversities of detail.
Fraunhofer was the pioneer in this branch. He observed, in 1823, dark
lines in stellar spectra which Kirchhoff's discovery supplied the means
of interpreting. The task, attempted by G.B. Donati in 1860, was
effectively taken in hand, two years later, by Angelo Secchi, William
Huggins and Lewis M. Rutherfurd. There ensued a general classification
of the stars by Secchi into four leading types, distinguished by
diversities of spectral pattern; and the recognition by Huggins of a
considerable number of terrestrial elements as present in stellar
atmospheres. Nebular chemistry was initiated by the same investigator
when, on the 29th of August 1864, he observed the bright-line spectrum
of a planetary nebula in Draco. About seventy analogous objects,
including that in the Sword of Orion, were found by him to give light of
the same quality; and thus after seventy-three years, verification was
brought to William Herschel's hypothesis of a "shining fluid" diffused
through space, the possible raw material of stars. In 1874, Dr H.C.
Vogel published a modification of Secchi's scheme of stellar
diversities, and gave it organic meaning by connecting spectral
differences with advance in "age." And in 1895, he set apart, as in the
earliest stage of growth, a new class of "helium stars," supposed to
develop successively into Sirian, solar, Antarian, or alternatively into
carbon stars.

Spectra of comets.

On the 5th of August 1864, G.B. Donati analysed the light of a small
comet into three bright bands. Sir William Huggins repeated the
experiment on Winnecke's comet in 1868, obtained the same bands, and
traced them to their origin from glowing carbon-vapour. A photograph of
the spectrum of Tebbutt's comet, taken by him on the 24th of June 1881,
showed radiations of shorter wave-lengths but identical source, and in
addition, a percentage of reflected solar light marked as such by the
presence of some well-known Fraunhofer lines. Further experience has
generalized these earlier results. The rule that comets yield
carbon-spectra has scarcely any exceptions. The usual bands were,
however, temporarily effaced in the two brilliant apparitions of 1882 by
vivid rays of sodium and iron, emitted during the excitement of
perihelion-passage.

Progress in spectrography.

The adoption, by Sir William Huggins in 1876, of gelatine or dry plates
in celestial photography was a change of decisive import. For it made
long exposures possible; and only with long exposures could autographic
impressions be secured of such faint objects as nebulae, telescopic
comets, and the immense majority of stars, or of the dim ranges of
stellar and nebular spectra. The first conspicuous triumph of the new
"spectrographic" art thus established was the record by Huggins in 1879
of the dispersed light of several "white" or Sirian stars, in which the
chief traits of absorption were the rhythmical series of hydrogen-lines,
then memorably discovered. Again by Sir William Huggins, the spectrum of
the Orion nebula was photographed on the 7th of March 1882; and the
method has gradually become nearly exclusive in the study of nebular
emanations. The "Draper Catalogue" of 10,351 stellar spectra was
published by Professor E.C. Pickering in 1890. The materials for it were
rapidly accumulated by the use of an objective prism, that is, of a
prism placed in front of, instead of behind the object-lens, by which
means the spectra of all the stars in the field, to the number often of
many score, imprinted themselves simultaneously on the sensitive plate.
The progress of this survey was marked by a number of important
discoveries of "new" and variable stars and of spectroscopic binaries,
mainly through the acumen of Mrs Williamina Paton Fleming of Harvard
College in scrutinizing the negatives forming the data for the great
catalogue.

Doppler's principle.

The principle that the refrangibility of light is altered by end-on
motion was enunciated by Christian Doppler of Prague in 1842. The pitch
of a steam-whistle quite obviously rises and falls as the engine to
which it is attached approaches and recedes from a stationary auditor;
and light-pulses are modified like sound-waves by velocity in the line
of sight. They are crowded together and therefore rendered shorter and
more frequent by the advance of their source, but drawn apart and
lengthened by its recession. These effects vary with the rate of motion,
which they consequently serve to measure; and they are produced
indifferently by movements of the spectator or of the light-source. But
Doppler's idea that they might be detected by colour-change was entirely
illusory. It would apply only if the spectrum had no infra-red and
ultraviolet extensions. These, however, since they share the general
lengthening or shortening of wave-length through motion, are thereby
shifted, to a certain definite extent, into visibility, and so produce
accurate chromatic compensation. Integrated light, accordingly, tells
nothing about velocity; but analysed light does, when it includes bright
or dark rays the normal positions of which are known. The distinction
was pointed out by Hippolyte Fizeau in 1848. By comparison with their
analogues in the laboratory it can be determined whether, in which
direction, and how much, lines of recognized origin are displaced in the
spectra of the heavenly bodies. This subtle mode of research was made
available by Sir William Huggins in 1868. He employed it, with an
outcome of striking promise, to measure the radial speed of some of the
brighter stars. In the following year, Sir Norman Lockyer was enabled to
prove, by its means, the extraordinary vehemence of chromospheric
disturbances, the bright prominence-rays in his spectroscope betraying,
through their opposite shiftings, movements and counter-movements up to
120 m. a second; while its validity and refinement were, in 1871,
vouched for by H.C. Vogel's observations on the 9th of June 1871, of
differences due to the sun's rotation in the refrangibility of
Fraunhofer lines derived respectively from the east and west limbs.
Stellar line-of-sight work, however, made no satisfactory progress
until, in 1888, Vogel changed the _venue_ from the eye to the camera. A
high degree of precision in measurement thus became attainable, and has
since been fully attained. Not only the grosser facts concerning radial
velocity, but variations in it so small as a mile, or less, per second,
have been recorded and interpreted in terms of deep meaning. For the
investigation of the general scheme of sidereal structure, the
multiplication of results of the kind is indispensable. But as yet, the
recessional or approaching movements of only a few hundred stars have
been registered; and this store of information is scanty indeed compared
with the needs of research. How the stars really move in space, and how
the sun travels among them, can be ascertained only with the aid of
materials collected by the spectrograph, which has now fortunately been
brought to comply with the arduous conditions of exactitude requisite
for collaboration with the transit instrument and its allies, the clock
and chronograph. And here, to their great mutual advantage, the old and
the new astronomies meet and join forces.

AUTHORITIES.--R. Grant, _History of Physical Astronomy_ (1852); Sir G.
Cornewall Lewis, _An Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the
Ancients_ (1862); J.B.J. Delambre, _Hist. de l'astr. ancienne; Hist.
de l'astr. au moyen âge; Hist. de l'astr. moderne; Hist, de l'astr. au
XVIII^e siècle_; J.S. Bailly, _Histoire de l'astronomie_ (5 vols.,
1775-1787); J.F. Weidler, _Historia Astronomiae_ (1741); J.H. Mädler,
_Geschichte der Himmelskunde_ (1873); R. Wolf, _Geschichte der
Astronomie_ (1876); _Handbuch der Astronomie_ (1890-1892); W. Whewell,
_Hist. of the Inductive Sciences_; A.M. Clerke, _Hist. of Astronomy
during the 19th Century_ (4th ed., 1903); A. Berry, _Hist. of
Astronomy_ (1898); J.K. Schaubach, _Geschichte der griechischen
Astronomie bis auf Eratosthenes_ (1802); Th. H. Martin, "Mémoire sur
l'histoire des hypotheses astronomiques," _Mémoires de l'lnstitut_, t.
xxx. (Paris, 1881); P. Tannery, _Recherches sur l'histoire de
l'astronomie ancienne_ (1893); O. Gruppe, _Die kosmischen Systeme der
Griechen_ (1851); G.V. Schiaparelli, _I Precursori del Copernico_
(1873); _Le Sfere Omocentriche di Eudosso_ (1875); P. Jensen,
_Kosmologie der Babylonier_ (1890); F.X. Kugler, _Die babylonische
Mondrechnung_ (1900); J. Epping and J.N. Strassmeier, _Astronomisches
aus Babylon_ (1889); F.K. Ginzel, _Die astronomischen Kenntnisse der
Babylonier_ (1901); C.L. Ideler, _Historische Untersuchungen über die
astronomischen Beobachtungen der Alten_ (1806); _Handbuch der math.
Chronologie_ (2 vols., 1825-1826); _Untersuchungen über den Ursprung
der Sternnamen_ (1809); G. Costard, _History of Astronomy_ (1767); J.
Narrien, _An Historical Account of the Origin and Progress of
Astronomy_ (1833); J.L.E. Dreyer, _Hist. of the Planetary Systems_
(1906); G.W. Hill, "Progress of Celestial Mechanics," _The
Observatory_, vol. xix. (1896). (A. M. C.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _The Observatory_, Nos. 231-234, 1895.

[2] _Observations of Comets_, translated from the Chinese _Annals_ by
John Williams, F.S.A. (1871).

[3] J.L.E. Dreyer, _Proc. Roy. Irish Acad._ vol. iii. No. 7 (December
1881).

[4] F.K. Ginzel, "Die astronomischen Kenntnisse der Babylonier," C.F.
Lehmann, _Beiträge zur alten Geschichte_, Heft i. p. 6 (1901).

[5] _Knowledge and Scientific News_, vol. i. pp. 2, 228.

[6] _Astronomisches aus Babylon_ (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1889).

[7] Ginzel, loc. cit. Heft ii. p. 204.

[8] _Die babylonische Mondrechnung_, p. 50 (1900).

[9] S. Newcomb, _Astr. Nach._ No. 3682; P.H. Cowell, _Month. Notices
Roy. Astr. Soc._ lxv. 867.

[10] G.V. Schiaparelli, _I Precursori del Copernico_, pp. 23-28,
Pubbl. del R. Osservatorio di Brera, No. iii. (1873).

[11] G.V. Schiaparelli, _I Precursori del Copernico_, pp. 23-28,
Pubbl. del R. Osservatorio di Brera, No. ix.

[12] Marie. _Hist. des sciences_, t. i. p. 79; P. Tannery, _Hist. de
l'astronomie ancienne_, ch. v. p. 115.

[13] Published by H.C. Schjellerup in a French translation (St
Petersburg, 1874).

[14] Newcomb, _Researches on the Motion of the Moon_, Washington
Observations for 1875, Appendix ii. p. 20.

[15] F. Baily, _Memoirs Roy. Astr. Society_, vol. xiii. p. 19.

[16] J.L.E. Dreyer, _Life of Tycho Brahe_, p. 321.

ASTROPALIA (classical _Astypalaea_), an island, with good harbours, in
the south part of the Aegean, situated in 36.5° N. and immediately west
of 26.5° E. It was colonized by Megara, and its constitution and
buildings are known from numerous inscriptions. The Roman emperors
recognized it as a free state, and in the middle ages it was called
_Stampalia_, and belonged to the noble Venetian family of Quirini. It
was taken by the Turks in the 16th century, and is now noted for its
sponges. The customs and dress of the people, who speak a patois of
romaic origin, are interesting.

ASTROPHYSICS, the branch of astronomical science which treats of the
physical constitution of the heavenly bodies. So long as these bodies
could be known to men only as points or disks of light in the sky, no
such science was possible. Even later, when the telescope was the only
instrument of research, knowledge on this subject was confined to the
appearances presented by the planets, supplemented by more or less
probable inferences as to the nature of their surfaces. When, in the
third quarter of the 19th century, spectrum analysis was applied to the
light coming to us from the heavenly bodies, a new era in astronomical
science was opened up of such importance that the body of knowledge
revealed by this method has sometimes been termed the "new astronomy."
The development of the method has been greatly assisted by photography,
while the application of photometric measurements has been a powerful
auxiliary in the work. It has thus come about that astrophysics owes its
recent development, and its recognition as a distinct branch of
astronomical science, to the combination of the processes involved in
the three arts of spectroscopy, photography and photometry. The most
general conclusions reached by this combination may be summed up as
follows:--

1. The heavenly bodies are composed of like matter with that which we
find to make up our globe. The sun and stars are found to contain the
more important elements with which chemistry has made us acquainted.
Iron, calcium and hydrogen may be especially mentioned as three familiar
chemical elements which enter largely into the constitution of all the
matter of the heavens. It would be going too far to say that all the
elements known to us exist in the sun or the stars; nor is the question
whether the rarer ones can or cannot be found there of prime importance.
The general fact of identity in the main constituents is the one of most
fundamental importance. It would be going too far in the other direction
to claim that all the elements which compose the heavenly bodies are
found on the earth. There are many lines in the spectra of the stars, as
well as of the nebulae, which are not certainly identified with those
belonging to any elements known to our chemistry. The recent discoveries
growing out of the investigation of newly discovered forms of radiation
lead to the conclusion that the question of the forms of matter in the
stars has far wider range than the simple question whether any given
element is or is not found outside our earth. The question is rather
that of the infinity of forms that matter may assume, including that
most attenuated form found in the nebulae, which seem to be composed of
matter more refined than even the atoms supposed to make up the matter
around us.

2. The second conclusion is that, as a general rule, the incandescent
heavenly bodies are not masses of solid or liquid matter as formerly
assumed, but mainly masses either of gas, or of substances gaseous in
their nature, so compressed by the gravitation of their superincumbent
parts toward a common centre that their properties combine those of the
three forms of matter known to us. We have strong reason to believe that
even the sun, though much denser than the general average of the stars,
may possibly be characterized as gaseous rather than solid.
Probabilities also seem to favour the view that this may, to a certain
extent, be true of the four great planets of our system. The case of
bodies like our earth and Mars, which are solid either superficially or
throughout, is probably confined to the smaller bodies of the universe.

3. A third characteristic which seems to belong to the great bodies of
the universe is the very high temperature of their interior. With a
modification to be mentioned presently, we may regard them as intensely
hot bodies, probably at a temperature higher than any we can produce by
artificial means, of which the superficial portions have cooled off by
radiation into space. A modification in this proposition which may
hereafter be accepted involves an extension of our ideas of temperature,
and leads us to regard the interior heat of the heavenly bodies as due
to a form of molecular activity similar to that of which radium affords
so remarkable an instance. This modification certainly avoids many
difficulties connected with the question of the interior heat of the
earth, sun, Jupiter and probably all the larger heavenly bodies.

A limit is placed on our knowledge of astrophysics which, up to the
present time, we have found no means of overstepping. This is imposed
upon us by the fact that it is only when matter is in a gaseous form
that the spectroscope can give us certain knowledge as to its physical
condition. So long as bodies are in the solid state the light which they
emit, though different in different substances, has no characteristic so
precisely marked that detailed conclusions can be drawn as to the nature
of the substance emitting it. Even in a liquid form, the spectrum of any
kind of matter is less characteristic than that of gas. Moreover, a
gaseous body of uniform temperature, and so dense as to be
non-transparent, does not radiate the characteristic spectrum of the gas
of which it is composed. Precise conclusions are possible only when a
gaseous body is transparent through and through, so that the gas emits
its characteristic rays--or when the rays from an incandescent body of
any kind pass through a gaseous envelope at a temperature lower than
that of the body itself. In this case the revelations of the
spectroscope relate only to the constitution of the gaseous envelope,
and not to the body below the envelope, from which the light emanates.
The outcome of this drawback is that our knowledge of the chemical
constitution of the stars and planets is still confined to their
atmospheres, and that conclusions as to the constitution of the interior
masses which form them must be drawn by other methods than the
spectroscopic one.

When the spectroscope was first applied in astronomy, it was hoped that
the light reflected from living matter might be found to possess some
property different from that found in light reflected from non-living
matter, and that we might thus detect the presence of life on the
surface of a planet by a study of its spectrum; but no hope of this kind
has so far been realized.

We have, in this brief view of the subject, referred mainly to the
results of spectrum analysis. Growing out of, but beyond this method is
the beginning of a great branch of research which may ultimately explain
many heretofore enigmatical phenomena of nature. The discovery of
radio-activity may, by explaining the interior heat of the great bodies
of the universe, solve a difficulty which since the middle of the 19th
century has been discussed by physicists and geologists--that of
reconciling the long duration which geologists claim for the crust of
the earth with the period during which physicists have deemed it
possible that the sun should have radiated heat. Evidence is also
accumulating to show that the sun and stars are radio-active bodies, and
that emanations proceeding from the sun, and reaching the earth, have
important relations to the phenomena of Terrestrial Magnetism and the
Aurora.

The subject of Astrophysics does not admit of so definite a subdivision
as that of Astrometry. The conclusions which researches relating to it
have so far reached are treated in the articles STAR; SUN; COMET;
NEBULA; AURORA POLARIS, &c. (S. N.)

ASTRUC, JEAN (1684-1766), French physician and Biblical critic, was born
on the 19th of March 1684 at Sauve, in Languedoc. He graduated in
medicine at Montpellier in 1703, and in 1710 he was appointed to the
chair of anatomy at Toulouse, which he retained till 1717, when he
became professor of medicine at Montpellier. Subsequently he was
appointed successively superintendent of the mineral waters of Languedoc
(1721), first physician to the king of Poland (1729), and regius
professor of medicine at Paris (1731). He died on the 5th of May 1766 at
Paris. Of his numerous works, that on which his fame principally rests
is the treatise entitled _De Morbis Venereis libri sex_, 1736. In
addition to other medical works he published anonymously _Conjectures
sur les mémoires originaux dont il parait que Moyse s'est servi pour
composer le livre de la Genèse_, (1753), in which he pointed out that
two main sources can be traced in the book of Genesis; and two
dissertations on the immateriality and immortality of the soul, 1755.

See Hauck, _Realencyk. f. prot. Theol._, 1897, vol. ii. pp. 162-170.

ASTURA, formerly an island, now a peninsula, on the coast of Latium,
Italy, 7 m. S.E. of Antium, at the S.E. extremity of the Bay of Antium.
The name also belongs to the river which flowed into the sea immediately
to the S.E., at the mouth of which there was, according to Strabo, an
anchorage. The medieval castle of the Frangipani, in which Conradin of
Swabia vainly sought refuge after the battle of Tagliacozza in 1268, is
built upon the foundations of a very large villa, of _opus reticulatum_
with later additions in brickwork, and with a small harbour attached to
it on the south-east. Remains of buildings also exist behind the sand
dunes, which possibly mark the line of the channel which separated the
island from the mainland, and these may have belonged to the
post-station on the Via Severiana. As far as can be seen at present,
there are remains of only one villa on the island itself;[1] but along
the coast a mile to the north-west a line of villas begins, which
continues as far as Antium. To the south-east, on the other hand,
remains are almost entirely absent, and this portion of the coast seems
to have been as sparsely populated in Roman times as it is now. The
island seems to have existed as such in the time of Pope Honorius III.
Astura was the site of a favourite villa of Cicero, whither he retired
on the death of his daughter Tullia in 453 B.C. It appears to have been
unhealthy even in Roman times; according to Suetonius, both Augustus and
Tiberius contracted here the illnesses which proved fatal to them.

See T. Ashby, in _Mélanges de l'École Française de Rome_ (1905), p.
207. (T. As.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Servius, in speaking of it as _oppidum_, must be referring to the
post-station.

ASTURIAS, an ancient province and principality of northern Spain,
bounded on the N. by the Bay of Biscay, E. by Old Castile, S. by Leon
and W. by Galicia. Pop. (1900) 627,069; area, 4205 sq. m. By the
division of Spain in 1833, the province took the name of Oviedo, though
not to the exclusion, in ordinary usage, of the older designation. A
full description of its modern condition is therefore given under the
heading OVIEDO; the present article being confined to an account of its
physical features, its history, and the resultant character of its
inhabitants. Asturias consists of a portion of the northern slope of the
Cantabrian Mountains, and is covered in all directions with offshoots
from the main chain, by which it is almost completely shut in on the
south. The higher summits, which often reach a height of 7000-8000 ft.,
are usually covered with snow until July or August, and the whole region
is one of the wildest and most picturesque parts of Spain. Until the
first railway was opened, in the middle of the 19th century, few of the
passes across the mountains were practicable for carriages, and most of
them are difficult even for horses. A narrow strip of level moorland,
covered with furze and rich in deposits of peat, coal and amber,
stretches inland, from the edge of the sheer cliffs which line the
coast, to the foot of the mountains. The province is watered by numerous
streams and rivers, which have hollowed out deep valleys; but owing to
the narrowness of the level tract, their courses are short, rapid and
subject to floods. The most important is the Nalon or Pravia, which
receives the waters of the Caudal, the Trubia and the Narcea, and has a
course of 62 m.; after it rank the Navia and the Sella. The estuaries of
these rivers are rarely navigable, and along the entire littoral, a
distance of 130 m., the only important harbours are at Gijón and Avilés.

A country so rugged, and so isolated by land and sea, naturally served
as the last refuge of the older races of Spain when hard pressed by
successive invaders. Before the Roman conquest, the Iberian tribe of
Astures had been able to maintain itself independent of the
Carthaginians, and to extend its territory as far south as the Douro. It
was famous for its wealth in horses and gold. About 25 B.C., the Romans
subjugated the district south of the Cantabrians, to which they gave the
name of Augustana. Their capital was Asturica Augusta, the modern
Astorga, in Leon. The warlike mountaineers of the northern districts,
known as Transmontana, never altogether abandoned their hostility to the
Romans, whose rule was ended by the Visigothic conquest, late in the 5th
century. In 713, two years after the defeat and death of Roderick, the
last Visigothic king, all Spain, except Galicia and Asturias, fell into
the hands of the Moors. One of the surviving Christian leaders, Pelayo
the Goth, took refuge with three hundred followers in the celebrated
cave of Covadonga, or Cobadonga, near Cangas de Onís, and from this
hiding-place undertook the Christian reconquest of Spain. The Asturians
chose him as their king in 718, and although Galicia was lost in 734,
the Moors proved unable to penetrate into the remoter fastnesses held by
the levies of Pelayo. After his death in 737, the Asturians continued to
offer the same heroic resistance, and ultimately enabled the people of
Galicia, Leon and Castile to recover their liberty. The title of prince
of Asturias, conferred on the heir-apparent to the crown of Spain, dates
from 1388, when it was first bestowed on a Castilian prince. The title
of count of Covadonga is assumed by the kings of Spain. In modern times
Asturias formed a captaincy-general, divided into Asturias d'Oviedo,
which corresponds with the limits of the ancient principality, and
Asturias de Santillana, which now constitutes the western half of
Santander.

Owing to their almost entire immunity from any alien domination except
that of the Romans and Goths, the Asturians may perhaps be regarded as
the purest representatives of the Iberian race; while their dialect
(_linguaje bable_) is sometimes held to be closely akin to the parent
speech from which modern Castilian is derived. It is free from Moorish
idioms, and, like Galician and Portuguese it often retains the original
Latin _f_ which Castilian changes into _h_. In physique, the Asturians
are like the Galicians, a people of hardy mountaineers and fishermen,
finely built, but rarely handsome, and with none of the grace of the
Castilian or Andalusian. Unlike the Galicians, however, they are
remarkable for their keen spirit of independence, which has been
fostered by centuries of isolation. Despite the harsh land-laws and
grinding taxation which prevent them, with all their industry and
thrift, from securing the freehold of the patch of ground cultivated by
each peasant family, the Asturians regard themselves as the aristocracy
of Spain. This pride in their land, race and history they preserve even
when, as often happens, they emigrate to other parts of the country or
to South America, and earn their living as servants, water-carriers, or,
in the case of the women, as nurses. They make admirable soldiers and
sailors, but lack the enterprise and commercial aptitude of the Basques
and Catalans; while they are differentiated from the inhabitants of
central and southern Spain by their superior industry, and perhaps their
lower standard of culture. It is, on the whole, true that by the
exclusion of the Moors they lost their opportunity of playing any
conspicuous part in the literary and artistic development of Spain. One
class of the Asturians deserving special mention is that of the nomad
cattle-drovers known as Baqueros or Vaqueros, who tend their herds on
the mountains of Leitariegos in summer, and along the coast in winter;
forming a separate caste, with distinctive customs, and rarely or never
intermarrying with their neighbours.

For the modern condition of the principality (including climate, fauna
and flora), see S. Canals, _Asturias: informancion sobre su presente
estado_ (Madrid, 1900); and G. Casal, _Memorias de historia natural y
médica, de Asturias_ (Oviedo, 1900). For the history and antiquities,
there is much that is valuable in _Asturias monumental, epigráfica y
diplomática_, &c., by C.M. Vigil (Madrid, 1887)--folio, with maps and
illustrations. See also F. de Aramburu y Zuloaga, _Monografia de
Asturias_ (Oviedo, 1899).

ASTYAGES, the last king of the Median empire. In the inscriptions of
Nabonidus the name is written Ishtuvegu (cylinder from Abu Habba V R 64,
col. 1, 32; Annals, published by Pinches, _Tr. Soc. Bibl. Arch_. vii.
col. 2, 2). According to Herodotus, he was the son of Cyaxares and
reigned thirty-five years (584-550 B.C.); his wife was Aryenis, the
daughter of Alyattes of Lydia (Herod, i. 74). About his reign we know
little, as the narrative of Herodotus, which makes Cyrus the grandson of
Astyages by his daughter Mandane, is merely a legend; the figure of
Harpagus, who as general of the Median army betrays the king to Cyrus,
alone seems to contain an historical element, as Harpagus and his family
afterwards obtained a high position in the Persian empire. From the
inscriptions of Nabonidus we learn that Cyrus, king of Anshan (Susiana),
began war against him in 553 B.C.; in 550, when Astyages marched against
Cyrus, his troops rebelled, and he was taken prisoner. Then Cyrus
occupied and plundered Ecbatana. The captive king was treated fairly by
Cyrus (Herod, i. 130), and according to Ctesias (_Pers_. 5, cf. Justin
i. 6) made satrap of Hyrcania, where he was afterwards slain by Oebares
against the will of Cyrus, who gave him a splendid funeral. Alexander
Polyhistor and Abydenus in their excerpts from Berossus, which Eusebius
(_Chron_. i. pp. 29 and 37) and Syncellus (p. 396) have preserved, give
the name Astyages to the Median king who reigned in the time of the fall
of Nineveh (606 B.C.), and became father-in-law of Nebuchadrezzar. This
is evidently a mistake; the name ought to be Cyaxares (in the fragments
of the Jewish history of Alexander Polyhistor, in Euseb. _Praep. Ev_.
ix. 39, the name is converted into Astibaras, who, according to the
unhistorical list of Ctesias, was the father of Astyages), and there is
no reason to invent an earlier king Astyages I., as some modern authors
have done. The Armenian historians render the name Astyages by Ashdahak,
i.e. Azhi Dahaka (Zohak), the mythical king of the Iranian epics, who
has nothing whatever to do with the historical king of the Medes.
(Ed. M.)

ASTYLAR (from Gr. á-, privative, and [Greek: stylos], a column), an
architectural term given to a class of design in which neither columns
nor pilasters are used for decorative purposes; thus the Ricardi and
Strozzi palaces in Florence are astylar in their design, in
contradistinction to Palladio's palaces at Vicenza, which are columnar.

ASUNCIÓN (NUESTRA SENORA DE LA ASUNCIÓN), a city and port of Paraguay,
and capital of the republic, on the left bank of the Paraguay river in
25° 16' 04" S., 57° 42' 40" W., and 970 m. above Buenos Aires. Pop.
(est. in 1900) 52,000. The port is connected with Buenos Aires and
Montevideo by regular lines of river steamers, which are its only means
of trade communication with the outer world, and with the inland town of
Villa Rica (95 m.) by a railway worked by an English company. The city
faces upon a curve in the river bank forming what is called the Bay of
Asunción, and is built on a low sandy plain, rising to pretty hillsides
overlooking the bay and the low, wooded country of the Chaco on the
opposite shore. The general elevation is only 253 ft. above sea-level.
Asunción is laid out on a regular plan, the credit for which is largely
due to Dictator Francia; the principal streets are paved and lighted by
gas and electricity; and telephone and street-car services are
maintained. The climate is hot but healthful, the mean annual
temperature being about 72° F. The city is the seat of a bishopric
dating from 1547, and contains a large number of religious edifices. It
has a national college and public library, but no great progress in
education has been made. The most prominent edifice in the city is the
palace begun by the younger Lopez, which is now occupied by a bank.
There are some business edifices and residences of considerable
architectural merit, but the greater part are small and inconspicuous, a
majority of the residences being thatched, mud-walled cabins.
Considerable progress was made during the last two decades of the 19th
century, however, notwithstanding misgovernment and the extreme poverty
of the people. Asunción was founded by Ayolas in 1335, and is the oldest
permanent Spanish settlement on the La Plata. It was for a long time the
seat of Spanish rule in this region, and later the scene of a bitter
struggle between the church authorities and Jesuits. Soon after the
declaration of independence in 1811, the city fell under the despotic
rule of Dr Francia, and then under that of the elder and younger Lopez,
through which its development was greatly impeded. It was captured and
plundered by the Brazilians in 1869, and has been the theatre of several
revolutionary outbreaks since then, one of which (1905) resulted in a
blockade of several months' duration. (A. J. L.)

ASVINS, in Hindu mythology, twin deities of light. After Indra, Agni and
Soma, they are the most prominent divinities in the Rig-Veda, and have
more than fifty entire hymns addressed to them. Their exact attributes
are obscure. They appear to be the spirits of dawn, the earliest
bringers of light in the morning sky; they hasten on in the clouds
before Dawn and prepare the way for her. In some hymns they are called
sons of the sun; in others, children of the sky; in others, offspring of
the ocean. They are youngest of the gods, bright lords of lustre,
honey-hued. They are inseparable. The sole purpose of one hymn is to
compare them with different twin objects, such as eyes, hands, feet and
wings. They have a common wife, Surya. They are physicians, protectors
of the weak and old, especially of elderly unmarried women. They are the
friends of lovers, and bless marriages and make them fruitful.

See A.A. Macdonell, _Vedic Mythology_ (Strassburg, 1897).

ASYLUM (from Gr. [Greek: a-], privative, and [Greek: sulae], right of
seizure), a place of refuge. In ancient Greece, an asylum was an
"inviolable" refuge for persons fleeing from pursuit and in search of
protection. In a general sense, all Greek temples and altars were
inviolable, that is, it was a religious crime to remove by force any
person or thing once under the protection of a deity. But it was only in
the case of a small number of temples that this protecting right of a
deity was recognized with common consent. Such were the sanctuaries of
Zeus Lycaeus in Arcadia, of Poseidon in the island of Calauria, and of
Apollo at Delos, they were, however, numerous in Asia Minor. They
guaranteed absolute security to the suppliant within their limits. The
right of sanctuary, originally possessed by all temples, appears to have
become limited to a few in consequence of abuses of it. Asylums in this
sense were peculiar to the Greeks. The asylum of Romulus (Livy i. 8),
which was probably the altar of Veiovis, cannot be considered as such.
Under Roman dominion, the rights of existing Greek sanctuaries were at
first confirmed, but their number was considerably reduced by Tiberius.
Under the Empire, the statues of the emperors and the eagles of the
legions were made refuges against acts of violence. Generally speaking,
the classes of persons who claimed the rights of asylum were slaves who
had been maltreated by their masters, soldiers defeated and pursued by
the enemy, and criminals who feared a trial or who had escaped before
sentence was passed. (See treatises _De Asylis Graecis_, by Förster,
1847; Jaenisch, 1868; Barth, 1888.)

With the establishment of Christianity, the custom of asylum or
sanctuary (q.v.) became attached to the church or churchyard. In modern
times the word asylum has come to mean an institution providing shelter
or refuge for any class of afflicted or destitute persons, such as the
blind, deaf and dumb, &c., but more particularly the insane. (See
INSANITY.)

ASYLUM, RIGHT OF (Fr. _droit d'asile_; Ger. _Asylrecht_), in
international law, the right which a state possesses, by virtue of the
principle that every independent state is sole master within its
boundaries, of allowing fugitives from another country to enter or
sojourn upon its territory. Extradition (q.v.) treaties are undertakings
between states curtailing the exercise of the right of asylum in respect
of refugees from justice, but the conditions therein laid down
invariably show that nations regard the maintenance of this right of
asylum as intimately connected with their right of independent action,
however weak as states they may be, on their own soil. The neutral right
to grant asylum to belligerent forces is now governed by articles 57, 58
and 59 of the regulations annexed to the Hague Convention of the 29th
of July 1899, relating to the Laws and Customs of War on Land. (See
WAR.) (T. Ba.)

ATACAMA, a province of northern Chile, bounded N. and S. respectively by
the provinces of Antofagasta and Coquimbo, and extending from the
Pacific coast E. to the Argentine boundary line. It has an area of
30,729 sq. m., lying in great part within the Atacama desert region (see
below), and a population (1902) of 71,446. The silver and copper mines
of the province are numerous, some of them ranking among the most
productive known, but the majority are worked with limited capital and
on a small scale. The silver ore was first discovered in 1832 by a
shepherd at a place which bears his name, Juan Godoi. The nitrate and
borax deposits are extensive and productive, and common salt is a
natural product of large areas in the elevated desert regions of the
Andes. The exports include copper and silver and their ores, nitrate of
soda, borax, guano and other minerals in small quantities. The capital,
Copiapó (est. pop. 8991 in 1902), is situated on a small river of the
same name 37 m. from the coast and 51 m. south-east by rail from
Caldera, the principal port of this great mining district. Before 1842,
when guano began to attract notice as an exportable product, Atacama was
considered as Bolivian territory, and Coquimbo the extreme northern
province of Chile. In that year Chile decided to explore the desert
coast, and in 1843 that part of the desert extending north to the 26th
parallel was organized into the province of Atacama.

ATACAMA, DESERT OF, an arid, barren and saline region of western South
America, covering the greater part of the Chilean provinces of Atacama
and Antofagasta, the Argentine territory of Los Andes, and the
south-western corner of the Bolivian department of Potosí. The higher
elevations are known as the Puna de Atacama, which is practically a
continuation southward of the great _puna_ region of Peru and Bolivia.
It is a broken, mountainous region, volcanic in places, saline in
others, and ranges from 7000 to 13,500 ft. in general elevation. Its
culminating ridges are marked by an irregular line of peaks and extinct
volcanoes extending north by east from about 28° S. into southern
Bolivia. On the eastern side, occasional rainfalls occur and streams
from the snow-clads peaks produce some slight displays of fertility, but
the general aspect of the plateaus, which are dry and cold in winter and
in summer are swept by rainstorms and covered by occasional tufts of
coarse grass, is barren and forbidding. They are also broken by great
saline lagoons and dry salt basins. This region forms the Argentine
territory of Los Andes and is habitable in places. On the western slope
the land descends gradually to the Pacific, being broken into great
basins, or terraces, by mountainous ridges in its higher elevations,
widening out into gently-sloping sandy plains below, famous for their
nitrate deposits, and terminating on the coast with sharply-sloping
bluffs, having an elevation of 800 to 1500 ft., and looking from the sea
like a range of flat-topped hills. This desolate region, which is
rainless and absolutely barren, and was considered worthless for three
and a half centuries, is now a treasure-house of mineral wealth,
abounding in copper, silver, lead, nickel, cobalt, iron, nitrates and
borax. It is occupied by many mining settlements, and includes some of
the most productive copper and silver mines of the world.

See L. Darapsky, "Zur Geographic der Puna de Atacama," _Zeits. Ges.
Erdk. zu Berlin_, 1899; G.E. Church, "South America: an Outline of its
Physical Geography," _Geographical Journal_, 1901; John Ball, _Notes
of a Naturalist in South America_ (London, 1887); F. O'Driscoll, "A
Journey to the North of the Argentine Republic," _Geographical
Journal_, 1904. (A. J. L.)

ATACAMITE, a mineral found originally in the desert of Atacama, and
named by D. de Gallizen in 1801. It is a cupric oxychloride, having the
formula CuCl2·3Cu(OH)2, and crystallizing in the orthorhombic system.
Its hardness is about 3 and its specific gravity 3.7, while its colour
presents various shades of green, usually dark. Atacamite is a
comparatively rare mineral, formed in some cases by the action of
sea-water on various copper-ores, and occurring also as a volcanic
product on Vesuvian lavas. Some of the finest crystals have been yielded
by the copper-mines of South Australia, especially at Wallaroo. It
occurs also, with malachite, at Bembe, near Ambriz, in West Africa. From
one of its localities in Chile, Los Remolinos, it was termed Remolinite
by Brooke and Miller. Atacamite, in a pulverulent state, was formerly
used as a pounce under the name of "Peruvian green sand," and was known
in Chile as arsenillo. (F. W. R.*)

ATAHUALLPA (_atahu_, Lat. _virtus_, and _allpa_, sweet), "the last of
the Incas" (or Yncas) of Peru, was the son of the ruler Huayna Capac, by
Pacha, the daughter of the conquered sovereign of Quito. His brother
Huascar succeeded Huayna Capac in 1527; for, as Atahuallpa was not
descended on both sides from the line of Incas, Peruvian law considered
him illegitimate. He obtained, however, the kingdom of Quito. A jealous
feeling soon sprang up between him and Huascar, who insisted that Quito
should be held as a dependent province of his empire. A civil war broke
out between the brothers, and, about the time when the Spanish conqueror
Pizarro was beginning to move inland from the town of San Miguel,
Huascar had been defeated and thrown into prison, and Atahuallpa had
become Inca. Pizarro set out in September 1532, and made for Caxamarca,
where the Inca was. Messengers passed frequently between them, and the
Spaniards on their march were hospitably received by the inhabitants. On
the 15th of November, Pizarro entered Caxamarca, and sent his brother
and Ferdinando de Soto to request an interview with the Inca. On the
evening of the next day, Atahuallpa entered the great square of
Caxamarca, accompanied by some five or six thousand men, who were either
unarmed or armed only with short clubs and slings concealed under their
dresses. Pizarro's artillery and soldiers were planted in readiness in
the streets opening off the square. The interview was carried on by the
priest Vicente de Valverde, who addressed the Inca through an
interpreter. He stated briefly and dogmatically the principal points of
the Christian faith and the Roman Catholic policy, and concluded by
calling upon Atahuallpa to become a Christian, obey the commands of the
pope, give up the administration of his kingdom, and pay tribute to
Charles V., to whom had been granted the conquest of these lands. To
this extraordinary harangue, which from its own nature and the faults of
the interpreter must have been completely unintelligible, the Inca at
first returned a very temperate answer. He pointed out what seemed to
him certain difficulties in the Christian religion, and declined to
accept as monarch of his dominions this Charles, of whom he knew
nothing. He then took a bible from the priest's hands, and, after
looking at it, threw it violently from him, and began a more impassioned
speech, in which he exposed the designs of the Spaniards, and upbraided
them with the cruelties they had perpetrated. The priest retired, and
Pizarro at once gave the signal for attack. The Spaniards rushed out
suddenly, and the Peruvians, astonished and defenceless, were cut down
in hundreds. Pizarro himself seized the Inca, and in endeavouring to
preserve him alive, received, accidentally, on his hand the only wound
inflicted that day on a Spaniard. Atahuallpa, thus treacherously
captured, offered an enormous sum of money as a ransom, and fulfilled
his engagement; but Pizarro still detained him, until the Spaniards
should have arrived in sufficient numbers to secure the country. While
in captivity, Atahuallpa gave secret orders for the assassination of his
brother Huascar, and also endeavoured to raise an army to expel the
invaders. His plans were betrayed, and Pizarro at once brought him to
trial. He was condemned to death, and, as being an idolater, to death by
fire. Atahuallpa, however, professed himself a Christian, received
baptism, and his sentence was then altered into death by strangulation
(August 29, 1533). His body was afterwards burned, and the ashes
conveyed to Quito. (See also PERU: _History_.)

ATALANTA, in Greek legend, the name of two Greek heroines, (1) The
Arcadian Atalanta was the daughter of Iasius or Iasion and Clymene. At
her birth, she had been exposed on a hill, her father having expected a
son. At first she was suckled by a she-bear, and then saved by huntsmen,
among whom she grew up to be skilled with the bow, swift, and fond of
the chase, like the virgin goddess Artemis. At the Calydonian boar-hunt
her arrows were the first to hit the monster, for which its head and
hide were given her by Meleager. At the funeral games of Pelias, she
wrestled with Peleus, and won. For a long time she remained true to
Artemis and rejected all suitors, but Meilanion at last gained her love
by his persistent devotion. She was the mother of Parthenopaeus, one of
the Seven against Thebes (Apollodorus iii. 9; Hyginus, _Fab._ 99). (2)
The Boeotian Atalanta was the daughter of Schoeneus. She was famed for
her running, and would only consent to marry a suitor who could outstrip
her in a race, the consequence of failure being death. Hippomenes,
before starting, had obtained from Aphrodite three golden apples, which
he dropped at intervals, and Atalanta, stopping to pick them up, fell
behind. Both were happy at the result; but forgetting to thank the
goddess for the apples, they were led by her to a religious crime, and
were transformed into lions by the goddess Cybele (Ovid, _Metam._ x.
560; Hyginus, _Fab._ 185). The characteristics of these two heroines
(frequently confounded) point to their being secondary forms of the
Arcadian Artemis.

ATARGATIS, a Syrian deity, known to the Greeks by a shortened form of
the name, Derketo (Strabo xvi. c. 785; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ v. 23. 81),
and as Dea Syria, or in one word Deasura (Lucian, _de Dea Syria_). She
is generally described as the "fish-goddess." The name is a compound of
two divine names; the first part is a form of the Himyaritic _'Athlar_,
the equivalent of the Old Testament _Ashtoreth_, the Phoenician
_Astarte_ (q.v.), with the feminine ending omitted (Assyr. _Ishtar_);
the second is a Palmyrene name _'Athe_ (_i.e. tempus opportunum_), which
occurs as part of many compounds. As a consequence of the first half of
the name, Atargatis has frequently, though wrongly, been identified with
Astarte. The two deities were, no doubt, of common origin, but their
cults are historically distinct. In 2 Macc. xii. 26 we find reference to
an Atargateion or Atergateion (temple of Atargatis) at Carnion in Gilead
(cf. 1 Macc. v. 43), but the home of the goddess was unquestionably not
Palestine, but Syria proper, especially at Hierapolis (q.v.), where she
had a great temple. From Syria her worship extended to Greece, Italy and
the furthest west. Lucian and Apuleius give descriptions of the
beggar-priests who went round the great cities with an image of the
goddess on an ass and collected money. The wide extension of the cult is
attributable largely to Syrian merchants; thus we find traces of it in
the great seaport towns; at Delos especially numerous inscriptions have
been found bearing witness to its importance. Again we find the cult in
Sicily, introduced, no doubt, by slaves and mercenary troops, who
carried it even to the farthest northern limits of the Roman empire. In
many cases, however, Atargatis and Astarte are fused to such an extent
as to be indistinguishable. This fusion is exemplified by the Carnion
temple, which is probably identical with the famous temple of Astarte at
Ashtaroth-Karnaim.

Atargatis appears generally as the wife of Hadad (Baal). They are the
protecting deities of the community. Atargatis, in the capacity of
[Greek: polionchos], wears a mural crown, is the ancestor of the royal
house, the founder of social and religious life, the goddess of
generation and fertility (hence the prevalence of phallic emblems), and
the inventor of useful appliances. Not unnaturally she is identified
with the Greek Aphrodite. By the conjunction of these many functions,
she becomes ultimately a great Nature-Goddess, analogous to Cybele and
Rhea (see GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS); in one aspect she typifies the
function of water in producing life; in another, the universal
mother-earth (Macrobius, _Saturn_, i. 23); in a third (influenced, no
doubt, by Chaldaean astrology), the power of destiny. The legends are
numerous and of an astrological character, intended to account for the
Syrian dove-worship and abstinence from fish (see the story in Athenaeus
viii. 37, where Atargatis is derived from [Greek: ates Gatidos] "without
Gatis,"--a queen who is said to have forbidden the eating of fish). Thus
Diodorus Siculus, using Ctesias, tells how she fell in love with a youth
who was worshipping at the shrine of Aphrodite, and by him became the
mother of Semiramis, the Assyrian queen, and how in shame she flung
herself into a pool at Ascalon or Hierapolis and was changed into a fish
(W. Robertson Smith in _Eng. Hist. Rev._ ii., 1887). In another story
she was hatched from an egg found by some fish in the Euphrates and by
them thrust on the bank where it was hatched by a dove; out of gratitude
she persuaded Jupiter to transfer the fish to the Zodiac (cf. Ovid,
_Fast._ ii. 459-474, _Metam._ v. 331).

See articles _s.v._ in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyk._ (1897), by W.
Baudissin; and Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyc._; Fr. Baethgen, _Beiträge
zur Semit. Religiongesch._ (1888); R. Pietschmann, _Gesch. der
Phönizier_ (1889).

ATAULPHUS (the Latinized form of the Gothic Ataulf, "Father-wolf," from
_atta_, father, and _vulfs_, wolf; mod. Germ. Adolf, Latinized as
Adolphus, the form used by Gibbon for the subject of this article), king
of the Goths (d. 415). On the death of Alaric (q.v.) his followers
acclaimed his brother-in-law Ataulphus as king. In 412 he quitted Italy
and led his army across the Alps into Gaul. Here he fought against some
of the usurpers who threatened the throne of Honorius; he made some sort
of compact with that emperor and, in 414, he married his sister
Placidia, who had been since the siege of Rome a captive in the camp of
the Goths. The ex-emperor Attalus danced at the marriage festival, which
was celebrated with great pomp at Narbonne. In 415 Ataulphus crossed the
Pyrenees into Spain and died at Barcelona, being assassinated by a
groom. The most important fact in his history is his confession,
recorded by Orosius, that he saw the inability of his countrymen to rear
a civilized or abiding kingdom, and that consequently his aim should be
to build on Roman foundations and blend the two nations into one.

ATAVISM (from Lat. _atavus_, a great-great-great-grandfather or
ancestor), the term given in biology to the reproduction in a living
person or animal of the characteristics of an ancestor more remote than
its parents (see HEREDITY). Loosely used, it connotes a reversion to an
earlier type. Individuals reproduce unexpectedly the traits of earlier
ancestors, and ethnologists and criminologists frequently explain by
"atavism" the occurrence of degenerate species of man; but the whole
subject is complicated by other possible explanations of such phenomena,
included in the scientific study of normal "variation."

ATBARA (_Bahr-el-Aswad_, or Black River), the most northern affluent of
the river Nile, N.E. Africa. It rises in Abyssinia to the N.W. of Lake
Tsana, unites its waters with a number of other rivers which also rise
in the Abyssinian highlands, and flows north-west 800 m. till its
junction at Ed Damer with the Nile (q.v.). The battle of the Atbara,
fought near Nakheila, a place on the north bank of the river about 30 m.
above Ed Damer, on the 8th of April 1898, between the khalifa's forces
under Mahmud and Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord) Kitchener's
Anglo-Egyptian army, resulted in the complete defeat of the Mahdists and
the capture of their leader, and paved the way for the decisive battle
of Omdurman on the 2nd of September following (see EGYPT: _Military
Operations_).

ATCHISON, a city and the county-seat of Atchison county, Kansas, U.S.A.,
on the west bank of the Missouri river, which is navigable at this point
but is utilized comparatively little for commerce. Pop. (1890) 13,963;
(1900) 15,722, of whom 2508 were of negro descent and 1308 were
foreign-born; (1910) 16,429. Atchison is served by the Atchison, Topeka
& Santa Fé, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Rock Island &
Pacific, and the Missouri Pacific railways. The city is the seat of
Midland College (Lutheran, 1887), St Benedict's College (Roman Catholic,
1858) for boys, Mt. Scholastics Academy (Roman Catholic) for girls, and
Western Theological Seminary (Evangelical-Lutheran, 1893); a state
soldiers' orphans' home is also located here. Atchison's situation and
transportation facilities make it an important supply-centre, its trade
in grains and live-stock being particularly large; it has large railway
machine shops, and its principal manufactures are flour, furniture,
lumber, hardware and drugs. The value of the city's factory products
increased from $2,093,469 in 1900 to $4,052,274 in 1905, or 93.6%.
Atchison was founded in 1854 by pro-slavery partisans, and was named in
honour of their leader, David Rice Atchison, a United States senator.
The city was quickly surpassed by Leavenworth in commercial importance,
and during the Kansas struggle was never of great political importance.
Its first city charter was granted in 1858. The Atchison _Globe_
(established 1878) is one of the best-known of western papers.

ATE, in Greek mythology, the personification of criminal folly, the
daughter of Zeus and Eris (Strife). She misled even Zeus to take a hasty
oath, whereby Heracles became subject to Eurystheus. Zeus thereupon cast
her by the hair out of Olympus, whither she did not return, but remained
on earth, working evil and mischief (_Iliad_, xix. 91). She is followed
by the Litae (Prayers), the old and crippled daughters of Zeus, who are
able to repair the evil done by her (_Iliad_, ix. 502). In later times
Ate is regarded as the avenger of sin (Sophocles, _Antigone_, 614, 625).

See J. Girard, _Le Sentiment religieux en Grèce_ (1869); J.F. Scherer,
_De Graecorum Ates Notione atque Indole_ (1858); E. Berch, _Bedeutung
der Ate bei Aeschylos_ (1876); C. Lehrs, _Populare Aufsatze aus dem
Alterthum_ (1875); L. Schmidt, _Die Ethik der alten Griechen_ (1882).

ATELLA, an ancient Oscan town of Campania, 9 m. N. of Naples and 9 m. S.
of Capua, on the road between the two. It was a member of the Campanian
confederation, and shared the fortunes of Capua, but remained faithful
to Hannibal for a longer time; the great part of the inhabitants, when
they could no longer resist the Romans, were transferred by him to
Thurii, and the town was reoccupied in 211 by the Romans, who settled
the exiled inhabitants of Nuceria there. The fate of Atella at the end
of the war, when the latter were able to return to their own city, is
unknown. Cicero was in friendly relations with it, and exerted influence
that it might retain its property in Gaul, so that it is obvious that it
had then recovered municipal rights. The town is mainly famous as the
cradle of early Roman comedy, the _Fabulae Atellanae_ (see below). Some
remains of the town still exist, including a tower of the city wall in
brick.

See J. Beloch, _Campanien_ (2nd ed., Breslau, 1890), p. 379.

ATELLANAE FABULAE ("Atellan fables"), the name of a sort of popular
comedy amongst the ancient Romans. The name is derived from Atella, an
Oscan town in Campania; for this reason, and from their being also
called _Osci Ludi_, it has been supposed that they were of Oscan origin
and introduced at Rome after Campania had been deprived of its
independence. It seems highly improbable that they were performed in the
Oscan language. Mommsen, however, rejects their Oscan origin altogether;
he regards them as purely Latin, the scene merely being laid at Atella
to avoid causing offence by placing it at Rome or one of the Latin
cities. These plays, or rather sketches, contained humorous descriptions
of country as contrasted with town life, and found their subjects
amongst the lower classes of the people. The subjects alone were decided
upon before the performance began; the dialogue was improvised as it
proceeded. The Atellanae contained certain stock characters, like the
Italian harlequinades: Maccus (the fool), Bucco (fat-chaps), Pappus
(daddy), Dossennus (sharper); monsters and bogeys like Manducus, Pytho,
Lamia also made their appearance. The performers were the sons of Roman
citizens, who did not lose their rights as citizens, and were allowed to
serve in the army: professional actors were excluded. The simple prose
dialogues were probably varied by songs in the rude Saturnian metre: the
language was that of the common people, accompanied by lively
gesticulation and movements. They were characterized by coarseness and
obscenity. In the time of Sulla a literary form was given to the
Atellanae by Pomponius of Bononia and Novius, who made them regular
written comedies. Living persons seem to have been attacked, and even
the doings of the gods and heroes of mythology burlesqued. From this
time the Atellanae were used as after-pieces and performed by
professional actors. In 46 B.C. they were ousted by the mimes, but
regained popularity during the reign of Tiberius (chiefly owing to a
certain Mummius), until they were definitely superseded by and merged in
the mimes. They held their ground in the small towns and villages of
Italy during the last days of the empire; they probably lingered on into
the middle ages, and were the origin of the Italian _Commedie dell'
arte._

The scanty fragments of Pomponius and Novius are collected in
Ribbeck's _Comicorum Romanorum Reliquiae_; see also Munk, _De Fabulis
Atellanis_ (1840); and art. LATIN LITERATURE.

ATESTE (mod. _Este, q.v._), an ancient town of Venetia, at the southern
foot of the Euganean hills, 43 ft. above sea-level; 22 m. S.W. of
Patavium (Padua). The site was occupied in very early times, as the
discoveries since 1882 show. Large cemeteries have been excavated, which
show three different periods from the 8th century B.C. down to the Roman
domination. In the first period (Italic) cremation burials closely
approximating to the Villanova type are found; in the second[1]
(Venetian) the tombs are constructed of blocks of stone, and _situlae_
(bronze buckets), sometimes decorated with elaborate designs, are
frequently used to contain the cinerary urns; in the third (Gallic),
which begins during the 4th century B.C., though cremation continues,
the tombs are much poorer, the ossuaries being of badly baked rough
clay, and show traces of Gallic influence, and characteristics of the
La-Tène civilization. The many important objects found in these
excavations are preserved in the local museum. See G. Ghirardini in
_Notizie degli Scavi; Monumenti dei Lincei_, ii. (1893) 161 seq., vii.
(1897) 5 seq., x. (1901) 5 seq.; _Atti del Congresso Internazionale di
Scienze Storiche_ (Rome, 1904), v. 279 seq. Inscriptions show that the
national language asserted its existence even after Ateste came into the
hands of the Romans. When this occurred is not known; boundary stones of
135 B.C. exist, which divide the territory of Ateste from that of
Patavium and of Vicetia, showing that the former extended from the
middle of the Euganean hills to the Atesis (mod. _Adige_, from which
Ateste no doubt took its name, and on which it once stood). After the
battle of Actium, Augustus settled veterans from various of his legions
in this territory, Ateste being thenceforth spoken of as a colony. It
appears to have furnished many recruits, especially for the _cohortes
urbanae_. It appears but little in history, though its importance is
vouched for by numerous inscriptions, the majority of which belong to
the early Empire. (T. As.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] This is by some authorities divided into two.

ATH, or AATH, an ancient town of the province of Hainaut, Belgium,
situated on the left bank of the Dender. Pop. (1890) 9868; (1904)
11,201. Formerly it was fortified, but after the change in the defensive
system of Belgium in 1858 the fortress was dismantled and its ramparts
superseded by boulevards. Owing to a fire caused by lightning its fine
church of St Julien, dating from the 14th century, which had escaped
serious injury during many wars, was destroyed in 1817 (since rebuilt).
This left the Tour Burbant as its sole relic of the middle ages. This
tower formed part of the _donjon_ of the fortress erected by Baldwin
IV., count of Hainaut, about the year 1150. Near Ath is the fine castle
of Beloeil, the ancient seat of the princely family of Ligne. Ath is
famous for its gild of archers, whose butts are erected on the plain of
the Esplanade in the centre of the town. The town militia has the
privilege of being armed with bows and crossbows. Ath is also well known
in Hainaut for its annual fête called _le jour de ducasse--ducasse_
being the Walloon word for kermesse (fête). On this occasion a
procession escorting figures of two giants, Goliath, called locally
Goyasse, and Samson, forms the chief feature of the celebration. The
emperor Joseph II. stopped it for its "idolatrous" character, but this
act was one of the causes of the Brabant revolution of 1789. The
procession, revived in 1790, was again stopped by the French republicans
five years later, but was revived under the Empire, and has flourished
ever since.

ATHABASCA (_Athiapescow_), or ELK, a river and lake Of the province of
Alberta, Canada. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains near the
Yellowhead Pass in 52° 10' N. and 117° 10' W., and flows north-east as
far as Athabasca Landing, and thence north into Lake Athabasca. It is
740 m. long and has a number of important tributaries, including the
McLeod, Pembina, Lesser Slave, which drains the lake of that name, and
Clearwater. Athabasca lake is 195 m. long, west to east, from 20 to 32
m. wide has an area of 3085 sq. m., and is 690 ft. above the sea. It
discharges its waters northward by Slave river and the Mackenzie system
to the Arctic Ocean. On its north shore the country is high and rocky;
on the south, sandy and barren. Shallow draught steamers navigate the
lake and river, and Lesser Slave lake and river, with one
interruption--at Grand Rapids near the mouth of the Clearwater river.

ATHALARIC (516-534), king of the Ostrogoths, grandson of Theodoric,
became king of the Ostrogoths in Italy on his grandfather's death (526).
As he was only ten years old, the regency was assumed by his mother
Amalasuntha (q.v.). The murmurs of the Gothic nobles procured for their
young sovereign too early emancipation from the schoolroom. He drank
heavily, and indulged in vicious excesses which ruined his constitution.
He died on the 2nd of October 534.

ATHALIAH, in the Bible, the daughter of Ahab, and wife of Jehoram, king
of Judah. After the death of Ahaziah, her son she usurped the throne and
reigned for six years. She is said to have massacred all the members of
the royal house of Judah (2 Kings xi. 1-3), but a similar atrocity is
also ascribed to Jehu (2 Kings x. 12-14); with both notices contrast 2
Chron. xxi. 17. The sole survivor Joash was concealed in the temple by
his aunt, Jehosheba, wife of the priest Jehoida (2 Chron. xxii. 11)
These organized a revolution in favour of Joash, and caused Athaliah and
her adherents to be put to death (2 Kings xi.; 2 Chron. xxii. 10-12,
xxiii., xxiv. 7).

The story of Athaliah forms the subject of one of Racine's best
tragedies. It has been musically treated by Handel and Mendelssohn.

ATHAMAS, in Greek mythology, king of the Minyae in Boeotian Orchomenus,
son of Aeolus, king of Thessaly, or of Minyas. His first wife was
Nephele, the cloud-goddess, by whom he had two children, Phrixus and
Helle (see ARGONAUTS). Athamas and his second wife Ino were said to have
incurred the wrath of Hera, because Ino had brought up Dionysus, the son
of her sister Semele, as a girl, to save his life. Athamas went mad, and
slew one of his sons, Learchus; Ino, to escape the pursuit of her
frenzied husband, threw herself into the sea with her other son
Melicertes. Both were afterwards worshipped as marine divinities, Ino as
Leucothea, Melicertes as Palaemon (_Odyssey_ v. 333). Athamas, with the
guilt of his son's murder upon him, was obliged to flee from Boeotia. He
was ordered by the oracle to settle in a place where he should receive
hospitality from wild beasts. This he found at Phthiotis in Thessaly,
where he surprised some wolves eating sheep; on his approach they fled,
leaving him the bones. Athamas, regarding this as the fulfilment of the
oracle, settled there and married a third wife, Themisto. The spot was
afterwards called the Athamanian plain (Apollodorus i. 9; Hyginus,
_Fab_. 1-5; Ovid, _Metam._ iv. 416, _Fasti_, vi. 485; Valerius Flaccus
i. 277).

According to a local legend, Athamas was king of Halos in Phthiotis from
the first (Schol. on Apoll. Rhodius ii. 513). After his attempt on the
life of Phrixus, which was supposed to have succeeded, the Phthiots were
ordered to sacrifice him to Zeus Laphystius, in order to appease the
anger of the gods. As he was on the point of being put to death,
Cytissorus, a son of Phrixus, suddenly arrived from Aea with the news
that Phrixus was still alive. Athamas's life was thus saved, but the
wrath of the gods was unappeased, and pursued the family. It was
ordained that the eldest born of the race should not enter the
council-chamber; if he did so, he was liable to be seized and sacrificed
if detected (Herodotus vii. 197). The legend of Athamas is probably
founded on a very old custom amongst the Minyae--the sacrifice of the
first-born of the race of Athamas to Zeus Laphystius. The story formed
the subject of lost tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and
other Greek and Latin dramatists.

ATHANAGILD (d. 547) became king of the Visigoths (in Spain) in 534,
having invoked the aid of the emperor Justinian for his revolt against
his predecessor Agila. Athanagild, when himself king, vainly tried to
oust his late allies from the footing which they had gained in Spain,
nor were the Greeks finally expelled from Spain till seventy years
later. Athanagild himself is chiefly remembered for the tragic fortunes
of his daughters Brunechildis and Gavleswintha, who married two Frankish
brother kings, Sigebert and Chilperic. Athanagild died ("peacefully," as
the annalist remarks) in 547.

ATHANARIC (d. 381), a ruler of the Visigoths from about 366 to 380. He
bore the title not of king but of judge, a title which may be compared
with that of ealdorman among the Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain.
Athanaric waged, from 367 to 369, an unsuccessful war with the emperor
Valens, and the peace by which the war was ended was ratified by the
Roman and Gothic rulers meeting on a barge in mid-stream of the Danube.
Athanaric was a harsh and obstinate heathen, and his short reign was
chiefly famous for his brutal persecution of his Christian
fellow-countrymen. In 376 he was utterly defeated by the Huns, who a few
years before had burst into Europe. The bulk of the Visigothic people
sought refuge within the Empire in the region now known as Bulgaria, but
Athanaric seems to have fled into Transylvania. Being attacked there by
two Ostrogothic chiefs he also, in 381, sought the protection of the
Roman emperor. Theodosius I. received him courteously, and he was
profoundly impressed by the glories of Constantinople, but on the
fifteenth day after his arrival he died, and was honoured by the emperor
with a magnificent funeral.

ATHANASIUS (293-373), bishop of Alexandria and saint, one of the most
illustrious defenders of the Christian faith, was born probably at
Alexandria. Of his family and of his early education nothing can be said
to be known. According to the legend, the boy is said to have once
baptized some of his playmates and thereupon to have been taken into his
house by Bishop Alexander, who recognized the validity of this
proceeding. It is certain that Athanasius was young when he took orders,
and that he must soon have entered into close relations with his bishop,
whom, after the outbreak of the Arian controversy, he accompanied as
archdeacon to the council of Nicaea. In the sessions and discussions of
the council he could take no part; but in unofficial conferences he took
sides vigorously, according to his own evidence, against the Arians, and
was certainly not without influence. He had already, before the opening
of the Council, defined his personal attitude towards the dogmatic
problem in two essays, _Against the Gentiles_ and _On the Incarnation_,
without, however, any special relation to the Arian controversy.

The essay _On the Incarnation_ is the _locus classicus_ for the
presentation of the teaching of the ancient church on the subject of
salvation. In this the great idea that God himself had entered into
humanity becomes dominant. The doom of death under which mankind had
sighed since Adam's fall could only then be averted, when the immortal
Word of God ([Greek: Logos]) assumed a mortal body, and, by yielding
this to death for the sake of all, abrogated once for all the law of
death, of which the power had been spent on the body of the Lord. Thus
was rendered possible the leading back of mankind to God, of which the
sure pledge lies in the grace of the resurrection of Christ. Athanasius
would hear of no questioning of this religious mystery. In the catchword
_Homousios_, which had been added to the creed at Nicaea, he too
recognized the best formula for the expression of the mystery, although
in his own writings he made but sparing use of it. He was in fact less
concerned with the formula than with the content. Arians and Semi-Arians
seemed to him to be pagans, who worship the creature, instead of the God
who created all things, since they teach two gods, one having no
beginning, the other having a beginning in Time and therefore of the
same nature as the heathen gods, since, like them, he is a creature.
Athanasius has no terms for the definition of the Persons in the one
"Divine" ([Greek: to theion]), which are in their substance one; and yet
he is certain that this "Divine" is not mere abstraction, but something
truly personal: "They are One," so he wrote later in his _Discourses
against the Arians_. "not as though the unity were torn into two parts,
which outside the unity would be nothing, nor as though the unity bore
two names, so that one and the same is at one time Father and then his
own Son, as the heretic Sabellius imagined. But they are two, for the
Father is Father, and the Son is not the same, but, again, the Son is
Son, and not the Father himself. But their Nature ([Greek: physis]) is
one, for the Begotten is not dissimilar ([Greek: anomoios]) to the
Begetter, but his image, and everything that is the Father's is also the
Son's."

Five months after the return from the council of Nicaea Bishop Alexander
died; and on the 8th of February 326 Athanasius, at the age of
thirty-three, became his successor. The first years of his episcopate
were tranquil; then the storms in which the remainder of his life was
passed began to gather round him. The council had by no means composed
the divisions in the Church which the Arian controversy had provoked.
Arius himself still lived, and his friend Eusebius of Nicomedia rapidly
regained influence over the emperor Constantine. The result was a demand
made by the emperor that Arius should be readmitted to communion.
Athanasius stood firm, but many accusers soon rose up against one who
was known to be under the frown of the imperial displeasure. He was
charged with cruelty, even with sorcery and murder. It was reported that
a bishop of the Meletian party (see MELETIUS) in the Thebaid, of the
name of Arsenius, had been unlawfully put to death by him. He was easily
able to clear himself of these charges; but the hatred of his enemies
was not relaxed, and in the summer of 335 he was peremptorily ordered to
appear at Tyre, where a council had been summoned to sit in judgment
upon his conduct. There appeared plainly a predetermination to condemn
him, and he fled from Tyre to Constantinople to appeal to the emperor
himself. Refused at first a hearing, his perseverance was at length
rewarded by the emperor's assent to his reasonable request that his
accusers should be brought face to face with him in the imperial
presence. Accordingly the leaders of the council, the most conspicuous
of whom were Eusebius of Nicomedia and his namesake of Caesarea, were
summoned to Constantinople. Here they did not attempt to repeat their
old charges, but found a more effective weapon to their hands in a new
charge of a political kind--that Athanasius had threatened to stop the
Alexandrian corn-ships bound for Constantinople. It is very difficult to
understand how far there was truth in the persistent accusations made
against the prince-bishop of Alexandria. Probably there was in the very
greatness of his character and the extent of his popular influence a
certain species of dominance which lent a colour of truth to some of the
things said against him. On the present occasion his accusers succeeded
at once in arousing the imperial jealousy. Without obtaining a hearing,
he was banished at the end of 335 to Trèves in Gaul. This was the first
banishment of Athanasius, which lasted about one year and a half. It was
brought to a close by the death of Constantine, and the accession as
emperor of the West of Constantine II., who, in June 337, allowed
Athanasius to return to Alexandria.

He reached his see on the 23rd of November 337, and, as he himself has
told us, "the people ran in crowds to see his face; the churches were
full of rejoicing; thanksgivings were everywhere offered up; the
ministers and clergy thought the day the happiest in their lives." But
this period of happiness was destined to be short-lived. His position as
bishop of Alexandria placed him, not under his patron Constantine, but
under Constantius, another son of the elder Constantine, who had
succeeded to the throne of the East. He in his turn fell, as his father
had done in later years, under the influence of Eusebius of Nicomedia,
who in the latter half of 339 was transferred to the see of
Constantinople, the new seat of the imperial court. A second expulsion
of Athanasius was accordingly resolved upon. The old accusations against
him were revived, and he was further charged with having set at naught
the decision of a council. On the 18th of March 339 the exarch of Egypt
suddenly confronted Athanasius with an imperial edict, by which he was
deposed and a Cappadocian named Gregory was nominated bishop in his
place. On the following day, after tumultuous scenes, Athanasius fled,
and four days later Gregory was installed by the aid of the soldiery. On
the first opportunity, Athanasius went to Rome, to "lay his case before
the church." A synod assembled at Rome in the autumn of 340, and the
great council--probably that which met at Sardica in 342 or 343, where
the Orientals refused to meet the representatives of the Western
church--declared him guiltless. This decision, however, had no immediate
effect in favour of Athanasius. Constantius continued for some time
implacable, and the bold action of the Western bishops only incited the
Arian party in Alexandria to fresh severities. But the death of the
intruder Gregory, on the 26th of June 345, opened up a way of
reconciliation. Constantius decided to yield to the importunity of his
brother Constans, who had succeeded Constantine II. in the West; and the
result was the restoration of Athanasius for the second time, on the
21st of October 346. Again he returned to Alexandria amid the
enthusiastic demonstrations of the populace, which is described by
Gregory of Nazianzus, in his panegyric on Athanasius, as streaming forth
like "another Nile" to meet him afar off as he approached the city.

The six years of his residence in the West had given Athanasius the
opportunity of displaying a momentous activity. He made long journeys in
Italy, in Gaul, and as far as Belgium. Everywhere he laboured for the
Nicene faith, and the impression made by his personality was so great
that to hold fast the orthodox faith and to defend Athanasius were for
many people one and the same thing. This was shown when, after the death
of the emperor Constans, Constantius became sole ruler of East and West.
With the help of counsellors more subtle than discerning, the emperor,
with the object of uniting the various parties in the Church at any
cost, sought for the most colourless possible formula of belief, which
he hoped to persuade all the bishops to accept. As his efforts remained
for years fruitless, he used force. "My will is your guiding-line," he
exclaimed in the summer of 355 to the bishops who had assembled at Milan
in response to his orders. A series of his most defiant opponents had to
go into banishment, Liberius of Rome, Hilarius of Poitiers and Hosius of
Corduba, the last-named once the confidant of Constantine and the actual
originator of the _Homousios_, and now nearly a hundred years old. At
length came the turn of Athanasius, now almost the sole upholder of the
banner of the Nicene creed in the East. Several attempts to expel him
failed owing to the attitude of the populace. On the night of the
8th-9th of February 356, however, when the bishop was holding the
Vigils, soldiers and police broke into the church of Theonas. Athanasius
himself has described the scene for us: "I was seated upon my chair, the
deacon was about to read the psalm, the people to answer, 'For his mercy
endureth for ever.' The solemn act was interrupted; a panic arose." The
bishop, who was at first unwilling to save himself, until he knew that
his faithful followers were in safety, succeeded in escaping, leaving
the town and finding a hiding-place in the country. The solitudes of
Upper Egypt, where numerous monasteries and hermitages had been planted,
seem at this time to have been his chief shelter. In this case, benefit
was repayed by benefit, for Athanasius during his episcopate had been a
zealous promoter of asceticism and monachism. With Anthony the hermit
and Pachomius the founder of monasteries, he had maintained personal
relations, and the former he had commemorated in his _Life of Anthony_.
During his exile his time was occupied in writing on behalf of his
cause, and to this period belong some of his most important works, above
all the great _Orations or Discourses against the Arians_, which furnish
the best exposition of his theological principles.

During his absence the see of Alexandria was left without a pastor. It
is true that George of Cappadocia had taken his place; but he could only
maintain himself for a short while (February 357-October 358). The great
majority of the population remained faithful to the exile. At length, in
November 361, the way was opened to him for his return to his see by the
death of Constantius. Julian, who succeeded to the imperial throne,
professed himself indifferent to the contentions of the Church, and gave
permission to the bishops exiled in the late reign to return home. Among
others, Athanasius availed himself of this permission, and in February
362 once more seated himself upon his throne, amid the rejoicings of
the people. He had begun his episcopal labours with renewed ardour, and
assembled his bishops in Alexandria to decide various important
questions, when an imperial mandate again--for the fourth time--drove
him from his place of power. The faithful gathered around him weeping.
"Be of good heart," he said, "it is but a cloud: it will pass." His
forecast proved true; for within a few months Julian had closed his
brief career of pagan revival. As early as September 363, Athanasius was
able to travel to Jovian, the new emperor, who had sent him a letter
praising his Christian fidelity and encouraging him to resume his work.
He returned to Alexandria on the 20th of February 364. With the emperor
he continued to maintain friendly relations; but the period of repose
was short. In the spring of 365, after the accession of Valens to the
throne, troubles again arose. Athanasius was once more compelled to seek
safety from his persecutors in concealment (October 365), which lasted,
however, only for four months. In February 366 he resumed his episcopal
labours, in which he henceforth remained undisturbed. On the 2nd of May
373, having consecrated one of his presbyters as his successor, he died
quietly in his own house.

Athanasius was a man of action, but he also knew how to use his pen for
the furtherance of his cause. He left a large number of writings, which
cannot of course be compared with those of an Origen, a Basil, or a
Gregory of Nyssa. Athanasius was no systematic theologian. All his
treatises are occasional pieces, born of controversy and intended for
controversial ends. The interest in abstract exposition of clearly
formulated theological ideas is everywhere subordinate to the polemical
purpose. But all these writings are instinct with a living personal
faith, and serve for the defence of the cause; for it was not about
words that he was contending. Even those who do not sympathize with the
cause which Athanasius steadfastly defended cannot but admire his
magnanimous and heroic character. If he was imperious in temper and
inflexible in his conception of the Christian faith, he possessed a
great heart and a great intellect, inspired with an enthusiastic
devotion to Christ. As a theologian, his main distinction was his
zealous advocacy of the essential divinity of Christ. Christianity in
its Arian conception would have evaporated in a new polytheism. To have
set a dam against this process with the whole force of a mighty
personality constitutes the importance of Athanasius in the world's
history. It is with good reason that the Church honours him as the
"Great," and as the "Father of Orthodoxy."

The best edition of the works of Athanasius is the so-called Maurine
edition of Bernard de Montfaucon in 3 vols. (Paris, 1698); this was
enlarged in the 3rd edition by Giustiniani (4 vols., Padua, 1777), and
is printed in this form in Migne's _Patrologia_, vols. xxv.-xxviii. An
English translation of selections, with excellent introductions to the
several writings, was published by Archibald Robertson in the _Library
of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers_, second series, vol. 4 (Oxford
and New York, 1892). There is no biography satisfactory from the
modern point of view. Studies preliminary to such a biography began to
be published by E. Schwartz in his essays, "Zur Geschichte des
Athanasius" (in the _Nachrichten der koniglichen Gesellschaft der
Wissenschaften zu Göttingen_, 1904, &c.). The life of Athanasius,
however, is so completely intertwined with the history of his time
that it is permissible to refer, for a knowledge of him, to the
general descriptions which will be found at the close of the article
ARIUS. Of the older literature, Tillemont's _Mémoires pour servir à
l'histoire ecclésiastique des six premiers siècles_, vols. vi. and
viii., are still a mine of material for the historian. Of the newer
literature the following deserve to be read:--Johann Adam Mohler,
_Athanasius der Grosse und die Kirche seiner Zeit_, 2 vols. (2nd ed.,
Mainz, 1844); and Fr. Boehringer, "Arius und Athanasius," _Die Kirche
Christi und ihre Zeugen_, vol. i. part 2 (2nd ed., Stuttgart, 1874).
(G. K.)

ATHAPASCAN, a widely distributed linguistic stock of North American
Indians, the chief tribes included being the Chippewyan, Navajo, Apache,
Jicarilla, Lipan, Hupa and Wailaki. The Athapascan family is
geographically divided into Northern, Pacific and Southern. The Northern
division (Tinneh or Déné) is about Alaska, and the Yukon and Mackenzie
rivers,--the eponymous "Athabasca" tribe living round Lake Athabasca, in
the province of Alberta in Canada. The Pacific division covers a strip
of territory, some 400 m. in length, from Oregon southwards into
California. The Southern division includes Arizona and New Mexico, parts
of Utah, Colorado, Kansas and Texas, and the northern part of Mexico.
The typical tribes are those of the Northern division.

See _Handbook of American Indians_ (Washington, 1907).

ATHARVA VEDA, the fourth book of the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of
the Brahman religion. Like the other Vedas it is divided into Samhita,
Brahmanas and Upanishads, representing the spiritual element and its
magical and nationalistic development. The mantras or sayings composing
the Samhita of the Atharva Veda differ from those of the other Vedas by
being in the form of spells rather than prayers or hymns, and seem to
indicate a stage of religion lower than that of the Rig Veda.

ATHEISM (from Gr. [Greek: a-], privative, and [Greek: theos], God),
literally a system of belief which denies the existence of God. The term
as generally used, however, is highly ambiguous. Its meaning varies (a)
according to the various definitions of deity, and especially (b)
according as it is (i.) deliberately adopted by a thinker as a
description of his own theological standpoint, or (ii.) applied by one
set of thinkers to their opponents. As to (a), it is obvious that
atheism from the standpoint of the Christian is a very different
conception as compared with atheism as understood by a Deist, a
Positivist, a follower of Euhemerus or Herbert Spencer, or a Buddhist.
But the ambiguities arising from the points of view described in (b) are
much more difficult both intellectually and in their practical social
issues. Thus history shows how readily the term has been used in the
most haphazard manner to describe even the most trivial divergence of
opinion concerning points of dogma. In other words, "atheism" has been
used generally by the orthodox adherents of one religion, or even of a
single sect, for all beliefs which are different or even differently
expressed. It is in fact in these cases, like "heterodoxy," a term of
purely negative significance, and its intellectual value is of the
slightest. The distinction between the terms "religion" and "magic" is,
in a similar way, often due merely to rivalry between the adherents of
two or more mutually exclusive religions brought together in the same
community. When the psalmist declares that "the fool hath said in his
heart, there is no God," he probably does not refer to theoretical
denial, but to a practical disbelief in God's government of human
affairs, shown in disobedience to moral laws. Socrates was charged with
"not believing in the gods the city believes in." The cry of the heathen
populace in the Roman empire against the Christians was "Away with the
atheists! To the lions with the Christians!" The ground for the charge
was probably the lack of idolatry in all Christian worship. Spinoza, for
whom God alone existed, was persecuted as an atheist. A common
designation of Knox was "the atheist," although it was to him "matter of
satisfaction that our most holy religion is founded on faith, not on
reason."

In its most scientific and serious usage the term is applied to that
state of mind which does not find deity (i.e. either one or many gods)
in or above the physical universe. Thus it has been applied to certain
primitive savages, who have been thought (e.g. by Lord Avebury in his
_Prehistoric Times_) to have no religious belief; it is, however, the
better opinion that there are no peoples who are entirely destitute of
some rudimentary religious belief. In the second place, and most
usually, it is applied to a purely intellectual, metaphysical disbelief
in the existence of any god, or of anything supernatural. In this
connexion it is usual to distinguish three types of atheism:--the
_dogmatic_, which denies the existence of God positively; the
_sceptical_, which distrusts the capacity of the human mind to discover
the existence of God; and the _critical_, which doubts the validity of
the theistic argument, the proofs for the existence of God. That the
first type of atheism exists, in spite of the denials of those who
favour the second or the third, may be proved by the utterances of men
like Feuerbach, Flourens or Bradlaugh. "There is no God," says
Feuerbach, "it is clear as the sun and as evident as the day that there
is no God, and still more that there can be none." With greater passion
Flourens declares "Our enemy is God. Hatred of God is the beginning of
wisdom. If mankind would make true progress, it must be on the basis of
atheism." Bradlaugh maintained against Holyoake that he would fight
until men respected the name "atheist." The answer to dogmatic atheism,
that it implies infinite knowledge, has been well stated in John
Foster's _Essays_, and restated by Chalmers in his _Natural Theology_,
and its force is recognized in Holyoake's careful qualification of the
sense in which secularism accepts atheism, "always explaining the term
atheist to mean 'not seeing God' visually or inferentially, never
suffering it to be taken for anti-theism, that is, hating God, denying
God--as _hating_ implies personal knowledge as the ground of dislike,
and _denying_ implies infinite knowledge as the ground of disproof." But
dogmatic atheism is rare compared with the sceptical type, which is
identical with agnosticism (q.v.) in so far as it denies the capacity of
the mind of man to form any conception of God, but is different from it
in so far as the agnostic merely holds his judgment in suspense, though,
in practice, agnosticism is apt to result in an attitude towards
religion which is hardly distinguishable from a passive and unaggressive
atheism. The third or critical type may be illustrated by _A Candid
Examination of Theism_ by "Physicus" (G.J. Romanes), in which the writer
endeavours to establish the weakness of the proofs for the existence of
God, and to substitute for theism Spencer's physical explanation of the
universe, and yet admits how unsatisfying to himself the new position
is. "When at times I think, as think at times I must, of the appalling
contrast between the hallowed glory of that creed which once was mine,
and the lonely mystery of existence as now I find it--at such times I
shall ever feel it impossible to avoid the sharpest pang of which my
nature is susceptible."

Atheism has to meet the protest of the heart as well as the argument of
the mind of mankind. It must be judged not only by theoretical but by
practical arguments, in its relations either to the individual or to a
society. Voltaire himself, speaking as a practical man rather than as a
metaphysician, declared that if there were no God it would be necessary
to invent one; and if the analysis is only carried far enough it will be
found that those who deny the existence of God (in a conventional sense)
are all the time setting up something in the nature of deity by way of
an ideal of their own, while fighting over the meaning of a word or its
conventional misapplication.

ATHELM (d. 923), English churchman, is said to have been a monk of
Glastonbury before his elevation in 909 to the see of Wells, of which he
was the first occupant. In 914 he became archbishop of Canterbury.

ATHELNEY, a slight eminence of small extent in the low level tract about
the junction of the rivers Tone and Parrett in Somersetshire, England.
It was formerly isolated by marshes and accessible only by boat or
artificial causeway, and under these conditions it gained its historical
fame as the retreat of King Alfred in 878-879 when he was unable to
withstand the incursions of the Danes. After regaining his throne he
founded a monastery here in gratitude for the retreat afforded him by
the island; no traces of it exist above ground, but remains have been
excavated. There was also found here, in 1693, the celebrated Alfred
jewel, bearing his name, and preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at
Oxford. An inscribed pillar commemorating the king was set up in 1801.
The name of Athelney signifies the Isle of Princes (A.S.
_AEthelingaea_). Athelney is a railway station on a branch of the Great
Western line.

ATHENA (the Attic form of the Homeric Athene, also called Athenaia,
Pallas Athene, Pallas), one of the most important goddesses in Greek
mythology. With Zeus and Apollo, she forms a triad which represents the
embodiment of all divine power. No satisfactory derivation of the name
Athena has been given[1]; Pallas, at first an epithet, but after Pindar
used by itself, may possibly be connected with [Greek: pallakhe]
("maiden"). Athena has been variously described as the pure aether, the
storm-cloud, the dawn, the twilight; but there is little evidence that
she was regarded as representing any of the physical powers of nature,
and it is better to endeavour to form an idea of her character and
attributes from a consideration of her cult-epithets and ritual.
According to the legend, her father Zeus swallowed his wife Metis
("counsel"), when pregnant with Athena, since he had been warned that
his children by her might prove stronger than himself and dethrone him.
Hephaestus (or Prometheus) subsequently split open his head with a
hatchet, and Athena sprang forth fully armed, uttering a loud shout of
victory (Hesiod, _Theogony_, 886; Pindar, _Olympia_, vii. 35). In Crete
she was said to have issued from a cloud burst asunder by Zeus.
According to Roscher, the manner of her birth represents the storm-cloud
split by lightning; Farnell (_Cults of the Greek States_, i. p. 285)
sees in it an indication that, as the daughter of Metis, Athena was
already invested with a mental and moral character, and explains the
swallowing of Metis (for which compare the story of Cronus and his
children) by the desire to attribute an extraordinary birth to one in
whom masculine traits predominated. In another account (as [Greek:
Tritogeneia]) she is the daughter of the river Triton, to which various
localities were assigned, and wherever there was a river (or lake) of
that name, the inhabitants claimed that she was born there. It is
probable that the name originated in Boeotia (C.O. Müller, _Geschichten
hellenischer Stamme_, i. pp. 351-357; but see Macan on Herodotus, iv.
180), whence it was conveyed by colonists to Cyrene and thence to Libya,
where there was a river Triton. Here some local divinity, a daughter of
Poseidon, connected with the water and also of a warlike character, was
identified by the colonists with their own Athena. In any case, it is
fairly certain that Tritogeneia means "water-born," although an old
interpretation derived it from [Greek: trito], a supposed Boeotian word
meaning "head," which further points to the name having originated in
Boeotia. Roscher suggests that the localization of her birthplace in the
extreme west points to the western sea, the home of cloud and storm.

In Homer Athena already appears as the goddess of counsel, of war, of
female arts and industries, and the protectress of Greek cities, this
last aspect of her character being the most important and pronounced.
Hence she is called [Greek: polias], [Greek: poliouchos], in many Greek
states, and is frequently associated with [Greek: Zeus polieus]. The
most celebrated festival of the city-goddess was the Panathenaea at
Athens and other places. Other titles of kindred meaning are [Greek:
archegeris] ("founder") and [Greek: tanachais], the protectress of the
Achaean league. At Athens she presided over the phratries or clans, and
was known as [Greek: apatouria] and [Greek: fratria], and sacrifice was
offered to her at the festival Apaturia. The title [Greek: meter], given
her by the inhabitants of Elis, whose women, according to the legend,
she had blessed with abundance of children, seems at variance with the
generally-recognized conception of her as [Greek: parthenos]; but
[Greek: meter] may bear the same meaning as [Greek: kourotrophos], the
fosterer of the young, in harmony with her aspect as protectress of
civic and family life. At Alalcomenae, near the Tritonian lake in
Boeotia, she was [Greek: alalkomeneis] ("defender"). Her temple, which
was pillaged by Sulla, contained an ivory image, which was said to have
fallen from heaven. The inhabitants claimed that the goddess was born
there and brought up by a local hero Alalcomeneus. Her images, called
Palladia, which guarded the heights (cf. her epithets [Greek: acria,
kranaia]), represented her with shield uplifted, brandishing her spear
to keep off the foe. The cult of Athena Itonia, whose earliest seat
appears to have, been amongst the Thessalians, who used her name as a
battle-cry, made its way to Coronea in Boeotia, where her sanctuary was
the seat of the Pamboeotian confederacy. The meaning of Itonia is
obscure: Dümmler connects it with [Greek: iteones], the "willow-beds" on
the banks of the river Coralios (the river of the maiden, i.e. Athena);
Jebb (on Bacchylides, _fr._ xi. 2) suggests a derivation from [Greek:
ienai], the goddess of the "onset." At Thebes she was worshipped as
Athena Onka or Onga, of equally uncertain derivation (possibly from
[Greek: ogkos], "a height"). Peculiar to Arcadia is the title Athena
Alea, probably = "warder off of evil," although others explain it as =
"warmth," and see in it an allusion to her physical nature as one of the
powers of light. Farnell (_Cults_, p. 275) points out that at the same
time she is certainly looked upon as in some way connected with the
health-divinities, since in her temple she is grouped with Asclepius and
Hygieia (see HYGIEIA).

She already appears as the goddess of counsel ([Greek: poluboulos]) in
the _Iliad_ and in Hesiod. The Attic bouleutae took the oath by Athena
Boulaia; at Sparta she was [Greek: agoraia], presiding over the popular
assemblies in the market-place; in Arcadia [Greek: mechanitis] the
discoverer of devices. The epithet [Greek: pronoia] ("forethought") is
due, according to Farnell, to a confusion with [Greek: pronaia],
referring to a statue of the goddess standing "before a shrine," and
arose later (probably spreading from Delphi), some time after the
Persian wars, in which she repelled a Persian attack on the temples "by
divine forethought"; another legend attributes the name to her skill in
assisting Leto at the birth of Apollo and Artemis. With this aspect of
her character may be compared the Hesiodic legend, according to which
she was the daughter of Metis. Her connexion with the trial of Orestes,
the introduction of a milder form of punishment for justifiable
homicide, and the institution of the court [Greek: to epi Palladio],
show the important part played by her in the development of legal ideas.

The protectress of cities was naturally also a goddess of war. As such
she appears in Homer and Hesiod and in post-Homeric legend as the slayer
of the Gorgon and taking part in the battle of the giants. On numerous
monuments she is represented as [Greek: areia], "the warlike," [Greek:
nikephoros], "bringer of victory," holding an image of Nike (q.v.) in
her outstretched hand (for other similar epithets see Roscher's
_Lexikon_). She was also the goddess of the arts of war in general;
[Greek: stoicheia], she who draws up the ranks for battle, [Greek:
zosteria], she who girds herself for the fray. Martial music (cp.
[Greek: Athene salpinx], "trumpet") and the Pyrrhic dance, in which she
herself is said to have taken part to commemorate the victory over the
giants, and the building of war-ships were attributed to her. She
instructed certain of her favourites in gymnastics and athletics, as a
useful training for war. The epithets [Greek: ippia], [Greek:
chalinitis], [Greek: damasippos], usually referred to her as goddess of
war-horses, may perhaps be reminiscences of an older religion in which
the horse was sacred to her. As a war-goddess, she is the embodiment of
prudent and intelligent tactics, entirely different from Ares, the
personification of brute force and rashness, who is fitly represented as
suffering defeat at her hands. She is the patroness and protectress of
those heroes who are distinguished for their prudence and caution, and
in the Trojan War she sides with the more civilized Greeks.

The goddess of war develops into the goddess of peace and the pursuits
connected with it. She is prominent as the promoter of agriculture in
Attic legend. The Athenian hero Erechtheus (Erichthonius), originally an
earth-god, is her foster-son, with whom she was honoured in the
Erechtheum on the Acropolis. Her oldest priestesses, the
dew-sisters--Aglauros, Herse, Pandrosos--signify the fertilization of
the earth by the dew, and were probably at one time identified with
Athena, as surnames of whom both Aglauros and Pandrosos are found. The
story of the voluntary sacrifice of the Attic maiden Aglauros on behalf
of her country in time of war (commemorated by the ephebi taking the
oath of loyalty to their country in her temple), and of the leap of the
three sisters over the Acropolis rock (see ERECHTHEUS), probably points
to an old human sacrifice. Athena also gave the Athenians the
olive-tree, which was supposed to have sprung from the bare soil of the
Acropolis, when smitten by her spear, close to the horse (or spring of
water) produced by the trident of Poseidon, to which he appealed in
support of his claim to the lordship of Athens. She is also connected
with Poseidon in the legend of Erechtheus, not as being in any way akin
to the former in nature or character, but as indicating the contest
between an old and a new religion. This god, whose worship was
introduced into Athens at a later date by the Ionian immigrants, was
identified with Erechtheus-Erichthonius (for whose birth Athena was in a
certain sense responsible), and thus was brought into connexion with the
goddess, in order to effect a reconciliation of the two cults. Athena
was said to have invented the plough, and to have taught men to tame
horses and yoke oxen. Various arts were attributed to her--shipbuilding,
the goldsmith's craft, fulling, shoemaking and other branches of
industry. As early as Homer she takes especial interest in the
occupations of women; she makes Hera's robe and her own peplus, and
spinning and weaving are often called "the works of Athena." The custom
of offering a beautifully woven peplus at the Panathenaic festival is
connected with her character as Ergane the goddess of industry.[2] As
patroness of the arts, she is associated with Hephaestus (one of her
titles is [Greek: Ephaistia]) and Prometheus, and in Boeotia she was
regarded as the inventress of the flute. According to Pindar, she
imitated on the flute the dismal wail of the two surviving Gorgons after
the death of Medusa. The legend that Athena, observing in the water the
distortion of her features caused by playing that instrument, flung it
away, probably indicates that the Boeotians whom the Athenians regarded
with contempt, used the flute in their worship of the Boeotian Athena.
The story of the slaying of Medusa by Athena, in which there is no
certain evidence that she played a direct part, explained by Roscher as
the scattering of the storm-cloud, probably arose from the fact that she
is represented as wearing the Gorgon's head as a badge.

As in the case of Aphrodite and Apollo, Roscher in his _Lexikon_ deduces
all the characteristics of Athena from a single conception--that of the
goddess of the storm or the thunder-cloud (for a discussion of such
attempts see Farnell, _Cults_, i. pp. 3, 263). There seems little reason
for regarding her as a nature-goddess at all, but rather as the
presiding divinity of states and cities, of the arts and industries--in
short, as the goddess of the whole intellectual side of human life.

Except at Athens, little is known of the ceremonies or festivals which
attended her worship. There we have the following. (1) The ceremony of
the _Three Sacred Ploughs_, by which the signal for seed-time was given,
apparently dating from a period when agriculture was one of the chief
occupations of her worshippers. (2) The _Procharisteria_ at the end of
winter, at which thanks were offered for the germination of the seed.
(3) The _Scirophoria_, with a procession from the Acropolis to the
village of Skiron, in the height of summer, the priests who were to
entreat her to keep off the summer heat walking under the shade of
parasols ([Greek: skyron]) held over them; others, however, connect the
name with [Greek: skiros] ("gypsum"), perhaps used for smearing the
image of the goddess. (4) The _Oschophoria_, at the vintage season, with
races among boys, and a procession, with songs in praise of Dionysus and
Ariadne. (5) The _Chalkeia_ (feast of smiths), at which the birth of
Erechtheus and the invention of the plough were celebrated. (6) The
_Plynteria_ and _Callynteria_, at which her ancient image and peplus in
the Erechtheum and the temple itself were cleaned, with a procession in
which bunches of figs (frequently used in lustrations) were carried. (7)
The _Arrhephoria_ or _Errephoria_ (perhaps = _Ersephoria_,
"dew-bearing"), at which four girls, between seven and eleven years of
age, selected from noble families, carried certain unknown sacred
objects to and from the temple of Aphrodite "in the gardens" (see J.E.
Harrison, _Classical Review_, April 1889). (8) The _Panathenaea_, at
which the new robes for the image of he goddess were carried through the
city, spread like a sail on a mast. The reliefs of the frieze of the
cella of the Parthenon enable us to form an idea of the procession.
Athletic games, open to all who traced their nationality to Athens, were
part of this festival. Mention should also be made of the Argive
ceremony, at which the _xoanon_ (ancient wooden statue) of Athena was
washed in the river Inachus, a symbol of her purification after the
Gigantomachia.

The usual attributes of Athena were the helmet, the aegis, the round
shield with the head of Medusa in the centre, the lance, an olive
branch, the owl, the cock and the snake. Of these the aegis, usually
explained as a storm-cloud, is probably intended as a battle-charm, like
the Gorgon's head on the shield and the faces on the shields of Chinese
soldiers; the owl probably represents the form under which she was
worshipped in primitive times, and subsequently became her favourite
bird (the epithet [Greek: glaukopis], meaning "keen-eyed" in Homer, may
have originally signified "owl-faced"); the snake, a common companion of
the earth deities, probably refers to her connexion with
Erechtheus-Erichthonius.

As to artistic representations of the goddess, we have first the rude
figure which seems to be a copy of the Palladium; secondly, the still
rude, but otherwise more interesting, figures of her, as e.g. when
accompanying heroes, on the early painted vases; and thirdly, the type
of her as produced by Pheidias, from which little variation appears to
have been made. Of his numerous statues of her, the three most
celebrated were set up on the Acropolis. (1) Athena _Parthenos_, in the
Parthenon. It was in ivory and gold, and 30 ft. high. She was
represented standing, in a long tunic; on her head was a helmet,
ornamented with sphinxes and griffins; on her breast was the aegis,
fringed with serpents and the Gorgon's head in centre. In her right hand
was a Nike or winged victory, while her left held a spear, which rested
on a shield on which were represented the battles of the Amazons with
the giants. (2) A colossal statue said to have been formed from the
spoils taken at Marathon, the so-called Athena _Promachos_. (3) Athena
_Lemnia_, so called because it had been dedicated by the Athenian
cleruchies in Lemnos. In this she was represented without arms, as a
brilliant type of virgin beauty. The two last statues were of bronze.
From the time of Pheidias calm earnestness, self-conscious might, and
clearness of intellect were the main characteristics of the goddess. The
eyes, slightly cast down, betoken an attitude of thoughtfulness; the
forehead is clear and open; the mouth indicates firmness and resolution.
The whole suggests a masculine rather than a feminine form.

From Greece the worship of Athena extended to Magna Graecia, where a
number of temples were erected to her in various places. In Italy proper
she was identified with Minerva (q.v.).

See articles in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopädie_; W.H. Roscher's
_Lexikon der Mythologie_; Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire des
antiquités_ (s.v. "Minerva"); L. Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_;
W.H. Roscher, "Die Grundbedeutung der Athene," in _Nektar und
Ambrosia_ (1883); F.A. Voigt, "Beiträge zur Mythologie des Ares und
Athena," in _Leipziger Studien_, iv. (1881); L.R. Farnell, _The Cults
of the Greek States_, i. (1896); J.E. Harrison, _Prolegomena to the
Study of Greek Religion_ (1903), for the festivals especially; O.
Gruppe, _Griechische Mythologie_, ii. (1907). In the article GREEK
ART, fig. 21 represents Athena in the act of striking a prostrate
giant; fig. 38 a statuette of Athena Parthenos, a replica of the work
of Pheidias. (J. H. F.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] O. Gruppe (_Griechische Mythologie_, ii. p. 1194) thinks that it
probably means "without mother's milk," either in an active or in a
passive sense "not giving suck," or "unsuckled," in her character as
the virgin goddess, or as springing from the head of Zeus. In support
of this view he refers to Hesychius [Greek: thaenion gala] and a
passage in Athenagoras (_Legatio pro Christianis_, 17), where it is
stated that Athena was sometimes called [Greek: Athela] or [Greek:
Athele]. For Pallas, he prefers the old etymology from [Greek: palla]
(to "shake"), rather in the sense of "earth-shaker" than
"lance-brandisher."

[2] According to J.E. Harrison in Classical Review (June 1894),
Athena Ergane is the goddess of the fruits of the field and the
procreation of children.

ATHENAEUM, a name originally applied in ancient Greece ([Greek:
Athaenaion]) to buildings dedicated to Athena, and specially used as the
designation of a temple in Athens, where poets and men of learning were
accustomed to meet and read their productions. The academy for the
promotion of learning which the emperor Hadrian built (about A.D. 135)
at Rome, near the Forum, was also called the Athenaeum. Poets and
orators still met and discussed there, but regular courses of
instruction were given by a staff of professors in rhetoric,
jurisprudence, grammar and philosophy. The institution, later called
Schola Romana, continued in high repute till the 5th century. Similar
academies were also founded in the provinces and at Constantinople by
the emperor Theodosius II. In modern times the name has been applied to
various academies, as those of Lyons and Marseilles, and the Dutch high
schools; and it has become a very general designation for literary
clubs. It is also familiar as the title of several literary periodicals,
notably of the London literary weekly founded in 1828.

ATHENAEUS, of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian,
flourished about the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd century
A.D. Suidas only tells us that he lived "in the times of Marcus"; but
the contempt with which he speaks of Commodus (died 192) shows that he
survived that emperor. Athenaeus himself states that he was the author
of a treatise on the _thratta_--a kind of fish mentioned by Archippus
and other comic poets--and of a history of the Syrian kings, both of
which works are lost. We still possess the _Deipnosophistae_, which may
mean dinner-table philosophers or authorities on banquets, in fifteen
books. The first two books, and parts of the third, eleventh and
fifteenth, are only extant in epitome, but otherwise we seem to possess
the work entire. It is an immense storehouse of miscellaneous
information, chiefly on matters connected with the table, but also
containing remarks on music, songs, dances, games, courtesans. It is
full of quotations from writers whose works have not come down to us;
nearly 800 writers and 2500 separate writings are referred to by
Athenaeus; and he boasts of having read 800 plays of the Middle Comedy
alone. The plan of the _Deipnosophistae_ is exceedingly cumbrous, and is
badly carried out. It professes to be an account given by the author to
his friend Timocrates of a banquet held at the house of Laurentius (or
Larentius), a scholar and wealthy patron of art. It is thus a dialogue
within a dialogue, after the manner of Plato, but a conversation of
sufficient length to occupy several days (though represented as taking
place in one) could not be conveyed in a style similar to the short
conversations of Socrates. Among the twenty-nine guests are Galen and
Ulpian, but they are all probably fictitious personages, and the
majority take no part in the conversation. If Ulpian is identical with
the famous jurist, the _Deipnosophistae_ must have been written after
his death (228); but the jurist was murdered by the praetorian guards,
whereas Ulpian in Athenaeus dies a natural death. The conversation
ranges from the dishes before the guests to literary matters of every
description, including points of grammar and criticism; and they are
expected to bring with them extracts from the poets, which are read
aloud and discussed at table. The whole is but a clumsy apparatus for
displaying the varied and extensive reading of the author. As a work of
art it can take but a low rank, but as a repertory of fragments and
morsels of information it is invaluable.

Editio princeps, Aldine, 1524; Casaubon, 1597-1600; Schweighäuser,
1801-1807; Dindorf, 1827; Meineke, 1859-1867; Kaibel, 1887-1890;
English translation by Yonge in Bohn's _Classical Library_.

ATHENAGORAS, a Christian apologist of the 2nd century A.D., was,
according to an emendator of the Paris Codex 451 of the 11th century, a
native of Athens. The only sources of information regarding him are a
short notice by Philip of Side, in Pamphylia (c. A.D. 420), and the
inscription on his principal work. Philip--or rather the compiler who
made excerpts from him--says that he was at the head of an Alexandrian
school (the catechetical), that he lived in the time of Hadrian and
Antoninus, to whom he addressed his _Apology_, and that Clement of
Alexandria was his pupil; but these statements are more than doubtful.
The inscription on the work describes it as the "Embassy of Athenagoras,
the Athenian, a philosopher and a Christian concerning the Christians,
to the Emperors Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus,
&c." This statement has given rise to considerable discussion, but from
it and internal evidence the date of the _Apology_ ([Greek: Presbeia
peri Christianon]) may be fixed at about A.D. 177. Athenagoras is also
the author of a discourse on the resurrection of the body, which is not
authenticated otherwise than by the titles on the various manuscripts.
In the _Apology_, after contrasting the judicial treatment of Christians
with that of other accused persons, he refutes the accusations brought
against the Christians of atheism, eating human flesh and
licentiousness, and in doing so takes occasion to make a vigorous and
skilful attack on pagan polytheism and mythology. The discourse on the
resurrection answers objections to the doctrine, and attempts to prove
its truth from considerations of God's purpose in the creation of man,
His justice and the nature of man himself. Athenagoras is a powerful and
clear writer, who strives to comprehend his opponents' views and is
acquainted with the classical writers. He used the _Apology_ of Justin,
but hardly the works of Aristides or Tatian. His theology is strongly
tinged with Platonism, and this may account for his falling into
desuetude. His discussion of the Trinity has some points of speculative
interest, but it is not sufficiently worked out; he regards the Son as
the Reason or Wisdom of the Father, and the Spirit as a divine
effluence. On some other points, as the nature of matter, the
immortality of the soul and the principle of sin, his views are
interesting.

EDITIONS.--J.C. Th. Eg. de Otto, _Corpus Apol. Christ. Saec._ II. vol.
vii. (Jena, 1857); E. Schwartz in _Texte und Untersuchungen_, iv. 2
(Leipzig, 1891).

TRANSLATIONS.--Humphreys (London, 1714); B.P. Pratten (_Ante-Nic.
Fathers_, Edinburgh, 1867).

LITERATURE.--A. Harnack, _Gesch. der altchr. Litt._ pp. 526-558, and
similar works by O. Bardenhewer and A. Ehrhard; Herzog-Hauck,
_Realencyk._; G. Krüger, _Early Chr. Lit._ p. 130 (where additional
literature is cited). In 1559 and 1612 appeared in French a work on
_True and Perfect Love_, purporting to be a translation from the Greek
of Athenagoras; it is a palpable forgery.

ATHENODORUS, the name of two Stoic philosophers of the 1st century B.C.,
who have frequently been confounded.

1. ATHENODORUS CANANITES (c. 74 B.C.-A.D. 7), so called from his
birthplace Canana near Tarsus (not Cana in Cilicia nor Canna in
Lycaonia), was the son of one Sandon, whose name indicates Tarsian
descent, not Jewish as many have held. He was a personal friend of
Strabo, from whom we derive our knowledge of his life. He taught the
young Octavian (afterwards Augustus) at Apollonia, and was a pupil of
Posidonius at Rhodes. Subsequently he appears to have travelled in the
East (Petra and Egypt) and to have made himself famous by lecturing in
the great cities of the Mediterranean. Writing in 50 B.C., Cicero speaks
of him with the highest respect (cf. _Ep. ad. Att._, xvi. 11. 4, 14. 4),
a fact which enables us to fix the date of his birth as not later than
about 74. His influence over Augustus was strong and lasting. He
followed him to Rome in 44, and is said to have criticized him with the
utmost candour, bidding him repeat the letters of the alphabet before
acting on an angry impulse. In later years he was allowed by Augustus to
return to Tarsus in order to remodel the constitution of the city after
the degenerate democracy which had misgoverned it under Boethus. He
succeeded (c. 15-10 B.C.) in setting up a timocratic oligarchy in the
imperial interest (see TARSUS). Sir W.M. Ramsay is inclined to attribute
to the influence of Athenodorus the striking resemblances which can be
established between Seneca and Paul, the latter of whom must certainly
have been acquainted with his teachings. According to Eusebius and
Strabo he was a learned scientist for his day, and some attribute to him
a history of Tarsus. He helped Cicero in the composition of the _De
Officiis_. His works are not certainly known, and none are extant. (See
Sir W.M. Ramsay in the _Expositor_, September 1906, pp. 268 ff.)

2. ATHENODORUS CORDYLION, also of Tarsus, was keeper of the library at
Pergamum, and was an old man in 47 B.C. In his enthusiasm for Stoicism
he used to cut out from Stoic writings passages which seemed to him
unsatisfactory. He also settled in Rome, where he died in the house of
the younger Cato.

Among others of the name may be mentioned (3) ATHENODORUS OF TEOS, who
played the cithara at the wedding of Alexander the Great and Statira
at Susa (324 B.C.); (4) a Greek physician of the 1st century A.D., who
wrote on epidemic diseases; and two sculptors, of whom (5) one
executed the statues of Apollo and Zeus which the Spartans dedicated
at Delphi after Aegospotami; and (6) the other was a son of Alexander
of Rhodes, whom he helped in the Laocoon group.

ATHENRY, a market town of county Galway, Ireland, 14 m. inland (E.) from
Galway on the Midland Great Western main line. Pop. (1901) 853. Its name
is derived from _Ath-na-riogh_, the ford of kings; and it grew to
importance after the Anglo-Norman invasion as the first town of the
Burgs and Berminghams. The walls were erected in 1211 and the castle in
1238, and the remains of both are noteworthy. A Dominican monastery was
founded with great magnificence by Myler de Bermingham in 1241, and was
repaired by the Board of Works in 1893. Of the Franciscan monastery of
1464 little is left. The town returned two members to the Irish
parliament from the time of Richard II. to the Union; but it never
recovered from the wars of the Tudor period, culminating in a successful
siege by Red Hugh O'Donnell in 1596.

ATHENS [[Greek: Athaenai], _Athenae_, modern colloquial Greek [Greek:
Athaena]], the capital of the kingdom of Greece, situated in 23° 44' E.
and 37° 58' N., towards the southern end of the central and principal
plain of Attica. The various theories with regard to the origin of the
name are all somewhat unconvincing; it is conceivable that, with the
other homonymous Greek towns, such as Athenae Diades in Euboea, [Greek:
Athaenai] may be connected etymologically with [Greek: anthos], a flower
(cf. _Firenze_, Florence); the patron goddess, Athena, was probably
called after the place of her cult.

I. TOPOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES

The Attic plain, [Greek: to pedion], slopes gently towards the coast of
the Saronic Gulf on the south-west; on the east it is overlooked by
Mount Hymettus (3369 ft.); on the north-east by Pentelicus or Brilessus
(3635 ft.) from which, in ancient and modern times, an immense quantity
of the finest marble has been quarried; on the north-west by Parnes
(4636 ft.), a continuation of the Boeotian Cithaeron, and on the west by
Aegaleus (1532 ft.), which descends abruptly to the bay of Salamis. In
the centre of the plain extends from north-east to south-west a series
of low heights, now known as Turcovuni, culminating towards the south in
the sharply pointed Lycabettus (1112 ft.), now called Hagios Georgios
from the monastery which crowns its summit. Lycabettus, the most
prominent feature in the Athenian landscape, directly overhung the
ancient city, but was not included in its walls; its peculiar shape
rendered it unsuitable for fortification. The Turcovuni ridge, probably
the ancient Anchesmus, separates the valley of the Cephisus on the
north-west from that of its confluent, the Ilissus, which skirted the
ancient city on the south-west. The Cephisus, rising in Pentelicus,
enters the sea at New Phalerum; in summer it dwindles to an
insignificant stream, while the Ilissus, descending from Hymettus, is
totally dry, probably owing to the destruction of the ancient forests on
both mountains, and the consequent denudation of the soil. Separated
from Lycabettus by a depression to the south-west, through which flows a
brook, now a covered drain (probably to be identified with the
Eridanus), stands the remarkable oblong rocky mass of the Acropolis (512
ft.), rising precipitously on all sides except the western; its summit
was partially levelled in prehistoric times, and the flat area was
subsequently enlarged by further cutting and by means of retaining
walls. Close to the Acropolis on the west is the lower rocky eminence of
the Areopagus, [Greek: Areios pagos] (377 ft.), the seat of the famous
council; the name (see also AREOPAGUS) has been connected with Ares,
whose temple stood on the northern side of the hill, but is more
probably derived from the [Greek: Apai] or Eumenides, whose sanctuary
was formed by a cleft in its north-eastern declivity. Farther west of
the Acropolis are three elevations; to the north-west the so-called
"Hill of the Nymphs" (341 ft.), on which the modern Observatory stands;
to the west the Pnyx, the meeting-place of the Athenian democracy (351
ft.), and to the south-west the loftier Museum Hill (482 ft.), still
crowned with the remains of the monument of Philópappus. A cavity, a
little to the west of the Observatory Hill, is generally supposed to be
the ancient Barathron or place of execution. To the south-east of the
Acropolis, beyond the narrow valley of the Ilissus, is the hill Ardettus
(436 ft.). The distance from the Acropolis to the nearest point of the
sea coast at Phalerum is a little over 3 m.

Influence of the geographical position.

The natural situation of Athens was such as to favour the growth of a
powerful community. For the first requisites of a primitive
settlement--food supply and defence--it afforded every advantage. The
Attic plain, notwithstanding the lightness of the soil, furnished an
adequate supply of cereals; olive and fig groves and vineyards were
cultivated from the earliest times in the valley of the Cephisus, and
pasturage for sheep and goats was abundant. The surrounding rampart of
mountains was broken towards the north-east by an open tract stretching
between Hymettus and Pentelicus towards Marathon, and was traversed by
the passes of Decelea, Phylé and Daphné on the north and north-west, but
the distance between these natural passages and the city was sufficient
to obviate the danger of surprise by an invading land force. On the
other hand Athens, like Corinth, Megara and Argos, was sufficiently far
from the sea to enjoy security against the sudden descent of a hostile
fleet. At the same time the relative proximity of three natural
harbours, Peiraeus, Zea and Munychia, favoured the development of
maritime commerce and of the sea power which formed the basis of
Athenian hegemony. The climate is temperate, but liable to sudden
changes; the mean temperature is 63°.1 F., the maximum (in July) 99°.01,
the minimum (in January) 31°.55. The summer heat is moderated by the
sea-breeze or by cool northerly winds from the mountains (especially in
July and August). The clear, bracing air, according to ancient writers,
fostered the intellectual and aesthetic character of the people and
endowed them with mental and physical energy. For the architectural
embellishment of the city the finest building material was procurable
without difficulty and in abundance; Pentelicus forms a mass of white,
transparent, blue-veined marble; another variety, somewhat similar in
appearance, but generally of a bluer hue, was obtained from Hymettus.
For ordinary purposes grey limestone was furnished by Lycabettus and the
adjoining hills; limestone from the promontory of Acté (the so-called
"poros" stone), and conglomerate, were also largely employed. For the
ceramic art admirable material was at hand in the district north-west of
the Acropolis. For sculpture and various architectural purposes white,
fine-grained marble was brought from Paros and Naxos. The main drawback
to the situation of the city lay in the insufficiency of its
water-supply, which was supplemented by an aqueduct constructed in the
time of the Peisistratids and by later water-courses dating from the
Roman period. A great number of wells were also sunk and rain-water was
stored in cisterns.

Sources for Athenian topography.

For the purposes of scientific topography observation of the natural
features and outlines is followed by exact investigation of the
architectural structures or remnants, a process demanding high
technical competence, acute judgment and practical experience, as well
as wide and accurate scholarship. The building material and the manner
of its employment furnish evidence no less important than the
character of the masonry, the design and the modes of ornamentation.
The testimony afforded by inscriptions is often of decisive
importance, especially that of commemorative or votive tablets or of
boundary-stones found _in situ_; the value of this evidence is, on the
other hand, sometimes neutralized owing to the former removal of
building material already used and its incorporation in later
structures. Thus sepulchral inscriptions have been found on the
Acropolis, though no burials took place there in ancient times. In the
next place comes the evidence derived from the whole range of ancient
literature and specially from descriptions of the city or its
different localities. The earliest known description of Athens was
that of Diodorus, [Greek: ho periaegtes], who lived in the second half
of the 4th century B.C. Among his successors were Polemon of Ilium
(beginning of 2nd century B.C.), whose great [Greek: kosmikae
periaegaesis] gave a minute account of the votive offerings on the
Acropolis and the tombs on the Sacred Way; and Heliodorus (second half
of the 2nd century) who wrote fifteen volumes on the monuments of
Athens. Of these and other works of the earliest topographers only
some fragments remain. In the period between A.D. 143 and 159
Pausanias visited Athens at a time when the monuments of the great age
were still in their perfection and the principal embellishments of the
Roman period had already been completed. The first thirty chapters of
his invaluable _Description of Greece_ ([Greek: periaegaesis taes
Hellados]) are devoted to Athens, its ports and environs. Pausanias
makes no claim to exhaustiveness; he selected what was best worth
noticing ([Greek: ta axiologotata]). His account, drawn up from notes
taken in the main from personal observation, possesses an especial
importance for topographical research, owing to his method of
describing each object in the order in which he saw it during the
course of his walks. His accuracy, which has been called in question
by some scholars, has been remarkably vindicated by recent excavations
at Athens and elsewhere. The list of ancient topographers closes with
Pausanias. The literature of succeeding centuries furnishes only
isolated references; the more important are found in the scholia on
Aristophanes, the lexicons of Hesychius, Photius and others, and the
_Etymologicum Magnum_. The notices of Athens during the earlier middle
ages are scanty in the extreme. In 1395 Niccola da Martoni, a pilgrim
from the Holy Land, visited Athens and wrote a description of a
portion of the city. Of the work of Cyriac of Ancona, written about
1450, only some fragments remain, which are well supplemented by the
contemporaneous description of the capable observer known as the
"Anonymous of Milan." Two treatises in Greek by unknown writers belong
to the same period. The Dutchman Joannes Meursius (1579-1639) wrote
three disquisitions on Athenian topography. The conquest by Venice in
1687 led to the publication of several works in that city, including
the descriptions of De la Rue and Fanelli and the maps of Coronelli
and others. The systematic study of Athenian topography was begun in
the 17th century by French residents at Athens, the consuls Giraud and
Chataignier and the Capuchin monks. The visit of the French physician
Jacques Spon and the Englishman, Sir George Wheler or Wheeler
(1650-1723), fortunately took place before the catastrophe of the
Parthenon in 1687; Spon's _Voyage d'Italie, de Dalmatie, de Grèce et
du Levant_, which contained the first scientific description of the
ruins of Athens, appeared in 1678; Wheler's _Journey into Greece_, in
1682. A period of British activity in research followed in the 18th
century. The monumental work of James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, who
spent three years at Athens (1751-1754), marked an epoch in the
progress of Athenian topography and is still indispensable to its
study, owing to the demolition of ancient buildings which began about
the middle of the 18th century. To this period also belong the labours
of Richard Pococke and Richard Dalton, Richard Chandler, E.D. Clarke
and Edward Dodwell. The great work of W.M. Leake (_Topography of
Athens and the Demi_, 2nd ed., 1841) brought the descriptive
literature to an end and inaugurated the period of modern scientific
research, in which German archaeologists have played a distinguished
part.

Recent research.

Recent investigation has thrown a new and unexpected light on the art,
the monuments and the topography of the ancient city. Numerous and
costly excavations have been carried out by the Greek government and
by native and foreign scientific societies, while accidental
discoveries have been frequently made during the building of the
modern town. The museums, enriched by a constant inflow of works of
art and inscriptions, have been carefully and scientifically arranged,
and afford opportunities for systematic study denied to scholars of
the past generation. Improved means of communication have enabled many
acute observers to apply the test of scrutiny on the spot to theories
and conclusions mainly based on literary evidence; five foreign
schools of archaeology, directed by eminent scholars, lend valuable
aid to students of all nationalities, and lectures are frequently
delivered in the museums and on the more interesting and important
sites. The native archaeologists of the present day hold a recognized
position in the scientific work; the patriotic sentiment of former
times, which prompted their zeal but occasionally warped their
judgment, has been merged in devotion to science for its own sake, and
the supervision of excavations, as well as the control of the
art-collections, is now in highly competent hands. Athens has thus
become a centre of learning, a meeting-place for scholars and a basis
for research in every part of the Greek world. The attention of many
students has naturally been concentrated on the ancient city, the
birthplace of European art and literature, and a great development of
investigation and discussion in the special domain of Athenian
archaeology has given birth to a voluminous literature. Many theories
hitherto universally accepted have been called in question or proved
to be unsound: the views of Leake, for instance, have been challenged
on various points, though many of his conclusions have been justified
and confirmed. The supreme importance of a study of Greek antiquities
on the spot, long understood by scholars in Europe and in America, has
gradually come to be recognized in England, where a close attention to
ancient texts, not always adequately supplemented by a course of local
study and observation, formerly fostered a peculiarly conservative
attitude in regard to the problems of Greek archaeology. Since the
foundation of the German Institute in 1874, Athenian topography has to
a large extent become a speciality of German scholars, among whom
Wilhelm Dörpfeld occupies a pre-eminent position owing to his great
architectural attainments and unrivalled local knowledge. Many of his
bold and novel theories have provoked strenuous opposition, while
others have met with general acceptance, except among scholars of the
more conservative type.

[Illustration: Map of Athens.]

The early citadel.

_Prehistoric Athens._--Numerous traces of the "Mycenaean" epoch have
recently been brought to light in Athens and its neighbourhood. Among
the monuments of this age discovered in the surrounding districts are
the rock-hewn tombs of Spata, accidentally revealed by a landslip in
1877, and domed sepulchre at Menidí, near the ancient Acharnae,
excavated by Lolling in 1879. Other "Mycenaean" landmarks have been laid
bare at Eleusis, Thoricus, Halae and Aphidna. These structures, however,
are of comparatively minor importance in point of dimensions and
decoration; they were apparently designed as places of sepulture for
local chieftains, whose domains were afterwards incorporated in the
Athenian realm by the [Greek: synoikismos] (synoecism) attributed to
Theseus. The situation of the Acropolis, dominating the surrounding
plain and possessing easy communication with the sea, favoured the
formation of a relatively powerful state--inferior, however, to Tiryns
and Mycenae; the myths of Cecrops, Erechtheus and Theseus bear witness
to the might of the princes who ruled in the Athenian citadel, and here
we may naturally expect to find traces of massive fortifications
resembling in some degree those of the great Argolid cities. Such in
fact have been brought to light by the modern excavations on the
Acropolis (1885-1889). Remains of primitive polygonal walls which
undoubtedly surrounded the entire area have been found at various points
a little within the circuit of the existing parapet. The best-preserved
portions are at the eastern extremity, at the northern side near the
ancient "royal" exit, and at the south-western angle. The course of the
walls can be traced with a few interruptions along the southern side. On
the northern side are the foundations of a primitive tower and other
remains, apparently of dwelling-houses, one of which may have been the
[Greek: pukinos domos Erthaeos] mentioned by Homer (_Od_. vii. 81).
Among the foundations were discovered fragments of "Mycenaean" pottery.
The various approaches to the citadel on the northern side--the rock-cut
flight of steps north-east of the Erechtheum (q.v.), the stairs leading
to the well Clepsydra, and the intermediate passage supposed to have
furnished access to the Persians--are all to be attributed to the
primitive epoch. Two pieces of polygonal wall, one beneath the bastion
of Nike Apteros, the other in a direct line between the Roman gateway
and the door of the Propylaea, are all that remain of the primitive
defences of the main entrance.

The Pelasgicum.

These early fortifications of the Acropolis, ascribed to the primitive
non-hellenic Pelasgi, must be distinguished from the Pelasgicum Or
Pelargicum, which was in all probability an encircling wall, built round
the base of the citadel and furnished with nine gates from which it
derived the name of Enneapylon. Such a wall would be required to protect
the clusters of dwellings around the Acropolis as well as the springs
issuing from the rock, while the gates opening in various directions
would give access to the surrounding pastures and gardens. This view,
which is that of E. Curtius, alone harmonizes with the statement of
Herodotus (vi. 137) that the wall was "around" ([Greek: peri]) the
Acropolis, and that of Thucydides (ii. 17) that it was "beneath"
([Greek: hypo]) the fortress. Thus it would appear that the citadel had
an outer and an inner line of defence in prehistoric times. The space
enclosed by the outer wall was left unoccupied after the Persian wars in
deference to an oracular response apparently dictated by military
considerations, the maintenance of an open zone being desirable for the
defence of the citadel. A portion of the outer wall has been recognized
in a piece of primitive masonry discovered near the Odeum of Herodes
Atticus; other traces will probably come to light when the northern and
eastern slopes of the Acropolis have been completely explored. Leake,
whom Frazer follows, assumed the Pelasgicum to be a fortified space at
the western end of the Acropolis; this view necessitates the assumption
that the nine gates were built one within the other, but early antiquity
furnishes no instance of such a construction; Dörpfeld believes it to
have extended from the grotto of Pan to the sacred precinct of
Asclepius. The well-known passage of Lucian (_Piscator_, 47) cannot be
regarded as decisive for any of the theories advanced, as any portion of
the old _enceinte_ dismantled by the Persians may have retained the name
in later times. The Pelasgic wall enclosed the spring Clepsydra, beneath
the north-western corner of the Acropolis, which furnished a
water-supply to the defenders of the fortress. The spring, to which a
staircase leads down, was once more included in a bastion during the War
of Independence by the Greek chief Odysseus.

The Pnyx.

To the "Pelasgic" era may perhaps be referred (with Curtius and
Milchhöfer) the immense double terrace on the north-eastern slope of the
Pnyx (395 ft. by 212), the upper portion of which is cut out of the
rock, while the lower is enclosed by a semicircular wall of massive
masonry; the theory of these scholars, however, that the whole precinct
was a sanctuary of the Pelasgian Zeus cannot be regarded as proved, nor
is it easy to abandon the generally received view that this was the
scene of the popular assemblies of later times, notwithstanding the
apparent unsuitability of the ground and the insufficiency of room for a
large multitude. These difficulties are met by the assumption that the
semicircular masonry formed the base of a retaining-wall which rose to a
considerable height, supporting a theatre-like structure capable of
seating many thousand persons. The masonry may be attributed to the 5th
century; the chiselling of the immense blocks is not "Cyclopean."
Projecting from the upper platform at the centre of the chord of the
semicircular area is a cube of rock, 11 ft. square and 5 ft. high,
approached on either side by a flight of steps leading to the top; this
block, which Curtius supposes to have been the primitive altar of Zeus
[Greek: Hupsistos], may be safely identified with the orators' bema,
[Greek: ho lithos en tae Pykni] (Aristoph. _Pax_, 680). Plutarch's
statement that the Thirty Tyrants removed the bema so as to face the
land instead of the sea is probably due to a misunderstanding. Other
cubes of rock, apparently altars, exist in the neighbourhood. There can
be little doubt that the Pnyx was the seat of an ancient cult; the
meetings of the Ecclesia were of a religious character and were preceded
by a sacrifice to Zeus [Greek: Agoraios]; nor is it conceivable that,
but for its sacred associations, a site would have been chosen so
unsuitable for the purposes of a popular assembly as to need the
addition of a costly artificial auditorium.

Rock-dwellings and tombs.

The Pnyx, the Hill of the Nymphs and the Museum Hill are covered with
vestiges of early settlements which extend to a considerable distance
towards the south-east in the direction of Phalerum. They consist of
chambers of various sizes, some of which were evidently human
habitations, together with cisterns, channels, seats, steps, terraces
and quadrangular tombs, all cut in the rock. This neighbourhood was held
by Curtius to have been the site of the primeval rock city, [Greek:
kranaa polis] (Aristoph. _Ach_. 75), anterior to the occupation of the
Acropolis and afterwards abandoned for the later settlement. It seems
inconceivable, however, that any other site should have been preferred
by the primitive settlers to the Acropolis, which offered the greatest
advantages for defence; the Pnyx, owing to its proximity to the centres
of civic life, can never have been deserted, and that portion which lay
within the city walls must have been fully occupied when Athens was
crowded during the Peloponnesian War. Some of the rock chambers
originally intended for tombs were afterwards converted, perhaps under
pressure of necessity, into habitations, as in the case of the so-called
"Prison of Socrates," which consists of three chambers horizontally
excavated and a small round apartment of the "beehive" type. The remains
on the Pnyx and its neighbourhood cannot all be assigned to one epoch,
the prehistoric age. The dwellings do not correspond in size or details
with the undoubtedly prehistoric abodes on the Acropolis. In view of the
ancient law which forbade burial within the city, the tombs within the
circuit of the city walls must either be earlier than the time of
Themistocles or several centuries later; in the similar rock-tombs on
the neighbouring slopes of the Acropolis and Areopagus both Mycenaean
and Dipylon pottery have been found. But the numerous vertically
excavated tombs outside the walls are of late date and belong for the
most part to the Roman period.

The Areopagus.

The Areopagus is now a bare rock possessing few architectural traces.
The legend of its occupation by the Amazons (Aeschylus, _Eum_. 681 seq.)
may be taken as indicating its military importance for an attack on the
Acropolis; the Persians used it as a _point d'appui_ for their assault.
The seat of the old oligarchical council and court for homicide was
probably on its eastern height. Here were the altar of Athena Areia and
two stones, the [Greek: lithos Ybreos], on which the accuser, and the
[Greek: lithos Anaideias], on which the accused, took their stand.
Beneath, at the north-eastern corner, is the cleft which formed the
sanctuary of the [Greek: Semnai], or Erinyes. There is no reason for
disturbing the associations connected with this spot as the scene of St
Paul's address to the Athenians (E. Gardner, _Anc. Athens_, p. 505).

_Hellenic Period._--While modern research has added considerably to our
knowledge of prehistoric Athens, a still greater light has been thrown
on the architecture and topography of the city in the earlier historic
or "archaic" era, the subsequent age of Athenian greatness, and the
period of decadence which set in with the Macedonian conquest; the first
extends from the dawn of history to 480-479 B.C., when the city was
destroyed by the Persians; the second, or classical, age closes in 322
B.C., when Athens lost its political independence after the Lamian War;
the third, or Hellenistic, in 146 B.C., when the state fell under Roman
protection. We must here group these important epochs together, as
distinguished from the later period of Roman rule, and confine ourselves
to a brief notice of their principal monuments and a record of the
discoveries by which they have been illustrated in recent years.

The city in the "archaic" era.

The earliest settlement on the Acropolis was doubtless soon increased by
groups of dwellings at its base, inhabited by the dependents of the
princes who ruled in the stronghold. These habitations would naturally
in the first instance lie in close proximity to the western approach;
after the building of the Pelasgicum they seem to have extended beyond
its walls towards the south and south-west--towards the sea and the
waters of the Ilissus. The district thus occupied sloped towards the sun
and was sheltered by the Acropolis from the prevailing northerly winds.
The Thesean synoecism led to the introduction of new cults and the
foundation of new shrines partly on the Acropolis, partly in the
inhabited district at its base both within and without the wall of the
Pelasgicum. Some of the shrines in this region are mentioned by
Thucydides in a passage which is of capital importance for the
topography of the city at this period (ii. 15). By degrees the inhabited
area began to comprise the open ground to the north-west, the nearer
portion of the later Ceramicus, or "potters' field" (afterwards divided
by the walls of Themistocles into the Inner and Outer Ceramicus), and
eventually extended to the north and east of the citadel, which, by the
beginning of the 5th century B.C., had become the centre of a circular
or wheel-shaped city, [Greek: polios trochoeideos akra karaena] (Oracle
_apud_ Herod, vii. 140). To this enlarged city was applied, probably
about the second half of the 6th century, the special designation
[Greek: to aste], which afterwards distinguished Athens from its port,
the Peiracus; the Acropolis was already [Greek: e polis] (Thucyd. ii.
15). The city is supposed to have been surrounded by a wall before the
time of Solon, the existence of which may be deduced from Thucydides'
account of the assassination of Hipparchus (vi. 57), but no certain
traces of such a wall have been discovered; the materials may have been
removed to build the walls of Themistocles.

The Agora.

The centre of commercial and civic life of the older group of
communities, as of the greater city of the classical age, was the Agora
or market. Here were the various public buildings, which, when the power
of the princes on the citadel was transferred to the archons, formed the
offices of the administrative magistracy. The site of the primitive
Agora ([Greek: archaia agora]) was probably in the hollow between the
Acropolis and the Pnyx, which formed a convenient meeting-place for the
dwellers on the north and south sides of the fortress as well as for its
inhabitants. In the time of the Peisistratids the Agora was enlarged so
as to extend over the Inner Ceramicus on the north-west, apparently
reaching the northern declivities of the Areopagus and the Acropolis on
the south. After the Persian Wars the northern portion was used for
commercial, the southern for political and ceremonial purposes. In the
southern were the Orchestra, where the Dionysiac dances took place, and
the famous statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton by Antenor which were
carried away by Xerxes; also the Metroum, or temple of the Mother of the
Gods, the Bouleuterium, or council-chamber of the Five Hundred, the
Prytaneum, the hearth of the combined communities, where the guests of
the state dined, the temple of the Dioscuri, and the Tholus, or Skias, a
circular stone-domed building in which the Prytaneis were maintained at
the public expense; in the northern were the Leocorium, where Hipparchus
was slain, the [Greek: stoa basilikae], the famous [Greek: stoa
poikilae], where Zeno taught, and other structures. The Agora was
commonly described as the "Ceramicus," and Pausanias gives it this name;
of the numerous buildings which he saw here scarcely a trace remains;
their position, for the most part, is largely conjectural, and the exact
boundaries of the Agora itself are uncertain. What are perhaps the
remains of the [Greek: stoa basilikae], in which the Archon Basileus
held his court and the Areopagus Council sat in later times, were
brought to light in the winter of 1897-1898, when excavations were
carried out on the eastern slope of the "Theseum" hill. Here was found a
rectangular structure resembling a temple, but with a side door to the
north; it possessed a portico of six columns. The north slope of the
Areopagus, where a number of early tombs were found, was also explored,
and the limits of the Agora on the south and north-west were
approximately ascertained. A portion of the main road leading from the
Dipylon to the Agora was discovered.

The Enneacrunus.

In 1892 Dörpfeld began a series of excavations in the district between
the Acropolis and the Pnyx with the object of determining the situation
of the buildings described by Pausanias as existing in the neighbourhood
of the Agora, and more especially the position of the Enneacrunus
fountain. The Enneacrunus has hitherto been generally identified with
the spring Callirrhoe in the bed of the Ilissus, a little to the
south-east of the Olympieum; it is apparently, though not explicitly,
placed by Thucydides (ii. 15) in proximity to that building, as well as
the temple of Dionysus [Greek: en limnais] and other shrines, the
temples of Zeus Olympius and of Ge and the Pythium, which he mentions as
situated mainly to the south of the Acropolis. On the other hand,
Pausanias (i. 14. 1), who never deviates without reason from the
topographical order of his narrative, mentions the Enneacrunus in the
midst of his description of certain buildings which were undoubtedly in
the region of the Agora, and unless he is guilty of an unaccountable
digression the Enneacrunus which he saw must have lain west of the
Acropolis. It is now generally agreed that the Agora of classical times
covered the low ground between the hill of the "Theseum," the Areopagus
and the Pnyx; and Pausanias, in the course of his description, appears
to have reached its southern end. The excavations revealed a main road
of surprisingly narrow dimensions winding up from the Agora to the
Acropolis. A little to the south-west of the point where the road turns
towards the Propylaca was found a large rock-cut cistern or reservoir
which Dörpfeld identifies with the Enneacrunus. The reservoir is
supplied by a conduit of 6th-century tiles connected with an early stone
aqueduct, the course of which is traceable beneath the Dionysiac theatre
and the royal garden in the direction of the Upper Ilissus. These
elaborate waterworks were, according to Dörpfeld, constructed by the
Peisistratids in order to increase the supply from the ancient spring
Callirrhoe; the fountain was furnished with nine jets and henceforth
known as Enneacrunus. This identification has been hotly contested by
many scholars, and the question must still be regarded as undecided. An
interesting confirmation of Dörpfeld's view is furnished by the map of
Guillet and Coronelli, published in 1672, in which the Enneacrunus is
depicted as a well with a stream of running water in the neighbourhood
of the Pnyx. The fact that spring water is not now found in this
locality is by no means fatal to the theory; recent engineering
investigations have shown that much of the surface water of the Attic
plain has sunk to a lower level. In front of the reservoir is a small
open space towards which several roads converge; close by is a
triangular enclosure of polygonal masonry, in which were found various
relics relating to the worship of Dionysus, a very ancient wine-press
([Greek: laenos]) and the remains of a small temple. Built over this
early precinct, which Dörpfeld identifies with the Dionysium [Greek: en
limnais], or Lenaeum, is a basilica-shaped building of the Roman period,
apparently sacred to Bacchus; in this was found an inscription
containing the rules of the society of the Iobacchi. There is an
obvious difficulty in assuming that [Greek: limnai], in the sense of
"marshes," existed in this confined area, but stagnant pools may still
be seen here in winter. Dörpfeld's identification of the Dionysium,
[Greek: en limnais] cannot be regarded as proved; his view that another
Pythium and another Olympieum existed in this neighbourhood is still
less probable; but the inconclusiveness of these theories does not
necessarily invalidate his identification of the Enneacrunus, with
regard to the position of which the language of Thucydides is far from
clear. Another enclosure, a little to the south, is proved by an
inscription to have been a sanctuary of the hitherto unknown hero
Amynos, with whose cult those of Asclepius and the hero Dexion were here
associated; under the name Dexion, the poet Sophocles is said to have
been worshipped after his death. The whole district adjoining the
Areopagus was found to have been thickly built over; the small, mean
dwelling-houses intersected by narrow, crooked lanes convey a vivid idea
of the contrast between the modest private residences and the great
public structures of the ancient city.

The Academy and Lyceum.

The age of the Peisistratids (560-511 B.C.) marked an era in the history
of Athenian topography. The greatest of their foundations, the temple of
Olympian Zeus, will be referred to later. Among the monuments of their
rule, in addition to the enlarged Agora and the Enneacrunus, were the
Academy and perhaps the Lyceum. The original name of the Academy may
have been Hecademia, from Hecademus, an early proprietor (but see
ACADEMY, GREEK). The famous seat of the Platonic philosophy was a
gymnasium enlarged as a public park by Cimon; it lay about a mile to the
north-west of the Dipylon Gate, with which it was connected by a street
bordered with tombs. The Lyceum, where Aristotle taught, was originally
a sanctuary of Apollo Lyceius. Like the Academy, it was an enclosure
with a gymnasium and garden; it lay to the east of the city beyond the
Diocharean Gate.

The Acropolis before the Persian wars.

Little was known of the buildings on the Acropolis in the pre-Persian
period before the great excavations of 1885-1888, which rank among the
most surprising achievements of modern research. The results of these
operations, which were conducted by the Archaeological Society under the
direction of Kavvadias and Kawerau, must be summarized with the utmost
brevity. The great deposits of sculpture and pottery now unearthed,
representing all that escaped from the the ravages of the Persians and
the burning of the ancient shrines, afford a startling revelation of the
development of Greek art in the 7th and 6th centuries. Numbers of
statues--among them a series of draped and richly-coloured female
figures--masterpieces of painted pottery, only equalled by the Attic
vases found in Magna Grecia and Etruria, and numerous bronzes, were
among the treasures of art now brought to light. All belong to the
"archaic" epoch; only a few remains of the greater age were found,
including some fragments of sculptures from the Parthenon and
Erechtheum. We are principally concerned, however, with the results
which add to our knowledge of the topography and architecture of the
Acropolis. The entire area of the summit was now thoroughly explored,
the excavations being carried down to the surface of the rock, which on
the southern side was found to slope outwards to a depth of about 45 ft.
In the lower strata were discovered the remnants of Cyclopean or
prehistoric architecture already mentioned. Of later date, perhaps, are
the limestone polygonal retaining walls on the west front, which
extended on either side of the early entrance. Of these a portion may
probably be attributed to the Peisistratids, in whose time the Acropolis
once more became the stronghold of a despotism. Its fortifications,
though not increased, were apparently strengthened by the Tyrants. To
its embellishment they probably contributed the older ornamental
entrance, facing south-west, the precursor of the greater structure of
Mnesicles (see PROPYLAEA) and the colonnade of the "Hecatompedon," or
earlier temple of Athena, at this time the only large sacred edifice on
the citadel. The name was subsequently applied to the cella, or eastern
chamber, of the Parthenon, which is exactly 100 ft. long, and also
became a popular designation of the temple itself.

The old temple of Athena.

The ancient Hecatompedon may in all probability be identified with an
early temple, also 100 ft. long, the foundations of which were pointed
out in 1885 by Dörpfeld on the ground immediately adjoining the south
side of the Erechtheum. On this spot was apparently the primitive
sanctuary of Athena, the rich temple [Greek: pion naeos] of Homer (_Il._
ii. 549), in which the cult of the goddess was associated with that of
Erechtheus; the Homeric temple is identified by Furtwängler with the
"compact house of Erechtheus" (_Od_. vii. 81), which, he holds, was not
a royal palace, but a place of worship, and traces of it may perhaps be
recognized in the fragments of prehistoric masonry enclosed by the
existing foundations. The foundations seem to belong to the 7th century,
except those of the colonnade, which was possibly added by Peisistratus.
According to Dörpfeld, this was the "old temple" of Athena Polias,
frequently mentioned in literature and inscriptions, in which was housed
the most holy image [Greek: xoanon] of the goddess which fell from
heaven; it was burnt, but not completely destroyed, during the Persian
War, and some of its external decorations were afterwards built into the
north wall of the Acropolis; it was subsequently restored, he thinks,
with or without its colonnade--in the former case a portion of the
peristyle must have been removed when the Erechtheum was built so as to
make room for the porch of the maidens; the building was set on fire in
406 B.C. (Xen. _Hell._ i. 6. 1), and the conflagration is identical with
that mentioned by Demosthenes (_In Timocr._ xxiv. 155); its
"opisthodomos" served as the Athenian treasury in the 5th and 4th
centuries; the temple is the [Greek: archaios neos taes Poliados]
mentioned by Strabo (ix. 16), and it was still standing in the time of
Pausanias, who applies to it the same name (i. 27. 3). The conclusion
that the foundations are those of an old temple burnt by the Persians
has been generally accepted, but other portions of Dörpfeld's
theory--more especially his assumption that the temple was restored
after the Persian War--have provoked much controversy. Thus J.G. Frazer
maintains the hitherto current theory that the earlier temple of Athena
and Erechtheus was on the site of the Erechtheum; that the Erechtheum
inherited the name [Greek: archaios neos] from its predecessor, and that
the "opisthodomos" in which the treasures were kept was the west chamber
of the Parthenon; Furtwängler and Milchhöfer hold the strange view that
the "opisthodomos" was a separate building at the east end of the
Acropolis, while Penrose thinks the building discovered by Dörpfeld was
possibly the Cecropeum. E. Curtius and J.W. White, on the other hand,
accept Dörpfeld's identification, but believe that only the western
portion of the temple or opisthodomos was rebuilt after the Persian War.
Admitting the identification, we may perhaps conclude that the temple
was repaired in order to provide a temporary home for the venerated
image and other sacred objects; no traces of a restoration exist, but
the walls probably remained standing after the Persian conflagration.
The removal of the ancient temple was undoubtedly intended when the
Erechtheum was built, but superstition and popular feeling may have
prevented its demolition and the removal of the [Greek: xoanon] to the
new edifice. The temple consisted of an eastern cella with pronaos;
behind this was the opisthodomos, divided into three chambers--possibly
treasuries--with a portico at the western end. The peristyle, if we
compare the measurements of the stylobate with those of the drums built
into the wall of the Acropolis, may be concluded to have consisted of
six Doric columns at the ends and twelve at the sides. In one of the
pediments was a gigantomachy, of which some fragments have been
recovered.

The grottoes of Pan and Apollo.

In 1896 excavations with the object of exploring the whole northern and
eastern slopes of the Acropolis were begun by Kavvadias. The pathway
between the citadel and the Areopagus was found to be so narrow that it
is certain the Panathenaic procession cannot have taken this route to
the Acropolis. On the north-west rock the caves known as the grottoes of
Pan and Apollo were cleared out; these consist of a slight high-arched
indentation immediately to the east of the Clepsydra and a double and
somewhat deeper cavern a little farther to the east. In the first
mentioned are a number of niches in which [Greek: pinakes] (votive
tablets) were placed: some of these, inscribed with dedications to
Apollo, have been discovered. The whole locality was the seat of the
ancient cult of this deity, afterwards styled "Hypacraeus," with which
was associated the legend of Creüsa and the birth of Ion. The worship of
Pan was introduced after the Persian wars, in consequence of an
apparition seen by Pheidippides, the Athenian courier, in the mountains
of Arcadia. Another cave more to the west was revealed by the demolition
of the bastion of Odysseus. To the east a much deeper and hitherto
unknown cavern has been revealed, which Kavvadias identifies with the
grotto of Pan. Close to it are a series of steps hewn in the rock which
connect with those discovered in 1886 within the Acropolis wall. Farther
east is an underground passage leading eastward to a cave supposed to be
the sanctuary of Aglaurus where the ephebi took the oath; with this
passage is connected a secret staircase leading up through a cleft in
the rock to the precinct of the Errephori on the Acropolis. It is
conceivable that the priestesses employed this exit when descending on
their mysterious errand.

The classical period: the walls of Themistocles.

In the fifty years between the Persian and the Peloponnesian wars
architecture and plastic art attained their highest perfection in
Athens. The almost complete destruction of the buildings on the
Acropolis and in the lower city, among them many temples and shrines
which religious sentiment might otherwise have preserved, facilitated
the realization of the magnificent architectural designs of
Themistocles, Cimon and Pericles, while the rapid growth of the Athenian
empire provided the state with the necessary means for the execution of
these sumptuous projects. Of the great monuments of this epoch few
traces remain except on the Acropolis. After the departure of the
Persians the first necessity was the reconstruction of the defences of
the city and the citadel. The walls of the city, now built under the
direction of Themistocles, embraced a larger area than the previous
circuit, with which they seem to have coincided at the Dipylon Gate on
the north-west where the Sacred Way to Eleusis was joined by the
principal carriage route to the Peiraeus and the roads to the Academy
and Colonus. The other more important gates were the Peiraic and Melitan
on the west; the Itonian on the south leading to Phalerum, the Diomean
and Diocharean on the east, and the Acharnian on the north. The wall,
which was strengthened with numerous towers, enclosed the quarters of
Collytus on the north, Melite on the west, Limnae on the south-west and
south, and Diomea on the east. The scanty traces which remain have not
been systematically excavated except in the neighbourhood of the
Dipylon; the discovery of sepulchral tablets built into the masonry
illustrates the statement of Thucydides with regard to the employment of
such material in the hasty construction of the walls. The circuit has
been practically ascertained in its general lines, though not in
details; it is given by Thucydides (ii. 13. 7) as 43 stades (about 5½
m.) exclusive of the portion between the points of junction with the
long walls extending to the Peiraeus, but the whole circumference cannot
have exceeded 37 stades. Possibly Thucydides, who in the passage
referred to is dealing with the question of defence, included a portion
of the contiguous long walls in his measurement; this explanation
derives probability from his underestimate of the length of the long
walls.

The "Long Walls".

The design of connecting Athens with the Peiraeus by long parallel walls
is ascribed by Plutarch to Themistocles. The "Long Walls" ([Greek: ta
makra teichae, ta skelae]) consisted of (1) the "North Wall" ([Greek: to
boreion teichos]), (2) the "Middle" or "South Wall" ([Greek: to dia
mesou teichos], Plato, _Gorg._ 555 [Epsilon]; [Greek: to notion
teichos]); and (3) the "Phaleric Wall" ([Greek: to Phalaerikon teichos];
The north and Phaleric walls were perhaps founded by Cimon, and were
completed about 457 B.C. in the early administration of Pericles; the
middle wall was built about 445 B.C. The lines of the north and middle
walls have been ascertained from the remnants still existing in the 18th
century and the scantier traces now visible. The north wall, leaving the
city circuit at a point near the modern Observatory, ran from north-east
to south-west near the present road to the Peiraeus, until it reached
the Peiraeus walls a little to the east of their northernmost bend. The
middle wall, beginning south of the Pnyx near the Melitan Gate,
gradually approached the northern wall and, following a parallel course
at an interval of 550 ft., diverged to the east near the modern New
Phalerum and joined the Peiraeus walls on the height of Munychia where
they turn inland from the sea. The course of the Phaleric wall has been
much disputed. The widely-received view of Curtius that it ran to Cape
Kolias (now Old Phalerum) on the east of the Phaleric bay is not
accepted by recent topographers. The exigencies of the defensive system
planned by Themistocles could only have been satisfied by a juncture of
the Phaleric wall with that of the Peiraeus. The existence of any third
wall was denied by Leake, according to whose theory the southern
parallel wall would be identical with the Phaleric. The language of
Thucydides, however, seems decisive with regard to the existence of
three walls. The Phaleric wall, branching from the city circuit at some
point farther east than the middle or south wall, may have followed the
ridge of the Sikelia heights, where some traces of fortifications
remain, and then traversed the Phalerum plain till it reached the
Peiraeus defences at a point a little to the north-west of their
junction with the middle wall. The Phaleric wall, proving indefensible,
was abandoned towards the close of the Peloponnesian war; with the other
two walls it was completely destroyed after the surrender of the city,
and was not rebuilt when they were restored by Conon in 393 B.C. The
parallel walls fell into decay, during the Hellenistic period, and
according to Strabo (ix. 396) were once more demolished by Sulla.

The Peiraeus.

The great advantages which the Peiraic promontory with its three natural
harbours offered for purposes of defence and commerce were first
recognized by Themistocles, in whose archonship (493 B.C.) the
fortifications of the Peiraeus were begun. Before his time the Athenians
used as a port the roadstead of Phalerum at the north-eastern corner of
Phalerum bay partly sheltered by Cape Kolias. As soon as the building of
the city walls had been completed, Themistocles resumed the construction
of the Peiraeus defences, which protected the larger harbour of
Cantharus on the west and the smaller ports of Zea and Munychia
(respectively south-west and south-east of the Munychia heights),
terminating in moles at their entrances and enclosing the entire
promontory on the land and sea sides except a portion of the south-west
shore of the peninsula of Acte. The walls, built of finely compacted
blocks, were about 10 ft. in thickness and upwards of 60 ft. in height,
and were strengthened by towers. The town was laid out at great expense
in straight, broad streets, intersecting each other at right angles, by
the architect Hippodamus of Miletus in the time of Pericles. In the
centre was the Agora of Hippodamus; on the western margin of the
Cantharus harbour extended the emporium, or Digma, the centre of
commercial activity, flanked by a series of porticoes; at its northern
end, near the entrance to the inner harbour, was another Agora, on the
site of the modern market-place, and near it the [Greek: makra stoa],
the corn depot of the state. This inner and shallower harbour, perhaps
the [Greek: kophos limaen], was afterwards excluded from the town
precinct by the walls of Conon, which traversing its opening on an
embankment ([Greek: to dia meson choma]) ran round the outer shore of
the western promontory of Eëtionea, previously enclosed, with some space
to the north-west, by the wider circuit of Themistocles. In the harbours
of Zea and Munychia traces may be seen of the remarkable series of
galley-slips in which the Athenian fleet was built and repaired. The
galley-slips around Zea were roofed by a row of gables supported by
stone columns, each gable sheltering two triremes. Among the other
noteworthy buildings of the Peiraeus were the arsenal ([Greek:
skeuothaekae]) of Philo and the temples of Zeus Soter, the patron god of
the sailors, of the Cnidian Artemis, built by Cimon, and of Artemis
Munychia, situated near the fort on the Munychia height; traces of a
temple of Asclepius, of two theatres and of a hippodrome remain. The
fine marble lion of the classical period which stood at the mouth of the
Cantharus harbour gave the Peiraeus its medieval and modern names of
Porto Leone and Porto Draco; it was carried away to Venice by Morosini.

The Dipylon and Ceramicus.

In 1870 the Greek Archaeological Society undertook a series of
excavations in the Outer Ceramicus, which had already been partially
explored by various scholars. The operations, which were carried on at
intervals till 1890, resulted in the discovery of the Dipylon Gate, the
principal entrance of ancient Athens. The Dipylon consists of an outer
and an inner gate separated by an oblong courtyard and flanked on either
side by towers; the gates were themselves double, being each composed of
two apertures intended for the incoming and outgoing traffic. An opening
in the city wall a little to the south-west, supposed to have been the
Sacred Gate ([Greek: iera pylae]), was in all probability an outlet for
the waters of the Eridanus. This stream, which has hitherto been
regarded as the eastern branch of the Ilissus rising at Kaesariane, has
been identified by Dörpfeld with a brook descending from the south slope
of Lycabettus and conducted in an artificial channel to the
north-western end of the city, where it made its exit through the walls,
eventually joining the Ilissus. The channel was open in Greek times, but
was afterwards covered by Roman arches; it appears to have served as the
main drain of the city. Between this outlet and the Dipylon were found a
boundary-stone, inscribed [Greek: oros Kerameikou], which remains in its
place, and the foundations of a large rectangular building, possibly the
Pompeium, which may have been a robing-room for the processions which
passed this way. On either side of the Dipylon the walls of
Themistocles, faced on the outside by a later wall, have been traced for
a considerable distance. The excavation of the outlying cemetery
revealed the unique "Street of the Tombs" and brought to light a great
number of sepulchral monuments, many of which remain _in situ_.
Especially noteworthy are the _stelae_ (reliefs) representing scenes of
leave-taking, which, though often of simple workmanship, are
characterized by a touching dignity and restraint of feeling. In this
neighbourhood were found a great number of tombs containing vases of all
periods, which furnish a marvellous record of the development of Attic
ceramic art. A considerable portion of the district remains unexplored.

The Acropolis of the classical period: its fortifications and area.

The Acropolis had been dismantled as a fortress after the expulsion of
Hippias; its defenders against the Persians found it necessary to erect
a wooden barricade at its entrance. The fortifications were again
demolished by the Persians, after whose departure the existing north
wall was erected in the time of Themistocles; many columns, metopes and
other fragments from the buildings destroyed by the Persians were built
into it, possibly owing to haste, as in the case of the city walls, but
more probably with the design of commemorating the great historic
catastrophe, as the wall was visible from the Agora. The fine walls of
the south and east sides were built by Cimon after the victory of the
Eurymedon, 468 B.C.; they extend considerably beyond the old Pelasgic
circuit, the intervening space being filled up with earth and the débris
of the ruined buildings so as to increase the level space of the summit.
On the northern side Cimon completed the wall of Themistocles at both
ends and added to its height; the ground behind was levelled up on this
side also, the platform of the Acropolis thus receiving its present
shape and dimensions. The staircase leading down to the sanctuary of
Aglaurus was enclosed in masonry. At the south-western corner, on the
right of the approach to the old entrance, a bastion of early masonry
was encased in a rectangular projection which formed a base for the
temple of Nike. The great engineering works of Cimon provided a suitable
area for the magnificent structures of the age of Pericles.

The monuments on the Acropolis.

The greater monuments of the classical epoch on the Acropolis are
described in separate articles (see PARTHENON, ERECHTHEUM, PROPYLAEA).
Next in interest to these noble structures is the beautiful little
temple of Athena Nike, wrongly designated Nike Apteros (Wingless
Victory), standing on the bastion already mentioned; it was begun after
450 B.C. and was probably finished after the outbreak of the
Peloponnesian War. The temple, which is entirely of Pentelic marble, is
amphiprostyle tetrastyle, with fluted Ionic columns, on a stylobate of
three steps; its length is 27 ft., its breadth 18½ ft., and its total
height, from the apex of the pediment to the bottom of the steps, 23 ft.
The frieze, running round the entire building, represents on its eastern
side a number of deities, on its northern and southern sides Greeks
fighting with Persians, and on its western side Greeks fighting with
Greeks. Before the east front was the altar of Athena Nike. The
irregularly shaped precinct around the temple was enclosed by a
balustrade about 3 ft. 2 in. in height, decorated on the outside with
beautiful reliefs representing a number of winged Victories engaged in
the worship of Athena. The elaborate treatment of the drapery enveloping
these female figures suggests an approach to the mannerism of later
times; this and other indications point to the probability that the
balustrade was added in the latter years of the Peloponnesian War. The
temple was still standing in 1676; some eight years later it was
demolished by the Turks, and its stones built into a bastion; on the
removal of the bastion in 1835 the temple was successfully reconstructed
by Ross with the employment of little new material. At either corner of
the Propylaea entrance were equestrian statues dedicated by the Athenian
knights; the bases with inscriptions have lately been recovered. From
the inner exit of the Propylaea a passage led towards the east along the
north side of the Parthenon; almost directly facing the entrance was the
colossal bronze statue of Athena (afterwards called Athena Promachos) by
Pheidias, probably set up by Cimon in commemoration of the Persian
defeat. The statue, which was 30 ft. high, represented the goddess as
fully armed; the gleam of her helmet and spear could be seen by the
mariners approaching from Cape Sunium (Pausanias i. 28). On both sides
of the passage were numerous statues, among them that of Athena Hygeïa,
set up by Pericles to commemorate the recovery of a favourite slave who
was injured during the building of the Parthenon, a colossal bronze
image of the wooden horse of Troy, and Myron's group of Marsyas with
Athena throwing away her flute. Another statue by Myron, the famous
Perseus, stood near the precinct of Artemis Brauronia. In this sacred
enclosure, which lay between the south-eastern corner of the Propylaea
and the wall of Cimon, no traces of a temple have been found. Adjoining
it to the east are the remains of a large rectangular building, which
was apparently fronted by a colonnade; this has been identified with the
[Greek: Chalkothaekae], a storehouse of bronze implements and arms,
which was formerly supposed to lie against the north wall near the
Propylaea. Beyond the Parthenon, a little to the north-east, was the
great altar of Athena, and near it the statue and altar of Zeus Polieus.
With regard to the buildings on the east end of the Acropolis, where the
present museums stand, no certainty exists; among the many statues here
were those of Xanthippus, the father of Pericles, and of Anacreon.
Immediately west of the Erechtheum is the Pandroseum or temenos of
Pandrosos, the daughter of Cecrops, the excavation of which has revealed
no traces of the temple ([Greek: naos]) seen here by Pausanias (i. 27).
The site of this precinct, in which the sacred olive tree of Athena
grew, has been almost certainly fixed by an inscription found in the
bastion of Odysseus. At its north-western extremity is a platform of
levelled rock which may have supported the altar of Zeus Hypsistus.
Farther west, along the north wall of the Acropolis, is the space
probably occupied by the abode and playground of the Errephori. Between
this precinct and the Propylaea were a number of statues, among them the
celebrated heifer of Myron, and perhaps his Erechtheus; the Lemnian
Athena of Pheidias, and his effigy of his friend Pericles.

The city in the classical period.

The reconstruction of the city after its demolition by the Persians was
not carried out on the lines of a definite plan like that of the
Peiraeus. The houses were hastily repaired, and the narrow, crooked
streets remained; the influence of Themistocles, who aimed at
transferring the capital to the Peiraeus, was probably directed against
any costly scheme of restoration, except on the Acropolis. The period of
Cimon's administration, however, especially the interval between his
victory on the Eurymedon and his ostracism (468-461 B.C.), was marked by
great architectural activity in the lower city as well as on the
citadel. To his time may be referred many of the buildings around the
Agora (probably rebuilt on the former sites) and elsewhere, and the
passage, or [Greek: dromos], from the Agora to the Dipylon flanked by
long porticos. The Theseum or temple of Theseus, which lay to the east
of the Agora near the Acropolis, was built by Cimon: here he deposited
the bones of the national hero which he brought from Scyros about 470
B.C. The only building in the city which can with certainty be assigned
to the administration of Pericles is the Odeum, beneath the southern
declivity of the Acropolis, a structure mainly of wood, said to have
been built in imitation of the tent of Xerxes: it was used for musical
contests and the rehearsal of plays. Of the various temples in which
statues by Pheidias, Alcamenes and other great sculptors are known to
have been placed, no traces have yet been discovered; excavation has not
been possible in a large portion of the lower city, which has always
been inhabited. The only extant structures of the classical period are
the Hephaesteum, the Dionysiac theatre, and the choragic monument of
Lysicrates. The remains of a small Ionic temple which were standing by
the Ilissus in the time of Stuart have disappeared.

[Illustration: The Acropolis.]

The Hephaesteum or Theseum.

The Hephaesteum, the so-called Theseum, is situated on a slight
eminence, probably the Colonus Agoraeus, to the west of the Agora. The
best preserved Greek temple in the world, it possesses no record of its
origin; the style of its sculptures and architecture leads to the
conclusion that it was built about the same time as the Parthenon; it
seems to have been finished by 421 B.C. It has been known as the Theseum
since the middle ages, apparently because some of its sculptures
represent the exploits of Theseus, but the Theseum was an earlier
sanctuary on the east of the Agora (see above). The building has been
supposed by Curtius, Wachsmuth and others to be the Heracleum in Melite,
but its identification with the temple of Hephaestus and Athena seen in
this neighbourhood by Pausanias (i. 14. 6), though not established, may
be regarded as practically certain, notwithstanding the difficulty
presented by the subjects of the sculptures, which bear no relation to
Hephaestus. The temple is a Doric peripteral hexastyle _in antis_, with
13 columns at the sides; its length is 104 ft., its breadth 45½ ft., its
height, to the top of the pediment, 33 ft. The sculptures of the
pediments have been completely lost, but their design has been
ingeniously reconstructed by Sauer. The frieze of the entablature
contains sculptures only in the metopes of the east front and in those
of the sides immediately adjoining it; the frontal metopes represent the
labours of Heracles, the lateral the exploits of Theseus. As in the
Parthenon, there is a sculptured zophoros above the exterior of the
cella walls; this, however, extends over the east and west fronts only
and the east ends of the sides; the eastern zophoros represents a
battle-scene with seated deities on either hand, the western a
centauromachia. The temple is entirely of Pentelic marble, except the
foundations and lowest step of the stylobate, which are of Peiraic
stone, and the zophoros of the cella, which is in Parian marble. The
preservation of the temple is due to its conversion into a church in the
middle ages.

The Dionysiac theatre and Asclepieum.

The Dionysiac theatre, situated beneath the south side of the Acropolis,
was partly hollowed out from its declivity. The representation of plays
was perhaps transferred to this spot from the early Orchestra in the
Agora at the beginning of the 5th century B.C.; it afterwards superseded
the Pnyx as the meeting-place of the Ecclesia. The site, which had been
accurately determined by Leake, was explored by Strack in 1862, and the
researches subsequently undertaken by the Greek Archaeological Society
were concluded in 1879. It was not, however, till 1886 that traces of
the original circular Greek orchestra were pointed out by Dörpfeld. The
arrangements of the stage and orchestra as we now see them belong to
Roman times; the _cavea_ or auditorium dates from the administration of
the orator Lycurgus (337-323 B.C.), and nothing is left of the theatre
in which the plays of Sophocles were acted save a few small remnants of
polygonal masonry. These, however, are sufficient to mark out the
circuit of the ancient orchestra, on which the subsequently built
proscenia encroached. The oldest stage-building was erected in the time
of Lycurgus; it consisted of a rectangular hall with square projections
([Greek: paraskenia]) on either side; in front of this was built in
late Greek or early Roman times a stage with a row of columns which
intruded upon the orchestra space; a later and larger stage, dating from
the time of Nero, advanced still farther into the orchestra, and this
was finally faced (probably in the 3rd century A.D.) by the "bema" of
Phaedrus, a platform-wall decorated with earlier reliefs, the slabs of
which were cut down to suit their new position. The remains of two
temples of Dionysus have been found adjoining the stoa of the theatre,
and an altar of the same god adorned with masks and festoons; the
smaller and earlier temple probably dates from the 6th century B.C., the
larger from the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 4th century.

Immediately west of the theatre of Dionysus is the sacred precinct of
Asclepius, which was excavated by the Archaeological Society in
1876-1878. Here were discovered the foundations of the celebrated
Asclepieum, together with several inscriptions and a great number of
votive reliefs offered by grateful invalids and valetudinarians to the
god of healing. Many of the reliefs belong to the best period of Greek
art. A Doric colonnade with a double row of columns was found to have
extended along the base of the Acropolis for a distance of 54 yds.;
behind it in a chamber hewn in the rock is the sacred well mentioned by
Pausanias. The colonnade was a place of resort for the patients; a large
building close beneath the rock was probably the abode of the priests.

The choragic monument of Lysicrates.

The beautiful choragic monument of Lysicrates, dedicated in the
archonship of Euaenetus (335-334 B.C.), is the only survivor of a number
of such structures which stood in the "Street of the Tripods" to the
east of the Dionysiac theatre, bearing the tripods given to the
successful choragi at the Dionysiac festival. It owes its preservation
to its former inclusion in a Capuchin convent. The monument consists of
a small circular temple of Pentelic marble, 21½ ft. in height and 9 ft.
in diameter, with six engaged Corinthian columns and a sculptured
frieze, standing on a rectangular base of Peiraic stone. The delicately
carved convex roof, composed of a single block, was surmounted by the
tripod. The spirited reliefs of the frieze represent the punishment of
the Tyrrhenian pirates by Dionysus and their transformation into
dolphins. Another choragic monument was that of Thrasyllus, which faced
a cave in the Acropolis rock above the Dionysiac theatre. A portion of
another, that of Nicias, was used to make the late Roman gate of the
Acropolis. In one of these monuments was the famous Satyr of Praxiteles.

The Cynosarges.

The Cynosarges, from earliest times a sanctuary of Heracles, later a
celebrated gymnasium and the school of Antisthenes the Cynic, has
hitherto been generally supposed to have occupied the site of the
Monastery of the Asomati on the eastern slope of Lycabettus; its
situation, however, has been fixed by Dörpfeld at a point a little to
the south of the Olympieum, on the left bank of the Ilissus. Here a
series of excavations, carried out by the British School in 1896-1897
under the direction of Cecil Smith, revealed the foundations of an
extensive Greek building, the outlines of which correspond with those of
a gymnasium; it possessed a large bath or cistern, and was flanked on
two sides by water-courses. An Ionic capital found here possibly
belonged to the palaestra. The identification, however, cannot be
regarded as certain in the absence of inscriptions.

The Hellenistic period: the Stoa of Attalus.

With the loss of political liberty the age of creative genius in
Athenian architecture came to a close. The era of decadence, of honorary
statues and fulsome inscriptions, began. The embellishments which the
city received during the Hellenistic and Roman periods were no longer
the artistic expression of the religious and political life of a great
commonwealth; they were the tribute paid to the intellectual renown of
Athens by foreign potentates or dilettanti, who desired to add their
names to the list of its illustrious citizens and patrons. Among the
first of these benefactions was the great gymnasium of Ptolemy, built in
the neighbourhood of the Agora about 250 B.C. Successive princes of the
dynasty of Pergamum interested themselves in the adornment of the city:
Attalus I. set up a number of bronze statues on the Acropolis; Eumenes
II. built the long portico west of the Dionysiac theatre, which was
excavated and identified in 1877; Attalus II. erected the magnificent
Stoa near the Agora, the remains of which were completely laid bare in
1898-1902 and have been identified by an inscription. The Stoa consisted
of a series of 21 chambers, probably shops, faced by a double colonnade,
the outer columns being of the Doric order, the inner unfluted, with
lotus-leaf capitals; it possessed an upper storey fronted with Ionic
columns.

The Olympieum.

The greatest monument, however, of the Hellenistic period is the
colossal Olympieum or temple of Olympian Zeus, "unum in terris inchoatum
pro magnitudine dei" (Livy xli. 20), the remains of which stand by the
Ilissus to the south-east of the Acropolis. The foundations of a temple
were laid on the site--probably that of an ancient sanctuary-by
Peisistratus, but the building in its ultimate form was for the greater
part constructed under the auspices of Antiochus IV. Epiphanes, king of
Syria, by the Roman architect Cossutius in the interval between 174 B.C.
and 164 B.C., the date of the death of Antiochus. The work was then
suspended and its proposed resumption in the time of Augustus seems not
to have been realized; finally, in A.D. 129, the temple was completed
and dedicated by Hadrian, who set up a chryselephantine statue of Zeus
in the cella. The substructure was excavated in 1883 by F.C. Penrose,
who proved the correctness of Dörpfeld's theory that the building was
octostyle; its length was 318 ft., its breadth 132 ft. With the
exception of the foundations and two lower steps of the stylobate, it
was entirely of Pentelic marble, and possessed 104 Corinthian columns,
56 ft. 7 in. in height, of which 48 stood in triple rows under the
pediments and 56 in double rows at the sides; of these, 16 remained
standing in 1852, when one was blown down by a storm. Fragments of Doric
columns and foundations were discovered, probably intended for the
temple begun by Peisistratus, the orientation of which differed slightly
from that of the later structure. The peribolos, a large artificial
platform supported by a retaining wall of squared Peiraic blocks with
buttresses, was excavated in 1898 without important results; it is to be
hoped that the stability of the columns has not been affected by the
operations.

The Horologium of Andronicus.

_The Roman Period._--After 146 B.C. Athens and its territory were
included in the Roman province of Achaea. Among the earlier buildings of
this period is the Horologium of Andronicus of Cyrrhus (the "Tower of
the Winds"), still standing near the eastern end of the Roman Agora. The
building may belong to the 2nd or 1st century B.C.; it is mentioned by
Varro (_De re rust_. iii. 5. 17), and therefore cannot be of later date
than 35 B.C. It is an octagonal marble structure, 42 ft. in height and
26 ft. in diameter; the eight sides, which face the points of the
compass, are furnished with a frieze containing inartistic figures in
relief representing the winds; below it, on the sides facing the sun,
are the lines of a sun-dial. The building was surmounted by a
weathercock in the form of a bronze Triton; it contained a water-clock
to record the time when the sun was not shining.

Monuments of the Roman period.

The capture and sack of Athens by Sulla (March 1, 86 B.C.) seems to have
involved no great injury to its architectural monuments beyond the
burning of the Odeum of Pericles; a portion of the city wall was razed,
the groves of the Academy and Lyceum were cut down, and the Peiraeus,
with its magnificent arsenal and other great buildings, burnt to the
ground. After this catastrophe the benefactors of Athens were for the
most part Romans; the influence of Greek literature and art had begun to
affect the conquering race. The New, or Roman, Agora to the north of the
Acropolis, perhaps mainly an oil market, was constructed after the year
27 B.C. Its dimensions were practically determined by excavation in
1890-1891. It consisted of a large open rectangular space surrounded by
an Ionic colonnade into which opened a number of shops or storehouses.
The eastern gate was adorned with four Ionic columns on the outside and
two on the inside, the western entrance being the well-known Doric
portico of Athena Archegetis with an inscription recording its erection
from donations of Julius Caesar and Augustus. The whole conclave may be
compared with the enclosed bazaars or khans of Oriental cities which are
usually locked at night. The Agrippeum, a covered theatre, derived its
name from Vipsanius Agrippa, whose statue was set up, about 27 B.C.,
beneath the north wing of the Acropolis propylaea, on the high
rectangular base still remaining. At the eastern end of the Acropolis a
little circular temple of white marble with a peristyle of 9 Ionic
columns was dedicated to Rome and Augustus; its foundations were
discovered during the excavations of 1885-1888. The conspicuous monument
which crowns the Museum Hill was erected as the mausoleum of Antiochus
Philopappus of Commagene, grandson of Antiochus Epiphanes, in A.D.
114-116. Excavations carried out in 1898-1899 showed that the structure
was nearly square; the only portion remaining is the slightly curved
front, with three niches between Corinthian pilasters; in the central
niche is the statue of Philopappus.

Novae Athenae: the buildings of Hadrian.

The emperor Hadrian was the most lavish of all the benefactors of
Athens. Besides completing the gigantic Olympieum he enlarged the
circuit of the city walls to the east, enclosing the area now covered by
the royal public gardens and the Constitution Square. This was the City
of Hadrian (Hadrianapolis) or New Athens (Novae Athenae); a handsome
suburb with numerous villas, baths and gardens; some traces remain of
its walls, which, like those of Themistocles, were fortified with
rectangular towers. An ornamental entrance near the Olympieum, the
existing Arch of Hadrian, marked the boundary between the new and the
old cities. The arch is surmounted by a triple attic with Corinthian
columns; the frieze above the keystone bears, on the north-western side,
the inscription [Greek: aid eis Athaenai Thaeseos hae prin polis] and on
the south-eastern, [Greek: aid eis Hadrianou kai onchi Thaeseos polis].
One of the principal monuments of Hadrian's munificence was the
sumptuous library, in all probability a vast rectangular enclosure,
immediately north of the New Agora, the eastern side of which was
explored in 1885-1886. A portion of its western front, adorned with
monolith unfluted Corinthian columns, is still standing--the familiar
"Stoa of Hadrian"; another well-preserved portion, with six pilasters,
runs parallel to the west side of Aeolus Street. The interior consisted
of a spacious court surrounded by a colonnade of 100 columns, into which
five chambers opened at the eastern end. A portico of four fluted
Corinthian columns on the western side formed the entrance to the
quadrangle. This cloistered edifice may be identified with the library
of Hadrian mentioned by Pausanias; the books were, perhaps, stored in a
square building which occupied a portion of the central area. Strikingly
similar in design and construction is a large quadrangular building, the
foundations of which were discovered by the British School near the
presumed Cynosarges; this may perhaps be the Gymnasium of Hadrian, which
Pausanias tells us also possessed 100 columns. A Pantheon and temples of
Hera and Zeus Panhellenius were likewise built by Hadrian; the aqueduct,
which he began, was completed by Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-161); it was
repaired in 1861-1869 and is still in use.

The Stadium and Odeum of Herodes Atticus.

The Stadium, in which the Panathenaic Games were held, was first laid
out by the orator Lycurgus about 330 B.C. It was an oblong structure
filling a natural depression near the left bank of the Ilissus beneath
the eastern declivity of the Ardettus hill, the parallel sides and
semicircular end, or [Greek: sphendonae] around the arena being
partially excavated from the adjoining slopes. The immense building,
however, which was restored in 1896 and the following years, was that
constructed in Pentelic marble about A.D. 143 by Tiberius Claudius
Herodes Atticus, a wealthy Roman resident, whose benefactions to the
city rivalled those of Hadrian. The seats, rising in tiers, as in a
theatre, accommodated about 44,000 spectators; the arena was 670 ft. in
length and 109 ft. in breadth. The Odeum, built beneath the south-west
slope of the Acropolis after A.D. 161 by Herodes Atticus in memory of
his wife Regilla, is comparatively well preserved; it was excavated in
1848 and in 1857-1858. The plan is that of the conventional Roman
theatre; the semicircular auditorium, which seated some 5000 persons,
is, like that of the Dionysiac theatre, partly hollowed from the rock.
The orchestra is paved with marble squares. The façade, in Peiraic
stone, displays three storeys of arched windows. The whole building was
covered with a cedar roof. The Stadium had been already completed and
the Odeum had not yet been built when Pausanias visited Athens; these
buildings were the last important additions to the architectural
monuments of the ancient city. (J. D. B.)

II. THE MODERN CITY

At the conclusion of the Greek War of Independence, Athens was little
more than a village of the Turkish type, the poorly built houses
clustering on the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis. The
narrow crooked lanes of this quarter still contrast with the straight,
regularly laid-out streets of the modern city, which extends to the
north-west, north and east of the ancient citadel. The greater
commercial advantages offered by Nauplia, Corinth and Patras were
outweighed by the historic claims of Athens in the choice of a capital
for the newly founded kingdom, and the seat of government was
transferred hither from Nauplia in 1833. The new town was, for the most
part, laid out by the German architect Schaubert. It contains several
squares and boulevards, a large public garden, and many handsome public
and private edifices. A great number of the public institutions owe
their origin to the munificence of patriotic Greeks, among whom Andreas
Syngros and George Averoff may be especially mentioned. The royal
palace, designed by Friedrich von Gärtner (1792-1847), is a tasteless
structure; attached to it is a beautiful garden laid out by Queen
Amalia, which contains a well-preserved mosaic floor of the Roman
period. On the south-east is the newly built palace of the crown prince.
The Academy, from designs by Theophil Hansen (1813-1891), is constructed
of Pentelic marble in the Ionic style: the colonnades and pediments are
richly coloured and gilded, and may perhaps convey some idea of the
ancient style of decoration. Close by is the university, with a
colonnade adorned with paintings, and the Vallianean library with a
handsome Doric portico of Pentelic marble. The observatory, which is
connected with the university, stands on the summit of the Hill of the
Nymphs; like the Academy, it was erected at the expense of a wealthy
Greek, Baron Sina of Vienna. In the public garden is the Zappeion, a
large building with a Corinthian portico, intended for the display of
Greek industries; here also is a monument to Byron, erected in 1896. The
Boule, or parliament-house, possesses a considerable library. Other
public buildings are the Polytechnic Institute, built by contributions
from Greeks of Epirus, the theatre, the Arsakeion (a school for girls),
the Varvakeion (a gymnasium), the military school ([Greek: scholae
enelpidon]), and several hospitals and orphanages. The cathedral, a
large, modern structure is devoid of architectural merit, but some of
the smaller, ancient, Byzantine churches are singularly interesting and
beautiful. Among private residences, the mansion built by Dr Schliemann,
the discoverer of Troy, is the most noteworthy; its decorations are in
the Pompeian style.

Museums.

The museums of Athens have steadily grown in importance with the
progress of excavation. They are admirably arranged, and the remnants of
ancient art which they contain have fortunately escaped injudicious
restoration. The National Museum, founded in 1866, is especially rich in
archaic sculptures and in sepulchral and votive reliefs. A copy of the
Diadumenos of Polyclitus from Delos, and temple sculptures from
Epidaurus and the Argive Heraeum, are among the more notable of its
recent acquisitions. It also possesses the famous collection of
prehistoric antiquities found by Schliemann at Tiryns and Mycenae, other
"Mycenaean" objects discovered at Nauplia and in Attica, as well as the
still earlier remains excavated by Tsountas in the Cyclades and by the
British School at Phylakopi in Melos; terra-cottas from Tanagra and Asia
Minor; bronzes from Olympia, Delphi and elsewhere, and numerous painted
vases, among them the unequalled white _lekythi_ from Athens and
Eretria. The Epigraphical Museum contains an immense number of
inscriptions arranged by H.G. Lolling and A. Wilhelm of the Austrian
Institute. The Acropolis Museum (opened 1878) possesses a singularly
interesting collection of sculptures belonging to the "archaic" period
of Greek art, all found on the Acropolis; here, too, are some fragments
of the pedimental statues of the Parthenon and several reliefs from its
frieze, as well as the slabs from the balustrade of the temple of Nike.
The Polytechnic Institute contains a museum of interesting objects
connected with modern Greek life and history. In the Academy is a
valuable collection of coins superintended by Svoronos. Of the private
collections those of Schliemann and Karapanos are the most interesting:
the latter contains works of art and other objects from Dodona. There is
a small museum of antiquities at the Peiraeus.

Scientific institutions.

Owing to the numbers and activity of its institutions, both native and
foreign, for the prosecution of research and the encouragement of
classical studies, Athens has become once more an international seat of
learning. The Greek Archaeological Society, founded in 1837, numbers
some distinguished scholars among its members, and displays great
activity in the conduct of excavations. Important researches at
Epidaurus, Eleusis, Mycenae, Amyclae and Rhamnus may be numbered among
its principal undertakings, in addition to the complete exploration of
the Acropolis and a series of investigations in Athens and Attica. The
French École d'Athènes, founded in 1846, is under the scientific
direction of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres. Among its
numerous enterprises have been the extensive and costly excavations at
Delos and Delphi, which have yielded such remarkable results. The
monuments of the Byzantine epoch have latterly occupied a prominent
place in its investigations. The German Archaeological Institute,
founded in 1874, has carried out excavations at Thebes, Lesbos, Pares,
Athens and elsewhere; it has also been associated in the great
researches at Olympia, Pergamum and Troy, and in many other important
undertakings. The British School, founded in 1886, has been unable,
owing to insufficient endowment, to work on similar lines with the
French and German institutions; it has, however, carried out extensive
excavations at Megalopolis and in Melos, as well as researches at Abae,
in Athens (presumed site of the Cynosarges), in Cyprus, at Naucratis and
at Sparta. It has also participated in the exploration of Cnossus and
other important sites in Crete. The American School, founded in 1882, is
supported by the principal universities of the United States. In
addition to researches at Sicyon, Plataea, Eretria and elsewhere, it has
undertaken two works of capital importance--the excavation of the Argive
Heraeum and of ancient Corinth. An Austrian Archaeological Institute was
founded in 1898.

Industry and commerce.

Notwithstanding certain disadvantages inherent in its situation, the
trade and manufactures of Athens have considerably increased in recent
years. Industrial and commercial activity is mainly centred at the
Peiraeus, where cloth and cotton mills, 45 cognac distilleries, 14 steam
flour mills, 8 soap manufactories, 13 shipbuilding and engineering
works, chair manufactories, dye works, chemical works, tanneries and a
dynamite factory have been established. The shipbuilding and engineering
trades are active and advancing. The export trade is, however,
inconsiderable, as the produce of the local industries is mainly
absorbed by home consumption. The principal exports are wine, cognac and
marble from Pentelicus. As a place of import, the Peiraeus surpasses
Patras, Syra and all the other Greek maritime towns, receiving about 53%
of all the merchandise brought into Greece. The principal imports are
coal, grain, manufactured articles and articles of luxury. The total
value of exports in 1904 was £459,565; of imports, £2,459,278. The
number of ships entered and cleared in 1905 was 5020 with a tonnage of
5,796,590 tons, of which 416, with a tonnage of 609,822 tons, were
British.

The Peiraeus.

The Peiraeus, which had never revived since its destruction by the
Romans in 86 B.C., was at the beginning of the 19th century a small
fishing village known as Porto Leone. When Athens became the capital in
1833 the ancient name of its port was revived, and since that time piers
and quays have been constructed, and spacious squares and broad regular
streets have been laid out. The town now possesses an exchange, a large
theatre, a gymnasium, a naval school, municipal buildings and several
hospitals and charitable institutions erected by private munificence.
The harbour, in which ships of all nations may be seen, as well as great
numbers of the picturesque sailing craft engaged in the coasting trade,
is somewhat difficult of access to larger vessels, but has been improved
by the construction of new breakwaters and dry docks. The port and the
capital are now connected by railway with Corinth and the principal
towns of the Morea; the line opening up communication with northern
Greece and Thessaly, when its proposed connexion with the Continental
railway system has been effected, will greatly enhance the importance of
the Peiraeus, already one of the most flourishing commercial towns in
the Levant.

Population.

The population of Athens has rapidly increased. In 1834 it was below
5000; in 1870 it was 44,510; in 1879, 63,374; in 1889, 107,251; in 1896,
111,486. The Peiraeus, which in 1834 possessed only a few hundred
inhabitants, in 1879 possessed 21,618; in 1889, 34,327; in 1896, 43,848.
The total population of Athens in 1907 was 167,479 and of Peiraeus
67,982. (J. D. B.)

III. HISTORY

1. _The Prehistoric Period._--The history of primitive Athens is
involved in the same obscurity which enshrouds the early development of
most of the Greek city-states. The Homeric poems scarcely mention
Attica, and the legends, though numerous, are rarely of direct
historical value. In the Minoan epoch Athens is proved by the
archaeological remains to have been a petty kingdom scarcely more
important than many other Attic communities, yet enjoying a more
unbroken course of development than the leading states of that period.
This accords with the cherished tradition which made the Athenians
children of the soil, and free from admixture with conquering tribes.
Many legends, however, and the later state organization, point to an
immigration of an "Ionian" aristocracy in late Mycenaean days. These
Ionian newcomers are almost certainly responsible for the absorption of
the numerous independent communities of Attica into a central state of
Athens under a powerful monarchy (see THESEUS), for the introduction of
new cults, and for the division of the people into four tribes whose
names--Geleontes, Hopletes, Argadeis and Aegicoreis--recur in several
true Ionian towns. This centralization of power (_Synoecism_), to which
many Greek peoples never attained, laid the first foundations of
Athenian greatness. But in other respects the new constitution tended to
arrest development. When the monarchy was supplanted in the usual Greek
fashion by a hereditary nobility--a process accomplished, according to
tradition, between about 1000 and 683 B.C.--all power was appropriated
by a privileged class of Eupatridae (q.v.); the Geomori and Demiurgi,
who formed the bulk of the community, enjoyed no political rights. It
was to their control over the machinery of law that the Eupatridae owed
their predominance. The aristocratic council of the Areopagus (q.v.)
constituted the chief criminal court, and nominated the magistrates,
among whom the chief archon (q.v.) passed judgment in family suits,
controlled admission to the genos or clan, and consequently the
acquisition of the franchise. This system was further supported by
religious prescriptions which the nobles retained as a corporate secret.
Assisted no doubt by their judicial control, the Eupatridae also tended
to become sole owners of the land, reducing the original freeholders or
tenants to the position of serfs. During this period Athens seems to
have made little use of her militia, commanded by the polemarch, or of
her navy, which was raised in special local divisions known as
Naucraries (see NAUCRARY); hence no military _esprit de corps_ could
arise to check the Eupatrid ascendancy. Nor did the commons obtain
relief through any commercial or colonial enterprises such as those
which alleviated social distress in many other Greek states. The first
attack upon the aristocracy proceeded from a young noble named Cylon,
who endeavoured to become tyrant about 630 B.C. The people helped to
crush this movement; yet discontent must have been rife among them, for
in 611 the Eupatrids commissioned Draco (q.v.), a junior magistrate, to
draft and publish a code of criminal law. This was a notable concession,
by which the nobles lost that exclusive legal knowledge which had formed
one of their main instruments of oppression.

2. _The Rise of Athens._--A still greater danger grew out of the
widespread financial distress, which was steadily driving many of the
agricultural population into slavery and threatened the entire state
with ruin. After a protracted war with the neighbouring Megarians had
accentuated the crisis the Eupatridae gave to one of their number, the
celebrated Solon (q.v.), free power to remodel the whole state (594). By
his economic legislation Solon placed Athenian agriculture once more
upon a sound footing, and supplemented this source of wealth by
encouraging commercial enterprise, thus laying the foundation of his
country's material prosperity. His constitutional reforms proved less
successful, for, although he put into the hands of the people various
safeguards against oppression, he could not ensure their use in
practice. After a period of disorder and party-feud among the nobles the
new constitution was superseded in fact, if not in form, by the
autocratic rule of Peisistratus (q.v.), and his sons Hippias and
Hipparchus. The age of despotism, which lasted, with interruptions, from
560 to 510, was a period of great prosperity for Athens. The rulers
fostered agriculture, stimulated commerce and industry (notably the
famous Attic ceramics), adorned the city with public works and temples,
and rendered it a centre of culture. Their vigorous foreign policy first
made Athens an Aegean power and secured connexions with numerous
mainland powers. Another result of the tyranny was the weakening of the
undue influence of the nobles and the creation of a national Athenian
spirit in place of the ancient clan-feeling.

The equalization of classes was already far advanced when towards the
end of the century a nobleman of the Alcmaeonid family, named
Cleisthenes (q.v.), who had taken the chief part in the final expulsion
of the tyrants, acquired ascendancy as leader of the commons. The
constitution which he promulgated (508/7) gave expression to the change
of political feeling by providing a national basis of franchise and
providing a new state organization. By making effective the powers of
the Ecclesia (Popular Assembly) the Boule (Council) and Heliaea,
Cleisthenes became the true founder of Athenian democracy.

This revolution was accompanied by a conflict with Sparta and other
powers. But a spirit of harmony and energy now breathed within the
nation, and in the ensuing wars Athens worsted powerful enemies like
Thebes and Chalcis (506). A bolder stroke followed in 500, when a force
was sent to support the Ionians in revolt against Persia and took part
in the sack of Sardis. After the failure of this expedition the
Athenians apparently became absorbed in a prolonged struggle with Aegina
(q.v.). In 493 the imminent prospect of a Persian invasion brought into
power men like Themistocles and Miltiades (qq.v.), to whose firmness
and insight the Athenians largely owed their triumph in the great
campaign of 490 against Persia. After a second political reaction, the
prospect of a second Persian war, and the naval superiority of Aegina
led to the assumption of a bolder policy. In 483 Themistocles overcame
the opposition of Aristides (q.v.), and passed his famous measure
providing for a large increase of the Athenian fleet. In the great
invasion of 480-479 the Athenians displayed an unflinching resolution
which could not be shaken even by the evacuation and destruction of
their native city. Though the traditional account of this war
exaggerates the services of Athens as compared with the other champions
of Greek independence, there can be no doubt that the ultimate victory
was chiefly due to the numbers and efficiency of the Athenian fleet, and
to the wise policy of her great statesman Themistocles (see SALAMIS,
PLATAEA).

3. _Imperial Athens._--After the Persian retreat and the reoccupation of
their city the Athenians continued the war with unabated vigour. Led by
Aristides and Cimon they rendered such prominent service as to receive
in return the formal leadership of the Greek allies and the presidency
of the newly formed Delian League (q.v.). The ascendancy acquired in
these years eventually raised Athens to the rank of an imperial state.
For the moment it tended to impair the good relations which had
subsisted between Athens and Sparta since the first days of the Persian
peril. But so long as Cimon's influence prevailed the ideal of "peace at
home and the complete humiliation of Persia" was steadily unheld.
Similarly the internal policy of Athens continued to be shaped by the
conservatives. The only notable innovations since the days of
Cleisthenes had been the reduction of the archonship to a routine
magistracy appointed partly by lot (487), and the rise of the ten
elective strategi (generals) as chief executive officers (see
STRATEGUS). But the triumph of the navy in 480 and the great expansion
of commerce and industry had definitely shifted the political centre of
gravity from the yeoman class of moderate democrats to the more radical
party usually stigmatized as the "sailor rabble." Though Themistocles
soon lost his influence, his party eventually found a new leader in
Ephialtes and after the failure of Cimon's foreign policy (see CIMON)
triumphed over the conservatives. The year 461 marks the reversal of
Athenian policy at home and abroad. By cancelling the political power of
the Areopagus and multiplying the functions of the popular law-courts,
Ephialtes abolished the last checks upon the sovereignty of the commons.
His successor, Pericles, who commonly ranked as the "completer of the
democracy," merely developed the full democracy so as to secure its
effectual as well as its theoretical supremacy. The foreign policy of
Athens was now directed towards an almost reckless expansion (see
PERICLES). The unparalleled success of the Athenian arms at this period
extended the bounds of empire to their farthest limits. Besides securing
her Aegean possessions and her commerce by the defeat of Corinth and
Aegina, her last rivals on sea, Athens acquired an extensive dominion in
central Greece and for a time quite overshadowed the Spartan land-power.
The rapid loss of the new conquests after 447 proved that Athens lacked
a sufficient land-army to defend permanently so extensive a frontier.
Under the guidance of Pericles the Athenians renounced the unprofitable
rivalry with Sparta and Persia, and devoted themselves to the
consolidation and judicious extension of their maritime influence.

The years of the supremacy of Pericles (443-429) are on the whole the
most glorious in Athenian history. In actual extent of territory the
empire had receded somewhat, but in point of security and organization
it now stood at its height. The Delian confederacy lay completely under
Athenian control, and the points of strategic importance were largely
held by cleruchies (q.v.; see also PERICLES) and garrisons. Out of a
citizen body of over 50,000 freemen, reinforced by mercenaries and
slaves, a superb fleet exceeding 300 sail and an army of 30,000 drilled
soldiers could be mustered. The city itself, with its fortifications
extending to the port of Peiraeus, was impregnable to a land attack. The
commerce of Athens extended from Egypt and Colchis to Etruria and
Carthage, and her manufactures, which attracted skilled operatives from
many lands, found a ready sale all over the Mediterranean. With tolls,
and the tribute of the Delian League, a fund of 9700 talents
(£2,300,000) was amassed in the treasury.

Yet the material prosperity of Athens under Pericles was less notable
than her brilliant attainments in every field of culture. Her
development since the Persian wars had been extremely rapid, but did not
reach its climax till the latter part of the century. No city ever
adorned herself with such an array of temples, public buildings and
works of art as the Athens of Pericles and Pheidias. Her achievements in
literature are hardly less great. The Attic drama of the period produced
many great masterpieces, and the scientific thought of Europe in the
departments of logic, ethics, rhetoric and history mainly owes its
origin to a new movement of Greek thought which was largely fostered by
the patronage of Pericles himself. Besides producing numerous men of
genius herself Athens attracted all the great intellects of Greece. The
brilliant summary of the historian Thucydides in the famous Funeral
Speech of Pericles (delivered in 430), in which the social life, the
institutions and the culture of his country are set forth as a model,
gives a substantially true picture of Athens in its greatest days.

This brilliant epoch, however, was not without its darker side. The
payment for public service which Pericles had introduced may have
contributed to raise the general level of culture of the citizens, but
it created a dangerous precedent and incurred the censure of notable
Greek thinkers. Moreover, all this prosperity was obtained at the
expense of the confederates, whom Athens exploited in a somewhat selfish
and illiberal manner. In fact it was the cry of "tyrant city" which went
furthest to rouse public opinion in Greece against Athens and to bring
on the Peloponnesian War (q.v.) which ruined the Athenian empire
(431-404). The issue of this conflict was determined less by any
intrinsic superiority on the part of her enemies than by the blunders
committed by a people unable to carry out a consistent foreign policy on
its own initiative, and served since Pericles by none but selfish or
short-sighted advisers. It speaks well for the patriotic devotion and
discipline of her commons that Athens, weakened by plague and military
disasters, should have withstood for so long the blows of her numerous
enemies from without, and the damage inflicted by traitors within her
walls (see ANTIPHON, THERAMENES).

4. _The Fourth Century_--After the complete defeat of Athens by land and
sea, it was felt that her former services on behalf of Greece and her
high culture should exempt her from total ruin. Though stripped of her
empire, Athens obtained very tolerable terms from her enemies. The
democratic constitution, which had been supplanted for a while by a
government of oligarchs, but was restored in 403 after the latter's
misrule had brought about their own downfall (see CRITIAS, THERAMENES,
THRASYBULUS), henceforth stood unchallenged by the Greeks. Indeed the
spread of democracy elsewhere increased the prestige of the Athenian
administration, which had now reached a high pitch of efficiency.
Athenian art and literature in the 4th century declined but slightly
from their former standard; philosophy and oratory reached a standard
which was never again equalled in antiquity and may still serve as a
model. In the wars of the period Athens took a prominent part with a
view to upholding the balance of power, joining the Corinthian League in
395, and assisting Thebes against Sparta after 378, Sparta against
Thebes after 369. Her generals and admirals, Conon, Iphicrates,
Chabrias, Timotheus, distinguished themselves by their military skill,
and partially recovered their country's predominance in the Aegean,
which found expression in the temporary renewal of the Delian League
(q.v.). By the middle of the century Athens was again the leading power
in Greece. When Philip of Macedon began to grow formidable she seemed
called upon once more to champion the liberties of Greece. This ideal,
when put forward by the consummate eloquence of Demosthenes and other
orators, created great enthusiasm among the Athenians, who at times
displayed all their old vigour in opposing Philip, notably in the
decisive campaign of 338. But these outbursts of energy were too
spasmodic, and popular opinion repeatedly veered back in favour of the
peace-party. With her diminished resources Athens could not indeed hope
to cope with the great Macedonian king; however much we may sympathize
with the generous ambition of the patriots, we must admit that in the
light of hard facts their conduct appears quixotic.

5. _The Hellenistic Period._--Philip and Alexander, who sincerely
admired Athenian culture and courted a zealous co-operation against
Persia, treated the conquered city with marked favour. But the people
would not resign themselves to playing a secondary part, and watched for
every opportunity to revolt. The outbreak headed by Athens after
Alexander's death (323) led to a stubborn conflict with Macedonia. After
his victory the regent Antipater punished Athens by the loss of her
remaining dependencies, the proscription of her chief patriots, and the
disfranchisement of 12,000 citizens. The Macedonian garrison which was
henceforth stationed in Attic territory prevented the city from taking a
prominent part in the wars of the Diadochi. Cassander placed Athens
under the virtual autocracy of Demetrius of Phalerum (317-307), and
after the temporary liberation by Demetrius Poliorcetes (306-300),
secured his interests through a dictator named Lachares, who lost the
place again to Poliorcetes after a siege (295). After a vain attempt to
expel the garrison in 287, the Athenians regained their liberty while
Macedonia was thrown into confusion by the Celts, and in 279 rendered
good service against the invaders of the latter nation with a fleet off
Thermopylae. When Antigonus Gonatas threatened to restore Macedonian
power in Greece, the Athenians, supported perhaps by the king of Egypt,
formed a large defensive coalition; but in the ensuing "Chremonidean
War" (266-263) a naval defeat off Andros led to their surrender and the
imposition of a Macedonian garrison. The latter was finally withdrawn in
229 by the good offices of Aratus (q.v.). At this period Athens was
altogether overshadowed in material strength by the great Hellenistic
monarchies and even by the new republican leagues of Greece; but she
could still on occasion display great energy and patriotism. The
prestige of her past history had now perhaps attained its zenith. Her
democracy was respected by the Macedonian kings; the rulers of Egypt,
Syria, and especially of Pergamum, courted her favour by handsome
donations of edifices and works of art, to which the citizens replied by
unbecoming flattery, even to the extent of creating new tribes named
after their benefactors. If Athens lost her supremacy in the fields of
science and scholarship to Alexandria, she became more than ever the
home of philosophy, while Menander and the other poets of the New Comedy
made Athenian life and manners known throughout the civilized world.

6. _Relations with the Roman Republic._--In 228 Athens entered into
friendly intercourse with Rome, in whose interest she endured the
desperate attacks of Philip V. of Macedonia (200-199). In return for
help against King Perseus she acquired some new possessions, notably the
great mart of Delos, which became an Athenian cleruchy (166). By her
treacherous attack upon the frontier-town of Oropus (156) Athens
indirectly brought about the conflict between Rome and the Achaean
League which resulted in the eventual loss of Greek independence, but
remained herself a free town with rights secured by treaty. In spite of
the favours displayed by Rome, the more radical section of the people
began to chafe at the loss of their international importance. This
discontent was skilfully fanned by Mithradates the Great at the outset
of his Roman campaigns. His emissary, the philosopher Aristion, induced
the people to declare war against Rome and to place him in chief
command. The town with its port stood a long siege against Sulla, but
was stormed in 86. The conqueror allowed his soldiers to loot, but
inflicted no permanent punishment upon the people. This war left Athens
poverty-stricken and stripped of her commerce: her only importance now
lay in the philosophical schools, which were frequented by many young
Romans of note (Cicero, Atticus, Horace, &c.). Greek became fashionable
at Rome, and a visit to Athens a sort of pilgrimage for educated Romans
(cf. Propertius iv. 21: "Magnum iter ad doctas proficisci cogor
Athenas"). In the great civil wars Athens sided with Pompey and held out
against Caesar's lieutenants, but received a free pardon "in
consideration of her great dead." Similarly the triumvirs after Philippi
condoned her enthusiasm for the cause of Brutus. Antony repeatedly made
Athens his headquarters and granted her several new possessions,
including Eretria and Aegina--grants which Octavian subsequently
revoked.

7. _The Roman Empire._--Under the new settlement Athens remained a free
and sovereign city--a boon which she repaid by zealous Caesar-worship,
for the favours bestowed upon her tended to pauperize her citizens and
to foster their besetting sin of calculating flattery. Hadrian displayed
his special fondness for the city by raising new buildings and relieving
financial distress. He amended the constitution in some respects, and
instituted a new national festival, the Panhellenica. In the period of
the Antonines the endowment of professors out of the imperial treasury
gave Athens a special status as a university town. Her whole energies
seem henceforth devoted to academic pursuits; the military training of
her youth was superseded by courses in philosophy and rhetoric; the
chief organs of administration, the revived Areopagus and the senior
Strategus, became as it were an education office. Save for an incursion
by Goths in A.D. 267 and a temporary occupation by Alaric in 395, Athens
spent the remaining centuries of the ancient world in quiet prosperity.
The rhetorical schools experienced a brilliant revival under Constantine
and his successors, when Athens became the _alma mater_ of many notable
men, including Julian, Libanius, Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus, and in
her professors owned the last representatives of a humane and moralized
paganism. The freedom of teaching was first curtailed by Theodosius I.;
the edict of Justinian (529), forbidding the study of philosophy, dealt
the death-blow to ancient Athens.

The authorities for the history of ancient Athens will mostly be found
under GREECE: _History_, and the various biographies. The following
books deal with special periods or subjects only:--(1) _Early Athens_:
W. Warde Fowler, _The City-State_, ch. vi. (London, 1893). (2) _The
fifth and fourth centuries_: the "Constitution of Athens," ascribed to
Xenophon; W. Oncken, _Athen und Hellas_ (Leipzig, 1865); U. v.
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, _Aus Kydathen_ (Berlin, 1880); L. Whibley,
_Political Parties at Athens_ (Cambridge, 1889); G. Gilbert, _Beiträge
zur inneren Geschichte Athens_ (Leipzig, 1877); J. Beloch, _Die
attische Politik seit Perikles_ (Leipzig, 1884). (3) _The Hellenistic
and Roman periods_: J.P. Mahaffy, _Greek Life and Thought_, from 323
to 146 (London, 1887), chs. v., vi., xvii.; A. Holm, _Greek History_
(Eng. trans., London, 1898), iv. chs. vi. and xxiii.;
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, _Antigonos von Karystos_ (Berlin, 1881), pp.
178-291; W. Capes, _University Life in Ancient Athens_ (London, 1877);
A. Dumont, _Essai sur l'Ephebie attique_ (Paris, 1875). (4) _The Latin
rule_: G. Finlay, _History of Greece_ (Oxford ed., 1877), vol. iv. ch.
vi. (5) _Constitutional History_: The Aristotelian "Constitution of
Athens"; U. v. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, _Aristoteles und Athen_
(Berlin and Leipzig, 1893), vol. ii.; G. Gilbert, _Greek
Constitutional Antiquities_ (Eng. trans., London, 1895), pp. 95-453;
A.H.J. Greenidge, _Handbook of Greek Constitutional History_ (Oxford,
1896), ch. vi.; J.W. Headlam, _Election by Lot at Athens_ (Cambridge,
1891). (6) _Finance and statistics_: A. Boeckh, _The Public Economy of
the Athenians_ (Eng. trans., London, 1828); Ed. Meyer, _Forschungen
zur alten Geschichte_ (Halle, 1899), vol. ii. pp. 149-195. (7)
_Inscriptions: Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum_, with supplements
(Berlin, 1873-1895). (8) _Coins_: B.V. Head, _Historia Numorum_
(Oxford, 1887), pp. 309-328. (M. O. B. C.)

8. _Byzantine Period._--The city now sank into the position of a
provincial Byzantine town. Already it had been robbed of many of its
works of art, among them the Athena Promachos and the Parthenos of
Pheidias, for the adornment of Constantinople, and further spoliation
took place when the church of St Sophia was built in A.D. 532. The
Parthenon, the Erechtheum, the "Theseum" and other temples were
converted into Christian churches and were thus preserved throughout the
middle ages. The history of Athens for the next four centuries is almost
a blank; the city is rarely mentioned by the Byzantine chronicles of
this period. The emperor Constantine II. spent some months here in A.D.
662-663. In 869 the see of Athens became an archbishopric. In 995 Attica
was ravaged by the Bulgarians under their tsar Samuel, but Athens
escaped; after the defeat of Samuel at Belasitza (1014) the emperor
Basil II., who blinded 15,000 Bulgarian prisoners, came to Athens and
celebrated his triumph by a thanksgiving service in the Parthenon
(1018). From the Runic description on the marble lion of the Peiraeus it
has been inferred that Harold Hardrasda and the Norsemen in the service
of the Byzantine emperors captured the Peiraeus in 1040, but this
conclusion is not accepted by Gregorovius (bk. i. pp. 170-172). Like the
rest of Greece, Athens suffered greatly from the rapacity of its
Byzantine administrators. The letters of Acominatus, archbishop of
Athens, towards the close of the 12th century, bewail the desolate
condition of the city in language resembling that of Jeremiah in regard
to Jerusalem.

9. _Period of Latin Rule: 1204-1458._--After the Latin conquest of
Constantinople in 1204, Otho de la Roche was granted the lordship of
Athens by Boniface of Montferrat, king of Thessalonica, with the title
of Megaskyr ([Greek: megas kyrios]= great lord). His nephew and
successor, Guy I., obtained the title duke of Athens from Louis IX. of
France in 1258. On the death of Guy II., last duke of the house of la
Roche, in 1308, the duchy passed to his cousin, Walter of Brienne. He
was expelled in 1311 by his Catalonian mercenaries; the mutineers
bestowed the duchy "of Athens and Neopatras" on their leader, Roger
Deslaur, and, in the following year, on Frederick of Aragon, king of
Sicily. The Sicilian kings ruled Athens by viceroys till 1385, when the
Florentine Nerio Acciajuoli, lord of Corinth, defeated the Catalonians
and seized the city. Nerio, who received the title of duke from the king
of Naples, founded a new dynasty. His palace was in the Propylaea; the
lofty "Tower of the Franks," which adjoined the south wing of that
building, was possibly built in his time. This interesting historical
monument was demolished by the Greek authorities in 1874,
notwithstanding the protests of Penrose, Freeman and other scholars. The
Acciajuoli dynasty lasted till June 1458, when the Acropolis after a
stubborn resistance was taken by the Turks under Omar, the general of
the sultan Mahommed II., who had occupied the lower city in 1456. The
sultan entered Athens in the following month; he was greatly struck by
its ancient monuments and treated its inhabitants with comparative
leniency.

10. _Period of Turkish Rule: 1458-1833._--After the Turkish conquest
Athens disappeared from the eyes of Western civilization. The principal
interest of the following centuries lies in the researches of successive
travellers, who may be said to have rediscovered the city, and in the
fate of its ancient monuments, several of which were still in fair
preservation at the beginning of this period. The Parthenon was
transformed into a mosque; the existing minaret at its south-western
corner was built after 1466. The Propylaea served as the residence of
the Turkish commandant and the Erechtheum as his harem. In 1466 the
Venetians succeeded in occupying the city, but failed to take the
Acropolis. About 1645 a powder magazine in the Propylaea was ignited by
lightning and the upper portion of the structure was destroyed. Under
Francesco Morosini the Venetians again attacked Athens in September
1687; a shot fired during the bombardment of the Acropolis caused a
powder magazine in the Parthenon to explode, and the building was rent
asunder. After capturing the Acropolis the Venetians employed material
from its ancient edifices in repairing its walls. They withdrew in the
following year, when the Turks set fire to the city. The central
sculptures of the western pediment of the Parthenon, which Morosini
intended to take to Venice, were unskilfully detached by his workmen,
and falling to the ground were broken to pieces. Several ancient
monuments were sacrificed to provide material for a new wall with which
the Turks surrounded the city in 1778.

During the 18th century many works of art, which still remained _in
situ_, fell a prey to foreign collectors. The removal to London in 1812
of most of the remaining sculptures of the Parthenon by Lord Elgin
possibly rescued many of them from injury in the period of warfare which
followed. In 1821 the Greek insurgents surprised the city, and in 1822
captured the Acropolis. Athens again fell into the hands of the Turks in
1826, who bombarded and took the Acropolis in the following year; the
Erechtheum suffered greatly, and the monument of Thrasyllus was
destroyed. The Turks remained in possession of the Acropolis till 1833,
when Athens was chosen as the capital of the newly established kingdom
of Greece; since that date the history of the city forms part of that of
modern Greece. (See GREECE: _History, modern_.)

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.-W.M. Leake, _Topography of Athens and the Demi_
(2nd ed., London, 1841); C. Wachsmuth, _Die Stadt Athen im Alterthum_
(vol. i., Leipzig, 1874; vol. ii. part i., Leipzig, 1890); E. Burnouf,
_La Ville et l'acropole d'Athènes aux diverses époques_ (Paris, 1877);
F.C. Penrose, _Principles of Athenian Architecture_ (London, 1888);
J.E. Harrison, _Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens_ (London,
1890); E. Curtius and A. Milchhöfer, _Stadtgeschichte von Athen_
(Berlin, 1891); H. Hitzig and H. Blümner, _Pausanias_ (text and
commentary; vol. i., Berlin, 1896); J.G. Frazer, _Pausanias_
(translation and commentary; 6 vols., London, 1898. The commentary on
Pausanias' description of Athens, contained in vol. ii. with
supplementary notes in vol. v., is an invaluable digest of recent
researches); H. Omont, _Athènes au XVII^e siècle_ (Paris, 1898, with
plans and views of the town and acropolis and drawings of the
sculptures of the Parthenon); J.H. Middleton and E.A. Gardner, _Plans
and Drawings of Athenian Buildings_ (London, 1900); E.A. Gardner,
_Ancient Athens_ (London, 1902); W. Judeich, _Topographie von Athen_
(Munich, 1905; forming vol. iii. part ii. second half, in 3rd edition
of I. von Müller's _Handbuch der klass. Altertumswissenschaft_). The
history of excavations on the Acropolis is summarized in M.L. d'Ooge,
_Acropolis of Athens_ (1909); see also A. Bötticher, _Die Akropolis
von Athen_ (Berlin, 1888); O. Jahn, _Pausaniae descriptio arcis
Athenarum_ (Bonn, 1900); A. Furtwängler, _Masterpieces of Greek
Sculpture_ (appendix; London, 1895); A. Milchhöfer, _Über die alten
Burgheiligtümer in Athen_ (Kiel, 1899). For the Parthenon, A.
Michaelis, _Der Parthenon_ (texts and plates, Leipzig, 1871); L.
Magne, _Le Parthénon_ (Paris, 1895); J. Durm, _Der Zustand der antiken
athenischen Bauwerken_ (Berlin, 1895); F.C. Penrose in _Journal of
Royal Institute of British Architects_ for 1897; N.M. Balanos in
[Greek: Ephemeris tes kyberneseos] (Athens, August 25, 1898). For the
Dionysiac theatre, A.E. Haigh, _The Attic Theatre_ (Oxford, 1889); W.
Dörpfeld and E. Reisch, _Das griechische Theater_ (Athens, 1896);
Puchstein, _Die griechische Bühne_ (Berlin, 1901). For the "Theseum,"
B. Sauer, _Das sogenannte Theseion_ (Leipzig, 1899). For the Peiraeus,
E.I. Angelopoulos, [Greek: Peri Peiraios kai tun limenou] (Athens,
1898). For the Attic Demes, A. Milchhöfer, _Untersuchungen über die
Demenordnung des Kleisthenes_ (in transactions of Berlin Academy,
Berlin, 1892); Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopädie der class.
Altertumswissenschaft_ (supplement, part i., article "Athenai";
Stuttgart, 1903). For the controversies respecting the Agora, the
Enneacrunus and the topography of the town in general, see W.
Dörpfeld, _passim_ in _Athenische Mittheilungen_; C. Wachsmuth, "Neue
Beiträge zur Topographie von Athen," in _Abhandlungen der sächsischen
Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_ (Leipzig, 1897). A. Milchhöfer, "Zur
Topographie von Athen," in _Berlin. philol. Wochenschrift_ (1900),
Nos. 9, 11, 12. For the Byzantine and medieval periods, William
Miller, _Latins in the Levant_ (London, 1908); F. Gregorovius,
_Geschichte der Stadt Athen im Mittelalter_ (2 vols., Stuttgart,
1889). Periodical Literature. _Mittheilungen des kais. deutsch. arch.
Instituts_ (Athens, from 1876); _Bulletin de correspondance
hellénique_ (Athens, from 1877); _Papers of the American School_ (New
York, 1882-1897); _Annual of the British School_ (London, from 1894);
_Journal of Hellenic Studies_ (London, from 1880); _American Journal
of Archaeology_ (New York, from 1885); _Jahrbuch des kais. deutsch.
arch. Instituts_ (Berlin, from 1886). The best maps are those in _Die
Karten van Attika_, published with explanatory text by the German
Archaeological Institute (Berlin, 1881). See also Baedeker's _Greece_
(London, 1895); Murray's _Greece and the Ionian Islands_ (London,
1900); Guide Joanne, vol. i. _Athènes et ses environs_ (Paris, 1896);
Meyer's _Turkei und Griechenländer_ (5th ed., 1901). (J. D. B.)

ATHENS, a city and the county-seat of Clarke county, Georgia, U.S.A., in
the N.E. part of the state, about 73 m. E. by N. of Atlanta. Pop. (1890)
8639; (1900) 10,245, of whom 5190 were negroes and only 114 were
foreign-born; (1910, census) 14,913. It is served by the Georgia, the
Central of Georgia, the Southern, the Seaboard Air Line and the
Gainesville Midland railways. Athens is an important educational centre.
It was founded in 1801 as the seat of the university of Georgia, which
had been chartered in 1785. Franklin College, the academic department of
the university, was opened in 1801, and afterwards the State College of
Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (the School of Science, 1872), the State
Normal School (co-educational, 1891), the School of Pharmacy (1903), the
University Summer School (1903), the School of Forestry (1906), and the
Georgia State College of Agriculture (1906), also branches of the
university, were established at Athens, and what had been the Lumpkin
Law School (incorporated in 1859) became the law department of the
university in 1867. Branches of the university not in Athens are: the
North Georgia Agricultural College (established in 1871; became a part
of the university in 1872), at Dahlonega; the medical department, at
Augusta (1873; founded as the Georgia Medical College in 1829); the
Georgia School of Technology (1885), at Atlanta; the Georgia Normal and
Industrial College for Girls (1889), at Milledgeville; and the Georgia
Industrial College for Colored Youth (1890), near Savannah. At Athens
also are several secondary schools, and the Lucy Cobb Institute (for
girls), opened in 1858 and named in honour of a daughter of its founder,
Gen. T.R.R. Cobb (1823-1862). The city has various manufactures, the
most important being fertilizers, cotton goods, and cotton-seed oil and
cake; the value of the total factory product in 1905 was $1,158,205, an
increase of 70.9% in five years. Athens was chartered as a city in 1872.

ATHENS, a village and the county-seat of Athens county, Ohio, U.S.A., in
the township of Athens, on the Hocking river, about 76 m. E.S.E. of
Columbus. Pop. (1890) 2620; (1900) 3066; (1910) 5463; of the township
(1910) 10,156. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern, the
Toledo & Ohio Central (Ohio Central Lines), and the Hocking Valley
railways. The village is built on rolling ground rising about 70 ft.
above the river (which nearly encircles it), and commands views of some
of the most beautiful scenery in the state. There are several ancient
mounds in the vicinity. Athens is the seat of Ohio University
(co-educational), a state institution established in 1804, and having in
1908 a college of liberal arts, a state normal college (1902), a
commercial college, a college of music and a state preparatory school.
In 1908 the University had 53 instructors and 1386 students. South of
the village, and occupying a fine situation, is a state hospital for the
insane. In the vicinity there are many coal mines, and among the
manufactures are bricks, furniture, veneered doors, and shirts. The
municipality operates the water-works. When the Ohio Company, through
Manasseh Cutler, obtained from congress their land in what is now Ohio,
it was arranged that the income from two townships was to be set aside
"for the support of a literary institution." In 1795 the townships
(Athens and Alexander) were located and surveyed, and in 1800 Rufus
Putnam and two other commissioners, appointed by the Territorial
legislature, laid out a town, which was also called Athens. Settlers
slowly came; the town became the county-seat in 1805, was incorporated
as a village in 1811, and was re-incorporated in 1828.

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 7 - "Arundel, Thomas" to "Athens"" ***

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