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AVES-AVILA.

the satirical farces so popular on the Roman confined to the southern hemisphere. The genus A. stage.

A'VÉS. See BIRDS.

AVEYRON, a river and department in the south of France. The river rises near Severac-le-Château; flows, for the most part, in a westerly direction through the department of the same name; and, after a course of 90 miles, falls into the Tarn-a

feeder of the Garonne-below Montauban.

It

touches in its course the towns of Rhodez, Villefranche, and Negrepelisse.-The department of A. has an area of 3402 square miles, and is one of the most mountainous parts of France. Situated between the highlands of Auvergne and the Cevennes, it slopes like a terrace south-west to the Garonne, to the basin of which the department belongs. The principal rivers flow through the department from east to west; and between these, several ramified offsets from the chain of the Cevennes traverse the country. The climate is healthy, but cold and raw, especially in the north and east. North of the Lot, only rye and oats are grown; in the rest of the valleys, other kinds of grain also thrive, as well as fruit, chestnuts, potatoes, and truffles. A third part of the land is unfit for cultivation, but affords excellent pasture for the numerous herds of cattie, goats, and sheep, which, along with the breeding of swine, form the principal resources of the mountaineers. 18,000 cwt. of cheese is sold yearly under the name of Roquefort cheese. The mineral wealth of the department is considerable. Coal, iron, lead, zinc, copper, vitriol, alum, and antimony are found in abundance, the mining, preparing, and sale of which form a principal means of support to the (1872) 402,474 inhabitants. Besides these, the principal employments are paper-making, cotton-spinning, tanning, the manufacture of woollen cloth and carpets, &c. The seat of the departmental courts is Rhodez, which is also a bishop's see.

AVIARY, a place for keeping birds. The arrangements of an A. depend upon the habits of its inmates, the climate suited to them, and other circumstances. A bird-cage is a domestic aviary. Aviaries on the largest scale are to be seen in zoological gardens. AVICENNA, properly, Ibn Sina, or more fully, Abu Ali Al-Hossein Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina, a famous Arabian philosopher and physician, whose authority for many centuries passed for indisputable, was born 980, at Charmatain, a village near Bokhara, where he received a very learned education. He studied with special fondness mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and medicine. He was physician to several of the Samanide and Dilemite sovereigns, and also for some time vizir in Hamadan, but afterwards retired to Ispahan, and died during a journey of the Emir Ala-ed-Daula to Hamadan, in 1037. He left a multitude of writings, among which his system of medicine, Kanun fi 'l-Tibb, acquired the greatest reputation. It is distinguished less by originality than by an intelligible arrangement and judicious selection from the writings of the Greek physicians, at a time when the knowledge of Greek was not widely spread. A. himself knew the Greek writers only through Arabic translations. The Arabic text of the Kanun, and of several of his philosophical writings, among which those on metaphysics especially attracted the attention of the schoolmen, appeared at Rome, 1593, in 2 vols. The Kanun was translated into Latin by Gerardus Cremonensis, and repeatedly printed (Ven. 1595, 2 vols.). His philosophical writings have also appeared several times in Latin translations (Ven. 1490, 1523, 1564).

AVICENNIA, a genus of plants of the natural order Avicenneæ or Myoporaceae, an order very nearly allied to Verbenaceae (q. v.), and almost exclusively

consists of trees or large shrubs resembling mangroves, and, like them, growing in salt-swamps. six feet above the mud before they stick into it, and Their creeping roots, often curving for the space of the naked asparagus-like suckers which they throw up, have a singular appearance. A. tomentosa, the White Mangrove of Brazil, has cordate ovate leaves, downy beneath. Its bark is much used for tanning. A green resinous substance exuding from 4. resiniJera is eaten by the New Zealanders.-The genus is named in honour of the Arabian physician Avicenna. AVICULA. See PEARL OYSTER.

AVIGNON (Avenio Cavarum), a city of Provence, in the south of France, capital of the department of Vaucluse, is situated on the left bank of the Rhone, which is here crossed by a long bridge. The popu lation is (1872) 27,409; the streets are narrow and crooked. There is a multitude of churches and religious establishments, among which the cathedral on the Rocher des Dons and the church of the Franciscans, as well as the old papal palace and the tower Glacière, are distinguished. The Dominican convent now serves as a cannon-foundry. The city is the see of an archbishop, has a museum and picturegallery, and several other valuable institutions. The university, founded in 1303, was abolished in 1794. A. has manufactures of silk, silk-dyeing, tanning, ironfounding, &c., and is famous for its garden produce, its fruit, wine, honey, &c. The country about A. is delightful, and extremely fruitful in corn, wine, olives, oranges, and lemons.-In A., Petrarch spent several years; it was here he saw Laura, whose monument is to be found in the Franciscan church. Vaucluse, which he has immortalised, lies about three leagues from Avignon. A. was the capital of the ancient Cavares, and presents many remains of the times of the Romans. In the middle ages, it formed, with the surrounding district, a county, which the popes, who had already received the county of Venaissin as a gift from King Philip III., bought in 1348 from Joanna, queen of Naples and Countess of Provence. The pope governed both counties through a vice-legate, and continued in the possession of them till 1790, when, after several stormy and bloody scenes, the city with its district was united with France. At the peace of Tolentino (1797), the pope formally resigned A. and Venaissin. A. is celebrated in ecclesiastical history as being, for a time, the residence of the popes. By order of Philip IV. of France, Pope Clement V. and six of his successors from 1309 to 1377, were obliged to reside there. It was afterwards the residence of more than one anti-pope. Two ecclesiastical councils were also held at A. (1326 and 1337): the first took into consideration the relation of the clergy to the laity; the other, the bad training of the clergy.

A'VILA, a town of Spain, capital of the province of A., in Old Castile, 53 miles north-west of Madrid; pop. 6000. The Spaniards declare that its original name was Abula, and please themselves and amuse strangers with the belief that it was built by Hercules 1660 B. C. It is the birthplace of two highly remarkable persons-the first was the learned Alfonso Tostado de Madrigal, who died in 1455, and whose doctrines (according to his biographer) were so enlightened that they caused the blind to see, though, in the opinion of Don Quixote, he was more voluminous than luminous; the second is 'Our Seraphic Mother, the Holy Teresa, Spouse of Jesus,' born March 28, 1515; she was made the ladypatroness of Spain by Philip III., and shares the honours of worship with St James. A. is the see of a bishop, with a beautiful cathedral, and was at one time one of the richest and most flourishing cities of

AVILA Y ZUNIGA-AVOIRDUPOIS.

Spain. The university, which had been founded in 1482, and enlarged in 1638, was abolished in 1807. It was at A. that the nobles of Old Castile assembled in 1465 to depose King Henry IV., and raise his brother Alfonso to the throne of Leon and Castile.

At A., also, was held the meeting of the so-called Third Estate, or of the Holy League, in 1520, under the leadership of Juan Padilla, to which nearly all the cities of Castile sent representatives.

AVILA Y ZUNIGA, DON LUIZ DE, a Spanish general, diplomatist, and historian, born at Placencia, in Estremadura, enjoyed the favour and confidence of Charles V., who intrusted him with embassies to the popes Paul IV. and Pius IV., and made him grand master of the order of Alcantara. He accompanied the emperor on his expeditions to Africa and against the princes of the league of Schmalkald, and wrote an account of the war which goes under that name, partial, indeed, but able and spirited. The Commentarios de la Guerra de Alemanna hecha por Carlos V. en 1546 y 1547, have been published repeatedly (first, Ven. 1548), and translated into several languages.-AVILA, GIL GONZALEZ DE, born at Avila, in Old Castile, in 1559, and died in 1658, was a Jesuit and canon of Salamanca; also royal historiographer for Castile and the Indies. He composed a great number of historical works, of which the following may be mentioned as containing many valuable facts: Historia de la Vida y Hechos del Rey Don Henrique III. de Castilla (Madr. 1638); Historia de la Vida y Hechos del Monarca D. Filipe III. (in Mendoza's Monarquia de España, 3 vols. Madr. 1770); Historia de Salamanca (Salam. 1606); and the Teatro Ecclesiastico de la primitiva Iglesia de las Indias Occidentales (2 vols. Madr. 1649-1656).

Badge of Order of Aviz.

AVI'Z, an order of knighthood in Portugal, instituted by Sancho, the first king of Portugal, in imitation of the order of Calatrava, and having, like it, for its object the subjection of the Moors. By the present usage, the king of Portugal, who is grand-master of all of them, wears decorations of the first three orders of Portugal-those of Christ, St James, and Aviz united in one medal, divided into three equal spaces.

AVO'CA or OVO'CA (Celt. meeting of the waters), a small river in the south-east of Wicklow county, formed by the union of two streams, rising in the hills of the centre of the county. The A. runs through a very picturesque vale only a quarter of a mile broad, with wooded banks 300 to 500 feet high, and, after a course of nine miles, reaches the sea at Arklow. A. Vale is celebrated in Moore's Irish Melodies.

AVOCA'DO PEAR, or ALLIGATOR PEAR (Perse'a gratissima), a fruit-tree of the natural order Lauraceae (q. v.), a native of the warm regions of America. It attains the height of 30-70 feet, and is a slender tree with a dome-like top. The leaves resemble those of the laurel. The flowers small, and are produced towards the extremities of the branches. The fruit is a drupe, but in size and shape resembles a large pear; is usually of a brown colour, and has a soft green or yellowish pulp, not very sweet, but of a delicate flavour, which dissolves like butter on the tongue, and is believed to consist principally of a fixed oil. It is called vegetable butter

in some of the French colonies. It is much esteemed in the West Indies, and often eaten with sugar and lime-juice or wine, or with spices.

AVOCE'T, or AVOSET (Recurvirostra), a genus of birds, which, although having the feet webbed nearly to the end of the toes, is usually ranked among the Gralle or Grallatores, upon account of the length of the legs, the half-naked thighs, the long, slender, elastic bill, and the general agreement in habits with snipes. They are distinguished from all other birds, except a few species of hummingbird, by the strong upward curvature of the bill, which is much like a thin piece of elastic whalebone, and most probably a delicate organ of touch, adapted for seeking food in mud, as their webbed feet are for walking upon it, and their long legs for wading in the fens and marshes which they frequent. They are birds of powerful wing. They are not much addicted to swimming. They scoop through the

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Avocet (Recurvirostra avocetta).

mud with the bill, first to one side, and then to the other, in quest of worms and other small animals; although Audubon has also observed the American A. taking insects which were swimming on the surface of the water, and expertly catching them in the air, running after them with partially expanded wings.-The Common A. (R. avocetta), the body of which is about as large as that of a lapwing, is sometimes, though very rarely, found in the fenny districts of England; it is a native also of the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, occurring even at the Cape of Good Hope.-Other species are natives of North America, India, and New Holland. -The American A. (R. Americana) has the bill less recurved than the Common A., but its habits appear to be very similar.

AVOIDANCE, in English ecclesiastical law, the term by which the vacancy of a benefice, or the fact of its being void of an incumbent, is signified. A. is opposed to plenarty, or fulness. See BENEFICE.

AVOIRDUPOI'S, or AVERDUPOI'S, is the name given to the system of weights and measures applied in Great Britain and Ireland to all goods except the precious metals and precious stones. The word is generally said to be derived from the French avoir du pois, to have weight; but the middle-age Latin word averia or avera, used for goods in general, or the middle-age Latin averare, and French avérer, meaning to verify, seem to offer more probable etymologies.

The grain is the foundation of the Avoirdupois system, as well as of the Troy. A cubic inch of water weighs 252-458 grains. Of the grains so determined, 7000 make a pound A., and 5760 a pound Troy. See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.-The A. pound is divided into 16 ounces, and the ounce into 16 drams. A dram, therefore, contains 27 grains, and an ounce 437 grains.

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AVON-AXEL.

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receives the waters of the Orchy and Strae, flowing through glens of their own names. Loch A. contains fine fish, especially trout, Salmo ferox, and salmon ; and the small villages of Claddich and Port Sonachan, on the east side of the loch, due north of Inveraray, are the general resort of anglers.

A-WEATHER is a term denoting the position of the helm when jammed close to the weather-side of a ship; it is the reverse of a-lee.

A-WEIGH, as applied to the position of an anchor, when just loosened from the ground, and hanging vertically in the water, is nearly equivalent to a-trip.

AWN (Arista), in the flowers of Grasses, a solitary pointed bristle, growing either from a glume or a palea. The flowers of some grasses are entirely awnless; in many, the glumes alone are awned (or aristate), or only one of them; in others, the glumes are awnless, and the paleæ, or one palea, a prolongation of the midrib of the glume or palea; from which, however, it sometimes separates below the point, and is then said to be on the back of it, or dorsal; sometimes it is jointed at the base, and finally separates at the joint; sometimes it is kneebent or geniculate; sometimes it is twisted, and liable to twist and untwist hygrometrically; sometimes it is rough, or even serrate, at the edges, as in barley; sometimes it is feathery, as in feather-grass (Stipa), which also is remarkable for the great length of its awn. The characters of genera and species are often derived from it, but it is not always invariable, even in the same species, and the culti vated varieties of wheat and oats differ much in being more or less bearded. There appears to be a tendency to the diminution or disappearance of the awn through cultivation.

A'VON, a word of British or Celtic origin, meaning 'river' or 'stream,' which seems allied to Aa (q.v.), the name of so many continental rivers. It is the name of several of the smaller British rivers. Of these may be noticed: 1. The Upper or Warwick-awned. The awn is often terminal, and appears as shire A., which rises in north-west Northamptonshire, runs south-west through Warwickshire and Worcestershire, passing Rugby, Warwick, Stratford, and Evesham, and joining the Severn at Tewkesbury. It has a course of 100 miles, and receives several tributaries. 2. The Lower, or Bristol, or West A., which rises in north-west Wiltshire, and runs 70 or 80 miles, first south in Wiltshire, and then west and north-west between Gloucestershire and Somersetshire. It traverses an oolitic basin, passing Bradford, Bath, and Bristol, and empties itself into the Bristol Channel. It is navigable for large vessels up to Bristol. It runs generally between deep banks in a rich valley. A canal through the middle of Wiltshire connects it with the Thames. 3. The Wiltshire and Hampshire, or East A., which rises in the middle of Wiltshire, and runs south 70 miles through Wiltshire and AXE, the name of two small rivers in the southHampshire, passing Amesbury, Salisbury, and Ring- west of England. One rises in the Mendip Hills, wood, and entering the English Channel at Christ-north of Somerset, runs first south-west, and then church. It is navigable up to Salisbury. It abounds in the small delicate loach. In Wales two rivers named A.-one rising in Monmouthshire, the other in Glamorganshire-fall into Swansea Bay. In Scotland there are several of the same name, affluents of the Spey, Annan, Clyde, and Forth.

AVRA'NCHES, a town of France in the dep. of Manche. See SUPP., Vol. X.

AWE, LOCH, a lake in the centre of Argyleshire, extending in a direction north-east and south-west about 24 miles, with an average breadth of from half a mile to 2 miles. It rarely freezes, and its surface is 108 feet above the sea. The country around consists of mica slate. The scenery is most striking at the north-east end of the lake, where the water is studded with numerous wooded islets, overshadowed by towering and rugged mountains, prominent among which rises the dark and rocky ridge of Ben Cruachan, 3669 feet high, and 14 miles in circuit. Of the islands, the most noted is Fraocheilean, containing the remains of a castle granted to Gilbert M Naughton in 1267 by Alexander III. On a peninsula, in the north end of the lake, stands Kilchurn Castle (Caesteal Chaoil-chuirn), once a fortress of great strength, built about 1440 by Sir Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, and garrisoned, as late as 1745, by the king's troops. The waters of the lake are carried off at its north-west end by the river Awe, which, after a course of 7 miles, enters the sea at Bunawe on Loch Etive. The magnificent Pass of Awe,' through which the road runs beneath the shoulder of Ben Cruachan, was the scene of a conflict, in 1308, between Robert the Bruce and the M'Dougalls of Lorn, in which that clan was all but exterminated. At the north-east end of the loch, it

north-east, through a carboniferous limestone, trias, and diluvial basin, past Wells and Axbridge, into the Bristol Channel. The other rises in west Dorset, and flows 21 miles south and south-west, through east Devonshire, in an oolitic and trias basin, past Axminster into the English Channel. A. is only another form of Exe. See AA.

A'XEL, or A'BSALON, Archbishop of Lund, in Denmark, and also minister and general of King Waldemar I., was born in 1128, and died 1201. He was descended of a distinguished family, and, in his youth, studied at Paris. A. distinguished himself as well by wisdom and uprightness in peace, as by valour and address in war. The Wendish pirates were not only driven from the coasts of Denmark, but attacked in their own settlements, and subdued. He defeated the Pomeranian prince, Bogislav, and made him dependent on Denmark. In the wise legislation of Waldemar and of his son, he took a great part. He favoured and promoted learning and art, and to his encouragement we owe the first connected history of Denmark by Saxo Grammaticus. By building a fortified castle for defence against the pirates, he laid the foundation of the future great city of Copenhagen, which was then an insignificant village, inhabited only by fishermen. Owing to this origin, Copenhagen has sometimes got the name of Axelstadt. A. lies buried in the church of Soroe, where he had founded a monastery. The relics found when his grave was opened in 1827, the chief of which were a bishop's staff and ring, are described in the latest complete biography of A. by Estrup, translated into German by Mohnike in Illgen's Zeitschrift für Historische Theologie (2 vols. Leip. 1832).

AXESTONE-AXIS.

A'XESTONE, a mineral generally regarded as a variety of Nephrite (q. v.). It is of a greenish colour, is more or less translucent, hard, tough, and not easily broken. It occurs in primitive rocks, always massive, and is found in Saxony, in Greenland, and in New Zealand and other islands of the Southern Pacific. It derives its name from the use to which it is put by the natives of these islands for making their hatchets. They also make ear-drops of it.

A'XHOLME ISLE (A. Sax. holme, a river-isle), a low level tract in the north of Nottinghamshire, surrounded by rivers-the Trent on the east; Don, north and west; Torne and Idle, on the west; and Vicardyke, between the Trent and Idle on the south. This district, 18 miles from north to south, and 5 on an average east and west, was anciently a forest, but afterwards became a marsh. The marsh was drained into the Trent in 1634 by Vermuyden, a Dutchman, after 5 years' labour, and at the cost of £56,000. The reclaimed land became very fertile under Dutch and French Protestant settlers, and after much litigation, it was, in 1691, divided, the original inhabitants receiving 10,532 acres, and the settlers 2868. On the land are raised abundant crops of wheat, oats, rye, pease, beans, clover, flax, rape, hemp, potatoes, and onions. Peat and turf fuel abound, and valuable gypsum beds occur. The water is brackish, too hard for washing, and curdles milk when boiled with it. A. I. includes seven parishes. There are two small towns, Crowle and Epworth.

A'XIL (axilla), in Botany, the angle between the upper side of a leaf and the stem or branch from which it grows. Buds usually grow in the axils of leaves, although they are not always actually developed; but a bud may be made to appear in such a situation, and to form a new shoot or branch, by artificial means, which direct the strength of the plant more particularly to that quarter, as cutting over the main stem, wounding it above the place where the new branch is desired, &c. Flowers or flower-stalks (peduncles) growing from the axils of leaves are called axillary.

AXINOMANCY (Gr. axine, an axe, and manteia, divination), a mode of divination much practised by the ancient Greeks, particularly with the view of discovering the perpetrators of great crimes. An axe was poised upon a stake, and was supposed to move so as to indicate the guilty person; or the names of suspected persons being pronounced, the motion of the axe at a particular name was accepted as a sign of guilt. Another method of A. was by watching the movements of an agate placed upon a red-hot axe. This is only one of a multitude of analogous modes of divination practised in all ages and among all nations. See DIVINATION, and DIVINING-ROD.

A'XIOM, a Greek word meaning a demand or assumption, is commonly used to signify a general proposition, which the understanding recognises as true, as soon as the import of the words conveying it is apprehended. Such a proposition is therefore known directly, and does not need to be deduced from any other. Of this kind, for example, are all propositions whose predicate is a property essential to our notion of the subject. Every rational science requires such fundamental propositions, from which all the truths composing it are derived; the whole of geometry, for instance, rests on, comparatively, a very few axioms. Whether there is, for the whole of human knowledge, any single, absolutely first A., from which all else that is known may be deduced, is a question that has given rise to much disputation; but the fact,

that human knowledge may have various startingpoints, answers it in the negative. Mathematicians use the word A. to denote those propositions which they must assume as known from some other source than deductive reasoning, and employ in proving all the other truths of the science. The rigour of method requires that no more be assumed than are absolutely necessary. Every self-evident proposition, therefore, is not an A. in this sense, though, of course, it is desirable that every A. be self-evident; thus, Euclid rests the whole of geometry on fifteen assumptions, but he proves propositions that are at least as self-evident as some that he takes for granted. That any two sides of a triangle are greater than the third,' is as self-evident as that 'all right angles are equal to one another,' and much more so than his assumption about parallels, which, it has been remarked, is neither self-evident nor even easily made evident. See PARALLELS. Euclid's assumptions are divided into three postulates' or demands, and twelve common notions'-the term A. is of later introduction. The distinction between axioms and postulates is usually stated in this way: an A. is a theorem granted without demonstration;' a postulate is a problem granted without construction'-as, To draw a straight line between two given points.

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A'XIS, in Geometry.-The A. of a curved line is formed by a right line dividing the curve into two symmetrical parts, so that the part on one side exactly corresponds with that on the other; as in the parabola, the ellipse, and the hyperbola. The A. of any geometrical solid is the right line which passes through the centre of all the corresponding parallel sections of it: in this sense, we speak of the A. of a cylinder, a globe, or a spheroid. By the A. of rotation, we understand the right line around which a body revolves.-In physical science, the A. of a lens is the right line passing through it in such a manner as to be perpendicular to both sides of it; and the A. of a telescope is a right line which passes through the centres of all the glasses in the tube. The A. of the eye is the right line passing through the centres of the pupil and the crystalline lens.

A'XIS, in Botany, a term applied to the central part both above and below ground, around which the whole plant is regarded as arranged. The stem is called the ascending A.; the root, the descending axis. The opposite tendencies of growth appear as soon as a seed begins to germinate, in the radicle and plumule; the former of which is the descending A., and the latter the ascending A.; the former descending deeper into the soil, the latter ascending towards the air and light. That part of the stem around which the flowers are arranged is called the floral A., and, in describing some kinds of inflorescence, the terms, primary floral A., secondary floral A., &c., are occasionally employed.

A'XIS (Cervus Axis), a species of deer, abundant on the banks of the Ganges, but found throughout India and in many islands of the Eastern Archipelago. It was known to the ancients by the name Axis. One of its Indian names is Chittra, and by British sportsmen in India it is generally called the Spotted Hog-deer. By some naturalists, it has been made the type of a genus of Cervidæ, called Axis. The A. has a great resemblance in size and colouring to the European fallow-deer; it is generally of a rich fawn colour, beautifully spotted with white, nearly black along the back, the under parts snow-white. The horns, however, differ very much from those of the fallow-deer, being slender, sharp-pointed, little branched, and not at all palmated. The female has no horns. The A. frequents thick jungles in the

AXMINSTER-AYALA.

vicinity of water, and feeds during the night. It is commonly found in herds of 15 or 20, of which 3 or 4 are males. Its sense of smell is remarkably acute, and it is generally very shy and timid, so that sportsmen find it difficult to get within shot. The males, however, sometimes exhibit great courage in defence of the young. It is very easily domesticated, is very gentle in its manners, has been frequently imported into Europe, and breeds freely in the parks in which it is kept at a few noblemen's and gentlemen's seats in Britain and France.

A'XMINSTER, a small town in east Devonshire, on the side of a little hill on the left bank of the Axe. Pop. in 1871, 2861. A. was once famous for the manufacture of Turkey and Persian carpets, which were little inferior to those imported. Two celebrated geologists have been connected with A.: Dr Buckland was born here, and Dr Conybeare was lord of the manor, and vicar.

A'XMOUTH, a village at the mouth of the Axe, east Devonshire. A mile east of A. occurred, in 1839, a landslip; an area 200 feet wide, for threequarters of a mile parallel to the shore, having sunk 250 feet below the sea, with a great noise. The chasm thus formed became a lagoon, while the neighbouring sea-bed rose 40 feet. Rather more than a mile further east, occurred another but smaller landslip in 1840. The district around consists of greensand strata.

AXOLOTL, pronounced acho'latl (Gyrinus, or Axolotes edulis), a remarkable animal, found in great abundance in some of the Mexican lakes, and particularly in the Lake of Mexico itself. It is a Batrachian (q. v.) reptile of the family of the Proteide or Perennibranchiate Batrachians, in which the gills remain during life, and the lungs are never sufficiently developed to maintain respiration by themselves. It is in general form very like a fish;

Axolotl.

greatness of the city is testified by yet remaining structures cut in granite, some of which have inscriptions. From these it appears that the Axumite empire extended over Abyssinia, and even over Yemen and Saba in Arabia, and possessed the command of the Red Sea. It acquired political importance from the circumstance, that it formed on the south a boundary to the world-embracing power of Rome, as well as to that of Parthia, which then extended as far as Arabia. The Byzantine emperors even paid an annual tribute to the sovereigns of Axum. This country was also the furthest point southward that Grecian civilisation reached; through the medium of Egypt, Greek philosophy spread into A., and the Greek language became the language of the court and of the priests. Under King Aizanes, who, in a still remaining inscription, appears as a heathen, Christianity was introduced into the country from Egypt by the two apostles Frumentius and Ædesius, who were followed by many priests from the same quarter. The new doctrine soon spread over the whole country; Frumentius was made the first Bishop of A., and Fremona was built in honour of him. The stone churches, many of them very imposing, yet scattered over the whole of Abyssinia, owe their architecture to Egyptian priests, and arose at that period, as well as the most celebrated Abyssinian convents and hermitages. The Axumite empire carried on, through Adule, an active commerce with Arabia and India; it formed the outermost bulwark of Christianity; and, as such, particularly from about the 6th c., it interfered in behalf of the Christians in Arabia, and became the natural enemy of Mohammedanism. The contests in which it soon became involved with that power caused its fall, as the kings gradually lost their possessions in Arabia, and the whole coast on the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The outlets for commerce were thus cut off, and the empire was at the same time so weakened by constant wars, that internal disorders brought on its complete dissolution.

AYACU'CHO, a town in a department of the same name in South Peru. Here, on the 9th December 1824, the combined forces of Peru and Colombia -the latter then comprising Ecuador, New Granada, and Venezuela-totally defeated the last Spanish army that was ever seen on the new continent

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AYA'LA, PERO LOPEZ DE, called El Viejo, to distinguish him from his son of the same name, was born at Murcia in 1332, of one of the first families of the Castilian nobility. He stood high in the regard of several kings of Castile, and filled the first offices of the state, latterly, that of high-chancellor and high-chamberlain of Castile. At the battle of Najera, in 1367, he was taken prisoner by the English, then in league with Peter the Cruel, and confined for some time in an English dungeon; and again in 1385, by the Portuguese, at the battle of Aljubarota. He died at Calahorra in 1407. A. has acquired a name, not only as a statesman, but as a writer, especially as a historian and poet. His best known work is his Crónicas de los Reyes de Castilla D. Pedro, D. Enrique II., D. Juan I., D. Enrique III. (2 vols. Madr. 1779-80-the older editions of 1495 and 1591 are imperfect). He was the first among the Spaniards to give up the usual simple narrative of events in the order of time, and to seek to give a more rational representation of them according to the rules of historic art. It is only in recent times AXUM, once the capital of the Ethiopian king- that the poetical works of A. have been discovered; dom of the same name, is situated in the modern the most remarkable of which is the Libro o' Rimado Abyssinian province of Tigré, of which it is capital. de Palacio. This Book in Rhyme on Court-life,' as Lat. 40° 7' N.; long. 39° 27' E. It now lies mainly its singular title may be translated, was begun during in ruins, among which stands the principal church the poet's first captivity in England, and is composed of Abyssinia, built in 1657. Pop. 2000. The former in the old national form of rhyming Alexandrine

has a large and broad head; and tapers into a long compressed tail, which has a thin membranous fin both on its upper and its lower side. It has four legs, with toes not webbed; and on each side of the neck the gills form three long branched or feathered processes, which give it a very remarkable appearance. It is brown, and mottled with small black spots. When full grown, it averages 8 or 9 inches in length, though sometimes measuring 16 inches. It is esteemed a great delicacy in Mexico, and is there constantly brought to the market.

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