Aborigines, gine; or by Saturn, or Cham, or others; not long Abortion. after the dispersion, or even, as some think, before it: Or, they were a colony sent from some other nation; who expelling the Siculi, the ancient inhabitants, settled in their place. About this mother nation there is great dispute. Some maintain it to be the Arcadians, parties of whom were brought into Italy at different times; the first under the conduct of Oenotrius, son of Lycaon, 450 years before the Trojan war; a second from Thessaly; a third under Evander, 60 years before the Trojan war; besides another under Hercules; and another of Lacedæmonians, who fled from the severe discipline of Lycurgus: all these uniting, are said to have formed the nation or kingdom of the Aborigines. Others will have them of barbarian rather than Grecian origin, and to have come from Scythia; others from Gaul. Lastly, Others will have them to be Canaanites, expelled by Joshua.

The term Aborigines, though so famous in antiquity, is used in modern geography only occasionally as an appellative. It is given to the primitive inhabitants of a country, in contradistinction to colonies, or new races of people.

ABORTION, in Midwifery, the premature exclusion of a fœtus. See MIDWIFERY.

The practice of procuring abortions was prohibited by the ancient Greek legislators Solon and Lycurgus. Whether or not it was permitted among the Romans, has been much disputed. It is certain the practice, which was by them called visceribus vim inferre, was frequent enough; but whether there was any penalty on it before the emperors Severus and Antonine, is the question. Nodt maintains the negative; and further, that those princes only made it criminal in one particular case, viz. of a married woman's practising it out of resentment against her husband, in order to defraud him of the comfort of children: this was ordered to be punished by a temporary exile. The foundation on which the practice is said to have been allowed, was, that the foetus, while in utero, was reputed as a part of the mother, ranked as one of her own viscera, over which she had the same power as over the rest: besides, that it was not reputed as a man, homo; nor to be alive, otherwise than as a vegetable: consequently, that the crime amounted to little more than that of plucking unripe fruit from the trees. Seneca represents it as a peculiar glory of Helvia, that she had never, like other women, whose chief study is their beauty and shape, destroyed the foetus in her womb. The primitive fathers, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Minutius Felix, Augustin, &c. declaimed loudly against the practice as virtual murder. Several councils have condemned it. Yet we are told that the modern Romish ecclesiastical laws allow of dispensations for it. Egane mentions the rates at which a dispensation for it may be had.

The practice of artificial abortion is chiefly in the hands of women and nurses, rarely in that of physicians; who, in some countries, are not admitted to the profession without abjuring it. Hippocrates, in the oath he would have enjoined on all physicians, includes their not giving the pessus abortivus, though elsewhere he gives the formal process whereby he himself procured in a young woman a miscarriage. It may, how ever, be observed, that often all the powers of art

ABORTIVE Corn, a distemper of corn mentioned by M. Tillet, and suspected to be occasioned by insects. It appears long before harvest, and may be known by a deformity of the stalk, the leaves, the ear, and even the grain.

ABORTIVE Vellum, is made of the skin of an abortive

calf.

ABOTRITES, or ABODRITES, in History, the name of a people bordering on Bulgaria, in that part of Dacia contiguous to the Danube. The country of the Abodrites, now called Mecklenburg, was a part of the ancient Vandalia.

ABOUKIR, a small town of Egypt, situated in the desert between Alexandria and Rosetta. It is the ancient Canopus, and is situated, according to Mr Savary, six leagues from Pharos. Pliny says, from the testimonies of antiquity, that it was formerly an island : and its local appearance makes this credible. The town is built upon a rock, which forms a handsome road for shipping, and was out of the reach of inundations. In the bay of Aboukir, a signal victory was obtained in 1798 by the English fleet over the French fleet. Ths town was taken from the Turks, after a vigorous defence, by the French in 1799, and retaken by the English in 1801.

ABOULFEDA, a celebrated Arabian writer. See SUPPLEMENT.

ABOUT, the situation of a ship immediately after she has tacked, or changed her course by going about and standing on the other tack.-About ship! the order to the ship's crew for tacking.

ABOUTIGE, a town of Upper Egypt, in Africa, near the Nile, where they made the best opium in all the Levant. It was formerly a large, but now is a mean place. N. Lat. 26. 50.

ABRA, a silver coin struck in Poland, and worth about one shilling sterling. It is current in several parts of Germany, at Constantinople, Astracan, Smyrna, and Grand Cairo.

ABRABANEL, ABARBANEL, or AVRAVANEL, ISAAC, a celebrated rabbi, descended from King David, and born at Lisbon A. D. 1437. He became counsellor to Alphonso V. king of Portugal, and afterwards to Ferdinand the Catholic; but in 1492 was obliged to leave Spain with the other Jews. In short, after residing at Naples, Corfu, and several other cities, he died at Venice in 1508, aged 71. Abrabanel passed for one of the most learned of the rabbis; and the Jews gave him the names of the Sage, the Prince, and the Great Politician. We have a commentary of his on all the Old Testament, which is pretty scarce: he there principally adheres to the literal sense; and his style is clear, but a little diffuse. His other works are, A Treatise on the Creation of the World; in which he refutes Aristotle, who imagined that the world was eternal: A Treatise on the Explication of the Prophes

1

Abrabanel cies relating to the Messiab, against the Christians: A book concerning Articles of Faith; and some others Abraham. less sought after. Though Abrabanel discovers his implacable aversion to Christianity in all his writings, yet be treated Christians with politeness and good manners in the common affairs of life.

ARRACADABRA, a magical word, recommended by Serenus Samonicus as an antidote against agues and several other diseases. It was to be written upon a piece of paper as many times as the word contains letters, omitting the last letter of the former every time, as in the margin †, and repeated in the same order; + abracadabra and then suspended about the neck by a linen thread. abracadabr Abracadabra was the name of a god worshipped by the abracadab Syrians; so wearing his name was a sort of invocation abracada of his aid; a practice which, though not more useful, abraca yet was less irrational, than is the equally heathenish practice among those who call themselves Christians, of wearing various things, in expectation of their operating by a sympathy, whose parents were Ignorance and Superstition.

abracad

abrac

abra

abr

ab

ABRAHAM, the father and stock whence the faithful sprung, was the son of Terah. He was descended from Noah by Shem, from whom he was nine degrees removed. Some fix his birth in the 130th year of Terah's age, but others place it in his father's 70th year. It is highly probable he was born in the city of Ur, in Chaldea, which he and his father left when they went to Canaan, where they remained till the death of Terah ; after which, Abraham resumed his first design of going to Palestine. The Scriptures mention the several places he stopped at in Canaan; his journey into Egypt, where his wife was carried off from him; his going into Gerar, where Sarah was again taken from him, but restored, as before; the victory he obtained over the four kings who had plundered Sodom; his compliance with his wife, who insisted that he should make use of their maid Hagar in order to raise up children; the covenant God made with him, sealed with the ceremony of circumcision; his obedience to the command of God, who ordered him to offer up his only son as a sacrifice, and how this bloody act was prevented; his marriage with Keturah; his death at the age of 175 years; and his interment in the cave of Machpelah, near the body of Sarah his first wife. It would be of little use to dwell long upon these particulars, since they are so well known. But tradition has supplied numberless others, the mention of one or two of which may not be unacceptable.

Many extraordinary particulars have been told relating to his conversion from idolatry. It is a pretty general opinion, that he sucked in the poison with his milk; that his father made statues, and taught that *Suidas in they were to be worshipped as gods *. Some Jewish Eagury.S See authors relate †, that Abraham followed the same trade Jos. xxiv. 2. with Terah for a considerable time. Maimonides † Apud Genebrand, in says, that he was bred up in the religion of the SaChron. beans, who acknowledged no deity but the stars; that More Ne- his reflections on the nature of the planets, his admiravoch. c. 29. tion of their motions, beauty and order, made him conclude there must be a being superior to the machine of the universe, a being who created and governed it; however, according to an old tradition, he did not renounce Paganism till the 50th year of his age. It is related, that his father, being gone a journey,

Heidegger, Hist. Patriarch. tom. iii. P. 36.

left him to sell the statues in his absence; and that a Abraham. man, who pretended to be a purchaser, asked him how old he was: Abraham answered, Fifty."-" Wretch that thou art (said the other), for adoring at such an age a being which is but a day old!" These words greatly confounded Abraham. Some time afterwards, a woman brought him some flour, that he might give it as an offering to the idols; but Abraham, instead of doing so, took up a hatchet and broke them all to pieces, excepting the largest, into the hand of which he put the weapon. Terah, at his return, asked

66

whence came all this havock? Abraham made answer, that the statues had had a great contest which should eat first of the oblation; Upon which (said he), the god you see there, being the stoutest, hewed the others to pieces with that hatchet." Terah told him this was bantering; for those idols had not the sense to act in this manner. Abraham retorted these words upon his father against the worshipping of such gods. Terab, stung with this raillery, delivered up his son to the cognizance of Nimrod, the sovereign of the country; who exhorted Abraham to worship the fire; and, upon his refusal, commanded him to be thrown into the midst of the flames: "Now let your God (said he) come and deliver you." But (adds the tradition) Abraham escaped from the flames unhurt.— This tradition is not of modern date, since it is told by St Jerome ; who seems to credit it in general, but & Tradit. disbelieves that part of it which makes Terah so cruel Hebraie, in as to be the informer against his own son. Perhaps Genesin * It is the the ambiguity of the word Ur* might have given rise proper to the fiction altogether. Such as lay stress on the fol- name of a lowing words which God says to Abraham (Gen. xv. city, and it 7.), I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the also signifiChaldees, imagine that he saved him from a great per- Lat. version secution, since he employed the very same words in the Esdras ix. beginning of the decalogue to denote the deliverance has it thus: from Egypt. Qui eligisti Abraham is said to have been well skilled in many Chaldeoeum de igne sciences, and to have wrote several books. Josephus + rum. tells us that he taught the Egyptians arithmetic and + Antiq. geometry; and according to Eupolemus and Artapan, lib i. cap. 7. he instructed the Phoenicians, as well as the Egyptians, in astronomy. A work which treats of the crea tion has been long ascribed to him: it is mentioned in the Talmud ‡, and the rabbis Chanina and Hoschia Heidegger used to read it on the eve before the Sabbath. In the Hist. Patriarch. tom.

ed fire. The

8.

p. 143.

first ages of Christianity, according to St Epiphanius |, ii. a heretical sect, called Sethinians, dispersed a piece || Advers. which had the title of Abraham's Revelation. Origen Hær. p. mentions also a treatise supposed to be wrote by this 286. patriarch. All the several works which Abraham composed in the plains of Mamre, are said to be contained in the library of the monastery of the Holy Cross on Mount Amaria in Ethiopia §. The book on Kirchem's the creation was printed at Paris 1552, and translated Treatise of Libraries. into Latin by Postel: Rittangel, a converted Jew, and P. 142. professor at Konigsberg, gave also a Latin translation of it, with remarks, in 1642.

ABRAHAM Ben Chaila, a Spanish rabbi, in the. 13th century, who professed astrology, and assumed the character of a prophet. He pretended to predict the coming of the Messiah, which was to happen in the year 1358; but fortunately he died in 1303, fifty-five years before the time when the prediction was to be

fulfilled.

Abraham A

Abraxas.

ABRAHAM USQUE, a Portuguese Jew, who, in conjunction with Tobias Athias, translated the Hebrew Bible into Spanish. It was printed at Ferrara, in 1553, and reprinted in Holland in 1630. This Bible, especially the first edition, which is most valuable, is marked with stars at certain words, which are designed to show that these words are difficult to be understood in the Hebrew, and that they may be used in a different sense.

ABRAHAM, Nicholas, a learned Jesuit, born in the diocese of Toul, in Lorrain, in 1489. He obtained the rank of divinity professor in the university of Pont-a-Mouson, which he enjoyed 17 years, and died September 7. 1655. He wrote Notes on Virgil and on Nonnius; A Commentary on some of Cicero's Orations, in two vols. folio; an excellent collection of theological pieces in folio, entitled Pharus Veteris Testamenti; and a Hebrew Grammar in verse.

ABRAHAMITES, an order of monks exterminated for idolatry by Theophilus in the ninth century. Also the name of another sect of heretics who had adopted the errors of Paulus. See PAULICIANS.

ABRANTES, a town of Portugal, in Estremadura, seated on an eminence, in the midst of gardens and olive trees, near the river Tajo, belongs to a marquis of the same name. It contains 35,000 inhabitants, four convents, an alms-house, and an hospital. W. Long. 7. 55. N. Lat. 39. 21.

ABRASAX, or ABRAXAS, the supreme god of the Basilidian heretics. It is a mystical or cabbalistic word, composed of the Greek letters a, 6, e̟, a, §, a, s, which together, according to the Grecian mode of numeration, make up the number 365. For Basilides taught, that there were 365 heavens between the earth and the empyrean; each of which heavens had its angel or intelligence, which created it; each of which angels likewise was created by the angel next above it; thus ascending by a scale to the Supreme Being, or first Creator. The Basilidians used the word Abraxas by way of charm or amulet.

ABRASION is sometimes used among medical writers for the effect of sharp corrosive medicines or humours in wearing away the natural mucus which covers the membranes, and particularly those of the stomach and intestines. The word is composed of the Latin ab and rado, to shave or scrape off.

ABRAVANNUS, in Ancient Geography, the name of a promontory and river of Galloway in Scotland, so called from the Celtic term Aber, signifying either the mouth of a river or the confluence of two rivers, and Avon, a river.

ABRAUM, in Natural History, a name given by some writers to a species of red clay, used in England by the cabinetmakers, &c. to give a red colour to new mahogany wood. We have it from the isle of Wight; but it is also found in Germany and Italy.

ABRAXAS, an antique stone with the word abraxas engraven on it. They are of various sizes, and most of them as old as the third century. They are frequent in the cabinets of the curious; and a collection of them, as complete as possible, has been desired by several. There is a fine one in the abbey of St Genevive, which has occasioned much speculation. Most of them seem

ABREAST (a sea term), side by side, or opposite to; a situation in which two or more ships lie, with their sides parallel to each other, and their heads equally advanced. This term more particularly regards the line of battle at sea, where on the different occasions of attack, retreat, or pursuit, the several squadrons or divisions of a fleet are obliged to vary their dispositions, and yet maintain a proper regularity by sailing in right or curved lines. When the line is formed abreast, the whole squadron advances uniformly, the ships being equally distant from and parallel to each other, so that the length of each ship forms a right angle with the extent of the squadron or line abreast. The commander in chief is always stationed in the centre, and the second and third in command in the centres of their respective squadrons.-Abreast, within the ship, implies on a line with the beam, or by the side of any object aboard; as, the frigate sprung a leak abreast of the main hatchway, i. e. on the same line with the main hatchway, crossing the ship's length at right angles, in opposition to AFORE or ABAFT the hatchway.

ABRETENE, or ABRETTINE, in Ancient Geography, a district of Mysia, in Asia. Hence the epithet Abrettenus given to Jupiter (Strabo); whose priest was Cleon, formerly at the head of a gang of robbers, and who received many and great favours at the hand of Antony, but afterwards went over to Augustus. The people were called Abretteni; inhabiting the country between Ancyra of Phrygia and the river Rhyndacus.

ÁBRIDGEMENT, in Literature, a term signifying the reduction of a book into a smaller compass.

The art of conveying much sentiment in few words, is the happiest talent an author can be possessed of. This talent is peculiarly necessary in the present state of literature; for many writers have acquired the dexterity of spreading a few trivial thoughts over several hundred pages. When an author hits upon a thought that pleases him, he is apt to dwell upon it, to view it in different lights, to force it in improperly, or upon the slightest relations. Though this may be pleasant to the writer, it tires and vexes the reader. There is another great source of diffusion in composition. It is a capital object with an author, whatever be the subject, to give vent to all his best thoughts. When he finds a proper place for any of them, he is peculiarly happy. But rather than sacrifice a thought he is fond of, he forces it in by way of digression, or superfluous illustration..

Abridge- illustration.

ment.

If none of these expedients answer his purpose, he has recourse to the margin, a very convenient apartment for all manner of pedantry and impertinence. There is not an author, however correct, but is more or less faulty in this respect. An abridger, however, is not subject to these temptations. The thoughts are not his own; he views them in a cooler and less affectionate manner; he discovers an impropriety in some, a vanity in others, and a want of utility in many. His business, therefore, is to retrench superfluities, digressions, quotations, pedantry, &c. and to lay before the public only what is really useful. This is by no means an easy employment: To abridge some books, requires talents equal, if not superior, to those of the author. The facts, manner, spirit, and reasoning must be preserved; nothing essential, either in argument or illustration, ought to be omitted. The difficulty of the task is the principal reason why we have so few good abridgments: Wynne's abridgement of Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, is perhaps the only unexceptionable one in our language.

These observations relate solely to such abridgements as are designed for the public. But,

When a person wants to set down the substance of any book, a shorter and less laborious method may be followed. It would be foreign to our plan to give examples of abridgements for the public: But as it may be useful, especially to young people, to know how to abridge books for their own use, after giving a few directions, we shall exhibit an example or two, to show with what ease it may be done.

Read the book carefully; endeavour to learn the principal view of the author; attend to the arguments employed: When you have done so, you will generally find, that what the author uses as new or additional arguments, are in reality only collateral ones, or extensions of the principal argument. Take a piece of paper or a common-place book, put down what the author wants to prove, subjoin the argument or arguments, and you have the substance of the book in a few lines. For example,

In the Essay on Miracles, Mr Hume's design is to prove, That miracles which have not been the immediate objects of our senses, cannot reasonably be believed upon the testimony of others.

Now, this argument (for there happens to be but one) is,

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"That experience, which in some things is variable, "in others uniform, is our only guide in reasoning concerning matters of fact. A variable experience "gives rise to probability only; an uniform experi"ence amounts to a proof. Our belief of any fact "from the testimony of eye witnesses is derived from "no other principle than our experience in the vera"city of human testimony. If the fact attested be "miraculous, here arises a contest of two opposite "experiences, or proof against proof. Now, a miNow, a mi"racle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a "firm and unalterable experience has established these "laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very na"ture of the fact, is as complete as any argument "from experience can possibly be imagined; and if "so, it is an undeniable consequence, that it cannot be "surmounted by any proof whatever derived from hu"man testimony."

nient.

In Dr Campbell's Dissertation on Miracles, the au- Abridge thor's principal aim is to show the fallacy of Mr Hume's argument; which he has done most successfully by another single argument, as follows:

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"The evidence arising from human testimony is not solely derived from experience: on the contrary, te"stimony hath a natural influence on belief antecedent "to experience. The early and unlimited assent given "to testimony by children gradually contracts as they "advance in life: it is, therefore, more consonant to "truth to say, that our diffidence in testimony is the "result of experience, than that our faith in it has this "foundation. Besides, the uniformity of experience, "in favour of any fact, is not a proof against its be'ing reversed in a particular instance. The evidence arising from the single testimony of a man of known "veracity will go farther to establish a belief in its being actually reversed: If his testimony be confirmed "by a few others of the same character, we cannot "withhold our assent to the truth of it. Now, though "the operations of nature are governed by uniform "laws, and though we have not the testimony of our senses in favour of any violation of them; still, if ia

particular instances we have the testimony of thou"sands of our fellow-creatures, and those too men of "strict integrity, swayed by no motives of ambition or "interest, and governed by the principles of common sense, That they were actually eye witnesses of these "violations, the constitution of our nature obliges us to believe them."

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These two examples contain the substance of about 400 pages. Making private abridgements of this kind has many advantages: It engages us to read with accuracy and attention; it fixes the subject in our minds ; and, if we should happen to forget, instead of reading the books again, by glancing a few lines, we are not only in possession of the chief arguments, but recal in a good measure the author's method and manner.

Abridging is peculiarly useful in taking the substance of what is delivered by professors, &c. It is impossible, even with the assistance of short-hand, to take down, verbatim, what is said by a public speaker. Besides, although it were practicable, such a talent would be of little use. Every public speaker has circumlocutions, redundancies, lumber which deserve not to be copied. All that is really useful may be comprehended in a short compass. If the plan of the discourse, and arguments employed in support of the different branches, be taken down, you have the whole. These you may afterwards extend in the form of a discourse dressed in your own language. This would not only be a more rational employment, but would likewise be an excellent method of improving young men in composition; an object too little attended to in all our universities.

"The mode of reducing, says the author of the Curiosities of Literature, what the ancients had written in bulky volumes, practised in preceding centuries, came into general use about the fifth. As the number of students and readers diminished, authors neglected literature, and were disgusted with composition; for to write is seldom done, but when the writer entertains the hope of finding readers. Instead of original authors, there suddenly arose numbers of abridgers. These men, amidst the prevailing disgust

for

ment

Abroga

tion.

Abridge for literature, imagined they should gratify the public by introducing a mode of reading works in a few hours, which otherwise could not be done in many months; and, observing that the bulky volumes of the ancients lay buried in dust, without any one condescending to examine them, the disagreeable necessity inspired them with an invention that might bring those works and themselves into public notice, by the care they took of renovating them. This they imagined to effect by forming abridgements of these ponderous volumes.

All these Abridgers, however, did not follow the same mode. Some contented themselves with making & mere abridgement of their authors, by employing their own expressions, or by inconsiderable alterations. Others composed those abridgements in drawing them from vatious authors, but from whose works they only took what appeared to them most worthy of observation, and dressed them in their own style. Others, again, having before them several authors who wrote on the same subject, took passages from each, united them, and thus formed a new work. They executed their design by digesting in common places, and under various titles, the most valuable parts they could collect, from the best authors they read. To these last ingenious scholars, we owe the rescue of many valuable fragments of antiquity. They happily preserved the best maxims, the characters of persons, descriptions, and any other subjects which they found interesting in their studies.

There have been learned men who have censured these Abridgers, as the cause of our having lost so many excellent entire works of the ancients; for posterity becoming less studious, was satisfied with these extracts, and neglected to preserve the originals, whose voluminous size was less attractive. Others on the contrary say, that these Abridgers have not been so prejudicial to literature, as some have imagined; and that had it not been for their care, which snatched many a perishable fragment from that shipwreck of letters, which the barbarians occasioned, we should perhaps have had no works of the ancients remaining.

Abridgers, Compilers, and even Translators, in the present fastidious age, are alike regarded with contempt; yet to form their works with skill requires an exertion of judgment, and frequently of taste, of which their contemners appear to have no conception. It is the great misfortune of such literary labours, that even when performed with ability, the learned will not be found to want them, and the unlearned have not discernment to appreciate them.”

ABRINCATARUM OPPIDUM, in Ancient Geography, the town of the Abrincates or Abrincatui; now Avranches, in France, situated on an eminence in the south-west of Normandy, near the borders of Brittany, on the English channel. W. Long. 1. 10. N. Lat. 48. 40.

ABROGATION, the act of abolishing a law, by authority of the maker; in which sense the word is synonymous with abolition, repealing, and revocation.

Abrogation stands opposed to rogation: it is distinguished from derogation, which implies the taking away only some part of a law; from subrogation, which denotes the adding a clause to it; from obrogation, which implies the limiting or restraining it; from dispensation, which only sets it aside in a particular inVOL. I. Part I.

+

stance; and from antiquation, which is the refusing to Abrogapass a law.

ABROKANI, or MALLEMOLLI, a kind of muslin, or clear, white, fine cotton cloth, brought from the East Indies, particularly from Bengal; being in length 16 French ells and 3 quarters, and in breadth 5 eighths.

ABROLHOS, in Geography, dangerous shoals or banks of sand, about 20 leagues from the coast of Brazil. S. Lat. 18. 22. W. Long. 38. 45.

ABROMA, in Botany. See BOTANY Index. ABROTANUM, in Botany. See ARTEMISIA, BOTANY Index.

ABROTONUM, in Ancient Geography, a town and harbour on the Mediterranean, in the district of Syrtis Parva in Africa; one of the three cities that formed Tripoly.

ABRUG-BANYA, in Geography, a populous town of Transylvania, in the district of Weissenburg. It is situated in a country which abounds with mines of gold and silver, and is the residence of the mine office, and chief of the metal towns. E. Long. 23. 24. N. Lat. 46. 50.

ABRUS, in Botany, the trivial name of the GLY

CINE.

A

ABRUZZO, a province of Naples. The river Pescara divides it into two parts; one of which is called Ulterior, of which Aquila is the capital; and the other Citerior, whose capital is Chieti. Besides the Apennines, there are two considerable mountains, the one called Monte Cavallo, and the other Monte Majello; the top of which last is always covered with snow. bruzzo is a cold country; but the rigour of the climate is not so great as to prevent the country from produ eing in abundance every thing requisite for the support of life. Vegetables, fruits, animals, and numberless other articles, of sustenance, not only furnish ample provision for the use of the natives, but also allow of exportation. It produces so much wheat, that many thousands of quarters are annually shipped off. Much Turkey wheat is sent out, and the province of Teramo sells a great deal of rice little inferior in quality to that of Lombardy. Oil is a plentiful commodity, and wines are made for exportation on many parts of the coast; but wool has always been, and still is, their staple commodity: the flocks, after passing the whole summer in the fine pastures of the mountains, are driven for the winter into the warm plains of Puglia, and a few spots near their own coast, where the snow does not lie. There are no manufactures of woollens in the province, except two small ones of coarse cloth. The greatest part of the wool is exported unwrought. No silk is made here, though mulberry trees would grow well in the low grounds.

Formerly the territory of Aquila furnished Italy almost exclusively with saffron; but since the culture of that plant has been so much followed in Lombardy, it has fallen to nothing in Abruzzo. In the maritime tracts of country the cultivation of liquorice has been increased of late years, but foreigners export the roots in their natural state: in the province of Teramo there is a manufactory of pottery ware, for which there is a great demand in Germany, by the way of Trieste, as it is remarkably hard and fine; but even this is going F

to

tion

Abraz zo.