A, the letter a, with a line above it, thus a, is used in medical prescriptions for ana, of each; sometimes it is written thus, aa: e. g. R. Mel. Sacchar. et Mann. ā, vel āā, 3j. i. e. Take of honey, sugar, and manna, of each, one ounce.

A, put to bills of exchange, is in England an abbreviation of accepted, and in France for accepte.

It is likewise usual among merchants to mark their sets of books with the letters A, B, C, &c. instead of the numbers 1, 2, 3, &c.

A.A.A. The chemical abbreviation for Amalgama, or Amalgamation.

A, the name of several rivers in Germany and Swisscrland.

AACII, a little town of Germany, in the circle of Suabia, near the source of the river Aach, and almost equally distant from the Danube and the lake Constance. It belongs to the house of Austria. E. Long. 9. o. N. Lat. 47. 55.

AAHUS, a little town of Germany, in the circle of Westphalia and bishopric of Munster. It is the capital of Aahue, a small district; has a good castle; and lies north-east of Coesfeldt. E. Long. 7. 1. N. Lat. 52. 10.

AAM, or HAAM, a liquid measure in common use among the Dutch, containing 128 measures called mingles, each weighing nearly 36 ounces avoirdupois; whence the Aam contains 288 English, and 1483 pints Paris measure.

AAR, the name of two rivers, one in Swisserland, and another in Westphalia in Germany. It is also the name of a small island in the Baltic.

AARASSUS, in Ancient Geography, a town of Pisidia, in the Hither Asia, thought to be the Anassus of Ptolemy:

AARON, high-priest of the Jews, and brother to Moses, was by the father's side great grandson, and by the mother's grandson of Levi. By God's command he met Moses at the foot of Mount Horeb, and they went together into Egypt to deliver the children of Israel he had a great share in all that Moses did for their deliverance. The Scriptures call him the prophet of Moses, and he acted in that capacity after the Israelites had passed over the Red sea. He ascended Mount Sinai with two of his sons, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of the people; but neither he nor they went higher than half way, from whence they saw the glory of God; only Moses and Joshua went to the top, where they staid forty days. During their absence, Aaron, overcome by the people's eager entreaties, set up the golden calf, which the Israelites worshipped by his consent. This calf has given rise to various conjectures. Some rabbies maintain that he did not make the golden calf, but only threw the gold into the fire, to get rid of the importunities of the people; and that certain magicians who mingled with the Israelites at their departure from Egypt, cast this gold into the figure of a calf. According to some authors, the fear of falling a sacrifice to the resentment of the people, by giving a refusal, made Aaron comply with their desire and they allege also that he hoped to elude their request, by demanding of the women to contribute their ear rings, imagining they would rather choose to remain without a visible deity, than be deprived of their personal ornaments. This affair of the golden calf happened in the third month after the Is

3

He

Aarsens.

raclites came out of Egypt. In the first month of the Aaron following year, Aaron was appointed by God highpriest; which office he executed during the time that the children of Israel continued in the wilderness. died in the fortieth year after the departure from Egypt, upon Mount Hor, being then 123 years old; A. M. 2522, of the Julian period 3262, before the Christian era 1452.

AARON, the Caraite, a learned Jew who flourished about the year 1299. He left many works on the Old Testament, among which there is one entitled, "A Commentary on the Pentateuch," which has been much valued. It was written in Hebrew, and printed in folio with a Latin translation, at Jena, in 1710.

AARON, another Caraite Jew, who lived in the 15th century, wrote a concise Hebrew grammar, entitled Chelil Jophi, "the Perfection of Beauty," which was printed at Constantinople in 1581.

AARON and JULIUS, Saints, were brothers who suffered martyrdom together, during the persecution under the emperor Dioclesian, in the year 303, about the same time with St Alban the first martyr of Britain. We are not told what their British names were, it being usual with the Christian Britons, at the time of baptism, to take new names from the Greek, Latin, or Hebrew. Nor have we any certainty as to the particulars of their death; only that they suffered the most cruel torments. Two churches were dedicated to the brothers, in which their bodies were interred, at CaerLeon, the ancient metropolis of Wales.

AARON, or Harun, Al Raschid, a celebrated caliph, or Mahometan sovereign of the Saracen empire; whose history is given under the article BAGDAD.

AARSENS, FRANCIS, Lord of Someldyck and Spyck, was one of the greatest ministers for negotiation the United Provinces could ever boast of. His father, Cornelius Aarsens, was register to the States; and being acquainted with Mr Plessis Mornay, at the court of William prince of Orange, he prevailed upon him to take his son under him, with whom he continued some years. John Olden Barneveldt, who presided over the affairs of Holland and all the United Provinces, sent him afterwards agent into France, where he learned to negociate under those profound politicians Henry IV. Villeroy, Silleri, Rossie, Jaonnin, &c. and he acquitted himself in such a manner as to obtain their approbation. Soon after, he was invested with the character of ambassador, and was the first who was recognized as such by the French court; at which time Henry IV. declared, that he should take precedence next to the Venetian minister. He resided in France 15 years; during which time he received great marks of esteem from the king, who created him. a knight and baron; and for this reason he was received among the nobles of the province of Holland. However, he became at length so odious to the French. court, that they desired to have him recalled. He was afterwards deputed to Venice, and to several German and Italian princes, upon occasion of the troubles in Bohemia. He was the first of three extraordinary ambassadors sent to England in 1620, and the second in 1641; in which latter embassy he was accompanied by the lord of Brederode as first ambassador, and. Heemsvliet as third, to negociate the marriage of. Prince William, son of the Prince of Orange, with a

daughter.

Aba.

Aarsens daughter of Charles I. He was likewise ambassador extraordinary at the French court in 1624, at the beginning of Cardinal Richlieu's administration, who had a high opinion of him. The memoirs which he bas left, of the negociations in which he was engaged, show him to have been one of the ablest men of his time, and worthy of the confidence and trust reposed in him by his country. But his character is not altogether without stain. His enmity to the remonstrants was bitter and unrelenting; and he is supposed to have greatly encouraged the violent measures pursued by Prince Maurice against the venerable Barneveldt, and to have been the principal adviser for assembling the famous and persecuting synod of Dordrecht. He died at a very advanced age; and his son, who survived him, was reputed the wealthiest man in Holland.

AASAR, in Ancient Geography, a town of Palestine, in the tribe of Judah, situated between Azotus and Ascalon. In Jerome's time it was a hamlet.

AB, the eleventh month of the civil year of the Hebrews, and the fifth of their ecclesiastical year, which begins with the month Nisan. It answers to the moon of July; that is, to part of our month of the same name, and to the beginning of August: it consists of thirty days. The Jews fast on the first of this month, in memory of Aaron's death; and on the ninth, because on that day both the temple of Solomon, and that erected after the captivity, were burnt; the former by the Chaldeans, and the latter by the Romans. The same day is also remarkable among that people for the publication of Adrian's edict, wherein they were forbidden to continue in Judea, or even to look back when at a distance from Jerusalem, in order to lament the desolation of that city. The 18th of the same month is also a fast among the Jews; because the lamp in the sanctuary was that night extinguished, in the time of Ahaz.

AB, in the Syriac calendar, is the name of the last summer month. The first day of this month they called Suum-Miriam, the fast of the virgin, because the eastern Christians fasted from that day to the fifteenth, which was therefore called Fathr-Miriam, the cessation of the fast of the virgin.

ABA (or rather ABAU) HANIFAH or HANFA, surnamed Al-Nooma, was the son of Thabet, and born at Coufah in the 80th year of the Hegira. This is the most celebrated doctor of the orthodox Mussulmans, and his sect is held in greatest esteem among the four which they indifferently follow. Notwithstanding this, he was not very well esteemed during his life; insomuch that the caliph Almansor caused him to be imprisoned at Bagdad, for having refused to subscribe to the opinion of absolute predestination, which the Mussulmans call Cadha. But afterwards Abou Joseph, who was the sovereign judge or chancellor of the empire under the caliph Hadi, brought his doctrine into such credit, that it became a prevailing opinion, That to be a good Mussulman was to be a Hanifite. He died in the 150th year of the Hegira, in the prison of Bagdad: and it was not till 335 years after his death, that Melick Schah, a sultan of the Selgiucidan race, erected to his memory a magnificent monument in the same city, and a college for his followers, in the 485th year of the Hegira, and Anno Christi 1092. The most

eminent successors of this doctor were Ahmed Benali, Al Giassas, and Al Razi who was the master of Nassari; and there is a mosque particularly appropriated to them in the temple of Mecca.

ABA, Abas, Abos, or Abus, in Ancient Geography, the name of a mountain of Greater Armenia, situated between the mountains Niphatos and Nibonis. According to Strabo, the Euphrates and Araxes rose from this mountain; the former running eastward, and the latter westward.

ABA. See AвÆ.

He

ABA, ALBON, or OvON, a king of Hungary. He married the sister of Stephen I. and was elected king on the deposition of Peter in 1041. The emperor Henry III. preparing to reinstate Peter on the throne, Aba made an incursion into his dominions, and returned loaded with booty; but was next year obliged to make restitution, by paying a large sum, in order to prevent a threatened invasion from the emperor. indulged in great familiarity with the lower class of the people, on account of which, and his severity to their order, he became universally odious to the nobility. The fugitive nobles, aided by the emperor, excited a revolt against him. After a bloody battle, Aba was put to flight; and was murdered by his own soldiers in 1044, having reigned three years.

ABAA, a river in Thessaly, supposed by some to be the Peneus of the ancients.

ABACENA, in Ancient Geography, a town of Media, and another of Caria in the Hither Asia.

ABACÆNUM, in Ancient Geography, a town of Sicily, whose ruins are supposed to be those lying near Trippi, a citadel on a high and steep mountain not far from Messina. The inhabitants were called Abacanini.

ABACH, a market town of Germany, in Lower Bavaria, seated on the Danube, 12 miles S. W. of Ratisbon. It is remarkable for Roman antiquities, and for springs of mineral waters which are said to be good for various distempers. E. Long. 11. 56. N. Lat. 48. 53.

ABACINARE, or ABBACINARE, in writers of the middle age, a cruel species of punishment, consisting in the blinding of the criminal, by holding a red-hot bason or bowl of metal before his eyes.

ABACK (a sea term), the situation of the sails when the surfaces are flatted against the masts by the force of the wind. The sails are said to be taken aback when they are brought into this situation, either by a sudden change of the wind, or by an alteration in the ship's course. They are laid aback, to effect an immediate retreat, without turning to the right or left; or, in the sea phrase, to give the ship stern-way, in order to avoid some danger discovered before her in a narrow channel, or when she has advanced beyond her station in the line of battle, or otherwise. The sails are placed in this position by slackening their lee braces, and hauling in the weather ones; so that the whole effort of the wind is exerted on the fore part of their surface, which readily pushes the ship astern, unless she is restrained by some counteracting force. It is also usual to spread some sail aback near the stern, as the mizen-top-sail, when a ship rides with a single anchor in a road, in order to prevent her from approaching it so as to entangle the flukes of it with her slackened cable, and thereby loosen it from the ground.

ABACOT,

Abacot

ABACOT, the name of an ancient cap of state worn A by the kings of England, the upper part whereof was Abacus. in the form of a double crown.

ABACTORS, or ABACTORES, a name given to those who drive away, or rather steal, cattle by herds, or great numbers at once; and are therefore very properly distinguished from fures or thieves.

ABACUS, among the ancients, was a kind of cupboard or buffet. Livy, describing the luxury into which the Romans degenerated after the conquest of Asia, says they had their abaci, beds, &c. plated over with gold.

ABACUS, among the ancient mathematicians, signified a table covered with dust, on which they drew their diagrams; the word in this sense being derived from the Phoenician abak, dust.

ABACUS, or ABACISCUS, in Architecture, signifies the superior part or member of the capital of a column, and serves as a kind of crowning to both. Vitruvius tells us the abacus was originally intended to represent a square tile laid over an urn, or rather over a basket. See ARCHITECTURE, N° 15.-The form of the abacus is not the same in all orders: In the Tuscan, Doric, and Ionic, it is generally square; but in the Corinthian and Composite, its four sides are arched inwards, and embellished in the middle with some ornament, as a rose or other flower. Scammozzi uses abacus for a concave moulding on the capital of the Tuscan pedestal; and Palladio calls the plinth above the echinus, or boultin, in the Tuscan and Doric orders, by the same

name.

ABACUS is also the name of an ancient instrument for facilitating operations in arithmetic. It is variously contrived. That chiefly used in Europe is made by drawing any number of parallel lines at the distance of two diameters of one of the counters used in the calculation. A counter placed on the lowest line, signifies 1 on the 2d, 10; on the 3d, 100; on the 4th, 1000, &c. In the intermediate spaces, the same counters are estimated at one half of the value of the line immediately superior, viz. between the 1st and 2d, 5; between the 2d and 3d, 50, &c. See Plate I. fig. 1. where the same number, 1802 for example, is represented under both divisions by different dispositions of the counters. A farther illustration of this mode of notation is given in fig. 2.

National debt, according to Mr Ad

dington, 1st Feb. 1802,

According to Mr Tierney,

According to Mr Morgan, New sinking fund,

Old sinking fund,

L.400,709,832 457,154,081 558,418,628 3,275,143 2,534,187

ABACUS is also used by modern writers for a table of numbers ready cast up, to expedite the operations of arithmetic. In this sense we have Abaci of addition, of multiplication, of division. This instrument for computation is, under some variations, in use with most nations, as the Greeks, Romans, Germans, French, Chinese, &c.

Grecian ABACUS, was an oblong frame, over which were stretched several brass wires, strung with little ivory balls, like the beads of a necklace; by the various arrangements of which all kinds of computations were easily made.

Roman ABACUS was a little varied from the Gre

cian, having pins sliding in grooves, instead of strings Abacus or wires and beads.

Chinese ABACUS, or SHWANPAN, like the Grecian, Abaissed. consists of several series of beads strung on brass wires, stretched from the top to the bottom of the instru ment, and divided in the middle by a cross piece from side to side. In the upper space every string has two beads, which are each counted for 5; and in the lower space every string has five beads, of different values, the first being counted as 1, the second as 10, the third as 100, and so on, as with us.

ABACUS Pythagoricus, the common multiplication table, so called from its being invented by Pythagoras. ABACUS Logisticus, is a rectangled triangle, whose sides, forming the right angle, contain the numbers from 1 to 60; and its area, the facta of each two of the numbers perpendicularly opposite. This is also called a canon of sexagesimals.

ABACUS et Palmulæ, in the Ancient Music, denote the machinery, whereby the strings of polyplectra, or instruments of many strings, were struck with a plectrum made of quills.

ABACUS Harmonicus, is used by Kircher for the structure and disposition of the keys of a musical instrument, whether to be touched with the hands or the feet.

ABACUS Major, in metallurgic operations, the name of a trough used in the mines, wherein the ore is washed.

ABADDON, is the name which St John in the Revelation gives to the king of the locusts, the angel of the bottomless pit. The inspired writer says, this word is Hebrew, and in Greek signifies Añoλλvwv, i. e. a destroyer. That angel-king is thought to be Satan or the devil: but Mr le Clerc thinks with Dr Hammond, that by the locusts which came out of the abyss, may be understood the zealots and robbers, who miserably afflicted the land of Judea, and laid it in a manner waste, before Jerusalem was taken by the Romans; and that Abaddon, the king of the locusts, may be John of Gischala, who having treacherously left that town a little before it was surrendered to Titus, came to Jerusalem, where he soon headed part of the zealots, who acknowledged him as their king, whilst the rest would not submit to him. This subdivision of the zealot party brought a thousand calamities on the Jews.

ABADIR, a title which the Carthaginians gave to gods of the first order. In the Roman mythology, it is the name of a stone which Saturn swallowed, by the contrivance of his wife Ops, believing it to be his newborn son Jupiter: hence it became the object of reli gions worship.

ABÆ, or ABA, in Ancient Geography, a town of Phocis in Greece, near Helicon; famous for an oracle of Apollo older than that at Delphi, aud for a rich temple which was plundered and burnt by the Persians.

ABAFT, a sea term, signifying the hinder part of a ship, or all those parts both within and without which lie towards the stern, in opposition to AFORE; which see. Abaft, is also used as a preposition, and signifies further aft, or nearer the stern: as, the barricade stands abaft the main-mast, i. e. behind it, or nearer the stern.

ABAISSED, abaisse, in Heraldry, an epithet ap plied to the wings of eagles, &c. when the tip looks downwards

Abaissed downwards to the point of the shield, or when the wings are shut; the natural way of bearing them being Abantias. extended.

ABAKA KHAN, the eighth emperor of the Moguls, a wise and good prince, ascended the throne in 1264. He reigned 17 years, and is by some authors said to have been a Christian. It may be admitted, indeed, that he joined with the Christians in keeping the feast of Easter, in the city Hamadan, a short time before hist death. But this is no proof of his Christianity; it being common, in times of brotherly love, for Christians and Mahometans to join in keeping the same feasts, when each would compliment the other with doing honour to his solemnity.

ABAKANSKOI, a town of Siberia, which was founded by Peter the Great in 1707. It is provided with a garrison, to protect the hunters who are employed in catching martens and foxes on account of their furs, which are here an important article of commerce. It is situated in E. Long. 94. 5. N. Lat. 53. 30.

ABALAK, a small town of Siberia, two miles from Tobolsk, in E. Long. 64. 10. N. Lat. 57. 1. Abalak is famous as the resort of many pilgrims who visit an image of the virgin Mary, which is annually carried in procession to Tobolsk.

ABALIENATION, in Law, the act of transferring one man's property to another.

ABALLABA, the ancient name of APPLEBY, a town in Westmoreland, remarkable only for its antiquity, having been a Roman station. W. Long. I. 4. N. Lat. 55. 38.

ABALUS, in Ancient Geography, supposed by the ancients to be an island in the German ocean, called by Timæus Basilia, and by Xenophon Lampsacenus Baltia; now the peninsula of Scandinavia. Here, according to Pliny, some imagined that amber dropped from the

trees.

ABANA, or AMANA, in Ancient Geography, a river of Phoenicia, which, rising from Mount Hermon, washed the south and west sides of Damascus, and falls into the Phoenician sea to the north of Tripolis, called Chrysorrheas, by the Greeks.

ABANGA. See ADY. ABANO, a town of the Paduano, in the republic of Venice, famous among the ancients for its hot baths, ABANTES, a people who came originally from Thrace, and settled in Phocoa, a country of Greece, where they built a town which they called Aba, after the name of Abas their leader; and if we may credit some ancient authors, the Abantes went afterwards into the island Euboea, now called Negropont: others say the Abantes of Euboea came from Athens. The Abantes were a very warlike people, closing with their enemies, and fighting hand to hand.

ABANTIAS, or ABANTIS, in Ancient Geography, a name of the island Euboea in the Egean sea, extending along the coast of Greece, from the promontory Sunium in Attica to Thessaly, and separated from Boeotia by a narrow strait called Euripus. From its length the island was formerly called Macris; afterwards Abantias or Abantis, from the Abantes, a people originally of Thrace, called by Homer oxide Koporles, from wearing their hair long behind, having in a battle experienced the inconvenience of wearing long hair be

fore. From cutting their hair before, they were called Abantias Curetes.

I ABAPTISTON, in Surgery, the perforating part Abaris. of the instrument called a TREPAN. This instrument, which is mentioned by Galen, Fabricius ab Aquapendente, and others, was a conical saw with a circular edge. Modern practitioners, however, prefer the cylindrical form; and various contrivances have been recommended to obviate the danger that may arise from want of dexterity, or from rashness, in performing the operation of trepanning. A new instrument has been lately invented and delineated for this purpose, by Mr Rodman, surgeon in Paisley. This instrument is so contrived, that it can be fitted to cut any thickness of bone without danger of injuring the brain; and as no pivot or centre pin is necessary, the dreadful accidents which have sometimes happened by not removing it, when the instrument in common use is employed, are completely avoided. (Philosoph. Mag. April 1802.).

ABARA, a town in the Greater Armenia, under the dominion of the Turks; it is often the residence of the archbishop of Naksivan. E. Long. 46. 25. N..

Lat. 39. 45.

ABARANER, a town of Asia, in the Greater Armenia, belonging to the Turks: it is seated on the river Alingena. E. Long. 46. 30. N. Lat. 39. 50.

ABARCA, an ancient kind of shoe used in Spain for passing the mountains with. It was made of raw hides, and bound with cords, which secured the feet of travellers against the snow.

+ Lib. iv. cap. 36.

ABARIM, high mountains of steep ascent, separating the country of the Ammonites and Moabites from the land of Canaan, where Moses died. According to Josephus, they stood opposite to the territory of Jericho, and were the last station but one of the Israelites coming from Egypt. Nebo and Pisgah were parts of these mountains. ABARIS, the Hyperborean, a celebrated sage of antiquity, whose history and travels have been the subject of much learned discussion. Such a number of fabulous stories*, were told of him, that Herodotus him-* Jamblick, Vita Pyself seems to scruple to relate them. He tells us onthag. ly, that this barbarian was said to have travelled with an arrow, and to have taken no sustenance: but this does not acquaint us with the marvellous properties which were attributed to that arrow; nor that it had been given him by the Hyperborean Apollo. With regard to the occasion of his leaving his native country, Harpocration tells us, that the whole earth Under the being infested with a deadly plague, Apollo, upon be- word Alag ing consulted, gave no other answer, than that the Athenians should offer up prayers in behalf of all other nations; upon which, several countries deputed ambassadors to Athens, among whom was Abaris the Hyperborean. In this journey, he renewed the alliance between his countrymen and the inhabitants of the island of Delos. It appears that be also went to Lacedæmon; since according to some writers, he there Pausanias, built a temple consecrated to Proserpine the Salutary. lib.iii. p. 94. It is asserted, that he was capable of foretelling earthquakes, driving away plagues, laying storms (, &c. Porphyry He wrote several books, as Suidas in Vita Pyinforms us, viz. thagor. Apollo's arrival in the country of the Hyperboreans ; * Under The nuptials of the river Hebrus; yona, or the Ge- the word neration of the Gods; A collection of oracles, &c. Abags. Himerius

of the

Druids, in

his Posthu

9920743

Works, vol. i. p. 161.

+ Diod Sic.

lib. ii. i.

thag.

P. 128.

Abaris, Himerius the sophist applauds him for speaking pure Abarticula- Greek; which attainment will be no matter of wontion. der to such as consider the ancient intercourse there was between the Greeks and Hyperboreans.- -If the Hebrides, or Western islands of Scotland, (says Mr * Account Toland *), were the Hyperboreans of Diodorus +, then the celebrated Abaris was of that country; and likewise a druid, having been the priest of Apollo. Suidas, who knew not the distinction of the insular Hyperboreans, makes him a Scythian; as do some others, misled by the same vulgar error; though Diodorus has truly fixed his country in an island, and not on the continent. Indeed the fictions and mistakes concerning our Abaris are infinite: however, it is agreed by all that he travelled quite over Greece, and from thence into Italy, where he conversed familiarly with Pythagoras, who favoured him beyond all his disciples, by instructing him in his doctrines (especially his thoughts of nature) in a plainer and more compendious method than he did any other. This distinction could not but be very advantageous to Abaris. The Hyperborean, in return, presented the Samian, as though he equalled Apollo himself in wisdom, with the sacred arrow, on which the Greeks have fabulousJamblichily related that he sat astride, and flew upon it, Vita Py- through the air, over rivers and lakes, forests and mountains; in like manner as our vulgar still believe, particularly those of the Hebrides, that wizards and witches fly whithersoever they please on their broomsticks. The orator Himerius above mentioned, though one of those who, from the equivocal sense of the word Hyperborean, seem to have mistaken Abaris for a Scythian, yet describes his person accurately, and gives him a very noble character. "They relate (says he) "that Abaris the sage was by nation a Hyperborean, appeared a Grecian in speech, and resembled a Scy"thian in his habit and appearance. He came to "Athens, holding a bow in his hand, having a quiver hanging on his shoulders, his body wrapt up in a "plaid, girt about the loins with a gilded belt, and "wearing trowsers reaching from his waist down"ward." By this it is evident (continues Mr Toland) that he was not habited like the Scythians, who were always covered with skins; but appeared in the native garb of an aboriginal Scot. As to what relates to his abilities, Himerius informs us, that "he was "affable and pleasant in conversation, in dispatching "great affairs secret and industrious, quick-sighted in present exigencies, in preventing future dangers circumspect, a searcher after wisdom, desirous of "friendship, trusting little to fortune, and having eve"ry thing trusted to him for his prudence." Neither the Academy nor the Lyceum could have furnished a man with fitter qualities to travel so far abroad, and to such wise nations, about affairs no less arduous than important. And if we further attentively consider his moderation in eating, drinking, and the use of all those things which our natural appetites incessantly crave; joining the candour and simplicity of his manners with the solidity and wisdom of his answers; all which we find sufficiently attested; it must be owned that the world at that time had few to compare with Abaris.

66

66

ABARTICULATION, in Anatomy, a species of articulation, admitting of a manifest motion; called al

tion

so Diarthrosis, and Dearticulatio, to distinguish it Abarticula from that sort of articulation which admits of a very obscure motion, and is called Synarthrosis. ABAS, a weight used in Persia for weighing pearls. It is one eighth less than the European carat.

ABAS, in heathen mythology, was the son of Hypothoon and Meganira, who entertained Ceres, and offered a sacrifice to that goddess; but Abas ridiculing the ceremony, and giving her opprobrious language, she sprinkled him with a certain mixture she held in her cup, on which he became a newt or water lizard.

ABAS, Schah, the Great, was third son of Codabendi, 7th king of Persia of the race of the Sophis. Succeeding to his father in 1585, at the age of 18, he found the affairs of Persia at a low ebb, occasioned by the conquests of the Turks and Tartars. He regained several of the provinces they had seized; but death put a stop to his victories in 1629, after a reign of 44 years. He was the greatest prince who had reigned in Persia for many ages; and it was he who made Ispahan the metropolis of Persia. His memory is held in the highest veneration among the Persians.

ABAS, Schah, his grandson, 9th king of Persia of the race of the Sophis, succeeded his father Sesi at 13 years of age. He was but 18 when he made himself master of the city of Candahar, which had surrendered in his father's reign to the great Mogul, and all the province about it; and he preserved it afterwards against this Indian emperor, though he besieged it more than once with an army of 300,000 men. He was a very merciful prince, and openly protected the Christians. He had formed a design of extending the limits of his kingdom toward the north, and had for that ef fect levied a powerful army; but death put a stop to all his great designs, at 37 years of age, A. D. 1666.

ABASCIA, or ABCASSIA, the northern district of the western division of Georgia in Asia, situated on the coast of the Black sea, and tributary to the Turks. The inhabitants are poor, thievish, and treacherous, so that there is no trading with them without the utmost caution. They trade in furs, buck and tyger skins, linen yarn, boxwood, and bees wax: but their principal traffic consists in the sale of their own children to the Turks, and to one another. They are destitute of many necessaries of life, and have nothing among them that can be called a town; though we find Anacopia, Dandar, and Czekorni, mentioned in the maps. They have the name of Christians; but have nothing left but the name, any more than the Mingrelians their northern neighbours. The men are robust and active, and the women are fair and beautiful; on which account the Turks have a great value for the female slaves which they purchase from among them. Their customs are much the same as those of the MINGRELIANS; which see. E. Long. from 39° to 43°. N. Lat. from 43° to 45°.

ABASCUS, a river of Asiatic Sarmatia, which, rising from Mount Caucasus, falls into the Euxine, between Pityus to the east, and Nosis to the west.

ABASITIS, in Ancient Geography, a tract of Asiatic Mysia, in which was situated the city of Ancyra.

ABASSA, THE GREATER and THE SMALLER, two districts in the vicinity of the Caucasian mountains. The latter, according to Pallas, is inhabited by six tribes who were formerly Christians, but the nobles now pro

fess

Abassa.