AARHUUS name in North Jutland, extremely fertile, woody, and well watered by several lakes and rivers. The town is ABACK. large and populous, having an university, a free-school,

and a well endowed hospital. The inhabitants of the diocese are estimated at 117,942. E. lon. 10°. N. lat. 56°, 6'.

AASAR, an ancient town of Palestine, in the tribe of Judah, situated between Azotus and Ascalon.

AAVORA, the fruit of a large palm-tree in the West Indies and Africa, about the size of a hen's egg, and included, with several others, in a large shell. It has a nut in the centre, containing a white almond, very astringent and proper to check a diarrhoea.

AB, the fifth month of the ecclesiastical year of the Jews, and the eleventh of their civil year. It answers to the moon of July; which includes July and part of August; and consists of thirty days. The Jews fast on the first of this month, in memory of Aaron's death; and on the ninth, because both the temple of Solomon, and that erected after the captivity, were burnt on that day. This day is also remarkable, among the Jews, for Adrian's edict, wherein they were forbidden to continue in Judea, or even to look towards Jerusalem, to lament its desolation. The 18th of the same month is a fast among the Jews, because the lamp in the sanctuary was extinguished that night, in the time of Ahaz: the 21st is the feast called Xylophoria; and on the 24th, another is celebrated in commemoration of the abolishing of a law, by which both sons and daughters should alike inherit the estates of their parents.

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

ABA, or ABE, in Ancient Geography, a town of Phocis in Greece, adjacent to Helicon; famous for an oracle of Apollo, more ancient than that at Delphi; and for a rich temple which the Persians plundered and

burnt.

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

ABACA, a kind of flax, or hemp, gathered in the Philippine islands. It is of two kinds, the white and the grey;-the former is used for fine linen, the latter only for cordage.

ABACAY, a name given by the Philippine islanders to a species of parrot.

ABACH, a market town of Lower Bavaria, seated on the Danube, 12 miles S. W. of Ratisbon. It is remarkable for Roman antiquities, and for springs of mineral waters. Henry II. is said to have been born in the castle. E. lon. 11°, 56'. N. lat. 48o, 53.'

. ABACINARE, or ABBACINARE, in writers of the middle age, a cruel punishment, which consisted in blinding the criminal, by holding a red-hot bason, or bowl of metal, before his eyes. Du Cange. ABACK. On back. Backwards. See BACK.

So that the white was aboue, as the folk y seye, And drof the rede al abak out of the put ney The rede, as for sorinesse, by turnede hym atten ende And asailede the wyte, and made hym abac wende. R. Gloucester, p. 131. Iesus seith to hem I am, and Iudas that betraiede him stood with

hem, and whanne he seide to hem, I am, thei wenten abak and felden

doun on the erthe and eft he axide hem whom seken ghe? and thei ABACK. seiden jhesus of nazareth. ABACUS. Wiclif. Ion, chap. xviii.

From luffis bandis to lous all thare ententis,
Quham so hir list, and bynd othir sum also

In langsum amouris, vehement pane and wo:
The rynnyng fludis thare wattir stop gan scho mak,
And eik the sternes turne that cours abak.

Douglas, booke iv, p. 117.
But both the fruit from hand, and floud from mouth
Did flie aback, and made him vainely swinke:
The while he steru'd with hunger and with drouth:
He daily dyde, yet neuer throughly dyen couth.
Spenser's Faerie Queene, page 91.
Yet Albert new resources still prepares,
Conceals his grief, and doubles all his cares;
Away there! lower the mizen-yard on deck,"
He calls," and brace the foremost yards aback!"
Falconer's Shipwreck.

ABACK, a term in Naval Tactics, to express the situation of the sails when the surfaces are flatted

against the masts by the impulse 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 an alteration in the ship's course. They are laid aback,' to effect an immediate retreat, without turning to the right or left; or, to give the ship 'stern-way,' in order to avoid some danger 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. It is also usual to spread some sail aback near the stern, 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.

ABACOT, an ancient cap of state worn by the kings of England; of which the upper part was in the form of a double crown.

ABACTORS, or ABACTORES, those who drive off cattle by herds, and are therefore distinguished from fures or thieves.

ABACUS, (the word is formed from the Greek aßa), among the ancient mathematicians, a table strewed with dust, on which they drew their diagrams.

ABACUS is likewise the name of an ancient arithmetical instrument, consisting, at first, of a smooth table, covered with dust, on which the first diagrams and calculations were traced. The following is a representation of that which is in most general use.

ABADIR.

ABACUS. what it would signify, if on the line immediately below it. Brass wires and ivory balls, are frequently substituted for parallel lines and counters. See Hist. Acad. Inscript. tom. iii, p. 390. WOLFII Lex. Math. p. 171. Phil. Trans. No. 180. An ingenious abacus has been invented by Perrault, which is adapted to facilitate these arithmetical operations.

The 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. The Roman Abacus, was a little different from the Grecian, having pins sliding in grooves, instead of strings or wires and beads. A description of the ancient Roman Abacus, with a drawing, may be seen in F. URSIN, Explicat. Inser. Duilliane, and in ANT. AUGUSTIN, Numiom. Dial. 9. The Chinese Abacus, or Shwanpan, like the Grecian, is composed of several series of beads strung on brass wires, stretched from the top to the bottom of the instrument, 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 reckoned for 5; and in the lower space every string has five beads, of various values, the first being reckoned as 1, the second as 10, the third as 100, and so on.

ABACUS Pythagoricus, the common multiplication table, so called from its inventor Pythagoras.

ABACUS Logisticus, 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. It is also called a canon of sexagesimals.

ABACUS et Palmulæ, in Ancient Music, denoted the machinery, the strings of the polyplectra, were struck with a plectrum of quills.

ABACUS Harmonicus, 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, in which the ore is washed.

ABADA, a wild animal in Benguela, Africa, about the size of a half grown colt, shy, and swift-footed, having a horn in its forehead, and another in the nape of the neck. The head and tail resemble an ox, and its feet are cloven. Medicinal virtues are attributed to the front horn by the natives.

ABADDON, a Hebrew word; in Greek Arovwv, 1. e. a destroyer; the name which St. John, in the Revelations, gives to the king of the locusts, the angel of the bottomless pit. Some suppose him to be Satan, or the devil and the locusts which came out of the abyss, to be the zealots and robbers that infested Judea, and laid it waste, before Jerusalem was taken by the Romans. They identify Abaddon, the king of the locusts, with John of Gischala. Others think it was Mahomet who issued from the cave of Hera: and Bryant supposes it to be the name of Ophite, or the serpent-deity anciently worshipped.

ABADIR, a title given by the Carthaginians 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 new

VOL. XVII.

born son Jupiter: hence it became the object of reli. ABADİR. gious worship.

ABAFEDE, a mountain in Egypt, where the magi anciently resided. It was afterwards inhabited by Christian devotees, who lived in caves cut out at the foot.

ABAFT, the hinder part of a ship, or all those parts both within and without which lie towards the stern, in opposition to AFORE.-Abaft, is also used as a preposition, and signifies 'further aft,' or nearer the stern." ABAISSED, ABAISSE, in Heraldry, an epithet applied to the wings of eagles, &c. when the tip looks downwards to the point of the shield, or when the wings are shut; the natural way of bearing them being extended.

ABALUS, an island, as the ancients supposed, 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. Hist. Nat. tom. 2, p. 770. ed. Hard. ABAN'D, v. Sax. Bannan: Abannan: past ABAN'DON, V. participle, Abanned: Band, ABAN'DON, n. Bond, Bandon, bandoun, ABAN'DONER. bonden, bondon. From this ABAN DONING. past participle we have formed ABANDONMENT. the verb Abandon (in Spencer written Aband), to band or bind, or put in bondage: to stay or remain in, to leave in, or give up to, a state of bondage or entire subjection.

And then simply

He that dredeth God, spareth not to do that him ought to do; and he that loveth God, he wol do diligence to plese God by his werkes, and abandon himself with all his might wel for to do.

Chaucer, The Persones Tale, vol. ii. p. 346.

Certes thus hath riches with flickering sight annoyed many and often when there is a throw out shrew, hee coineth all the gold, all the precious stones y mowen be founde to haue in his bandon, heweneth no wigt be worthy to haue soche things but he alone. Chaucer, Test. of Loue, fol. 299, col. 4.

For he that

Yaue whole his hart, in will and thought,
And to himselfe kepeth right nought
After this swift it is good reason

He yeue his good in abandon.

Chaucer, The Romant of the Rose, fol. 127, col. 2.

B

ABAND.

Moris hir sonne was coroned,
Whiche so ferforth was abandoned
To Christes feith, that men hym calle
Moris the christnest of all.

Gower, b. ii. Further John a man of perfecte holines, perceyuing the enuious affections of his disciples, to thintent that he might heale their weak

ness and abandone them from him and deliver them to Jesus: he chose out of them two and sent them to Jesus.

Erasmus's Paraphrase of N. T. by P. Udall, on Matthew,
chap. 10, fol. 48. c. 2.

those forreiners, which came from farre,
Grew great, and got large portions of land,
That in the realme ere long they stronger arre,
Then they which sought at first their helping hand,
And Vortiger enforc't the kingdome to aband.

Spenser's Faerie Queene, b. ii. canto 10.

Beg. Madame wife, they say that I haue dream'd, And slept aboue some fifteene yeare or more.

Lady. I, and the time seemes thirty vnto me, Being all this time abandon'd from your bed.

Shakspeare, Tam. of S. p. 210, act i. scene 1. Emil. Oh sacred, shadowy, cold, and constant queen, Abandoner of revels, mute, contemplative.

Aurel.

Beaumont and Fletcher's Two Noble Kinsmen, act v. scene 1, p. 445, fol. edit. MDCLXXIX.

You form reasons,

ABANO, a village near Padua, in the republic of Venice, famous among the ancients for its hot baths. E. lon. 10°, 47'. N. lat. 45°, 30'.

ABANTES, a warlike people, originally from Thrace, who settled in Phocæa, a country of Greece, where they built a town, which they called Aba, after the name of their leader. Some ancient authors say, the Abantes went afterwards into the island Eubœa, now called Negropont: others say the Abantes of Euboea came from Athens.

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. The island was formerly called Macris; from its length; afterwards Abanias or Abantis, from the Abantes, a people originally of Thrace, termed by Homer oTIO0EV KoμоWVTEC, from wearing the hair long behind. They were called Curetes

TIAS.

ABASE.

from cutting their hair before, Reineccius supposes ABANthey were Arabians who followed Cadmus into Euboea. ABAPTISTON, or ABAPTISTA, in Surgery, the shoulder, or perforating part 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 surgeons, however, prefer the cylindrical form. Various contrivances have been recommended to obviate the danger that may arise from want of dexterity, in performing the operation of trepanning and a new instrument has been lately invented for this purpose, by Mr. Rodman, surgeon in Paisley. It is so contrived, as to cut any thickness of bone, without danger of injuring the brain; and as no centre-pin is necessary, the accidents which have sometimes happened by not removing it, when the instrument in common use is employed, are completely prevented. (Philosoph. Mag. April 1800.)

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

snow.

ABARIM, high and steep mountains, opposite Jericho, separating the country of the Ammonites and Moabites from Canaan. Nebo and Pisgah were parts of these mountains. (Well's Geog. vol. II, p. 152.)

ABARIMON, a valley of Scythia, at the foot of mount Imaus, whose inhabitants, according to Pliny, were Anthropophagi, little superior to wild beasts. Their feet were turned backwards. (PLIN. Hist. Nat. tom. i, p. 370.)

ABAS, a Persian weight for weighing pearls; oneeighth less than the European carat.

ABAS, in Mythology, the son of Hypothoon and Meganira, who entertained Ceres, and offered a sacrifice to her; 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.

ABASCIA, or ABCASSIA, the northern district of the western division of Georgia in Asia. The inhabitants are poor, thievish, and treacherous. 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, to whom they are tributary; and to one another. They are destitute of many necessaries of life, and have nothing among them that deserves to be called a town. They are Christians only in name. The men are robust and active, and the women remarkably beautiful. Anacopia is the capital. E. lon. from 39° to 43°. N. lat. from 43° to 45°. ABASE', Baris: that upon which we tread, ABAS'ING, n. stand, go; the lower part of the ABASE MENT. foot; any thing low (See ABASHI). 1. To put or bring low, to lower, to depress. 2. To lower, to degrade, to humble, to disgrace.

Our kynge hath do this thing amisse,

So to abesse his roialtee;

That euery man it might see,

And humbled him in such a wise

To them that were of none emprise.

Gower.

Behold every one that is proud and abase him. Look on every one that is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked in their place. Job, xl. 11, 12. Heaven was to be earned only by penance and mortification; by the austerities and abasement of a monk, not by the liberal, generous, and spirited conduct of a man. Smith's Wealth of Nations. Absorb'd, in that immensity I see,

I shrink abas'd, and yet aspire to Thee.

}

Cowper. ABASH', v. The past tense and past part. ABASH'MENT. of Abase was anciently written Abaisit, Abayschid; whence the word Abash appears to be formed and is applied to the feelings of those who are abased, depressed, disgraced. In Wiclif it is applied to the feelings which overpowered, subdued, the witnesses of the miraculous restoration of the damsel by Christ. Abasshe is found in Gower, used as a substantive. (p. 41.)

Now is Berwick born doun, abaist is that cuntre
Jon gete thi coroun, thou losis thi dignite.

R. Brunne, p. 272.

For thi beo nat a baihsshed. to bydde and to be neody Sithe he that wrouhte al the worlde. was wilfulliche neody Nevere non so neody. ne non so poure deeyde.

Vision of Piers Plouhman, repr. 1813, p. 394.

And as the new abashed Nightingale,
That stinteth first, whan she beginneth sing
Whan that she heareth any heerdes tale,

Or in the hedges any wight stearing,

And after siker doeth her voice out ring.

Chaucer. Third book of Troilus, fol. 173, col. 2.

-Why, then, (you princes)

Do you with cheekes abash'd behold our workes,

And thinke them shame, which are (indeed) nought else,
But the protractiue trials of great Ioue,
To finde persistiue constancie in men.

Shakespeare, Tro. & Cres. p. 81.

Yet all that could not from affright her hold,
Ne to recomfort her at all prevail'd

For, her faint heart was with the frozen cold
Benumb'd so inly, that her wits nigh fail'd,
And all her senses with abashment quite were quail'd.
Spenser's Faerie Queene, p. 164.

He that saw her words written in the plain table of her fair face, thought it impossible there should therein be contained deceit: and, therefore, so much the more abashed.

Sidney's Works.

They heard, and were abasht, and up they sprung
Upon the wing; as when men wont to watch
On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread,
Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake.

Milton's Paradise Lost. Basenesse of birth is a great disparagement to some men, especially if they be wealthy, bear office, and come to promotion in a common-wealth: then, if their birth be not answerable to their calling, and to their fellows, they are much abashed and ashamed of themselves. Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.

But when he Venus view'd without disguise,
Her shining neck beheld, and radiant eyes;
Awed and abash'd he turn'd his head aside,
Attempting with his robe his face to hide.

Congreve's Trans. of Homer's Hymn to Venus.
And harsh austerity, from whose rebuke
Young love and smiling wonder shrink away
Abash'd and chill of heart, with sager frowns
Condemns the fair enchantment.

Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination. ABASKAJA, a town in Siberia, on the river Ischim. E. lon. 69°, 5'. N. lat. 50°, 10'.

ABASSA, ABASCIA, or ABGHAS, a province of the Russian empire in Asia, divided into two districts, called the GREATER and SMALLER Abassa, and supposed to contain a population of 150,000 souls. An excellent breed of horses is found here. It is bounded on the north and north-east by Circassia, on the south by Mingrelia, and by the Black sea on the south-west. The inhabitants are chiefly of Circassian origin; wild and warlike in their manners; their language is said to differ essentially from all the other Asiatic dialects; and many of their customs are peculiar. If a wife attain the age of thirty without children, or be unfruitful for five successive years, she is repudiated. Christianity was once the professed religion of the country, but the few traces of any religion, that now remain, are Mahomedan. The soil is luxuriantly fertile, but very ill cultivated.

ABASSI, or ABASSIS, a silver coin in Persia, worth two mammoudis, or four chayes; being equivalent in value to about sixteen pence of our money. It derives its name from Schah Abbas II. king of Persia, under whom it was struck.

ABATE', v. A. S. Beatan, to beat. The word exABATEMENT,ists also without the prefix A; though ABA'TER. more limited by modern usage in its application. See BATE.

To beat or press down; to lower, to depress; to lossen, to diminish.

And rerde tuo nonneryes, Worwel that one was,
And Ambresbury thet other, to bete yre trespas,
An adde grace zyf God wolle, yre synne vor to bete,
And come to gode amendement, ar heo that lyf lete.
Chaucer. The Personnes Tale, vol. ii. p. 291.
The kyng did samen his men, to abate Gryffyn's pride,
And Harald tham bitault ageŷn the Walsch to ride.

Id. p. 63.

As God saith, the horrible divels shul gon and comen upon the hedes of dampned folk: and this is, for as moche as the higher that they were in this present lif, the more shul they be abated and defouled in helle.

Id. p. 291.

He [the_horsse] breaketh the groude wyth the hoffes of his fete chearfully in his strength, and runneth to mete the harnest men. He layeth asyde all feare, hys stomack is not abated, nether starteth he a backe for any swerde. Bible, London 1539. Job, chap. xxxix.

And when the sunne hath eke the darke opprest,
And brought the day, it doth nothing abate
The trauailes of mine endlesse smart and paine.
For that abatement he chalenges thorgh right,
Edward thider had sent many a hardy knyght.

Surrey.

R. Brunne, p. 278.

HEL. O weary night, O! long and tedious night,
Abate thy houres, shine comforts from the East,
That I may backe to Athens by day-light,
From these, that my poore companie detest.

Shakespeare, Mid. Night's Dream, p. 156, act iii. sc. 2. KNIGHT. My lord, I know not what the matter is, but to my judgement, your Highnesse is not entertained with that ceremonious affection as you were wont; there's a great abatement of kindnesse appeares as well in the generall dependants, as in the duke himselfe also, and your daughter.

Ib. Lear, p. 287, act i. sc. 4. Will come a day (hear this, and quake ye potent great ones) When you yourselves shall stand before a judge, Who in a pair of scales will weigh your actions, Without abatement of one grain.

Beaumont and Fletcher's Plays.

Impiety of times, chastity's abator,
Falsehood, wherein thyself thyself deniest ;
Treason to counterfeit the seal of nature,
The stamp of heaven, impressed by the highest.

Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond.

If we could arrest time, and strike off the nimble wheels of his

chariot, and like Joshua, bid the sun stand still, and make opportunity tarry as long as he had occasion for it; this were something to excuse our delay, or at least to mitigate or abate the folly and unreasonableness of it. Tillotson's Works.

Government may be too secure. The greatest tyrants have been those, whose titles were the most unquestioned. Whenever, therefore, the opinion of right becomes too predominant and superstitious, it is abated by breaking the custom.

Paley's Moral Philosophy.

To ABATE, a nuisance, to ABATE a castle, is in English common law, to beat down or remove it: to ABATE a writ, is, by some exception, to defeat or overthrow it. Thus the writ of the demandant shall abate; that is, shall be disabled, frustrated, or overthrown. The appeal abateth by covin;' that is, the accusation is defeated by deceit.

ABATE, in Horsemanship, implies the exact performance of any downward motion. A horse is said to abate or take down his curvets, when he puts both his hind legs to the ground at once, and observes in all

the times the same exactness.

ABATEMENT, in Heraldry, some figure introduced ABATE. into coats of arms, to denote a dishonourable action, or the suppression of some mark of dignity originally belonging to them.

ABATIS, or ABATTIS, from the French abattre; a military fence, or obstruction, made of felled trees, or small wood, to prevent the approach of the enemy, while it serves as a breastwork to the defendants.

ABATOR, in Law, is applied to a person who takes possession of a house or lands, void by death, before the true heir.

ABATOS, in Ancient Geography, an island in the lake Moeris, celebrated for its papyrus, and as the burial place of Osiris.

ABBA, ABBAT, ABBOT, in Chaldee and Syriac, (18, Father.) Titles of honour and authority, first derived from the literal signification of the word. In scripture ABBA is once used by Jesus Christ in prayer, and twice in the epistles, having in each place the explanation warp attached to it. The Jews are said to have forbidden their slaves to use this title to their masters, while it was commonly adopted among themselves as expressive both of honour and affection. In the eastern churches it was given at a very early date to their bishops;-and Baba, Papa, Pope, had their origin from the same root.

ABBAT, or ABBOT, in the fourth and fifth centuries was gradually, and at last distinctively, applied to the heads of those religious orders who then began to exclude themselves from the world. They were endowed with such opulence, and were so famed for their sancnumber; for in the first instance they assumed to tity, that bishops were frequently chosen from their themselves no active share in the government of the church, and were considered as the humblest of layAt length the abbot, or archimandrite, became the priest of the house, and from the decrees of the councils held in the fifth century, were evidently at that time adopted among the clergy, and subject to the bishops and councils alone. They cultivated learning with considerable success, and gradually engrossed within their different establishments, its most important documents. In the seventh century they were made independent of episcopal jurisdiction, assumed the mitre, and bore the pastoral staff.

men.

Through the whole of the dark ages riches and immunities were heaped upon them. Kings, and dukes, and counts, abandoned their thrones and honours to submit to their sway; or themselves assumed the title of abbot, as amongst the highest civil distinctions. Hugh Capet, the founder of the third race of the French dynasty, was styled Hugh l'Abbe, or Hugh the Abbot. Many offices in the state were now aspired after by the abbots we find them performing the functions of ambassadors, and ministers, and occasionally adorning with their talents the highest stations. To their watchfulness over the manuscripts and other monuments of antiquity, now almost wholly in their hands, it is but just to record, the whole Christian world became indebted. Their ambition, however, and their vices knew no bounds. Gregory VII. who was eagerly bent upon humbling the bishops, and transferring their privileges to the Roman see, granted them exemptions both from the temporal authority of their sovereigns, and all other spiritual jurisdiction, besides that of Rome, before unknown. They assumed the titles of universal abbots,

ABBA.