prayer FGHAU. any undertaking without saying the Fauteheh, or the ISTAUN. opening verse of the Koran. In the performance of their devotions they are extremely regular; their prayers begin before day, and are repeated five times, the last of which is a little after the close of the evening twilight. The hour of prayer is announced from the tops of the minarets, by the shout of Allaho Akbar, "God is most great." A man who hears the call in company, instantly withdraws. Every Mussulman when he prays turns towards Mecca; the first part of the is said standing, the rest sitting on the heels, often bending forward so as to touch the ground with the forehead. The pilgrimage to Mecca is of course performed once in every person's life, as is incumbent on all Mussulmans. The officer, called Mooshtesib, superintends the public morals, and has the power of inflicting forty blows with a leather strap, and of sending offenders round the town on an ass or camel, with their faces to the tail. The thong is worn in the girdle as a mark of office. The Moollahs, and all the religious, profess great austerity, and will even break instruments of gay music. They are numerous in every class and rank. They have acquired, as a body, the title of Ulima, or the Learned; to them are entrusted the education of youth, the practice of the law, and the administration of justice. Their influence is great, and often beneficially exerted. When two ooloosses are about to meet in battle, they will rush between, hold out the Koran, repeat Arabic prayers, and exhort each party to reconciliation, or at least to dispersion, and seldom without success. In remote places, an injury done to a Moollah, would be sufficient to excite a great commotion; in such a case they assemble their brethren, suspend public worship and burial, and excommunicate their antagonists. Should this fail, they parade the country with the green standard of the prophet, beating drums and proclaiming the war-cry, and announce all who fall in their cause as martyrs. The common people have many superstitious apprehensions, and many idle tales respecting their power and influence. Their real character is hypocritical, bigotted, and avaTheir distinguishing costume is a large loose gown of white, or black cotton, and a very large white turban, of a peculiar shape. They marry and live in other respects like laymen. story, ricious. Besides the regular clergy, are other orders of persons, esteemed for their sanctity, as Sijuds, or descendants of Mahomet, and the Dervises, Fuheers, &c. There is a sect of ascetics who have always been celebrated in Afghaunistaun, and filled its histories with legendary tales. The places where they are buried are deemed sacred; and when a tribe goes out to battle, the women are usually placed there as in an asylum, where they are free from molestation. They are supposed to see visions, and work wonders. The Afghauns universally believe in alchemy and magic, in ghosts and divination. Every recess in the mountains they suppose to be inhabited by a lonely demon, called the Goule, or Spirit of the Waste, to whom they attribute a gigantic size and a devouring appetite. They have a great reverence for burial grounds, which they call by the expressive phrase "cities of the silent." They believe in the power of talismans, and in innumerable other superstitions incident to a people 50 educated and so circumstanced. HISTORY. We shall conclude this account with a cursory view of the history of the Afghauns. They in- AFGHAUhabited the mountains of Ghore at a very early period, NIS TAUN, and in the ninth century were established in the northeastern division, when the majority of the nation were subject to the Arabians; but those who dwelt in Ghore retained their independence, and were governed by kings of their own. This people in the reign of Mahmood, of Ghuzni, had a prince named Mahommed, who was taken prisoner after being defeated by that conqueror, and his descendants were greatly oppressed till the twelfth century, when they took up arms, dethroned the king of Ghuznee, burnt his capital, and extending their conquests by degrees, reduced under their government the whole of the present kingdom of Čaubul, India, Bulkh, Budukhshaun, and a considerable part of Khorassaun. After this period, different Afghaun dynasties reigned over India, with slight interruptions, for three centuries, but their other conquests were wrested from them by the king of Khwarizm, from whom they were retaken by Jengheez Khaun. During the government of the latter, and his son Tamerlane, they maintained their independence in the mountains. Bauber, the ancestor of the Great Moguls, commenced his career by subduing Caubul, which henceforth became his capital. After his death it was subject to one of his sons; the other was expelled from India by Sheer Shauh, who founded an Afghaun dynasty of short duration. The house of Timour, the ancestor of Bauber, was at length established in India, and Afghaunistaun was divided between the two empires of Hindostan and Persia, the mountains still retaining their independency. About the commencement of the eighteenth century (1720), the tribes of Ghiljie and Abdaly, rejected the Persian yoke, and founded an empire which included the whole of Persia, and stretched to the west as far as the present Russian and Turkish confines. Their supremacy was not acknowledged however by the whole of Afghaunistaun, and Naudir Shauh overthrew this dynasty, and in 1737 having conquered the greatest part of Afghaunistaun, annexed it to the Persian dominions. At his death the present Afghaun monarchy was founded. We cannot close this article without acquainting our Alleged readers with the opinion which the Afghauns entertain Jewish of their own origin, and which by many will be thought origin. to receive a strong corroboration from the sentiments of a very distinguished oriental scholar. They trace their descent from Afghaun and Usbec, the sons of Irmia and Berkia, sons of Saul, king of Israel. They state, that after the captivity, part of the children of Afghaun withdrew to the mountains of Ghore, and part to the neighbourhood of Mecca. Both these divisions maintained the knowledge of the true God, and the purity of doctrine and worship; and on the appearance of Mahomet the Afghauns of Ghore listened to the invitations of their Arabian brethren, and marched to the aid of the true faith, under the command of Kyse, afterwards surnamed Abdoolresheed. They further represent Saul as the forty-fifth in descent from Abraham, and Kyse the thirty-seventh from Saul. The first of these genealogies is inconsistent with the Christian scriptures, and the second allows only thirty-seven generations for a period of sixteen hundred years. In this account we may remark the fondness which all rude nations discover for tracing their origin to a very AFGHAU- high antiquity: and with the small proportion of posNISTAUN. sible truth, in their representations, is contained a curious mixture of fabulous narrative. For instance, they say, that Saul, their great ancestor, was raised from the rank of a shepherd to his princely dignity, because his stature was exactly equal to the length of a reed which the angel Gabriel gave to the prophet Samuel, as the proper measure of that distinguished individual whom the divine being had predestined to occupy the throne of Israel. Afghaun is, moreover, described as having been possessed of extraordinary strength; so much so as to be capable of striking the demons and the genii with terror; and was celebrated for his frequent adventures in the mountains where his posterity afterwards established themselves in a state of independence. In the second volume of the Asiatic Researches (Art. iv.), Sir William Jones pursues this subject in a note, and assigns several reasons in confirmation of the Afghaun narratives. "We learn," he observes, "from Esdras, that ten tribes, after a wandering journey, came to a country called Arsareth, where we may suppose they settled: now the Afghauns are said by the best Persian historians, to be descended from the Jews: they have traditions among themselves of such a descent; and it is even asserted that their families are distinguished by the names of Jewish tribes, although since their conversion to Islam, they studiously conceal their origin from all whom they admit not to their secrets. The Pushto language, of which I have seen a dictionary, has a manifest resemblance to the Chaldaic; and a considerable district under their dominion is called Hazareh, or Hazaret, which might easily have been changed into the word used by Esdras." With regard to the argument deduced from the re- AFGHATsemblance of the name of Hazareh to Arsareth, the NISTAUN country to which the Jews are stated by Esdras to have AFLOAT. retired, it seems completely overturned by the wellattested fact, that it is but recently that the Hazarehs have occupied a part of Afghaunistaun, and communicated their name to it. The next consideration respecting the traditions which are preserved among themselves of their Jewish extraction, of which the testimonies of the best Persian historians are alleged to be confirmatory, it is sufficiently obvious that neither the traditions nor the historians are to be depended upon. Nothing is more uncertain than the floating rumours which are put in circulation among an uncultivated people, especially as to their chronological accuracy. No question the Persian writers founded their statements upon these uncertain traditions, and readily availed themselves of them in the absence of all authentic information, and for the very natural and common purpose of embellishing their narratives. The Jewish derivation of the names of Afghaun families, and their studious concealment of their origin from all who are uninitiated into their secrets, are merely said to be asserted, probably by the Persian writers to whom we have already alluded. But if this similarity of names be certain, it may be supposed that they were derived from the Arabs, which is the case with all other Mahometan tribes, and the most ancient names bear no resemblance to those of the Jews. Sir W. Jones mentions further, a manifest resemblance between the Pushto and Chaldaic languages, an argument which can only derive any degree of evidence from a more detailed and careful examination, and which, in the absence of other demonstrations, can scarcely be deemed sufficient. Of Deiphobus the palace large and great Surrey. Enais, bk. ii. But Venus strange devises new, and counsels new she takes, That Cupid shall the face and hue of sweete Ascanius take, And beare the presents to the Queene, her heart afire to make With feruent loue, and in her bones to fling the priuy flame. First Booke of Eneidos, by Thomas Phaer. AFLAT'. On the flat. AFLIGHT'. A word much used by Gower; and also occurring in Sir Thomas More and others: and is applied to the flight of courage; fortitude, presence of mind upon the appearance of danger. See FLIGHT. Upon this worde hir herte aflight Thynkende what was best to doone. Gower, Con. A. bk. ii.. And yet were they all in case safelye to escape: wheras Judas on thother syde which nothing feared at all, but tooke a speciall pleasure to see them so afryghted, lost hys lyfe for euer and that in fewe howres after. Sir T. More's Works, p. 1389, col. 2. AFLOAT. On Float. Now er alle on flote, God gif pam grace to spede, It was a shame he should suffer himself to be made a stale; have the title of a king, and not the authority; and as long as he stood in such terms, that which seemed an honour was indeed a disgrace. The king [Harolde] himselfe stoode afoote by the standarde, and bis brethren Girthe and Leofwine with him, to the ende that in such a common perill and ieopardy, no man should once thinke to flie or run away. Stow's Chronicle. Being to pass through Germany, and particularly through Duke Leopold's countrey of Austria, he [Richard I.], remembring the old grudge, changed his apparel, and travelling sometimes a foot, and sometimes on horseback, he used all means possible to keep himself from being known, Baker's Chronicle. } AFORE', ad. Written by Chaucer, Aforen, AFORE', prep. Aforne. On the fore part. It is much used in composition; but without effecting any change of usage in the component words, It is applied to precedence in order of time; in order of place; and metaphorically to the desires and pursuits of the mind. I meane this, that trespace hight But reason conceiueth of a sight Shame of that I speake aforne. Chaucer, R. of R. fo. 130, col. 3. Gan draw him to the window nie the strete Id. Second booke of Troilus, fo. 164, col. 1. But for he wolde a while abide And that was in his slepe by night. Gower. Con. A. book i. He, back returning by the yuorie dore, Remounted up as light as cheerfull larke, And on his little winges the dreame he bore In haste unto his lord, where he him left afore. Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. i. e. i. He [Paul Craw] was committed to the secular judge, who condemned him to the fire, in the which he was consumed in the said city of Saint Andrews, about the time afore written. Knox's Ilist. of the Reformation. Those who have gone afore me in that argument have made so copious a harvest, that the issue of my gatherings must needs have been but small. Hales's Golden Remains. By frequent consideration of death, and dissolation, a man is taught not to fear it; he is, as it were, acquainted with it, by often preparation for it. Hale's Contemplations. While Rodmond, fearful of some neighbouring shore, AFRESH. In fresh. Falconer's Shipwreck. Wherefore let vs make our prayer vnto our most piteful sauiour Christ, not eche one for himselfe alone, but euery man for other too, that we folow not thexaumple of the obstinate traytour Judas, but without delaye gladly embrasing goddes grace whan it is offered vs, may through our owne repentaunce and his mercye, be renued afreshe to attayne his endlesse glory. Sir T. More's Works, p. 1390, col. 1. But when ye remnat of the wicked shal attempt afresh to raise vp again such abhominatios the Lord shal sodainly without warning fal vpō them with his most fearfull tirrible last iudgment. Bale's Image, Second Part, R. 5. Since any man's remembrance, we can skante finde one time, either when religion did first growe, or when it was setled, or when it did afreshe springe up againe. Jewel's Defence of the Apologie of the Churche of Englande. the dog for loving his master's murtherer, renewing afresh his com Never was there thing more pitiful than to hear my master blame plaints with the dumb counsellor. Sidney's Arcadia, The faction still defying Edward's might, Drayton. Barons' Wars. So when the sun to west was far declin'd, Dryden. Palam, and Arcit. When once we have attained these ideas by sensation and reflexion, they may be excited afresh by the use of names, werds, signs, or by any thing else that has been connected with them in our thoughts. Watts's Logic. No more thy soothing voice my anguish chears, AFORE. -- AFRESH. AFRICA. Extent. Name. General divisions. AFRICA. EXTENT.-Africa is one of the four principal divisions of the earth, the. third in magnitude, but the smallest in importance. It is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean sea, by which it is separated from Europe; on the east by the Indian ocean, the Red sea, and part of Asia; on the south by the Southern ocean; and on the west by the North Atlantic, which separates it from America. Its general form is triangular, the northern part being the base, and the southern extremity the vertex. Its length, from Cape Bona, in the Mediterranean, to the Cape of Good Hope, may be reckoned about 70 degrees of latitude, or four thousand nine hundred and eighty miles; and in its greatest breadth, it comprehends somewhat more than four thousand seven hundred and ninety miles, namely, from Cape Verd in 17°, 33′ W. lon. to Cape Guardafui, in 51o, 20′ E. lon. NAME. A small province in the northern part, to which the ancients applied the term Africa Propria, seems to have imparted its own name to the whole continent. Bochart derives it from a Punie word which signifies an ear of corn," with a supposed reference to the fertility of the country. Others derive it from the Phoenician word Havarca, or Avreca, the country of Barca, the most remarkable part. Servius traces the origin of the general name to the Greek privative a and poiкn cold, q. d. a burning clime. GENERAL DIVISIONS.It is difficult to classify, much more to particularize, the different states of which Africa is composed; but the following arrangement is probably best adapted for general purposes. 1. North Africa, comprising Egypt and the states of Barbary, Barca, Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, Morocco, Fez, Tafilet, Biledulgerid and Sahara. These countries are chiefly inhabited by Moors, descended from Arabs, and blended with various nations who have settled in Africa. The Moors have occupied the habitable parts of the desert, and have driven the negroes or aboriginal inhabitants in most cases beyond the great rivers. 2. East Africa, comprehending the coasts of Zanguebar, Ajan, and Adel, of which the latter is an extensive kingdom. Zanguebar includes the kingdoms of Mozambique, Mongalla, Quiloa, Montbaza, Melinda, and the country of the Monæmugi. Ajan contains Brava and Magadoxa. The Portuguese have chiefly colonized the eastern coast, of which they have afforded us little information. 3. South Africa, or Caffraria, a region which contains the country of the Hottentots, and the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. On the south-east coast are the kingdoms of Inhambane, Manica, Sabia, Sofata, and Monomotapa, or Mocaranga. The inhabitants of this division are considered inferior to every other in point of civilization, especially in the vicinity of the Cape. 4. West Africa, including an immense extent of coast, and the two great divisions of Guinea and Congo; the former comprehending Senegal, or North Guinea, containing the country of the Foulahs and Jalofs, and the kingdom of the Mandingoes. South Guinea, comprising the Pepper coast, the Ivory coast, and the Gold coast; and East Guinea, or the Slave coast, con- AFRICA taining the kingdoms of Whida, Andra, and Benin. The division of Congo contains Loango, Congo, Angola, Metamba, and Benguela. The interior of these countries appears to be more populous than the coasts. 5. Central or Interior Africa, comprehending Nigritia, or Soudan, which includes an immense tract of country on both sides of the Niger, and stretching almost across the continent, embracing the empires of Houssa and Tombuctoo, Agadez, Ludamar, Bondou, Bambouk, Bornou, Darfur, and others, kingdoms as well as rivers, "unknown to song;" Nubia, a country between Egypt and Abyssinia, in which are Turkish Nubia, with the kingdoms of Dongala and Sennaar; and lastly Abyssinia. 6. Islands, of which there are many both in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. They are, however, commonly small, and arranged in groups. The most remarkable groups are the Cape de Verd islands, the Canaries, and further to the north, Madeira and Porto Santo. Of single islands, the largest is Madagascar, on the eastern coast, 840 geographical miles in length, and 220 in breadth. In the Indian ocean lie Pemba, Zanzibar, and Monfia, Bourbon, Mauritius, and others. In the Atlantic is situated the island of St. Helena, commonly resorted to by the homeward-bound Indiamen, and rendered remarkable at this moment (1818) as the prison house of one of the greatest of military adventurers, Napoleon Buonaparte; the isle of Ascension, the isles of St. Matthew, St. Thomas, and others. seas, STRAITS, GULPHS, AND SEAS.-Africa has two Straits, straits, the straits of Babel-mandel, uniting the Red gulphs, sea with the Eastern ocean; and the straits of Gibralter, which separate it from Europe. It contains also the gulphs of Sidra and of Goletta, in the Mediterranean; the gulph of France at the mouth of the Gambia; the gulph of Guinea, south of the Gold coast; and the gulph of Sofala, near the entrance of the Mozambique channel on the south. The only sea peculiar to Africa is the Mozambique channel, which flows between the coast of Mozambique and the island of Madagascar. CAPES. Of the capes of Africa, the Cape of Good Capes. Hope, which is the southernmost promontory, is the most celebrated. There are also Cape Bona in the kingdom of Tunis, Cape Spartel on the western shore of the straits of Gibraltar, Cape Geer on the borders of Morocco, from which the ridge of Atlas commences, Cape Bojador, and Cape Blanc, Cape Verd, east of the islands of the same name, Cape Guardafui at the eastern extremity, and various others. MOUNTAINS.-Africa is distinguished by many very Moun extensive ranges of mountains; among which the first rank is due to the mountains of Atlas, which attracted Atlas. the particular attention of the ancients, by whom they were fabled to support the firmament. This range extends from Cape Geer, in a north-east direction, as far as the gulph of Sidra, and, in its highest elevation, is upwards of thirteen thousand feet above the level of the ocean. According to M. Desfontaines, they are AFRICA. directed into two principal chains, of which the one toward the desert is called the Great Atlas, and the other, toward the Mediterranean, the Little Atlas, running in a parallel direction from east to west, having between them many intermediate mountains, and many fertile vallies, watered with numerous rivers and rivulets. The French mineralogists, from an inspection of the western extremity, represent the structure as granitic and primitive. The range which the ancients ins designated the mountains of the Moon, separate Nigritia Moon from Caffraria, to the south of Abyssinia. These unquestionably contain the sources of many mighty rivers, and particularly of the Egyptian Nile. Nearly under the same parallel, on the opposite side of the continent, are the mountains of Kong, stretching from west to east, from the mouth of the Gambia to 23° E. lon. It is believed that this range connects itself with the mountains of the Moon, but this has never Lapate, &c. yet been clearly ascertained. The mountains of Lupata encircle the kingdom of Mocaranga, forming an immense succession of uninhabitable rocks. The kingdoms of Congo, Angola, and Benguela are traversed by the Cristal mountains. Abyssinia is almost entirely mountainous; and various parts of this continent abound in hills which might be called mountains in any other part of the world. Rivers. vast and barren expanse almost from the Atlantic AFRICA. ocean to the confines of Egypt, and comprehending a space of more than forty-five degrees, or two thousand five hundred miles in length, by more than seven hundred in breadth, and completely defying all the arts of cultivation. This immense expanse of aridity and desolation is, however, sprinkled with spots of verdure, which seem the more beautiful from being so completely insulated in a world of red sand and sand-stone rock, and, in fact, suggested to the ancient poets their brilliant pictures of the Hesperian gardens, the Fortunate islands, and the islands of the Blest. The principal of these, which has hitherto been explored is Fezzan. But Providence has so formed the enduring camel, as to create in this animal a link of social intercourse among widely separated nations; in addition to which, man has availed himself of his own resources, and by the merchants who traverse these districts assembling in large companies, they adopt the only means of safe transportation and commercial interchange across the wildest and most solitary parts of this sun-burnt region. This continent is moreover every where intersected with deserts of an inferior, but still of great extent: and these are to be found even in the southern parts, towards the European settlements. There is probably, a wide wilderness of this nature, between the east and west ranges of mountains, pervaded by the race of people called Jagas, who sometimes are said to wander into the vicinity of the Cape. CLIMATE. In a region of such vast extent, it must Climate. be expected that the climate should be considerably diversified; nevertheless, it may be characterized generally as sultry. Most of this continent is situated within the tropics, it being nearly divided by the equator. In the dry season Mr. Park, when lying in his hut of reeds, could not hold his hand, without pain, against the current of air which penetrated the crevices with a scorching heat; and even the negroes, at a time when the wind blew from the east and north-east, could not endure to touch the ground with their feet. In the southern districts the climate is more temperate, and even agreeable in the mornings and evenings. In the north, though sultry, it is not unsuited to Europeans; it is refreshed by the sea breezes along the coast, and is still more temperate adjacent to the mountains. Generally speaking, the countries to the south of the equator are favoured with a milder temperature than those at equal distances to the north. RIVERS.-A continent so remarkable for its mountains, may be expected to abound in magnificent rivers. Many of them, however, which issue from the range of Atlas, are absorbed in the sandy deserts, or very soon attain the ocean. The largest river hitherto discovered is the Nile, which it seems satisfactorily ascertained rises in the mountains of the Moon, in a district called Donga, N. lat. 8°, some hundreds of miles to the south of Darfur. It is at first called Bahr el Abiad or White River, and about the sixteenth degree of latitude is joined by the Bahr el Azreh or the Blue River, which although mistaken by the Portuguese writers for the real Nile, was well known as a distinct river by the ancients. The course of the Nile may be roughly estimated at 2000 miles, thus rivalling some of the most magnificent streams of Asia and of America. It forms several considerable cataracts, of which the principal one is that of Geanadil, in Nubia. The next river which has excited the deepest interest is the Niger, whose source is now assigned to the mountains of Kong. It flows from west to east, and after passing through the plains of Bambarra, where it receives many tributary streams, it flows into the depth of central Africa, where the adventurous traveller has never yet found his way. The aland mountains of Kong give birth also to the Senegal and the Gambia, both of which run in a westerly direction, and after a considerable course fall into the ocean. The Zaire or Congo is the next in interest and importance, which is greatly distinguished for its rapidity. Other rivers flow into the Indian ocean, as the Zambeze, which has been ascended some hundreds of miles; the Quillimanci, and the Magdasho, of which the two latter are supposed to arise from the same range of mountains that produce the Nile. It is highly probable, that some considerable rivers have hitherto entirely escaped observation. Deserts. DESERTS.-The immensity of its deserts constitutes, perhaps, the most striking feature of Africa. The most remarkable of these is Zaara or Sahara, denominated the Desert by way of eminence, stretching its VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS.-Africa presents some Vegetable peculiarities in the vegetable kingdom. Its booba, productions. or calabash tree, possesses extraordinary dimensions. Some have been found 65, and even 74 feet in circumference, with branches extending in every direction horizontally, and as large as the trunks of ordinary trees. The height is somewhat disproportionate, being usually from only 60 to 70 feet. The tree called mangrove grows on the banks of rivers, and strikes its roots into the bed of the river, forming a sort of natural arcade below and a platform above. The shea, or vegetable butter tree, is a singular production; and on the borders of the desert is found the lotus, which has been well known from the remotest antiquity. Its fruit is a berry, which, when prepared in a proper manner, resembles sweet gingerbread, and is very nutritious. Africa, unquestionably, presents a most ample field for the researches of the botanist, especially in its |
