The Alaskan flora is less varied than the fauna. The forests of the coastal region eastward from Cook Inlet, and particularly in south-eastern Alaska, are of fair variety, and of great richness and value. The balsam fir and in the south the red cedar occur in scant quantities; more widely distributed, but growing only under marked local conditions, is the yellow or Alaska cedar, a very hard and durable wood of fine grain and pleasant odour. The Oregon alder is fairly common. Far the most abundant are coast and Alpine hemlocks and the tide-land or Sitka spruce. The last is not confined to this part of Alaska, but is the characteristic and universal tree. It is of primary economic importance to thenatives,who use it for the most variouspurposcs. On the islands of the Alexander Archipelago and on Prince William Sound it grows to gigantic size; even on the Koyukuk and the middle Yukon it attains in places a diameter of 2 ft. In 1002 a forest reservation comprising the largest part of the Alexander Archipelago was created by the United States government. The separation of the coast and interior floras is almost complete; only along the mountain passes and river valleys, and rarely there, is there an exchange of species. Timber, however, is fairly abundant along the entire course of the Yukon above Anvik (about 400 m. from the mouth), along the great tributaries of the Yukon, and, so far as explorations have re vealed, along every stream in central Alaska; and the woods of the interior consist almost entirely of spruce. On the Yukon flats it grows in a vast forest impenetrably dense.6 The timber line, which in the I,anhandle and along the southern coast of the continental mass runs from 1800 to 2400 ft., frequently rises in the interior plateau even to 4000 ft. Next in importance after spruce, in the interior, is birch, and then balsam poplar. Thickets of alders and willows in wet places and new-made land, aspens and large cottonwoods west of the characteristic spruce area (as on Seward Peninsula), are also common. Toward the Arctic circle, the timber becomes, of course, sparse, low, gnarled and distorted. The willows in the Arctic drainage basin shrink to shrubs scarcely knee-high. Bushes are common in western Alaska, but undergrowth is very scanty in the forests. Crasses grow luxuriantly in the river bottoms and wherever the tundra moss is destroyed to give them footing. Most distinctive is the ubiquitous carpeting of mosses, varying in colours from the pure white and cream of the reindeer moss to the deep green and brown of the peat moss, all conspicuously spangled in the briefsummer with bright flowers of the higher orders, heavy blossoms on stunted stalks. The thick peat moss or tundra of the undrained lowlands covers probably at least a quarter of Alaska; the reindeer moss grows both on the lowlands and the hills.7 Sedges available for forage grow in the tundra. In August berries are fairly abundant over the interior; one of them, the salmon or cloud berry, preserved in seal oil for the winter, is an important food of the natives. The grasses are killed by the frosts in September. The western timber limit is on Kodiak Island. The Aleutian Islands (q.v.) are almost destitute of trees, but are covered with a luxuriant growth of herbage. Climatic differences cannot account for the treeless condition of the country W. of this point, and the true explanation lies probably in the fact that in winter, when the seeds of the coastal forests ripen and are released, the prevalent winds W. of Kodiak are damp and blow from the S. and S.W., while the spread of the seeds requires dry winds blowing from the N. and N.W. Such favourable conditions occur only rarely.

The Soil of Alaska seems to be in Jtself rich, and quite capable of agricultural development; the great impediment to this is in . the briefness of the summer. Contrary, however, to the once universal belief, the experiments of the department of agriculture of the United States have definitely proved that hardy vegetables in great variety can readily be produced in the coastal region and at various stations in the Yukon valley; and presumably, therefore, all over the interior S. of the Arctic circle, save along Bering Sea; also that there is little doubt of the practicability of successfully cultivating buckwheat, barley and oats, and possibly also rye and wheat; that grasses for grazing grow generally and often in abundance; and in general that the possibilities of interior Alaska as a live-stock country are very cons18erable. It is calculated that a twentieth of south-eastern Alaska is available for agriculture, and that of the entire country 100,000 sq. m. are pasturable or tillable.

Indiistrl'.—-The fur and fish resources of Alaska have until recently held first place in her industries. Herrings furnish oil and guano, and the young fish are packed as "sardines'' at Juneau. Cod can be taken with comparatively little danger or hardship. During the Russian occupation a small amount was shipped to California and the Sandwich Islands. The take since 1879 has been practically constant. The take of halibut is increasing steadily. The salmon industry dates from 1878. The total output (in 1901, 100,000,000 lb.; in 1006, about 72,000,000 lb.), which since 1900 has been more than half the total salmon product of the United States, is more than ten' times the product of all other fish.8 On the Karluk river, Kodiak Island, is the greatest salmon fishery in the world. More than 3,000,000 salmon have been canned here in one season. The second salmon stream is the Nushagak, flowing into Bristol Bay; this bay is the richest fishing field of Alaska, furnishing in 1901, 35% of the total production. The recklessly wasteful manner in which these fisheries are conducted, and the inadequate measures taken by the United States government for their protection, threaten the entire industry with destruction. From 1867 to 1902 the value of the total fishery product was estimated at $60,000,000. The fur-seal industry has been better protected but still unavailingly. (See SEAL FIsheries and BERINO SEA ARBITRATION.) The value of the fur seals taken from 1868 to 1902 was estimated at $35,000,000 and that of other furs at $17,000,000. The walrus, hunted for its ivory tusks, and the sea otter, rarest and most valuable of Alaskan fur animals, are near extermination; the blue fox is now bred for its pelt on the Aleutians and the southern continental coast; the skins of the black and silver fox are extremely rare, and in general the whole fur industry is discouragingly decadent. The whale fishery also has greatly fallen off; there is no profit on the oil and the whales are sought for the baleen alone; they are much less numerous too than they once were, and have to be sought farther and farther north.

Minerals.—The timber resources of Alaska are untouched and the serious exploitation of her minerals is very recent. As early as 1861 gold discoveries were made on the Stikine river; repeated discoveries, culminating in the Cassiar district "boom,'' were made in British Columbia from 1857 to 1874; colourings along the Yukon were reported in 1866-1867 and systematic prospecting of the upper river began about 1873. Juneau was founded in 1880; the same year the opposition of the Indians was withdrawn that had prevented the crossing of the mountain passes to the interior, and after 1880 repeated and scattered discoveries were made on the Lewes, Pelly, Stewart and other streams of the Upper Yukon country in Canada. As early as 1883-1885 there was a considerable mining excitement due to these discoveries, and a much greater one in 1887 after the discovery of coarse gold on Forty Mile Creek in American territory; but these were as nothing to the picturesque and feverish rush that followed the location of the first Klondike claim in Canadian territory in August 1896. (SEE KLONDIKE.) The mines in American territory were temporarily deserted for the new diggings. Other gold districts are scattered over the whole interior of Alaska. Nome (q.v.) was the scene of a great gold mining stampede in 1900. The quartz mines near Juneau are among the greatest stamp mills of the world (SEE JUNEAU.) The product of gold and silver (of the latter some 1.3% of the total) from 1895 to 1901 was more than $32,000,000 from Alaska proper (not including that from the Canadian Tukon fields) as against a production of $5,000,000 in 1880-1896. The gold product of the Canadian Yukon territory from 1896-1903 was about $96,000,000, as estimated by the Canadian Geological Survey. In 1905 the product of gold from Alaska was valued at $15,630,000 (mines report); and from 1880 to 19djec the production of gold, according to the estimate of A. H. Brooks, was more than $100,000,000. The gravest problem of mining in the interior country, even graver than that presented by the climate, is transportation; in 1900 the Tanana fields, for example, were provisioned from Circle City, about 125 m. distant, at the rate of a cent per lb. mile (i.e. $2000 for moving a ton 100 m.). Even higher rates prevailed in the copper country in 1902. Various other minerals in addition to gold have been discovered, and several of them, notably copper and silver (the latter appearing with the gold deposits), may probably be profitably exploited. In 1905 the product of copper was valued at $759,634, that of silver at $80,165 (mines report). Coal, and in much larger quantities lignite, have been found in many parts of Alaska. Most important, because of their location, are deposits along the Alaska Peninsula and between Circle City and Dawson. The latter furnishes fuel to the river steamboats, and it is hoped may eventually supply the surrounding mining region. There are valuable deposits of gypsum on Chicagof Island, and marble quarries are being developed on Prince of Wales Island.

As against $7,200,000 paid for Alaska in 1867, the revenues returned to the United States in the years 1867—1903 totalled $9,555,909 (namely, rental for the Fox and Pribilof Islands, $999,200; special revenue tax on seal-skins, $7,597,351; Alaskan customs, $528,558; public lands, $28,928; other sources $401,872). It has been estimated that in the same period the United States drew from Alaska fish, furs and gold to the value of about $150,000,000; that up to 1903 the imports from the states aggregated $i00,000,000; and that $25,000,000 of United States capital was invested in Alaska.

Since 1896 communication with the outer world has been greatly increased. Alaskan mails leave the states daily, many post-offices are maintained, mail is regularly delivered beyond the Arctic circle, all the more important towns have telegraphic communication with the states,9 there is one railway in the interior through Canadian territory from Skagway, and other railways are planned. The total mileage in 1906 was 136 m. In that year the Alaskan Central Railroad (from Seward to Fairbanks, 463 m.) was chartered; 45 m. of this road were in operation in 1905. One long military road as an "All American'' route from Valdez has long been built.

Population.—-The population in 1867 at the time of the cession from Russia is estimated at 30,000, of which two-thirds were Eskimo and other Indians. Population returned in 1880, 33,426; in 1890, 32,052; in 1900, 63,592, of whom approximately 48% were whites, 46% natives and 6% Japanese and Chinese; (1910 census) 64,356. The Asiatics are employed in the salmon canneries. The natives of Alaska fall under four ethnologic races: the Eskimo or Innuit—-of these the Aleuts are an offshoot; the Haidas or Kaigani, found principally on Prince of Wales Island and thereabouts; the Thlinkits, rather widely distributed in the "Panhandle''; and the Tinnehs or Athapascans, the stock race of the great interior country. In 1800 the pure-blooded natives numbered 23,531, of whom 6000 were Haidas, Thlinkits or other natives of the coastal region, 1000 Aleuts, 3400 Athapascans and 13,100 Eskimo. The natives have adopted many customs of white civilization, and on the Aleutians, and in coastal Alaska, and in scattered regions in the interior acknowledge Christianity under the forms of the Orthodox Greek or other churches. The rapid exhaustion in late years of the caribou, seals and other animals, once the food or stockin-trade of the Aleuts and other races, threatens more and more the swift depletion of the natives. They have also felt the fatal influence of the liquor traffic. From 1893 to 1895 the United States expended $55,000 to support the natives of the Fur Seal Islands. This policy threatens to become a continued necessity throughout much of Alaska. There is a small government Indian reservation on Afognak Island, near Kodiak. The white population is extremely mobile, and few towns have an assured or definite future. The prosperity of the mining towns of the interior is dependent on the fickle fortune of the gold-fields, for which they are the distributing points. Sitka, Juneau (the capital) and Douglas, both centres of a rich mining district, Skagway, shipping point for freight for the Klondike country (see these titles), and St Michael, the ocean port for freighting up the Yukon, are the only towns apparently assured of a prosperous future. Wrangell (formerly Fort St Dionysius, Fort Stikine and Fort Wrangell), founded in 1833, is a dilapidated and torpid little village, of some interest in Alaskan history, and of temporary importance from 1874 to 1877 as the gateway to the Cassiar mines in British Columbia. Its inhabitants are chiefly Thlinkit Indians.

Government.—-Alaska, by an act of Congress approved the 7th of May 1906, received the power to elect a delegate to Congress. Before this act and the elections of August 1906 Alaska was a governmental district of the United States without a delegate in Congress. Its administration rests in the hands of the various executive departments, and is partly exercised by a governor and other resident officials appointed by the president. It is a military district, a customs district (since 1868), is organized into a land district, and constitutes three judicial divisions. In 1867-1877 the government was in the hands of the department of war, although the customs were from the beginning collected by the department of the treasury, with which the effective control rested from 1877 until the passage of the so-called Organic Act of 17th May 1884. This act extended over Alaska the laws of the state of Oregon so far as they should be applicable, created the judicial district and a land district, put in force the mining laws of the United States, and in general gave the administrative system the organization it retained up to the reforms of 1899-1900. The history of government and political agitation has centred since then in the demand for general land legislation and for an adequate civil and criminal law, in protests against the enforcement of a liquor prohibition law, and in agitation for an efficiently centralized administration. As the general land laws of the United States were not extended to Alaska in 1884, there was no means, generally speaking, of gaining title to any land other than a mining claim, and so far as any method did exist its cost was absolutely prohibitive. After partial and inadequate legislation in 1891 and 1898, the regular system of land surveys was made applicable to Alaska in 1899, and a generous homestead law was provided in 1903. An adequate code of civil and criminal law and provisions for civil government under improved conditions were provided by Congress in 1899 and 1900. The agitation over prohibition dates from 1868; the act of that year organizing a customs district forbade the importation and sale of firearms, ammunition and distilled spirits; the Organic Act of 1884 extended this prohibition to all intoxicating liquors. The coast of Alaska offers exceptional facilities for smuggling, and liquor bas always been very plentiful; juries have steadily refused to convict offenders, and treasury officials have regularly collected revenue from saloons existing in defiance of law. The prohibition law is still upon the statute-books. The chief weaknesses in the colonial administration of the territory, particularly prior to 1900—-but only to a slightly less extent since—-have been decentralization and a lax civil service. The concomitants of these have been irresponsibility and inefficiency. The governor has represented the president without possessing much power; the department of war has had illdefined duties; the department of justice has, in theory, had charge of the general law; the department of the interior has administered the land law; the agents of the bureau of education have superintended the stocking of Alaska with reindeer; the United States Fish Commission has investigated the condition of marine life without having powers to protect it. The treasury department has charted the coasts, sought to enforce the prohibition law, controlled and protected the fur seals and fisheries, and incidentally collected the customs. Since the creation of the department of commerce and labour (1903), it has taken over from other departments some of these scattered functions. All in all, the government has proved itself without power to protect the most valuable industries of the district, and for many years there has been talk of a regular territorial government. The paucity of permanent residents and the poverty of the local treasury seem to make such a solution an impossibleone.

History.—-The region now known as Alaska was first explored by the Russian officers Captain Vitus Bering and Chirikov in I 741 They visited parts of the coast between Dixon Entrance and Cape St Elias, and returned along the line of the Aleutians. Their expedition was followed by many private vessels manned by traders and trappers. Kodiak was discovered in 1763 and a settlement effected in 1784. Spanish expeditions in 1774 and 1775 visited the south-eastern coast and laid a foundation for subsequent territorial claims, one incident of which were the Nootka Sound seizures of 1789. Captain James Cook in 1778 made surveys from which the first approximately accurate chart of the coast was published; but it was reserved for Vancouver in 1793-1794 to make the first charts in the modern sense of the intricate south-eastern coast, which only in recent years have been superseded by new survel's. Owing to excesses committed by private traders and companies, who robbed, massacred and hideously abused the native Indians, the trade and regulation of the Russian possessions were in 1799 confided to a semi-official corporation called the Russian-American Company for a term of twenty years, afterwards twice renewed for similar periods. A monopoly of the American trade had previously been granted in 1788 to another private company, the Shohkof. Alexander Baranov (1747—1819); chief resident director of the American companies (1790-1819), one of the early administrators of the new company, became famous through the successes he achieved as governor. He founded Sitka (q.v.) in 1804 after the massacre by the natives of the inhabitants of an eadier settlement (1799) at an adjacent point. The headquarters of the company were at Kodiak until 1805, and thereafter at Sitka. In 1821 Russia attempted by ukase to exclude navigators from Bering Sea and the Pacific coast of her possessions, which led to immediate protest from the United States and Great Britain. This led to a treaty with the United States in 1824 and one with Great Britain in 1825, by which the excessive demands of Russia were relinquished and the boundaries of the Russian possessions were permanently fixed. The last charter of the Russian-American Company expired on the 31st of December 1861, and Prince Maksutov, an imperial governor, was appointed to administer the affairs of the territory. In 1864 authority was granted to an American company to make explorations for a proposed Russo-American company's telegraph line overland from the Amur river in Siberia to Bering Strait, and through Alaska to British Columbia. Work was begun on this scheme in 1865 and continued for nearly three years, when the success of the Atlantic cable rendered the construction of the lme unnecessary and it was given up, but not until important explorations had been made. In 1854 a Californian company began importing ice from Alaska. Very soon thereafter the first Official overtures by the United States for the purchase of Russian America were made during the presidency of James Buchanan. In 1867, by a treaty signed on the 30th of March, the purchase was consummated for the sum of $7,200,o00, and on the 18th of October 1867 the formal transfer of the territory was made at Sitka.

Since its acquisition by the United States the history of Alaska has been mainly that of the evolution of its administrative system described above, and the varying fortunes of its fisheries and sealing industries. Since the gold discoveries a wonderful advance has been made in the exploration of the country. A military reservation has been created with Fort Michael as a centre. The two events of greatest general interest have been the Fur Seal Arbitration of 1893 (see BERING SEA ARBITRATION), and the . Alaska-Canadian boundary dispute, settled by an international tribunal of British and American jurists in London in 1903. The boundary dispute involved the interpretation of the words, quoted above, in the treaties of 1825 and 1867 defining the boundary of the Russian (later American) possessions, and also the determining of the location of Portland Canal, and the question whether the coastal girdle should cross or pass around the heads of the fjords of the coast. The tribunal was an ad-)udication board and not an actual court of arbitration, since its function was not to decide the boundary but to settle the meaning of the Anglo-Russian treaty, which provided for an ideal (and not a physical) boundary. This boundary did not fit in with geographical facts; hence the adjudication was based upon the motive of the treaty and not upon the literal interpretation of such elastic terms as "ocean,', "shore'' and "coast-line.'' The award of the tribunal made in October 1903 was arrived at by the favourable vote of the three commissioners of the United States and of Lord Alverstone, whose action was bitterly resented by the two Canadian commissioners; it sustained in the main the claims of the United States.

AUTHORITIES.—-W. H. Dall and M. Baker, "List of Charts, Maps, and Publications relating to Alaska'', in United States Pacific Coast Pilot, 1879; Monthly Catalogue United States Public Documents, No. 37 (1898), and Bulletin 227, United States Geological Surve8' (1904), for official documents; H. H. Bancroft, Alaska 1710—f8&5) pp. 595-609; and various other bibliographies in titles mentioned below, especially in Brooke's The Geography and Geology of Alaska.

General.—United States Monthly Summary of Commerce Finance, July 1903, "Commercial Alaska, 1867-1903. Area, Popula tion, Productions, Commerce . . .''; W. H. Dall, Alaska and its Resources (Boston, 1870); C. Sumner, Speech on "Cession of Russian-America to the United States,'' in Works, vol. xi. (Boston, 1875): C. H. Merriam, editor, Halrriman Alaska Expedition (New York, 1901-1904, 3 vols.).

Physiography and Climate.—-United States Department of War, Explorations in Alaska, 1864-1900 (Washington, 1901); United States Geological Survey, Annual Reports since 1897—-"The Geography and Geology of Alaska: A Summary of Existing Knowledge,'' by Alfred H. Brooks (Washington, 1905; Professional Paper, No. 45), with various maps (see National Geographic Mag., May 1904, lor a map embodying all knowledge then known); "Altitudes in Alaska'' (Bulletin 100, by H. Gannett); "Geographic Dictionary of Alaksa'' (Bulletin 299, Washington, 1906), by M. Baker; United States Post Office, "Map of Alaska'' (1901); United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Bulletins and maps; Bulletin American Geographieal Society, February 1902, F. S. Schrader, "Work of the United States Geological Survey in Alaska''; Journal of Franklin Institute, October and November 1904, W. R. Abercrombie—-"The Copper River Country of Alaska''; I. C. Russell, Glaciers of North America. . . . Ivan Petroff, Report

Industries.—United States Census, 1880, Ivan Petroff, Report on the Population, Industries and Resources of Alaska; United States Census, 1890 and 1900; on reindeer, Fifteenth Annuat Report on Introduction of Domestic Reindeer into Alaska, by Sheldon Jackson (Washington, 1906); on agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture, Experiment Stations, Bulletin Nos. 48, 62, 82 . . . (1898-1900); Seal and Salmon Fisheries and General Industries of Alaska, 1868-1805 (Washington, 1898) (United States Treasury, also 55 Congress, 1 Session, House Document 92, vols. vi.-x.), 4 vols.; D. S. Jordan et al., The Fur Seals and Fur Seal Islanids (or Peport of ln.: also many special reports on the seals published by the voln.: also many special reports on the seals published by the United States Treasury: for Report of British seal experts, Creat Britain, Foreign Office Correspondence, United States, No. 3 (1897), No. 1 (1898).

History and Government.—H. H. Bancroft, Alaska, 1730-1885 (San Francisco, 1886); W. H. Dall, "Alaska as it was and is, 1863-1893,'' in Bulletin of the Philadelphia Society of Washington, xiii.; Governor of Alaska, Annual Report to the Secretary of the Interior; Fur Seal Arbitration, Proceedings (Washington, 1895, 46 vols.l: also Great Britain, Foreign Office Correspondence, United States, Nos. 6, 7, 8 (1893), No. 1 (1895); Alaskan Boundary Tribunal, Cases, Counter-cases, Arguments, Atlases of United States and Great Britain (Washington, 1903 seq.); and a rich periodical literature.

Population, Natives.—United States National Museum, Ann. Report (1896); W. Hough, "Lamp of the Eskimo'' (long, and of general interest): F. Knapp and R. L. Childe, The Thlinkets of South-Eastern Alaska (Chicago, 1896).

1 At Kodiak, the monthly means range from 28 deg. to 33 deg. with a total range from -10 deg. to 82 deg. F., as against -5 deg. to 87 deg. F. at Sitka; the average temperature is 40.6 deg. F., rainfall 59 in.

2 At St Michael the mean annual temperature is about 26 deg. , the monthly means run from about -2 deg. to 54 deg. , and the extreme recorded temperatures from about -55 deg. to 77 deg. F.; at Port Clarence the annual mean is 22 deg. lmonthly means -7 deg. to 51 deg. F.; extreme range of temperature, -38 deg. to 77 deg. F.; at Point Barrow the annual mean is 7.70 F'., monthly means -18.6 deg. to 38.1 deg. F., extreme range of temperature -55 deg. to 65 deg. F.

3 The mean annual temperature on the Yukon at the international line is about 21 deg. F., the monthly means run from -17 deg. to 60 deg. F., the range of extreme temperatures from -80 deg. to 90 deg. F.

4 At Fort Yukon five years' records showed mean seasonal temperatures of 14 deg. , 60 deg. , 17 deg. , and -23.8 deg. F. for spring, summer, autumn and winter respectively: at Holy Cross Mission 20 deg. , 59 deg. , 36 deg. and 0.95 deg. , at Nulato 29 deg. , 60 deg. , 36 deg. and -14 deg. . '

5 The Harriman expedition collected in two months 1000 species of insects, of which 344 species (and 6 genera) were new to science.

6 The trees here grow as large as 10 in. in diameter and 40 or 50 ft. high; the branches do nor spread, even where there is room, so ihat the tallest tree has a top only four or five feet broad; the roots, which cannot penetrate the shaded and frozen soil, spread over the ice or shallowly into the tundra carpeting, and often only by their matted neiwork prevent the fall of the trees.

7 280 species of mosses proper, of which 46 were new to science, and 16 varieties of peat moss (Sphognum) were listed by the Harriman expedition; and 74 species or varieties of ferns.

8 The value of the total aroduct of Alaska's fish canneries was in 1905 $7,735,782, or 29.3% of the total for the United States; in 1900 it was 17.4% of the country's total.

9 Seattle, Sitka and Valdez are connected by cable; telegraoh lines run from the Panhandle inland to the Yukon and down its valley to Fort St Michael.

ALASSIO, a town of Liguria, Italy, on the N.W. coast of the Gulf of Genoa, in the province of Genoa, 57 m. S.W. of the town of the same name by rail. Pop. (1901) 5630. It is mainly noticeable as a health resort in winter and a bathing-place in summer, and has many hotels. The anchorage is safe, and the bay full of fish; the harbour has a certain amount of trade. The old town contains one or two interesting churches, and commands a fine view.

ALASTOR, in Greek mythology, the spirit of revenge, which prompts the members of a family to commit fresh crimes to obtain satisfaction. These crimes necessitate further acts of vengeance, and the curse is thus transmitted from generation to generation. The word is also used for a man's evil genius, which drives him to sin without any provocation; a man so driven is sometimes called Alastor. The epithet is applied to Zeus and the Erinyes as the deities of revenge and punishment.

ALA-TAU ("Variegated Mountains''), the name of six mountain ranges in Asiatic Russia. Three of these are in the government of Semiryechensk in Central Asia, all belonging to the Tianshan system:—-(1) the Terskei Ala-tau, south of and parallel to the lake of Issyk-kul; (2) the Kunghei Ala-tau, and (3) the Trans-Ili Ala-tau, both N. of and parallel to the same lake; and (4) the Dzungarian Ala-tau, lying N. of the Ili depression. The first three link together the Tian-shan and the Alexander Range. Their mean elevation is 6000—7000 ft.; their culminating point, Talgar, on a transverse ridge between (2) and (3), reaches 15,000 ft.; the limits of perpetual snow run at 11,000-11,700 ft. The Dzungarian Ala-tau reach a maximum altitude of 11,000 ft. and have a mean altitude of 6250 ft. From the middle of the Alexander Range another range (5) called Ala-tau, or Talastau, strikes west by south. The name Ala-tau also enters into the designation of (6), a range between the upper Yenisei and the upper Ob, in the government of Tomsk, namely, the Kuznetsk Ala-tau, forming an outlier of the Altai Mountains, and reaching 6000-7000 ft. in altitude.

ALAUNA, ALAUNUS, the Celtic names of two rivers, &c., in Roman Britain. Hence the modern Allan Water, river Alyn, &c.

ALAVA, DON MIGUEL RICARDO DE (1770-1841), Spanish general and statesman, was born at Vittoria in 1770. He served first in the navy, and had risen to be captain of a frigate when he exchanged intorthe army, receiving corresponding rank. He was present as a marine at the battle of Trafalgar on board the flagship of his uncle Admiral Alava. In politics he followed a very devious course. At the assembly of Bayonne in 1808 he was one of the most prominent of those who accepted the new constitution from Joseph Bonaparte as king of Spain. After the national rising against French aggression, and the defeat of General Dupont at Bailen in 1808, Alava joined the national independent party, who were fighting in alliance with the English. The Spanish Cortes appointed him commissary at the English headquarters, and the duke of Wellington, who regarded him with great favour, made him one of his aides-decamp. Before the close of the campaign he had risen to the rank of brigadier-general. On the restoration of Ferdinand, Alava was cast into prison, but the influence of his uncle Ethenard, the inquisitor, and of Wellington secured his speedy release. He soon contrived to gain the favour of the king, who appointed him in 1815 ambassador to the Hague. It was therefore his remarkable forrune to be present at the battle of Waterloo with Wellington's staff. He is supposed to have been the only man who was present at both Waterloo and Trafalgar. Four years later he was recalled owing, it is said, to the marked kindness he had shown to his banished fellow-countrymen. On the breaking out of the revolution of 1820 he was chosen by the province of Alava to represent it in the Cortes, where he became conspicuous in the party of the Exallados, and in 1822 was made president. In the latter year he fought with the militia under Francisco Ballesteros and Pablo Murillo to maintain the authority of the Cortes against the rebels. When the French invested Cadiz, Alava was commissioned by the Cortes to treat with the duc d'Angouleme, and the negotiations resulted in the restoration of Ferdinand, who pledged himself to a liberal policy. No sooner had he regained power, however, than he ceased to hold himself bound by his promises, and Alava found it necessary to retire first to Gibraltar and then to England. On the death of Ferdinand he returned to Spain, and espousing the cause of Maria Christina against Don Carlos was appointed ambassador to London in 1834 and to Paris in 1835. After the insurrection of La Granja he refused to sign the constitution of 1812, declaring himself tired of taking new oaths, and was consequently obliged to retire to France, where he died at Bareges in 1843.

Frequent and honourable mention of Alava is made in Napier's History of the Peninsular War, and his name is often met borh in lives of the duke of Wellington and in his correspondence.

ALAVA, one of the Basque Provinces of northern Spain; bounded on the N. by Biscay and Guipuzcoa, E. by Navarre, S. by Logrono, and W. by Burgos. Pop. (1900) 96,385; area 1175 sq. m. The countship of Trevino (190 sq. m.) in the centre of Alava belongs to the province of Burgos. The surface of Alava is very mountainous, especially on the north, where a part of the Pyrenees forms its natural boundary. It is separated from Logrono by the river Ebro, and its other rivers are the Zadorra and the Ayuda. The climate is mild in summer, fitful in autumn and spring, and very cold in winter, as even the plains are high and shut in on three sides by mountains snow-clad during several months. The soil in the valleys is fertile, yielding wheat, barley, maize, flax, hemp and fruits. Oil and a poor kind of wine called chacoli are also produced. Many of the mountains are clothed with forests of oak, chestnuts, beeches and other trees, and contain iron, copper, lead and marble. Salt is also found in large quantities; but mining and quarrying are not practised on a large scale; only lead, lignite and asphalt being worked. There are mineral waters in many places. Other local industries of some importance include smelting, and manufactures of beds, furniture, railway carriages, matches, paper, sweets and woollen and cotton goods. Bread-stuffs. colonial products and machinery are largely imported. Few provinces in Spain are inhabited by so laborious, active and well-to-do a population. The primary schools are numerously attended, and there are very good normal schools for teachers of both sexes, and a model agricultural farm: The public roads and other works of the province are excellent, and, like those of the rest of the Basque provinces, entirely kept up by local initiative and taxes. Railways from Madrid to the French frontier, and from Saragossa to Bilbao, cross the province. The capital is Vitoria (pop. 1900, 30,701), which is the only town with more than 3500 inhabitants.

For a fuller account of the history, people and customs of Alava, see BASQUES and BASQUE PROVINCE, with the works there cited. A very elaborate bibliograohy is given in the Catalogo de las obras referentes a las provincias de Alava y Navarra, by A. A. Salazar (Madrid, 1887.) The following books by i. I. Landazuri y Romarate contain much material for a provincial history:—Historia ecclesiastica, &c. (Pamplona, 1797); Historia civil, &c. (Vitodes, 1798); Compendios historicos de la ciudad y villas de . . . Alava, &c. (Pamplona, 1798); Suplemento a' los cuatro libros de la historia de . . . Alava (Vitoria, 1799); and Los varones illustres Alavenses Vitoria, 1798). See also M. Risco in vol. 33 of Hispania Sagiada, by H. Florez, &c. (Madrid, 1754-1879).

ALB (Lat. alba, from albus, white), a liturgical vestment of the Catholic Church. It is a sack-like tunic of white linen, with narrow sleeves and a hole for the head to pass through, and when gathered up round the waist by the girdle (cingulum) just clears the ground. Albs were originally quite plain, but about the 10th century the custom arose of ornamenting the borders and the cuffs of the sleeves with strips of embroidery, and this became common in the 12th century. These at first encircled the whole border; but soon it became customary to substitute for them square patches of embroidery or precious fabrics. These "parures'' "apparels'' or "orphreys'' (Lat. parun'ae, grammala, aurifeisia, &c.), were usually four in number, one being sewn on the back and another on the front of the vestment just above the lower hem, and one on each cuff. When, as occasionally happened, a fifth was added, this was placed on the breast just below the neck opening. These "apparelled albs'' (albae paratae) continued in general use in the Western Church till the 16th century, when a tendency to dispense with the parures began, Rome itself setting the example.

The growth of the lace industry in the 17th century hastened the process by leading to the substitution of broad bands of lace as decoration; occasionally, as in a magnificent specimen preserved at South Kensington, nearly half the vestment is thus composed of lace. At the present time, so far as the Roman Catholic Church is concerned, apparelled albs are only in regular use at Milan (Ambrosian Rite), and, partially, in certain churches in Spain. The decree of the Congregation of Rites (May 18, 1819) says nothing about apparels, but only lays down that the alb must be of white linen or hemp cloth. There is no definite rule as to the material or character of the ornamentation, and attempts have been made, especially in England, to revive the use of the apparelled alb.

In the Roman Church the alb is now reckoned as one of the vestments proper to the sacrifice of the Mass. It is worn by bishops, priests, deacons and subdeacons under the other eucharistic vestments, either at Mass or at functions connected with it. It is sometimes also worn by clerics in minor orders, whose proper vestment is, however, the surplice—itself a modification of the alb (see SURPLICE.) The alb is supposed to be symbolical of purity, and the priest, when putting it on, prays: "Make me white and purify my heart, O Lord,'' &c. In the middle ages the parures, which originally had no mystic intention whatever, were taken to symbolize the wounds of Christ; whence probably is derived the custom surviving at the cathedral of Toledo, of the singers of the Passion on Good Friday being vested in apparelled albs.

In England at the Reformation the alb went out of use with the other "Mass vestments,'' and remained out of use in the Church of England until the ritual revival of the 19th century. It is now worn in a considerable number of churches not only by the clergy but by acolytes and servers at the Communion. Where the ritual, as in most cases, is a revival of pre-Reformation uses and not modelled on that of modern Rome, these albs are frequently apparelled. For the question of its legality see VESTMENTS.

Both the alb and its name are derived ultimately from the tunica alba, the white tunic, which formed part of the ordinary dress of Roman citizens under the Empire. As such it was worn both in and out of church, the few notices remaining which suggest a special tunic for ministers at the Eucharist merely implying that it was not fitting to use for so sacred a function a garment soiled by everyday wear. The date of its definite adoption as a liturgical vestment is uncertain; at Rome—- where until the 13th century it was known as the linea or camisia (cf. the modern Italian camice for alb)—-it seems to have been thus used as early as the 5th century. But as late as the 9th and 10th centuries the alba is still an everyday as well as a liturgical garment, and we find bishops and synods forbidding priests to sing mass in the alba worn by them in ordinary life (see Braun, p. 62). Throughout the middle ages, moreover, the word alba was somewhat loosely used. In the medieval inventories are sometimes found albae, described as red, blue or black; which has led to the belief that albs were sometimes not only made of stuffs other than linen, but were coloured. It is clear, however, from the descriptions of these vestments that in some cases they were actually tunicles, the confusion of terms arising from the similarity of shape (see DALMATIC); in other cases the colour applied to the parures, not to the albs as a whole. Silk albs appear in the inventories, but only very exceptionally.

The equivalent of the alb in the ancient Churches of the East is the sticharion (sticharion) of the Orthodox Church (Armenian shapik, Syrian Kutina, Coptic stoicharion or tuniah.) It is worn girdled by bishops and priests in all rites, by subdeacons in the Greek and Coptic rites. By deacons and lectors it is worn ungirdled in all the rites. The colour of the vestment is usually white for bishops and priests (this is the rule in the Coptic Church); for the other orders there is no rule, and all colours, except black, may be used. Its material may be linen, wool, cotton or silk; but silk only is the rule for deacons. In the Armenian and Coptic rites the vestment is often elaborately embroidered; in the other rites the only ornament is a cross high in the middle of the back, save in the case of bishops of the Orthodox Church, whose sticharia are ornamented with two vertical red stripes (potamoi, "rivers''). In the East as in the West the vestment is specially associated with the ritual of the Eucharist.

The whole subject is exhaustively treated by Father Joseph Braun in Die liturgische Gewandung (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1907). See also Bibliography to the article VESTMENTS.

ALBA, a town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, on the river Tanaro, in the province of Cuneo. From the town of the same name it is 33 m. N.E. direct; it is 42 m. S.S.E. of Turin by rail. Pop. (1901) 13,900. It contains a fine cathedral, with a Gothic facade, reconstructed in 1486, and is an important commercial centre. It occupies the site of the ancient Alba Pompeia, probably founded by Pompeius Strabo (consul 89 B.C.) when he constructed the road from Aquae Statiellae (Acqui) to Augusta Taurinorum (Turin). Probably this was the road taken by Decimus Brutus when he succeeded, after the raising of the siege of AIutina in 43 B.C., in occupying Pollentia just before Mark Antony's cavalry came in sight. Alba was the birthplace of the emperor Pertinax. It became an episcopal see dependent on Milan in the 4th century. A small museum of local antiquities was established in 1897.

See F. Eusebio in Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche (Rome, 1904), vol. v. p. 485.

ALBACETE, an inland province of south-eastern Spain, formed in 1833 out of the northern half of Murcia, and bounded on the N. by Cuenca, E. by Valencia and Alicante, S. by Murcia, and W. by Granada and Jaen. Pop. (1900) 237,877; area 5737 sq. m. The northern part of Albacete belongs to the high plains of New Castile, the southern is generally mountainous, traversed by low ranges or isolated groups of hills, which culminate in the Sierra de Alcaraz on the borders of Granada, where several summits reach 5000 ft. Besides many smaller streams, two large rivers water the province, the Segura in the south-west, and the Jficar in the north-east; both rising beyond the borders of Albacete, and ultimately flowing into the Mediterranean. The fertile glens of the Alcaraz district are richly wooded, and often, from their multitude of fruit trees, resemble the huertas or gardens of Alicante; but broad tracts of land are destitute of trees, and suitable only for pasture. These barren regions are thinly peopled; and for the whole of Albacete the density of population (41.3 per sq. m. in 1900) is lower than in any other Spanish province, except Soria.

The climate is generally mild and healthy, although, among the higher mountains, the snow lies for several months. Wheat and other cereals are cultivated, with fruits of many kinds, olives, and vines which yield a wine of fair quality; while saffron is largely produced, and some attention is given to thekeeping of bees and silkworms. Stock-farming, for which the wide plains afford excellent opportunities, employs many of the peasantry; the bulls of Albacete are in demand for bullfighting, and the horses for mounting the Spanish cavalry. There is also a good breed of mules. Sulphurous and other mineral springs, both hot and cold, exist in several districts, and deposits of silver, iron, copper, sulphur, coal and other minerals have been discovered; but the exploitation of these is retarded by lack of communications, and, apart from building materials, sulphur and salt, the actual output is insignificant. Manufactures are almost confined to the spinning of hemp, and the making of coarse cloth, porcelain, earthenware and cutlery. Brandy distilleries are numerous, and there is some trade in wood; but no local industry can rival agriculture and stock-breeding, which furnish the bulk of the exports. Albacete (pop. 1900, 21,512), the capital, and the other important towns of Almansa (11,180) and Hellin (12,558), are described under separate headings. Alcaraz, which gives its name to the mountain range already mentioned, is a picturesque old town with the ruins of a Moorish castle, and a fine Roman aqueduct; pop. (1900) 4501. Caudete (5913), Chinchilla, or Chinchilla de Monte-Aragon (6680), La Roda (7066), Tobarra (7787), Villarrobledo (10,125) and Yeste (6591) are important markets for the sale of agricultural produce. The railway from Madrid to Albacete passes south-westward to Chinchilla, where it bifurcates, one line going to Murcia, and the other to Alicante. A large part of the province is only accessible by road, and even the main highways maintained by the state are ill kept. Education is very backward even in the towns; many of the inhabitants carry arms; and crimes of violence are not infrequent.

ALBACETE, the capital of the above province, on the MadridAlicante railway, and at the confluence of the river Balazote with the canal of Maria Christina, which flows into the river Jficar, 16 m. N. Pop. (1900) 21,512. Albacete comprises the picturesque old upper town and the new or lower town, with iawCourts, schools, barracks, hospitals, a councihhall, a bull-ring and other modern buildings, mostly erected after the city became a provincial capital in 1833. It is surrounded by a fertile plain, and has considerable trade in saffron and agricultural produce. A great market, chiefly for the sale of cattle, is held annually in September, and extends over several days. The manufacture of matches is aided by the existence of sulphur workings in the vicinity; and Albacete formerly had an extensive trade in cutlery, from which it was named the Sheffield of Spain. Despite the importation of cutlery from England and Germany, Albacete is still famous for its daggers, which arc held in high repute by Spaniards. They are formidable weapons, of coarse manufacture, but with richly ornamented handles; and they frequently bear proverbial inscriptions suitable to their murderous appearance.

ALBA FUCENS (mod. Albe), an ancient Italian town occupying a lofty situation (3347 ft.) at the foot of the Monte Velino, 4 m. N. Of Avezzano. It was originally a town of the Aequi, though on the frontier of the Marsi, but was occupied by a

loied by a



Roman colony (304 B.C.I owing to its strategic importance. It lay on a hill just to the north of the Via Valeria, which was probably prolonged beyond Tibur at this very period. In the Second Punic war Alba at first remained faithful, but afterwards refused to send contingents and was punished. After this it became a regular place of detention for important state prisoners, such as Syphax of Numidia, Perseus of Macedonia, Bituitus, king of the Arverni. It was attacked by the allies in the Social War, but remained faithful to Rome; and its strong position rendered it a place of some importance in the civil wars. Its prosperity, in the imperial period, can only be inferred from the number of inscriptions found there. It is chiefly remarkable for its finely preserved fortifications. The external walls, which have a circuit of about 2 m., are constructed of polygonal masonry; the blocks are carefully jointed, and the faces smoothed. With our present knowledge of such constructions, their date cannot certainly be determined. They are not preserved to any very considerable height; but the arrangement of the gates is clearly traceable; as a rule they come at the end of a long, straight stretch of wall, and are placed so as to leave the right side of any attacking force exposed. On the north there is, for a length of about 150 yds. a triple line of defences of later date (possibly added by the Roman colonists), inasmuch as both the city wall proper and the double wall thrown out in front of it are partly constructed of concrete, and faced with finer polygonal masonry (in which horizontal joints seem to be purposely avoided). A mile to the north of the city a huge mound with a ditch on each side of it (but at a considerable distance from it) may be traced for a couple of miles. Within the walls there are hardly any buildings of a later date. Excavations have only been made casually, though remains of buildings and of roads can be traced, and also an extensive system of underground passages perhaps connected with the defences of the place. The hill at the western extremity was occupied by a temple of the Tuscan order, into which was built the church of S. Pietro; this contains ancient columns, and some remarkably fine specimens of Cosmatesque work. It is the only monastic church in the Abruzzi in which the nave is separated from the aisles by ancient columns. The collegiate church of S. Nicola in the village contains a remarkable staurotheca of the 11th (?) century, and a wooden triptych in imitation of the Byzantine style with enamels of the 13th century.

A very good description of the site, with plans, is given by C. Promis, L'Antichita di Alba Fucense (Rome, 1836). (T. As.)

ALBA LONGA, an ancient city of Latium, situated on the western edge of the Albanus Lacus, about 12 m. S.E. of Rome. It was, according to tradition, founded by Ascanius, and was the oldest of all Latin cities—-the mother indeed of Rome, by which, however, it was destroyed, it is said under Tullus Hostilius. By this act Rome succeeded to the hegemony of the Latin league. It has by many topographers been placed between the Albanus Mons and the Albanus Lacus, according to the indication given by. Dionysius (i. 66), at the monastery of Palazzolo; but the position is quite unsuitable for an ancient city, and does not at all answer to Livy's description, ab situ porrectae in dorso urbis Alba longa appellata; and it is much more probable that its site is to be sought on the western side of the lake, where the modern Castel Gandolfo stands, immediately to the north of which the most important part of the archaic necropolis was situated. Confirmation of this may be found in Cicero's description (Pro Milone, 85) of the destruction of the shrines and sacred groves of Alba by the construction of Clodius's villa, in the local application of the adjective Albanus, and in the position of Castel Gandolfo itself, which exactly suits Livy's description. No traces of the ancient city, except of its necropolis, the tombs of which are overlaid with a stratum of peperino 3 ft. thick, are preserved. The view that the modern Albano occupies the site of Alba Longa was commonly held in the 15th and 16th centuries, but was disproved by P. Cluver (1624). But it is certain that no city took the place of Alba Longa until comparatively late times. The name Albanum, from about 150 B.C. till the time of Constantine, meant a villa in the Alban territory. The emperors formed a sinrle estate out of a considerable part of this district, including apparently the whole of the lake, and Domitian was especially fond of residing here. The imperial villa occupied the site of the present Villa Barberini at Castel Gandolfo, and considerable remains of it still exist. To the south was a camp for the imperial bodyguard, with baths, an amphitheatre, a large water reservoir, &c. The first legion known to have been quartered there is the II. Parlhica, founded by Septimius Severus; but it was probably constructed earlier. In some of the tombs of these legionaries coins of Maxentius have been found, while the Liber Pontifealis records that Constantine gave to the church of Albano "omnia scheneca deserta vel domos intra urbem Albanensem,', which has generally been taken to refer to the abandoned camp. It was at this period, then, that the civitas Albanensis arose. The lapis Albanus is a green grey volcanic stone with black and white grains in it (hence the modern name. Deperino). much used for building material.

See T. Ashby in Journal ofphilology, xxvii., 1901, 37. (T. As.) ALBAN, SAINT, usually styled the protomartyr of Britain, is said to have been born at Verulamium (the modern St Albans in Hertfordshire) towards the close of the 3rd century, and to have served for seven years in Rome in the army of the emperor Diocletian. On his return to Britain he settled at his native place and was put to death as a Christian during the persecution of Diocletian (c. 286—303). According to tradition, when peace was restored, great honours were paid to his tomb. A church was built on the spot, c. 793, by King Offa of Mercia. A monastery was subsequently added, and around it the present town of St Albans gradually grew up. Pope Adrian IV., who was born in the neighbourhood, conferred on the abbot of St Alban's the right of precedence over his fellow abbots, a right hitherto attached to the abbey of Glastonbury. St Alban is commemorated in the Roman martyrology on the 22nd of June; but it is impossible to determine with certainty whether he ever existed, as no mention of him occurs till the middle of the 6th century.

See U. Chevalier, Repertoire des sources historiques (1905), i. 95; D. Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue (1862), I. i. 3-34, ii. 688.

ALBANI, or ALBANO, FRANCESCO (1578-1660), Italian painter, was born at Bologna. His father was a silk merchant, and intended to bring up his son to the same occupation; but Albani was already, at the age of twelve, filled with so strong an inclination for painting, that on the death of his father he devoted himself entirely to art. His first master was Denis Calvert, with whom Guido Reni was at the same time a pupil. He was soon left by Calvert entirely to the care of Guido, and contracted with him a close friendship. He followed Guido to the school of the Caracci; but after this, owing to mutual rivalry, their friendship began gradually to cool. They kept up for a long time a keen competition, and their mutual emulation called forth some of their best productions. Notwithstanding this rivalry, they still spoke of each other with the highest esteem. Albani after having greatly improved himself in the school of the Caracci, went to Rome, where he opened an academy and resided for many years. Here he painted, after the designs of Annibal Caracci, the whole of the frescoes in the chapel of San Diego in the church of San Giacomo degli Spagnuoli. His best frescoes are those on mythological subjects, of which there is a large number in the Verospi, now Torlonia Palace. On the death of his wife he returned to Bologna, where he married a second time and resided till his death. His wife and children were very beautiful and served him for models. The learning displayed in the composition of his pictures, and their minute elaboration and exquisite finish, gave them great celebrity and entitle them to a distinctive place among the products of the Bolognese school. A number of his works are at Bologna, and others at Florence, the Louvre, Dresden and St Petersburg. Among the best of his sacred subjects are a "St Sebastian'' and an "Assumption of the Virgin,'' both in the church of St Sebastian at Rome. He was among the first of the Italian painters to devote himself to the painting of cabinet pictures. A rare etching, the "Death of Uido,'' is attributed to him.

ALBANI, the stage name of MARIE, LOUISE EMMA CECILE LAJEUNESSE (1847- ), Canadian singer, who was born at Chambly, in the province of Quebec, on the 27th of September 1847. She made her first public appearance in Montreal, at the age of seven, and afterwards studied in the United States, Paris and Italy. In 1870 she made her first appearanceatmessina, and after two successful seasons appeared in London in 1872 with the Royal Italian Opera. Later she abandoned opera for oratorio. and sang at all the principal festivals. She has made several tours of Canada and of the United States, and in 1886 sang at the opening of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London the ode written by Tennyson for the occasion. She frequently sang before Queen Victoria, the German emperor and others of the crowned heads of Europe, and received numerous marks of their esteem. In 1897 she was awarded the gold Beethoven medal by the London Philharmonic Society, "as a mark of appreciation of her exceptional genius and musical attainments, and of her generous and artistic nature.'' She marriedin 1878 Ernest Gye, the theatrical manager. Her stage name of Madame Albani was taken from that of an extinct Italian family.

See Morgan, Canadian Men and Women of the Time (1898).

ALBANIA, the ancient name of a district in the eastern Caucasus, consisting, according to Strabo (xi. 4. 1-8), of the valley of the Cyrus (Kur) and the land lying between it and the Caucasus range from Iberia to the Caspian Sea, i. e. the modern Shirvan. In reality the Albani inhabited also the mountain valleys and the land to the north towards Sarmatia, the modern Daghestan (Pliny vi. 39). Dionysius of JIalicarnassus quotes a tradition that the name arose from the alleged fact that the people were the descendants of emigrants from Alba in Italy, but it would seem that the race was of Lesghian (not Georgian) descent. Strabo describes them as tall, well made, and in character simple and honest; he says that payment was in kind and that the people could not count beyond a hundred. They worshipped the sun, and more particularly the moon, the latter being perhaps identical with the great Nature Goddess of Asia Minor(see GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS), and believed in soothsaying and the virtue of human sacrifice. Old age was held in high honour, but it was sacrilege to speak, or even to think, of the dead. The race was nomadic, and lived on the abundant natural fruits of the land. In Strabo's time they appear to have been ruled by a single king, though previously there were twenty-six, each one ruling over a community distinct only in point of language. The Albani became known to the Romans during Pompey's pursuit of Mithradates the Great (65 B.C.), against which they are said to have opposed a force of 60,000 foot and 20,000 cavalry. Pompey exacted from them a nominal submission, but their independence was not seriously affected by the Romans. In the reign of Hadrian their territory was invaded by the Alani (Th. Mommsen, Provinces ofthe Roman Empire, Eng. trans., 1886), and later they fell under the Sassanid rule. They were driven finally into Armenia by the Khazars, and ceased to exist as a separate people. The district subsequently suffered under the successive invasions of Huns, Varangians (who captured the chief town Barda in the 10th century) and Mongols. (See CAUCASIA, History; ARMENIA.)

ALBANIA, a portion of the Turkish empire extending along the western littoral of the Balkan Peninsula from the southern frontier of Montenegro to the northern confines of Greece. Albania is perhaps the least-known region in Europe; and though more than a hundred years have passed since Gibbon described it as "a country within sight of Italy, which is less known than the interior of America,'' but little progress has yet been made towards a scientific knowledge of this interesting land and its inhabitants. The wild and inaccessible character of the country, the fierce and lawless disposition of the people, the difficulties presented by their language and their complex social institutions, and the inability of the Turkish authorities to afford a safe conduct in the remoter districts, combine to render Albania almost unknown to the foreign traveller, and many of its geographical problems still remain unsolved. A portion of the Mirdite region, the Mat district, the neighbourhood of Dibra, Jakova and Ipek and other localities have never been thoroughly explored. The northern boundary of Albania underwent some alteration in consequence of the enlargement of Montenegro, sanctioned by the Berlin Treaty (July 13, 1878); owing to subsequent arrangements providing for the cession of Dulcigno to Montenegro (November 25, 1880) in exchange for the districts of Plava and Gusinye, restored to Turkey, the frontier-line (finally settled December 1884) now ascends the Boyana from its mouth to Lake Sass (Shas), thence passes northward. and crossing Lake Scutari separates the district of Kutch Kraina on the N. from the territories of the Gruda, Hot and Klement tribes on the S.; leaving Gusinye and Plava to the S.E., it turns to the N.W. on reaching the Mokra Planina, and then follows the course of the Tara river. On the S., Albanian territory was curtailed owing to the acquisition of the Arta district by Greece (May 1881), the river Arta now forming the frontier. On the E. the chains of Shar, Grammos and Pindus constitute a kind of natural boundary, which does not, however, coincide with ethnical limits nor with the Turkish administrative divisions. North-eastern Albania forms part of the Turkish vilayet of Kossovo; the northern highlands are included in the vilayet of Shkodra (Scutari), the eastern portion of central Albania belongs to the vilayet of Monastir, and the southern districts are comprised in the vilayet of Iannina. The boundaries of the three last-named vilayets meet near Elbassan. The name Albania (in the Tosk dialect Arberia, in the Gheg Arbenia), like Albania in the Caucasus, Armenia, Albany in Britain, and Auvergne (Arveniaj in France, is probably connected with the root alb, alp, and signifies "the white or snowy uplands.''

Physical Features.—The mountain system is extremely complex, especially that of the northern region. On the E. the great Shar range, extending in a south-westerly direction from the neighbourhood of Prishtina to thatof Dibra, is continued towards the S. by the ranges of Grammos and Pindus; the entire chain, a prolongation of the Alpine systems of Bosnia and Dalmatia, may be described as the backbone of the peninsula; it forms the watershed between the Aegean and the Adriatic, and culminates in the lofty peak of Liubotrn, near Kalkandele, one of the highest summits in south-eastern Europe (8858 ft.). The country to the west of this natural barrier may be divided geographically into three districts—-northern, central and southern Albania. The river Shkumb separates the northern from the central district, the Viossa the central from the southern. The highland region of northern Albania is divided into two portions by the lower course of the Drin; the mountains of the northern portion, the Bieska Malziis, extend in a confused and broken series of ridges from Scutari to the valleys of the Ibar and White Drin; they comprise the rocky group of the Prokletia, or Accursed Mountains, with their numerous ramifications, including Mount Velechik, inhabited by the Kastiat and Shkrel tribes, Bukovik by the Hot, Golesh by the Klement, Skulsen (7533 ft.), Baba Vrkh (about 7306 ft.), Maranay near Scutari, and the Bastrik range to the east. South of the Drin is another complex mountain system, including the highlands inhabited by the Mirdites and the Mat tribe; among the principal summits are Deja Mazzukht, Mal-i Vels, Kraba, Toli and Mnela. Central Albania differs from the northern and southern regions in the more undulating and less rugged character of its surface; it contains considerable lowland tracts, such as the wide and fertile plain of Musseki, traversed by the river Simen. The principal summit is Tomor (7916 ft.), overhanging the town of Berat. Southern Albania, again, is almost wholly mountainous, with the exception of the plains of Iannina andarta; the most noteworthy feature is the rugged range of the Tchika, or Khimara mountains, which skirt the sea-coast from south-west to north-east, terminating in the lofty promontory of Glossa (ancient Acroceraunia.) Farther inland the Mishkeli range to the north-east of Lake Iannina and the Nemertzika mountains run in a parallel direction. In the extreme south, beyond the basin of the Kalamas, the mountains of Sull and Olyzika form a separate group. The rivers, as a rule, flow from east to west; owing to the rapidity of their descent none are navigable except the Boyana and Arta in their lower courses. The principal rivers are the Boyana, issuing from Lake Scutari, and consequently regarded as a continuation of the Montenegrin Moratcha, the Drin, formed by the confluence of the White and Black Drin, which, flowing respectively to the south and north through a long valley at the foot of the Shar range, take a westerly direction after their junction, the AIatia, the Arzen, the Shkumb (ancient G:e:iusos), the Simen (Apsos), formed by the junction of the Devol and Ergene, the Viossa (Aous), which owing to the trend of the Khimara range takes a north-westerly direction, the Ralamas (Thyamis) and the Arta (Arachthos), flowing south into the Ambraciah Gulf. A portion of the stream of the Drin has found its way into the Boyana channel; the result has been a rise in the level of Lake Scutari and the inundation of the adjacent lowlands. A proposal to confine the Drin to its former course by means of a dyke, and to ease the downflow of the Boyana by a canal opening navigation to Lake Scutari, has long been considered by the Turliish authorities. The great lakes of Scutari (135 sq. m.) and Ochrida (107 sq. m.) are among the most beautiful in Europe; the waters of Ochrida, which find an outlet in the Black Drin, are of marvellous clearness. Lake KIahk, south by east of Ochrida, is drained by the Devol. The waters of the picturesque Lake Iannina (24 sq. m.) find an issue by katabothra, or underground channels, into the Ambracian Gulf. The lake of Butrinto (Buthrotum) is near the sea-coast opposite Corfu.

Climate.—-The climate is healthy in the uplands, though subject to violent changes; in the valleys fever is very prevalent, especially in the basins of the Boyana, the lower Drin and the Simen. The winter is short, but exceedingly cold; snow remains on the Prokletia and other mountains till August, and sometimes throughout the year. The summer temperature in the plains is that of southern Italy; in the mountain districts it is high during the day, but falls almost to freezing-point at night. The sea-coast is exposed to the fierce bora, or north wind, during the spring.

Natural Products.—The mountains of Albania are said to be rich in minerals, but this source of wealth remains practically unexplored. Iron and coal are probably abundant, and silver-lead, copper and antimony are believed to exist. Cold mines were worked in antiquity in the Drin valley, and silver mines in the Mirdite region were known to the Venetians in the middle ages. At Selinitza, near Avlona, there is a remarkable deposit of mineral pitch which was extensively worked in Roman times; mining operations are still carried on here, but in a somewhat primitive fashion. The splendid forests, of which there are 70,000 acres in the vilayet of Scutari alone, are undergoing a rapid process of destruction, as in other lands under Turkish rule. The principal trees are the oak, the valonia oak, the beech. ash, elm, plane, celtis, poplar and walnut, which give way in the higher regions to the pine and fir. The oak forests near Dibra, where charcoalmaking is a considerable industry, and the beech-woods of the Prishtina district, are especially remarkable. The sumach is largely grown in the Mirdite district; its leaves are exported to Trieste for use in tanneries and dyeworks. In 1898 the export of valonia was estimated at L. 11,200, of sumach at L. 2400. Of fruit-trees the white mulberry, cherry and wild pear are plentiful; the chestnut and walnut are sometimes met with, and the olive is grown in the lowland and maritime districts. The exportation of olive oil in 1808 was valued at L. 24,000. The greater part of the country is admirably suited to viticulture, and wine of tolerable quality is produced. Tobacco is grown extensively in southern Albania, especially near Berat and in the upper valley of the Viossa, but the quantity exported is small. The means of subsistence are mainly provided by the cultivation of grain and cattle-rearing. Notwithstanding the primitive condition of agriculture, the deficiency of communications and the damage caused by frequent inundations, Albania furnishes almost the entire corn supplu of the Dalmatian coast and islands. Maize is the favourite grain for home consumption, but considerable quantities of this cereal, as well as barley, rye and oats are exported. The total export of cereals in 1808 was valued at L. 70,800. Sheep and goats form almost the only wealth of the mountaineers of northern Albania; large cattle are found only on the plains. The slopes of Pindus afford excellent pasture for the flocks of the Vlach shepherds. The export of raw hides and wool is considerable; in 1898 these commodities were valued respectively at L. 90,400 and L. 24,000. The lakes and rivers of Albania abound in fish. The scoranze (Alb. seraga), a kind of sardine, is taken in great quantities in Lake Scutari; it is salted and smoked for home consumption and exportation. Sea-fishing is almost wholly neglected. There are salines at Avlona and other places on the coast.

Commerce anid Industries.—The exports in 1898 were estimated at L. 480,000, the imports at L. 1,360,000, the former comprising agricultural produce, live stock, hides, wool, cheese, eggs, poultry, olive oil, valonia, sumach leaves, timber, skins of wild animals, silk, tobacco and salted fish, the latter manufactured articles, cloth, hardware, furniture, firearms, gunpowder, sugar, coffee, &c. The monopoly of Albanian commerce formerly Dossessed by Venice has descended to Austria-Hungary; the trade with other countries, except Italy, is inconsiderable. Owing to the poverty of the people, cheap Austrian goods find a readier sale than the more expensive and solid British manufactures. The maritime traffic is largely conducted by the steamers of the subsidized Austrian-Lloyd company, Trieste being the principal commercial centre; the coasting trade is carried on by small Greek and Turkish sailing vessels. The trade of the northern and western districts has to some extent been diverted to Salonica since the opening of the railways from that town to Mitrovitza and Monastir. The development of commerce is retarded by lack of communications; the country Dossesses no railways and few roads. Several railway lines have been projected, but there is no great probability of their construction under existing political conditions. The Via Egnatia, the great Roman highway to the east, is still used; it runs from Durazzo (Dyrrhachium) to Elbassan and Ochrida. Iannina is connected by carriage-roads with Monastir, Agii Saranta and Preveza. As a rule, however, bridle-paths supply the only means of communication. The native industries are inconsiderable, and many of them are in a languishing condition. The manufacture of highly ornate firearms, yataghans and other weapons at Scutari, Jakova and Prizren has declined, owing to the importation of modern rifies and revolvers. Gold and silk embroidery, filigree work, morocco and richly-braided jackets are produced for home use and for sale in Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro.

Population——The population of Albania may be estimated at between 1,600,000 and 1,500,000, of whom 1,200,000 or 1,100,000 are Albanians. Of the other races the Slavs (Serbs and Bulgars) are the most numerous, possibly numbering 250,000. Servian settlements exist in various parts of northern Albania; there is a strong Bulgarian colony in the neighbourhood of Dibra and Ochrida; farther south, Mount Zygos and the Pindus range—the "Great Walachia'' of the middle ages—-are inhabited by Vlachs or Tzintzars, who possibly number 70,000. Some Turkish colonies are also found in the south-eastern districts. There is a considerable Greek-speaking population in Epiros (including many Mahommedan Albanians), which must, however, be distinguished from the genuine Greeks of Iannina, Preveza and the extreme south; these may be estimated at 100,000. The population of the vilayet of Scutari is given as 237,000, that of the vilayet of Iannina as 552,000. The principal towns are Scutari (Albanian Shkoder, with the definite article Shkodr-a), the capital of the vilayet of that name, pop. 32,000; Prizren, 30,000; Iannina (often incorrectly written Ioannina), capital of the southern vilayet, 22,000; Jakova, 12,000; Dibra, 15,000; Prishtina, 11,000; Ipek (Slav. Petch), 15,000; Berat, 15,000; Ochrida, 11,000; Tirana, 12,000; Argyrokastro, 11,000; Kortcha (Slav. Goritza), 10,000; Elbassan (perhaps ancient Albanopolis), 8000; Metzovo, 7500; Preveza, 6500; Avlona, 6000; Durazzo, 5000; Parga, 5000; Butrinto, 2000; and Kroia, the ancient fortress of Scanderbeg, 5000. All these, except Elbassan, Metzovo and Kroia, are described in separate articles.

The Albanians are apparently the most ancient race in southeastern Europe. History and legend afford no record of their arrival in the Balkan Peninsula. They are probably the descendants of the earliest Aryan immigrants, who were represented in historical times by the kindred Illyrians, Macedonians and Epirots; the Macedonians and Epirots are believed by Hahn to have formed the core of the pre-Hellenic Tyrrheno-Pelasgian population which inhabited the southern portion of the peninsula and extended its limits to Thrace and Italy. The Illyrians were also "Pelasgian,'' but in a wider sense. Of these cognate races, which are described by the Greek writers as barbarous or non-Hellenic, the Illyrians and Epirots, he thinks, were respectively the progenitors of the Ghegs, or northern, and the Tosks, or southern, Albanians. The Via Egnatia, which Strabo (vii. fragment 3) describes as forming the boundary between the Illyrians and Epirots, practically corresponds with the course of the Shkumb, which now separates the Ghegs and the Tosks. The same geographer (v. 2. 221) states that the Epirots were also called Pelasgians; the Pelasgian Zeus was worshipped at Dodona (Homer, Il. xvi. 234), and the neighbourhood of the sanctuary was called Pelasgia (Herodotus ii. 56). The meaning of the term "Pelasgian'' is, however, too obscure to furnish a basis for ethnographical speculation; in the time of Herodotus it may have already come to denote a period rather than a race. The name Tosk is possibly identical with Tuscus, Etruscus, while the form Tyrrhenus perhaps survives in Tirana. The large number of Slavonic local names in Albania, even in districts where no trace of a Slavonic population exists, bears witness to the extensive Servian and Bulgarian immigrations in the early middle ages, but the original inhabitants gradually ousted or assimilated the invaders. The determination with which this remarkable race has maintained its mountain stronghold through a long series of ages has hitherto met with scant appreciation in the outside world. While the heroism of the Montenegrins has been lauded by writers of all countries, the Albanians—-if we except Byron's eulogy of the Suloits—-still remain unsung. Not less noticeable is the tenacity with which isolated fragments of the nation have preserved their peculiar characteristics, language, customs and traditions. The Albanians in Greece and Italy, though separated for six centuries from the parent stock, have not yet been absorbed by the surrounding populations.

The Albanians, both Ghegs and Tosks, call themselves Shkupetar, and their land Shkupenia or Shkuperia, the former being the Gheg, the latter the Tosk form of the word. Shkupetar has been variously interpreted. According to Hahn it is a participial from shkyipoij, "I understand,'' signifying "he who knows'' the native language; others interpret it with less probability as "the rock-dweller,'' from shkep, shkip, N. Alb. shkamp, "rock.'' The designations Arber (Gr. 'Arbanites, Turk. Arnaoiit), denoting the people, and Arbenia or Arberia, the land, are also, though less frequently, used by the Albanians. A district near Kroia is locally known as Arbenia; the Tosk form Arberia strictly applies only to the mountain region near Avlona. The region inhabited by a more or less homogeneous Albanian population may be roughly marked out by a line drawn from the Montenegrin frontier at Berane to Mitrovitza and the Servian frontier near Vranya; thence to Uskub, Prilep, Monastir, Florina, Kastoria, Iannina and Parga. These limits, however, are far from including all the members of a widely scattered race. The Albanians in Greece, whose settlements extend over Attica, Boeotia, the district of Corinth and the Argolid peninsula, as well as southern Euboea and the islands of Hydra, Spetzae, Poros and Salamis, descend from Tosk immigrants in the 14th century. They played a brilliant part in the War of Independence (1821-1829), and to-day supply the Greek army with its best soldiers. They were estimated by Leake at 200,000. A large number still speak the Albanian langaage; many of the older men, and a considerable proportion of the women, even in the neighbourhood of Athens, are ignorant of Greek. The Albanian settlements in southern Italy and Sicily were founded in 1444, 1464 and 1468; minor immigrations followed in the three succeeding centuries. In southern Italy there are 72 Albanian communes, with 154,674 inhabitants; in Sicily 7 communes, with 52,141 inhabitants. The Italian and Sicilian Albanians are of Tosk descent, and many of them still speak a variation of the Tosk dialect. There are also several Albanian settlements in European Turkey and Asia Minor, some founded by military colonists who received grants of land from successive sultans, others owing their origin to enforced migrations after insurrections in Albania. The only genuine division of the Albanian race is that of Ghegs and Tosks; the Liaps, who inhabit the district between the Viossa and the sea, and the Tshams or Chams, who occupy the coast-land south of the Kalamas, are subdivisions of the Tosk family. The name Gheg (Gege-a) is not adopted by the Ghegs themselves, being regarded as a nickname; the designation Tosk (Toske-a) is restricted by the Tosks to the inhabitants of a small region north of the lower Viossa (Toskeria).

National Characteristics.—-While the other primitive populations of the peninsula were either hellenized or latinized, or subsequently absorbed by the Slavonic immigration, the Albanians to a great extent remained unaffected by foreign influences. Retaining their original language and preserving the customs and institutions of remote antiquity, they present a distinct type, and differ in many essential particulars from the other nations of the peninsula. The Ghegs especially, notwithstanding their fierce and lawless character, their superstition, ignorance and predatory propensities, possess some noteworthy qualities rarely found in eastern Europe: simple, brave, faithful, and sometimes capable of devoted attachment, these wild mountaineers make excellent soldiers and trustworthy retainers; they have long furnished a bodyguard to the sultan and, like the Tosks, are much employed as kavasses and attendants at foreign embassies and consulates in the East. The native disposition of the Tosks has been modified by intercourse with the Greeks and Vlachs; while the Gheg devotes his attention exclusively to fighting, robbery and pastoral pursuits, the Tosk occasionally occupies himself with commercial, industrial or agricultural employments; the Gheg is stern, morose and haughty, the Tosk lively, talkative and affable. The natural antipathy between the two sections of the race, though less evident than in former times, is far from extinct. In all parts of Albania the vendetta (gyak, jak) or blood-feud, the primitive lex talionis, is an established usage; the duty of revenge is a sacred tradition handed down to successive generations in the family, the village and the tribe. A single case of homicide often leads to a series of similar crimes or to protracted warfare between neighbouring families and communities; the murderer, as a rule, takes refuge in the mountains from the avenger of blood, or remains for years shut up in his house. It is estimated that in consequence of these feuds scarcely 75% of the population in certain mountainous districts die a natural death. A truce (bessa, literally "faith,'' "pledge''), either temporary or permanent, is sometimes arranged by mediation, or among the Ghegs, by the intervention of the clergy; a general bessa has occasionally been proclaimed by special irade of the sultan, the restoration of peace being celebrated with elaborate ceremonies. So stringent are the obligations of hospitality that a household is bound to exact reparation for any injury done to a guest as though he were a member of the family. No traveller can venture into the mountain districts without the bessa of one of the inhabitants; once this has been obtained he will be hospitably welcomed. In some districts there is a fixed price of blood; at Argyrokastro, for instance, the compensation paid by the homicide to the relatives of his victim is 1200 piastres (about L. 10), at Khimara 2000 piastres; once the debt has been acquitted amicable relations are restored. Notwithstanding their complete subjection, women are treated with a certain respect, and are often employed as intermediaries in the settlement of feuds; a woman may traverse a hostile district without fear of injury, and her bessa will protect the traveller or the stranger. Women accompany their male relatives to the battle-field for the purpose of tending the wounded and carrying away the dead. The bride brings no dowry to her husband; she is purchased at a stipulated price, and earnest-money is paid at the betrothal, which usually takes place while the contracting parties are still children. It is customary for young men who are attached to each other to swear eternal brotherhood (compare the Slavonic pobratimstvo); the contract is regarded as sacred, and no instance has been known of its violation. The costume of the Tosks differs from that of the Ghegs; its distinctive feature is the white plaited linen fustanella or petticoat, which has been adopted by the Greeks; the Ghegs wear trews of white or crimson native cloth adorned with black braid, and a short, close-fitting jacket, which in the case of wealthy persons is embellished with gold lace. The fez is worn by both races, and in the northern highlands yataghans and firearms are almost invariably carried. The costume of the Mirdite and Mat tribes is peculiar. It consists of a white felt cap, a long white tunic bound with a red girdle, white linen trousers and opinki, or sandals.

Tribal System.—-The tribal organization in northern Albania is an interesting survival of the earliest form of social combination; it may be compared in many respects with that which existed in the Scottish highlands in the time of the Stuart kings. The practical autonomy which the Gheg mountaineers enjoy has been won by a prolonged and successful resistance to Turkish domination; as a rule they pay no taxes, they are exempt from the conscription, they know nothing of the Ottoman law, and the few Turkish officials established amongst them possess no real authority. Their only obligation to the Turkish government is to furnish a contingent in time of war; the only law they recognize is either traditional custom (adet) or the unwritten Hanun-i Leks Dukajinit, a civil and criminal code, so called from its author, Leka Dukajini, who is supposed to have lived in the 13th or 14th century. The tribe or mal ("mountain'') is often composed of several clans (phis-i, pharea) or baryaks (literally "standards'') each under a chief or baryaktar (standard-bearer), who is, strictly speaking, a military leader; there are in each clan a certain number of elders or voivodes (Albanian kru-y'e, pl. krenic-te) who form a council and, like the baryaktar, hold their oflice by hereditary right; they preside over the assemblies of the tribesmen, which exercise the supreme legislative power. The clan is generally subdivided into smaller communities (mahale), each administered by a local notable or jobar. The jobars superintend the execution of the laws, collect fines and administer capital punishment; they are in contact with the buluk-bashi, or resident representative of the tribe at Scutari, who forms the only link between the mountaineers and the Turkish government. He communicates to the tribesmen the orders of the vali, which must be framed in accordance with their customs and institutions. The tribes of northern Albania, or Ghegeria, may be classified in seven groups as follows:——(1) The Mirdites, who inhabit the alpine region around Orosh to the south-east of Scutari—the most important of all in respect of numbers (about 17,000) and political independence. A Roman Catholic tribe, occupying an inaccessible district, they have hitherto defeated every effort of the Turks to encroach on their autonomy. Their hereditary chiefs, or capidans, belong to the family known as Dera e Jon Markut (the house of John Marco), which has ruled for 200 years and is supposed to be descended from Scanderbeg. In 1868 the reigning chief, Bib Doda, died, and his son and successor Prenk was detained as a hostage by the Turks. The Mirdites consequently refused to contribute their customary contingent to the Turkish army, and eventually Prenk was restored. His ambiguous conduct, however, led to the despatch of two expeditions against the Mirdites and the devastation of their territory. In 1880 Prenk was kidnapped by the Turkish authorities and exiled to Anatolia; another member of the ruling family was appointed kaimakam, but the Mirdites refused to obey him, and their district has ever since been in a state of anarchy. No Moslem is allowed to remain in Mirdite territory. (2) The Mi-shkodrak (Upper Scutari) group or confederation, also known as the Malsia-Madhe (Great Highlands), is composed of the Klement, Grud-a, Hot, Kastrat and Shkrel tribes, which occupy the mountainous district north-east of Scutari. OWing to the proximity of the capital this group is comparatively subject to the Turkish power, and pays a small annual tribute; the chiefs, who assess and collect the tribute, form a kind of administrative council; the confederation has also an official representative council at Scutari, called the Jibal, under the presidency of a Serkarde or Moslem official. (3) The Dukajin, whose territory lies between that of the last-named group and the district of Jakova, include the Pulati, Shalla, Shoshi and other tribes; they are more independent and more savage than the Mi-shkodrak, and have never paid tribute from time immemorial. (4) The Puka group, known as "the Seven Baryaks of Puka,'' dwell on the south side of the river Drin; theyare nominally administered by a Turkish kaimakam, who is a mere spectator of their proceedings. (5) The Malsia Jakovs, a group of two Catholic and three Moslem tribes, extend in the direction of Jakova, where they maintain an official representative; they are entirely exempt from taxation. (6,7) The Malsia-Lezhs, who occupy the Alessio highlands, and the Malsia Krues, who inhabit the region north of Krola, live in a state of extreme poverty and pay no tribute; the Malsia Krues are much addicted to brigandage. To these seven groups, which are included under the general appellation of Malissori, or "highlanders,'' may be added the Malsia of IAbra, who extend to the west and north of that town, and form a large separate group; they are notorious for their fierce lawless character, and maintain themselves by plundering the Bulgarian peasants in their neighbourhood. In general the attitude of the Albanians in the north-eastern districts towards the Slavonic peasantry may be compared with that of the Kurds towards the Armenians. In the region east of Kroia the Mat tribe, which occupies the upper valley of the Matra, presents an entirely different organization; their district is governed by four wealthy families, possessing hereditary rank and influence. Towards the south the tribal organization becomes looser and is gradually supplanted by a kind of feudal system; among the powerful aristocratic houses may be mentioned the Vliores at Avlona, who are stated to own over 150 sq. m. of land, and the Toptans at Tirana. The principal landowners, who reside in fortified houses, are all Moslems; their estates are cultivated on the metayer system. Since the time of Ali Pasha, who broke the power of the local chieftains, southern Albania has been subject to the central Turkish power; before that period the mountaineers of Suh and Khimara enjoyed an independence similar to that of the Gheg tribes.

Religions.—-The great majority of the Albanians, probably more than three-fifths, are Moslems. The conversion of the Christian population to Islam appears to have taken place during the 16th and 17th centuries. Like the Cretan Moslems and the Bulgarian Pomaks, the Albanian Mahommedans retain many Christian traditions and customs; it is said that many thousands of them secretly adhere to their original faith. In the vilayet of Scutari they form about 55% of the population; central Albania is almost entirely Moslem; in southern Albania, however, there is a considerable Christian population, whose limits practically coincide with those of the Greek-speaking districts. Of the Christian population (about 600,000), some 110,000 are Roman Catholic Ghegs, some 90,000 are Orthodox Tosks, and some 400,000 are Orthodox Slavs, Greeks and Vlachs. The Roman Catholic Ghegs appear to have abandoned the Eastern for the Western Church in the middle of the 13th century. Their bishops and priests, who Wear the moustache in deference to popular prejudice, are typical specimens of the church militant. Some of the Gheg tribes, such as the Puka, Malsia Jakovs and Malsia Krues, are partly Roman Catholic, partly Moslem; among fellowtribesmen the difference of religion counts for little. The Mirdites are exclusively Roman Catholic, the Mat-i exclusively Moslem. At the head of the Roman Catholic hierarchy are the archbishops of Scutari (with three suffragans), Prizren and Durazzo; the mitred abbot of St Alexander is the spiritual chief of the Mirdites. The Orthodox Church has metropolitans at Prizren, Durazzo, Berat, Iannina and Kortcha; the Bulgarian exarchate maintains a bishop at Dibra. Of the Albanians in Sicily the great majority (44791) remain faithful to the Greek Church; in Italy 116,482 follow the Latin ritual, and 38,192 the Greek. All the Albanians in Greece belong to the Orthodox Church.

Education.—-Education is almost non-existent, and the vast majority of the populati(m, both Christian and Moslem, are totally illiterate. Instruction in the Albanian language is prohibited by the Turkish government for political reasons; a singleexception has been made in the caseof an American school for girls at Kortcha. There are Turkish primary and secondary schools in some of the towns; in the village mosques instruction in the Koran is given by the imams, but neither reading nor writing is taught. The aristocratic Moslem families send their sons to be educated in Constantinople or Vienna. At Scutari a college and a seminary are maintained by the Jesuits, with the aid of the Austrian government; the Franciscans have several primary schools, and three lay schools are supported by the Italian government; in all these institutions Italian is the language of instruction. There are two Servian seminaries at Prizren. In southern Albania there are Greek schools in the towns and a large Greek gymnasium at Iannina. The priests of the Greek Church, on whom the rural population depend for instruction, are often deplorably ignorant. The merchant families of Iannina are Well educated; the dialect spoken in that town is the purest specimen of colloquial Greek.

Language.—-Albanian is peculiarly interesting as the only surviving representative of the so-called Thraco-Illyrian group of languages which formed the primitive speech of the peninsula. It has afforded an attractive study to philologists, amongst whom may be mentioned Malte-Brun, Leake, Xylander, Hahn, Miklosich and G. Meyer. The analysis of the language presents great difficulties, as, owing to the absence of literary monuments, no certainty can be arrived at With regard to its earlier forms and later development. The groundwork, so far as it can be ascertained, and the grammar are Indo-European, but a large number of words have been borrowed from the Latin or Italian and Greek, and it is not always easy to decide Whether the mutilated and curtailed forms now in use represent adopted words or belong to the original vocabulary. There is also a considerable admixture of Turkish and Slavonic words. Notwithstanding certain points of resemblance in structure and phonetics, Albanian is entirely distinct from the neighbouring languages; in its relation to early Latin and Greek it may bc regarded as a co-ordinate member of the Aryan stock. It possesses seven vowels; among the consonants are the aspirated d and t, as in Greek, and many other sounds, such as b, d, sh, zh (French.j), and hard g, which are wanting in Greek, but exist in the Slavonic languages. There are three declensions, each with a definite and indefinite form; the genitive, dative and ablative are usually represented by a single termination; the vocative is formed by a final o, as memmo from memme, "mother.'' The neuter gender is absent. There are two conjugations; the passive formation, now Wanting in most Indo-European languages, has been retained, as in Greek; thus kerko-iy, "I seek,'' forms kerko-n-em, "I am sought.'' The,infinitive is not found; as in Greek, Rumanian and Bulgarian, it is replaced by the subjunctive with a particle. The two auxiliary verbs are kam, "I have,'' and yam, "I am.'' An interesting and characteristic feature of the language is the definite article, which is attached to the end of the word: e.g. mik ("friend,'' amicus), mik-u ("the friend''); kien ("dog''), kien-i Shkumb, Shkumb-i. The suffix-article likewise appears in Rumanian and Bulgarian, but in no other Latin or Slavobic language; it is in each case a form of the demonstrative pronoun. Another remarkable analogy between the Albanian and the neighbouring languages is found in the formation of the future; the Albanian do (3rd pers. sing. of dova, "I will''), like the Greek tha, is prefixed without change to all persons of the verb: a similar usage in Servian and Bulgarian, as well as in Rumanian (especially the Macedonian dialect), is peculiar to these languages in the Slavonic and Latin groups. These and other points of similarity, possibly only accidental, have led to the conjecture that the primitive Illyrian language may have exerted some kind of influence on the other idioms of the peninsula. In the absence of literary culture the Albanian dialects, as might be expected, are widely divergent; the limits of the two principal dialects correspond with the racial boundaries of the Ghegs and Tosks, who understand each other with dilficulty; the Albanians in Greece and Italy have also separate dialects. In writing Albanian the Latin character is employed by the Ghegs, the Greek by the Tosks; neither alphabet sufiices to represent the manifold sounds of the language, and various supplementary letters or distinguishing signs are necessary. In the use of these no uniform system has yet been adopted. An alphabet of fifty-two letters, some presenting ancient Phoenician and Cretan forms, was found by Hahn in partial use at Elbassan and Tirana; its antiquity, however, has not been established. The Tosks generally use the Greek language for written communications. The native folklore and poetry of the Albanians can hardly compare with that of the neighbouring nations in originality and beauty. The earliest printed works in Albanian are those of the Catholic missionaries; the first book containing specimens of the language was the Dictionarium Latino-Epirolicum of Bianchi, printed in 1635. The literature of the last two centuries consists mainly of translations and religious works written by ecclesiastics, some of whom were natives of the Albanian colonies in Italy. The most noteworthy Albanian writer was Girolamo di Rada (b. 1815), a poet, philologist and collector of national folklore. Among his successors may be mentioned Vincenzo Dorsa and Demetrio Camarda.