Messrs Pechiney, the machinery soon being increased, and there, under the control of a firm that has been concerned in the industry almost from its inception, aluminium is being manufactured by the Hall process on a large scale. In July 1888 the Societe Metallurgique Suisse erected plant driven by a 500 h.p. turbine to carry out Heroult's alloy process, and at the end of that year the Allgemeine Elektricitats Gesellschaft united with the Swiss firm in organizing the Aluminium Industrie Action Gesellschaft of Neuhasen, which has factories in Switzedand, Germany and Austria. The Societe Electrometallurgique Francaise, started under the direction of Heroult in 1888 for the production of aluminium in France, began operations on a small scale at Froges in Isere; but soon after large works were erected in Savoy at La Praz, near Modane, and in 1905 another large factory was started in Savoy at St Michel. In 1895 the British Aluminium Company was founded to mine bauxite and manufacture alumina in Ireland, to prepare the necessary electrodes at Greenock, to reduce the aluminium by the aid of water-power at the Falls of Foyers, and to refine and work up the metal into marketable shapes at the old Milton factory of the Cowles Syndicate, remodelled to suit modern requirements. In 1905 this company began works for the utilization of another water-power at Loch Leven.

In 1907 a new company, The Aluminium Corporation, was started in England to carry out the production of the metal by the Heroult process, and new factories were constructed near Conway in North Wales and at Wallsend-on-Tyne, quite close to where, twenty years before, the Alliance Aluminium Co. had their works.

The Heroult cell consists of a square iron or steel box lined with carbon rammed and baked into a solid mass; at the bottom is a cast-iron plate connected with the negative pole of the dynamo, but the actual working cathode is undoubtedly the layer of already reduced and molten metal that lies in the bath. The anode is formed of a bundle of carbon rods suspended from overhead so as to be capable of vertical adjustment. The cell is filled up with cryolite, and the current is turned on till this is melted; then the pure powdered alumina is fed in continuously as long as the operation proceeds. The current is supplied at a tension of 3 to 5 volts per cell, passing through 10 or 12 in series; and it performs two distinct functions: — (1) it overcomes the chemical affinity of the aluminium oxide, (2) it overcomes the resistance of the electrolyte, heating the liquid at the same time. As a part of the voltage is consumed in the latter duty, only the residue can be converted into chemical work, and as the theoretical voltage of the aluminium fluoride in the cryolite is 4.0, provided the bath is kept properly supplied with alumina, the fluorides are not attacked. It follows, therefore, except for mechanical losses, that one charge of cryolite lasts indefinitely, that the sodium and other impurities in it are not liable to contaminate the product, and that only the alumina itself need be carefully purified. The operation is essentially a dissociation of alumina into aluminium, which collects at the cathode, and into oxygen, which combines with the anodes to form carbon monoxide, the latter escaping and being burnt to carbon dioxide outside. Theoretically 36 parts by weight of carbon are oxidized in the production of 54 parts of aluminium; practically the anodes waste at the same rate at which metal is deposited. The current density is about 700 amperes per sq. ft. of cathode surface, and the number of rods in the anode is such that each delivers 6 or 7 amperes per sq. in. of cross-sectional area. The working temperature lies between 750 deg. and 850 deg. C., and the actual yield is 1 lb of metal per 12 e.h.p. hours. The bath is heated internally with the current rather than by means of external fuel, because this arrangement permits the vessel itself to be kept comparatively cool; if it were fired from without, it would be hotter than the electrolyte, and no material suitable for the construction of the cell is competent to withstand the attack of nascent aluminium at high temperatures. Aluminium is so light that it is a matter requiring some ingenuity to select a convenient solvent through which it shall sink quickly, for if it does not sink, it short-circuits the electrolyte. The molten metal has a specific gravity of 2.54, that of molten cryolite saturated with alumina is 2.35, and that of the fluoride Al2F6.2NaF saturated with alumina 1.97. The latter therefore appears the better material, and was originally preferred by Hall; cryolite, however, dissolves more alumina, and has been finally adooted by both inventors.

Properties.

Aluminium is a white metal with a characteristic tint which most nearly resembles that of tin; when impure, or after prolonged exposure to air it has a slight violet shade. Its atomic weight is 27 (26.77, HI, according to J. Thomson). It is trivalent. The specific gravity of cast metal is 2.583, and of rolled 2.688 at 4 deg. C. It melts at 626 deg. C. (freezing point 654.5 deg. , Heycock and Neville). It is the third most malleable and sixth most ductile metal, yielding sheets 0.000025 in. in thickness, and wires 0.004 in. in diameter. When quite pure it is somewhat harder than tin, and its hardness is considerably increased by rolling. It is not magnetic. It stands near the positive end of the list of elements arranged in electromotive series, being exceeded only by the alkalis and metals of the alkaline earths; it therefore combines eagerly, under suitable conditions, with oxygen and chlorine. Its coefficient of linear expansion by heat is 0.0000222 (Richards) or 0.0000231 (Roberts Austen) per 1 deg. C. Its mean specific heat between 0 deg. and 100 deg. is 0.227, and its latent heat of fusion 100 calories (Richards). Only silver, copper and gold surpass it as conductors of heat, its value being 31.33 (Ag 100, Roberts-Austen). Its electrical conductivity, determined on 99.6% metal, is 60.5% that of cooper for equal volumes, or double that of copper for equal weights, and when chemically pure it exhibits a somewhat higher relative efficiency. The average strength of 98% metal is approximately shown by the following table:—

Elastic limit, Ultimate strength, Reduction tons per sq. in. tons per sq. in. of Area % Cast . . . 3 7 15 Sheet . . . 5 1/2 11 35 Bars . . . 6 1/2 12 40 Wire . . . 7-13 13-29 60

Weight for weight, therefore, aluminium is only exceeded in tensile strength by the best cast steel, and its own alloy, aluminium bronze. An absolutely clean surface becomes tarnished in damp air, an almost invisible coating of oxide being produced, just as happens with zinc; but this film is very permanent and prevents further attack. Exposure to air and rain also causes slight corrosion, but to nothing like the same extent as occurs with iron, copper or brass. Commercial electrolytic aluminium of the best quality contains as the average of a large number of tests, 0.48% of silicon and 0.46% of iron, the residue being essentially aluminium itself. The metal in mass is not affected by hot or cold water, the foil is very slowly oxidized, while the amalgam decomposes rapidly. Sulphuretted hydrogen having no action upon it, articles made of it are not blackened in foggy weather or in rooms where crude coal gas is burnt. To inorganic acids, except hydrochloric, it is highly resistant, ranking well with tin in this respect; but alkalis dissolve it quickly. Organic acids such as vinegar, common salt, the natural ingredients of food, and the various extraneous substances used as food preservatives, alone or mixed together, dissolve traces of it if boiled for any length of time in a chemically clean vessel; but when aluminium utensils are submitted to the ordinary routine of the kitchen, being used to heat or cook milk, coffee, vegetables, meat and even fruit, and are also cleaned frequently in the usual fashion, no appreciable quantity of metal passes into the food. Moreover, did it do so, the action upon the human system would be infinitely less harmful than similar doses of copper or of lead.

The highly electro-positive character of aluminium is most important. At elevated temperatures the metal decomposes nearly all other metallic oxides, wherefore it is most serviceable as a metallurgical reagent. In the casting of iron, steel and brass, the addition of a trifling proportion (0.005%) removes oxide and renders the molten metal more fluid, causing the

finished products to be more homogeneous, free from blow-holes and solid all through. On the other hand, its electro-positive nature necessitates some care in its utilization. If it be exposed to damp, to sea-water or to corrosive influences of any kind in contact with another metal, or if it be mixed with another metal so as to form an alloy which is not a true chemical compound, the other metal being highly negative to it, powerful galvanic action will be set up and the structure will quickly deteriorate. This explains the failure of boats built of commercially pure aluminium which have been put together with iron or copper rivets, and the decay of other boats built of a light alloy, in which the alloying metal (copper) has been injudiciously chosen. It also explains why aluminium is so difficult to join with low-temperature solders, for these mostly contain a large proportion of lead. This disadvantage, however, is often overestimated since in most cases other means of uniting two pieces are available.

Alloys.

The metal produces an enormous number of useful alloys, some of which, containing only 1 or 2% of other metals, combine the lightness of aluminium itself with far greater hardness and strength. Some with 90 to 99% of other metals exhibit the general properties of those metals conspicuously improved. Among the heavy alloys, the aluminium bronzes (Cu, 90-97.5%; Al, 10-2.5%) occupy the most important position, showing mean tensile strengths increasing from 20 to 41 tons per sq. in. as the percentage of aluminium rises, and all strongly resisting corrosion in air or sea-water. The light copper alloys, in which the proportions just given are practically reversed, are of considerably less utility, for although they are fairly strong, they lack power to resist galvanic action. This subject is far from being exhausted, and it is not improbable that the alloy-producing capacity of aluminium may eventually prove its most valuable characteristic. In the meantime, ternary light alloys appear the most satisfactory, and tungsten and copper, or tungsten and nickel, seem to be the best substances to add.

Uses.

The uses of aluminium are too numerous to mention. Probably the widest field is still in the purification of iron and steel. To the general public it appeals most strongly as a material for constructing cooking utensils. It is not brittle like porcelain and cast iron, not poisonous like lead-glazed earthenware and untinned copper, needs no enamel to chip off, does not rust and wear out like cheap tin-plate, and weighs but a fraction of other substances. It is largely replacing brass and copper in all departments of industry — especially where dead weight has to be moved about, and lightness is synonymous with economy — for instance, in bed-plates for torpedo-boat engines, internal fittings for ships instead of wood, complete boats for portage, motor-car parts and boiling-pans for confectionery and in chemical works. The British Admiralty employ it to save weight in the Navy, and the war-offices of the European powers equip their soldiers with it wherever possible, As a substitute for Solenhofen stone it is used in a modified form of lithography, which can be performed on rotary printing machines at a high speed. With the increasing price of copper, it is coming into vogue as an electrical conductor for uncovered mains; it is found that an aluminium wire 0.126 in. in diameter will carry as much current as a copper wire 0.100 in. in diameter, while the former weighs about 79 lb and the latter 162 lb per mile. Assuming the materials to be of equal tensile strength per unit of area — hard-drawn copper is stronger, but has a lower conductivity — the adoption of aluminium thus leads to a reduction of 52% in the weight, a gain of 60% in the strength, and an increase of 26% in the diameter of the conductor. Bare aluminium strip has recently been tried for winding-coils in electrical machines, the oxide of the metal acting as insulators between the layers. When the price of aluminium is less than double the price of copper aluminium is cheaper than copper per unit of electric current conveyed; but when insulation is necessary, the smaller size of the copper wire renders it more economical. Aluminium conductors have been employed on heavy work in many places, and for telegraphy and telephony they are in frequent demand and give perfect satisfaction. Difficulties were at first encountered in making the necessary joints, but these have been overcome by practice and experience.

Two points connected with this metal are of sufficient moment to demand a few words by way of conclusion. Its extraordinary lightness forms its chief claim to general adoption, yet is apt to cause mistakes when its price is mentioned. It is the weight of a mass of metal which governs its financial value; its industrial value, in the vast majority of cases, depends on the volume of that mass. Provided it be rigid, the bed-plate of an engine is no better for weighing 30 cwt. than for weighing 10 cwt. A saucepan is required to have a certain diameter and a certain depth in order that it may hold a certain bulk of liquid: its weight is merely an encumbrance. Copper being 3 1/3 times as heavy as aluminium, whenever the latter costs less than 3 1/2 times as much as copper it is actually cheaper. It must be remembered, too, that electrolytic aluminium only became known during the last decade of the 19th century. Samples dating from the old sodium days are still in existence, and when they exhibit unpleasant properties the defect is often ascribed to the metal instead of to the process by which it was won. Much has yet to be learnt about the practical qualities of the electrolytic product, and although every day's experience serves to place the metal in a firmer industrial position, a final verdict can only be passed after the lapse of time. The individual and collective influence of the several impurities which occur in the product of the Heroult cell is still to seek, and the importance of this inquiry will be seen when we consider that if cast iron, wrought iron and steel, the three totally distinct metals included in the generic name of "iron'' — which are only distinguished one from another chemically by minute differences in the proportion of certain non-metallic ingredients — had only been in use for a comparatively few years, attempts might occasionally be made to forge cast iron, or to employ wrought iron in the manufacture of edge-tools. (E. J. R.)

Compounds of Aluminium. Aluminium oxide or alumina, Al2O3, occurs in nature as the mineral corundum (q.v.), notable for its hardness and abrasive power (see EMERY), and in well-crystallized forms it constitutes, when coloured by various metallic oxides, the gem-stones, sapphire, oriental topaz, oriental amethyst and oriental emerald. Alumina is obtained as a white amorphous powder by heating aluminium hydroxide. This powder, provided that it has not been too strongly ignited, is soluble in strong acids; by ignition it becomes denser and nearly as hard as corundum; it fuses in the oxyhydrogen flame or electric arc, and on cooling it assumes a crystalline form closely resembling the mineral species. Crystallized alumina is also obtained by heating the fluoride with boron trioxide; by fusing aluminium phosphate with sodium sulphate; by heating alumina to a dull redness in hydrochloric acid gas under pressure; and by heating alumina with lead oxide to a bright red heat. These reactions are of special interest, for they culminate in the production of artificial ruby and sapphire (see GEMS, ARTIFICIAL).

Aluminium Hydrates. — Several hydrated forms of aluminium oxide are known. Of these hydrargillite or gibbsite, Al(OH)3, diaspore, AlO(OH), and bauxite, Al2O(OH)4, occur in the mineral kingdom. Aluminium hydrate, Al(OH)3, is obtained as a gelatinous white precipitate, soluble in potassium or sodium hydrate, but insoluble in ammonium chloride, by adding ammonia to a cold solution of an aluminium salt; from boiling solutions the precipitate is opaque. By drying at ordinary temperatures, the hydrate Al(OH)3.H2O is obtained; at 300 deg. this yields AlO(OH), which on ignition gives alumina, Al2O3. Precipitated aluminium hydrate finds considerable application in dyeing. Soluble modifications were obtained by Waiter Crum (Journ. Chem. Soc., 1854, vi. 216), and Thomas Graham (Phil. Trans., 1861, p. 163); the first named decomposing aluminium acetate from lead acetate and aluminium sulphate) with boiling water, the latter dialysing a solution of the basic chloride (obtained by dissolving the hydroxide in a solution of the normal chloride).

Both these soluble hydrates are readily coagulated by traces of a salt, acid or alkali; Crum's hydrate does not combine with dye-stuffs, neither is it soluble in excess of acid, while Graham's compound readily forms lakes, and readily dissolves when coagulated in acids.

In addition to behaving as a basic oxide, aluminium oxide (or hydrate) behaves as an acid oxide towards the strong bases with the formation of aluminates. Potassium aluminate, K2Al2O4, is obtained in solution by dissolving aluminium hydrate in caustic potash; it is also obtained, as crystals containing three molecules of water, by fusing alumina with potash, exhausting with water, and crystallizing the solution in vacuo. Sodium aluminate is obtained in the manufacture of alumina; it is used as a mordant in dyeing, and has other commercial applications. Other aluminates (in particular, of iron and magnesium), are of frequent occurrence in the mineral kingdom, e.g. spinel, gahnite, &c.

Salts of Aluminium. — Aluminium forms one series of salts, derived from the trioxide, Al2O3. These exhibit, in certain cases, marked crystallographical and other analogies with the corresponding salts of chromium and ferric iron.

Aluminium fluoride, AlF3, obtained by dissolving the metal in hydrofluoric acid, and subliming the residue in a current of hydrogen, forms transparent, very obtuse rhombohedra, which are insoluble in water. It forms a series of double fluorides, the most important of which is cryolite (q.v.); this mineral has been applied to the commercial preparation of the metal (see above). Aluminium chloride, AlCl3, was first prepared by Oersted, who heated a mixture of carbon and alumina in a current of chlorine, a method subsequently improved by Wohler, Bunsen, Deville and others. A purer product is obtained by heating aluminium turnings in a current of dry chlorine, when the chloride distils over. So obtained, it is a white crystalline solid, which slowly sublimes just below its melting point (194 deg. ). Its vapour density at temperatures above 750 deg. corresponds to the formula AlCl3; below this point the molecules are associated. It is very hygroscopic, absorbing water with the evolution of hydrochloric acid. It combines with ammonia to form AlCl3.3NH3; and forms double compounds with phosphorus pentachloride, phosphorus oxychloride, selenium and tellurium chlorides, as well as with many metallic chlorides; sodium aluminium chloride, AlCl3.NaCl, is used in the production of the metal. As a synthetical agent in organic chemistry, aluminium chloride has rendered possible more reactions than any other substance; here we can only mention the classic syntheses of benzene homologues. Aluminium bromide, AlBr3, is prepared in the same manner as the chloride. It forms colourless crystals, melting at 90 deg. , and boiling at 265 deg. -270 deg. . Aluminium iodide, AlI3, results from the interaction of iodine and aluminium. It forms colourless crystals, melting at 185 deg. , and boiling at 360 deg. . Aluminium sulphide, Al2S3, results from the direct union of the metal with sulphur, or when carbon disulphide vapour is passed over strongly heated alumina. It forms a yellow fusible mass, which is decomposed by water into alumina and sulphuretted hydrogen. Aluminium sulphate Al(SO4)3, occurs in the mineral kingdom as keramohalite, Al2(SO4)3.18H2O, found near volcanoes and in alum-shale; aluminite or websterite is a basic salt, Al3(SO4)(OH)4.7H2O. Aluminium sulphate, known commercially as "concentrated alum'' or "sulphate of alumina,'' is manufactured from kaolin or china clay, which, after roasting (in order to oxidize any iron present), is heated with sulphuric acid, the clear solution run off, and evaporated. "Alum cake'' is an impure product. Aluminium sulphate crystallizes as Al2(SO4)3.18H2O in tablets belonging to the monoclinic system. It has a sweet astringent taste, very soluble in water, but scarcely soluble in alcohol. On heating, the crystals lose water, swell up, and give the anhydrous sulphate, which, on further heating, gives alumina. It forms double salts with the sulphates of the metals of the alkalis, known as the alums (see ALUM.)

Aluminium nitride (AlN) is obtained as small yellow crystals when aluminium is strongly heated in nitrogen. The nitrate, Al(NO3)3, is obtained as deliquescent crystals (with 8H2O) by evaporating a solution of the hydroxide in nitric acid. Aluminium phosphates may be prepared by Precipitating a soluble aluminium salt with sodium phosphate. Wavellite Al8(PO4)3(OH)15.9H2O, is a naturally occurring basic phosphate, while the gem-stone turquoise (q.v.) is Al.(PO4).(OH)2.H2O, coloured by traces of copper. Aluminium silicates are widely diffused in the mineral kingdom, being present in the commonest rock-forming minerals (felspars, &c.), and in the gem-stones, topaz, beryl, garnet, &c. It also constitutes with sodium silicate the mineral lapis-lazuli and the pigment ultramarine (q.v..) Forming the basis of all clays, aluminium silicates play a prominent part in the manufacture of pottery and porcelain.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — The metallurgy and uses of aluminium are treated in detail in P. Moissonnier, L'Aluminium (Paris, 1903); in J. W. Richards, Aluminium (1896); and in A. Miner, Production of Aluminium, Eng. trans. by L. Waldo (1905); reference may also be made to treatises on general metallurgy, e.g. C. Schnabel, Handbook of Metalurgy, vol. ii. (1907). For the chemistry see Roscoe and Schlorlemmer, Treatise on Inorganic Chemistry, vol. ii. (1908); H. Moissan, Traite de chimie minerale; Abegg, Handbuch der anorgenischen Chemie; and O. Dammer, Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie. Aluminium alloys have been studied in detail by Guillet.

ALUNITE, or ALUMSTONE, a mineral first observed in the 15th century at Tolfa, near Rome, where it is mined for the manufacture of alum. Extensive deposits are also worked in Tuscany and Hungary, and at Bulladelah in New South Wales. By repeatedly roasting and lixiviating the mineral, alum is obtained in solution, and this is crystallized out by evaporation. Alunite occurs as seams in trachytic and allied volcanic rocks, having been formed by the action of sulphureous vapours on these rocks. The white, finely granular masses somewhat resemble limestone in appearance, and the more compact kinds from Hungary are so hard and tough that they are used for millstones. Distinct crystals of alunite are rarely met with in cavities in the massive material; these are rhombohedra with interfacial angles of 90 deg. 50', so that they resemble cubes in. appearance. Minute glistening crystals have also been found loose in cavities in altered rhyolite. The hardness is 4 and the specific gravity 2.6. The mineral is a hydrated basic aluminium and potassium sulphate, KAl3(SO4)2(OH)6. It is insoluble in water, but soluble in sulphuric acid. First called aluminilite by J. C. Delametherie in 1797, this name was contracted by F. S. Beudant in 1824 to alunite. (L. J. S.)

ALUR (Lur, Luri, Lurem), a Negro people of the Nile valley, living on the north-west coast of Albert Nyanza. They are akin to the Acholi (q.v.), speaking practically the same language.

ALURE (O. Fr., from aller, to walk), an architectural term for an alley, passage, the water-way or flat gutter behind a parapet, the galleries of a clerestory, sometimes even the aisle itself of a church. The term is sometimes written valure or valoring.

ALVA, or ALBA, FERNANDO ALVAREX DE TOLEDO, DUKE OF, (1508-1583), Spanish soldier, descended from one of the most illustrious families in Spain, was born in 1508. His grandfather, Ferdinand of Toledo, educated him in military science and politics; and he was engaged with distinction at the battle of Pavia while still a youth. Selected for a military command by Charles V., he took part in the siege of Tunis (1535), and successfully defended Perpignan against the dauphin of France. He was present at the battle of Muhlberg (1547), and the victory gained there over John of Saxony was due mainly to his exertions. He took part in the subsequent siege of Wittenberg, and presided at the court-martial which tried the elector and condemned him to death. In 1552 Alva was intrusted with the command of the army intended to invade France, and was engaged for several months in an unsuccessful siege of Metz. In consequence of the success of the French arms in Piedmont, he was made commander-in-chief of all the emperor's forces in Italy, and at the same time invested with unlimited power. Success did not, however, attend his first attempts, and after several unfortunate attacks he was obliged to retire into winter quarters. After the

abdication of Charles he was continued in the command by Philip II., who, however, restrained him from extreme measures. Alva had subdued the whole Campagna and was at the gates of Rome, when he was compelled by Philip's orders to negotiate a peace. One of its terms was that the duke of Alva should in person ask forgiveness of the haughty pontiff whom he had conquered. Proud as the duke was by nature, and accustomed to treat with persons of the highest dignity, he confessed his voice failed him at the interview and his presence of mind forsook him. Not long after this (1559) he was sent at the head of a splendid embassy to Paris to espouse, in the name of his master, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry, king of France. In 1567, Philip, who was a bigoted Catholic, sent Alva into the Netherlands at the head of an army of 10,000 men, with unlimited powers for the extirpation of heretics. When he arrived he soon showed how much he merited the confidence which his master reposed in him, and instantly erected a tribunal which soon became known to its victims as the "Court of Blood,'' to try all persons who had been engaged in the late commotions which the civil and religious tyranny of Philip had excited. He imprisoned the counts Egmont and Horn, the two popular leaders of the Protestants, brought them to an unjust trial and condemned them to death. In a short time he totally annihilated every privilege of the people, and with unrelenting cruelty put multitudes of them to death. The executioner was employed in removing all those friends of freedom whom the sword had spared. In most of the considerable towns Alva built citadels. In the city of Antwerp he erected a statue of himself, which was a monument no less of his vanity than of his tyranny: he was figured trampling on the necks of two smaller statues, representing the two estates of the Low Countries. His attempt to raise money by imposing the Spanish alcabala, a tax of 5% on all sales, aroused the opposition of the Catholic Netherlands themselves. The exiles from the Low Countries, encouraged by the general resistance to his government, fitted out a fleet of privateers, and after strengthening themselves by successful depredations, ventured upon the bold exploit of seizing the town of Brielle. Thus Alva by his cruelty became the unwitting instrument of the future independence of the seven Dutch provinces. The fleet of the exiles, having met the Spanish fleet, totally defeated it, and reduced North Holland and Mons. Many cities hastened to throw off the yoke; while the states-general, assembling at Dordrecht, openly declared against Alva's government, and marshalled under the banners of the prince of Orange. Alva's preparations to oppose the gathering storm were made with his usual vigour, and he succeeded in recovering Mons, Mechlin and Zutphen, under the conduct of his son Frederick. With the exception of Zealand and Holland, he regained all the provinces; and at last his son stormed Naarden, and massacring its inhabitants, proceeded to invest the city of Haarlem, which, after standing an obstinate siege, was taken and pillaged. Their next attack was upon Alkmaar; but the spirit of desperate resistance was raised to such a height in the breasts of the Hollanders that the Spanish veterans were repulsed with great loss and Frederick constrained reluctantly to retire. Alva's feeble state of health and continued disasters induced him to solicit his recall from the government of the Low Countries; a measure which, in all probability, was not displeasing to Philip, who was now resolved to make trial of a milder administration. In December 1573 the much-oppressed country was relieved from the presence of the duke of Alva, who, returning home accompanied by his son, made the infamous boast that during the course of six years, besides the multitudes destroyed in battle and massacred after victory, he had consigned 18,000 persons to the executioner.

On his return he was treated for some time with great distinction by Philip. A tardy and imperfect justice, however, overtook him, when he was banished from court and confined in the castle of Uzeda for complicity in certain disgraceful conduct of his son. Here he had remained two years, when the success of Don Antonio in assuming the crown of Portugal determined Philip to turn his eyes towards Alva as the person in whose fidelity and abilities he could most confide. A secretary was instantly despatched to Alva to ascertain whether his health was sufficiently vigorous to enable him to undertake the command of an army. The aged chief returned an answer full of loyal zeal, and was immediately appointed to the supreme command in Portugal. It is a striking fact, however, that the liberation and elevation of Alva were not followed by forgiveness. In 1581 Alva entered Portugal, defeated Antonio, drove him from the kingdom, and soon reduced the whole under the subjection of Philip. Entering Lisbon he seized an immense treasure, and suffered his soldiers, with their accustomed violence and rapacity, to sack the suburbs and vicinity. It is reported that Alva, being requested to give an account of the money expended on that occasion, sternly replied, "If the king asks me for an account, I will make him a statement of kingdoms preserved or conquered, of signal victories, of successful sieges and of sixty years' service.'' Philip deemed it proper to make no further inquiries. Alva, however, did not enjoy the honours and rewards of his last expedition, for he died in January 1583 at the age of 74.

AUTHORITIES. — See the Life, by Rustant (Madrid, 1751). His correspondence during his Flemish government has been published by M. Gachard (Brussels, 1850). See also Coleccion de documentos ineditos para la historial de Espana, vols. iv., vii., viii., xiv., xaxii. and xxxv. (Madrid); and Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic (1856).

ALVA, a police burgh of Clackmannanshire, Scotland, 3 1/2 m. N. of Alloa, terminus of a branch line of the North British railway. Pop. (1891) 5225; (1901) 4624. It is situated at the foot of three front peaks of the Ochils — West Hill (1682 ft.), Middle Hill (1436 ft.) and Wood Hill (1723 ft.). There are spinning-mills, and manufactures of tweeds, tartans and other woollen goods. Silver, lead and other metals have been found in the hills, but not in paying quantities. The glen to the east of the town, in which are abandoned workings, is called the Silver Glen. Alva House is the seat of the Johnstones, a family which has been intimately connected with the district since the latter half of the 18th century.

ALVARADO, PEDRO DE (1495-1541), one of the Spanish leaders in the discovery and conquest of America, was born at Badajoz about 1495. He held a command in the expedition sent from Cuba against Yucatan in the spring of 1518, and returned in a few months, bearing reports of the wealth and splendour of Montezuma's empire. In February 1519 he accompanied Hernando Cortes in the expedition for the conquest of Mexico, being appointed to the command of one of the eleven vessels of the fleet. He acted as Cortes's principal officer, and on the first occupation of the city of Mexico was left there in charge. When the Spaniards had temporarily to retire before the Mexican uprising, Alvarado led the rear-guard (1st of July 1520), and the Salto de Alvarado — a long leap with the use of his spear, by which he saved his life — became famous. He was engaged (1523-24) in the conquest of Guatemala, of which he was subsequently appointed governor by Charles V. In 1534 he attempted to bring the province of Quito under his power, but had to content himself with the exaction of a pecuniary indemnity for the expenses of the expedition. During a visit to Spain, three years later, he had the governorship of Honduras conferred upon him in addition to that of Guatemala. He died in Guatemala in 1541.

ALVAREZ, FRANCISCO (c. 1465-1541?), Portuguese missionary and explorer, was born at Coimbra. He was a chaplain- priest and almoner to Dom Manuel, king of Portugal, and was sent in 1515 as secretary to Duarte Galvao and Rodrigo da Lima on an embassy to the negus of Abyssinia (Lebna Dengel Dawit (David) II.). The expedition having been delayed by the way, it was not until 152O that he reached Abyssinia, where he remained six years, returning to Lisbon in 1526-1527. In 1533 he was sent to Rome on an embassy to Pope Clement VII. The precise date of his death, like that of his birth, is unknown, but it must have been later than 1540, in which year he published at Lisbon under the king's patronage an account of his travels in one volume folio, entitled Yerdadera Informacam das terras do Preste Joam. This curious work was translated into Italian (G. B. Ramusio, Navagationi, vol. i., Venice, 1550); into

Spanish (Historia de las Cosas de Etiopia, by Fray Thomas de Padilla, Antwerp, 1557); into French (Historiale Description de l'Ethiopie, Christ. Plantin, Antwerp, 1558); into German (Wahrhaftiger Bericht von ... Ethiopien, Eisieben, 1566); into English (Sam. Purchas, Pilgrimes, part ii., London, 1625). The information it contains must, however, be received with caution, as the author is prone to exaggerate, and does not confine himself to what came within his own observation.

ALVAREZ, DON JOSE (1768-1827), Spanish sculptor, was born at Priego, in the province of Cordova, in 1768. His full name was Jose Alvarez de Pereira y Cubero. Bred to his father's trade of a stone-mason, he devoted all his spare time to drawing and modelling. His education in art was due partly to the teaching of the French sculptor Verdiguier at Cordova, and partly to lessons at Madrid, where he attended the lectures of the academy of San Fernando. In 1799 he obtained from Charles IV. a pension of 12,000 reals to enable him to visit Paris and Rome. In the former city he executed in 1804 a statue of Ganymede, which placed him at once in the front rank of the sculptors of his time, and which is now in the sculpture gallery of the Prado. Shortly afterwards his pension was more than doubled, and he left Paris for Rome, where he remained till within a year of his death. He had married in Paris Elizabeth Bougel, by whom he had a son in 1805. This son, known as Don Jose Alvarez y Bougel, also distinguished himself as a sculptor and a painter, but he died at Burgos before he had reached the age of twenty-five, a little more than two years after his father's death in Madrid in 1827. One of the most successful works of the elder Alvarez was a group representing Antilochus and Memnon, which was commissioned in marble (1818) by Ferdinand VII., and secured for the artist the appointment of court-sculptor. It is now in the museum of Madrid. He also modelled a few portrait busts (Ferdinand VII., Rossini, the duchess of Alba), which are remarkable for their vigour and fidelity.

ALVAREZ, DON MANUEL (1727—1797), Spanish sculptor, was born at Salamanca. He followed classical models so closely that he was styled by his countrymen El Griego, "The Greek.'' His works, which are very numerous, are chiefly to be found at Madrid.

ALVARY, MAX (1858-1898), German singer, was born at Dusseldorf. Gifted with a fine tenor voice and handsome presence he speedily made a reputation in Germany in the leading roles in Wagnerian opera, and from 1885 onwards appeared also in America and England. He was at his best in 1892, when his performances as Tristan and Siegfried at Covent Garden aroused great enthusiasm.

ALVEARY (from the Lat. alvearium), a beehive; used, like apiarium in the same sense, figuratively for a collection of hard-working people, or a scholarly work (e.g. dictionary) involving bee-like industry. By analogy the term is used for the hollow of the ear, where the wax collects.

ALVENSLEBEN, CONSTANTIN VON (1809-1892), Prussian general, was born on the 26th of August 1809 at Eichenbarleben in Prussian Saxony, and entered the Prussian guards from the cadet corps in 1827. He became first lieutenant in 1842, captain in 1849, and major on the Great General Staff in 1853, whence after seven years he went to the Ministry of War. He was soon afterwards promoted colonel, and commanded a regiment of Guard infantry up to 1864, when he became a major-general. In this rank he commanded a brigade of guards in the war of 1866. At the action of Soor (Burkersdorf) on the 28th of June he distinguished himself very greatly, and at Koniggratz, where he led the advanced guard of the Guard corps, his energy and initiative were still more conspicuous. Soon afterwards he succeeded to the command of his division, General Hiller v. Gartringen having fallen in the battle; he was promoted lieutenant-general, and retained this command after the conclusion of peace, receiving in addition the order pour le merite for his services. In 1870, on the outbreak of war with France, von Alvensleben succeeded Prince Frederick Charles in command of the III army corps which formed part of the II German Army commanded by the prince. Under their new general, the Brandenburg regiments forming the III corps proved themselves collectively the best in the whole German army, with the possible exception of the Prussian guards, and, if Prince Frederick Charles is entitled to the chief credit in training the III corps, Alvensleben had contributed in almost equal degree to the efficiency of the Guard infantry, while his actual leadership of the III corps in the battles of 1870 and 1871 showed him afresh as a fighting general of the very first rank. The battle of Spicheren, on the 6th of August, was initiated and practically directed throughout by him, and in the confusion which followed this victory, for which the superior commanders were not prepared, Alvensleben showed his energy and determination by resuming the advance on his own responsibility. This led to the great battles of the 14th, 16th and 18th of August around Metz, and again the III corps was destined, under its resolute leader, to win the chief credit. Crossing the Moselle the instant that he received permission from his army commander to do so, Alvensleben struck the flank of Bazaine's whole army (August 16th) in movement westward from Metz. The III corps attacked at once, and for many hours bore the whole brunt of the battle at Vionville. By the most resolute leading, and at the cost of very heavy losses, Alvensleben held the whole French army at bay while other corps of the I and II German Armies gradually closed up. In the battle of Gravelotte, on the 18th, the corps took little part. Its work was done, and it remained with the II Army before Metz until the surrender of Bazaine's army. Prince Frederick Charles then moved south-west to co-operate with the grand-duke of Mecklenburg on the Loire. At the battle of Beaune-la-Rolande, the corps, with its comrades of Vionville, the X corps under General v. Voigts-Rhetz, won new laurels, and it participated in the advance on Le Mans and the battle at that place on the 12th of January 1871. At the close of the war Alvensleben received the oak-leaves of the order pour le merite, the first class of the Iron Cross and a grant of 100,000 thalers. He became full general of infantry in 1873 and retired immediately afterwards. In 1889 the emperor William II. ordered that the 52nd infantry regiment (one of the distinguished regiments of Vionville) should thereafter bear Alvensleben's name, and in 1892, on the anniversary of the battle of Le Mans, the old general received the order of the Black Eagle. He died on the 28th of March 1892 at Berlin.

His brother, GUSTAV VON ALVENSLEBEN (1803-1881), Prussian general of infantry, was born at Eichenbarleben on the 30th of September 1803, entered the Guard infantry in 1821, and took part as a general staff officer in the suppression of the Baden insurrection of 1849. He became a major-general in 1858, aide-de-camp to the king in 1861, and lieutenant-general in 1863, and in the campaign of 1866 performed valuable military and political services. He was promoted general of infantry in 1868. In the war of 1870 he commanded the IV army corps, which took a conspicuous part in the action of Beaumont and afterwards served in the siege of Paris. He received the Iron Cross, the order pour le merite, and a money grant, as a reward for his services, and retired in 1872. He died at Gernrode in the Harz on the 30th of June 1881.

Another brother, ALBRECHT, COUNT von ALVENSLEBEN (1794- 1858), was a distinguished Prussian statesman.

ALVEOLATE (from Lat. alveolus), honeycombed, a word used technically in biology, &c., to mean pitted like a honeycomb.

ALVERSTONE, RICHARD EVERARD WEBSTER, IST BARON (1842- ), lord chief justice of England, was born on the 22nd of December 1842, being the second son of Thomas Webster, Q.C. He was educated at King's College and Charterhouse schools, and Trinity College, Cambridge; was called to the bar in 1868, and became Q.C. only ten years afterwards. His practice was chiefly in commercial, railway and patent cases until (June 1885) he was appointed attorney-general in the Conservative Government in the exceptional circumstances of never having been solicitor-general, and not at the time occupying a seat in parliament. He was elected for Launceston in the following month, and in November exchanged this seat

for the Isle of Wight, which he continued to represent until his elevation to the House of Lords. Except under the brief Gladstone administration of 1886, and the Gladstone-Rosebery cabinet of 1892-1895, Sir Richard Webster was attorney-general from 1885 to 1900. In 1890 he was leading counsel for The Times in the Parnell inquiry; in 1893 he represented Great Britain in the Bering Sea arbitration; in 1898 he discharged the same function in the matter of the boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela; and in 1903 was one of the members of the Alaska Boundary Commission. He was well known as an athlete in his earlier years, having represented his university as a runner, and his interest in cricket and foot-racing was kept up in later life. In the House of Commons, and outside it, he was throughout his political career prominently associated with church work; and his speeches were distinguished for gravity and earnestness. In 1900 he succeeded Sir Nathaniel Lindley as Master of the Rolls, being raised to the peerage as Baron Alverstone, and in October of the same year he was elevated to the office of lord chief justice upon the death of Lord Russell of Killowen.

ALWAR, or ULWAR, a native state of India in the Rajputana agency. It is bounded on the E. by the state of Bharatpur and the British district of Gurgaon, on the N. by Gurgaon district and the state of Patiala, on the W. by the states of Nabha and Jaipur, and on the S. by the state of Jaipur. Its configuration is irregular, the greatest length from north to south being about 80 m., and breadth from east to west about 60 m., with a total area of 3141 sq. m. The eastern portion of the state is open and highly cultivated; the western is diversified by hills and peaks, which form a continuation of the Aravalli range, from 12 to 20 m. in breadth. These hills run in rocky and precipitous parallel ridges, in some places upwards of 2200 ft. in height. The Sabhi river flows through the north-western part of the state, the only other stream of importance being the Ruparel, which rises in the Alwar hills, and flows through the state into the Bharatpur territory. The population in 1901 was 828,487, showing an increase of 8% during the decade. When compared with a heavy decrease elsewhere throughout Rajputana, this increase may be attributed to the successful administration of famine relief, under British officials. The revenue is L. 185,000. The maharaja Jai Singh, who succeeded in 1892 at the age of ten, was educated at the Mayo college, where he excelled both in sports and in knowledge of English. He came of age in 1903, when he was invested by the viceroy with full ruling powers. Alwar was the first native state to accept a currency struck at the Calcutta mint, of the same weight and assay as the imperial rupee, with the head of the British sovereign on the obverse. Imperial service troops are maintained, consisting of both cavalry and infantry, with transport. The state is traversed by the Delhi branch of the Rajputana railway. A settlement of the land revenue has been carried out by an English civilian.

The state was founded by Pratap Singh (1740-1791), a Rajput of ancient lineage, and increased by his adopted son Bakhtawar Singh. The latter joined the British against the Mahrattas, and in 1803, after the battle of Laswari (Nov. 1), signed a treaty of offensive and defensive alliance with the British government. In 1811, owing to his armed intervention in Jaipur, a fresh engagement was made, prohibiting him from political intercourse with other states without British consent. In 1857 the raja Binni Singh sent a force of Mussulmans and Rajputs to relieve the British garrison in Agra; the Mussulmans, however, deserted, and the rest were defeated by the mutineers.

The CITY OF ALWAR has a railway station on the Rajputana line, 98 m. from Delhi; pop. (1901) 56,771, showing a steady increase. It stands in a valley overhung by a fortress 1000 ft. above. It is surrounded by a rampart and moat, with five gates, and contains fine palaces, temples and tombs. The water-supply is brought from a lake 9 m. distant. It has a high school, affiliated to the Allahabad university; and a school for the sons of nobles, founded to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The Lady Dufferin hospital is under the charge of an English lady doctor, with two female assistants.

ALYATTES, king of Lydia (609-560 B.C.), the real founder of the Lydian empire, was the son of Sadyattes, of the house of the Mermnadae. For several years he continued the war against Miletus begun by his father, but was obliged to turn his attention to the Medes and Babylonians. On the 28th of May 585, during a battle on the Halys between him and Cyaxares, king of Media, an eclipse of the sun took place; hostilities were suspended, peace concluded, and the Halys fixed as the boundary between the two kingdoms. Alyattes drove the Cimmerii (see SCYTIHA) from Asia, subdued the Carians, and took several Ionian cities (Smyrna, Colophon). He was succeeded by his son Croesus. His tomb still exists on the plateau between lake Gygaea and the river Hermus to the north of Sardis — a large mound of earth with a substructure of huge stones. It was excavated by Spiegelthal in 1854, who found that it covered a large vault of finely-cut marble blocks approached by a flat-roofed passage of the same stone from the south. The sarcophagus and its contents had been removed by early plunderers of the tomb, all that was left being some broken alabaster vases, pottery and charcoal. On the summit of the mound were large phalli of stone.

See A. von Olfers, "Uber die lydischen Konigsgraber bei Sardes,'' Abh. Berl. Ak., 1858.

ALYPIUS, a Greek writer on music whose works, with those of six others, were collected and published with a commentary and explanatory notes (Antiquae Musicae Auctores Septem, Amstel., 1652), by Mark Meibomius (1630-1711). He is said to have written before Euclid and Ptolemy; and Cassiodorus arranges his Introduction to Music between those of Nicomachus and Gaudentius. The work consists solely of a list of symbols of the various scales and modes, and is probably only a fragment.

ALYPIUS OF ANTIOCH, a geographer of the 4th century, who was sent by the emperor Julian into Britain as first prefect, and was afterwards commissioned to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem. Among the letters of Julian are two (29 and 30) addressed to Alypins; one inviting him to Rome, the other thanking him for a geographical treatise, which no longer exists.

See also Ammianus Marcellinus xxiii. 1, sec. 2.

ALYTES, the midwife toad, first discovered by P. Demours in 1741, on the border of a small pond in the Jardin des Plantes, in the very act of parturition which has rendered it famous, and described as Petit crapaud male accoucheur de sa femelle. Alytes obstetricans is of special interest as the first known example of paternal solicitude in Batrachians, and although many no less wonderful cases of nursing instinct have since been revealed to us, it remains the only one among European forms.

Alytes obstetricans is a small toad-like Batrachian, two inches in length, of dull greyish coloration, plump form with warty skin and large eyes with vertical pupils. Although toad-like it is not really related to the toads proper, but belongs to the family Discoglossidae, characterized by a circular, adherent tongue, teeth in the upper jaw and on the palate, short but distinct ribs on the anterior vertebrae, and convex-concave vertebrae. It inhabits France, Belgium, Switzerland, Western Germany (eastwards to the Weser), Spain and Portugal. A second species, A. cisternasii, occurs in Spain and Portugal.

Alytes is nocturnal and slow in its movements. It is thoroughly terrestrial, selecting for its retreat in the daytime holes made by small mammals, or interstices between stones. Towards evening it reveals its presence by a clear whistling note, which has often been compared to the sound of a little bell, or to a chime when produced by numerous individuals. The breeding season lasts throughout spring and summer, and the female is able to spawn two, three or even four times in the year. Pairing and oviposition take place on land; the male seizes the female round the waist. The eggs are large and yellow, and produced in two rosary-like strings, as if strung together by elastic filaments continuous with the gelatinous capsules. After impregnation, the male twists them round his legs and returns to his usual retreat, going about at night in order to feed himself and to keep up the moisture of the eggs, even resorting to a short immersion in the water during exceptionahy dry nights. The development of the embryo within the egg takes about three weeks. When the time for

eclosion has come, the male enters the water with his burden; the larvae, in the full tadpole condition, measuring 14 to 17 millimetres, bite their way through their tough envelope, which is not abandoned by the father until all the young are liberated, and complete in the ordinary way their metamorphosis. The tadpoles grow to a large size considering that of the adult, the body equalling in size a sparrow's or even a small pigeon's egg, and they often remain more than a year in that condition.

See A. de l'Isle, "Memoire sur les moeurs et l'accouchement de l'Alytes obstetricans,'' Ann. Sci. Nat. (6) iii. 1876; G. A. Boulenger. Tailless Batrachians of Europe (Ray Society, 1897). (G. A. B.)

ALZEY, a town of Germany, in the grand duchy of Hesse- Darmstadt, 18 m. S. of Mainz by rail. Pop. (1900) 6893. There are a Roman Catholic and two Protestant churches, several high-grade schools and a teachers' seminary. Alzey has industries of dyeing and weaving, breweries, and does a considerable trade in wine. It is immortalized in the Nibelungenlied in the person of "Volker von Alzeie,'' the warrior who in the last part of the epic plays a part second only to that of Hagen, and who "was called the minstrel (spilman) because he could fiddle.'' It became an imperial city in 1277. In 1620 it was sacked by the Spaniards and in 1689 burnt by the French. Annexed to France during the Napoleonic wars, it passed in 1815 to the grand-duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt.

ALZOG, JOHANN BAPTIST (1808-1878), German theologian, was born at Ohlau, in Silesia, on the 29th of June 1808. He studied at Breslau and Bonn and was ordained priest at Cologne in 1834. In the following year he accepted the chairs of exegesis and church history at the seminary of Posen. He removed in 1844 to Hildesheim, where he had been appointed rector of the seminary. He became professor of church history at the university of Freiburg in the Breisgau in 1853 and held that post till his death on the 1st of March 1878. Together with Dollinger, Alzog was instrumental in convoking the famous Munich assembly of Catholic scholars in 1863. He also took part, with Bishops Hefele and Haseberg, in the preparatory work of the Vatican Council and voted in favour of the doctrine of papal infallibility but against the opportuneness of its promulgation. Alzog's fame rests mainly on his Handbuch den Caniversal-Kirchengeschichte (Mainz, 1841, often reprinted under various titles; Eng. trans. by Pabisch and Byrne, A Manual of Church History, 4 vols. Cincinnati, 1874). Based upon the foundations laid by Mohler, this manual was generally accepted as the best exposition of Catholic views, in opposition to the Protestant manual by C. A. Hase, and was translated into several languages. Besides a host of minor writings on ecclesiastical subjects, and an active collaboration in the great Kirchen- lexicon of Wetzer and Welte, Alzog was also the author of Grundriss der Patrologic (Freiburg, 1866, 4th ed. 1888), a scholarly work, though now superseded by that of O. Bardenhewer.

A full list of Alzog's writings is given in H. Hurter's Nomenclator titerarius recentioris theologiae catholicae, vol. iii. For an account of his life see the funeral oration by F. X. Kraus, entitled: Gedachtnissrede auf Johannes Alzog (Freiburg, 1879).

AMADIS DE GAULA. This famous romance of chivalry survives only in a Castilian text, but it is claimed by Portugal as well as by Spain. The date of its composition, the name of its author, and the language in which it was originally written are not yet settled. It is not even certain when the romance was first printed, for though the oldest known edition (a unique copy of which is in the British Museum) appeared at Saragossa in 1508, it is highly probable that Amadis was in print before this date: an edition is reported to have been issued at Seville in 1496. As it exists in Spanish, Amadis de Gaula consists of four books, the last of which is generally believed to be by the regidor of Medina del Campo, Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo (whose name is given as Garci Ordonez de Montalvo in all editions of Amadis later than that of 1508, and as Garci Gutierrez de Montalvo in some editions of the Sergas de Esplandian). Montalvo alleges that the first three books were arranged and corrected by him from "the ancient originals,'' and a reference in the prologue to the siege of Granada points to the conclusion that the Spanish recast was made shortly after 1492; it is possible, however, that the prologue alone was written after 1492, and that the text itself is older. The number of these "ancient originals'' is not stated, nor is there any mention of the language in which they were composed; Montalvo's silence on the latter point might be taken to imply that they were in Castilian, but any such inference would be hazardous. Three hooks of Areadis de Gaula are mentioned by Pero Ferrus who was living in 1379, and there is evidence that the romance was current in Castile more than a quarter of a century earlier; but again there is no information as to the language in which they were written. Gomes Eannes de Azurara, in his Chronica de Conde D. Pedro de Menezes (c. 1450), states that Amadis de Gaula was written by Vasco de Lobeira in the time of king Ferdinand of Portugal who died in 1383: as Vasco de Lobeira was knighted in 1385, it would follow that he wrote the elaborate romance in his earliest youth. This conclusion is untenable, and the suggestion that the author was Pedro de Loboira (who flourished in the 15th century) involves a glaring anachronism. A further step was taken by the historian Joao de Barros, who maintained in an unpublished work dating between 1540 and 1550 that Vasco de Lobeira wrote Amadis de Gaula in Portuguese, and that his text was translated into Castilian; this is unsupported assertion. Towards the end of the 16th century Miguel Leite Ferreira, son of the Portuguese poet, Antonio Ferreira, declared that the original manuscript of Amadis de Gaula was then in the Aveiro archives, and an Amadis de Gaula in Portuguese, which is alleged to have existed in the conde de Vimeiro's library as late as 1586, had vanished before 1726. In the absence of corroboration, these dubious details must be received with extreme reserve. A stronger argument in favour of the Portuguese case is drawn from the existing Spanish text. In book I, chapters 40 and 42, it is recorded that the Infante Alphonso of Portugal suggested a radical change in the narrative of Briolanja's relations with Amadis. This prince has been identified as the Infante Alphonso who died in 1312, or as Alphonso IV. who ascended the Portuguese throne in 1325. Were either of these identifications established, the date of composition might be referred with certainty to the beginning of the 14th century or the end of the 13th. But both identifications are conjectural. Nevertheless the passage in the Spanish text undeniably lends some support to the Portuguese claim, and recent critics have inclined to the belief that Areadis de Gaula was written by Joao de Lobeira, a Galician knight who frequented the Portuguese court between 1258 and 1285, and to whom are ascrihed two fragments of a poem in the Colocci-Brancuti Canzoniere (Nos. 240 and 240b) which reappears with some unimportant variants in Amadis de Gaula (book II, chapter 11). The coincidence may be held to account in some measure for the traditional association of a Lobeira with the authorship of Amadis de Gaula; but, though curious, it warrants no definite conclusion being drawn from it. Against the Portuguese claim it is argued that the Villancico corresponding to Joao de Lobeiro's poem is an interpolation in the Spanish text, that Portuguese prose was in a rudimentary stage of development at the period when — ex hypothesi — the romance was composed, and that the book was very popular in Spain almost a century before it is even mentioned in Portugal. Lastly, there is the incontrovertible fact that Amidis de Gaula exists in Castilian, while it remains to be proved that it ever existed in Portuguese. As to its substance, it is beyond dispute that much of the text derives from the French romances of the Round Table; but the evidence does not enable us to say (1) whether it was pieced together from various French romances; (2) whether it was more or less literally translated from a lost French original; or (3) whether the first Peninsular adapter or translator was a Castilian or a Portuguese. On these points judgment must be suspended. There can, however, be no hesitation in accepting Cervantes' verdict on Amadis de Gaula as the "best of all the books of this kind that have ever been written.'' It is the prose epic of feudalism, and its romantic spirit, its high ideals, its fantastic gallantry, its ingenious adventures, its mechanism of symbolic wonders, and its flowing style have entranced readers of such various types as Francis I. and Charles V., Ariosto and Montaigne.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Carolina Michaelis de Vasconcellos and Gottfried Baist in the Grundriss der romanischen Philologie (Strassburg, 1897 ), ii. Band, 2. Abteiluna, pp. 216-226 and 440-442: Ludwig Braunfels, Kritischer Versuch uber den Roman Annadie von Glallien (Leipzig, 1876); Theophilo Braga, Historia das novelas portuguezas de cavalleria (Porto, 1873), Curso de litteratura e arte portugueza (Lisboa, 1881), and Questoes de litteratura e arte portugueza (Lisboa, 1885); Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo, Origenes de la novela (Madrid, 1905); Eugene Baret, De l,Amadis de Glaule et de son influence sur les moeurs et la litterature au XVIe et au XVIIe siecle (Paris, 1873). (J. F. K.)

AMADOU, a soft tough substance used as tinder, derived from Polyporus fomentarius, a fungus belonging to the group Basidiomycetes and somewhat resembling a mushroom in manner of growth. It grows upon old trees, especially the oak, ash, fir and cherry. The fungus is cut into slices and then steeped in a solution of nitre. Amadou is prepared on the continent of Europe, chiefly in Germany, but the fungus is a native of Britain. Polyporus igniarius and other species are also used, but yield an inferior product.

AMAKUSA, an island belonging to Japan, 26 1/2 m. long and 13 1/2 in extreme width, situated about 32 deg. 20' N., and 130 deg. E. long., on the west of the province of Higo (island of Kiushiu), from which it is separated by the Yatsushiro-kai. It has no high mountains, but its surface being very hilly — four of the peaks rise to a height over 1500 ft. — the natives resort to the terrace system of cultivation with remarkable success. A number of the heads of the Christians executed in connexion with the Shimabara rebellion in the first half of the 17th century were buried in this island. Amakusa produces a little coal and fine kaolin, which was largely used in former times by the potters of Hirado and Satsuma.

AMAL, the name of the noblest family among the Ostrogoths, and that from which nearly all their kings were chosen.

AMALARIC (d. 531), king of the Visigoths, son of Alaric II., was a child when his father fell in battle against Clovis, king of the Franks (507). He was carried for safety into Spain, which country and Provence were thenceforth ruled by his maternal grandfather, Theodoric the Ostrogoth, acting through his vice- gerent, an Ostrogothic nobleman named Theudis. In 522 the young Amalaric was proclaimed king, and four years later, on Theodoric's death, he assumed full royal power in Spain and a part of Languedoc, relinquishing Provence to his cousin Athalaric. He married Clotilda, daughter of Clovis; but his disputes with her, he being an Arian and she a Catholic, brought on him the penalty of a Frankish invasion, in which he lost his life in 531.

AMALASUNTHA or AMALASUENTHA, queen of the Ostrogoths (d. 535), daughter of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, was married in 515 to Eutharic, an Ostrogoth of the old Areal line, who had previously been living in Spain. Her husband died, apparently in the early years of her marriage, leaving her with two children, Athalaricand Matasuentha. On the death of her father in 526, she succeeded him, acting as regent for her son, but being herself deeply imbued with the old Roman culture, she gave to that son's education a more refined and literary turn than suited the ideas of her Gothic subjects. Conscious of her unpopularity she banished, and afterwards put to death, three Gothic nobles whom she suspected of intriguing against her rule, and at the same time opened negotiations with the emperor Justinian with the view of removing herself and the Gothic treasure to Constantinople. Her son's death in 534 made but little change in the posture of affairs. Amalasuntha, now queen, with a view of strengthening her position, made her cousin Theodahad partner of her throne (not, as sometimes stated, her husband, for his wife was still living). The choice was unfortunate. Theodahad, notwithstanding a varnish of literary culture, was a coward and a scoundrel. He fostered the disaffection of the Goths, and either by his orders or with his permission, Amalasuntha was imprisoned on an island in the Tuscan lake of Bolsena, where in the spring of 535 she was murdered in her bath.

The letters of Cassiodorus, chief minister and literary adviser of Amalasuntha, and the histories of Procopius and Jordanea, give us our chief information as to the character of Amalauentha.

AMALEKITES, an ancient tribe, or collection of tribes, in the south and south-east of Palestine, often mentioned in the Old Testament as foes of the Israelites. They were regarded as a branch of the Edomites (Gen. xxxvi. 12, see EDOM), and appear to have numbered among their divisions the Kenites. When the Israelites were journeying from Egypt to the land of Canaan, the Amalekites are said to have taken advantage of their weak condition to harry the stragglers in the rear, and as a judgment for their hostility it was ordained that their memory should be blotted out from under heaven (Deut. xxv. 17-19). An allusion to this appears in the account of Israel's defeat on the occasion of the attempt to force a passage from Kadesh through Hormah, evidently into Palestine (Num. xiv. 43-45, cp. Deut. i. 44-46). The statements are obscure, and elsewhere Hormah is the scene of a victory over the Canaanites by Israel (Num. xxi. 1-3), or by the tribes Judah and Simeon (Judg. i. 17). The question is further complicated by the account of Joshua's overthrow of Amalek apparently in the Sinaitic peninsula. The event was commemorated by the erection of the altar "Yahwehnissi'' ("Yahweh my banner'' or "memorial''), and rendered even more memorable by the utterance, "Yahweh hath sworn: Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation'' (Ex. xvii. 8-16, on its present position, see EXODUS [BOOK]). The same sentiment recurs in Yahweh's command to Saul to destroy Amalek utterly for its hostility to Israel (1 Sam. xv.), and in David's retaliatory expedition when he distributed among his friends the spoil of the "enemies of Yahweh'' (xxx. 26). Saul himself, according to one tradition, was slain by an Amalekite (2 Sam. i., contrast 1 Sam. xxxi.). A similar spirit appears among the prophecies ascribed to Balaam: "Amalek, first (or chief) of nations, his latter end [will be] destruction'' (Num. xxiv. 20).

The district of Amalek lay to the south of Judah (cp. I Chron. iv. 42 seq.), probably between Kadesh and Hormah (cp. Gen. xiv. 7; 1 Sam. xv. 7, xxvii. 8), and the interchange of the ethnic with "Canaanites'' and "Amorites'' suggests that the Amalekites are merely one of Israel's traditional enemies of the older period. Hence we find them taking part with Ammonites and Midianites (Judg. iii. 13, vi. 3), and their king Agag, slain by Samuel as a sacrificial offering (1 Sam. xv. 9), was a byword for old-time might and power (Num. xxiv. 7). Even in one of the Psalms (lxxxiii. 7) Amalek is mentioned among the enemies of Israel — just as Greek writers of the 6th century of this era applied the old term Scythians to the Goths (Noldeke), — and the traditional hostility between Saul and Amalek is reflected still later in the book of Esther where Haman the Agagite is pitted against Mordecai the Benjamite.

Twice Amalek seems to be mentioned as occupying central Palestine (Judg. v. 14, xii. 15), but the passages are textually uncertain. The name is celebrated in Arabian tradition, but the statements regarding them are confused and conflicting, and for historical purposes are practically worthless, as has been proved by Th. Noldeke (Uleber die Amalekiter, Gottingen, 1864). On the biblical data, see also E. Meyer, Die Israeliten (Index, s.v..) (S. A. C.) AMALFI, a town and archiepiscopal see of Campania, Italy, in the province of Salerno, from the town of which name it is distant 12 m. W.S.W. by road, on the N. coast of the Gulf of Salerno. Pop. (1901) 6681. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, in a sheltered situation, at the foot of Monte Cerreto (4314 ft.), in the centre of splendid coast scenery, and is in consequence much visited by foreigners. The cathedral of S. Andrea is a structure in the Lombard-Norman style, of the 11th century; the facade in black and white stone was well restored in 1891; the bronze doors were executed at Constantinople before 1066. The campanile dates from 1276. The interior is also fine, and contains ancient columns and sarcophagi. The conspicuous Capuchin monastery on the W. with fine cloisters (partly destroyed by a landslip in 1899) is now used as an hotel. Amalfi is first mentioned in the 6th century, and soon acquired importance as a naval power; in the 9th century it shared with Venice and Gaeta the Italian trade with the East, and in 848 its fleet went to the assistance of Pope Leo IV. against the Saracens.

It was then an independent republic with a population of some 70,000, but in 1131 it was reduced by King Roger of Sicily. In 1135 and 1137 it was taken by the Pisans, and rapidly declined in importance, though its maritime code, known as the Tavole Amalfitane, was recognized in the Mediterranean until 1570. In 1343 a large part of the town was destroyed by an inundation, and its harbour is now of little importance. Its industries too, have largely disappeared, and the paper manufacture has lost ground since 1861.

AMALGAM, the name applied to alloys which contain mercury. It is said by Andreas Libavius to be a corruption of malagma; in the alchemists the form algamala is also found. Many amalgams are formed by the direct contact of a metal with mercury, sometimes with absorption, sometimes with evolution, of heat. Other methods are to place the metal and mercury together in dilute acid, to add mercury to the solution of a metallic salt, to place a metal in a solution of mercuric nitrate, or to electrolyse a metallic salt using mercury as the negative electrode. Some amalgams are liquids, especially when containing a large proportion of mercury; others assume a crystalline form. In some cases definite compounds have been isolated from amalgams which may be regarded as mixtures of one or more of such compounds with mercury in excess. In general these compounds are decomposable by heat, but some of them, such as those of gold, silver, copper and the alkali metals, even when heated above the boiling point of mercury retain mercury and leave residues of definite composition. Tin amalgam is used for "silvering'' mirrors, gold and silver amalgam in gilding and silvering, cadmium and copper amalgam in dentistry, and an amalgam of zinc and tin for the rubbers of electrical machines; the zinc plates of electric batteries are amalgamated in order to reduce polarization.

AMALRIC, the name of two kings of Jerusalem. AMALRIC I., king from 1162 to 1174, was the son of Fulk of Jerusalem, and the brother of Baldwin III. He was twice married: by his first wife, Agnes of Edessa, he had issue a son and a daughter, Baldwin IV. and Sibylla, while his second wife, Maria Comnena, bore him a daughter Isabella, who ultimately carried the crown of Jerusalem to her fourth husband, Amalric of Lusignan (Amalric II.). The reign of Amalric I. was occupied by the Egyptian problem. It became a question between Amalric and Nureddin, which of the two should control the discordant viziers, who vied with one another for the control of the decadent caliphs of Egypt. The acquisition of Egypt had been an object of the Franks since the days of Baldwin I. (and indeed of Godfrey himself, who had promised to cede Jerusalem to the patriarch Dagobert as soon as he should himself acquire Cairo). The capture of Ascakm by Baldwin III. in 1153 made this object more feasible; and we find the Hospitallers preparing sketch-maps of the routes best suited for an invasion of Egypt, in the style of a modern war office. On the other hand, it was natural for Nureddin to attempt to secure Egypt, both because it was the terminus of the trading route which ran from Damascus and because the acquisition of Egypt would enable him to surround the Latin kingdom. For some five years a contest was waged between Amalric and Shirguh (Shirkuh), the lieutenant of Nureddin, for the possession of Egypt. Thrice (1164, 1167, 1168) Amalric penetrated into Egypt: but the contest ended in the establishment of Saladin, the nephew of Shirguh, as vizier — a position which, on the death of the puppet caliph in 1171, was turned into that of sovereign. The extinction of the Latin kingdom might now seem imminent; and envoys were sent to the West with anxious appeals for assistance in 1169, 1171 and 1173. But though in 1170 Saladin attacked the kingdom, and captured Aila on the Red Sea, the danger was not so great as it seemed. Nureddin was jealous of his over-mighty subject, and his jealousy bound Saladin's hands. This was the position of affairs when Amalric died, in 1174; but, as Nureddin died in the same year, the position was soon altered and Saladin began the final attack on the kingdom. Amalric I., the second of the native kings of Jerusalem, had the qualities of his brother Baldwin III. (q.v.) He was something of a scholar, and it was he who set William of Tyre to work. He was perhaps still more of a lawyer: his delight was in knotty points of the law, and he knew the Assises better than any of his subjects. The Church had some doubts of him, and he laid his hands on the Church. William of Tyre was once astonished to find him questioning, on a bed of sickness, the resurrection of the body; and his taxation of clerical goods gave umbrage to the clergy generally. But he maintained the state of his kingdom with the resources which he owed to the Church; and he is the last in the fine list of the early kings of Jerusalem.

William of Tyre is our original authority: see xix. 2-3 for his sketch of Amalric. Rohricht narrates the reign of Amalric I., Geschichte des Konigreichs Jerusalem, c. xvii.-xviii.

Amalric II., king from 1197 to 1205, was the brother of Guy of Lusignan. He had been constable of Jerusalem, but in 1194, on the death of his brother, he became king of Cyprus, as Amalric I. He married Isabella, the daughter of Amalric I. by his second marriage, and became king of Jerusalem in right of his wife in 1197. In 1198 he was able to procure a five years' truce with the Mahommedans, owing to the struggle between Saladin's brothers and his sons for the inheritance of his territories. The truce was disturbed by raids on both sides, but in 1204 it was renewed for six years. Amalric died in 1205, just after his son and just before his wife. The kingdom of Cyprus passed to Hugh, his son by an earlier marriage, while that of Jerusalem passed to Maria, the daughter of Isabella by her previous marriage with Conrad of Montferrat. (E. B. R.)

AMALRIC (Fr. AMAURY) OF BENA (d.c. 1204-1207), French theologian, was born in the latter part of the 12th century at Bena, a village in the diocese of Chartres. He taught philosophy and theology at the university of Paris and enjoyed a great reputation as a subtle dialectician; his lectures developing the philosophy of Aristotle attracted a large circle of hearers. In 1204 his doctrines were condemned by the university, and, on a personal appeal to Pope Innocent III., the sentence was ratified, Amalric being ordered to return to Paris and recant his errors. His death was caused, it is said, by grief at the humiliation to which he had been subjected. In 1209 ten of his followers were burnt before the gates of Paris, and Amalric's own body was exhumed and burnt and the ashes given to the winds. The doctrines of his followers, known as the Amalricians, were formally condemned by the fourth Lateran Council in 1215. Amalric appears to have derived his philosophical system from Erigena (q.v.), whose principles he developed in a one-sided and strongly pantheistic form. Three propositions only can with certainty be attributed to him: (1) that God is all; (2) that every Christian is bound to believe that he is a member of the body of Christ, and that this belief is necessary for salvation: (3) that he who remains in love of God can commit no sin. These three propositions were further developed by his followers, who maintained that God revealed Himself in a threefold revelation, the first in Abraham, marking the epoch of the Father; the second in Christ, who began the epoch of the Son; and the third in Amalric and his disciples, who inaugurated the era of the Holy Ghost. Under the pretext that a true believer could commit no sin, the Amalricians indulged in every excess, and the sect does not appear to have long survived the death of its founder.

See W. Preger, Gleschichte der deutschen Mystik im Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1874, i. 167-173); Haureau, Hist. de la phil. scol. (Paris, 1872); C. Schmidt, Hist. de l'Eglise d'Occident itendant le moyen age (Paris, 1885); Hefele, Conciliengesch. (2nd ed., Ereiburg, 1886).

AMALTEO, the name of an Italian family belonging to Oderzo, Treviso, several members of which were distinguished in literature. The best known are three brothers, Geronimo (1507-1574), Giambattista (1525-1573) and Cornelio (1530-1603), whose Latin poems were published in one collection under the title Trium Fralrum Amaltheorum Carmina (Venice, 1627; Amst., 1689). The eldest brother, Geronimo, was a celebrated physician; the second, Giambattista, accompanied a Venetian embassy to England in 1554, and was secretary to Pius IV. at the council of Trent; the third, Cornelio, was a physician and secretary to the republic of Ragusa.

AMALTEO, POMPONIO (1505-1584), Italian painter of the Venetian school, was born at San Vito in Friuli. He was a pupil and son-in-law of Pordenone, whose style he closely imitated. His works consist chiefly of frescoes and altar-pieces and many of them (e.g. in the church of Santa Maria de' Battisti, at San Vito) have suffered greatly from the ravages of time.

AMALTHEIA, in Greek mythology, the foster-mother of Zeus. She is sometimes represented as the goat which suckled the infant-god in a cave in Crete, sometimes as a nymph of uncertain parentage (daughter of Oceanus, Haemonius, Olen, Melisseus), who brought him up on the milk of a goat. This goat having broken off one of its horns, Amaltheia filled it with flowers and fruits and presented it to Zeus, who placed it together with the goat amongst the stars. According to another story, Zeus himself broke off the horn and gave it to Amaltheia, promising that it would supply whatever she desired in abundance. Amaltheia gave it to Acholous (her reputed brother), who exchanged it for his own horn which had been broken off in his contest with Heracles for the possession of Deianeira. According to ancient mythology, the owners of the horn were many and various. Speaking generally, it was regarded as the symbol of inexhaustible riches and plenty, and became the attribute of various divinities (Hades, Gaea, Demeter, Cybele, Hermes), and of rivers (the Nile) as fertilizers of the land. The term "horn of Amaltheia'' is applied to a fertile district, and an estate belonging to Titus Pomponius Atticus was called Amaltheum. Cretan coins represent the infant Zeus being suckled by the goat; other Greek coins exhibit him suspended from its teats or carried in the arms of a nymph (Ovid, Fasti, v. 115; Metam. ix. 87).

AMANA, a township in Iowa county, Iowa, U.S.A., 19 m. S.W. (by rail) of Cedar Rapids. Pop. (1900) 1748; (1910) 1729. It is served by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railways. The township is the home of a German religious communistic society, the Amana Society, formerly the True Inspiration Society (so called from its belief in the present inspiration of the truly godly and perfectly pious), whose members live in various villages near the Iowa river. These villages are named Amana, West Amana, South Amana, East Amana, Middle Amana, High Amana and Homestead. The houses are of brick or unpainted wood. The society has in all 26,000 acres of land, of which about 10,000 acres are covered with forests. The principal occupation of the members is farming, although they also have woollen mills (their woollens being of superior quality), a cotton print factory, flour mills, saw mills and dye shops. Each family has its own dwelling-place and a small garden; each member of a family has an annual allowance of credit at the common store and a room in the dwelling-house; and each group of families has a large garden, a common kitchen and a common dining hall where men and women eat at separate tables. Between the ages of five and fourteen education is compulsory for the entire year. In the schools nature study and manual training are prominent; German is used throughout and English is taught in upper classes only. No man is permitted to marry until twenty-four years of age, and no woman until twenty. The society's views and practices are nearly related to the teachings of Schwenkfeld and Boehme. Baptism is not practised; the Lord's Supper is celebrated only once in two years; foot-washing is held as a sacrament. At an annual spiritual examination of the members, there are mutual criticisms and public confessions of sin. The Inspirationists are opposed to war and to taking of oaths. The Society became attached to the Separatist leader, Eberhard Ludwig Gruber (d. 1728) in Wetterau in 1714; in 1842-1844 about 600 members, led by Christian Metz, the "divine instrument'' of the Society, emigrated from Germany to the United States and settled in a colony called Ebenezer, in Erie county, near Buffalo, N.Y.; in 1855 the colony began to remove to its present home, which it named from the mountain mentioned in the Song of Solomon, iv. 8, the Hebrew word meaning "remain true'' (or, more probably, "fixed''), and in 1859 it was incorporated under the, name of the Amana Society. Metz died in 1864 and was succeeded by Barbara Landmann, since whose death in 1884 the community has lacked an inspired leader. Amana was the strongest in numbers of the few sectarian communities in America which outlived the 19th century. A few new members have joined the community from Switzerland and Germany in recent years. In 1905 the community won a suit brought against it for its dissolution on the ground that, having been incorporated solely as a benevolent and religious body, it was illegally carrying on a general business.

See W. R. Perkins and B. L. Wick, History of the Amana Society or Community of True Inspiration, Historical Monograph, No. 1, in State University of Iowa publications (Iowa City, 1891); R. T. Ely, "Amana: A Study of Religious Communism,'' in Harper's Magazine for October 1902; and Bertha M. H. Shambaugh, Amana, the Community of True Inspiration (Iowa City, 1908).

AMANITA. The amanitas include some of the most showy representatives of the Agaricineae or mushroom order of fungi (q.v.). In the first stages of growth, they are completely enveloped by an outer covering called the veil. As the plant develops the veil is ruptured; the lower portion forms a sheath or volva round the base of the stem, while the upper portion persists as white patches or scales or warts on the surface of the cap. The stem usually bears an upper ring of tissue, the



Amanita muscaria. A, the young plant. g, the gills. B, the mature plant. a, the annulus, or remnant of C, longitudinal section of mature velum partiale. plant. v, remains of volva or velum p, the pileus. universale. s, the stalk.

remains of an inner veil, that stretched from the stem to the edge of the cap and broke away from the cap as the latter expanded. The presence of the volva, and the clear white gills and spores, distinguish this genus from all other agarics. They are beautiful objects in the autumn woods; Amanita muscaria, the fly fungus, formerly known as Agaricus muscarius, being especially remarkable by its bright red cap covered with white warts. Others are pure white or of varying shades of yellow or green. There are sixteen British species of Amanita; they grow on the ground in or near woods. Several of the species are very poisonous.

AMANUENSIS (a Latin word, derived from the phrase servus a manu, slave of the hand, a secretary), one who writes, from dictation or otherwise, on behalf of another.

AMAPALA, the only port on the Pacific coast of Honduras, on the northern shore of Tigre island, in the Bay of Fonseca (q.v.); in 13 deg. 3, N., and 87 deg. 94 W. Pop. (1905) about 4000. Amapala was founded in 1838, and its port was opened and declared free in 1868. The roadstead is perfectly sheltered and so deep that the largest vessels can lie within a few yards of the shore. It is the natural outlet for the commerce of some of the richest parts of Honduras, Nicaragua and Salvador; and during the 19th century it exported large quantities of gold, silver and other ores, although its progress was retarded by the delay in constructing a transcontinental railway from Puerto Cortes. Its depots on the mainland, both about 30 m. distant,

are La Brea, for the line to Puerto Cortes, and San Lorenzo, for Tegucigalpa. Silver is still exported, in addition to hides, timber, coffee and indigo, and there are valuable fisheries.

AMARANTH, or AMARANG (from the Gr. amarantos, unwithering), a name chiefly used in poetry, and applied to certain plants which, from not soon fading, typified immortality. Thus Milton (Paradise Lost, iii. 353) —

"Immortal amarant, a flower which once In paradise, fast by the tree of life, Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows, And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life, And where the river of bliss through midst of heaven Rolls o'er elysian flowers her amber stream: With these that never fade the spirits elect Bind their resplendent locks.'' It should be noted that the proper spelling of the word is amarant; the more common spelling seems to have come from a hazy notion that the final syllable is the Greek word anthos, "flower,'' which enters into a vast number of botanical names.

The plant genus Amarantus (natural order Amarantaceae) contains several well-known garden plants, such as love-lies- bleeding (A. caudatus), a native of India, a vigorous hardy annual, with dark purplish flowers crowded in handsome drooping spikes. Another species A. hypochondriacus, is prince's feather, another Indian annual, with deeply-veined lance-shaped leaves, purple on the under face, and deep crimson flowers densely packed on erect spikes. "Globe amaranth'' belongs to an allied genus, Gomphrena, and is also a native of India. It is an annual about 18 in. high, with solitary round heads of flowers; the heads are violet from the colour of the bracts which surround the small flowers.

In ancient Greece the amaranth (also called chrusanthemon and elichrusos) was sacred to Ephesian Artemis. It was supposed to have special healing properties, and as a symbol of immortality was used to decorate images of the gods and tombs. In legend, Amarynthus (a form of Amarantus) was a hunter of Artemis and king of Euboea; in a village of Amarynthus, of which he was the eponymous hero, there was a famous temple of Artemis Amarynthia or Amarysia (Strabo x. 448; Pausan. i. 31, p. 5).

See Lenz, Botanik der alt. Greich. und Rom. (1859); J. Murr, Die Pflanzenwelt in der griech. Mythol. (1890).

AMARAPURA ("the city of the gods''), formerly the capital of the Burmese kingdom, now a suburb of Mandalay, Burma, with a population in 1901 of 9103. The town was founded in 1783 to form a new capital about 6 m. to the north-east of Ava. It increased rapidly in size and population, and in 1810 was estimated to contain 170,000 inhabitants; but in that year the town was destroyed by fire, and this disaster, together with the removal of the native court to Ava in 1823, caused a decline in the prosperity of the place. In 1827 its population was estimated at only 30,000. It suffered severe calamity from an earthquake, which in 1839 destroyed the greater part of the city. It was finally abandoned in 1860, when king Mindon occupied Mandalay, 5 or 6 m. farther north. Amarapura was laid out on much the same plan as Ava. The ruins of the city wall, now overgrown with jungle, show it to have been a square with a side of about three-quarters of a mile in length. At each corner stood a solid brick pagoda about 100 ft. high. The most remarkable edifice was a celebrated temple, adorned with 250 lofty pillars of gilt wood, and containing a colossal bronze statue of Buddha. The remains of the former palace of the Burmese monarchs still survive in the centre of the town. During the time of its prosperity Amarapura was defended by a rampart and a large square citadel, with a broad moat, the walls being 7000 ft. long and 20 ft. high, with a bastion at each corner. The Burmans know it now as Myohaung, "the old city.'' It has a station on the Rangoon-Mandalay railway, and is the junction for the line to Maymyo and the Kunlong ferry and for the Sagaing-Myitkyina railway. The group of villages called Amarapura by Europeans is known to the Burmans as Taung-myo, "the southern city,'' as distinguished from Mandalay, the Myauk-myo, or "northern city,'' 3 m. distant.

AMARAR, a tribe of African "Arabs'' inhabiting the mountainous country on the west side of the Red Sea from Suakin northwards towards Kosseir. Between them and the Nile are the Ababda and Bisharin tribes and to their south dwell the Hadendoa. The country of the Amarar is called the Etbai. Their headquarters are in the Ariab district. The tribe is divided into four great famines: (1) Weled Gwilei, (2) Weled Aliab, (3) Woled Kurbab Wagadab, and (4) the Amarar proper of the Ariab district. They claim to be of Koreish blood and to be the descendants of an invading Arab army. Possibly some small bands of Koreish Arabs may have made an inroad and converted some of the Amarar to Islam. Further than this there is little to substantiate their claim.

See Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, edited by Count Gleichen (London, 1905): Sir F. R. Wingate, Mahdism and the Egyptian Sudan (London, 1891); A. H. Keane, Ethnology of Egyptian Sudan (London, 1884).

AMARA SINHA (c. A.D. 375), Sanskrit grammarian and poet, of whose personal history hardly anything is known. He is said to have been "one of the nine gems that adorned the throne of Vikramaditya,'' and according to the evidence of Hsuan Tsang, this is the Chandragupta Vikramaditya that flourished about A.D. 375. Amara seems to have been a Buddhist; and an early tradition asserts that his works, with one exception, were destroyed during the persecution carried on by the orthodox Brahmins in the 5th century. The exception is the celebrated Amara-Xosha (Treasury of Amara), a vocabulary of Sanskrit roots, in three books, and hence sometimes called Trikanda or the "Tripartite.'' It contains 10,000 words, and is arranged, like other works of its class, in metre, to aid the memory. The first chapter of the Kosha was printed at Rome in Tamil character in 1798. An edition of the entire work, with English notes and an index by H. T. Colebrooke, appeared at Serampore in 1808. The Sanskrit text was printed at Calcutta in 1831. A French translation by A. L. A. Loiseleur-Deslongchamps as published at Paris in 1839.

AMARI, MICHELE (1806-1889), Italian orientalist and patriot, was born at Palermo. From his earliest youth he imbibed liberal principles from his relatives, especially from his grandfather, and although at the age of fourteen he was appointed clerk in the Bourbon civil service, he joined the Carbonari like many other young Sicilians and actively sympathized with the revolution of 1820. The movement, which was separatist in its tendencies, was quickly suppressed, but the conspiracies continued, and Amari's father, implicated in that of 1822, was arrested and condemned to death together with many others; but his sentence was commuted to imprisonment, and in 1834 he was liberated. Michele Amari still held his clerkship, but he regarded the Neapolitan government with increasing hatred, and he led a life of active physical exercise to train himself for the day of revolution. He devoted much of his time to the study of English and of history; his first literary essay was a translation of Sir Walter Scott's Marmion (1832), and in 1839 he published a work on the Sicilian Vespers, entitled Hn Periodo delle storie Siciliane del XIII. secolo, filled with political allusions reflecting unfavourably on the government. The book had an immediate success and went through many editions, but it brought the author under the suspicion of the authorities, and in 1842 he escaped from a boat just as he was about to be arrested. He settled in Paris, where he came in contact with a number of literary men, such as Michelet and Thierry, as well as with the Italian exiles. Having no private means he had to earn a precarious livelihood by literature. He was much struck with certain French translations of Arabic works on Sicily,which awoke in him a desire to read the authors in the original. With the assistance of Prof. Reinaud and Baron de Slane he soon acquired great proficiency in Arabic, and his translations and editions of oriental texts, as well as his historical essays, made him a reputation. In 1844 he began his great work La Storia dei Musulmani in Sicilia, but the revolution of 1848 plunged him into politics once more. His pamphlet, Quelques Observations sur le droit public de la Sicile, advocating the revival of the 1812 constitution for the island, met with great success, and on arriving at Palermo,

whence the Bourbon government had been expelled, he was chosen member of the war committee and appointed professor of public law at the university. At the general elections Amari was returned for Palermo and became minister of finance in the Stabile cabinet. On its fall he was sent to Paris and London to try to obtain help for the struggling island; having failed in his mission he returned to Sicily in 1849, hoping to fight. But the Neapolitan troops had re-occupied the island, the Liberals were in disagreement among themselves, and Amari with several other notables with difficulty escaped to Malta. Characteristic of his scholarly nature is the fact that he delayed his flight to take the impress of an important Arabic inscription. He returned to Paris, sad and dejected at the collapse of the movement, and devoted himself once more to his Arabic studies. He published a work on the chronology of the Koran, for which he received a prize from the Academie des Inscriptions, edited the Solwan el Mota by Ibn Zafer (a curious collection of philosophical thoughts) and Ibn Haukal's Description og Palermo, and in 1854 the first volume of his history of the Mahommedans in Sicily appeared. He received a meagre stipend for cataloguing the Arabic MSS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale, and he contributed many articles to the reviews. Although a firm friend of Mazzini, he discouraged the latter's premature conspiracies. In 1859, after the expulsion of the central Italian despots, Amari was appointed professor of Arabic at Pisa and afterwards at Florence. But when Garibaldi and his thousand had conquered Sicily, Amari returned to his native island, and was given an appointment in the government. Although intensely Sicilian in sentiment, he became one of the staunchest advocates of the union of Sicily with Italy, and was subsequently made senator of the kingdom at Cavour's instance. He was minister of education in the Farini and Minghetti cabinets, but on the fall of the latter in 1864, he resumed his professorship at Florence and spent the rest of his life in study. His circle of acquaintances, both in Italy and abroad, was very large, and his sound scholarship was appreciated in all countries. He died in 1889, loaded with honours. The last volume of his Storia dei Musulmani appeared in 1873, and in addition to the above-mentioned works he published many others on oriental and historical subjects. His work on the Sicilian Vespers was re-written as La Guerra dei Vespro (9th ed., Milan, 1886). He was the pioneer of Arabic studies in modern Italy, and he still remains the standard authority on the Mussulman domination in Sicily, though his judgment on religious questions is sometimes warped by a violently anti-clerical bias.