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Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 7

"Arundel, Thomas" to "Athens"

Author: Various

Release Date: November 4, 2010 [EBook #34209]

Language: English

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THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INFORMATION

ELEVENTH EDITION

 

VOLUME II SLICE VII

Arundel, Thomas to Athens

 

Articles in This Slice

ARUNDEL, THOMAS ASSAB ARUNDEL

(town)

ASSAM ARUNDELL OF WARDOUR, THOMAS ARUNDELL ASSAMESE ARUSIANUS MESSIUS ASSAROTTI, OTTAVIO GIOVANNI BATTISTA ARVAL BROTHERS ASSARY ARVALS ASSASSIN ARVERNI ASSAULT ARYAN ASSAYE ARYA SAMAJ ASSAYING ARYTENOID ASSEGAI ARZAMAS ASSELIJN, HANS AS ASSEMANI ASA ASSEMBLY, UNLAWFUL ASAFETIDA ASSEN ASAF-UD-DOWLAH ASSER ASAPH ASSESSMENT ASBESTOS ASSESSOR ASBJÖRNSEN, PETER CHRISTEN ASSETS ASBURY, FRANCIS ASSIDEANS ASBURY PARK ASSIGNATS ASCALON ASSIGNMENT ASCANIUS ASSINIBOIA ASCENSION ASSINIBOIN ASCENSION, FEAST OF THE ASSISE ASCETICISM ASSISI ASCHAFFENBURG ASSIUT ASCHAM, ROGER ASSIZE ASCHERSLEBEN ASSMANNSHAUSEN ASCIANO ASSOCIATE ASCITANS ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS ASCITES ASSONANCE ASCLEPIADES

(Greek physician)

ASSUAN ASCLEPIADES

(of Samos)

ASSUMPSIT ASCLEPIODOTUS ASSUMPTION, FEAST OF ASCOLI, GRAZIADIO ISAIA ASSUR

(land of Assyria)

ASCOLI PICENO ASSUR

(capital of Assyria)

ASCONIUS PEDIANUS, QUINTUS ASSUR

(god of Assyria)

ASCOT ASSUR-BANI-PAL ASCUS ASSUS ASELLI, GASPARO ASSYRIA ASGILL, JOHN AST, GEORG ANTON FRIEDRICH ASH ASTARA A‘SHĀ ASTARABAD ASHANTI ASTARTE ASH‘ARĪ ASTELL, MARY ASHBOURNE ASTER ASHBURNHAM, JOHN ASTERIA ASHBURTON, ALEXANDER BARING ASTERID ASHBURTON, JOHN DUNNING ASTERISK ASHBURTON

(river)

ASTERIUS

(of Cappadocia)

ASHBURTON

(town)

ASTERIUS

(bishop of Amasia)

ASHBY, TURNER ASTHMA ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH ASTI A-SHE-HO ASTLEY, JACOB ASTLEY ASHER ASTLEY, SIR JOHN DUGDALE ’ASHER BEN-YEHIEL ASTON, ANTHONY ASHEVILLE ASTON MANOR ASHFORD ASTOR, JOHN JACOB ‘ASHI ASTORGA, EMANUELE D’ ASHINGTON ASTORGA

(city)

’ASHKENAZI, SEBI ASTORIA ASHLAND

(Kentucky, U.S.A.)

ASTRAEA ASHLAND

(Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

ASTRAGAL ASHLAND

(Virginia, U.S.A.)

ASTRAKHAN

(government of Russia)

ASHLAND

(Wisconsin, U.S.A.)

ASTRAKHAN

(town of Russia)

ASHLAR ASTROLABE ASHLEY, WILLIAM JAMES ASTROLOGY ASHMOLE, ELIAS ASTRONOMY ASHRAF ASTROPALIA ASHREF ASTROPHYSICS ASHTABULA ASTRUC, JEAN ASHTON-IN-MAKERFIELD ASTURA ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE ASTURIAS ASH WEDNESDAY ASTYAGES ASHWELL, LENA ASTYLAR ASIA

(continent)

ASUNCIÓN ASIA

(Roman province)

ASVINS ASIA MINOR ASYLUM ASIENTO ASYLUM, RIGHT OF ASIR ATACAMA ASISIUM ATACAMA, DESERT OF ASKABAD ATACAMITE ASKAULES ATAHUALLPA ASKE, ROBERT ATALANTA ASKEW, ANNE ATARGATIS AṢMA‘Ī ATAULPHUS ASMARA ATAVISM ASMODEUS ATBARA ASMONEUS ATCHISON ASNIÈRES ATE ASOKA ATELLA ASOLO ATELLANAE FABULAE ASOR ATESTE ASP ATH ASPARAGINE ATHABASCA ASPARAGUS ATHALARIC ASPASIA ATHALIAH ASPASIUS ATHAMAS ASPEN ATHANAGILD ASPENDUS ATHANARIC ASPER, AEMILIUS ATHANASIUS ASPER, HANS ATHAPASCAN ASPERGES ATHARVA VEDA ASPERN-ESSLING ATHEISM ASPHALT ATHELM ASPHODEL ATHELNEY ASPHYXIA ATHENA ASPIC ATHENAEUM ASPIDISTRA ATHENAEUS ASPIROTRICHACEAE ATHENAGORAS ASPIROZ, MANUEL DE ATHENODORUS ASPROMONTE ATHENRY ASQUITH, HERBERT HENRY ATHENS

(Greece)

ASS ATHENS

(Georgia, U.S.A.)

ASS, FEAST OF THE ATHENS

(Ohio, U.S.A.)

ARUNDEL, THOMAS (1353-1414), archbishop of Canterbury, was the third son of Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel and Warenne, by his second wife, Eleanor, daughter of Henry Plantagenet, earl of Lancaster. His family was an old and influential one, and when Thomas entered the church his preferment was rapid. In 1373 he became archdeacon of Taunton, and in April 1374 was consecrated bishop of Ely. During the early years of the reign of King Richard II. he was associated with the party led by Thomas, duke of Gloucester, Henry, earl of Derby, afterwards King Henry IV., and his own brother Richard, earl of Arundel, and in 1386 he was sent with Gloucester to Eltham to persuade Richard to return to parliament. This mission was successful, and Arundel was made lord chancellor in place of Michael de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, and assisted to make peace between the king and the supporters of the commission of regency. In April 1388 he was made archbishop of York, and, when Richard declared himself of age in 1389, he gave up the office of chancellor, to which, however, he returned in 1391. During his second tenure of this office he removed the courts of justice from London to York, but they were soon brought back to the metropolis. In September 1396 he was translated from York to Canterbury, and again resigned the office of chancellor. He began his new rule by a vigorous attempt to assert his rights, warned the citizens of London not to withhold tithes, and decided appeals from the judgments of his suffragans during a thorough visitation of his province. In November 1396 he had officiated at the marriage of Richard and Isabella, daughter of Charles VI., king of France, and his fall was the sequel of the king’s sudden attack upon the lords appellant in 1397. After the arrest of Gloucester, Warwick and Arundel, the archbishop was impeached by the Commons with the king’s consent, although Richard, who had not yet revealed his hostility, held out hopes of safety to him. He was charged with assisting to procure the commission of regency in derogation of the royal authority, and sentence of banishment was passed, forty days being given him during which to leave the realm. Towards the end of 1397 he started for Rome, and Pope Boniface IX., at the urgent request of the king, translated him to the see of St Andrews, a step which the pope afterwards confessed he repented bitterly. This translation virtually deprived Arundel of all authority, as St Andrews did not acknowledge Boniface. He then became associated with Henry of Lancaster, but did not return to England before 1399, and the account which Froissart gives telling how he was sent by the Londoners to urge Henry to come and assume the crown is thought to refer to his nephew and namesake, Thomas, earl of Arundel. Landing with Henry at Ravenspur, he accompanied him to the west. He took his place at once as archbishop of Canterbury, witnessed the abdication of Richard in the Tower of London, led the new king, Henry IV., to his throne in presence of the peers, and crowned him on the 13th of October 1399.

The main work of his later years was the defence of the church, and the suppression of heresy. To put down the Lollards, he called a meeting of the clergy, pressed on the statute de haeretico comburendo, and passed sentence of degradation upon William Sawtrey. He resisted the attempt of the parliament of 1404 to disendow the church, but failed to induce Henry to pardon Archbishop Scrope in 1405. In 1407 he became chancellor for the fourth time, and in 1408 summoned a council at Oxford, which drew up constitutions against the Lollards. These he published in January 1409, and among them was one forbidding the translation of the Bible into English without the consent of the bishop of the diocese, or of a provincial synod. In 1411 he went on an embassy abroad, and in 1412 became chancellor again, his return to power being accompanied by a change in the foreign policy of Henry IV. In 1397 he had sought to vindicate his right of visitation over the university of Oxford, but the dispute remained unsettled until 1411 when a bull was issued by Pope John XXIII. recalling one issued by Pope Boniface IX., which had exempted the university from the archbishop’s authority. In 1413 he took a leading part in the proceedings against Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, and in the following year he died on the 19th of February, and was buried at Canterbury. A legend of a later age tells how, just before his death, he was struck dumb for preventing the preaching of the word of God.

The chief authorities are T. Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, ed. by H.T. Riley (London, 1863-1864); Eulogium historiarum sive temporis, ed. by F.S. Haydon (London, 1858-1863); the Monk of Evesham, Historia vitae et regni Ricardi II., ed. by T. Hearne (Oxford, 1729); W.F. Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, vol. iv. (London, 1860-1876).

ARUNDEL, a market town and municipal borough in the Chichester parliamentary division of Sussex, England, 58 m. S.S.W. from London by the London, Brighton & South Coast railway. Pop. (1901) 2739. It is pleasantly situated on the slope of a hill above the river Arun, which is navigable for small vessels to Littlehampton at the mouth, 6 m. south. From the summit of the hill rises Arundel Castle, which guarded the passage along the river through the hills. For its connexion with the title of earl of Arundel see Arundel, Earldom of. A castle existed in the time of King Alfred, and at the time of the Conquest it was rebuilt by Roger de Montgomerie, but it was taken from his son, who rebelled against the reigning monarch, Henry I. In 1397 it was the scene of a conspiracy organized by the earl of Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury and duke of Gloucester, to dethrone Richard II. and murder the lords of his council, a plot which was discovered before it could be carried into execution. During the civil wars of the 17th century, the stronghold was frequently assaulted by the contending parties, and consequently greatly damaged; but it was restored by Charles, 11th duke of Norfolk (d. 1815), who made it what it now is, one of the most splendid baronial mansions in England. Extensive reconstruction, in the style of the 13th century, was undertaken towards the close of the 19th century. The town, according to the whimsical etymology shown on the corporation seal, takes its name from hirondelle (a swallow). The town hall is a castellated building, presented to the corporation by the duke of Norfolk. The church of St Nicholas, founded about 1375, is Perpendicular with a low tower rising from the centre. In the north aisle of the chancel there are several ancient monuments of the earls of Arundel. The church is otherwise remarkable for its reredos and iron work. The chancel is the property of the duke of Norfolk and is screened from the rest of the building, although in 1880 this exercise of right by the owner was made the subject of an action at law and subsequent appeal. The Roman Catholic church of St Philip Neri was built by the duke of Norfolk (1873). Some remains of a Maison Dieu, or hospital, erected in the time of Richard II., still exist. The borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 2053 acres.

The first mention of Arundel (Harundell) comes as early as 877, when it was left by King Alfred in his will to his nephew Æthelm. In the time of Edward the Confessor the town seems to have consisted of the mill and a fortification or earthwork which was probably thrown up by Alfred as a defence against the Danes; but it had increased in importance before the Conquest, and appears in Domesday as a thriving borough and port. It was granted by the Conqueror to Roger de Montgomery, who built the castle on the site of the ancient earthwork. From very early times markets were held within the borough on Thursday and Saturday, and in 1285 Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, obtained a grant of two annual fairs on the 14th of May and the 17th of December. The borough returned two members to parliament from 1302 to 1832 when the Reform Act reduced the membership to one; in 1868 it was disfranchised altogether. There are no early charters extant, but in 1586 Elizabeth acknowledged the right of the mayor and burgesses to be a body corporate and to hold a court for pleas under forty shillings, two weekly markets and four annual fairs—which rights they claimed to have exercised from time immemorial. James II. confirmed in 1688 a charter given two years before, and incorporated the borough under the title of a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 burgesses. The town was half destroyed by fire in 1338, but was soon rebuilt. Arundel was formerly a thriving seaport, and in 1813 was connected by canal with London.

See M.A. Tierney, The History and Antiquities of the Castle and Town of Arundel (London, 1834); Victoria County History—Sussex.

ARUNDELL OF WARDOUR, THOMAS ARUNDELL, 1st Baron (c. 1562-1639), son of Sir Mathew Arundell of Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, a member of the ancient family of Arundells of Lanherne in Cornwall, and of Margaret, daughter of Sir Henry Willoughby, was born about 1562. In 1579 he was personally recommended by Queen Elizabeth to the emperor Rudolph II. He greatly distinguished himself while serving with the imperial troops against the Turks in Hungary, and at the siege of Gran or Esztergom on the 13th of August 1595, he captured the enemy’s banner with his own hand. He was created by Rudolph II. a count of the Holy Roman Empire in December 1595, and returned to England after suffering shipwreck and barely preserving his life in January 1596. His assumption of the foreign title created great jealousy among the English peers, who were wont to give a precedence by courtesy to foreign nobles, and he incurred the resentment of his father, who objected to his superior rank and promptly disinherited him. The queen, moreover, was seriously displeased, declared that “as chaste wives should have no glances but for their own spouses, so should faithful subjects keep their eyes at home and not gaze upon foreign crowns,” and committed him to the Fleet immediately on his arrival, while she addressed a long letter of remonstrance on the subject to the emperor. Arundell remained under arrest till April, when he was liberated after an examination. In April 1597, however, he was again confined, but declared innocent of any charge save that of “practising to contrive the justification of his vain title with Ministers beyond the seas.” In December he was liberated and placed under the care of his father, but next year he was again arrested and accused of a conspiracy against the government. His petitions for a licence to undertake an expedition by sea, wherein he declared “his end was honour which some base minds call ambition,” were refused, but in 1599 he was apparently again restored to favour. On the 4th of May 1605 he was created by James I. Baron Arundell of Wardour, but fell again under temporary suspicion at the time of the Gunpowder Plot. In 1623 he once more got into trouble by championing the cause of the recusants, of whom he was himself one, on the occasion of the visit of the Spanish envoys, and he was committed to custody, and in 1625 all the arms were removed by the government from Wardour Castle. After the accession of Charles I. he was pardoned, and attended the sittings of the House of Lords. He was indicted in the king’s bench about the year 1627 for not paying some contribution, and in 1632 he was accused of harbouring a priest. In 1637 he was declared exempt from the recusancy laws by the king’s order, but in 1639 he again petitioned for relief. The same year he paid £500 in lieu of attending the king at York. He died on the 7th of November 1639. Arundell was an earnest Roman Catholic, but the suspicions of the government as to his loyalty were probably unfounded and stifled a career destined by nature for successful adventure. He married (1) Mary, daughter of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd earl of Southampton, by whom besides other children he had Thomas, who succeeded him as 2nd baron; and (2) Anne, daughter of Miles Philipson, by whom he had several daughters.

Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour (c. 1607-1694), son of Thomas, 2nd baron, and of Blanche, daughter of Edward, earl of Worcester, was born on the 21st of July 1607, and succeeded on his father’s death in 1643 to the family title and estates. A strong royalist and Roman Catholic, he supported the king’s cause, and distinguished himself in 1644 by the recapture of his castle at Wardour from the parliamentarians, who had taken it in the previous year in spite of his mother’s brave defence of the place. In 1648 he was one of the delinquents exempted from pardon in the proposals sent to Charles in the Isle of Wight. His estates had been confiscated, but he was permitted about 1653 to compound for them in the sum of £35,000. In 1652, in consequence of his being second at a duel in which one of the combatants was killed, he was arrested, and tried in 1653; he pleaded his peerage, but the privilege was disallowed as the House of Lords had been abolished. At the Restoration he regained possession of the family estates, and in 1663 was made master of the horse to Henrietta Maria. He was one of the few admitted to the king’s confidence concerning the projects for the restoration of the Roman Catholic religion and the alliance with France. In 1669 he took part in the secret council assembled by Charles II., and in October was sent to France, ostensibly for the funeral of Henrietta Maria, but in reality to negotiate with Louis XIV. the agreement which took shape in 1670 in the treaties of Dover (see Charles II.). In 1676 he was privy to James’s negotiations with Rome through Coleman. He was accused in 1678 by Titus Oates of participation in the popish plot, and was one of the five Roman Catholic peers arrested and imprisoned in the Tower in October, found guilty by the Middlesex grand jury of high treason, and impeached subsequently by the parliament. Lord Stafford was found guilty and executed in December 1680, but after the perpetration of this injustice the proceedings were interrupted, and the three surviving peers were released on bail on the 12th of February 1684. On the 22nd of May 1685, after James II.’s accession, the charge was annulled, and on the 1st of June 1685 they obtained their full liberty. In February 1686, with other Roman Catholics, Arundell urged upon the king the removal of his mistress, Lady Dorchester, on account of her strong Protestantism. In spite of his religion he was made a privy councillor in August 1686, and keeper of the privy seal in 1687, being excused from taking the oaths by the king’s dispensation. He presented the thanks of the Roman Catholics to James in June 1687 for the declaration of indulgence. His public career ended with the abdication of the king, and he retired to Breamore, the family residence since the destruction of Wardour Castle. He died on the 28th of December 1694. He was the author of five religious poems said to be composed during his confinement in the Tower in 1679, published the same year and reprinted in A Collection of Eighty-six Loyal Poems in 1685. His piety and benevolence to his unfortunate co-religionists were conspicuous. Evelyn calls him “very good company” and he was a noted sportsman, the Quorn pack being descended from his pack of hounds at Breamore. He married Cecily, daughter of Sir Henry Compton, by whom besides other children he had Thomas, who succeeded him as 4th baron.

The barony is still held in the Arundell family, which has never ceased to be Roman Catholic. The 14th baron (b. 1859) was a direct descendent of the 6th.

ARUSIANUS MESSIUS, or Messus, Latin grammarian, flourished in the 4th century A.D. He was the author of a small extant work Exempla Elocutionum, dedicated to Olybrius and Probinus, consuls for the year 395. It contains an alphabetical list, chiefly of verbs admitting more than one construction, with examples from each of the four writers, Virgil, Sallust, Terence and Cicero. Cassiodorus, the only writer who mentions Arusianus, refers to it by the term Quadriga.

See Keil, Grammatici Latini, vii.; Suringar, Historia Critica Scholiastarum Latinorum (1834-1835); Van der Hoeven, Specimen Literarium (1845).

ARVAL BROTHERS (Fratres Arvales), in Roman antiquities, a college or priesthood, consisting of twelve members, elected for life from the highest ranks in Rome, and always apparently, during the empire, including the emperor. Their chief duty was to offer annually public sacrifice for the fertility of the fields (Varro, L. L. v. 85). It is generally held that the college was founded by Romulus (see Acca Larentia). This legend probably arose from the connexion of Acca Larentia, as mater Larum, with the Lares who had a part in the religious ceremonies of the Arvales. But apart from this, there is proof of the high antiquity of the college, which was said to have been older than Rome itself, in the verbal forms of the song with which, down to late times, a part of the ceremonies was accompanied, and which is still preserved. It is clear also that, while the members were themselves always persons of distinction, the duties of their office were held in high respect. And yet it is singular that no mention of them occurs in Cicero or Livy, and that altogether literary allusions to them are very scarce. On the other hand, we possess a long series of the acta or minutes of their proceedings, drawn up by themselves, and inscribed on stone. Excavations, commenced in the 16th century and continued to the 19th, in the grove of the Dea Dia about 5 m. from Rome, have yielded 96 of these records from A.D. 14 to 241. The brotherhood appears to have languished in obscurity during the republic, and to have been revived by Augustus. In his time the college consisted of a master (magister), a vice-master (promagister), a flamen, and a praetor, with eight ordinary members, attended by various servants, and in particular by four chorus boys, sons of senators, having both parents alive. Each wore a wreath of corn, a white fillet and the praetexta. The election of members was by co-optation on the motion of the president, who, with a flamen, was himself elected for one year. The great annual festival which they had to conduct was held in honour of the anonymous Dea Dia, who was probably identical with Ceres. It occupied three days in May. The ceremony of the first day took place in Rome itself, in the house of the magister or his deputy, or on the Palatine in the temple of the emperors, where at sunrise fruits and incense were offered to the goddess. A sumptuous banquet took place, followed by a distribution of doles and garlands. On the second and principal day of the festival the ceremonies were conducted in the grove of the Dea Dia. They included a dance in the temple of the goddess, at which the song of the brotherhood was sung, in language so antiquated that it was hardly intelligible (see the text and translation in Mommsen, Hist, of Rome, bk. i. ch. xv.) even to Romans of the time of Augustus, who regarded it as the oldest existing document in their mother-tongue. Especial mention should be made of the ceremony of purifying the grove, which was held to be defiled by the felling of trees, the breaking of a bough or the presence of any iron tools, such as those used by the lapidary who engraved the records of the proceedings on stone. The song and dance were followed by the election of officers for the next year, a banquet and races. On the third day the sacrifice took place in Rome, and was of the same nature as that offered on the first day. The Arvales also offered sacrifice and solemn vows on behalf of the imperial family on the 3rd of January and on other extraordinary occasions. The brotherhood is said to have lasted till the time of Theodosius. The British Museum contains a bust of Marcus Aurelius in the dress of a Frater Arvalis.

Marini, Atti e Monumenti de’ Fratri Arvali (1795); Hoffmann, Die A. (1858): Oldenberg, De Sacris Fratrum A. (1875); Bergk, Das Lied der Arvalbrüder (1856); Bréal, “Le Chant des Arvals” in Mém. de la Soc. de Linguistique (1881); Edon, Nouvelle Étude sur le Chant Lémural (1884); Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vi. 2023-2119; Henzen, Acta Fratrum Arvalium (1874).

ARVALS, Arvels or Arthels (O. Norse Arfr, inheritance, and öl, A.S. Ale, a banquet), primarily the funeral dinner, and later, especially in the north of England, a thin, light, sweet cake, spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, served to the poor at such feasts. The funeral meal was called the Arvel-dinner. The custom seems to have been to hold on such occasions an informal inquest, when the corpse was publicly exposed, to exculpate the heir and those entitled to the property of the dead from all accusations of foul play.

ARVERNI, the name of an ancient Gaulish tribe in the Auvergne, which still bears its name. It resisted Caesar longer than most of Gaul; when once vanquished it adopted Roman civilization readily. Its tribal deity, the god of the mountain, the Puy de Dôme, rechristened in Roman phrase Mercurius Dumias, was famous far beyond its territory. Part of his temple has been excavated recently.

ARYAN, a term which has been used in a confusing variety of significations by different philologists. By Max Müller especially it was employed as a convenient short term for the whole body of languages more commonly known as Indo-European (q.v.) or Indo-Germanic. In the same way Max Müller used Aryas as a general term for the speakers of such languages, as in his book published in 1888, Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryas. “Aryas are those who speak Aryan languages, whatever their colour, whatever their blood. In calling them Aryas we predicate nothing of them except that the grammar of their language is Aryan” (p. 245). It is to be observed, therefore, that Max Müller is careful to avoid any ethnological signification. The Aryas are those who speak Aryan without regard to the question whether Aryan is their hereditary language or not. As he says still more definitely elsewhere in the same work (p. 120), “I have declared again and again that if I say Aryas, I mean neither blood nor bones, nor hair nor skull; I mean simply those who speak an Aryan language. The same applies to Hindus, Greeks, Romans Germans, Celts and Slaves. When I speak of them I commit myself to no anatomical characteristics. The blue-eyed and fair-haired Scandinavians may have been conquerors or conquered, they may have adopted the language of their darker lords or their subjects, or vice versa. I assert nothing beyond their language when I call them Hindus, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Celts and Slaves; and in that sense, and in that sense only, do I say that even the blackest Hindus represent an earlier stage of Aryan speech and thought than the fairest Scandinavians.... To me an ethnologist who speaks of Aryan race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar.”

From the popularity of Max Müller’s works on comparative philology this is the use of the word which is most familiar to the general public. The arguments in support of this use are set forth by him in the latter part of lecture vi. of the Lectures on the Science of Language (first series) and as an appendix to chap. vii. of the final edition (i. pp. 291 ff.). The Sanskrit usage of the word is fully illustrated by him from the early Sanskrit writings in the article “Aryan” in the ninth edition of this encyclopaedia. From the earliest occurrences of the word it is clear that it was used as a national name not only in India but also in Bactria and Persia (in Sanskrit árya- and ārya, in Zend airya-, in Old Persian ariya-). That it is in any way connected with a Sanskrit word for earth, ira, as Max Müller asserts, is far from certain. As Spiegel remarks (Die arische Periode, p. 105), though it is easy enough to connect the word with a root ar-, there are several roots of that form which have different meanings, and there is no certain criterion whereby to decide to which of them it is related. Nor are the other connexions for the word outside this group free from doubt. It is, however, certain that the connexion with Erin (Ireland), which Pictet in his article “Iren and Arier” (Kuhn and Schleicher’s Beiträge, i. 1858, pp. 81 ff.) sought to establish, is impossible (Whitley Stokes in Max Müller’s Lectures, 1891, i. pp. 299 f.), though the word may have the same origin as the Ario- of names like Ariovistus, which is found in both Celtic and Germanic words (Uhlenbeck, Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wörterbuch der altindischen Sprache, s.v.). The name of Armenia (Old Persian Armina-), which has often been connected, is of uncertain origin. Within Sanskrit itself probably two words have to be distinguished: (1) árya, the origin of Aryan, from which the usual term ārya is a derivative; (2) aryá, which frequently appears in the Rig Veda as an epithet of deities. In many passages, however, aryás may equally well be the genitive of arí, which is explained as “active, devoted, pious.” Even in this word probably two originally separate words have to be distinguished, for the further meanings which Grassmann in his dictionary to the Rig Veda attaches to it, viz. “greedy” (for treasure and for battle), “godless,” “enemy,” seem more appropriately to be derived from the same source as the Greek ἔρι-ς, “strife.” The word árya- is not found as a national name in the Rig Veda, but appears in the Vājasaneyi-sainhita, where it is explained by Mahīdhara as Vaisya-, a cultivator or a man of the third among the original four classes of the population. So in the Atharva Veda (iv. 20. 4; xix. 62. 1) it is contrasted with the Śudra or fourth class (Spiegel, Arische Periode, p. 102). In the Avesta, airya- is found both as adjective and substantive in the sense of Aryan, but no light is thrown upon the history of the word. Darius describes himself in an inscription as of Aryan stock, Dārayahvahuš ariyahčivrah. In the Avesta the derivative airyana- is also found in the sense of Aryan. In both India and Persia a word is found (Skt. aryaman-; Zend airyahman-) which is apparently of the same origin. In both Sanskrit and Zend it means something like “comrade” or “bosom friend,” but in Zend is used of the priestly or highest class. In Sanskrit, besides this use in which it is contrasted with the Dāsa or Dāsyu, the enemies, the earlier inhabitants, the word is often used for the bridegroom’s spokesman, and in both languages is also employed as the name of a divine being. In the Rig Veda, Aryaman- as a deity is most frequently coupled with Mitra and Varuna (Grassmann, Wörterbuch, s.v.); in Zend, according to Bartholomae (Altiranisches Wörterbuch, s.v.), from the earliest literature, the Gathas, there is nothing definite to be learnt regarding Airyaman.

Whatever the origin of arya-, however, it is clear that it is a word with dignified associations, by which the peoples belonging to the Eastern section of the Indo-Europeans were proud to call themselves. It is now used uniformly by scholars to indicate the Eastern branch as a whole, a compound, Indo-Aryan, being employed for that part of the Eastern branch which settled in India to distinguish them from the Iranians (Iran is of the same origin), who remained in Bactria and Persia, while Aryo-Indian is sometimes employed to distinguish the Indian people of this stock from the Dravidian and other stocks which also inhabit parts of the Indian peninsula. Of the stages in the occupation of the Iranian table-land by the Aryan people nothing is known, the people themselves having apparently no tradition of a time when they did not hold these territories (Spiegel, Arische Periode, p. 319). Though the Hindus have no tradition of their invasion of India, it is certain that they are not an indigenous people, and, if they are not, it is clear that they could have come in no other direction save from the other side of the Hindu Kush. At the period of their earliest literature, which may be assigned roughly to about 1000 B.C., they were still settled in the valley of the Indus, and at this time the separation probably had not long taken place, the Eastern portion of the stock having pushed their way along the Kabul valley into the open country of the Indus. According to Professor E.W. Hopkins (India Old and New, 1901, p. 31) the Rig Veda was composed in the district about Umballa. He argues that the people must have been then to the west of the great rivers, otherwise the dawn could not be addressed as one who “in shining light, before the wind arises, comes gleaming over the waters, making good paths.” The vocabulary is still largely the same; whole sentences can be transliterated from one language to the other merely by making regular phonetic changes and without the variation of a single word (for examples see Bartholomae, Handbuch der altiranischen Dialekte, 1883, p. v.; Williams Jackson, Avesta Grammar, 1892, pp. xxxi. f.; Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, 1895, i. p. 1). It is noteworthy that it is those who remain behind whose language has undergone most change.

By four well-marked characteristics the Aryan group is easily distinguishable from the other Indo-European languages. (1) By the confusion of original e and o, both long and short, with the original long and short a sound; (2) the short schwa-sound ə is represented here, and in this group only, by i (pita, “father,” as compared with πατήρ, &c.); (3) original s after i, u and some consonants becomes ṣ; (4) the genitive plural of stems ending in a vowel has a suffix-nām borrowed by analogy from the stems ending in -n (Skt. ásvānām, “of horses”; Zend aspānām; Old Persian aspānām). The distinctions between Sanskrit and Iranian are also clear, (1) The Aryan voiced aspirates gh, dh, bh, which survive in Sanskrit, are confused in Iranian with original g, d, b, and further changes take place in the language of the later parts of the Avesta; (2) the Aryan breathed aspirates kh, th, ph, except in combination with certain consonants, become spirants in Iranian; (3) Aryan s becomes h initially before vowels in Iranian and also in certain cases medially, Iranian in these respects resembling Greek (cf. Skt. saptá; Zend hapta; Gr. ἑπτά, “seven”); (4) in Zend there are many vowel changes which it does not share with Old Persian. Some of these arise from the umlaut or epenthesis which is so prevalent, and which we have already seen in airya- as compared with the Skt. árya. In other respects the languages are remarkably alike, the only striking difference being in the numeral “one”—Skt. eka-; Zend aeva-; Old Persian aiva-, where the Iranian group has the same stem as that seen in the Greek οἶ(F)ο-ς, “alone.”

For the subdivisions of the two groups see the articles on Persia: Language, and Indo-Aryan Languages. Dr Grierson has shown in his monograph on “The Pisaca Languages of North-Western India” (Royal Asiatic Society, 1906) that there is good reason for regarding various dialects of the north-western frontier (Kafiristan, Chitral, Gilgit, Dardistan) as a separate group descended from Aryan but independent of either Sanskrit or Iranian.

The history of the separation of the Aryan from the other Indo-European languages is not yet clear (see Indo-European Languages). Various attempts have been made, with little success, to identify fragments of unknown languages in cuneiform inscriptions with members of this group. The investigation has entered a new and more favourable stage as the result of the discoveries made by German excavators at Boghaz Keui (said to be identical with Herodotus’ Pteria in Cappadocia), where treaties between the king of the Hittites and the king of Mitanni, in the beginning of the 14th century B.C., seem almost certainly to contain the names of the gods Mitra, Varuna and Indra, which belong to the early Aryan mythology (H. Winckler, Mitteilungen der deutschen Orientgesellschaft, No. 35; E. Meyer, Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie, 1908, pp. 14 ff.; Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung, 42, 1908, pp. 24 ff.). Still further light is to be expected when the vast collections of the German expedition to Turfan (Turkestan) have been sifted. Up to 1909 only a preliminary account had been given of Tocharish, a hitherto unknown Indo-European language, which is reported to be in some respects more akin to the Western groups than to Aryan. But further investigation is still required (see E. Sieg and W. Siegling, “Tocharisch, die Sprache der Indoskythen,” in Sitzungsberichte der Berl. Akad. (July 1908, pp. 915 ff.).

(P. Gi.)

ARYA SAMAJ, a Hindu religious association with reforming tendencies, which was founded by a Guzerati Brahman named Dayanand Saraswati. This man was born of a Saivite family about 1825, but in early manhood grew dissatisfied with idol-worship. He undertook many pilgrimages and studied the Vedic philosophy in the hope of solving the old problem of the Buddha,—how to alleviate human misery and attain final liberation. About 1866, when he had begun to teach and to gather disciples, he first saw the Christian scriptures, which he vehemently assailed, and the Rig Veda, which he correspondingly exalted, though in the conception which he ultimately formed of God the former was much more influential than the latter. Dayanand’s treatment of the Vedas was peculiar, and consisted of reading into them his own beliefs and modern scientific discoveries. Thus he explains the Yajna (sacrificial cult) as “the entertainment of the learned in proportion to their worth, the business of manufacture, the experiment and application of chemistry, physics and the arts of peace; the instruction of the people, the purification of the air, the nourishment of vegetables by the employment of the principles of meteorology, called Agni-Notri in Sanskrit.” He denied that the Vedas warranted the caste system, but wished to retain the four grades as orders of learning to which admission should be won by examination.

These views naturally met with scanty acceptance among the Brahmans to whom he introduced them, and Dayanand turned to the masses and established Samajes in various parts of India, the first being at Bombay in 1875. He chose the epithet Arya as being more dignified than the slightly contemptuous term Hindu. After a successful series of tours, during which he debated publicly with orthodox pundits and with Christian missionaries, he died at Ajmere in 1883.

The Arya Samaj is not an eclectic system like the Brahma Samaj, which strives to find the common basis underlying all the great religions, and its narrower scope and corresponding intensity of conviction have won it a greater strength. It seemed to meet the feeling of many educated natives whose faith in current Hinduism was undermined, but who were predisposed against any foreign religious influence. Their patriotic ardour gladly seized on “a view of the original faith of India that seemed to harmonize with all the discoveries of modern science and the ethics of European civilization,” and they cheerfully supported their leader’s strange polemic with the agnostic and rationalist literature of Europe. By 1890 their numbers had increased to 40,000, by 1900 to over 92,000. Divisions had, however, set in, especially a cleavage into the Ghasi or vegetarian, and the Mansi or flesh-eating sections. To the latter belong those Rajputs who though generally in sympathy with the movement declined to adhere to the tenet of the Samaj which forbade the destruction of animal life and the consumption of animal food. The age of admission to the Samaj is eighteen, and members are expected to contribute to its funds at least 1% of their income.

The ten articles of their creed may be summarized thus:—

1. The source of all true knowledge is God.

2. God is “all truth, all knowledge, all bliss, boundless, almighty, just, merciful, unbegotten, without a beginning, incomparable, the support and Lord of all, all-pervading, omniscient, imperishable, immortal, eternal, holy, and the cause of the universe; worship is due to him alone.”

3. The medium of true knowledge is the Vedas.

4. and 5. The truth is to be accepted and to become the guiding principle.

6. The object of the Samaj is to benefit the world by improving its physical, social, intellectual and moral conditions.

7. Love and justice are the right guides of conduct.

8. Knowledge must be spread.

9. The good of others must be sought.

10. In general interests members must subordinate themselves to the good of others; in personal interests they should retain independence.

The sixth clause comprehends a wide programme of reform, including abstinence from spirituous liquors and animal food, physical cleanliness and exercise, marriage reform, the promotion of female education, the abolition of caste and of idolatry.

ARYTENOID (or arytaenoid; from Gr. ἀρύταινα, a funnel or pitcher), a term, meaning funnel-shaped, applied to cartilages such as those of the larynx.

ARZAMAS, a town of Russia, in the government of, and 76 m. by rail S. of the town of, Nizhniy-Novgorod, on the Tesha river, at its junction with the Arsha. It is an important centre of trade, and has tanneries, oil, flour, tallow, dye, soap and iron works; knitting is an important domestic industry. Sheepskins and sail-cloth are articles of trade. The town has several churches. Pop. (1897) 10,591.

AS, the Roman unit of weight and measure, divided into 12 unciae (whence both “ounce” and “inch”); its fractions being deunx 11⁄12, dextrans 5⁄6, dodrans ¾, bes 2⁄3, septunx 7⁄12, semis ½, quincunx 5⁄12, triens 1⁄3, quadrans ¼, sextans 1⁄6, sescuncia 1⁄8, uncia 1⁄12. As really denoted any integer or whole; whence the English word “ace.” The unit or as of weight was the libra (pound: = about 114⁄5 oz. avoirdupois); of length, pes (foot: = about 113⁄5 in.); of surface, jugerum (= about 2⁄3 acre); of measure, liquid amphora (about 53⁄5 gal.), dry modius (about 9⁄10 peck). In the same way as signified a whole inheritance; whence heres ex asse, the heir to the whole estate, heres ex semisse, heir to half the estate. It was also used in the calculation of rates of interest.

As was also the name of a Roman coin, which was of different weight and value at different periods (see Numismatics, § Roman). The first introduction of coined money is ascribed to Servius Tullius. The old as was composed of the mixed metal aes, an alloy of copper, tin and lead, and was called as libralis, because it nominally weighed 1 ℔ or 12 ounces (actually 10). Its original shape seems to have been an irregular oblong bar, which was stamped with the figure of a sheep, ox or sow. This, as well as the word pecunia for money (pecus, cattle), indicates the fact of cattle having been the earliest Italian medium of exchange. The value was indicated by little points or globules, or other marks. After the round shape was introduced, the one side was always inscribed with the figure of a ship’s prow, and the other with the double head of Janus. The subdivisions of the as had also the ship’s prow on one side, and on the other the head of some deity. The First Punic War having exhausted the treasury, the as was reduced to 2 oz. In the Second Punic War it was again reduced to half this weight, viz. to 1 oz. And lastly, by the Papirian law (89 B.C.) it was further reduced to the diminutive weight of half an ounce. It appears to have been still more reduced under Octavian, Lepidus and Antony, when its value was 1⁄3 of an ounce. Before silver coinage was introduced (269 B.C.) the value of the as was about 6d., in the time of Cicero less than a halfpenny. In the time of the emperor Severus it was again lowered to about 5⁄24 of an ounce. During the commonwealth and empire aes grave was used to denote the old as in contradistinction to the existing depreciated coin; while aes rude was applied to the original oblong coinage of primitive times.

ASA, in the Bible, son (or, perhaps, rather brother) of Abijah, the son of Rehoboam and king of Judah (1 Kings xv. 9-24). Of his long reign, during which he was a contemporary of Baasha, Zimri and Omri of Israel, little is recorded with the exception of some religious reforms and conflicts with the first-named. Baasha succeeded in fortifying Ramah (er-Rām), 5 m. north of Jerusalem, and Asa was compelled to use the residue of the temple-funds (cf. 1 Kings xiv. 26) to bribe the king of Damascus to renounce his league with Baasha and attack Israel. Galilee was invaded and Baasha was forced to return; the building material which he had collected at Ramah being used by Asa to fortify Geba, and Mizpah to the immediate north of Jerusalem. The Book of Chronicles relates a story of a sensational defeat of Zerah the “Cushite,” and a great religious revival in which Judah and Israel took part (2 Chron. xiv.-xv. 15) (see Chronicles). Asa was succeeded by his son Jehoshaphat.

“Cushite” may designate an Ethiopian or, more probably, an Arabian (Cush, the “father” of the Sabaeans, Gen. x. 7). “If by Zerah the Ethiopian or Sabaean prince be meant, the only real difficulty of the narrative is removed. No king Zerah of Ethiopia is known at this period, nor does there seem to be room for such a person.” (W.E. Barnes, Cambridge Bible, Chronicles, p. xxxi.). The identification with Osorkon I. or II. is scarcely tenable considering Asa’s weakness; but inroads by desert hordes frequently troubled Judah, and if the tradition be correct in locating the battle at Mareshah it is probable that the invaders were in league with the Philistine towns. Similar situations recur in the reigns of Ahaz and Jehoram.

See also Wellhausen, Prolegomena, 208; S.A. Cook, Expositor (June 1906), p. 540 sq.

(S. A. C.)

ASAFETIDA (asa, Lat. form of Persian aza = mastic, and fetidus, stinking, so called in distinction to asa dulcis, which was a drug highly esteemed among the ancients as laser cyrenaicum, and is supposed to have been a gummy exudation from Thapsis garganica), a gum-resin obtained principally from the root of Ferula fetida, and probably also from one or two other closely allied species of umbelliferous plants. It is produced in eastern Persia and Afghanistan, Herat and Kandahar being centres of the trade. Ferula fetida grows to a height of from 5 to 6 ft., and when the plant has attained the age of four years it is ready for yielding asafetida. The stems are cut down close to the root, and the juice flows out, at first of a milky appearance, but quickly setting into a solid resinous mass. Fresh incisions are made as long as the sap continues to flow, a period which varies according to the size and strength of the plant. A freshly-exposed surface of asafetida has a translucent, pearly-white appearance, but it soon darkens in the air, becoming first pink and finally reddish-brown. In taste it is acrid and bitter; but what peculiarly characterizes it is the strong alliaceous odour it emits, from which it has obtained the name asafetida, as well as its German name Teufelsdreck (devil’s dung). Its odour is due to the presence of organic sulphur compounds. Asafetida is found in commerce in “lump” or in “tear,” the latter being the purer form. Medicinally, asafetida is given in doses of 5 to 15 grains and acts as a stimulant to the intestinal and respiratory tracts and to the nervous system. An enema containing it is useful in relieving flatus. It is sometimes useful in hysteria, which is essentially a lack of inhibitory power, as its nasty properties induce sufficient inhibitory power to render its readministration superfluous. It may also be used in an effervescing draught in cases of malingering, the drug “repeating” in the mouth and making the malingering not worth while. The gum-resin is relished as a condiment in India and Persia, and is in demand in France for use in cookery. In the regions of its growth the whole plant is used as a fresh vegetable, the inner portion of the full-grown stem being regarded as a luxury.

ASAF-UD-DOWLAH, nawab wazir of Oudh from 1775 to 1797, was the son of Shuja-ud-Dowlah, his mother and grandmother being the begums of Oudh, whose spoliation formed one of the chief counts in the charges against Warren Hastings. When Shuja-ud-Dowlah died he left two million pounds sterling buried in the vaults of the zenana. The widow and mother of the deceased prince claimed the whole of this treasure under the terms of a will which was never produced. When Warren Hastings pressed the nawab for the payment of debt due to the Company, he obtained from his mother a loan of 26 lakhs of rupees, for which he gave her a jagir of four times the value; he subsequently obtained 30 lakhs more in return for a full acquittal, and the recognition of her jagirs without interference for life by the Company. These jagirs were afterwards confiscated on the ground of the begum’s complicity in the rising of Chai Singh, which was attested by documentary evidence. The evidence now available seems to show that Warren Hastings did his best throughout to rescue the nawab from his own incapacity, and was inclined to be lenient to the begums.

See The Administration of Warren Hastings, 1772-1785, by G.W. Forrest (1892).

ASAPH, the eponym of the Asaphite gild of singers, one of the hereditary choirs that superintended the musical services of the temple at Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The names occur in the titles of certain Psalms, and the writer of the Book of Chronicles makes Asaph a seer (2 Chron. xxix. 30), contemporary with David and Solomon, and chief of the singers of his time.

ASBESTOS, a fibrous mineral from Gr. ἄσβεστος, unquenchable, by transference, incombustible, in allusion to its power of resisting the action of fire. The word was applied by Dioscorides and other Greek authors to quicklime, but Pliny evidently used it in its modern sense. It was occasionally woven by the ancients into handkerchiefs, and, it has been said, into shrouds which were used in cremation to prevent the ashes of the corpse from mingling with the wood-ashes of the pyre.

In different varieties of asbestos the fibres vary greatly in character. When silky and flexible they are sometimes known as mountain flax. The finer kinds are often termed amianthus (q.v.). When the fibres are naturally interwoven, so as to form a felted mass, the mineral passes under such trivial names as mountain leather, mountain cork, mountain paper, &c. The asbestos formerly used in the arts was generally a fibrous form of some kind of amphibole, like tremolite, or anthophyllite, though occasionally perhaps a pyroxene. In recent years, however, most of the asbestos in the market is a fibrous variety of serpentine, known mineralogically as chrysotile, and probably some of the ancient asbestos was of this character (see Amianthus). Both minerals possess similar properties, so far as resistance to heat is concerned. The amphibole-asbestos, or hornblende-asbestos, is usually white or grey in colour, and may present great length of fibre, some of the Italian asbestos reaching exceptionally a length of 5 or 6 ft., but it is often harsh and brittle. The serpentine-asbestos occurs in narrow veins, yielding fibres of only 2 or 3 in. in length, but of great tensile strength: they are usually of a delicate silky lustre, very flexible and elastic, and of yellowish or greenish colour.

The Canadian asbestos, which of all kinds is at present the most important industrially, occurs in a small belt of serpentine in the province of Quebec, principally near Black Lake and Thetford, where it was first recognized as commercially valuable about 1877. The rock is generally quarried, cobbed by hand, dried if necessary, crushed in rock-breakers, and then passed between rollers; it is reduced to a finer state of division by so-called fiberizers, and graded on a shaking screen, where the loosened fibres are sorted. The process varies in different mills.

In the United States asbestos is worked only to a very limited extent. An amphibole-asbestos is obtained from Sall Mountain, Georgia; and asbestos has also been worked in the serpentine of Vermont. It occurs also in South Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts, Arizona and elsewhere. Dr G.P. Merrill has shown that some asbestos results from a process of shearing in the rocks.

Formerly asbestos was obtained almost exclusively from Italy and Corsica, and a large quantity is still yielded by Italian workings. This is mostly an amphibole. It is in some cases associated with nodules of green garnet known as “seeds”— Semenze dell’ amianto. Asbestos is widely distributed, but only in a few localities does it occur in sufficient abundance and purity to be worked commercially; it is found, for example, to a limited extent, at many localities in Tirol, Hungary and Russia; Queensland, New South Wales and New Zealand. In the British Isles it is not unknown, being found among the old rocks of North Wales and in parts of Ireland. Byssolite or asbestoid is a blue or green fibrous amphibole from Dauphiny.

The Asbestos Mountains in Griqualand West, Cape Colony, yield a blue fibrous mineral which is worked under the name of Cape asbestos. This is referable to the variety of amphibole called crocidolite (q.v.). It occurs in veins in slaty rocks, associated with jaspers and quartzites rich in magnetite and brown iron-ore. Their geological position is in the Griqua Town series, belonging to what are known in South Africa as the Pre-Cape rocks.

Asbestos was formerly spun and woven into fabrics as a rare curiosity. Charlemagne is said to have possessed a tablecloth of this material, which when soiled was purified by being thrown into the fire. At a meeting of the Royal Society in 1676 a merchant from China exhibited a handkerchief of “salamander’s wool,” or linum asbesti. By the Eskimos of Labrador asbestos has been used as a lamp-wick, and it received a similar application in some of the sacred lamps of antiquity. In recent times asbestos has been applied to a great variety of uses in the industrial arts, and its applications are constantly increasing. Its economic value depends not only on its power of withstanding a high temperature, but also on its low thermal conductivity and its partial resistance to the attack of acids: hence it is used for jacketing boilers and steam-pipes, and as a filtering medium for corrosive liquids. It has also come into use as an electric insulator. It is made into yarn, felt, millboard, &c., and is largely employed as packing for joints, glands and stopcocks in machinery. Fire-proof sheathing and felt are used for flooring and roofing; fire-proof curtains have been made for the stage, and even clothing for firemen. Asbestos enters into the composition of fire-proof cements, plasters and paints: it is used for packing safes; and is made into balls with fire-clay for gas-stoves. Various preparations of asbestos with other materials pass in trade under such names as uralite, salamandrite, asbestolith, gypsine, &c. “Asbestic” is the name given to a Canadian product formed by crushing the serpentine rock containing thin seams of asbestos, and mixing the result with lime so as to form a plaster.

References.—Fritz Cirkel, Asbestos, its Occurrence, Exploitation and Uses (Ottawa, 1905); J.H. Pratt and J.S. Diller in Annual Reports on Mineral Resources, U.S. Geol. Survey; G.P. Merrill, The Non-metallic Minerals (New York, 1904); R.H. Jones, Asbestos and Asbestic (London, 1897).

(F. W. R.*)

ASBJÖRNSEN, PETER CHRISTEN (1812-1885), and MOE, JÖRGEN ENGEBRETSEN (1813-1882), collectors of Norwegian folklore, so closely united in their life’s work that it is unusual to name them apart. Asbjörnsen was born in Christiania on the 15th of January 1812; he belonged to an ancient family of the Gudbrandsdal, which is believed to have died with him. He became a student at the university in 1833, but as early as 1832, in his twentieth year, he had begun to collect and write down all the fairy stories and legends which he could meet with. Later he began to wander on foot through the length and breadth of Norway, adding to his stores. Moe, who was born at Mo i Hole parsonage, in Sigdal Ringerike, on the 22nd of April 1813, met Asbjörnsen first when he was fourteen years of age. A close friendship began between them, and lasted to the end of their lives. In 1834 Asbjörnsen discovered that Moe had started independently on a search for the relics of national folklore; the friends eagerly compared results, and determined for the future to work in concert. By this time, Asbjörnsen had become by profession a zoologist, and with the aid of the university made a series of investigating voyages along the coasts of Norway, particularly in the Hardanger fjord. Moe, meanwhile, having left Christiania University in 1839, had devoted himself to the study of theology, and was making a living as a tutor in Christiania. In his holidays he wandered through the mountains, in the most remote districts, collecting stories. In 1842-1843 appeared the first instalment of the great work of the two friends, under the title of Norwegian Popular Stories (Norske Folkeeventyr), which was received at once all over Europe as a most valuable contribution to comparative mythology as well as literature. A second volume was published in 1844, and a new collection in 1871. Many of the Folkeeventyr were translated into English by Sir George Dasent in 1859. In 1845 Asbjörnsen published, without help from Moe, a collection of Norwegian fairy tales (huldreeventyr og folkesagn). In 1856 the attention of Asbjörnsen was called to the deforestation of Norway, and he induced the government to take up this important question. He was appointed forest-master, and was sent by Norway to examine in various countries of the north of Europe the methods observed for the preservation of timber. From these duties, in 1876, he withdrew with a pension; he died in Christiania on the 6th of January 1885. From 1841 to 1852 Moe travelled almost every summer through the southern parts of Norway, collecting traditions in the mountains. In 1845 he was appointed professor of theology in the Military School of Norway. He had, however, long intended to take holy orders, and in 1853 he did so, becoming for ten years a resident chaplain in Sigdal, and then (1863) parish priest of Bragernes. He was moved in 1870 to the parish of Vestre Aker, near Christiania, and in 1875 he was appointed bishop of Christiansand. In January 1882 he resigned his diocese on account of failing health, and died on the following 27th of March. Moe has a special claim on critical attention in regard to his lyrical poems, of which a small collection appeared in 1850. He wrote little original verse, but in his slender volume are to be found many pieces of exquisite delicacy and freshness. Moe also published a delightful collection of prose stories for children, In the Well and the Churn (I Bronde og i Kjærnet), 1851; and A Little Christmas Present (En liden Juleegave), 1860. Asbjörnsen and Moe had the advantage of an admirable style in narrative prose. It was usually said that the vigour came from Asbjörnsen and the charm from Moe, but the fact seems to be that from the long habit of writing in unison they had come to adopt almost precisely identical modes of literary expression.

(E. G.)

ASBURY, FRANCIS (1745-1816), American clergyman, was born at Hamstead Bridge in the parish of Handsworth, near Birmingham, in Staffordshire, England, on the 20th of August 1745. His parents were poor, and after a brief period of study in the village school of Barre, he was apprenticed at the age of fourteen to a maker of “buckle chapes,” or tongues. It seems probable that his parents were among the early converts of Wesley; at any rate, Francis became converted to Methodism in his thirteenth year, and at sixteen became a local preacher. He was a simple, fluent speaker, and was so successful that in 1767 he was enrolled, by John Wesley himself, as a regular itinerant minister. In 1771 he volunteered for missionary work in the American colonies. When he landed in Philadelphia in October 1771, the converts to Methodism, which had been introduced into the colonies only three years before, numbered scarcely 300. Asbury infused new life into the movement, and within a year the membership of the several congregations was more than doubled. In 1772 he was appointed by Wesley “general assistant” in charge of the work in America, and although superseded by an older preacher, Thomas Rankin (1738-1810), in 1773, he remained practically in control. After the outbreak of the War of Independence, the Methodists, who then numbered several thousands, fell, unjustly, under suspicion of Loyalism, principally because of their refusal to take the prescribed oath; and many of their ministers, including Rankin, returned to England. Asbury, however, feeling his sympathies and duties to be with the colonies, remained at his post, and although often threatened, and once arrested, continued his itinerant preaching. The hostility of the Maryland authorities, however, eventually drove him into exile in Delaware, where he remained quietly, but not in idleness, for two years. In 1782 he was reappointed to supervise the affairs of the Methodist congregations in America. In 1784 John Wesley, in disregard of the authority of the Established Church, took the radical step of appointing the Rev. Thomas Coke (1747-1814) and Francis Asbury superintendents or “bishops” of the church in the United States. Dr Coke was ordained at Bristol, England, in September, and in the following December, in a conference of the churches in America at Baltimore, he ordained and consecrated Asbury, who refused to accept the position until Wesley’s choice had been ratified by the conference. From this conference dates the actual beginning of the “Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States of America.” To the upbuilding of this church Asbury gave the rest of his life, working with tireless devotion and wonderful energy. In 1785, at Abingdon, Maryland, he laid the corner-stone of Cokesbury College, the project of Dr Coke and the first Methodist Episcopal college in America; the college building was burned in 1795, and the college was then removed to Baltimore, where in 1796, after another fire, it closed, and in 1816 was succeeded by Asbury College, which lived for about fifteen years. Every year Asbury traversed a large area, mostly on horseback. The greatest testimony to the work that earned for him the title of the “Father of American Methodism” was the growth of the denomination from a few scattered bands of about 300 converts and 4 preachers in 1771, to a thoroughly organized church of 214,000 members and more than 2000 ministers at his death, which occurred at Spottsylvania, Virginia, on the 31st of March 1816.

His Journals (3 vols., New York, 1852), apart from their importance as a history of his life work, constitute a valuable commentary on the social and industrial history of the United States during the first forty years of their existence. Consult also F.W. Briggs, Bishop Asbury (London, 1874); W.P. Strickland, The Pioneer Bishop; or, The Life and Times of Francis Asbury (New York, 1858); J.B. Wakeley, Heroes of Methodism (New York, 1856): W.C. Larrabee, Asbury and His Co-Laborers (2 vols., Cincinnati, 1853); H.M. Du Bose, Francis Asbury (Nashville, Tenn., 1909); see also under Methodism.

ASBURY PARK, a city of Monmouth county, New Jersey, U.S.A., on the Atlantic Ocean, about 35 m. S. of New York City (50 m. by rail). Pop. (1900) 4148; (1905) 4526; (1910) 10,150. It is served by the Central of New Jersey and the Pennsylvania railways, and by electric railway lines connecting it with other New Jersey coast resorts both north and south. Fresh-water lakes, one of which, Deal Lake, extends for some distance into the wooded country, form the northern and southern boundaries. It is one of the most popular seaside resorts on the Atlantic coast, its numerous hotels and cottages accommodating a summer population that approximates 50,000, and a large transient population in the autumn and winter months. There is an excellent beach, along which extends a board-walk about 1 m. long; the beach is owned and controlled by the municipality. The municipality owns and operates its water-works, water being obtained from artesian wells. Asbury Park was founded in 1869, was named in honour of the Rev. Francis Asbury, was incorporated as a borough in 1874, and was chartered as a city in 1897. In 1906 territory to the west with a population estimated at 6000 was annexed.

ASCALON, now ‘Asḳalān, one of the five chief cities of the Philistines, on the coast of the Mediterranean, 12 m. N. of Gaza. The place is mentioned several times in the Tell el-Amarna correspondence. It revolted from Egypt on two occasions, but was reconquered, and a sculpture at Thebes depicts the storming of the city. Ascalon was a well-fortified town, and the seat of the worship of the fish-goddess Derketo. Though situated in the nominal territory of the tribe of Judah, it was never for any length of time in the possession of the Israelites. The only incident in its history recorded in the Bible (the spoliation by Samson, Judg. xiv. 19) may possibly have actually occurred at another place of the same name, in the hill country of Judaea. Sennacherib took it in 701 B.C. The conquest of Alexander hellenized its civilization, and after his time it became tributary alternately to Syria and Egypt. Herod the Great was a native of the city, and added greatly to its beauty; but it suffered severely in the later wars of the Romans and Jews. In the 4th century it again rose to importance; and till the 7th century, when it was conquered by the Moslems, it was the seat of a bishopric and a centre of learning. During the first crusade a signal victory was gained by the Christians in the neighbouring plain on the 15th of August 1099; but the city remained in the hands of the caliphs till 1157, when it was taken by Baldwin III., king of Jerusalem, after a siege of five months. By Baldwin IV. it was given to his sister Sibylla, on her marriage with William of Montferrat in 1178. When Saladin (1187) had almost annihilated the Christian army in the plain of Tiberias, Ascalon offered but a feeble resistance to the victor. At first he repaired and strengthened its fortifications, but afterwards, alarmed at the capture of St Jean d’Acre (Acre) by Richard Cœur de Lion in 1191, he caused it to be dismantled. It was restored in the following year by the English king, but only to be again abandoned. From this time Ascalon lost much of its importance, and at length, in 1270, its fortifications were almost totally destroyed by Sultan Bibars, and its port was filled up with stones. The place is now a desolate heap of ruins, with remains of its walls and fragments of granite pillars. The surrounding country is well watered and very fertile.

See a paper by Guthe, “Die Ruinen Ascalons,” in the Zeitschrift of the Deutsche Palastina-Verein, ii. 164 (translated in Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement, 1880, p. 182). See also C.R. Conder in the latter journal, 1875, p. 152.

(R. A. S. M.)

ASCANIUS, in Roman legend, the son of Aeneas by Creüsa or Lavinia. From Livy it would appear that tradition recognized two sons of Aeneas called by this name, the one the son of his Trojan, the other of his Latin wife. According to the usual account, he accompanied his father to Italy on his flight from Troy. On the death of Aeneas, the government of Latium was left in the hands of Lavinia, Ascanius being too young to undertake it. After thirty years he left Lavinium, and founded Alba Longa. Ascanius was also called Ilus and Iulus, and the Julian gens claimed to be descended from him. Several more or less contradictory traditions may be found in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo and other writers.

Virg. Aen. ii. 666; Livy i. 3; see also Klausen. Aeneas und die Penaten (1840).

ASCENSION, an island in the Atlantic Ocean, between 7° 53′ and 8° S., and 14° 18′ and 14° 26′ W., 800 m. N.W. of St Helena, about 7½ m. in length and 6 in breadth, with an area of 38 sq. m. and a circumference of about 22 m. The island lies within the immediate influence of the south-east trade-wind. The lee side of the island is subject to the visitation of “rollers,” which break on the shore with very great violence. Ascension is a volcanic mass erected on a submarine platform. Numerous cones exist. Green Mountain, the principal elevation, is a huge elliptical crater, rising 2820 ft. above the sea, while the plains or table-lands surrounding it vary in height from 1200 to 2000 ft. On the north side they sweep gradually down towards the shore, but on the south they terminate in bold and lofty precipices. Steep and rugged ravines intersect the plains, opening into small bays or coves on the shore, fenced with masses of compact and cellular lava; and all over the island are found products of volcanic action. Ascension was originally destitute of vegetation save on the summit of Green Mountain, which owes its verdure to the mists which frequently enshroud it, but the lower hills have been planted with grasses and shrubs. The air is clear and light, and the climate remarkably healthy, notwithstanding the high temperature—the average day temperature on the shore being 85° F., on Green Mountain 75° F. The average rainfall is about 20 in., March and April being the rainy months. Ascension is noted for the number of turtles and turtle eggs found on its shores, the season lasting from December to May or June. The turtles are caught and kept in large ponds. The coasts abound with a variety of fish of excellent quality, of which the most important are the rock-cod, the cavalli, the conger-eel and the “soldier.” Numbers of sheep are bred on the island, and there are a few cattle and deer, besides goats and wild cats. Feathered game is abundant. Like St Helena, the island does not possess any indigenous vertebrate land fauna. The “wideawake” birds frequent the island in large numbers, and their eggs are collected and eaten. Beetles and land-shells are well represented. Flies, ants, mosquitoes, scorpions, centipedes and crickets abound. The flora includes purslane, rock roses and several species of ferns and mosses.

The island was discovered by the Portuguese navigator, João da Nova, on Ascension Day 1501, and was occasionally visited thereafter by ships. In 1701 William Dampier was wrecked on its coast, and during his detention discovered the only spring of fresh water the island contains. Ascension remained uninhabited till after the arrival of Napoleon at St Helena (1815), when it was taken possession of by the British government, who sent a small garrison thither. A settlement, named George Town (locally known as Garrison), was made on the north-west coast, water being obtained from “Dampier’s” springs in the Green Mountain, 6 m. distant. The island is under the rule of the admiralty, and was likened by Darwin to “a huge ship kept in first-rate order.” It is governed by a naval captain borne on the books of the flagship of the admiral superintendent at Gibraltar. A depot of stores for the navy is maintained, but the island is used chiefly as a sanatorium. Ascension is connected by cable with Europe and Africa, and is visited once a month by mail steamers from the Cape. Formerly letters were left by passing ships in a crevice in one of the rocks. The population, about 300, consists of seamen, marines, and Krumen from Liberia.

See Africa Pilot, part ii., 5th ed. (London, 1901); C. Darwin, Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. “Beagle” (London, 1844); Report of the Scientific Results of the Voyage of the “Challenger,” vol. i. part 2 (London, 1885); and Six Months in Ascension, by Mrs Gill (London, 1878), an excellent sketch of the island and its inhabitants. It was at Ascension that Mr, afterwards Sir, David Gill determined, in 1877, the solar parallax.

ASCENSION, FEAST OF THE, one of the oecumenical festivals of the Christian Church, ranking in solemnity with those of Christmas, of Easter and of Pentecost. It is held forty days after Easter, or ten days before Whitsunday, in celebration of Christ’s ascension into heaven forty days after the resurrection. It always falls on a Thursday, and the day is known as Ascension Day, or Holy Thursday. The festival is of great antiquity; and though there is no discoverable trace of it before the middle of the 4th century, subsequent references to it assume its long establishment. Thus St Augustine (Ep. 54 ad Januar.) mentions it as having been kept from time immemorial and as probably instituted by the apostles. Chrysostom, in his homily on the ascension, mentions a celebration of the festival in the church of Romanesia outside Antioch, and Socrates (Hist. eccles. vii. 26) records that in the year 390 the people of Constantinople “of old custom” (ἐξ ἔθους) celebrated the feast in a suburb of the city. As these two references suggest, the festival was associated with a professional pilgrimage, in commemoration of the passing of Christ and his apostles to the Mount of Olives; such a procession is described by Adamnan, abbot of Iona, as taking place at Jerusalem in the 7th century, when the feast was celebrated in the church on Mount Olivet (de loc. sanct. i. 22). The Peregrinatio of Etheria (Silvia), which dates from c. A.D. 385, says that the festival was held in the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem (Duchesne, Chr. Worship, p. 515). In the West, however, in the middle ages, the procession with candles and banners outside the church was taken as symbolical of Christ’s triumphant entry into heaven.

In the East the festival is known as the ἀνάληψις, “taking up,” or ἐπισωζομένη, a term first used in the Cappadocian church, and of which the meaning has been disputed, but which probably signifies the feast “of completed salvation.” The word ascensio, adopted in the West, implies the ascension of Christ by his own power, in contradistinction to the assumptio, or taking up into heaven of the Virgin Mary by the power of God.

In the Roman Catholic Church the most characteristic ritual feature of the festival is now the solemn extinction of the paschal candle after the Gospel at high mass. This candle, lighted at every mass for the forty days after Easter, symbolizes the presence of Christ with his disciples, and its extinction his parting from them. The custom dates from 1263, and was formerly confined to the Franciscans; it was prescribed for the universal church by the Congregation of Rites on the 19th of May 1697. Other customs, now obsolete, were formerly associated with the liturgy of this feast; e.g. the blessing of the new beans after the Commemoration of the Dead in the canon of the mass (Duchesne, p. 183). In some churches, during the middle ages, an image of Christ was raised from the altar through a hole in the roof, through which a burning straw figure representing Satan was immediately thrown down.

In the Anglican Church Ascension Day and its octave continue to be observed as a great festival, for which a special preface to the consecration prayer in the communion service is provided, as in the case of Christmas, Easter, Whitsunday, and Trinity Sunday. The celebration of the Feast of the Ascension was also retained in the Lutheran churches as warranted by Holy Scripture.

See Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie (1900), s. ”Himmelfahrtsfest”; L. Duchesne, Christian Worship (2nd Eng. ed., London, 1904); The Catholic Encyclopaedia (London and New York, 1907).

ASCETICISM, the theory and practice of bodily abstinence and self-mortification, generally religious. The word is derived from the Gr. verb ἀσκέω, “I practise,” whence the noun ἄσκησις and the adjective ἀσκητικός; and it embodies a metaphor taken from the ancient wrestling-place or palaestra, where victory rewarded those who had best trained their bodies. Not a few other technical terms of Greek philosophic asceticism, used in the first instance by Cynics and Neo-pythagoreans, and then continued among the Greek Jews and Christians, were metaphors taken from athletic contests—but only metaphors, for all asceticism, worthy of the name, has a moral purport, and is based on the eternal contrast of the proposition, “This is right,” with the proposition, “That is pleasant.” The ascetic instinct is probably as old as humanity, yet we must not forget that early religious practices are apt to be deficient in lofty spiritual meaning, many things being esteemed holy that are from a modern point of view trifling and even obscene. We may therefore expect in primitive asceticism to find many abstentions and much self-torture apparently valueless for the training of character and discipline of the feelings, which are the essence of any healthy asceticism. Nevertheless these non-moral taboos or restraints may have played a part in building up in us that faculty of preferring the larger good to the impulse of the moment which is the note of real civilization. Aristotle in his Ethics defines, as the barbarian’s ideal of life, “the living as one likes.” Yet nothing is less true; for the savage, more than the civilized man, is tied down at every step with superstitious scruples and restrictions barely traceable in higher civilizations except as primitive survivals. It is not that savages are devoid of the ascetic instinct. It is on the contrary over-developed in them, but ill-informed and working in ways unessential or even morally harmful. It is the note of every great religious reformer, Moses, Buddha, Paul, Mani, Mahomet, St Francis, Luther, to enlighten and direct it to higher aims, substituting a true personal holiness for a ritual purity or taboo, which at the best was viewed as a kind of physical condition and contagion, inherent as well in things and animals as in man.

It is useful, therefore, in a summary sketch of asceticism, to begin with the facts as they can be observed among less advanced races, or as mere survivals among people who have reached the level of genuine moral reflection; and from this basis to proceed to a consideration of self-denial consciously pursued as a method of ethical perfection. The latter is as a rule less cruel and rigorous than primitive forms of asceticism. Under this head fall the following:—Fasting, or abstention from certain meats and drinks; denial of sexual instinct; subjection of the body to physical discomforts, such as nakedness, vigils, sleeping on the bare ground, tattooing, deformation of skull, teeth, feet, &c., vows of silence to be observed throughout life or during pilgrim-ages, avoidance of baths, of hair-cutting and of clean raiment, living in a cave; actual self-infliction of pain, by scourging, branding, cutting with knives, wearing of hair shirts, fire-walking, burial alive, hanging up of oneself by hooks plunged into the skin, suspension of weights by such hooks to the tenderer parts of the body, self-mutilation and numerous other, often ingenious, modes of torture. Such customs repose on various superstitions; for example, the self-mutilation of the Galli or priests of Cybele was probably a magical ceremony intended to fertilize the soil and stimulate the crops. Others of the practices enumerated, probably the greater part of them, spring from demonological beliefs.

Fasting (q.v.) is used in primitive asceticism for a variety of reasons, among which the following deserve notice. Certain animals and vegetables are taboo, i.e. too holy, or—what among Semites and others was the same thing—too defiling and unclean, to be eaten. Thus in Leviticus xi. the Jews are forbidden to eat animals other than cloven-footed ruminants; thus the camel, coney, hare and swine were forbidden; so also any water organisms that had not fins and scales, and a large choice of birds, including swan, pelican, stork, heron and hoopoe. All winged creeping things that have four feet were equally abominable. Lastly, the weasel, mouse and most lizards were taboo. All or nearly all of these were at one time totem animals among one or another of the Semitic tribes, and were not eaten because primitive men will not eat animals between which and themselves and their gods they believe a peculiar tie of kinship to exist. Men do not eat an animal for which they have a reverential dread, or if they eat it at all, it is only in a sacramental feast and in order to absorb into themselves its life and holy properties. Such abstinences as the above, though based on taboo, that is, on a reluctance to eat the totem or sacred animal, are yet ascetic in so far as they involve much self-denial. No flesh is more wholesome or succulent than beef, yet the Egyptians and Phoenicians, says Porphyry (de Abst. ii. 11), would rather eat human flesh than that of the cow, and so would two hundred and fifty millions of modern Hindus. The privation involved in abstention from the flesh of the swine, a taboo hardly less widespread, is obvious.

Similar prohibitions are common in Africa, where fetish priests are often reduced to a diet of herbs and roots. That such dietary restrictions were merely ceremonial and superstitious, and not intended to prevent the consumption of meats which would revolt modern tastes, is certain from the fact that the Levitical law freely allowed the eating of locusts, grasshoppers, crickets and cockroaches, while forbidding the consumption of rabbits, hares, storks, swine, &c. The Pythagoreans were forbidden to eat beans.

Another widespread reason for avoiding flesh diet altogether was the fear of absorbing the irrational soul of the animal, which especially resided in the blood. Hence the rule not to eat meats strangled, except in sacramental meals when the god inherent in the animal was partaken of. It is equally a soul or spirit in wine which inspires the intoxicated; the old Egyptian kings avoided wine at table and in libations, because it was the blood of rebels who had fought with the gods, and out of whose rotting bodies grew the vines; to drink the blood was to imbibe the soul of these rebels, and the frenzy of intoxication which followed was held to be possession by their spirits. The medieval Jews also held that there is a cardiac demon in wine which takes possession of drunken men; and the Mahommedan prohibition of wine-drinking is based on a similar superstition. The avoidance of wine, therefore, by Rechabites, Nazirites, Arab dervishes and Pythagoreans, and also of leaven in bread, is parallel to and explicable in the same way as abstention from flesh. Porphyry (de Abst. i. 19) acquaints us with another widespread scruple against flesh diet. It was this, that the souls of men transmigrated into animals, so that if you ate these, you might consume your own kind, cannibal-wise. Contemporary meat-eaters set themselves to combat this prejudice, and argued that it was a pious duty to kill animals and so release the human souls imprisoned. In the same tract Porphyry relates (ii. 48) how wizards acquired the mantic powers of certain birds, such as ravens and hawks, by swallowing their hearts. The soul of the bird, he explains, enters them with its flesh, and endows them with power of divination. The lover of wisdom, who is priest of the universal God, rather than risk the taking into himself of inferior souls and polluting demons, will abstain from eating animals. Such is Porphyry’s argument.

The same fear of imbibing the irrational soul of animals, and thereby reinforcing the lower appetites and instincts of the human being, inspired the vegetarianism of Apollonius of Tyana and of the Jewish Therapeutae, who in their sacred meals were careful to have a table free from blood-containing meats; and the fear of absorbing the animal’s psychic qualities equally motived the Jewish and early Christian rule against eating things strangled. It was an early belief, which long survived among the Manichaean sects, that fish, being born in and of the waters, and without any sexual connexion on the part of other fishes are free from the taint which pollutes all animals quae copulatione generantur. Fish, therefore, unlike flesh, could be safely eaten. Here we have the origin of the Catholic rule of fasting, seldom understood by those who observe it. The same scruple against flesh-eating is conveyed in the beautiful confession, in the Cretans of Euripides, of one who had been initiated in the mysteries of Orpheus and became a “Bacchos.” The last lines of this, as rendered by Dr Gilbert Murray, are as follows:—

“Robed in pure white, I have borne me clean

From man’s vile birth and coffined clay,

And exiled from my lips alway

Touch of all meat where life hath been.”

This Orphic fast from meat was only broken by an annual sacramental banquet, originally, perhaps, of human, but later of raw bovine flesh.

The Manichaeans held that in every act of begetting, human or otherwise, a soul is condemned afresh to a cycle of misery by imprisonment in flesh—a thoroughly Indian notion, under the influence of which their perfect or elect ones scrupulously abstained from flesh. The prohibition of taking life, which they took over from the Farther East, in itself entailed fasting from flesh. A fully initiated Manichaean would not even cut his own salad, but employed a catechumen to commit on his behalf this act of murder, for which he subsequently shrived him.

We come to a third widespread reason for fasting, common among savages. Famished persons are liable to morbid excitement, and fall into imaginative ecstasies, in the course of which they see visions and spectres, converse with gods and angels, and are the recipients of supernatural revelations. Accordingly King Saul “ate no bread all the day nor all the night” in which the witch of Endor revealed to him the ghost of Samuel. Weak and famished, he hardly wanted to eat the fatted calf when the vision was over. Among the North American Indians ecstatic fasting is regularly practised. A faster writes down his visions and revelations for a whole season. They are then examined by the elders of the tribe, and if events have verified them, he is recognized as a supernaturally gifted being, and rewarded with chieftaincy. All over the world fasting is a recognized mode of evoking, consulting and also of overcoming the spirit world. This is why the Zulus and other primitive races distrust a medicine man who is not an ascetic and lean with fasting. In the Semitic East it is an old belief that a successful fast in the wilderness of forty days and nights gives power over the Djinns. The Indian yogi fasts till he sees face to face all the gods of his Pantheon; the Indian magician fasts twelve days before producing rain or working any cure. The Bogomils fasted till they saw the Trinity face to face. From the first, fasting was practised in the church for similar reason. In the Shepherd of Hermas a vision of the church rewards frequent fasts and prayer; and it is related in extra-canonical sources that James the Less vowed that he would fast until he too was vouchsafed a vision of the risen Lord. After a long and rigorous fast the Lord appeared to him. Not a few saints were rewarded for their fasting by glimpses of the beatific vision. Dr Tylor writes on this point as follows (Prim. Cult. ii. 415): “Bread and meat would have robbed the ascetic of many an angel’s visit: the opening of the refectory door must many a time have closed the gates of heaven to his gaze.”

Among the Semites and Tatars worshippers lacerate themselves before the god. So in I Kings xviii. 28 the priests of Baal engaged in a rain-making ceremony, gashed themselves with knives and lances till the blood gushed out upon them. The Syriac word ethkashshaph, which means literally to “cut oneself,” is the regular equivalent of to “make supplication.” Among Greeks and Arabs, mourners also cut themselves with knives and scratched their faces; the Hebrew law forbade such mourning, and we find the prohibition repeated in many canons of the Eastern churches. At first sight these rites seem intended to call down the pity of heaven on man, but as Robertson Smith points out, their real import was by shedding blood on a holy stone or in a holy place to tie or renew a blood-bond between the God and his faithful ones. We have no clear information about the mind of the Flagellants, who in 1259, and again in 1349, swarmed through the streets of European cities, naked and thrashing themselves, till the blood ran, with leather thongs and iron whips. They were penitents, and no doubt imbued with the ancient belief that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.

Asceticism then in its origin was usually not ascetic in a modern sense, that is, not ethical. It was rather of the nature of the savage taboo (q.v.), the outcome of totemistic beliefs or a mode of averting the contaminating presence of djinns and demons. Above all, fasting was a mode of preparing oneself for the sacramental eating of a sacred animal, and as such often assisted by use of purgatives and aperients. It was essential in the old Greek rites of averting the Kêres or djinns, the ill regulated ghosts who return to earth and molest the living, to abstain from flesh. The Pythagoreans and Orphic mystae so abstained all their life long, and Porphyry eloquently insists on such a discipline for all who “are not content merely to talk about Reason, but are really intent on casting aside the body and living through Reason with Truth. Naked and without the tunic of the flesh these will enter the arena and strive in the Olympic contest of the soul.”

It is time to pass on to Buddhist asceticism, in its essence a more ethical and philosophical product than some of the forms so far considered. The keynote of Buddhist asceticism is deliverance from life and its inevitable suffering. Once at a village where he rested the Blessed One (Buddha) addressed his brethren and said: “It is through not understanding and grasping four Noble Truths, O brethren, that we have had to run so long, to wander so long in this weary path of transmigration, both you and I.” These noble truths were about sorrow, its cause, its cessation and the path which leads to that cessation. Once they are grasped the craving for existence is rooted out, that which leads to renewed existence is destroyed, and there is no more birth. The Buddha believed he had a way of Truth, which if an elect disciple possessed he might say of himself, “Hell is destroyed for me, and rebirth as an animal, or a ghost, or in any place of woe. I am converted, I am no longer liable to be reborn in a state of suffering, and am assured of final salvation.”

Suffering, said the sage in his great sermon at Benares, is inseparable from birth and old age. Sickness is suffering, so is death, so is union with the unloved, and separation from the loved; not to obtain what one desires is suffering; the entire fivefold clinging to the earthly is suffering. Its origin is the thirst for being which leads from birth to birth, together with lust and desire, which find gratification here and there; the thirst for pleasures, for being, for power. This thirst must be extinguished by complete annihilation of desire, by letting it go, expelling it, separating oneself from it, giving it no room. This extinction is achieved in eight ways, namely rectitude of faith, resolve, speech, action, living, effort, thought, self-concentration.

In this gospel we must be done with the outer world, participation in which is not the self, yet means for the self birth and death, appetites, longings, emotions, change and suffering, pleasure and pain. He that has put off all lust and desire, all hope and fear, all will to exist as a sinful, because a sentient, being, has won to the heaven of extinction or Nirvana. He may still tread the earth, but he is a saint or Brahman, is in heaven, has quitted the transient and enjoys eternity.

Such was the Buddha’s gospel, as his most ancient scriptures enunciate it. Nirvana is constantly defined in them as supreme happiness. It is not even clear how far, if we interpret it strictly, this philosophy leaves any self to be happy. However this be, its practical expression is the life of the monk who has separated himself from the world. Five commandments must be observed by him who would even approach the higher life of saint and ascetic. They are these: to kill no living thing; not to lay hands on another’s property; not to touch another’s wife; not to speak what is untrue; not to drink intoxicating drinks.

Though couched in the negative, these rules must be interpreted in the amplest and widest sense by all believers. The Order, however, which the would-be ascetic can enter by regular initiation, when he is twenty years of age, entails a discipline much more severe. He has gone forth from home into homelessness, and has not where to lay his head. He must eat only the morsels he gets by begging; must dress in such rags as he can pick up; must sleep under trees. Mendicancy is his recognized way of life. Furthermore, he must abstain all his life from sexual intercourse; he may not take even a blade of grass without permission of the owner; he must not kill even a worm or ant; he must not boast of his perfection. In practice the lives of Buddhist monks are not so squalid as these rules would lead us to suppose. Thanks to the reverent charity of the laymen, they do not live much worse than Benedictine monks; and the prohibition to live in houses does not extend to caves. Everywhere in India and Ceylon they hollowed out cells and churches in the cliffs and rocks, which are the wonder of the European tourist.

But long before the advent of Buddhism, the hermit, or wandering beggar, was a familiar figure in India. No formal initiation was imposed on the would-be ascetic, save (in the case of young men) the duty to live at first in his teacher’s house. One who had thus fulfilled the duties of the student order must “go forth remaining chaste,” says the Āpastamba, ii. 9. 8. He shall then “live without a fire, without a house, without pleasures, without protection; remaining silent and uttering speech only on the occasion of the daily recitation of the Veda; begging so much food only in the village as will sustain his life, he shall wander about, neither caring for this world nor for heaven. He shall only wear clothes thrown away by others. Some declare that he shall even go naked. Abandoning truth and falsehood, pleasure and pain, the Vedas, this world and the next, he shall seek the Universal Soul, in knowledge of which standeth eternal salvation.”

Such a life was specially recommended for one who has lived the life of a householder, and, having begotten sons according to the sacred law and offered sacrifices, desires in his old age to abandon worldly objects and direct his mind to final liberation. He leaves his wife, if she will not accompany him, and goes forth into the forest, committing her and his house to his sons. He must indeed take with him the sacred fire and implements for domestic sacrifice, but until death overtakes him he must wander silent, alone, possessing no hearth nor dwelling, begging his food in the villages, firm of purpose, with a potsherd for an alms bowl, the roots of trees for a dwelling, and clad in coarse worn out garments. “Let him not desire to die, let him not desire to live; let him wait for his appointed time, as a servant waits for the payment of his wages. Let him drink water purified by straining with a cloth, let him utter speech purified by truth, let him keep his heart pure. Let him patiently bear hard words, let him not insult anybody, let him not become any one’s enemy for the sake of this perishable body.... Let him reflect on the transmigrations of men, caused by their sinful deeds, on their falling into hell, and on their torments in the world of Yama.... A twice-born man who becomes an ascetic thus shakes off sin here below and reaches the highest Brahman” (Laws of Manu, by G. Bühler, vi. 85).

This old-world wisdom of the Hindus, a thousand years before our era, is worthily to be paralleled from the Manichaeism of about the year 400. Augustine has preserved (contra Faustum, v. 1) the portraiture of a Manichaean elect as drawn by himself:—

“I have given up father and mother, wife, children and all else that the gospel bids us, and do you ask if I accept the gospel? Are you then still ignorant of what the word gospel means? It is nothing else than the preaching and precept of Christ. I have cast away gold and silver, and have ceased to carry even copper in my belt, being content with my daily bread, nor caring for the morrow, nor anxious how my belly shall be filled or my body clothed; and do you ask me if I accept the gospel? You behold in me those beatitudes of Christ which make up the gospel, and you ask me if I accept it. You behold me gentle, a peacemaker, pure of heart, a mourner, hungering, thirsting, bearing persecutions and hatreds for righteousness’ sake, and do you doubt whether I accept the gospel.... All that was mine I have given up, father, mother, wife, children, gold, silver, eating, drinking, delights, pleasures. Deem this a sufficient answer to your question and deem yourself on the way to be blessed, if you have not been scandalized in me.”

The Greek Cynics (see Cynics) played a great part in the history of Asceticism, and they were so much the precursors of the Christian hermits that descriptions of them in profane literature have been mistaken for pictures of early monasticism. In striving to imitate the rugged strength and independence of their master Socrates, they went to such extremes as rather to caricature him. They affected to live like beggars, bearing staff and wallet, owning nothing, renouncing pleasures, riches, honours. For older thinkers like Plato and Aristotle the perfect life was that of the citizen and householder; but the Cynics were individualists, citizens of the world without loyalty or respect for the ancient city state, the decay of which was coincident with their rise. Their zeal for renunciation often extended not to pleasures, marriage and property alone, but to cleanliness, knowledge and good manners as well, and in this respect also they were the forerunners of later monks.

Philo (20 B.C.-A.D. 40) has left us many pictures of the life which to his mind impersonated the highest wisdom, and they are all inspired by the more respectable sort of cynicism, which had taken deep root among Greek Jews of the day. One such picture merits citation from his tract On Change of Names (vol. i. 583, ed. Mangey): “All this company of the good and wise have of their own free will divested themselves of too copious wealth; nay, have spurned the things dear to the flesh. For of good habit and lusty are athletes, since they have fortified against the soul the body which should be its servant; but the disciples of wisdom are pale and wasted, and in a manner reduced to skeletons, because they have sacrificed the whole of their bodily strength to the faculties of the soul.”

His own favourite ascetics, the Therapeutae, whose chief centre was in Egypt, had renounced property and all its temptations, and fled, irrevocably abandoning brothers, children, wives, parents, throngs of kinsmen, intimacy of friends, the fatherlands where they were born and bred (see Therapeutae). Here we have the ideal of early Christian renunciation at work, but apart from the influence of Jesus. In the pages of Epictetus the same ideal is constantly held up to us.

In the Christian Church there was from the earliest age a leaning to excessive asceticism, and it needed a severe struggle on the part of Paul, and of the Catholic teachers who followed him, to secure for the baptized the right to be married, to own property, to engage in war and commerce, or to assume public office. One and all of the permanent institutions of society were condemned by the early enthusiasts, especially by those who looked forward to a speedy advent of the millennium, as alien to the kingdom of God and as impediments to the life of grace.

Marriage and property had already been eschewed in the Jewish Essene and Therapeutic sects, and in Christianity the name of Encratite was given to those who repudiated marriage and the use of wine. They did not form a sect, but represented an impulse felt everywhere. In early and popular apocryphal histories the apostles are represented as insisting that their converts should either not contract wedlock or should dissolve the tie if already formed. This is the plot of the Acts of Thecla, a story which probably goes back to the first century. Repudiation of the tie by fervent women, betrothed or already wives, occasioned much domestic friction and popular persecution. In the Syriac churches, even as late as the 4th century, the married state seems to have been regarded as incompatible with the perfection of the initiated. Renunciation of the state of wedlock was anyhow imposed on the faithful during the lengthy, often lifelong, terms of penance imposed upon them for sins committed; and later, when monkery took the place, in a church become worldly, partly of the primitive baptism and partly of that rigorous penance which was the rebaptism and medicine of the lapsed, celibacy and virginity were held essential thereto, no less than renunciation of property and money-making.

Together with the rage for virginity went the institution of virgines subintroductae, or of spiritual wives; for it was often assumed that the grace of baptism restored the original purity of life led by Adam and Eve in common before the Fall. Such rigours are encouraged in the Shepherd of Hermas, a book which emanated from Rome and up to the 4th century was read in church. They were common in the African churches, where they led to abuses which taxed the energy even of a Cyprian. They were still rife in Antioch in 260. We detect them in the Celtic church of St Patrick, and, as late as the 7th century, among the Celtic elders of the north of France. In the Syriac church as late as 340, such relations prevailed between the “Sons and daughters of the Resurrection.” It continued among the Albigenses and other dissident sects of the middle ages, among whom it served a double purpose; for their elders were thus not only able to prove their own chastity, but to elude the inquisitors, who were less inclined to suspect a man of the catharism which regarded marriage as the “greater adultery” (maius adulterium) if they found him cohabiting (in appearance at least) with a woman. There was hardly an early council, great or small, that did not condemn this custom, as well as the other one, still more painful to think of, of self-emasculation. In the Catholic church, however, common sense prevailed, and those who desired to follow the Encratite ideal repaired to the monasteries.

Authorities.—E.B. Tylor, Primitive Culture (London, 1903); Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites (London, 1901); J.E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion; F. Max Müller, The Sacred Books of the East; Victor Henry, La Magie dans l’Inde antique; J.G. Frazer, The Golden Bough (London, 1900), and Adonis, Attis, Osiris (London, 1906); Georges Lafay, Culte des divinitês d’Alexandrie (Paris, 1884); Döllinger, Sectengeschichte des Mittelalters (Munich, 1890); Fr. Cumont, Mysteries of Mithra (Chicago, 1903); Zöckler, Gesch. der Ascese (1863). See also under Purification. Goldziher, “De l’ascetisme aux premiers temps de l’Islam,” in Revue de l’histoire des religions (1898), p. 314; Muratori, De Synisactis et Agapetis (Pavia, 1709); Jas. Martineau, Types of Ethical Theory (Oxford, 1885); T.H. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics (Oxford, 1883); Franz Cumont, Les Religions orientales dans le paganisme romain (Paris, 1907); Porphyrius, De Abstinentia; Plutarchus, De Carnium Esu.

(F. C. C.)

ASCHAFFENBURG, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, on the right bank of the Main, at its confluence with the Aschaff, near the foot of the Spessart, 26 m. by rail S.E. of Frankfort-On-Main. Pop. (1900) 18,091; (1905) 25,275. Its chief buildings are the Johannisburg, built (1605-1614) by Archbishop Schweikard of Cronberg, which contains a library with a number of incunabula, a collection of engravings and paintings; the Stiftskirche, or cathedral, founded in 980 by Otto of Bavaria, but dating in the main from the early 12th and the 13th centuries, in which are preserved various monuments by the Vischers, and a sarcophagus, with the relics of St Margaret (1540); the Capuchin hospital; a theatre, which was formerly the house of the Teutonic order; and several mansions of the German nobility. The town, which has been remarkable for its educational establishments since the 10th century, has a gymnasium, lyceum, seminarium and other schools. There is an archaeological museum in the old abbey buildings. The graves of Klemens Brentano and his brother Christian (d. 1851) are in the churchyard; and Wilhelm Heinse is buried in the town. Coloured and white paper, ready-made clothing, cellulose, tobacco, lime and liqueurs are the chief manufactures, while a considerable export trade is done down the Main in wood, cattle and wine.

Aschaffenburg, called in the middle ages Aschafaburg and also Askenburg, was originally a Roman settlement. The 10th and 23rd Roman legions had their station here, and on the ruins of their castrum the Frankish mayors of the palace built a castle. Bonifacius erected a chapel to St Martin, and founded a Benedictine monastery. A stone bridge over the Main was built by Archbishop Willigis in 989. Adalbert increased the importance of the town in various ways about 1122. In 1292 a synod was held here, and in 1474 an imperial diet, preliminary to that of Vienna, in which the concordat was decided which has therefore been sometimes called the Aschaffenburg Concordat.

The town suffered greatly during the Thirty Years’ War, being held in turn by the various belligerents. In 1842-1849, King Louis built himself to the west of the town a country house, called the Pompeianum, from its being an imitation of the house of Castor and Pollux at Pompeii. In 1866 the Prussians inflicted a severe defeat on the Austrians in the neighbourhood.

The principality of Aschaffenburg, deriving its name from the city, comprehended an area of 654 English sq. m. It formed part of the electorate of Mainz, and in 1803 was made over to the archchancellor, Archbishop Charles of Dalberg. In 1806 it was annexed to the grand-duchy of Frankfort; and in 1814 was transferred to Bavaria, in virtue of a treaty concluded on the 19th of June between that power and Austria. With lower Franconia, it now forms a district of the kingdom of Bavaria.

ASCHAM, ROGER (c. 1515-1568), English scholar and writer, was born at Kirby Wiske, a village in the North Riding of Yorkshire, near Northallerton, about the year 1515. His name would be more properly spelt Askham, being derived, doubtless, from Askham in the West Riding. He was the third son of John Ascham, steward to Lord Scrope of Bolton. The family name of his mother Margaret is unknown, but she is said to have been well connected. The authority for this statement, as for most others concerning Ascham’s early life, is Edward Grant, headmaster of Westminster, who collected and edited his letters and delivered a panegyrical oration on his life in 1576.

Ascham was educated not at school, but in the house of Sir Humphry Wingfield, a barrister, and in 1533 speaker of the House of Commons, as Ascham himself tells us, in the Toxophilus, p. 120 (not, as by a mistake which originated with Grant and has been repeated ever since, Sir Anthony Wingfield, who was nephew of the speaker). Sir Humphry “ever loved and used to have many children brought up in his house,” where they were under a tutor named R. Bond. Their sport was archery, and Sir Humphry “himself would at term times bring down from London both bows and shafts and go with them himself to the field and see them shoot.” Hence Ascham’s earliest English work, the Toxophilus, the importance which he attributed to archery in educational establishments, and probably the provision for archery in the statutes of St Albans, Harrow and other Elizabethan schools. From this private tuition Ascham was sent “about 1530,” at the age, it is said, of fifteen, to St John’s College, Cambridge, then the largest and most learned college in either university. Here he fell under the influence of John Cheke, who was admitted a fellow in Ascham’s first year, and Sir Thomas Smith. His guide and friend was Robert Pember, “a man of the greatest learning and with an admirable facility in the Greek tongue.” On his advice he practised seriously the precept embodied in the saying, “I know nothing about the subject, I have not even lectured on it,” and “to learn Greek more quickly, while still a boy, taught Greek to boys.” In Latin he specially studied Cicero and Caesar. He became B.A. on the 18th of February 1534/5. Dr Nicholas Metcalfe was then master of the college, “a papist, indeed, and yet if any young man given to the new learning as they termed it, went beyond his fellows,” he “lacked neither open praise, nor private exhibition.” He procured Ascham’s election to a fellowship, “though being a new bachelor of arts, I chanced among my companions to speak against the Pope ... after grievous rebuke and some punishment, open warning was given to all the fellows, none to be so hardy, as to give me his voice at that election.” The day of election Ascham regarded as his “birthday,” and “the whole foundation of the poor learning I have and of all the furtherance that hitherto elsewhere I have obtained.” He took his M.A. degree on the 3rd of July 1537. He stayed for some time at Cambridge taking pupils, among whom was William Grindal, who in 1544 became tutor to Princess Elizabeth. Ascham himself cultivated music, acquired fame for a beautiful handwriting, and lectured on mathematics. Before 1540, when the Regius professorship of Greek was established, Ascham “was paid a handsome salary to profess the Greek tongue in public,” and held also lectures in St John’s College. He obtained from Edward Lee, then archbishop of York, a pension of £2 a year, in return for which Ascham translated Oecumenius’ Commentaries on the Pauline Epistles. But the archbishop, scenting heresy in some passage relating to the marriage of the clergy, sent it back to him, with a present indeed, but with something like a reprimand, to which Ascham answered with an assurance that he was “no seeker after novelties,” as his lectures showed. He was on safer ground in writing in 1542-1543 a book, which he told Sir William Paget in the summer of 1544 was in the press, “on the art of Shooting.” This was no doubt suggested partly by the act of parliament 33 Henry VIII. c. 9, “an acte for mayntenaunce of Artyllarie and debarringe of unlawful games,” requiring every one under sixty, of good health, the clergy, judges, &c., excepted, “to use shooting in the long bow,” and fixing the price at which bows were to be sold. Under the title of Toxophilus he presented it to Henry VIII. at Greenwich soon after his triumphant return from the capture of Boulogne, and promptly received a grant of a pension of £10 a year, equal to some £200 a year of our money. A novelty of the book was that the author had “written this Englishe matter in the Englishe tongue for Englishe men,” though he thought it necessary to defend himself by the argument that what “the best of the realm think it honest to use” he “ought not to suppose it vile for him to write.” It is a Platonic dialogue between Toxophilus and Philologus, and nowadays its chief interest lies in its incidental remarks. It may probably claim to have been the model for Izaak Walton’s Compleat Angler.

From 1541, or earlier, Ascham acted as letter-writer to the university and also to his college. Perhaps the best specimen of his skill was the letter written to the protector Somerset in 1548 on behalf of Sedbergh school, which was attached to St John’s College by the founder, Dr Lupton, in 1525, and the endowment of which had been confiscated under the Chantries Act. In 1546 Ascham was elected public orator by the university on Sir John Cheke’s retirement.

Shortly after the beginning of the reign of Edward VI., Ascham made public profession of Protestant opinions in a disputation on the doctrine of the Mass, begun in his own college and then removed for greater publicity to the public schools of the university, where it was stopped by the vice-chancellor. Thereon Ascham wrote a letter of complaint to Sir William Cecil. This stood him in good stead. In January 1548, Grindal, the princess Elizabeth’s tutor, died. Ascham had already corresponded with the princess, and in one of his letters says that he returns her pen which he has mended. Through Cecil and at the princess’s own wish he was selected as her tutor against another candidate pressed by Admiral Seymour and Queen Katherine. Ascham taught Elizabeth—then sixteen years old—for two years, chiefly at Cheshunt. In a letter to Sturm, the Strassburg schoolmaster, he praises her “beauty, stature, wisdom and industry. She talks French and Italian as well as English: she has often talked to me readily and well in Latin and moderately so in Greek. When she writes Greek and Latin nothing is more beautiful than her handwriting ... she read with me almost all Cicero and great part of Titus Livius: for she drew all her knowledge of Latin from those two authors. She used to give the morning to the Greek Testament and afterwards read select orations of Isocrates and the tragedies of Sophocles. To these I added St Cyprian and Melanchthon’s Commonplaces.” In 1550 Ascham quarrelled with Elizabeth’s steward and returned to Cambridge. Cheke then procured him the secretaryship to Sir Richard Morrison (Moryson), appointed ambassador to Charles V. It was on his way to join Morrison that he paid his celebrated morning call on Lady Jane Grey at Bradgate, where he found her reading Plato’s Phaedo, while every one else was out hunting.

The embassy went to Louvain, where he found the university very inferior to Cambridge, then to Innsbruck and Venice. Ascham read Greek with the ambassador four or five days a week. His letters during the embassy, which was recalled on Mary’s accession, were published in English in 1553, as a “Report” on Germany. Through Bishop Gardiner he was appointed Latin secretary to Queen Mary with a pension of £20 a year. His Protestantism he must have quietly sunk, though he told Sturm that “some endeavoured to hinder the flow of Gardiner’s benevolence on account of his religion.” Probably his never having been in orders tended to his safety. On the 1st of June 1554 he married Margaret Howe, whom he described as niece of Sir R. (? J., certainly not, as has been said, Henry) Wallop. By her he had two sons. From his frequent complaints of his poverty then and later, he seems to have lived beyond his income, though, like most courtiers, he obtained divers lucrative leases of ecclesiastical and crown property. In 1555 he resumed his studies with Princess Elizabeth, reading in Greek the orations of Aeschines and Demosthenes’ De Corona. Soon after Elizabeth’s accession, on the 5th of October 1559, he was given, though a layman, the canonry and prebend of Wetwang in York minster. In 1563 he began the work which has made him famous, The Scholemaster. The occasion of it was, he tells us (though he is perhaps merely imitating Boccaccio), that during the “great plague” at London in 1563 the court was at Windsor, and there on the 10th of December he was dining with Sir William Cecil, secretary of state, and other ministers. Cecil said he had “strange news; that divers scholars of Eaton be run away from the schole for fear of beating”; and expressed his wish that “more discretion was used by schoolmasters in correction than commonly is.” A debate took place, the party being pretty evenly divided between floggers and anti-floggers, with Ascham as the champion of the latter. Afterwards Sir Richard Sackville, the treasurer, came up to Ascham and told him that “a fond schoolmaster” had, by his brutality, made him hate learning, much to his loss, and as he had now a young son, whom he wished to be learned, he offered, if Ascham would name a tutor, to pay for the education of their respective sons under Ascham’s orders, and invited Ascham to write a treatise on “the right order of teaching.” The Scholemaster was the result. It is not, as might be supposed, a general treatise on educational method, but “a plaine and perfite way of teachyng children to understand, write and speake in Latin tong”; and it was not intended for schools, but “specially prepared for the private brynging up of youth in gentlemen and noblemens houses.” The perfect way simply consisted in “the double translation of a model book”; the book recommended by this professional letter-writer being “Sturmius’ Select Letters of Cicero.” As a method of learning a language by a single pupil, this method might be useful; as a method of education in school nothing more deadening could be conceived. The method itself seems to have been taken from Cicero. Nor was the famous plea for the substitution of gentleness and persuasion for coercion and flogging in schools, which has been one of the main attractions of the book, novel. It was being practised and preached at that very time by Christopher Jonson (c. 1536-1597) at Winchester; it had been enforced at length by Wolsey in his statutes for his Ipswich College in 1528, following Robert Sherborne, bishop of Chichester, in founding Rolleston school; and had been repeatedly urged by Erasmus and others, to say nothing of William of Wykeham himself in the statutes of Winchester College in 1400. But Ascham’s was the first definite demonstration in favour of humanity in the vulgar tongue and in an easy style by a well-known “educationist,” though not one who had any actual experience as a schoolmaster. What largely contributed to its fame was its picture of Lady Jane Grey, whose love of learning was due to her finding her tutor a refuge from pinching, ear-boxing and bullying parents; some exceedingly good criticisms of various authors, and a spirited defence of English as a vehicle of thought and literature, of which it was itself an excellent example. The book was not published till after Ascham’s death, which took place on the 23rd of December 1568, owing to a chill caught by sitting up all night to finish a New Year’s poem to the queen.

His letters were collected and published in 1576, and went through several editions, the latest at Nuremberg in 1611; they were re-edited by William Elstob in 1703. His English works were edited by James Bennett with a life by Dr Johnson in 1771, reprinted in 8vo in 1815. Dr Giles in 1864-1865 published in 4 vols. select letters with the Toxophilus and Scholemaster and the life by Edward Grant. The Scholemaster was reprinted in 1571 and 1589. It was edited by the Rev. J. Upton in 1711 and in 1743, by Prof. J.E.B. Mayor in 1863, and by Prof. Edward Arber in 1870. The Toxophilus was republished in 1571, 1589 and 1788, and by Prof. Edward Arber in 1868 and 1902.

(A. F. L.)

ASCHERSLEBEN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Saxony, 36 m. by rail N.W. from Halle, and at the junction of lines to Cothen and Nienhagen. Pop. (1900) 27,245; (1905) 27,876. It contains one Roman Catholic and four Protestant churches, a synagogue, a fine town-hall dating from the 16th century, and several schools. The discovery of coal in the neighbourhood stimulated and altered its industries. In addition to the manufacture of woollen wares, for which it has long been known, there is now extensive production of vinegar, paraffin, potash and especially beetroot-sugar; while the surrounding district, which was formerly devoted in great part to market-gardening, is now turned almost entirely into beetroot fields. There are also iron, zinc and chemical manufactures, and the cultivation of agricultural seeds is carried on. In the neighbourhood are brine springs and a spa (Wilhelmsbad). Aschersleben was probably founded in the 11th century by Count Esico of Ballenstedt, the ancestor of the house of Anhalt, whose grandson, Otto, called himself count of Ascania and Aschersleben, deriving the former part of the title from his castle in the neighbourhood of the town. On the death of Otto III. (1315) Aschersleben passed into the hands of the bishop of Halberstadt, and at the peace of 1648 was, with the bishopric, united to Brandenburg.

ASCIANO, a town of Tuscany, in the province of Siena, 19 m. S.E. of the town of Siena by rail. Pop. (1901) 7618. It is surrounded by walls built by the Sienese in 1351, and has some 14th-century churches with paintings of the same period. Six miles to the south is the large Benedictine monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, founded in 1320, famous for the frescoes by Luca Signorelli (1497-1498) and Antonio Bazzi, called Sodoma (1505), in the cloister, illustrating scenes from the legend of St Benedict; the latter master’s work is perhaps nowhere better represented than here. The church contains fine inlaid choir stalls by Fra Giovanni da Verona. The buildings, which are mostly of red brick, are conspicuous against the gray clayey and sandy soil. The monastery is described by Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II.) in his Commentaria. Remains of Roman baths, with a fine mosaic pavement, were found within the town in 1898 (G. Pellegrini in Notizie degli scavi, 1899, 6).

ASCITANS (or Ascitae; from ἀσκός, the Greek for a wine-skin), a peculiar sect of 2nd-century Christians (Montanists), who introduced the practice of dancing round a wine-skin at their meetings.

ASCITES, (ἀσκίτης dropsical, from ἀσκός sc. νόσος disease), the term in medicine applied to an effusion of non-inflammatory fluid within the peritoneum. It is not a disease in itself, but is one of the manifestations of disease elsewhere—usually in the kidneys, heart, or in connexion with the liver (portal obstruction). Portal obstruction is the commonest cause of well-marked ascites. It is produced by (1) diseases within the liver, as cirrhosis (usually alcoholic) and cancer; (2) diseases outside the liver, as cancer of stomach, duodenum or pancreas, causing pressure on the portal vein, or enlarged glands in the fissure of the liver producing the same effect. Ascites is one of the late symptoms in the disease, and precedes dropsy of the leg, which may come on later, due to pressure on the large veins in the abdominal cavity by the ascitic fluid. In ascites due to heart disease, the dropsy of the feet and legs precedes the ascites, and there will be a history of palpitation, shortness of breath, and perhaps cough. In the ascites of kidney troubles there will be a history of general oedema—puffiness of face and eyes on rising in the morning probably having attracted the attention of the patient or his friends previously. Other less common causes of ascites are chronic peritonitis, either tuberculous in the young, or due to cancer in the aged, and more rarely still pernicious anaemia.

ASCLEPIADES, Greek physician, was born at Prusa in Bithynia in 124 B.C., and flourished at Rome in the end of the 2nd century B.C. He travelled much when young, and seems at first to have settled at Rome as a rhetorician. In that profession he did not succeed, but he acquired great reputation as a physician. He founded his medical practice on a modification of the atomic or corpuscular theory, according to which disease results from an irregular or inharmonious motion of the corpuscles of the body. His remedies were, therefore, directed to the restoration of harmony, and he trusted much to changes of diet, accompanied by friction, bathing and exercise, though he also employed emetics and bleeding. He recommended the use of wine, and in every way strove to render himself as agreeable as possible to his patients. His pupils were very numerous, and the school formed by them was called the Methodical. Asclepiades died at an advanced age.

ASCLEPIADES, of Samos, epigrammatist and lyric poet, friend of Theocritus, flourished about 270 B.C. He was the earliest and most important of the convivial and erotic epigrammatists. Only a few of his compositions are actual “inscriptions”; others sing the praises of the poets whom he specially admired, but the majority of them are love-songs. It is doubtful whether he is the author of all the epigrams (some 40 in number) which bear his name in the Greek Anthology. He possibly gave his name to the Asclepiadean metre.

ASCLEPIODOTUS, Greek military writer, flourished in the 1st century B.C. Nothing is known of him except that he was a pupil of Poseidonius the Stoic (d. 51 B.C.). He is the supposed author of a treatise on Graeco-Macedonian tactics (Τακτικὰ Κεφάλαια), which, however, is probably not his own work, but the skeleton outline of the lectures delivered by his master, who is known to have written a work on the subject.

ASCOLI, GRAZIADIO ISAIA (1820-1907), Italian philologist; of Jewish family, was born at Görz at an early age showed a marked linguistic talent. In 1854 he published his Studii orientali e linguistici, and in 1860 was appointed professor of philology at Milan. He made various learned contributions to the study of Indo-European and Semitic languages, and also of the gipsy language, but his special field was the Italian dialects. He founded the Archivio glottologico italiano in 1873, publishing in it his Saggi Ladini, and making it in succeeding years the great organ of original scholarship on this subject. He was universally recognized as the greatest authority on Italian linguistics, and his article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed., revised for this edition) became the classic exposition in English. (See Italy: Language.)

ASCOLI PICENO1 (anc. Ausculum) a town and episcopal see of the Marches, Italy, the capital of the province of Ascoli Piceno, 17 m. W. of Porto d’ Ascoli (a station on the coast railway, 56 m. S.S.E. of Ancona), and 53 m. S. of Ancona direct, situated on the S. bank of the Tronto (anc. Truentus) at its confluence with the Castellano, 500 ft. above sea-level, and surrounded by lofty mountains. Pop. (1901) town, 12,256; commune, 28,608. The Porta Romana is a double-arched Roman gate; adjacent are remains of the massive ancient city walls, in rectangular blocks of stone 2 ft. in height, and remains of still earlier fortifications have been found at this point (F. Barnabei in Notizie degli scavi, 1887, 252). The church of S. Gregorio is built into a Roman tetrastyle Corinthian temple, two columns of which and the cella are still preserved; the site of the Roman theatre can be distinguished; and the church and convent of the Annunziata (with two fine cloisters and a good fresco by Cola d’ Amatrice in the refectory) are erected upon large Roman substructures of concrete, which must have supported some considerable building. Higher up is the castle, which now shows no traces of fortifications older than medieval; it commands a fine view of the town and of the mountains which encircle it. The town has many good pre-Renaissance buildings; the picturesque colonnaded market-place contains the fine Gothic church of S. Francesco and the original Palazzo del Comune, now the prefecture (Gothic with Renaissance additions). The cathedral is in origin Romanesque,2 but has been much altered, and was stored in 1888 by Count Giuseppe Sacconi (1855-1905). The frescoes in the dome, of the same date, are by Cesare Mariani. The cope presented to the cathedral treasury by Pope Nicholas IV. was stolen in 1904, and sold to Mr J. Pierpont Morgan, who generously returned it to the Italian government, and it was then placed for greater safety in the Galleria Corsini at Rome. The baptistery still preserves its ancient character; and the churches of S. Vittore and SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio are also good Romanesque buildings. The fortress of the Malatesta, constructed in 1349, has been in the main destroyed; the part of it which remains is now a prison. The present Palazzo Comunale, a Renaissance edifice, contains a fine museum, chiefly remarkable for the contents of prehistoric tombs found in the district (including good bronze fibulae, necklaces, amulets, &c., often decorated with amber), and a large collection of acorn-shaped lead missiles (glandes) used by slingers, belonging to the time of the siege of Asculum during the Social War (89 B.C.). There is also a picture gallery containing works by local masters, Pietro Alamanni, Cola d’ Amatrice, Carlo Crivelli, &c. The bridges across the ravines which defend the town are of considerable importance; the Ponte di Porta Cappucina is a very fine Roman bridge, with a single arch of 71 ft. span. The Ponte di Cecco (so named from Cecco d’ Ascoli), with two arches, is also Roman and belongs to the Via Salaria; the Ponte Maggiore and the Ponte Cartaro are, on the other hand, medieval, though the latter perhaps preserves some traces of Roman work. Near Ascoli is Castel Trosino, where an extensive Lombard necropolis of the 7th century was discovered in 1895; the contents of the tombs are now exhibited in the Museo Nazionale delle Terme at Rome (Notizie degli scavi, 1895, 35).

The ancient Asculum was the capital of Picenum, and it occupied a strong position in the centre of difficult country. It was taken in 268 B.C. by the Romans, and the Via Salaria was no doubt prolonged thus far at this period; the distance from Rome is 120 m. It took a prominent part in the Social War against Rome, the proconsul Q. Servilius and all the Roman citizens within its walls being massacred by the inhabitants in 90 B.C. It was captured after a long siege by Pompeius Strabo in 89 B.C. The leader, Judacilius, committed suicide, the principal citizens were put to death, and the rest exiled. The Roman general celebrated his triumph on the 25th of December of that year. Caesar occupied it, however, as a strong position after crossing the Rubicon; and it received a Roman colony, perhaps under the triumvirs, and became a place of some importance. In A.D. 301 it became the capital of Picenum Suburbicarium. In 545 it was taken by Totila, but is spoken of by Paulus Diaconus as the chief city of Picenum shortly afterwards. From the time of Charlemagne it was under the rule of its bishops, who had the title of prince and the right to coin money, until 1185, when it became a free republic. It had many struggles with Fermo, and in the 15th century came more directly under the papal sway.

See N. Persichetti in Romische Mitteilungen (1903), 295 seq.

(T. As.)

1 The epithet distinguishes it from Ascoli Satriano (anc. Ausculum), which lies 19 m. S. of Foggia by rail.

2 It contains a fine polyptych by Carlo Crivelli (1473).

ASCONIUS PEDIANUS, QUINTUS (9 B.C.-A.D. 76; or A.D. 3-88), Roman grammarian and historian, was probably a native of Patavium (Padua). In his later years he resided at Rome, where he died, after having been blind for twelve years, at the age of eighty-five. During the reigns of Claudius and Nero he compiled for his sons, from various sources—e.g. the Gazette (Acta Publica), shorthand reports or “skeletons” (commentarii) of Cicero’s unpublished speeches, Tiro’s life of Cicero, speeches and letters of Cicero’s contemporaries, various historical writers, e.g. Varro, Atticus, Antias, Tuditanus and Fenestella (a contemporary of Livy whom he often criticizes)—historical commentaries on Cicero’s speeches, of which only five, viz. in Pisonem, pro Scauro, pro Milone, pro Cornelio and in toga Candida, in a very mutilated condition, are preserved. In a note upon the speech pro Scauro, he speaks of Longus Caecina (d. A.D. 57) as still living, while his words imply that Claudius (d. 54) was not alive. This statement, therefore, must have been written between A.D. 54 and 57. These valuable notes, written in good Latin, relate chiefly to legal, historical and antiquarian matters. A commentary, of inferior Latinity and mainly of a grammatical character, on Cicero’s Verrine orations, is universally regarded as spurious. Both works were found by Poggio in a MS. at St Gallen in 1416. This MS. is lost, but three transcripts were made by Poggio, Zomini (Sozomenus) of Pistoia and Bartolommeo da Montpulciano. That of Poggio is now at Madrid (Matritensis x. 81), and that of Zomini is in the Forteguerri library at Pistoia (No. 37). A copy of Bartolommeo’s transcript exists in Florence (Laur. liv. 5). The later MSS. are derived from Poggio’s copy. Other works attributed to Asconius were: a life of Sallust, a defence of Virgil against his detractors, and a treatise (perhaps a symposium in imitation of Plato) on health and long life.

Editions by Kiessling-Schöll (1875), and A.C. Clark (Oxford, 1906), which contains a previously unpublished collation of Poggio’s transcript. See also Madvig, De Asconio Pediano (1828).

ASCOT, a village in the Wokingham parliamentary division of Berkshire, England, famous for its race-meetings. Pop. of parish of Ascot Heath (1901), 1927. The station on the Southwestern railway, 29 m. W.S.W. of London, is called Ascot and Sunninghill; the second name belonging to an adjacent township with a population (civil parish) of 4719. The race-course is on Ascot Heath, and was laid out by order of Queen Anne in 1711, and on the 11th of August in that year the first meeting was held and attended by the queen. The course is almost exactly 2 m. in circumference, and the meetings are held in June. The principal race is that for the Ascot Gold Cup, instituted in 1807. The meeting is one of the most fashionable in England, and is commonly attended by members of the royal family. The royal procession, for which the meeting is peculiarly famous, was initiated by George IV. in 1820.

See R. Herod, Royal Ascot (London, 1900).

ASCUS (Gr. ἀσκός, a bag), a botanical term for the membranous sacs containing the reproductive spores in certain lichens and fungi. Various compounds of the word are used, e.g. ascophorous, producing asci; ascospore, the spore (or sporule) developed in the ascus; ascogonium, the organ producing it, &c.

ASELLI [Asellius, or Asellio], GASPARO (1581-1626), Italian physician, was born at Cremona about 1581, became professor of anatomy and surgery at Pavia, and practised at Milan, where he died in 1626. To him is due the discovery of the lacteal vessels, published in De Lactibus (Milan, 1627).

ASGILL, JOHN (1659-1738), English writer, was born at Hanley Castle, in Worcestershire, in 1659. He was bred to the law, and gained considerable reputation in his profession, increased by two pamphlets—the first (1696) advocating the establishment of some currency other than the usual gold and silver, the second (1698) on a registry for titles of lands. In 1699, when a commission was appointed to settle disputed claims in Ireland, he set out for that country, attracted by the hopes of practice. Before leaving London he put in the hands of the printer a tract, entitled An Argument proving that, according to the Covenant of Eternal Life revealed in the Scripture, Man may be translated from hence into that Eternal Life without passing through Death (1700). Coleridge has highly praised the “genuine Saxon English,” the “irony” and “humour” of this extraordinary pamphlet, which interpreted the relation between God and man by the technical rules of law, and insisted that, Christ having wiped out Adam’s sin, the penalty of death must consequently be illegal for those who claim exemption. How far it was meant seriously was doubted at the time, and may be doubted now. But its fame preceded the author to Ireland, and was of material service in securing his professional success, so that he amassed money, purchased an estate, and married a daughter of the second Lord Kenmare. He was returned both to the Irish and English parliaments, but was expelled from both on account of his “blasphemous” pamphlet. He was also involved in money difficulties, and litigation about his Irish estate, and these circumstances may have had something to do with his trouble in parliament. In 1707 he was arrested for debt, and the remainder of his life was spent in the Fleet prison, or within the rules of the king’s bench. He died in 1738. Asgill also wrote in 1714-1715 some pamphlets defending the Hanoverian succession against the claims of the Pretender.

ASH1 (Ger. Esche), a common name (Fr. fréne) given to certain trees. The common ash (Fraxinus excelsior) belongs to the natural order Oleaceae, the olive family, an order of trees and shrubs which includes lilac, privet and jasmine. The Hebrew word Oren, translated “ash” in Isaiah xliv. 14, cannot refer to an ash tree, as that is not a native of Palestine, but probably refers to the Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis). The ash is a native of Great Britain and the greater part of Europe, and also extends to Asia. The tree is distinguished for its height and contour, as well as for its graceful foliage. It attains a height of from 50 to 80 ft., and flowers in March and April, before the leaves are developed. The reddish flowers grow in clusters, but are not showy. They are naked, that is without sepals or petals, and generally imperfect, wanting either stamens or pistil. The large leaves, which are late in appearing, are pinnately compound, bearing four to seven pairs of gracefully tapering toothed leaflets on a slender stalk. The dry winged fruits, the so-called keys, are a characteristic feature and often remain hanging in bunches long after the leaves have fallen in autumn. The leaves fall early, but the greyish twigs and black buds render the tree conspicuous in winter and especially in early spring.

The ash is in Britain next in value to the oak as a timber-tree. It requires a good deep loam with gravelly subsoil, and a situation naturally sheltered, such as the steep banks of glens, rivers or lakes; in cold and wet clay it does not succeed. As the value of the timber depends chiefly on its toughness and elasticity, it is best grown in masses where the soil is good; the trunk is thus drawn up free from large side-branches. The tree is easily propagated from seeds; it throws up strong root shoots. The ash requires much light, but grows rapidly, and its terminal shoots pierce easily through thickets of beech, with which it is often associated. Unmixed ash plantations are seldom satisfactory, because the foliage does not sufficiently cover the ground; but when mixed with beech it grows well, and attains great height and girth. Owing to the dense mass of roots which it sends out horizontally a little beneath the surface of the ground, the ash does much harm to vegetation beneath its shade, and is therefore obnoxious as a hedgerow tree. Coppice shoots yield excellent hop-poles, crates, hoops, whip-handles, &c. The timber is much used for agricultural implements, and by coach-builders and wheelwrights.

A variety of the common species, known as var. heterophylla, has simple leaves. It occurs wild in woods in Europe and England. Another variety of ash (pendula) is met with in which the branches are pendulous and weeping. Sometimes this variety is grafted on the tall stem of the common ash, so as to produce a pleasing effect. It is said that the weeping variety was first observed at Gamlingay, in Cambridgeshire. A variety (crispa) occurs with curled leaves, and another with warty stems and branches, called verrucosa. F. Ornus is the manna ash (see Manna), a handsome tree with greenish-white flowers and native in south Europe. In southern Europe there is a small-leaved ash, called Fraxinus parvifolia. F. floribunda, a large tree with terminal panicles of white flowers, is a native of the Himalayas. In America there are several species—such as Fraxinus americana, the white ash; F. pubescens, the red ash; and F. sambucifolia, the black ash.

The “mountain ash” belongs to a totally different family from the common ash. It is called Pyrus Aucuparia, and belongs to the natural order Rosaceae, and the tribe Pomeae, which includes also apples, pears, &c. Its common name is probably due to its resemblance to the true ash, in its smooth grey bark, graceful ascending branches, and especially the form of the leaf, which is also pinnately compound but smaller than in the true ash. Its common name in Scotland is the rowan tree; it is well known by its clusters of white blossoms and succulent scarlet fruit. The name of poison ash is given to Rhus venenata, the North American poison elder or sumach, belonging to the Anacardiaceae (Cashew family). The bitter ash of the West Indies is Simaruba excelsa, which belongs to the natural order Simarubaceae. The Cape ash is Ekebergia capensis, belonging to the natural order Meliaceae, a large tree, a native of the Cape of Good Hope. The prickly ash, Xanthoxylon Clava-Herculis (nat. ord. Xanthoxyleae), a native of the south-eastern United States, is a small tree, the trunk of which is studded with corky tubercles, while the branches are armed with stout, sharp, brown prickles.

1 The homonym, ash or (pl.) ashes, the residue (of a body, &c.) after burning, is a common Teutonic word, Ger. Asche, connected with the root found in Lat. ardere, to burn.

A‘SHĀ [Maimūn ibn Qais], Arabian poet, was born before Mahomet, and lived long enough to accept the mission of the prophet. He was born in Manfuha, a village of al-Yemāma in the centre of Arabia, and became a wandering singer, passing through all Arabia from Hadramut in the south to al-Hīra in the north, and naturally frequenting the annual fair at Okaz (Ukāz). His love poems are devoted to the praise of Huraira, a black female slave. Even before the time of Mahomet he is said to have believed in the resurrection and last judgment, and to have been a monotheist. These beliefs may have been due to his intercourse with the bishop of Nejran (Najrān) and the ‘Ibādites (Christians) of al-Hīra. His poems were praised for their descriptions of the wild ass, for the praise of wine, for their skill in praise and satire, and for the varieties of metre employed. His best-known poem is that in praise of Mahomet.

His poems have been collected from various sources in L. Cheikho’s Les Poètes arabes chrétiens (Jesuit press, Beirut, 1890), pp. 357-399. His eulogy of Mahomet has been edited by H. Thorbecke, Al AšSa’s Lobgedicht auf Muhammad (Leipzig, 1875).

(G. W. T.)

ASHANTI, a British possession in West Africa, bounded W. by the (French) Ivory Coast colony, N. by the British Protectorate known as Northern Territories of the Gold Coast (see Gold Coast), and E. by the river Volta (which separates it from the German colony of Togoland); the southern frontier is conterminous with the northern frontier of the (British) Gold Coast colony. It forms an irregular oblong, with a triangular projection (the country of the Adansi) southward. It has an area of 23,000 sq. m., and a population estimated (1907) at 500,000.

Physical Features; Flora and Fauna.—A great part of Ashanti is covered with primeval and almost impenetrable forest.1 Many of the trees, chiefly silk-cotton and hardwood, attain splendid proportions, the bombax reaching a height of over 200 ft., but the monotony is oppressive, and is seldom relieved by the sight of flowers, birds or beasts. Ferns are abundant, and the mimosa rises to heights of from 30 to 60 ft. All over the forest spread lianas, or monkey-ropes, their usual position being that of immense festoons hanging from tree to tree. To these lianas (species of which yield one kind of the rubber of commerce) is due largely the weird aspect of the forest. The country round the towns, however, is cultivated with care, the fields yielding in abundance grain, yams, vegetables and fruits. In the north-eastern districts the primeval forest gives place to park-like country, consisting of plains covered with high coarse grass, and dotted with occasional baobabs, as well as with wild plum, shea-butter, dwarf date, fan palms, and other small trees. Among the wild animals are the elephant (comparatively rare), the leopard, varieties of antelope, many kinds of monkeys and numerous venomous snakes. Crocodiles and two kinds of hippopotami, the ordinary and a pygmy variety, are found in the rivers. Of birds, parrots are the most characteristic. Insect life is abundant.

About 25 m. south-east of Kumasi is Lake Busumchwi, the sacred lake of the Ashanti. It is surrounded by forest-clad hills some 800 ft. high, is nearly circular and has a maximum diameter of 6 m. The Black Volta, and lower down the Volta (q.v.), form the northern frontier, and various tributaries of the Volta, running generally in a northerly direction, traverse the eastern portion of the country. In the central parts are the upper courses of the Ofin and of some tributaries of the Prah. Farther west are the Tano and Bia rivers, which empty their waters into the Assini lagoon. In their course through Ashanti, the rivers, apart from the Volta, are navigable by canoes only. The elevation of the country is generally below 2000 ft., but it rises towards the north.

Climate.—The climate, although unsuited to the prolonged residence of Europeans, is less unhealthy than that of the coast towns of West Africa. The water-supply is good and abundant. The rainy season lasts from the end of May until October; storms are frequent and violent. The mean temperature at Kumasi is 76° F., the mean annual rainfall 40 ins.

Inhabitants.—The most probable tradition represents the Ashanti as deriving their origin from bands of fugitives, who in the 16th or 17th century were driven before the Moslem tribes migrating southward from the countries on the Niger and Senegal. Having obtained possession of a region of impenetrable forest, they defended themselves with a valour which, becoming part of their national character, raised them to the rank of a powerful and conquering nation. They are of the pure negro type, and are supposed to be originally of the same race as the Fanti, nearer the coast, and speak the same language. The separation of Fanti and Ashanti has been ascribed to a famine which drove the former south, and led them to live on fan, or herbs, while the latter subsisted on san, or Indian corn, &c., whence the names Fanti and Santi. The Ashanti are divided into a large number of tribes, of whom a dozen may be distinguished, namely, the Bekwai, Adansi, Juabin, Kokofu, Kumasi, Mampon, Nsuta, Nkwanta, Dadiassi, Daniassi, Ofinsu and Adjisu. Each tribe has its own king, but from the beginning of the 18th century the king of Kumasi was recognized as king paramount, and was spoken of as the king of Ashanti. As paramount king he succeeded to the “golden stool,” the symbol of authority among the Ashanti. After the deposition of Prempeh (1896) no king of Kumasi was chosen; Prempeh himself was never “enstooled.” The government of Ashanti was formerly a mixture of monarchy and military aristocracy. The confederate tribes were originally organized for purposes of war into six great divisions or clans, this organization developing into the main social fabric of the state. The chiefs of the clans, with a few sub-chiefs having hereditary rights, formed the King’s Council, and the king, unless of exceptionally strong character, often exercised less power than the council of chiefs, each of whom kept his little court, making a profuse display of barbaric pomp. Land is held in common by the tribes, lands unallotted being attached to the office of head chief or king and called “stool lands.” Polygamy is practised by all who can afford it. It is stated by the early chroniclers that the king of Ashanti was bound to maintain the “fetish” number of 3333 wives; many of these, however, were employed in menial services. The crown descended to the king’s brother, or his sister’s son, not to his own offspring. The queen mother exercised considerable authority in the state, but the king’s wives had no power. The system of human sacrifices, practised among the Ashanti until the closing years of the 19th century, was founded on a sentiment of piety towards parents and other connexions—the chiefs believing that the rank of their dead relatives in the future world would be measured by the number of attendants sent after them. There were two periods, called the great Adai and little Adai, at which human victims, chiefly prisoners of war or condemned criminals, were immolated. There is reason to believe that the extent of this practice was not so great as was currently reported.

There are a few Mahommedans in Ashanti, most of them traders from other countries, and the Basel and Wesleyan missionaries have obtained some converts to Christianity; but the great bulk of the people are spirit-worshippers. Unlike many West African races, the Ashanti in general show a repugnance to the doctrines of Islam.

Towns and Trade.—Besides the capital, Kumasi (q.v.), with a population of some 6000, there are few important towns in Ashanti. Obuassi, in the south-west, is the centre of the gold-mining industry. Wam is on the western border, Nkoranza, Atabubu and Kintampo in the north. Kintampo is a town of some size and is about 130 m. north-east of Kumasi. It is the meeting-place of traders from the Niger countries and from the coast. Formerly one of the great slave and ivory marts of West Africa, it is now a centre of the kola-nut commerce and a depot for government stores. The Ashanti are skilful in several species of manufacture, particularly in weaving cotton. Their pottery and works in gold also show considerable skill. A large quantity of silver-plate and goldsmiths’ work of great value and considerable artistic elaboration was found in 1874 in the king’s palace at Kumasi, not the least remarkable objects being masks of beaten gold. The influence of Moorish art is perceptible.

The vegetable products do not differ greatly from those found on the Gold Coast; the most important commercially is the rubber tree (Funtumia elastica). The nut of the kola tree is in great demand, and since 1905 many cocoa plantations have been established, especially in the eastern districts. Tobacco is cultivated in the northern regions. Gum copal is exported. Part of the trade of Ashanti had been diverted to the French port of Assini in consequence of the wars waged between England and the Ashanti, but on the suppression of the revolt of 1900 measures were taken to improve trade between Kumasi and Cape Coast. Kumasi is the distributing centre for the whole of Ashanti and the hinterland. Gold exists in the western districts of the country, and several companies were formed to work the mines in the period 1895-1901. Most of the gold exported from the Gold Coast in 1902 and following years came from the Obuassi mines. The gold output from Ashanti amounted in 1905 to 68,259 oz., valued at £254,790. The railway to Kumasi from Sekondi, which was completed in 1903, passes through the auriferous region. As far as the trade goes through British territory southward, the figures are included in those of the Gold Coast; but Ashanti does also a considerable trade with its French and German neighbours, and northwards with the Niger countries. Its revenue and expenditure are included in those of the Gold Coast. Revenue is obtained principally from caravan taxes, liquor licences, rents from government land and contributions from the gold-mining companies.

Communications.—The railway to Kumasi, cut through one of the densest forest regions, is described under Gold Coast. The usual means of communication is by tortuous paths through the forest, too narrow to admit any wheeled vehicle. A wide road, 141 m. long, has been cut through the bush from Cape Coast to Kumasi, and from Kumasi ancient caravan routes go to the chief trading centres farther inland. Where rivers and swamps have to be crossed, ferries are maintained. A favourite mode of travelling in the bush is in a palanquin borne on the heads of four carriers. Telegraph lines connect Kumasi with the coast towns and with the towns in the Northern Territories. There is a well-organized postal service.

History.—The Ashanti first came under the notice of Europeans early in the 18th century, through their successful wars with the kingdoms bordering the maritime territory. Osai Tutu may be considered as the real founder of the Ashanti Early relations with the British. power. He either built or greatly extended Kumasi; he subdued the neighbouring state of Denkera (1719) and the Mahommedan countries of Gaman (Jaman) and Banna, and extended the empire by conquests both on the east and west. At last he was defeated and slain (1731); but his successor, Osai Apoko, made further acquisitions towards the coast. In 1800, Osai Tutu Quamina, an enterprising and ambitious man, who appears early to have formed the desire of opening a communication with white nations, became king. About 1807, two chiefs of the Assin, whom he had defeated in battle, sought refuge among the Fanti, the ruling people on the coast. On the refusal of the Fanti to deliver up the fugitives, Osai Tutu invaded their country, defeated them and drove them towards the sea. The Ashanti reached the coast near Anamabo, where there was then a British fort. The governor exhorted the townsmen to come to terms and offered to mediate; but they resolved to abide the contest. The result was the destruction of the town, and the slaughter of 8000 of the inhabitants. The Ashanti, who lost over 2000 men, failed, however, to storm the English fort, though the garrison was reduced from twenty-four to eight men. A truce was agreed to, and the king refusing to treat except with the governor of Cape Coast, Colonel G. Torrane (governor 1805-1807) repaired to Anamabo, where he was received with great pomp. Torrane determined to surrender the fugitive Assin chiefs, but one succeeded in escaping; the other, on being given up, was put to death by the Ashanti. Torrane concluded an agreement with the Ashanti, acknowledging their conquest of Fantiland, and delivering up to them half the fugitives in Anamabo fort (most of the remainder were sold by Torrane and the members of his council as slaves). The governor also agreed to pay rent to the Ashanti for Anamabo fort and Cape Coast castle. The character of this man, who died on the coast in 1808, is indicated by Osai Tutu’s eulogy of him. “From the hour Governor Torrane delivered up Tchibbu [one of the Assin fugitives] I took the English for my friends,” said the king of Ashanti, “because I saw their object was trade only and they did not care for the people. Torrane was a man of sense and he pleased me much.”

In consequence of repeated invasions of Fantiland by the Ashanti, the British in 1817 sent Frederick James, commandant of Accra fort, T.E. Bowdich and W. Hutchinson on a mission to Kumasi. After one or two harmonious interviews, the king advanced a claim for the payment of the quit rents for Anamabo fort and Cape Coast castle, rents the major part of which the Fanti had induced the British to pay to them, leaving only a nominal sum for transmission to Kumasi. Mr James, the head of the mission, volunteered no satisfactory explanation, whereupon the king broke into uncontrollable rage, calling the emissaries cheats and liars. Bowdich and Hutchinson, thinking that British interests and the safety of the mission were endangered, took the negotiation into their own hands. Mr James was recalled, and a treaty was concluded, by which the king’s demands were satisfied, and the right of the British to control the natives in the coast towns recognized.

The government at home, though they demurred somewhat to the course that had been pursued, saw the wisdom of cultivating intercourse with this powerful African kingdom. They sent out, therefore, to Kumasi, as consul, Mr Joseph Dupuis, formerly consul at Mogador, who arrived at Cape Coast in January 1819. By that time fresh difficulties had arisen between the coast natives, who were supported by the British, and the Ashanti. Dupuis set out on the 9th of February 1820, and on the 28th arrived at Kumasi. After several meetings with the king, a treaty was drawn up, which acknowledged the sovereignty of Ashanti over the territory of the Fanti, and left the natives of Cape Coast to the mercy of their enemies. Mr J. Hope Smith, the governor of Cape Coast, disowned the treaty, as betraying the interests of the natives under British protection. Mr Hope Smith was supported by the government in London, which in Sir Charles M‘Carthy’s fate. 1821 assumed direct control of the British settlements. Sir Charles M‘Carthy, the first governor appointed by the crown, espoused the cause of the Fanti, but was defeated in battle by the Ashanti, the 21st of January 1824, at a place beyond the Prah called Essamako. The Ashanti had 10,000 men to Sir Charles’s 500. Sir Charles and eight other Europeans were killed. The skull of the governor was afterwards used at Kumasi as a royal drinking-cup. It was asserted that Sir Charles lost the battle through his ordnance-keeper bringing up kegs filled with vermicelli instead of ammunition. The fact is that the mistake, if made, only hastened the inevitable catastrophe. On the very day of this defeat Osai Tutu Quamina died and was succeeded by Osai Okoto. A state of chronic warfare ensued, until the Ashanti sustained a signal defeat at Dodowah on the 7th of August 1826. From this time the power of the Ashanti over the coast tribes waned, and in 1831 the king was obliged to purchase peace from Mr George Maclean, then administrator of the Gold Coast, at the price of 600 oz. of gold, and to send his son as a hostage to Cape Coast. The payment of ground rent for the forts held by the British had ceased after the battle of Dodowah, and by the treaty concluded by Maclean the river Prah was fixed as the boundary of the Ashanti kingdom, all the tribes south of it being under British protection.

The king (Kwaka Dua I.), who had succeeded Osai Okoto in 1838, was a peace-loving monarch who encouraged trade, but in 1852 the Ashanti tried to reassert authority over the Fanti in the Gold Coast protectorate, and in 1863 a war was caused by the refusal of the king’s demand for the surrender by the British of a fugitive chief and a runaway slave-boy. The Ashanti were victorious in two battles and retired unmolested. The governor, Mr Richard Pine, urged the advisability of an advance on Kumasi, but this the British government would not allow. No further fighting followed, but the prestige of the Ashanti greatly increased. “The white men” (said Kwaka Dua) “bring many cannon to the bush, but the bush is stronger than the cannon.” In April 1867 Kwaka Dua died, and after an interval of civil war was succeeded by Kofi Karikari, who on being enstooled swore, “My business shall be war.” Thereafter preparations were made throughout Ashanti to attack the Fanti tribes, and the result was the war of 1873-74.

Two distinct events were the immediate cause of the war. The principal was the transference of Elmina fort from the Dutch to the British, which took place on the 2nd of April 1872. The Elmina were regarded by the Ashanti The war of 1873-1874. as their subjects, and the king of Ashanti held the Elmina “custom-note,”—that is, he received from the Dutch an annual payment, in its origin a ground rent for the fort, but looked upon by the Dutch as a present for trade purposes. The Ashanti greatly resented the occupation by Britain of what they considered Ashanti territory. Another but minor cause of the war was the holding in captivity by the Ashanti of four Europeans. An Ashanti force invaded Krepi, a territory beyond the Volta, and in June 1869 captured Mr Fritz A. Ramseyer, his wife and infant son (the child died of privation shortly afterwards), and Mr J. Kühne, members of the Basel mission. Monsieur M.J. Bonnat, a French trader, was also captured at another place. The captives were taken to Kumasi. Negotiations for their release were begun, but the Europeans were still prisoners when the sale of Elmina occurred. The Ashanti delayed war until their preparations were complete, whilst the Gold Coast officials appear to have thought the risk of hostilities remote. However, on the 22nd of January 1873 an Ashanti force crossed the Prah and invaded the British protectorate. They defeated the Fanti, stirred up disputes at Elmina, and encamped at Mampon near Cape Coast, to the great alarm of the inhabitants. Measures were taken for the defence of the territory and the punishment of the assailants, which culminated in the despatch of Sir Garnet (afterwards Viscount) Wolseley as British administrator, £800,000 being voted by parliament for the expenses of the expedition. On landing (October 2) at Cape Coast, Wolseley found the Ashanti, who had been decimated by smallpox and fever, preparing to return home. He determined, however, to march to Kumasi, whilst Captain (afterwards Sir) John Glover, R.N., administrator of Lagos, was with a force of native levies to co-operate from the east and take the Ashanti in rear. Meanwhile the enemy broke up camp, and, although harassed by native levies raised by the British, effected an orderly retreat. The Ashanti army re-entered Kumasi on the 22nd of December. Wolseley asked for the help of white troops, and the 2nd battalion Rifle Brigade, the 23rd Fusiliers and 42nd Highlanders were despatched. Seeing the preparations made by his enemy, Kofi Karikari endeavoured to make peace, and in response to General Wolseley’s demands the European captives were released (January 1874). Sir Garnet determined that peace must be signed in Kumasi and continued his advance. On the 20th of January the river Prah was crossed by the European troops; on the 24th the Adansi hills were reached; on the 31st there was severe fighting at Amoaful; on the 1st of February Bekwai was captured; and on the evening of the 4th the victorious army was in Kumasi, after seven hours’ fighting. The king, who had led his army, fled into the bush when he saw the day was lost. As the 42nd Highlanders pushed forward to Kumasi, the town was found full of Ashanti soldiers, but not a shot was fired at the invaders. Sir Garnet Wolseley sent messengers to the king, but Kofi Karikari refused to surrender. As his force was small, provisions scarce, and the rainy season setting in, and as he was encumbered with many sick and wounded, the British general decided to retire. On the 6th, therefore, the homeward march was commenced, the city being left behind in flames. In the meantime Captain Glover’s force had crossed the Prah on the 15th of January, and the Ashanti opposition weakening after the capture of Kumasi, Glover was able to push forward. On the 11th of February, Captain (later General) R.W. Sartorius, who had been sent ahead with twenty Hausa only, found Kumasi still deserted. Captain Sartorius and his twenty men marched 50 m. through the heart of the enemy’s country. On the 12th Glover and his force of natives entered the Ashanti capital. The news of Glover’s approach induced the king, who feared also the return of the white troops, to sue for peace. On the 9th of February a messenger from Kofi Karikari overtook Sir Garnet, who on the 13th at Fomana received the Ashanti envoys. A treaty was concluded whereby the king agreed, among other conditions, to pay 50,000 oz. of gold, to renounce all claim to homage from certain neighbouring kings, and all pretensions of supremacy over any part of the former Dutch protectorate, to promote freedom of trade, to keep open a road from Kumasi to the Prah, and to do his best to check the practice of human sacrifice. Besides coloured troops, there were employed in this campaign about 2400 Europeans, who suffered severely from fever and otherwise, though the mortality among the men was slight. Seventy-one per cent of the troops were on the sick list, and more than forty officers died—only six from wounds. The success of the expedition was facilitated by the exertions of Captain (afterwards General Sir William) Butler and Captain (afterwards General W. L.) Dalrymple, who effected diversions with very inadequate resources.

One result of the war of 1873-74 was that several states dependent on Ashanti declared themselves independent, and sought British protection. This was refused, and the inaction of the colonial office contributed to the A British protectorate established. reconsolidation of the Ashanti power.2 Shortly after the war the Ashanti deposed Kofi Karikari, and placed on the golden stool—the symbol of sovereignty—his brother Mensa. This monarch broke almost every article of the Fomana treaty, and even the payment of the indemnity was not demanded. (In all, only 4000 oz. of gold, out of the 50,000 stipulated for, were paid.) Mensa’s rule was tyrannous and stained with repeated human sacrifices. In 1883 a revolution displaced that monarch, who was succeeded by Kwaka Dua II.—a young man who died (June 1884) within a few months of his election. In the same month died the ex-king Kofi Karikari, and disruption threatened Ashanti. At length, after a desolating civil war, Prince Prempeh—who took the name of Kwaka Dua III.—was chosen king (March 26, 1888), the colonial government having been forced to intervene in the dispute owing to the troubles it occasioned in the Gold Coast. The election of Prempeh took place in the presence and with the sanction of an officer of the Gold Coast government. Prempeh defeated his enemies, and for a time peace and prosperity returned to Ashanti. However in 1893 there was fresh trouble between Ashanti and the tribes of the protectorate, and the roads were closed to traders by Prempeh’s orders. The British government was forced to interfere, more especially as the country, by international agreement, had been included in the British sphere of influence. A mission was despatched to Prempeh, calling upon him to fulfil the terms of the 1874 treaty, and further, to accept a British protectorate and receive a resident at Kumasi. The king declined to treat with the governor of the Gold Coast, and despatched informal agents to England, whom the secretary of state refused to receive. To the demands of the British mission relative to the acceptance of a protectorate and other matters, Prempeh made no reply in the three weeks’ grace allowed, which expired on the 31st of October 1895. To enforce the British demands, to put an end to the misgovernment and barbarities carried on at Kumasi, and to establish law, order and security for trade, an expedition was at length decided upon. The force, placed under Colonel Sir Francis Scott, consisted of the 2nd West Yorkshire regiment, a “special service corps,” made up of detachments from various regiments in the United Kingdom, under specially selected officers, the 2nd West India regiment, and the Gold Coast and Lagos Hausa. The composition of the special service corps was much criticized at the time; but as it was not called upon for fighting purposes, no inferences as to its efficiency are possible. The details of the expedition were carefully organized. Before the arrival of the staff and contingent from England (December 1895) the native forces were employed in improving the road from Cape Coast to Prahsu (70 m.), and in establishing road stations to serve as standing camps for the troops. About 12,000 carriers were collected, the load allotted to each being 50 ℔ In addition, a force of native scouts, which ultimately reached a total of 860 men, was organized in eighteen companies, and partly armed with Snider rifles, to cover the advance of the main column, which started on the 27th of December, and to improve the road. The king of Bekwai having asked for British protection, a small force was pressed forward and occupied this native town, about 25 m. from Kumasi, on the 4th of January 1896. The advance continued, and at Ordahsu a mission arrived from King Prempeh offering unconditional submission. On the 17th of January Kumasi was occupied, and Colonel Sir F. Scott received the king. Effective measures were taken to prevent his escape, and on the 20th Prempeh made submission to Mr (afterwards Sir W. E.) Maxwell, the Prempeh deposed. governor of Cape Coast, in native fashion. After this act of public humiliation, the king and the queen mother with the principal chiefs were arrested and taken as prisoners to Cape Coast, where they were embarked on board H.M.S. “Racoon” for Elmina. The fetish buildings at Bantama were burned, and on the 22nd of January Bokro, a village 5 m. from Kumasi, and Maheer, the king’s summer palace, were visited by the native scouts and found deserted. On the same day, leaving the Hausa at Kumasi, the expedition began the return march of 150 m. to Cape Coast. The complete success of the expedition was due to the excellent organization of the supply and transport services, while the promptitude with which the operations were carried out probably accounts in great measure for the absence of resistance. Although no fighting occurred, a heavy strain was thrown upon all ranks, and fever claimed many victims, among whom was Prince Henry of Battenberg, who had volunteered for the post of military secretary to Colonel Sir F. Scott.

After the deportation of Prempeh no successor was appointed to the throne of Ashanti. A British resident, Captain Donald W. Stewart, was installed at Kumasi, and whilst the other states of the confederacy retained their king and Siege and relief of Kumasi. tribal system the affairs of the Kumasi were administered by chiefs under British guidance. Mr and Mrs Ramseyer (two of the missionaries imprisoned by King Kofi Karikari for four and a half years) returned to Kumasi, and other missionaries followed. A fort was built in Kumasi and garrisoned with Gold Coast constabulary. Though outwardly submissive, the Kumasi chiefs were far from reconciled to British rule, and in 1900 a serious rebellion broke out. The tribes involved were the Kumasi, Adansi and Kokofu; the other tribes of the Ashanti confederation remained loyal. The rebels were, however, able to command a force reported to number 40,000. On the 28th of March, before the rebellion had declared itself, the governor of the Gold Coast, Sir F. Hodgson, in a public palaver at Kumasi, announced that the Ashanti chiefs would have to pay the British government 4000 oz. of gold yearly, and he reproached the chiefs with not having brought to him the golden stool, which the Kumasi had kept hidden since 1896. Three days afterwards the Kumasi warriors attacked a party of Hausa sent with the chief object of discovering the golden stool. (In the previous January a secret attempt to seize the stool had failed.) The Kumasi, who were longing to wipe out the dishonour of having let Prempeh be deported without fighting, next threatened the fort of Kumasi. Mr Ramseyer and the other Basel missionaries, and Sir F. and Lady Hodgson, took refuge in the fort, and reinforcements were urgently asked for. On the 18th of April 100 Gold Coast constabulary arrived. On the 29th the Kumasi attacked in force, but were repulsed. The same day a party of 250 Lagos constabulary reached Kumasi. They had fought their way up, and came in with little ammunition. On the 15th of May Major A. Morris arrived from the British territory north of Ashanti, also with 250 men. The garrison now numbered 700. The 29 Europeans in the fort included four women. Outside the fort were gathered 3000 native refugees. Famine and disease soon began to tell their tale. Sir F. Hodgson sent out a message on the 4th of June (it reached the relieving force on the 12th of June), saying that they could only hold out to the 11th of June. However, it was not till the 23rd of June that the governor and all the Europeans save three, together with 600 Hausa of all ranks, sallied out of the fort. Avoiding the main road, held by the enemy in force, they attacked a weakly held stockade, and succeeded in cutting their way through, with a loss of two British officers mortally wounded, 39 Hausa killed, and double that number wounded or missing. The governor’s party reached Cape Coast safely on the 10th of July.

A force of 100 Hausa, with three white men (Captain Bishop, Mr Ralph and Dr Hay), was left behind in Kumasi fort with rations to last three weeks. Meantime a relief expedition had been organized at Cape Coast by Colonel James Willcocks. This officer reached Cape Coast from Nigeria on the 26th of May. The difficulties before him were appalling. Carriers could scarcely be obtained, there were no local food supplies, the rainy season was at its height, all the roads were deep mire, the bush was almost impenetrable, and the enemy were both brave and cunning, fighting behind concealed stockades. It was not until the 2nd of July that Colonel Willcocks was able to advance to Fumsu. On the next day he heard of the escape of the governor and of the straits of the garrison left at Kumasi. He determined to relieve the fort in time, and on the 9th of July reached Bekwai, the king of which place had remained loyal. Making his final dispositions, the colonel spread a report that on the 13th he would attack Kokofu, east of Bekwai, and this drew off several thousands of the enemy from Kumasi. After feinting to attack Kokofu, Colonel Willcocks suddenly marched west. There was smart fighting on the 14th, and at 4.30 P.M. on the 15th, after a march since daybreak through roads “in indescribably bad condition,” the main rebel stockade was encountered. It was carried at the point of the bayonet by the Yoruba troops, who proved themselves fully equal to the Hausa. “The charge could not have been beaten in élan by any soldiers.” Kumasi was entered the same evening, a bugler of the war-worn garrison of the fort sounding the “general salute” as the relieving column came in view. Most of the defenders were too weak to stand. Outside the fort nothing was to be seen but burnt-down houses and putrid bodies. The relieving force that marched into Kumasi consisted of 1000 fighting men (all West Africans), with 60 white officers and non-commissioned officers, two 75-millimetre guns, four seven-pounder guns and six Maxims.

Kumasi relieved, there remained the task of crushing the rebellion. Colonel Willcocks’s force was increased by Yaos and a few Sikhs from Central Africa to a total of 3368 natives, with 134 British officers and 35 British non-commissioned officers. In addition there were Ashanti levies. On the 30th of September the Kumasi were completely beaten at Obassa. Thereafter many of the rebel chiefs surrendered, and the only two remaining in the field were captured on the 28th of December. Thus 1901 opened with peace restored. The total number of casualties during the campaign (including those who died of disease) was 1007. Nine British officers were killed in action, forty-three were wounded, and six died of disease. The commander, Colonel Willcocks, was promoted and created a K.C.M.G.

By an order in council, dated the 26th of September 1901, Ashanti was formally annexed to the British dominions, and given a separate administration under the control of the governor of the Gold Coast. A chief commissioner Progress under British administration. represents the governor in his absence, and is assisted by a staff of four commissioners and four assistant commissioners. A battalion of the Gold Coast regiment is stationed in the country with headquarters at Kumasi. The order in council mentioned, which may be described as the first constitution granted Ashanti by its British owners, provides that the governor, in issuing ordinances respecting the administration of justice, the raising of revenue, or any other matter, shall respect any native laws by which the civil relations of any chiefs, tribes or populations are regulated, “except so far as they may be incompatible with British sovereignty or clearly injurious to the welfare of the natives themselves.” After the annexation of the country in 1901 the relations between the governing power and the governed steadily improved. Mr F.C. Fuller, who succeeded Sir Donald Stewart as chief commissioner early in 1905, was able to report in the following year that among the Ashanti suspicion of the “white man’s” ulterior motives was speedily losing ground. The marked preference shown by the natives to resort to the civil and criminal courts established by the British demonstrated their faith in the impartial treatment awarded therein. Moreover, the maintenance of the tribal system and the support given to the lawful chiefs did much to win the confidence and respect of a people naturally suspicious, and mindful of their exiled king.

Bibliography.—For a general survey of the country, see Travels in Ashanti and Jaman, by R.A. Freeman (London, 1898); Historical Geography of the British Colonies, vol. iii. “West Africa,” by C.P. Lucas (Oxford, 1900); and the Annual Reports, Ashanti, issued from 1906 onward by the Colonial Office, London. The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast, by Col. A.B. Ellis (London, 1887), deals with ethnology. Of early works on the country the most valuable are A Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, by T.E. Bowdich (London, 1819); and Journal of a Residence in Ashantee (London, 1824), by J. Dupuis. For history generally, see A History of the Gold Coast of West Africa, by Col. A.B. Ellis (London, 1893); and History of the Gold Coast and Asante ... from about 1500 to 1860, by C.C. Reindorf, a native pastor of the Basel mission (Basel, 1895).

For the British military campaigns, in addition to the official blue-books, consult: Narrative of the Ashantee War, 2 vols., by (Sir) Henry Brackenbury (London, 1874); The Story of a Soldier’s Life by Viscount Wolseley, vol. ii. chs. xliii.-l. (London, 1903); Coomassie, by (Sir) H.M. Stanley, being the story of the 1873-74 expedition (new ed., London, 1896); Life of Sir John Hawley Glover, by Lady Glover, chs. iii.-x. (London, 1897); The Downfall of Prempeh, by (General) R.S.S. Baden-Powell, an account of the 1895-96 expedition (London, 1896); From Kabul to Kumassi (chs. xv. to end), by Sir James Willcocks, (London, 1904); The Ashanti Campaign of 1900, by Capt. C.H. Armitage and Lieut.-Col. A.F. Montanaro (London, 1901); The Relief of Kumasi, by Capt. H.C.J. Biss (London, 1901). The two bocks following are by besieged residents in Kumasi: The Siege of Kumasi, by Lady Hodgson (London, 1901); Dark and Stormy Days at Kumasi, 1900, from the diary of the Rev. Fritz Ramseyer (London, 1901). Many of the works quoted under Gold Coast deal also with Ashanti.

(F. R. C.)

1 The exact area of dense forest land is unknown, but is estimated at fully 12,000 sq. m.

2 An attempt was made late in 1875, by the despatch of Dr V.S. Gouldsbury on a mission to Eastern Akim, Juabin and Kumasi, to repair the effects of the previous inaction of the colonial government, but without success.

ASH‘ARĪ [Abū-l Hasan ‘Ali ibn Isma‘īl ul-Ash‘arī], (873-935), Arabian theologian, was born of pure Arab stock at Basra, but spent the greater part of his life at Bagdad. Although belonging to an orthodox family, he became a pupil of the great Mu‘tazalite teacher al-Jubbā‘ī, and himself remained a Mu‘tazalite until his fortieth year. In 912 he returned to the faith of his fathers and became its most distinguished champion, using the philosophical methods he had learned in the school of heresy. His theology, which occupied a mediate position between the extreme views on most points, became dominant among the Shafi‘ites. He is said to have written over a hundred works, of which only four or five are known to be extant.

See W. Spitta, Zur Geschichte Abu ‘l-Hasan al Aš‘ari’s (Leipzig, 1876); A.F. Mehren, Exposé de la reforme de l’Islamisme commencée par Abou. ‘l-Hasan Ali el-Ash‘ari (Leiden, 1878); and D.B. Macdonald’s Muslim Theology (London, 1903), especially the creed of Ash‘ari in Appendix iii.

(G. W. T.)

ASHBOURNE, a market-town in the western parliamentary division of Derbyshire, England, 13 m. W.N.W. of Derby, on the London & North-Western and the North Staffordshire railways. Pop. of urban district (1901) 4039. It is pleasantly situated on rising ground between two small valleys opening into that of the Dove, and the most beautiful scenery of Dovedale is not far distant. The church of St Oswald is cruciform, Early English and later; a fine building with a central tower and lofty octagonal spire. Its monuments and brasses are of much interest. The town has a large agricultural trade and a manufacture of corsets. The streams in the neighbourhood are in favour with trout fishermen. Ashbourne Hall, an ancient mansion, has associations with “Prince Charlie,” who occupied it both before and after his advance on Derby in 1745. There are also many connexions with Dr Johnson, a frequent visitor here to his friend Dr Taylor, who occupied a house opposite the grammar school.

ASHBURNHAM, JOHN (c. 1603-1671), English Royalist, was the son of Sir John Ashburnham of Ashburnham in Sussex. He early entered the king’s service. In 1627 he was sent to Paris by his relative the duke of Buckingham to make overtures for peace, and in 1628 he prepared to join the expedition to Rochelle interrupted by the duke’s assassination. The same year he was made groom of the bedchamber and elected member of parliament for Hastings, which borough he also represented in the Long Parliament of 1640. In this capacity he rendered services by reporting proceedings to the king. He made a considerable fortune and recovered the Ashburnham estates alienated by his father. He became one of the king’s chief advisers and had his full confidence. He attended Charles at York on the outbreak of the war with Scotland. In the Civil War he was made treasurer of the royal army, in which capacity he aroused Hyde’s jealousy and remonstrances by infringing on his province as chancellor of the exchequer. In 1644 he was a commissioner at Uxbridge. He accompanied Charles in his flight from Oxford in April 1646 to the Scots, and subsequently escaped abroad, joining the queen at Paris, residing afterwards at Rouen and being sent to the Hague to obtain aid from the prince of Orange. After the seizure of Charles by the army, Ashburnham joined him at Hampton Court in 1647, where he had several conferences with Cromwell and other army officers. When Charles escaped from Hampton Court on the 11th of November, he followed Ashburnham’s advice in opposition to that of Sir John Berkeley, who urged the king to go abroad, and took refuge in the Isle of Wight, being placed by Ashburnham in the hands of Robert Hammond, the governor. “Oh, Jack,” the king exclaimed when he understood the situation, “thou hast undone me!” when Ashburnham, “falling into a great passion of weeping, offered to go and kill Hammond.” By this fatal step Ashburnham incurred the unmerited charge of treachery and disloyalty. Clarendon, however, who censures his conduct, absolves him from any crime except that of folly and excessive self-confidence, and he was acquitted both by Charles I. and Charles II. He was separated with Berkeley from Charles on the 1st of January 1648, waited on the mainland in expectation of Charles’s escape, and was afterwards taken and imprisoned at Windsor, and exchanged during the second Civil War for Sir W. Masham and other prisoners. He was one of the delinquents specially exempted from pardon in the treaty of Newport. In November he was allowed to compound for his estates, and declared himself willing to take the covenant. After the king’s death he remained in England, an object of suspicion to all parties, corresponded with Charles II., and underwent several terms of imprisonment in the Tower and in Guernsey. At the Restoration he was reinstated in his former place of groom of the bedchamber and was compensated for his losses. He represented Sussex in parliament from 1661 till the 22nd of November 1667, when he was expelled the House for taking a bribe of £500 from French merchants for landing their wines. He died on the 15th of June 1671.

He had eight children, the eldest of whom, William, left a son John (1656-1710), who in 1689 was created Baron Ashburnham. John’s second son, John (1687-1737), who became 3rd Baron Ashburnham on his brother’s death in 1710, was created Viscount St Asaph and earl of Ashburnham in 1730. The 5th earl (b. 1840) was his direct descendant. Bertram (1797-1878), the 4th earl, was the collector of the famous Ashburnham library, which was dispersed in 1883 and 1884.

A Letter from Mr Ashburnham to a Friend, defending John Ashburnham’s conduct with regard to the king, was published in 1648. His longer Narrative was published in 1830 by George, 3rd earl of Ashburnham (the latter’s championship of his ancestor, however, being entirely uncritical and unconvincing); A Letter to W. Lenthall (1647) repudiates the charge brought against the king of violating his parole (Thomason Tracts, Brit. Museum, E 418 [4]).

ASHBURTON, ALEXANDER BARING, 1st Baron1 (1774-1848), English politician and financier, 2nd son of Sir Francis Baring (the founder of the house of Baring Brothers & Co.) and of Harriet, daughter of William Herring, was born on the 27th of October 1774, and was brought up in his father’s business. He was sent by the latter to the United States; married Anne, daughter of William Bingham, of Philadelphia, and formed wide connexions with American houses. In 1810, by his father’s death, he became head of the firm. He sat in parliament for Taunton (1806-1826), Callington (1826-1831), Thetford (1831-1832), North Essex (1832-1835). He regarded politics from the point of view of the business man, opposed the orders in council, and the restrictions on trade with the United States in 1812, and in 1826 the act for the suppression of small bank-notes. He was a strong antagonist of Reform. He accepted the post of chancellor of the exchequer in the duke of Wellington’s projected ministry of 1832; but afterwards, alarmed at the scene in parliament, declared “he would face a thousand devils rather than such a House of Commons,” and advised the recall of Lord Grey. In 1834 he was president of the board of trade and master of the mint in Sir Robert Peel’s government, and on the latter’s retirement was created Baron Ashburton on the 10th of April 1835, taking the title previously held by John Dunning, his aunt’s husband. In 1842 he was despatched to America, and the same year concluded the Ashburton or Webster-Ashburton treaty. A compromise was settled concerning the north-east boundary of Maine, the extradition of certain criminals was arranged, each state agreed to maintain a squadron of at least eighty guns on the coast of Africa for the suppression of the slave trade, and the two governments agreed to unite in an effort to persuade other powers to close all slave markets within their territories. Despite his earlier attitude, Lord Ashburton disapproved of Peel’s free-trade projects, and opposed the Bank Charter Act of 1844. He was a trustee of the British Museum and of the National Gallery, a privy councillor and D.C.L. of Oxford. He published, besides several speeches, An Enquiry into the Causes and Consequences of the Orders in Council (1808), and The Financial and Commercial Crisis Considered (1847). He died on the 13th of May 1848, leaving a large family, his eldest son becoming 2nd baron. The 5th baron (b. 1866) succeeded to the title in 1889.

1 i.e. in the existing line; see below for the earlier creation.

ASHBURTON, JOHN DUNNING, 1st Baron1 (1731-1783), English lawyer, the second son of John Dunning of Ashburton, Devonshire, an attorney, was born at Ashburton on the 18th of October 1731, and was educated at the free grammar school of his native place. At first articled to his father, he was admitted, at the age of nineteen, to the Middle Temple, and called to the bar in 1756, where he came very slowly into practice. He went the western circuit for several years without receiving a single brief. In 1762 he was employed to draw up a defence of the British East India Company against the Dutch East India Company, which had memorialized the crown on certain grievances, and the masterly style which characterized the document procured him at once reputation and emolument. In 1763 he distinguished himself as counsel on the side of Wilkes, whose cause he conducted throughout. His powerful argument against the validity of general warrants in the case of Leach v. Money (June 18, 1763) established his reputation, and his practice from that period gradually increased to such an extent that in 1776 he is said to have been in the receipt of nearly £10,000 per annum. In 1766 he was chosen recorder of Bristol, and in December 1767 he was appointed solicitor-general. The latter appointment he held till May 1770, when he retired with his friend Lord Shelburne. In 1771 he was presented with the freedom of the city of London. From this period he was considered as a regular member of the opposition, and distinguished himself by many able speeches in parliament. He was first chosen member for Calne in 1768, and continued to represent that borough until he was promoted to the peerage. In 1780 he brought forward a motion that the “influence of the crown had increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished,” which he carried by a majority of eighteen. He strongly opposed the system of sinecure officers and pensions; but his probity was not strong enough to prevent his taking advantage of it himself. In 1782, when the marquis of Rockingham became prime minister, Dunning was appointed chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, a rich sinecure; and about the same time he was advanced to the peerage, with the title of Lord Ashburton. Under Lord Shelburne’s administration he accepted a pension of £4000 a year. He died at Exmouth on the 18th of August 1783. Though possessed of an insignificant person, an awkward manner and a provincial accent, Lord Ashburton was one of the most fluent and persuasive orators of his time. He had married Elizabeth Baring, and was succeeded as 2nd baron by his son Richard, at whose death in 1823 the title became extinct, being revived in 1835 by Alexander Baring.

Besides the answer to the Dutch memorial, Lord Ashburton is supposed to have assisted in writing a pamphlet on the law of libel, and to have been the author of A Letter to the Proprietors of East India Stock, on the subject of Lord Clive’s Jaghire, occasioned by his Lordship’s Letter on that Subject (1764, 8vo). He was at one time suspected of being the author of the Letters of Junius.

1 i.e. of the first creation; for the present title see above.

ASHBURTON, a river of Western Australia, rising in the mountains west of the Great Sandy Desert, and following a course north-westward for 400 m., into Exmouth Gulf. In its upper reaches it flows through a rich gold-bearing district to which it gives name, and nearer its mouth it traverses a vast tract of fine pastoral country. The outlet for both these districts is the port of Onslow, at the mouth of the river, near which there are several pearl-fishing stations. The river is not navigable.

ASHBURTON, a market-town in the Ashburton parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, 24 m. N.W. by W. of Plymouth, on a branch of the Great Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 2628. It lies in a valley surrounded by hills, at a short distance from the river Dart; the scenery, towards Dartmoor and in the neighbourhood of Buckland and Holne Chase, being unsurpassed in the county. The church of St. Andrew is cruciform with a lofty tower. It was built early in the 15th century, and contains a fine old oak roof over the north aisle, and a tablet in memory of John Dunning, solicitor-general and 1st Baron Ashburton (1731-1783). The inscription is by Dr Johnson. Lord Ashburton was educated at the grammar school, which was founded as a chantry in 1314. Serge is manufactured in Ashburton, and there are breweries, paint factories and saw-mills. A large deposit of umber is worked in the neighbourhood. Slate quarries and copper and tin mines were formerly valuable. A neighbouring centre of the serge industry is the urban district of Buckfastleigh (pop. 2520), 3 m. S S.W. Between the two towns is Buckfast Abbey, said to have been, before the Conquest, a Benedictine house, and refounded for Cistercians in 1137. It was restored to use in 1882 by a French Benedictine community, the fine Perpendicular abbot’s tower remaining, while other parts have been rebuilt on the original lines.

Ashburton (Essebretona, Asperton, Ashperton) is a borough by prescription and an ancient stannary town. It was governed by a portreeve and bailiff, elected annually at the court leet held by the lord of the manor. According to Domesday, Ashburton was held in chief by Osbern, bishop of Exeter, and rendered geld for six hides. In 1552, as the two manors of Ashburton Borough and Ashburton Foreign, it was sold by the bishop, and subsequently became crown property. Finally, it was acquired in moieties by the Clinton family, and the present Lord Clinton is joint lord of the manor with Sir Robert Jardine. In 1298 and 1407 Ashburton returned two members, from 1407 until 1640 one member only, and then again two members, until deprived of one by the Reform Act of 1832 and of the other by the Reform Act of 1885. In the reign of Edward II. Bishop Stapledon obtained a Saturday market, and two annual fairs lasting three days at the feasts of St Laurence (August 10) and St Martin in winter (November 11). In 1672 John Ford was granted a Tuesday market for the sale of wool and woollen goods made from English yarn, and in 1705 Andrew Quicke obtained two annual fairs, on the first Thursdays in March and June, for the sale of cattle, corn and merchandise.

ASHBY, TURNER (1824-1862), American cavalry leader in the Confederate army, was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, in 1824. Before the Civil War he was a planter in Markham, Fauquier county, and a local politician. When hostilities began he raised a regiment of cavalry, which he led with conspicuous success in the Valley campaigns of 1861-62, under Joseph Johnston and Stonewall Jackson. He was promoted a brigadier-general shortly before his death, which took place in a cavalry skirmish at Harrisonburg, Va., on the 6th of June 1862. By his early death the Confederates lost one of the best cavalry officers in their service.

ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH, a market-town in the Bosworth parliamentary division of Leicestershire, England; 118 m. N.W. by N. from London by the Midland railway, on the Leicester-Burton branch. Pop. of urban district (1901) 4726. The church of St Helen is a fine Perpendicular building, restored and enlarged (1880); it contains monuments of the Huntingdon family, and an old finger-pillory for the punishment of misbehaviour in church. The Ivanhoe baths, erected in 1826, are frequented for their saline waters, which, as containing bromine, are found useful in scrofulous and rheumatic complaints. The springs are at Moira, 3 m. west. There is a Queen Eleanor cross commemorating the countess of Loudoun, by Sir Gilbert Scott. To the south of the town are the extensive remains of Ashby Castle. There are extensive coal-mines in the neighbouring district, as at Moira, whence the Ashby-de-la-Zouch canal runs south to the Coventry canal.

At the time of the Domesday survey Ashby-de-la-Zouch formed part of the estates of Hugh de Grentmaisnel. Soon after it was held by Robert Beaumeis, from whom it passed by female descent to the family of la Zouch, whence it derived the adjunct to its name, having been hitherto known as Ashby or Essebi. The earliest record of a grant of market rights is in 1219, when Roger la Zouch obtained a grant of a weekly market and a two days’ fair at the feast of St Helen, in consideration of a fine of one palfrey. In the 15th century the manor was held by James Butler, earl of Ormond, after whose attainder it was granted in 1461 to Lord Hastings, who in 1474 obtained royal licence to empark 3000 acres and to build and fortify a castle. At this castle Mary queen of Scots was detained in 1569 under the custody of the earls of Huntingdon and Shrewsbury. During the Civil War Colonel Henry Hastings fortified and held it for the king, and it was visited by Charles in 1645. In 1648, at the close of the war, it was dismantled by order of parliament. It plays a great part in Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. In the 18th century Ashby was celebrated as one of the best markets for horses in England, and had besides prosperous factories for woollen and cotton stockings and for hats.

See Victoria County History—Leicestershire; History of Ashby-de-la-Zouch (Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 1852).

A-SHE-HO (Manch. Alchuku), a town of Manchuria, China, 125 m. N.E. of Kirin, and 30 m. S. of the Sungari. It is governed by a mandarin of the second class. Pop. about 60,000.

ASHER, a tribe of Israel, called after the son of Jacob and Zilpah, Leah’s maid. The name is taken by the narrator of Gen. xxx. 12 seq. (J) to mean happy or propitious, possibly an allusion to the fertility of the tribe’s territory (with which cf. Gen. xlix. 20, Deut. xxxiii. 24); on the other hand, like Gad, it may have been originally a divine title. The district held by this tribe bordered upon Naphtali, and lay to the north of Issachar and Zebulun, and to the south of Dan. But the boundaries are not definite and the references to its territory are obscure. Asher is blamed for taking no part in the fight against Sisera (Judg. v. 17), and although it shares with Zebulun and Naphtali in Gideon’s defeat of the Midianites (Judg. vi. 35, vii. 23), the narrative in question is not the older of the two accounts of the event, and the incorporation of the name is probably due to a late redactor. Lying as it did in the closest proximity to Phoenicians and Aramaeans, its population must have been exceptionally mixed, and the description of the occupation of Palestine in Judg. i. 31 seq. shows that it contained a strong Canaanite element. In the Blessing of Moses it is bidden to defend itself—evidently against invasion (Deut. xxxiii. 25).

Even in the time of Seti I. and Rameses II. (latter half of 14th cent. B.C.) the district to the west of Galilee appears to have been known to the Egyptians as Aser(u), so that it is possible to infer either (a) that Asher was an Israelite tribe which, if it ever went down into Egypt, separated itself from its brethren in Egypt and migrated north, “an example which was probably followed by some of the other tribes as well” (Hommel, Ancient Hebrew Tradition, p. 228); or (b) it was a district which, if never closely bound to Israel, was at least regarded as part of the national kingdom, and treated as Israelite by the genealogical device of making it a “son” of Jacob. It is possible that some of its Israelite population had followed the example of Dan and moved from an earlier home in the south. Two of the clans of Asher, Heber and Malchiel, have been associated with Milk-ili and Habiri, the names of a hostile chief and people in the Amarna Tablets (Jastrow, Journal Bibl. Lit. xi. pp. 118 seq., xii. pp. 61 seq., Hommel), but it is scarcely probable that events of about 1400 B.C. should have survived only in this form. This applies also to the suggestion that the name Asher has been derived from a famous Abd-ashirta of the same period (Barton, ib. xv. p. 174). Some connexion with the goddess Ashir(t)a, however, is not unlikely.

See further H.W. Hogg, Ency. Bibl. col. 327 seq.; E. Meyer, Israeliten, pp. 540 sqq.

(S. A. C.)

’ASHER BEN-YEHIEL (known as Rosh), Jewish rabbi and codifier, was born in the Rhine district c. 1250, and died in Toledo 1327. Endangered by the persecutions inflicted on the German Jews in the 13th century, ’Asher fled to Spain, where he was made rabbi of Toledo. His enforced exile impoverished him, and from this date begins an important change in the status of medieval rabbis. Before the 14th century, rabbis had obtained a livelihood by the exercise of some secular profession, particularly medicine, and received no salary for performing the rabbinic function. This was now changed. A disciple of Meir of Rothenburg, ‘Asher’s sole interest was in the Talmud. He was a man of austere piety, profound and narrow. He was a determined opponent of the study of philosophy, and thus was antipathetic to the Spanish spirit. The Jews of Spain continued, nevertheless, devotees of secular sciences as well as of rabbinical lore. ’Asher was the first of the German rabbis to display strong talent for systematization, and his chief work partook of the nature of a compendium of the Talmud. Compiled between 1307 and 1314, ’Asher’s Compendium resembled, and to a large extent superseded, the work of ’Al-phasi (q.v.). ’Asher’s Compendium is printed in most editions of the Talmud, and it differed from previous Compendia in greater simplicity and in the deference shown to German authorities. ’Asher’s son Jacob, who died at Toledo before 1340, was the author of the four Turim, a very profound and popular codification of rabbinical law. This work was the standard code until Joseph Qaro directly based on it his widely accepted Code of Jewish law, the Shulḥan ‘Arukh.

(I. A.)

ASHEVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Buncombe county, North Carolina, U.S.A., in the mountainous Blue Ridge region in the west part of the state, about 210 m. W. of Raleigh. Pop. (1890) 10,235; (1900) 14,692, of whom 4724 were negroes; (1910, census) 18,762. Asheville is situated at the junction of three branches of the Southern railway, on a high terrace on the east bank of the French Broad river, at the mouth of the Swannanoa, about 2300 ft. above the sea. The city is best known as one of the most popular health and pleasure resorts in the south, being a summer resort for southerners and a winter resort for northerners. It has a dry and equable climate and beautiful scenery. Among its social clubs are the Albemarle, the Asheville, the Elks, the Tahkeeostee and the Swannanoa Country clubs. An extensive system of city and suburban parks, connected by a series of beautiful drives, adds to the city’s attractiveness. There are great forests in the vicinity. Among the public buildings are the city hall, the court house, the Federal building, the public library and an auditorium. In or near Asheville are a normal and collegiate institute for young women (1892), and, occupying the same campus, a home industrial school (1887) for girls, both under the control of the Woman’s Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church; the Asheville farm school for boys, an industrial school for negroes; the Asheville school for boys (5 m. west of Asheville); and the Bingham school (1793), founded at Pittsboro, N.C., by William Bingham (d. 1826), and removed to its present site (3 m. north-west of Asheville) in 1891. About 2 m. south-east of the city is Biltmore, the estate of George W. Vanderbilt, its 125,000 acres constituting what is probably the finest country place in the United States. The central feature of the estate is a château (375 × 150 ft.) of French Renaissance design, after the famous château at Blois, France. In the neighbourhood is a model village, with an elementary school, an industrial school for whites, a hospital and a church, maintained by Mr Vanderbilt. Both the château and the village were designed by Richard M. Hunt; the landscape gardening was done by Frederick Law Olmsted. A collection of woody plants, one of the largest and finest in the world, and a broad forest and hunting preserve, known as Pisgah Forest (100,000 acres), are also maintained by the owner. Asheville is a market for live-stock, dairy products, lumber and fruits, and has various manufactories (in which a good water-power is utilized), including tanneries, cotton mills, brick and tile factories, and a wood-working and veneer plant. The value of the city’s factory products increased from $1,300,698 in 1900 to $1,918,362 in 1905, or 47.5%. The city was named in honour of Samuel Ashe (1725-1813), chief-justice of North Carolina from 1777 to 1796, and John Ashe (1720-1781), a North Carolina soldier who distinguished himself in the War of Independence, was settled about 1790, and was incorporated in 1835. The city’s boundaries were enlarged in 1905.

ASHFORD, a market-town in the Southern or Ashford parliamentary division of Kent, England, 56 m. S.E. of London by the South-Eastern & Chatham railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 12,808. It is pleasantly situated on a gentle eminence near the confluence of the upper branches of the river Stour. It has a fine Perpendicular church dedicated to St Mary, with a lofty, well-proportioned tower and many interesting monuments. The grammar school was founded by Sir Norman Knatchbull in the reign of Charles I. Ashford has agricultural implement works and breweries; and the large locomotive and carriage works of the South-Eastern & Chatham railway are here. At Bethersden, between Ashford and Tenterden, marble quarries were formerly worked extensively, supplying material to the cathedrals of Canterbury and Rochester, and to many local churches. At Charing, north-west of Ashford, the archbishops of Canterbury had a residence from pre-Conquest times, and ruins of a palace, mainly of the Decorated period, remain. On the south-eastern outskirts of Ashford is the populous village of Willesborough (3602).

Ashford (Esselesford, Asshatisforde, Essheford) was held at the time of the Domesday survey by Hugh de Montfort, who came to England with William the Conqueror. A Saturday market and an annual fair were granted to the lord of the manor by Henry III. in 1243. Further annual fairs were granted by Edward III. in 1349 and by Edward IV. in 1466. In 1672 Charles II. granted a market on every second Tuesday, with a court of pie-powder. James I. in 1607, at the petition of the inhabitants of Ashford, gave Sir John Smith, Kt., the right of holding a court of record in the town on every third Tuesday. The fertility of the pasture-land in Romney Marsh to the south and east of Ashford caused the cattle trade to increase in the latter half of the 18th century, and led to the establishment of a stock market in 1784. The town has never been incorporated.

See Edward Hasted, History and Survey of Kent (Canterbury, 1778-1799, 2nd ed. 1797-1801); Victoria County History—Kent.

’ASHI (352-427), Jewish ’amora, the first editor of the Talmud, was born at Babylon. He was head of the Sura Academy, and there began the Babylonian Talmud, spending thirty years of his life at it. He left the work incomplete, and it was finished by his disciple Rabina just before the year 500 A.D. (See Talmud.)

ASHINGTON, an urban district in the Wansbeck parliamentary division of Northumberland, England, 4 m. E. of Morpeth, on the Newbiggin branch of the North Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 13,956. The district, especially along the river Wansbeck, is not without beauty, but there are numerous collieries, from the existence of which springs the modern growth of Ashington. At Bothal on the river (from which parish that of Ashington was formed) is the castle originally belonging to the Bertram family, of which Roger Bertram probably built the gatehouse, the only habitable portion remaining, in the reign of Edward III. The ruins of the castle are fragmentary, but of considerable extent. The church of St Andrew here has interesting details from Early English to Perpendicular date, and in the neighbouring woods is a ruined chapel of St Mary. The mining centre of Ashington lies 2 m. north-east, on the high ground north of the Wansbeck.

’ASHKENAZI, SEBI (1656-1718), known as Ḥakham Ṣebi, for some time rabbi of Amsterdam, was a resolute opponent of the followers of the pseudo-Messiah, Sabbatai Ṣebi (q.v.). He had a chequered career, owing to his independence of character. He visited many lands, including England, where he wielded much influence. His Responsa, are held in high esteem.

ASHLAND, a city of Boyd county, Kentucky, U.S.A., on the Ohio river, about 130 m. E. by N. of Frankfort. Pop. (1890) 4195; (1900) 6800 (489 negroes); (1910) 8688. It is served by the Chesapeake & Ohio (being a terminal of the Lexington and Big Sandy Divisions) and the Norfolk & Western railways, and is connected with Huntington, West Virginia, by an electric line. The city has a fine natural park (Central Park) of about 30 acres; and Clyffeside Park (maintained by a private corporation), of about 75 acres, just east of the city, is a pleasure resort and a meeting-ground (with a casino seating 3000 people) for the Tri-State “Chautauqua” (for certain parts of Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia). The surrounding country abounds in coal, iron ore, oil, clay, stone and timber, for which the city is a distributing centre. Ashland has considerable river traffic, and various manufactures, including pig iron, nails, wire rods, steel billets, sheet steel, dressed lumber (especially poplar), furniture, fire brick and leather. Ashland was settled in 1854, and was chartered as a city in 1870.

ASHLAND, a borough of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., about 50 m. N.E. of Harrisburg and about 100 m. N.W. of Philadelphia. Pop. (1890) 7346; (1900) 6438 (969 foreign-born); (1910) 6855. It is served by the Lehigh Valley and the Philadelphia & Reading railways, and by the electric lines of the Schuylkill Railway Company and the Shamokin & Mount Carmel Transit Company. The borough is built on the slope of Locust Mountain, about 885 ft. above sea-level. Its chief industry is the mining of anthracite coal at several collieries in the vicinity; and at Fountain Springs, 1 m. south-east, is a state hospital for injured persons of the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania, opened in 1883. The municipality owns and operates the waterworks. Ashland was laid out as a town in 1847, and was named in honour of Henry Clay’s home at Lexington, Ky.; in 1857 it was incorporated.

ASHLAND, a village of Hanover county, Virginia, U.S.A., 17 m. N.W. of Richmond. Pop. (1900) 1147; (1910) 1324. It is served by the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac railway, and is a favourite resort from Richmond. Here is situated the Randolph-Macon College (Methodist Episcopal, South), one of the oldest Methodist Episcopal colleges in the United States. In 1832, two years after receiving its charter, it opened near Boydton, Mecklenburg county, Virginia, and in 1868 was removed to Ashland. The college in 1907-1908 had 150 students and a faculty of 16; it publishes an endowed historical series called The John P. Branch Historical Papers of Randolph-Macon College; and it is a part of the “Randolph-Macon System of Colleges and Academies,” which includes, besides, Randolph-Macon Academy (1890) at Bedford City, Virginia, and Randolph-Macon Academy (1892) at Front Royal, Virginia, both for boys; Randolph-Macon Woman’s College (1893) at Lynchburg, Virginia, which in 1907-1908 had an enrolment of 390; and Randolph-Macon Institute, for girls, Danville, Virginia, which was admitted into the “System” in 1897. These five institutions are under the control of a single board of trustees; the work of the preparatory schools is thus correlated with that of the colleges. About 7 m. out of Ashland is the birthplace of Henry Clay, and about 15 m. distant is the birthplace of Patrick Henry. Ashland was settled in 1845 and was incorporated in 1856.

ASHLAND, a city and the county-seat of Ashland county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., situated about 315 m. N.W. of Milwaukee, and about 70 m. E. of Superior and Duluth, in the N. part of the state, at the head of Chequamegon Bay, an arm of Lake Superior. Pop. (1890) 9956; (1900) 13,074, of whom 4417 were foreign-born; (1910, census) 11,594. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western, the Northern Pacific, the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha, and the Wisconsin Central railways, and by several steamboat lines on the Great Lakes. The city is attractively situated, has a dry, healthful climate, and is a summer resort. It has a fine Federal building, one of the best high-school buildings in Wisconsin, the Vaughn public library (1895), a Roman Catholic hospital, and the Rinehart hospital, and is the seat of the Northland College and Academy (Congregational). Ashland has an excellent harbour, has large iron-ore and coal docks, and is the principal port for the shipment of iron ore from the rich Gogebic Range, the annual ore shipment approximating 3,500,000 tons, valued at $12,000,000, and it has also an extensive export trade in lumber. Brownstone quarried in the vicinity is also an important export. The lake trade amounts to more than $35,000,000 annually. Ashland has large saw-mills, iron and steel rolling mills, foundries and machine shops, railway repair shops (of the Chicago & North-Western railway), knitting works, and manufactories of dynamite, sulphite fibre, charcoal and wood-alcohol. In 1905 its total factory product was valued at $4,210,265. Settled about 1854, Ashland was incorporated as a village in 1863 and received a city charter in 1887.

ASHLAR, also written Ashler, Ashelere, &c. (probably from Lat. axilla, diminutive of axis, an axle), hewn or squared stone, generally applied to that used for facing walls. In a contract of date 1398 we read—“Murus erit exterius de puro lapide vocato achilar, plane incisso, interius vero de lapide fracto vocato roghwall.” “Clene hewen ashler” often occurs in medieval documents; this no doubt means tooled or finely worked, in contradistinction to rough-axed faces.

An “ashlar piece” in building is an upright piece of timber framed between the common rafters and the wall plate.

ASHLEY, WILLIAM JAMES (1860-  ), English economist, was born in London on the 25th of February 1860. He was educated at St Olave’s grammar school and Balliol College, Oxford, and became a fellow of Lincoln College. In 1888 he was appointed professor of political economy and constitutional history in Toronto University, a post which he resigned in 1892, in order to become professor of economic history at Harvard University. In 1901 he was appointed professor of commerce and finance in Birmingham University and in 1902 dean of the faculty of commerce. Professor Ashley became well known for his work on the early history of English industry, and for his prominence among those English economists who supported Mr Chamberlain’s tariff reform movement. His most important works are Early History of the English Woollen Industry (1887); Introduction to English Economic History and Theory (2 parts, 1888-1893); Surveys, Historic and Economic (1900); Adjustment of Wages (1903); the Tariff Problem (2nd ed. 1904); Progress of the German Working Classes (1904).

ASHMOLE, ELIAS (1617-1692), English antiquarian, and founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, was born at Lichfield on the 23rd of May 1617, the son of a saddler. In 1638 he became a solicitor, and in 1644 was appointed commissioner of excise. At Oxford, whither this brought him when the Royalist Parliament was sitting there, he made friends with Captain (afterwards Sir) George Wharton, through whose influence he obtained the king’s commission as captain of horse and comptroller of the ordnance. In 1646 he was initiated as a Freemason—the first gentleman, or amateur, to be “accepted.” In 1649 he married Lady Mainwaring, some twenty years his senior and a relative of his first wife who had died eight years before. This marriage placed him in a position of affluence that enabled him to devote his whole time to his favourite studies. His interest in astrology, aroused by Wharton, and by William Lilly,—whom with other astrologers he met in London in 1646,—seems, in the following years, to have subsided in favour of heraldry and antiquarian research. In 1657 his wife petitioned for a separation, but failing to gain her case returned to live with him. Between this crisis in his domestic life and the time of her death in 1668, Ashmole was in high favour at court. He was made successively Windsor herald, commissioner, comptroller and accountant-general of excise, commissioner for Surinam and comptroller of the White Office. He afterwards refused the office of Garter king-at-arms in favour of Sir William Dugdale, whose daughter he had married in 1668. In 1672 he published his Institutions, Laws and Ceremonies of the Order of the Garter, a work which was practically exhaustive, and is an example of his diligence and years of patient antiquarian research. Five years later he presented the Ashmolean Museum, the first public museum of curiosities in the kingdom, the larger part of which he had inherited from a friend, John Tradescant, to the university of Oxford. He made it a condition that a suitable building should be erected for its reception, and the collection was not finally installed until 1683. Subsequently he made the further gift to the university of his library. He died on the 18th of May 1692.

ASHRAF (Shurefa, Sherifs), a small scattered tribe of African “Arabs” settled near Tokar, in the valleys of the Gash and Baraka, and in the Amarar country north of Suakin. They call themselves Beni Hashin, and claim descent from Mahomet; hence their name, sherif (plural ashraf) being the title applied to descendants of the prophet. In the time of the khalifa Abdulla (1885-1898), Ashraf was the name by which the family and adherents of his late master the mahdi were known, the mahdi’s family claiming to be Ashraf. The Ashraf of Tokar remained loyal to Egypt during the Sudan troubles.

See Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, edited by Count Gleichen (London, 1905); Fire and Sword in the Sudan, by Slatin Pasha (London, 1896); for the Ashraf or Sherifs in Arabia, see Arabia: Geography.

ASHREF, a town of Persia in the province of Mazandaran, about 50 m. W. of Astarabad and 5 m. inland from the Caspian Sea, in 36° 42′ N. and 53° 32′ E. The population is about 6000, comprising descendants of some Georgians introduced by Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629) and a number of Gudars, a peculiar pariah race, probably of Indian origin. The place was without importance until 1612, when Shah Abbas began building and laying out the palaces and gardens in the neighbourhood now collectively known as Bagh i Shah (the garden of the shah). The palaces, completed in 1627, are now in ruins, but the gardens with their luxuriant vegetation and gigantic cypress and orange trees ate well worth a visit. There were originally six separate gardens, all contained within one large wall but separated one from another by high walls. The principal palace was the Chehel Situn (forty pillars), destroyed by the Afghans in 1723, and, although rebuilt by Nadir Shah in 1731, already in ruins in 1743. About ¾ m. north of the town is the Safi-abad garden, with a palace built by Shah Safi (1629-1642) for his daughter. It is situated on a lovely wooded hill, and was repaired and in part renovated about 1870 by Náṣiru’d-Din Shah.

ASHTABULA, a city of Ashtabula county, Ohio, U.S.A., in Ashtabula township, on the Ashtabula river and Lake Erie, and 54 m. N.E. of Cleveland. Pop. (1890) 8338; (1900) 12,949, of whom 3688 were foreign-born; (1910, census) 18,266. There is a large Finnish-born population in the city and in Ashtabula county, and the Amerikan Sanomat, established here in 1897, is one of the most widely read Finnish weeklies in the country. Ashtabula is served by the Pennsylvania, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, and the New York, Chicago & St Louis railways, and by inter-urban electric lines. The city is built on the high bank of the river about 75 ft. above the lake, and commands good views of diversified scenery. There is a public library. Ashtabula has an excellent harbour, to and from which large quantities of iron ore and coal are shipped. More iron ore is received at this port annually than at any other port in the country, or, probably, in the world; the ore is shipped thence by rail to Pittsburg, Youngstown and other iron manufacturing centres. In 1907 the port received 7,542,149 gross tons of iron ore, and shipped 2,632,027 net tons of soft coal. Among the city’s manufactures are leather, worsted goods, agricultural implements, and foundry and machine shop products; in 1905 the total value of the factory product was $1,895,454, an increase of 114.3% in five years. There are large green-houses in and near Ashtabula, and quantities of lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes are raised under glass and shipped to Pittsburg and other large cities. The first settlement here was made about 1801. Ashtabula township was created in 1808, and from it the townships of Kingsville, Plymouth and Sheffield have subsequently been formed. The village of Ashtabula was incorporated in 1831, and received a city charter in 1891. The name Ashtabula is an Indian word first applied to the river and said to mean “fish river.”

ASHTON-IN-MAKERFIELD, an urban district in the Newton parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 4 m. S. of Wigan, on the Great Central railway. Pop. (1901) 18,687. The district is rich in minerals, and has large collieries, and a colliery company’s institute; iron goods are manufactured.

ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE, a market-town and municipal and parliamentary borough of Lancashire, England, on the river Tame, a tributary of the Mersey, 185 m. N. W. by N. from London and 6½ E. from Manchester. Area, 1346 acres. Pop. (1891) 40,486; (1901) 43,890. It is served by the London & North-Western and the Lancashire & Yorkshire railways (Charlestown station), and by the Great Central (Park Parade station). The church of St Michael is Perpendicular, but almost wholly rebuilt. In the vicinity are barracks. The Old Hall, or manor house of the Asshetons, remains in an altered form, with an ancient prison adjoining, and the name of Gallows Meadow, still preserved, recalls the summary execution of justice by the lords of the manor. In the vicinity of Ashton a few picturesque old houses remain among the numerous modern residences. Stamford Park, presented by Lord Stamford, is shared by the towns of Ashton and Stalybridge, which extends across the Tame into Cheshire. A technical school, school of art and free library, and several hospitals are maintained. Chief among industries are cotton-spinning, hat-making and iron-founding and machinery works; and there are large collieries in the neighbourhood. The parliamentary borough, which returns one member, extends into Cheshire. The corporation consists of a mayor, 8 aldermen and 24 councillors.

The derivation from the Saxon æsc (ash) and tun (an enclosed place) accounts for the earliest orthography Estun. The addition subtus lineam is found in ancient deeds and is due to the position of the place below the line or boundary of Cheshire, which once formed the frontier between the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia. The manor was granted to Roger de Poictou by William I., but before the end of his reign came to the Greslets as part of the barony of Manchester. It was held by the Asshetons from 1335 to 1515, when it passed by marriage to the Booths of Dunham Massey, and is now held by the earl of Stamford, the representative of that family. The lord of the manor still holds the ancient court-leet and court-baron half-yearly in May and November, in which cognizance is taken of breaches of agreement among the tenants, especially concerning the repair of roads and cultivation of lands. The place had long enjoyed the name of borough, but it was not till 1847 that a charter of incorporation was granted. Under the Reform Act (1832) it returns one member. One of the markets dates back to 1436. The ancient industry was woollen, but soon after the invention of the spinning frame the cotton trade was introduced, and as early as 1769 the weaving of ginghams, nankeens and calicoes was carried on, and the weaving of cotton yarn by machinery soon became the staple industry. A chapel or church existed here as early as 1261-1262.

ASH WEDNESDAY, in the Western Church, the first day of Lent (q.v.), so called from the ceremonial use of ashes, as a symbol of penitence, in the service prescribed for the day. The custom, which is ultimately based on the penance of “sackcloth and ashes” spoken of by the prophets of the Old Testament, has been dropped in those of the reformed Churches which still observe the fast; but it is retained in the Roman Catholic Church, the day being known as dies cinerum (day of ashes) or dies cineris et cilicii (day of ash and sackcloth). The ashes, obtained by burning the palms or their substitutes used in the ceremonial of the previous Palm Sunday, are placed in a vessel on the altar before High Mass. The priest, vested in a violet cope, prays that God may send His angel to hallow the ash, that it become a remedium salubre for all penitents. After another prayer the ashes are thrice sprinkled with holy water and thrice censed. Then the priest invites those present to approach and, dipping his thumb in the ashes, marks them as they kneel with the sign of the cross on the forehead (or in the case of clerics on the place of tonsure), with the words: Memento, homo, quid pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris (Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shall return). The celebrant himself either sprinkles the ash on his own head in silence, or receives it from the priest of highest dignity present.

This ceremony is derived from the custom of public penance in the early Church, when the sinner to be reconciled had to appear in the congregation clad in sackcloth and covered with ashes (cf. Tertullian, De Pudicitia, 13). At what date this use was extended to the whole congregation is not known. The phrase dies cinerum appears in the earliest extant copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary, and it is probable that the custom was already established by the 8th century. The Anglo-Saxon homilist Aelfric, in his Lives of the Saints (996 or 997), refers to it as in common use; but the earliest evidence of its authoritative prescription is a decree of the synod of Beneventum in 1091.

Of the reformed Churches the Anglican Church alone marks the day by any special service. This is known as the Commination service, its distinctive element being the solemn reading of “the general sentences of God’s cursing against sinners, gathered out of the seven and twentieth chapter of Deuteronomy, and other places of Scripture.” The lections for the day are the same as in the Roman Church (Joel ii. 12, &c., and Matt. vi. 16, &c.). In the American Prayer Book the office of Commination is omitted, with the exception of the three concluding prayers, which are derived from the prayers and anthems said or sung during the blessing and distribution of the ashes according to the Sarum Missal. The ceremonial of the ashes was not proscribed in England at the Reformation; it was indeed enjoined by a proclamation of Henry VIII. (February 26, 1538) and again in 1550 under Edward VI.; but it had fallen into complete disuse by the beginning of the 17th century.

See Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexikon, and Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie (3rd ed.), s. “Aschermittuoch”; L. Duchesne, Christian Worship, trans. by M.L. McClure (London, 1904).

ASHWELL, LENA (1872-  ), English actress, was the daughter of Commander Pocock, R.N. In 1896 she married the actor Arthur Playfair, whom she divorced in 1908; later in the latter year she married Dr Simson. In 1895 she played Elaine in Sir Henry Irving’s production of King Arthur at the Lyceum, and again acted with him in 1903 in Dante. She made her first striking success, however, on the London stage in Mrs Dane’s Defence with Sir Charles Wyndham in 1900, and a few years later her acting in Leah Kleschna confirmed her position as one of the leading actresses in London. In 1907 she started under her own management at the Kingsway theatre.

ASIA, the name of one of the great continents into which the earth’s surface is divided, embracing the north-eastern portion of the great mass of land which constitutes what is generally known as the Old World, of which Europe forms the north-western and Africa the south-western region.

Much doubt attaches to the origin of the name. Some of the earliest Greek geographers divided their known world into two portions only, Europe and Asia, in which last Libya (the Greek name for Africa) was included. Herodotus, who ranks Libya as one of the chief divisions of the world, separating it from Asia, repudiates as fables the ordinary explanations assigned to the names Europe and Asia, but confesses his inability to say whence they came. It would appear probable, however, that the former of these words was derived from an Assyrian or Hebrew root, which signifies the west or setting sun, and the latter from a corresponding root meaning the east or rising sun, and that they were used at one time to imply the west and the east. There is ground also for supposing that they may at first have been used with a specific or restricted local application, a more extended signification having eventually been given to them. After the word Asia had acquired its larger sense, it was still specially used by the Greeks to designate the country around Ephesus. The idea of Asia as originally formed was necessarily indefinite, and long continued to be so; and the area to which the name was finally applied, as geographical knowledge increased, was to a great extent determined by arbitrary and not very precise conceptions, rather than on the basis of natural relations and differences subsisting between it and the surrounding regions.

Geography

The northern boundary of Asia is formed by the Arctic Ocean; the coast-line falls between 70° and 75° N., and so lies within the Arctic circle, having its extreme northern point in Cape Sivero-Vostochnyi (i.e. north-east) Boundaries. or Chelyuskin, in 78° N. On the south the coast-line is far more irregular, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the China Sea reaching about to the northern tropic at the mouths of the Indus, of the Ganges and of the Canton river; while the great peninsulas of Arabia, Hindostan and Cambodia descend to about 10° N., and the Malay peninsula extends within a degree and a half of the equator. On the west the extreme point of Asia is found on the shore of the Mediterranean, at Cape Baba, in 26° E., nor far from the Dardanelles. Thence the boundary passes in the one direction through the Mediterranean, and down the Red Sea to the southern point of Arabia, at the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, in 45° E.; and in the other through the Black Sea, and along the range of Caucasus, following approximately 40° N. to the Caspian, whence it turns to the north on a line not far from the 60th meridian, along the Ural Mountains, and meets the Arctic Ocean nearly opposite the island of Novaya Zemlya. The most easterly point of Asia is East Cape (Vostochnyi, i.e. east, or Dezhnev), in 190° E., at the entrance of Bering Strait. The boundary between this point and the extremity of the Malay Peninsula follows the coast of the Northern Pacific and the China Sea, on a line deeply broken by the projection of the peninsulas of Kamchatka and Korea, and the recession of the Sea of Okhotsk, the Yellow Sea, and the Gulfs of Tongking and Siam.

On the east and south-east of Asia are several important groups of islands, the more southern of which link this continent to Australia, and to the islands of the Pacific. The Kurile islands, the Japanese group, Luchu, Formosa Islands. and the Philippines, may be regarded as unquestionable outliers of Asia. Between the islands of the Malay archipelago from Sumatra to New Guinea, and the neighbouring Asiatic continent, no definite relations appear ever to have existed, and no distinctly marked boundary for Asia has been established by the old geographers in this quarter. Modern science, however, has indicated a line of physical separation along the channel between Borneo and Celebes, called the Straits of Macassar, which follows approximately 120° E., to the west of which the flora and fauna are essentially Asiatic in their type, while to the south and east the Australian element begins to be distinctly marked, soon to become predominant. To this boundary has been given the name of Wallace’s line, after the eminent naturalist, A.R. Wallace, who first indicated its existence.

Owing to the great extent of Asia, it is not easy to obtain a correct conception of the actual form of its outline from ordinary maps, the distortions which accompany projections of large spherical areas on a flat surface being necessarily Form of continent. great and misleading. Turning, therefore, to a globe, Asia, viewed as a whole, will be seen to have the form of a great isosceles spherical triangle, having its north-eastern apex at East Cape (Vostochnyi), in Bering Strait; its two equal sides, in length about a quadrant of the sphere, or 6500 m., extending on the west to the southern point of Arabia, and on the east to the extremity of the Malay peninsula; and the base between these points occupying about 60° of a great circle, or 4500 m., and being deeply indented by the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal on either side of the Indian peninsula. A great circle, drawn through East Cape and the southern point of Arabia, passes nearly along the coast-line of the Arctic Ocean, over the Ural Mountains, through the western part of the Caspian, and nearly along the boundary between Persia and Asiatic Turkey. Asia Minor and the north-western half of Arabia lie outside such a great circle, which otherwise indicates, with fair accuracy, the north-western boundary of Asia. In like manner a great circle drawn through East Cape and the extremity of the Malay peninsula, passes nearly over the coasts of Manchuria, China and Cochin-China, and departs comparatively little from the eastern boundary.

Asia is divided laterally along the parallel of 40° north by a depression which, beginning on the east of the desert of Gobi, extends westwards through Mongolia to Chinese Turkestan. To the west of Kashgar the central depression is limited by General physiography. the meridional range of Sarikol and the great elevation of the Pamir, of which the Sarikol is the eastern face. The level of this depression (once a vast inland sea) between the mountains which enclose the sources of the Hwang-ho and the Sarikol range probably never exceeds 2000 ft. above sea, and modern researches tend to prove that in the central portions of the Gobi (about Lop Nor) it may be actually below sea-level. A vast proportion of the continent north of this central line is but a few hundred feet in altitude. Shelving gradually upward from the low flats of Siberia the general continental level rises to a great central water-parting, or divide, which stretches from the Black Sea through the Elburz and the Hindu Kush to the Tian-shan mountains in the Pamir region, and hence to Bering Strait on the extreme north-east. This great divide is not always marked by well-defined ranges facing steeply either to the north or south. There are considerable spaces where the strike, or axis, of the main ranges is transverse to the water-parting, which is then represented by intermediate highlands forming lacustrine regions with an indefinite watershed. Only a part of this great continental divide (including such ranges as the Hindu Kush, Tian-shan, Altai or Khangai) rises to any great height, a considerable portion of it being below 5000 ft. in altitude. South of the divide the level at once drops to the central depression of Gobi, which forms a vast interior, almost waterless space, where the local drainage is lost in deserts or swamps. South of this enclosed depression is another great hydrographic barrier which parts it from the low plains of the Amur, of China, Siam and India, bordered by the shallows of the Yellow Sea and the shoals which enclose the islands of Japan and Formosa, all of them once an integral part of the continent. This second barrier is one of the most mighty upheavals in the world, by reason both of its extent and its altitude. Starting from the Amur river and reaching along the eastern margin of the Gobi desert towards the sources of the Hwang-ho, it merges into the Altyn-tagh and the Kuen-lun, forming the northern face of the vast Tibetan highlands which are bounded on the south by the Himalaya. The Pamir highlands between the base of the Tian-shan mountains and the eastern buttresses of the Hindu Kush unite these two great divides, enclosing the Gobi depression on the west; and they would again be united on the east but for the transverse valley of the Amur, which parts the Khingan mountains from the Yablonoi system to the east of Lake Baikal.

If we consider the whole continent to be divided into three sections, viz. a northern section with an average altitude of less than 5000 ft. above sea, where all the main rivers flow northward to the Mediterranean, the Arctic Sea, or the Caspian; a central section of depression, where the drainage is lost in swamps or hamūns, and of which the average level probably does not exceed 2000 ft. above sea; and a southern section divided between highly elevated table-lands from 15,000 to 16,000 ft. in altitude, and lowlands of the Arabian, Indian, Siamese and Chinese peninsulas, with an ocean outlet for its drainage; we find that there is only one direct connexion between northern and southern sections which involves no mountain passes, and no formidable barrier of altitudes. That one is afforded by the narrow valley of the Hari Rud to the west of Herat. From the Caspian to Karachi it is possible to pass without encountering any orographic obstacle greater than the divide which separates the valley of the Hari Rud from the Helmund hamūn basin, which may be represented by an altitude of about 4000 ft. above sea-level. This fact possesses great significance in connexion with the development of Asiatic railways.

If we examine the hydrographic basins of the three divisions of Asia thus indicated we find that the northern division, Hydrography. including the drainage falling into the Arctic Sea, the Aralo-Caspian depression, or the Mediterranean, embraces an area of about 6,394,500 sq. m., as follows:—

 

Sq. m.

Area of Arctic river basins

4,367,000

  ”   Aralo-Caspian basin

1,759,000

  ”   Mediterranean

268,500

 

————

Total

6,394,500

The southern division is nearly equal in extent—

 

Sq. m.

Pacific drainage

3,641,000

Indian Ocean

2,873,000

 

————

Total

6,514,000

The interior or inland basins, including the lacustrine regions south of the Arctic watershed, the Gobi depression, Tibetan plateau, the Iranian (or Perso-Afghan) uplands, the Syro-Arabian inland basin, and that of Asia Minor, amount to 3,141,500 sq. m. or about half the extent of the other two.

By far the largest Asiatic river basin is that of the Ob, which exceeds 1,000,000 sq. m. in extent. On the east and south the Amur embraces no less than 776,000 sq. m., the Yang-tsze-kiang including 685,000, the Ganges 409,500, and the Indus 370,000 sq. m.1

The lakes of Asia are innumerable, and vary in size from an inland sea (such as Lakes Baikal and Balkash) to a highland loch, or the indefinitely extended swamps of Persia. Many of them are at high elevations (Lake Victoria, 13,400 ft., being probably the most elevated), and are undoubted vestiges of an ancient period of glaciation. Such lakes, as a rule, show indications of a gradual decrease in size. Others are relics of an earlier geological period, when land areas recently upheaved from the sea were spread at low levels with alternate inundations of salt and fresh water. Of these Lop Nor and the Helmund hamūns are typical. Such lakes (in common with all the plateau hamūns of south-west Baluchistan and Persia) change their form and extent from season to season, and many of them are impregnated with saline deposits from the underlying strata. The kavirs, or salt depressions, of the Persian desert are more frequently widespread deposits of mud and salt than water-covered areas.

Although for the purposes of geographical nomenclature, boundaries formed by a coast-line—that is, by depressions of the earth’s solid crust below the ocean level—are most easily recognized and are of special convenience; and although such boundaries, from following lines on which the continuity of Political divisions. the land is interrupted, often necessarily indicate important differences in the conditions of adjoining countries, and of their political and physical relations, yet variations of the elevation of the surface above the sea-level frequently produce effects not less marked. The changes of temperature and climate caused by difference of elevation are quite comparable in their magnitude and effect on all organized creatures with those due to differences of latitude; and the relative position of the high and low lands on the earth’s surface, by modifying the direction of the winds, the fall of rain, and other atmospheric phenomena, produce effects in no sense less important than those due to the relative distribution of the land and sea. Hence the study of the mountain ranges of a continent is, for a proper apprehension of its physical conditions and characteristics, as essential as the examination of its extent and position in relation to the equator and poles, and the configuration of its coasts.

From such causes the physical conditions of a large part of Asia, and the history of its population, have been very greatly influenced by the occurrence of the mass of mountain above described, which includes the Himalaya and the whole Himalayan boundary. elevated area having true physical connexion with that range, and occupies an area about 2000 m. in length and varying from 100 to 500 m. in width, between 65° and 100° east and between 28° and 35° north. These mountains, which include the highest peaks in the world, rise, along their entire length, far above the line of perpetual snow, and few of the passes across the main ridges are at a less altitude than 15,000 or 16,000 ft. above the sea. Peaks of 20,000 ft. abound along the whole chain, and the points that exceed that elevation are numerous. A mountain range such as this, attaining altitudes at which vegetable life ceases, and the support of animal life is extremely difficult, constitutes an almost impassable barrier against the spread of all forms of living creatures. The mountain mass, moreover, is not less important in causing a complete separation between the atmospheric conditions on its opposite flanks, by reason of the extent to which it penetrates that stratum of the atmosphere which is in contact with the earth’s surface and is effective in determining climate. The highest summits create serious obstructions to the movements of nearly three-fourths of the mass of the air resting on this part of the earth, and of nearly the whole of the moisture it contains; the average height of the entire chain is such as to make it an almost absolute barrier to one-half of the air and three-fourths of the moisture; while the lower ranges also produce important atmospheric effects, one-fourth of the air and one-half of the watery vapour it carries with it lying below 9000 ft.

This great mass of mountain, constituting as it does a complete natural line of division across a large part of the continent, will form a convenient basis from which to work, in proceeding, as will now be done, to give a general view of the principal countries contained in Asia.

The summit of the great mountain mass is occupied by Tibet, a country known by its inhabitants under the name of Bod or Bodyul. Tibet is a rugged table-land, narrow as compared with its length, broken up by a succession of mountain ranges, Tibet. which follow as a rule the direction of the length of the table-land, and commonly rise into the regions of perpetual snow; between the flanks of these lie valleys, closely hemmed in, usually narrow, having a very moderate inclination, but at intervals opening out into wide plains, and occupied either by rivers, or frequently by lakes from which there is no outflow and the waters of which are salt. The eastern termination of Tibet is in the line of snowy mountains which flanks China on the west, between the 27th and 35th parallels of latitude, and about 103° east. On the west the table-land is prolonged beyond the political limits of Tibet, though with much the same physical features, to about 70° east, beyond which it terminates; and the ranges which are covered with perpetual snow as far west as Samarkand, thence rapidly diminish in height, and terminate in low hills north of Bokhara.

The mean elevation of Tibet may be taken as 15,000 ft. above the sea. The broad mountainous slope by which it is connected with the lower levels of Hindostan contains the ranges known as the Himalaya; the name Kuen-lun is generally applied to the northern slope that descends to the central plains of the Gobi, though these mountains are not locally known under those names, Kuen-lun being apparently a Chinese designation.

The extreme rigour of the climate of Tibet, which combines great cold with great drought, makes the country essentially very poor, and the chief portion of it little better than desert. The vegetation is everywhere most scanty, and scarcely anything deserving the name of a tree is to be found unless in the more sheltered spots, and then artificially planted. The population in the lower and warmer valleys live in houses, and follow agriculture; in the higher regions they are nomadic shepherds, thinly scattered over a large area.

China lies between the eastern flank of the Tibetan plateau and the North Pacific, having its northern and southern limits about on 40° and 20° N. respectively. The country, though China. generally broken up with mountains of moderate elevation, possesses none of very great importance apart from those of its western border. It is well watered, populous, and, as a rule, highly cultivated, fertile, and well wooded; the climate is analogous to that of southern Europe, with hot summers, and winters everywhere cold and in the north decidedly severe.

From the eastern extremity of the Tibetan mountains, between the 95th and 100th meridians, high ranges extend from about 35° N. in a southerly direction, which, spreading outwards as they go south, reach the sea at various points in Cochin-China, Indo-Chinese region. the Malay peninsula, and the east flank of Bengal. Between these ranges, which are probably permanently snowy to about 27° N., flow the great rivers of the Indo-Chinese peninsula, the Mekong, the Menam, the Salween, and the Irrawaddy, the valleys of which form the main portions of the states of Cochin-China (including Tongking and Cambodia), of Siam (including Laos) and of Burma. The people of Cochin-China are called Anam; it is probably from a corruption of their name for the capital of Tongking, Kechao, that the Portuguese Cochin has been derived. All these countries are well watered, populous and fertile, with a climate very similar to that of eastern Bengal. The geography of the region in which the mountains of Cochin-China and Siam join Tibet is still imperfectly known, but there is no ground left for doubting that the great river of eastern Tibet, the Tsanpo, supplies the main stream of the Brahmaputra. The two great rivers of China, the Hwang-ho and the Yang-tsze-kiang take their rise from the eastern face of Tibet, the former from the north-east angle, the latter from the south-east. The main stream of this last is called Dichu in Tibet, and its chief feeder is the Ya-lung-kiang, which rises not far from the Hwang-ho, and is considered the territorial boundary between China and Tibet.

British India comprises approximately the area between the 95th and 70th meridians, and between the Tibetan table-land and the Indian Ocean. The Indian peninsula from 25° N. southwards is a table-land, having its greatest elevation on the British India. west, where the highest points rise to over 8000 ft., though the ordinary altitude of the higher hills hardly exceeds 4000 ft.; the general level of the table-land lies between 3000 ft. as a maximum and 1000 ft.

From the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra on the east to that of the Indus on the west, and intervening between the table-land of the peninsula and the foot of the Himalayan slope of the Tibetan plateau, lies the great plain of northern India, which rises at its highest point to about 1000 ft., and includes altogether, with its prolongation up the valley of Assam, an area of about 500,000 sq. m., comprising the richest, the most populous and most civilized districts of India. The great plain extends, with an almost unbroken surface, from the most western to the most eastern extremity of British India, and is composed of deposits so finely comminuted, that it is no exaggeration to say that it is possible to go from the Bay of Bengal up the Ganges, through the Punjab, and down the Indus again to the sea, over a distance of 2000 m. and more, without finding a pebble, however small.

The great rivers of northern India—the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Indus—all derive their waters from the Tibetan mountain mass; and it is a remarkable circumstance that the northern water-parting of India should lie to the north of the Himalaya in the regions of central Tibet.

The population of India is very large, some of its districts being among the most densely peopled in the world. The country is generally well cleared, and forests are, as a rule, found only along the flanks of the mountains, where the fall of rain is most abundant. The more open parts are highly cultivated, and large cities abound. The climate is generally such as to secure the population the necessaries of life without severe labour; the extremes of heat and drought are such as to render the land unsuitable for pasture, and the people everywhere subsist by cultivation of the soil or commerce, and live in settled villages or towns.

The island of Ceylon is distinguished from the neighbouring parts of British India by little more than its separate administration and the Buddhistic religion of its population. The highest point in Ceylon rises to about 9000 ft. above the sea, and the mountain slopes are densely covered with forest. The lower levels are in climate and cultivation quite similar to the regions in the same latitude on the Malay peninsula.

Of the islands in the Bay of Bengal the Nicobar and Andaman groups are alone worth notice. They are placed on a line joining the north end of Sumatra and Cape Negrais, the south-western extremity of Burma. They possibly owe their existence to the volcanic agencies which are known to extend from Sumatra across this part of the Indian Ocean.

(Click to enlarge left side.)
(Click to enlarge right side.)

The Laccadives and Maldives are groups of small coral islands, situated along the 73rd meridian at no great distance from the Indian peninsula on which they have a political dependency.

The portion of Asia west of British India excluding Arabia and Syria forms another extensive plateau covering an area as large as that of Tibet though at a much lower altitude. Its southern border runs along the Arabian Sea, the Persian The Nearer East. Gulf, the Tigris and thence westward to the north-east angle of the Levant, on the north the high land follows nearly 36° N. to the southern shore of the Caspian and thence to the Black Sea and Sea of Marmora. Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Iran or Persia, Armenia and the provinces of Asia Minor occupy this high region with which they are nearly conterminous. The eastern flank of this table-land follows a line of hills drawn a short distance from the Indus between the mouth of that river and the Himalaya, about on the 72nd meridian, these hills do not generally exceed 4000 or 5000 ft. in elevation but a few of the summits reach 10,000 ft. or more. The southern and south western face follows the coast closely up the Persian Gulf from the mouth of the Indus, and is formed farther west by the mountain scarp, which, rising in many points to 10,000 ft. flanks the Tigris and the Mesopotamian plains, and extends along Kurdistan and Armenia nearly to the 40th meridian, beyond which it turns along the Taurus range, and the north eastern angle of the Mediterranean. The north eastern portion of the Afghan table-land abuts on the Himalaya and Tibet, with which it forms a continuous mass of mountain between the 71st and 72nd meridians and 34° and 36° N. From the point of intersection of the 71st meridian with the 36th parallel of latitude, an unbroken range of mountain stretches on one side towards the north east, up to the crest of the northern slope of the Tibetan plateau, and on the other nearly due west as far as the Caspian. The north eastern portion of this range is of great altitude, and separates the headwaters of the Oxus, which run off to the Aral Sea, from those of the Indus and its Kabul tributary, which, uniting below Peshawar are thence discharged southward into the Arabian Sea. The western part of the range, which received the name of Paropamisus Mons from the ancients, diminishes in height west of the 65th meridian and constitutes the northern face of the Afghan and Persian plateau rising abruptly from the plains of the Turkoman desert which lies between the Oxus and the Caspian. These mountains at some points attain a height of 10,000 or 12,000 ft. Along the south coast of the Caspian this line of elevation is prolonged as the Elburz range (not to be confused with the Elburz of the Caucasus), and has its culminating point in Demavend, which rises to 19,400 ft. above the sea thence it extends to the north west to Ararat, which rises to upwards of 17,000 ft. from the vicinity of which the Euphrates flows off to the south west across the high lands of Armenia. Below the north east declivity of this range lies Georgia, on the other side of which province rises the Caucasus, the boundary of Asia and Europe between the Caspian and Black Seas, the highest points of which reach an elevation of nearly 19,000 ft. West of Ararat high hills extend along the Black Sea between which and the Taurus range lies the plateau of Asia Minor reaching to the Aegean Sea, the mountains along the Black Sea, on which are the Olympus and Ida of the ancients rise to 6000 or 7000 ft., the Taurus is more lofty—reaching 8000 and 10,000 ft.—both ranges decline in altitude as they approach the Mediterranean.

This great plateau extending from the Mediterranean to the Indus has a length of about 2500 m. from east to west, and a breadth of upwards of 600 m. on the west and nowhere of less than 250 m. It lies generally at altitudes between 2000 ft. and 8000 ft. above the sea level. Viewed as a whole the eastern half of this region, comprising Persia, Afghanistan and Baluchistan, is poor and unproductive. The climate is very severe in the winter and extremely hot in summer. The rainfall is very scanty, and running waters are hardly known excepting among the mountains which form the scarps of the elevated country. The population is sparse, frequently nomadic, and addicted to plunder, progress in the arts and habits of civilization is small. The western part of the area falls within the Turkish empire. Its climate is less hot and and its natural productiveness much greater and its population more settled and on the whole more advanced.

The peninsula of Arabia with Syria, its continuation to the north-west, has some of the characteristics of the hottest and driest parts Persia and Baluchistan. Excepting the northern part of this tract which is conterminous with the plain of Arabia. Mesopotamia (which at its highest point reaches an elevation of about 700 ft. above the sea) the country is covered with low mountains, rising to 3000 or 4000 ft. in altitude having among them narrow valleys in which the vegetation is scanty with exceptional regions of greater fertility in the neighbourhood of the coasts where the rainfall is greatest. In northern Syria the mountains of Lebanon rise to about 10,000 ft. and with a more copious water supply the country becomes more productive. The whole tract, excepting south eastern Arabia is nominally subject to Turkey but the people are to no small extent practically independent living a nomadic pastoral and freebooting life under petty chiefs in the more arid districts, but settled in towns in the more fertile tracts where agriculture becomes more profitable and external commerce is established.

The area between the northern border of the Persian high lands and the Caspian and Aral Seas is a nearly desert low lying plain, extending to the foot of the north-western extremity of the great Tibeto-Himalayan mountains and prolonged eastward Trans-Caspian region and central Asia. up the valleys of the Oxus (Amu Darya) and Jaxartes (Syr-Darya), and northward across the country of the Kirghiz to the south western border of Siberia. It includes Bokhara, Khiva and Turkestan proper in which the Uzbeg Turks are dominant, and for the most part is inhabited by nomadic tribes, who are marauders, enjoying the reputation of being the worst among a race of professed robbers. The tribes to the north, subject to Russia, are naturally more peaceable, and have been brought into some degree of discipline. In this tract the rainfall is nowhere sufficient for the purposes of agriculture, which is only possible by help of irrigation, and the fixed population (which contains a non-Turkish element) is comparatively small, and restricted to the towns and the districts near the rivers.

The north-western extremity of the elevated Tibeto-Himalayan mountain plateau is situated about on 73° E. and 39° N. This region is known as Pamir, it has all the characteristics of the highest regions of Tibet, and so far fitly receives the Russian designation of steppe, but it seems to have no special peculiarities, and the reason of its having been so long regarded as a geographical enigma is not obvious. From it the Oxus, or Amu, flows off to the west, and the Jaxartes, or Syr, to the north, through the Turki state of Khokand, while to the east the waters run down past Kashgar to the central desert of the Gobi, uniting with the streams from the northern slope of the Tibetan plateau that traverse the principalities of Yarkand and Khotan, which are also Turki. Here the Tibetan mountains unite with the line of elevation which stretches across the continent from the Pacific, and which separates Siberia from the region commonly spoken of under the name of central Asia.

A range of mountains, called Stanovor, rising to heights of 4000 or 5000 ft., follows the southern coast of the eastern extremity of Asia from Kamchatka to the borders of Manchuria, as far as the 135th meridian, in lat. 55° N. Thence the Yablonoi Manchuria. range, continuing in the same direction, divides the waters of the river Lena, which flows through Siberia into the Arctic Sea, from those of the river Amur, which falls into the North Pacific, the basin of this river, with its affluents, constitutes Manchuria. From the north of Manchuria the Khingan range stretches southward to the Chinese frontier near Peking, east of which the drainage falls into the Amur and the Yellow Sea, while to the west is an almost rainless region, the inclination of which is towards the central area of the continent, Mongolia.

From the western end of the Yablonoi range, on the 115th meridian, a mountainous belt extends along a somewhat irregular line to the extremity of Pamir, known under various names in its different parts, and broken up into several branches, Mongolia. enclosing among them many isolated drainage areas, from which there is no outflow, and within which numerous lakes are formed. The most important of these ranges is the Tian-shan or Celestial Mountains, which form the northern boundary of the Gobi desert, they lie between 40° and 43° N., and between 75° and 95° E., and some of the summits are said to exceed 20,000 ft. in altitude, along the foot of this range are the principal cultivated districts of central Asia, and here too are situated the few towns which have sprung up in this barren and thinly peopled region. Next may be named the Ala-tau, on the prolongation of the Tian-shan, flanking the Syr on the north, and rising to 14,000 or 15,000 ft. It forms the barrier between the Issyk-kul and Balkash lakes, the elevation of which is about 5000 ft. Last is the Altai, near the 50th parallel, rising to 10,000 or 12,000 ft., which separates the waters of the great rivers of western Siberia from those that collect into the lakes of north-west Mongolia, Dzungaria and Kalka. A line of elevation is continued west of the Altai to the Ural Mountains, not rising to considerable altitudes; this divides the drainage of south-west Siberia from the great plains lying north east of the Aral Sea.

The central area bounded on the north and north-west by the Yablonoi Mountains and their western extension in the Tian-shan, on the south by the northern face of the Tibetan plateau and on the east by the Khingan range before alluded to, forms the great desert of central Asia, known as the Gobi. Its eastern part is nearly conterminous with south Mongolia, its western forms Chinese or eastern Turkestan. It appears likely that no part of this great central Asiatic desert is less than 2000 ft. above the sea level. The elevation of the plain about Kashgar and Yarkand is from 4000 to 6000 ft. The more northern parts of Mongolia are between 4000 and 6000 ft., and no portion of the route across the desert between the Chinese frontier and Kiakhta is below 3000 ft. The precise positions of the mountain ridges that traverse this central area are not properly known, their elevation is everywhere considerable, and many points are known to exceed 10,000 or 12,000 ft.

In Mongolia the population is essentially nomadic, its wealth consisting in herds of horned cattle, sheep, horses and camels. The Turki tribes, occupying western Mongolia, are among the least civilized of human beings, and it is chiefly to their extreme barbarity and cruelty that our ignorance of central Asia is due. The climate is very severe, with great extremes of heat and cold. The drought is very great, rain falls rarely and in small quantities. The surface is for the most part a hard stony desert, areas of blown sand occurring but exceptionally. There are few towns or settled villages, except along the slopes of the higher mountains, on which the rain falls more abundantly, or the melting snow supplies streams for irrigation. It is only in such situations that cultivated lands are found, and beyond them trees are hardly to be seen.

The portion of Asia which lies between the Arctic Ocean and the mountainous belt bounding Manchuria, Mongolia and Turkestan on the north is Siberia. It includes an immense high and broken plateau which spreads from south-west to Siberia. north-east, losing in width and altitude as it advances north-east. It is fringed on either side by high border ridges, which subside on the north-west into a stretch of high plains, 1500 to 2000 ft. high, finally dropping to lowlands a few hundred feet above sea-level. The extremes of heat and cold are very great. The rainfall, though not heavy, is sufficient to maintain such vegetation as is compatible with the conditions of temperature, and the surface is often swampy or peaty. The mountain-sides are commonly clothed with pine forests, and the plains with grasses or shrubs. The population is very scanty; the cultivated tracts are comparatively small in extent and restricted to the more settled districts. The towns are entirely Russian. The indigenous races are nomadic Mongols, of a peaceful character, but in a very backward state of civilization. The Ural Mountains do not exceed 2000 or 3000 ft. in average altitude, the highest summits not exceeding 6000 ft., and one of the passes being as low as 1400 ft. In the southern half of the range are the chief mining districts of Russia. The Ob, Yenisei and Lena, which traverse Siberia, are among the largest rivers in the world.

The southern group of the Malay Archipelago, from Sumatra to Java and Timor, extends in the arc of a circle between 95° and 127° E., and from 5° to 10° S. The central part of the Malay Archipelago. group is a volcanic region, many of the volcanoes being still active, the summits frequently rising to 10,000 ft. or more.

Sumatra, the largest of the islands, is but thinly peopled; the greater part of the surface is covered with dense forest, the cultivated area being comparatively small, confined to the low lands, and chiefly in the volcanic region near the centre of the island. Java is the most thickly peopled, best cultivated and most advanced island of the whole Eastern archipelago. It has attained a high degree of wealth and prosperity under the Dutch government. The people are peaceful and industrious, and chiefly occupied with agriculture. The highest of the volcanic peaks rises to 12,000 ft. above the sea. The eastern islands of this group are less productive and less advanced.

Borneo, the most western and the largest of the northern group of islands which extends between 110° and 150° E., as far as New Guinea or Papua, is but little known. The population is small, rude and uncivilized; and the surface is rough and mountainous and generally covered with forest except near the coast, to the alluvial lands on which settlers have been attracted from various surrounding countries. The highest mountain rises to nearly 14,000 ft., but the ordinary elevations do not exceed 4000 or 5000 ft.

Of Celebes less is known than of Borneo, which it resembles in condition and natural characteristics. The highest known peaks rise to 8000 ft., some of them being volcanic.

New Guinea extends almost to the same meridian as the eastern coast of Australia, from the north point of which it is separated by Torres Straits. Very little is known of the interior. The mountains are said to rise to 20,000 ft., having the appearance Pacific Islands. of being permanently covered with snow; the surface seems generally to be clothed with thick wood. The inhabitants are of the Negrito type, with curly or crisp and bushy hair; those of the west coast have come more into communication with the traders of other islands and are fairly civilized. Eastward, many of the tribes are barbarous savages.

The Philippine Islands lie between 5° and 20° N., between Borneo and southern China. The highest land does not rise to a greater height than 10,250 ft.; the climate is well suited for agriculture, and the islands generally are fertile and fairly cultivated, though not coming up to the standard of Java either in wealth or population.

Formosa, which is situated under the northern tropic, near the coast of China, is traversed by a high range of mountains, reaching nearly 13,000 ft. in elevation. On its western side, which is occupied by an immigrant Chinese population, are open and well-cultivated plains; on the east it is mountainous, and occupied by independent indigenous tribes in a less advanced state.

The islands of Japan, not including Sakhalin, of which half is Japanese, lie between the 30th and 45th parallels. The whole group is traversed by a line of volcanic mountains, some of which are in activity, the highest point being about 13,000 ft. above the sea. The country is generally well watered, fertile and well cultivated. The Japanese people have added to their ancient civilization and their remarkable artistic faculty, an adaptation of Western methods, and a capacity for progress in war and commerce, which single them out among Eastern races as a great modern world-force.

Exploration

The progress of geodetic surveys in Russia had long ago extended across the European half of the great empire, St Petersburg being connected with Tiflis on the southern slopes of the Caucasus by a direct system of triangulation carried out with the highest scientific precision. St Petersburg, again, is connected with Greenwich by European systems of triangulation; and the Greenwich meridian is adopted by Russia as the zero for all her longitude values. But beyond the eastern shores of the Caspian no system of direct geodetic measurements by first-class triangulation has been possible, and the surveys of Asiatic Russia are separated from those of Europe by the width of that inland sea. The arid nature of the trans-Caspian deserts has proved an insuperable obstacle to those rigorous methods of geodetic survey which distinguish Russian methods in Europe, so that Russian geography in central Asia is dependent on other means than that of direct measurement for the co-ordinate values in latitude and longitude for any given point. The astronomical observatory at Tashkent is adopted for the initial starting-point of the trans-Caspian triangulation of Russia; the triangulation ranks as second-class only, and now extends to the Pamir frontier beyond Osh. The longitude of the Tashkent observatory has been determined by telegraph differentially with Pulkova as follows:—

 

 

H.

M.

S.

In 1875 via Ekaterinburg

and Omsk

2

35

52.151

In 1891 via Saratov

and Orenburg

2

35

52.228

In 1895 via Kiev

and Baku

2

35

51.997

With these three independent values, all falling within a range of 0S.25, it is improbable that the mean value has an error as large as 0S.10.

Exact surveys in Russia, based upon triangulation, extend as far east as Chinese Turkestan in longitude about 75° E. of Greenwich. In India geodetic triangulation furnishes Extent of exact surveys in Asia. the basis for exact surveys as far east as the eastern boundaries of Burma in longitude about 100° E.

The close of the 19th century witnessed the forging of the final links in the great geodetic triangulation of India, so far as the peninsula is concerned. Further geodetic connexion with the European systems remains to be accomplished. Since 1890 further and more rigorous application of the telegraphic method of determining longitudes differentially with Greenwich has resulted in a slight correction (amounting to about 2″ of arc) to the previous determination by the same method through Suez. This last determination was effected through four arcs as follows:—

I.

Greenwich—Potsdam.

II.

Potsdam—Teheran.

III.

Teheran—Bushire.

IV.

Bushire—Karachi.

Each arc was measured with every precaution and a multitude of observations. The only element of uncertainty was caused by the retardation of the current, which between Potsdam and Teheran (3000 m.) took 0S.20 to travel; but it is probable that the final value can be accepted as correct to within 0S.05.

The final result of this latest determination is to place the Madras observatory 2′ 27″ to the west of the position adopted for it on the strength of absolute astronomical determinations.

But while we have yet to wait for that expansion of principal triangulation which will bring Asia into connexion with Europe by the direct process of earth measurement, a topographical Connexion between Russian and Indian surveys. connexion has been effected between Russian and Indian surveys which sufficiently proves that the deductive methods employed by both countries for the determination of the co-ordinate values of fixed points so far agree that, for all practical purposes of future Asiatic cartography, no difficulty in adjustment between Indian and Russian mapping need be apprehended.

In connexion with the Indian triangulation minor extensions carried out on systems involving more or less irregularity have been pushed outwards on all sides. They reach through Afghanistan and Baluchistan to the eastern districts of Extension of geographical surveys. Persia, and along the coast of Makran to that of Arabia. They have long ago included the farther mountain peaks of Nepal, and they now branch outwards towards western China and into Siam. These far extensions furnish the basis for a vast amount of exploratory survey of a strictly geographical character, and they have contributed largely towards raising the standard of accuracy in Asiatic geographical surveys to a level which was deemed unattainable fifty years ago. There is yet a vast field open in Asia for this class of surveys. While at the close of the 19th century western Asia (exclusive of Arabia) may be said to have been freed from all geographical perplexity, China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia still include enormous areas of which geographical knowledge is in a primitive stage of nebulous uncertainty.

Of scientific geographical exploration in Asia (beyond the limits of actual surveys) the modern period has been so prolific that it is only possible to refer in barest outline to some of the principal expeditions, most of which have been directed either to Indian explorers. the great elevated table-land of Tibet or to the central depression which exists to the north of it. In southern Tibet the trans-Himalayan explorations of the native surveyors attached to the Indian survey, notably Pundits Nain Singh and Krishna, added largely to our knowledge of the great plateau. Nain Singh explored the sources of the Indus and of the Upper Brahmaputra in the years 1865-1867; and in 1874-1875 he followed a line from the eastern frontiers of Kashmir to the Tengri Nor lake and thence to Lhasa, in which city he remained for some months. Krishna’s remarkable journey in 1879-1882 extended from Lhasa northwards through Tsaidam to Sachu, or Saitu, in Mongolia. He subsequently passed through eastern Tibet to the town of Darchendo, or Tachienlu, on the high road between Lhasa and Peking, and on the borders of China. Failing to reach India through Upper Assam he returned to the neighbourhood of Lhasa, and crossed the Himalayas by a more westerly route. Both these explorers visited Lhasa.

In 1871-1873 the great Russian explorer, Nicolai Prjevalsky, crossed the Gobi desert from the north to Kansu in western China. He first defined the geography of Tsaidam, and mapped the hydrography of that remarkable region, from which Russian explorers. emanate the great rivers of China, Siam and Burma. He penetrated southwards to within a month’s march of Lhasa. In 1876 he visited the Lop Nor and discovered the Altyn Tagh range. In 1879 he followed up the Urangi river to the Altai Mountains, and demonstrated to the world the extraordinary physical changes which have passed over the heart of the Asiatic continent since Jenghiz Khan massed his vast armies in those provinces. He crossed, and named, the Dzungarian extension of the Gobi desert, and then traversed the Gobi itself from Hami to Sachu, which became a point of junction between his journeys and those of Krishna. He visited the sources of the Hwang-ho (Yellow river) and the Salween, and then returned to Russia. His fourth journey in 1883-1885 was to Sining (the great trade centre of the Chinese borderland), and thence through northern Tibet (crossing the Altyn Tagh to Lop Nor), and by the Cherchen-Keriya trade route to Khotan. From Khotan he followed the Tarim to Aksu.

Following Prjevalsky the Russian explorers, Pevtsov and Roborovski, in 1889-1890 (and again in 1894), added greatly to our knowledge of the topography of western Chinese Turkestan and the northern borders of Tibet; all these Russian expeditions being conducted on scientific principles and yielding results of the highest value. Among other distinguished Russian explorers in Asia, the names of Lessar, Annentkov (who bridged the Trans-Caspian deserts by a railway), P.K. Kozlov and Potanin are conspicuous during the 19th century.

Although the establishment of a lucrative trade between India and central Asia had been the dream of many successive Indian viceroys, and much had been done towards improving the approaches to Simla from the north, very little was Other explorations in central Asia. really known of the highlands of the Pamirs, or of the regions of the great central depression, before the mission of Sir Douglas Forsyth to Yarkand in 1870. Robert Barkley Shaw and George Hayward were the European pioneers of geography into the central dominion of Kashgar, arriving at Yarkand within a few weeks of each other in 1868. Shaw subsequently accompanied Forsyth’s mission in 1870, when Henry Trotter made the first maps of Chinese Turkestan. The next great accession to our knowledge of central Asiatic geography was gained with the Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission of 1884-1886, when Afghan Turkestan and the Oxus regions were mapped by Colonel Sir T.H. Holdich, Colonel St George Gore and Sir Adelbert Talbot; and when Ney Elias crossed from China through the Pamirs and Badakshan to the camp of the commission, identifying the great “Dragon Lake,” Rangkul, on his way. About the same time a mission, under Captain (afterwards Sir Willaim) Lockhart, crossed the Hindu Kush into Wakhan, and returned to India by the Bashgol valley of Kafiristan. This was Colonel Woodthorpe’s opportunity, and he was then enabled to verify the results of W.W. M‘Nair’s previous explorations, and to determine the conformation of the Hindu Kush. In 1885 Arthur Douglas Carey and Andrew Dalgleish, following more or less the tracks of Prjevalsky, contributed much that was new to the map of Asia; and in 1886 Captain (afterwards Sir Francis) Younghusband completed a most adventurous journey across the heart of the continent by crossing the Muztagh, the great mountain barrier between China and Kashmir.

It was in 1886-1887 that Pierre G. Bonvalot, accompanied by Prince Henri d’Orléans, crossed the Tibetan plateau from north to south but failed to enter Lhasa. In 1889-1891 the American traveller, W.W. Rockhill, commenced his Tibetan explorations. Tibetan journeys, and also attempted to reach Lhasa, without success. By his writings, as much as by his explorations, Rockhill has made his name great in the annals of Asiatic research. In 1891 Hamilton Bower made his famous journey from Leh to Peking. He, too, failed to penetrate the jealously-guarded portals of Lhasa; but he secured (with the assistance of a native surveyor) a splendid addition to our previous Tibetan mapping. In 1891-1892-1893 the gallant French explorer, Dutreuil de Rhins, was in the field of Tibet, where he finally sacrificed his life to his work; and the same years saw George N. (afterwards Lord) Curzon in the Pamirs, and St George Littledale on his first great Tibetan journey, accompanied by his wife. Littledale’s first journey ended at Peking; his second, in 1894-1895, took him almost within sight of the sacred walls of Lhasa, but he failed to pass inside. Greatest among modern Asiatic explorers (if we except Prjevalsky) is the brave Swede, Professor Sven Hedin, whose travels through the deserts of Takla Makan and Tibet, and whose investigations in the glacial regions of the Sarikol mountains, occupied him from 1894 to 1896. His is a truly monumental record. From 1896 to 1898 we find two British cavalry officers taking the front position in the list of Tibetan travellers-Captain M.S. Wellby of the 18th Hussars and Captain H. Deasy of the 16th Lancers, each striking out a new line, and rendering most valuable service to geography. The latter continued the Pamir triangulation, which had been carried across the Hindu Kush by Colonels Sir T.H. Holdich and R.A. Wahab during the Pamir Boundary Commission of 1895, into the plains of Kashgar and to the sources of the Zarafshan.

Since the beginning of the century the work of Deasy in western Tibet has been well extended by Dr M.A. Stein and Captain C. G. Rawling, who have increased our knowledge of ancient fields of industry and commerce in Turkestan and Tibet. Ellsworth Huntington threw new light on the Tian-shan plateau and the Alai range by his explorations of 1903; and Sven Hedin, between 1899 and 1902, was collecting material in Turkestan and Tibetan fields, and resumed his journeys in 1905-1908, the result being to revolutionize our knowledge of the region north of the upper Tsanpo (see Tibet). The mission of Sir Francis Younghusband to Lhasa in 1904 resulted in an extension of the Indian system of triangulation which finally determined the geographical position of that city, and in a most valuable reconnaissance of the valleys of the Upper Brahmaputra and Indus by Captains C.H.D. Ryder and C.G. Rawling.

Meanwhile, in the Farther East so rapid has been the progress of geographical research since the first beginnings of investigation into the route connexion between Burma and China in 1874 (when the brave Augustus Margary lost his life), that a Chinese explorations. gradually increasing tide of exploration, setting from east to west and back again, has culminated in a flood of inquiring experts intent on economic and commercial development in China, essaying to unlock those doors to trade which are hereafter to be propped open for the benefit of humanity. Captain William Gill, of the Indian survey, first made his way across China to eastern Tibet and Burma, and subsequently delighted the world with his story of the River of Golden Sand. Then followed another charming writer, E.C. Baber, who, in 1877-1878, unravelled the geographic mysteries of the western provinces of the Celestial empire. Mark Bell crossed the continent in 1887 and illustrated its ancient trade routes, following the steps of Archibald Colquhoun, who wandered from Peking to Talifu in 1881. Meanwhile, the acquisition of Burma and the demarcation of boundaries had opened the way to the extension of geographical surveys in directions hitherto untraversed. Woodthorpe was followed into Burmese fields by many others; and amongst the earliest travellers to those mysterious mountains which hide the sources of the Irrawaddy, the Salween and the Mekong, was Prince Henri d’Orleans. Burma was rapidly brought under survey; Siam was already in the map-making hands of James M’Carthy, whilst Curzon and Warrington Smyth added much to our knowledge of its picturesque coast districts. No more valuable contribution to the illustration of western Chinese configuration has been given to the public than that of C.C. Manifold who explored and mapped the upper basin of the Yang-tsze river between the years 1900 and 1904, whilst our knowledge of the geography of the Russo-Chinese borderland on the north-east has been largely advanced by the operations attending the Russo-Japanese war which terminated in 1905.

Turning our attention westwards, no advance in the progress of scientific geography is more remarkable than that recorded on the northern and north-western frontiers of India. Here there is little matter of exploration. It has rather been a Indian frontiers—Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Persia. wide extension of scientific geographical mapping. Afghan war of 1878-80; the Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission of 1884-1885; the occupation of Gilgit and Chitral; the extension of boundaries east and north of Afghanistan, and again, between Baluchistan and Persia—these, added to the opportunities afforded by the systematic survey of Baluchistan which has been steadily progressing since 1880—combined to produce a series of geographical maps which extend from the Oxus to the Indus, and from the Indus to the Euphrates.

In these professional labours the Indian surveyors have been assisted by such scientific geographers as General Sir A. Houtum Schindler, Captain H.B. Vaughan and Major Percy M. Sykes in Persia, and by Sir George Robertson and Cockerill in Kafiristan and the Hindu Kush.

In still more western fields of research much additional light has been thrown since 1875 on the physiography of the great deserts and oases of Arabia. The labours of Charles Doughty and Wilfrid S. Blunt in northern Arabia in 1877-1878 were Arabia. followed by those of G. Schweinfurth and E. Glaser in the south-west about ten years later. In 1884-1885 Colonel S.B. Miles made his adventurous journey through Oman, while Theodore Bent threw searchlights backwards into ancient Semitic history by his investigations in the Bahrein Islands in 1888 and in Hadramut in 1894-1895.

In northern Asia it is impossible to follow in detail the results of the organized Russian surveys. The vast steppes and forest-clad mountain regions of Siberia have assumed a new geographical aspect in the light of these revelations, and Northern Asia, Siberia, &c. already promise a new world of economic resources to Russian enterprise in the near future. A remarkable expedition by Baron Toll in 1892 through the regions watered by the Lena, resulted in the collection of material which will greatly help to elucidate some of the problems which beset the geological history of the world, proving inter alia the primeval existence of a boreal zone of the Jurassic sea round the North Pole.

In no other period of the world’s history, of equal length of time, has so much scientific enterprise been directed towards the field of Asiatic inquiry. The first great result of recent geographical research has been to modify pre-existing ideas of General results of investigation. the orography of the vast central region represented by Tibet and Mongolia. The great highland plateau which stretches from the Himalaya northwards to Chinese Turkestan, and from the frontier of Kashmir eastwards to China, has now been defined with comparative geographical exactness. The position of Sachu (or Saitu) in Mongolia may be taken as an obligatory point in modern map construction. The longitude value now adopted is 94° 54′ E. of Greenwich, which is the revised value given by Prjevalsky in the map accompanying the account of his fourth exploration into central Asia. Other values are as follows:—

Prjevalsky, by his second and third explorations

94° 26′

Krishna

94° 23′

Carey and Dalgleish

94° 48′

Littledale

94° 49′

Kreitner (with Szecheny’s expedition)

94° 58′

The longitude of Darchendo, or Tachienlu, on the extreme east, may be accepted as another obligatory point. The adopted value by the Royal Geographical Society is 102° 12″. Krishna gives 102° 15″, Kreitner 102° 5″, Baber 102° 18″.

South and west the bounding territories are well fixed in geographical position by the Indian survey determinations of the value of Himalayan peaks. On the north the Chinese Turkestan explorations are now brought into survey connexion with Kashmir and India.

No longer do we regard the Kuen-lun mountains, which extend from the frontiers of Kashmir, north of Leh, almost due east to the Chinese province of Kansu, as the southern limit of the Gobi or Turkestan depression. This very remarkable longitudinal chain is undoubtedly the northern limit of the Chang Tang, the elevated highland steppes of Tibet; but from it there branches a minor system to the north-east from a point in about 83° E. longitude, which culminates in the Altyn Tagh, and extends eastwards in a continuous water-divide to the Nan Shan mountains, north of the Koko Nor basin. Thus between Tibet and the low-lying sands of Gobi we have, thrust in, a system of elevated valleys (Tsaidam), 8000 to 9000 ft. above sea-level, forming an intermediate steppe between the highest regions and the lowest, east of Lop Nor. All this is comparatively new geography, and it goes far to explain why the great trade routes from Peking to the west were pushed so far to the north.

On the western edge of the Kashgar plains, the political boundary between Russia and China is defined by the meridional range of Sarikol. This range (known to the ancients as Taurus and in medieval times as Bolor) like many others of the Russo-Chinese boundary. most important great natural mountain divisions of the world, consists of two parallel chains, of which the western is the water-divide of the Pamirs, and the eastern (which has been known as the Kashgar or Kandar range) is split at intervals by lateral gorges to allow of the passage of the main drainage from the eastern Pamir slopes.

In western Asia we have learned the exact value of the mountain barrier which lies between Merv and Herat, and have mapped its connexion with the Elburz of Persia. We can now fully appreciate the factor in practical politics which Indian frontiers—Afghanistan, &c. that definite but somewhat irregular mountain system represents which connects the water-divide north of Herat with the southern abutment of the Hindu Kush, near Bamian. Every pass of importance is known and recorded; every route of significance has been explored and mapped; Afghanistan has assumed a new political entity by the demarcation of a boundary; the value of Herat and of the Pamirs as bases of aggression has been assessed, and the whole intervening space of mountain and plain thoroughly examined.

Although within the limits of western Asiatic states, still under Asiatic government and beyond the active influence of European interests, the material progress of the Eastern world has appeared to remain stationary, yet large accessions to Persia. geographical knowledge have at least been made, and in some instances a deeper knowledge of the surface of the country and modern conditions of life has led to the straightening of many crooked paths in history, and a better appreciation of the slow processes of advancing civilization. The steady advance of scientific inquiry into every corner of Persia, backed by the unceasing efforts of a new school of geographical explorers, has left nothing unexamined that can be subjected to superficial observation. The geographical map of the country is fairly complete, and with it much detailed information is now accessible regarding the coast and harbours of the Persian Gulf, the routes and passes of the interior, and the possibilities of commercial development by the construction of trade roads uniting the Caspian, the Karun, the Persian Gulf, and India, via Seistan. Persia has assumed a comprehensible position as a factor in future Eastern politics.

In Arabia progress has been slower, although the surveys carried out by Colonel Wahab in connexion with the boundary determined in the Aden hinterland added more exact geographical knowledge within a limited area. Little more is known Arabia. of the wide spaces of interior desert than has already been given to the world in the works of Sir Richard F. Burton, Wm. Gifford Palgrave and Sir Lewis Pelly amongst Englishmen, and Karsten Niebuhr, John Lewis Burckhardt, Visconte, Joseph Halévy and others, amongst foreign travellers. Charles Doughty and Wilfrid S. Blunt have visited and illustrated the district of Nejd, and described the waning glories of the Wahabi empire. But extended geographical knowledge does not point to any great practical issue. Commercial relations with Arabia remain much as they were in 1875.

In Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia there is little to record of progress in material development beyond the promises held out by the Euphrates Valley railway concession to a Asia Minor, &c. German company. The exact information obtained by the researches of English surveyors in Palestine and beyond Jordan, or by the efforts of explorers in the regions that lie between the Mediterranean and the Caspian, have so far led rather to the elucidation of history than to fresh commercial enterprise or the possible increase of material wealth.

Asiatic Russia, especially eastern Siberia and Mongolia, have been brought within the sphere of Russian exploration, with results so surprising as to form an epoch in the history of Asia. Russia in Asia. Here there has been a development of the resources of the Old World which parallels the best records of the New.

The great central depression of the continent which reaches from the foot of the Pamir plateau on the west through the Tarim desert to Lop Nor and the Gobi has yielded up many interesting secrets. The remarkable phenomenon of the periodic Chinese Turkestan and Oxus basin. shifting of the Lop Nor system has been revealed by the researches of Sven Hedin, and the former existence of highly civilized centres of Buddhist art and industry in the now sand-strewn wastes of the Turkestan desert has been clearly demonstrated by the same great explorer and by Dr M.A. Stein. The depression westward of the Caspian and Aral basins, and the original connexion of these seas, have also come under the close investigation of Russian scientists, with the result that the theory of an ancient connexion between the Oxus and the Caspian has been displaced by the more recent hypothesis of an extension of the Caspian Sea eastwards into Trans-Caspian territory within the post-Pleiocene age. The discovery of shells (now living in the Caspian) at a distance of about 100 m. inland, at an altitude of 140 to 280 ft. above the present level of the Caspian, gives support to this hypothesis, which is further advanced by the ascertained nature of the Kara-kum sands, which appear to be a purely marine formation exhibiting no traces of fluviatile deposits which might be considered as delta deposits of the Oxus.

In the discussion of this problem we find the names of Baron A. Kaulbars, Annentkov, P.M. Lessar, and A.M. Konshin prominent. Further matter of interest in connexion with the Oxus basin was elucidated by the researches of L. Griesbach in connexion with the Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission. He reported the gradual formation of an anticlinal or ridge extending longitudinally through the great Balkh plain of Afghan Turkestan, which effectually shuts off the northern affluents of that basin from actual junction with the river. This evidence of a gradual process of upheaval still in action may throw some light on the physical (especially the climatic) changes which must have passed over that part of Asia since Balkh was the “mother of cities,” the great trade centre of Asia, and the plains of Balkh were green with cultivation. In the restoration of the outlines of ancient and medieval geography in Asia Sven Hedin’s discoveries of the actual remains of cities which have long been buried under the advancing waves of sand in the Takla Makan desert, cities which flourished in the comparatively recent period of Buddhist ascendancy in High Asia, is of the very highest interest, filling up a blank in the identification of sites mentioned by early geographers and illustrating more fully the course of old pilgrim routes.

With the completion of the surveys of Baluchistan and Makran much light has also been thrown on the ancient connexion between Baluchistan and Makran. east and west; and the final settlement of the southern boundaries of Afghanistan has led to the reopening of one at least of the old trade routes between Seistan and India.

Farther east no part of Asia has been brought under more careful investigation than the hydrography of the strange mountain wilderness that divides Tibet and Burma from China. In this field the researches of travellers already mentioned, Burma and China. combined with the more exact reconnaissance of native surveyors and of those exploring parties which have recently been working in the interests of commercial projects, have left little to future inquiry. We know now for certain that the great Tsanpo of Tibet and the Brahmaputra are one and the same river; that north of the point where the great countermarch of that river from east to west is effected are to be found the sources of the Salween, the Mekong, the Yang-tsze-kiang and the Hwang-ho, or Yellow river, in order, from west to east; and that south of it, thrust in between the extreme eastern edge of the Brahmaputra basin and the Salween, rise the dual sources of the Irrawaddy. From the water-divide which separates the most eastern affluent of the Brahmaputra, eastwards to the deep gorges which enclose the most westerly branch of the upper Yang-tsze-kiang (here running from north to south), is a short space of 100 m.; and within that space two mighty rivers, the Salween and the Mekong, send down their torrents to Burma and Siam. These three rivers flow parallel to each other for some 300 m., deep hidden in narrow and precipitous troughs, amidst some of the grandest scenery of Asia; spreading apart where the Yank-tsze takes its course eastwards, not far north of the parallel of 25°.

The comparatively restricted area which still remains for close investigation includes the most easterly sources of the Brahmaputra, the most northerly sources of the Irrawaddy, and some 300 m. of the course of the upper Salween.

Modern Boundary Demarcation.—The period from about 1880 has been an era of boundary-making in Asia, of defining the politico-geographical limits of empire, and of determining the responsibilities of government. Russia, Persia, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, India and China have all revised their borders, and with the revision the political relations between these countries have acquired a new and more assured basis. See also the articles on the different countries. We are not here concerned with understandings as to “spheres of influence,” or with arrangements such as the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 concerning Persia.

The advance of Russia to the Turkoman deserts and the Oxus demanded a definite boundary between her trans-Caspian conquests and the kingdom of Afghanistan. This was determined on the north-west by the Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission Southern boundary of Russia in Asia. of 1884-1886. A boundary was then fixed between the Hari Rud (the river of Herat) and the Oxus, which is almost entirely artificial in its construction. Zulfikar, where the boundary leaves the Hari Rud, is about 70 m. south of Sarakhs, and the most southerly point of the boundary (where it crosses the Kushk) is about 60 m. north of Herat. From the junction of the boundary with the Oxus at Khamiab about 150 m. above the crossing-point of the Russian Trans-Caspian railway at Charjui, the main channel of the Oxus river becomes the northern boundary of Afghanistan, separating that country from Russia, and so continues to its source in Victoria Lake of the Great Pamir. Beyond this point the Anglo-Russian Commission of 1895 demarcated a line to the snowfields and glaciers which overlook the Chinese border. Between the Russian Pamirs and Chinese Turkestan the rugged line of the Sarikol range intervenes, the actual dividing line being still indefinite. Beyond Kashgar the southern boundary of Siberia follows an irregular course to the north-east, partly defined by the Tian-shan and Alatau mountains, till it attains a northerly point in about 53° N. lat. marked by the Sayan range to the west of Irkutsk. It then deflects south-east till it touches the Kerulen affluent of the Amur river at a point which is shown in unofficial maps as about 117° 30′ E. long, and 49° 20′ N. lat. From here it follows this affluent to its junction with the Amur river, and the Amur river to its junction with the Usuri. It follows the Usuri to its head (its direction now being a little west of south), and finally strikes the Pacific coast on about 42° 30′ N. lat. at the mouth of the Tumen river 100 m. south of the Amur bay, at the head of which lies the Russian port of Vladivostok. At two points the Russian boundary nearly approaches that of provinces which are directly under British suzerainty. Where the Oxus river takes its great bend to the north from Ishkashim, the breadth of the Afghan territory intervening between that river and the main water-divide of the Hindu Kush is not more than 10 or 12 m.; and east of the Pamir extension of Afghanistan, where the Beyik Pass crosses the Sarikol range and drops into the Taghdumbash Pamir, there is but the narrow width of the Karachukar valley between the Sarikol and the Muztagh. Here, however, the boundary is again undefined. Eastwards of this the great Kashgar depression, which includes the Tarim desert, separates Russia from the vast sterile highlands of Tibet; and a continuous series of desert spaces of low elevation, marking the limits of a primeval inland sea from the Sarikol meridional watershed to the Khingan mountains on the western borders of Manchuria, divide her from the northern provinces of China. From the Khingan ranges to the Pacific, south of the Amur, stretch the rich districts of Manchuria, a province which connects Russia with the Korea by a series of valleys formed by the Sungari and its affluents—a land of hill and plain, forest and swamp, possessing a delightful climate, and vast undeveloped agricultural resources. Throughout this land of promise Russian influence was destroyed by Japan in the war of 1904. The possession of Port Arthur, and direct political control over Korea, place Japan in the dominant position as regards Manchuria.

Coincident with the demarcation of Russian boundaries in Turkestan was that of northern Afghanistan. From the Hari Rud on the west to the Sarikol mountains on the east her northern limits were set by the Boundary Commissions of 1884-1886 Afghan political boundaries. and of 1895 respectively. Her southern and eastern boundaries were further defined by a series of minor commissions, working on the basis of the Kabul agreement of 1893, which lasted for nearly four years, terminating with the Mohmand settlement at the close of an expedition in 1897.

The Pamir extension of Afghan territory to the north-east reaches to a point a little short of 75° E., from whence it follows the water-divide to the head of the Taghdumbash Pamir, and is thenceforward defined by the water-parting of the Hindu Kush. It leaves the Hindu Kush near the Dorah Pass at the head of one of the minor Chitral affluents, and passing south-west divides Kafiristan from Chitral and Bajour, separates the sections of the Mohmands who are within the respective spheres of Afghan and British sovereignty, and crosses the Peshawar-Kabul route at Lundi-Khana. It thus places a broad width of independent territory between the boundaries of British India (which have remained practically, though not absolutely, untouched) and Afghanistan; and this independent belt includes Swat, Bajour and a part of the Mohmand territory north of the Kabul river. The same principle of maintaining an intervening width of neutral territory between the two countries is definitely established throughout the eastern borders of Afghanistan, along the full length of which a definite boundary has been demarcated to the point where it touches the northern limits of Baluchistan on the Gomal river. From the Gomal Baluchistan itself becomes an intervening state between British India and Afghanistan, and the dividing line between Baluchistan and Afghanistan is laid down with all the precision employed on the more northerly sections of the demarcation.

Baluchistan can no longer be regarded as a distinct entity amongst Asiatic nations, such as Afghanistan undoubtedly is. Baluchistan independence demands qualification. There is British Baluchistan par excellence, and there is the rest of Baluchistan which exists in various degrees of independence, but Baluchistan. is everywhere subject to British control. British Baluchistan officially includes the districts of Peshin, Sibi and of Thal-Chotiali. As these districts had originally been Afghan, they were transferred to British authority by the treaty of Gandamak in 1879, although nominally they had been handed over to Kalat forty years previously. Now they form an official province of British Baluchistan within the Baluchistan Agency; and the agency extends from the Gomal to the Arabian Sea and the Persian frontier. Within this agency there are districts as independent as any in Afghanistan, but the political status of the province as a whole is almost precisely that of the native states of the Indian peninsula. The agent to the governor-general of India, with a staff of political assistants, practically exercises supreme control.

The increase of Russian influence on the northern Persian border and its extension southwards towards Seistan led to the appointment of a British consul at Kirman, the dominating Kirman. town of southern Khorasan, directly connected with Meshed on the north; and the acquisition of rights of administration of the Nushki district secured to Great Britain the trade between Seistan and Quetta by the new Helmund desert route.

While British India has so far avoided actual geographical contact with one great European power in Asia on the north and west, she has touched another on the east. The Mekong river which limits British interests in Burma limits also those Boundary between French territory and India. of France in Tongking. The eastern boundaries of Burma are not yet fully demarcated on the Chinese frontier. At a point level in latitude with Mogaung, near the northern termination of the Burmese railway system, this boundary is defined by the eastern watershed of the Nmaikha, the eastern of the two great northern affluents of the Irrawaddy. Then it follows an irregular course southwards to a position south-east of Bhamo in lat. 24°. It next defines the northern edge of the Shan States, and finally strikes the Mekong river in lat. 21° 45′ (approximately). From that point southwards the river becomes the boundary between the Shan States and Tongking for some 200 m., the channel of the river defining the limits of occupation (though not entirely of interest) between French and British subjects. Approximately on the parallel of 20° N. lat. the Burmese boundary leaves the Mekong to run westwards towards the Salween, and thereafter following the eastern watershed of the Salween basin it divides the Lower Burma provinces from Siam.

The following table shows the areas of territories in Asia Area and political division. (continental and insular) dependent on the various extra-Asiatic powers, and of those which are independent or nominally so:—

 Territory

Sq. m. 

Russian

6,495,970

British

1,998,220

Dutch

586,980

French

247,580

U.S.A.

114,370

German

193

Turkish

681,980

Chinese

4,299,600

Japanese

161,110

Other independent territories

2,232,270

The total area of Asia, continental and insular, is therefore somewhat over 16,819,000 sq. m. (but various authorities differ considerably in their detailed estimates). The population may be set down roughly as 823,000,000, of which 330,000,000 inhabit Chinese territory, 302,000,000 British, and 25,000,000 Russian.

(T. H. H.*)

Geology

The geology of Asia is so complex and over wide areas so little known that it is difficult to give a connected account of either the structure or the development of the continent, and only the broader features can be dealt with here.

In the south, in Syria, Arabia and the peninsula of India, none but the oldest rocks are folded, and the Upper Palaeozoic, the Mesozoic and the Tertiary beds lie almost horizontally upon them. It is a region of quiescence or of faulting, but not of folding. North of this lies a broad belt in which the Mesozoic deposits and even the lower divisions of the Tertiary system are thrown into folds which extend in a series of arcs from west to east and now form the principal mountain ranges of central Asia. This belt includes Asia Minor, Persia, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, the Himalayas, the Tian-shan, and, although they are very different in direction, the Burmese ranges. The Kuen-lun, Nan-shan and the mountain ranges of southern China are, perhaps, of earlier date, but nevertheless they be in the same belt. It is not true that throughout the whole width of this zone the beds are folded. There are considerable tracts which are but little disturbed, but these tracts are enclosed within the arcs formed by the folds, and the zone taken as a whole is distinctly one of crumpling. North of the folded belt, and including the greater part of Siberia, Mongolia and northern China, lies another area which is, in general, free from any important folding of Mesozoic or Tertiary age. There are, it is true, mountain ranges which are formed of folded beds; but in many cases the direction of the chains is different from that of the folds, so that the ranges must owe their elevation to other causes; and the folds, moreover, are of ancient date, for the most part Archaean or Palaeozoic. The configuration of the region is largely due to faulting, trough-like or tray-like depressions being formed, and the intervening strips, which have not been depressed, standing up as mountain ridges. Over a large part of Siberia and in the north of China, even the Cambrian beds still lie as horizontally as they were first laid down. In the extreme north, in the Verkhoyansk range and in the mountains of the Taimyr peninsula, there are indications of another zone of folding of Mesozoic or later date, but our information concerning these ranges is very scanty. Besides the three chief regions into which the mainland is thus seen to be divided, attention should be drawn to the festoons of islands which border the eastern side of the continent, and which are undoubtedly due to causes similar to those which produced the folds of the folded belt.

Of all the Asiatic ranges the Himalayan is, geologically, the best known; and the evidence which it affords shows clearly that the folds to which it owes its elevation were produced by an overthrust from the north. It is, indeed, as if the high land of central Asia had been pushed southward against and over the unyielding mass formed by the old rocks of the Indian peninsula, and in the process the edges of the over-riding strata had been crumpled and folded. Overlooking all smaller details, we may consider Asia to consist of a northern mass and a southern mass, too rigid to crumple, but not too strong to fracture, and an intermediate belt of softer rock which was capable of folding. If then by the contraction of the earth’s interior the outer crust were forced to accommodate itself to a smaller nucleus, the central softer belt would yield by crumpling, the more rigid masses to the north and south, if they gave way at all, would yield by faulting. It is interesting to observe, as will be shown later, that during the Mesozoic era there was a land mass in the north of Asia and another in the south, and between them lay the sea in which ordinary marine sediments were deposited. The belt of folding does not precisely coincide with this central sea, but the correspondence is fairly close.

The present outline of the eastern coast and the nearly enclosed seas which lie between the islands and the mainland, are attributed by Richthofen chiefly to simple faulting.

Little is known of the early geological history of Asia beyond the fact that a large part of the continent was covered by the sea during the Cambrian and Ordovician periods. But there is positive evidence that much of the north and east of Asia has been land since the Palaeozoic era, and it has been conclusively proved that the peninsula of India has never been beneath the sea since the Carboniferous period at least. Between these ancient land masses lies an area in which marine deposits of Mesozoic age are well developed and which was evidently beneath the sea during the greater part of the Mesozoic era. The northern land mass has been named Angaraland by E. Suess; the southern, of which the Indian peninsula is but a fragment, is called Gondwanaland by Neumayr, Suess and others, while the intervening sea is the central Mediterranean sea of Neumayr and the Tethys of Suess. The greater part of western Asia, including the basin of the Obi, the drainage area of the Aral Sea, together with Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Persia and Arabia, was covered by the sea during the later stages of the Cretaceous period, but a considerable part of this region was probably dry land in Jurassic times.

The northern land mass begins in the north with the area which lies between the Yenisei and the Lena. Here the folded Archean rocks are overlaid by Cambrian and Ordovician beds, which still lie for the most part flat and undisturbed. Upon these rest patches of freshwater deposits containing numerous remains of plants. They consist chiefly of sandstone and conglomerate, but include workable seams of coal. Some of the deposits appear to be of Permian age, but others are probably Jurassic, and they are all included under the general name of the Angara series. Excepting in the extreme north, where marine Jurassic and Cretaceous fossils have been found, there is no evidence that this part of Siberia has been beneath the sea since the early part of the Palaeozoic era. Besides the plant beds extensive outflows of basic lava rest directly upon the Cambrian and Ordovician strata. The date of these eruptions is still uncertain, but they probably continued to a very recent period.

South and east of the Palaeozoic plateau is an extensive area consisting chiefly of Archean rocks, and including the greater part of Mongolia north of the Tian-shan. Here again there are no marine beds of Mesozoic or Tertiary age, while plant-bearing deposits belonging to the Angara series are known. Structurally, the folds of this region are of ancient date, but the area is crossed by a series of depressions formed by faults, and the intervening strips, which have not been depressed to the same extent, now stand up as mountain ranges. Farther south, in the Chinese provinces of Shansi and Shensi, the geological succession is similar in some respects to that of the Siberian Palaeozoic plateau, but the sequence is more complete. There is again a floor of folded Archean rocks overlaid by nearly horizontal strata of Lower Palaeozoic age, but these are followed by marine beds belonging to the Carboniferous period. From the Upper Carboniferous onward, however, no marine deposits are known; and, as in Siberia, plant bearing beds are met with. Southern China is very different in structure, consisting largely of folded mountain chains; but the geological succession is very similar, and excepting near the Tibetan and Burmese borders, there are no marine deposits of Mesozoic or Tertiary age.

Thus it appears that from the Arctic Ocean there stretches a broad area as far as the south of China, in which no marine deposits of later date than Carboniferous have yet been found, except in the extreme north. Freshwater and terrestrial deposits of Mesozoic age occur in many places, and the conclusion is irresistible that the greater part of this area has been land since the close of the Palaeozoic era. The Triassic deposits of the Verkhoyansk Range show that this land did not extend to the Bering Sea, while the marine Mesozoic deposits of Japan on the east, the western Tian-shan on the west and Tibet on the south give us some idea of its limits in other directions.

In the same way the entire absence of any marine fossils in the peninsula of India, excepting near its borders, and the presence of the terrestrial and freshwater deposits of the Gondwana series, representing the whole of the geological scale from the top of the Carboniferous to the top of the Jurassic, show that this region also has been land since the Carboniferous period. It was a portion of a great land mass which probably extended across the Indian Ocean and was at one time united with the south of Africa.

But these two land masses were not connected. Between India and China there is a broad belt in which marine deposits of Mesozoic and Tertiary age are well developed. Marine Tertiary beds occur in Burma; in the Himalayas and in south Tibet there is a nearly complete series of marine deposits from the Carboniferous to the Eocene; in Afghanistan the Mesozoic beds are in part marine and in part fluviatile. The sea in which these strata were deposited seems to have attained its greatest extension in Upper Cretaceous times when its waters spread over the whole of western Asia and even encroached slightly upon the Indian land. The Eocene sea however cannot have been much inferior in extent.

It was after the Eocene period that the main part of the elevation of the Himalayas took place, as is shown by the occurrence of nummulitic limestone at a height of 20,000 ft. The formation of this and of the other great mountain chains of central Asia resulted in the isolation of portions of the former central sea, and the same forces finally led to the elevation of the whole region and the union of the old continents of Angara and Gondwana. Gondwanaland, however, did not long survive, and the portion which lay between India and South Africa sank beneath the waves in Tertiary times.

Leaving out of consideration all evidence of more ancient volcanic activity, each of the three regions into which, as we have seen, the continent may be divided has been, during or since the Cretaceous period, the seat of great volcanic eruptions. In the southern region of unfolded beds are found the lavas of the “harras” of Arabia, and in India the extensive flows of the Deccan Trap. In the central folded belt lie the great volcanoes, now mostly extinct, of Asia Minor, Armenia, Persia and Baluchistan. In Burma also there is at least one extinct volcano. In the northern unfolded region great flows of basic lava lie directly upon the Cambrian and Ordovician beds of Siberia, but are certainly in part of Tertiary age. Similar flows on a smaller scale occur in Manchuria, Korea and northern China.

In all these cases, however, the eruptions have now almost ceased, and the great volcanoes of the present day lie in the islands off the eastern and south eastern coasts.

References—E. Suess, Das Antlitz der Erde (see, especially, vol. iii. part 1.); F.V. Richthofen, “Ueber Gestalt und Gliederung einer Grundlinie in der Morphologie Ost-Asiens,” Sitz. k. preuss. Akad. Wiss. (Berlin, 1900), pp. 888-925, and Geomorphologische Studien aus Ostasien, ibid., 1901, pp. 782-808, 1902, pp. 944-975, 1903, pp. 867-918.

(P. La.)

Climate.

Among the places on the globe where the temperature falls lowest are some in northern Asia; and among those where it rises highest are some in southern Asia. The mean temperature of the north coast of eastern Siberia is but a few degrees Temperature. above the zero of Fahrenheit; the lowest mean temperature anywhere observed is about 4° Fahr., at Melville Island, north of the American continent. The isothermals of mean annual temperature lie over northern Asia on curves tolerably regular in their outline, having their western branches in a somewhat higher latitude than their eastern; a reduction of 1° of latitude corresponds approximately—and irrespective of modifications due to elevation—to a rise of ½° Fahr., as far say as 30° N, where the mean temperature is about 75° Fahr. Farther south the increase is slower, and the highest mean temperature anywhere attained in southern Asia is not much above 82° Fahr.

The variations of temperature are very great in Siberia, amounting near the coast to more than 100° Fahr., between the mean of the hottest and coldest months, and to still more between the extreme temperatures of those months. In southern Asia, and particularly near the sea, the variation between the hottest and coldest monthly means is very much less, and under the equator it is reduced to about 5°. In Siberia the difference between the means of the hottest and coldest months is hardly anywhere less than 60° Fahr. On the Sea of Aral it is 80° Fahr., and at Astrakhan, on the Caspian, more than 50°. At Tiflis it is 45°. In northern China, at Peking, it is 55°, reduced to 30° at Canton, and to 20° at Manila. In northern India the greatest difference does not exceed 40°, and it falls off to about 15° at Calcutta and to about 10° or 12° at Bombay and Madras. The temperatures at the head of the Persian Gulf approximate to those of northern India, and those of Aden to Madras. At Singapore the range is less than 5°, and at Batavia in Java, and Galle in Ceylon, it is about the same. The extreme temperatures in Siberia may be considered to lie between 80° and 90° Fahr. for maxima, and between −40° and −70° Fahr. for minima. The extreme of heat near the Caspian and Aral Seas rises to nearly 100° Fahr., while that of cold falls to −20° Fahr. or lower. Compared with these figures, we find in southern Asia 110° or 112° Fahr. as a maximum hardly ever exceeded. The absolute minimum in northern India, in lat. 30°, hardly goes below 32°; at Calcutta it is about 40°, though the thermometer seldom falls to 50°. At Madras it rarely falls as low as 65°, or at Bombay below 60°. At Singapore and Batavia the thermometer very rarely falls below 70°, or rises above 90°. At Aden the minimum is a few degrees below 70°, the maximum not much exceeding 90°.

These figures sufficiently indicate the main characteristics of the air temperatures of Asia. Throughout its northern portion the winter is long and of extreme severity; and even down to the circle of 35° N. lat., the minimum temperature is almost as low as zero of Fahrenheit. The summers are hot, though short in the northern latitudes, the maximum of summer heat being comparatively little less than that observed in the tropical countries farther south. The moderating effect of the proximity of the ocean is felt in an important degree along the southern and eastern parts of Asia, where the land is broken up into islands or peninsulas. The great elevations above the sea-level of the central part of Asia, and of the table-lands of Afghanistan and Persia, tend to exaggerate the winter cold; while the sterility of the surface, due to the small rainfall over the same region, operates powerfully in the opposite direction in increasing the summer heat. In the summer a great accumulation of solar heat takes place on the dry surface soil, from which it cannot be released upwards by evaporation, as might be the case were the soil moist or covered with vegetation, nor can it be readily conveyed away downwards as happens on the ocean. In the winter similar consequences ensue, in a negative direction, from the prolonged loss of heat by radiation in the long and clear nights—an effect which is intensified wherever the surface is covered with snow, or the air little charged with vapour. In illustration of the very slow diffusion of heat in the solid crust of the earth, and as affording a further indication of the climate of northern Asia, reference may here be made to the frozen soil of Siberia, in the vicinity of Yakutsk. In this region the earth is frozen permanently to a depth of more than 380 ft. at which the temperature is still 5° or 6° Fahr. below the freezing point of water, the summer heat merely thawing the surface to a depth of about 3 ft. At a depth of 50 ft. the temperature is about 15 Fahr. below the freezing point. Under such conditions of the soil, the land, nevertheless, produces crops of wheat and other grain from fifteen to forty fold.

The very high summer temperatures of the area north of the tropic of Cancer are sufficiently accounted for, when compared with those observed south of the tropic, by the increased length of the day in the higher latitude, which more than compensates for the loss of heat due to the smaller mid-day altitude of the sun. The difference between the heating power of the sun’s rays at noon on the 21st of June, in latitude 20° and in latitude 45°, is only about 2%; while the accumulated heat received during the day, which is lengthened to 15½ hours in the higher latitude, is greater by about 11% than in the lower latitude, where the day consists only of 13¼ hours.

Although the foregoing account of the temperatures of Asia supplies the main outline of the observed phenomena, a very important modifying cause, of which more will be said hereafter, comes into operation over the whole of the tropical region, namely, the periodical summer rains. These tend very greatly to arrest the increase of the summer heat over the area where they prevail, and otherwise give it altogether peculiar characteristics.

The great summer heat, by expanding the air upwards, disturbs the level of the planes of equal pressure, and causes an outflow of the upper strata from the heated area. The winter cold produces an effect of just an opposite nature, and Pressure and Winds. causes an accumulation of air over the cold area. The diminution of barometric pressure which takes place all over Asia during the summer months, and the increase in the winter, are hence, no doubt, the results of the alternate heating and cooling of the air over the continent.

The necessary and immediate results of such periodical changes of pressure are winds, which, speaking generally, blow from the area of greatest to that of least pressure—subject, however, to certain modifications of direction, arising from the absolute motion of the whole body of the air due to the revolution of the earth on its axis from west to east. The south-westerly winds which prevail north of the equator during the hot half of the year, to which navigators have given the name of the south-west monsoon (the latter word being a corruption of the Indian name for season), arise from the great diminution of atmospheric pressure over Asia, which begins to be strongly marked with the great rise of temperature in April and May, and the simultaneous relatively higher pressure over the equator and the regions south of it. This diminution of pressure, which continues as the heat increases till it reaches its maximum in July soon after the solstice, is followed by the corresponding development of the south-west monsoon; and as the barometric pressure is gradually restored, and becomes equalized within the tropics soon after the equinox in October, with the general fall of temperature north of the equator, the south-west winds fall off, and are succeeded by a north-east monsoon, which is developed during the winter months by the relatively greater atmospheric pressure which then occurs over Asia, as compared with the equatorial region.

Although the succession of the periodical winds follows the progress of the seasons as just described, the changes in the wind’s direction everywhere take place under the operation of special local influences which often disguise the more general law, and make it difficult to trace. Thus the south-west monsoon begins in the Arabian Sea with west and north-westerly winds, which draw round as the year advances to south-west and fall back again in the autumn by north-west to north. In the Bay of Bengal the strength of the south-west monsoon is rather from the south and south-east, being succeeded by north-east winds after October, which give place to northerly and north-westerly winds as the year advances. Among the islands of the Malay Archipelago the force of the monsoons is much interrupted, and the position of this region on the equator otherwise modifies the directions of the prevailing winds. The southerly summer winds of the Asiatic seas between the equator and the tropic do not extend to the coasts of Java, and the south-easterly trade winds are there developed in the usual manner. The China Sea is fully exposed to both monsoons, the normal directions of which nearly coincide with the centre of the channel between the continent of Asia and the eastern islands.

The south-west monsoon does not generally extend, in its character of a south-west wind, over the land. The current of air flowing in from over the sea is gradually diverted towards the area of least pressure, and at the same time is dissipated and loses much of its original force. The winds which pass northward over India blow as south-easterly and easterly winds over the north-eastern part of the Gangetic plain, and as south winds up the Indus. They seem almost entirely to have exhausted their northward velocity by the time they have reached the northern extremity of the great Indian plain; they are not felt on the table-lands of Afghanistan, and hardly penetrate into the Indus basin or the ranges of the Himalaya, by which mountains, and those which branch off from them into the Malay peninsula, they are prevented from continuing their progress in the direction originally imparted to them.

Among the more remarkable phenomena of the hotter seas of Asia must be noticed the revolving storms or cyclones, which are of frequent occurrence in the hot months in the Indian Ocean and China Sea, in which last they are known under the name of typhoon. The cyclones of the Bay of Bengal appear to originate over the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and are commonly propagated in a north-westward direction, striking the east coast of the Indian peninsula at various points, and then often advancing with an easterly tendency over the land, and passing with extreme violence across the delta of the Ganges. They occur in all the hot months, from June to October, and more rarely in November, and appear to be originated by adverse currents from the north meeting those of the south-west monsoon. The cyclones of the China Sea also occur in the hot months of the year, but they advance from north-east to south-west, though occasionally from east to west; they originate near the island of Formosa, and extend to about the 10th degree of N. lat. They are thus developed in nearly the same latitudes and in the same months as those of the Indian Sea, though their progress is in a different direction. In both cases, however, the storms appear to advance towards the area of greatest heat. In these storms the wind invariably circulates from north by west through south to east.

The heated body of air carried from the Indian Ocean over southern Asia by the south-west monsoon comes up highly charged with watery vapour, and hence in a condition to release a large body of water as rain upon the land, whenever it is Rainfall. brought into circumstances which reduce its temperature in a notable degree. Such a reduction of temperature is brought about along the greater part of the coasts of India and of the Burmo-Siamese peninsula by the interruption of the wind current by continuous ranges of mountains, which force the mass of air to rise over them, whereby the air being rarefied, its specific capacity for heat is increased and its temperature falls, with a corresponding condensation of the vapour originally held in suspension.

This explanation of the principal efficient cause of the summer rains of south Asia is immediately based on an analysis of the complicated phenomena actually observed, and it serves to account for many apparent anomalies. The heaviest falls of rain occur along lines of mountain of some extent directly facing the vapour-bearing winds, as on the Western Ghats of India and the west coast of the Malay peninsula. The same results are found along the mountains at a distance from the sea, the heaviest rainfall known to occur anywhere in the world (not less than 600 in. in the year) being recorded on the Khasi range about 100 m. north-east of Calcutta, which presents an abrupt front to the progress of the moist winds flowing up from the Bay of Bengal. The cessation of the rains on the southern border of Baluchistan, west of Karachi, obviously arises from the projection of the south-east coast of Arabia, which limits the breadth of the south-west monsoon air current and the length of the coast-line directly exposed to it. The very small and irregular rainfall in Sind and along the Indus is to be accounted for by the want of any obstacle in the path of the vapour-bearing winds, which, therefore, carry the uncondensed rain up to the Punjab, where it falls on the outer ranges of the western Himalaya and of Afghanistan.

The diurnal mountain winds are very strongly marked on the Himalaya, where they probably are the most active agents in determining the precipitation of rain along the chain—the monsoon currents, as before stated, not penetrating among the mountains. The formation of dense banks of cloud in the afternoon, when the up wind is strongest, along the southern face of the snowy ranges of the Himalaya, is a regular daily phenomenon during the hotter months of the year, and heavy rain, accompanied by electrical discharges, is the frequent result of such condensation.

Too little is known of the greater part of Asia to admit of any more being said with reference to this part of the subject, than to mention a few facts bearing on the rainfall. In northern Asia there is a generally equal rainfall of 19 to 29 in. between the Volga and the Lena in Manchuria and northern China, rather more considerable increase in Korea, Siam and Japan. At Tiflis the yearly fall is 22 in.; on the Caspian about 7 or 8 in.; on the Sea of Aral 5 or 6 in. In south-western Siberia it is 12 or 14 in., diminishing as we proceed eastward to 6 or 7 in. at Barnaul, and to 5 or 6 in. at Urga in northern Mongolia. In eastern Siberia it is about 15 to 20 in. In China we find about 23 in. to be the fall at Peking; while at Canton, which lies nearly on the northern tropic and the region of the south-west monsoon is entered, the quantity is increased to 78 in. At Batavia in Java the fall is about 78 in.; at Singapore it is nearly 100 in. The quantity increases considerably on that part of the coast of the Malay peninsula which is not sheltered from the south-west by Sumatra. On the Tenasserim and Burmese coast falls of more than 200 in. are registered, and the quantity is here nowhere less than 75 or 80 in., which is about the average of the eastern part of the delta of the Ganges, Calcutta standing at about 64 in. On the hills that flank Bengal on the east the fall is very great. On the Khasi hills, at an elevation of about 4500 ft., the average of ten years is more than 550 in. As much as 150 in. has been measured in one month, and 610 in. in one year. On the west coast of the Indian peninsula the fall at the sea-level varies from about 75 to 100 in., and at certain elevations on the mountains more than 250 in. is commonly registered, with intermediate quantities at intervening localities. On the east coast the fall is far less, nowhere rising to 50 in., and towards the southern apex of the peninsula being reduced to 25 or 30 in. Ceylon shows from 60 to 80 in. As we recede from the coast the fall diminishes, till it is reduced to about 25 or 30 in. at the head of the Gangetic plain. The tract along the Indus to within 60 or 80 m. of the Himalaya is almost rainless, 6 or 8 in. being the fall in the southern portion of the Punjab. On the outer ranges of the Himalaya the yearly fall amounts to about 200 in. on the east in Sikkim, and gradually diminishes on the west, where north of the Punjab it is about 70 or 80 in. In the interior of the chain the rain is far less, and the quantity of precipitation is so small in Tibet that it can be hardly measured. It is to the greatly reduced fall of snow on the northern faces of the highest ranges of the Himalaya that is to be attributed the higher level of the snow-line, a phenomenon which was long a cause of discussion.

In Afghanistan, Persia, Asia Minor and Syria, winter and spring appear to be the chief seasons of condensation. In other parts of Asia the principal part of the rain falls between May and September, that is, in the hottest half of the year. In the islands under the equator the heaviest fall is between October and February.

(R. S.)

Flora and Fauna

The general assemblage of animals and plants found over northern Asia resembles greatly that found in the parts of Europe which are adjacent and have a similar climate. Siberia, north of the 50th parallel, has a climate not much differing from a similarly situated portion of Europe, though the winters are more severe and the summers hotter. The rainfall, though moderate, is still sufficient to maintain the supply of water in the great rivers that traverse the country to the Arctic Sea, and to support an abundant vegetation. A similar affinity exists between the life of the southern parts of Europe and that in the zone of Asia extending from the Mediterranean across to the Himalaya and northern China. This belt, which embraces Asia Minor, northern Persia, Afghanistan, and the southern slopes of the Himalaya, from its elevation has a temperate climate, and throughout it the rainfall is sufficient to maintain a vigorous vegetation, while the summers, though hot. and the winters, though severe, are not extreme. The plants and animals along it are found to have a marked similarity of character to those of south Europe, with which region the zone is virtually continuous.

The extremely dry and hot tracts which constitute an almost unbroken desert from Arabia, through south Persia and Baluchistan, to Sind, are characterized by considerable uniformity in the types of life, which closely approach to those of the neighbouring hot and dry regions of Africa. The region of the heavy periodical summer rains and high temperature, which comprises India, the Indo-Chinese peninsula, and southern China, as well as the western part of the Malay Archipelago, is also marked by much similarity in the plants and animals throughout its extent. The area between the southern border of Siberia and the margin of the temperate alpine zone of the Himalaya and north China, comprising what are commonly called central Asia, Turkestan, Mongolia and western Manchuria, is an almost rainless region, having winters of extreme severity and summers of intense heat. Its animals and plants have a special character suited to the peculiar climatal conditions, more closely allied to those of the adjacent northern Siberian tract than of the other bordering regions. The south-eastern parts of the Malay Archipelago have much in common with the Australian continent, to which they adjoin, though their affinities are chiefly Indian. North China and Japan also have many forms of life in common. Much still remains to be done in the exploration of China and eastern Asia; but it is known that many of the special forms of this region extend to the Himalaya, while others clearly indicate a connexion with North America.

The foregoing brief review of the principal territorial divisions according to which the forms of life are distributed in Asia, indicates how close is the dependence of this distribution on climatic conditions, and this will be made more apparent by a somewhat fuller account of the main features of the flora and fauna.

Flora.—The flora of the whole of northern Asia is in essentials the same as that of northern Europe, the differences being due rather to variations of species than of genera. The absence of Northern Asia. the oak and of all heaths east of the Ural may be noticed. Pines, larch, birch are the principal trees on the mountains; willow, alders and poplars on the lower ground. The northern limit of the pine in Siberia is about 70° N.

Along the warm temperate zone, from the Mediterranean to the Himalaya, extends a flora essentially European in character. Many European species reach the central Himalaya, though few are known in its eastern parts. The genera common to the Himalaya and Europe are much more abundant, and extend throughout the chain, and to all elevations. There is also a corresponding diffusion of Japanese and Chinese forms along this zone, these being most numerous in the eastern Himalaya, and less frequent in the west.

The truly tropical flora of the hotter and wetter regions of eastern India is continuous with that of the Malayan peninsula and islands, and extends along the lower ranges of the Himalaya, gradually becoming less marked and rising to lower elevations as we go westward, where the rainfall diminishes and the winter cold increases.

The vegetation of the higher and therefore cooler and less rainy ranges of the Himalaya has greater uniformity of character along the whole chain, and a closer general approach to European forms is maintained; an increased number of species is actually identical, among these being found, at the greatest elevations, many alpine plants believed to be identical with species of the north Arctic regions. On reaching the Tibetan plateau, with the increased dryness the flora assumes many features of the Siberian type. Many true Siberian species are found, and more Siberian genera. Some of the Siberian forms, thus brought into proximity with the Indian flora, extend to the rainy parts of the mountains, and even to the plains of upper India. Assemblages of marine plants form another remarkable feature of Tibet, these being frequently met with growing at elevations of 14,000 to 15,000 ft. above the sea, more especially in the vicinity of the many salt lakes of those regions.

The vegetation of the hot and dry region of the south-west of the continent consists largely of plants which are diffused over Africa, Baluchistan and Sind; many of these extend into the hotter parts of India, and not a few common Egyptian plants are to be met with in the Indian peninsula.

The whole number of species of plants indigenous in the region of south-eastern Asia, which includes India and the Malayan peninsula and islands, from about the 65th to the 105th meridian, was estimated by Sir J.D. Hooker at 12,000 to 15,000. Indian region. The principal orders, arranged according to their numerical importance, are as follows:—Leguminosae, Rubiaceae, Orchidaceae, Compositae, Gramineae, Euphorbiaceae, Acanthaceae, Cyperaceae and Labiatae. But within this region there is a very great variation between the vegetation of the more humid and the more arid regions, while the characteristics of the flora on the higher mountain ranges differ wholly from those of the plains. In short, we have a somewhat heterogeneous assemblage of tropical, temperate and alpine plants, as has been already briefly indicated, of which, however, the tropical are so far dominant as to give their character to the flora viewed as a whole. The Indian flora contains a more general and complete illustration of almost all the chief natural families of all parts of the world than any other country. Compositae are comparatively rare; so also Gramineae and Cyperaceae are in some places deficient, and Labiatae, Leguminosae and ferns in others. Euphorbiaceae and Scrophulariaceae and Orchidaceae are universally present, the last in specially large proportions.

The perennially humid regions of the Malayan peninsula and western portion of the archipelago are everywhere covered with dense forest, rendered difficult to traverse by the thorny cane, a palm of the genus Calamus, which has its greatest development in this part of Asia. The chief trees belong to the orders of Terebinthaceae, Sapindaceae, Meliaceae, Clusiaceae, Dipterocarpaceae, Ternstroemiaceae, Leguminosae, laurels, oaks and figs, with Dilleniaceae, Sapotaceae and nutmegs. Bamboos and palms, with Pandanus and Dracaena, are also abundant. A similar forest flora extends along the mountains of eastern India to the Himalaya, where it ascends to elevations varying from 6000 to 7000 ft. on the east to 3000 or 4000 ft. on the west.

The arboreous forms which least require the humid and equable heat of the more truly tropical and equatorial climates, and are best able to resist the high temperatures and excessive drought of the northern Indian hot months from April to June, are certain Leguminosae,. Bauhinia, Acacia, Butea and Dalbergia, Bombax, Skorea, Nauclea, Lagerstroemia, and Bignonia, a few bamboos and palms, with others which extend far beyond the tropic, and give a tropical aspect to the forest to the extreme northern border of the Indian plain.

Of the herbaceous vegetation of the more rainy regions may be noted the Orchidaceae, Orontiaceae, Scitamineae, with ferns and other Cryptogams, besides Gramineae and Cyperaceae. Among these some forms, as among the trees, extend much beyond the tropic and ascend into the temperate zones on the mountains, of which may be mentioned Begonia, Osbeckia, various Cyrtandraceae, Scitamineae, and a few epiphytical orchids.

Of the orders most largely developed in south India, and more sparingly elsewhere, may be named Aurantiaceae, Dipterocarpaceae, Balsaminaceae, Ebenaceae, Jasmineae, and Cyrtandraceae; but of these few contain as many as 100 peculiar Indian species. Nepenthes may be mentioned as a genus specially developed in the Malayan area, and extending from New Caledonia to Madagascar; it is found as far north as the Khasi hills, and in Ceylon, but does not appear on the Himalaya or in the peninsula of India. The Balsaminaceae may be named as being rare in the eastern region and very abundant in the peninsula. A distinct connexion between the flora of the peninsula and Ceylon and that of eastern tropical Africa is observable not only in the great similarity of many of the more truly tropical forms, and the identity of families and genera found in both regions, but in a more remarkable manner in the likeness of the mountain flora of this part of Africa to that of the peninsula, in which several species occur believed to be identical with Abyssinian forms. This connexion is further established by the absence from both areas of oaks, conifers and cycads, which, as regards the first two families, is a remarkable feature of the flora of the peninsula and Ceylon, as the mountains rise to elevations in which both of them are abundant to the north and east. With these facts it has to be noticed that many of the principal forms of the eastern flora are absent or comparatively rare in the peninsula and Ceylon.

The general physiognomy of the Indian flora is mainly determined by the conditions of humidity of climate. The impenetrable shady forests of the Malay peninsula and eastern Bengal, of the west coast of the Indian peninsula, and of Ceylon, offer a strong contrast to the more loosely-timbered districts of the drier regions of central India and the north-western Himalaya. The forest areas of India include the dense vegetation and luxuriant growth of the Tarai jungles at the foot of the eastern Himalaya, and wide stretches of loosely-timbered country which are a prevailing feature in the Central Provinces and parts of Madras. Where the lowlands are highly cultivated they are adorned with planted wood, and where they are cut off from rain they are nearly completely desert.

The higher mountains rise abruptly from the plains; on their slopes, clothed below almost exclusively with the more tropical forms, a vegetation of a warm temperate character, chiefly evergreen, soon begins to prevail, comprising Magnoliaceae, Ternstroemiaccae, subtropical Rosaceae, rhododendron, oak, Ilex, Symplocos, Lauraceae, Pinus longifolia, with mountain forms of truly tropical orders, palms, Pandanus, Musa, Vitis, Vernonia, and many others. On the east the vegetation of the Himalaya is most abundant and varied. The forest extends, with great luxuriance, to an elevation of 12,000 ft., above which the sub-alpine region may be said to begin, in which rhododendron scrub often covers the ground up to 13,000 or 14,000 ft. Only one pine is found below 8000 ft., above which several other Coniferae occur. Plantains, tree-ferns, bamboos, several Calami, and other palms, and Pandanus, are abundant at the lower levels. Between 4000 and 8000 ft. epiphytal orchids are very frequent, and reach even to 10,000 ft. Vegetation ascends on the drier and less snowy mountain slopes of Tibet to above 18,000 ft. On the west, with the drier climate, the forest is less luxuriant and dense, and the hill-sides and the valleys better cultivated. The warm mountain slopes are covered with Pinus longifolia, or with oaks and rhododendron, and the forest is not commonly dense below 8000 ft., excepting in some of the more secluded valleys at a low elevation. From 8000 to 12,000 ft., a thick forest of deciduous trees is almost universal, above which a sub-alpine region is reached, and vegetation as on the east continues up to 18,000 ft. or more. The more tropical forms of the east, such as the tree-ferns, do not reach west of Nepal. The cedar or deodar is hardly indigenous east of the sources of the Ganges, and at about the same point the forms of the west begin to be more abundant, increasing in number as we advance towards Afghanistan.

The cultivated plants of the Indian region include wheat, barley, rice and maize; various millets, Sorghum, Penicillaria, Panicum and Eleusine; many pulses, peas and beans; mustard and rape; ginger and turmeric; pepper and capsicum; several Cucurbitaceae; tobacco, Sesamum, poppy, Crotolaria and Cannabis; cotton, indigo and sugar; coffee and tea; oranges, lemons of many sorts; pomegranate, mango, figs, peaches, vines and plantains. The more common palms are Cocos, Phoenix and Borassus, supplying cocoa-nut and toddy. Indian agriculture combines the harvests of the tropical and temperate zones. North of the tropic the winter cold is sufficient to admit of the cultivation of almost all the cereals and vegetables of Europe, wheat being sown in November and reaped early in April. In this same region the summer heat and rain provide a thoroughly tropical climate, in which rice and other tropical cereals are freely raised, being as a rule sown early in July and reaped in September or October. In southern India, and the other parts of Asia and of the islands having a similar climate, the difference of the winter and summer half-years is not sufficient to admit of the proper cultivation of wheat or barley. The other cereals may be seen occasionally, where artificial irrigation is practised, in all stages of progress at all seasons of the year, though the operations of agriculture are, as a general rule, limited to the rainy months, when alone is the requisite supply of water commonly forthcoming.

The trees of India producing economically useful timber are comparatively few, owing to the want of durability of the wood, in the extremely hot and moist climate. The teak, Tectona grandis, supplies the finest timber. It is found in greatest perfection in the forests of the west coasts of Burma and the Indian peninsula, where the rainfall is heaviest, growing to a height of 100 or 150 ft., mixed with other trees and bamboos. The sal, Shorea robusta, a very durable wood, is most abundant along the skirts of the Himalaya from Assam to the Punjab, and is found in central India, to which the teak also extends. The sal grows to a large size, and is more gregarious than the teak. Of other useful woods found in the plains may be named the babool, Acacia; toon, Cedrela; and sissoo, Dalbergia. The only timber in ordinary use obtained from the Himalaya proper is the deodar, Cedrus deodara. Besides these are the sandalwood, Santalum, of southern India, and many sorts of bamboo found in all parts of the country. The cinchona has recently been introduced with complete success; and the mahogany of America reaches a large size, and gives promise of being grown for use as timber.

The flora of the rainless region of south-western Asia is continuous with the desert flora of northern and eastern Africa, and extends from the coast of Senegal to the meridian of 75° E., or from the great African desert to the border of the rainless tract Western Asia. along the Indus and the southern parts of the Punjab. It includes the peninsula of Arabia, the shores of the Persian Gulf, south Persia, and Afghanistan and Baluchistan. On the west its limit is in the Cape Verde Islands, and it is partially represented in Abyssinia.

The more common plants in the most characteristic part of this region in southern Arabia are Capparidaceae, Euphorbiaceae, and a few Leguminosae, a Reseda and Dipterygium; palms, Polygonaceae, ferns, and other cryptogams, are rare. The number of families relative to the area is very small, and the number of genera and species equally restricted, in very many cases a single species being the only representative of an order. The aspect of the vegetation is very peculiar, and is commonly determined by the predominance of some four or five species, the rest being either local or sparingly scattered over the area. The absence of the ordinary bright green colours of vegetation is another peculiarity of this flora, almost all the plants having glaucous or whitened stems. Foliage is reduced to a minimum, the moisture of the plant being stored up in massive or fleshy stems against the long-continued drought. Aridity has favoured the production of spines as a defence from external attack, sharp thorns are frequent, and asperities of various sorts predominate. Many species produce gums and resins, their stems being encrusted with the exudations, and pungency and aromatic odour is an almost universal quality of the plants of desert regions.

The cultivated plants of Arabia are much the same as those of northern India—wheat, barley, and the common Sorghum, with dates and lemons, cotton and indigo. To these must be added coffee, which is restricted to the slopes of the western hills. Among the more mountainous regions of the south-western part of Arabia, known as Arabia Felix, the summits of which rise to 6000 or 7000 ft., the rainfall is sufficient to develop a more luxuriant vegetation, and the valleys have a flora like that of similarly situated parts of southern Persia, and the less elevated parts of Afghanistan and Baluchistan, partaking of the characters of that of the hotter Mediterranean region. In these countries aromatic shrubs are abundant. Trees are rare, and almost restricted to Pistacia, Celtis and Dodonaea, with poplars, and the date palm. Prickly forms of Statice and Astragalus cover the dry hills. In the spring there is an abundant herbaceous vegetation, including many bulbous plants, with genera, if not species, identical with those of the Syrian region, some of which extend to the Himalaya.

The flora of the northern part of Afghanistan approximates to that of the contiguous western Himalaya. Quercus Ilex, the evergreen oak of southern Europe, is found in forests as far east as the Sutlej, accompanied with other European forms. In the higher parts of Afghanistan and Persia Boraginaceae and thistles abound; gigantic Umbelliferae, such as Ferula, Galbanum, Dorema, Bubon, Peucedanum, Prangos, and others, also characterize the same districts, and some of them extend into Tibet.

The flora of Asia Minor and northern Persia differs but little from that of the southern parts of Europe. The mountains are clothed, where the fall of rain is abundant, with forests of Quercus, Fagus, Ulmus, Acer, Carpinus and Corylus, and various Coniferae. Of these the only genus that is not found on the Himalaya is Fagus. Fruit trees of the plum tribe abound. The cultivated plants are those of southern Europe.

The vegetation of the Malayan Islands is for the most part that of the wetter and hotter region of India; but the greater uniformity of the temperature and humidity leads to the predominance of certain tropical forms not so conspicuous in India, Eastern Asia. while the proximity of the Australian continent has permitted the partial diffusion of Australian types which are not seen in India. The liquidambar and nutmeg may be noticed among the former, the first is one of the most conspicuous trees in java, on the mountains of the eastern part of which the casuarina, one of the characteristic forms of Australia, is also abundant. Rhododendrons occur in Borneo and Sumatra, descending to the level of the sea. On the mountains of Java there appears to be no truly alpine flora, Saxifraga is not found. In Borneo some of the temperate forms of Australia appear on the higher mountains. On the other islands similar characteristics are to be observed, Australian genera extending to the Philippines, and even to southern China.

The analysis of the Hong Kong flora indicates that about three-fifths of the species are common to the Indian region, and nearly all the remainder are either Chinese or local forms. The number of species common to southern China, Japan and northern Asia is small. The cultivated plants of China are, with a few exceptions, the same as those of India South China, therefore seems, botanically hardly distinct from the great Indian region, into which many Chinese forms penetrate, as before noticed. The flora of north China, which is akin to that of Japan, shows manifest relation to that of the neighbouring American continent, from which many temperate forms extend, reaching to the Himalaya, almost as far as Kashmir. Very little is known of the plants of the interior of northern China, but it seems probable that a complete botanical connexion is established between it and the temperate region of the Himalaya.

The vegetation of the dry region of central Asia is remarkable for the great relative number of Chenopodiaceae, Salicornia and other salt plants being common; Polygonaceae also are abundant, leafless forms being of frequent occurrence, which Central Asia. gives the vegetation a very remarkable aspect. Peculiar forms of Leguminosae also prevail, and these with many of the other plants of the southern and drier regions of Siberia, or of the colder regions of the desert tracts of Persia and Afghanistan, extend into Tibet, where the extreme drought and the hot (nearly vertical) sun combine to produce a summer climate not greatly differing from that of the plains of central Asia.

Fauna.—The zoological provinces of Asia correspond very closely with the botanical. The northern portion of Asia, as far south as the Himalaya, is not zoologically distinct from Europe, and these two areas, with the strip of Africa north of the Zoological Regions. Atlas, constitute the Palaearctic region of Dr. Sclater, whose zoological primary divisions of the earth have met with the general approval of naturalists. The south-eastern portion of Asia with the adjacent islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Philippines, form his Indian region. The extreme south-west part of the continent constitutes a separate zoological district, comprising Arabia, Palestine and southern Persia, and reaching, like the hot desert botanical tract, to Baluchistan and Sind, it belongs to what Dr. Sclater calls the Ethiopian region, which extends over Africa, south of the Atlas. Celebes, Papua, and the other islands east of Java beyond Wallace’s line fall within the Australian region.

Nearly all the mammals of Europe also occur in northern Asia, where however, the Palaearctic fauna is enriched by numerous additional species. The characteristic groups belong mostly to forms which are restricted to cold and temperate Mammals and birds. regions. Consequently the Quadrumana, or monkeys, are nearly unrepresented, a single species occurring in Japan, and one or two others in northern China and Tibet. Insectivorous bats are numerous, but the frugivorous division of this order is only represented by a single species in Japan. Carnivora are also numerous, particularly the frequenters of cold climates, such as bears, weasels, wolves and foxes. Of the Insectivora, numerous forms of moles, shrews and hedgehogs prevail. The Rodents are also well represented by various squirrels, mice, and hares. Characteristic forms ot this order in northern Asia are the marmots (Arctomys) and the pikas or tailless hares (Lagomys). The great order of Ungulata is represented by various forms of sheep, as many as ten or twelve wild species of Ovis being met with in the mountain chains of Asia, and more sparingly by several peculiar forms of antelope, such as the saiga (Saiga tatarica) and the Gazella gutturosa, or yellow sheep. Coming to the deer, we also meet with characteristic forms in northern Asia, especially those belonging to the typical genus Cervus. The musk deer (Moschus) is also quite restricted to northern Asia, and is one of its most peculiar types.

The ornithology ot northern Asia is even more closely allied to that of Europe than the mammal fauna. Nearly three fourths of the well-known species of Europe extend through Siberia into the islands of the Japanese empire. Here again, we have an absence of all tropical forms, and a great development of groups characteristic of cold and temperate regions. One of the most peculiar of these is the genus Phasianus, of which splendid birds all the species are restricted in their wild state to northern Asia. The still more magnificently clad gold pheasants (Thaumalea), and the eared pheasants (Crossoptilon) are also confined to certain districts in the mountains of north eastern Asia. Amongst the Passeres, such forms as the larks, stone chats, finches, linnets, and grosbeaks are well developed and exhibit many species.

The mammal fauna of the Indian region of Asia is much more highly developed than that of the Palaearctic. The Quadrumana are represented by several peculiar genera, amongst which are Semnopithecus, Hylobates and Simia. Two peculiar forms of the Lemurine group are also met with. Both the insectivorous and frugivorous divisions of the bats are well represented. Amongst the Insectivora very peculiar forms are found, such as Gymnura and Tupaia. The Carnivora are likewise numerous, and this region may be considered as the true home of the tiger, though this animal has wandered far north into the Palaearctic division of Asia. Other characteristic Carnivora are civets, various ichneumons, and the benturong (Arctictis). Two species of bears are likewise restricted to the Indian region. In the order of Rodents squirrels are very numerous and porcupines of two genera are met with. The Indian region is the home of the Indian elephant—one of the two sole remaining representatives of the order Proboscidea. Of the Ungulates, four species of rhinoceros and one of tapir are met with, besides several peculiar forms of the swine family. The Bovidae or hollow-horned ruminants, are represented by several genera of antelopes, and by species of true Bos—such as B. sondaicus, B. frontalis and B. bubalus. Deer are likewise numerous, and the peculiar group of chevrotains (Tragulus) is characteristic of the Indian region. Finally, this region affords us representatives of the order Edentata, in the shape of several species of Manis, or scaly ant-eater.

The assemblage of birds of the Indian region is one of the richest and most varied in the world, being surpassed only by that of tropical America. Nearly every order, except that of the Struthiones or ostriches, is well represented, and there are many peculiar genera not found elsewhere, such as Buceros, Harpactes, Lophophorus, Euplocamus, Pajo and Ceriornis. The Phasianidae (exclusive of true Phasianus) are highly characteristic ot this region, as are likewise certain genera of barbets (Megalaema), parrots (Palaeornis), and crows (Dendrocitta, Urocissa and Cissa). The family Eurylaemidae is entirely confined to this part of Asia.

The Ethiopian fauna plays but a subordinate part in Asia, intruding only into the south-western corner, and occupying the desert districts of Arabia and Syria, although some of the characteristic species reach still farther into Persia and Sind, and even into western India. The lion and the hunting leopard, which may be considered as in this epoch at least, Ethiopian types extend thus far, besides various species of jerboa and other desert-loving forms.

In the birds, the Ethiopian type is shown by the prevalence of larks and stone chats, and by the complete absence of the many peculiar genera of the Indian region.

The occurrence of mammals of the Marsupial order in the Molucca Islands and Celebes, while none have been found in the adjacent islands of Java and Borneo, lying on the west of Wallace’s line, or in the Indian region, shows that the margin of the Australian region has here been reached. The same conclusion is indicated by the absence from the Moluccas and Celebes of various other Mammals, Quadrumana, Carnivora, Insectivora and Ruminants, which abound in the western part of the Archipelago. Deer do not extend into New Guinea, in which island the genus Sus appears to have its eastern limit. A peculiar form of baboon, Cynopithecus, and the singular ruminant, Anoa, found in Celebes, seem to have no relation to Asiatic animals, and rather to be allied to those in Africa.

The birds of these islands present similar peculiarities. Those of the Indian region abruptly disappear at, and many Australian forms reach but do not pass, the line above spoken of. Species of birds akin to those of Africa also occur in Celebes.

Of the marine orders of Sirenia and Cetacea the Dugong, Halicore, is exclusively found in the Indian Ocean and a dolphin, Platanista, peculiar to the Ganges, ascends that river to a great distance from the sea.

Of the sea fishes of Asia, among the Acanthopterygii, or spiny-rayed fishes, the Percidae, or perches, are largely represented, the genus Serranus, which has only one species in Europe, is very numerous in Asia, and the forms are very large. Fishes. Other allied genera are abundant and extend from the Indian seas to eastern Africa. The Squamipennes, or scaly-finned fishes, are principally found in the seas of southern Asia, and especially near coral reefs. The Mullidae or red mullets are largely represented by genera differing from those of Europe. The Polynemidae, which range from the Atlantic through the Indian Ocean to the Pacific, supply animals from which isinglass is prepared; one of them, the mango fish, esteemed a great delicacy, inhabits the seas from the Bay of Bengal to Siam. The Sciaenidae extend from the Bay of Bengal to China, but are not known to the westward. The Stromateidae, or pomfrets, resemble the dory, a Mediterranean form, and extend to China and the Pacific. The sword fishes Xiphidae, the lancet fishes, Acanthuridae, and the scabbard fishes, Trichuridae, are distributed through the seas of south Asia. Mackerels of various genera abound, as well as gobies, blenniesm and mullets.

Among the Anacanthim, the cod family so well known in Europe shows but one or two species in the seas of south Asia, though the soles and allied fishes are numerous along the coasts. Of the Physostomi, the siluroids are abundant in the estuaries and muddy waters; the habits of some of these fishes are remarkable, such as that of the males carrying the ova in their mouths till the young are hatched. The small family of Scopelidae affords the gelatinous Harpodon, or bumalo. The gar-fish and flying fishes are numerous, extending into the seas of Europe. The Clupeidae or herrings, are most abundant, and anchovies, or sardines, are found in shoals, but at irregular and uncertain intervals. The marine eels, Muraenidae, are more numerous towards the Malay Archipelago than in the Indian seas. Forms of sea-horses (Hippocampus), pipe-fishes (Syngnathus), fife-fishes (Sclerodermus), and sun-fish, globe-fish, and other allied forms of Gymnodontes, are not uncommon.

Of the cartilaginous fishes, Chondropterygii, the true sharks and hammer-headed sharks, are numerous. The dog-fish also is found, one species extending from the Indian seas to the Cape of Good Hope. The saw-fishes, Pristidae, the electrical rays, Torpedinae, and ordinary rays and skates, are also found in considerable numbers.

The fresh waters of southern Asia are deficient in the typical forms of the Acanthopterygii, and are chiefly inhabited by carp, siluroids, simple or spined eels, and the walking and climbing fishes. The Siluridae attain their chief development in tropical regions. Only one Silurus is found in Europe, and the same species extends to southern Asia and Africa. The Salmonidae are entirely absent from the waters of southern Asia, though they exist in the rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean and the neighbouring parts of the northern Pacific, extending perhaps to Formosa; and trout, though unknown in Indian rivers, are found beyond the watershed of the Indus, in the streams flowing into the Caspian. The Cyprinidae, or carp, are largely represented in southern Asia, and there grow to a size unknown in Europe; a Barbus in the Tigris has been taken of the weight of 300 ℔ The chief development of this family, both as to size and number of forms, is in the mountain regions with a temperate climate; the smaller species are found in the hotter regions and in the low-lying rivers. Of the Clupeidae, or herrings, numerous forms occur in Asiatic waters, ascending the rivers many hundred miles; one of the best-known of Indian fishes, the hilsa, is of this family. The sturgeons, which abound in the Black Sea and Caspian, and ascend the rivers that fall into them, are also found in Asiatic Russia, and an allied form extends to southern China. The walking or climbing fishes, which are peculiar to south-eastern Asia and Africa, are organized so as to be able to breathe when out of the water, and they are thus fitted to exist under conditions which would be fatal to other fishes, being suited to live in the regions of periodical drought and rain in which they are found.

The insects of all southern Asia, including India south of the Himalaya, China, Siam and the Malayan Islands, belong to one group; not only the genera, but even the species are often the same on the opposite sides of the Bay of Bengal. Insects. The connexion with Africa is marked by the occurrence of many genera common to Africa and India, and confined to those two regions, and similarities of form are not uncommon there in cases in which the genera are not peculiar. Of Coleopterous insects known to inhabit east Siberia, nearly one-third are found in western Europe. The European forms seem to extend to about 30° N., south of which the Indo-Malayan types are met with, Japan being of the Europeo-Asiatic group. The northern forms extend generally along the south coast of the Mediterranean up to the border of the great desert, and from the Levant to the Caspian.

Of the domesticated animals of Asia may first be mentioned the elephant. It does not breed in captivity, and is not found wild west of the Jumna river in northern India. The horse is produced, in the highest perfection in Arabia and the hot Domesticated animals. and dry countries of western Asia. Ponies are most esteemed from the wetter regions of the east, and the hilly tracts. Asses are abundant in most places, and two wild species occur. The horned cattle include the humped oxen and buffaloes of India, and the yak of Tibet. A hybrid between the yak and Indian cattle, called zo, is commonly reared in Tibet and the Himalaya. Sheep abound in the more temperate regions, and goats are universally met with; both of these animals are used as beasts of burden in the mountains of Tibet. The reindeer of northern Siberia call also for special notice; they are used for the saddle as well as for draught.

(R. S.)

Ethnology

Asia, including its outlying islands, has become the dwelling-place of all the great families into which the races of men have been divided. By far the largest area is occupied by the Mongolian group. These have yellow-brown skins, black Racial types. eyes and hair, flat noses and oblique eyes. They are short in stature, with little hair on the body and face. In general terms they extend, with modifications of character probably due to admixture with other types and to varying conditions of life, over the whole of northern Asia as far south as the plains bordering the Caspian Sea, including Tibet and China, and also over the Indo-Malayan peninsula and Archipelago, excepting Papua and some of the more eastern islands.

Next in numerical importance to the Mongolians are the races which have been called by Professor Huxley Melanochroic and Xanthochroic. The former includes the dark-haired people of southern Europe, and extends over North Africa, Asia Minor, Syria to south-western Asia, and through Arabia and Persia to India. The latter race includes the fair-haired people of northern Europe, and extends over nearly the same area as the Melanochroi, with which race it is greatly intermixed. The Xanthochroi have fair skins, blue eyes and light hair; and others have dark skins, eyes and hair, and are of a slighter frame. Together they constitute what were once called the Caucasian races. The Melanochroi are not considered by Huxley to be one of the primitive modifications of mankind, but rather to be the result of the admixture of the Xanthochroi with the Australoid type, next to be mentioned.

The third group is that of the Australoid type. Their hair is dark, generally soft, never woolly. The eyes and skin are dark, the beard often well developed, the nose broad and flat, the lips coarse, and jaws heavy. This race is believed to form the basis of the people of the Indian peninsula, and of some of the hill tribes of central India, to whom the name Dravidian has been given, and by its admixture with the Melanochroic group to have given rise to the ordinary population of the Indian provinces. It is also probable that the Australoid family extends into south Arabia and Egypt.

The last group, the Negroid, is represented by the races to which has been given the name of Negrito, from the small size of some of them. They are closely akin to the negroes of South Africa, and possess the characteristic dark skins, woolly but scanty beard and body hair, broad flat noses, and projecting lips of the African; and are diffused over the Andaman Islands, a part of the Malay peninsula, the Philippines, Papua, and some of the neighbouring islands. The Negritos appear to be derived from a mixture of the true Negro with the Australoid type.

The distribution of the Mongolian group in Asia offers no particular difficulty. There is complete present, and probably previous long-existing, geographical continuity in the area over which they are found. There is also considerable similarity Mongolians. of climate and other conditions throughout the northern half of Asia which they occupy. The extension of modified forms of the Mongolian type over the whole American continent may be mentioned as a remarkable circumstance connected with this branch of the human race.

The Mongolians of the northern half of Asia are almost entirely nomadic, hunters and shepherds or herdsmen. The least advanced of these, but far the most peaceful, are those that occupy Siberia. Farther south the best-known tribes are the Manchus, the Mongols proper, the Moguls and the Turks, all known under the name of Tatars, and to the ancients as Scythians, occupying from east to west the zone of Asia comprised between the 40th and 50th circles of N. lat. The Turks are Mahommedans; their tribes extend up the Oxus to the borders of Afghanistan and Persia, and to the Caspian, and under the name of Kirghiz into Russia, and their language is spoken over a large part of western Asia. Their letters are those of Persia. The Manchus and Mongols are chiefly Buddhist, with letters derived from the ancient Syriac. The Manchus are now said to be gradually falling under the influence of Chinese civilization, and to be losing their old nomadic habits, and even their peculiar language. The predatory habits of the Turkish, Mongolian and Manchu population of northern Asia, and their irruptions into other parts of the continent and into Europe, have produced very remarkable results in the history of the world.

The Chinese branch of the Mongolian family are a thoroughly settled people of agriculturists and traders. They are partially Buddhist, and have a peculiar monosyllabic, uninflected language, with writing consisting of symbols, which represent words, not letters.

The countries lying between India and the Mongolian are occupied by populations chiefly of the Mongolian and Chinese type, having languages fundamentally monosyllabic, but using letters derived from India, and adopting their religion, which is almost everywhere Buddhist, from the Indians. Of these may be named the Tibetans, the Burmese and the Siamese. Cochin-China is more nearly Chinese in all respects. It is known that to the Tibeto-Chinese modifications of the pure Mongolian type all the eastern Burmese tribes—Chins, Kachins, Shans, &c.—belong (as indeed do the Burmese themselves), and that a cognate race occupies the Himalaya to the eastern limits of Kashmir.

Some light has been thrown on the connexion between the Tibetan race and certain tribes of central India, the Bhils and Kols; and it seems more probable that these tribes are the remnants of a Mongolian race which first displaced a yet earlier Negroid population, and was then itself shouldered out by a Caucasian irruption, than that they entered India by any of the northern passages within historic times. Mongolian settlements have lately been found very much farther extended into the border countries of north-west India than has been hitherto recognized. The Mingals, who, conjointly with the Brahuis, occupy the hills south of Kalat to the limits of the Rajput province of Las Bela, claim Mongolian descent, and traces of a Mongolian colony have been found in Makran.

The Malays, who occupy the peninsula and most of the islands of the Archipelago called after them, are Mongols apparently modified by their very different climate, and by the maritime life Malays. forced upon them by the physical conditions of the region they inhabit. As they are now known to us, they have undergone a process of partial civilization, first at the hands of the Brahminical Indians, from whom they borrowed a religion, and to some extent literature and an alphabet, and subsequently from intercourse with the Arabs, which has led to the adoption of Mahommedanism by most of them.

The name of Aryan has been given to the races speaking languages derived from, or akin to, the ancient form of Sanskrit, who now occupy the temperate zone extending from the Mediterranean, across the highlands of Asia Minor, Persia and Afghanistan, to Aryans. India. The races speaking the languages akin to the ancient Assyrian, which are now mainly represented by Arabic, have been called Semitic, and occupy the countries south-west of Persia, including Syria and Arabia, besides extending into North Africa. Though the languages of these races are very different they cannot be regarded as physically distinct, and they are both without doubt branches of the Melanochroi, modified by admixture with the neighbouring races, the Mongols, the Australoids and the Xanthochroi.

The Aryans of India are probably the most settled and civilized of all Asiatic races. This type is found in its purest form in the north and north-west, while the mixed races and the population referred to the Australoid type predominate in the peninsula and southern India. The spoken languages of northern India are very various, differing one from another in the sort of degree that English differs from German, though all are thoroughly Sanskritic in their vocables, but with an absence of Sanskrit grammar that has given rise to considerable discussion. The languages of the south are Dravidian, not Sanskritic. The letters of both classes of languages, which also vary considerably, are all modifications of the ancient Pali, and probably derived from the Dravidians, not from the Aryans. They are written from left to right, exception being made of Urdu or Hindostani, the mixed language of the Mahommedan conquerors of northern India, the character used for writing which is the Persian. From the river Sutlej and the borders of the Sind desert, as far as Burma and to Ceylon, the religion of the great bulk of the people of India is Hindu or Brahminical, though the Mahommedans are often numerous, and in some places even in a majority. West of the Sutlej the population of Asia may be said to be wholly Mahommedan with the exception of certain relatively small areas in Asia Minor and Syria, where Christians predominate. The language of the Punjab does not differ very materially from that of Upper India. West of the Indus the dialects approach more to Persian, which language meets Arabic and Turki west of the Tigris, and along the Turkoman desert and the Caspian. Through the whole of this tract the letters are used which are common to Persian, Arabic and Turkish, written from right to left.

Considerable progress has been made in the classification of the various races which occupy the continent to the west of the great Mongolian region. The ancient Sacae, or Scyths, are recognized in the Aryan population, who may be found Racial distribution. in great numbers and in their purest form in the more inaccessible mountains and glens of the central highlands. These Tajiks (as they are usually called) form the underlying population of Persia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan and Badakshan, and their language (in the central districts of Asia) is found to contain words of Aryan or Sanskrit derivation which are not known in Persian. They have been for the most part dispossessed of their country by Turkish immigration and conquests, but they still retain their original intellectual superiority over the Turkish and other mixed tribes by which they are surrounded. Uzbegs and Kirghiz have but small affinity with the Mongol element of Asia. They are the representatives of those countless Turkish irruptions which have taken place through all history. Of the two divisions (Kara Kirghiz and Kassak Kirghiz) into which the Kirghiz tribes are divided by Russian authorities, the Kassak Kirghiz is the more closely allied to the Mongol type; the Kara Kirghiz, who are found principally in the valleys of the Tian-shan and Altai mountains, being unmistakably Turkish. The Kipchaks are only a Kirghiz clan. The language of the Kirghiz is Turki and their religion that of Mahomet. As a nomadic people they have great contempt for the Sarts, who represent the town dwellers of the tribe. The Kalmucks are a Buddhist and Mongolian people who originated in a confederacy of tribes dwelling in Dzungaria, migrated to Siberia, and settled on the Lower Volga. From thence they returned late in the 18th century to the reoccupation of their old ground in Kulja under the Chinese. The Turkoman is the purest form of the Turk element, and his language is the purest form of the Turkish tongue, which is represented at Constantinople by a comparatively mongrel, or mixed, dialect. Ethnographers have traced a connexion between the Turkoman of central Asia and the Teutonic races of Europe, based on a similarity of national customs and immemorial usage. Evidence of an original affinity between Turkoman and Rajput has also been found in the mutual possession by these races of a ruddy skin, so that as ethnographical inquiry advances the Turk appears to recede from his Mongolian affinities and to approach the Caucasian. Turks and Mongols alike were doubtless included under the term Scyth by the ancients, and as Tatars by more modern writers, insomuch that the Turkish dynasty at Delhi, founded by Baber, is usually termed the Mogul dynasty, although there can be no distinction traced between the terms Mogul and Mongol. The general results of recent inquiry into the ethnography of Afghanistan is to support the general correctness of Bellew’s theories of the origin of the Afghan races. The claim of the Durani Afghan to be a true Ben-i-Israel is certainly in no way weakened by any recent investigation. The influence of Greek culture in northern India is fully recognized, and the distribution of Greek colonies previous to Alexander’s time is attested by practical knowledge of the districts they were said to occupy. The habitat of the Nysaeana, and the identity of certain tribes of Kafiristan with the descendants of these pre-Alexandrian colonists from the west, are also well established. To this day hymns are unwittingly sung to Bacchus in the dales and glens of Kafiristan. The ethnographical status of the mixed tribes of the mountains that lie between Chitral and the Peshawar plains has been fairly well fixed by John Biddulph, and much patient inquiry in the vast fields of Baluchistan by Major Mockler, G.P. Tate and others has resulted in quite a new appreciation of the tribal origin of the great conglomeration of Baluch peoples.

The result of trans-border surveys to the north and west of India has been to establish the important geographical fact that it is by two gateways only, one on the north-west and one on the west of India, that the central Asiatic tides of immigration have flowed into the peninsula. The Kabul valley indicates the north-western entrance, and Makran indicates that on the west. By the Kabul valley route, which includes at its head the group of passes across the Hindu Kush which extend from the Khawak to the Kaoshan, all those central Asian hordes, be they Sacae, Yue-chi, Jats, Goths or Huns, who were driven towards the rich plains of the south, entered the Punjab. Some of them migrated from districts which belong to eastern Asia, but none of them penetrated into India by eastern passes. Such tides as set towards the Himalaya broke against their farther buttresses, leaving an interesting ethnographical flotsam in the northern valleys; but they never overflowed the Himalayan barrier. Later most of the historic invasions of India from central Asia followed the route which leads directly from Kabul to Peshawar and Delhi.

By the western gates of Makran prehistoric irruptions from Mesopotamia broke into the plains of Lower Sind, and either passed on towards the central provinces of India or were absorbed in the highlands south of Kalat. In later centuries the Arabs from the west reached the valley of the Indus by their western route, and there established a dynasty which lasted for 300 years. The identification of existing peoples with the various Scythic, Persian and Arab races who have passed from High Asia into the Indian borderland, has opened up a vast field of ethnographical inquiry which has hardly yet found adequate workers for its investigation. To such fields may be added the yet more complicated problems of those reflex waves which flowed backwards from India into the border highlands.

(T. H. H.*)

History

1. The borders assigned to Asia on the west are somewhat arbitrary. The Urals indicate no real division of races, and in both Greek and Turkish times Asia Minor has been connected with the opposite shores of Europe rather than with the lands lying to the east. A juster view of early history is probably obtained by thinking of the countries round the Mediterranean as interacting on one another than by separating Palestine and Asia Minor as Asiatic.

2. The words “Asiatic” and “Oriental” are often used as if they denoted a definite and homogeneous type, but Russians resemble Asiatics in many ways, and Turks, Hindus, Chinese, &c., differ in so many important points that Asiatic characteristics. the common substratum is small. It amounts to this, that Asiatics stand on a higher level than the natives of Africa or America, but do not possess the special material civilization of western Europe. As far as any common mental characteristic can be assigned it is also somewhat negative, namely, that Asiatics have not the same sentiment of independence and freedom as Europeans. Individuals are thought of as members of a family, state or religion, rather than as entities with a destiny and rights of their own. This leads to autocracy in politics, fatalism in religion and conservatism in both. Hence, too, Asiatic history has large and simple outlines. Though longer chronologically than the annals of Europe, it is less eventful, less diversified and offers fewer personalities of interest. But the same conditions which render individual eminence difficult procure for it when once attained a more ready recognition, and the conquerors and prophets of Asia have had more power and authority than their parallels in Europe. Jenghiz Khan and Timur covered more ground than Napoleon, and no European has had such an effect on the world as Mahomet.

3. Attention has often been called to the religious character of Asia. Not only the great religions of the world—Buddhism, Christianity, Islam—but those of secondary importance, such as Judaism, Parseeism, Taoism, are all Religion and civilisation. Asiatic. No European race left to itself has developed any thing more than an unsystematic paganism. It is true that Greek philosophy advanced far beyond this stage, but it produced nothing sufficiently popular to be called a religion. On the other hand Christianity, though Asiatic in its origin and essential ideas, has to a large extent taken its present form on European soil, and some of its most important manifestations— notably the Roman Church—are European reconstructions in which little of the Asiatic element remains. Christianity has made little way farther east then Asia Minor. Modern missions have made no great conquests there, and in earlier times the Nestorians and Jacobites who penetrated to central Asia, China and India, received respectful hearing, but never had anything like the success which attended Buddhism and Islam. Yet Buddhism has never made much impression west of India; and Islam is clearly repugnant to Europeans, for even when under Moslem rule (as in Turkey) they refuse to accept it in a far larger proportion than did the Hindus in similar circumstances. Hence there is clearly a deep-seated difference between the religious feelings of the two continents.

Since Asiatic records go back much farther than those of Europe, it is natural that Asia should be thought the birthplace of civilization. But this originality cannot be absolute, for, whatever may have been the relations of Babylonia and the Aryans, the latter brought civilization to India from the west, and it is not always clear whether similarity of government and institutions is the result of borrowing or of parallel development. Both in Europe and in Asia small feudal or aristocratic states tended to consolidate themselves into monarchies, but whereas in Europe from the early days of Rome onwards royalty has often been driven out and replaced temporarily or permanently by popular government, this change seems not to occur in Asia, where revolution means only a change of dynasty. The few cases where the government is not monarchical, as Arabia, seem to represent the persistence of very ancient conditions.

The contemplation of Asia suggests that progress is most rapid when accompanied by the migration of races or the transplantation of ideas and institutions. Thus Greece excelled the Eastern countries from whom she may have derived her civilization, and Buddhism had a far more brilliant career outside India than in it.

4. In many parts of southern Asia are found semi-barbarous races representing the earliest known stratum of population, such as the Veddahs of Ceylon, and various tribes in China and the Malay Archipelago. Some of them offer General historical outlines. analogies to the Australians. This connexion, if true, must be very ancient, since it apparently goes back to a time when the distribution of land and water was other than at present. In northern Asia are found other aborigines, such as the Ainus of Japan and the so-called hyperborean races (Chukchis, &c.), but no materials are at present forthcoming for their history. There is some record of the migrations of the later races superimposed on these aborigines. The Chinese came from the west, though how far west is unknown: the Hindus and Persians from the north-west: the Burmese and Siamese from the north. We do not know if the Mongols, Turks, &c., had any earlier home than central Asia, but their extensive movements from that region are historical.

The antiquity of Asiatic history is often exaggerated. With the exception of Babylonia and Assyria, we can hardly even conjecture what was the condition of this continent much before 1500 B.C. At that period the Chinese were advancing along the Hwang-ho, and the Aryans were entering India from the north-west. Both were in conflict with earlier races. The influence of Babylonian civilization was probably widespread. Some connexion between Babylonia and China is generally admitted, and all Indian alphabets seem traceable to a Semitic original borrowed in the course of commerce from the Persian Gulf.

Apart from European conquests, the internal history of Asia in the last 2000 years is the result of the interaction of four main influences: (a) Chinese, (b) Indian, (c) Mahommedan, (d) Central Asian. Of these the first three represent different types of civilization: the fourth has little originality, but has been of great importance in affecting the distribution of races and political power.

(a) China has moulded the civilization of the eastern mainland and Japan, without much affecting the Malay Archipelago. In the sphere of direct influence fall Korea, Japan and Annam; in the outer sphere are Mongolia, Tibet, Siam, Cambodia and Burma, where Indian and Chinese influence are combined, the Indian being often the stronger. These countries, except Japan, have all been at some time at least nominal tributaries of China. Where Chinese influence had full play it introduced Confucianism, a special style in art and the Chinese system of writing. After the Christian era it was accompanied by Chinese Buddhism. The cumbrous Chinese script maintains itself in the Far East, but has not advanced west of China proper and Annam.

(b) Indian influence may be defined as Buddhism, if it is understood that Buddhism is not at all periods clearly distinguishable from Hinduism. Its sphere includes Indo-China, much of the Malay Archipelago, Tibet and Mongolia, Moreover, China and Japan themselves may be said to fall within this sphere, in view of the part which Buddhism has played in their development. The Buddhist influence is not merely religious, for it is always accompanied by Indian art and literature, and often by an Indian alphabet. Much of this art is Greek in origin, being derived from the Perso-Greek states on the north-west frontiers of India. Indian alphabets have spread to Tibet, Cambodia, Java and Korea. The history of Indian civilization in Indo-China and the Archipelago is still obscure, in spite of the existence of gigantic ruins, but it would appear that in some parts at least two periods must be distinguished, first the introduction of Hinduism (or mixed Hinduism and Buddhism), perhaps under Indian princes, and secondly a later and more purely ecclesiastical introduction of Sinhalese Buddhism, with its literature and art.

(c) Mahommedanism or Islam is perhaps the greatest transforming force which the world has seen. It has profoundly affected and to a large extent subjugated all western Asia including India, all eastern and northern Africa as well as Spain, and all eastern Europe. Its open advocacy of force attracts warlike races, and the intensity of its influence is increased by the fusion of secular and religious power, so that the Moslem Church is a Moslem state characterized by slavery, polygamy, and, subject to the autocracy of the ruler, by the theoretical equality of Moslems, who in political status are superior to non-Moslems. Thus, whenever the population of a Moslem country is of mixed belief, a ruling caste of Moslems is formed, as in Turkey at the present day and India under the Moguls. Islam is paramount in Turkey, Persia, Arabia and Afghanistan. India is the dividing line: Islam is strong in northern and central India, weaker in the south. But only one-fifth of the whole population is Moslem. Beyond India it has spread to Malacca and the Malay Archipelago, where it overwhelmed Hindu civilization, and reached the southern Philippines. But it made no progress in Indo-China or Japan; and though there is a large Moslem population in China the Chinese influence has been stronger, for alone of all Asiatics the Chinese have succeeded in forcing Islam to accept the ordinary limitations of a religion and to take its place as a creed parallel to Buddhism or any other.

Even more than Buddhism Islam has carried with it a special style of art and civilization. It is usually accompanied by the use of the Arabic alphabet, and in the languages of Moslem nations (notably Turkish, Persian, Hindustani and Malay) a large proportion of the vocabulary is borrowed from Arabic. Hindi and Hindustani, two forms of the same language as spoken by Hindus and Mahommedans respectively, are a curious example of how deeply religion may affect culture.

(d) The great part which central Asian tribes have played in history is obscured by the absence of any common name for them. Linguistically they can be divided into several groups such as Turks, Mongols and Huns, but they were from time to time united into states representing more than one group, and their armies were recruited, like the Janissaries, from all the military races in the neighbourhood. Soon after the Christian era central Asia began to boil over, and at least seven great invasions and more or less complete conquests can be ascribed to these tribes without counting minor movements, (i.) The early invasions of Europe by the Avars, Huns and Bulgarians. (ii.) The invasion and temporary subjection of Russia by the Mongols, who penetrated as far west as Silesia, (iii.) The conquests of Timur. (iv.) The conquest of Asia Minor and eastern Europe by the Turks. (v.) The conquest of India by the Moguls. (vi.) The conquest of China by the Mongols under Kublai. (vii.) The later conquest of China by the Manchus. To these may be added numerous lesser invasions of India, China and Persia.

These tribes have a genius for warfare rather than for government, art or literature, and with few exceptions (e.g. the Moguls in India) have proved poor administrators. Apart from conquest their most important function has been to keep up communications in central Asia, and to transport religions and civilizations from one region to another. Thus they are mainly responsible for the introduction of Islam with its Arabic or Persian civilization into India and Europe, and in earlier times their movements facilitated the infiltration of Graeco-Bactrian civilization into India, besides maintaining communication between China and the West.

5. Babylonia and Assyria.—The movements mentioned above have been the chief factors of relatively modern Asiatic history, but in early times the centre of activity and culture lay farther west, in Babylonia and Assyria. These ancient states began to decline in the 7th century B.C., and on their ruins rose the Persian empire, which with various political metamorphoses continued to be an important power till the 7th century A.D., after which all western Asia was overwhelmed by the Moslem wave, and old landmarks and kingdoms were obliterated.

The materials for the study of their institutions and population are abundant, but lend themselves to discussion rather than to a summary of admitted facts. In the early history of south-western Asia the Semites form the most important ethnic group, which is primarily linguistic but also shares other remarkable characteristics. Two of the greatest religions of the world, Christianity and Islam, are Semitic in origin, as well as Judaism. In politics these races have been less successful in modern times, but the Semitic states of Babylonia and Assyria were once the principal centres for the development and distribution of civilization. It is generally agreed that this civilization can be traced back to an earlier race, the Sumero-Akkadians, whose language seems allied to the agglutinative idioms of central Asia. If this ancient civilized race was really allied to the ancestors of the Turks and Huns, it is a remarkable instance of how civilization thrives best by being transplanted at a certain period of growth. Still less is known of the early non-Aryan races of Asia Minor such as the Hittites and Alorodians. One hypothesis supposes that the shores of the Mediterranean were originally inhabited by a homogeneous race neither Aryan nor Semitic.

The earliest Sumerian records seem to be anterior to 4000 B.C. Shortly after that period Babylonia was invaded by Semites, who became the ruling race. The city of Babylon came to the fore as metropolis about 2285 B.C. under Khammurabi. Assyria was an offshoot of Babylonia lying to the north-west, and apparently colonized before the second millennium. While using the same language as the Babylonians, the Assyrians had an individuality which showed itself in art and religion. In the 9th and 8th centuries B.C. they became the chief power within their sphere and the suzerain of their parent Babylon. But they succumbed before the advance of the Medo-Persian power in 606 B.C., whereas it was not till 555 that Cyrus took Babylon. Assyria, being essentially a military power, disappeared with the destruction of Nineveh, but Babylon continued to exercise an influence on culture and religion for many centuries after the Persian conquest.

6. China.—This is the oldest of existing states, though its authentic history does not go back much beyond 1000 B.C. It is generally admitted that there was some connexion between the ancient civilizations of China and Babylonia, but its precise nature is still uncertain. It is clear, however, that the Chinese came from the west, and entered their present territory along the course of the Hwang-ho at an unknown period, possibly about 3000 B.C. In early historical times China consisted of a shifting confederacy of feudal states, but about 220 B.C. the state of Tsin or Chin (whence the name China) came into prominence, and succeeded in forming a homogeneous empire, which advanced considerably towards the south. The subsequent history of China is mainly a record of struggles with various tribes, commonly, but not very correctly, called Tatars. The empire was frequently broken up by successful incursions, or divided between rival dynasties, but at least twice became a great Asiatic power: under the Han dynasty (about 200 B.C.-A.D. 220), and the T’ang (A.D. 618-906). The dominions of the latter extended across central Asia to northern India, but were dismembered by the attacks of the Kitans, whence the name Cathay. China proper, minus these external provinces, was again united under the Sung dynasty (960-1127), but split into the northern (Tatar) and southern (Chinese) kingdoms. In the 13th century arose the Mongol power, and Kublai Khan conquered China. The Mongol dynasty lasted less than a century, but the Ming, the native Chinese dynasty which succeeded it, reigned for nearly 300 years and despatched expeditions which reached India, Ceylon and East Africa. In 1644 the Ming succumbed to the attacks of the Manchus, a northern tribe who captured Peking and founded the present imperial house.

Until the advent of Europeans, the Chinese were always in contact with inferior races. Whether they expanded at the expense of weak aboriginal tribes or were conquered by more robust invaders, Chinese civilization prevailed and assimilated alike the conquered and the conquerors. It is largely to this that we must ascribe the national conservatism and contempt for foreigners. The spirit of the Chinese polity is self-contained, anti-military and anti-sacerdotal. Rank is nominally determined by merit, as tested by competitive examinations. Society is conceived as regulated by mutual obligations, of which the duties of parents and children are the most important. The emperor is head of the state and the high priest, who sacrifices to Heaven on behalf of his people, but he can be deposed, and no divine right is inherent in certain families as in Japan and Turkey. On the contrary there have been 20 dynasties since the Christian era.

The most conspicuous figure in Chinese literature is Confucius (551-475 B.C.). Though he laid no claim to originality and merely sought to collect and systematize the traditions of antiquity, his influence in the Far East has been unbounded, and he must be pronounced one of the most powerful advocates of peace and humanity that have ever existed. Confucianism is an ethical rather than a religious system, and hence was able to co-exist, though not on very friendly terms, with Buddhism, which reached China about the 1st century A.D. and was the chief source of Chinese religious ideas, except the older ancestor worship. But they are not a religious people, and like many Europeans regard the church as a department of the state.

7. Japan appears to have been formerly inhabited by the Ainus, who have traditions of an older but unknown population, but was invaded in prehistoric times by a race akin to the Koreans, which was possibly mingled with Malay elements after occupying the southern part of the islands. Authentic history does not begin till about the 6th century A.D., when Chinese civilization and Buddhism were introduced. The government was originally autocratic, but as early as the 7th century the most characteristic feature of Japanese politics—the power of great families who overshadowed the throne—makes its appearance. We hear first of the Fujiwara family, and then of the rivalry between the houses of Taira and Minamoto. The latter prevailed, and in 1192 established the dual system of government under which the emperor or Mikado ruled only in name, and the real power was in the hands of a hereditary military chief called Shogun. Japan has never been invaded in historical times, but an attempt made by Kublai Khan to conquer it was successfully repulsed. The chief power then passed to the Ashikaga dynasty of Shoguns, who retained it for about 200 years and were distinguished for their patronage of the arts. The second half of the 16th century was a period of ferment and anarchy, marked by the arrival of the Portuguese and the rise of some remarkable adventurers, one of whom, Hideyoshi, conquered Korea and apparently meditated the invasion of China. His plans were interrupted by his death, and his successor, Ieyasu, who shaped the social and political life of Japan for nearly 300 years (1603-1868), definitely decided on a policy of seclusion and isolation. All ideas of external conquest were abandoned, Christianity was forbidden, and Japan closed to foreigners, only the Dutch being allowed a strictly limited commerce. In 1854-1859 the Christian powers, beginning with the United States, successfully asserted their right to trade with Japan. The influx of new ideas provoked civil war, in which the already decadent Shogunate was abolished and the authority of the Mikado restored. Recognizing that their only chance of competing with Europeans was to fight them with their own weapons, the Japanese set themselves deliberately to assimilate the material civilization and to some extent the institutions of Europe, such as constitutional government. Their progress and success are without parallel. In 1895 they defeated the Chinese and ten years later the Russians. Their exceptional status among Asiatic nations has been recognized by treaties which, contrary to the general practice in non-Christian countries, place all foreigners in Japan under Japanese law.

This sudden development of the Japanese is perhaps the most important event of the second half of the 19th century, since it marks the rise of an Asiatic power capable of competing with Europe on equal terms. Their history is so different from that of the rest of Asia that it is not surprising if the result is different. The nation hardly came into existence till China and India had passed their prime, and remained secluded and free from the continual struggle against barbarian invaders, which drained the energies of its neighbours. It was left untouched by Mahommedanism, and for an unprecedentedly long period kept Europeans at bay without wasting its strength in hostilities. The military spirit was evolved, not in raids and massacres of the usual Asiatic type which create little but intense racial hatred, but in feuds between families and factions of the same race, which restrained ferocity and tended to create a temper like that of the feudal chivalry of Europe. On the other hand it is noticeable that the Japanese have little which is original in the way of religion, literature or philosophy. Unlike the Chinese and Indians, they have hitherto not had the smallest influence on the intellectual development of Asia, and though they have in the past sometimes shown themselves intensely nationalist and conservative, they have, compared with India and China, so little which is really their own that their assimilation of foreign ideas is explicable.

8. Korea received its civilization and religion from China, but differs in language, and to some extent in customs. An alphabet derived from Indian sources is in use as well as Chinese writing. The country was at most periods independent though nominally tributary to China. In the 16th century the Japanese occupied it for a short period, and in 1894 they went to war with China on account of her claims to suzerainty. In 1895 Korea was declared independent.

9. India.—The population of India comprises at least three strata: firstly, uncivilized aborigines, such as the Kols and Santhals, and secondly, the Dravidians (Tamils, Kanarese, &c.), who perhaps represent the earliest northern invaders, and appear to have attained some degree of culture on their own account. The most recent authorities are of opinion that the Kolarians and Dravidians represent a single physical type; but, whatever the historical explanation may be, they certainly have different languages and show different stages of civilization. In prehistoric times they were spread over the whole of India, but were driven to the centre and south of the peninsula by the third stratum of Aryans, and perhaps also by invasions of so-called Mongolian races from the north-west. No historical record has been preserved of these latter, but they appear to have profoundly affected the population of Bengal, which is believed to be Mongolo-Dravidian in composition. The Aryans appear to have been settled to the north of the Hindu Kush, and to have migrated south-eastwards about 1500 B.C. Their original home has been a subject of much discussion, but the view now prevalent is that they arose in southern Russia or Asia Minor, whence a section spread eastwards and divided into two closely related branches—the Hindus and Iranians. There were probably two successive Aryan immigrations, and the tradition of a struggle between them may be preserved in the Mahābhārata. The life of the ancient Aryans, as portrayed in their sacred songs, the Rig Veda, was quasi-nomadic and in many ways democratic, but by the 6th century B.C. settled states had been formed in the Ganges valley. They were absolute monarchies, but the power of the king was tempered by the extraordinary influence possessed by the hereditary sacerdotal class or Brahmans. The position of this class, which has remained till the present day, is connected with the institution of caste, a division of the population into groups founded partly on racial distinctions. The peaceful progress of Brahmanism was hindered by the doctrine of the Indian prince Gotama, called the Buddha, which grew into one of the greatest religions of the world. For many centuries the culture and development of the Hindus depended mainly on the interaction of the old Brahmanical religion and Buddhism. The latter was finally absorbed, and disappeared in India itself, but has spread Indian influence over the whole of eastern Asia, where it still flourishes.

In 326 B.C. Alexander invaded the Punjab. The immediate result was small, but the establishment of Perso-Greek kingdoms in central Asia had a powerful influence on Indian art and culture. It may also have helped to familiarize the Hindu mind with the idea of an empire, which appeared among them later than in other Asiatic countries. The first empire, called Maurya, reached its greatest extent in the time of Asoka (264-227 B.C.), who ruled from Afghanistan to Madras. He was a zealous Buddhist and gave the first example of a missionary religion, for by his exertions the faith was spread over all India and Ceylon. No Hindu empires have lasted long, and the Maurya dominions broke up fifty years after his death.

In the next period (c. 150 B.C.-A.D. 300) India was invaded from the north by tribes partly of Parthian and partly of Turki (Yue-chi, &c.) origin. Owing to the absence of dated records, the chronology of these invasions has not yet been set beyond dispute, but the most important was that of the Kushans, whose king Kanishka founded a state which comprised northern India and Kashmir. They were Buddhists, and it is probable that the Mahayana or northern form of Buddhism was due to an amalgamation of Gotama’s doctrines with the ideas (largely Greek and Persian) which they brought with them. Much of Sivaism has probably the same origin. Another native empire, known as Gupta, rose on the ruins of the Kushan kingdom, and embraced nearly the whole peninsula, but it broke up in the 5th century, partly owing to the attacks of new northern invaders, the Huns. The Malava dynasty maintained Hindu civilization in the 6th century, and from 606 to 646 Harsha established a brief but brilliant empire in the north with its capital at Kanauj. This epoch is marked by the renaissance of Sanskrit literature and the gradual revival of Hinduism at the expense of Buddhism. But after Harsha Hindu history is lost in a maze of small and transitory states, incapable of resisting the ever advancing Mahommedan peril. As early as 712 the Arabs conquered Sind, and by the end of the 11th century the whole of northern India was in Moslem hands. Two periods may be distinguished, namely the Turki (1200-1526) and the Mogul empire. The former comprised several dynasties of mixed Turki and Iranian race, but was wanting in coherency. In the neighbourhood of the Moslem capitals, Islam spread rapidly, but in such districts as Rajputana and specially Vijayanagar (Mysore) Hindu civilization and religion maintained themselves.

In 1526 the Moguls descended on India from Transoxiana and seized the throne of Delhi. They never subjugated the south, but the empire which they founded in the north was for about two centuries, under such rulers as Akbar and Shah Jehan, one of the most brilliant which Asia has seen. After 1707 it began to decline: the governors became independent: a powerful Mahratta confederacy arose in central India; Nadir Shah of Persia sacked Delhi; and Ahmed Shah made repeated invasions. A still more formidable danger, the power of the French and English, continued to increase. Amidst such confusion the authority of the Mogul empire rapidly disappeared, but it lasted as a name till the Mutiny (1857).

Indian history until Mahommedan times is marked by the unusual prominence of religious ideas, and is a record of intellectual development rather than of political events. Whatever national unity the Hindu peoples possessed came from the persistent and penetrating influence of the Brahman caste. Kings held a secondary position, and were generally regarded as adventitious tyrants, rather than as the heads and representatives of the nation. Even the great dynasties have left few traces, and it is with difficulty that the patient historian disinters the minor kingdoms from obscurity, but Indian religion, literature and art have influenced all Asia from Persia to Japan.

10. Persia.—The Persians, with whom are often coupled the Medes, appear to be pure Aryans in origin, and the earliest form of their language and religion offers remarkable analogies to the Vedas. It is reasonable to suppose that their ancestors and those of the Hindus at one time formed a single tribe somewhere in central Asia. The religion was remodelled by Zoroaster, who seems to be a historical character and to have lived about the 7th century B.C. About the same time they shook off the domination of Assyria. From the 6th century onwards their empire, then known as Median, began to expand at the expense of the surrounding states. They destroyed Nineveh in alliance with the Babylonians, and half a century later Cyrus took Babylon and founded the great dynasty of the Achaemenidae. The substitution of the Persian for the Median power, which took place with the advent of Cyrus, seems to indicate merely the pre-eminence of a particular tribe and not conquest by another race. The power of the Achaemenidae, when at its maximum, extended from the Oxus and Indus in the east to Thrace in the west and Egypt in the south, but fell before Greece, after lasting for rather more than 200 years. Darius and Xerxes were repulsed in their efforts to subjugate the Greek Peninsula, and Alexander the Great conquered their successor Darius III. in 329. But the greater part of the empire continued to exist under new masters, the Seleucids, as a Hellenistic power which was of great importance for the dissemination of Greek culture in the East. Bactria soon became independent under an Indo-Greek dynasty, and the blending of Greek, Persian, central Asiatic and Hindu influences had an important effect on the art and religion of India, and through India on all eastern Asia. About the same period (250 B.C.-A.D. 227) the Parthian empire arose under the Arsacids in Khorasan and the adjacent districts. The Parthians appear to have been a Turanian tribe who had adopted many Persian customs. They successfully withstood the Romans, and at one time their power extended from India to Syria. They succumbed to the Persian dynasty of the Sassanids, who ruled successfully for about four centuries, established the Zoroastrian faith as their state religion, and maintained a creditable conflict with the East Roman empire. But in the 7th century they were defeated by Heraclius, and shortly afterwards were annihilated before the first impetus of the Mahommedan conquest, which established Islam in Persia and the neighbouring lands, sweeping away old civilizations and boundaries. During the greater part of the Mahommedan period Persia has been ruled by troubled and short-lived dynasties. It attained a certain dignity and unity under Abbas Shah (1585-1628), but in later times was distracted and disorganized by Afghan invasions. The present dynasty, which is of Turkoman origin, dates from 1789.

The achievements of the Persians in art, literature and religion are by no means contemptible, but somewhat mixed and cosmopolitan. Owing to its position, the Persian state, when it from time to time became a conquering empire, overlapped Asia Minor, Babylon and India, and hence acted as an intermediary for transmitting art and ideas, sending for instance Greek sculpture to India and the cult of Mithra to western Europe. It is perhaps on account of this intermediate flavour that the literature of Persia—for instance the adaptations of Omar Khayyam—is more appreciated in Europe than that of other Oriental nations. On the other hand, the wars between Persia and Greece were recognized both at the time and afterwards as a struggle between Europe and Asia; the fact that both combatants were Aryans was not felt, and has no importance compared to the difference of continent.

11. Jews.—The Israelites appear to have been originally a nomadic tribe akin to the Arabs, whom they resemble in their want of political instinct and in their extraordinary religious genius. Among many remarkable qualities they have been distinguished from the earliest times by a species of commensalism, or power of living among other nations without becoming either socially merged or politically distinct. Their traditional history represents them as migrating to the borders of Egypt and living there for some centuries. After the exodus, which perhaps took place about 1300 B.C., they moved northwards again and founded a state of modest dimensions, which attained a short-lived unity under Solomon, but succumbed to internal dissensions and to the attacks of Assyria and Babylon. Shalmanezer destroyed the northern kingdom or Israel in 720, and following the practice of the times deported the majority of the population, whose traces became lost to history. There is no reason why their descendants should not be found to-day in various tribes, but the physical type commonly called Jewish is characteristic not so much of Israel as of western Asia generally. In 588 Nebuchadnezzar carried off the Jews in captivity, but after the Persian conquest of Babylonia they were allowed to return to Palestine in 538. Their institutions and ideas were probably considerably modified during this period. Babylon long continued to be a Jewish centre whence the Jews radiated to other countries. The restored state of Jerusalem lived for about six centuries in partial independence under Persian, Egyptian, Syrian and Roman rule, often showing an aggressively heroic attachment to its national customs, which brought it into collision with its suzerains, until the temple was destroyed by Titus in A.D. 70, and the country laid waste in the succeeding years. But long before this period the Jews of the Dispersion had become as important as the inhabitants of Palestine. From choice or compulsion large numbers settled in Egypt in the time of the Ptolemies, and added an appreciable element to Alexandrine culture, while gradual voluntary emigration established Jewish communities in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece and Italy, who facilitated the first spread of Christianity. In spite of chronic unpopularity and recurring persecutions they have spread over nearly all Europe. At the end of the 13th century they were expelled from Spain and many of the exiles moved eastwards. At present the largest numbers are to be found in the eastern parts of Europe. It is remarkable that though the Jews live in relative peace with Asiatics, the great majority of them prefer Europe as a residence.

12. Arabs.—The Arabs have hardly any history before the rise of Islam, although their name is mentioned by surrounding nations from the 9th century B.C. onwards. They appear to have had few states or kings, but rather tribes and chiefs. Their relationship to the Babylonians and Jews is indicated by linguistic and ethnological data. The language and writing of the Semites who, at an unknown period, settled in what is now Abyssinia, show affinities with those of South Arabia, and these Semites may have been immigrants into Africa from that region. It is plain from early Moslem literature that Persian, Christian and especially Jewish ideas had penetrated into Arabia.

With the rise of Mahommedanism occurred a sudden effervescence of the Arabs, who during some centuries threatened to impose not only their political authority but their civilization and new religion on the whole known world. They successfully invaded India and central Asia in the east, Spain and Morocco in the west. The Caliphate under the Omayyads of Damascus, and then the Abbasids of Bagdad, became the principal power in the nearer East. It had not, however, a sufficiently coherent organization for permanence; parts of it became independent, others were first protected and then absorbed by the Turks. The Arab rule in Spain, which once threatened to overwhelm Europe and was turned back near Tours by Charles Martel, was distinguished by its tolerance and civilization, and lingered on till the 15th century.

The collapse of the political power of the Arabs was singularly complete. The Caliphate, though Arabian, was always geographically outside Arabia, and on its fall Arabia remained as it was before Islam, isolated and inaccessible. It is still one of the least known parts of the globe, and has hardly any political link with the outside, for the Arabs of northern Africa form separate states. But in spite of this total political collapse, Arabic religion and literature are still one of the greatest forces working in the western half of Asia, in northern Africa and to some extent in eastern Europe.

13. Ceylon, though geographically an annex of India, has not followed its fortunes historically. According to tradition it was invaded by an Aryan-speaking colony from the valley of the Ganges in the 6th century B.C. It received Buddhism from north India in the time of Asoka, and has had considerable importance as a centre of religious culture which has influenced Burma and Siam. Its medieval history consists of struggles between the native sovereigns and Tamil invaders. A powerful native dynasty reigned in the 12th century, but in 1408 the island was attacked by Chinese, and from 1505 onwards it was distracted by the attacks and squabbles of Europeans. It was partially subjugated, first by the Portuguese and then by the Dutch. In 1796 the Dutch were expelled by the English.

14. Indo-China.—This is an appropriate name for Burma, Siam, Cambodia, Annam, &c., for both in position and in civilization they lie between India and China. Indian influence is predominant as far as Cambodia (though with a Chinese tinge), Indian alphabets being employed and the Buddhism being of the Sinhalese type, but in Annam and Tongking the Chinese script and many Chinese institutions are in use. The population belongs to various races, and also comprises little-known wild tribes, (i.) Languages of the group known as Mōn-Annam are spoken in Annam and in Pegu, an ancient kingdom originally distinct from Burma though now confounded with it. This distribution seems to indicate that they once spread over the whole region, and were divided by the later advance of the Siamese and others. Until Annam was taken by the French, its history consisted of a struggle with the Chinese, who alternately asserted and lost their sovereignty. The Annamese are, however, a distinct race. Cochin China was once the seat of a kingdom called Champa, which appears to have had a hinduized Malay civilization and to have been subsequently absorbed by Annam. (ii.) The Burmese are linguistically allied to the Tibetans, and probably entered Burma from the north-west. The early history consists largely of conflicts between the Burmese and Talaings. The kingdom which was annexed by Britain in 1885 was founded about 1750 by Alompra, who united his countrymen and broke the power of the Talaings. He also invaded Siam. (iii.) The Khmers or Cambodians, whose languages appear to belong to the Mōn-Annam group, form a relatively ancient kingdom, much reduced in the last few centuries by the advance of the Siamese and new a French protectorate. Remarkable ruins dating from perhaps A.D. 800 to 1000 attest the former prevalence of strong Hindu influence, (iv.) The Siamese or Thai, who speak a monosyllabic language of the Chinese type, but written in an Indian alphabet, represent a late invasion from southern China, whence they descended about the 13th century.

15. Malays.—This widely-scattered race has no political union and its distribution is a puzzle for ethnography. At present it occupies the extremity of the Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Philippines and other islands of the Malay Archipelago as well as Madagascar, while the inhabitants of most islands in the South Seas, including New Zealand and Hawaii, speak languages which if not Malay have at least undergone a strong Malay influence. It would seem from this distribution that the Malays are not continental, but a seafaring race with exceptional powers of dispersal, who have spread over the ocean from some island centre—perhaps Java. The latest theory, however, is that there is a great linguistic group (which may or may not prove to correspond to an ethnic unity) comprising the Mundā, Mōnkhmer, Malay, Polynesian and Micronesian languages, and that the stream of immigration which distributed them started from the extreme west. Three periods can be traced in the history of the Asiatic Malays. In the first (in which such tribes as the Dyaks have remained) they were semi-barbarous. In the second, Hindu civilization reached the Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra and other islands. The presence of Hindu ruins, as well as of numerous Indian words and customs, testifies to the strength of this influence. It was, however, superseded by Islam, which spread to the Malay Archipelago and Peninsula before the 16th century. At the present time the Arabic alphabet is used on the mainland, but Indian alphabets in Java, Sumatra, &c.

16. Tibet.—This remote and mountainous country has a peculiar civilization. It has entirely escaped Islam, and though it is a nominal vassal of China, direct Chinese influence has not been strong. The most striking feature is the religion, a corrupt form of late Indian Buddhism, known as Lamaism, which, largely in consequence of the favour shown by Jenghiz Khan and his successors, has attained temporal power and developed into an ecclesiastical state curiously like the papacy.

17. Mongols.—Such civilization as the Mongols possess is a mixture of Chinese and Indian, the latter derived chiefly through Tibet, but their alphabet is a curious instance of transplantation. It is an adaptation of the Syriac writing introduced by the early Nestorian missionaries.

18. Almost all Asiatic countries have a literature, but it is often not indigenous and consists of foreign works, chiefly religious, read either in translations or the original. Thus with the exception of a little folklore the literature Literature, art, science. of Indo-China, Tibet, Mongolia, Korea and Manchuria is mainly Indian or Chinese. The chief original literatures are Chinese, Sanskrit, Pali, Arabic and Persian. The Japanese have produced few books of importance, and their compositions are chiefly remarkable as being lighter and more secular than is usual in Asia, but the older Chinese works take high rank both for their merits and the effect they have had. The extensive Sanskrit literature, which has reached in translations China, Japan and Java, is chiefly theological and poetical, history being conspicuously absent. India has also a considerable medieval and modern literature in various languages. Pali, though only a form of Hindu literature, has a separate history, for it died in India and was preserved in Ceylon, whence it was imported to Burma and Siam as the language of religion. The Pali versions of Buddha’s discourses are among the most remarkable products of Asia. The literatures of all Moslem peoples are largely inspired by Arabic, which has produced a voluminous collection of works in prose and poetry. Persian, after being itself transformed by Arabic, has in its turn largely influenced all west Asiatic Moslem literature from Hindustani to Turkish.

If one excepts the Old Testament, which is a product of the extreme west of Asia, it is remarkable how small has been the influence of Asiatic literature on Europe. Though Greek and Slavonic almost ceased to be written languages under Turkish rule, Europeans showed no disposition to replace them by Ottoman or Arabic literature.

Without counting subdivisions there would seem to be three main schools of art in Asia at present—Chinese, Indian and Moslem. The first contains many original elements. It is feeblest in architecture and strongest in the branches demanding skill and care in a limited compass, such as painting, porcelain and enamel. It is the main inspiration of Japanese art, which, however, shows great originality in its treatment of borrowed themes. Both China and Japan have felt through Buddhism the influence of Indian art, which contains at least two elements—one indigenous and the other Greco-Persian. Unlike Chinese art it has a genius for architecture and sculpture rather than painting. Mahommedan art is also largely architectural and has affected nearly all Moslem countries. Except that the use of Arabic inscriptions is one of its principal methods of decoration, it owes little to Arabia and much to Byzantium. The Persian variety of this art is more ornate, and less averse to representations of living beings. Both Moslem and Chinese art are closely connected with calligraphy, but Hindus rarely use writing for ornament.

In both art and literature modern Asia is inferior to the past more conspicuously than Europe.

As for science, astronomy was cultivated by the Babylonians at an early period, and it is probably from them that a knowledge of the heavenly bodies and their movements spread over Asia. Grammar and prosody were studied in India with a marvellous accuracy and minuteness several centuries before Christ. Mathematics were cultivated by the Chinese, Indians and Arabs, but nearly all the sciences based on the observation of nature, including medicine, have remained in a very backward condition. Much the same, however, might have been said of Europe until two centuries ago, and the scientific knowledge of the Arabs under the earlier Caliphates was equal or superior to that of any of their contemporaries. Histories and accounts of travels have been composed both in Arabic and Chinese.

19. It is only natural that Europe should have chiefly felt the influence of western Asia. Though Europeans may be indebted to China for some mechanical inventions, she was too distant to produce much direct effect, and the Influence of Asia on other continents. influence of India has been mainly directed towards the East. The resemblances between primitive Christianity and Buddhism appear to be coincidences, and though both early Greek philosophy and later Alexandrine ideas suggest Indian affinities, there is no clear connexion such as there is between certain aspects of Chinese thought and India.

Any general statement as to the debt owed by early European civilizations to western Asia would at present be premature, for though important discoveries have been made in Crete and Babylonia the best authorities are chary of positive conclusions as to the relations of Cretan civilization to Egypt and Babylonia. Egyptian influence within the Aegean area seems certain, and the theory that Greek writing and systems for reckoning time are Babylonian in origin has not been disproved, though the history of the alphabet is more complex than was supposed.

In historic times Asia has attempted to assert her influence over Europe by a series of invasions, most of which have been repulsed. Such were the Persian wars of Greece, and perhaps one may add Hannibal’s invasion of Italy, if the Carthaginians were Phoenicians transplanted to Africa. The Roman empire kept back the Persians and Parthians, but could not prevent a series of incursions by Avars, Huns, Bulgarians, and later by Mongols and Turks. Islam has twice obtained a footing in Europe, under the Arabs in Spain and under the Turks at Constantinople. The earlier Asiatic invasions were conducted by armies operating at a distance from their bases, and had little result, for the soldiery retired after a time (like Alexander from India), or more rarely (e.g. the Bulgarians) settled down without keeping up any connexion with Asia. The Turks, and to some extent the Arabs in Spain, were successful because they first conquered the parts of Asia and Africa adjoining Europe, so that the final invaders were in touch with Asiatic settlements. Though the Turks have profoundly affected the whole of eastern Europe, the result of their conquests has been not so much to plant Asiatic culture in Europe as to arrest development entirely, the countries under their rule remaining in much the same condition as under the moribund Byzantine empire.

In general, Europe has in historic times shown itself decidedly hostile to Asiatic institutions and modes of thought. It is only of recent years that the writings of Schopenhauer and the researches of many distinguished orientalists have awakened some interest in Asiatic philosophy.

The influence of Asia on Africa has been considerable, and until the middle of the 10th century greater than that of Europe. Some authorities hold that Egyptian civilization came from Babylonia, and that the so-called Hamitic languages are older and less specialized members of the Semitic family. The connexion between Carthage and Phoenicia is more certain, and the ancient Abyssinian kingdom was founded by Semites from south Arabia. The traditions of the Somalis derive them from the same region. The theory that the ruins in Mashonaland were built by immigrants from south Arabia is now discredited, but there was certainly a continuous stream of Arab migration to East Africa which probably began in pre-Moslem times and founded a series of cities on the coast. The whole of the north of Africa from Egypt to Morocco has been mahommedanized, and Mahommedan influence is general and fairly strong from Timbuktu to Lake Chad and Wadai. South of the equator, Arab slave-dealers penetrated from Zanzibar to the great lakes and the Congo during the second and third quarters of the 19th century, but their power, though formidable, has disappeared without leaving any permanent traces.

The relation to Asia of the pre-European civilizations of America is another of those questions which admit of no definite answer at present, though many facts support the theory that the semi-civilized inhabitants of Mexico and Central America crossed from Asia by Bering Straits and descended the west coast. Some authorities hold that Peruvian civilization had no connexion with the north and was an entirely indigenous product, but Kechua is in structure not unlike the agglutinative languages of central and northern Asia.

20. European influence on Asia has been specially strong at two epochs, firstly after the conquests of Alexander the Great, and secondly from the 16th century onwards. Alexander’s conquests resulted in the foundation of Influence of Europe on Asia. Perso-Greek kingdoms in Asia, which not only hellenized their own area but influenced the art and religion of India and to some extent of China. Then follows a long period in which eastern Europe was mainly occupied in combating Asiatic invasions, and had little opportunity of Europeanizing the East. Somewhat later the Crusades kept up communication with the Levant, and established there the power of the Roman Church, somewhat to the detriment of oriental Christianity, but intercourse with farther Asia was limited to the voyages of a few travellers. Looking at eastern Europe and western Asia only, one must say that Asiatic influences have on the whole prevailed hitherto (though perhaps the tide is turning), for Islam is paramount in this region and European culture at a low ebb. But the case is quite different if one looks at the two continents as a whole, for improvement in means of communication has brought about strange vicissitudes, and western Europe has asserted her power in middle and eastern Asia.

In the 16th century a new era began with the discovery by the Portuguese of the route to India round the Cape, and the naval powers of Europe started one after another on careers of oriental conquest. The movement was maritime and affected the nations in the extreme west of Europe rather than those nearer Asia, who were under the Turkish yoke. Also the parts of Asia affected were chiefly India and the extreme East. The countries west of India, being less exposed to naval invasion, remained comparatively untouched. It will thus be seen that European (excluding Russian) power in Asia is based almost entirely on improved navigation. There was no attempt to overwhelm whole empires by pouring into them masses of troops, but commerce was combined with territorial acquisition, and a continuity of European interest secured by the presence of merchants and settlers. The course of oriental conquest followed the events of European politics, and the possessions of European powers in the East generally changed hands according to the fortunes of their masters at home. Portugal was first on the scene, and in the 16th century established a considerable littoral empire on the coasts of East Africa, India and China, fragments of which still remain, especially Goa, where Portuguese influence on the natives was considerable. Before the century was out the Dutch appeared as the successful rivals of the Portuguese, but the real struggle for supremacy in southern Asia took place between France and England about 1740-1783. Both entered India as commercial companies, but the disorganized condition of the Mogul empire necessitated the use of military force to protect their interests, and allured them to conquest. The companies gradually undertook the financial control of the districts where they traded and were recognized by the natives as political powers. The ultimate victory of England seems due less to any particular aptitude for dealing with oriental problems than to a better command of the seas and to considerations of European politics. At the end of the Napoleonic wars Portugal had Macao and Goa, Holland Java, Sumatra and other islands, France some odds and ends in India, while England emerged with Hong Kong, Singapore, Ceylon and a free hand in India. Guided by such administrators as Warren Hastings, the East India Company had assumed more and more definitely the functions of government for a great part of India. In 1809 its exclusive trading rights were taken away by Parliament, but its administrative status was thus made clearer, and when after the mutiny of 1857 it was desirable to define British authority in India there seemed nothing unnatural in declaring it to be a possession of the crown.

Another category of European possessions in Asia comprises those acquired towards the end of the 19th century, such as Indo-China (France), Burma and Wei-Hai-Wei (Britain), and Kiao-Chow (Germany). Whereas the earlier conquests were mostly the results of large half-conscious national movements working out their destinies in the East, these later ones were annexations deliberately planned by European cabinets. It seemed to be assumed that Asia was to be divided among the powers of Europe, and each was anxious to get its share or more.

The advance of Russia in Asia is entirely different from that of the other powers, since it has taken place by land and not by sea. Though the geographical extent of Russian territory and influence is enormous, she has always moved along the line of least resistance. She is a moderately strong empire lying to the north of the great Moslem states, and having for neighbours a series of very weak principalities or semi-civilized tribes. The conquest of Siberia and central Asia presented no real difficulties: Persia and Constantinople were left on one side, and Russia was defeated as soon as she was opposed by a vigorous power in the Far East. As the Russian possessions in Asia are continuous with European Russia, it is only natural that they should have been russified far more thoroughly than the British possessions have been anglicized.

There has been great difference of opinion as to the extent to which Alexander’s conquests influenced Asia, and it is equally hard to say what is the effect now being produced by Europe. Clearly such alterations as the construction of railways in nearly all parts of the continent, and the establishment of peace over formerly disturbed areas like India, are of enormous importance, and must change the life of the people. But the mental constitution of Asiatics is less easily modified than their institutions, and even Japan has assimilated European methods rather than European ideas.