The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 47

AYACU'CHO, a thriving town in Peru, founded by Pizarro in 1539, where the Peruvians and Colombians achieved their independence of Spain in 1824, and ended the rule of Spain in the S. American continent.

AYA'LA, PEDRO LOPEZ D', a Spanish soldier, statesman, and diplomatist, born in Murcia; wrote a "History of the Kings of Castile,"

which was more than a chronicle of wars, being also a review of them; and a book of poems ent.i.tled the "Rhymes of the Court" (1332-1407).

AYE-AYE, a lemur found in the woods of Madagascar.

AYESHA, the daughter of Abubekr, and favourite wife of Mahomet, whom he married soon after the death of Kadijah; as much devoted to Mahomet as he was to her, for he died in her arms. "A woman who distinguished herself by all manner of qualities among the Moslems," who is styled by them the "Mother of the Faithful" (see KADIJAH). She was, it is said, the only wife of Mahomet that remained a virgin. On Mahomet's death she opposed the accession of Ali, who defeated her and took her prisoner, but released her on condition that she should not again interfere in State matters (610-677).

AYLES'BURY (9), a borough and market-town in Buckinghams.h.i.+re, 40 m.

NW. of London, in an agricultural district; supplies the London market with ducks.

AYLMER, JOHN, tutor to Lady Jane Grey, bishop of London, a highly arbitrary man, and a friend to neither Papist nor Puritan; he is satirised by Spenser in the "Shepherd's Calendar" (1521-1594).

AYLOFFE, SIR JOSEPH, English antiquary, born in Suss.e.x (1708-1781).

AYMA'RAS, the chief native race of Peru and Bolivia, from which it would appear sprang the Quinchuas, the dominant people of Peru at the time of the Spanish conquest; attained a high degree of civilisation, and number to-day 500,000.

AYMON, THE COUNT OF DORDOGNE, the father of four sons, Renaud, Guiscard, Alard, and Richard, renowned in the legends of chivalry, and particularly as paladins of Charlemagne.

AY'MAR-VER'NAY, a peasant of Dauphine, who in the 17th century professed to discover springs and treasures hid in the earth by means of a divining rod.

AYR (23), the county town of Ayrs.h.i.+re, at the mouth of a river of the same name, a clean, ancient town, its charter, granted by William the Lion, dating from 1200; well built, with elegant villas in the suburbs, a good harbour and docks for s.h.i.+pping; famous in early Scottish history, and doubly so among Scottish towns as the birthplace near it of Robert Burns.

AYR'ER, JACOB, a German dramatist in the 16th century, of the style of HANS SACHS (q. v.).

AYRs.h.i.+RE (226), a large and wealthy county in the W. of Scotland, bordered on the W. by the Firth of Clyde, agricultural and pastoral, with a large coal-field and thriving manufactures; its divisions, Carrick, to the S. of the Doon; Kyle, between the Doon and the Irvine, and Cunningham, on the N.; concerning which there is an old rhyme: "Kyle for a man, Carrick for a coo, Cunningham for b.u.t.ter and cheese, Galloway for 'oo."

AYTON, SIR ROBERT, a poet of considerable merit, a native of Fife, born at Kinaldie, who made his fortune by a Latin panegyric to King James I. on his accession; was on friendly terms with the eminent literary men of his time, Ben Jonson in particular; his poems are written in pure and even elegant English, some in Latin, and have only recently been collected together (1571-1638).

AYTOUN, WILLIAM EDMONDSTOUNE, poet and critic, a native of Edinburgh, professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in Edinburgh University, author of the "Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers"; he was also editor, along with Sir Theodore Martin, of the "Gaultier Ballads," an admirable collection of light verse (1813-1865).

AZEGLIO, MARCHESE D', an Italian patriot and statesman, native of Turin; wounded at Vicenza in 1848, fighting for Italian independence; entered the Piedmontese Parliament, was Victor Emanuel's right-hand man, retired in favour of Cavour; he was not altogether engrossed with politics, being an amateur in art (1798-1866).

AZERBIJAN (2,000), prov. of Armenian Persia, S. of the river Aras, with fertile plains, cattle-breeding, and rich in minerals.

AZORES, i. e. Hawk Islands (250), a group of nine volcanic islands in the Atlantic, 800 m. W. of Portugal, and forming a province of it; are in general mountainous; covered with orange groves, of which the chief are St. Michael's and Fayal; and 900 m. W. of it, in the lat.i.tude of Lisbon; the climate is mild, and good for pulmonary complaints; they were known to the Carthaginian mariners, but fell out of the map of Europe till rediscovered in 1431.

AZOV, SEA OF, an opening from the Black Sea, very shallow, and gradually silting up with mud from the Don.

AZ'RAEL, the angel of death according to Rabbinical tradition.

AZ'TECS, a civilised race of small stature, of reddish-brown skin, lean, and broad featured, which occupied the Mexican plateau for some centuries before the Spaniards visited it, and were overthrown by the Spaniards in 1520.

AZUNI, DOMINICO ALBERTO, an Italian jurist, born in Sardinia; president of the Court of Appeal at Genoa; made a special study of maritime law; author of "Droit Maritime de l'Europe" (1729-1827).

AZYMITES, the name given to a party in the Church who insisted that only unleavened bread should be used in the Eucharist, and the controversy hinged on the question whether the Lord's Supper was inst.i.tuted before the Pa.s.sover season was finished, or after, as in the former case the bread must have been unleavened, and in the latter leavened.

B

BAADER, FRANZ XAVIER VON, a German philosopher, born at Munich; was patronised by the king of Bavaria, and became professor in Munich, who, revolting alike from the materialism of Hume, which he studied in England, and the transcendentalism of Kant, with its self-sufficiency of the reason, fell back upon the mysticism of Jacob Boehme, and taught in 16 vols. what might rather be called a theosophy than a philosophy, which regarded G.o.d in Himself, and G.o.d even in life, as incomprehensible realities. He, however, identified himself with the liberal movement in politics, and offended the king (1765-1841).

BA'AL (meaning Lord), _PL_. BAALIM, the princ.i.p.al male divinity of the Canaanites and Phoenicians, identified with the sun as the great quickening and life-sustaining power in nature, the G.o.d who presided over the labours of the husbandman and granted the increase; his crowning attribute, strength; wors.h.i.+pped on hill-tops with sacrifices, incense, and dancing. Baal-wors.h.i.+p, being that of the Canaanites, was for a time mixed up with the wors.h.i.+p of Jehovah in Israel, and at one time threatened to swamp it, but under the zealous preaching of the prophets it was eventually stamped out.

BAAL'BEK (i. e. City of Baal, or the Sun), an ancient city of Syria, 35 m. NW. of Damascus; called by the Greeks, Heliopolis; once a place of great size, wealth, and splendour; now in ruins, the most conspicuous of which is the Great Temple to Baal, one of the most magnificent ruins of the East, covering an area of four acres.

BAALISM, the name given to the wors.h.i.+p of natural causes, tending to the obscuration and denial of the wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d as Spirit.

BABA, ALI, the character in the "Arabian Nights" who discovers and enters the den of the Forty Thieves by the magic pa.s.sword "SESAMe"

(q. v.), a word which he accidentally overheard.

BABA, CAPE, in Asia Minor, the most western point in Asia, in Anatolia, with a town of the name.

BABBAGE, CHARLES, a mathematician, born in Devons.h.i.+re; studied at Cambridge, and professor there; spent much time and money over the invention of a calculating machine; wrote on "The Economy of Manufactures and Machinery," and an autobiography ent.i.tled "Pa.s.sages from the Life of a Philosopher"; in his later years was famous for his hostility to street organ-grinders (1791-1871).

BABBINGTON, ANTONY, an English Catholic gentleman; conspired against Elizabeth on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots, confessed his guilt, and was executed at Tyburn in 1586.