Chapter XIII: Part 13

ASGILL (as'gil), John, an eccentric English writer, a lawyer by profession, born 1659, died 1738. In 1699 he published a pamphlet to prove that Christians were not necessarily liable to death, death being the penalty imposed for Adam's sin and Christ having satisfied the law. Having crossed over to Ireland, he was beginning to get into a good practice, and was elected to the Irish House of Commons, when his pamphlet was ordered to be burned by the public hangman, and he himself was expelled the House. His whole subsequent life was passed in pecuniary and other troubles, mostly in the Fleet or within the rules of the King's Bench.

ASH (_Frax[)i]nus_), a genus of deciduous trees belonging to the nat. ord. Oleaceae, having imperfect flowers and a seed-vessel prolonged into a thin wing at the apex (called a _samara_). There are a good many species, chiefly indigenous to North America. The common ash (_F. excelsior_), the only species indigenous to Central and Northern Europe, has a smooth bark, and grows tall and rather slender. The branches are flattened; the leaves have five pairs of pinnae, terminated by an odd one, dark-green in colour; lanceolate, with serrated edges. The flowers are produced in loose spikes from the sides of the branches, and are succeeded by flat seeds which ripen in autumn. It is one of the most useful of British trees on account of the excellence of its hard tough wood and the rapidity of its growth, but often suffers greatly from a canker caused by the fungus _Nectria ditissima_. There are many varieties of it, as the weeping-ash, the curled-leaved ash, the entire-leaved ash, &c. The flowering or manna ash (_F. Ornus_), by some placed in a distinct genus (Ornus), is a native of the south of Europe and Palestine. It yields the substance called manna, which is obtained by making incisions in the bark, when the juice exudes and hardens. Among American species are the white ash (_F. americana_), with lighter bark and leaves; the red or black ash (_F. pubescens_), with a brown bark; the black ash (_F. sambucifolia_), the blue ash, the green ash, &c. They are all valuable trees. The mountain-ash or rowan belongs to a different order.

nus excelsior_)

1, Hermaphrodite flower. 2, Anthers of male flower.]

ASH, or ASHES, the incombustible residue of organic bodies (animal or vegetable) remaining after combustion; in common usage, any incombustible residue of bodies used as fuel; as a commercial term, the word generally means the ashes of vegetable substances, from which are extracted the alkaline matters called potash, pearl-ash, kelp, barilla, &c.

ASHAN'GO, a region in the interior of Southern Africa between lat. 1deg and 2deg S., and between the Ogowe and the Lower Congo, a mountainous country in the French territory. The inhabitants belong to the Bantu stock, and among them are a dwarfish people, the Obongo, said to be about 4-1/2 feet high at most.

ASHANTI', a British territory in West Africa belonging to the Gold Coast Colony, of which it forms a large inland portion, under a chief commissioner; area about 20,000 sq. miles. It is in great part hilly, well-watered, and covered with dense tropical vegetation, and rich forests with excellent timber trees. The country round the towns, however, is carefully cultivated. The crops are chiefly rice, maize, millet, sugar-cane, cocoa, and yams, the last forming the staple vegetable food of the natives. Rubber is also a product. The domestic animals are cows, horses of small size, goats, and a species of hairy sheep. The wild animals include the elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, lion, hippopotamus, &c. Birds are numerous, and crocodiles and other reptiles abound. Gold is abundant, and mining concessions are now successfully worked. The Ashantis make excellent cotton and silk cloths, articles in gold and other metals, earthenware, leather, &c. Ashanti used to form a kingdom ruled despotically, human sacrifices being very common. It is now under British administration, and attention is given to education, sanitation, agriculture, means of communication, &c. There are Government schools at Coomassie and Sunyani and a number of missionary schools. The chief town is Coomassie (or Kumassi), now reached by a railway from the coast (length 168 miles); its population is 24,000. The British first came in contact with the Ashantis in 1807, and hostilities continued off and on till 1826, when they were driven from the sea-coast. Immediately after the transfer of the Dutch settlements on the Gold Coast to Britain in 1872--when the entire coast remained in British hands--the Ashantis reclaimed the sovereignty of the tribes round the settlement of Elmina. This brought on a war, leading to a British expedition in 1874, in which Coomassie was captured. In 1896 the country became a British protectorate. In 1901 a rebellion had to be put down, and next year Ashanti was fully annexed. Pop. 287,814 (1911).--Cf. R. A. Freeman, _Travels and Life in Ashantee and Jaman_.

ASH'BOURNE, a town of England, in Derbyshire, 12 miles N.W. of Derby, with manufactures of cottons and lace. Pop. 4039.

ASH'BURTON, a town in Devonshire, England, 16 miles S.W. of Exeter, a parliamentary borough till 1868, and till 1918 giving name to a parliamentary division. Pop. (1921), 2362.

ASH'BURTON, Alexander Baring, Lord, a British statesman and financier, born 1774, died 1848. A younger son of Sir Francis Baring, he was bred to commercial pursuits, which for some years kept him in the United States and Canada, and in 1810 he became head of the great firm of Baring Brothers & Co. He sat in Parliament from 1806 to 1835, when he was raised to the peerage, after being a member of Peel's Government (1834-5).

ASH'BURTON TREATY, a treaty concluded at Washington, 1842, by Alexander Baring, Lord Ashburton, and the President of the United States; it defined the boundaries between the States and Canada, &c.

ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH (ash'bi-del-a-zoech'), a town in Leicestershire, England, on the borders of Derbyshire, with manufactures of hosiery, leather, &c. Pop. (1921), 4983.

ASH'DOD, a place on the coast of Palestine, formerly one of the chief cities of the Philistines, now an insignificant village.

A'SHER, one of Jacob's sons, and founder of the tribe called after him, who occupied a fertile territory in Palestine along the coast between Carmel and Lebanon.

ASHE'RA, an ancient Semitic goddess whose symbol was the phallus. In the Revised Version of the Old Testament this word is used to translate what in the Authorized Version is translated "grove", as connected with the idolatrous practices into which the Jews were prone to fall.

ASH'FORD, a thriving town of England, in Kent, situated near the confluence of the upper branches of the River Stour, with large locomotive and railway-carriage works. It gives name to a parliamentary division of the county. Pop. (1921), 14,355.

ASHINGTON, an urban district or town of England, Northumberland, north-east of Morpeth, and about 2 miles from the sea, in a district of collieries. Pop. (1921), 29,406.

ASHI'RA, a native race or people of Western Equatorial Africa, to the south of the Ogowe River, in the French Congo Territory.

ASH'LAND, a city of the United States, in Wisconsin. Pop. (1920), 11,334.--Also a city of Kentucky. Pop. (1920), 14,729.

ASH'LAR, masonry consisting of stones squared and smoothed in front and built in regular courses.

ASHLEY, LORD. See _Shaftesbury, First Earl of_.

ASHMEAD-BARTLETT, Sir Ellis, English politician, born in 1849. He entered Parliament in 1880, and was Civil Lord of the Admiralty from 1885 to 1892. He served in the Graeco-Turkish and South African wars, and was knighted in 1892. He died in 1902.

ASH'MOLE, Elias, English antiquary, born 1617, died 1692. He became a chancery solicitor in London, but afterwards studied at Oxford, taking up mathematics, physics, chemistry, and particularly astrology. He published _Theatrum Chymicum_ in 1652. On the Restoration he received the post of Windsor Herald, and other appointments both honourable and lucrative. In 1672 appeared his _History of the Order of the Garter_. He presented to the University of Oxford his collection of rarities, to which he afterwards added his books and MSS., thereby commencing the Ashmolean Museum.

ASH'TAROTH. See _Astarte_.

ASHTON-IN-MAKERFIELD, a town of Lancashire, England, 4 miles from Wigan, with collieries, cotton-mills, &c. Pop. (1921), 22,489.

ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE, a municipal and parliamentary borough of Lancashire, England, 6 miles east of Manchester, on the north bank of the River Tame, a well-built place, with handsome streets and public buildings. The chief employment is the cotton manufacture, but there are also collieries and ironworks, which employ a great many persons. Pop. 51,080; (municipal borough) (1921), 43,333.

ASHTON-UPON-MERSEY, a town or urban district of England, Cheshire, on the south side of the Mersey, several miles south-west of Manchester. Pop. (1921), 7780.

ASHURA'DA, a small island in the S.E. corner of the Caspian, formed by Russia into a trading station.

ASH-WEDNESDAY, the first day of Lent, so called from a custom in the Western Church of sprinkling ashes that day on the heads of penitents, then admitted to penance. The period at which the fast of Ash-Wednesday was instituted is uncertain; but it probably dates from the eighth century at least. In the Roman Catholic Church the ashes are now strewn on the heads of all the clergy and people present. In the Anglican Church Ash-Wednesday is regarded as an important fast day.

ASIA, the largest of the great divisions of the earth; length, from the extreme south-western point of Arabia, at the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, to the extreme north-eastern point of Siberia--East Cape, or Cape Vostochni, in Behring's Strait--6900 miles; breadth, from Cape Chelyuskin, in Northern Siberia, to Cape Romania, the southern extremity of the Malay Peninsula, 5300 miles; area estimated at 17,250,000 sq. miles, about a third of all the land of the earth's surface. On three sides, N., E., and S., the ocean forms its natural boundary, while in the W. the frontier is marked mainly by the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, Caspian Sea, the Caucasus, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, and the Red Sea. There is no proper separation between Asia and Europe, the latter being really a great peninsula of the former. Asia, though not so irregular in shape as Europe, is broken in the S. by three great peninsulas, Arabia, Hindustan, and Farther India, while the east coast presents peninsular projections and islands, forming a series of sheltered seas and bays, the principal peninsulas being Kamtshatka and Corea. The principal islands are those forming the Malay or Asiatic Archipelago, which stretch round in a wide curve on the S.E. of the continent. Besides the larger islands--Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Mindanao, and Luzon (in the Philippine group)--there are countless smaller islands grouped round these. Other islands are Ceylon, in the S. of India; the Japanese Islands and Sakhalin on the E. of the continent; Formosa, S.E. of China; Cyprus, S. of Asia Minor; and New Siberia and Wrangell, in the Arctic Ocean.

The mountain systems of Asia are of great extent, and their culminating points are the highest in the world. The greatest of all is the Himalaya system, which lies mainly between long. 70deg and 100deg E. and lat. 28deg and 37deg N. It extends, roughly speaking, from north-west to south-east, its total length being about 1500 miles, forming the northern barrier of Hindustan. The loftiest summits are Mount Everest, 29,002 feet high, Godwin-Austen, 28,265, and Kanchinjinga, 28,156. The principal passes, which rise to the height of 18,000 to 20,000 feet, are the highest in the world. A second great mountain system of Central Asia, connected with the north-western extremity of the Himalaya system by the elevated region of Pamir (about long. 70deg-75deg E., lat. 37deg-40deg N.), is the Thian-Shan system, which runs north-eastward for a distance of 1200 miles. In this direction the Altai, Sayan, and other ranges continue the line of elevations to the north-eastern coast. A north-western continuation of the Himalaya is the Hindu Kush, and farther westward a connection may be traced between the Himalaya mass and the Elburz range (18,460) feet, south of the Caspian, and thence to the mountains of Kurdistan, Armenia, and Asia Minor.

There are vast plateaux and elevated valley regions connected with the great central mountain systems, but large portions of the continent are low and flat. Tibet forms the most elevated table-land in Asia, its mean height being estimated at 15,000 feet. On its south is the Himalayan range, while the Kuen-Lun range forms its northern barrier. Another great but much lower plateau is that which comprises Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and Persia, and which to the north-west joins into the plateau of Asia Minor. The principal plain of Asia is that of Siberia, which extends along the north of the continent and forms an immense alluvial tract sloping to the Arctic Ocean. Vast swamps or peat-mosses called _tundras_ cover large portions of this region. South-west of Siberia, and stretching eastward from the Caspian, is a low-lying tract consisting to a great extent of steppes and deserts, and including in its area the Sea of Aral. In the east of China there is an alluvial plain of some 200,000 sq. miles in extent; in Hindustan are plains extending for 2000 miles along the south slope of the Himalaya; and between Arabia and Persia, watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, is the plain of Mesopotamia or Assyria, one of the richest in the world. Of the deserts of Asia the largest is that of Gobi (long. 90deg-120deg E., lat. 40deg-48deg N.), large portions of which are covered with nothing but sand or display a surface of bare rock. An almost continuous desert region may also be traced from the desert of North Africa through Arabia (which is largely occupied by bare deserts), Persia, and Baluchistan to the Indus.

POLITICAL MAP OF ASIA

Some of the largest rivers of Asia flow northward to the Arctic Ocean--the Obi, the Yenisei, and the Lena. The Hoang-Ho and Yang-tse, and the Amoor, are the chief of those which flow into the Pacific. The Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irawadi, and Indus flow into the Indian Ocean. The Persian Gulf receives the united waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris. There are several systems of inland drainage, large rivers falling into lakes which have no outlet.

The largest lake of Asia (partly also European) is the Caspian Sea, which receives the Kur from the Caucasus (with its tributary the Aras from Armenia), and the Sefid Rud and other streams from Persia (besides the Volga from European Russia, and the Ural, which is partly European, partly Asiatic). The Caspian lies in the centre of a great depression, being 83 feet below the level of the Sea of Azov. East from the Caspian is the Sea of Aral, which, like the Caspian, has no outlet, and is fed by the Rivers Amu-Darya (Oxus) and Syr-Darya. Still farther east, to the north of the Thian-Shan Mountains, and fed by the Ili and other streams, is Lake Balkhash, also without an outlet and very salt. Other lakes having no communication with the ocean are Lob Nor, in the desert of Gobi, receiving the River Tarim, and the Dead Sea, far below the level of the Mediterranean, and fed by the Jordan. The chief fresh-water lake is Lake Baikal, in the south of Siberia, between long. 104deg and 110deg E., a mountain lake from which the Yenisei draws a portion of its waters.

Geologically speaking, large areas of Asia are of comparatively recent date, the lowlands of Siberia, for instance, being submerged during the tertiary period, if not more recently. Many geologists believe that subsequently to the glacial period there was a great sea in Western Asia, of which the Caspian and Aral Seas are the remains. The desiccation of Central Asia is still going on, as is also probably the upheaval of a great part of the continent. The great mountain chains and elevated plateaux are of ancient origin, however, and in them granite and other crystalline rocks are largely represented. Active volcanoes are only met with in the extreme east (Kamtchatka) and in the Eastern Archipelago. From the remotest times Asia has been celebrated for its mineral wealth. In the Altai and Ural Mountains gold, iron, lead, and platinum are found; in India and other parts rubies, diamonds, and other gems are, or have been, procured; salt in Central Asia; coal in China, India, Central Asia, &c.; petroleum in the districts about the Caspian and in Burmah; bitumen in Syria; while silver, copper, sulphur, &c., are found in various parts.

Every variety of climate may be experienced in Asia, but as a whole it is marked by extremes of heat and cold and by great dryness, this in particular being the case with vast regions in the centre of the continent and distant from the sea. The great lowland region of Siberia has a short but very hot summer, and a long but intensely cold winter, the rivers and their estuaries being fast bound with ice, and at a certain depth the soil is hard frozen all the year round. The northern part of China to the east of Central Asia has a temperate climate with a warm summer, and in the extreme north a severe winter. The districts lying to the south of the central region, comprising the Indian and Indo-Chinese Peninsulas, Southern China, and the adjacent islands, present the characteristic climate and vegetation of the southern temperate and tropical regions modified by the effects of altitude. Some localities in Southern Asia have the heaviest rainfall anywhere known. As the equator is approached the extremes of temperature diminish till at the southern extremity of the continent they are such as may be experienced in any tropical country. Among climatic features are the monsoons of the Indian Ocean and the eastern seas, and the cyclones or typhoons, which are often very destructive.

The plants and animals of Northern and Western Asia generally resemble those of similar latitudes in Europe (which is really a prolongation of the Asiatic continent), differing more in species than in genera. The principal mountain trees are the pine, larch, and birch; the willow, alder, and poplar are found in lower grounds. In the central region European species reach as far as the Western and Central Himalaya, but are rare in the Eastern. They are here met by Chinese and Japanese forms. The lower slopes of the Himalaya are clothed almost exclusively with tropical forms. Higher up, between 4000 and 10,000 feet, are found all the types of trees and plants that belong to the temperate zone, there being extensive forests of conifers. Here is the native home of the deodar cedar. The south-eastern region, including India, the Eastern Peninsula, and China, with the islands, contains a vast variety of plants useful to man and having here their original habitat, such as the sugar-cane, rice, cotton, and indigo, pepper, cinnamon, cassia, clove, nutmeg, and cardamoms, banana, coco-nut, areca, and sago palms; the mango and many other fruits, with plants producing a vast number of drugs, caoutchouc, and gutta-percha. The forests of India and the Malay Peninsula contain oak, teak, sal, and other timber woods, besides bamboos, palms, sandal-wood, &c. The palmyra palm is characteristic of Southern India; while the talipot palm flourishes on the western coast of Hindustan, Ceylon, and the Malay Peninsula. The cultivated plants of India and China include wheat, barley, rice, maize, millet, sugar-cane, tea, coffee, indigo, cotton, jute, opium, tobacco, &c. In North China and the Japanese Islands large numbers of deciduous trees occur, such as oaks, maples, limes, walnuts, poplars, and willows, the genera being European but the individual species Asiatic. Among cultivated plants are wheat, and in favourable situations rice, cotton, the vine, &c. Coffee, rice, sugar, &c., are extensively grown in some of the islands of the Asiatic Archipelago. In Arabia and the warmer valleys of Persia, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan aromatic shrubs are abundant. Over large parts of these regions the date palm flourishes and affords a valuable article of food. Gum-producing acacias are, with the date palm, the commonest trees in Arabia. African forms are found extending from the Sahara along the desert region of Asia.

Nearly all the mammals of Europe are found in Northern Asia, with numerous additions to the species. Central Asia is the native land of the horse, the ass, the ox, the sheep, and the goat. Both varieties of the camel, the single and the double humped, are Asiatic. To the inhabitants of Tibet and the higher plateaux of the Himalaya the yak is what the reindeer is to the tribes of the Siberian plain, almost their sole wealth and support. The elephant, of a different species from that of Africa, is a native of tropical Asia. The Asiatic lion, which inhabits Arabia and Persia, and still exists in the north-west of India, is smaller than the African species. Bears are found in all parts, the white bear in the far north, and other species in the more temperate and tropical parts. The tiger is the most characteristic of the larger Asiatic Carnivora. It is found in Armenia and throughout the entire continent, being absent, however, from the greater portion of Siberia and from the high table-land of Tibet; it is found also in Sumatra, Java, and Bali. In South-Eastern Asia and the islands we find the rhinoceros, buffalo, ox, deer, squirrels, porcupines, &c. In birds nearly every order is represented. Among the most interesting forms are the hornbills, the peacock, the Impey pheasant, the tragopan or horned pheasant, and other gallinaceous birds, the pheasant family being very characteristic of South-Eastern Asia. It was from Asia that the common domestic fowl was introduced into Europe. The tropical parts of Asia abound in monkeys, of which the species are numerous. Some are tailed, others, such as the orang, are tailless, but none have prehensile tails like the American monkeys. In the Malay Archipelago marsupial animals, so characteristic of Australia, first occur in the Moluccas and Celebes, while various mammals common in the western part of the Archipelago are absent. A similar transition towards the Australian type takes place in the species of birds. (See _Wallace's Line_.) Of marine mammals the dugong is peculiar to the Indian Ocean; in the Ganges is found a peculiar species of dolphin. At the head of the reptiles stands the Gangetic crocodile, frequenting the Ganges and other large rivers. Among the serpents are the cobra de capello, one of the most deadly snakes in existence; there are also large boas and pythons, besides sea and fresh-water snakes. The seas and rivers produce a great variety of fish. The Salmonidae are found in the rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean. Two rather remarkable fishes are the climbing perch and the archer-fish. The well-known goldfish is a native of China.

Asia is mainly peopled by races belonging to two great ethnographic types, the Caucasic or fair type, and the Mongolic or yellow. To the former belong the Aryan, or Indo-European, and the Semitic races, both of which mainly inhabit the south-west of the continent; to the latter belong the Malays and Indo-Chinese in the S.E., as well as the Mongolians proper (Chinese, &c.), occupying nearly all the rest of the continent. To these may be added certain races of doubtful affinities, as the Dravidians of Southern India, the Cingalese of Ceylon, the Ainos of Yesso, and some negro-like tribes called Negritos, which inhabit Malacca and the interior of several of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago. The total population is estimated at 823,000,000, or more than half that of the whole world, of which 330,000,000 inhabit Chinese territory, 302,000,000 British, and 25,000,000 Russian. Portions of Asia are under the control of European Powers (Russia, Great Britain, Holland, France), of the United States of America, China, and Japan. The chief States are China, Japan, Corea, Siam, Afghanistan, Persia, and Arabia. The chief religions are the Brahmanism of India, the Buddhism of Burmah, China, &c., the creeds of Confucius and Lao-tse in China, and the various forms of Mahommedanism in Arabia, Persia, India, &c. More than a half of the whole population profess some form of Buddhism. Several native Christian sects are found in India, Armenia, Kurdistan, and Syria.

Asia is generally regarded as the cradle of the human race. It possesses the oldest historical documents, and, next to the immediately contiguous kingdom of Egypt, the oldest historical monuments in the world. The Old Testament contains the oldest historical records which we have of any nation in the form of distinct narrative. The period at which Moses wrote was probably 1500 or 1600 years before the Christian era. His and the later Jewish writings confine themselves almost exclusively to the history of the Hebrews; but in Babylonia, as in Egypt, civilization had made great advances long before this time. The earliest seat of the Aryan race some assign to the banks of the Oxus. Hence, perhaps from the pressure of the Mongolian tribes to the north, they spread themselves to the south-east and south-west, finally occupying Northern India, Persia, and other parts of Western Asia, and spreading into Europe, perhaps about 2000-1500 B.C. In China authentic history extends back probably to about 1000 B.C., with a long preceding period of which the names of dynasties are preserved without chronological arrangement. The kingdoms of Assyria, Babylonia, Media, and Persia predominated by turns in South-Western Asia. In regard to the history of these monarchies, much light has been obtained from the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions. The arms of the Pharaohs extended into Asia, but their conquests there were short-lived. From Cyrus (559 B.C.), who extended the empire of Persia from the Indus to the Mediterranean, while his son, Cambyses, added Egypt and Libya to it, to the conquest of Alexander (330 B.C.) Persia was the dominant Power in Western Asia. Alexander's great empire became broken up into separate kingdoms, which were finally absorbed in the Roman Empire, and this ultimately extended to the Tigris. Soon after the most civilized portions of the three continents had been reduced under one empire, the great event took place which forms the dividing-line of history, the birth of Christ and the spread of Christianity. In A.D. 226 a protracted struggle began between the newer Persian Empire and the Romans, which lasted till the advent of Mahomet, and the conquests of the Arabians. Persia was the first great conquest of Mahomet's followers. Syria and Egypt soon fell before their arms, and within forty years of the celebrated flight of Mahomet from Mecca (the _Hejra_), the sixth of the caliphs, or successors of the Prophet, was the most powerful sovereign of Asia. The Mongols next became the dominant race. In 999 Mahmud, whose father, born a Turkish slave, became Governor of Ghazni, conquered India, and established his rule. The dynasty of the Seljuk Tartars was established in Aleppo, Damascus, Iconium, and Kharism, and was distinguished for its struggles with the Crusaders. Othman, an emir of the Seljuk sultan of Iconium, established the Ottoman Empire in 1300. About 1220 Genghis Khan, an independent Mongol chief, made himself master of Central Asia, conquered Northern China, overran Turkestan, Afghanistan, and Persia; his successors took Bagdad and abolished the caliphate. In Asia Minor they overthrew the Seljuk dynasty. One of them, Timur or Tamerlane, carried fire and sword over Northern India and Western Asia, defeated and took prisoner Bajazet, the descendant of Othman (1402), and received tribute from the Greek emperor. The Ottoman Empire soon recovered from the blow inflicted by Timur, and Constantinople was taken and the Eastern Empire finally overthrown by the Sultan Mohammed II in 1453. China recovered its independence about 1368 and was again subjected by the Manchu Tartars (1618-45), soon after which it began to extend its empire over Central Asia. Siberia was conquered by the Cossacks on behalf of Russia (1580-4). The same country effected a settlement in the Caucasus about 1786, and has since continued to make steady advances into Central Asia. The discovery by the Portuguese of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope led to their establishment on the coast of the peninsula (1498). They were speedily followed by the Spanish, Dutch, French, and British. The struggle between the two last Powers for the supremacy of India was completed by the destruction of the French settlements (1760-5). At present the forms of government in Asia range from the primitive rule of the nomad sheik to the constitutional monarchy of Japan.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sven Hedin, _Through Asia_; H. F. Blanford, _Elementary Geography of India, Burma, and Ceylon_; Max. Mueller, _The Sacred Books of the East_; A. Little, _The Far East_; R. Cobbold, _Innermost Asia_; Colonel A. Durand, _The Making of a Frontier_; J. G. C. Chamberlain, _Continents and their Peoples_; E. Huntington, _The Pulse of Asia_; E. C. Hannah, _Eastern Asia_.

ASIA, CENTRAL, a designation loosely given to the regions in the centre of Asia east of the Caspian, also called Turkestan, and formerly Tartary. The eastern portion belongs to China, the western to Russia. Russian Central Asia comprises the Kirghiz Steppe (Uralsk, Turgai, Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk, &c.), and what was the government-general of Turkestan till 1918, besides the territory of the Turkomans, or Transcaspia and Merv. See _Turkestan, Republic of_.

ASIA MINOR, the most westerly portion of Asia, being the peninsula lying west of the Upper Euphrates, and forming part of Asiatic Turkey. It forms an extensive plateau, with lofty mountains rising above it, the most extensive ranges being the Taurus and Anti-Taurus, which border it on the south and south-east, and rise to over 10,000 feet. There are numerous salt- and freshwater lakes. The chief rivers are the Kizil-Irmak (Halys), Sakaria (Sangarius), entering the Black Sea; and the Sarabat (Hermus) and Menderes (Maeander), entering the Aegean. The coast regions are generally fertile, and have a genial climate; the interior is largely arid and dreary. Valuable forests and fruit-trees abound. Smyrna is the chief town. _Anatolia_ is an equivalent name. See _European War_; _Turkey_.

ASIAGO, a town in Italy in the province of Vicenza, capital of the Seven Communes (Sette Communi). In the great European War several battles were fought on the Asiago Plateau. The town was evacuated by the Italians on 28th May, 1916, but retaken on 25th June, 1916. See _European War_.

ASIATIC SOCIETIES, learned bodies instituted for the purpose of collecting information respecting the different countries of Asia, such as the Asiatic Society of Bengal, founded in 1784 by Sir William Jones; and the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, established by Colebrooke, and opened in 1823. There are similar societies on the European Continent and in America, such as the Societe Asiatique at Paris, founded in 1822; the Oriental Society of Germany (Deutsche Morgenlaendische Gesellschaft), founded in 1845; and the Oriental Society at Boston, founded in 1842.

ASIPHONA'TA, or ASIPHON'IDA, an order of lamellibranchiate, bivalve molluscs, destitute of the siphon or tube through which, in the Siphonata, the water that enters the gills is passed outwards. It includes the oysters, the scallop-shells, the pearl-oyster, the mussels, and in general the most useful and valuable molluscs.

ASIR. See _Hejaz_.

ASKABAD', the administrative centre of the Russian province of Transcaspia, situated in the Akhal Tekke oasis, and occupied by Skobelev in Jan., 1881, after the sack of Geok Tepe. Its distance from Merv is 232 miles, from Herat 388 miles. Pop. 54,000.

AS'KEW, Anne, a victim of religious persecution, born 1521, martyred 1546. She was a daughter of Sir William Askew of Lincolnshire, and was married to a wealthy neighbour named Kyme, who, irritated by her Protestantism, drove her from his house. In London, whither she went probably to procure a divorce, she spoke against the dogmas of the old faith, and, being tried, was condemned to death as a heretic. Being put to the rack to extort a confession concerning those with whom she corresponded, she continued firm, and was then taken to Smithfield, chained to a stake, and burned.

ASKJA ([.a]sk'y[.a]), a volcano near the centre of Iceland, first brought into notice by an eruption in 1875. Its crater is 17 miles in circumference, surrounded by a mountain-ring from 500 to 1000 feet high, the height of the mountain itself being between 4000 and 5000 feet.

AS'MANNSHAUSEN (-hou-zn), a Prussian village on the Rhine, in the district of Wiesbaden, celebrated for its wine. Many judges prefer the red wine of Asmannshausen to the best Burgundy, but it retains its merits for three or four years only.

ASMO'DAI, or ASMO'DEUS, an evil spirit, who, as related in the book of Tobit, slew seven husbands of Sara, daughter of Raguel, but was driven away into the uttermost parts of Egypt by the young Tobias under the direction of the angel Raphael. Asmodai signifies a desolater, a destroying angel, identical with the demon A[=e]shma of the Zend-Avesta. He is represented in the Talmud as the prince of demons who drove King Solomon from his kingdom.

ASMONAE'ANS, a family of high priests and princes who ruled over the Jews for about 130 years, from 153 B.C., when Jonathan, son of Mattathias, the great-grandson of Chasmon or Asmonaeus, was nominated to the high-priesthood.

ASNIERES (aen-y[=a]r), a town on the Seine, a N.W. suburb of Paris, a favourite boating resort of the Parisians. Pop. 42,583.

ASO'KA, an Indian sovereign who reigned from 264 to 228 B.C. over the whole of Northern India, grandson of Chandragupta or Sandracottus. He embraced Buddhism, and forced his subjects also to become converts. Many temples and _stupas_, or brick cupolas, still remaining are attributed to him.

ASO'KA (_Jonesia as[=o]ca_), an Indian tree, nat. ord. Leguminosae, having a lovely flower, showing orange, scarlet, and bright-yellow tints; sacred to the god Siva, and often mentioned in Indian literature.

ASO'PUS, the name of several rivers in Greece, of which the most celebrated is in Boeotia.

ASP, or ASPIC (_Naja_, or _Vip[)e]ra haje_), a species of viper found in Egypt, resembling the cobra de capello or spectacle-serpent of the East Indies, and having a very venomous bite. When approached or disturbed it elevates its head and body, swells out its neck, and appears to stand erect to attack the aggressor. Hence the ancient Egyptians believed that the asps were guardians of the spots they inhabited, and the figure of this reptile was adopted as an emblem of the protecting genius of the world. The balancing motions made by it in the endeavour to maintain the erect attitude have led to the employment of the asp as a dancing serpent by the African jugglers. The "deaf adder that stoppeth her ear" of _Psalm_ lviii, 4, 5 is translated asp in the margin, and seems to have been this species. Cleopatra is said to have committed suicide by means of an asp's bite, but the incident is generally associated with the Cerastes or horned viper, not with the haje. The name asp is also given to a viper (_Vipera aspis_) common on the continent of Europe.

ASPARAGINE, or AMINOSUCCINAMIC ACID, CH_2CONH_2, CH(NH_2)COOH, is a white crystalline substance of unpleasant acid taste found in the shoots of asparagus, in potato and dahlia tribes, and in many other plants, from which it may be extracted by means of water.

ASPAR'AGUS (_Aspar[)a]gus officin[=a]lis_), a plant of the order Liliaceae, the young shoots of which, cut as they are emerging from the ground, are a favourite culinary vegetable. In Greece, and especially in the southern steppes of Russia and Poland, it is found in profusion; and its edible qualities were esteemed by the ancients. Pliny states that asparagus was in his time cultivated in gardens, particularly at Ravenna. The best asparagus is grown in gardens near the sea, and hundreds of acres are devoted to its cultivation in Holland and Belgium. It grows wild in Essex and Lincolnshire, but does not attain nearly to the size of the cultivated plant. It is usually raised from seed; and the plants should remain three years in the ground before they are cut; after which, for several years, they will continue to afford a regular annual supply. The beds are protected by straw or litter in winter. Its diuretic properties are ascribed to the presence of a crystalline substance found also in the potato, lettuce, &c.

ASPA'SIA, a celebrated woman of ancient Greece, was born at Miletus, in Ionia, but passed a great part of her life at Athens, where her house was the general resort of the most distinguished men in Greece. She won the affection of Pericles, who united himself to Aspasia as closely as was permitted by the Athenian law, which declared marriage with a foreign woman illegal. Her power in the State has often been exaggerated, but it is beyond question that her genius left its mark upon the administration of Pericles. In 432-431 B.C. she was accused of impiety, and was only saved from condemnation by the eloquence and tears of Pericles. After his death (429 B.C.) Aspasia is said to have attached herself to a wealthy but obscure cattle-dealer of the name of Lysicles, whom she raised to a position of influence in Athens. Nothing more is known of her life. She had a son by Pericles, who was legitimated (430 B.C.) by a special decree of the people. There is a bust bearing her name in the Pio Clementino Museum in the Vatican.

ASPATRIA, a town (urban district) of England, Cumberland, 8 miles north-east of Maryport, with an agricultural college. Pop. 3340.

AS'PE, a town of Southern Spain, province of Alicante. Pop. (1921), 3525.

AS'PECT, in astrology, denotes the situation of the planets with respect to each other. There are five different major aspects: the sextile, when the planets are 60deg distant; quartile, when they are 90deg distant; trine, when 120deg distant; opposition, when 180deg distant; and conjunction, when both are in the same longitude. The aspects were classed by astrologers as _benign_, _malignant_, or _indifferent_, according to their fancied influences upon human affairs.

ASPECT OF LAND. See _Exposure_.

AS'PEN, or trembling poplar (_P[=o]p[)u]lus trem[)u]la_), a species of poplar indigenous to Britain and to most mountainous regions throughout Europe and Asia. It is a beautiful tree of rapid growth and extremely hardy, with nearly circular toothed leaves, smooth on both sides, and attached to footstalks so long and slender as to be shaken by the slightest wind; wood light, porous, soft, and of a white colour, useful for various purposes.

ASPER, or ASPRE, a small Turkish coin, of which there are 120 in the piastre, value 1/54d.

ASPERGILL'US, the brush used in Roman Catholic churches for sprinkling holy water on the people. It is said to have been originally made of hyssop.

AS'PERN and ESSLINGEN (or ESSLING) (es'ling-en), two villages east of Vienna, and on the opposite bank of the Danube; celebrated as the chief contested positions in the bloody but indecisive battle fought between the Archduke Charles and Napoleon I, 21st and 22nd May, 1809, when it was estimated that the Austrians lost a third of their army, and the French no less than half.

ASPER'ULA, the woodruff genus of plants.

ASPHALT, or ASPHAL'TUM, the most common variety of bitumen; also called mineral pitch. Asphalt is a compact, glossy, brittle, black or brown mineral, which breaks with a polished fracture, melts easily with a strong pitchy odour when heated, and when pure burns without leaving any ashes. It is found in the earth in many parts of Asia, Europe, and America, and in a soft or liquid state on the surface of the Dead Sea, which, from this circumstance, was called _Asphalt[=i]tes_. It is of organic origin, the asphalt of the great Pitch Lake of Trinidad being derived from bituminous shales, containing vegetable remains in the process of transformation. Asphalt is produced artificially in making coal-gas. During the process much tarry matter is evolved and collected in retorts. If this be distilled, naphtha and other volatile matters escape, and asphalt is left behind. It is sometimes called _Jew's Pitch_.

ASPHALTE (or ASPHALT) ROCK, a limestone impregnated with bitumen, found in large quantities in various localities in Europe, as in the Val de Travers, Neufchatel, Switzerland; in the department of Ain in France; in Alsace, Hanover, Holstein, Sicily, &c. These rocks contain a variable quantity of bitumen (from 7 or 8 to 20 or 30 per cent) naturally diffused through them. The Val de Travers asphalt was discovered in 1710. In 1837 an English patent was taken out for its application to roads, pavements, terraces, areas, roofs, &c. Since then other asphalte-rocks, as well as artificial preparations made by mixing bitumen, gas-tar, pitch, or other materials with sand, chalk, &c., have been brought into competition with it.

AS'PHODEL (_Asphod[)e]lus_), a genus of plants, ord. Liliaceae, consisting of perennials, with fasciculated fleshy roots, flowers arranged in racemes, six stamens inserted at the base of the perianth, a sessile almost spherical ovary with two cells, each containing two ovules; fruit a capsule with three cells, in each of which there are, as a rule, two seeds. Two species are cultivated in Britain as garden flowers, the yellow asphodel (_Asphodelus lut[)e]us_) and the white asphodel (_Asphodelus albus_). The English word 'daffodil' is a perversion of asphodel. The _Asphodelus ram[=o]sus_, which attains a height of 5 feet, is cultivated in Algeria and elsewhere, its tubercles yielding a very pure alcohol, and the residue, together with the stalks and leaves, being used in making pasteboard and paper. The asphodel was a favourite plant among the ancients, who were in the habit of planting it round their tombs. In Greek religion it is associated with Persephone, the dead, and the underworld.

ASPHYX'IA, literally, the state of a living animal in which no pulsation can be perceived, but the term is more particularly applied to a suspension of the vital functions from causes hindering respiration. The normal accompaniments of death from asphyxia are dark fluid blood, a congested brain and exceedingly congested lungs, the general engorgement of the viscera, and an absence of blood from the left cavities of the heart while the right cavities and pulmonary artery are gorged. The restoration of asphyxiated persons has been successfully accomplished at long periods after apparent death. The attempt should be made to maintain the heat of the body and to secure the inflation of the lungs as in the case of the apparently drowned. See _Respiratory System_.

ASPHYXIATING GAS. See _Poison Gas_.

ASPIC, a dish consisting of a clear savoury meat jelly, containing fowl, game, fish, &c.

ASPIDISTRA, a genus of plants of the lily family, comprising three or four species, natives of China and Japan, being plants with large smooth oblong lanceolate leaves, rising from an underground rhizome, and with campanulate flowers of a dull purplish or brownish colour. They are now very common in Britain, being especially cultivated as indoor plants.

ASPID'IUM, a genus of ferns, nat. ord. Polypodiaceae, comprising the shield-fern and male-fern.

AS'PINWALL. See _Colon_.

AS'PIRATE, a name given to any sound like our _h_, to the letter _h_ itself, or to any mark of aspiration, as the Greek rough breathing ([Greek: h]). Such characters or sounds as the Sanskrit _kh_, _gh_, _bh_, and the Greek _ch_, _th_, _ph_, are called _aspirates_.

AS'PIRATOR, an instrument used to promote the flow of a gas from one vessel into another by means of a liquid. The simplest form of aspirator is a cylindrical vessel containing water, with a pipe at the upper end which communicates with the vessel containing the gas, and a pipe at the lower end also, with a stopcock and with its extremity bent up. By allowing a portion of the water to run off by the pipe at the lower part of the aspirator a measured quantity of air or other gas is sucked into the upper part.

ASPLE'NIUM, a genus of ferns, of the nat. ord. Polypodiaceae. Nine species are found in Britain, among them the well-known Wall-rue.

ASPROMON'TE, a mountain of Italy in the south-west of Calabria, where Garibaldi was wounded and taken prisoner with the greater part of his army, in Aug., 1862.

ASPROPOT'AMO. See _Achelous_.

ASPULL, a town (urban district) of England, Lancashire, 2 or 3 miles north-east of Wigan, with large collieries and other works. Pop. 7851.

ASQUITH, Herbert Henry, prominent politician of the Liberal party, born in 1852, educated at City of London School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated with high distinction. Called to the Bar in 1876, he became Q.C. in 1890; in 1886 was elected member of Parliament for East Fife, and held his seat for this constituency uninterruptedly until Dec., 1918, when he was defeated. From 1892 to 1895 he was Home Secretary, being also made a Privy Councillor in the former year. Both in regard to the South African War and various other questions, when out of office, he spoke more in harmony with the views of Lord Rosebery than with those of Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, but under the latter he accepted the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer in the ministry formed in Dec., 1905. On the retirement of Sir Henry in 1908 he succeeded him as Prime Minister. He at once hastened to draw up the Liberal reform programme, the list of measures including the Lloyd George Budget (1909), the Parliament Act (1911), the Insurance Act, and the Irish Home Rule Bill. In May, 1915, a cabinet crisis having resulted from disagreements, Asquith formed a Coalition Government, eight Unionists being admitted. Towards the end of 1916 there was a feeling in the country not only that the Coalition cabinet of twenty-three ministers was unwieldy, but that Mr. Asquith's Government was not sufficiently energetic and showed too much hesitation in dealing with the vital problems of the war. Mr. Asquith therefore resigned on 5th Dec., 1916, and Mr. Lloyd George formed a new ministry. Unseated in the General Election of 1918, Mr. Asquith accepted the invitation to stand for Paisley in 1920. He was returned by a majority of 2834.

AS'RAEL, the Mahommedan angel of death, who takes the soul from the body.

ASS (_Equus as[)i]nus_), a species of the horse genus, supposed by Darwin to have sprung from the wild variety (_Asinus toeni[)o]pus_) found in Abyssinia; by some writers to be a descendant of the _on[)a]ger_ or wild ass, inhabiting the mountainous deserts of Tartary, &c.; and by others to have descended from the kiang or djiggetai (_A. hemi[)o]nus_) of South-Western Asia. The ass was used in Egypt long before the horse, and it played an important part in Homeric Greece. According to Aristotle, however, it was unknown in his time in Pontus, Scythia, and in the land of the Celts. The ass seems to have been introduced into England in the days of Ethelred, but did not become common before the end of the seventeenth century. Both in colour and size the ass is exceedingly variable, ranging from dark grey and reddish brown to white, and from the size of a Newfoundland dog in North India to that of a good-sized horse. In the south-western countries of Asia and in Egypt, in some districts of Southern Europe, as in Spain, and in Kentucky and Peru, great attention has been paid to selection and interbreeding, with a result no less remarkable than in the case of the horse. Thus in Syria there appear to be four distinct breeds: a light and graceful animal used by ladies, an Arab breed reserved for the saddle, an ass of heavier build in use for ploughing and draft purposes, and the large Damascus breed. The efforts made to raise the deteriorated British breed have only been partially successful. The male ass is mature at two years of age, the female still earlier. The she-ass carries her young eleven months. The teeth of the young ass follow the same order of appearance and renewal as those of the horse. The life of the ass does not usually exceed thirty years. It is in general much healthier than the horse, and is maintained in this condition by a smaller quantity and coarser quality of food; it is superior to the horse in its ability to carry heavy burdens over the most precipitous roads, and is in no respect its inferior in intelligence, despite the reputation for stupidity which it has borne from very ancient times. The skin is used as parchment to cover drums, &c., and in the East is made into shagreen. The hybrid offspring of the horse and the female ass is the hinny, that of the ass and the mare is the mule; but the latter is by far the larger and more useful animal. Asses' milk, long celebrated for its sanative qualities, more closely resembles that of a woman than any other. It is very similar in taste, and throws up an equally fluid cream, which is not convertible into butter.

ASSA. See _Piave, Battles of the_; _European War_.

ASSAB', a bay of Africa on the south-west coast of the Red Sea, belonging to the Italian territory of Eritrea, which has been acquired since Italy established here a colony and free port in 1881.

ASSAFOETIDA. See _Asafetida_.

ASSAI-PALM (as-[=i]; _Euterpe olerac[)e]a_), a native of tropical S. America, only about 4 inches in diameter and 60 or 80 feet high, with a crown of leaves, beneath which a small fruit grows on branched horizontal spadices. The pulp of the fruit mixed with water is used as a beverage.

ASSAL', a salt lake in North-Eastern Africa, in Adal.

ASSAM', one of the fifteen provinces of British India, separated from Eastern Bengal and reconstituted in 1912; area, 53,015 sq. miles. It forms a series of fertile valleys watered by the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, the valley of the Brahmaputra, which is the main one, consisting of rich alluvial plains, either but little elevated above the river, or so low that large extents of them are flooded for three or four days once or twice in the year, while the course of the river often changes. The climate is marked by great humidity, and malarious diseases are common in the low grounds; otherwise it is not unhealthy. The whole province, except the cultivated area, may be designated as forest, the trees including teak, sal, sissoo, the date and sago palm, the areca palm (the betel-nut tree), the Indian fig tree, &c. The article of most commercial importance is tea, which was first exported in 1838, and the yield of which is now over 100,000,000 pounds annually. Other crops raised are rice, Indian corn, pulse, oil-seeds, sugar-cane, hemp, jute, potatoes, &c. In the jungles and forests roam herds of elephants, the rhinoceros, tiger, buffalo, leopard, bear, wild hog, jackal, fox, goat, and various kinds of deer. Among serpents are the python and the cobra. Pheasants, partridges, snipe, wild peacock, and many kinds of water-fowl abound. Coal, petroleum, and limestone are found in abundance; iron is smelted to a small extent; gold-dust is met with; lime is exported to Bengal. There is no single Assamese nationality, and the Assamese language is merely a modern dialect of Bengali. Pop. 6,713,635, 3,637,828 of whom are Hindus, 1,886,528 Mahommedans, 66,430 Christians, 10,506 Buddhists, the rest being chiefly hill tribes of aboriginal faiths. The labourers in the tea-gardens are mostly drawn from Bengal. In 1826 Assam became a possession of Britain, being taken from the Burmese, who had made themselves masters of it about the end of the eighteenth century. The largest town is Sylhet (pop. 14,000).--Cf. E. A. Gait, _History of Assam_.

AS'SAPAN (_Sciuropt[)e]rus volucella_), the flying-squirrel of N. America, a little animal with folds of skin along its sides which enable it to take leaps of 40 or 50 yards.

ASSASS'INS (from _hashsh[=a]sh[=i]n_, drinkers of _hashish_), an Asiatic order or society having the practice of assassination as its most distinctive feature, founded by Hassan Ben Sabbah, the Himyarite, a _dai_ or missionary of the heterodox Mahommedan sect the Ismailites. The society grew rapidly in numbers, and in 1090 the Persian fortress of Alamut fell into their hands. Other territories were added, and the order became a recognized military power. Its organization comprised seven ranks, at its head being the Sheikh-al-Jebala or 'Old man of the mountains'. Upon a select band fell the work of assassination, to which they were stimulated by the intoxicating influence of _hashish_. For nearly two centuries they maintained their power under nine sheikhs. Hassan, after a long and prosperous reign, died in 1124. Most of his successors died violent deaths at the hands of relatives or dependents. After proving themselves strong enough to withstand the powerful sultans Noureddin and Saladin, and making themselves feared by the Crusaders, the _Assassins_ were overcome by the Tartar leader Hulaku. The last chief, Rokneddin, was killed for an act of treachery subsequent to his capture, and his death was followed by a general massacre of the assassins, in which 12,000 perished. Dispersed bands led a roving life in the Syrian mountains, and it is alleged that in the Druses and other small existing tribes their descendants are still to be found. See _Crusades_; _Khoja_.

ASSAULT', in law, an attempt or offer, with force and violence, to do a corporal hurt to another, as by striking at him with or without a weapon. If a person lift up or stretch forth his arm and offer to strike another, or menace anyone with any staff or weapon, it is an assault in law. Assault, therefore, does not necessarily imply a hitting or blow, because in trespass for assault and battery a man may be found guilty of the assault and acquitted of the battery. But every battery includes an assault.

ASSAYE, or ASSYE (as-s[=i]'), a village in Southern India, in Hyderabad, where Wellington (then Major-General Wellesley) gained a famous victory in 1803. With only 4500 troops at his disposal he completely routed the Mahratta force of 50,000 men and 100 guns. The victory, however, cost him more than a third of his men.