Amazon

or Amazone (from a = without, and mazos=the breast, from the story that the Amazons cut off. their right breast to prevent its interfering with the use of the bow), a nation on the river Thermodon, the modern Termeh in Pontus, in Asia Minor, | said to consist entirely of women renowned for their love of manly sports, | and as warriors. Men were excluded | from their territory, and commerce. was held only with strangers, while all | male children born among them were | killed. | Amber, as a mineral, called also | succinite, from Latin succinum=amber. Its color is generally yellow, but | sometimes reddish, brownish, or whitish and clouded. It is resinous in ra | ter, always translucent, and sometimes | transparent. It is brittle, and yields easily to the knife. | Ambergris, a substance derived | from the intestines of the sperm whale, | and found floating or on the shore.