Almanack

or ALMANAC, properly a calendar forth the days of the year and their divisions, together with notifications of phenomena and of ecclesiastical, and other fixtures; forecasts of future occur and chronological records of past events often introduced. Later on the original was not seldom lost sight of in such publiwhich then became magazines or annuals to some particular branch of science, art, information. Thus we have the Almanach de a kind of European peerage, the Musen a collection of German poetry, and sundry compilations that aim at giving almost views of human affairs. The origin of word cannot be satisfactorily traced. At first it would seem to be made up of “al,” the demonstrative, and some root (Heb. man ah; manay) signifying “to reckon.” But no such has been proved to exist in Arabic, it is certain that Eusebius in the third used almenacha, with its modern significa- Tables or calendars must have been one of first-fruits of primitive civilisation amongst nations, but references to them in ancient are scanty. Such contrivances were usually secret by priestly castes in the earlier stages social. development. In Rome, for instance, the preserved the fasti a mystery until 300 B.c., Cn. Plavins published them on wooden tablets. long as few men could read or write, cubes of or wood engraved with lines to note the days with special marks to indicate fasts, festivals, of the moon, and so forth, amply supplied needs. The Farnese “rustic calendars ” our own “Clogg Almanacs” are specimens of rude irventions. Of more elaborate schemes 91) Almansuyr. we hear no until the twelfth century. Roger Bacon (1292), Peter de Dacia (1302), Walter de Elvenden (1327), and John Somers (1380) were the authors of the most celebrated calendars of this period, some of which are preserved in the libraries of Oxford, Cambridge, and the British. Museum. They were based for the most part on cyclical arrangements of time in accordance with lunar movements. The introduction of printing naturally stimulated this kind of literary activity. Perhaps the earliest printed almanack was that of Regiomontanus epee at Nuremberg in 1472, Pynson’s Aalendar of Shepardes (1497) was the first that appeared in England, and Tybalt’'s Prognostications, i ued foity years laser, won high repute. Nearly all of these productions claimed the gift. of prophecy by virtue of astrological lore or occult power. Elizabeth granted a monopoly of almanac-printing to the Stationers’ Company, who retained this right until 1775, when the judges decided that the conce ion was ultra vires, In the meanwhile a great number of publications had i ued from the pre , chief among them being Lilly's Ephemeria Ce”. Poor Robins Almanac (1652), Zhe British Merlin (1658), The Edinburgh Almanac (1683), Moore's Almanac (1680 2), and Zhe vanes Diary (1705). In not a few cases humour of the coarsest quality and woodcuts to match were mixed up with more wholesome or useful matter; but a heavy stamp duty imposed in 1710 checked for over a century the exce ive circulation of this cla of literature. By far the most valuable compilation of them all was Zhe Nautical Almanack started by Dr. Neville Maskelynce in 1767, remodelled under the auspices of the Royal Society in 1836, and continued to this day. Hone’s Avery Day Book, published in 1826, was a new departure in another direction. The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge awoke in 1828 to the mischief that was being done by the diffusion of superstition, error, and bad taste under the guise of ee information, and brought out 7he British Almanack followed by The Companion to the Almanack. The Stationers, still the owners of the’ majority of the copyrights, strove to excel their rivals with The English Almanack. In 1834 the stamp duty was abolished, and from that date the quantity and uality of such periodicals have grown year by year. hitaker’s Almanac, published ol was started in 1869, and has since then gradually been enlarged, until it is now a most valuable handbook of useful information. Almansa, 2 town of Spain, in the province of Albacete, formerly part of the kingdom of Murcia. During the war of the Spanish Succe ion (1707) the Earl of Galway was defeated by the Duke of Berwick with a French army, close by. The population is e ed chiefly in the manufacture of cotton fabrics, leather and soap. Almansnur (Arb. Al-Mansur, The Invincibie), a title borne by several Mu ulman princes. Abow Gtafar-Abdallah Al-Mansur, the second Caliph of the Abbas sides dynasty, began to reign in 753. He had to leave Spain to the rival dynasty, but he gained ground in Persia and Asia, founded Bagdad, 100 Al-Mansur. ¢ 92 and made it his capital, He was the first Caliph who protected ‘iterature and science. He died on the way to Mecca, in 775. Al-Mansur, MAHOMMED, a great Moorish warrior in Spain at the end of the 10th century. He took Leon and Barcelona, drove the Christians out of Portugal, entered Galicia, and seized the shrine of St. James of Compos tell a, but was himself defeated in turn, and died 997. Almeida, Don FRANcis v’, the first Viceroy of the Portuguese po e ions in India, 1505. On his way out he took Quiloa and Mombaga, and landing on the Malabar coast, established himself as Viceroy at Cochin, His son, Lorenzo, in the meantime, reduced Ceylon, and Inter on routed the Mohammedans at sen, but was slain in an engage a ent with Hu ein, Admiral of Egypt, and the Rajah of Calicut. At this juncture Albuquerque was sent out to supersede the elder Almeida, who, defore yielding up his place, avenged his son's death by completely destroying the united fleets of the enemy off Diu. In 1509 he set sail for Europe, and danding for water in Saldanhas Bay at the Cape wus killed by a native spear. Almeida, 2 strong fortre in the province of Beira, Portugal, near the Coa river, and 113 miles N.E. of Lisbon. In 180% it was surrendered by the french, but Ma ena recaptured it by a surprise in 1810. In IS8ll, after the hard-fought battle of Almeida, Walling ton occupied the town again, Almeria, a province and capital town in Spain. The province, curved out of the kingdom of Granada, has an area of 3,300 square miles, Its seaboard was once the haunt of pirates. The interior is mountainous, but the valleys produce quantities of grapes, sugar, and inaize, 1 nd the uplands pasture large herds of cattle. There are mines of copper, iron, silver, and mercury. The City of Almeria (Portus Magnus or Murgis) is situated on the xpacious bay of that name. The streets are narrow displaying many specimens of Moorish architecture, but there are several fine squares. Under the ‘Moors Almeria was very rich and important, and after the fall of the Caliph ace of Cordova was the capital of a small kingdom. It pa ed into Christian hands in 1143. The trade is principally in barilla, Joad, and esparto. Almigui. [Acovura.] Almodovar del Campo, 4 pretty town 20 miles from Ciudad Real, in the province of New Castile, Spain. Its pus employed in agriculture, in the manufacture of lace and other ti ues, Almond, the seed of Amygdal us communis,a small tree belonging to the Drap a ceo us subdivision of the rose family, native to North-West Africa and perhaps also of Western Asia. The flowers are solitary and generally pink, and appear before the ean te leaves, which in the bud are folded in halves. The fruit is egg-shaped, downy externally, with a tough, fibrous mesocarp, and a wrinkled ‘stone. It has long been widely cultivated, and many varieties exist, differing in the hardne of the stone and in the flavour of the seed. Sweet Almonds ) (A. communis, shelied Valencia ALMOND Malaga, The Bitter oi], empivyed sometimes Almonds, pre ure mainly is fairly all hs from natural of a nitrogenous pees avouring medicinally. no emulsin, Almond-shaped IMPLEMENTS. Almoner, religious Grand astical (usually & year. Almora, a division lying at 5,337 feet Bareilly. Alnwick town of which can still by Hotspur have been in repairing has a var, Jordan Almond, (Amygdal us and the Almond in containing O1L from sweet of olein soluble Si bitter almonds; conditions, amyg@alin custards, Sweet and } one functionary. Almoner officer. The a bishop) the of the the foot above (pronounced North umber land, comes its be traced, forms spent and station Alnwick. dulcis) include the (from the French imported as a de ert communis), (1) fruit and smaller Barbary and (var. amara) yields confectionery, but dangerous pru ic acid. or, the fixed oil or bitter almonds. (S.(r. 918), solidifies in alcohol, and mixes An e ential oil is also it is not present but is produced ferment called mulsin of the almonds; etc., but is no longer almonds contain amygdatin, therefore do not yield Implements. who distributes alms; Before the Revolution in France was the highest Lord High Almoner distributes the royal administrative capital N.W. provinces of of the Him a lay as. The the level of the sea, Annick), on the river name. The old walls and one of the four the chief entrance. by the Dukes of North umber land enlarging the castle. on the North-Eastern large thinjardin), the fruit from (2) blo om. Italian forms. an e ential from obtained by It consists at 25° C., with ether in obtainable under by the actign on the it is used for employed but a volatile oil, ([F.Lixt generally a the ecclesiin England bounty twice of Kumaun, British India town stands 85 miles from the county Alne, from of the town gates built ah Sida The town Railway, 101 a appurteuances Pop. mostly islands, Jeaves The tive. Socotra, in leaf is tions compound This sequently effect. tion, ing birth of which of the disappearing. to this %o are be specifics not confused, from ¥. navigable the contains town hall, corn of (1901), 6,716, Aloe, a liliaceous natives of with rosettes or unbranched \ N \t ALOE (A. succot rin a), bitter resin in ‘The chief A. vulgar is, the West Indies, Aloes, a purgative of certain species the substance aloin. of aloes in decoction drug acts mainly many hours It is said and is, for that an active ingredient Alopecia, baldne . or be due the commonest round shining hair, are formed affection is universal, The the ravages of point authorities be derived from localised, but done in the way of which all harmle . as is sometimes Alora, 2 town Malaga by rail. Alost (Flem. Aalst), Flanders. Belgium, thus far, railway to Ostend. some fine Aloe. (93 exchange, and all the other a centre of county busine . genus of about 150 species, Africa, Arabia, and adjacent of pointed, fleshy, radical stems eight to ten feet high. ( («) leaf and (b) blo am. the leaves is a valuable purgaspecies are A. succot rin a of the Barb a does Aloe, cultivated and A. svicata, Cape Aloe. derived from the juice of the ofaloe. The active principle There are several pre para the Pharmacopeeia, of which the is one of the best known. on the lower Lowel, and con elapse before it produces its not to cause habitual con stipa reason, in high favour; form of most purgative pills. This may exist from to a variety of causes. One forms is dlopecia arcata, in patches, completely devoid on the scalp. In rare cases every hair in the body disease has been ascribed a microscopic fungus, but on differ. Benefit has been said blistering where the patches for general baldne little can of treatment. The innumerable quacks sing the praises are Alopecia must not, of course, be done, with ringworm. in And alus i a, Spain, 22 wiles a town in the province of on the river Dender, which is and 15 miles from Bru els on The Church of St. Martin pictures by Rubens, and the ) Town the factories, wools, Camel tor lofty graze to at alpaca it (q.v.). large, dant is therefrom. from white, manufacture from commenced cipal ever, now -into made North imported Lion), Persia, Armenia the Whilst Yu uf Oxus, France system 8. Alpes. Hall is an interesting structure dating early 18th century. There are now lar ye and a zood trade is done in lace, hops, and corn. Alpaca (Auchenia paco), a ruminant family, living on the Andes from the to Tierra del Fuego, but most abundant table-lands of Peru and Chili, where in herds throughout the year, and are the huts of the Indians to whom they belong shearing time. Some authorities consider to be a distinct species, while others as the partially domesticated form of the ALPACA (Atchenia 7x00) In general appearance it is not unlike long-legged, long-necked sheep, with long, soft silky wool, to which the name also given, as well as to the textile fabric prepared "hese animals vary greatly in black to shades of grey approaching while many are of a yellowish brown, of alpaca stuffs in England 1836, when Mr. (afterwards Sir) Titus to weave it. Saltaire is still the seat of the industry. Since that time, the fabric has so grown in public favour, more than 2,000,000 lbs. are annually imported Britain. Unsucce ful attempts have to acclimatise the alpaca in Europe America; and some years ago a herd into Australia with no better result. Alp Arslan, or AXxAN (Pers. The the second sultan of the Seljuk dynasty came to the throne in 1063. He and Georgia to his dominions, defeating Greek Emperor, Roman us Diogenes, in invading Turkestan he was stabbed Rothual, the commandant of a fort and died in 1073. Alpes. Three departments in the 8.E. take their name from the great mountain of Europe, viz.:—I. Ba es-Alpes; utes-Alpes; III. Alpes Mar i times. I. Ba es- Alpes is bounded N. by est as by Var, 8.W. by Alpes Mar i times, W. by Vauoluse from iron linen, of the Equaon the they driver only the regard vicuna a a bun alpaca colour, | dusky The dates Salt prinhowthat been and was Brave in added 1071. by on the of IL ae 102 and area the mountains marbles. grow silkworm Ba es-Alps, and Alps, acro severe, The towards lead, is ment, territory Mentone and Mediterranéan, Ba es-Alpes. Maritime and the from of ables, and area Mentone, are alpha, Semitic series sounds and alphabets ia use, has Cla ic receiveéd who Tacitus, point. thoughts which be Eeyptians) which Greece, what alphabets Greece resemblance could bet for di imilarity Egyptian science Alphabet. ( 94 Bouches du, Bhéne, E. by Italy, and has an of 2,680 square miles. The soil is sterile in north, byt the pasturages ure good, and the yield iron, lead, coal, jet, alabaster, and In the south oranges and other fruits abundintly, truffles are plertiful, and the is cultivated. Digne is the capital. Il. Hautes-Alpes is bounded E. ig ft taly, 8. by N. by Savoie and Igére, W, by Dréme, has an area of 2,158 square miles, The Cottian rising to an elevation of 14,000 feet, run right the department, rendering the climate very Snow Ifes in some valleys for seven months. soil, too, is barren as a rule, but fruit trees thrive the south. There are mines of iron, copper, and coal, and quarries of valuable stone, Gap the chief town. Ill. Alpes Mar i times is a newly-formed depart having been made up in 1860 from the of Nice ceded by Italy, together with and Roccobruna purchased from Monaco, part of Var. It is bounded 8S. by the E, and N. by Italy, W. by Var and Though it is very mountainous, the Alps and their spurs filling all the north centre, the mild climate of the coast district, Hivieta, draws invalids and pleasure-seekers coldér climates besides favouring the growth oranges, Jemons, and other fruits, enrly vegetsiikworms, etc. The sea, too, yiclds sardines anchovies, in which a large trade is done. The is 1,482 square miles. Nice is the chief town, Cannes, Gra e, Villefranche, and Antibes all thriving and prosperous places. [ALPS.] Alphabet (from the first two Greck letters a; beta, 8; in their turn derived from the wleph, x; beth, 3), 0 collective name for the of ‘aymbols use to expre the elementary of w language, and serving to form syllables wotds!:'{ProrurRE-WRITING.] The number of known to and catalogued by philologists about 200;"but of these only about fifty are now in The origin of the alphabet isa question which occupied’ tnankind for more than 2,000 years. authors testified ‘that the Greeks had ‘the’ pift ‘of letters from the Phoonicians, had. obtained them from the Egyptians. in his Annals (xi. 14), is explicit on this He says:—" The Kgyptians first depicted of ife mind by the figures of animals, oldest thonuments of human memory are to seen impre ed on the rocks, so that they (the appear as the inventors of letters, the Phoenician navigators brought thence to obtaining the glory as if they had discovered they only borrowed.” Comparison of the of modern Europe with that of ancient made it clenr that there was considerable between them; and no po ible doubt exist as.to the derivation of the Latin alpha from the Greek. The difficulty was to account the qrizin of the Phanician alphabet, and the between the Semitic letters and the hieroglyphs was so great that men of declined to receive the testimony of cla ic ) authors, eighth article unable, trace it or divine by before which, to hieroglyphics, from its Exodus. priests, troublesome consequently strokes. is to d’Avennes, Pri e.” dynasty, world. in po e ion alphabet Egypt ologists how Semites, There the though colony by on tion Egyptian was whence eagle. Egyptians they some letter that camel some a letter scholars made kneeling The jection; Latin The Alphabet. and the problem seemed insoluble. In the edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the “ Alphabet” concludes thus:—“ Since we are either in history or even in imagination, to the origin of the alphabet, we must ascribe with the Rabbins to the first man Adam ey we must admit that it was not a human, but a invention.” Four years later this obscurity was dispelled M. Emmanuel de Rougé in a paper read by him the Académie des Inscriptions at Paris, in while admitting the futility of endeavouring’ derive the Phoenician letters from Egyptian he showed that they were taken an Egyptian hieratic script, so ancient that use had been forgotten long before the Hebrew This script had been invented by the who found the elaborate hieroglyphics too for rapid delineation on papyrus, and abbreviated them to a few rapid The chief authority for this hieratic script a manuscript procured at Thebes and presented the Bibliothéque Nation ale at Paris by M. Pri e and generally known as the “ Papyrus It was found in a tomb of the eleventh and is undoubtedly the oldest book in the Its evidence is supported by one papyrus the Berlin Museum, and by another in the of Profe or Lepsius. From this material, and with the standard of twenty-five characters as accepted by as a basis, M. de Rougé has shown twenty-one of them were taken over by the only one new symbol ayin(y) being added, can be no certainty as to the place where or time when this development was effected, it probably originated with a Phoenician occupying the Delta some 4,000 years ago. These conclusions (which are generally accepted those whose studies have qualified them to speak the subject) have supplied an answer to the object hat the Semitic letters could not have had an origin, because, for example, the Semitic x called aleph (= an ox), while the hieroglyphic it was said to be derived represented an But when the Semites thus “spoiled the ” by appropriating the hieratic characters gave them Semitic names, each significant of object more or le closely resembling the to which it was applied and commencing with letter. [he letter 3, gimel (of which the English is a transliteration and translation), offered difficulty, as it presented no resemblance to camel, Gesenius suggested that the Phoenician represented the camel's hump, and other offered other solutions; but Dr. Taylor the matter clear by placing the sketch of a camel by the side of the hieratic character. resemblance is so close as to remove every ob-- and the development of the Greek and letters from the Phoenician is clear enough. letters figured are the lapidary forms:— O297>Te Hieratic. Phomician, Greek. Latin. 103 peculiar alphabet yeosay every developed the the in the time and been semi-consonants, “that literally the alphabet the Greek records; letters Semitic breaths veloped o-micron vat the characters: Q added o-nicron and sixth (as form, the being letters about from cursive alphabet it Etruscans, grew placed the spread far most rival mere vowel, had Cicero soon Greek. Romans script ions, Alphabet. ( 95 This acrologic principle, as it is called, is not to the Semites. It occurs in the Ru ian (borrowed from the Greek in the ninth a and in many others, and is familiar in English nursery in the rhyme:— A was an Archer, who shot at a frog; _B was a Butcher, who lad a great dog;- etc. From these twenty-two Semitic letters have been all the alphabets of the world, those of Semitic family retaining the characteristics of original in being written from right to left and having no true vowels. In the Aryan tongues writing is from left to right (though for some the ancient Greeks wrote from right to left from left to right alternately), and vowels have developed out of the Semitic breaths and so that while Disraeli’s boast, the Semites gave the world its alphabet,” is true, the Aryan race perfected that gift by addition of vowel-signs. The tradition that the Greeks derived their from the Phcenicians is established (1) by similarity between the letters in the oldest inscriptions and those in the early Phoenician (2) by the agreement in the order of the; and (3) by the adoption by the Greeks of names for their letters. From the older aleph (x), he (m), and ayin (y), were dethe vowels alpha (a), e-psilon (e), and (0); and from the semi-consonant yod (*)and (1) the vowels iota (1) and u-psilon (v). From original alphabet the Greek has omitted three F (the digamma), derived from raz (1), from goph (p), and » (san) from tsadde (¥); and five, H from cheth (mn), 9 (0-mega) from (0); differentiated from ©, X from K, W probably from # By the middle of the century B.c. the Greek lapidary alphabet known from inscriptions) had a umed a definite to be replaced some three centuries later by rounded capitals now in use, a cursive form employed for correspondence. ‘The small used in printing Greck books date from the eighth century A.D., and were developed a combination of the round capitals and the forms. Probably about the ninth century B.c. the was carried from Greece to Italy, where was adopted by the Oscans, the Umbrians, the the Faliscans, and the Latins. As Rome in power the Latin alphabet gradually dis those of the other Italian races; it became alphabet of the Empire and its dependencies, over Western Europe, and has been carried and wide by colonists till it has become the widely used alphabet of the world, its only being the Arabic. The Latins retained as a breathing H. which the Greeks had made a and the letters F and Q, which they discarded. Y was added about the time of to expre the sound of the Greek T, and Z afterwards to write loan-words from the In the time of the early Empire the used two forms of letters: capitals for in from which our own capitals have been ) developed; correspondence scribblings, of our also monks Alcuin and From Roman rise tion writing alphabet, English country. and ently sometimes (wén) Jat. symbols, sciously “the.” were vowels, originally the rence generally of u vowels, have tion have symbol when century, from as time used viii, viij, seventeenth Shakespeare 1660. formerly to the placed (a pronunciation. famed fonian strange this Alpheus. and cursive forms for busine and (chiefly known to us from the technically called gra fit i, on the walls the houses of Pompeii), which were the origin of small letters. From these cursive forms were developed the semi-uncial script used by Irish in transcribing manuscripts, introduced by into the Schvol of Charlemagno at Tours, afterwards known as Caroline minuscules. an early form of this script was developed the type, while a later and debased form gave to the Gothic or black letter. The alphabet of the early Britons was a modifica: of the Roman, and the parent of that used in and printing the old Irish language. This with some changes, was adopted by our forefathers when they conquered the The symbols p p (called the thorn-letter) PD 3 (sometimes called eth) were used. in differ for the th in thigh and the th in thy, though thcy were differentiated; the rune p was used for a, and @ for the sound of @ in Modern English has discarded these four thorgh one of them (p) is used unconby those who write and print “y°” for The vowel-sounds, which were numerous, expre ed by the use of an accent (‘) for long and by combinations of vowels. U was used both as a vowel and as a consonant, latter being distinguished chiefly by its occur between two vowels, of which the latter is e. They were differentiated before the end the thirteenth century, but the practice of writing for the consonant sound always between two and the rule that v7 must never end a word, given rise to such anomalies in our pronunciaas shdve (where v represents a primitive /) and; alive and live, etc. About the same time the 3 was used for initial y or guttural 2 or gh medial, but it went out of use in the fifteenth chiefly because it was indistinguishable Z, then introduced from the French, and used in Latin to spell foreign words. About the same the symbol J arose from the practice (still in prescriptions) of writing the numbers @, wii, with a flourish of the final i thus: 7, zij, But J was not generally used till the century; it does not appear in the of 1623, though it was common in ‘The dot over the 7 is a survival of an accent added when that letter was written next m, n, or uw. The wén rune disappeared about end of the thirteenth century, and was reby two joined 2's, and afterwards by French symbol), without any change in the Alpheus (Rom, Alphéus), ariver of Peloponnesus in cla ic song. Rising in Arcadia, and ing through Elis and Achaia, it falls into the Sea; but as part of its course is subterranean, legends and myths attached themselves to phenomenon. The stream was personified as: “Divine Alphéus, who by secrct-sluice Stole under seas to meet his Arethuse.” Micron, Arcades, 80, 104 ‘Alpine. ( 96 Arethusa, a nymph, having in vain been transformed by Diana into a Sicilian spring so as to escape the pursuit of her lover. Alpine Club, an a ociation consisting of English gentlemen, which was formed in 1857-8 for the purpese of creating a bond of union between those who found pleasure in mountaineering. It was the Alps that at first attracted the attention of the mountaineers, and hence the name of the club, but the members have by no means contented themselves with the peaks of Switzerland and Italy. Undoubtedly great good has been done by the members of the Alpine Club, both in revealing to the public many previously unheard of and unimagined beauties, and in pointing out at the same time the attendant dangers of the art of mountaineering, and suggesting the nece ary precautions. It is, moreover, a significant fact that since the foundation of the club the death-rate of accidents from mountain climbing has been reduced to a fraction of the previous mortality. Alpine Plants, low-growing perennial herbs, or wiry undershrubs, many of which are remuarkable for relatively large and showy flowers, natives of the upland pastures of the Alps, Pyrenees, or other mountain ranges, Their flowers often melt their way through the snow, and many of them are wllinated by butterflies, a group of insects reaching igh altitudes. In cultivation these plants require rotection from drought, direct sunlight, and often rom frost, being accustomed to the protection of snow, They include many species of Fanuneulus, Potentilla, Saxifraga, Hieracium, Campanula, Gentian a, Primula, Dianthus, ete. Alpnach, © small Swi town at the foot of Mount. Pilatus, on an inlet of the Lake of Lucerne, Switzerland. To convey timber from the mountain to the water “the Slide of Alpnach” was constructed, an inclined plane & miles Jong.