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books and MSS., thereby commencing
the museum Ashmoleanum at Oxford. He
died in May, 1692, aged 76. He left a
number of MSS., several of which have
been printed, and a diary of his life.

ASHANTEE; a warlike nation of Ne-
groes, on and near the Gold Coast of
Guinea, in the vicinity of the British set-
tlement, Cape Coast castle, at Sierra Le-
one, with which we have become ac-
quainted by Bowdich's Mission to Ashan-
tee (London, 1819), and Jos. Dupuis'
Journal of a Residence in Ashantee
(London, 1824), as well as by their bloody
war with the English, in 1824, in which
the governor of the above-mentioned
British colony, general McCarthy, lost his
life. The kingdom of the Ashantees was
founded, about 100 years ago, by a suc-
cessful conqueror, with a kind of feudal
constitution. It extends from 6° to 9° N.
lat., and from 0° to 4° W. lon. to the river
Volta. The residence of the king is Coo-
massie. The law permits him to have
3333 wives, a mystical number, on which
the welfare of the nation rests.
vants, above 100 in number, are slaugh-
His ser-
tered on his tomb, that he may arrive in
the infernal regions with a suite becoming
his rank. Several Negro states, under
their own princes, are dependent on him.
Ashantee itself (14,000 square miles, with
1,000,000 inhabitants) forms a part of
Wangara, which contains two other states,
Dahomy and the powerful Benin, whose
king can lead 200,000 men to war. The
fertile Benin is more advanced in civili-
zation than Ashantee. The latter, how-
ever, display much taste and elegance in
their architecture; they also dye with
skill, and manufacture cloths of exquisite
fineness and brilliancy of color.

ASHES; the fixed residuum, of a whitish or whitish-gray color, which remains after the entire combustion of organic bodies, and is no longer able to support combustion. The constituent parts of ashes are different, according to the different bodies from which they originate. The ashes of vegetables consist chiefly of earthy and saline ingredients, the latter of which may be separated by washing, and are called vegetable alkali. (See Alkali.) The more compact is the texture of the wood, the more alkali it affords. Some herbs, however, yield more than trees, and the branching fern the most. more the plants have been dried, the less The they produce. The vegetable alkali is always combined with carbonic acid. The greater, therefore, the heat by which the ashes are produced, and the more

411

continued and powerful the calcination of the alkali, the more caustic will it be. It can only be entirely purified from foreign substances by crystallization. (See animal ashes, particularly those obtained Potash.) Of quite a different quality are from bone. After calcination, it retains lime, a peculiar acid, called phosphoric its original texture, and contains, besides extensive, as is well known; soap-makacid. The use of vegetable ashes is very ers, bleachers and other tradesmen use them in an immense quantity. They are, also, an excellent manure.

nus excelsior) is a well-known tree." It is
ASH-TREE. The common ash (frari-
a native of Europe and the north of
Asia, and grows in a light, springy (but
calcarious.
not marshy) soil, especially if marly or

contributes much to drain them. It will
When planted in bogs, it
grow in almost any situation, even in hard
clay and dry gravel; though poor, dry,
sandy ground is fatal to it. Its smooth,
stately stem rises to a great height, with
with winged leaves, the leaflets in four or
spreading, or, rather, drooping branches,
five pairs, with an odd one serrated, and
without foot-stalks, and the flowers with-
out petals.-Of late years, this valuable
tree has been much planted in several
parts of England. The timber, which
has the rare advantage of being nearly as
and so hard and tough, as generally to be
good when young as when old, is white,
esteemed next in value to oak. It is
much used by coach-makers, wheel-
wrights and cart-wrights; and is made
into ploughs, axle-trees, felloes of wheels,
harrows, ladders and other implements of
husbandry. It is likewise used by ship-
coopers for the hoops of tubs and barrels.
builders for various purposes, and by
Where, by frequent cutting, the wood has
become knotty, irregular and veined, it is
in much request for cabinet-work, by
mechanics in Europe. As fuel, this tree
burns better, whilst wet and green, than
any other wood.

a fast 40 days long, which the Catholic ASH-WEDNESDAY; the first day of Lent, church orders to be kept before the feast of Easter. It derives its name from the ancient and still existing custom of putting ashes upon the head, as a symbol of humble repentance for sin. It was formerly, and, to a certain extent, is still the Ash-Wednesday, to chastise one's self durcustom in Catholic countries, to confess on ing Lent, and to partake of the Lord's supper at Easter. In Rome, the spectacle is highly impressive, when all the people,

412

ASH-WEDNESDAY-ASIA.

after giving themselves up to every species of gayety during the carnival, till 12 o'clock on Tuesday, go, on Ash-Wednesday morning, into church, where the officiating priest puts ashes on their heads, with the words, “Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." To throw ashes on the head, as an expression of humiliation and repentance, was an old custom of the Jews.

ASIA; the cradle of the human race, of nations, religions and states, of languages, arts and sciences; rich in natural gifts and historical remembrances; the theatre of human activity in ancient times, and still exhibiting, in many places, the characteristic traits which distinguished it many centuries since. It forms the eastern and northern part of the old world, and is separated from Australia by the Indian and the Pacific oceans, including the gulfs of Bengal, Siam and Tonquin; from America, on the N. E., by Cook's or Behring's straits, and on the E. by the great Eastern or Pacific ocean, including the gulf of Corea, the seas of Japan, Tongou (Yellow sea) and Okotsk; from Africa by the Arabian sea (with which is connected the Persian gulf) and by the Arabian gulf, or Red sea, with the straits of Babelmandel; from Europe by the sea of Azoph, with the straits of Caffa, by the Black sea with the Bosphorus, by the sea of Marmora and the Dardanelles, and by the Grecian archipelago. On the other hand, it is united with Africa by the desert isthmus of Suez, and with Europe by the waters of the Wolga (which rises near the Baltic, and falls, with the Ural, into the Caspian sea); also by the rocky girdle, as the Tartars call it, of the Ural and the Werchoturian mountains, which rise 77° N. lat. in Nova Zembla, separate the plain of the Wolga from the higher table-lands of Siberia, and are connected with Upper Asia by a branch of the Little Altai, abounding in ores. The area of Asia is calculated at 16,175,000 square miles. It extends from 26° to 190° E.lon., and from 2° to 78° N. lat. Its greatest breadth, from N. to S. is 4140 miles, and its greatest length about 8000. It is four times larger than Europe. It is divided into, 1, Southern Asia, comprehending Natolia, Armenia, Curdistan, Syria, Arabia, Persia, Hindostan, Farther India, Siam, Malacca, Annam, Tonquin, Cochin China, Laos, Cambodia, China, Japan; 2, Middle or Upper Asia, containing Caucasus, Tartary, Bucharia, Mongolia, Tungousia; 3, Northern or Russian Asia, from 44° N. lat., containing Kasan, Astrachan, Oren

burg, Kuban, Kabarda, Georgia, Imireta. Siberia, with the Alpine regions of Dauri and Kamschatka. The centre of the continent, probably the oldest ridge of land on the earth, is called Upper Asia Here the Bogdo (the majestic summit of the Altai) forms the central point of all the mountains of Asia. Upper Asia com prises, perhaps, the most elevated plair on the surface of the earth-the desert of Kobi, or Shamo, on the northern frontiers of China, 400 leagues long, and 100 leagues broad; barren, dry and waste; visited alternately by scorching winds and chilling storms, even in summer, and affording, besides its deserts, only rivers and lakes; as the Caspian, the lakes Aral and Baikal, and several situated among the mountains. From the northern and southern declivities of this region, the first tribes of men set out in all directions. following the course of the rivers in four chief lines of descent (north, east, south and west). At least, the radical words in the Indian, Median, Persian, Sclavonian, Greek and Teutonic original languages. between which there are striking affinities, all point to the west of Upper Asia or Iran. Those heights in the Himalaya chain (q. v.), under the 35th degree of N. lat., which are said to attain an elevation of 27,677 English feet, could not be reached by the currents, which, coming from the south, where they were broken by cape Comorin and cape Romania, flowed round the Chinese sea to the north, where the East cape on the east. Tehukotskoi-Noss on the north-east, and the Iey cape in the Arctic occan, became the extreme points of the continent. The islands in the east (Japan, the Kurile and Aleutian isles, those of Formosa, Hainan and Leeoo-Keeoo) and in the south-west (Socotra, Ormus, &c.), in particular the groups of islands on both sides of the equator (see Indies, East), and the peninsulas Kamschatka and Corea, India on this side and beyond the Ganges, and Arabia, bear visible marks of the destruction of the primitive continent by fire and water; hence the numerous extinguished or still active volcanoes, in the interi or, on the coasts, and particularly on the islands. The interior opens an immense field of scientific research for a traveller like Humboldt. The sources of all the large rivers of Asia, which must be sought for in the mountains of Upper Asia, have not been accurately examined since the time of Marco Polo. As little known are the southern declivities of the Mussart, Mustag (or Imaus), and of the Indian Alps, which

extend over 630,000 square miles, and grasses, and the most charming flowers; contain the kingdoms of Thibet, Bootan, and unites, in its productions, symmeNepaul, Assam, &c., with the snowy try with richness, particularly in the summits of the Hindoo Koosh (Paropa- western regions. Here the oldest tradimisus), Belurtag, Kentaisse and the Him- tions place Paradise; here lie the enalaya. It is the same with the northern chanting Cashmere and the Garden of elevation of the Altai, which, in the north- Damascus; here blossoms the rose of east, joins the mountains Changai (the Jericho (anastatica), near the cedars of holy land of Genghis Khan and of the Lebanon. The eastern countries, in the Mantchoo tribes, extending to Corea and same latitude, possess the tea-shrub and Japan). From the southern Alpine gir- the genuine rhubarb. The camel, the dle descend the holy rivers of the Hin- Angora goat, the Thibetan sheep, the doos the Bramapootra, the Ganges and pheasant and the horse are natives of Indus; in the east, the less known rivers this zone. In the north blossoms the of Irawaddy, Meinam, Lukian and Mecon Alpine flora of Dauria, and from the icy (or Cambodia), and, in the west, the Eu- soil grows the dwarf-like Siberian cedar, phrates and the Tigris (q. v.), which all till, at 70°, vegetation mostly ceases. Here take their course towards the south, and lives the smallest of quadrupeds-the run into the great gulfs of the Indian shrew-mouse of the Yenisey. Sables, erocean. From the northern ridge, the Oby, mines, foxes, otters, &c. afford the finest Yenisey, Lena and many others flow into fur. The mineral kingdom furnishes rich the Arctic ocean; on the eastern coast, ores, rare precious stones, and remarkable the great rivers Amour, Hoang-ho and fossil remains, e. g., those of the mamYang-tse-Kiang descend into the bays moth, in high northern latitudes. (See of the Pacific ocean; farther west, the Organic Remains.)—The inhabitants Gihon, or Amu (the ancient Orus), and (amounting to 300,000,000; according to the Sir-Daria, or Jihon (Jaxartes of the some, to 580,000,000) are divided into three ancients), flow into lake Aral. Almost as great branches:-The Tartar-Caucasian, little known are the western ranges of in Western Asia, exhibits the finest feamountains, the Taurus in Natolia, and in tures of our race in the Circassian form: Armenia the Ararat, near which the Eu- the Mongolian race is spread through phrates and Tigris become much in- Eastern Asia; the Malay in Southern creased, and where, in ancient times, the Asia and the islands. The north is inRoman victories found a limit. We have habited by the Samoiedes, Tehooktches lately become better acquainted with the and others. 24 tribes, of different lanmountain passes, through which the first guage and origin, may be distinguished, inhabitants of Europe may have wander- some of which are the relics of scattered ed from Asia, the valleys of the Caucasus, tribes of Nomades: Kamtschadales, Osfrom the bosom of which the Cuban tiacs, Samoiedes, Koriacks, Kurilians, flows into the Black sea, and the Aras Aleutians, Coreans, Mongols and Kal(Araxes), with the Kur, into the Caspian. mucks, Mantchoos (Tungoos, Daurians -Nature has spread over Asia all the and Mantchoos Proper), Finns, Circastreasures of the earth, most abundantly in sians, Georgians, Greeks, Syrians and India; her bounties are distributed, by im- Armenians, Tartars and Turks, Persians perceptible gradations, through all its three and Afghans, Thibetans, Hindoos, Siamzones. In the torrid zone, whose genial ese, Malays, Annamites (in Cochin China warmth converts the juices of plants and Tonquin), Birmese, Chinese and to spices, balsam, sugar and coffee, with Japanese, besides the indigenous inhabitwhich Asia has enriched the West Indies, ants of the East Indian islands, Jews and the palms (sago, cocoa, date and umbrel- Europeans. The principal languages are la-palms) reach a height of 200 feet, and the Arabian, Persian, Armenian, Turkthe white elephant attains a size surpass- ish, Tartar, Hindoo, Malayan, Mongol, ing that of all other quadrupeds. From Mantchoo and Chinese. Of the extinct hence the silk-worm was brought to Eu- civilized nation of the Igoors (Oigoors) in rope. This region conceals in its bosom Upper Asia, the written characters have the most beautiful diamonds, the finest been preserved in Thibet. The Sanscrit gold, the best tin, &c., whilst the waves of the Bramins is yet spoken in the flow over the purest pearls and corals. higher mountains of India, and the anThe temperate zone has given to Europe cient Peblevi in the mountains of the the melon, the vine, the orange and many Persian borders. The still more ancient of its most agreeable garden-fruits, as Zend is entirely extinct; and the civiliwell as the most productive farinaceous zation of the old Iberians and Colchians,

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on the Kur and Phasis (Georgia and Imireta), has left no vestiges. All the forms of society are displayed in the existing Asiatic nations, from the savage state of the wandering hordes to the most effeminate luxury; but liberty, founded on law and the moral and intellectual education of man, is wanting. Priests and conquerors have long decided the political character of the East, amidst frequent revolutions and changes of dynasties, ever maintaining the principles of blind obedience. Asia has been subject, at different times, to the Assyrians, Medes, Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, Syrians, Parthians, Arabians, Mongols, Tartars, Seljooks, Turks, Afghans, &c. Ancient forms are preserved most rigidly, and the intellect is least progressive in China and Japan. Slavery still prevails in this continent. Woman yet remains degraded to a slave of man. The prevailing government is despotism, the offspring of Asia. Hence those artificial forms of a rigid etiquette, which are kept up in all the public relations, and that apathy of the people, in regard to fate, connected with cruelty, and produced partly by opium, partly by superstition, which is almost an universal characteristic of the Asiatics, notwithstanding the violence of their passions. There are, however, some tribes with a republican form of government; and relics of the patriarchal authority of the heads of families still are found. Near the colonies of the Europeans in Southern and Northern Asia, the civilization of the Christian world has been introduced. Christianity, though degenerated in many of the more ancient sects (see Maronites, Monophysites and Sects), has gained many adherents, throughout all Asia, by means of translations of the Bible, distributed by England and Russia. In Bengal and St. Petersburg, the translation of the Bible into the languages of Southern Asia has been prosecuted with a benevolent zeal. In Petersburg, similar efforts have been made for the benefit of the Mongolian Tartars. Even in China, Christians are found again, but none in Japan since 1637. The astronomy and astrology, poetry, morals, theology, laws, and the rude empirical medicine of the Asiatics, are mostly confined to the priests, and united with deeply-rooted superstition, which leads even to child-murder and self-sacrifice in the flames. The Mohammedan religion, the central point for instruction in which is at Samarcand, prevails in Western Asia. (See Wahaby.) Over all Central and the eastern part of Northern

Asia, prevails the religion of the Lama. The religion of Brama, the head-quar ters of which is Benares, is confined chiefly to Hindostan, and Shamanism to the tribes in Northern Asia and to the Russian archipelago. The ancient dortrine of Zoroaster is confined to single families in India and Persia; whilst the Mosaic has numerous adherents through all Asia, except the Russian part. Physical and mechanical cultivation is carried to a higher degree of perfection than intellectual and moral; e. g., by the Indian jugglers and Chinese mechanics. Remarkable skill has been acquired by certain classes of Hindoos in the weaving of silk and cotton. The shawls of Cashmere, the leather of Persia and Syria (morocco, cordovan, shagreen), the porcelain of China and Japan, the steel of Turkish Asia, the lackered wares of China and Japan, &c. are well known. The internal commerce is still carried on by caravans, as in the most ancient times, before Abraham and Moses, when merchandise was transported from India, through Bactria, to Colchis, as at present to Makarieu, Moscow and Constantinople. The foreign commerce of China and the East Indies is wholly in the hands of the Europeans-English, Dutch and Russians-and of the North Americans. The religious, civil and social condition of the Asiatics proves, that, where the free developement of the higher powers of man is subject to the restraints of castes, and to the tyranny of priests and despots, and where the adherence to established forms has become a matter of faith, law and habit,-the character of society must degenerate, and the energies of man become palsied. Hence the Asiatic, notwithstanding the richness of his imagination, never attained the conception of ideal beauty, like the free Greek; and, for the same reason, the European, whose mental improvement and social activity have been unimpeded, has shaken off the control which the East formerly exercised over the West, and has obtained dominion over the coasts and territories of his old lord and master. Greece led the way, and, after having_transformed the obscure symbols of the East to shapes of ideal beauty, shook off the spiritual fetters of priests and oracles, and, at the same time, the temporal yoke which the Persian Darius had prepared for Athens and Sparta. After a struggle of 50 years, the triumphs of Cimon (in 449 B. C.) first enabled Europe to prescribe laws to the East. Grecian civilization then

spread over the whole of Western Asia, to India, and even the military despotism which succeeded has not been able to extinguish the light entirely. In later times, the Romans and Parthians fought for the possession of the Euphrates, and the Persians, under the Sassanides, attempted to tear the dominion of the world from the hands of Rome. Since that period, Asia has four times taken up arms against Europe. The nations of Upper Asia, driven from the frontiers of China to the Irtish, crowded upon the West. Huns, Avari, Bulgarians and Magyars successively issued from the Caucasian gates, and from the wildernesses of the Ural, to subdue Europe; besides those later hordes, which were mingled and confounded with each other in Southern Russia and on the Danube. But the rude power of Attila and of the grandsons of Arpat was broken in conflict with the Germans. Next, the Arabians attacked Constantinople, Italy and France, but their fanatical impetuosity was checked by Charles Martel, in 732, and the chivalrous valor of the Gothic Christians rescued the peninsula within the Pyrenees. The West then armed itself against the East, to recover the holy sepulchre from the sultan of the Seljooks, and Christian Europe became better acquainted with Asia; but the sword alone cannot conquer a continent. (See Crusades.) Upper Asia sent again, under the Mongol Temudschin (see Genghis-Khan), her mounted hordes over the world. Again the Germans stayed the destroying flood near Liegnitz. (See Wahlstadt.) Finally, the Tartars and Ottoman Turks invaded Europe. In 1453, they took the Bosphorus and Greece from the feeble hands of the eastern Romans. In succeeding times, Europe has been defended against Asia, on this side, by Germany. The intellectual progress of the European, since that period, has raised him above the most ancient nations of the East-Persians, Arabians, Indians and Chinese. Gunpowder, the mariner's compass and the art of printing (which the last-mentioned nation possessed, but could not apply to much use), have become powerful in his hands. Hence Russia has gained the Wolga, explored Siberia, kept watch over the seat of the ancient and modern Scythians, the mountains of the Altai, and finally conquered the tribes of the Caucasus; whilst (since Vasco da Gama (q. v.) discovered the way by sea to the East Indies, in 1498] the Portuguese, Dutch and French, and par

ticularly the English, by their universal commerce, have made the rich countries of Southern Asia acquainted with European laws, and Europe with the condition and luxury of those countries. Persia is already entangled in the European international policy, which is principally owing to the efforts of sir Harford Jones, sir Gore Ousely, Mr. James Morier, and the Russian general Yermatoff. The diplomacy of the court of China, now more than 10 centuries old, still resists European encroachments, and the celestial empire prefers the North Americans to the English and Russians. Japan, alone, yet denies all approach to Europeans; and her jealousy is as effective as the polar ice, which blocks up the passages of the Frozen seas. But the inquisitive spirit of European navigators has gradually penetrated the most secluded regions, from the time of Marco Polo, the Venetian (1272), to that of the present English and Russians, who will soon join hands, or perhaps swords, in the heart of Asia. (For further information, see Malte-Brun's Geography; Murray's work On the Progress of Discovery in Asia; Ritter's Geography, an excellent and original work, published in 1824, by Reimer, Berlin; also, Leake's Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor; also, the articles on the different countries of Asia, and those on Niebuhr and Burckhardt.)

ASIA MINOR. (See Natolia.)

ASIATIC SOCIETIES AND MUSEUMS; learned bodies instituted for the purpose of collecting valuable information, of every kind, respecting the different countries of Asia. The three great central points where this knowledge is accumulated are, London, Paris and Petersburg. The royal Asiatic society of Great Britain and Ireland contains 300 members. It was established by Mr. Colebrooke, and opened March 19, 1823. Its transactions are published in London. Similar societies have been formed in Asia itself, at Calcutta, Bombay and Bencoolen. Since the foundation of the Asiatic society in Calcutta, by sir William Jones, in 1784, the study of Asiatic literature has made great advances. The secret of the Sanscrit literature has been obtained from the Bramins, and its connexion with the Greek put beyond doubt. Works have been printed which greatly facilitate the study of the Arabian and Persian languages and literature. Asiatic philology has made great progress. Even Chinese literature has come forth from its recesses.-The société Asiatique, at Paris, was founded, in

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