It was mainly accident which determined that from the 12th to the 17th century Avicenna should be the guide of medical study in European universities, and eclipse the names of Rhazes, Ali ibn al-Abbas and Avenzoar. His work is not essentially different from that of his predecessors Rhazes and Ali; all present the doctrine of Galen, and through Galen the doctrine of Hippocrates, modified by the system of Aristotle. But the Canon of Avicenna is distinguished from the Al-Hawi (Continens) or Summary of Rhazes by its greater method, due perhaps to the logical studies of the former, and entitling him to his surname of Prince of the Physicians. The work has been variously appreciated in subsequent ages, some regarding it as a treasury of wisdom, and others, like Avenzoar, holding it useful only as waste paper. In modern times it has been more criticized than read. The vice of the book is excessive classification of bodily faculties, and over-subtlety in the discrimination of diseases. It includes five books; of which the first and second treat of physiology, pathology and hygiene, the third and fourth deal with the methods of treating disease, and the fifth describes the composition and preparation of remedies. This last part contains some contingent of personal observation. He is, like all his countrymen, ample in the enumeration of symptoms, and is said to be inferior to Ali in practical medicine and surgery. He introduced into medical theory the four causes of the Peripatetic system. Of natural history and botany he pretends to no special knowledge. Up to the year 1650, or thereabouts, the Canon was still used as a text-book in the universities of Louvain and Montpellier.

About 100 treatises are ascribed to Avicenna. Some of them are tracts of a few pages, others are works extending through several volumes. The best-known amongst them, and that to which Avicenna owed his European reputation, is the Canon of Medicine; an Arabic edition of it appeared at Rome in 1593, and a Hebrew version at Naples in 1491. Of the Latin version there were about thirty editions, founded on the original translation by Gerard of Cremona. The 15th century has the honour of composing the great commentary on the text of the Canon, grouping around it all that theory had imagined, and all that practice had observed. Other medical works translated into Latin are the Medicamenta Cordialia, Canticum de Medicina, Tractatus de Syrupo Acetoso. Scarcely any member of the Arabian circle of the sciences, including theology, philology, mathematics, astronomy, physics and music, was left untouched by the treatises of Avicenna, many of which probably varied little, except in being commissioned by a different patron and having a different form or extent. He wrote at least one treatise on alchemy, but several others have been falsely attributed to him. His book on animals was translated by Michael Scot. His Logic, Metaphysics, Physics, De Caelo, are treatises giving a synoptic view of Aristotelian doctrine. The Logic and Metaphysics have been printed more than once, the latter, e.g., at Venice in 1493, 1495 and 1546. Some of his shorter essays on medicine, logic, &c., take a poetical form (the poem on logic was published by Schmoelders in 1836). Two encyclopaedic

larger, Al-Shifa' (Sanatio), exists nearly complete in manuscript in the Bodleian library and elsewhere; part of it on the De Anima appeared at Pavia (1490) as the Liber Sextus Naturalium, and the long account of Avicenna's philosophy given by Shahrastani seems to be mainly an analysis, and in many places a reproduction, of the Al-Shifa'. A shorter form of the work is known as the An-najät (Liberatio). The Latin editions of part of these works have been modified by the corrections which the monkish editors confess that they applied. There is also a Philosophia Orientalis, mentioned by Roger Bacon, and now lost, which according to Averroes was pantheistic in tone. For Avicenna's life, see Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, translated by McG. de Slane (1842); F. Wüstenfeld's Geschichte der medicine, see Sprengel, Histoire de la Médecine; and for his philo arabischen Aerzte und Naturforscher (Göttingen, 1840). For his sophy, see Shahrastani, German trans. vol. ii. 213-332; K. Prantl, Geschichte der Logik, ii. 318-361; A. Stöckl, Phil. d. Mittelalters, ii. 23-58; S. Munk, Mélanges, 352-366, B. Haneberg in the Abhandand Carra de Vaux, Avicenne (Paris, 1900). For list of extant works lungen der philos.-philolog. Class. der bayerischen Academie (1867); see C. Brockelmann's Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (Weimar, 1898), vol. i. pp. 452-458. (W. W.; G. W. T.)

AVIENUS, RUFIUS FESTUS, a Roman aristocrat and poet, of Vulsinii in Etruria, who flourished during the second half of the 4th century A.D. He was probably proconsul of Africa (366) and of Achaia (372). Avienus was a pagan and a staunch supporter of the old religion. He translated the Paróμeva of Aratus and paraphrased the IIephynois of Dionysius under the title of Descriptio Orbis Terrarum, both in hexameters. He also compiled a description, in iambic trimeters, of the coasts of the Mediterranean, Caspian and Black Seas in several books, of which only a fragment of the first is extant. He also epitomized Livy and Virgil's Aeneid in the same metre, but these works are lost. Some minor poems are found under his name in anthologies, e.g. a humorous request to one Favianus for some pomegranates for medicinal purposes.

AVIGLIANA, a town of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Turin, 14 m. W. by rail from the town of Turin. Pop. (1901) 4629. It has medieval buildings of some interest, but is mainly remarkable for its large dynamite factory, employing over 500 workman.

AVIGNON, a city of south-eastern France, capital of the department of Vaucluse, 143 m. S. of Lyons on the railway between that city and Marseilles. Pop. (1906) 35,356. Avignon, which lies on the left bank of the Rhone, a few miles above its confluence with the Durance, occupies a large oval-shaped area not fully populated, and covered in great part by parks and gardens. A suspension bridge leads over the river to Villeneuvelès-Avignon (q.v.), and a little higher up, a picturesque ruined bridge of the 12th century, the Pont Saint-Bénézet, projects into the stream. Only four of the eighteen piles are left; on one of them stands the chapel of Saint-Bénézet, a small Romanesque building. Avignon is still encircled by the ramparts built by the popes in the 14th century, which offer one of the finest examples of medieval fortification in existence. The walls, which are of great strength, are surmounted by machicolated battlements, flanked at intervals by thirty-nine massive towers and pierced by several gateways, three of which date from the 14th century. The whole is surrounded by a line of pleasant boulevards. The life of the town is almost confined to the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville and the Cours de la République, which leads out of it and extends to the ramparts. Elsewhere the streets are narrow, quiet, and, for the most part, badly paved. At the northern extremity of the town a precipitous rock, the Rocher des Doms, rises from the river's edge and forms a plateau stretching southwards nearly to the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville. Its summit is occupied by a public garden and, to the south of this, by the cathedral of Notre-Dame des Doms and the Palace of the Popes. The cathedral is a Romanesque building, mainly of the 12th century, the most prominent feature of which is the gilded statue of the Virgin which surmounts the western tower. Among the many works of art in the interior, the most beautiful is the mausoleum of Pope John XXII., a masterpiece of Gothic

For the local history see V. Picatoste, Tradiciones de Avila (Madrid, 1888); and L. Ariz, Historia de las grandezas de... Avila (Alcalá de Henares, 1607).

AVILA Y ZUniga, luis de (c.1490 - c. 1560), Spanish historian, was born, at Placentia. He was probably of low origin, but married a wealthy heiress of the family of Zuniga, whose name he added to his own. He rose rapidly in the favour of the emperor Charles V., served as ambassador to Rome, and was made grand commander of the order of the Knights of Alcantara. He accompanied the emperor to Africa in 1541, and having served during the war of the league of Schmalkalden, wrote a history of this war entitled Commentarios de la guerra de Alemaña, hecha de Carlos V en el año de 1546 y 1547. This was first printed in 1548, and becoming very popular was translated into French, Dutch, German, Italian and Latin. As may be expected from the author's intimacy with Charles, the book is very partial to the emperor, and its misrepresentations have been severely criticized.

AVILÉS, PEDRO MENÉNDEZ DE (1519-1574), Spanish seaman, founder of St Augustine, Florida, was born at Avilés in Asturias on the 15th of February 1519. His family were gentry, and he was one of nineteen brothers and sisters. At the age of fourteen he ran away to sea, and was engaged till he was thirty in a life of adventure as a corsair. In 1549 during | peace between France and Spain he was commissioned by the emperor Charles V. to clear the north coast of Spain and the Canaries of French pirates. In 1554 he was appointed captaingeneral of the" flota "or convoy which carried the trade between Spain and America. The appointment was made by the emperor over the head and against the will of the Casa de Contratacion, or governing board of the American trade. In this year, and before he sailed to America, Avilés accompanied the prince of Spain, afterwards Philip II., to England, where he had gone to marry Queen Mary. As commander of the flota he displayed a diligence, and achieved a degree of success in bringing back treasure, which earned him the hearty approval of the emperor. But his devotion to the imperial service, and his steady refusal to receive bribes as the reward for permitting breaches of the regulations, made him unpopular with the merchants, while his high-handed ways offended the Casa de Contratacion. Reappointed commander in 1557, and knowing the hostility of the Casa, he applied for service elsewhere. The war with France in which Spain and England were allies was then in progress, and until the close of 1559 ample occupation was found for Avilés in bringing money and recruits from Spain to Flanders. When peace was restored he commanded the fleet which brought Philip II. back from the Low Countries to Spain. In 1560 he was again appointed to command the flota, and he made a most successful voyage to America and back, in that and the following year. His relations with the Casa de Contratacion were, however, as strained as ever. On his return from another voyage in 1563 he was arrested by order of the Casa, and was detained in prison for twenty months. What the charges brought against him were is not known. Avilés in a letter to the king avows his innocence, and he was finally discharged by the judges, but not until they had received two peremptory orders from the king to come to a decision.

On his release he prepared to sail to the Bermudas to seek for

At that time the French Huguenots were engaged in endeavouring to plant a colony in Florida. As the country had been explored by the Spaniards they claimed it as theirs, and its position on the track of the home-coming trade of Mexico rendered its possession by any other power highly dangerous. Philip II. endeavoured to avert the peril by making an "asiento" or contract with Avilés, by which he advanced 15,000 ducats to the seaman, and constituted him proprietor of any colony which he could establish in Florida, on condition that the money was repaid. The contract was signed on the 20th of March 1565. Avilés sailed on the 28th of July of the same year with one vessel of 600 tons, ten sloops and 1 500 men. On the 28th of August he entered and named the Bay of St Augustine, and began a fort there. He took the French post of Fort Caroline on the 20th of September 1565, and in October exterminated a body of Frenchmen who, under the Huguenot Jean Ribault, had arrived on the coast of Florida to relieve their colony. The Spanish commander, after slaying nearly all his prisoners, hung their bodies on trees, with the inscription, "Not as Frenchmen but as Lutherans." A French sea-captain named Dominique de Gourgues revenged the massacre by capturing in 1568 Fort San Mateo (as the Spanish had renamed Fort Caroline), and hanging the garrison, with the inscription, "Not as Spaniards but as murderers." 1567 Avilés remained in Florida, busy with his colony. In that year he returned to Spain. He made one more voyage to Florida, and died on the 17th of September 1574. Avilés married Maria de Solis, when very young, and left three daughters. His letters prove him to have been a pious and high-minded officer, who never imagined that he could be supposed by any honest man to have gone too far in massacring the Frenchmen, whom he regarded as pirates and heretics.

Till

See The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the United States, Florida, 1562-1574, by Woodbury Lowery (New York, 1905). (D. H.)

AVILÉS, or SAN NICOLÁS DE AVILÉS (the Roman Flavionavia), a seaport of northern Spain, in the province of Oviedo; on the Bay of Avilés, a winding inlet of the Bay of Biscay, 24 m. by rail W. of Gijón. Pop. (1900) 12,763. Avilés is a picturesque and old-fashioned town, containing several ancient palaces and Gothic churches. The bay, which is crossed by a fine bridge at its narrow landward extremity, is the headquarters of a fishing flcet, and a port of call for many coasting vessels. Coal from the Oviedo mines is exported coastwise, and in 1904 the shipments from Avilés for the first time exceeded those from Gijón, reaching a total of more than 290,000 tons. Glass and coarse linen and woollen stuffs are manufactured; and there are valuable stone quarries in the neighbourhood.

AVIZANDUM (from Late Lat. avizare, to consider), a Scots law term; the judge “makes avizandum with a cause," i.e. takes time to consider his judgment.

AVLONA (anc. Aulon; Ital. Valona; Alb. Vliona), a town and seaport of Albania, Turkey, in the vilayet of Iannina. Pop. (1900) about 6000. Avlona occupies an eminence near the Gulf of Avlona, an inlet of the Adriatic, almost surrounded by mountains. The port is the best on the Albanian coast, and the nearest to Italy. It is protected by the island of Saseno, the ancient Saso, and by Cape Glossa, the northernmost headland of the Acroceraunian mountains. It is regularly visited by steamers from Trieste, Fiume, Brindisi, and other Austro-Hungarian and Italian ports, as well as by many small Greek and Turkish coasters. The cable and telegraph line from Otranto, in Italy, to Constantinople, has an important station here. The town is about 1 m. from the sea, and has rather a pleasant appearance with its minarets and its palace, surrounded with gardens and olive-groves. Valonia, a material largely used by tanners, is the pericarp of an acorn obtained in the neighbouring oakwoods, and derives its name from Valona. The surrounding district is mainly agricultural and pastoral, producing oats, maize, cotton, olive oil, cattle, sheep, skins, hides and butter. All these commodities are exported in considerable quantities, besides bitumen, which is obtained from a mine worked by a French

company. The imports are woollen and cotton piece-goods, metals and petroleum.

Avlona played an important part in the wars between the Normans and the Byzantines, during the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1464 it was taken by the Ottomans; and after being in Venetian possession in 1690, was restored to them in 1691. In 1851 it suffered severely from an earthquake.

AVOCA, or OvOCA, VALE OF, a mountain glen of county Wicklow, Ireland, in the south-eastern part of the county, formed by the junction of the small rivers Avonmore and Avonbeg, which, rising in the central highlands of the county, form with their united waters the Ovoca river, flowing south and south-east to the Irish Sea at Arklow. The vale would doubtless rank only as one among the many beautiful glens of the district, but that it has obtained a lasting celebrity through one of the Irish Melodies of the poet Thomas Moore, in which its praises are sung. It is through this song that the form "Avoca " is most familiar, although the name is locally spelt "Ovoca." The glen is narrow and densely wooded. Its beauty is somewhat marred by the presence of lead and copper mines, and by the main line of the Dublin & South Eastern railway, on which Ovoca station, midway in the vale, is 42 m. south of Dublin. Of the two "meetings of the waters" (the upper, of the Avonmore and Avonbeg, and the lower, of the Aughrim with the Ovoca) the upper, near the fine seat of Castle Howard, is that which inspired the poet. At Avondale, above the upper 'meeting," by the Avonmore, Charles Stewart Parnell was

born.

AVOCADO PEAR, the fruit of the tree Persea gratissima, which grows in the West Indies and elsewhere; the flesh is of a soft and buttery consistency and highly esteemed. The name avocado, the Spanish for "advocate," is a sound-substitute for the Aztec ahuacatl; it is also corrupted into "alligator-pear." Avocato, avigato, abbogada are variants.

AVOGADRO, AMEDEO, CONTE DI QUAREGNA (1776-1856), Italian physicist, was born at Turin on the 9th of June 1776, and died there on the 9th of July 1856. He was for many years professor of higher physics in Turin University. He published many physical memoirs on electricity, the dilatation of liquids by heat, specific heats, capillary attraction, atomic volumes &c. as well as a treatise in 4 volumes on Fisica di corpi ponderabili (1837-1841). But he is chiefly remembered for his " Essai d'une manière de déterminer les masses relatives des molécules élémentaires des corps, et les proportions selon lesquelles elles entrent dans les combinaisons" (Journ. de Phys., 1811), in which he enunciated the hypothesis known by his name (Avogadro's rule) that under the same conditions of temperature and pressure equal volumes of all gases contain the same number of smallest particles or molecules, whether those particles consist of single atoms or are composed of two or more atoms of the same or different kinds.

AVOIDANCE (from " avoid," properly to make empty or void, in current usage, to keep away from, to shun; the word "avoid " is adapted from the O. Fr. esvuidier or évider, to empty out, voide, modern vide, empty, connected with Lat. vacuus), the action of making empty, void or null, hence, in law, invalidation, annulment (see CONFESSION AND AVOIDANCE); also the becoming void or vacant, hence in ecclesiastical law a term signifying the vacancy of a benefice-that it is void of an incumbent. In general use, the word means the action of keeping away from anything, shunning or avoiding.

AVOIRDUPOIS, or AVERDUPOIS (from the French avoir de pois, goods of weight), the name of a system of weights used in Great Britain and America for all commodities except the precious metals, gems and medicines. The foundation of the system is the grain. A cubic inch of water weighs 252.458 grains. Of this grain 7000 now (see WEIGHTS AND MEASURES) make a pound avoirdupois. This pound is divided into 16 oz., and these ounces into 16 drachms.

Avoirdupois Weight.

Drachm, 16-ounce 16-pound, 14 stone, a quarter, 4-hundred, zo=ton. 27'3 grains 437 5 98,000 190,000 grs. 7000 112 B 2240 lb.

AVON, the name of several rivers in England and elsewhere. The word is Celtic, appearing in Welsh (very frequently) as afon, in Manx as aon, and in Gaelic as abhuinn (pronounced avain), and is radically identical with the Sanskrit ap, water, and the Lat. aqua and amnis. The root appears more or less disguised in a vast number of river names all over the Celtic area in Europe. Thus, besides such forms as Evan, Aune, Anne, Ive, Auney, Inney, &c., in the British Islands, Aff, Aven, Avon, Aune appear in Brittany and elsewhere in France, Avenza and Avens in Italy, Avia in Portugal, and Avono in Spain; while the terminal syllable of a large proportion of the Latinized names of French rivers, such as the Sequana, the Matrona and the Garumna, seems originally to have been the same word. The names Punjab, Doab, &c., show the root in a clearer shape.

In England the following are the principal rivers of this name. 1. The EAST or HAMPSHIRE AVON riscs in Wiltshire south of Marlborough, and watering the Vale of Pewsey collects feeders from the high downs between Marlborough and Devizes. Breaching the high ground of Salisbury Plain, it passes Amesbury, and following a very sinuous course reaches Salisbury. Here it receives on the east bank the waters of the Bourne, and on the west those of the Wylye. With a more direct course, and in a widening, fertile valley it continues past Downton, Fordingbridge and Ringwood, skirting the New Forest on the west, to Christchurch, where it receives the Stour from the west, and 2§ m. lower enters the English Channel through the broad but narrowmouthed Christchurch harbour. The length, excluding lesser sinuosities, is about 60 m., Salisbury being 35 m. above the mouth. The total fall is rather over 500 ft., and that from Salisbury about 140 ft. The river is of no commercial value for navigation. It abounds in loach, and there are valuable salmon fisheries. The drainage area is 1132 sq. m.

2. The LOWER or BRISTOL AVON rises on the eastern slope of the Cotteswold Hills in Gloucestershire, collecting the waters of several streams south of Tetbury and east of Malmesbury. It flows east and south in a wide curve, through a broad upper valley past Chippenham and Melksham, after which it turns abruptly west to Bradford-on-Avon, receives the waters of the Frome from the south, and enters the beautiful narrow valley in which lie Bath and Bristol. Below Bristol the valley becomes the Clifton Gorge, famous for its wooded cliffs and for the Clifton (q.v.) suspension bridge which bestrides it. The cliffs and woods have been so far disfigured by quarries that public feeling was aroused, and in 1904 an "Avon Gorge Committee " was appointed to report to the corporation of Bristol on the possibility of preserving the beauties of the locality. The Avon finally enters the estuary of the Severn at Avonmouth, though it can hardly be reckoned as a tributary of that river. From Bristol downward the river is one of the most important commercial waterways in England, as giving access to that great port. The Kennet and Avon Canal, between Reading and the Avon, follows the river closely from Bradford down to Bath, where it enters it by a descent of seven locks. The length of the river, excluding minor sinuosities, is about 75 m., the distance from Bradford to Bath being 10 m., thence to Bristol 12 m., and thence to the mouth 8 m. The total fall is between 500 and 600 ft., but it is only 235 ft. from Malmesbury. The drainage area is 891 sq. miles.

3. The UPPER AVON, also called the Warwickshire, and sometimes the "Shakespeare " Avon from its associations with the poet's town of Stratford on its banks, is an eastern tributary of the Severn. It rises near Naseby in Northamptonshire, and, with a course of about 100 m. joins the Severn immediately below Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. Its early course is southwesterly to Rugby, thereafter it runs west and south-west to Warwick, receiving the Leam on the east. Its general direction thereafter remains south-westerly, and it flows past Stratfordon-Avon, receives the Stour on the south and the Arrow on the north and thence past Evesham and Pershore to Tewkesbury. The valley is always broad, and especially from Warwick downward, through the Vale of Evesham, the scenery is very beautiful, the rich valley being flanked by the bold Cotteswold Hills on

Among other occurrences of the name of Avon in Great Britain there may be noted-in England, a stream flowing south-east from Dartmoor in Devonshire to the English Channel; in South Wales, the stream which has its mouth at Aberavon in Glamorganshire; in Scotland, tributaries of the Clyde, the Spey and the Forth.

Avranches, an important military station of the Romans, was in the middle ages chief place of a county of the duchy of Normandy. It sustained several sieges, the most noteworthy of which, in 1591, was the result of its opposition to Henry IV.

the salt-tax, known as the revolt of the Nu-pieds.

Avonian

ZONES.

Substages. Kidwellian Dibunophyllum) Seminula

Syringothyris Clevedonian Zaphrentis Cleisto pora

The upper Avonian (Kidwellian) is well developed about Kidwelly in Carmarthenshire. The lower substage (Clevedonian) is well displayed near Clevedon in Somerset.

See A. Vaughan," The Carboniferous Limestone Series (Avonian) of the Avon Gorge," Proc. Bristol Naturalists' Soc., 4th series, vol. i. pt. 2, 1906, 74-168 (many plates); and T. F. Sibley, "On the Carboniferous Limestone (Avonian) of the Mendip area (Somerset)," Q.J.G.S. vol. Ixii., 1906, pp. 324-380 (plates). (J. A. H.) AVONMORE, BARRY YELVERTON, IST VISCOUNT (17361805), Irish judge, was born in 1736. He was the eldest son of Frank Yelverton of Blackwater, Co. Cork. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he was for some years an assistant master under Andrew Buck in the Hibernian Academy. In 1761 he married Miss Mary Nugent, a lady of some fortune, and was then enabled to read for the bar. He was called in 1764, his success was rapid, and he took silk eight years afterwards. He sat in the Irish parliament as member successively for the boroughs of Donegal and Carrickfergus, becoming attorney-general in 1782, but was elevated to the bench as chief baron of the exchequer in 1783. He was created (Irish) Baron Avonmore in 1795, and in 1800 (Irish) viscount. Among his colleagues at the Irish bar Yelverton was a popular and charming companion. Of insignificant appearance, he owed his early successes to his remarkable eloquence, which made a great impression on his contemporaries; as a judge, he was inclined to take the view of the advocate rather than that of the impartial lawyer. He gave his support to Grattan and the Whigs during the greater part of his parlia- | mentary career, but in his latter days became identified with the court party and voted for the union, for which his viscounty was a reward. He had three sons and one daughter, and the title has descended in the family.

AVRANCHES, a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Manche, 87 m. S. of Cherbourg on the Western railway. Pop. (1906) 7186. It stands on a wooded hill, its botanical gardens commanding a fine view westward of the bay and rock of St Michel. At the foot of the hill flows the river Sée, which at high tide is navigable from the sea. The town is surrounded by avenues, which occupy the site of the ancient ramparts, remains of which are to be seen on the north side. Avranches was from 511 to 1790 a bishop's see, held at the end of the 17th century by the scholar Daniel Huet, and its

AWADIA and FADNIA, two small nomad tribes of pure Arab blood living in the Bayuda desert, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, between the wells of Jakdul and Metemma. They are often incorrectly classed as Ja'alin. They own numbers of horses and cattle, the former of the black Dongola breed. At the battle of Abu Klea (17th of January 1885) they were conspicuous for their courage in riding against the British square.

See Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, edited by Count Gleichen (London, 1905).

AWAJI, an island belonging to Japan, situated at the eastern entrance of the Inland Sea, having a length of 32 m., an extreme and an area of 218 sq. m., breadth of 16 m., with a population of about 190,000. It is separated on the south from the island of Shikoku by the Naruto channel, through which, in certain conditions of the tide, a remarkable torrential current is set up. The island is celebrated for its exquisite scenery, and also for the fact that it is traditionally reputed to have been the first of the Japanese islands created by the deities Izanagi and Izanami. The loftiest peak is Yuruuba-yama (1998 ft.), the most picturesque Sen-zan (1519 ft.). Awaji is noted for a peculiar manufacture of pottery.

AWARD (from O. Fr. ewart, or esguart, cf. "reward"), the decision of an arbitrator. (See ARBITRATION.)

AWE, LOCH, the longest freshwater lake in Scotland, situated in mid-Argyllshire, 116 ft. above the sea, with an area of nearly 16 sq. m. It has a N.E. to S. W. direction and is fully 23 m. long from Kilchurn Castle to Ford, its breadth varying from of a mile to 3 m. at its upper end, where it takes the shape of a crescent, one arm of which runs towards Glen Orchy, the other to the point where the river Awe leaves the lake. The two ends of the loch are wholly dissimilar in character, the scenery of the upper extremity being majestic, while that of the lower half is pastoral and tame. Of its numerous islands the best-known is Inishail, containing ruins of a church and convent, which was suppressed at the Reformation. At the extreme north-eastern end of the lake, on an islet which, when the water is low, becomes part of the mainland, stand the imposing ruins of Kilchurn Castle. Its romantic surroundings have made this castle a favourite subject of the landscape painter. Dalmally, about 2 m. from the loch, is one of the pleasantest villages in the Highlands and has a great vogue in midsummer. The river Awe, issuing from the north-western horn of the loch, affords excellent trout and salmon fishing.

AWL (O. Eng. acl; at one time spelt nawl by a confusion with the indefinite article before it), a small hand-tool for piercing holes.

AXE (O. Eng. aex; a word common, in different forms, in the Teutonic languages, and akin to the Greek ȧim; the New English Dictionary prefers the spelling "ax "), a tool or weapon, taking various shapes, but, when not compounded with some distinguishing word (e.g. in " pick-axe "), generally formed