Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 01.djvu/364

LEFT ASCOLIO SATRIANO 292 ASHANTI ASCOLIO SATRIANO (sat-re-a'no) a very ancient town of south Italy, in the province of Foggia, 13 miles S. E. of Bovino. It was here that Pyrrhus en- countered for a second time the Roman legion, but with no decisive result to either side. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1400. Pop. about 10,000. ASCOMYCETES. See FUNGUS. ASCOT HEATH, a race-course in Berkshire, England, 29 miles W. S. W. of London, and 6 miles S. W. of Windsor. It is circular, only 66 yards short of 2 miles in length; the races take place early in June and include the famous Ascot Gold Cup, instituted in 1771. The course was laid out in 1711 by order of Queen Anne. ASDOOD, or ASDOUD, a small sea- port of Palestine, on the Mediterranean, 35 miles W. of Jerusalem. It was the Ashdod of Scripture, one of the five con- federate cities of the Philistines, and one of the seats of the worship of Dagon. It occupied a commanding position on the high road from Palestine to Egypt, and was never subdued by the Israelites. It sustained against Psammetichus a siege of 29 years B. c. 630 ; was destroyed by the Maccabees, and restored by the Eornans, B. c. 55. It is now an insig- nificant village called Esdud, from which the sea is constantly receding. ASGARD, the Heaven of Scandinavian mythology. ASH, a genus of deciduous trees be- longing to the natural order oleacese, 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 Europe and North America. The com- mon ash (F. excelsiar), indigenous to Great Britain, has a smooth bark, and grows tall and rather slender. 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 ex- cellence of its hard, tough wood and the rapidity of its growth. There are many varieties of it, as the weeping ash, the curled-leaved ash, the entire-leaved ash, etc. The flowering or manna ash (F. omus), by some placed in a distinct genus (ormis), is a native of the S. of Europe and Palestine. It yields the sub- stance 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. amencana), with lighter bark and leaves; the red or black ash (F. pubcS' cens), with a brown bark; the black ash, (F. sambucifolia), the blue ash, the green ash, etc. They are all valuable trees. The mountain ash, or rowan, be- longs to a different order. ASH, or ASHES, the incombustible res- idue of organic bodies (animal or veg- etable) remaining after combustion. As a commercial term, the word gener- ally means the ashes of vegetable substances, from which are extracted the alkaline matters called potash, pearl- ash, kelp, barilla, etc. ASHANTI, or ASHANTEE, formerly a kingdom, now a British protectorate, in west Africa, on the Gold Coast, and to the N. of the river Prah; area about 20,000 square miles. It is in great part hilly, well watered, and covered with dense tropical vegetation. The country round the towns, however, is carefully cultivated. The crops are chiefly rice, maize, millet, sugar-cane, and yams, the last forming the staple vegetable food of the natives. The domestic animals are cows, horses of small size, goats, and a species of hairy sheep. The larger wild animals are the elephant, rhinoceros, giraffe, buffalo, lion, hippopotamus, etc. Birds of all kinds are numerous, and crocodiles and other reptiles abound. Gold is abundant, being found either in the form of dust or in nug- gets. The Ashantis used to be warlike and ferocious, with a love of shed- ding human blood amounting to a pas- sion, human sacrifices being common. Polygamy is practiced by them. They make excellent cotton cloths, articles in gold, and good earthenware, tan leather and make sword blades of superior workmanship. The chief town is Ku- masi, which is connected with Sekondi on the coast by a railway 168 miles long. (Pop. about 25,000). The Brit- ish first came in contact with the Ashantis in 1807, and hostilities con- tinued off and on till 1826, when they were driven from the seacoast. Immediately after the transfer of the Dutch settle- ments on the Gold Coast to Great Brit- ain in 1872 — when the entire coast re- mained in British hands — the Ashantis reclaimed the sovereignty of the tribes round the settlement of Elmina. This brought on a sanguinary war, leading to a British expedition in 1874, in which Kumasi was captured, and British su- premacy established along the Gold Coast. In 1895-1896 another British expedition, from the Gold Coast, took possession of Kumasi, forced the sub- mission of the King, who, with his prin-