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LEFT ATALANTA 323 ATCHISON" of the victorious stranger, sent ambas- sadors to Puna requesting assistance. The inca also proposed an interview with the Spaniard, and Pizarro by treachery- succeeded in obtaining possession of the person of the Inca. Huascar had been put to death by order of his brother, and now Atahualpa was declared guilty of treason to the Spanish crown, and sen- tenced to be burned alive, in 1533. The sentence was commuted to strangulation. ATALANTA, the daughter of Jason and Clymene, celebrated for her skill in archery, was a native of Arcadia. She slew the Centaurs, Rhoecus and Hylaeus; sailed to Colchis with the Argonauts, and was afterward present at the chase of the Calydonian boar, which she was the first to wound. Another Atalanta, daughter of Schceneus, King of Scyros, was renowned for her beauty, and swift- ness in running. She required each of her lovers to run a race with her. Her admirer was to run before, unarmed, while she followed him with a dart. If she could not overtake him, she was his own; but if he were outrun, he was doomed to death, his head to be set up at the goal. Many had fallen victims in the attempt, when Hippomenes, the son of Maegareus, by the aid of Venus, over- came her. The goddess gave him three golden apples, which he threw behind him, one after the other, as he ran. Atalanta stopped to pick them up, and Hippomenes reached the goal before her. Her former reserve now gave place to such ungovernable passion that the chaste Ceres, becoming offended, changed both the parties into lions, and compelled them from that time to draw her chariot. ATAVISM, in biology, the tendency to reproduce the ancestral type in animals or plants which have become consider- ably modified by breeding or cultivation ; the reversion of a descendant to some peculiarity of a more or less remote ancestor. ATBARA (at-bar'a), the most north- erly tributary of the Nile. It rises in the Abyssinian highlands, receives sev- eral large tributaries, and enters the Nile about 18° N. ATCHAFALAYA (ach - a - f al - a'a) , ("Lost Water"), a river of the United States, an outlet of the Red river, which strikes off before the junction of that river with the Mississippi, flows south- ward, and enters the Gulf of Mexico by Atchafalaya Bay. Its length is 250 miles. ATCHEEN (also ACHEEN or ATCHIN; called by the Dutch Atjeh), until 187.^ 22 — Vol. I — Cyo, an independent state in the N. W. part of Sumatra, now a province of the Dutch Indies, with an area of 20,471 square miles; pop. about 800,000. The surface is divided into an eastern and a west- ern half by the mountain chain which traverses the whole island, and which rises in Abong-Abong to 11,000 feet. The flora and fauna agree with those of Sumatra; pepper and areca nuts are produced in Atcheen. The natives em- ploy themselves in agriculture, cattle rearing, trade, fisheries, weaving cloth, and working in gold, silver, and iron. In appearance, dress, character, and man- ners they are distinct from the rest of the inhabitants of Sumatra. Of darker color and lower stature than the latter, they are also more active and indus- trious, good seamen and soldiers; but they are treacherous, revengeful, blood- thirsty, immoral and inordinately ad- dicted to opium. The capital of the gov- ernment is Kota Radja or Atcheen, in the northwestern extremity, situated on a stream navigable by boats. It contains a Dutch garrison of several thousand men. During the earlier half of the 17th century Atcheen was a powerful sulta- nate, with supremacy over several is- lands and a part of the Malay Peninsula. Its power gradually declined; but an at- tempt was made by the treaty between the English and the Dutch, in 1824, to reserve its independence. The inevitable war, however, broke out in 1873, and ended as inevitably, though not without a desperate resistance, in the conquest and annexation of the sultanate. ATCHISON, city and county-seat of Atchison co., Kan.; on the Missouri river and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, the Burlington, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, and the Missouri Pacific railroads; 25 miles N. by N. W. of Leav- enworth. The city is an important com- mercial center, by reason of its excellent river and extensive railroad facilities. It exports largely g:rain, flour, live stock, and dressed meats, and has many im- portant manufacturing establishments. There are gas, electric light, sewer, water and electric railway plants; sev- eral public parks; a noteworthy bridge across the Missouri river; an attractive Union depot; National banks; and daily, weekly and monthly periodicals. Atchi- son is the seat of the State Soldiers* Orphans' Home, of Midland College (Lutheran) and St. Benedict's College (Roman Catholic), and has a public library, public high and graded schools, and a number of high graded private schools. Pop. (1910) 16,429; (1920) 12,630.