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LEFT AVANTURINE 360 AVEKNXJS AVANTURINE, or AVENTURINE, a variety of quartz containing glittering spangles of mica through it; also a sort of artificial gem of similar appearance. AVARS, a people, probably of Turan- ian origin, who at an early period may have migrated from the region E. of the Tobol in Siberia to that about the Don, the Caspian Sea, and the Volga. A part advanced to the Danube in 555 A. D., and settled in Dacia. They served in Justin- ian's army, aided the Lombards in de- stroying the kingdom of the Gepidse, and in the 6th century conquered under their khan, Bajan, the region of Pannonia. They then won Dalmatia, pressed into Thuringia and Italy against the Franks and Lombards, and subdued the Slavs dwelling on the Danube, as well as the Bulgarians on the Black Sea. But they were intimately limited to Pannonia, where they were overcome by Charle- magne, and nearly extirpated by the Slavs of Moravia. After 827 they dis- appear from history. Traces of their fortified settlements are found, and known as Avarian rings. AVATAR, more properly AVATARA, in Hindu mythology, an incarnation of the Deity. Of the innumerable avatars the chief are the 10 incarnations of Vishnu, who appeared successively as a fish, a tortoise, a boar. AVATCHA, a volcano and bay in Kamtchatka. The volcano, which is 9,000 feet high, was last active in 1855. The town of Petropavlovsk lies in the bay. AVEBITRY, a village of England, in Wiltshire, occupying the site of a so- called Druidical temple, which originally consisted of a large outer circle of 100 stones, from 15 to 17 feet in height, and about 40 feet in circumference, sur- rounded by a broad ditch and lofty ram- part, and inclosing two smaller circles. Few traces now remain of the structure. On the neighboring grounds are numer- ous barrows or tumuli, one of which, called Silbury Hill, rises to the height of 130 feet, with a circumference of 2,027 feet at the base, covering an area of more than five acres. AVELLANEDA Y ARTEAGA, GER- TRUDIS GOMEZ DE, a distinguished Spanish poet, dramatist and novelist, born in Puerto Principe, Cuba, March 23, 1814; under the pseudonym Per- EGRINA contributed to Andalusian jour- nals many "Lyric Poems" (1851-1854), and afterward wrote a series of spirited novels: "Two Women," "The Baroness de Joux," and others. She gained still higher distinction with the tragedies "Alfonso Munio," the hero of which was her own ancestor, and "The Prince of Viana." Her latest compositions in. elude the Biblical dramas "Saul" and "Balthasar." In the later years of her life she composed 16 plays which still have a place on the Spanish stage. She died in Madrid, Feb. 2, 1873. AVE MARIA ("Hail, Mary"), the first two words of the angel Gabriel's salutation (Luke i: 28), and the begin- ning of the very common Latin prayer to the Virgin in the Roman Catholic Church. Its lay use was sanctioned at the end of the 12th century, and a papal edict of 1326 ordains the repetition of the prayer thrice each morning, noon, and evening, the hour being indicated by sound of bells called the Ave Maria or Angelus Domini. The prayers are counted upon the small beads of the rosary, as the pater nosters are upon the large ones. AVENA, a genus of plants belonging to the order graminacese, or grasses. The A. fatiia, or wild; the A. strigosa, or bristle pointed; the A. pratenis, or nar- rowed-leaved perennial; the A. planicul- mus, or flat-stemmed; the A. pubesceris, or downy; and the A. fiavescens, or yellow oat, are species included in this genus. The first of this species is akin to the A. saliva, or cultivated oat. It is a cereal suitable for cold climates, not reaching proper maturity in the south. It attains perfection in Scotland, and is largely grown there. A. nuda is the naked or hill oat, or peel corn, formerly cultivated and used extensively by the poorer classes in the N. of England, Wales and Scotland. AVERELL, WILLIAM WOODS, an American military officer, born in (Cam- eron, N. Y., Nov. 5, 1832; was graduated at the United States Military Academy in 1855; served on the frontier and in several Indian campaigns till the begin- ning of the Civil War, when he was ap- pointed Colonel of the 3d Pennsylvania Cavalry, and assigned to the command of the cavalry defenses of Washington. During the war he distinguished himself as a cavalry rider and commander, and at its close was brevetted Major-General of volunteers. He resigned from the regular army while holding the rank of captain, in 1865. He was United States Consul-General at Montreal in 1866-1869. He died at Bath, N. Y., Feb. 3, 1900. AVERNUS, or AVERNO, a lake in the neighborhood of Naples, about 2% miles N. W. of Puzzuoli, and near the coast of Baiae, the waters of which were so un- wholesome and putrid that no birds ever visited its banks. The ancients made it