Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/67

Rh A B N A B 51 stances, throughout the whole Christian Church. By Roman Catholics and Kitualists, the term ablution is applied to the cleansing of the chalice and the fingers of the celebrating priest after the administration of the Lord s Supper. ABNER (^$x, father of light], first cousin of Saul (1 Sam. xiv. 50) and commander-in-chief of his army. The chief references to him during the lifetime of Saul are found in 1 Sam. xvii. 55, and xxvi. 5. It was only after that monarch s death, however, that Abner was brought into a position of the first political importance. David, who had some time before been designated to the throne, was accepted as king by Judah alone, and was crowned at Hebron. The other tribes were actuated by a feeling- hostile to Judah, and, as soon as they had thrown off the Philistinian yoke, were induced by Abner to recognise Ishbosheth, the surviving son of Saul, as their king. One engagement between the rival factions under Joab and Abner respectively (2 Sam. ii. 12) is noteworthy, inasmuch as it was preceded by an encounter between twelve chosen men from each side, in which the whole twenty-four seem to have perished. In the general engagement which fol lowed, Abner was defeated and put to flight. He was closely pursued by Asahel, brother of Joab, who is said to have been &quot; light of foot as a wild roe.&quot; As Asahel would not desist from the pursuit, though warned, Abner was compelled to slay him in self-defence. This originated a deadly feud between the leaders of the opposite parties, for Joab, as next of kin to Asahel, was by the law and custom of the country the avenger of his blood. For some time afterwards the war was carried on, the advantage being invariably on the side of David. At length Ishbosheth lost the main prop of his tottering cause by remonstrating with Abner for marrying Rizpah, one of Saul s concubines, an alliance which, according to Oriental notions, implied pretensions to the throne. Abner was indignant at the rebuke, and immediately transferred his allegiance to David, who not only welcomed him, but promised to give him the command of the combined armies on the re-union of the kingdoms. Almost immediately after, however, Abner was slain by Joab and his brother Abishai at the gate of Hebron. The ostensible motive for the assassina tion was a desire to avenge Asahel, and this would be a sufficient justification for the deed according to the moral standard of the time. There can be little doubt, however, that Joab was actuated in great part by jealousy of a new and formidable rival, who seemed not unlikely to usurp his place in the king s favour. The conduct of David after the event was such as to show that he had no com plicity in the act, though he could not venture to punish its perpetrators. The dirge which he repeated over the grave of Abner (2 Sam. iii. 33-4) has been thus trans lated : Should Abner die as a villain dies ? Thy hands not bound, Thy feet not brought into fetters : As one falls before the sons of wickedness, fellest thou. ABO, a city and seaport, and chief town of the district of the same name in the Russian province of Finland, is situated in N. lat. 60 26, E. long. 22 19, on the Aura- joki, about 3 miles from where it falls into the Gulf of Bothnia. It was a place of importance when Finland formed part of the kingdom of Sweden, and the inhabi tants of the city and district are mostly of Swedish descent. By the treaty of peace concluded here between Russia and Sweden on 17th August 1743, a great part of Finland was ceded to the former. Abo continued to be the capital of Finland till 1819. In November 1827, nearly the whole city was burnt down, the university and its valuable library- being entirely destroyed. Before this calamity Abo con tained 1100 houses, and 13,000 inhabitants; and its- university had 40 professors, more than 500 students, and a library of upwards of 30,000 volumes, together with a botanical garden, an observatory, and a chemical laboratory. The university has since been removed to Helsingfors. Abo is the seat of an archbishop, and of the supreme court of justice for South Finland; and it has a cathedral, a town-hall, and a custom-house. Sail-cloth, linen, leather, and tobacco are manufactured ; shipbuilding is carried on, and there are extensive saw-mills. There is also a large trade in timber, pitch, and tar. Vessels drawing 9 or 10 feet come up to the town, but ships of greater draught are laden and discharged at the mouth of the river, which forms an excellent harbour and is protected. Population in 1867, 18,109. ABOLITIONIST. See SLAVERY. ABOMASUM, caillette, the fourth or rennet stomach of Rmninantia. From the omasum the food is finally depo sited in the abomasum, a cavity considerably larger than either the second or third stomach, although less than the first. The base of the abomasum is turned to the omasum. It is of an irregular conical form. It is that part of the digestive apparatus which is analogous to the single stomach of other Mammalia, as the food there undergoes the process of chymification, after being macerated and ground down in the three first stomachs. ABOMEY, the capital of Dahomey, in West Africa, is situated in 1ST. lat. 7, E. long. 2 4, about 60 miles N. of Whydah, the port of the kingdom. It is a clay- built town, surrounded by a moat and mud walls, and occupies a large area, part of which is cultivated. The houses stand apart; there are no regular streets; and the place is very dirty. It has four larger market-places, and trade is carried on in palm-oil, ivory, and gold, Moham medan traders from the interior resorting to its markets. The town contains the principal palace of the king of Dahomey. It is the scene of frequent human sacrifices, a &quot; custom&quot; being held annually, at which many criminals and captives are slain; while on the death of a king a &quot;grand custom&quot; is held, at which sometimes as many as 2000 victims have perished. The slave-trade is also pro secuted, and the efforts of the British Government to induce the king to abolish it and the &quot; customs&quot; have proved un successful. Population, about 30,000. See DAHOMEY. ABORIGINES, originally a proper name given to an Italian people who inhabited the ancient Latium, or country now called Gampagna di Roma. Various deriva tions of this name have been suggested; but there can be scarcely any doubt that the usual derivation (ab origine) is correct, and that the word simply indicated a settled tribe, whose origin and earlier history were unknown. It is thus the equivalent of the Greek autochthones. It is therefore, strictly speaking, not a proper name at all, although, from being applied to one tribe (or group of tribes), it came to be regarded as such. Who the Aborigines were, or whence they came, is uncertain; but various traditions that ar; recorded seem to indicate that they were an Oscan o: Opican tribe that descended from the Apennines iiitc Latium, and united with some Pelasgic tribe to form th&amp;lt;; Latins. The stories about ^Eneas s landing in Italv repre sent the Aborigines as at first opposing and then coalescing with the Trojans, and state that the united people then assumed the name of Latins, from their king Latinus. These traditions clearly point to the fact that the Latins were a mixed race, a circumstance which is proved by the structure of their language, in which we find numerous words closely connected with the Greek, and also numerous words that are of an entirely different origin. These non- Greek words are mostly related to the dialects of the