Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/737

Rh for Aryan or Iranian, and also with the meaning of brave. More westward still traces of the name have been dis covered in Aghovan, the name of the Albanians on the border of the Caspian Sea, the gh being the representation of an original r or 1. In the Caucasus itself the only class speaking an Iranian language, the Os of Ossethi, call themselves Iron. Along the Caspian and in the country washed by the Oxus and Yaxartes, Aryan and non-Aryan tribes were mingled together. Their wars find their poetical record in the Persian epic, the Shahnameh, describing the feuds and friendships between Iran and Turan. Many Scythian names, preserved by Greek writers, have an Aryan char acter. Beyond the Oxus, in Transoxiana, too, people are mentioned under the name of Ariacaa and Antariani. Here, however, all certain traces of the word, as a geo graphical term, vanish. We have indeed Aria as an old name of Thrace, and on the Vistula we meet a German tribe called Arii ; but nothing is known of the origin of these names, and no conclusions should be built on them. It should be mentioned that some scholars (Curtius) connect the Greek aptcrros with Sanskrit arya, though deriving it from a different root ; while others (Pictet) recognise arya in the Irish er, good, brave, hero.  AS, an ancient weight, consisting of 12 ounces, identi cal with libra, the Roman pound. The word is common ia the old Italic dialects, and may perhaps be connected with the Greek at?, which, in the Doric dialect, is used for els, one, i.e., an entire thing; according to others it is derived from ces, because made of the mixed metal known under that name. It was also the name of a Roman coin, which was of different weight and value at different periods. The first introduction of coined money is ascribed to Servius Tullius, who probably borrowed from the neighbouring Etruscans the general form and scale of value. The old as was composed of the mixed metal ces, an alloy of copper and tin, and was called as libralis, or librarius, because actually weighing a pound or 12 ounces. The asses were cast in a mould, and their original shape seems to have been an irregular oblong, which was stamped with the figure of a sheep, ox, or sow. After the round shape was introduced, the one side was always in scribed with the figure of a ship s prow, and the other with the double head of Janus. The subdivisions of the as had also the ship s prow on one side, and on the other the head of some deity. The first Punic war having exhausted the treasury, the as was reduced to two ounces. In the second Punic war, it was again reduced to half its weight, viz., to one ounce. And lastly, by the Papirian law it was further reduced to the diminutive weight of half an ounce. It appears to have been still more reduced under Octavianus, Lepidus, and Antony, when its value was ^ of an ounce. It probably continued at this value till the time of the Emperor Severus, when it was again lowered to about ^ of an ounce. During the commonwealth and empire ces grave was used to denote the old as in contradistinction to the existing depreciated coin ; while ces rude was applied to the original oblong coinage of primitive times. As also denoted any integer or whole ; whence the Eng lish word ace. Thus as signified the whole inheritance; whence hccres ex asse, the heir to the whole estate.  ASAFŒTIDA, a gum-resin obtained principally from Narthex asafcetida, and probably also from one or two other closely allied species of umbelliferous plants. It is produced in the southern provinces of Persia, in Bokhara, and in Beloochistan, and the plant grows as far south as the Chenab Valley in the Panjab. Narthex asafcetida grows to a height of from 5 to 6 feet, and when the plant has attained the age of 4 years, it is ready for yielding asafcetida. The steins are cut down close to the root, and the juice flows out, at first of a milky appearance, but quickly setting into a solid resinous mass. Fresh incisions are made as long as the sap continues to flow, a period which varies according to the size and strength of the plant. A freshly-exposed surface of asafcetida has a trans lucent, pearly-white appearance, but it soon darkens in the air, and assumes a yellowish- brown colour. In taste it is acrid and bitter ; but what peculiarly characterises it is the strong alliaceous odour it emits, from which it has obtained the name asafcetida, as well as its German name Teufels- dreck (devil s dung). According to the analysis of Pelle- tier, asafoetida contains of resin, G5 0; solublo gum, 19 4; bassorin, 11 2 ; volatile oil, 3 6 ; and malate of calcium, 3 per hundred parts. The oil, to which its peculiar odour is entirely due, can be distilled off with water, and contains from 20 to 25 per cent, of sulphur. Asafoetida is found in commerce in &quot;lump&quot; or in &quot; tear,&quot; and it is always very much adulterated. It is chiefly carried from the various ports on the Persian Gulf to Bombay, and so powerful is the smell of the new resin that special vessels have to be employed in the trade. The whole plant is strongly im pregnated with the odour of asafoetida ; in the regions of its growth it is used as a fresh vegetable, the inner portion of the full-grown stem being regarded as a luxury. The gum-resin itself is very highly relished as a condiment in India and Persia, and it is in demand in France for uso in cookery. In Great Britain it is only employed in medicine, being of high value in spasmodic and convulsive diseases, such as hysteria, infantile convulsions, &amp;lt;tc., but its offensive odour is a great bar to its use.  ASBEN, a country of, known also as, which see.  ASBESTOS, or (from [ Greek ], unconsumable}, is a variety of the amphibole or hornblende family of minerals, and akin to tremolite, actinolite, and common hornblende. The chemical composition of the whole family is chiefly silica, magnesia, alumina, and ferrous oxide, but varies considerably. Those containing most iron are most easily fused. Asbestos consists of fine crystalline elastic fibres, with a silky lustre, varying in colour from white to grey and green, and derives its name from being specially indestructible by fire. A single fibre of it fuses to a white enamel, but in the mass it is capable of resisting ordinary flame, and has on this account been regarded from ancient times as a most interesting substance. Woven into cloth it forms a fireproof texture, which, to be purified, requires only to be thrown in the fire ; gloves, napcry, towels, handkerchiefs, and even dresses have been woven of it ; and it is said that the ancients used to wrap the bodies of their dead in asbestos cloth to keep their ashes separate from those of the surrounding funeral pile. There are several varieties of asbestos: (1.) Amianthus is the rarest and most delicate kind, its fibres being beautifully white, flexible, long, and regularly laid. It is found ia the centre of the older crystalline rocks, in the Pyrenees, the Alps of Dauphiny, on Mount St Gotthard, in North America, in the serpentine of Sweden, in the Ural Moun tains, Silesia, and New South Wales. But the most beau tiful specimens come from Tarantaise, in Savoy, and from Corsica, where it is somewhat abundant. (2.) Common Asbestos is not so light, either in colour or weight, as ami anthus, and is more splintery, inflexible, and irregular in structure. It fuses with difficulty before the blow-pipe into a black scoria. It is found in serpentine rocks in Anglesea, in Cornwall, and also in several parts of Scot land, as Glenelg, in Inverness. (3.) Mountain leather and Mountain cork are other varieties, where the fibres are less 