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 ALAND ISLANDS ALARIC 237 for dethroning Elizabeth, and when the Span- ish armada was fitted out, Philip II. caused the pope to give him a cardinal's hat, the de- sign being that Alan should accompany the expedition as papal legate. Instead of embark- ing in person, Cardinal Alan supplied the fleet with copies of a pamphlet against Elizabeth, entitled an " Admonition to the Nobility and People of England." He was made archbishop of Mechlin in 1591, but at the desire of Pope Sixtus V. he continued to reside in Rome. ALAND ISLANDS, a group of about 200 rocky islets, of which 80 are inhabited, situated at the entrance of the Bothnian gulf, between lat. 59 55' and 60 32" N., and Ion. 19 and 21 E. They belong to Russia, having been ceded by Sweden in 1809, and form a part of the govern- ment of Abo-Bjorneborg in Finland. The in- habitants, about 16,000, are Swedes, and are excellent sailors and fishermen.' They keep great numbers of cattle, and export cheese, butter, and hides ; they also manufacture cloth for home use and for sails. The group takes its name from the largest island ; area, 28 sq. m. ; pop. 10,000. It has a good harbor on the W. side. Foremost among the former fortifi- cations was the fort of Bomarsund, near the S. E. extremity of the main island, which was captured in 1854 by the allied fleets of England and France during their war against Russia, and blown up on their departure. By the treaty of Paris of 1856 Russia is prohibited from fortifying the islands or having there any military or naval station. ALANI, a tribe of Scythians, frequently ap- pearing in connection with the various Ger- man invaders of the Roman world during the great migration of the nations of the north. Their origin is uncertain, though they seem to have been of Finnish stock. They originally dwelt about the eastern part of the Caucasian mountains, whence they extended toward the Don, and also made inroads into Armenia and Asia Minor. Vologeses, king of the Parthians, invoked against them the aid of the emperor Vespasian. Arrian the historian, lieutenant of the emperor Hadrian in Cappadocia, success- fully warred against them. They are men- tioned as excellent horsemen and marksmen with the bow. In the time of Aurelian they united with the Goths and invaded Asia Minor, but were expelled about 280 by the emperor Probus. In the later years of the 4th century they were routed by the Huns, and, joining their conquerors, drove out the Goths from the region between the Don and the Danube, and shared in the great movement of the northern tribes toward the southwest of Europe. Con- jointly with the Suevi and the Vandals, in 406, they invaded and devastated Gaul. A body of the Alani who remained south of the Loire ap- peared in 451 as allies of Aetius against Attila. Another body of them marched in 409 into Spain, but were there overpowered by the Vis- igoths, and driven into Lusitania, where their name disappeared. Still other Alani invaded northern Italy half a century later, and were almost totally destroyed. The annals of the Byzantine empire also mention the Alani as devastating both the regions on the Danube and in the Caucasus. AL-ARAF, in Mohammedan theology, the wall of separation between heaven and hell, corre- sponding somewhat to the purgatory of the Latin church. Sitting astride of this wall are those whose good and evil deeds so exactly balance each other that they deserve neither heaven nor hell, and those who have gone to war without their parents' consent and fallen in battle. These last are martyrs, and are therefore preserved from hell, but, inasmuch as they have disobeyed their parents' com- mands, they are not deemed worthy of heaven. ALARCON, Hernando de, a Spanish navigator of the 16th century, to whom we owe the first certain knowledge concerning the configura- tion of the peninsula of California. This had previously been held to be an island. Alarcon set sail in the service of the Spanish court May 9, 1540. On the "W". coast of America he ex- pected to make a junction with the expedition commanded by Coronado ; but the two com- manders missed each other. Alarcon left an inscription on a tree at the place where they should have met, which was discovered by a third Spanish navigator. The inscription was : "Alarcon came to this point; at the foot of the tree are buried letters." These letters conveyed the intelligence that Alarcon, after having tarried there for some time, had returned to New Spain ; that the supposed sea was a gulf; that he had sailed round the Marquis island ; and that California was not an island, but a point of land jutting into the Pacific. Alarcon returned to New Spain in 1541, and there drew up his maps and observations. His discoveries and those of Fernando de Ulloa were applied to such good use, that an eminent geographer has said the map of California made in 1541 differs hardly at all from that constructed in our own day. ALARCON, or Alarcon y Mendoza, Joan Rniz de, a Spanish dramatist, born in Mexico of a noble Spanish family, died in Spain in 1639. In 1628 he published the first volume of his dramas, on the title page of which he styles himself prolo- cutor (relator) of the royal council for the In- dies. To the eight plays contained in this volume he added twelve more in 1635. His best known comedy is La verdad sospechosa, which served as a model for Corneille's Men- teur. Another of his comedies, Las paredes oyen, is still popular on the Spanish stage. A new edition of his plays has been published by Hartzenbusch (Madrid, 1848-'52). ALARIC. I. King of the Visigoths, born about 376, died in 410. Previous to his reign the Goths north of the Danube (mostly Arians), being pressed by the Huns, claimed the protection of the Roman emperors, who allowed them to cross the Danube and establish themselves on its southern side in Moesia (modern Bulgaria) as