Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/28

 8 ABBESS ABBOT surrounded by a mud wall six feet high thatched with palm leaves, 20 m. in circumference and enclosing much farming land. The name is derived from a flat rock 600 feet long covering the top of a high hill and projecting at the sides. The streets are generally narrow and very irregular and dirty. The houses are built of dried mud and thatched, with 10 to 20 rooms, surrounding an inner court where sheep and goats are kept. Several trades are carried on in a primitive way, and there are unions of smiths, carpenters, weavers, dyers, and potters, the last two composed of women. Regular markets are held, with very active traffic, chiefly by women, in cooked and un- cooked food, vegetable oils, shea or tree but- ter, raw cotton, grass and other cloths, manu- factures of excellent leather, cutlery and other European manufactures, and many other arti- cles. The currency is cowry shells, but in 1867 it was proposed to introduce copper coins. Caravans go from Abbeokuta to Lake Tchad and Timbuctoo, respectively 800 m. (direct) N. E. and 850 m. N. N. W. The town is at the head of navigation on the Ogoon, which is ascended by light steamers during eight months in the year. The principal ex- ports are palm oil and shea butter. The na- tive cotton plant is perennial and the fibre good, and great efforts have been made to stimulate its cultivation. In 1859-' 60 the quantity sent to England was about 2,300,000 Ibs., but it soon fell off to about 400,000 on ac- count of local war and indolence. The gov- ernment of Abbeokuta is entirely elective. There is a king, whose function? are chiefly judicial. The army is commanded by an al- most independent general (lalogun), with elected war captains. There is a sort of le- gislature composed of the so-called Ogboni lodges (of which there is one in each town) and the war captains, which controls the reve- nue and taxation, and is said to possess un- limited power. The income of the state con- sists of taxes on products collected at the gates, amounting to about 1 per cent. The religion of most of the people is fetishism, but missions have been established by the Wes- lr vans. Episcopalians, and Baptists, whose con- verts in 1861 numbered about 1,500. They publish a newspaper in the Egba tongue, and there is a church built of wood with a mud steeple and a bell. The missionaries were temporarily expelled by a mob in 1867. Ab- beokuta was founded in 1825 by refugees from numerous Egba towns which had been de- stroyed in war and many of their, inhabitants carried off as slaves. Its people opposed the slave trade, established commerce with the English at Badagry and Lagos, and have suc- cessfully withstood many attacks from neigh- boring states, especially Dahomey and Ibadan. The king of Dahomey suffered disastrous de- feats under its walls in 1851 and 1864. ABBESS, the female superior of a convent of nuns ranking as an abbey, in some of the more ancient orders. An abbess is solemnly blessed and inducted into office by a bishop, and uses the ring, cross, and crozier. ABBEVILLE, a well built, fortified town of France, in the department of Somme, on the river Somme and the Northern railway, 25 m. N. N. W. of Amiens; pop. in 1866, 19,385. The town contains a fine but unfinished Gothic cathedral, with other public edifices, and among its manufactories is one of cloth founded by Colbert in 1669. Vessels of :ioo tons burden sail up the Somme to Abbeville. In 1259 peace was here concluded between Louis IX. of France and Henry III. of England. ABBEVILLE, a W. N. W. county of South Carolina, bounded S. W. by the Savannuli river, and N. E. by the Saluda ; area, 960 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 31,129, of whom 20,213 were colored. The soil is generally fertile, well watered, and well cultivated. The Greenville and Columbia railroad runs through the county. The productions in 1868 were 4,044,713 Ibs. of cotton, 324,850 bushels of corn, 52,686 of wheat, 51,374 of oats, and 23,471 of sweet potatoes. The total value of property in 1870 was $7,165,354. Capital, Abbeville. ABBO ( KKM ! s. or Abbon the Crooked, a French monk of St. Germain des Prfis, died in 923. He was the author of an epic poem of some historical value, in Latin, descriptive of the siege of Paris by the Northmen in 885-'7, at which he was present. A French transla- tion of it has been published by Guizot. ABBO FLORIACEASIS, or Abbon of Flenry, a French monk, abbot of Fleury, and author of " Lives of the Popes," born near Orleans about 945, slain Aug. 13, 1004, while striving to quell a fray. He was several times engaged in con- troversies with the bishops as champion of the rights of his order. In 986, and again in 996, Abbo was sent to Rome by King Robert, to persuade the pope to abandon his intention of placing the kingdom under interdict, and was successful in each case. ABBOT (from the Semitic db or abba, fa- ther), a prelate of high rank in the Roman Catholic church, who governs a principal mon- astery of one of the old religious orders, which may also have minor convents depending on it. An abbot is solemnly consecrated by a bishop, though this is regarded as a merely ec- clesiastical and not a sacramental rite. Abbots are allowed to use the mitre, pastoral cross, ring, and crozier, and to celebrate pontifical mass, and are styled right reverend. Some of them in former times exercised a quasi-episco- pal jurisdiction over a small district, and were allowed to confer tonsure and minor orders. During the middle ages many abbots, especial- ly in England, were powerful feudal barons. In modern times they are simply superiors of religious houses. In ecclesiastical councils an abbot can speak, but not vote. AL'BOT, Abiel, D. D., an American clergyman, born in Andover, Mass., Aug. 17, 1770, died on the return voyage from Havana, June 7,