Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/383

 ALTAMAHA ALTAR 359 into Tungusian, Mongolian, Tartar, Finnish, and Saraoyed groups, subdivided into various branches, with different vernaculars. Ped- dlers from the provinces of Moscow and Vladimir periodically visit the Altai, and the great route of travel between St. Peters- burg and Peking crosses the range near Lake Baikal, Kiakhta being the Russian frontier town and Maimatchin the Chinese. The Chinese Altai territory, which is little known, is chiefly situated east of the upper Bukhtarme and Lake Dzaizang. The settled Russian Altai region is mainly comprised in the district of Kolyvan Voskresenski, the Russian designation of the mining region of the province of Tomsk, west- ern Siberia, and which includes, besides the S. part of a district of the same name, the dis- tricts of Kolyvan, Barnaul, Kuznetzk, and Biisk ; area, over 13,000 sq. m. ; pop. 350,000. ALTAMAHA, a river of Georgia, about 140 m. long, which is formed by the confluence of the Oconee and the Ocmulgee, in the S. E. central part of the state. Its course is S. E. through sandy plains and pine barrens to the Atlantic, about 12 m. below Darien, and about 60 m. S. W. of Savannah. For vessels of 30 tons it is navigable through its entire extent. ALTAMIIRA, a town of S. Italy, capital of a district of the same name, in the province of Terra di Bari, 28 m. S. W. of Bari ; pop. about 18,000. It is walled and beautifully situated in a fertile pastoral country. Neighboring re- mains are supposed to mark the site of Lu- patia, a town of Apulia on the Appian way. The modern town was settled in the 13th century by colonists from Greece, and many of the present inhabitants are of Albanian origin and still wear the Albanian costume. The em- peror Frederick II. endowed the town with a magnificent cathedral, and it also contains a college, a hospital, an episcopal palace, and other fine buildings. There are two annual fairs, and the principal products of the vicinity are wine and olives. ALTAR (Lat. altus, high), a place or struc-. ture, usually elevated, on which to perform ! certain religious services. The use of altars in religious worship reaches back beyond the ] historical era. The earliest account we have of an altar (Gen. viii. 20) shows that it was used for the offering of sacrifices. Later in i Biblical history, we find altars sometimes built apparently as memorials of some religious event, and sometimes with a further idea of a distinct act of worship, as where Jacob built an altar and poured a drink offering thereon. Generally, however, the idea of sacrifice at- tended the altar. In the Jewish system there were two altars, viz., of incense and of burnt offering, besides the table for the shew-bread. Among the surrounding heathen nations, the same custom of erecting altars for pur- poses of worship may be traced to the earli- est antiquity. The altars of Baal, that god of the oldest pagan cultus, are frequently mentioned in Scripture. Among the Greeks and Romans altars were erected to the various gods, and the services varied according to the character and functions of the divinities to which they were dedicated. The materials used in the con- struction of the ancient altars at first were prob- ably rude stones. In Egypt they were highly wrought with sculptured representations of the gods. The Israelites at their exodus were therefore commanded to make their altars of earth, so that they could not violate the second commandment. Afterward they were made of shittim (acacia) wood and cedar, overlaid with precious metals. The Greeks and Ro- mans made them of earth and rude stones at first, then of highly sculptured stone. There are to this day many cairns of stones in the northern part of Britain, which were probably ancient altars. Similar structures are found on the high tops of the Anti-Libanus range, and some of the structures found in Mexico and the valley of the Mississippi, and in South America, may have been erected for the same purpose. The form of altars has varied among various nations and at different times, as also their ele- vation. The Jews were forbidden to go up to their altars by steps. In the Latin and orien- tal churches, the altar is an elevated structure, on which the priest offers the sacrifice of the mass. In the Roman Catholic church, a per- manent altar is a solid structure, the top of which must be a slab of stone. Within the altar is a hollow receptacle for the relics of martyrs or other saints, called the sepulchre. The altar is consecrated by a bishop with chrism. A portable altar is a small slab of stone, usually marble, consecrated and con- taining relics, which is placed on temporary or ordinary wooden and unconsecrated altars, in such a position that the oblation can be placed on it. Where there is sufficient wealth to permit it, the most costly marbles are used in the construction of altars, and the most sumptuous decorations are employed in their adornment. Altars on which the sacrament is reserved have a tabernacle, made in the shape of a small temple. In the East the altars have, instead of a tabernacle, an urn or casket suspended from the ceiling, in which the consecrated hosts are kept. In some Lutheran churches the altar has been re- tained. Some of the ancient altars remain also in the English churches, though they have been covered in some way, or at least disused. Gen- erally speaking, altars have been abolished in the Protestant churches, and the existence of any such thing as an altar in pure Christian worship is denied. In the church of England and the Protestant Episcopal -church of the United States there are, and always have been, many who advocate the use of an altar in place of a common table, and solid altars are to be seen in some churches ; occasionally even very beautiful altars of marble, with emblematic de- vices, rich altar cloths, altar pieces, and con- spicuous crosses. The liturgy, however, sub- stitutes the word "table 1 ' in place of "altar,"