Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/178

 158 AVA AVARS Insuffisance des chevaux forts et leger } du che- tal de guerre et de luxe, &c. (1860). AVA (Burmese, Ang-wa, a fish pond, so called because the original town was built around one), formerly the capital of the Burman em- pire, styled in the official documents of the country Ratanapura, the city of gems, situa- ted on an island formed by the Irrawaddy riv- er on the N., the Myit-nge on the E., and the Myit-tha, an offset of the Myit-nge, on the S., and on the S. E. angle by a canal, through which the waters of the Myit-nge flow, dug to defend that face of the city ; lat. 21 58' N., Ion. 95 58' E. The population was formerly from 30,000 to 50,000, but is now much less. Ava is divided into upper and lower, or inner and outer towns. Exclusive of suburbs, the whole place is about 5 m. in circumference, and is enclosed with a brick wall 15^ ft. high and 10 ft. thick ; an embankment of earth supports this wall on the inner side, and there is a small ditch on the outside. The inner town includes the palaces, royal pagodas, and other public buildings. The houses of the outer town are for the most part wretched huts of bamboos and mats thatched with grass. The residences of the chiefs and wealthy men are generally con- structed of planks, and tiled ; but the town is now decayed and desolate. Ava was first made the capital about 1364 ; and since then the Burman kings have shifted the capital eight or nine times. In 1839 every substantial edifice in Ava was destroyed by an earthquake; in consequence of which Monchobo, the birth- place of Alompra, and once the seat of the court, again became temporarily the capital of the Burman empire. Afterward both Amara- pura and Ava were honored by the preference of the kings, until within a few years, when the capital was fixed at Mandelay. AVA, Kingdom of. See BURMAH. AVALANCHE (Fr. avalanche or avalange), a mass of snow precipitated from mountain sides to the lower levels. Avalanches are common in the Alps and Apennines, and several differ- ent forms of them are described. The drift avalanche is the light, dry snow swept from the mountains by strong winds, and accumu- lated in the valleys, sometimes to such depths as to bury the villages it falls upon. More de- structive is that formed by the damp, cohering snow, which, beginning in a small rolling body, gathers with every turn increased proportions and velocity, and taking up in its progress loose rocks and earth, or the shattered limbs of trees, sweeps off not only houses and villages, but the very lands on which they stand. It is said that in the year 1500 100 men were buried by such an avalanche in the Great St. Bernard ; and in 1624, in Italian Switzerland, 300 soldiers were thus engulfed, many of whom, however, were afterward dug out alive. The villages in the high valleys of the Rh6ne have been particularly exposed to these dis- asters. In 1827 the village of Briel in Valais was almost entirely covered with an avalanche. The rolling avalanches sometimes change in their descent to sliding masses, and these take in their progress every movable body, down to the solid rock of the mountains. Hills of grav- el and loose rocks, covered with forests and dwellings, are thus carried down to lower lev- els, and in cases of vineyards thus removed, intricate questions of proprietorship have aris- en. Ice avalanches are produced by the break- ing of masses of ice from moving glaciers. (See GLACIEB.) AVALLON, a town of France, in the depart- ment of Yonne, on the Cousin, 26 m. S. E. of Auxerre; pop. in 1866, 6,070. It is surround- ed by a country renowned for fertility and beauty. It has considerable trade in wine, leather, and horns, and manufactures of wool. AVALOS, Ferdlnando Francesco d', marquis of Pescara, an Italian general of Charles V., born in Naples in 1490, died in Milan, Nov. 4, 1525. His ancestors came from Spain to Naples in the middle of the 15th century. In early child- hood he was affianced to Vittoria Colonna, who was then only four years old, and he mar- ried her while he was still a mere lad. He distinguished himself at the battle of Ra- venna, where he was wounded and captured. While in prison he dedicated to his wife a poem entitled " Dialogue of Love." Ransomed through the influence of a favorite of Louis XII., he distinguished himself at the battle of Vicenza in 1513 ; at Milan, which city he took from the French in 1521 ; and at Como, which he sacked contrary to his prom- ise. In 1522 he took an active part against the French at Pavia, La Bicocca, and Lodi, and brought about the capitulation of Piz- zighettone and Cremona, and the capture and sacking of Genoa. The decisive victory over Francis I. at Pavia (Feb. 24, 1525) was chiefly ascribed to the valor of Avalos, who was wounded, and received the congratulations of friends and foes. He was made generalissimo, but became unpopular because, after having joined the league of the duke of Milan for the expulsion of the Spaniards and G ermans from Italy, he subsequently betrayed the scheme to Charles V. The crown of Naples, however, which was offered to him by the Italian princes in reward of his treachery, he refused by the advice of his wife. A ARIS, a stronghold of the Hyksos in Lower Egypt. See EGYPT, vol. vi., p. 460. AVARS, a tribe of Turanian origin, who first appear in European history about the mid- dle of the 6th century, when the bulk of them left their abodes between the Caspian and the Don, penetrated to the Danube, and settled in Dacia. They served in the army of Justinian, allied themselves with the Longobards against the Gepidas, and finally occupied Pannonia and other parts of modern Hungary, and established their dominion over the Slavs north and south of the Danube. Their sovereigns were called khans. The mightiest among them was Baian (570-630), whose dominions extended from the