Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/564

 550 O OAJAOA

OTHE 15th letter and the 4th vowel of the English alphabet. Phonetically it occu- pies a position between A and U, with both of which it is sometimes interchanged. O and U appear indeed to have had a common origin, and it has been supposed that the old Greek alphabet did not contain upsilon (v), while the Etruscan had U but not O ; hence the frequent occurrence of O in Greek (in the double form of o and u) and of U in Latin. O is also in- terchanged with the Greek and Latin long e, equivalent to the English a (Gr. Kyp, Lat. cor) ; with ou (Fr. tout, Lat. totus) ; uo (especially in Italian, as in cuore, Lat. cor) ; eu (Fr. lieu, Lat. locus) ; au (Fr. &r, Lat. aurum) ; ue (Span. bueno, Lat. bonus) ; ea (cleave, clove) ; i (write, wrote) ; ei, pronounced as the English long i (Ger. nein, Eng. no) ; and short e (Lat. v elle, volo ; vermis, Eng. worm). In English O has four sounds : long, as in note ; short, as in not ; obscure, as in occur ; like oo, as in move, wolf. There are also some exceptional cases in which it takes the sound of short u, as in lone, some ; of broad a, as in lord ; and of short i, as in women. It forms the folio wing diphthongs : oa, sometimes equivalent to long o, as in coal, or broad a, as in broad ; oe, sounded like long o in foe, oo in canoe, and long e in foetus ; oi, hav- ing its proper sound as in voice ; oo, long as in boon, short as in good, like long o as m floor, or like short u as in flood; ou, as in house, or like short u in double, oo in soup and could, long o in though, short o in hough, and broad a in ought; ow, sounded like ou in house or like long o (vow, low)-, and oy, like oi. O is employed particularly to express admiration, warning, compassion, and entreaty, and occurs as an in- terjection in all languages. In inscriptions, O. stands for optimus. As a prefix to Irish names, it signifies" grandson of;" thus, O'Connor is equivalent to grandson of Connor. In free- masonry it denotes Orient ; in French geogra- phy, ouest, west; in German geography, Ost, east. In Greek numeration o stood for 70 and for 800, and in the middle Latin O stood for 11, or with a dash over it, o, for 11,000. OAHU, one of the Hawaiian islands, the fourth of the group in size, in Ion. 158 W., and between lat. 21 and 22 N". ; pop. in 1872, 20,671, of whom 3,129 were foreigners. The island is roughly quadrilateral ; its extreme length is 33 m. and its breadth is 20 m. It is of volcanic formation and mountainous, but the highest peaks are clothed with vegetation. There are two distinct ranges of mountains, the windward and the leeward, called respec- tively the Konahuinui and the Waianae ranges. They exhibit few craters in perfect condition, but there are groups of tufa cones along the shore. The island is well watered, and its val- leys are productive, the most fertile region lying on the northeast between Kaala and Kahuku. Honolulu, the capital of the Hawaiian king- dom, is on the S. side of Oahu ; its port is the best in the islands. It has regular steam com- munication with San Francisco, about 2,000 m. distant. The shores of Oahu are mostly fringed with coral reefs, often half a mile broad. OAJACA. I. A maritime state of Mexico, bounded N. W. by Puebla, K E. by Vera Cruz, S. E. by Chiapas, S. by the Pacific ocean, and "W. by Guerrero ; area, 27,389 sq. m. ; pop. in 1869, 646,729, and in 1872, as reported by the governor, 662,463. It is extremely mountain- ous, being traversed from S. to N. by the great chain of the Mexican Andes, which, after en- tering from the south in a single ridge almost j midway between the two oceans, bifurcates, sending N". the two separate branches which flank the vast central plateau. These lateral ridges cut the country into valleys and gorges of no great extent, but of surprising beauty and fertility. The most remarkable summits are Zempoaltepec in the district of Villalta, with an elevation of 10,542 ft. above the sea, and whose crest commands magnificent views of both oceans; the Sirena, S. of San Juan de Ozolotepec; Chicahuastla, in Teposcolula; Colcoyan, S. of Huajuapam ; Jilotepec, in Tla- colula; and Mijes, S. of Quetzaltepec. The principal rivers are the Quiotepec, which rises I in the mountains N. of the city of Oajaca, col- lects the waters of the Tonto, and unites with ! the Cosamaloapam after a course of 120 m. ; loapam,, descending from the Zempoaltepec, and having a course of more than 100 m. ; the Tehuantepec, flowing from the mountains of Quiechapa, Amatlan, and Minas, and falling l into the Pacific at Ventosa; and the Atoyac or Verde, which takes its rise near the capital, and empties into the Pacific after a winding course of nearly 170 m. The climate presents all the variations characteristic of the torrid and temperate zones, and is mostly very salu- brious. There are in Oajaca 8 gold and 17 silver mines, besides 39 mines of silver and
 * the Villalta, also a tributary of the Cosama-
 * gold, 5 of iron, and 4 of lead ; but the mining

operations are comparatively limited for want of adequate labor. The agricultural products include maize, chilli, beans of several kinds, wheat, barley, rice, aniseed, coffee, cotton, wax, and tobacco; but the great staples are the sugar cane, cochineal, indigo, and cacao, the last being equal in quality to the best from Caracas. . The annual yield of cochineal is about 500,000 Ibs. ; and the mean annual value of all the products is $2,250,000. Oajaca is essentially an agricultural country ; but it has likewise a large number of manufactures, the more important being soaps, sugar, aguar- diente or cane rum, beer, gunpowder, and palm- leaf hats; and there are numerous flour mills, two salt works, 10 tanneries, and about 70