Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/675

 ORAN ORANGE 661 the response of the divinity. There was an : oracle of Pluto and Proserpine near Nysa in Caria, at which priests divined concerning the remedies for illness by passing a night in a sacred grotto, where they often took their patients with them, who would themselves fall into a prophetic sleep. An annual festi- val was celebrated there, the young men dri- ving into the cave a bull, which immediate- ly fell dead. Heroes sometimes acted as me- diators to reveal the will of Jupiter to men. The spot near Thebes where Amphiaraus was said to have been swallowed up was the seat of an oracular sanctuary. Birds never alight- ed there, and cattle never grazed in the neigh- borhood. After a fast the inquirers slept in the temple, and received the revelations in dreams. If they recovered, they were obliged to drop some money into the well of Amphi- araus in the interior of the shrine. Pausanias calls the oracle of Amphilochus, at Malms in Cilicia, the most trustworthy known in his time. The oracle of Trophonius, at Lebadea in Bceotia, was held in the highest esteem un- til a very late period. Several days of prelim- inary purification were required. The inqui- rer went into the cave of Trophonius, was re- ceived by two boys, bathed in the river Her- cyna, and drank of two wells, one of which made him forget all his former thoughts, and the other prepared him for the visions which he was about to have. He then descended by a ladder to the bottom of the cave, and various reports were made of what was there seen, and the responses of the priests were modified according to these reports. There were nu- erous oracles of JSsculapius, the most celebra- ted being that of Epidaurus in Argolis. The principal Roman oracles were those of Faunus in the grove of Albunea and on the Aventine hill, where the inquirer received his answer in sleep in prophetic visions ; those of Fortuna, where the responses were given by lot ; and that of Mars, which in early times existed at Tiora Matiena, and at which the revelation was given through a woodpecker. ORAX. I, A province of Algeria, on the Mediterranean, extending along the coast 180 m. from a point E. of the mouth of the Shelliff to near the mouth of the Muluia, and bounded JT. E. by the province of Algiers, S. and S. W. by the southern range of the Atlas moun- tains, and W. by Morocco ; area, 111,831 sq. m.; pop. in 1872, 513,492, four fifths of whom were Arabs. Several ranges belonging to the Little Atlas traverse the province in the north. Among the rivers are the Shelliff, the Makra, and the Tafna, all of which empty into the Mediterranean. There are several lakes in the southern parts, and near the capital is Lake Sale or Sebkha. A great part of the soil is fertile, and large tracts are covered with for- ests. The temperature is in general higher than that of the other provinces of Algeria, but it is somewhat moderated by steady N. W. winds. The province is divided into the administrative districts of Oran and Mosta- ganem, and into three military departments. The principal towns on the coast are Oran, Arzeu, and Mostaganem, and in the interior Tlemcen and Mascara. Spanish emigration to this province is rapidly increasing ; in 1872 it included 10,000 persons. II. A city, capi- tal of the province, on a bay of the same name, about 210 m. W. S. "W. of Algiers; pop. in 1872, 40,674. It is on both sides of the mouth of a small stream called the Wad el- Rakhi, and at the foot of the peak of Ste. Croix or Mergiagio. It is well fortified and in general well built. The principal edifices are a former mosque, now converted into a parish church, another church built by the Spaniards in the time of Charles V., a hospi- tal, a castle, and an arsenal. The city is badly supplied with water, and the country around is arid and barren. The climate, though intense- ly hot, is generally considered healthy. There is no good anchorage immediately around the town, but Mers el-Kebir, 3 m. distant, has a large and commodious harbor. Here, as in all Algerine ports, trade and industry are in the hands of Jews, Spaniards, and other for- eigners. Oran was long a subject of conten- tion between the Spaniards and the Moors. The former, under Cardinal Ximenes, took it in 1509, and retained it till 1708, when the Algerines expelled them. The Spaniards re- gained it in 1732, but subsequently gave up the town, retaining only the port and castle of Mers el-Kebir. In 1831 the French took pos- session of the town. A bishopric was estab- lished here in 1867. ORANGE (Lat. aurantium), the fruit of citrus aurantium and other species or varieties. The Orange (Citrus aurantium). genus citrus and a few other allied genera were formerly grouped together as the orange family (aurantiacecB), but recent botanists have class- ed them with the rue family, and according to the views of the best authorities the aurantia- cea rank only as a subdivision or tribe of the