Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/822

ARANSAS. 20, 1864, the pass was the scene of a battle be- tween tlie Confederate and the Federal troops, which resulted in the capture of the former's fortifications at the pass. ARANSAS PASS. See Aksas Bay. ARANY, O'ro-ny', Janos (1817-82). Next to Petofi the greatest of modern Hungarian poets. He was born at Nagy-Szalonta, March 1, 1S17. His parents were simple peasants and very poor, l)ut he was their only son and the chiid of their old age, and they spared no effort to give him an education. At four he had al- ready learned to read from letters traced in the ashes on the hearth, and the Psalms were his first spelling-book. From the first he was an in- defatigable reader, and had soon exhausted the resources of the local library, botli in Hungarian and in Latin. At tlie age of fifteen he entered the college at Debreczin, where he quickly dis- tinguished himself, but liis dreams were of a romantic career. Like Petofi, he had felt the fascination of the stage, and in 1836 joined a company of strolling players; but after a few months,' poverty and hunger brouglit him, foot- sore and discouraged, back to his father's house. Here he put aside romantic aspirations, and hav- ing obtained an appointment as notary, settled down to be a mere "everyday" man. It was not until the summer of 1845 that certain absurdi- ties in the life of the county officials "awoke the voice of satire within him," and inspired his first poem, a satirical ejiic, Az nlveszett alkot- muiuj ("The Lost Constitution"), and the Kis- fahidy Society of Pesth having offered a prize for tiie best "humorous poem, he submitted it and was successful. Two years later he obtained a second prize with the first part of his great trilogy, ToUli, an epic founded wholly upon Mag- yar traditions, which inunediately brouglit him into widespread popularity, and won him the friendship of the leading men of letters of his day and country. Petiifi, among others, wrote to "him, saying: "While others win their laurels leaf by leaf, we must grant you at once the full crown." Arany's popularity soon extended to the lowest ranks of the people, for he had satu- rated himself in childhood with the folklore of his race, and he excelled above all in the art of weaving these old legends and traditions into the fabric of his poems, and in appealing to that spirit of national pride which is a leading char- acteristic of the ilagyar race. From this time on his career was determined. In 1860 he re- moved to Pesth, becoming first director and then secretary of the Kisfaludy Society, and in 1870 general secretary of the Hungarian Academy of Science, a position which he held until shortly before his death, October 22, 1882. A monument was raised to his memory at Pesth in 1893. Among his more notable works should be men- tioned: Miirtinii ostroma ("The Siege of ilu- rflny") ; King Biida's Death, an epic in twelve cantos: the secon<l and third parts of the Toldi cycle, Tohli's Love and Toldi's Evening; some exquisite ballads, which many Hungarian critics think have been unsurpassed, and numerous translatiims, including .Vristophanes, and por- tions of (Joethe, Tasso, and Shakespeare. .rany's own estimate of his worth is interesting: "My talent," he wrote, "is always urging me onward, but my Lack of energy constantly drags me back: and so I remain, like the greater part of my work — a fragment!" This verdict falls far below that of his countrymen, who unite in regarding him as the poet who raised Hungarian poetry to a hitherto unknown height, as unequaled in his versatility and artistic finish, and in his power of combining the spirit of the primitive Magyar folksong and the classic polish of his own verse in perfect harmony. There are numerous Ger- man translations of his poems, among others, Kertbeny (Leipzig, 18,51); L. Kurodi (Kron- stadt, iS63) ; Sponer (Leipzig, 1880) ; and Dux (Pesth, 1861). ARAP'AHO (probably, tattooed people). An important Algonkian tribe of the North American plains, living in three principal divi- sions, viz., the Hitunena, "Beggars" or Grosven- tres, associated with the Assinihoin in northern Montana (600); the Xorthern Arapahos, liv- ing with the Shoshonis upon a reservation in Wyoming (800) ; and the Southern .-Vrapahos, associated with the C'heyennes in Okhihuma ( 980 ) . These last, together with the Chej-ennes, sold their reservation by treaty in 1892, and are now citizens, holding allotments in severalty. In character the Arapahos are friendly and ac- commodating, and dis])lay a superior adaptabil- ity to civilization. They are also of a fervent religious spirit, and were among the principal adherents and propagators of the ghost dance leligion some ten years ago. In the early border wars they were usually friendly or neutral, not- withstanding the fact that their allies, the C'hey- ennes, were among the most determined of the hostiles. ARAPAIMA, ii'ia-pi'nui (probably native name). A genus of South American river fislies, closely related to the herrings, and having the body covered with a mosaic of strong, bony, com- pound scales. They are the largest fresh-water fishes in the world, attaining a length of 15 feet and a weight of 400 pounds. They are much alued as food, both in the fresh and in the salted condition, by the people of Brazil and Guiana. The principal species is Arapaiina gigas, which is taken by spearing. ARAPILES, a'ni-pe'las. A village of Spain in the Province of Salamanca, situated about four miles southeast of the town of Salamanca (Map: Spain, C 2). It was famous as the place of the battle of Salamanca, in which the French forces under ilarmont were defeated by the allied troops under Wellington, on July 22, 1812. AR'ARAT (Aii-arat, in the old Armenian dialect Aitirnt, i.e. the plains of the Aryans). The ancient name of the fertile plateau through which flows the river Aras. or Araxes. Ararat appears in the Old Testament (II. Kings xix. 37) as the place to wdiich the sons of Sennacherib fled after murdering their father. In Assyrian texts the country is also mentioned frequently from the Ninth Century B.C. onward under the form Urarti, though it would appear that the name was used somewhat indefinitely for a larger district than the Ararat of classical writers. It was the ambition of the Assyrian kings to include Urarti in their dominions, and frequent military expeditions were made against Xaiyi, as the vast tract to the north and northeast of Assyria was commonly termed. It occupies the centre of the mountainous region of Armenia, belonging partly to Turkey and partly to Russia, .ccording to Genesis (viii. 4) it was on the "mountains of Ararat" that Noah's .^rk rested after the Del-