A CAPELLA—ABANDON. 
  
  
asterisk in red).—Ships A% in black form the third 
class, and consist of such as are still found, on sur- 
vey, fit to carry perishable goods on shorter voyages. 
—(Classes B and I comprise ships sufficient to con- 
vey goods not liable to sea-damage ; the one class, 
! for voyages of any length, the other, for shorter 
voyages. 
A CAPELLA, or A LA CAPELLA, in Mus, 
means, in the church style; it is equivalent to Alla 
Breve (q.v.), a time-signature which frequently 
appears in church-music. It also denotes that the 
instruments are to play in unison with the voices, 
or that one part is to be played by a number of 
instruments. 
AA, the name of a number of rivers and streams 
in the north of France, Holland, Germany, and 
Switzerland. As many as forty have been enume- 
rated. The word is said to be of Celtic origin, but 
it is allied to the Old German aha, Gothic ahva, 
identical with the Latin aqua, ¢water.” Ach or 
Aach is another form of the same word. Four 
streams of the name of Ach fall into the Lake of 
Constance. The word, in both forms, occurs as final 
gyllable in many names of places, as, Fulda (for- 
merly Fuldaha), Biberach, Biberich, &c. In the 
plural, it is Aachen (waters, springs), which is the 
German name of Aix-la-chapelle (q.v.). Aix, the 
French name of so many places connected with 
springs, is derived from Lat. 4que, which became 
in old French Aigues, and then Aix. Compare the 
Celtic Esk, Ex, Axe, Ouse. 
AALBORG (meaning Eel-town), a seaport in the 
north of Jutland, with considerable trade ; pop. 8000. 
AAR, next to the Rhine and Rhone, the largest 
river in Switzerland, rises in the glaciers near the 
Grimsel in Berne, forms the TFalls of Handeck, 
200 feet high, flows through Lakes Brienz and 
Thun, and passing the towns of Interlachen, Thun, 
Berne, Solothurn, Aarau, Brugg, and Klingenau, 
joins the Rhine at the village of Coblenz, in Aargau, 
after a course of nearly 200 miles. It is a beautiful 
crystal stream, and, though rapid, is navigable for 
small-craft from Lake Thun, There are several 
small rivers of the same name in Germany. 
AARGATU (ARGOVIE), a canton of Switzerland, 
on the lower course of the Aar, and having the Rhine 
for its north boundary. Its surface is diversified 
with hills and valleys, is well wooded, and generally 
fertile. The area 1s about 530 sq. miles, and the 
population in 1850 was nearly 200,000, rather more 
than half being Protestants. Besides agriculture, con- 
siderable manufacturing industry in cotton and silk 
is carried on both in the towns and country, and the 
prosperity of the population has of late markedly 
increased. In this canton is the castle of Habsburg 
or Hapsburg, the original seat of the imperial 
family of Austria. The chief town is AARAU, 
situated on the Aar; pop. 4657. 
AARHUUS, a seaport on the east coast of 
Jutland ; pop. 6800. 
AARON, the elder brother of Moses, was ap- 
pointed his assistant and spokesman, and at the 
giving of the Mosaic law received for himself and 
his descendants the hereditary dignity of the priest- 
hood. Aaron assisted his brother in the admin- 
istration of public affairs. He died in the 123d 
year of his age, on Mount Hor, on the borders of 
Idumea. His third son, Eleazar, succeeded him in 
the office of high-priest. 
ABACA, or MANILLA HEMP, is the fibre of a 
species of plantain or banana (Musa troglodytarum), 
a native of the Philippine Isles, where it is exten- 
sively cultivated. The leaf-stalks are split into long 
the fleshy pulp. A labourer can in this way produce 
daily 50 Ibs. of hemp. Before 1825, the quantity 
produced was insignificant, but now it amounts 
to nearly 3000 tons annually. In Manilla there is 
a steam rope-work for making ropes of it for naval 
purposes. They are very durable, but not very 
flexible.—The fibre of a number of species of Musa 
is used in tropical countries. See PLANTAIN. 
A'BACUS, an instrument seldom seen except in 
infant-schools, where it — Lot 
is used to make the ele- 
mentary operations of 
arithmetic palpable. It 
consists of a frame with 
a number of parallel 
wires, on which beads 
or counters are strung. In ancient times, it was 
used in practical reckoning, and is said to be so 
still in China and elsewhere.—Abacus Pythagoricus 
meant the multiplication-table.—ABACUS, in arch., 
is a square or oblong level tablet on the capital of a 
column, and supporting the entablature. In the 
Doric, old Ionic, and Tuscan orders, the abacus is 
  
Chinese Abacus. 
  
g AAPTER(T i 
e i Wl v 
{1k ool TR 
T 
  
  
  
  
Dorie Abacus. 
a regular oblong ; but in the new Ionic, Corinthian, 
and Roman orders, the abacus has concave sides, 
with truncated angles. Square marble tablets let 
  
Jorinthian Abacus, 
into walls, and fields with figures in them inserted 
in mosaic floors, were also included wunder the 
term abacus in ancient architecture. 
ABAD (allied both in etymology and meaning to 
the Eng. abode), an affix to names of Persian origin, 
as Hyderabad, the ‘dwelling’ or city of Hyder. 
ABAISSE (lowered), a term used in Heraldry. 
When the fesse, or any other armorial figure is 
depressed, or situated below the centre of the shield, 
it is said to be abaissé. Adossé (back to back), 
affronté or confronté (facing or fronting one another), 
atguissé (sharpened at the point), ailé (winged), are 
other heraldic terms borrowed, like abaissé, from 
the French, and used by English heralds in senses 
not differing essentially from their ordinary signifi- 
cations in that language. 
ABANDON (Abandoning, Abandonment). This 
term, in its different grammatical and etymological 
forms, has various applications in legal phraseology, 
but all more or less corresponding to its popular 
meaning. The following are examples : 
ABANDONING AN ACTION is a technical expression 
in Scotch legal procedure, signifying the act by 
which a plaintiff—or ¢pursuer,’ as he is called in 
Scotland—abandons or withdraws from his action on 
the payment of the costs incurred, and with the 
approval of the judge before whom the action had pre- 
viously been conducted. The same purpose is effected 
  
stripes, and the fibrous part is then separated from 
2 
  
in England by the plaintiff in a Court of Common 
A 
Law e 
trial wi 
the pla 
or the 
want o) 
abate b 
parties, 
ABA 
the rel; 
goods « 
all intc 
demanc 
INSURA 
ABAI 
parliam 
afforde 
of raily 
three-fi 
the ¢ Cc 
the 14 . 
Trade, 
matters 
superse 
ABAY 
of merc 
misdem 
See SEA 
ABA 
senses | 
Freehol 
gets po 
ances, v 
See Nu 
a defen 
seeks 1 
4. A. o 
insuffici 
5. A. b 
suits in 
till rev 
or loss 
siderabic 
ceeding; 
Commes 
or dedu 
See Cus 
ABA 
over a 
family, : 
act on t 
to be a 
nine suc 
other of 
and sarn 
to him 
reversed 
chastity 
sovereig 
Tum wh 
acts ; ar 
  
Aba 
These 
distincti 
  
  
term is