ARABISTAN-
ARACHNIDA
519
of Yemen are almost exclusively agricultural. Coffee, dates, vegetables, and fruit from the hills, with rock-salt, iron, and coal from the Tehama and lowlands, are the chief items in the trade reports, the lowland productions being inconsiderable. The Yemenis (estimated at 3,000,000 souls) weave a kind of coarse cloth, and they dye American cloth goods, and build ships ; but they have apparently no other industries. Eastern Arabia contributes something to the trade of the Persian Gulf. Bahrein is answerable for an export of nearly half a million in value, and an import of £550,000. The former includes dates, rice, pearls, and specie as the principal items, the value of the pearl export in 1898 being nearly £300,000. The imports include coffee, dates, piece-goods, rice (in large quantities from India, and of the very best quality, much of which is exported to the mainland), pearls, and metals. Of the total export value of £387,000 from the Arab coast ports in 1898, £357,700 worth went to Persia, and of that amount £343,750 is included under the head “pearls.” This indicates that Linja, on the Persian coast, is the great trade mart for pearls of the Gulf; and that Arab trade, independently of this valuable item, is inconsiderable. The rice trade with India is that which figures most largely in the general commercial record of trade with ports outside the Gulf, and this, no doubt, is important. (For Aden trade see Aden.) Authorities.—Zehme. Globus, vol. xxii. xxiii. xxiv.—Blunt, W. S. “ A Visit to Jebel Shammar,” vol. ii. Proc. R. G. S. 1880. —Blunt, Lady Anne. Pilgrimage to Nejd. London, 1881.— Muller,H. AXUamA&m.'& Gdographie. Leiden, 1884.—Doughty, C. M. Documents epigraphiques recueillis dans le nord de VArabic, Paris, 1884 ; Travels in Northern Arabia in 1876-77, Cambridge, 1886 ; Travels in Arabia Deserta, Cambridge, 1888.—Bent, Theo-
dore. “Bahrein Islands,” vol. xii. Proc. R. G. S. 1890; “Southern Arabia,” vol. vi. Geog. Journ. 1895; “ Hadramut,” vol. iv. Geog. Journ. 1894.—Miles, Col. S. B., “Coasting Journey along Southern Arabia,” vol. viii. Proc. R. G..S. 1886 ; “Journal of an Excursion in Oman,” vol. vii. Geog. Journ. 1896.—Haig, General F. T. “ A Journey through Yemen,” vol. ix. Proc. R. G. S. 1887.—Schweinfurth, Dr. G. Exploration geologique de VOuadi Arabath. Cairo, 1888.—Walther, Prof. J. “The Geology of the Sinai Peninsula and Arabian Desert,” vol. x. Proc. R. G. S. 1888. —Glaser, Ed. “Journeys in Arabia,” vol. xi. Proc. R. G. S. 1889.—Deflers, A. “ Voyage en Yemen.” Paris, 1889.—Huber, Ch. “Journal d’un voyage en Arabie.” Societe Asiatique. Paris, 1891. 1892. 1893. Verh. Ges. Erdlc. xxi. Berlin, 1894.—Nold. “ Reise nach InnerArabien,” Globus, Ixvii. 1895.—Courtellement. “ Un voyage a la Mecque,” B. S. G. xiii. Lyon, 1895.—Siedel. Arabic Languages. Vienna, 1894 ; London, 1895.—Holdich, Sir T. “Ancient and Mediaeval Makran,” vol. vii. Geog. Journ. 1896.—Stiffe, Capt. A. W. “Ancient Trading Centres of the Persian Gulf,” vols. vii. ix. and x. Geog. Journ. 1896.—Euting. Tagebuch einer Reise in Juner Arabien. Leyden, 1896.—Rossi, G. B. LTemen avanti il profeta,” Rassegna nazionale di Firenze, 1897.—Laussedat. Recherches sur les instruments et les mithodes topographiques, vol. i. Paris, 1898.—Landberg. “ Arabics, ” No. v. Leiden, 1898.— Charnay. “ Un excursion au Yemen,” B. S. R. G. d'Anvers, xxiii. 1899.—Burton. ‘ ‘ Pilgrimage to Mecca ” (unpublished MS.), T.R.S. Literature, xx. 1899.—Deflers. Tour du Monde.—Zwerner, Arabia the Cradle of Islam. Edinburgh, 1900. (t. H. H.*)
Arabistan, formerly known as Khuzistan, a province of Persia, bounded on the S. by the Persian Gulf, on the W. by Turkish territory, on the N. by Luristan, and on the E. by the Bakhtiari district and Ears. It is now subdivided into the districts of Muhamrah (q.v.), Fellahiyeh (the old Dorak), Ram-Hormuz (popularly known as Ramiz), Havizeh, Shushtar, and Dizful, has a population of about 200,000 (mostly Arabs), and pays a yearly revenue of about ,£30,000. The soil is very fertile; but since the dam over the Karun at Ahvaz was swept away, and the numerous canals which diverted the waters of the Karun and other rivers for irrigation were neglected and became useless, a great part of the province is uncultivated, and most of the crops depend for water on rainfall or the overflowing of the rivers. The district of Shushtar, with the city of same name, 22 villages, and about 3700 families of the Kunduzlu, Sad, Anaffjeh, and Al-i-Kethir tribes, has a population of about 40,000, and pays a yearly revenue of about £6000. The city, with a population of about 15,000, is situated at an elevation of 400 feet at the point where the Karun river bifurcates into the Ab-i-Gerger and Shutait, in 32° 3' N. lat. and 48° 53' E. long.
The district of Dizful, with the city of same name 12 villages, and 1000 families of the Al-i-Kethir tribe, has a population of about 40,000, and pays a yearly revenue of about £6000. The city has a population of about 25,000, and is situated on the left bank of the Ab-i-Diz at an elevation of 600 feet in 32° 25' N. lat. and 48° 28' E. long. (a. H.-S.) Arabkir, a prosperous town of Asia Minor, in the Memuret el-Aziz, or Kharput vildyet, situated on an elevated plateau, near a small tributary of the Euphrates. Its large Armenian population suffered severely during the massacres of 1895. Population, before 1895, 20,000 (Moslems, 11,000; Christians, 9000). Aracaju, a city and port of Brazil, capital of the state of Sergipe. The town was founded in 1855, and has now a population of about 10,000. It has a hospital, high school, normal school^ a number of churches, and other public buildings. Aracaty, a town and port of Brazil, in the state of Ceara, with a population of 18,000. It is an important commercial centre, visited by several lines of coastwise steamers.
ARACHNID A. ARACHNID A is the name given in 1815 by Lamarck (Greek, dpdyyr], a spider) to a class which he instituted for the reception of the spiders, scorpions, and mites previously classified by Linnaeus in the order Aptera of his great group Insecta. Lamarck at the same time founded the class Crustacea for the lobsters, crabs, and water-fleas, also until then included in the order Aptera of Linnaeus. Lamarck included the Thysanura and the Myriapoda in his class Arachnida. The Insecta of Linnaeus was a group exactly equivalent to the Arthropoda founded a hundred years later by Siebold and Stannius. It was thus reduced by Lamarck in area, and made to comprise only the six-legged, wing-bearing “ Insecta.” For these Lamarck proposed the name Hexapoda ; but that name has been little used, and they have retained to this day the title of the much larger Linnsean group, viz., Insecta. The position of the Arachnida in the great sub-phylum Arthropoda, accord-
ing to recent anatomical and embryological researches, is explained in another article (Arthropoda). The Arachnida form a distinct class or line of descent in the grade Euarthropoda, diverging (perhaps in common at the start with the Crustacea) from primitive Euarthropods, which gave rise also to the separate lines of descent known as the classes Diplopoda, Crustacea, Chilopoda, and Hexapoda. Limulus an Arachnid.—Modern views as to the classification and affinities of the Arachnida have been determined by the demonstration that Limulus and the extinct Eurypterines (Pterygotus, &c.) are Arachnida ; that is to say, are identical in the structure and relation of so many important parts with Scorpio, whilst differing in those respects from other Arthropoda that it is impossible to suppose that the identity is due to homoplasy or convergence, and the conclusion must be accepted that the resemblances arise from
