Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 01.djvu/103

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AGNES, ST.
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AGRAM NATIONAL COUNCIL

or more. The battle lasted three hours, and was a signal victory for the English, due mainly to the archers. As many as 10,000 Frenchmen are said to have fallen. The English lost 1,600 killed.

AGNES, ST., a holy woman, who suffered martyrdom in the reign of the Emperor Diocletian. Her emblem is a lamb, and her calendar day Jan. 21.

AGNO (ag´nō), an important river in the N. W. part of Luzon, Philippine Islands. It is about 125 miles in length, describing a circuitous course, parallel with a range of coast mountains, and emptying into Lingayen Gulf.

AGNOSTICISM, a school of thought which believes that, beyond what man can know by his senses or feel by his higher affections, nothing can be known. Facts, or, supposed facts, both of the lower and the higher life, are accepted, but all inferences deduced from these facts as to the existence of an unseen world, or of beings higher than man, are considered unsatisfactory, and are ignored.

AGOULT (ä-gö´), MARIE CATHERINE SOPHIE DE FLAVIGNY, COMTESSE D', a French author and socialist, born at Frankfort-on-Main, Dec. 31, 1805; in sympathy with the revolutionists of 1848. After separation from her husband, she became the mistress of the famous pianist, Franz Liszt, by whom she had a son and two daughters. One of the latter, Cosima, married first Hans von Bülow and later Richard Wagner. She died at Paris, March 5, 1876.

AGOUTI, a South American animal, of the family hystricidæ, order rodentia. The agoutis live for the most part upon the surface of the ground, not climbing nor digging to any depth. By eating the roots of the sugar-cane, they are often the cause of great injury to the planters. The ears are short, and the tail rudimentary. The animal is nearly 2 feet long. It is found in Guiana, Brazil, Paraguay, and some of the Antilles.

AGRA. (1) A division of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, British India; area, 10,151 square miles; pop., about 5,000,000. (2) A district of the same name, consisting of a level plain diversified by sandstone hills. The soil is barren and sandy, and, through the failure of rains, famines frequently occur; area, 1,850 square miles; pop. about 1,000,000. (3) The capital of Agra district, on the right bank of the Jumna, 110 miles S. E. of Delhi, and 841 miles N. W. of Calcutta. Agra is the handsomest city in upper India. Some of the public buildings, monuments of the house of Timur, are on a scale of striking magnificence. Among these are the fortress, built by Akbar, within the walls of which are the palace and audience-hall of Shah Jehan, the Moti Masjid, or pearl mosque, and the Jama Masjid, or great mosque. Still more celebrated is the white marble Taj Mahal, situated without the city, about a mile to the east of the fort. The city is considered especially sacred through Vishnu's incarnation there as Parasu Rama. The climate, during the hot and rainy seasons (April to September), is very injurious to Europeans. The principal articles of trade are cotton, tobacco, salt, grain, and sugar. There are manufactures of shoes, pipe stems, and gold lace, and of inlaid mosaic work, for which Agra is famous. During the Indian mutiny, in 1857, it was a place of refuge for the Europeans. It is a very important railway center, and has many claims to be regarded as the commercial capital of the northwest. Pop. about 200,000.

AGRAM (Croatian, Zagreb), capital of the former Hungarian crownland of Croatia-Slavonia, lies at the foot of a richly wooded range of mountains, about 2 miles from the Save, and 142 miles N. E. of Fiume by rail. It is divided into three parts—the upper town, built upon two eminences; the lower town; and the episcopal town. The cathedral, dating partly from the 11th century, is one of the finest Gothic buildings in Austria. Ninety per cent. of the inhabitants are Croats, who carry on a trade in wine, wood, and corn, and manufacture tobacco, leather, and linen. Repeated shocks of earthquake, in November, 1880, and again in December, 1901, did serious damage to the city's buildings. Agram possesses a university, founded in 1874, numerous secondary schools and libraries. Pop. about 85,000.

AGRAM NATIONAL COUNCIL. In November, 1918, after the armistice had been signed and the Hapsburg Empire was rapidly disintegrating, representa-