gold. It has often been the scene of human sacrifices, especially at the great festivals. The town was captured by the French in 1892. Pop., formerly 60,000, now about 10,000. See Dahomey.
ABORIGINES. (1) An old tribe inhabiting Latium. (2) The earliest known inhabitants of any other land. The aborigines of a country, as a subject of scientific investigation, have received great attention since the publication of Herbert Spencer's "Synthetic Philosophy." The greatest discussion has been occasioned by the theories of Morgan with reference to the aborigines of the United States.
ABORTION, the immature product of an organ; any fruit or product that does not come to maturity, or anything which fails in its progress, before it is matured or perfect.
ABOUKIR, a small town of Egypt, about 12 miles E. of Alexandria. In Aboukir Bay, Nelson found the French fleet which had conveyed Bonaparte into Egypt, and destroyed or captured the greatest part of it (Aug. 1, 1798). In other respects, Aboukir is not of much importance.
ABOULFEDA, or ABULFEDA, the hereditary prince of Hamah; the most celebrated of the Arabian writers on history and geography. Among his contemporaries he was also distinguished both as a ruler and a warrior.
ABOUT, EDMOND (ā-bö′), a French novelist; born in Dieuze, Lorraine, Feb. 14, 1828. One of the few younger authors of note who adhered to the second empire, he enjoyed the special favor of Napoleon III., and in 1870 accompanied the army of Marshal Macmahon as reporter for "Le Soir." In that paper, after the war, and from 1875 as editor-in-chief of the "XIX. Siècle," he was the champion of the Moderate Republicans. He was elected a member of the Academy in 1884. He died in Paris, Jan. 17, 1885.
ABRACADABRA, a magical word among the ancients, recommended as an antidote against several diseases. It was to be written upon a piece of paper as many times as the word contains letters, omitting the last letter of the former every time, and suspended from the neck by a linen thread. It was the name of a god worshipped by the Syrians, the wearing of whose name was a sort of invocation of his aid. At present, the word is used chiefly in jest, to denote something without meaning.
ABRAHAM, son of Terah, and brother of Nahor and Haran, the progenitor of the Hebrew nation and of several cognate tribes. In obedience to a call of God, Abraham, with his father Terah, his wife Sarah, and his nephew Lot, left his native Ur of the Chaldees, and dwelt for a time in Haran, where Terah died. After his father's death. Abraham, now 75 years old, pursued his course, with Sarah and Lot, to the land of Canaan, whither he was directed by the divine command (Genesis, xii: 5), when he received the general promise that he should become the founder of a great nation, and that all the families of the earth should be blessed in him. As the country was suffering with famine, Abraham journeyed southward to the rich cornlands of Egypt. Abraham left Egypt with great possessions, and, accompanied by Lot, returned to one of his former encampments between Bethel and Ai. Abraham pitched his tent among the oak-groves of Mamre, close to Hebron, where the promise that his descendants should become a mighty nation was confirmed. At the suggestion of Sarah, who despaired of having children of her own, he took as his concubine Hagar, her Egyptian maid, who bare him Ishmael, in the 86th year of his age. Thirteen years elapsed, during which revelation was made that a son of Sarah, and not Ishmael, should inherit both the temporal and spiritual blessings. The covenant was renewed, and the rite of circumcision established as its sign. At length, Isaac, the long-looked-for child, was born, and Ishmael was driven out, with his mother Hagar, as a satisfaction to Sarah's jealousy. Some 25 years after this event, Abraham received the strange command to take Isaac and offer him for a burnt-offering at an appointed place. He hesitated not to obey, but the sacrifice was stayed by the angel of Jehovah. Abraham, at the goodly age of 175, was "gathered to his people."
ABRAHAM, PLAINS OF and HEIGHTS OF. a table-land near Quebec, rising above the St. Lawrence, where the battle of Quebec was fought between the British and French (1759). A noble monument now marks the spot.
ABRASIVES, term applied to substances used in polishing and grinding. They include implements fashioned from natural materials, such as grindstones, millstones, whetstones, etc., mineral substances used in a granulated form and artificial abradants.
The familiar grindstone, known from the earliest times, is made from a gritty tenacious sandstone, found in abundant
