the rules of which, so far as they relate to professionalism, are as follows. No person shall be eligible to compete in any athletic meeting, game or entertainment, given or sanctioned by this Union, who has (1) received or competed for compensation or reward in any form for the display, exercise or example of his skill or knowledge of any athletic exercise, or for rendering personal service of any kind to any athletic organization, or for becoming or continuing a member of any athletic organization; or (2) has entered any competition under a name other than his own, or from a club of which he was not at that time a member in good standing; or (3) has knowingly entered any competition open to any professional or professionals, or has knowingly competed with any professional for any prize or token; or (4) has issued or allowed to be issued in his behalf any challenge to compete against any professional or for money; or (5) has pawned, bartered or sold any prize won in athletic competition. It will be seen that by rule 3 the American Union enacts a standard for all athletes not much different from that of the British Amateur Rowing Association. The rules for the sports not within the Union’s jurisdiction are practically the same, except that in baseball, cricket and golf amateurs may compete with professionals, though not for cash prizes. In the case of open golf competitions professional prize-winners receive cash, while amateurs are given plate to the value of their prizes as in Great Britain. There are practically no professional football players in America.
On both sides of the Atlantic the question of the employment of professional coaches has occasioned much discussion. In America it has been accepted as legal. In England the same is almost universally true, but there are certain exceptions, such as the decision of the Henley Regatta Committee, that no crew entering may be coached by a professional within two months of the race-day. Whether such a regulation be wise or the reverse is a question that depends upon the spirit in which games are regarded. Nobody wants to disparage proficiency; but if a game is conducted on business methods, the “game” element tends to be minimized, and if its object is pecuniary it ceases to be “sport” in the old sense, and the old idea of the “amateur” who indulges in it for love of the mere enjoyment tends to disappear.
AMATHUS, an ancient city of Cyprus, on the S. coast, about 24 m. W. of Larnaka and 6 m. E. of Limassol, among sandy hills and sand-dunes, which perhaps explain its name in Greek (ἄμαθος, sand). The earliest remains hitherto found on the site are tombs of the early Iron Age period of Graeco-Phoenician influences (1000–600 B.C.). Amathus is identified by some (E. Oberhummer, Die Insel Cypern, i., 1902, pp. 13-14; but see Citium) with Kartihadasti (Phoenician “New-Town”) in the Cypriote tribute-list of Esarhaddon of Assyria (668 B.C.). It certainly maintained strong Phoenician sympathies, for it was its refusal to join the phil-Hellene league of Onesilas of Salamis which provoked the revolt of Cyprus from Persia in 500–494 B.C. (Herod. v. 105), when Amathus was besieged unsuccessfully and avenged itself by the capture and execution of Onesilas. The phil-Hellene Evagoras of Salamis was similarly opposed by Amathus about 385–380 B.C. in conjunction with Citium and Soli (Diod. Sic. xiv. 98); and even after Alexander the city resisted annexation, and was bound over to give hostages to Seleucus (Diod. Sic. xix. 62). Its political importance now ended, but its temple of Adonis and Aphrodite (Venus Amathusia) remained famous in Roman time.
The wealth of Amathus was derived partly from its corn (Strabo 340, quoting Hipponax, fl. 540 B.C.), partly from its copper mines (Ovid, Met. x. 220, 531), of which traces can be seen inland (G. Mariti, i. 187; L. Ross, Inselreise, iv. 195; W. H. Engel, Kypros, i. 111 ff.). Ovid also mentions its sheep (Met. x. 227); the epithet Amathusia in Roman poetry often means little more than “Cypriote,” attesting however the fame of the city.
Amathus still flourished and produced a distinguished patriarch of Alexandria (Johannes Eleëmon), as late as 606–616, and a ruined Byzantine church marks the site; but it was already almost deserted when Richard Cœur de Lion won Cyprus by a victory there over Isaac Comnenus in 1191. The rich necropolis, already partly plundered then, has yielded valuable works of art to New York (L. P. di Cesnola, Cyprus, 1878 passim) and to the British Museum (Excavations in Cyprus, 1894 (1899) passim); but the city has vanished, except fragments of wall and of a great stone cistern on the acropolis. A similar vessel was transported to the Louvre in 1867. Two small sanctuaries, with terra-cotta votive offerings of Graeco-Phoenician age, lie not far off, but the great shrine of Adonis and Aphrodite has not been identified (M. Ohnefalsch-Richter, Kypros, i. ch.1). (J. L. M.)
AMATI, the name of a family of Italian violin-makers, who flourished at Cremona from about 1550 to 1692. According to Fétis, Andrea and Nicolo Amati, two brothers, were the first Italians who made violins. They were succeeded by Antonio and Geronimo, sons of Nicolo. Another Nicolo, son of Geronimo, was born on the 3rd of September 1596 and died on the 12th of August 1684. He was the most eminent of the family. He improved the model adopted by the rest of the Amatis and produced instruments capable of yielding greater power of tone. His pattern was usually small, but he also made the so-called “Grand Amatis.” Of his pupils the most famous were Andrea Enamieri and Antonio Stradivari.
AMATITLÁN, or San Juan de Amatitlán, the capital of a department bearing the same name in Guatemala, on Lake Amatitlán, 15 m. S.W. of Guatemala city by the transcontinental railway from Puerto Barrios to San José. Pop. (1905) about 10,000. The town consists almost entirely of one-storeyed adobe huts inhabited by mulattoes and Indians, whose chief industry is the production of cochineal. In 1840 only a small Indian village marked its site, and its subsequent growth was due to the sugar plantations established by a Jesuit settlement. The wells of the town are strongly impregnated with salt and alum, and in the vicinity there are several hot springs. Lake Amatitlán, 9 m. long and 3 m. broad, lies on the northern side of the great Guatemalan Cordillera. Above it rises the four-cratered volcano of Pacaya (8390 ft.), which was in eruption in 1870. The outlet of the lake is a swift river 65 m. long, which cuts a way through the Cordillera, and enters the Pacific at Istapa, after forming at San Pedro a fine waterfall more than 200 ft. high.
AMAUROSIS (Gr. for “blinding,”), a term for “deprivation of sight,” limited chiefly to those forms of defect or loss of vision which are caused by diseases not directly involving the eye.
AMAZON, the great river of South America. Before the conquest of South America, the Rio de las Amazonas had no general name; for, according to a common custom, each savage tribe gave a name only to the section of the river which it occupied—such as Paranáguazú, Guyerma, Solimões and others. In the year 1500, Vicente Yañez Pinzon, in command of a Spanish expedition, discovered and ascended the Amazon to a point about 50 m. from the sea. He called it the Rio Santa Maria de la Mar Dulce, which soon became abbreviated to Mar Dulce, and for some years, after 1502, it was known as the Rio Grande. The principal companions of Pinzon, in giving evidence in 1515, mention it as El Ryo Marañon. There is much controversy about the origin of the word Marañon. Peter Martyr in a letter to Lope Hurtado de Mendoza in 1513 is the first to state that it is of native origin. Ten years after the death of Pinzon, his friend Oviedo calls it the Marañon. Many writers believe that this was its Indian name. We are disposed to agree with the Brazilian historian Constancio that Marañon is derived from the Spanish word maraña, a tangle, a snarl, which well represents the bewildering difficulties which the earlier explorers met in navigating not only the entrance to the Amazon, but the whole island-bordered, river-cut and indented coast of the now Brazilian province of Maranhão.
The first descent of the mighty artery from the Andes to the sea was made by Orellana in 1541, and the name Amazonas arises from the battle which he had with a tribe of Tapuya savages where the women of the tribe fought alongside the men,
