food for the people. . . . At the small towns along the river it is nearly impossible to obtain beef, vegetables, or fruit of any sort, and the inhabitants depend largely upon river fish, mandioc, and canned goods for their subsistence.” Although more than four centuries have passed since the discovery of the Amazon river, there are probably not 25 sq. m. of its basin under cultivation, excluding the limited and rudely cultivated areas among the mountains at its extreme headwaters, which are inaccessible to commerce. The extensive exports of the mighty valley are almost entirely derived from the products of the forest. (G. E. C.)
AMAZONAS, the extreme north-western and largest state of Brazil, bounded N. by Colombia and Venezuela, E. by the state of Pará, S. by the state of Matto Grosso and Bolivia, and W. by Peru and Colombia. It embraces an area of 742,123 sq. m., wholly within the Amazon basin. A small part bordering the Venezuelan sierras is elevated and mountainous, but the greater part forms an immense alluvial plain, densely wooded, traversed by innumerable rivers, and subjected to extensive annual inundations. The climate is tropical and generally unfavourable to white settlement, the exceptions being the elevated localities on the Amazon exposed to the strong winds blowing up that river. The state is very sparsely populated; two-thirds of the inhabitants are Indians, forming small tribes, and subject only in small part to government control. The principal products are rubber, cacao and nuts; cattle are raised on the elevated plains of the north, while curing fish and collecting turtle eggs for their oil give occupation to many people on the rivers. Coffee, tobacco, rice and various fruits of superior quality are produced with ease, but agriculture is neglected and production is limited to domestic needs. The capital, Manãos, is the only city and port of general commercial importance in the state; other prominent towns are Serpa and Teffé on the Amazon, Borba and Crato on the Madeira, and Barcellos on the Rio Negro. Up to 1755 all the Portuguese territory on the Amazon formed part of the capitania of Pará. The upper districts were then organized into a separate capitania, called S. José do Rio Negro, to facilitate administration. When Brazil became independent in 1822, Rio Negro was overlooked in the reorganization into provinces and reverted, notwithstanding the protests and an attempted revolution (1832) of the people, to a state of dependence upon Pará. In 1850 autonomy was voted by the general assembly at Rio de Janeiro, and on the 1st of January 1852 the province of Amazonas was formally installed. In 1889 it became a federal state in the Brazilian republic.
AMAZONAS, a northern department of Peru, covering a mountainous district between the departments of Loreto and Cajamarca, with Ecuador on the N. The Marañon river forms the greater part of its W. boundary-line. Area, 13,943 sq. m.; pop. (1896) 70,676. The rainfall is abundant, and the soil of the heavily wooded valleys and lower mountain slopes is exceptionally fertile and productive. Its settlement and development is seriously impeded by the lack of transportation facilities. The capital, Chachapoyas, is a small town (pop. about 6000) situated on a tributary of the Marañon, 7600 ft. above sea-level. It is the seat of a bishopric, created in 1802, which covers the departments of Amazonas and Loreto, and one province of Libertad. It has an imposing cathedral and a university. The climate is equable and delightful, the mean temperature for the year being 62° F.
AMAZONAS, a territory belonging to Venezuela, and occupying the extreme southern part of that republic, adjoining the Brazilian state of Amazonas. It lies partly within the drainage basin of the Orinoco and partly within that of the Rio Negro, an affluent of the Amazon. The territory is covered with dense forests and is filled with intricate watercourses, one of which, the Casiquiare, forms an open communication between the Orinoco and the Rio Negro and is navigable for large canoes. The capital of the territory is Maroa, situated on the Guainia river, an affluent of the Rio Negro.
AMAZONS, an ancient legendary nation of female warriors. They were said to have lived in Pontus near the shore of the Euxine sea, where they formed an independent kingdom under the government of a queen, the capital being Themiscyra on the banks of the river Thermodon (Herodotus iv. 110-117). From this centre they made numerous warlike excursions—to Scythia, Thrace, the coasts of Asia Minor and the islands of the Aegean, even penetrating to Arabia, Syria and Egypt. They were supposed to have founded many towns, amongst them Smyrna, Ephesus, Sinope, Paphos. According to another account, they originally came to the Thermodon from the Palus Maeotis (Sea of Azov). No men were permitted to reside in their country; but once a year, in order to prevent their race from dying out, they visited the Gargareans, a neighbouring tribe. The male children who were the result of these visits were either put to death or sent back to their fathers; the female were kept and brought up by their mothers, and trained in agricultural pursuits, hunting, and the art of war (Strabo xi. p. 503). It is said that their right breast was cut off or burnt out, in order that they might be able to use the bow more freely; hence the ancient derivation of Άμαζονες from ά-μαζός, “without breast.” But there is no indication of this practice in works of art, in which the Amazons are always represented with both breasts, although the right is frequently covered. Other suggested derivations are: ά (intensive) and μαζός, breast, “full-breasted”; ά (privative) and μάσσω, touch, “not touching men”; maza, a Circassian word said to signify “moon,” has suggested their connexion with the worship of a moon-goddess, perhaps the Asiatic representative of Artemis.
The Amazons appear in connexion with several Greek legends. They invaded Lycia, but were defeated by Bellerophon, who was sent out against them by Iobates, the king of that country, in the hope that he might meet his death at their hands (Iliad, vi. 186). They attacked the Phrygians, who were assisted by Priam, then a young man (Iliad, iii. 189), although in his later years, towards the end of the Trojan war, his old opponents took his side against the Greeks under their queen Penthesileia, who was slain by Achilles (Quint. Smyr. i.; Justin ii. 4; Virgil, Aen. i. 490). One of the tasks imposed upon Heracles by Eurystheus was to obtain possession of the girdle of the Amazonian queen Hippolyte (Apollodorus ii. 5). He was accompanied by his friend Theseus, who carried off the princess Antiope, sister of Hippolyte, an incident which led to a retaliatory invasion of Attica, in which Antiope perished fighting by the side of Theseus. The Amazons are also said to have undertaken an expedition against the island of Leuke, at the mouth of the Danube, where the ashes of Achilles had been deposited by Thetis. The ghost of the dead hero appeared and so terrified the horses, that they threw and trampled upon the invaders, who were forced to retire. They are heard of in the time of Alexander the Great, when their queen Thalestris visited him and became a mother by him, and Pompey is said to have found them in the army of Mithradates.
The origin of the story of the Amazons has been the subject of much discussion. While some regard them as a purely mythical people, others assume an historical foundation for them. The deities worshipped by them were Ares (who is consistently assigned to them as a god of war, and as a god of Thracian and generally northern origin) and Artemis, not the usual Greek goddess of that name, but an Asiatic deity in some respects her equivalent. It is conjectured that the Amazons were originally the temple-servants and priestesses (hierodulae) of this goddess; and that the removal of the breast corresponded with the self-mutilation of the galli, or priests, of Rhea Cybele. Another theory is that, as the knowledge of geography extended, travellers brought back reports of tribes ruled entirely by women, who carried out the duties which elsewhere were regarded as peculiar to man, in whom alone the rights of nobility and inheritance were vested, and who had the supreme control of affairs. Hence arose the belief in the Amazons as a nation of female warriors, organized and governed entirely by women. According to J. Vürtheim (De Ajacis origine, 1907), the Amazons were of Greek origin: “all the Amazons were Dianas, as Diana herself was an Amazon.” It has been suggested that the fact
