It is drained by the river Awe, which enters the Loch Etive. Its largest feeder is the Orchy, from the northeast. There are numerous castles on several islands in the Loch, some of them dating from the Thirteenth Century. The Loch is traversed by steamers, and there is a railway station on its northern shore.
AWN. See Gramineæ; and Grasses.
AWOMORI, a'v6-mo'r8.
See Aomaori.
AXAYACATL, a'chd-yii-kii't'l (Me.x., 'Faee-
in-the- water') (V-1477). An Aztec chief, styled
in contemporary narratives. Emperor of Mexico.
He is reported to have been the father of Mon-
tezuma, whom Cortes con(]UPred. Al)out 1407 he
led his Aztecs to the conquest of Tehuantepec,
and afterwards crushed a rebellion that threat-
ened his capital, the City of Mexico. He died
suddenly, about 1477. Half a century later the
soldiers of Cortes occupied Axaj-acatl's 'palace,'
which was the large communal dwelling of the
section of the tribe to which Axayacatl belonged.
In one of the rooms they found an immense treas-
ure of gold and silver in ore and bars, with jew-
els, and many curious articles of manufacture.
AXE (Ger. Ax, Axt, Lat. ascia, Gk. &I.Ivt),
axine). An instrument used for felling trees and
chopping wood. The axe is one of the earliest
tools used by man, being found among the relics
of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages. It was
fashioned sometimes of syenite or black sand-
stone, as by the lake dwellers of Europe; of jade,
as by ancient peoples of Asia and Asia Minor and
by the modern Maoris; of flint or bone, as by the
American Indians; of mixed copper and tin, as
by the Romans, ancient Mexicans, and South
Americans; of copper, as by the Druids. To
this day stone axes are used in some of tlie South
Sea Islands. The American axe, the best of mod-
ern make, usually consists of a head or butt of
wrought iron, heated to a white heat, cut to the
desired length, and then, after the eye for the
handle is punched through, reheated and pressed
between concave dies into proper shape. Again
heated, it is grooved on the edge; with borax as
a flux, the arched edge-piece of steel is inserted,
projecting an inch or more; the iron and steel
are then welded at white heat, and after it is
hammered, ground to a fine edge, tempered and
polished, the head is varnished to prevent rust.
Forms and weights vary according to the use to
which the tool is to be put. For very hard tim-
ber, the edge is narrow and the whole axe heavy.
Common forest axes weigh from 3 to 7 pounds.
The handle is generally made of hickory, which
is not only strong, but elastic. The pickaxe, used
for breaking up hard ground, is not an axe in
any sense, but rather a hammer. The hatchet
(Fr. hachette, a little axe) is for use with one
hand only. The 'francisca,' at one time the na-
tional weapon of the Franks, was a hatchet for
throwing, and the tomahawk (q.v.) of the North
American Indians was, as is well known, used
in a similar manner and in hand-to-hand combat.
The adze, a tool used for the chipping or rough
planing of horizontal surfaces by carpenters, has
its blade at right angles to the handle, and so
curved that the plane of the cutting edge, as the
instrument is swung into contact, is horizontal.
Broad axes, formerly much used for hewing logs
into square timbers, are axes with very broad
blades, and the cutting edge much less curved
than the edge of the regular axe for chopping.
AX'EL, or Absalon (1128-1201). Archbishop
of Lund, after 1178, and minister and general of
Waldemar I. and Canute VI. of Denmark. He
was descended from a distinguished Danish fam-
ily, and in his youth studied at Paris. Axel dis-
tinguished himself by wisdom, uprightness, and
valor. He drove the Wendish pirates from the
Danish coast, attacked them in their own settle-
ments on the island of Rügen, and annexed the
island to Denmark. He defeated the Pomeranian
prince, Bogislav, in 1184, and made him depend-
ent on Denmark. In the wise legislation of
Waldemar and of his son, he had a great part.
He promoted learning and art, and to his en-
couragement we owe the first connected history
of Denmark by Saxo Granmiaticus. In building
a fortified castle for defense against the pirates,
he laid the foundation of the future city of
Copenhagen, then an insignificant village in-
habited only by fishermen. Owing to this origin,
Copenhagen has sometimes been called Axelstadt.
Axel lies buried in the Church of Sorö, where
he founded a monastery.
AXHOLME, aks'olm, or Axelholm (AS.
holm, island in a river; Engl, holm, hill; islet). An island in the northwest of Lincolnshire, England, formed by the rivers Trent, Don, Idle, and Vicardyke (Map: England, F 3). Area 47,000 acres. It incloses various parishes, of which Epworth is the chief. Abundant crops are raised by small landowners. Formerly a marsh which succeeded an ancient forest, it was reclaimed in 1634, after five years' labor by Vermuyden, a Dutchman, under contract from Charles I. The land became very fertile under Dutch and French Protestant immigrants, which fact antagonized the local peasantry. Litigation ensued, which ended in 1691, by the natives receiving 10,532 acres and the settlers 2868. The accent and physical characteristics of the settlers exist in the present inhabitants. Consult: Peck, Isle of Axholme (1815); Peacock, in Anthropological Review (1870).
AX'IL. See Leaf.
AX'ILLARY THERMOM'ETER (Lat. axilla, armpit). A thermometer placed in the armpit, and sometimes in the mouth, vagina, or rectum, to ascertain the temperature of the body. The arm must be held close against the body to make a closed cavity of the axilla when the thermometer is in use. Modern clinical thermometers are self-registering; the column of mercury being divided by a bubble of air so that an upper portion, about one centimetre in length, is carried up the tube by heat, and left when the main portion of the mercury descends again. The methodical use of the thermometer in febrile conditions dates from 1851.
AXIM, a-sheng' or aks'im.
A seaport in the British colony of Gold Coast, situated about 70 miles west of Cape Coast Castle. Its harbor, built by the Portuguese, is the best on the Gold Coast. In 1642 it was taken from the Portuguese by the Dutch, who in 1872 ceded it, with the whole of their possessions in Guinea, to the English.
AX'INITE (Gk. ἀξίνη, axinē, ax; refers to its edged crystals). An aluminum and calcium borosilicate, with varying amounts of iron and manganese, which crystallizes in the triclinic system. It is found in the form of brown crystals, edged like an axe, in various localities in
