with a pop. of
100,000.

ABSALOM, a son of David, who rebelled against his father, and at
whose death David gave vent to a bitter wail of grief. A name given by
Dryden to the Duke of Monmouth, son of Charles II.

ABSOLUTE, THE, the philosophical name for the uncreated Creator, or
creating cause of all things, dependent on nothing external to itself.

ABSYRTUS, a brother of Medea, whom she cut in pieces as she fled
with Jason, pursued by her father, throwing his bones behind her to
detain her father in his pursuit of her by stopping to pick them up.

ABT, FRANZ, a German composer of song-music (1819-1885).

ABU, a mountain (6000 ft.) in Rajputana, with a footprint of Vishnu
on the top, and two marble temples half-way up, held sacred by the Jains.

AB`UBEKR, as the father of Ayesha, the father-in-law of Mahomet, the
first of the caliphs and the founder of the Sunnites; _d_. 634.

AB`U-KLEA, in the Soudan, where the Mahdi's forces were defeated by
Sir H. Stewart in 1885.

A`BUL-FARAJ, a learned Armenian Jew, who became bishop of Aleppo,
and wrote a history of the world from Adam onwards (1226-1286).

ABUL-FAZEL, the vizier of the great Mogul emperor Akbar, and who
wrote an account of his reign and of the Mogul empire; he was
assassinated in 1604.

ABUL-FEDA, a Moslem prince of Hamat in Syria, who in his youth took
part against the Crusaders, and wrote historical works in Arabic
(1273-1331).

ABU-THA`LEB, uncle of Mahomet, and his protector against the plots
of his enemies the Koreish.

ABY`DOS, a town on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont, famous as the
home of Leander, who swam the Hellespont every night to visit Hero in
Sestos, and as the spot where Xerxes built his bridge of boats to cross
into Europe in 480 B.C.; also a place of note in Upper Egypt.

ABYSSIN`IA, a mountainous country SE. of Nubia, with an area of
200,000 sq. m., made up of independent states, and a mixed population of
some four millions, the Abyssinians proper being of the Semite stock. It
is practically under the protectorate of Italy.

ACACIA, a large group of trees with astringent and gum-yielding
properties, natives of tropical Africa and Australia.

ACADEMY, a public shady park or place of groves near Athens, where
Plato taught his philosophy and whence his school derived its name, of
which there are three branches, the _Old_, the _Middle_, and the _New_,
represented respectively by Plato himself, Ar