ALAGOAS. 



ALAVA. 



of agriculture, but they cultivate only a little maize. Their women 

 make earthenware. 



Agriculture is the principal occupation of the inhabitants. Only a 

 few persons are employed in the exercise of the most necessary arts of 

 civilised life. Common cotton-cloth is made in the families, but most 

 of the manufactured goods are imported. Boat-building is the most 

 important branch of industry. 



The province returns two senators and five representatives to the 

 imperial parliament of Brazil. 



In this province is one city, ALAGOAS, and seven towns, namely, 

 Porto de Pedro*, Porto Calvo, Matsayo, Anadia, Atalaya, Poxim, and 

 Penedo. Besides these places, there is San Miguel, which is built 

 about 18 miles from the sea, and is a populous place in a very fertile 

 district. The village of Caninde on the Rio de San Francisco is the 

 place where the navigation of the river terminates. Goods destined 

 for the consumption of the country adjacent to the upper course of 

 the river are here disembarked, and transported on the backs of mules 

 to Vergem Redonda, which is about 20 miles distant, and built where 

 the cataracts begin. There they are again embarked, and carried in 

 boats to the places of consumption. 



A railway has been projected from Pernambuco to the cataract of 

 Paulo Affonso, which will pass through the best part of this province, 

 and connect the country along the San Francisco with the important 

 city and port of Pernambuco. 



(Henderson's History of Brazil; Spix and Marlins's Rcite in 

 Bratiiien.) 



ALAGOAS, the capital of the province of Alagoaa, in Brazil, is 

 situated m 9 40' 3. lat., 35 50' W. long. It is built on the western 

 margin of the Lake of Manguaba, by means of which and a road 

 about 3 miles long, it sends the produce of the rich country surroun- 

 ding the lake to the harbour of Taragua. This produce consists 

 chiefly of sugar and tobacco. The town has a population of 12,000, 

 and contains several convents and a grammar-school. The country 

 about it abounds in fruits, especially orange-trees and jack-trees. 



(Henderson's History of Hi 



ALAIS, chief town of the arrondissement of Alais, in the depart- 

 ment of Gard, in the south of France ; the seat of tribunals of first 

 instance and of commerce, of a council of Prud' Homines, of an 

 agricultural society, and of a communal college ; situated on the left 

 bank of the Garden, 80 miles by railway N.N.W. from Nlmes, in 

 44" 7' 26" N. lat., 4 4' 44" K long. : population 15,884. The town is 

 built in a plain at the foot of the CeVennes Mountains, in the centre 

 of a very productive coal-field. It is pretty well built ; but has no 

 remarkable structure except a handsome gothic church and the 

 citadel built by Louis XIV. The Place de-la-Marechale is surrounded 

 by arcades. Alais was formerly the capital of the CeVennes, and a 

 stronghold of the Protestants, from whom it was taken by Louis 

 XIII. It has greatly increased in size and population since 1819, 

 when it had only 8000 inhabitants, in consequence of the working of 

 the coal and iron mines of the neighbourhood. The principal coal- 

 mines are at Grand' Combe which is connected with Alais by railway. 

 There are numerous blast furnaces and iron foundries in the vicinity. 

 The iron ore is found mixed with the coal-measures. The town has 

 important manufactures of silk, gloves, ribands, serge, sewing thread ; 

 large glass works, potteries, tanyards, and chemical works. In these 

 products, and in corn, wine, cattle, raw silk, 4c., there is a consider- 

 able trade. There are cold mineral springs near Alais which contain 

 a large proportion of sulphate of iron, and are frequented by 

 dyspeptic patients in July, August, and September. The waters 

 taken as drink (the principal mode of administration) are slightly 

 emetic and purgative ; the dose is four or five large glasses. 



ALAKANANDA, a riverof Hindustan, which rises in the Himalaya 

 Mountains. This river is considered sacred by the Hindoo inhabitants : 

 it flows through the province of Gurwal, receiving in its course the 

 waters of many small streams, of which the Dauli forms the remotest 

 source of the Gauges. At Devaprayuga (' the Junction of the Gods '), 

 a small town in 30 9' N. lat., and 78 33' E. long., the Alakananda 

 forms its junction with the river Bhagirathi, when the united streams 

 receive the name of the GANOER. 



ALAND, a small archipelago at the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia, 



consisting of one principal island which gives name to the whole group, 



f a great number of smaller islands, such as Ekeroe, Fogloe, 



Voni'>>, I.emland, ftc. About 80 of the islands are inhabited: the 



i > -jmlation is about 1 5,000. These islands were ceded by Sweden 



to Russia in 1809 ; they are usually the station of the Russian fleet in 



the Baltic, and contain several good fortified harbours. The word 



Aland is properly written with an * over the A, and pronounced Oland, 



which signifies the ' Land of Rivers or Waters.' 



The principal island has its northern point intersected by the 

 parallel of 60 15' N. lat. : the meridian of 20 E. passes through it. 

 Its length from north to south may be about 18 miles ; from east to 

 went about 14. The area is 28 square miles, and the population about 

 1000. Its coasts are deeply in,l. nt, d, and offer several excellent ports, 

 one of which, that of Yttemas, is large enough to contain the whole 

 Russian fleet. There is a vast citadel on the island and extensive 

 fortifications, affording room, it is said, for above 60,000 men. The 

 island is mountainous and of calcareous structure. The grains that 

 succeed oest are rye and barley ; potatoes, hops, and flax are grown ; 



the trees are pine, fir, and beech, in sufficient quantities to furnish 

 fuel for the inhabitants. There is also pasturage for cattle. The 

 inhabitants are of Swedish descent ; many of them are skilful seamen, 

 and employed in fishing. The exports are composed of salt-beef, butter, 

 cheese, hides, salt-fish, and firewood ; the imports are salt, colonial 

 produce, and manufactures. Aland is divided into five parishes. On 

 a small island near Ekeroe a telegraph is established. One advantage 

 which arises to the Russians from the occupation of these islands, is 

 the possession of ports which are less frozen during the winter season 

 than others in the same latitude, owing to the strong current from the 

 Bothnian Gulf, which tends to keep the sea open. This island is said 

 to have once had a king of its own. In the later times of the Swedish 

 possession it was included in the government of Abo and Biorneborg 

 in Finland. The neighbourhood of Aland is noted for being the scene 

 of the naval victory obtained by Peter I. over the Swedes in 1714, the 

 first great event in the history of the Russian, marine. The steamers 

 between Stockholm and Abo take in wood at these islands. 



ALANI ('A.\dt>oi) is the collective name of different nomadic nations 

 that lived in the countries north of the Euxine and the Caspian, and 

 may be divided into European and Asiatic Alani. The expedition of 

 Pompeius to the countries about the Caucasus, during the Mithridatic 

 war, first brought the Romans into contact with the Alani. Ammianus 

 Marcellinus, who wrote in the latter half of the 4th century of our era, 

 mentions the Alani with the Roxolani, the Massagetse, and other tribes 

 dwelling on the shores of the Palus Mseotis. The name appears to 

 have originally belonged to a Caucasian tribe which lived between the 

 chief range of the Caucasus and the Portse Caspise, now the Iron Gate, 

 near Derbend, and as far north as the great steppe between the Kuma 

 and the Volga ; and it is probably this tribe which subdued the neigh- 

 bouring nations, and to which we must refer the words of Ammianus 

 Marcellinus (xxxi. 2), who gives the best description of the Alani. He 

 says that the nobles among them were a very handsome set of men, 

 with fair hair, and eyes of a terrible expression. The Alani showed 

 some traces of civilisation, but they liked warfare above all other 

 occupations, and made frequent incursions into the Roman provinces. 

 Their horses were excellent and very swift, and the armour and arms 

 of the men were light, and well suited for a predatory mode of war- 

 fare. The Romans fought many battles with them, but not always to 

 their advantage. The emperor Gordian was defeated by them near 

 Philippopolis, A.D. 242 ; and they took a decisive part in the victory 

 which they and the Goths obtained in A.D. 378, near Adrianople, over 

 the emperor Valens, who was killed in or after the battle. (Amm. 

 Marcell. xxxi. 13.) In A.D. 406 the Alani became still more conspi- 

 cuous by invading Gaul with the Vandals, Sucvi, Burgundians, and 

 other barbarians. After having lived some years in that country, a 

 part of them joined the West Goths and Vandals for the purpose of 

 invading Spain, which soon yielded to their arms (A.D. 409). The 

 Alani now settled in Lusitania and the province of Carthagena, and 

 lived for some time under their kings till they quarrelled with the 

 West Goths, whose king Wallia defeated them in A.D. 440 in a pitched 

 battle, where the Alanian king Atax lost his life. Upon this the Alani 

 joined the Vandals, and shared their fate in Spam as well as in Africa. 

 After A.D. 440 they ceased to be an independent nation. The later 

 part of their history can only be traced in the dry and short chronicles 

 of Prosper, Idatius, and Isidores. Part of the Alani did not join the 

 Spanish expedition in A.D. 411, but remained in Gaul under their 

 king Goar. In A.D. 440 Aetius, the Roman governor of Gaul, allotted 

 them settlements in the environs of Valence, with a view of making 

 them serve as a barrier against the Goths. Their king Sambida, or 

 Sangipanuf", was intrusted by Ae'tius with the command of Orleans, 

 which Attila was besieging in A.D. 451 ; and it appears that he was 

 bribed by the Hunnic king, to whom he would have surrendered the 

 town if he had not been closely watched by the Romans and the West 

 Goths, who trusted him so little, that in the great battle on the Campi 

 Catalaunici they put the Alani between their most faithful troops, and 

 thus compelled them to fight. Gregory of Tours states (' Hist. Franc.' 

 ii. 7) that they were deprived of their independence by Thorismund, 

 king of the West Goths. All the passages of the ancient writers refer- 

 ring to this nation are collected in Stritter's ' Memorise Populorum.' 



For many centuries after the destruction of the Alaui in Spain and 

 Gaul their name occtirs in the later Byzantine writers, who represent 

 them as dwelling in their ancient settlements between the Don and 

 the Volga, and in the Caucasus. In the middle ages the country about 

 the east end of the Caucasus was called Alania, and the name Albania 

 was given to the same region by the Romans. The Alani were 

 undoubtedly a Circassian nation, and as the social state of the Cau- 

 casian tribes seems to be nearly the same as it was 1400 years ago, 

 a nearer acquaintance with these people will enable the student to 

 form a pretty correct idea of the state of civilisation of many of the 

 barbarians who overthrew the Roman empire. [ALBANIA.] 



(Klaproth, Tnbleux de PAtie; Ritter's Erdkunde ; De Guigne's 

 ffittoire de> Hum.) 



ALASSIO. [ALBENOA.] 

 ALATAMAHA. [GEORGIA.] 



ALATRI. [FROSINONE.] 



ALA'VA, the name of a former province of Spain, which is nearly 

 "incident with the modern province of Vitoria, one of the Provincial 

 Vatcongadat. [BASQUE PROVINCES.] 



