AFT AGATE. 



55 



ami the promotion of civilization among the African 

 iiations. With this view, it labours to collect the 

 most complete accounts of the agricultural and com- 

 mercial relations of the country, and of the physical, 

 intellectual, and political condition of its inhabitants ; 

 to form connexions with them ; to introduce valuable 

 plants ; to found schools ; to make the natives ac- 

 quainted with the useful arts of Europe, &c. The 

 institution is governed by a president, vice-president, 

 and thirty-six directors. But its funds have not been 

 sufficient to accomplish much. It has, however, sup- 

 ported teachers in Sierra Leone, and exerted itself 

 with zeal for the abolition of the slave trade, as may 

 be seen from its excellent annual reports. 



AFT ; a sea term, signifying near the stern of the 

 ship. 



- AGA ; among the Turks, the commander of a body 

 of infantry ; likewise a title of politeness. The A. 

 of the Janizaries, their commander-in-chief, had 

 nearly as much authority as the grand vizier, and was 

 the only person allowed to appear before the grand 

 seignior, without his arms crossed on his breast, in 

 the attitude of a slave. The word aga is often used 

 as a complimentary title in Turkey, much in the 

 same way as captain is in some parts of the United 

 States. The chief officers under the khan of Tar- 

 tary are also called A. The A. of Algiers is the 

 president of the divan, or senate. 



AGADES (Audagost of Edrissi) ; a flourishing town 

 of Central Africa. It appears to be the centre of 

 the trade of the eastern part of the interior of Africa. 

 It is 47 days' journey from Mourzouk, and many of 

 the merchants from that quarter stop at A. to change 

 their commodities for those of Soudan, and the coun- 

 tries to the south of the Niger. Hornemann reports 

 it to be the capital of an independent kingdom called 

 Asben. 



AGALMATOLITE ; a soft mineral substance, capable 

 of being cut with the knife, of a dull greenish, red- 

 dish, or yellowish-white colour, and consisting of 

 silex and alumine, with a little potash. It is chiefly 

 found in China, where it is wrought into figures and 

 various ornaments. It lias lately been recommended 

 as a substitute for the bricks made of Cornish por- 

 celain clay, to measure high heats in the pyrometer 

 of Wedgewood ; it being capable of standing a great 

 heat, and of contracting its dimensions very con- 

 siderably and equably. 



AGAMEMNON ; king of Mycene and Argos, son of 

 Plisthenes, nephew of Atreus, and brother of Mene- 

 laus and Anaxibia. His mother is said by some to 

 have been Eriphyle, by others, Aerope. Common 

 opinion, and the authority of Homer, make him the 

 son of Atreus. At least, the two brothers are de- 

 nominated Atrides by Homer. From Tantalus, the 

 founder of the race, down to Agamemnon and his 

 children, the members of this family of heroes were 

 constantly persecuted by fete. (See Tantalus, Pe- 

 lops, Atreus, and Thyestes.) The children of A. and 

 Clytemnestra were Iphigcnia, Electra, Chrysothe- 

 ini-, and Orestes. When the Trojan war broke out, 

 A. was appointed leader of the united army of Greeks, 

 und manned alone 100 ships. The army assembled 

 in the bay of Aulis in Boeotia. Here they were 

 long detained by a calm, occasioned by the anger 

 of Diana (see Iphigenia), but finally arrived before 

 Troy. During the protracted siege of the city, A. 

 appears superior to the other chiefs in battle and in 

 councils, and maintains, under all circumstances, the 

 dignity of a commander. His quarrel with Achilles 

 is described under Achilles. Returning home, afi.er 

 ten years' siege, he was treacherously assassinated. 

 jEgisthus, whom, at his departure, he hat! pardoned 

 for the murder of Atreus, and intrusted with the care 

 cf his wife and children, joined with Clytomnestra, 



and slew him at a banquet, together with Cassandra, 

 the daughter of Priam (who had fallen to his share 

 in the division of the captives), and their children. 

 Thus says Homer; others say that Clytemnestra 

 murdered him in the bath, having entangled him in 

 a tunic. The cause of his murder is alleged by some 

 to have been her adulterous connexion with ^Egis- 

 thus ; by others, her jealousy of Cassandra. 



AGAMIC PLANTS. See Cryptogamic. 



AGANIPPE, likewise called Hippocrene ; a fountain 

 which, according to the Grecian poets, sprang out 

 of the summit of Helicon, the seat of the muses, when 

 struck by the hoof of Pegasus. This fountain had 

 the property of inspiring with poetic fire whoever ^ 

 drank of it. Solinus distinguishes A. from Hippo-' 

 crene as a different fountain. 



AGAPE, in ecclesiastical history (from aya<r, Gr. 

 love) ; the love-feast, or feast of charity, in use among 

 the primitive Christians, when a liberal contribution 

 was made by the rich to feed the poor. St Chrysos- 

 tom gives the following account of this feast, which 

 he derives from the apostolical practice. He says, 

 " The first Christians had all things in common, as 

 we read in the Acts of the Apostles ; but when that 

 equality of possession ceased, as it did even in the 

 apostles' time, the agape or love-feast was substituted 

 in the room of it. Upon certain days, after partak- 

 ing of the Lord's supper, they met at a common 

 feast, the rich bringing provisions, and the poor, who 

 had nothing, being invited." These love-feasts, dur- 

 ing the three first centuries, were held in the churches 

 without scandal, but in after tunes the heathen began 

 to tax them with impurity. This gave occasion to a 

 reformation. The kiss of charity, with which the 

 ceremony used to end, was no longer given between 

 different sexes, and it was expressly forbidden to have 

 any beds or couches for the convenience of those who 

 wished to eat at their ease. The abuses, however, 

 became so notorious, that the holding of the A., in 

 churches at least, was solemnly condemned at the 

 council of Carthage, in the year 397. Some modern 

 sects, as the Wesleyans, Sandemanians, Moravians, 

 c. have attempted to revive this feast. 



AGARIC, AGARICUM, AGARICUS; the mushroom, a 

 genus of the order of fungi, belonging to the class of 

 cryptogamia, Linnaeus. The generic character is a 

 pileus, or cap, with gills underneath, which differ in 

 substance from the rest of the plant, being composed 

 of two lamina ; the seeds are in the gals. Some 

 have enumerated no less than 634 species of this 

 fungus, others 400. Of all these, only one species, 

 A. campestris, common mushroom, or champignon, 

 has been selected for cultivation in England. It is 

 considered the most savoury of the genus, and is much 

 in request for the table. It is eaten fresh, either 

 stewed or boiled, and preserved either as a pickle or 

 in powder ; and it furnishes the sauce called ketchup. 

 The field plants are better for eating, inasmuch as 

 they are more tender than those raised on artificial 

 beds. . The wild mushrooms are found in parks and 

 pastures, where the turf Krs not been ploughed up 

 for many years, and the best time for gathering them 

 is August and September. 



AGATE; a fossil compounded of various sub- 

 stances, as chalcedony, cornelian, jasper, hornstone, 

 quartz, &c. These different fossils do not all occur 

 in every A., commonly only two or three of them. 

 There are different kinds of A., as the fortification, 

 the landscape, the riband, the moss, the tube, the 

 clouded, the zoned, the star, the fragment, the punc- 

 tuated, the petrifaction, the coral, and the jasper A. 

 No country affords finer A., or in greater abundance, 

 than Germany. It is found in great quantities at 

 Oberstein, in that country. It is also found in 

 France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Sicily, Siberia, 



