ALLUM ALMANAC. 



121 



they lose their green colour, and become of a red- 

 dish brown ; the process is known to be completed 

 by their change of colour, and by the rattling; of the 

 seeds within tlie berries. They are then packed in- 

 to bags or hogsheads for the market. When the 

 berries are quite ripe, they are of a dark-purple 

 colour, and filled with a sweet pulp. Pimenta is 

 thought to resemble, in flavour, a mixture of cin- 

 namon, nutmegs, and cloves, whence it has obtained 

 the name of all-spice. It is much employed in 

 cookery, and is chiefly used in whole grains. It is 

 also employed in medicine, as an agreeable aromatic, 

 and forms the basis of a distilled water, a spirit, and 

 an essential oil. The leaves of the pimenta-trees 

 yield, in distillation, an odoriferous oil, which is not 

 infrequently used, in medical preparations, instead 

 of the oil of cloves. 



ALLUM. See Alum. 



ALLUVION, (from the Latin alluvia, or adluvio, 

 rising or swelling of a river, flood, deluge) now 

 signifies a gradual increase of land along the sea- 

 shore or the banks of large rivers, or at their mouths. 

 Great alterations in the limits of countries are pro- 

 duced by A. ; e. g. New Orleans and Messalonghi 

 stand on land formed by A. Holland, too, con- 

 stantly experiences the effects of A. Whole islands 

 are often formed by this cause. In most of the 

 countries on the European continent, the sovereigns 

 have declared themselves owners of all alluvial 

 formations. In Germany, A., which is there called 

 by the much more proper name Anlandung, takes 

 place constantly on the coast of the North sea, 

 owing, probably, to the great extent of flats along 

 the shore, on which every tide deposits some mud. 

 This alluvial land is at first without vegetation ; 

 then the salicornia maritima appears, which affords 

 a rich salad. Next- follows ' poa maritima, and, on 

 \ery rich A., aster tripoleum, a plant from one to 

 six feet high. In this state, the A. receives the 

 name of Vorland, and geese begin to resort to it. 

 Afterwards it is diked, and used as pasture for 

 sheep, -horses, and cattle. It is supposed that this 

 kind of land will increase much, inconsequence of 

 the many flats along the sea-shore of Germany. 



ALMA. The Latin word almus belongs to those 

 words which cannot be rendered precisely in other 

 languages, and of which every idiom possesses some. 

 It means cherishing, nourishing, fostering, lountif>tl, 

 dear. This epithet, therefore, was applied to gods, 

 men, qualities, and things Alma Ceres, A. Venus, 

 .1. ln,v, A. parcns, &c. In modern times, it is par- 

 ticularly used in Italy, alma cittd, for Rome, and in 

 Hritain, alma mater, for Oxford, Cambridge, &c., 

 by those who have -received their education at these 

 universities. This custom has been transplanted 

 into the United States of America. Sometimes A. 

 is used as the Christian name for individuals of the 

 female sex. 



A LMAG EST ; a celebrated book, composed by 

 Ptolemy; being a collection of the observations 

 and problems of the ancients relating to geometry 

 and astronomy. The original Greek name was 

 ffuira^t; f/.<.ya.Xn or ftiyifrti, i. e. greatest compilation. 

 The Arabians^ at the time when science flourished 

 among them, translated it, about 827, and added 

 1 1 eir article a/ to the word megulc ; thus the word 

 almagest originated. (See Ptolemy.') In 1230, the 

 emperor, Frederick II., caused this work to be 

 translated from the Arabic into Latin. 



ALMAGRO, Diego ; a Spaniard of low birth, one 

 of the adventurers who accompanied Francis Pizar- 

 ro. He showed himself brave, profligate, and cruel. 

 In 1525, he took Cusco, the ancient capital of the in- 

 cus, by storm, when he exhibited the greatest bar- 

 barity towards the unfortunate Atahualpa, or Ataba- 



lipa, as he is sometimes called, the last monarch of 

 tlie race of Manco Capac, and put him to a horrid 

 death. Quarrelling with Pizarro about the division 

 of their spoil and power, a schism ensued ; and 

 both factions taking arms, Almagro was defeated, 

 made a prisoner by his rival, and strangled in 1538, 

 at the age, it is said, of 75. His son, however, suc- 

 reeded in avenging him : the friends of his father, 

 rallying round him, assassinated Pizarro in his turn, 

 after an obstinate resistance, in his own palace, J uly 

 V6, 1541. This outrage excited the attention of de 

 Castro, viceroy of Peru ; and young Almagro, fall- 

 ing into his power, was, with a considerable number 

 of his party, executed by his orders in tlie following 

 year. See Pizarro. 



ALMAMON, or ABDALLAH, caliph of Bagdad, was 

 the son of Haroun al Raschid, and succeeded his 

 brother, Al Amin, in 813. He was a great patron 

 of learning, and founded a celebrated academy at 

 Bagdad. He died in 833. 



ALMANAC ; a table or calendar, in which are set 

 down the revolutions of the seasons, the rising and 

 setting of the sun, the phases of the moon, tlie most 

 remarkable conjunctions, positions, and phenomena 

 of the heavenly bodies, for every month and day of 

 tlie year ; also tlie several fasts and feasts to be oil- 

 served in the church and state, &c. Tlie history of 

 A., and even the etymology of the word, are involv- 

 ed in considerable obscurity. By some, it is derived 

 from the Arabic al manach, to count. Verstegan, 

 who has written on the antiquities of Great Britain, 

 under the title of " Restitution of decayed Intelligence 

 concerning Britaine," makes the word of German 

 origin, almonat, and says that the Saxons were in 

 the habit of carving the annual courses of the moon 

 upon a square piece of wood, which they called al- 

 monatight. Tlie modern almanac answers to the 

 fasti of the ancient Romans. There are several 

 very splendid English almanacs of the 14th century 

 existing in MS., particularly in the British museum. 

 A very curious specimen is in the library of Corpus 

 Christi college, Cambridge. Almanacs became gene- 

 rally used in Europe within a short time after the 

 invention of printing; and they were very early re- 

 markable, as some are now in England, for the mix- 

 ture of truth and falsehood which they contained. In 

 1579, their effects in France were found so mischie- 

 vous, from the pretended prophecies which they pub- 

 lished, that an edict was promulgated by Henry III., 

 forbidding any predictions to be inserted in them 

 relating to civil affairs, whether those of the state or 

 of private persons. No. such law was ever enacted 

 in England. It is singular, that the earliest English 

 almanacs were printed in Holland, on small folio 

 sheets ; and thejse have occasionally been preserved, 

 from having been pasted within the covers of 

 old books. In the reign of James I., letters patent 

 were granted to the two universities and the Sta- 

 tioners' Company for an exclusive right of printing 

 almanacs. These, in 1775, were declared to be ille- 

 gal. During the civil wars of Charles I., and 

 thence onward to our, own times, English almanacs 

 became conspicuous for the unblushing boldness of 

 their astrological predictions, and their determined 

 perpetuation of 'popular errors. This, however, has 

 recently; received a check, by the society for the dif- 

 fusion of useful knowledge issuing a British alma- 

 nac, free from deceits and absurdities, and having 

 more to recommend it as a statistical work than for- 

 mer ones, which were all monopolized by the sta- 

 tioners' company of London, and which, much to the 

 discredit of'that company, too often abounded in silly 

 doggrels and prophetical ravings. At the present 

 day, the almanacs of the continental states are gene- 

 rally free from misleading matters of this nature ; 



