ALOIDES ALPHONSO. 



125 



ways. This is sometimes done by bruising and 

 steeping them in water, and afterwards beating 

 them. "The process in some parts of Portugal is, 

 after plucking the largest and best leaves, to place 

 them on a square board, which a person presses 

 obliquely between his breast and the ground, and 

 then scrapes with a square iron bar, held hi both 

 hands. By this operation, all the juices are pressed 

 out, and only the fibres and some of the membranous 

 parts of the leaves remain, which are easily detached. 

 The fibres are employed for all the purposes to 

 which thread can be applied ; but they are neither 

 strong nor durable, and, if exposed to moisture, soon 

 decay. 



ALOIDES (so called from their supposed father, 

 Aloeus). Otus and Ephialtes, sons of Iphimedia 

 -and Neptune, were enormous giants. They attempt- 

 ed to storm heaven with the other giants, but were 

 killed by Apollo. As a punishment, they were 

 bound to a stake in Tartarus, and gnawed by snakes, 

 while an owl, on the top of the stake, disturbed 

 them with its cries. (See Giants.) This fable 

 which is also differently related, originated with the 

 Boeotians, who maintained that the Aloides intro- 

 duced the worship of the Muses. 



ALPHA and OMEGA, the first and last letters of 

 the Greek alphabet, in the Holy Scriptures, signify 

 the beginning and the end, or the first and the last ; 

 i. e. before and after all things. These two letters 

 are, therefore, used as a symbol of the Divine Being. 

 They were also formerly the symbol of Christianity, 

 and engraved accordingly on the tombs of the an- 

 cient Christians, to distinguish them from those of 

 idolaters. 



ALPHABET (from x<p and fara, the two first 

 letters of the Greek alphabet) ; the ordinary series 

 of the letters or syllables (in syllabic alphabets) of a 

 language. (For the hypotheses respecting their 

 origin, the relation between the different alphabets, 

 and the different systems on which they are based, 

 see the article Writing, Art of.) The number of 

 letters and their meanings varies in the different 

 tongues very much. The English alphabet (includ- 

 ing./ and v) contains twenty-six letters ; the French, 

 twenty-three ; the Italian, twenty ; the Spanish, 

 twenty-seven ; the German, twenty-six, or twenty- 

 four, if some compound letters are not reckoned ; the 

 Dutch, twenty-six ; the Bohemian, or that of the 

 Czechian Slavonic dialect, forty-two; the Russian, 

 forty-one ; the Ethiopic, Abyssinian, or Tartarian, 

 two hundred and two, as has been asserted, but this 

 subject needs further investigation ; the Turkish, 

 thirty-three ; the Georgian, thirty- six ; the Ben- 

 onlcse, twenty-one; the Baramese, nineteen; the 

 Coptic, thirty- two ; the Persic, thirty-two ; the 

 Arabic, twenty-eight; the Armenian, thirty eight ; 

 the Sanscrit, fifty ; the Japanese, fifty ; the He- 

 luvw, Chaldee, Syriac, and Samaritan, twenty-two 

 each ; the ancient and modern Greek, twenty-four ; 

 the Latin, twenty-two ; the Cherokee, eighty-two 

 syllables. Almost all alphabets begin with A. (See, 

 article A.) For further information, see the articles 

 on the different languages and letters. 



ALPHEUS; one o? the largest rivers of Greece, 

 which rises near the source of the Eurotas, in Arca- 

 dia, flows by Olympia, and falls into the Ionian sea. 

 In mythology, a son of Oceanus and his sister 

 Thetis. When a river-god, he fell in love with 

 Diana, who, in order to escape him, disfigured with 

 mire her own face, and the faces of her nymphs. 

 He was enamoured of and pursued the nymph Are- 

 thusa, but Diana concealed her in a cloud, and 

 changed her into a fountain. Upon this, Alpheus 

 resumed his own form of a river, and mingled his 

 waters with hers. TUis fuble probably arose from 



the circumstance, that the river Alpheus, at a cer- 

 tain place, is lost in the earth ; the fable makes it 

 come to light again in Sicily, where it un'tes with 

 the fountain Arethusa. 



ALPHONSO III., king of Leon and Asturias, called 

 the Great, succeeded his father, Ordogno, in 8GG,at 

 the age of eighteen years ; according to some, in 

 862, when fourteen years old. After having sub- 

 dued by force the powerful nobles of his kingdom, 

 who saw with jealousy the royal dignity remain he- 

 reditary in a family, he turned his arms against his 

 foreign enemies, and distinguished his reign by more 

 than thirty campaigns, and numerous victories ob- 

 tained over the Moors. He crossed the Duero, 

 overthrew the walls of Coimbra, passed the Tajo 

 into Estremadura, added to his dominions a part of 

 Portugal and Old Castile, and peopled Burgos 

 anew. But all these successes did not conciliate his 

 subjects, and he had the grief of seeing his own son, 

 don Garcia, at the head of the malcontents, endea- 

 vouring to tear the crown from his head. A. de- 

 feated the rebels, took his son prisoner, and kept 

 him in close confinement at the castle of Gauson. 

 The queen, donna Xirnena. then formed a danger- 

 ous conspiracy in Garcia's favour, and armed both 

 her other sons against the king. A bloody war 

 desolated the kingdom, until A., defeated by his 

 own son, abdicated the crown, and placed it on don 

 Garcia's head. He afterwards commanded an army, 

 as the general of his son, against the Moors, con- 

 quered them, and returned enriched with booty. 

 After this expedition, he died at Zamora, 912, sixty- 

 four years old. 



ALPHOXSO X., king of Leon and Castile, sur- 

 named the Astronomer or the Philosopher, succeeded 

 his father, Ferdinand the Holy, in 1252. His love 

 of the sciences and of law, and his surname of Sabio 

 (the wise) gave his subjects hopes of a happy reign ; 

 but the event did not answer their expectations. A. 

 was neither loved by his family, his subjects, nor his 

 neighbours ; but his learning and eloquence had 

 given him such a reputation in Europe, that many 

 German princes favoured his claim to the imperial 

 throne. Instead of employing himself- in expelling 

 the Moors, and humbling his own nobility, he ex- 

 hausted the strength of his kingdom by endeavour- 

 ing to secure his election to the imperial throne 

 (1257). But it was vain for him to aspire to this 

 dignity hi opposition to Rodolph of Hapsburg ; and 

 pope Gregory X. not only refused to acknowledge 

 him as emperor, but even to allow his right to Sua- 

 bia, which he claimed through his mother, Beatrice, 

 daughter of Philip I., archduke of Suabia. In the 

 meantime, his throne was endangered at home by 

 the conspiracies of the nobles and the attacks of the 

 Moors. He finally conquered them, in a bloody 

 battle, in 1263, took from them Xeres, Medina-Si- 

 donia, San-Lucar, and a part of Algarva, and unit- 

 ed Murcia with Castile. But these victories were 

 interrupted by new troubles, excited by his son, the 

 infante Philip, which he succeeded in quieting only 

 after three years' war. But the mildness with which 

 he treated the rebels was considered only a proof of 

 weakness, and, when he at last determined to act 

 with rigour against his own family, his son Sancho 

 again rebelled, and, in 1282, deprived him of his 

 crown. A. sought support in an alliance with the 

 Moors, and died in 1284, after unsuccessful efforts to 

 regain the throne. A. was the most learned prince 

 of his age, and has gained a lasting fame by his col- 

 lection of laws, called Las Partidas. There is in 

 this book a very remarkable sentiment, considering 

 the age in which it was produced: " The despot 

 roots up the tree ; the wise master only prunes on* 

 the superfluities." Europe is indebted to A. for the 



