AARHUUS 



ABALONE 



animal resembling a hyena in its sloping back 

 and its color, the body being gray, irregularly 

 striped with black. It has five toes on the fore 

 feet and the head is pointed. It feeds on dead 

 animals, bugs and ants, but not on living 

 animals, as its weak jaws and teeth prevent 

 it from overcoming any but the very smallest 



is called shwanpan, meaning reckoning board. 

 In the United States and Canada the abacus 

 is little more than a curiosity, but it was long 



AARD-WOLF 



of vertebrates. Its flesh is not edible. It is a 

 night prowler, remaining secluded during the 

 day, and it usually is very timid. It trusts to 

 burrowing, rather than to flight, to escape from 

 its enemies. 



AARHUUS, awr' hoos, DENMARK; a very old 

 town and a seaport, on the eastern coast of 

 the peninsula of Jutland, noted primarily for 

 its great Gothic cathedral, which dates from 

 1201 and is the oldest Christian church in the 

 kingdom. Aarhuus has been the seat of a 

 bishop since the year 948. Next to Copen- 

 hagen, the capital, it is the largest city in Den- 

 mark. Population, 1910, 51,909. 



AARON, air' un, the first high priest of Israel, 

 the elder brother of Moses. Because he was a 

 more fluent speaker thai his brother he acted 

 as spokesman when Moses was working to 

 bring about the deliverance of the Jews from 

 the Egyptians, and he himself called down 

 several of the most grievous plagues upon 

 Pharaoh. While Moses was receiving his won- 

 derful vision on Mount Sinai, Aaron listened 

 to the pleadings of the Israelites and made for 

 them an idol in the form of a golden calf. Be- 

 cause of the same sin which kept Moses out 

 of the promised land Aaron, too, was excluded 

 from Canaan, and the early Christians pointed 

 out his grave on Mount Hor. See MOSES. 



ABACUS , ab ' a kus, a simple device for indi- 

 cating numbers in addition and subtraction. 

 It was in common use among the ancient 

 Greeks and Romans, and is still to be seen in 

 the shops in remote towns of Persia and other 

 countries of the Far East. The Chinese abacus 



ABACUS 



The number indicated by the position of the 

 beads is 91,500. The method of counting is ex- 

 plained below. 



used in primary schools for teaching the ele- 

 ments of number. It consists of a rectangular 

 frame, in which are fixed parallel rods. On 

 each rod are strung seven beads or balls, two 

 above and five below the horizontal bar. When 

 in use the abacus should be held so that the 

 beads will stay in any position desired. 



Method of Counting. Each bead below the 

 bar counts one, and each bead above counts 

 five; but to be included in a number the bead 

 must be pushed close to the bar. In the illus- 

 tration no beads are pushed up to bar in the 

 right-hand or units column, or in the next col- 

 umn to the left, the tens column. From right 

 to left, in order, the remaining figures are 5 in 

 the hundreds column, 1 in the thousands and 9 

 in the ten-thousands, making the number 

 91,500. The size of the number which can be 

 indicated by an abacus is limited only by the 

 number of columns of beads; the highest num- 

 ber possible on the abacus shown in the illus- 

 tration is 



ABALONE, OR EAR SHELL 



ABALONE, abalo' 'ne, from its shape also 

 called ear shell, is a mollusk whose shell re- 

 sembles a small shallow dish and whose flesh 



