ARAGO 314 



ing several blood-filled loaflike plates, opening 

 on : side of the abdomen. Nearly 



all arachnids live on animal matter, and many 

 of them are parasites. The mites, however, 

 As the animal-feeders usu- 

 ally pny upon insects, they are of benefit to 

 The word arachnida is of Greek 

 derivation, and the name Arachne appears in 

 Greek mythology; in the legend it is borne 

 by a Lydian girl who was changed into a 

 spider because she equalled Athene in spin- 

 ning. 



ItelatiMl Subjects. The following articles will 

 give a detailed discussion of the characteristics 

 of the most important arachnids : 

 Daddy-long-legs Spider 



Mites Tarantula 



ion Ticks 



Sheep Tick Trapdoor Spider 



ARAGO, ah'rago, DOMINIQUE FRANCOIS 

 (1786-1853), a celebrated French astronomer 

 and statesman who made such great personal 

 sacrifices in behalf of science that the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences broke one of its stand- 

 ing rules and elected him, though too young 

 for that honor, to be one of its members. In 

 1806, while in the Pyrenees Mountains work- 

 ing on the measurement of an arc of the merid- 

 ian for the French government, he was cap- 

 tured by the Spanish as a spy, and succeeded in 

 reaching his native country only after going 

 through much hardship and suffering many 

 narrow escapes. He became life secretary of 

 the Academy of Sciences in 1830, and his 

 work as a scientist included several impor- 

 tant discoveries in electro-magnetism. He also 

 held a number of public offices, and was known 

 as the champion of the people's rights. Arago 

 wrote about sixty scientific works. 



ARAL air' al, a large salt-water lake in Asia, 

 in Russian territory, about 150 miles west of 

 the Caspian Sea. Because of its isolation and 

 the character of the surrounding country it 

 has been of little value to the world. It cov- 

 ers an area of 26,000 square miles, and is there- 

 fore a little larger than the state of West 

 Virginia and more than twice as large as Bel- 

 gium. It is fed by the waters of the Amu- 

 Darya or Oxus, and the Syr-Darya or Jaxartes 

 rivers. The lake coin abundance of 



sturgeon and other fish, and has a large num- 

 ber of islands. Navigation on it is difficult 

 because of the shall owness of the waters and 

 the fierce and sudden storms from the north- 

 east. For location on map, see ASIA. 



ARAMAIC, aramay' ic, an ancient language 

 closely allied to the Hebrew. Its relations 



ARBITRATION 



are explained under the title HEBREW LANGUAGE 



AM) LlTKKATlKK. 



ARAPAHO, a rap' a ho, an Algonquian tribe 

 of American Indians, whom the Cheyenne 

 rail "Blue-sky men" or "Cloud men." This 

 was formerly a large tribe, but now they num- 

 ber only about 1,800. They are a l>r 

 kindly and accommodating people, much given 

 to observing ceremonies. Before they wen- 

 known to white men the Arapaho were sup- 

 posed to have lived in the valley of the Red 

 River of the North, in Minnesota, later they 

 moved westward into Wyoming and subse- 

 quently a part of them were placed on a reser- 

 vation with the related Cheyenne in Okla- 

 homa, where they are now farmers. Those in 

 Wyoming are still on a reservation. See 

 INDIANS, AMERICAN. 



ARARAT, air' a rat, a celebrated mountain 

 of Armenia, in Western Asia, on which Noah's 

 ark is supposed to have rested when the waters 

 of the Deluge subsided. It is a volcano of 

 two cones, the highest being 17,260 feet above 

 the sea. The last eruption occurred in 1840 

 and caused great destruction of life and prop- 

 erty. The summit of the mountain is in Rus- 

 sian territory. 



Another Mount Ararat, or Pilot Mountain, 

 is found in Surrey County, N. C. This moun- 

 tain is 3,000 feet high, and can be seen from 

 a long distance. 



ARBELA, arbe'la, an ancient town in As- 

 syria, which gave its name to the battle fought 

 in 331 B.C., in which Alexander the Great 

 overcame the Persian king Darius, and thus 

 made possible the spread of Greek civiliza- 

 tion over Western Asia. This battle, one of 

 the fifteen decisive battles of history, was actu- 

 ally fought at Gaugamela, about twenty miles 

 from Arbela. On the site of the ancient city 

 is the modern town of Arbil, in the Turkish 

 province of Mosul. See FIFTEEN DECISIVE BAT- 

 TLES OF THE WORLD. 



ARBITRATION, a peacable, semi-judicial 

 method of settling disputes between individ- 

 uals or nations. The word is derived from the 

 Latin arbitratio, meaning an examination or 

 judgment. The essential principle in arbitra- 

 tion is that the examination is made by im- 

 partial umpires, who also render the final 

 judgment. A board of arbitration may, and 

 usually does, include representatives of the 

 parties to the dispute, but it is customary to 

 include one or more neutral persons whose 

 interests are not affected by the case. 



A fundamental difference must be noted be- 



