ASIA MINOR 



ASPARAGUS 



Rananas 



Breadfruit 



Coal 



Cocoanut 



Cotton 



PRODUCTS 



Dates 



Gold 



Pepper 



Rice 



Sugar Cane 



HISTORY 



Alexander the Great Christianity 

 Assyria Confucius 



Brahmanism Crusades 



Buddhism Mohammedanism 



Consult Ross's The Changing Chinese; Mahan's 

 The Problem of Asia; Curzon's Problems of the 

 Far East. 



ASIA MINOR, or SMALLER ASIA, the most 

 westerly part of Asia, is the peninsula lying 

 west of the upper Euphrates River. Like 

 Arabia, it is a geographical, but not a political, 

 unit, for never at any time has it had a gov- 



That section of the Asiatic continent between 

 the Black and Mediterranean seas is called Asia 

 Minor. 



eminent of its own. In ancient times it was 

 divided into a number of small countries, each 

 with its own ruler, and with most of these 

 the Greeks came into close relations. Espe- 

 cially along the coast were Greek colonies 

 numerous, and it was the aid which Greece 

 rendered to some of the Ionian cities of Asia 

 Minor in their attempt to free themselves 

 from the rule of Persia which led to the Per- 

 sian Wars, commanded by Xerxes. 



Under the Roman Empire Asia Minor was 

 prosperous, for it possessed a fertile soil and 

 a pleasant climate, but in modern times, under 

 Turkish rule, it has suffered severely and shows 

 few signs of progress. Its present name is 

 Anatolia, and as such it is merely one of the 

 provinces of the Sultan, with little to suggest 

 its former greatness. 



Related Subject*. The following list will 

 furnish to the reader more detailed knowledge 

 of this historically important region of Asia : 

 Abydos Cappadocla 



Bithynia Cilicla 



Ephesus 



Ionia 



Lydia 



Miletus 



Galatia 



Phrygia 



Pontus 



Samos 



Tarsus 



Taurus 



ASP, a species of viper or serpent found 

 in Egypt. It has an exceedingly venomous 

 bite; the poison acts so quickly that its bite 

 is nearly always fatal, death resulting in a 

 few minutes. When approached by man or 

 some other animal the asp assumes a peculiar 

 position of defense; its head is elevated, its 

 neck swells out, and the whole body is raised 

 almost erect. Jugglers and snake-charmers ex- 

 tract the poisonous fangs, and train the asp 

 to perform various tricks. Cleopatra is said 

 to have committed suicide by allowing an asp 

 to bite her. 



The name is also given to a serpent com- 

 mon on the European continent, and to an 

 adder of South Africa which the Boers call 

 the spitting snake. See SNAKE; SERPENT- 

 CHARMING. 



ASPARAGUS, aspair'agus, a plant which 

 furnishes one of the favorite spring vegetables. 



ASPARAGUS 



(a) Wrong method of cutting; (b) right 

 method of cutting. Thrust the knife into the 

 ground as vertically as possible, in order not to 

 injure other shoots. 



It is not the fruit of the asparagus which is 

 eaten, but the young shoots, which are cut 

 soon after they appear above the ground. 

 These are boiled and eaten either hot, with 

 a cream or butter sauce, or cold, as a salad. 



