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people of Troy. After he had vifitej many countries, and 

 eollecled n i^reat quantity of jrold, he fet out on his return 

 home ; and in his way had an interview with Pythagoras at 

 Crotona.in Italy. Suidas enumerates various books which he 

 is faid to have written ; and Himerius the Sophill, applauds 

 liim for fpeakinp pure Greek, which he acquired by means of 

 the intcrcourfe that fublilled between the Greeks and Hyper- 

 boreans. In his various peregrinations he impofcd upon the 

 vulgar by falfe pretenfions to fupernatural powers ; deliver- 

 ing oracular predlAions, healing difeafes by incantation, and 

 pradifmg other arts of iinpollurc. Hence the fabulous 

 ftories concerning /tbarls grew up into an entire hillory 

 written by Ileraclides. Some of the later Piatoniils, fays 

 EKfield, (Hillory of Philofopliy, vol. i. p. 103.) in their 

 zial againll chriftianity, coUecled thefe and other fables, and 

 exliibited thein, not without large additions from their own 

 fertile imaginations, in oppofition to the miracles of Chrift. 

 He concludes upon the whole, that Alans has a better title 

 to place among impollors than among philofophers, and 

 that the time in which he llourilhed may, with fome degree of 

 probability, be fixed about the third olympiad, or B. C. 768. 

 The age of Pythago;-as is no lefs uncertain, otherwife it is not 

 likely that they llionld be contemporaries. Mr. Toland in 

 his PotUiumous works, (vol. i. p. 161.) premiling that the 

 Hebrides were the Hyperboreans of Diodorus, infers that 

 Marls was both of that country, and likewife a Druid, 

 having been the prieft of Apollo. Suidas, fays this 

 writer, who knew not the diftindlion of Infular Hyper- 

 borea* s, makes him a Scythian ; whereas Diodorus has truly 

 fixed his country in the illand, and not on the continent. 

 Notwithftanding the fitlions and errors that have been 

 blended with the hillory of ^/J^ru, it is certain, (as he ap- 

 prehends,) that he travelled over Greece, and from thence 

 into Italy, where he familiarly converfed with Pythagoras, 

 who favoured him beyond all his difciples, by imparting his 

 docftrines to him, (efpecially his thoughts of nature,) in a 

 more plain and compendious method than to any others. 

 The Hyperborean in return prefented the Satnian, as if he 

 had equalled Apollo himfejf in wiidom, with the facred 

 arrow, on which he had traverfed feas and mountains; ; es the 

 Tulgar, particularly in the Hebrides, ftill believe, that 

 wizards and vi'itches waft themfelves whither they pleafe 

 upon broom-llicks. According to the account given by 

 Himerius, and cited by Toland, (p. 180, &c.) A/itiris the 

 fage, was by nation an Hypi."rborean, aGrecinn in fpeech, and 

 fefembling a Scythian in his habit and appearance. He 

 came to Athens, holding a bow, having a quiver hanging 

 from his flioulder, his body wrapt in a plaid, girt about his 

 loins with a gilded belt, and wearing trowfers feaching from 

 his waift downward. His habit, therefore, was not that of 

 the Scythians, vi'ho were always covered with lliins ; but he 

 appeared at Athens in the native garb of an aboriginal Scot. 

 As for what regards his abilities, Himerius relates, that he 

 was affable and pleafant in converfation, in difpatching great 

 affairs fecret and indnftrious, quickfighted in prefent exi- 

 gencies, in preventing future dangers circumfpedt, a 

 fearcher after wifdom, dk;firons of friendlhip, trulling indeed 

 little to fortune, and having every thing trulled to him for 

 his prudence. Neitlier the Academy nor the Lyceum, fays 

 Mr. Toland, could fnniifh out a man with fitter qualities to 

 go fo far abroad, and to Inch wife nations, about affairs no lefs 

 arduous than important. But if we attentively confider his 

 moderation in eating and drinking, and the ufe of all thofe 

 thnigs which our natural appetites inceffantly crave, adding 

 tiie candour and fimplicity of his manners, with the folidity 

 and wifdom of his anfvvers, all v.hic!^ wc find fufficiently at- 

 telled ; it mud be owned, that the worid at that time' had 

 few to compare with yJiaris. One of our moil indullnous 



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hiftorians has adopted the opinion of Mr. Toland, and taken 

 great pains to prove that Abar'u was a native of Britain, or of 

 one of the Britifli ifles. See Carte's Gen. Hift. Eng. vol. i. 

 p. 52, &c. cited by Dr. Henry in his Hillory of Great 

 Britain, vol. ii. p. 70, 8vo, 



ABARNUS, QY Av,KKit\i,\n Ancient Geography, a city, 

 country, and promontor)' of Pariana, near the Hellefpont. 

 Milefius, in his defcription of Alia, fays, that it was a 

 promontory of l.ampfacus ; and it is faid to have been fo 

 denominated from Alarms, a Phocian, by the Phocians, 

 who built Lampfacus. Some writers have called it Aparuis. 

 Stcphaii. do Urbibus, tom. i. p. 4. 



ABARTICULATION, in Anatomy. See Di ar- 

 throsis . 



ABAS, a weight ufed in Perfia for weighing pearls ; be« 

 ing an eighth part lighter than the European carat. 



ABAS, in Mythology, the fon of Hypothoon and Mega- 

 nira, who entertiiined Ceres, and offered a facrifice to that 

 goddefs ; but ylbas ridiculing the ceremony, and giving her 

 opprobrious language, (he fpriakled over him a certain mix- 

 ture w hich the held in her cup, that transformed him into a 

 newt or water-lizard. 



A'bas, or Abasia, in Entomology, a fpecies of the 5«);n- 

 bfx of Fabricius, and of the Phalicna of Lina^us, with brown, 

 fpreading wings, the hinder wings cinereous, and the ocel- 

 lus reddifh. It is found in Surinam. 



ABASA, in Geography, a Imall town of Romania in 

 European Turkey, 12 miles from Adrianople, in the road 

 to Conftantinople. N. lat. 42° 8'. E. long. 26° 35'. 



ABASED, Abaisse', in Heraldry, is applied to the 

 vol, or wings of eagles, &c. when the tip, or angle, looks 

 downward towards the point of the (hield ; or when the 

 wings are (hut : the natural way of bearing them being fpread, 

 with the tip pointing to the chief, or the angles. A chev- 

 ron, a pale, bend, &c. are alfo faid to be alaj'ed when their 

 points terminate in, or below the centre of the (hield. 

 Again, an ordinary is faid 10 be abafed, when it is below its 

 due fituation. 



ABASCIA, or Abcassia, in Geography, the northern 

 diflricl of the wetlern divifion of Georgia, in Afia. The in- 

 habitants are poor and treacherous. They trade in furs, the 

 (kins of the buck and tyger, linen yarn, box-wood, and 

 bee^-wax ; but their principal traffic conlifts in the fale of 

 their own children to tlie Turks, and to one another. They 

 are chriflians only in name ; but their cuftoms refemble thofe 

 of the MiNGRELiANS. The men are robuft and adlive, and 

 the females fair and beautiful. E. long, from 39° to 43^ . 

 N. lat. from 43^ to 45°. See Abassa and Abhkas. 



ABASCUS, a river of Afiatic Sarmatia, which rifes in 

 mount Caucafus, and falls into the Euxine, between Pityus 

 to the ea(l and Nofis to the weft. 



ABASITIS, a trad of Afiatic Myfia, in which was 

 fituated the ancient city of Ancyra. 



ABASKAJA, a town in Siberia, on the river Ifchim. 

 It has a chvirch encompaffed by ramparts, and guarded by 

 dragoons. E. long. 69^ 5'. N. lat. 50° lo'. 



ABASSA, the /mailer and the great, two diftricls 

 in the vicinity of the Caucafian mountains. T!ie for- 

 mer, according to the accoimt lately given by Pallas in 

 his journey to the fouthern departments of Ruflia, is inha- 

 bited by fix tribes, who were formerly Chriftians, but their 

 nobles now acknowledge the Mahometan rehgion ; their 

 manners, clothing, and way of hfe, relemble thofe of the 

 Circassians; and there is fome fimilitude in their lan- 

 guage. They likewife praftife agriculture, though they 

 live more by parturage. They are celebrated on account of 

 their large and fine breed of horfes ; and they would be rich 

 (in their own eilimation) if tliey were uot inceflantly 



, plagued, 



