A S C 



Afcharians taught, that if a believer, guilty of fuch a fin, 

 die without repentance, his fentence is to be left to God, 

 whether he pardon him out of his mercy, or whether the 

 prophet intercede for him, or whether he punilh him in 

 proportion to his demerit, and afterwards, through his 

 mercy, admit l)im into paradife ; but that it is not to be 

 fuppofed he will remain for ever in hell with tiie infidels, 

 fincc it is declared, that whofoever (hall have faith in his 

 heart, but of the weight of an ant, ihall be delivered from 

 hell-fire. This is generally received as the orthodox doc- 

 trine in this point, and is diametrically oppofite to that of 

 the Moiiizalites. D'Herbelot's Bibl. Orient. Sale's Koran. 

 Prel. Difc. p. i6y. 



ASCHAUSEN, in Geography, a town of Germany, in 

 the circle of Suabia, eight miles north of Ravenfpurg. 



ASCHBARA'L', a town of Turquellan, in the country 

 of the Geti, on the other fide of the river Sihon. 



ASCHBOURKAN, or Asch-fourkan, a town of 

 Perfia, in the province of Chorafan. 



ASCHEION, in Jnclent Geography, a town of the Pelo- 

 ponntfus, in Achaia. 



ASCHENGINSKOT, in Geogre.phy, a fortrefs of Si- 

 beria, on the confines of China, 130 miles S. S. W. of Se- 

 Lnginik. 



ASCHER, a diftria of the fief of Aggers-Herred in the 

 iocefe of Chriftiania or Aggerhuus, in Norway. 



ASCHERSLEBEN, a town of Germany, in the circle 

 of Lower Saxony, and principality of Halberftadt, featcd 

 on the Eine. It was once the capital of a country to which 

 it gave name, and was one of the moll ancient provinces 

 of the houfe of Anhalt. The circle of Afchcrfleben, or 

 Afcan, comprehends the trad\ which was once the Afchcrf- 

 leben or Gaterfleben lake, about two German miles long 

 and half a mile broad ; but being drained between the years 

 1703 arid 1709, is now become good corn and pafture 

 land. 



ASCHIA, AscH Cramer, Aschkr Gefner, &c., in 

 Ichthyology, fynonymous names of the fifli called Grayling 

 in England ; and by Linnseus Salmo Thymallus ; which 

 fee. 



ASCHOUR, in Geography, a river that pafles by the 

 town of Kafcli in Turquellan, towards the north. 



ASCHRAFF, in Mcient Geogr.iphy, a city of Perfia, 

 in the province of Mazendran, near the Cafpian fea, was 

 once the favourite refidence of Abbas the great, but now 

 fallen into decay ; the fplendid palaces and gardens being 

 fimk into a ruinous (late, fince the commotions that followed 

 the death of Nadir Shah. 



A.SCHTIKAN, in Geography, a town of Afia, in In- 

 dependent Tartai-)', fixteen leagues from Samarcand. 



ASCHWOMSEE, a lake of Pruflia, forty miles fouth- 

 «aft of Konigfberg. 



ASCI A, in AnUqmty, an inftrument, fuppofgd to be of the 

 «x kind, ufed in the fabric of the Roruun tombs, and fre- 

 ancntly reprefented on them. 



The formula " fub afcia dedicare," is frequently found 

 infcribed on ancient tomb-ilones. We alfo meet with " ro- 

 gum afcia ne polito," among the antique laws of the Twelve 

 Tables. Thefe cxpreflions, and the figure of the afcia, as 

 feen on the tombs, have puzzled fcveral antiquaries, who 

 have formed very curious conjeftures concerning it. F.Mar- 

 tin rejefts all their opinions, and with confiderable probabi- 

 lity affirms, that the afcia was a hoe, or fort of pick-ax for 

 digging up the ground, which is to this day called ajfados, 

 •r affaldos, in Languedoc. This afcia, he pretends, was 

 not an inftrument of common ufe, but confccrated and cm- 

 •loyed only for digging of graves ,' aud that it is the fame 



A S C 



wthwhat Sidonius Apollinarius calls rajlrum funehre, where- 

 with the Gauls digged their graves. Lib. iii. ep. 12. 



This, he thinks, appears plainly to be the fignification of 

 the 'vord, from the Latin proverb, " ipfe mihi afciam in 

 crus impegi," which often happens to thofe who work 

 with this inftrument. 



On this footing the famous law of the Twelve Tables, 

 wherein the afcia is mentioned, and the explication of which, 

 has puzzled all our antiquaries, contained only a prohibition 

 to dig graves with an inftrument of iron or copper, fuch as 

 the afcia. In reality it was a tradition obfervcd by the re- 

 moteft antiquity, that no inftrument made of thoie metals 

 fhould be ufed in fepulchres. 



Dom. Martin has given a diflertation concerning the fu- 

 neral monuments of the Romans, confccrated " fub afcia.'*" 

 La Relig. des Gaul. tom. ii. liv. j. 



Mabillon, in his explication of the formula " fub afci* 

 dedicare," &c. conjeftures that the ancients, in dedicating 

 their tombs to tiie manes, made imprecations againft thofe 

 who violated their fanttity ; and thefe imprecations, he con- 

 ceives, were exprefled by the figure of the afcia, which 

 bore a threatening afpeft. Much to the fame parpofe is the 

 opinion ofMuratori, who apprehends that the formula " ful> 

 afcia," or the afcia itfelf placed upon the tombs, was a tacit 

 but well-known fupplication addrefTcd by the pcrfon interred 

 to the owner of the field in which the grave was dug, that the 

 adjacent foil might be hoed, the briars removed, and the 

 earth rendered light over the afhes of the deceafed. Ac- 

 cordingly, " fit tibi terra levis," is part of an epitaph found 

 on ancient monuments. The fcntiments of jilabillon and 

 Muratori have been illuftrated and confirmed by count Cay- 

 lus. Moreover it appears, that the Romans annexed no fu™ 

 perftitious idea to the formula " fub»afcia dedicavit," as the 

 firft Chriftians made ufe of it on thtir monuments. 



AsciA is alfo ufed, in i'Hjyfrv, for a kind of bandage fome- 

 what oblique or crooked ; whofe form and ufe are well 

 defcribed by Scultetus, in his Armam. Chirurg. p. i, 

 tab. 54. fig. 3. 



ASCIBURGIUM, in yfndent Geography, a citadel on- 

 the Rhine, mentioned by Tacitus, in which were a Roman 

 camp and garrifon ; fituated in a place correfponding with 

 a fmall hamlet, now called yf/iurg, not far from Meurs, in 

 the duchy of Cleves. 



ASCIDIA, in Natural Ni^ory, the name of a genus of 

 Vermes that belong to the Molltifca tribe, tlie body of 

 which is fixed, roundifti, and apparently iffuing from a 

 Iheath ; the apertures two, generally placed near the fum- 

 mit, one b-low the other, Gmel. &c. Thefe creatures are 

 more or lefs gelatinous, and have the power of contrafting 

 and dilating themfclves at pleafure ; fome are furniftied with/ 

 a long ftem, but moft of them are fcfiile. Gmelin enume— 

 rates the following fpecies : papillofa, gelatinofa, inteftinahs, 

 quadridentata, ruftica, echinata, mcntula, venofa, prunum, 

 conchilcga, parallelogramma, virginea, canina, patula, af- 

 perfa, fcabra, orbicularis, corrugata, lepadiformis,complanata, 

 tuberculum, vjllofa, clavata, pedunculata, mammillaris, glo— 

 bularis, phufca, gelatina, cryftaHina, oftodentata, patelli- 

 formis, pyura> aurantium, globularis : which fee refpec- 

 tively. 



ASCII, formed of the primitive a, and o-ioa, Jhadaw, int 

 Geography, are thofe inhabitants of the globe, who at certain 

 times of the year, have no fhadow ; fuch are the inhabitants 

 of the torrid zone, beeaufe the fun is twice a year vertical- 

 to them, and they have then no fhadow. — To find on what 

 days the people of any parallel are afci'i, fee Globe. 



ASCINDOE, in Botany, a name given by the people of 



Guinea to a Ihrub, whioh they ufe in mcdiciae, boiling it in 



% water. 



