AYE 



AYAMONTE, a fea-porc town of Spain, fituate at 

 the mouth of the Guadiana, on the frontiers of Portugal, 

 with a good haven in the gulf of Cadiz ; fmall, but well 

 fortified, and defended by a caftle on a rock; 3! miles 

 V/. S. W. of Seville. The adjacent vineyards are fruitful, 

 and the wine excellent. N. lat. 37^ 13'. \V. long. 8° 5'. 



Sec AlMONTE. 



AYAMS, derived from an Arabic word which fignifics 

 eye, a name given to a clafs of officers in the provinces of 

 the Ottoman empire, whofe bufinefs it is to watch over the 

 fafety and the fortune of individuals, and alfo over the good 

 order and defence of a town ; to reftrain tlie unjuft enter- 

 prifes of the pachas, and the exaftions of the military, and 

 to concur in the juft affefTintnt of the taxes. — Appointed 

 hy the people, thofe who undertake this honourable 

 funclion, are generally men reputed the mofl virtuous ; there 

 are fevera! of them in the great towns, and a fingle perfon 

 fupcrintends fcveral villages in th.e plains. They receive 

 no otlier reward for their trouble and zeal, than the refpetl 

 with which they are treated, and the fatisfattion of being 

 ufeful. Tiie Ayams call to their divan the notables of the 

 town and the lawyers, in order to dilcufs tlie more important 

 fubjefts, to di^ell the remonftrances that are proper to be 

 made to the pacha, and to eilablifli the grounds uf thofe 

 complaints which they judge necelTary to be prefented 

 againft him to the Porte. Olivier's Trav. in the Ottom. 

 Emp. p. 200. 



AYBAR, in Geography, a town of Spain, in Navarre, on 

 the nver Arragon ; one league from Sangucfa. 



AY BED, a place oi Egypt, on the gulf of the Red Sea, 

 where the merchandifes of i\fia were landed. 



AYBLENG, a town of Germany, in Upper Bavaria, 

 twenty-fix miles S. E. of Munich. 



AYCHA, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Boledaw ; 

 fixteen miles north of Jung-Bant/.el. 



AYDHAB, a place of Africa, in Egypt, on the coaft 

 of the Red Sea. N. lat. 21° 53'. E. long. 36^ 26'. See 



AlDHAB. 



AYE, a town of Norway, in the ifland of Shierney. 



Aye-Aye, in Zoolnny, a fmgular quadruped difcovered 

 by Sonnerat, in the iiland of Madagafear ; and defcribed 

 in hio voyage to the Eaft Indies (tom. ii. p. 137). The 

 name appears to have no precife meaning ; it is an ejcclama- 

 tion of the people in Madagafear, and which M. Sonnerat 

 applied to this animal. It is found chiefly, if not exclufively, 

 on the weftern fide of the idand. 



In fize the creature is equal to a rabbit, meafuring in a 

 right line from the muz/.le to the origin of the tail, fourteen 

 or fifteen inches, and the tail being rather longer than the 

 body. The head is formed like that of a fquirre! ; the in- 

 cifive teeth are very contiguous and fo placed as to refemble 

 in fomc manner, the bialc of a parrcquet ; but the two in 

 the lower jaw are much ftronger than thofe in the upper one. 

 The ears are naked, large, and rounded at the tip, as in 

 feveral of the bat tribe. The toes on each foot are five in 

 number ; and the firil or innermoft one, which fervcs as a 

 thumb to the hind feet^ has a large and flat nail as in the 

 makis tribe l^macauco, or lemur). A very diilinguifhed cha- 

 radler of this animal k the length of the toes on the fore- 

 feet ; the t .vo laft joints of the middle toe above all are very 

 long, (lender, and deftitutc of hair, and the nails are hooked. 

 The fur is as coarfe as horfe-hair ; and is of a purplifli, or 

 mufliy-brown colour, intermixed with black and grifeous 

 a(h ; upon the head, and back, about the eyes, legs, and 

 thighs, is a deep muflc-colour ; on the eyelids, and feveral 

 parts of the body and limbs, black however predominates, and 

 4.he tail is of this latter colour ; that of the face, throat, and 



ATE 



belly is greyifh white, or flightly tinged with rufou: in fsme 

 places ; it does not carry the tail elevated like a fquirrel. 

 The female has two teats on the lower part of the belly. 



M. Sonnerat, who favv both the male and female, fpeaks 

 of them as being very flothful and gentle animals ; and 

 which, like the owls, are fcarccly able to difcern cbjcfts in 

 the day time. They live chiefly underground, feeding on 

 worms andinfefls which they find in the earth, crin crevices in 

 the trunks of trees, from whence they extraft them with 

 the greatell facility, by means of their long (lender toe 

 before mentioned. Thofe which Sonnerat kept alive, were 

 ferved with rite, and he obferved that they fed themfelves 

 with the two long toes of their forefeet, in the farrie manner 

 as the Chincfe do with their chop-fticks when eating rice 

 at their meals. 



Sonnini forms a new genus of this animal, under the name 

 of Chieromys (or rat a main), cbferving that it is the only 

 fpecics of its genus known. The generic character, accord- 

 ing to this author, cotififts in the toes being very long, and t!ie 

 thumb of the hinder pair being bent r.fide, or tnrnnig rather 

 backwards. He ccnfnres Gmelin for calling ttjciunis AlaJa- 

 gafcarienjis or Madagafear fquirrel, becaule a (|uadruped of 

 that genus really exills in Madagalcar. — GnieLn thus fpeci- 

 fieally defcribes his S. Madngafcar'unjis ; m'ddle toe of the 

 fore-feet naked, and very long ; thumb nail of the hind-pair 

 rounded. 



AYEL, Fr. or Ayle, in La-.v, a writ which hes where 

 the grandfather was feized in his demefne on the day 

 he died, a ftranger enters the fame day and difpoffefTts the 

 heir. See Assise de Mort, isfc. 



AYEN, in Geography, a town of France, in the depart- 

 ment of the Correze, and chitf place of a canton in the 

 diftrift of Brive ; fourteen miles S. S. W. of Uzerches. 



AYENIA, in Botany, (nam.ed in honour of the duke 

 DAyen, duke and marechaUe de Noailles). Lin. g. 1020. 

 Schrtb. 3(57. Gasrtn. 79. Jull. 278. Clafs, gyaandria pen- 

 tnndria ; or according to Schreber, penlandria nionogytiia. 

 Nat. Order of crjumnijem. — Ma!-oacc<t, JnfT. Gen. Char. 

 Cat. perianth one-hafed, five parti d ; parts ovate, oblong, 

 acute, coloured in the middle, reflex, withering. Car. five- 

 leaved, united at the top to the re>Sary into a flat ftar ; 

 clav.-s of the petals capillary, vei y long, bowed outwardly ; 

 borders obcordate, refupinate, with clubbed tips turned up- 

 ward ; netfary bell-lhaped, fitting on a cyilndric, ereA 

 column, fhorter than the calyx ; border five-lobed, lobe* 

 elevated, above flattifti, with a longitudinal furrow, exca- 

 vated underneath, (harp. Stom. filaments five, very fhort, 

 inferted into the margin of the neClary, on the top of the 

 ribs, between the divlfions of the border, each bent downwards 

 through a notch at the end of each petal ; anthers roundift, 

 under the borders of the petals. P'ljl. genn roundifh, five- 

 cornered, at the bottom of the neClary ; ilyle cylindric ; 

 lligmaobtufe, five lobed. Per. caplulc five-gtai.'cd, roundilh, 

 murlcate, five-celled, ten-valved, elaftic. Seeds folitary, rather 

 oblong, gibbous on one fide, angular on the other. 



¥Ji^. Gen. Char. Monogynous. Cal. fivc-haved. Pet. 

 united into a ftar, with hang clavis ; anthers five, under the 

 ilar ; capf. five-celled. 



Speciis, I. A. pujilla ; fmooth ayenis. Mill. Dift. fig. 

 t. 18. "Leaves cordate, fmooth." Stem weak, woody, 

 from nine inches to a foot high ; leaves alternate, indented, 

 pointed, ftalked ; flowers at the bafe of the pttioks, two, ■ 

 three, or four, from the fame point, on feparate peduncles ; 

 corolla purple, tubulous, fpreading at the top into five feg- 

 ments, each terminated by a /lender tail. A native of Peru. 

 Cultivated by Miller, in 1756. Its flowers appear in fuc- 

 ctlTion from July till winter, j. A. tomenlofa. " Leaves 



ovate. 



