O R O 
O R O 
788 
OROESKIO'BING, a feaport of Denmark, fituated on 
the eaft fide of the ifland of Oroe. Lat. 54. 58. N. Ion. 
10.23.E. 
OROMAS'DES, or Oromazes, a deity among the 
Periians, which is deemed the Principle or Author of 
Good, in the fyftem of Zoroafter, revived by the Mani- 
cliees. Oromafdes produced the good fpirits and the 
liars, and encloied them in an egg, which was broken by 
Arimanius; whence proceeded confufion, and a mixture 
of good and evil. But, after many conflidls, the good 
deity totally vanquifhes the evil one. See Arimanius, 
vol. ii. 
OROMOO'CTO, a river of New Brunfwick, which 
runs i,nto the St. John in lat. 45. 58. N. Ion. 66. 40. W. 
OROM'TCHI, a town of Thibet: forty-eight miles 
eaft of Manas-Hotun. Lat. 44. 58. N. Ion. 86. 44. E. 
O'RON, or Oron la Vil'le, a town of Swifterland, in 
the canton of Berne : lix miles north of Vevai. 
OR'ONDOCKS, Indians of Canada, who inhabit near 
Trois Rivieres. 
ORON'HI, a town of Thibet: thirty-eight miles weft 
ofYolotou Hotun. 
ORO'NO, a townlliip of North America, in the diftrift- 
of Maine, and county of Hancock ; with 351 inhabitants. 
ORG'NO’s I'SLAND, a fmall iiland in the river Pe- 
nobfcot. 
ORONSA'Y, one of the Weftern Iflands of Scotland. 
It is a fmall ifland only at high-water, on the north coaft 
of North Uift, of which at low-water it makes a part. 
Lat. 57. 39. N. Ion. 7. 16. W. 
ORON'TES, or Axius, a river of Syria, which fprang 
towards lat. 33. 33. N. between Libanus and Antilibanus, 
and ran into the Mediterranean about fix leagues below An¬ 
tioch. It watered, in its courie towards the north, Emefa, 
Epiphania, Aparnea, Antioch, and feveral otdier towns. 
This river was formerly the molt confiderable in Syria ; 
but Volney reprefents it as a rivulet rather than a river. 
The channel of the Orontes, as well as that of the Jordan, 
fays this traveller, are fcarcely fixty paces wide at their 
mouths. It derives its importance in winter from rains 
and melted knows; but, during the remainder of the 
year, its couffe would hardly be difcovered if it were not 
marked by the round Hones and fragments of rocks with 
which its bed is filled. If the mouth of the Orontes were 
cleared, boats might be towed up this river, though they 
could not fail up, on account of the rapidity of its 
ftrearn ; and thus Antioch would better ferve as an em¬ 
porium to the Europeans than Aleppo. The natives, 
who never knew filename Orontes, call it, on accountof 
the fvviftnefs of its ftrearn, El Avji, rendered by thq 
Greeks Axius, that is, The Rebel. At Antioch its 
breadth is about forty paces. Seven leagues above that 
town it paifes by a lake abounding with fifti, and efpeci- 
ally eels; great quantities of which are falted every year, 
though not fuflicient for the numerous fails of the Greek 
Chriftians. 
ORON'TES, a mountain of Afia, in Media, near Ec- 
batana. Ptolemy. 
ORON'TIUM,/! [derivation unknown.] In botany, 
a genus of the chits hexantiria, order monogynia, natu¬ 
ral order of piperita:, (aroideas, Jaff.) Generic characters 
— Calyx ; ipadix cylindrical, quite iimple, covered with 
florets; fpathe none; perianthium none (unlefs the co¬ 
rolla befocalled.) Corolla: petals fix. peltate, roundiih- 
angular, permanent. Stamina: filaments fix, very ftiort, 
enfiform, within each petal; antheras twin, oblong. Pif- 
tillum : gerrnen roundiih, depreiled ; Ityle none ; ftigma 
roundifli, bind. Pericarpium : follicle (lender, immerfed 
.with the corolla in the ipadix. Seed : fingle, round, fun- 
gofe.— Effential Character. Spadix cylindrical, covered 
with florets ; corolla fix-petalled, naked ; ityle none ; fol¬ 
licles one-feeded. There are but two ipecies. 
1. Orontium aquaticum : leaves lanceolate-ovate. The 
leaves of.this are broad, like thofe of lily-of the-valley, 
green on the upper fide, and covered with very minute 
hair?, fo that they look like a fine velvet. Cattle, hogs, 
and flags, are very fond of thefe leaves in the fpring; and 
they come out among the earlieft. The Indians gather 
the feeds, and eat them when dried, like peafe, boiling 
them repeatedly in water before they are fit for ufe ; they 
alio boil them in milk or butter, and ufe them inftead of 
bread. They call the plant taw-kee. It grows in marfhes, 
near moift and low grounds, very plentifully, in Virginia, 
Canada, and other provinces of North America. It was 
introduced herein 1775 by John Fothergill, M.D. and 
flowers in June. 
2. Orontium Japonicum : leaves enfiform, veined. Ra¬ 
dical leaf folitary, enfiform, attenuated at bottom, con¬ 
voluted, having feverai longitudinal veins, entire, fmooth, 
two inches wide, and two feet long. Scape round, fmooth, 
upright, from a finger to a palm in height. Flowers at 
the top of the fcape diftiridf, in an oblong fpike an inch 
in length. It differs from the preceding in having much 
longer leaves and a ihorter fcape. It is a native of Japan, 
near Nagafakai, &c. Introduced in 1783 by Mr. John 
Grsefer. It flowers in January. See Antirrhinum. 
ORON'TIUS (Finaeus). See Finteus, vol. vii. 
OROONO'KO, or Orinoco, a large river of South 
America, diftinguifhed by its very Angular and perplexed 
courfe. According to La Cruz, it rifes in the fmall lake 
of Ipava, lat. 5. 5. N.. and thence winds aimoft in a fpinal 
form ; firft pafling to the fouth-eaft, it enters the lake' of 
Parima, and iflues by two outlets on the north and fouth 
of that lake towards the weft; but, after receiving the 
Guaviari, it bends north, then north-eaft, till it enters 
the Atlantic Ocean by an extended delta oppoiite to the 
ifle of Trinidad; but the chief eftuary is confiderably to 
the fouth-eaft of that ifland. Many large rivers flow into 
the Oroonoko ; and, befides its lingular form, it has other 
remarkable peculiarities. From the fouth-eaft of the 
lake of Parima, which feems to be a kind of inundation 
formed by the Oroonoko, the White River, called alfo 
that of Parima, joins the Black River, and thence the 
great flood of the Maranon. Another ftrearn, called the 
Siaba, flows from the fouth-weft of the lake into the Black 
River, and joins another ftrearn, which diredfiy connedfs 
the Maranon with the Oroonoko. There is alfo a com¬ 
munication between the Black River and the Maranon, 
by the Joa'Parana ; fo that there are three communica¬ 
tions between thefe three great rivers. 
In the year 1800, the Pruifinn traveller, Humboldt, re- 
folved to explore the reported fadf of the jundfion of the 
Oroonoko with the Maranon by the great river Negro, 
lie entered the Oroonoko by the river Apuri, and, after 
encountering many difficulties, reached the fort of San 
Carlos, towards the Portuguefc frontier. From this fort 
he returned to the Oroonoko by the river Caliquiari, a 
very ftrong branch of the Oroonoko, which communicates 
with the river Negro. This navigation was rendered fa¬ 
tiguing and dangerous by the force of the current, the 
prodigious number of mofquitoes'and ants, and the war.. 
of population, 300 leagues having been travelled by him 
without feeing a human countenance. He entered the 
Oroonoko by the Cafiquiari at 3 0 30'; and remounted 
the current of the Oroonoko to Eiineralda, the laftSpaniih 
fettlement in that quarter. This remarkable communi¬ 
cation had been marked in his map by Samfon de Fer, 
geographer to his Catholic majeity in 1713, and confirmed 
by the able Condjimine. 
The name of this river, which was given to it by its 
firft European diicoverers, is quite unknown in the inland 
regirtns through' which it roils its majeftic courfe, and 
where its only appellation is The River, by way of emi¬ 
nence. The immenfe quantity of freih water, which it 
dilcharges in a ftrong current.into the fea, convinced the 
fagacious Columbus that it proceeded from a continent. 
“ When (fays Humboldt) we reflect on the immenfe 
volume of water which the Oroonoko conveys to the 
Atlantic Ocean, we are tempted to aik whether this river, 
the Amazons, or the Plata, be the molt confiderable ? 
But 
